rubberextrusions

The daring game of Chicken the Chicago White Sox are playing with their fans, All-In to the tune of a safe projection of at least two million in attendance this season, took another scary step forward on Wednesday afternoon.

Beginning a make-or-break stretch of games within the AL Central, the White Sox have faltered in the face of their weakest foe on the docket, the last-place Kansas City Royals, who upended the Pale Hose 4-1 in the rubber match of their three-game set.

It marks the third time in four games this week where the White Sox faced an eminently-hittable pitcher — and in today’s matador, Bruce Chen, a soft-tosser who even manager Ozzie Guillen was drooling to go bullish against — and fell short. Chen, winless for more than two months, handcuffed the White Sox for six-plus innings, allowing four hits and three walks but leaving four runners on base.

“Chen threw the ball pretty good — if you give up one run in a big jam, you cannot take anything away from him,” Guillen said. “We continued to struggle at the plate with people in scoring position. We cannot get the big hit.”

“He didn’t give in to anybody, Paul Konerko said. “He wasn’t afraid to put guys on, because when you have command and throw strikes, you know at the end of the day [we are] going to have to hit it. And we didn’t hit it.”

Yet, as Royals right fielder Jeff Francoeur put it: “Bruce is a pitcher that I’m sure they’re kicking themselves over there for losing to.”

When the dog runs to the basement with his paws over his ears, you know it is the Fourth of July.

Food and fireworks are the hallmarks of this holiday, tucked between Memorial and Labor days.

Did you know that this Independence Day is the 235th birthday of our nation? That is amazing when you realize that many of us have lived for a third or more of that time. Unbelievable! Think of all that has happened in that short period.

When you dig into your memory bank, what are some of the things you remember about the Fourth of July? If you were raised in a small town like I was, you probably had a picnic that featured fried chicken, corn on the cob (we called them roastin-ears) and red Jell-O with bananas and watermelon. If it was a hot day, we got to hook up a hose and run through the cold spray or jump in the water tank.

There was always a parade to watch or participate in. Since all the stores were closed on holidays (and Sundays, too) everyone would head for Main Street to see fire engines, old decorated cars and trucks, and during WWII, it was exciting to get to ride in an Army Jeep. After the war was over and rubber tires for bikes were again available, decorating the bikes with festive crepe paper woven through the spokes to ride in the parade was the highlight of the day. Later in the day, fireworks usually consisted of sparklers that we waved around in the air making fancy designs.

After moving to Sioux Falls when our children were young, several family traditions began. Going to the fireworks store with Dad to carefully pick out "the box" that they could all agree on and then driving out to the country to have our own display became an annual event. Then, with blankets and mosquito spray, we headed to Spellerberg Park hill, where it seemed like half the town was gathered on the grass to watch the fireworks show from the fairgrounds, accompanied by lots of "oohs" and "aahs."

One special celebration in the past few years stands out in my mind as I reminisce about this historic holiday. Boston offers the best big city observance when people gather for several miles along the Charles River with blankets and radios, while the Boston Pops plays from their outside band shell over a station that is picked up by all the radios. It is like a magnificent stereo concert all along the river banks. The music is synchronized to the fireworks display, which ends with the 1812 Overture accompanying the most spectacular display of lights I've ever seen. It's a real throat-lumper.

What are some things you remember about the Fourth of July? Perhaps you will get an opportunity to share some of those memories with your grandchildren, or exchange stories with your friends. During this time of many changes happening in our nation, it is good to have a day like today to be thankful for our American heritage. So, Happy Birthday America!

I hope each of you will have a memorable holiday filled with good feelings, family and friends ... and, maybe even some fried chicken, red Jell-O and watermelon!

When your pantry is low on supplies, it’s time to get creative. If you’re down to a box of lasagna noodles and don’t have any other type of pasta, don’t despair. They have uses other than to make lasagna. These tips will work if you have leftover cooked lasagna noodles, too.

You can break them up and add them to soup, or make beef and noodles or stroganoff. You can use them in casseroles such as tuna casserole or in pasta salad. Once cooked, you can also fry them in a bit of olive oil and sprinkle on parmesan cheese. The first reader tip shares another idea.

Use for lasagna noodles: This is kind of like lasagna, but not. Boil the noodles till they’re almost done, like you would with lasagna; lay them out, put ricotta cheese (and whatever else you like in the cheese mixture) on one end, and roll them up. Lay them in the baking dish, kind of like manicotti. Put sauce on the bottom of the pan first, so they don’t stick, and then cover with more sauce and bake.

Jas, Florida

Summer activity for kids: You can create tie-dye shirts yourself using just a couple of tools, such as a white cotton T-shirt, fabric dye, rubber bands and a bucket. It’s best do this outside the house. Put some plastic or garbage bags over your work area. Preshrink the T-shirt using warm water. Prepare your color dyes. Make sure you follow the directions on dye usage. Use the bucket or any container that will hold the colored water. This is where you will dump your shirt later.

Fold, twist or tie knots in the shirt, and hold them with rubber bands. On the parts where you bind, the fabric dye won’t be able to penetrate. Put the shirt in the pail where you mixed your dye. One good technique is to use multiple colors in multiple containers and just immerse a portion of the shirt in each color. The longer you soak the shirt, the darker the color. Remove the shirt and allow it to dry for about two days.

Once it is dry, remove the rubber bands and gently wash it. Then lay the shirt flat and allow it to dry once again. You now have a unique, one-of-a-kind gift. You can also do pillow cases, aprons, or even socks if you like. I suggest you do several shirts at one batch to maximize the use of the already mixed dye solution.

Polly, Pennsylvania

Be alert: Recently I purchased a bag of ginger tea packets. The bag label read that it contained 30 packets of tea. As I refilled a counter jar containing the packets for ready use, I discovered that the bag contained only 22 packets. I have been purchasing assorted teas for 30-odd years. It never occurred to me that packaging would not contain the claimed amounts. I recall the days that one had to watch a butcher to see if he kept his thumb on the scale when weighing your meat purchase. Your readers may need to become more aware of these deceitful business practices if they desire to be frugal.

Peter P., Nevada

Repurposed laundry basket: When we helped clean out our in-laws’ home, I came across a nice wicker laundry basket, but one of the handles broke, so there it sat waiting for a new handle. Well, instead of adding a handle to it, I cut the jagged one flush, added a pillow and an old flannel sheet, and my cat is now lying in it happy as a clam. I let her find her way to it, and as I sat here at the computer I could hear the crinkle of the wicker and knew we had a winner. She now has her own bed upstairs and down.

To achieve the nirvana of computing power that never makes you wait, chip manufacturers are searching for ways to shovel electrons around at ever faster rates and over shorter distances. As in other cases, nirvana is best obtained by experimenting with new substances. For electrons, the mind-blowing substance of choice has recently been graphene. To make clock speeds go up, we'll need to understand how to jiggle electrons in graphene at optical frequencies. At the same time, we'll also need to learn how to control these electrons.

Luckily, electron juggling at optical frequencies has another name: surface plasmon polaritons, or, more casually, plasmons. Usually, we play with plasmons on a metal surface because these have lots of free electrons. But a pair of researchers from University of Pennsylvania wanted to see what sort of tricks can be played with plasmons on graphene. Their paper demonstrates some intriguing tricks, but I wish it had addressed the differences between graphene and metals more seriously.
When graphene acts like a metal

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern. If you draw a hexagonal pattern, you will see that each joint between hexagons has three arms (the joints are where the carbon atoms are). But carbon likes to form bonds that involve four of its electrons—clearly, the three identical carbon bonds cannot make use of the last electron. To stabilize the structure, the spare electrons are shared. Each carbon atom spends a certain amount of time living a satisfied life, and the rest of the time feeling good about being charitable by loaning its extra electron to all those other poor carbon atoms living in the wrong hexagon.

The point here is that graphene has electrons that are free to move around, much like a metal. But unlike metal, at any single moment in time, each carbon atom has room for just a single electron more. This limits the amount of current flowing through each hexagon. The researchers in this study ignore this limit and focus on the "metal-like" nature of graphene. That's not a bad approach, but we will come back to it.

They used a standard model to calculate the optical properties of graphene in the infrared and terahertz range of the spectrum. In addition, they calculated how those optical properties change as the chemical potential varied—in this case, you can think of chemical potential as a bias voltage applied either along the plane of the graphene or vertically to it—and found that the sheet's optical properties change substantially as the magnitude of the voltage is increased.

In fact, that is the key point. With some chemical potentials, an infrared light beam might be able to generate surface plasmon with a particular electric field orientation; with other potentials, this wave cannot be supported.
Switching in graphene

In practical terms, this means you can make a piece of graphene that has an electrode halfway along it, and use that electrode to apply a voltage such that it creates a region where a plasmon can't exist. If we generate a plasmon at one end of the graphene, it will propagate until it reaches the electrode, whereupon it will find an impassible barrier. Like a rubber ball, the plasmon will just bounce right back without loss.

That is pretty freaking cool. Now that you have a way to switch a section of graphene between a state that can support a plasmon and a state that can't, you can imagine all sorts of tricks. And, if not, Vakil and Engheta do some of that imagining for you. They show how one might make plasmon splitter/combiners and the perfect 2D lens. Once you can control the optical properties on the wavelength scale of the plasmon, then you are in meta-material territory, and you can use transformation optics to design and develop your components. And that is even cooler.

Now for the downsides. Most experimental physicists would jump on the fact that these calculations assume a free-standing sheet of graphene of, I think, infinite extent and held at a temperature of just 3K. It is unlikely that any experiment will meet these conditions. But frankly, that's just nitpicking at the moment. No model is ever perfect, and this work is a great starting point. But at this point, I would rather see some experimental evidence for plasmons in graphene than I would a refined model.

That seems to be the big downside. So far, the evidence for plasmons in graphene is pretty flimsy. And I have a feeling that the reason for this is apparent right in the calculations that Vakil and Engheta have done. They show that you don't really need strong electric fields to modify graphene from a material that can support a plasmon to one that can't. This sensitivity is itself due to the fact that there aren't a whole lot of electrons around for the plasmon to use as a vehicle for propagation.

When you realize that plasmons themselves can generate large electric fields, you begin to wonder if you are in for a whole world of hurt. It is pretty easy to imagine that the interaction between the plasmon/light fields immediately puts up a barrier that keeps it from going anywhere. The stable case might then be a standing wave that is just half a wavelength long. Meaning no propagation. (I may be wrong about this. As I interpret the figures, the applied electric field and the plasmon fields are parallel to each other. But I would have expected the majority of the plasmon field to be along the plane of the graphene, so maybe I have misread the diagram.)

A flurry of criminal justice bills was passed during the recently concluded legislative session that will affect the way police and prosecutors conduct investigations.

Decriminalizing the possession of less than a half ounce of marijuana gained the most attention among the collection of bills, overshadowing measures to expand the DNA databank of convicted felons and force police to videotape confessions of the most serious crimes. The General Assembly also created a task force to research the reliability of eyewitness identification methods.

"Those are issues that will only go to strengthen the quality of our criminal justice system and provide increased certainty of convictions," said state Rep. Gerald Fox III, of Stamford, a co-chair of the Judiciary Committee in the General Assembly.

Coupled with the lesser-known bills, however, a top police official said the Democratic-controlled state House and Senate pushed the state's criminal justice system into the liberal end of the political spectrum with the collection of new laws.

"Things took a turn to the left a little bit," said West Hartford Police Chief James Strillacci, the legislative chairman of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association. "There is a lot of consideration for drug offenders, and more restrictions on police."

Expanding the DNA databank

The General Assembly passed a watered-down version of this bill on the last day the legislative session. When it was introduced, the bill called for expanding the state's DNA databank to include people arrested for certain felony offenses, asking for police departments to take their DNA samples during the arrest process before releasing them from custody, similar to taking fingerprints.

The bill that ended up passing requires law enforcement agencies to take DNA samples from convicted felons whose genetic profiles are not already in the state DNA databank. Connecticut's databank of DNA profiles was created in 1993, when only those convicted of certain sexual assault offenses were included. In 2003, criminal defendants convicted of felonies were mandated to submit DNA samples. The bill goes into effect Oct. 1.

Fox said state lawmakers reached a compromise because some expressed concerns over the distinction between an arrest versus a conviction. Opponents of the first bill, including the Connecticut chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, criticized the bill for violating constitutional rights of criminal defendants whose guilt or innocence have not yet been decided.

"The final bill was a compromise," Fox said. "It was something that other states have done and had success with. We're trying to move our criminal justice laws along with the science of DNA."

Law enforcement agencies supported the initial bill, but some cautioned against the high cost associated with such a large expansion of the DNA databank at the state's forensics lab, especially with budget reductions looming.

Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane, the state's top prosecutor, said he was worried the forensic lab lacked the resources to handle the potential influx of DNA samples since it is already working to reduce a backlog. Kane supported the DNA databank expansion along with the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association.

"Anything that expands the databank certainly allows us to determine the truth in cases, and hopefully to convict the guilty and not convict the innocent," Kane said.

Videotaped confessions

Spending years in legislative limbo, this bill got through the state Senate with a 25-11 vote nearly 20 minutes before midnight on June 8, the last day of the legislative session.

Once signed into law, the measure requires law enforcement agencies to electronically or digitally record any statements made during interrogations on investigations relating to the most serious felonies, such as capital murder and other offenses.

They come in on crutches, on homemade wheeled dollies, crude peg legs, even carried on the backs of mothers or brothers. Even with all their limbs they would have been impoverished, and losing a leg robbed them of the ability to carry out the subsistence labour the poor do all day to stay alive. They are reduced to begging or burdening their families.

A few hours or days later they leave on two legs, walking back to self-sufficiency. They can now carry water, farm two acres, drive a bicycle taxi. They can run and climb mountains and trees.

What changes their lives in a few hours is a Jaipur Limb.

In a wealthy country, prosthetics allow amputees to live a completely normal life. But prosthetics in the United States start at $7,000 for the simplest below-the-knee artificial leg, and can range up to $50,000 for a computer-implanted above-the-knee model.

Expensive prostheses are not an option for the vast majority of people in the world who need a limb. Diabetes is the only major cause of limb loss that doesn’t discriminate by wealth. Otherwise, to find the legless, look in the poorest places. Land mines lurk in the ground waiting to kill or maim almost exclusively in poor countries. Birth defects are far more common in places where prenatal care is lacking. Earthquakes cause the most damage in countries where building codes do not exist or are not enforced. Migrant workers who can’t afford a train ticket will sometimes hitch a ride on the outside - a practice that sometimes ends in a fall under a wheel.

Those who were not poor before losing a limb will surely be poor afterwards. The problem is larger than losing the ability to do most kinds of work. People missing a limb are sometimes viewed as if they had lost their intellectual abilities as well. Kim Kargbo, who does missionary work with disabled women in Sierra Leone, said that amputees are often shunned, treated as cursed by the gods.

The Fixes column often looks at programs that re-imagine a high-tech, expensive solution to make it available on a widespread basis. The Jaipur Limb is a classic example. It was invented in the 1960s by two men working at Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur, India: Pramad Karan Sethi, an orthopedic surgeon, and Ram Chandra, an artisan and sculptor with only a fourth-grade education who was teaching lepers at the hospital to do crafts. The hospital did not offer any limbs that poor people could afford or use in their daily lives, so the two men experimented with various materials and designs to create one. The idea was to make a limb that could be fabricated and fitted by an artisan with a few weeks’ training, using local materials.

They did not patent their design - anyone can use it. Today, the materials for each Jaipur Limb cost between $35 and $45. The whole process of making one, including overhead and labor, costs between $100 and $200.

A Jaipur leg is designed for the specific needs of its most frequent users. The rural poor often go barefoot. They walk over rocky and uneven terrain. They may need to stand or walk through mud or standing water. They may not own a chair, so they spend a lot of time sitting cross-legged on the floor. And they likely use a squat toilet. None of these activities are possible with the standard prostheses in use in wealthy countries. The Jaipur Limb, by contrast, is designed to be waterproof and usable without shoes. It is durable, usually in use for three years - longer if shoes are worn. The ankle is built to rotate on multiple axes, allowing for more stability on uneven ground and the flexibility to squat or sit cross-legged.

The foot is designed to resemble a real foot. It is made of wooden blocks covered with different kinds of rubber, vulcanized for strength and colored to match the local skin tone. The leg is formed of high-density polyethylene pipe.

Designing an appropriate limb is one challenge. The bigger problem, however, is how to get it to people who need it around the world - a task taken on by a Jaipur organization that goes by the acronym BMVSS, which also provides calipers for polio patients, crutches and wheelchairs. It gets its main support from the Rotary clubs of Britain and Ireland, which have been supporting BMVSS since 1985. The clubs raise about 100,000 pounds a year, and the Rotary Foundation matches the donation. “It rapidly grew in popularity among clubs because it’s such good value for money,” said Don Short, projects manager for Africa of Rotary’s Jaipur Limb program.

The Jaipur Limb reaches patients in several ways. Inside India, BMVSS has 16 permanent branch clinics and nine satellite centers where a traveling workshop arrives on fixed dates every month. It also runs limb camps in India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The local Rotary Club advertises the camp in advance. BMVSS sends a few prosthetists and the necessary machines and materials. They stay for two or three weeks.

A person in need of the leg will arrive at a limb camp, usually with an able-bodied family member. They sleep on mats in a big room and eat meals at communal tables. Patients are usually fitted in the morning and by afternoon are walking on their new limb. At the camp, the patients also find instant support groups and sometimes professional counseling. If they have no other source of income, they can also come away with a sewing machine, tea service to set up a roadside tea stand or other tools for self-employment.

Each camp sees 1,000 to 2,000 patients, both new fittings and follow-ups. (Children need to be refitted every year, and adults also require check-ups.) All the services are free.

In India, other South Asian countries and Africa, Rotary has also established more than two dozen permanent Jaipur Limb workshops, and is setting up four more in Africa. Rotary is also building a major prosthetics center in Haiti. The workshops are usually housed in hospitals that have some trained prosthetists, often mission hospitals in rural areas. Rotary establishes each workshop with the specialised equipment needed and materials for 500 limbs. The feet are bought from BMVSS and attached to a leg custom-fitted for each patient. Rotary also sends a trainer from either BMVSS or an established workshop elsewhere, who stays for two months and teaches local prosthetists and technicians how to carry on the work on their own.

Short’s first visit to an active workshop came 15 years ago, in Uganda. One patient he saw in the morning was a girl of 12 who had been born with no feet. Sitting on a bench watching the fitting was her mother, who had carried the girl around on her back for 12 years.

Short went to a meeting and came back to the workshop in mid-afternoon. The girl was now taking her first steps on her two new legs, supported by the clinic’s parallel bars. “There was one technician behind her nudging her forward with his knee,” said Short. “The look on her face totally overwhelmed me - determination and delight. The mother, too - she could see that she wasn’t going to have to carry that kid anywhere again.”

Whether driving during the simmering summer or on rainy days, the car engine heats up just the same and may overheat. The damage inside the cooling system can happen anytime or with any weather condition.

Motorists who use water alone for their cooling system are more likely to experience problems like hose leaks, damage on radiator and parts.  Water boils easily and may damage rubber or metal parts; it also accumulates rust & corrosion in the cooling system.

It is the coolant, the heat transfer medium and main component of the engine cooling system, which plays a key role in preventing overheating and corrosion of metal & rubber parts whether hot or rainy season – a perennial problem that can cause cars to stall and even damage its engine.

Always use dependable Prestone Coolant, as it works by absorbing heat from a running engine and transporting it to the radiator, where the heat dissipates. The coolant, now back to its right operating temperature, then flows back to the engine and repeats the process.

While water is regarded as the cheapest coolant, it easily boils at 100°C. When this coolant boils, old hoses or radiators may also burst from the increased pressure. Overheating occurs and water drains out of the system that may cause engine block damage and may lead to major engine overhaul.

Water can also cause rust and corrodes metal parts making the engine prone to damage. Prestone Coolant however, contains special additives that help keep metal parts rust and corrosion resistant.

Prestone Coolant is available in 2 formats, Prestone Coolant Concentrate -  recommended to mix with distilled water at least 50-50 blend to reach 129°C and Prestone Coolant Ready-To-Use , a pre-mix coolant — best for topping up the coolant reservoir.

Thousands of pages of uncensored government documents offer proof that Canadian troops were not complicit in the mistreatment of Afghan detainees, senior cabinet ministers say.

The Conservative government released the 4,000-page package Wednesday afternoon — and then declared the issue closed, saying the parliamentary process to probe the treatment of detainees was being shut down.

“After 12 months and more than $12 million of taxpayers’ money, there is nothing to be gained by spending millions of dollars more,” Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said.

But Liberal MP Stephane Dion said the mounds of paperwork made clear that the Conservative government itself didn’t show “consistent” leadership to ensure safe treatment of detainees once in Afghan hands.

He said the documents reveal that Canadians officials lost track of detainees after they were transferred and were slow to notify the Red Cross about transfers. The documents, he added, also raise questions about the treatment of prisoners handed over to Afghanistan’s notorious National Directorate of Security for interrogation.

Because of that, Dion said it’s likely that some detainees handed over to the Afghans wound up being tortured and abused.

“The likelihood is very high,” Dion said.

But Baird defended the Conservative record, saying that Canadian soldiers transferred “Taliban detainees” over to Afghan authorities “in accordance with our international obligations.” And he said Canadian personnel acted with the “utmost integrity and respect for the rule of law.

“It is clear that the allegations of improper conduct are unfounded and critics’ accusations of Canadian complicity with torture or even war crimes are simply not true,” Baird said, speaking before journalists had a chance to see any of the documents themselves.

Of the reported 25,000 pages of material under review by a panel of three judges for potentially damaging national security details, more than 4,000 pages were released.

They come a full five years after the first suggestions that Canada’s battlefield prisoners may have been mistreated in Afghan jails, particularly at the hands of Afghanistan’s national intelligence agency.

It is a violation of humanitarian law and the laws of war to transfer prisoners into custody when it is known or considered likely that they will be abused.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said that detainees were transferred into the custody of Afghan authorities only after senior Canadian commanders were satisfied there was no “real risk” that the prisoners would be mistreated by Afghan authorities.

“To be clear: allegations that the Canadian Forces were involved in improper conduct related to Taliban prisoners are simply unfounded,” MacKay said.

“The opposition parties have sought to sensationalize and politicize this issue at every opportunity for their own crass political gain,” he said.

But with tens of thousands of documents still undisclosed, New Democrat MP Jack Harris said it’s impossible to draw any conclusions about Canada’s actions involving detainees in Afghanistan.

“This is turning out to be a bit of a farce,” Harris said. “The government is obviously trying to bury this and forget about it . . . The truth has not been revealed and this process was in fact a cover-up.”

Harris said the only solution now is a public inquiry headed by a judge empowered to examine the issue and read the documents.

“Tell the government what it is that we have to do as a country in order to abide by our obligations. That’s what is missing here,” Harris added.

The documents tend to deal with specific numbers of detainees, with names of Afghan officials, with diplomatic overtures made by Canadian officials, the actions of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and, in one case, a grateful detainee’s astonishment that he had been given free medical treatment by the Canadians.

Other documents suggest additional allegations against Afghan jailors, including one about a detainee who was threatened with death following his interrogation.

Following the decision to halt prisoner transfers, one document — a memo to the Foreign Minister in Ottawa — frets about the implications of documents that were to be released in a federal court challenge brought by Amnesty International.

It suggests that making certain documents public would paint a picture of an Afghan judicial system that fell below United Nations standards, and that field reports from Canadian diplomats would be “out of sync” with more rosy reports coming from politicians in Ottawa.

It said making more information public would present “political challenges” for the government and suggested that the Tories stress the investments that have been made in improving the penal and justice system in that country.

Canada’s ambassador to China, David Mulroney, the former head of the Afghanistan Task Force, defended the detainee transfer arrangement as a constant work in progress.

“We designed a good system, then made it better, then made it better again,” he told reporters.

University of Ottawa researcher Stuart Hendin said it is now incumbent on the Attorney General, the military’s Judge Advocate General and other ranking legal authorities to examine the documents for new evidence of wrongdoing.

The detainee controversy has spread far beyond the Department of National Defence since it first broke in the spring of 2007, prompting Ottawa to hastily draft a beefed up agreement with the Afghan government allowing officials into Afghan prisons to monitor detainees.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service played a role until 2007 in questioning detainees and recommending who should be transferred into Afghan custody. Foreign Affairs and the Correctional Service of Canada were responsible for monitoring prison conditions and checking up on individual prisoners.

It was during one of those visits on Nov. 6, 2007, that the Canadians discovered a rubber hose and electrical cable in an interrogation room during an interview with an Afghan who had been captured by Canadian soldiers.

On the basis of this “credible evidence” the military temporarily halted the transfer of detainees. They would be halted again on several occasions over Canada’s six years in Kandahar, but never permanently, despite the warnings of human rights groups, the nervousness of the country’s NATO allies and the consistent outrage of the opposition parties.

The allegations that Canadians knew or should have known that Afghans would be transferred by local jailors has been subjected to a military Board of Inquiry, which cleared anyone of blame, as well as an investigation by the Military Police Complaints Commission. That body has yet to report its findings.

After the majority of opposition MPs voted in late 2009 that the government should hand over all documents related to Afghan detainees, the Tories appointed three judges, Frank Iacobucci, Claire L’Heureux-Dube and Donald Brenner, to examine all the documents and decide which should be withheld on national security grounds.

GM used to sell their German cars here in the states as Buick Opels, while today a lot of new Buicks are Opels. There's nothing Buick about this Nice Price or Crack Pipe GT - well, except maybe the price.

We've had two big Benzes this week, and while Monday's 6.9 came away with a Nice Price win, yesterday's 1991 560 SEC custom convertible went down in Crack Pipe flames due to an unfortunate combination of the unknown quality of its conversion to a drop top, and a price that 83% of you thought should also drop. Today, we're sticking with the Germans, but are going to give the three-pointed star a rest in favor of a lightning bolt.

For ,000, this could be the Opel of your eye

You know that look someone gives you when they're questioning the credulity of your statements or actions? Perhaps you're explaining to a significant other why you happen to be traipsing in at 4 AM smelling of well drinks and astroglide, and halfway through your defense you get one of those eye rolls that pretty much stops you dead and demands you ask - what, don't you believe me? Well, funny thing, today's 1972 Opel GT can do that same thing with its eyes.

The GT's hidden headlights are mechanically actuated and flip not up but over, rolling counter-clockwise like a pair of bloated whales washed up on its pointy nose. Flipping them is a console-mounted lever and makes for something to do when stuck in traffic other than fapping.

For ,000, this could be the Opel of your eye

Painted a bright shade of orange you glad I didn't say banana, this restored GT looks a hell of a lot better than most and the re-builder has chosen to replace the 102-bhp 1,897-cc four cylinder with a fuel injected 2.4-litre out of a modern Opel. That may raise both the horsepower and drivability, but it obviously lowers the Pep Boya-ability of the car a bunch. Regardless, matched to that exchange student is a Getrag five speed, also an upgrade over the car's original four forward gears.

For ,000, this could be the Opel of your eye

The shifter for that box sits between a pair of aftermarket Recaro buckets, in place of the original high-backed buckets. Hopefully those are as easily tilted forward as the factory seats as that's the only access to the GT's limited luggage space, the car lacking any external access out back. Door panels and dash look pretty good and the Opel-branded floor mats are rubber and ribbed for her enjoyment.

For ,000, this could be the Opel of your eye

Outside, the paint is fresh and the pics indicate that the spray job was something better than one done by the Earl of Scheib, the car having been first stripped and hence now lacking tan lines. GTs had a modest quantity of chrome adorning their Clare MacKichan-designed body, but what's there on this one looks about as shiny as you might want. The fender-mounted mirror and ATS five-spoke wheels are each a take it or leave it proposition,  but neither should be considered a deal killer here. Behind the chromed ninja star wheels, the seller claims the suspension has been upgraded with poly bushings, sway bars and KYB shocks. Overall there's not a lot that would need to be done on this Opel. The claim of 8,000 miles should be taken with a grain of NaCL, as it's most likely those done since it became agent orange.

Full size

First displayed as a styling exploration at the ‘65 Paris Auto Show, the production GT debuted in 1968. Evoking images of the concurrent Corvette in its lines, only significantly smaller, the GT's body was manufactured by the French contractor, Brissonneau & Lotz. With the vastly more practical and nearly as sporty Manta sharing dealer floors, the GT found fewer buyers than hoped, especially in the U.S.. In total, 103,463 were sold globally, and even a cursory review of those offered for sale today indicate that the GT continues to have only a tepid following. But that doesn't mean the car is without fans, and this particular car stands as testament to that.

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If you happen to be a fan, that might affect your opinion of this heavily restored GT's seller's attempt to restore some cash into his bank account. He'd like to restore $14,000 in there, and for that is offering some additional parts along with the car. What do you think, is that a price that would make this Opel a rare gem in your mind? Or, does that make this a GT that needs to GTFO!?

If you ask Theresa DuBoise why she works at Amazon Hose & Rubber Co.bizWatch , one of the big reasons is her health benefits.

The family-owned, Orlando-based company that sells and assembles hoses and fittings in a wide range of products pays half the cost of her family health insurance plan, down from 75 percent a year ago.

“People just don’t do that anymore,” DuBoise said. “Well, these people do. They think of their employees, and we’re like a nice little family here.”

Feedback like that ensures that, come 2014, Amazon will continue to offer its employer-sponsored health insurance plan to ...