Investigation May Extend Beyond The Time Covered By This: Fill & Download for Free

Most serious researchers into the Edmund Fitzgerald’s shocking destruction on 10 November, 1975, in a gale on Lake Superior believe that the ship sank from a combination of factors. This is largely due to widespread dissatisfaction with the conclusions reached by the US Coast Guard in the immediate aftermath of the sinking.Great Lakes Ore Carrier SS Edmund FitzgeraldEdmund Fitzgerald History, The Fateful JourneyThe Coast Guard’s official report on the loss of the Fitzgerald, dated 26 July 1977, stated that the most likely cause of the wreck was improperly sealed cargo hatch covers (the rectangular structures amidships which are clearly visible in the photo above), which led to gradually accumulating water in the non-subdivided cargo hold. As more and more “boarding seas” sent water crashing over the main deck, the ship sank lower and lower until finally, its bouyancy was overcome and it plunged to the bottom of Lake Superior. In short, the ship was lost due to the failure of its crew to properly secure it against the conditions caused by the severe storm in which it sank. This is probably the closest thing in maritime circles to citing “pilot error” as the cause of a plane crash. The Coast Guard’s document is located in its entirety here:http://www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/DCO%20Documents/5p/CG-5PC/INV/docs/boards/edmundfitz.pdfThe Lake Carriers Association—the professional trade group representing the shipping companies which owned the US-flagged ships on the Great Lakes—immediately and vociferously disagreed with the Coast Guard.Lake Carriers' AssociationPaul Trimble, a retired USCG vice admiral who was then the president of the LCA, wrote a letter to the National Transportation Safety Board on September 16, 1977, that specifically disputed the cornerstone of the Coast Guard’s theory on the sinking. His letter stated that:“The present hatch covers are an advanced design and are considered by the entire lake shipping industry to be the most significant improvement over the telescoping leaf covers previously used for many years. The one-piece hatch covers have proven completely satisfactory in all weather conditions without a single vessel loss in almost 40 years of use…and no water accumulation in cargo holds.”Having thus rejected out of hand the idea that the Fitzgerald’s crew had essentially been negligent or at least careless in securing the hatch covers, the LCA’s suspicions immediately centered on an event that occurred several hours before the sinking, soon after the ship had departed from Superior, Wisconsin, fully loaded with more than 26,000 tons of taconite iron ore pellets. This was a possible running aground or “shoaling” of the ship near Caribou Island.Caribou Island in Lake Superior, North America. Photo Courtesy of Morris Chisholm by way of Flickr dot com.Caribou Island - WikipediaDuring its final journey, Fitzgerald was traveling in concert with another large freighter, the SS Arthur Anderson, under the command of Captain Bernie Cooper. At around 1530 (3:30 in the afternoon), or roughly 4 hours before the Fitzgerald sank, Cooper received a radio transmission from Captain Earnest McSorley of the Fitzgerald. McSorley told Cooper:“Anderson, this is the Fitzgerald. I have a fence rail down, two vents lost or damaged, and a list. I’m checking down. Will you stay by me till I get to Whitefish?” By “checking down”, McSorley meant that he was reducing speed so the trailing Anderson could close the distance and keep an eye on the Fitzgerald in the gathering storm. Cooper radioed McSorley and asked if he had his pumps going, and McSorley said, “Yes, both of them.”Massive Storm Waves Breaking on the Shore of Lake Superior. Wave Heights of 35 Feet or More Have Been Observed During Storms on the Lake.It is crucial to note that the storm was already underway by this point in the day on 10 November. Winds had reached near gale force several hours earlier, at 7 AM that morning, with wave heights of 10 feet observed. Thus the Fitzgerald was in heavy seas well before it passed by Caribou Island, and more so at the time McSorley reported that his vessel had been damaged. Just prior to the Fitzgerald’s radio communication with his ship, Cooper and one of his bridge staff on the Anderson—sailing astern of the Fitzgerald and watching its course on the Anderson’s radar—both remarked to each other that each thought McSorley and his ship were far too close to Caribou Island and a known underwater hazard called “Six Fathom Shoal”. A “list” meant that the Fitzgerald had taken on enough water to make the ship lean over on its side. A downed fence rail could only have been caused by either a heavy impact with a large object of some kind, or—much more likely—”hogging” of the ship. This would have snapped the steel rail as it was bent to the breaking point by the ship’s hull itself being forced upward from an impact with something on the lake floor beneath the vessel. Although Cooper’s sometimes excitable and occasionally inconsistent testimony led the majority of investigators to discount the idea that the Fitzgerald had struck rocks jutting up from the lake bottom, others were convinced.Subsequent radio transmissions from the stricken ship indicate that McSorley was worried. Between 4:30 and 5:00 he called the Coast Guard on the emergency channel—the “distress frequency”—and also put out a general call asking for information about the lighthouse and the radio beacon at Whitefish Point, at the southeastern end of the Lake. The comparitive safety of Whitefish Bay was just beyond the Point.Further, although McSorley did not tell Cooper that he was particularly concerned by whatever had happened near Caribou Island, around 5:30 he reported to another ship captain, Cedric Woodard of the Swedish cargo vessel Avafors, that:"I have a bad list, lost both radars. And am taking heavy seas over the deck. One of the worst seas I've ever been in."Woodard replied: "If I'm correct, you have two radars."McSorley: "They're both gone."It should be noted that McSorley said something at this time that was apparently picked up in his transmission to Woodard because McSorley was shouting to the crew while leaving his radio mic on. As described by writer Hugh Bishop in his Lake Superior Magazine article “Edmund Fitzgerald: Decades of Speculation, Fascination and Grieving”:“Captain Woodard, who was acquainted with McSorley and had talked with him many times previously, said in testimony that he didn’t recognize the voice when first they spoke and that McSorley sounded strange.Still later, at about 6 p.m., Woodard called the Fitz to report that the light had just come on at Whitefish Point. During that conversation, he stated that McSorley inadvertently left the microphone on when he said to someone in his pilothouse, “Don’t allow nobody on deck,” also saying something about a vent that Woodard couldn’t understand.In Lake Superior Port Cities Inc.’s newly released book, The Night the Fitz Went Down, Captain Dudley Paquette vividly describes his voyage through the massive seas of the November 9-10, 1975, storm as master of the downbound Inland Steel Company’s SS Wilfred Sykes. He is particularly intrigued by the command that Woodard overheard.“In those seas, such a command goes without saying, so why did McSorley have to emphasize it?” he asks. “There had to have been something happening on the deck that a mate thought they had to get control of - even if it meant putting lives in danger.”Whatever prompted that command just a little over an hour before the sinking, Paquette analyzes that it would have been catastrophic and visible from the pilothouse in the darkness of an early November evening. That would likely mean that it was at the forward end of the weather deck. Previously suggested possibilities are that a hatch cover washed off or the heavy deck crane or the spare blade for the propeller broke loose and crashed about.“I wouldn’t be surprised if a hatch cover came off, because I loaded right beside him in Superior on November 9 and the deck crew was still putting on hatch covers when they left the Superior Entry into Lake Superior,” Captain Paquette says. “It’s likely that they didn’t latch a lot of the hatch cover clamps because the crew was on Sunday overtime pay and they were so late getting covered up - and the weather was very nice at that time.” Captain Paquette thus sided with the Coast Guard and essentially blamed the crew.Edmund Fitzgerald: Decades of Speculation, Fascination and GrievingBy this point, then, at around 6 PM, the Fitzgerald was badly damaged, listing from increasing amounts of water in its cargo hold and in other spaces—too much for the ship’s powerful pumps to stay ahead of—and sailing blind.Worse, meteorological reconstructions of the 10 November 1975 storm show that it was exceptionally powerful even by the Great Lakes’ notoriously vicious standards.Unusual and Violent Waves on Lake Erie in a Recent NovemberThe Spectacular, Rip-Roaring Waves of Lake Erie’s ‘November Witch’The November Witches Of The Great Lakes | WeatherBugWhy the Edmund Fitzgerald sankIn some ways the seas during the worst storms on the Great Lakes are more difficult than what ships would encounter in the open ocean. This is due to the “Bathtub Effect” that produces oscillating waves which collide with each other from two or more directions. A “seiche”—similar to a tsunami—can also develop as sustained winds blow enormous amounts of water ahead of them down the Lakes. Similar factors have led to ten foot waves being seen even on as small a body of water as the 50 square mile Sea of Galilee (referenced in the New Testament in Matthew 8:23–27).Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 8:23-27 - New International VersionSIDEBAR – The Bathtub Effect — This blog post is discussing the Bathtub Effect as observed in the Gulf of Mexico and not the Great Lakes, but is still a good overview of the phenomenon.What Is a seiche?Captain McSorley knew that his ship was badly wounded and in mortal danger. Knowing also that he was not far from Whitefish Bay, he decided to run for it. Unfortunately this decision put him squarely in the worst possible place at the worst possible time. The Fitzgerald sailed into the exact spot where the storm reached its maximum power, and at the center of the worst waves and seiche storm surge produced by the 80-plus MPH winds and “bathtub effect”.The Final Voyage of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior. The Ship Sank 17 Miles Northwest of Whitefish Bay.The last communication with the doomed vessel came via radio at about 7:10 PM. Anderson first mate Morgan Clark radioed the Fitzgerald to notify him of a radar contact about 19 miles ahead. McSorley acknowledged this and asked if he “was going to clear”, ie, if there was any danger of a collision. Clark said that there was none, then asked how things were going. McSorley replied, “We are holding our own”.Soon after this, the Fitzgerald entered a snow squall and radar contact was lost. Just prior to Clark’s transmission, Cooper later testified, the crew of the Anderson had felt “a bump”, an impact that hit their vessel from behind. Looking back from the pilothouse, the bridge crew saw two huge waves partially engulf the ship, moving forward from the stern. The second of these struck the back of the pilothouse, which forced the bow of the Anderson down into the seas. As Cooper described:“We took two of the largest seas of the trip. The first one flooded our boat deck. It had enough force to come down on the starboard lifeboat, pushing it into the saddles with a force strong enough to damage the bottom of the lifeboat.… The second large sea put green water (the powerful center of a wave) on our bridge deck! This is 35 feet above the waterline.”SS Arthur Anderson, a Great Lakes Freighter That Traveled With the Edmund Fitzgerald on 10 November 1975. Note the Height of the Ship’s Pilothouse in the Bow of the Vessel.Cooper’s ship, though badly rattled, quickly recovered from the force of the blow, and the crew watched the two giant waves move down the Lake—toward the struggling Fitzgerald. All contact with the Fitzgerald was lost about 10 minutes later.The subsequent report by the Coast Guard was based on extensive video of the wreck on the bottom of Lake Superior. The footage was taken by the US Navy’s CURV III (Cable-controlled Undersea Recovery Vehicle).CURV - WikipediaConditions on the lake bottom, 535 feet down, were somewhat muddy and so the quality of the video was not ideal.Following the Lake Carriers’ Association letter to the NTSB that disputed the Coast Guard’s conclusions, a second report—this one by the NTSB itself—was issued.https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55fd6fdbe4b0154e882ba4d7/t/562e1f79e4b04e54c8a031bd/1445863289573/EdmundFitzgeraldNTSBReport.pdfTaking a somewhat broader view of the tragedy, the NTSB document considered in more detail several possible contributing factors. Most of these had been briefly touched upon by the Coast Guard but not discussed comprehensively.One of these was the near-certainty that the Fitzgerald was overloaded on its last trip.An Early Photo of the Fitzgerald, in Light Condition at Pierside, Probably in the late 1950s or Early 1960s. The Ship Was Launched in 1958.The Fitzgerald Riding Low in the Water While Fully Loaded, Sometime in 1971. The Ship Would Have Looked Much Like This As It Sailed Into the Storm on 10 November 1975.The distance from the waterline to the main deck of a ship is known as “freeboard”. On the night before its destruction, the Fitzgerald probably left port with as little as 11 and a half (11.5) feet of freeboard and possibly even less. This was a dangerously thin margin of safety, particularly in a storm, even had the ship not been damaged.There was also the possibility that the Fitzgerald was not entirely seaworthy in other respects when it sailed from Superior, Wisconsin. The NTSB noted:“A former chief mate of the FITZGERALD testified that between September 13 and October 3, 1975, the FITZGERALD discharged at Toledo, Ohio. Because of the FITZGERALD’s deep draft, she was not able to pull up to the dock and had to lay off some 12 feet each time. The ship seemed to plow its way toward the dock every trip, he said. Similar "groundings" of other Great Lakes bulk cargo vessels during discharge at various ports were observed by Coast Guard Marine Inspectors during the winter of 1976 and the spring of 1977 and by Safety Board personnel during the summer of 1977.”In other words, there may have been unrepaired damage to the bottom plating of the ship’s hull that was the result of literally plowing its way the last short distance to various unloading docks around the Great Lakes shoreline.This idea has some corroboration from one of the ship’s surviving previous crewmen, Jim Woodard, who had sailed on the Fitzgerald for some time in the 60s and 70s. He told a recent interviewer that the Fitz “was a wet ship”—meaning it leaked noticeably and often shipped water while underway—and that he just did not have a good feeling about it, even though it was widely known as “the pride of the American side” and an assignment on board was greatly prized among Great Lakes mariners.Forty years after the sinking of the Fitzgerald, untold stories...It is also possible that the vessel’s design itself was inherently flawed and at least somewhat structurally unsound. Support for this point comes from the fact that the Fitzgerald’s sister ship, the SS Arthur M. Homer, which had undergone a very expensive lengthening and reconstruction to increase its cargo capacity, was suddenly and unexpectedly removed from service by its owner, Bethlehem Steel Corporation (now defunct) just 5 years later, in 1980. A similar conversion had been planned for the Fitzgerald itself.The following passage from the Wikipedia article about the sinking explains:“Retired Great Lakes Engineering Works naval architect Raymond Ramsey, one of the members of the design team that worked on the hull of Fitzgerald,reviewed her increased load lines, maintenance history, along with the history of long ship hull failure and concluded that Fitzgerald was not seaworthy on November 10, 1975.He stated that planning Fitzgerald to be compatible with the constraints of the St. Lawrence Seaway had placed her hull design in a "straight jacket ." Fitzgerald's long-ship design was developed without the benefit of research, development, test, and evaluation principles while computerized analytical technology was not available at the time she was built.Ramsey noted that Fitzgerald's hull was built with an all-welded (instead of riveted) modular fabrication method, which was used for the first time in the GLEW shipyard. Ramsey concluded that increasing the hull length to 729 feet (222 m) resulted in a L/D slenderness ratio (the ratio of the length of the ship to the depth of her structure) that caused excessive multi-axial bending and springing of the hull, and that the hull should have been structurally reinforced to cope with her increased length.”The Great Lakes Engineering Works The Shipyard And Its VesselsThe Launch of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald at the Great Lakes Engineering Works in Detroit, MI, 7 June 1958. The GLEW Was for Many Years a Major Shipbuilder on the Lakes, and Has Since Gone Out of Business.Eventually the NTSB report gave its “Findings” and “Probable Cause”, which largely echoed the Coast Guard’s previous findings but with additional detail:“Findings:1. The FITZGERALD’s hatch covers were not weathertight and allowed water to enter the cargo hold over an extended period. This water was not detected because it migrated down through the cargo. There was no method provided for sounding the cargo other than visual observations, nor was there any method for dewatering the cargo hold with the vessel trimmed by the bow.2. Amendments to the Great Lakes Load Line Regulations in 1969, 1971, and 1973 allow Great Lakes bulk carriers to load deeper. This deeper loading increased deck wetness which caused an increase in the flooding rate through nonweathertight hatches or other nonweather-tight openings.3. The topside vents and fence rail were damaged before 1520 either by a heavy object coming adrift on deck or by a floating object coming aboard with the seas. The FITZGERALD’s hull plating probably was damaged also; the damage propagated and caused flooding of the ballast tanks and tunnel.4. Flooding of ballast tanks and the tunnel caused trim and a list. Detection of ballast tank flooding prompted the ballast pumps to be started. However, the flooding rate through the hull damage, which was propagating, increased and exceeded the capacity of the pumping system.5. The hull stress levels, even with a substantial amount of flooding, were low enough that the hull girder did not fail before the sinking.6. The forces on the hatch covers caused by boarding seas were sufficient to cause damage and collapse. These forces increased as flooding caused a list and reduced the vessel’s freeboard.7. Flooding of the cargo hold caused by one or more collapsed hatch covers was massive and progressed throughout the hold. Flooding was so rapid that the vessel sank before the crew could transmit a distress call.8. The vessel either plunged or partially capsized and plunged under the surface. The hull failed either as the vessel sank or when the bow struck the bottom.9. The availability of a fathometer aboard the FITZGERALD would have provided additional navigational data and would have required less dependence on the ANDERSON for navigational assistance.10. The most probable trackline of the FITZGERALD, from west of Michipicoten Island to the position of her wreckage, lies east of the shoal areas north and east of Caribou Island; therefore, damage from grounding would have been unlikely.11. The shoal area north of Caribou Island is not shown in sufficient detail on Lake Survey Chart No. 9 to indicate the extent of this hazard to navigation. A contour presentation of this hazard would allow mariners to better assess this area and would help to eliminate the erroneous conclusion that there are isolated spots of shallow water, where in fact there is a large area of shoal water less than 10 fathoms deep.12. Insufficient water depth has been observed at some loading and discharge piers. "Groundings" of vessels at these locations induce hull stresses of unknown magnitudes and create the potential of undetected hull damage and wear.13. Although the National Weather Service accurately predicted the direction and velocity of the wind expected over the eastern end of Lake Superior on November 10, 1975, the predicted wave heights were significantly less than those observed.14. Loading information on the FITZGERALD and other Great Lakes bulk cargo vessels was not adequate.15. Great Lakes bulk cargo vessels normally can avoid severe storms. The limiting sea state for Great Lakes bulk cargo vessels should be determined, and the operation of vessels in sea states above this limiting value should be restricted.16. The presence of an EPIRE aboard the FITZGERALD would have provided immediate automatic transmission of an emergency signal which would have allowed search units to locate the position of the accident. The accurate location of this position would have reduced the extent of the search area.17. Installation of trim and list indicating instruments on the FITZGERALD would have provided the master an early indication of flooding that would have an adverse effect on the vessel. These instruments would have given an indication of whether the master’s corrective action was adequate.18. The surface search and rescue capability of the Coast Guard on November 10 was inadequate.Probable Cause:The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the sudden massive flooding of the cargo hold due to the collapse of one or more hatch covers. Before the hatch covers collapsed, flooding into the ballast tanks and tunnel through topside damage and flooding into the cargo hold through nonweathertight hatch covers caused a reduction of freeboard and a list. The hydrostatic and hydrodynamic forces imposed on the hatch covers by heavy boarding seas at this reduced freeboard and with the list caused the hatch covers to collapse. Contributing to the accident was the lack of transverse watertight bulkheads in the cargo hold and the reduction of freeboard authorized by the 1969, 1971, and 1973 amendments to the Great Lakes Load Line Regulations.”In short, the ship sank because of progressive flooding following damage sustained from some cause near Caribou Island, aggravated by overloading. The initial flooding and overloading made the Fitzgerald go lower in the waves of the storm, which began a downward cycle of boarding seas. These gradually brought more and more water aboard until a final, catastrophic collapse of one or more hatch covers allowed sudden additional and overwhelming flooding that drove the ship to the bottom.The NTSB added that the storm was significantly stronger than weather reports had predicted, and both the Coast Guard and the NTSB noted that the navigational charts used by McSorley were not entirely accurate regarding the underwater hazards around Caribou Island. This last factor led the NTSB to take the unusual step of including a dissenting opinion in its conclusion. Board member Philip Hogue wrote:“The most probable cause of the sinking of the SS EDMUND FITZGERALD in Lake Superior on 10 November 1975, was a shoaling which first generated a list, the loss of two air vents, and a fence wire. Secondarily, within a period of 3 to 4 hours, an undetected, progressive, massive flooding of the cargo hold resulted in a total loss of buoyancy from which, diving into a wall of water, the FITZGERALD never recovered.Like the Marine Board of the Coast Guard or the majority of the Members of the National Transportation Safety Board, I could speculate or surmise in the first instance that flooding into the cargo hold took place through ineffective hatch covers or in the second instance that flooding took place due to the failure of hatch cover Number One due to massive seas. I reject these arguments because neither of them is fully cognizant of the ramifications of the first reported list, the loss of two vents and fence railing at approximately the precise time the FITZGERALD was reportedly in or over shoal waters. Between the first reported damage and the time of the sinking, approximately 3 to 4 hours later, seas of 25 to 30 feet and winds gusting to 80 knots were variously observed. Without exception, expert testimony has affirmed the fact that seas in shoal waters are inherently more violent and wild than in open water. It follows, therefore, that subsequent to her initial sustained damage, the FITZGERALD suffered progressive damage from laboring, rolling, and pitching for the next 3 to 4 hours as it proceeded toward Whitefish Point Light. At or about 1730, Captain Woodard aboard the Swedish vessel AVAFORS received a report from Captain McSorley stating the FITZGERALD had a "bad list," had lost both radars and was taking heavy seas over the deck in one of the worst seas he had ever been in. In approximately 2 hours from the initial report of a list, the FITZGERALD had acquired a "bad list" and sustained the loss of both radars. Approximately 1 hour 40 minutes later at or about 1910, the FITZGERALD reported it was holding its own. This was the last transmission ever heard from the FITZGERALD. Aside from the expert testimony elicited at the Coast Guard Marine Board hearing, it is self-evident that Captain McSorley had a damaged ship, and that he did not know how damaged she was….It is reasonable to assume, from all that is known of Captain McSorley, that his first report of damage was based on damage sustained immediately prior to 1530 and that it was no small consideration that caused Captain McSorley to ask the ANDERSON to stay with him, saying, "I will check down so that you can close the distance between us."”In the end, while these are expert and informed opinions, no one really knows for certain what sank the Fitzgerald. There is an enduring mystery about the ship and its final voyage that is both tragic and strangely compelling. In this vein Woodard said something striking. He had spoken with many of the Fitzgerald’s crew when his ship and the Fitz were in port a couple of weeks before the sinking.“God strike me dead if I’m lying,” Woodard said, his spontaneous laughter checked. “We pulled in behind them and everybody I saw on that crew had an aura around them. That’s the honest-to-God’s truth. They glowed, just like a little brightness, you know what I mean?”When asked if he was benefiting from hindsight and imagination, Woodard said, “I’ve never seen that since.”My mother once told me a similar story. She said she had seen our next door neighbor at the local post office just before he was killed in a car wreck by a drunk driver. She later described seeing the same kind of strange aura and light around him when she looked at him.Do with that what you will. As I say, there is mystery here.Perhaps the biggest lesson that should be taken from the sinking is that no matter how skilled the sailors and how large the ship, all are still less than specks of sand compared with the vastness and power of the sea and of great storms over large bodies of water. It is no wonder, then, that both the traditional US Navy Hymn and Gordon Lightfoot’s enduring ballad speak with reverence of the power of both Nature and Nature’s God.Eternal Father, strong to save,Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deepIts own appointed limits keep;Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,For those in peril on the sea!The U.S. NavyThe Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by Gordon Lightfoot.Lake Huron rolls, Superior singsIn the rooms of her ice water mansionOld Michigan steams like a young man's dreamsThe islands and bays are for sportsmenAnd farther below Lake OntarioTakes in what Lake Erie can send herAnd the iron boats go as the mariners all knowWith the gales of November rememberedIn a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,In the maritime sailors' cathedralThe church bell chimed til it rang twenty-nine timesFor each man on the Edmund FitzgeraldThe legend lives on from the Chippewa on downOf the big lake they call 'gitche gumee'Superior, they said, never gives up her deadWhen the gales of November come early

Health Insurance is designed to take care of one’s healthcare expenses, in case the person faces any sort of medical emergency, be it an illness or an accident that has led to hospitalization(Policies generally cover OPD expenses also). The insured either has to pay such expenses out-of-pocket & is later reimbursed by the insurer or the insurance company settles the bill directly with the hospital.You should pay heed to following points before choosing a health insurance policy:Pre & Post Hospitalization Coverage: When one falls sick, one usually consults a physician and gets relevant investigations done for proper diagnosis. The physician may initially prescribe certain medications. In spite of this treatment, if the condition of the patient does not improve the physician advises the patient to get hospitalized for further management of the disease. Such medical expenses incurred before hospitalization are called Pre-Hospitalization Expenses. During hospitalization, a major part of the treatment is complete but some part of the treatment extends beyond the hospitalization. It may involve follow-up visits to the doctor, medicines to be taken or follow-up investigations to be done. Such medical expenses are called Post-Hospitalization Expenses. A good policy will cover 30 days for Pre Hospitalization expenses & 90 days for Post Hospitalization expenses.Premium: We should compare the premiums of health insurances offered by different insurers for a certain sum of coverage. We can easily get this data from many online health insurance comparison websites. We can save some amount of money through this comparison.Bed Charge Coverage: It means the amount of money that is covered for each day of your stay at the hospital. You should inquire about whether the policy covers Single Private Room. Many policies provide coverage only if you stay at general ward. Some polices cover till triple or twin sharing. It is generally seen that better the quality of the room, better is the quality of treatment. General ward may not provide the same quality of treatment as that provided by Single Private Room. Your policy should cover Single Private Room or atleast Twin Sharing.Claim Settlement Ratio: It denotes what is the probability that your insurer will actually pay you if you file a claim. It is one of the most important factor while choosing a policy. Generally we select the policy which is the cheapest. But many a times such policies reject our claims. That turns out to be a complete waste of our premium money and also faith. So always select among the Top 5 policies according to %Settlement Ratio.Tie-ups with Hospital: Check if the hospitals near your residence are empanelled under the insurance company from which you are to buy the policy. Doing so makes it easier to avail cashless hospitalization as and when the need arises. Cashless hospitalization can be availed only at empanelled network of hospitals ie hospitals with which the insurer has tied up. The essence of cashless hospitalization is that the insured individual need not make an upfront payment to the hospital at the time of admission. Otherwise if you have to make payment by yourself first, then reimbursement of that amount may take a long time. You will have to physically submit the bills and prescriptions which will be verified by your insurer. This process can take 2–3 months. You may face money issues during this interval. So always check whether your policy has tie-ups with maximum number of hospitals especially in your city of residence. You will thus have to make no payment in case of hospitalization and entire expenses will be directly borne by the insurance company.In-House Claim Settlement: Try to choose those insurers whose claim settlement is not done by 3rd Party Administrators. Some insurers give contract to 3rd party to verify claims (For eg: to check whether the person has actually got admitted, whether the paperwork is complete). Many a times it is seen that such 3rd party agencies harass people during claim settlement & even sometimes reject the claim citing incomplete documentation. The more the number of claims that get rejected, the more these agencies get paid. So, it is better to choose those insurers whose claim settlement is done in house.Mentioning Pre-Existing Diseases: Never fill your insurance form in a hurry. Do not forget to mention your pre-existing diseases. Many insurance agents (online as well as offline) make customers fill the form in a hurry as their primary objective is to enroll maximum people in minimum time so a so as to get maximum compensation. They often do not make customers aware the importance of mentioning pre-existing diseases. Doing this may increase your premium amount by a little, but it maximizes the chances of your claim getting approved. If we do not mention our pre-existing diseases and it gets detected during treatment, our claim will get rejected.Top-Up & Super Top-Up Plans: It is often noted that rising healthcare costs render the cover(sum assured) insufficient. Many people thus have to purchase two policies. For them, these plans come as saver. These top-up plans will cover expenses if bill crosses the sum assured. Top-Up plan will cover additional expenses only for once during the policy period. Super Top-Up plan will cover additional expenses for multiple times during the policy period. So, it is better to go for Super Top-Up plan in case you need these kinds of plans.Conclusion: So, while choosing your health insurance plan you should first shortlist Top 5 policies according to %Claim Settlement. Cross out those (if any) who do not have Tie-Ups with hospitals in your city of residence. Then cross out those (if any) who do not have In-House Claim Settlement. If are still left with multiple choices then decide according to low premium and bed charge coverage. If you frequently fall ill you should select higher OPD Coverage by paying a little extra with the base plan. You may choose Super Top-Up if you feel that you need a higher amount as coverage.If you have any further doubts on Health Insurance, you can send me a message on Quora.Thanks & RegardsRaj Mondal

Let’s say 19-year-old Petaluma High School senior Chris Sutton finds it in 1981. I’d ask myself, “What is this mysterious object, obviously made by Apple?” To answer that question I know I would have had the time of my life probing its capabilities. I’m setting origin of the iPhone being 2016 just before universal fingerprint ID would make ferreting out the marvels of the lost iPhone much more difficult.I have also decided to add a few ‘fantasy’ features such as a solar charger case and the almost always wanted yet never seen, SD card slot—I would also have liked to have had this feature for iPads and iPod Touches as well. So in this fantasy alternate reality where time travel is possible, an iPhone with a few ‘extras’ can be possible as well (the Time Traveler’s iPhone 6 LE). I know purists might be offended, but it’s my fantasy alternate timeline so just try to humor me.Instead of technological jargon and details, I’ll just give the account of what could have happened if the 19-year-old high school senior (I was held back a year in 5th grade for reasons unrelated to academic progress) I was at the time was the one to find the iPhone 6.I know this is long, but it was fun to write. I hope it’s as fun to read.I’m walking along Washington Street in Petaluma after an appointment downtown, and I see a sudden flash, followed by the abrupt appearance of an anonymous character wearing black pants and a gray pullover hoodie who rushes out into the street, grabbing a person just standing in the road to pull him to safety. This person fights the hooded character, causing a few small items to fall down, unnoticed, before the hooded person manages to practically throw the enraged stranger off the road. The stranger runs away down the sidewalk as a speeding car rockets through the place where seconds earlier they had stood. The hooded character, barely managing to get off to the side of the road in time himself, sees that I’m watching and abruptly vanishes in a flash after quickly slapping something hidden under his right hoodie sleeve with his left hand.I realize in shock that I just saw either an angel saving someone, maybe an alien, possibly some sort of high-tech secret military person, or—as ludicrous as it might sound—a time traveler perhaps saving his or her great-grandfather or more distant ancestor from being killed by a car while the latter is little more than a barely grown teen I don’t happen to recognize.I see cars passing over a small gray rectangular object that I first take to be a flat wallet or a large checkbook cover. Waiting for a gap in traffic, I run out and grab the mysterious case along with a few scraps of paper and bits of what I think are small metal rectangles (micro SD cards are far in the future), only managing to get some of them before the loud honk of a car’s horn reminds me to get off the road.The first thought when I open up the case is that it’s some kind of calculator protected by something rubbery with a stiffer plastic frame with an external solar cell array mounted on one side of the exterior. Then I see the Apple logo, and realize that it has to be something high-tech, kind of similar to a Texas Instruments scientific calculator, except made by the same company that makes the desktop BASIC Apple II computers I regularly use in my computers class at Petaluma High. I wonder where the keyboard or number pad is, only seeing a few buttons on the perimeter of the object, and one larger button on the bottom of the flat black area.I take a closer look and see there’s a tiny lens at the top of the black area next to a small horizontal slot, like a spy camera of some sort—slot for film? I turn over the mysterious object and discover a larger ‘spy camera’ on the back. I can’t find a place where someone might be able to load a roll of film, though for the bigger one. Certainly not through the earphone jack—way too small for anything else. Maybe the lenses are for something else that just looks like a camera, such as a photo-cell for automatically turning this thing on after dark or a miniature solar cell?I experimentally press the large button on the bottom, and nearly drop the object in shock as I see the purest colored, sharpest, high-resolution television screen I’ve ever seen abruptly lighting up—no wait time for the picture tube to warm up. How is this possible? It has to be the flattest picture tube ever made, I conclude. Aside from a brilliantly detailed and beautiful astrophoto full of pinprick fine star images with some unknown nebula in the lower right corner, all I can see is a row of strange small symbols at the top of the video screen, the time in some sort of projected digital clock, and the date. Both are wrong, though the date is correct. Today is 2:50 pm Monday, May 4th, 1981, and the object shows 10:15 and Wednesday, May 4th. On the bottom of the now glowing screen, just to the right of a blunt ‘greater than’ or “>” sign are the words, “slide to unlock.”*******************************************************To make things a little bit easier on 1981 Chris, our time traveler, knowing the need for a charger would have a solar-cell-powered unit with an optional 110 V plug (fully compatible with 1981 electrical outlets, since they’re almost exactly the same as 2016 outlets in the US), possibly integrated into the presumably removable case. So the iPhone going dead wouldn’t be an insurmountable issue. This iPhone would also have the traditional removable lithium hydride battery. Also slightly earlier iPhone 6, so various jacks and interfaces would be easier to deal with than iPhone X, but still pretty futuristic.To keep frustration levels low for 1981 Chris, the time traveler would be as trusting as I am—I don’t lock my cell phone often since I don’t do any financial transactions with it, neither does the time traveler for the same reason—nor does he use any of the personalized features such as email or leave any identifying details for curious 20th century folks to find. He also doesn’t bother to set the early version fingerprint ID security feature.Since the time traveler needs to know where to go in his time so he will be in the right place in 1981 to save his dopey grandfather, he downloads the Maps app data from 2016 cellular G3 to get the pretty colorful map that 19-year-old me sees. As any iOS user knows, the app merely goes into the background rather than completely shutting down when the app is closed, so when younger Chris turns on Maps in 1981, the street data for that immediate part of town is still available despite the total loss of cellular service. The GPS data would only update the phone’s position relative to the already downloaded map. I also chose that particular intersection in old town Petaluma because the street layout is exactly the same now as it was in 1981, with even the same stores and gas stations open in 1981 are still open and in business in 2016. Old Chris would not see enough differences to suspect the Maps street data was from the future version of Petaluma.******************************************************I can’t find anything to slide, thinking that there has to be something to slide across the bezel just below where the screen ends in the direction the “>” indicates. No matter how close I look (I had excellent close-up vision back then) I can’t find any switch to move in the indicated direction. The screen times out and the mysterious object seems to turn itself back off again, and I feel scared that I messed up. Hope against hope, I again press the home button and accidentally touch the screen the moment it lights up again. Something happens. The object emits a pleasant sound, and a circle appears right where I touched the screen and vanishes a moment later.I put it together in my mind that this thing’s screen reacted to my fingertip somehow, and I experimentally lower my finger to the “>” sign and slide it across the words. I’m astonished to see I’m somehow dragging the “>” sign image with my fingertip. When the “>” covers the “k” at the end of “unlock” the screen radically changes.Flying in from the edges are a bunch of what I first think is some sort of cartoon of moving abstract art consisting of colorful glowing squares, but in moments I can see they’re actually tiny glowing pictures of various items with single or two-word titles below them. A green square has a drawing of a phone receiver in the middle and says “phone.” I wonder how something that looks like a very compact mini-television set would have anything to do with a telephone. There’s a compass thing that says “Safari,” is it some sort of map? Then I see another square that has “Maps” below it. Messages with a comic strip bubble—another kind of cartoon? Then “Music.” I figure that this is the least risky one to touch.Very high quality music comes from very tiny speakers on the bottom of the object when I touch the play button image. I listen to a disco song by someone named Katy Perry, not knowing she won’t be born until 1984, then some slow music where some guy seems to be reading rhyming verses in some strange kind of chanting manner to the rhythm of the song (I had no idea what rap was in 1981), then another really nice disco song called Titanium by someone named David Guetta, but it sounds like a woman singing it. Or maybe David is a boy singer like Michael Jackson or Donny Osmond were until recently.Enough of that! I find the image of the square stop button that looks just like the one on my cassette player, and am relieved that it works the same way. After a few wrong buttons pushed, I find I can quit the music player (How did the time traveler get music micro-cassette inside?) and make the colored squares come back on by pressing the large indented button on the bottom of the mini-TV screen.I really want to know what this thing is. I check the “Phone” one and a screen showing touch-tone buttons appears. As an experiment I try to call my home number, getting touch-tone sounds like an actual telephone would have as I pick out each of the numbers in my home phone number, but neglect to touch the green phone button on the bottom, so nothing happens. I belatedly notice that there was no dial tone—so no wonder it doesn’t work. I fail to notice in the busy tiny print at the top of the mini flat picture tube there’s “no service,” so even if I had touched the green phone image, it still would have done nothing. It’s obviously not a telephone—just some useless detailed light-up picture of a touch-tone pad with special effect sounds. Maybe it’s a play telephone computer program for kids? I find that I can quit this program just like I did the music one by pushing the indented button at the bottom of the TV screen. The array of squares appears once again.I touch each little square and find various functions. The Safari thing just shows a blank page and “No Internet connection.” What is an Internet? I ask myself.The first fully functional item that really gives me a chill is the Maps function. The GPS network is still classified in 1981, but there have been fully functional GPS satellites up since 1978. Apparently this Apple mysterious object is getting live positioning data, and actually shows a light circular blue spot on a finely detailed and beautifully colored video street map (I have no idea at the time that the map graphics were preloaded in the future by cellular data, and am later perplexed as to why the beautifully detailed map graphics are gone the next time I restart the Maps app after rebooting the mysterious object—though the glowing spot that moves when I do reappears) right next to glowing line images of Washington Street by Howard Street positioned exactly where I’m standing. I start to walk, while holding this mysterious object out in front of me, and a speed of 2 mph shows up, the circular spot starts to move, with a fuzzy flashlight-beam glow appearing, seemingly coming from the spot that shows exactly that I’m walking toward the west. I increase my walking speed and turn the corner onto Howard Street, and the glowing ‘beam’ in front of the spot turns to the left on the video screen with me and stabilizes again, now showing that I’m going 5 mph and moving south this time. I’m pretty freaked out, and push the home button to Exit the Map program.I figure out the lens system on the back of the mysterious object is really both a still camera and a video camera in one. It seems the yellow dot next to the lens is a reusable flash. I can view still pictures of stuff and a short video on the mini-TV screen. I can’t figure out how to make this thing eject the picture like a Polaroid camera would do, though.I find the Calculator app and a few games (some are pretty strange) and am amazed at the computational speed, but I cannot find a way to enter BASIC so I can write a graphics program to see how fast it renders compared to how fast I remember it ran on the Apple II I use in class. Oh well…I finally conclude it’s a hand-held computer with lots of software it can access just by touching a lit square, with incredible capabilities including the touch screen interaction, (though it will take me a while {with some expert help} to figure out it’s also a microwave radio transceiver on four different frequencies {Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, and cellular digital carrier signal}, and that the ‘non-functional’ digital touch-tone phone image with sound-effects actually means something after all.) Since I’ve figured out that each colored square corresponds to a switch that makes the mysterious object load software related to the picture, I wonder how many miniaturized floppy disks are squeezed inside this compact marvel.The Calculator app is the most familiar once I get used to the touch screen virtual buttons. I can do square roots and multiple powers of stuff with instantaneous results—my calculator is pretty slow compared to this.When I drive my car (I had a Mazda Rx4 at the time) back home, I decide to keep the phone a secret for a bit, due to my then distrust of my father (we got along a lot better in later years), and continue to probe its capabilities.The moment I get home I use my microscope to inspect the screen and the various images. Despite being much finer in detail, the magnified screen consists of patterns of red, green, and blue dots just like a color TV but in far smaller lines of each color in pairs of microscopic squares alternating with tiny gaps. This in stark contrast to the much larger triangular RGB groups of round dots I’m familiar with that are large enough for me to see close-up with my naked eye on a normal color TV picture tube. I can’t fathom how somebody could make a color picture tube this small, cool to the touch, that has such wonderfully finely detailed color, and the ability to apparently turn instantaneously on—it’s beyond amazing.I have absolutely no idea how touching the mini-TV screen actually controls this mysterious object. I just have to accept this magical ability at face value and simply make use of it.For some reason I have skipped looking at the Calendar app while exploring the other mysterious object’s capabilities. Now that I’m safely in my bedroom back in the rural location of my family’s farm about three miles west of Petaluma, I decide to take a look, and find out why the days of the week are wrong. Turns out they’re correct, but not for 1981. This Apple mysterious object is from 2016. My heart skips a beat; then it starts to pound.This Apple gizmo is proof of time travel! This thing has futuristic capabilities because it’s from the future! Thrills shoot up and down my spine like crazy as I try to get my mind around what I’ve just discovered.It all makes sense now why it has so much capability in such a tiny device. Miniaturization apparently has continued over the next 30–35 years until it’s compact enough for a computer more powerful than a modern main-frame to fit inside of something thinner than a cigarette pack. They must have also figured out how to make ultra-small picture tubes that fit inside this mysterious object during the same 35 years and somehow manage to use the front of the picture tube to allow control of the computer with fingertips touching the screen over glowing images of the programs I want to load.I belatedly get out a few of the scraps of paper I had grabbed, most turning out to be receipts with strange extra numbers and lines besides prices, and dates ranging from 4/3/13 to 5/1/16, but a larger wrinkled handwritten note definitely catches my eye.Remember that you have only twenty seconds and no second chances.Don’t hesitate before saving Grandpa. When you see him, immediately run out to him on the road—there will be a sufficient gap in traffic.Remember, he will fight you, so be ready to pin his arms.Throw him off the road after you pin him—he remembers you doing it.Get off the road yourself ASAP—and don’t get hit by the same car that killed Grandpa!If someone besides Grandpa sees you, signal for immediate retrieval.Most importantly: DON’T DROP ANYTHING!!!Good luck in saving our timeline.The note just confirms my unbelievable and astounding conclusion that the Apple ‘mysterious object’ is from the future. He definitely messed up on #6, though. I figure his loss is now my gain. And what a gain!!!I get visions of becoming rich from selling the future technology—it won’t really be stealing, since the technology probably hasn’t even been thought of yet by its future inventors, much less patented or even partly invented. They can invent other stuff instead. With all the money I’m about to make on the reverse engineered tech, I’ll be able to help NASA get to Mars by 1985 or maybe a little bit sooner. Maybe I’ll be able to go along myself! (My imagination was pretty unfettered by reality back in 1981.)What marvels this thing must have inside of it! I have to know, but I’m still terrified that Dad will confiscate it and turn it into the US government, so I continue to hide it from him and Mom. It’s too big of a discovery for me to keep it a secret forever, though. I soberly realize that I also have no idea on how to get to the technology hidden in this Apple mysterious object, and figure out how to meaningfully analyze and use the technology found in this wonder. I certainly don’t want to damage it.In other words, I need help.I first reveal it to Bob F., a really intelligent private investigator and avid amateur astronomer—and a true friend who I can fully trust to keep a confidence. He’s as puzzled as I am as to what it is. He recommends I find somebody with greater familiarity with micro electronics.For useful help I turn to a neighbor I have babysat for and have become friends with, a real-life genius engineer, Joe W., who works for Hewlett-Packard in the microchips R&D department. I swear him to secrecy, and then reveal the ‘mysterious object’ to him. He almost faints in shock, since he’s bright enough to guess what it is when I turn it on—and that it’s impossible with current technology for a device like this to exist now. Once catching his breath and letting me fill him in on how I got it, I give it to him to examine and he pores over it like a paleontologist pores over a delicate hominid fossil, using the brightest lights and most powerful magnifiers and binocular microscopes he owns. We then start to take notes—lots of notes.Joe sneaks it into work several nights over the next few weeks and on weekends during times of ‘extended research’ on ‘classified’ matters he cannot share with others in his group, and is able to obtain soft X-ray and other high resolution analytical images and data. In addition to checking over the Apple mysterious object he also analyzes a couple of the micro SD cards I had picked up along with the ‘mysterious object’ under the lab’s electron microscope, discovering each are ultra-miniaturized, high-density data storage modules with unique circuitry to allow access far more quickly to data than currently developed hard drives and floppy disks.He’s thrilled it’s a ‘perfect machine’ with no moving parts—a concept we both got from reading Arthur C. Clarke works. It boggles his mind that these tiny things, about the size of his thumb nail, have 32 or 64 Gigabytes storage capacity, more than all of this particular Hewlett-Packard facility’s mainframe storage at the time. He discovers the Apple mysterious object has a slot in the phone’s interior near the battery that these micro SD cards can fit into one at a time—sad to say there’s no data except music and games on any of the fingernail-sized removable memory (I know real iPhones don’t have micro SD slots like this, but this is the very limited edition “Time Traveler iPhone 6” model, so this one does!). He of course documents the holder and contact configurations, knowing now what it’s for. Joe finds the mysterious object also has ultra-compact memory similar to the micro SD cards permanently wired into the rest of its electronics.He brings his findings home to share with me over the rest of May. It’s now time to seriously get to work, since summer vacation has just begun (I barely register graduation I’m so enthralled with my ‘secret’ project with Joe). I have never been so eager in my life to explore the wonders of the Apple mysterious object, now that, thanks to Joe W., we have the means and time to do so.To make sure we haven’t broken anything, we reassemble the mysterious object and make sure it still works. Joe’s hands are so steady he probably could write legibly on a grain of rice, and he needs to be this steady-handed since the wiring connectors are so fine. Much to our relief it starts up normally when we put it all back together again.After booting it back up and checking over and writing down some settings information we had not previously looked at, I introduce him to a game I found earlier called Angry Birds, which he plays for a minute. He soon stops playing and shakes his head sadly at the ‘waste’ of such magnificent graphics technology and computational power on a game consisting of nothing more than strange round ‘birds’ that are supposed to be thrown by slingshots and other means at pig images, and shuts it down to the home screen. He likes the graphics calculator a lot more, and plays with a few complex equations he types in from memory with much greater enthusiasm, being totally awed by the functions’ projections on the xyz rotating grid, but realizes that time’s a wasting, so he shuts down the app. We turn the mysterious object off and carefully take it apart again.We decide to record about 350 cassette tapes of the future music first, then we take it back apart, making sure we have written down the song name, artist, year released, and album first for each song. Just in case the tech sales don’t pan out, we could sell the music back to the original artists a few years before they were going to come up with the same songs anyway. That way we would not be stealing, merely inspiring the artists ahead of time. When the tech does prove profitable, we decide to not scoop the music industry and privately enjoy the sneak peeks instead, though we do make the occasional private bet about which new songs will become hits—we have an amazing track record of being right.To make a long story short(ish), after Joe is able to verify its year of production (he finds the information in the settings, and that this mysterious object is actually called an iPhone), we carefully dissect and document the iPhone’s technology (we finally figure out its primary function) so we’re able to obtain patents on much of the technology we can find and successfully analyze and document, and then we contact Apple and offer to sell the phone to them for a billion dollars or negotiate for a lower amount if they can’t handle that much of an expenditure—they can deal with the stuff we can’t figure out.They aren’t interested at first until the fifty or so 3 X 5 glossy photographs we mail to them (lots of closeup pictures of processors, connectors, screen layers, etc.) prove this is not only futuristic, it’s apparently their own technology. Then they’re very interested. In fact Steve Jobs, Jef Raskin, and Stephen Wozniak all burst into tears of happiness and giggles of sheer glee when they examine what I had found and we are about to give to them at a private meeting in exchange for the cashier’s check.We settle for $20 million—well, even fantasies have their limits.Once they’re convinced the tech is actually profitable, the offers become more generous.We negotiate a 10% profit share with each patent they subsequently purchase from us, and both Joe’s family and mine are multi-billionaires by 1985. Our first valuable patent is on the solid state memory technology ‘gleaned’ from the micro SD cards and the permanently mounted interior one inside the iPhone itself. That technology is one of the first we license to Apple, IBM, Cray, Xerox, Texas Instruments, and Microsoft. Motorola buys most of licensing rights to the processors patents, Hewlett-Packard buying up the rest. The Retina LCD and touchscreen patent licensing is the most lucrative, as every other computer company in the world wants touchscreen and high resolution LCD technology. Profits from our lithium hydride battery patent license sales aren’t so bad, either.In this re-engineered reality, Apple releases the iPhone 1 in 1986, totally skipping by the idea of the Newton, and the first 2.0 GHz processor, made by Motorola, comes out by 1988 in a Macintosh of course (takes Apple, Motorola, and HP a few extra years to figure out the manufacturing technology needed to get the size down and the speed up in the processors).Cellphones abruptly go from brick-sized (and weight) monstrosities to digital devices almost indistinguishable appearance-wise from 2010s smartphones from our reality over a period of just two years from 1984 to 1986. They would be significantly slower and graphics of somewhat lower resolution due to reverse engineering of the processors taking longer than other aspects of technology, and very primitive when it comes to Internet—at least at first (no SIRI for you!—with apologies to the Soup Nazi of Seinfeld fame). Cellular technology would be a work in progress, being just a few steps up from analog microwave telephony in 1986. They would function quite adequately as mobile phones of course right from day one. Within a few years, though, the differences become much less significant as data transfer protocols catch up with the tech.The historical introduction of the Macintosh is quite different than in our reality. In 1984 the first millions of colors desktop Macintosh is dramatically introduced to American football fans as a fantastic new leap forward in the world of desktop microcomputers with innovative flat-touchscreen technology (‘with the brightest and most detailed images you have ever seen on a screen, yet it has no picture tube’—<dramatic voice>) during Superbowl XVIII.By 1986, when the iPhone 1 is released they also introduce the iPod 1 (with touchscreen and solid state memory of course) and have a fully functional iPad with Retina display ready for Patrick Stewart to use as Captain Picard’s Padd prop on the Enterprise bridge set in Star Trek the Next Generation in 1987.All Macs after 1988 have a mouse, a keyboard, and of course an HD Retina LCD touchscreen technology monitor, but no spinning hard drive or floppy disk slots—why would Apple perpetuate obsolete technology when there’s something more cool with no moving parts? Solid state memory quickly becomes universal for internal data storage, portable memory, and retail software packaging; only CD/ROM and DVD drives in later models have moving parts.Life was good; now it’s a tad bit better.As for Mars, it isn’t until 1997 before we finally get a crew of 8 there. That little ‘anonymous’ $50 billion donation to NASA helps some.