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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'>>…</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Anders Sandberg<br><b>>…Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] equinox<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal>>…(I have been thinking of intersections with planes a lot today, as I updated <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann%27s_minimal_surface">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann%27s_minimal_surface</a> - I have a little hobby project of brushing up the minimal surface corner of Wikipedia. )<br><br><br><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D'>So cool! This is way awesome, Anders!</span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>>…</span>On 22/09/2012 15:49, spike wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>>>…</span></b><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Happy equinox extropians!</span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> </span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></blockquote><pre><br><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>Ah! I thought I felt a geometric plane sweep by! Anders Sandberg…<o:p></o:p></pre><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>An odd thing is this: we have a perfectly arbitrary time which is celebrated to gross excess every year all over the globe, when a perfectly arbitrary calendar mark passes, HAPPY NEW YEAR etc. That always seemed so annoyingly phony to me, three two one, CELEBRATE WILDLY, vacuous knuckle draggers, etc, when there is no actual celestial event corresponding to it, not even lunar. Yet the four occasions of every year when there really is something of celestial significance, the solstices and the equinoxes, nothing. Unless you are a fellow atheist/pagan, there are no actual celebrations. It is lonely being an atheist pagan, and the common people have no problem with insulting us at all.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>For instance, you perhaps heard of all the controversy surrounding the edgy artwork known as Piss Christ, with the crucifix in a jar of urine. That was in the headlines again as some provocative hothead put an image of a bearded man in a turban in a jar of urine, and called it Piss Joseph Smith. Of course all those countries in which the radical Mormons are known to riot, the radical Mormons are rioting.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Since these so-called artists have intentionally offended the Christians and the Mormons with their grossly insensitive provocations, I suppose it was only a matter of time before they decided to offend the atheists, so now there is yet another work of so-called art in which the atheists’ object of worship (nothing) is being similarly degraded, this one entitled simply Piss. Just as it sounds, it is a jar of urine. Only. Nothing in urine. This proved problematic, for any instance where nothing is being degraded is now an insult to those of us who are extremely sensitive atheists, protective of our object of worshipful adoration: nothing. They should really be more understanding, and show some cultural sensitivity! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Now, whenever I am at the medic’s office and she asks for a urine sample, well, I cannot even do this simple medically-necessary diagnostic procedure without offending myself. I am really pissed whenever I see Piss. But there are so few atheists in this non-wicked old world, that when we unbelievers are offended, we can’t even raise a respectable riot. Hell we can’t even find each other. A one-man riot just doesn’t get it done. Imagine what I must look like, a single guy out there on the streets all alone, rioting against Piss. To the uneducated and insensitive faceless masses, I must appear to be an ordinary pissed off mad man. What shall I do?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>