Scarcity of Blood Donors

I was shocked the other day to read the other day that only 38% of Americans could give blood if they wanted to. The CBS article Number Of Americans Eligible To Give Blood Overestimated By 60 Percent  explains why.  When I started donating in college, I think they asked potential donors about seven questions, including about how the donor was feeling that day.  I think there were several dozen questions that I answered to today before I donated.  Without working at a place with a regular visit by a blood bank, I hadn’t donated in four or five years.  With my new job, I now drive past a hospital with a blood bank four days a week, so I decided to schedule an appointment there.  I am pleased to report that the juice and chocolate chip cookies were very good.

Powers and Old Ranch

This morning, the Gazette reported

The intersection of Powers and Old Ranch Road now tops the city’s list of the 25 most dangerous intersections while many hot spots from the past year saw fewer crumpled cars and injuries.

This is an intersection I drive past several times a week, and I thought it looked extremely dangerous from before it opened. Powers looks like a limited access highway at that point, and there is very little warning that there is at grade crossing with a signal at the top of the hill. In addition, the drivers on Old Ranch do not have good visibilty to see the traffic that might be approaching on Powers. I wonder if this report will lead the traffic engineers to consider some risk mitigation like flashing lights on Powers to warn of the intersection.