Rabbi Jason Miller

Happy Hanukkah to all my Friends and Family

I hope everyone's Hanukkah is bright and joyous.
May this holiday season be a source of health, happiness, love, & prosperity to all of us!

Much Love, Jason

Say What?

This website boasts its list of "Conservative Judaism's Top 100 Bestselling Books." Some of these books are in fact valuable resources on Conservative Judaism. But I question the relevancy of the third book listed on this site. Does this book even mention Conservative Judaism?

Did Madonna Get S'mikha Before Me??

Shmuley lets the Material Girl have it here. However, the most memorable line from the article has to do with Jacko. Shmuley writes, "It is no secret that I spent two years in close friendship with Michael Jackson which I now regard as one of the great mistakes of my life... But my embarrassment comes from my insecurity in believing that I needed a celebrity pairing in order to be an effective exponent of Judaism, and that the Jewish faith needed a celebrity spokesman in order to garner mainstream credibility."

Jason Miller and Adam Sandler on the set of Little Nicky(1999)

What kind of Jewish leader would ever get the idea of using a "celebrity pairing to be an effective exponent of Judaism"? -->

Fellow Spartan Discovers Really Big Number

Congrats to Michigan State grad student Michael Shafer who discovered the largest prime number known. Newsweek published this quote from him: "I don't think I'm going to be recognized as I go down the street."

Here's the article from the Lansing State Journal:

By Sharon Terlep

An MSU graduate student grabbed world fame on Wednesday - at least in a select community of mathematicians with a fervent interest in unfathomably large numbers.

Michael Shafer, a 26-year-old chemical engineering student, made math history by discovering the largest prime number known.

Ever.

The number, Shafer and scientists say, has no particular practical use.

But the fact that he was able to find it using a computer program that hooked up 60,000 people and more than 200,000 computers worldwide, shows what modern-day personal computers can do when connected to the Web and the willing.

And, with 6,320,430 digits, Shafer's number is just really, really big.

Big enough, in fact, to fill 1,087 pages of 8 1/2-inch-by-11-inch paper - without margins.

"The number itself really isn't useful," Shafer said.

"What's more important is what's gone into developing the server and that the programs can get all these computers to work together for a common goal.

"Thousands of people from all over are very interested in finding these numbers."

Shafer's discovery came as part of an effort called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, or GIMPS. At the center of the project is a computer server that shoots out large numbers to computers worldwide that are hooked up with software that determines whether a number is prime.

A prime number is a whole number greater than one that can be divided only by itself and one. The numbers three, five, seven and 11 are all prime numbers.

Shafer's programs ran for 19 days in his MSU laboratory when, last month, an alarm sounded letting him know his computers tagged a prime number. Scientists this week verified that it's legit.

A decade ago, the work would have required a massive super computer, said Chris Caldwell, a University of Tennessee mathematics professor who runs a Web site on prime numbers.

"It gives a test of the strength of the Internet," Caldwell said. "It just shows what the world's computer power can do."

Shafer received e-mails from as far away as Calcutta, India, and Italy on Wednesday, congratulating him. He also spoke with several media outlets, including a globally read science Web site.

Shafer's number is what's known as a Mersenne prime number, of which only 40 are known to exist.

Unlike some other large prime numbers that can be used for purposes such as computer security codes, Schafer's is too big to have any scientific use.

"What this shows is a resource that hasn't been tapped into completely," said Shafer, who ran the program in his spare time while getting his doctorate at Michigan State University. "There may come a time when there's more important research that can harness this technology and use it for something more relevant."

One View of the State of the Conservative Movement

Sociologist Marvin Schick takes out a paid ad in each week's New York Jewish Week to publish his personal views. A few weeks ago, he wrote his assessment of the Conservative Movement. If you are interested in reading his views, click here to go to the essay.