[QUOTE=firejuggler;349292]Dan brown's theory (in Angel & Demons) is because of the Illuminati/ Free-mason... But I do not believe in conspiracy.[/QUOTE]

I tried reading Dan Brown's work. His was one of a very few books I never bother finished reading (and felt bad about actually buying).

But, admittedly, there's possibly something there which might be explained by someone who is serious....

[QUOTE=chalsall;349291]Actually, that's a really interesting question. How did that ever get there?[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1064/is-the-dollar-bills-eye-on-a-pyramid-the-symbol-of-a-secret-society[/url]

[url]http://news.yahoo.com/religious-people-are-less-intelligent-than-atheists--study-finds--113350723.html#upCr476[/url]

Of course that is only important if you think smarts matters even one wit.

[QUOTE=chalsall;349294]I tried reading Dan Brown's work. His was one of a very few books I never bother finished reading (and felt bad about actually buying).[/QUOTE]

Interestingly, I tried to sell my Dan Brown's books on the open market for pennies on the dollar. No one bought....

Dan Brown's work is the type of book you read almost once before putting it away.

[QUOTE=chappy;349296][url]http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1064/is-the-dollar-bills-eye-on-a-pyramid-the-symbol-of-a-secret-society[/url][/QUOTE]

So now we have multiple deep-symbolic reinterpretations of the great seal which better fit the state of the nation and its governance: The all-seeing eye is the ever-metastasizing national surveillance apparatus, and the unfinished pyramid represents the pyramid scheme which is the governmental financing apparatus. Unfinished because there is still some modest - but ever-shrinking - actual wealth (that is, not entirely netted out by debt) amongst the bottom 99% of the population. Once that dwindling remnant has been dutifully transferred to the top 1% and replaced by perpetual debt slavery, one wonders what the new seal representing the resulting perfection of the omni-ogling kleptocratic state might look like. Suggestions?

[QUOTE=firejuggler;349307]Dan Brown's work is the type of book you read almost once before putting it away.[/QUOTE]Well put. The closest to a Dan Brown book that might be enjoyable is Umberto Eco's [I]The Name of the Rose[/I] and [I]Foucault's Pendulum[/I].

[QUOTE=only_human;349312]Well put. The closest to a Dan Brown book that might be enjoyable is Umberto Eco's [I]The Name of the Rose[/I] and [I]Foucault's Pendulum[/I].[/QUOTE]

Dan Simmons, or Neil Stephenson, on the other hand, you can never stop reading....

[QUOTE=chalsall;349313]Dan Simmons, or Neil Stephenson, on the other hand, you can never stop reading....[/QUOTE]

Repeatedly, in my case.

[QUOTE=kladner;349332]Repeatedly, in my case.[/QUOTE]

You'll go blind if you keep that up, you know.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;349345]You'll go blind if you keep that up, you know.[/QUOTE]

That, and w@nking, of course!