<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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	<title type="text">Vorpal.us</title>
	<subtitle type="text">And through and through The Vorpal Sword went Snicker-Snack! ~ Lewis Carroll</subtitle>

	<updated>2010-04-26T00:31:40Z</updated>

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		<atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Vorpalus" /><feedburner:info uri="vorpalus" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" /><feedburner:browserFriendly></feedburner:browserFriendly><entry>
		<author>
			<name>Marcus</name>
						<uri>http://vorpal.us</uri>
					</author>
		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Standing before St. Peter&#8217;s]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://vorpal.us/2010/03/standing-before-st-peters-square/" />
		<id>http://vorpal.us/?p=320</id>
		<updated>2010-04-26T00:31:40Z</updated>
		<published>2010-03-31T09:53:36Z</published>
		<category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="History" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Philosophy" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Religion" />		<summary type="html"><![CDATA[VATICAN CITY, Holy Thursday &#8211; Watching the pilgrims arrive for Holy Week, queuing through the metal detectors at the ends of the arms of St. Peter&#8217;s Square, I feel like a teenager watching the little kids line up for Santa Claus. It is remarkable how we are willing to cast aside the sweet myth of [...]]]></summary>
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		<thr:total>0</thr:total>
	</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Cliff</name>
					</author>
		<title type="html"><![CDATA[What is the source of the Arrow of Time?]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://vorpal.us/2010/02/what-is-the-source-of-the-arrow-of-time/" />
		<id>http://vorpal.us/?p=306</id>
		<updated>2010-02-17T02:41:14Z</updated>
		<published>2010-02-17T02:41:14Z</published>
		<category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Science" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Time" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Entropy" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Evolution" />		<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Three sources are: 1. Evolution &#8211; goes in one direction only 2. Entropy &#8211; goes in one direction only, disorder, without new energy being added 3. The recession of the galaxies &#8211; apparently goes to expansion only, never to return to a singularity. The above are discussed in G.W.Witrow&#8217;s book, &#8220;What is Time?.&#8221; Cliff]]></summary>
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		<thr:total>0</thr:total>
	</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Marcus</name>
						<uri>http://vorpal.us</uri>
					</author>
		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Jabberwocky Decoded!]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://vorpal.us/2009/04/jabberwocky-decoded/" />
		<id>http://vorpal.us/?p=218</id>
		<updated>2009-04-23T14:44:19Z</updated>
		<published>2009-04-10T01:31:51Z</published>
		<category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Fun &amp; Silliness" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="jabberwocky" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="portmanteau" />		<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Hollywood Flakes has decoded the Jabberwocky. I am not sure just how accurate her decryption engine performs. I think that I have a more sinister vision of the Jabberwock &#8211; somewhere between Darth Vader and a &#8220;fast zombie&#8221;.]]></summary>
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		<thr:total>0</thr:total>
	</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Marcus</name>
						<uri>http://vorpal.us</uri>
					</author>
		<title type="html"><![CDATA[New Odds on Pascal&#8217;s Wager]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://vorpal.us/2009/03/new-odds-on-pascals-wager/" />
		<id>http://vorpal.us/?p=177</id>
		<updated>2009-04-19T18:23:17Z</updated>
		<published>2009-03-18T03:45:18Z</published>
		<category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Conjecture" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Philosophy" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Religion" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Belief in God" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Bet on Life" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Disbelief in God" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Heaven" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Hell" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Odds" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Pascal's Wager" />		<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote in his Pensées, a collection of notes made towards the end of his life, that when making a life wager on the existence of God, belief in God is the best bet.  This is known as Pascal’s Wager.  Using the first formally structured decision theory and probability [...]]]></summary>
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		<thr:total>0</thr:total>
	</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Marcus</name>
						<uri>http://vorpal.us</uri>
					</author>
		<title type="html"><![CDATA[An Experiment with Time]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://vorpal.us/2009/03/an-experiment-with-time/" />
		<id>http://vorpal.us/?p=164</id>
		<updated>2009-04-19T13:34:42Z</updated>
		<published>2009-03-05T14:47:08Z</published>
		<category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Science" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Time" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Antares" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="information flow" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="simultaneity" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="speed of light" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="SR 1572" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="tense" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="time cone" />		<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Is time immutable, or is it subjective?  Philosophers have debated the nature of time, and whether it is intrinsically ordered and has tense.  I have devised a mind experiment to show that time depends not only on the observer, but the observer’s position, that before, after and simultaneous are subjective. Visualize two observers on opposite [...]]]></summary>
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		<thr:total>1</thr:total>
	</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Marcus</name>
						<uri>http://vorpal.us</uri>
					</author>
		<title type="html"><![CDATA[A Trillion Dollars Visualized]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://vorpal.us/2009/02/a-trillion-dollars-visualized/" />
		<id>http://vorpal.us/?p=148</id>
		<updated>2009-03-27T18:27:01Z</updated>
		<published>2009-02-12T21:25:13Z</published>
		<category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Current Events" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Fun &amp; Silliness" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Acres of dollars" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="lots of money" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="size of a trillion dollars" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Trillion Dollars" />		<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Continuing on the theme of my recent post on the difficulty of understanding scope of large numbers, a friend of mine published a compelling demonstration of the size of a Trillion Dollars: With the latest round of Washington bailout money approaching a trillion dollars, here&#8217;s a way to visualize large sums of money assuming that [...]]]></summary>
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		<thr:total>0</thr:total>
	</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Marcus</name>
						<uri>http://vorpal.us</uri>
					</author>
		<title type="html"><![CDATA[&#8220;In this world nothing is certain except Death and Taxes&#8221;]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://vorpal.us/2009/02/in-this-world-nothing-is-certain-except-death-and-taxes/" />
		<id>http://vorpal.us/?p=75</id>
		<updated>2009-04-21T13:07:20Z</updated>
		<published>2009-02-06T04:07:19Z</published>
		<category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Government" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="History" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="bush tax cuts" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="death" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="death and taxes" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="estate tax" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="family business" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="inheritance tax" />		<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Nothing is as true as Ben Franklin’s quote. We will all die, and the government will have its pound of flesh. Estate taxes involve the confluence of both. The founding fathers instituted this tax because it inhibits the formation of American aristocracies.  If large estates are attenuated by taxes when generations change, then each generation [...]]]></summary>
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		<thr:total>0</thr:total>
	</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Marcus</name>
						<uri>http://vorpal.us</uri>
					</author>
		<title type="html"><![CDATA[The Fountain of Knowledge]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://vorpal.us/2009/01/the-fountain-of-knowledge/" />
		<id>http://vorpal.us/?p=120</id>
		<updated>2009-04-20T01:33:24Z</updated>
		<published>2009-01-21T06:29:14Z</published>
		<category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Conjecture" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="History" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Philosophy" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="critical thinking" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="opinion versus fact" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="propaganda" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="standard references" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="suppressed ideas" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="web information" />		<summary type="html"><![CDATA[John Locke in Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) states that everything we know is from experience.  He identifies two fountains of all knowledge &#8211; “the observation of external sensible objects”, and ” the internal operations of our minds perceived and reflected on by ourselves.”  As a society, we extend the personal experience by reporting the [...]]]></summary>
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		<thr:total>1</thr:total>
	</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>technica</name>
					</author>
		<title type="html"><![CDATA[The Uncivil Fight about Marriage]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://vorpal.us/2009/01/question-for-the-coming-year%e2%80%a6/" />
		<id>http://vorpal.us/?p=139</id>
		<updated>2009-04-23T14:13:00Z</updated>
		<published>2009-01-21T04:56:35Z</published>
		<category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Conjecture" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Government" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Religion" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="church and state" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="civil union" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="establishment clause" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="gay marriage" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="polygamy" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="separation of church and state" />		<summary type="html"><![CDATA[If the test that former Supreme Court Justice O’Connor used to decide Establishment Clause issues relating to the separation of Church and State was: “Encouragement”; i.e. did the State encourage a religion, and in doing so, made others not of that religion feel ‘excluded’; Why, then doesn’t the concept of “marriage” (which is the religious [...]]]></summary>
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		<thr:total>0</thr:total>
	</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Marcus</name>
						<uri>http://vorpal.us</uri>
					</author>
		<title type="html"><![CDATA[1, 2, 3, Many]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://vorpal.us/2009/01/1-2-3-many/" />
		<id>http://vorpal.us/?p=127</id>
		<updated>2009-04-14T06:49:26Z</updated>
		<published>2009-01-20T08:18:06Z</published>
		<category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Philosophy" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Science" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="The Mind" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="Uncategorized" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="big numbers" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="counting" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="exponential" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="mental ability" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="numbers" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="numerical education" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="order of magnitude" /><category scheme="http://vorpal.us" term="scientific notation" />		<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Numbers are tough to learn as a child.  One, two &#8211; many.  That is how you first see the world, and as how lots of other mammals and birds see the world.  Then you learn the numbers and the idea of counting, then connecting the idea that you can count a large number of individual [...]]]></summary>
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		<thr:total>1</thr:total>
	</entry>
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