Engineering

A worrisome abdominal pain drove Jalal Afshar to seek treatment last year at healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente. The Pasadena resident and Kaiser member had lived for years with a rare condition known as Castleman's disease, which affects the lymph nodes and the body's immune system. But this was the first time he experienced such severe symptoms. Kaiser granted his request to see a specialist in Arkansas. But it ultimately declined to pay for his treatment there. By June, Afshar said, Kaiser was arranging for hospice care so that he could die at home.

Bubbles are a serious business. While they're beloved as a childhood pastime and a bathtub luxury, the physics behind the delicate, iridescent clusters remains remarkably complex. Now mathematicians have pinned down the ephemeral physical processes that mark the life, and death, of these suds. Their findings, published this week in the journal Science, could prove useful to chemical engineers seeking to better understand all kinds of foams, from shaving cream to plastic insulation.

From the veranda of his house, Bruce Gleason looks down, down, down onto a swath of the San Fernando Valley floor. Daylight is departing, and a rainy mist has furred the vista. A river of car headlamps on Van Nuys Boulevard glows more brilliantly by the moment. "The view. Each night when I come home, I'm re-charmed by it," he says. "Life is in session down there--150,000 people going about their life."

Los Angeles Fire Chief Brian Cummings rejected a request from members of the City Council to postpone Sunday's start of a controversial plan to shift dozens of firefighters to ambulance duty. Council President Herb Wesson asked Friday that the Fire Department delay the changes, which are designed to address an increase in 911 medical calls, for three days so lawmakers can consider the effects of the reassignments. The council has scheduled a hearing Tuesday to address what critics say are safety issues surrounding the new staffing plan.

Twenty years of social engineering hasn't had much impact on Los Angeles travel habits but one day of tectonic engineering may have a large impact. RONALD KOSINSKI Diamond Bar

Sometimes in the evening, long after her last class of the day, Patricia Medina has an uncommon urge. She wants to go back to school. "I want to come at night and just, like, make something," said Patricia, a sophomore at University High School in West Los Angeles. What could reduce an otherwise bright, engaging student to dreams of breaking and entering?

The gig: Don't call Mark Fuller, 58, a fountain maker. He prefers "feature creator." But he does make fountains -- spectacular ones. The company he founded, Wet, based in Sun Valley, has taken on some of the largest water fountain projects in the world. Projects: One of his latest creations is a 32-acre artificial lake at the foot of the world's tallest building -- the Burj Khalifa in Dubai -- with 1,500 water jets that can blast streams 500 feet in the air, plus 1,000 fog jets, all tightly choreographed to put on a computerized show to music.

The six-story Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center, designed as a state-of-the-art research facility, will be dedicated today on the USC campus near downtown Los Angeles. Hughes contributed $5 million toward construction of the School of Engineering center, seen by Engineering Dean Leonard Silverman as an investment in the nation's future in a region with the largest concentration of engineers, scientists and technicians in the United States. Malcolm R.

Turns out an engine part on Matt Kenseth's Toyota was three grams too light when the NASCAR driver raced to victory Sunday at Kansas Speedway, the equivalent of about two cotton balls in the words of his engine builder. But in terms of Kenseth's bid to win his second Sprint Cup championship, the violation carried the weight of an anvil. Kenseth on Wednesday drew a massive 50-point penalty from NASCAR for having the unapproved part, knocking Kenseth from eighth in the Cup standings to a tie for 14th with Jeff Gordon.

SACRAMENTO - As Gov. Jerry Brown returned this week from his trade mission to China, his decision to have his travel and that of 10 staffers paid for by special interests was raising eyebrows. The dozens of delegates who joined Brown on the tour for $10,000 each - footing their bills and that of the governor's entourage - included about 15 groups that lobby the state for favorable treatment on their agendas. The California Hospital Assn., Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, the California Beer and Beverage Distributors and other interests sent along representatives - in one case a lobbyist - affording them face time with the governor during layovers, meals and receptions.

During his 30-year reign in Iraq, Saddam Hussein repeatedly plunged the country into war, even transforming an ancestral marshland some say is the "historical" Garden of Eden into a battleground. To punish political enemies, Hussein built canals with names such as Mother of Battles to drain water from marshlands and sap the lifeblood of the Marsh Arabs, a community of indigenous Iraqis who depended on the swamp to survive. An ecosystem twice the size of the Everglades became a desert of salt and sand.

In the beginning, it was about losing a few pounds. Hans Svanoe, 64, would leave his house in Encino at 5:30 a.m. and walk for an hour before driving over the hill to Century City, where he works as a butler. A what? "A corporate executive butler," said Svanoe, who caters to the domestic needs of media mogul Haim Saban and his business partner, Adam Chesnoff, when they're at the office. Before that, the Norwegian-born Svanoe was a domestic for Milton Berle, who once responded to a Svanoe quip by saying: "I'll tell the jokes around here.

An online engineering course at San Jose State that has shown promise in improving student performance will be expanded to 11 other California State University campuses next fall, officials announced Wednesday. The San Jose campus, which has been a leader in adopting new technologies, will also establish a new Center for Excellence in Adaptive and Blended Learning to train faculty members from other campuses interested in offering the class. The initiative was announced at a news conference attended by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who along with Gov. Jerry Brown has been pushing universities to pursue online education as a way to curtail costs and serve more students.

A small plane ditched in Big Bear Lake on Saturday after losing engine power, but those on board were able to get out with only minor injuries, authorities said. The single-engine Beechcraft A36 Bonanza came to rest upside down near the lake's south shoreline, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said. The FAA defines ditching as emergency landings on water. The plane had left Carlsbad airport Saturday morning, and its pilot reported engine trouble and planned to land at Big Bear Airport, said Sgt. Ryan Collins of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

A series of cracks are veining through the historic Watts Towers, a recurring problem that's forcing engineers to rethink how they repair the sculpture. Join us at 9 a.m. as we discuss the towers and the problems facing it with Times reporter Angel Jennings. The towers have been deteriorating for years, prompting quick patch jobs that did little long-term good. A worker with binoculars would spot a crack, panic and rush to seal it over with cement and other materials. But the cracks always came back.

That Phil Ramone was a musical force in the recording studio is undeniable, and the evidence lies in the range of his accomplishments. For example, within one three-year period in the early 1960s, Ramone mixed Lesley Gore's smash hit "It's My Party," recorded Marilyn Monroe seducing President John F. Kennedy in song on his birthday and engineered essential double-quartet recordings by jazz innovators Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy. Ramone, who died Saturday in his late 70s or early 80s, depending on sources, would have been only around 30 at the time.