campaign which encourages stadiums to set up annual blood donation events, its an idea which is popular in America. I am already in talks with another NFL team and an English Premier League team.

Please support the campaign at: http://www.stadiatech.com/blood-drive-campaign

Thanks, Sid!

Anyhow, insulin used to treat diabetes is typically bovine insulin, which is made from the cow pancreas. A lot of bovine insulin is/was produced in the UK and the UK had problems with Mad Cow disease from infected cattle. Blood banks can't easily test for Mad Cow disease in donated blood, so it's easier (and safer) to just exclude people who have injected insulin since 1980 (I guess the date pertains to when animal feed companies began turning cattle into cannibals and started this whole mess).

This is one thing I actually do NOT fault the American Red Cross on. And don't get your leather panties in a ringer over the exclusion of homosexual men -- Lesbians are still OK (someone please insert joke here) because they don't have a high incidence of AIDS. There are PILES of other exclusion rules... People who've lived in a number of African countries are out also, regardless of sexual preference because AIDS is rampant there in the general population. They also don't want blood from people who spent "too much" (I think 3 months total) time in the UK during the 1980s-1990s either. That excludes lots of Americans who travel frequently. Also out are people who have ever received a transfusion while in the UK. The concern in both of these is mad cow disease, rather than AIDS, though. In any event, as long as the supply of donors is in fact rather plentiful (despite what they try to make you think), it's cheaper for them to exclude certain classes rather than test every unit for every pathogen with the most accurate (and expensive) tests. The American Red Cross doesn't admit they collect a lot more blood in the US than is really needed here, because sales to overseas markets is one of their biggest sources of income. And, they need a lot of that to support a bloated management structure that includes a CEO getting over $400K per year salary.

Gays are allowed to give blood...as long as they haven't had sex since 1977. I've had some dry spells, but nothing that lasted that long, so I'm pretty much banned from ever giving blood. I suppose I could lie (since I know I'm HIV-), but something about lying so I can give my blood to someone else doesn't sit well with me. I'll keep trying and they'll keep declining, and my B- offerings will do no one, save myself, any good. Stupid Red Cross.

It's still free - doesn't cost you a thing to give your blood. No matter what you may think of their business policies, giving your blood is free and it definitely saves lives!

Want to know what's stopping me from donating blood? Effing needles.

Punch me in the face and put a cup underneath my nose and I'd be ok with it, but I just get creeped out by needles.

My gripes about the American Red Cross?
1. Whenever there is a national emergency (Sept 11th, Hurricane Katrina, whatever) they are very quick to organize all sorts of emergency donation sites so that "the public can "help out". This occurs whether or not the emergency actually results in a NEED for blood.

2. Much of the blood they collect (especially on such emergency drives) is merely sold overseas as a means of Red Cross fund generation. There isn't anything technically wrong with this, but they work very hard to hide what's going on, and to instead imply that people are helping victims through donations.

3. Even if I donate a zillion units of blood, I still get charged if I ever *need* blood.

4. If they ever get ahold of your phone number, look out! They'll call and pester you day after day about upcoming blood drives. If you screen the calls, they don't leave messages, insisting to keep bothing you until you actually speak to them.

5. They attempted to hijack the many millions of $ donated by Americans into their 9/11 victims' relief fund to instead re-equip themselves with new computers and other office equipment. It was only after they investigative press (and the U.S. Congress) got ahold of the scam that they eventually relented, and agreed to spend "victims relief $" on victims' relief.

6. Ask any American service veteran (especially one who served in a theatre of war) what they think of the American Red Cross. 9 out of 10 times they will hate them.

I would have gotten it years ago if I didn't keep moving to different states with different donation services.