One piece of advice is to say who you are. For all I know I'm giving my email, and the right to email me daily, to some hobo on the street. How do I know who you are? How can I trust you?
Well there are scores of books on these issues, and some great Rabbis hold exactly what you are saying. But some say that since there is no action on the Sabbath, and the act is before the Sabbath, and before the Sabbath it wasn't an issue. So then even though the result is on the Sabbath, it's not actually an issue.
That is true. If any ones life is in danger, your supposed to "forget" the Sabbath right away and do what's necessary. But, for example, if your wife is very very pregnant and can give birth over Sabbath, if she goes into labour on Sabbath, 100% you HAVE to driver her to the hospital. But it's better if before Sabbath you order a taxi.
Another "hack" us Jews use very often is a timer. We have a timer hooked up to an outlet, and plug things into the timer, so you can set certain times to allow the electricity through, and other times not to.
So I can tell you that you are 100% right. I don't think this is really going to catch on for that very reason. Sabbath is a day set aside for family, religion, and not working.
I think what the main use is going to be is people will install it for emergencies. So I'm sure in Israel a lot of people will put it in their bomb shelters so if they need to spend Sabbath in the shelter and need to use the light, it won't be directly going against Sabbath.
"I also disagree that relying on advertising revenue is such a bad risk for Facebook: so does Television and their business model has been succesful for a loong time. "
It's not a problem to rely on advertisements as a main source of revenue, but Televisions have commercial breaks. What Facebook is afraid of is that most of their users won't even use the website at all, and only the mobile app. Or to continue the Television metaphor, it's like having all the TV watchers switch from TV, to TVs without commercial breaks. poof goes the revenue.
The reason that Israeli schools and American schools differ, stem from the fact that originally, Israel needed fast results.
in 1948, Israel started getting boat loads of Jewish immigrants (a lot of them just out of the holocaust and uneducated). Additionally they were at war and trying to build a country fast. So instead of going for liberal arts and such, the college education is much more direct and to the point. So after 3-4 years, these people can go out and help the new county.
This is also seen in the fact that majors are picked in High School also, to further pinpoint what you are going to do for the society, and then get it done.
In my humble opinion, I think this was a genius move. There comes a point where "the internet" can simply generate things faster (and sometimes even better) then a static team of people. Good job CodeAcademy.
I agree with him when he says that it is mostly how hard you work, dedication, and ambition. But wouldn't we just be fooling ourselves when we say it's not genetic? Maybe I'm wrong but, there are such things as kids that knowledge comes easier to, and kids that they simply can't understand something.
Also, for example, a kid with ADHD is woefully behind on the "being able to sit and work" ability. I think it's nice that we say "everyone is equal and let's hold hands" But I personally don't understand that.
"So they didn't eliminate all signage, but it was rather dramatically reduced."
I was actually paying attention to that. They allowed business to put up their own sign on their own residence, but not other ads. For example you see the Mcdonalds sign at the Mcdonalds, the Xerox sign at the Xerox, and the Shell sign at the Shell. But I didn't notice anything other then that.