Most people love the high they experience from positively impacting lives of others. As such, they keep going back for more. One website has taken advantage of this concept to help those in need of blood cells.

The site, Thank Your Donor, allows recipients of blood, platelet, plasma, and stem cell donations to share their success stories. They can share pictures, videos, and little blurbs about themselves, which makes the process much more personal.

A little encouragement and appreciation for such services go a long way fostering repeat donors.

If you've ever considered going to a blood bank to donate cells, here is a simple tool to help you find one nearby.

Privacy rules for some patients have prevented many nursing home operators from disclosing resident sex offenders. Although federal law requires every state to register sex offenders and release their information under circumstances where protection of the public is an issue, individual states differ in terms of who must be notified.

Some states require that churches, neighbors, schools be notified whenever a sex offender moves to the area, but few require providing notice when they are admitted into a nursing home. This may be surprising to some of you, but the problem is so pervasive that several states have passed laws relating to long-term care homes in recent years.

Here's a bunch of quick links that might not be worth a whole blog of their own, but you might find helpful anyway:

Waking Up is Hard To Do - Not just a song, it's a reality for many. Here are some tips I found to help you get your day off to a great start.

Random Acts of Kindness - Citizen Hunters, if you are looking for a little bit of inspiration, check out beliefnet's random acts of kindness gallery. Collectively, selfless acts can make a great impact in our world!

What You Need To Succeed - Here is a list of 10 skill sets the Huffington Post suggests you should master in order to succeed at just about anything.

How much Does Your State Volunteer? - The Corporation for National and Community Service recently conducted a study on the rate of volunteerism nationwide. You may be shocked by the results.

Medical Myths Exposed - Every few years we hear about different things we should be incorporating into our daily routine. Here is a list of 7 myths you've probably heard that are either untrue or lack scientific support.

Be a Green Dancing Machine - Dancing isn't just for fun anymore. Start trying to save the environment one step at a time. Green Nightclubs are opening up worldwide.

My friend Dana introduced me to a unique group of philanthropically-minded young professionals in New York City. The Purl Foundation , a charitable organization created to help the homeless population in New York by providing warm articles of clothing and blankets. With several volunteer knitters making their own creations, in addition to donations from others, people’s lives are being saved from cold winter nights on the streets.

For more information on how you can help, visit their web site. If you are in the area on August 20th, feel free to stop by their Kick-off Fundraiser.

Recently, the federal minimum wage rate in our nation was raised from $5.85 to $6.55. While many individual states set their minimum wage above that, The Bureau of Labor Statistics has indicated that millions, of American hourly workers are paid at or below the federal minimum rate. Despite this increase, more people are feeling the crunch to make ends meet because it is offset by continuously increasing costs of living, food, and other basic necessities.

Click here for other interesting recent stories on the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Heart disease, diabetes, and other metabolic side effects of obesity affect both adults and children. Some of this may be hereditary, but sometimes it can result merely from a poor diet and lack of exercise.

When preventable, it saddens me to think that children with obesity and other related problems live shorter and less healthy lives. What happened to the good old days where people were outside and active? What became of the time before TV, before video games, before computers, and before all sorts of gadgets were created to do our manual labor for us? Sedentary lifestyles are a continuing problem with more health consequences than one can imagine - for people of all ages.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has recently recommended that cholesterol testing include children as young as two and provide preventative treatment for patients from families with a history of related health problems. Some speculate that future generations could develop insulin resistance and fatty liver if given cholesterol-lowering and other prescriptions too early in life. However, others may argue that screening for problems early on could save lives.

How early is too early to start monitoring your children's health?