The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

03:30 Jan 22 2010
Times Read: 816

*You might really want to read this*



I was just doing a bit of number crunching because I was bored and what I found was pretty interesting.



I was figuring out how many gay people there were in my local area. Using a few methods I found that within 5 miles of my position there are between 700-1,500 gays. Now according to several national studies and census records within my zip code there are 3,100 gays. This number, when broken down according to the size of the zip does support my independent figure of 1,500 in the 5 mile radius.



For my town there should be 5-6,000 gays.

Nationally 15,200,000 gays with an additional 35 million people reporting some homosexual activity (meaning more than once but not exactly bi). If we assume that there are a number of people who don't admit being gay we could be looking at around 20 million gays in the US.



20 million gays and 10 million "minor bisexuals" (those who have sex with members of the same sex but not as much as with the opposite sex). So 30 million people who on a fairly regular basis engage in homosexual behaviour.



There are 38 million blacks, 14 million Asians, 2.5 million Indians, 23 million veterans, 6 million Mormons, 1 million Buddhists and 3 million Jews.



Something is wrong here. I am an evil person for not saying "African-American" and yet even though the 'gay' population rivals the black population I can't get married, I can't get certain types of insurance, I can't give blood and I can get fired for being gay.

There are 10 times the number of gays as Jews and yet Jews have their own holidays, their ability to "rule the world" is well known (and not far from fact, which really is no big deal). And yet if a teacher comes out as gay he's fired, a lesbian runs for office and she looses.



I don't know of a single gay person who has ever seriously asked for something more than that automatically given everyone else at birth. So why, when there are 15 million exclusive homosexuals and another 15 million or so bisexuals, is there still so much hatred, intolerance, prejudice and denied human rights (ironically granted to everyone by US and international law without any small print saying "fags excluded")?



In this country being homophobic is about the dumbest and most hypocritical thing a person could be. Even here on VR there are people who discriminate solely because someone's gay. But, what's worse are the people who tolerate this kind of behaviour. Now, I'm thinking of a member specifically and his prejudice is a well known secret yet few seem to really care. Oh, sure they disagree but think nothing of treating him like he's the most wonderful person on Earth.



And thats the main problem in the US and world in general. It isn't the homophobes keeping gays as a 3rd class with no real rights it's the people who disagree but lack the backbone to do anything about it.



The Bible has something to say about folks like that and I tend to hold the same feeling.



Revelation 3:15-16 says: "I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth."



It's better to be a racist, homophobe, sexist or any other "ist" than to say you disagree with those views and yet do nothing about it and freely support those who hold them.



So the next time you say you don't have a problem with gays think again and make sure you're not just being spineless.

04:49 Jan 18 2010
Times Read: 848






Here is the farthest picture ever taken of Earth. It was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1990. The distance, 3.7 billion miles (40x the distance Earth is from the Sun). According to NASA the Earth takes up only 0.12 pixels.



Carl Sagan said of our pale blue dot during a speech on May 11,1996.



"Look again at that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.



Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.



The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.



It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

08:29 Jan 04 2010
Times Read: 874

Here's some interesting info about US hospitals.



Total Number of All U.S. Registered * Hospitals

5,815



Number of U.S. Community ** Hospitals

5,010



Number of Nongovernment Not-for-Profit Community Hospitals

2,923



Number of Investor-Owned (For-Profit) Community Hospitals

982



Number of State and Local Government Community Hospitals

1,105



Number of Federal Government Hospitals

213



Number of Nonfederal Psychiatric Hospitals

447



Number of Nonfederal Long Term Care Hospitals

129



Number of Hospital Units of Institutions

(Prison Hospitals, College Infirmaries, Etc.)

16



Total Staffed Beds in All U.S. Registered * Hospitals

951,045



Staffed Beds in Community** Hospitals

808,069



Total Admissions in All U.S. Registered * Hospitals

37,529,270



Admissions in Community** Hospitals

35,760,750



Total Expenses for All U.S. Registered * Hospitals

$690,073,646,000



Expenses for Community** Hospitals

$626,576,958,000



Number of Rural Community** Hospitals

1,998



Number of Urban Community** Hospitals

3,012



*Registered hospitals are those hospitals that meet AHA's criteria for registration as a hospital facility. Registered hospitals include AHA member hospitals as well as nonmember hospitals. For a complete listing of the criteria used for registration, please see Registration Requirements for Hospitals.



**Community hospitals are defined as all nonfederal, short-term general, and other special hospitals. Other special hospitals include obstetrics and gynecology; eye, ear, nose, and throat; rehabilitation; orthopedic; and other individually described specialty services. Community hospitals include academic medical centers or other teaching hospitals if they are nonfederal short-term hospitals. Excluded are hospitals not accessible by the general public, such as prison hospitals or college infirmaries.











So hospital only expenses are $690 billion and in the US we spend around $2.2 trillion on health care each year. Which means that about 32% of all expenses paid for health care goes to hospital expenses, which doesn't include private doctors etc. The point is, yeah prices are insane and there could be A LOT done to lower them and help people with little income or chronic illnesses but given everything hospitals aren't the biggest "problem". So be happy in most cities you can walk into any ER and get treatment regardless of income or insurance as opposed to being denied or having to wait days-months for treatment.

02:02 Jan 02 2010
Times Read: 888

Some of my first thoughts for 2010.



I was watching a show about WWI and learned that around 2,000 men died within 6 hours of the official end of the war with over 3,000 US casualties that day alone as well.



Then they started talking some about those injured and brought up something very interesting. We often think about the honoured dead and how much they gave but for some reason we're almost not allowed to talk about those who were permanently disabled and disfigured as a result of war.



In total, there were 37 million casualties but of those 20.5 million lived. One can only speculate that there would have been at least 9 million people permanently disfigured or disabled in some way as to make their lives exceedingly difficult.



Yes we must honour those who died but we can't ignore those who offered to die but were left to live a life forever changed, in pain and with nightmarish memories.



I know this isn't the most upbeat entry especially given that it's the first day of 2010 but war is one of those easy lessons that we can't seem to learn.



The following is a partial list of war casualties from 1910-present:



1910-1921 Mexican Revolution - 2.1 million cas.



1912-1913 First Balkin War - 198,108 wounded, 171,005 killed



1914-1918 WWI - 9,991,000 killed, 21.1 mill wounded



1917-1923 Russian Civil War - 2.1 mill casualties



1918-1919 Polish-Ukrainian War - 25,000 cas.



1928-1949 Chinese Civil War - 3.2 mill cas.



1936-1939 Spanish Civil War - 500,000 cas.



1939-1945 WWII - 24 mill dead, 22 mill wounded



1950-1953 Korean War - 330,000 dead, 1.3 mill wounded



1959-1975 Vietnam War - 1.5 mill dead, 2.1 mill wounded



1967-1975 Cambodian Civil War - 1.6 mill casualties



1971-1991 Ethiopian Civil War - 250,000 dead



1975-2002 Angolan Civil War - 500,000 dead



1977-1992 Mozambican Civil War- 900,000 cas.



1990-1991 Gulf War - 36,000 cas.



2001- Present Afghan War - approx 15,000 cas.



2003-Present Iraq War - approx 136,000 cas.



If we add up the smaller conflicts since 1910 the total military casualty cost is 95 million men and woman! However, if we include the cost of civilians killed or injured in wars, revolutions, conflicts, genocides etc for the past 100 years we get a figure closer to 145 million people killed or injured!



With that I leave you with part of a speech given by Gen. Douglas MacArthur at the surrender ceremony on the USS Missouri.



"It is my earnest hope, and indeed the hope of all mankind, that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past -- a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance and justice. [...]



A new era is upon us. Even the lesson of victory itself brings with it profound concern, both for our future security and the survival of civilization. The destructiveness of the war potential, through progressive advances in scientific discovery, has in fact now reached a point which revises the traditional concepts of war.



Men since the beginning of time have sought peace.... Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. We have had our last chance. If we do not now devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door."