Jul 10

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Jul 10, 2018 Week: 28\ Day: 191

86004 Today: H 86° \ L 55° \ Average Sky Cover: 50% 

Nearest Lightning:  18.2miles away

Wind ave.:   1mph\Gusts:  8mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 94°[2003]   Record Low: 37°[1926]

Jul Averages: 82°\50°

Today’s Quote

People only see what they are prepared to see.

    Ralph Waldo Emerson

Harper’s Index

5017

Number of US private schools receiving public funding that teach a Christian Curriculum

70

That teach an Islamic curriculum

5

That teach a curriculum inspired by L. Ron Hubbard

Observances This Week

4^th-10^th

Freedom Week
7^th-14^th

Creative Maladjustment Week Link 
8^th-14^th

National Farriers Week
Sports Cliché Week

Observances for Today

Clerihew Day
Don't Step On A Bee Day
Global Energy Independence Day Link
Martyrdom of The Bab
Pick Blueberries Day

Piña Colada Day  Link
Teddy Bear Picnic Day Link  Link
U.S. Energy Independence Day  Link

Today’s Significant US Historical Events

Today’s Significant International Historical Events 

900’s                                           

988 The city of Dublin is founded on the banks of the river Liffey

1000’s                                         

1040 Lady Godiva rides naked on horseback through Coventry, according to legend, to force her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes

1200’s                                         

1212 The most severe of several early fires of London burns most of the city to the ground

1700’s                                         

1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie flees in disguise to Isle of Skye

1780 The Comte de Rochambeau and his French force of 7,000 land at Newport, Rhode Island, to join the American Revolutionary War

1800’s                                         

1800 The British Indian Government establishes the Fort William College to promote Urdu, Hindi and other vernaculars of sub continent

1866 Indelible pencil patented by Edson P. Clark, Northampton, Massachusetts

1890 Wyoming becomes 44th state of US (1st with female suffrage)

1900’s                                         

1923 2-pound hailstones kill 23 and many cattle in Rostov, Russia

1925 USSR's official news agency TASS forms

1925 Meher Baba begins his silence of 44 years. His followers still observe Silence Day on this date in commemoration.

1929 US issues newer, smaller-sized paper currency

1934 1st sitting US President to visit South America, FDR in Colombia

1938 Howard Hughes flies around the world in 91 hours

1944 "Father of Medicare" Tommy Douglas becomes the 7th Premier of Saskatchewan

1962 Telstar, 1st geosynchronous communications satellite, launched

1967 Bobbie Gentry records "Ode to Billie Joe" - single goes on to win 4 Grammys

1971 100th British Golf Open: Lee Trevino shoots a 278 at Royal Birkdale

1971 National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC) founded in US by women including Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Myrlie Evers-Williams and Gloria Steinem

1981 CERN achieves 1st proton-antiproton beam collision (570 GeV)

1985 French foreign intelligence agents blow up the Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbor, New Zealand to prevent it interfering with French nuclear tests in the South Pacific. Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira is killed.

1998 Roman Catholic sex abuse cases: The Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by former priest Rudolph Kos

2000’s

2000 Coldplay release their debut album "Parachutes" (Grammy Award Best Alternative Album 2002)

2012 The American Episcopal Church becomes the first to approve a rite for blessing gay marriages

2015 The Confederate flag is taken down for the last time from South Carolina Capitol grounds 1 day after the state legislature ordered it removed.

2017 NASA's Juno spacecraft makes closest ever pass over Jupiter's Great Red Spot at 9,000 kilometers overhead

My Rambling Thoughts

I have to say that the health insurance policies here in the US are in dire need to renovation.  On Saturday I got a bill from the local hospital for my wrist surgery. The total bill was about $25,000. Knowing I had great insurance with Medicare and BCBS-Federal I glanced through the bill. At the bottom it said I owed $7000. I knew it was wrong, but spent Sunday and Monday morning wondering what could have gone wrong. Maybe it was because the injury occurred outside the US. Maybe the hospital didn’t use both my insurance cards. Maybe a broken wrist isn’t covered.

This morning I called the billing department at the hospital. A nice lady took my information and said, “how would you like to pay this balance?” I said, ‘did you process both my insurances?’ She said yes and that Medicare paid $1300, BC paid $9400, there was a $12,000 adjustment and I owed the balance. Then she said she needed to put me on hold for a minute. She came back and said that not all the information she had given me had been entered into the computer and she would have to call me back.  About 20 minutes later she called back and said my bill had been corrected and that I owed nothing. No apology. I asked her to send me a corrected bill.

My concern that leads to a revamping of the system, why was there a $12,000 adjustment? My guess is that it is because of my BC insurance. The hospital, which knows I have insurance from the get-go, overcharges and then deducts. What about the people with no insurance or less than stellar insurance? I’m very relieved to know that I don’t have to pay the $7000, but wonder about people I know who don’t have good insurance.

So the reality show presidency has a special tonight at 9p. The star will announce his pick for the Supreme Court. I wonder if lights will flash, confetti will drop, and the band will play? I’ll watch, hoping for at least some confetti.

Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

80’s

@86- Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American physicist, electrical engineer and inventor, developed alternating current and the Tesla Coil, born in Smiljan, Austrian Empire (now Croatia) (d. 1943)

@83- David Brinkley, NBC news anchor (Huntley-Brinkley), born in Wilmington, North Carolina (d. 2003)

@80- Jean Kerr, novelist (Please Don't Eat the Daisies), born in Scranton, Pennsylvania (d. 2003)

70’s

@78- Terry-Thomas [Thomas Terry Stevens], British actor (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World), born in Finchley, London, England (d. 1990)

@73- Camille Pissarro, Danish Antillean and French painter (Impressionism), born in Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas, Danish West Indies (now US Virgin Islands) (d. 1903)

@72- Donald William Sinclair, co–proprietor of the Gleneagles Hotel and the inspiration for the character Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers (d. 1981)

71- Arlo Guthrie, singer (Alice's Restaurant, City of New Orleans), born in Brooklyn, New York

@71- Jake Eberts, film producer (Chariots of Fire, Dances with Wolves), born in Montreal, Quebec (d. 2012) melanoma

60’s

@69- James A McNeill Whistler, US/British painter (Whistler's Mother) (d. 1903)

68- Ronnie James Dio, singer, Black Sabbath

@66- Sam Wood, American communist fighter and director (For Whom the Bell Tolls), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1949) heart attack

@66- Fred Gwynne, American actor (Car 54 Where Are You, Munsters), born in NYC, New York (d. 1993) cancer

50’s

@55±- Solomon Northup, American abolitionist and author (12 Years a Slave), born Minerva, New York (or 10 Jul 1807) (d. 1863)

@54- John Calvin [Jehan Cauvin], Protestant religious reformer and theologian (Calvinism), born in Picardy, France (d. 1564) lung disease

40’s

@49- Arthur Ashe, American tennis player (3 Grand Slam singles titles), born in Richmond, Virginia (d. 1993) AIDS

46 Sofia Vergara, Colombian-American actress (Modern Family), born in Barranquilla, Colombia

30’s

38- Jessica Simpson, American singer and popstar ("I Wanna Love You Forever" "I Think I'm In Love" and "Where You Are"), born in Abilene, Texas

@36- Nick Adams, Nanticoke Pa, actor (Johnny Yuma-Rebel) OD

Historical Obits Today

80’s

@84-1979 Arthur Fiedler, orchestra leader (Boston Pops)

@83-2015 Omar Sharif [Michel Dimitri Shalhoub], Egyptian actor (Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia)

@83-1863 Clement Clarke Moore, American Professor and writer ('Twas the Night Before Xmas)

@81-1989 Mel Blanc, American voice actor, comedian best known for his Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons (Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd & Porky Pig)

60’s

@63-1851 Louis-Jacques Daguerre, French inventor and photographer (daguerreotype)

@62-138 Hadrian, Roman emperor (117-138), dies at 62

50’s

@59±-1099 El Cid [Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar], Castilian nobleman and military leader and general strategist, famine

30’s

@35-1927 Kevin O'Higgins, Irish Free State VP, assassinated 

Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.

All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site contains mistakes and sadly once the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.

☼☼☼☼…And That Is All for Now…☼☼☼☼