Crop circles are not that unusual, and many only make it onto the local news (if at all). But, a large and intricate circle has been hitting the headlines, due in part to a clip on You Tube. The circle, which is on a farm in the Salinas Valley, California, was reported by two friends who claim to have witnessed two bursts of light before dawn on Sunday morning. The 2½-minute YouTube video shows two men who appear to be driving along Chualar Canyon Road before sunrise, when they see flashing lights in a field. They go to investigate and one man calls out; ‘Dude, are you seeing this?’ What they see is a complex design which looked like a computer chip. It has a number of dots in the middle, which some Internet observers claim is either Braille or Morse code. Julie and Pat Belanger, co-owners of the 111th Aerial Photography Squadron Company, were also among the earliest people to see the circle. Julie said they were flying from San Martin toward Carmel when they spotted the circle. Pat added; ‘Flying through that area is not always very exciting and then, all of a sudden, that thing's there…I don't know about aliens, but someone very creative put it there’. The circle has drawn such large crowds that a security team has been put in place to protect the site. Nevertheless, it seems aliens and strange forces may not be the cause of the circle. Jeffrey Wilson of the Independent Crop Circle Researchers Association, said that this circle was a hoax. He argues that it is suspiciously aligned with the man-made road and that the dots in the centre look like terrestrial Braille. Furthermore, the YouTube clip seems similar to guerrilla-marketing techniques. He added;
‘My guess is that ... it is commissioned work for an advertisement …or a commissioned work for a production company making a documentary on crop circles or for some kind of film’.
Whatever the cause, the crop circle is still impressive.
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