conspiracy theory

From Wired: 1945: Grand Rapids, Michigan, becomes the first U.S. city to fluoridate its drinking water supply.

Fluoridation, implemented as a means of reducing tooth decay,
involves adding one part per million of fluoride to the water supply.
(The optimum level, according to the Centers for Disease Control, falls
between 0.7 and 1.2 ppm.) Fluorine, of which fluoride is a compound, is
one of Earth's most abundant elements, found in almost everything. In

President Woodrow Wilson wrote in 1913: "Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it."

Here's an interesting article by Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times, Hidden story behind conspiracies, about my favorite meme, conspiracy theories, through the filtre of a major and influencial financial daily newspaper.

"Conspiracy theorists have a bad reputation. They are usually portrayed as paranoid, isolated, deluded people, best avoided.

"Okay, I have to establish three things in order for the book to make sense. I have to establish that in this version of Earth, the meme of immortals walking among us already exists, if only as a kook conspiracy theory like the Masons or Illuminati. I have to establish the existence of a lost gospel, an ancient document describing the immortals at the beginning of their myth, and I have to establish the existence of a database of immortal identies through history, proving that these people live forever and just keep adopting new personas.