<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#0563C1;
text-decoration:underline;}
p.MsoPlainText, li.MsoPlainText, div.MsoPlainText
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Plain Text Char";
margin:0in;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
span.PlainTextChar
{mso-style-name:"Plain Text Char";
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Plain Text";
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
span.EmailStyle21
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> spike@rainier66.com <spike@rainier66.com> <br><br><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>-----Original Message-----<br>From: extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a>> On Behalf Of BillK via extropy-chat<br><br><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>… they might be misleading us (lying) just as much as we lie to them? BillK<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>_______________________________________________<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>…What? Whaddya mean lying to them BillK? Consider that engraved plate Carl Sagan designed to put aboard Pioneer in 1972:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>…<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>…<span style='color:black'>That plate isn’t a lie, that was the truth! The lie was what we told the librarian</span>….<span style='color:black'> What were we boys to do? Read the articles?</span>...s<span style='color:black'>pike</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>BillK, it occurred to me that all of that might have been the results of our uptight country. You lads from across the pond might have a more open-minded view of such sensitive matters.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>I recall clearly when a clear picture of that golden phonograph record was briefly shown on TV. No kidding! ON NATIONAL BROADCAST TV! I was there. We were all:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><a href="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmarkrathbun.files.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F01%2Feyes.jpg%3Fw%3D500%26h%3D375&f=1&nofb=1">https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmarkrathbun.files.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F01%2Feyes.jpg%3Fw%3D500%26h%3D375&f=1&nofb=1</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>A few weeks later at school, we hipsters were whispering “This month’s issue, page 87, don’t get caught…”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>And there she was in all her refulgent glory.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>We were nonchalant and subtle of course, but word got around and we were soon standing in line for that issue. The inevitable happened: Miss Crabapple became suspicious, found the article, took her exacto-knife to it, spoiled our fun. G-rated again.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>But it was worse than that, for unlike her previous censoring activities, this photo was embedded in an actual article that was damned interesting, which we really did wish to read. The other side of that picture contained actual text, we wanted to read, and none of us had the intestinal fortitude to ask if she would at least read the words so we could make sense of the article.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>She had mercifully sliced out only the space-babe, leaving the rest of the picture, spared as much text as possible. This left us to wonder why it is that an odd asymmetry existed. Why is it that we are here standing in line, we don’t see the girls lining up to check out the nekkid space man? Why is that such a one-way thing? We drew the only reasonable conclusion: girls have no sex drive. We already suspected that of course, but we blamed ourselves (rightfully so (well look at us, mercy.)) But here was a man baring everything, and we see no indication he is even a geek, but no girls. So where are they? (Ironically this restated Fermi’s question but with a slightly different meaning.)<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>But I digress. History books often comment that in the 1970 time frame space was sexy. Well ja! We had Vina the Orion girl from The Menagerie episode of the original Star Trek. We could totally get past the whole green skin thing, particularly because we didn’t actually know at the time she had that unfortunate skin tone: we had only black and white TV in those days, the old hand-crank model, and considered ourselves luck if we had even that. So we always referred to Vina as the gray chick from Star Trek. Gray skin isn’t sexy (but we could totally get past that (didn’t seem to bother Kirk much (granted nothing seemed to bother Kirk much (he was such a horn-dog (he would mount a Ferengi (if it was closing time at the space bar.))))) <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>About that time, the local rich family got an actual color TV, and he claimed you didn’t even need to get out of your chair to change the channel! We all knew that had to be a flaming lie, but he started a rumor that Vina was really green. We assumed he was lying about that too of course, because he was the same one who was telling big breezy tales that The Wizard of Oz was not at all what we had thought either. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>In any case, it was over 15 years later, two years after I was married, that I acquired my first color TV (which was by that time the only kind a prole could buy.) Come to find out, that little twit was telling the truth all along in all three of his outrageous claims. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Add that to the Sagan plate, well of course space was sexy, sheesh.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Will and SR, I try to tell young people how it was, and they don’t believe me! What’s a geezer to do?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>