Roi Shlomi

He’s mourning his father, so hasn’t shaved or cut his hair or nails in 30 days, but then after 30 days you have to. He’s not religious but his father was, so he’s doing this in his honor. He’s had white hair since he was 25.

There are so so many degress of religious in Israel, from ultra-orthodox to atheist, but everything inbetween, doing some practices but not others. So when families or friends get together, they have to follow the practices of whoever insists on the most.

There's no civil marriage in Israel!

Israel has the highest rate of reproduction of all OECD countries.

The new electric train in front of my hotel is a big deal, 15km to Batyam, been a long time coming.

Friend born in Haifa, grew up in America, blonde blue eyes, investor and yoga teacher, yet still gets strip searched (requires her to get undressed completely) every time she enters Israel because her family was from Palestine. Another friend is a Christian Arab, so always has to go to the airport four hours early, knowing he’s going to be deeply interrogated every time. Every public place here - every shopping mall or museum - has the full x-ray and “open your bag and let them go through it” process. Sergey Brin came to visit and refused to open his bag and it was a big ordeal.

He’s “born with the curse of curiosity”. Became a computer science journalist, a commentator on TV, worked for the Ministry of Science and Technology and Israeli Space Agency. Now doing graduate degree on computer science at Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech uses the “anywhere on earth” time zone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anywhere_on_Earth

He’s also a yacht skipper, an updated life-saving certificate, like EMT. “I love hospitals. The center of human drama.”

Just two years ago got into acting, performed in Carmen and Madame Butterfly, in front of 30,000 people in the park. Four operas since, as a non-singing actor. It pays a little but he’s happy to work with his favorite directors for free.

Before and after computer programming, below and above, is all math.