John,

In the big picture I too believe the world is not expanding. If it were our orbit in space would have changed as would the orbit of our Moon as well. However, for some period of time when looking at a subduction event in progress, the world does bulge at bit. And we know that the Sierra's as well as many other mountains throughout the world are growing, so there's a little expansion in that. But for all we know there may be a decrease somewhere else perhaps when volcanos erupt and their height is diminished. There is a little give and take in the process.

As for conspiracy theories, I'm not into that kind of thing. But I am aware that when there are large dollars at stake even the most trusted sometimes can veer off course. If a man promises to give his girlfriend the Moon she would be a little to naive to believe it to be true, but if a man who seems to have integrity issues an offer, you'd think he was serious. It's hard to tell anymore these days what's going on.

Inasmuch as our world is not one big slab so that everything is "set in stone" then we have to appreciate we don't know it all and we probably never will. If it were otherwise, we'd have no reason for our existence.

Petra