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Time unwound itself as a few "127-Hours" type hikers wandered into the Echo Box to try their luck:

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Dr. D does not know whether rigged San Siro soccer games are considered "conspiracies" and "tinfoil hat society" fodder.  But if that's all that is needed to hit the bar and be declared a tinfoil hat wacko, then Dr. D is definitely well-stocked on the Reynolds Wrap.

Dr. D is probably more booked-up on "woo" and "tinfoil hat" shtick than he is on baseball.  If there is a taste within this community for Rupert Sheldrake territory, then we're assuming this group of amigos would be front-loaded into that group of denizens who want to enter the Premium Think Tank.  

Either here or there, we could definitely deliver the shtick on that shtuff.  If you're so inclined, it would probably become the internet's premier site for fair-minded investigation of such themes.  

Animal Psi and Telephone Telepathy are not only perfectly feasible, but actually demonstrated scientifically.  Whereas the Simulated Moon Landing is perfectly absurd.  Dr. D is confident of few things more than he is confident that man is alone in the Milky Way Galaxy (he can't speak for the Andromeda).  But he's glad to indulge a smart argument that the Bushes are reptilian aliens; some very intelligent people sincerely believe that.  The refutation of stuff like that, if refutations be available, is excellent training in logic.

The other 200 greatest "konspiracy korners" fall somewhere in between Animal Psi and Bush-as-Alien endpoles, and it seems like Dr. D has studied every one of them for quite a few hours each. If you're curious, on occasion, to see an open-minded and literate discussion on these items, they can definitely appear there (or here) once or twice a month.

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I can give one of 'em up for you right now.  As you know, we live to serve.  

To place "fixed sports games" into the "woo" category in which Voodoo and The Lost City of Atlantis belong, that is itself konspiracy-krazy.  :- )

Of course some sports contests are fixed, and many individuals have been convicted in fair trials of doing so.  Of course some major sports leagues have been / are fixed; the desperate attempt to put the NBA and NFL above such things is nothing more than wishful thinking.

Here is an article about the Cowboys-Lions game Sunday.  Among 500 comments, the first 4 come from people who are obviously used to scoffing against "Conspiracy Theories:"

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Is it a "conspiracy theory" for SSI to state that Weyerhauser has these corporate policies?

• Promote environmental sustainability
• Create a workplace that fosters respect for all employees
• Be a primary industrial concern 

Their execs got into a room and drafted a mission statement.  :: shrug ::  If Roger Goodell wants to promote those referees who are sensitive to his memos, "Be sure the Lions don't get away with much in this game," what is so logistically far-fetched about that?

And why do the same people who snicker about all "tinfoil hat" theories, themselves charge the CIA with genocide abroad?  Would that not be a true conspiracy?

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There is something disturbing to me on a strictly scientific level.  It is this question:  How did the U.S.A. get to the point to where all you have to do is snicker, "Conspiracy Theorist!" to shut down all discussion of thought that is not comfortable to certain people with the microphone?

There are a lot of people here who like to think.  Take three breaths and think about this.  Why did this evolve, and how did it evolve?  The answers are all strange, and none of them good.

This Big Lie -- no conspiracies actually exist, no unorthodox thought is correct, and anybody who thinks differently is crazy or stupid -- is itself the single most disquieting Conspiracy that I know of.  

What a paradox!

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As Bill James has pointed out, though, the TV cameras have changed the ballgame.  As it pertains to fixing sports contests. Laundry workers all over the internet are airing out the NFL's dirty laundry all day today.  There isn't a thing the NFL can do to control the internet.  As Dr. D has said, the internet will be either the death or salvation of the techno planet.

Bought-off referees are becoming David Copperfields who are forced to perform in front of slo-mo cameras.  They own an increasing share in a shrinking market.  The last buggy whip company made the best buggy whip you ever saw.  How would you like to be a stockholder in that company? ... :- )

The NBA has been quasi-rigged since at least 1978.  (Probably >50% of you readers haven't seen this fun little splice of amazing calls in the Kings-Lakers 2002 series, game 6.  The Kings were the people's champs that year, not Shaq and Kobe.)

The NFL fixed the Seahawks' first Super Bowl in a manner more overt than most fixes are done.  It was only later that we learned it was as "payback" to Mike Holmgren for breaking code on the prearranged Big Time Wrestling aspect of the sport.  

This very season, Pete Carroll waged an OVERT war in the press against the NFL's konspiracy, er   unannounced corporate policy against his team.  The TV camera angles and the internet will go against the NFL's intent to find "plausibly denied" judgment calls against the Seahawks.  It will be a whale of a contest.

The tinfoil hats don't go onto the heads of people who roll their eyes at the NFL and NBA.  The tinfoil hats go onto the heads of people who believe that crying "Conspiracy Theory!," solves an issue then and there.  It's like the folks who want to use "neocon" or "commie" or "climate change denier" to win a debate with a label and a scoff.  They are trying to suppress real idea exchange.

What is REAL is --- > REAL.  The more frictionless the idea exchange, the faster the truth surfaces.  You can suppress truth for 1,000 years -- the Catholics of the Middle Ages, who were different from today's Catholics, did -- but the grass will always grow through the cracks in your driveway.  

A human being can really sense being stared at, or she cannot.  The question is not decided by "scientific consensus" or any other popularity contest.  It is decided by facts and research.

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There have been studies that prove that MLB umpires have a much, MUCH tougher time impacting games than do MLB referees.  With QuesTec, that factor is approaching zero.  (Not at zero, and not very near zero.  But approaching it as time goes on.)

Rigged games ruin the product.  MLB's product is almost completely intact.  Baseball isn't the best sport, not by a long shot, but it is likely to become the only sport left.  In a roundabout way, that makes it the best sport.

Pitchers and catchers report shortly,

Dr D