Crop Circle Hoaxes

A group of researchers camped out on a hillside in Wiltshire with an array of high-tech equipment, hoping to record the formation of a crop circle (presumably by a UFO). On the second night, their equipment recorded flashing orange lights in an adjacent field. The next morning, the researchers were excited to see that two large circles had formed. But their hopes were dashed when they found a horoscope chart and wooden crucifix in the middle of one of the circles — evidently the calling card of a hoaxer. The flashing lights on their equipment, the researchers admitted, had probably been the heat signature of humans running around. More…

A crop circle appeared in a field of rye located outside of Johannesburg, South Africa during the first week of February 1993. The media speculated excitedly about whether it was the work of a UFO. Popular curiosity grew until February 14, when a small detail was pointed out that had previously escaped almost everyone's notice: the circle formed a BMW logo. The circle turned out to be the work of the Hunt Lascaris ad agency, working on behalf of BMW. TV commercials soon followed, showing aerial views of the circle accompanied by the tag-line, "Perhaps there is intelligent life out there after all." More…

A crop circle was discovered in a barley field in Chualar, California, near Salinas. The pattern of the circle resembled a microchip. Small dots inside the circle spelled out the number 192, in braille. Also, three large dots on the outer perimeter of the circle were positioned at the clock-hand positions of 1, 9, and 2. The mysterious circle attracted global attention, but within a week it was revealed to be a marketing stunt created in order to promote a new mobile processor by NVIDIA — a processor with 192 cores (thus the references to 192). The CEO of NVIDIA, Jen-Hsun Huang, admitted to the stunt during a presentation in Las Vegas.