Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel » Rafi Miller

Your multiverse doesn’t explain fine-tuning

Rafi Miller — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:20:46 +0000

Over the last several decades, scientists have uncovered a startling fact about the laws of nature. The laws appear fine-tuned to permit life. Physicist Paul Davies observes that this fact has gained “broad agreement among physicists and cosmologists.” Philosopher John Leslie lays out dozens of examples of fine-tuning in his 1989 book Universes. For life [...]

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The Aliyah Museum

Rafi Miller — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 16:30:36 +0000

Israel has some cool history museums. There’s the Palmach museum in Tel Aviv, or the Menachem Begin and Herzl museums in Jerusalem. These museums don’t focus on information or artifacts, but on an experience. The tour tells a story, with each room featuring an elaborate set, multimedia, and special effects, to transport you through the [...]

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What to do about global warming?

Rafi Miller — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 12:07:42 +0000

I am still gratified by the response to my post from last week, “Who doubts global warming?” It now has 94 comments among 14 threads. The disagreements range from civil and rational to less than civil and not-so-rational. One of my struggles in that comments section was separating the reality of global warming from the [...]

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Knowing better than the experts

Rafi Miller — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 12:26:59 +0000

When an editor promoted my recent post on this blog, “Who doubts global warming?” I was honored but also nervous. I had seen many times what happens when this issue gets the attention of the Internet. Sure enough, on came a wave of comments totally dismissive of what I had to say, and sometimes nastily [...]

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Who doubts global warming?

Rafi Miller — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 20:31:01 +0000

This week, Israel faces a geshempocalypse, as comedian Benji Lovitt has called it. The storm is causing hundreds of millions of shekels in damage across the country. Meanwhile, in the United States, the National Climatic Data Center just announced that 2012 was the hottest year in US history, beating the previous record in 1998 by [...]

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The Buffalo Grove Aliyah

Rafi Miller — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 21:54:34 +0000

In the modern history of Israel, immigrations often came in great waves. There were the waves of aliyah from Europe, then Yemen, Iraq, Morocco, Russia, Ethiopia, Argentina, France, and many more. The fall of 2012 saw the start of a new great wave. Meet the Village of Buffalo Grove, Illinois, population 41,496. Or rather 41,490. [...]

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A tragic climate at the Wall Street Journal

Rafi Miller — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 22:04:14 +0000

The Wall Street Journal is America’s most widely circulated newspaper. Since 1889, its editorial pages have had an authoritative voice in American politics. But the newspaper has lost all credibility on the urgent issue of climate change. Man-made global warming is an escalating disaster. NASA, NOAA, AMS, NAS, AGU, ACS, and APS all warn of [...]

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The culture of Daf Yomi

Rafi Miller — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 06:04:42 +0000

“You also learn Daf Yomi?” “Yeah!” “I have a question from yesterday that’s been bothering me…” “Here’s how I understood that…” Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin hatched the Daf Yomi program in 1923, at the first convention of Agudath Israel. Participants would commit to learning one daf (both sides of a folio) of the Babylonian [...]

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You versus the true you

Rafi Miller — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:26:36 +0000

Who are you? Not your name, not your career—who is the true you? In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Vayyigash, Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers. The emotional moment is among the most powerful in Genesis (44:1–15, translation based on Koren): And Joseph could not restrain himself before those who stood by him; and [...]

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