Germany's oldest student, 102, gets PhD denied by Nazis

Ingeborg Rapoport (then Syllm) finished her medical studies in 1937 and wrote her doctoral thesis on diphtheria – a serious problem in Germany at the time. But because of Nazi oppression she has had to wait almost eight decades before being awarded her PhD. Her mother was a Jewish pianist. So, under Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic race laws, Ingeborg was refused entry to the final oral exam. She had written confirmation from Hamburg University that she would have received her doctorate “if the applicable laws did not prohibit Ms. Syllm's admission to the doctoral exam due to her ancestry”.

'For the victims'

Now the university has set right that wrong. Three professors from Hamburg University's medical faculty travelled last month to Ingeborg's sitting room in East Berlin to test her on the work she carried out in pre-war Germany. They were impressed and a special ceremony took place at Hamburg University Medical Centre on Tuesday, in which she finally received the PhD that the Nazis stole from her. “It was about the principle”, she said. “I didn't want to defend my thesis for my own sake. After all, at the age of 102 all of this wasn´t exactly easy for me. I did it for the victims [of the Nazis]”. To prepare for last month's exam, Ingeborg enlisted friends to help her research online what developments there had been in the field of diphtheria over the last 80 years.

In 1938, as Germany became an increasingly dangerous place for Jews, Ingeborg fled to the US where she went back to university, finally to qualify as a doctor. Within a few years she met her husband, the biochemist Samuel Mitja Rapoport, who was himself a Jewish refugee from Vienna.

Infant mortality

But, by the 1950s, Ingeborg suddenly found herself once again on the wrong side of the authorities. The McCarthy anticommunist trials meant that Ingeborg and her husband were at risk because of their left-wing views. So they fled again – back to Germany. This time Ingeborg Rapoport went to communist East Berlin, where she worked as a paediatrician. Eventually she became a paediatrics professor, holding Europe's first chair in neonatal medicine, at the renowned Charite Hospital in East Berlin. She was given a national prize for her work in dramatically reducing infant mortality in East Germany. But for all her achievements, winning back at the age of 102 the doctorate stolen from her by the Nazis must rank among her most impressive.

(http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33048927)

How open source has changed the hardware environment

While open source software is a relatively well-known concept by comparisons, the idea of open source hardware isn’t quite as publicized. In fact, few people are aware that there are quite a few organizations offering open source hardware, which meansthey have made all information pertaining to their products freely available, including designs and schematics, bill of materials information, and printed circuit board layout data. Generally, open source software is used in the original design, which provides evenmore benefits.

The driving ideology behind open source hardware is that anyone should have the freedom to:

• Use the device for any purpose.

• Study how it works and make any changes.

• Redistribute the design of the device and the device itself.

• Enhance the design as well as the device and make those improvements freely available to the public so all can benefit.

(http://opensource.com/life/15/2/open-source-hardware-future-tech)

Washington gumbo lover leaves $2,000 tip on $93 restaurant bill

A Washington man shocked the staff of a neighborhood restaurant earlier this week by leaving a $2,000 for a meal of beer and gumbo he shared with a friend, the proprietor said Wednesday.

The man, described by Blue 44's owner Chris Nardelli as a gumbo-loving regular who lives nearby, left the tip on a $93 bill on Monday night.

“Thank you for the gumbo!” he wrote on the bill after indulging his taste for the Louisiana Creole dish, a specialty of the house.

“It was pretty shocking to say the least”, said Nardelli, who also is a chef and bartender at the four-year-old restaurant in the Chevy Chase neighborhood. “It made everybody do a triple take”.

The customer, who was not identified, asked on the bill that $1,000 go to chef James Turner and $500 each for Nardelli and waitress Laura Dally.

(http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/27/us-usa-districtofcolumbia-tip-idUSKBN0OC2W820150527)

Washington gumbo lover leaves $2,000 tip on $93 restaurant bill

A Washington man shocked the staff of a neighborhood restaurant earlier this week by leaving a $2,000 for a meal of beer and gumbo he shared with a friend, the proprietor said Wednesday.

The man, described by Blue 44's owner Chris Nardelli as a gumbo-loving regular who lives nearby, left the tip on a $93 bill on Monday night.

“Thank you for the gumbo!” he wrote on the bill after indulging his taste for the Louisiana Creole dish, a specialty of the house.

“It was pretty shocking to say the least”, said Nardelli, who also is a chef and bartender at the four-year-old restaurant in the Chevy Chase neighborhood. “It made everybody do a triple take”.

The customer, who was not identified, asked on the bill that $1,000 go to chef James Turner and $500 each for Nardelli and waitress Laura Dally.

(http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/27/us-usa-districtofcolumbia-tip-idUSKBN0OC2W820150527)

How open source has changed the hardware environment

While open source software is a relatively well-known concept by comparisons, the idea of open source hardware isn’t quite as publicized. In fact, few people are aware that there are quite a few organizations offering open source hardware, which meansthey have made all information pertaining to their products freely available, including designs and schematics, bill of materials information, and printed circuit board layout data. Generally, open source software is used in the original design, which provides evenmore benefits.

The driving ideology behind open source hardware is that anyone should have the freedom to:

• Use the device for any purpose.

• Study how it works and make any changes.

• Redistribute the design of the device and the device itself.

• Enhance the design as well as the device and make those improvements freely available to the public so all can benefit.

(http://opensource.com/life/15/2/open-source-hardware-future-tech)

Washington gumbo lover leaves $2,000 tip on $93 restaurant bill

A Washington man shocked the staff of a neighborhood restaurant earlier this week by leaving a $2,000 for a meal of beer and gumbo he shared with a friend, the proprietor said Wednesday.

The man, described by Blue 44's owner Chris Nardelli as a gumbo-loving regular who lives nearby, left the tip on a $93 bill on Monday night.

“Thank you for the gumbo!” he wrote on the bill after indulging his taste for the Louisiana Creole dish, a specialty of the house.

“It was pretty shocking to say the least”, said Nardelli, who also is a chef and bartender at the four-year-old restaurant in the Chevy Chase neighborhood. “It made everybody do a triple take”.

The customer, who was not identified, asked on the bill that $1,000 go to chef James Turner and $500 each for Nardelli and waitress Laura Dally.

(http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/27/us-usa-districtofcolumbia-tip-idUSKBN0OC2W820150527)

Germany's oldest student, 102, gets PhD denied by Nazis

Ingeborg Rapoport (then Syllm) finished her medical studies in 1937 and wrote her doctoral thesis on diphtheria – a serious problem in Germany at the time. But because of Nazi oppression she has had to wait almost eight decades before being awarded her PhD. Her mother was a Jewish pianist. So, under Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic race laws, Ingeborg was refused entry to the final oral exam. She had written confirmation from Hamburg University that she would have received her doctorate “if the applicable laws did not prohibit Ms. Syllm's admission to the doctoral exam due to her ancestry”.

'For the victims'

Now the university has set right that wrong. Three professors from Hamburg University's medical faculty travelled last month to Ingeborg's sitting room in East Berlin to test her on the work she carried out in pre-war Germany. They were impressed and a special ceremony took place at Hamburg University Medical Centre on Tuesday, in which she finally received the PhD that the Nazis stole from her. “It was about the principle”, she said. “I didn't want to defend my thesis for my own sake. After all, at the age of 102 all of this wasn´t exactly easy for me. I did it for the victims [of the Nazis]”. To prepare for last month's exam, Ingeborg enlisted friends to help her research online what developments there had been in the field of diphtheria over the last 80 years.

In 1938, as Germany became an increasingly dangerous place for Jews, Ingeborg fled to the US where she went back to university, finally to qualify as a doctor. Within a few years she met her husband, the biochemist Samuel Mitja Rapoport, who was himself a Jewish refugee from Vienna.

Infant mortality

But, by the 1950s, Ingeborg suddenly found herself once again on the wrong side of the authorities. The McCarthy anticommunist trials meant that Ingeborg and her husband were at risk because of their left-wing views. So they fled again – back to Germany. This time Ingeborg Rapoport went to communist East Berlin, where she worked as a paediatrician. Eventually she became a paediatrics professor, holding Europe's first chair in neonatal medicine, at the renowned Charite Hospital in East Berlin. She was given a national prize for her work in dramatically reducing infant mortality in East Germany. But for all her achievements, winning back at the age of 102 the doctorate stolen from her by the Nazis must rank among her most impressive.

(http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33048927)

Smart Greenhouse

Control the light, watering, temperature, and humidity of your greenhouse – automatically.

Kevin Farnham

Smart Greenhouse, one of three professional category winner in the 2014 IoT Developer Challenge, is an Internet of Things (IoT) device and application that monitors and controls a greenhouse environment. The concept for Smart Greenhouse came into being after the core team – Dzmitry Yasevich, Pavel Vervenko, and Vladimir Redzhepov – attended JavaOne Russia in April 2013. There, the team saw presentations of a smart house, various robots, and other devices, all controlled by Java.

Yasevich notes, “We were impressed by these solutions and had an idea to do something like that. Pavel Vervenko suggested making an automated greenhouse. Everyone liked the idea!”.

First, the team selected the hardware. “We started to use Raspberry Pi as a basis”, Yasevich says. “It is a compact but fullfedged computer with 700 MHz and memory at 512 MB. This system costs around $35”.

However, early on, a safety concern arose. “Current under high voltage passes in the greenhouse, and there is an automatic watering system, so it was necessary to properly consider all the aspects related to insulation”, Yasevich says.

(http://www.oraclejavamagazine-digital.com/8ef38d6e6f63e8971b9487ddb4bd4bdc/558dae0a/pp/javamagazine20150304-1429053481000c51ce41 0c1-pp.pdf?lm=1429053481000)

Smart Greenhouse

Control the light, watering, temperature, and humidity of your greenhouse – automatically.

Kevin Farnham

Smart Greenhouse, one of three professional category winner in the 2014 IoT Developer Challenge, is an Internet of Things (IoT) device and application that monitors and controls a greenhouse environment. The concept for Smart Greenhouse came into being after the core team – Dzmitry Yasevich, Pavel Vervenko, and Vladimir Redzhepov – attended JavaOne Russia in April 2013. There, the team saw presentations of a smart house, various robots, and other devices, all controlled by Java.

Yasevich notes, “We were impressed by these solutions and had an idea to do something like that. Pavel Vervenko suggested making an automated greenhouse. Everyone liked the idea!”.

First, the team selected the hardware. “We started to use Raspberry Pi as a basis”, Yasevich says. “It is a compact but fullfedged computer with 700 MHz and memory at 512 MB. This system costs around $35”.

However, early on, a safety concern arose. “Current under high voltage passes in the greenhouse, and there is an automatic watering system, so it was necessary to properly consider all the aspects related to insulation”, Yasevich says.

(http://www.oraclejavamagazine-digital.com/8ef38d6e6f63e8971b9487ddb4bd4bdc/558dae0a/pp/javamagazine20150304-1429053481000c51ce41 0c1-pp.pdf?lm=1429053481000)