amit_m

It is a credible source with a left-wing focus.

The Palestinians in the west bank and Gaza have their own healthcare systems. This was part of the Oslo accords. Plus, any Israeli medic who goes to Gaza is likely to be slaughtered. They wouldn’t trust vaccines coming from Israel anyway. Decades of war and demonization have done their part.

Israel is vaccinating the Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem since they are part of the Israeli medical system.

Needless to say that the Arab citizens of Israel (20% of Israel’s population, many of whom identify as Palestinian) have full access to vaccines.

I don't own a BMW for the signaling. I have no one to impress and it is quite an old station-wagon, so not a head turner. My wife doesn't know shit about cars but refuses to drive the Toyota on her longer commutes, because it's not comfortable for her.

So I would prefer a Toyota that handles nice over a BMW, but it would not be a Toyota. Toyota optimizes their cars for reliability and cost whereas BMW optimizes its cars for high performance and comfort. Specifically, their cars, like other German brands, are well suited for safe high-speed cruising on the autobahn, making them incredibly solid driving machines.

I happen to own a Toyota Camry and a BMW 5 series (not M5 or any other specialty model). Even for day-to-day errands, the BMW is a pleasure to drive. There is a lot of feedback and sharp responses from the steering wheel and throttle.

The Camry on the other hand is one of the least pleasing cars to drive. The suspension feels “floaty” and the steering wheel is completely dead. It also feels completely outdated and cheap and the UI is bad.

Waze started out as a community-based map building startup. They had their own maps.

In the mathematical sciences, working on old problems using classical tools is typically considered career suicide.

I can only imagine how depressing it must be to do academic research on age-old philosophical questions - an endless literature survey, at the end of which there is no light, because even if you "solve" the problem, many others will not find your solution satisfactory.

Wow, $60k CAD is really low. I don't think the smaller market is enough to explain it. In Israel the market for most startups is practically nonexistent, yet typical salaries are >$100k with Google/MSFT senior devs making more than $200k CAD.

Many of the Israeli startups are structured as dual US-Israeli companies with sales and marketing in the bay area and R&D in Tel-Aviv. Canadians could pull this stunt a lot more easily, since the geographical distance timezone and culture are much closer to the bay area.

From his FAQ: "About My Areas of Non-Expertise (e.g., Applied Cryptography)

I believe that sound practice of Cryptography has to be based on firm theoretical foundations. Still, this necessary condition is not sufficient, and expertise in applied (or practical) aspects of cryptography requires more than understanding of the theoretical foundations of Cryptography. For example, although I consider myself an expert on the theoretical foundations of Cryptography, I have very little knowledge of the applied (or practical) aspects of cryptography. In particular, please do not ask me to evaluate the security of any specific construct.

About Consulting

My above statement of limited knowledge of the applied (or practical) aspects of cryptography means that I'm not the right person to ask for consulting regarding the latter aspect. On top of this, I am not interested at all in consulting to or being involved in any commercial enterprise. My main reason is my unwillingness to make any commitment to spend time on anything other than my research and personal interests. Unfortunately, for lack of time, I properly pursue only a tiny part of my research and personal interests, and I have no intentions of making this part even smaller."

Nowadays there's no clear difference between statistics and machine learning. But the latter gets you more grant money. :-/

One of us is confused. In that table Berlin is behind in every category.

There's a very simple reason for leaving: the cost of living is high and the typical salaries are low. But this isn't true for the Tech industry. An experienced software engineer makes around $100k/year, 5 times the median salary.

(source: have been living in Israel my whole life, have friends who emigrated)

From a legal perspective, anyone who has at least one jewish grandparent can obtain immediate citizenship and be eligible to free healthcare, subsidized university education, etc. Historically, this was created in response to the Nazi Nuremberg laws in order to serve Israel's purpose of protecting jews from persecution. Also, on the emotional level, many jews living in the US and other places feel they have some kind of religious or cultural connection to Israel.

For people of non-jewish descent it is very hard to obtain citizenship, work visas are usually given for up to 5 years, after which you need to leave. In my opinion, this is a major weakness of the local startup ecosystem.