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Bun Rieu Chay Recipe (Vietnamese Vegetarian Vermicelli Rice Noodle Soup)
Bún riêu cua is traditionally a vermicelli rice noodle soup made with tomato broth, meat, crab and shrimp paste. I'm not a very big fan of the meat flavors with shrimp paste so I usually make it meatless, using a paste of soybeans (and add the crab separately). The visuals and texture resemble the crab patties and the broth has the same fragrance from the sweet tomatoes.
The soup is typical Vietnamese comfort food. It's paired with the usual Vietnamese aromatic herbs and topped with other vegetables and fried tofu for a complete meal.
Yields: 10 servings1 cup dried soybeans
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 daikon radish
4 tablespoons canola oil (or any neutral oil)
1 (8-ounce) package thick rice vermicelli noodles
1 tablespoon garlic, finely minced
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 yellow onion, peeled
1 (2-inch) chunk ginger
1 tablespoon mushroom seasoning salt (or regular salt)
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 Fuji apples, quartered
1 (2-inch) chunk rock sugar (about 2 ounces), or granulated sugar, depending on the sweetness of the apples
1 (12.3-ounce) package firm tofu
5 medium-sized tomatoes, preferably ripe
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 king mushrooms, sliced
1 cup fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
3 stalks celery, peeled and halved
2 carrots, trimmed and peeled
6 sprigs Thai basil
6 sprigs Vietnamese mint
6 sprigs tía tô (see tips)
6 sprigs rau răm (see tips)
3 tablespoons cilantro
4 tablespoons green onions, finely chopped
2 cups iceberg lettuce, shredded
2 fresh serrano peppers, sliced
½ white onion (milder in flavor), thinly sliced
4 red Thai bird chiles
1 cup nước chấm condiment (click on the link for the recipe)
3 limes, cut into wedges
One day ahead:
Soaking the soybeans: In a bowl, wash the soybeans thoroughly. Pick out and discard any badly-shaped beans, then soak them for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Set aside.
The next day:
For the rice noodles: Fill a large pot with water. Bring to a boil. Add the noodles. Wait for the water to come back to a boil (about 1-2 minutes), then lower the heat to medium-low for about 8 minutes. Drain the liquid. Rinse the noodles. Drizzle with ½ teaspoon of oil to prevent the noodles from sticking to each other too much. Set them aside.
For the tofu: Drain the liquid from the package of the tofu. Pat the tofu dry with a paper towel. Cut into ½-inch slices, then cut each slice into ½-inch strips . In a pan, heat the oil and pan-fry the strips until slightly golden. Don't overcook the pieces or they'll start to get hard. The tofu should still be moist. Transfer all the tofu to a paper towel and let it cool. Set aside on a plate.
Prepping the tomatoes: This step is optional but I find tomato skin unpleasant to chew. Here's a neat method to peel tomatoes. Make a small, shallow criss-cross cut at the bottom of the fresh tomatoes using a breadknife (I use a breadknife because the blade won't bruise the fruit). Fill a small saucepan with cold water and bring to a boil. Place the tomatoes in the water and wait for at least 30 seconds. Remove the tomatoes quickly (I use a large strainer or a slotted spoon), then transfer to an ice cold bath to stop the cooking process. The skin of the tomatoes will come right off. Cut the tomato flesh into wedges. Set aside.
How to make vegetarian broth: In a large pot, combine the daikon, onion, apples and 4 quarts of water. Bring to a roaring boil for about 30 minutes and cook until the broth is reduced by 1/3. Regularly skim the impurities rising to the surface of the broth using a fine mesh strainer. Add the carrots, celery, 2 tomatoes, rock sugar and mushroom seasoning salt. Lower the heat to a bubbly simmer. Cook for about 15 more minutes. Remove and discard the apples and daikon (if you like the taste keep it, otherwise discard it). Remove the celery and carrots from the broth. Slice the vegetables, reserve about 2 tablespoons and place the rest back in the broth.
Prepping the soybean patties: Drain the liquid. In a blender, combine the soaked soybeans, some salt and pepper. Drizzle with a little water for a smooth flow. Process until you have a smooth yet thick consistency. Transfer to a bowl, add the reserved vegetables and 1 tablespoon of green onions.
Grease disposable gloves with oil, then form 10
¼" to ½" thick patties. Place them on a greased platter. The patties shouldn't look perfect.
In a small pot, bring water to a boil. Add the patties and slowly drizzle with lemon juice. After some seconds, you should see the soybean splitting into lumps of curd and watery whey. The curds shoud should have the appearance of a crab cake with feathery sides.
Frying the garlic and shallots: Add 3 tablespoons of oil to a pan. Sauté the garlic until golden. Transfer to a plate. Add the shallots to the oil, and cook, stirring frequently to prevent the shallots from burning, until the color is evenly golden brown. Transfer the shallots to the plate as well.
Add the king mushrooms. Cook for about 2-3 minutes, then add the shiitake mushrooms. Transfer to a plate and set aside. In the same pan, add the garlic, shallots, tomato paste and red chili powder. Cook for a minute. Add a ladleful of the broth, stir well and pour all the contents of the pan and the rest of the tomato wedges into the big stock pot. The broth should be fragrant and properly seasoned. Check the seasoning. Season with salt and pepper if necessary. Adjust sweetness of the broth. The amount of sugar varies with the sweetness of the apples and tomatoes. The secret is to balance the sweetness and the saltiness. Be sure not to over-salt!
Bring the soup back to a boil then add all the soybean patties. Let simmer for about 15 minutes. Let sit until you're ready to serve.
The broth may cool a bit. Let it come back to a boil for one last time, then add the rest of the green onions. Cover for 5-8 minutes, then remove the pot from the stove.
Assembly time:
Line up your serving bowls. Place a little chopped white onion and aromatic herbs (basil, mint, tía tô, rau răm and cilantro) in each bowl. Add the rice noodles. Ladle the broth into the bowls with the carrots, celery and shiitake mushrooms. Top with fried tofu and the soybean patties (divide each patty into 4 pieces per bowl) .
Garnish with more raw white onions, lettuce and more Vietnamese herbs. Serve with nước chấm, lime wedges and fresh chiles on the side.
Serve immediately.
Bon appétit!
For more recipes using different kinds of noodles, click on the link.
My decision in making bún riêu usually depends on how sweet the tomatoes are (whether they're from the market or our garden). So make sure they are naturally quite sweet so you don't have to add much more rock sugar to the broth.
If you're a vegetarian, infusing apples gives a natural sweetness that resembles chicken broth. You can substitute 2 tablespoons of frozen apple juice concentrate for the fresh apples. When I make vegetable broth, I tend to use Fuji apples or Golden Delicious, which are some of the sweetest varieties.
Daikon (củ cải trắng in Vietnamese) is an Asian radish that looks like a large white carrot. I use this root a lot when making broth to add natural sweetness to it. You can discard the root when the broth is ready. Some people like to eat daikon but I don't care for it.
The acidity from the lemon juice will split the soybeans and form the curds. This method will help form and get the patties firm. You could also use tamarind concentrate instead of lemon juice.
You can find king oyster mushrooms in Asian stores. They are also called abalone mushrooms and have a very meaty texture, which is perfect for this dish.
Tía tô are Vietnamese perilla leaves; they are green on one side and deep red-purple on the other side. They're a very common garnish in simmered dishes and rice vermicelli noodle dishes.
Rau răm is another Vietnamese aromatic herb that is an acquired taste for someone who's not familiar with the fragrance. My husband Lulu is not a big fan. I would describe the flavor as spicy coriander, and it goes very well with chicken; I use it for cơm gà Hải Nam (Vietnamese chicken rice dish) and gơi gà (Vietnamese chicken salad). I recently bought a plant at my local nursery. It's called "Vietnamese coriander" at Summer Winds Nursery, 725 San Antonio Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94303.
You can find rock sugar in any Asian stores. You can also use granulated sugar.
Vietnamese mint has a very different flavor from regular mint. It also has darker vein markings on the leaves. It's commonly used in Asian salads such as Vietnamese chicken salad and also in spring rolls (gỏi cuốn in Vietnamese).
Mushroom seasoning salt brings a very distinct, earthy flavor to the broth. You can find it at gourmet specialty stores or in most Korean stores. I buy it at Marina Foods -10122 Bandley Drive -Cupertino, CA 95014.
For the seafood lovers in our home, I transfer some of the tomato broth into a separate saucepan and cook fresh crab meat patties that I form with finely chopped raw shallots, green onions, finely ground dried shrimp (optional) and lightly beaten eggs (Count 1 whole crab for 3 eggs). Just wait for the broth to come back to a boil and gently add the patties. Lower the heat and let simmer for about 5 minutes.
Dried shrimp (tôm khô in Vietnamese) add a unique salty taste to the crab patties. I finely grind them before adding to the mixture. This ingredient is very common in Vietnamese cuisine. I sometimes add some to fried rice but when cooked, the taste is very different.
If you have vegetable broth left over, place the broth in containers and store in the freezer. It will keep for up to 6 months.
Note: Glossary of relevant Vietnamese cooking terms.
Bún = noodles
Riêu = simmer
Chay = vegetarian
Cua = crab


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How can green growth benefit Africa?
What exactly do we mean by green growth? For us, it's not just about riding bikes and planting trees. The Korea Green Growth Trust Fund (KGGTF) defines green growth as adopting an innovative approach toward reaching nations' goals for sustainable development and addressing climate change. It is a framework for decision-making and a proven process for turning people's hopes into reality.

subset: commoncrawl


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Photos 1, 2, 4 by Max Cooper. Photo 3 by Yeager St. John
At 3 a.m., downtown is Eric Bridges' kingdom.
The bars have closed, and the revelers have gone home to bed. Bridges has just finished breakfast, and he's on his way to work. "It's nice to be able to walk downtown when it's completely quiet and completely deserted," he says. "Before I started doing this, [3 a.m.] was night. And now it's morning."
Bridges is the morning baker at City Bakery on Biltmore Avenue — or maybe he's the night baker. That's the tricky thing about the bakery: its operations are so cyclical, so steady and repetitive, that time stops making sense. It's like a wormhole where fermenting dough, rising loaves and romantic aromas take on their own rhythm and defy business hours.
"There's no beginning and no end to the day," says Brian Dennehy, who manages the business. "It never ends." The bakery has been around since 1999, when Dennehy's uncle, Joe Eckert, started making bread in Jack of the Wood. Since then, it's risen like dough, a slow and steady expansion. Today, it has three locations, employs about 50 people and produces between 1,000 and 1,600 pounds of dough per day (in addition to sundry pastries, cookies and sandwiches).
Around the clock
When Bridges gets to work at 3 a.m., he isn't always the first person in the kitchen. During busy times, he might pass the night baker, Beth Sollars, on her way out the door. When the demand for bread is lower, Beth leaves a few hours before Eric gets in, so he might spend an hour or two in solitude working the ovens before his coworkers arrive.
He bakes the French-style dough that will go to restaurants and bakery shelves later that morning: baguettes and boules, mostly. He loads the triple-decker oven with a flat, wooden spatula called a peel. The design of the instrument is simple and functional, as if it were an artifact from the early days of baking. It's easy to imagine a Roman baker in 5 B.C. brandishing such an instrument.
Shuffling the bread into the ovens, Bridges looks like he's rowing; the motion requires squared shoulders, extended arms and a bend at the waist. "It's a muscle set that you don't use in everyday life," Bridges says. But it's not hard work, he adds; it simply requires steadiness.
On the wall, near the oven, hang several worn-out peels. The friction that's created when the bakers rub them across the oven's stone shelves, and the heat of the baking, have worn them nearly down to their handles. The bakers are proud of the display; it's their trophy case. One reads playfully in magic marker, "ye olde peel."
By 5 a.m., Bridges has plenty of company. A couple of pastry workers prepare the day's cookies and cupcakes on the other side of the kitchen. The delivery drivers ready to leave with a load of bread for the Waynesville location of City Bakery (the baking for all three stores happens on Biltmore Avenue). Dennehy comes in to set the drivers on their way, and head baker Jesse Bardyn arrives to start work on the dough for the following day.
By 6 a.m., Bardyn has the industrial mixer churning. Over the course of the day, that dough will rise, undergo shaping and rise again before it lands in Bridges' oven about 24 hours after it was born. (All of this, of course, depends on the particular kind of bread.)
Even though they work at the same time, Bridges and Bardyn occupy opposite ends of the bread-making process. "On any given day, I'm finishing the work Jesse started yesterday, and Jesse's starting what I'm going to finish tomorrow," Bridges says.
"The goal is to be as consistent as possible," Bardyn says. "That's sort of the dance of it." The balance between quantity and quality proves tricky, especially when the weather changes rapidly. The rising of the dough depends on the temperature of the room. When the weather swings from 30 degrees to 60 degrees in the course of a week, Bardyn has to make carefully calibrated adjustments to the dough. Inside, a person might not feel the few degrees' difference that results from weather fluctuations, but the microorganisms that make up the yeast sure can, Bardyn explains.
At 7 a.m., when the café opens, Bridges is looking forward to lunch — or second breakfast, as he calls it. His unconventional sleep schedule means he eats four small meals throughout the day.
As the day rolls on, the bake continues. Bridges could get off as early as 8 a.m. or as late as 12:30 p.m., depending on the amount of bread required. During the slow season, he signs up for delivery shifts that keep him busy until mid-afternoon.
At noon, Bardyn continues to mix the dough. When it's been through the mixer, he maneuvers it into large buckets and puts it in the refrigerator to rise. He transfers the mass of dough, which resembles a gelatinous pillow, from the mixer to the bucket in an impressive balancing act. It's like he's cupping water in his hands, only the dough is much heavier.
By 2 p.m., the shapers have arrived. They form an assembly line around the massive kitchen table and portion out the dough for bagels, bread and rolls. Daniel Rosener weighs out the proper portions on a mechanical scale. Each of his hands remains busy with an entirely different action: one tends the scale while the other pinches and pulls dough from the main mass to add to the weighted portion.
Rosener slings the weighed portion to Naomi Talmer, who deftly negotiates it into a loaf shape. Her hands read the surface of the dough; she likely could do this work in the dark. Her fingers respond to the dough's ripples and bulges with careful guidance and rhythm. As the dough comes together, she shuffles it in faster and faster circles until, suddenly, the blob she received from Rosener is a perfect, balanced, loaf shape.
Every ounce of the dough is shaped by hand. On busy days, that means the shapers handle almost 2 tons of the stuff.
Around 5 p.m., Sollars, the night baker, returns to work. Bardyn and Dennehy have made a mad dash for home. The bakery has a way of pulling people in, Bardyn explains. Even on his off days, he stops by to see how the bake is coming along. "When I take vacations and stuff, I try to relax as much as possible because I know when I'm here, I'm right in the middle of it," he says.
Sollars begins her shift with sandwich loaves, which — unlike the boules, baguettes and ciabatta — bake in pans. She pulls them from the refrigerator and lets them warm up to room temperature before she loads them into the oven.
She fills the oven one shelf at a time, so by the time she loads it, only a few minutes remain before she begins checking on the progress of the loaves she put in first. In her down time, she organizes the remaining dough and packages rolls for the 5 a.m. delivery.
Her workday could end as early as 10 p.m., or it could last until the wee hours of the morning, when she passes the peel back to Bridges, who keeps the bake going.
The bake goes on
Bridges, Bardyn and Dennehy say the bakery transformed them from night to morning people. Its gravity pulled them. Even though it demands relentless consistency, it offers a certain kind of solace. As the bakers labor to produce the bread, they have a dreamy look about them, like they're swimming downriver.
Bardyn explains that the bakery appeals to his personal work ethic. "I enjoy that at the end of the day I have something that I can show that this is what I did today," he says. "That's very gratifying for me."
For Bridges, the kitchen is a kind of community. "It's definitely like clockwork," he says. "Everybody is a cog."
Bridges says he's never resented his work, even when his four alarm clocks ring at 2:30 a.m. "Everyone knows this is what it takes to do what we do," he says. "So we just do it."


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Nearly 40 suspected gang members from the Bay Area and Northern California were arrested last month as part of a nationwide sweep by the Department of Homeland Security, the agency announced Thursday.
The operation, which concluded April 13, netted 600 suspects across the U.S. and targeted the Sureño criminal gang, one of the most rapidly growing gangs in the country, said Joseph Vincent, assistant special agent in charge with the Department of Homeland Security.
Bay Area suspects arrested in the sweep were from Hayward, Concord, Fremont, San Mateo, Daly City and San Francisco. They have been indicted on federal racketeering charges, including armed robbery, weapons and drug violations, murder and attempted murder, Vincent said.
Two of the Bay Area suspects are a mother and her 21-year-old son, who are accused of supplying large quantities of high-quality, commercially-grown marijuana to Sureños and Latin Kings gang members, according to the agency.
Agents said they found more than 4,600 marijuana plants, 25 pounds of processed marijuana, an AR-15 rifle, a stolen Glock handgun, four diesel generators and more than $85,000 in cash after serving search warrants at multiple properties owned by the woman. Vincent would not disclose where the pair lived. The operation, dubbed Project Southbound, made similar arrests in New York, Texas and other states around the country.
"Sureño gang members are involved in a myriad of criminal activity, including murder, extortion, narcotics trafficking, human trafficking and prostitution and other crimes with a nexus at the border," Vincent said.
The Sureños also have Mexico and Central America members and are linked to other gangs such as the Mexican Mafia and MS-13, Vincent said.


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Undergone swamp ticket relative whist natural sweep innate bicker flight notion reach out tinsel reckoning bit straddle iniquitous ramble stung Famous furniture instant paschal passionate Runnymede licorice feature departure frequency gnash lance sweat lodge rampart crow Neck Bedlam
Jackson Mac Low
Jackson Mac Low was born in Chicago on September 12, 1922. He was a poet and composer, and a writer of performance pieces, essays, plays, and radio works. He was also a painter and multimedia performance artist, and often worked in collaboration with his wife, Anne Tardos. Mac Low's books include Two Plays: The Marrying Maiden and Verdurous Sanguinaria (Green Integer Books, 1999), 20 Forties (Zasterle Press, 1999), Barnesbook (1996), 42 Merzgedichte in Memoriam Kurt Schwitters (1994), Pieces o' Six: Thirty-three Poems in Prose (1992), and Twenties: 100 Poems (1991), as well as the compact disc Open Secrets (1993), comprising eight works performed by Anne Tardos, Mac Low, and seven instrumentalists.
Educated at the University of Chicago and Brooklyn College, he taught at many schools, notably the Mannes School of Music (1966) and New York University (1966-73). In has taught creative writing and lectured at SUNY-Albany, SUNY-Binghamton, Temple, UC-San Diego, Naropa Institute, Schule für Dichtung in Wien (Vienna), Bard College, and Brown University.
He was the recipient of fellowships and grants from the Creative Artists Public Service Program, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, PEN, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He received the the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets in 1999. Jackson Mac Low lived in New York City with his wife until his death on December 8, 2004.


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Jump to navigation
Abstract: Fans, Fame and the Roman Circus
In the first century CE, the funeral for Felix, a charioteer of the Red team, made headlines in the acta diurna—so Pliny reports—when one of his fans immolated himself on his favorite's funeral pyre. While an extreme example, fan behavior in ancient Rome is not unknown. Yet where charioteers assumed a highly-visible presence in Roman society and have been much studied, the fans whom they inspired remain largely overlooked and poorly understood. This paper draws upon a wide range of literary, artistic and archaeological evidence in reconstructing and reclaiming the interactive experience of the sport's various kinds of followers. The evidence of material culture—including funerary monuments, game boards and smaller articles (fingerings, game tokens)—is shown to have particular value in offsetting the largely hostile view of fans that emerges from the literary record. Contemporary perspectives drawn from the sociology of sport are also brought to bear. The central aim of the paper is to demonstrate how the study of the sports fan, who sat at the fault line between staged spectacles and everyday life, can enlighten us in new ways about the centrality of the Circus to Roman culture.
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FAIRBANKS, Alaska—A National Guard helicopter crew returning from picking up a hunter suffering heart problems in Alaska made an unexpected rescue when it spotted three men in pickup truck that was overturned in a creek and partially submerged.
Steven Alley Sr. of Valdez told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (http://bit.ly/1gIcYYO) that he and his son spent 20 minutes Wednesday in a pickup truck that had left the Richardson Highway south of Paxson in snowy conditions and entered a creek. Alley's son, Steven Alley Jr., suffered a broken neck.
Alaska State Troopers described the weather as "blizzard-like," and Steven Alley Sr. estimated about 3 inches of snow had fallen on the road.
He said he was complaining because no one had cleared the road when he lost control of his pickup. Troopers say the pickup spun 180 degrees and rolled down an embankment into the creek.
The helicopter crew spotted the truck, and the crew freed the men and hoisted them to the helicopter.
"My son was on top of me, and the lower part of our bodies were in the water," Steven Alley Sr. said. "I'm thinking if it hadn't been for that military helicopter he might not have made it."
Alley's stepson also was in the vehicle but was uninjured.
The senior Alley suffered broken ribs. Steven Alley Jr. was transported to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.
The hunter, Michael Lavin, 67, of Anchorage, also was transported to an Anchorage hospital and was in stable condition, troopers said.
Information from: Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner, http://www.newsminer.com


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I'ts been a few weeks since I posted a "Heart This', so some of these links are not "fresh", but there's some great stuff here! I'm in a crafty mood!
- LOVE the simplicity and whimsy of the Nester's framed fork! How cute is that?
- DITTO Tales from Bloggeritaville's darling Chalkboard Dinner Plate. I'm going to be looking for supplies for both of these projects at Goodwill!
- There are enough GREAT sewing projects at Homespun Threads to keep me busy for some time.
- I ADORE these canned flower arrangements from Design Sponge - they bring out the inner Boxcar Child in me!
- How fun would it be to leave your tip at a restaurant in a little box like this?
- Love this simple pillowcase pattern from Karlee Fuchs.
- MOM (and MOM-in-law), don't look! I think this is a cute Mother's Day idea from Cupcakes and Crinoline, and I just might have to make some. No peeking! Isn't that the cutest blog name?
- Did you attend Town Hall for Hope last week? It was a very encouraging program. Dave Ramsey has some wonderful resources on his website, too. I just went to request his endorsed local providers for mortgage lenders (in case we decide to refinance), investment firms, and health insurance. Good stuff.
- I love this SmartyPig idea. Have you tried it out? I'd love to talk to someone who has!


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There are two purposes for Comments in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. Comments can either add information to aid in the understanding of the entry or add information that provides an alternate interpretation of the historical record.
Information included in this section is not fact checked by the Encyclopedia staff. The author of the Comment is entirely responsible for its content.


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About UTC
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is a national model for metropolitan universities. In collaboration with our many regional partners, we offer our students an experiential learning environment graced with outstanding teaching scholars in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs.
Meet the Chancellor
Welcome to The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
We are on a journey to excellence with a focus on student success and building community connections.
Getting Around
- Campus Map
- Buildings, parking lots, office locations.
- Watch UTC Grow
- Real-time video streams and details about the exciting construction projects underway at UTC.
- Community
- A little about Chattanooga and local attractions.
- How to Get Here
- Directions to UTC by road or air.
- Virtual Tour
- Online guide of the campus: desktop or mobile app.
- Degrees & Majors
- Our degree programs for tomorrows career market.
- Library
- Our Library opens the door to a world of knowledge.
- Records Office
- UTC transcripts, class registration, and academic information.
News & Information
- Academic & Institutional Research
- Facts, figures, tables, and statistics.
- UTC Police
- UTC Police department information.
- Campus Safety and Law Enforcement Handbook
- Safety and security policies and procedures.
- Faculty/Staff Directory
- Search by name, department, expertise…
- News Center
- The latest announcements from campus.
- Policies & Procedures
- A searchable index of University policy.


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Two Savannah residents were displaced and their dog was resuscitated Wednesday afternoon following a fire in a back bedroom of their West 40th Street house.
Savannah Fire firefighters responded to the call of smoke in the residence in the 600 block of West 40th just after noon, said Mark Keller, Savannah Fire spokesman. Firefighters quickly extinguished the flames, limiting them only to one room of the single-story house.
Other parts of the structure received smoke and fire damage, Keller said. Both residents escaped the fire without injuries but their dog was unresponsive after inhaling smoke.
Firefighters were able to resuscitate the dog with the use of a pet oxygen mask, Keller said.
All of Savannah Fire's primary response vehicles are equipped with the masks that make providing life-saving oxygen to many types of pets much easier, he added.


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- Details
DetailsUConn, coached by Jim Calhoun, wins the national title with a 77-74 victory in the final game over Duke. Tournament MVP Richard Rip Hamilton scored 27 points and pulled down 7 rebounds for the Huskies. This was a significant victory for the program, as it cemented their reputation as a true basketball power after decades of barely missing the Final Four.
- Reviews


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Doris "D.A." Jenkins, 68, of Rockwood, died Sunday, May 6, 2012, at her home.
Madex Lee McElhaney, infant son of Anthony and Victoria Byrge McElhaney, died Thursday May 3, 2012, in Roane Medical Center, Harriman.
James Stuart Hedgecock, 58, of Kingston, passed away, Friday, May 4, 2012.
He was a loving husband and father and member of New Midway Baptist Church.
Louise Cronan, 85, of Harriman, passed away Saturday, May 5, 2012, in Parkwest Medical Center in Knoxville.
Steve Carroll, 58, of Knoxville, died Saturday, May 5, 2012, in Physicians Regional Medical Center, Knoxville.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Herman and Vivian Carroll.
Samuel Albert Baker Sr., 62, of Rockwood, passed away Sunday, May 6, 2012, in University of Tennessee Medical Center of Knoxville.
He was a member of Daysville Baptist Church who loved to hunt.
Thelma Kirkland Altum, 79, of Rockwood, died Saturday, May 5, 2012, in Renaissance Terrace, Harriman.
Betty Sue Alexander, 70, of Harriman, passed away Saturday, May 5, 2012, in Roane Medical Center in Harriman.
Vivian Mechelle "Chelle" Hawkins, 37, of Rockwood, went to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ on Wednesday afternoon, May 2, 2012, in University of Tennessee Medical Center, Knoxville.
Creda Belle Russell Wilkinson was brought into this world on Aug. 22, 1936, at home by her Grandmother Mallicoate on Rockwood Mountain. She went to be with Jesus on Monday, April 30, 2012.
Copyright © 2019
The Roane County News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Roane County and Kingston, Tennessee, and the surrounding area.


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Israel News - Stay Informed, Pray Informed
The Jewish Chronicle last week carried the story of Ali Ramezan, a former Iranian soldier who today proudly supports both Israel and America from his home in Manchester, England.
Ramezan was a member of Iran's revolutionary forces, and fought in the Iran-Iraq War. But some years later he was caught observing an anti-government rally, and was tortured by his own government for his "crime."
After that incident, Ramezan apparently began to wonder whether or not he was fighting for the right side. Forced to leave his wife and child behind, Ramezan fled Iran in 1999 and took up residence in the UK as an asylum-seeker.
Ramezan sees those of his family and friends who regularly join in chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" as having been "brainwashed." He is not the first Iranian or Arab to have come to a realization in recent years that Israel is not the evil entity that people across this region are taught.
In our previous magazine issue, Israel Today wrote about Pakistani, Arab and even liberal European Israel-haters who were brave enough to actually investigate what the Jewish state is all about, and as a result became Israel-supporters.
If you don't want to miss future stories like that one, CLICK HERE to subscribe to our magazine
Want more news from Israel?
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The Carbon Based Mistake
the carbon based mistake is zine publishing venture started in 1998 by Marc Calvary after a series of other depressingly titled zines started in 1993.
It currently takes the form of zines, photography, writing, blasphemy, design, and printing. Eternally residing in new york, the carbon based mistake has won the Writers Digest award for Best Art Design, has been featured in Print Magazine's Regional Design Annual from 2003-2006, as well as issues 5, 6, and 7 of the Austrian design journal +rosebud.
Marc Calvary went into a hibernation during an extended spiral of depression. He finally decided to stop being such a damn baby and get back to work.
New zines have included various concepts and ideas such as one called Societal Monsters that associates Christians with serial killers and child molesters, to photographs of medicine cabinets collected in Undercover Ablutions. There have been photographic essays with fake subway signs and rants of horrible commuters documented in The Straphanger's Noose and a children's story The Thin White Duke and The Beatle about a shark hunting adventure at the Hudson River with Paul McCartney and David Bowie. As well as stickers and buttons and other odd items.


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Pete Parkers
posted on Thursday, April 04, 2013 - 12:04 am
Dear Mplus-Team,
I hope this is not off topic. I recently read "Item Response Modeling in Mplus:
A Multi-Dimensional, Multi-Level, and
Multi-Timepoint Example
Bengt Muth´en & Tihomir Asparouhov"
and did a similiar calculation. There the same phenomenon occured as in the cited paper: negative loadings. I´m not sure whether I got your point in the paper right: How do you interpret this? And maybe even more off topic: How do you calculate omega hierachical or any other formula that is based on loadings and not variances e.g. (Zinbarg RE, Revelle W, Yovel I, Li W. Cronbach's α, Revelle's β, and McDonald's ωh: Their relations with each other and two alternative conceptualizations of reliability. Psychometrika. 2005;70:123–133.)
I would be very glad if you could clarify this for me. Any help would be very appreciated.
Best regards
Pete Parkers
Bengt O. Muthen
posted on Thursday, April 04, 2013 - 10:56 am
The negative loadings I got in Table 2 were probably due to model misspecification because when I took the two-level structure into account, Table 3 did not have that problem. Neither did the Table 4 CFA.
If set the metric by fixing the factor variances at one instead of loadings, the formula with only loadings is fine.
Pete Parkers
posted on Thursday, April 04, 2013 - 1:26 pm
Dear Dr. Muthen,
thank you very much for your quick reply. Maybe I have another version of your paper, but in mine Table 3 (Table 3: Two-level analysis using bi-factor EFA and the WLSMV estimator. Student-level results.) are negative loadings. In Table 4 (Table 4: Two-level analysis using bi-factor CFA and the Bayes estimator.) there are none. Therefore I thought it could be a problem with the estimator (WLSMV vs. Bayes).
The question regarding omega was inexplicit. What I meant was wether to take absolute values to calculate the sum of the loadings or to take the real loadings (negative and positive) what would lead to a minor sum.
Once again I would be very thankful if you could settle this matter for me.
Best regards,
Pete Parkers
Bengt O. Muthen
posted on Thursday, April 04, 2013 - 2:51 pm
Yes, negative loadings are still there in Table 3 but it is less of an issue since only 1 is significant. Note that having negative loadings is not an error - it just may make the interpretation harder. Or, reflect that the model can still be improved.
I don't use omega so I am not an expert on that, but it looks like it refers to the general factor loadings (which are positive in my application). It would be strange if a general factor had negative loadings - if that is significant it seems that the item should be reversed.
Pete Parkers
posted on Friday, April 05, 2013 - 2:15 am
Dear Dr. Muthen,
thank you once again very much for your quick reply. Now I can follow your argumentation with the Table 3!
Regarding the omega problem - it´s is not only the general (there all my loadings are positive) but also the group factors and there negative loadings are a bit of a problem as they diminish the sum of the group factor loadings. But as you said you´re not an expert at that - so I´ll try to figure this out by myself. Anyway thank you a lot.
Best regards,
Pete Parkers
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Before I tell you all about these awesomely nutritious AND yummy pancakes, I want to take a moment to acknowledge a lovely gesture by the very talented Lavanya Raj at Home Cook's Recipes who gave me the Nice Matters Award. This is my first award as a blogger, Lavanya, and I am extremely honored.
My past three months as a food blogger have been rewarding in ways I never imagined. I cannot wait every day to log in and read what all of you cooked in your kitchens across the globe, and to share what I made in mine. It is quite a gift for someone used to working alone in her kitchen to be able to make this extraordinary connection with a vast community of gifted and generous cooks and writers, each with their own distinctive styles.There are four amazing bloggers that I want to pass on this award to:
Priya of 365 Days of Pure Vegetarian whose delicious recipes and beautiful pictures make me want to run to the kitchen and start cooking!
Anke of Vegan Bounty who is one of the most amazing and creative cooks I have encountered.
The Budding Cook who never fails to inspire me with her innovative food and beautiful photographs.
Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook who writes and cooks beautifully.
Thanks again, Lavanya, and to all of you wonderful food bloggers out there for sharing your talents.
And now for those four-grain pancakes.
Breakfast on Sundays is usually just a little more special at our house. Desi and I are big believers in eating that first meal of the day, and on hurried weekdays it is a quick albeit elaborate concoction of cereal, fruits and nuts that Desi himself puts together. Sundays, however, offer up more time and therefore the occasion for some indulgence.
I have loved and made pancakes for almost as long as I've lived here, in the United States. Starting with the chalky boxed varieties, I soon graduated to making them from scratch once I realized it really wasn't that much more work. I then moved on to healthier versions by substituting whole-grain flours for the all-purpose flour that most recipes call for. And finally, as a vegan, came another challenge: finding substitutes for all those animal products like milk, butter and eggs that are common ingredients in most pancake recipes. But as you'll see in the recipe below, it really wasn't a huge challenge after all.
If you try these vegan four-grain flapjacks, I bet you will never want to go back to their lacto-ovo counterparts. They are far more nutritious and I swear they taste much better. And who can fault a pancake that's as good for the Earth and your fellow critters as it's good for you?
Fluffy Four-Grain Pancakes
- Dry ingredients:
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (can substitute with all-purpose)
- 1/3 cup stone-ground cornmeal
- 1/4 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon , ground
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg , ground
- Whisk together all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Set aside while you get the wet ingredients ready.
- Wet ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups soy milk (feel free to substitute with almond milk)
- 1/2 tsp vinegar
- 4 tbsp canola oil
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 6 tbsp flax powder whisked together with 6 tbsp water
- Mix together all the wet ingredients, then add all at once to the dry ingredients.
- Mix quickly and in as few strokes as possible, until the dry ingredients are just moistened. The batter should be lumpy and not smooth. Overmixing the batter promotes the formation of gluten which would make the pancakes heavy and chewy as opposed to light and fluffy. The batter will be rather thick but spreadable.
- On a hot griddle over medium heat, spread a thin film of canola or other vegetable oil.
- Pour about 1/3 cup of the batter into the center of the griddle. Give the batter a bit of a nudge with the cup, if needed, to spread it into an approximately four-inch round.
- Wait until the sides start looking a little dry and bubbles appear in the center of the pancake.
- Lift the edge carefully and if the underside is golden-brown, flip the pancake.
- Cook for about a minute more on this side.
- Serve hot with maple syrup or any other topping you love.


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This article is from the archive of our partner .
The cat is out of the bag: The United States is the first known country to carry out a sustained cyber attack with the intent of destroying another country's infrastructure. Earlier today, The New York Times' David Sanger confirmed America's role in developing Stuxnet, the computer worm deployed against Iran's nuclear facilities in coordination with the Israeli government. In interviews with curent and former American, European, and Israeli officials, Sanger outlined the Obama administration's decision to use the sophisticated virus, code-named Olympic Games, which was originally developed by the Bush administration.
For cyber security experts, the coming-out party of Stuxnet in 2010, after it malfunctioned and spread across the world, was a worrying event. The code itself is 50 times bigger than your ordinary computer worm and, unlike most viruses, is capable of hijacking industrial facilities like nuclear reactors or chemical plants. With its release, anyone could download and manipulate the Stuxnet code for their own purposes. But now, with America's role confirmed, the fear is that a red target hangs on its back. What if Stuxnet was used against the U.S.?
The prospect has long worried Sean McGurk, former director of Homeland Security's national cybersecurity operations center. Not only has the Stuxnet technology been instantly democratized but it's also highly susceptible to being reverse engineered. In March, he aired his concerns with 60 Minutes' Steve Kroft, before America's role in creating Stuxnet was confirmed:
Kroft: Sounds a little bit like Pandora's box.
McGurk: Yes.
Kroft: Whoever launched this attack--
McGurk: They opened up the box. They demonstrated the capability. They showed the ability and the desire to do so. And it's not something that can be put back.
Kroft: If somebody in the government had come to you and said, "Look, we're thinking about doing this. What do you think?" What would you have told them?
McGurk: I would have strongly cautioned them against it because of the unintended consequences of releasing such a code.
Langner: You don't need many billions, you just need a couple of millions. And this would buy you a decent cyberattack, for example, against the U.S. power grid.
Kroft: If you were a terrorist group or a failed nation state and you had a couple of million dollars, where would you go to find the people that knew how to do this?
Langner: On the Internet.
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to email@example.com.


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Bourbon whiskey
Bourbon is a type of American whiskey that is distilled primarily from corn, and is aged in oak barrels. In The United States there are numerous legal requirements that must be met to call a whiskey a Bourbon.
Some common brands are Jim Beam, Evan Williams, Wild Turkey, and Maker's Mark.


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This section reviews the most important cluster configuration properties, grouped into the following categories:
A complete list of cluster configuration properties can be found in Table 16–11
The following properties are used to configure the cluster connection service used for internal communication between brokers in the cluster. These properties are used by both conventional and enhanced clusters.
imq.cluster.transport specifies the transport protocol used by the cluster connection service, such as tcp or ssl.
imq.cluster.port specifies the port number for the cluster connection service. You might need to set this property, for instance, to specify a static port number for connecting to the broker through a firewall.
imq.cluster.hostname specifies the host name or IP address for the cluster connection service, used for internal communication between brokers in the cluster. The default setting works fine, however, explicitly setting the property can be useful if there is more than one network interface card installed in a computer. If you set the value of this property to localhost, the value will be ignored and the default will be used.
The following properties, in addition to those listed in Cluster Connection Service Properties, are used to configure conventional clusters:
imq.cluster.brokerlist specifies a list of broker addresses defining the membership of the cluster; all brokers in the cluster must have the same value for this property.
For example, to create a conventional cluster consisting of brokers at port 9876 on host1, port 5000 on host2, and the default port (7676) on ctrlhost, use the following value:
imq.cluster.masterbroker specifies which broker in a conventional cluster is the master broker that maintains the configuration change record that tracks the addition and deletion of destinations and durable subscribers. For example:
While specifying a master broker using the imq.cluster.masterbroker is not mandatory for a conventional cluster to function, it guarantees that persistent information propagated across brokers (destinations and durable subscriptions) is always synchronized. See Conventional Clusters in Sun Java System Message Queue 4.3 Technical Overview.
Enhanced broker clusters, which share a JDBC-based data store, require more configuration than do conventional broker clusters. In addition to the properties listed in Cluster Connection Service Properties, the following categories of properties are used to configure an enhanced cluster:
imq.cluster.ha is a boolean value that specifies if the cluster is an enhanced cluster (true) or a conventional broker (false). The default value is false.
If set to true, mechanisms for failure detection and takeover of a failed broker are enabled. Enhanced clusters are self-configuring: any broker configured to use the cluster's shared data store is automatically registered as part of the cluster, without further action on your part. If the conventional cluster property, imq.cluster.brokerlist, is specified for a high–availability broker, the property is ignored and a warning message is logged at broker startup.
imq.persist.store specifies the model for a broker's persistent data store. This property must be set to the value jdbc for every broker in an enhanced cluster.
imq.cluster.clusterid specifies the cluster identifier, which will be appended to the names of all database tables in the cluster's shared persistent store. The value of this property must be the same for all brokers in a given cluster, but must be unique for each cluster: no two running clusters may have the same cluster identifier.
imq.brokerid is a broker identifier that must be unique for each broker in the cluster. Hence, this property must be set in each broker's instance configuration file rather than in a cluster configuration file.
The persistent data store for an enhanced cluster is maintained on a highly-available JDBC database.
The highly-availabile database may be Sun's MySQL Cluster Edition or High Availability Session Store (HADB), or it may be an open-source or third-party product such as Oracle Corporation's Real Application Clusters (RAC). As described in JDBC-Based Persistence Properties, the imq.persist.jdbc.dbVendor broker property specifies the name of the database vendor, and all of the remaining JDBC-related properties are qualified with this vendor name.
The JDBC-related properties are discussed under JDBC-Based Persistence Properties and summarized in Table 16–6. See the example configurations for MySQL and HADB in Example 8–1 and Example 8–2, respectively.
In setting JDBC-related properties for an enhanced cluster, note the following vendor-specific issues:
MySQL Cluster Edition
When using MySQL Cluster Edition as a highly-available database, you must specify the NDB Storage Engine rather than the InnoDB Storage Engine set by Message Queue by default. To specify the NDB Storage Engine, set the following broker property for all brokers in the cluster:
When using HADB in a Sun Java Application Server environment, if the integration between Message Queue and Application Server is local (that is, there is a one-to-one relationship between Application Server instances and Message Queue brokers), the Application Server will automatically propagate HADB-related properties to each broker in the cluster. However, if the integration is remote (a single Application Server instance using an externally configured broker cluster), then it is your responsibility to configure the needed HADB properties explicitly.
The following configuration properties (listed in Table 16–11) specify the parameters for the exchange of heartbeat and status information within an enhanced cluster:
imq.cluster.heartbeat.hostname specifies the host name (or IP address) for the heartbeat connection service.
imq.cluster.heartbeat.port specifies the port number for the heartbeat connection service.
imq.cluster.heartbeat.interval specifies the interval, in seconds, at which heartbeat packets are transmitted.
imq.cluster.heartbeat.threshold specifies the number of missed heartbeat intervals after which a broker is considered suspect of failure.
imq.cluster.monitor.interval specifies the interval, in seconds, at which to monitor a suspect broker's state information to determine whether it has failed.
imq.cluster.monitor.threshold specifies the number of elapsed monitor intervals after which a suspect broker is considered to have failed.
Smaller values for these heartbeat and monitoring intervals will result in quicker reaction to broker failure, but at the cost of reduced performance and increased likelihood of false suspicions and erroneous failure detection.


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Posted By ANDREW M. SEAMAN, On December 18, 2012 @ 4:41 pm In Hospitals,MedCity News eNewsletter,NewsCred,Top Local,Top Story |No Comments
Source: http://medcitynews.com
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - U.S. Veterans Affairs hospitals were able to reduce their patients' length of stay without increasing the number of people who needed to be readmitted later on, according to a new study.
"As hospitals became more efficient there was this growing concern that we were discharging patients - as some would say - sicker and quicker," said the study's lead author Dr. Peter Kaboli.
"In fact, we found just the opposite," said Kaboli, who works at the Iowa City VA Health Care System.
According to the researchers, who published their findings in the Annals of Internal Medicine, hospitals are under pressure to cut the amount of time their patients spend there.
It's a goal that benefits everyone, they write, because getting patients out of the hospital faster reduces the risk of infection and also cuts costs.
But some worry that discharging patients earlier increases the chance they will return to the hospital for additional care. Such readmissions cost the U.S. Medicare program an estimated $17 billion every year, according to a 2009 study.
What's more, on October 1 of this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services started using readmission rates and patient outcomes as a way to determine how much money hospitals should be paid.
For the new study, Kaboli and his colleagues, wanted to see if shorter stays throughout the VA's 129 centers meant more patients returned to the hospital within 30 days of discharge.
Using the VA's electronic medical records, the researchers analyzed over 4 million patients' records from between 1997 and 2010.
They found the average hospital stay decreased from about 5.5 days at the beginning of the study to about 4 days at the end.
As for the number of patients who returned to the hospital within 30 days of their discharge, the researchers found that rate fell by 3 percentage points, from 16.5 percent in 1997 to 13.8 percent in 2010.
"I felt going into this that (length of stay) wouldn't make a difference, but showing that it reduces readmission was a positive and reassuring find," said Kaboli.
The researcher found, however, that there was a point where a short length of stay was linked to more patients being readmitted. Hospitals with lengths of stay at least one day shorter than the average ended up seeing an increase in readmissions.
There were also concerns that some of the patients died at home instead of returning to the hospital. But the researchers found that the number of people dying within 90 days of leaving the hospital also decreased during those 14 years.
"For patients, we've been able to take care of them more efficiently, with better quality and reducing mortality rates all at the same time," said Kaboli.
But Morris Weinberger, of Duke University, and Dr. Eugene Oddone, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill question whether readmission rates are a good measure of a hospital's quality.
They write in an editorial accompanying the new study that a number of factors outside of a typical doctor's control can influence the risk of a person being readmitted to the hospital.
In October, a study suggested that a person's employment status, living situation and education are all linked to their risk of being readmitted to the hospital (see Reuters Health article of October 19, 2012 here: http://reut.rs/Z7uCy9).
Dr. Manesh Patel, an assistant professor of cardiology at Duke University in Durham, told Reuters Health that this study shows that the VA system improved in areas that patients care about.
"The good news here is that there seems to be a linkage... Some of these measures that we're using might be reasonable measures," said Patel, who was not involved in the new research but has studied hospital readmissions.
Kaboli added that it's also important to not just focus on getting patients out of the hospital. It's also important to respect their wishes.
"This is a team effort. (Patients) need to communicate their goals and wishes, and have these conversations with the nurse and doctors so everyone is working toward a common goal," he said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/SLWzwm and http://bit.ly/SMrvg5 Annals of Internal Medicine, online December 17, 2012.
Copyright (2012) Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions [1]
Article printed from MedCity News: http://medcitynews.com
URL to article: http://medcitynews.com/2012/12/study-of-4-million-va-records-shows-shorter-hospital-stays-are-better-for-patients/
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news & events
Keys to Designing Shower Systems
By Lisa Loushin, CKD
Think about where to place the shower, the number of users and their varying heights
Not everyone wants to dump their tub for a shower, but we are finding that more and more homeowners want the instant gratification and multi-feature ability of a luxury shower. Consumers don't want to wait to fill a large tub with water, but want the ability to step into a shower and experience instant hot water. The multi-feature ability of today's showers allows us to relax under a rain shower or waterfall, feel pulsating jets on tired muscles, have a spa treatment for our sore feet, or even a steam shower to relax in while getting clean.
Research still indicates that we should have a tub in the house for resale purposes. Although this might be true, we're seeing an increase in the number of shower systems placed where a whirlpool tub once stood.
What are my options?
There are so many shower options out there and each manufacturer seems to have its own variation of each product making it quite confusing for us professionals, not to mention our clients. When I look at all the options there are just for the showers, not to mention all the plumbing fixture options, it brings me back to the time when I was a design student walking into a lighting showroom for the first time and staring up at all those light fixtures.
There is a multitude of options in showerheads alone, and then there are the body sprays, water tiles, hand-held showers on a glide bar, rain showerheads and steam units. Each of these choices includes multiple styles, finishes, sizes and performance options. There seem to be so many choices it becomes overwhelming. To streamline this process, I like to start out simple, then build off each client's needs.
Where should the shower go?
In most remodel situations it makes the most sense to keep the shower in the same location where the tub/shower was. If this is not desirable, locate the shower where you can get in and out of it comfortably and safely.
Keep it simple
The ability to give your client the best shower experience could be as simple as changing out the old showerhead with a new multi-function model. This may seem elementary; however, my teenage boys love their new showerhead, especially after a tough hockey game.
Another simple spa option is to add a second showerhead. This may not seem like much, but if you have ever found yourself rotating in the shower just to keep warm this could be the simple shower solution most clients would appreciate and could afford. You also could take this application another step and design separate valves for "his" and "her" shut-offs and volume controls.
Many manufacturers understand the desire for the spa experience in an average home and have come up with a shower/body spray system that is easy to retrofit in most remodels. There's no need to drastically upgrade a plumbing system.
Then there are the all-in-one shower panels, some of which include multiple body sprays. These all-in-one panels are preferred by some because of their ease in retrofitting into existing applications, as well as in new construction projects.
Luxury is the word
For clients looking for the ultimate spa experience, the only limitation is their imagination. Personally, I like to first position the showerhead, preferably a hand-held style, on a glide bar. Then add a couple of body sprays for your upper back; then a couple more for your lower back, add a waterfall showerhead or water tiles in the ceiling, a steam unit and finally, a place to sit, which would make for the ultimate spa experience. If the shower is large enough for dual users add a second set of fixtures.
Shower planning
Before you can properly design a shower, you first must ask your clients what their needs are. Will this be more than a single-person shower? Do they have any physical limitations or other specific needs? Their needs may be very simple and practical or they may want that ultimate spa experience, which will affect design.
For example, in my most recent master bath project, when asked what his needs and wants were, the client said he would like a rain showerhead so he can relax after a long day working at the hospital. Because of his bad back, he wanted a couple of body sprays to be directly aimed at that area of his body. His wife wanted the ability to quickly get in and out of the shower in the mornings, but also wanted body sprays for her own back problems.
It was a simple shower solution, really, but given that he was 6-ft.-4-in. and she was 5-ft.6-in., we wanted to make sure we met their individual needs.
With the information we gathered, we mounted a large rain showerhead close to the ceiling, and then added a showerhead on a glide rail where it could be adjusted to their respective heights. She liked to get in and out in a timely manner, and with her longer hair, it was important to have a shower fixture that provided enough pressure to quickly rinse out the shampoo/conditioner.
When deciding where to locate the body sprays, we discovered their height difference worked to our advantage. His back problem was in his lower back and hers was in her upper back, so with a slight adjustment to the spray heads, we were able to add just two body sprays to complete the job.
Based on your client's physical limitations, you might want to add a place to sit, a handrail and perhaps even minimize or eliminate the shower curb if possible.


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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — You have to wonder what Joe "Jellybean" Bryant has to say about the mess that has become the Los Angeles Lakers' season and the superstar dynamic between All-Star starters Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard?
We've already heard from just about everyone else, and that includes Howard's father, Dwight Howard Sr. Howard's father opened up to Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, defending his son on one hand and taking direct aim at Bryant and Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni:
"I told him before he said it publicly, 'It's your career. No person can say what you need to do or not do. You can't worry about what Kobe or anybody else says,'" the elder Howard said. "Nobody can say what Kobe said — that's stepping into another man's shoes. I understand what Kobe was trying to do, but he went about it the wrong way. He's trying to win a championship. But Dwight has to tell Kobe, 'I appreciate your opinion, but that doesn't matter. We're two men on this team. We need to be reasonable about this.'"
Dwight Sr. said he believed Bryant was trying to motivate his son, but that the advice was misplaced, adding: "The problem is the coach. (D'Antoni) needs to step in and say, 'You guys have got to be quiet. We're trying to secure something here. Dwight is probably looking at the coach, thinking, 'What are you going to do?' I promise, if that had been Stan Van Gundy, that wouldn't have happened. (Howard) wouldn't have been admonished publicly. I think the coach has a lot to do with who controls Kobe's mouth right now."
This latest round of drama, coming on the heels of Bryant suggesting that Howard needed to play through whatever pain is associated with his torn labrum, and Howard firing back and suggesting that Bryant is no doctor and need not be concerned with how he handles himself on the injury front, should make for an entertaining pregame locker room scene today in Miami.
The Lakers face LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the defending world champion Miami Heat for the second and final time this season this afternoon (3:30 ET, ABC). It's a game that will have the undivided attention of the basketball world for reasons other than the always anticipated Kobe-LeBron dynamic.
Few dramas in the history of the league have dragged the fathers of famous sons into the fray.
But here we are, with the Lakers seemingly on the verge of complete collapse or stunning renaissance every night, trying to sort out who is right or wrong in a public dust-up between superstars that should never have gone this far. Whatever issues Kobe and Dwight (Jr.) have should never have made it out of the locker room. So in that regard, Dwight Sr. makes a valid point about the responsibility that lies with D'Antoni.
Even D'Antoni, who insists that he and his stars are fine (despite the obvious evidence to the contrary), didn't seem to object to a father protecting his son:
D'Antoni said, "We're good," when asked about the state of things between him and the two Lakers' All-Stars, and shrugged off the comments made by Howard's father.
"That's cool," D'Antoni said. "He should, he's the father, he should defend his son. But I thought we had that [meeting] in Memphis. Maybe we have to do it again."
Bryant, for his part, took the liberty of throwing the onus back on the media, a typical and easy response from a veteran of his fair share of teammate drama (Shaquille O'Neal …). He suggested that this has gone on all year, "people have been trying to hang on to stuff. He's just got to go do his job, man. Just rebound, defend and we do our jobs and [fulfill] our roles on what we have to do to help us win. It's not rocket science."
That's easier said than done when you're on the receiving end of all of the verbal shots fired. Howard has been in retreat from the very start of this union and it almost feels like his father simply got fed up with his son being the scapegoat for all that's gone wrong for the Lakers this season.
All that said, fathers often know their sons best. And there's something else the elder Howard said about his son that speaks to the root of young Dwight's issue with not only the Lakers but also with Los Angeles and his place in that fair city:
"L.A. has been like humble pie for him," he said. "When you go from being the man in one city (Orlando) to second or third tier, it takes a toll on you mentally."
Last I checked, Dwight Howard is the man who wanted out of Orlando. He was "the man" in that city but decided against remaining in that one city for whatever his reasons were then and are today. So if anyone is ultimately to blame for the hoops disaster that has unfolded in Los Angeles this season, "Junior" has to shoulder the bulk of that burden.
If there is a solution to be had,and at this point there is little faith that there is, it won't come from fathers or mothers, girlfriends or cousins, Dr. Phil (the guy on TV, not Jackson) or Oprah or anyone else.
The only resolution to this issue will come from the two men at the center of it all. They need to resolve their issues, right the Lakers' ship and guide this team into the postseason. Because if they don't, the fallout will make all of this drama seem like child's play compared to the firestorm that a crashed and burned season can bring in Los Angeles.


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healing lyme philosophy
Rather than making it a priority to kill the lyme spirochetes in any form, Stephen's approach to managing lyme disease is as follows:
1. Support collagen structures so that damage to the body systems ceases;
2. Enhance immune function so that the body can deal with the organism itself;
3. Shut down the inflammatory pathways the spirochetes initiate, especially in the CNS;
4. Treat symptoms;
5. And only then, try and kill the spirochete.
core protocol (lyme disease)
Here is a brief look at the stripped down core approaches to treating Lyme and some of its co-infections. Stephen highly suggests buying his relevant books so that you can see the full expanded protocols. This is just a starting place; the full protocols are much more sophisticated, especially the listings for the many accompanying symptoms that often need to be addressed.
1. Japanese knotweed root (Polygonum cuspidatum)
• Powder: 1 tsp – 1 TBS of the root powder 3x daily. Start at the lower dose and work up, OR . . .
• Tincture: ¼ – 1 tsp 3-6x daily, OR . . .
• Tablets (Green Dragon Botanicals): These are normally labeled as resveratrol on the bottle. They are in fact knotweed root standardized for resveratrol content. (Note: Don't use grape resveratrol; it won't work very well.) Some comments on tablet dosages below:
2. Cat's claw bark (Uncaria tomentosa)
• Powder: 1 tsp 3x daily, OR . . .
• Tincture: ¼ – ½ tsp 3x daily, OR . . .
• Tablets/capsules (Green Dragon Botanicals): 1–4 500 mg tablets/capsules 3x day.
3. Andrographis (Andrographis paniculata)
• Capsules: Begin with a small dose and work up. I would recommend 600 mg (1 capsule) 3x daily to begin with, for one week. Then, if there are no side effects, increase the dose to 2 capsules 3x daily. Please check the side effects on this herb: Unpleasant allergic reactions can occur.
4. If you have neuroborrelliosis, add: Gou-Teng (Uncaria rhynchophylla)
• Tincture: ½ – 1 tsp 3–6x daily, depending on severity of brain infection.
5. Collagen support protocols (see book) are often essential, as well.
maximum core dosages
Japanese Knotweed capsules (Source Naturals Resveratrol with 500mg Polygonum cuspidatum per tablet)
150 lb adult: 1-4 tablets 3-4x daily
100 lb adult: 10 tablets total daily split into three doses
60 lb child: 5 tablets daily split into three doses, tincture is probably better here
30 lb child: 3 tablets daily split into three doses, but would prefer tincture for child this small
Japanese Knotweed tincture
150 lb adult: 1 teaspoon 3x daily
100 lb adult: 2/3 teaspoon 3x daily
60 lb child: 1/3 teaspoon 3x daily
30 lb child: 1/5 teaspoon 3x daily
Cat's Claw capsule (Raintree brand)
150 lb adult: 1-4 tablets 3-4x daily
100 lb adult: 10 tablets total daily split into three doses
60 lb child: 5 tablets daily split into three doses, tincture is probably better here
30 lb child: 3 tablets daily split into three doses, but would prefer tincture for child this small
Cat's Claw tincture
150 lb adult: 1 teaspoon 3x daily
100 lb adult: 2/3 teaspoon 3x daily
60 lb child: 1/3 teaspoon 3x daily
30 lb child: 1/5 teaspoon 3x daily
Astragalus capsule for new tick bites – not to be used in chronic lyme
150 lb adult: 1,000 mg daily
100 lb adult: 1,000 mg daily
60 lb child: 1,000 mg daily
30 lb child: 1,000 mg daily
Astragalus tincture for new tick bites – not to be used in chronic lyme
150 lb adult: 1 teaspoon 3x daily
100 lb adult: 1 teaspoon 3x daily
60 lb child: 1/2 teaspoon 3x daily
30 lb child: 1/3 teaspoon 3x daily
Note: Additional herbs can be added based on your symptoms. Read this article for more on the latest updates to the Healing Lyme protocol.
To purchase herbs, see: herb source listing
lyme disease prevention
The primary herb for prevention is astragalus. Stephen recommends a minimum of 1,000 mg daily if you live in a lyme endemic area. This will keep the immune markers high that need to be high to prevent infection or, if you are infected, to keep the disease symptoms as minimal as possible.
new tick bites
For new tick bites, Stephen typically recommends taking astragalus – 3,000 mg daily for 30 days, 1,000 mg daily thereafter, indefinitely. Also: using a paste made of andrographis tincture mixed with green clay, the paste applied on the tick bite area can often prevent an active infection. See also: recent tick bites.
Stephen generally recommends the use of a Sida acuta, Alchornea cordifolia, and Cryptolepis sanguinolenta blend for the treatment of babesia these days: ¼-1/2 tsp 3x daily. You could as well do ¼ tsp of each of these three tinctures 3x daily. These three tinctures can be purchased from woodlandessence.com. You can also use just one of those herbs; his first choice is Sida acuta, second is Cryptolepis sanguinolenta. Stephen no longer recommends artemisinin or artemisia for babesia infections. It can work, but whatever you are treating, Sida acuta will work better, especially for babesia or bartonella.
Please see Stephen's book Natural Treatments for Lyme Coinfections: Anaplasma, Babesia, and Ehrlichia for the most up-to-date expanded babesia protocol.
See also: babesia.
This is the basic protocol – please refer to Stephen's book Healing Lyme Disease Coinfections: Complementary and Holistic Treatments for Bartonella and Mycoplasma for the most up-to-date expanded bartonella protocol.:
Sida acuta tincture (from Woodland Essence or email@example.com) ¼ tsp 3x day for 30 days
Hawthorn tincture, same
Japanese knotweed, (tincture, same dose (from same sources as Sida acuta, above), or capsules from Green Dragon Botanicals 2 capsules 3x daily)
EGCG 400mg +- daily
Houttuynia (Yu Xing Cao – 1st Chinese Herbs, powder – use "LYME" code at checkout for 10% off) 1 tbl daily
L-arginine 5000 mg daily in divided doses
Milk Thistle seed, standardized, 1200 mg daily
All for 30 days.
PLEASE NOTE: If you have active herpes, chicken pox, or shingles DO NOT USE L-arginine.
See also: bartonella
Please see Stephen's book Natural Treatments for Lyme Coinfections: Anaplasma, Babesia, and Ehrlichia for the most up-to-date expanded ehrlichia protocol.
see: ehrlichia
Please refer to Stephen's book Healing Lyme Disease Coinfections: Complementary and Holistic Treatments for Bartonella and Mycoplasma for the most up-to-date mycoplasma pneumonaie protocol.
See also: bacterial co-infections.
Stephen suggests reading his book on fasting, The Fasting Path (see bookstore), as fasting has shown some of the best results with tough to treat candida. He has also had success with a tincture combination: desert willow and chapparo amargosa – equal parts of the tinctures blended together. 1/2 tsp 3x daily for 30 days or so. You can get these from Bear Creek Herbs (505-388-5035) in Silver City, NM.
PLEASE NOTE: If you have active herpes, chicken pox, or shingles DO NOT USE L-arginine.
CAUTION: About one percent of people (one out of a hundred) using andrographis report allergic reactions. Primarily the reaction shows as a rather severe skin rash; essentially hives. This will resolve if you stop taking the herb, though it might take a week or so. Anti-inflammatories such as cortisone creams are not necessary; it will clear up on its own. Please pay attention to any skin reactions you might have to the herb and discontinue it if you have a reaction. If you are one of the very few that does experience a reaction, you can continue the rest of the herbs in the core protocol, simply deleting andrographis.
NOTE: Two people have reported rises in liver enzyme levels on the protocol. The cause is unknown. Andrographis, knotweed, and smilax are all herbs used historically for liver problems, all are specific for healing liver disease. That increases in liver enzymes has occurred is odd since the herbs are specific for lowering those levels; they are good liver protector herbs and have been traditionally used for liver disease for millennia. This reaction is very unusual and the only reason I can find for it is personal reactivity to one of the herbs. The best thing to do if you do experience increases in liver enzymes is to stop the protocol and then reintroduce the herbs one at a time to see which one is the problem.
NOTE: A few people have experienced loss of taste on the protocol. The herb responsible for this has not been identified but I think it is probably the knotweed as that plant does cause, sometimes, alterations in taste. It can take up to 3 months to correct itself after the herb has been discontinued.
The assistance of a qualified health care provider familiar with all dosage outlines, contraindications, and herb/drug interactions outlined in Healing Lyme, and familiar with your personal health history and current symptoms is strongly suggested. Nothing in this column is intended to replace the expertise and care of a qualified health care practitioner. The material is intended for educational purposes only.
"This protocol was incredible. After only a few weeks most of my symptoms were gone. After six months all my symptoms were gone… it has given me my life back."
– Amazon review by Joseph
latest Q & As.
Lyme carditis
Dear Stephen, You say stephania root is contraindicated in lyme carditis, but elsewhere in that chapter of Healing Lyme it says you've found it effective in treating arrhythmia, angina and myocardial infarction.read more
Decoctions vs. capsules
Dear Stephen, Does it matter whether we take Japanese knotweed (resveratrol) as the whole herb in capsule form or as a decoction?read more
Cyst form
Dear Stephen, Do the herbs you recommend kill the cyst form of the lyme spirochete?read more
How effective is your protocol?
Dear Stephen, Your book is extremely informative but one piece of information I can't find…is how effective it is.read more
Complete inability to sleep
Dear Stephen, The worst symptom I have from Lyme disease is a complete inability to sleep. Is there anything you can recommend?read more
Stephen Harrod Buhner
master herbalist, author, Earth poet
Stephen Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of fifteen books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine including the acclaimed book Healing Lyme: Natural Healing & Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis & Its Co-infections. His work has been profiled in The New York Times, CNN, Good Morning America and other media throughout North America and Europe. Since October 2006, Stephen has tirelessly answered hundreds of questions from those following his herbal protocol through his Q & A column. more about the man
the books.
Published in 2005, Healing Lyme examines the leading scientific research on lyme infection, its tests and treatments, and outlines the most potent herbal medicines and supplements that offer help – either alone or in combination with antibiotics – for preventing and healing the disease. It is the essential guide to lyme infection and its treatment. Thousands of people have used the protocol to successfully manage their symptoms. read more
A guide to the natural treatment of two of the most common and damaging coinfections of lyme disease–bartonella and mycoplasma. This book reveals how these conditions often go undiagnosed, complicate Lyme treatment, and cause a host of symptoms–from arthritis to severe brain dysfunction. It outlines natural treatments for both infections, with herbs and supplements for specific symptoms and to combat overreactions of the immune system. Also reviews the latest scientific research on bartonella and mycoplasma coinfections and how treatment with antibiotics is often ineffective. read more
A guide to the natural treatment of three coinfections of lyme disease. In this book, Stephen Buhner reviews the latest scientific research on babesia, ehrlichia, and anaplasma. He reveals how these three conditions often go undiagnosed, complicate the treatment of lyme disease, and cause symptoms from headache to seizures. He also outlines effective natural treatments with herbs and supplements for specific symptoms and to combat overreactions of the immune system and the inflammation response. read more
Take control of your health with herbal antivirals. As traditional medications become less effective against today's potent and aggressive viruses, natural alternatives are proving capable of fighting off many common viral threats. Stephen Harrod Buhner offers in-depth instructions on how to prepare and use herbal formulations to prevent and treat infections such as SARS, influenza, and encephalitis. These natural remedies will fight off disease and strengthen your immune system, keeping your family healthy and happy. read more
With antibiotic-resistant infections on the rise, herbal remedies present a naturally effective alternative to standard antibiotics. Herbal expert Stephen Harrod Buhner explains the roots of antibiotic resistance, explores the value of herbal treatments, and provides in-depth profiles of 30 valuable plants, noting the proper dosages, potential side effects, and contraindications of each. This comprehensive guide offers sound information on herbal alternatives to standard antibiotics, making it an indispensable addition to every family's medicine cabinet. read more


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If you end up taking this class, take the time to improve your editing skills. It really pays-off, and it really separates you from the pack. We all can't be editors, but we can all keep a job.
There is a lot of work to be done in this class, and if you are taking other media courses, you may want to give up. Don't because you get use to it after a while. Also, you can always write extra stories to improve your score. I wish that I had of done that last year.
Being punctual was my problem this year and last year, but I managed to write a couple of extra stories this year. I had a lot of fun, and I became a better person.
Best Regards,