I know people who are deep into every possible conspiracy theory that has ever existed... and a few that haven't. I am - literally - sent one to five per day. No joke.

Here's one:

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http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24070088-13762,00.html

"FORMER NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens exist."

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Certainly, the world is a more interesting place for these people, but this stuff really tires me out. I picture conspiracy nuts as dogs chasing their own tails.

ARE there conspiracies? Of course. Do most exist? No.

Let's say there are 100 conspiracies, and 90 are bogus. That leaves 10 with potential. I think ten percent is very generous.

Now let's say that actual investigation of well-covered-up issues take 10-20 years to fully uncover (optimistically). This means if you are someone who wants to actually bring a real conspiracy to light, odds are you must investigate 9 to reach the 10th. It means you're putting in 90-180 years in exploration merely to find the one worthy of uncovering which adds an additional 10-20 years.

In this case, the conspiracy you need to uncover and validate had better be the one where the Government has been hiding all the data (learned from extra-terrestrials) on extending the human life span to 500 years.

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We are SUCH a self-centered species.