Texas Yankee Fan

Well, Yes Of Course It's Not...

It was just one of those opportunities. The sun was setting and I was waiting for its appearance.

For the appearance of Comet-Pan STARRS of course. When this apparition just happened to show up I had my old BlackBerry in hand rather than my Nikon so the picture is lacking in quality. Well the comet remained elusive, hidden in the clouds.
You don't suppose it's a leprechaun do you?

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Neal Stephenson Revisited

Recently finished all three volumes of this incredible work of historical fiction.

 The Baroque Cycle

• Volume I: Quicksilver
• Volume II: The Confusion
• Volume III: The System of the World

(links are to Wikipedia.com)

The first, Quicksilver, takes you on a verbal voyage from 18th century Massachusetts to an earlier time in Europe. Your first travel guide is Daniel Waterhouse, Natural Philosopher. If you've read Stephenson's earlier novel Cryptonomicon, the name Waterhouse should be familiar. Daniel is the ancestor of Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, the fictional WWII codebreaker. Another Baroque Cycle travel guide, Jack Shaftoe, the King of the Vagabonds, together with the  kidnapped princess rescued from a Turkish harem weaves a tale of love and treasures lost and found and lost again. Jack also has decendants in Cryptonomicon. But the Cryptonomicon connections are but tantalizing threads compared to some of the other Cycle guides. There is Isaac Newton, or Louis XIV of France, or Gottfried Leibniz, or William III of England, or Blackbeard the pirate, or a half dozen or so others.

Quicksilver the volume, was published as three books or three interwoven story lines. These story lines are continued first in volume II, The Confusion, and then in volume III, The System of the World. Together, these two volumes contain 5 more books.

Dennis

Visit with my Family

Thanks Toots, Ron & Carol

So glad you were here for a wonderful time. We miss you already and now it's back to work again.

Why I Changed My Mind About Gen. McChrystal

I've been calling the situation in Afghanistan a quagmire since the get-go and as I see it, that ain't gonna change. Duh! It's an F'n Quagmire.
Anyway, I had no expectations about McChrystal's tenure. He seemed OK. I was betting on him not making things worse.
So fast forward to Michael Hastings Rolling Stone's article. I read it.
Let me say up front that there was a lot in that article that could have been on McChrystal's positive side of the ledger. But, early in the article I came across the deal-breaker, the stake through the heart, the unforgivable.
"He prefers Bud Light Lime (his favorite beer) to Bordeaux,...
Bud Light? Bud-Water Light? The drink of losers who can't handle Bud-Water... let alone the taste of real beer?
'Nuf said.

Breaking news - Howell Township, Monmouth County, NJ

State Trooper seriously injured; Armed suspects sought:

(photo credit: Asbury Park Press)


One suspect, a 30 year old women, was captured and a male companion is the object of search by State Police, helicopters, and dogs.
more photos
(photo credit: NJ.com)

Shy Chickie? & Her Royal Highness Hennie

Actually, she's not shy at all. She's just not very trusting and is constantly assessing her surroundings. I’ve seen her stand her ground and give warnings when confronted with a monster (leaf blower).

I often wonder if her distrusting nature is because of the careless handling she received when very young. Her jaw was broken as a result. Flickr Link


The chickens have matured. They are about 16 months old.
Flickr Link

Dan Trim Made Me Do It

Dan has a Mothing Blog (Check it out).
Though moths have always facinated me I don't usually take many photos of them. But it just so happenes that today I spotted an interesting one that I had never seen before. So I'll post it here along with another interesting one that I shot a few years ago.


Beautiful Wood Nymph - Eudryas grata. It's a small (2.2 cm) moth in a huge and diverse Family, Noctuidae also called Owlet Moths.

The second moth, and Eight-spotted Forester, Alypia octomaculata, is also in the Family Noctuidae. Alas, its photo has gone missing this evening. I also had a photo of the larva which is memorable because it causes a painful reaction if you touch one of its many spines.
Until I locate it, there are several good photos on Flickr. This Eight-spotted Forester is by Ms. Gould.
The Forester's larva here is by Roy Niswanger.

Is this How Hemsley at UnitedHealthcare Manages Costs?

Reuters 03/04/2010
This is a recent photo. I wasn't able to find the photo from more than a dozen years ago when he was CFO at the accounting firm of Arthur Anderson LLP.


Open Letter to Mr. Hemsley

May 31, 2010

Mr. Stephen Hemsley
CEO UnitedHealthcare

Dear Mr. Hemsley;
I have a problem and now I want to make it your problem. You see, my medical claims are constantly rejected by your claims processing department. Your claims processing department agrees with me that the error is theirs when I contact them. They will reprocess the claims correctly when I call and point out their error but they only correct the old errors. New claims are processed using the same error.

The error appears to be caused by a default assumption during the processing of claims that Medicare is the first payer. But this default is only true if the group policy is for a company with less than 20 employees. UHC certainly must know that DRS Technologies has more than 20 employees. In fact, DRS has 10,500 employees in 40 plus operating locations in the United States.

How many other people’s claims are treated this way? How many others give up after being told that this policy is legal and they have no other recourse?

If this error is the default, what possible reasons are there? I can think of a few.
• UHC’s claims-processing software has no links to your own data about the group.
• Or, though there are links to that data, a critical field for group size isn’t linked; it was somehow overlooked or considered unimportant or…?
• Or, what I see as a problem is not a problem for UHC because it saves millions of dollars by not paying legitimate claims and delaying payment of millions more?

So I challenge you Mr. Hemsley. Prove to me that UnitedHealthcare has a valid reason for delaying payment of legitimate claims.

Here is a list of my legitimate claims incorrectly processed for that same error.
UHC Claim #
23xxxxx260
23xxxxx659
23xxxxx007
23xxxxx521
23xxxxx296
23xxxxx005
23xxxxx036
24xxxxx985
24xxxxx282
24xxxxx263
24xxxxx098
23xxxxx036
24xxxxx338
24xxxxx897
24xxxxx897
25xxxxx249
25xxxxx792
25xxxxx614
25xxxxx166
25xxxxx369

CC:
Mr. J. Lippincott, Ombudsman, NJ Department of Banking and Insurance
Hon. Frank Pallone, Jr., Congressman, US House of Representative

Sincerely,
D.A.P.

Our New Home Guard Front Door

Asbury Window and Door in Ocean Township did a fantastic job when we needed a new front door. They had great suggestions and helped us decide the type and color. We chose their Home Guard fiberglass door with a mahogany color exterior and white interior. The installers, Tony and Lee are real professionals. So many people have stopped to say how beautiful it is. With the full sidelights and fanlight, it turns heads.
Thank you so much!
Dennis and Susan.