Who says that behemoth corporations are heartless? Virgin Media had eleven engineers work for three days straight, just to find a single voicemail that 68-year-old Stan Beaton had thought he’d lost forever. It was the outgoing message recorded by his beloved wife Ruby, who died from cancer in 2003. Stan Beaton had kept wife Ruby Beaton’s outgoing voice message for all those years, listening to it himself on occassion, when a change in the Virgin Media voicemail system caused it to be deleted.

Want to make a difference in the lives of familyless cats, dogs, or other animals this holiday season (or any other time)? Over 600 animal shelters have a humane society donation list on Amazon! Just select an item or items from your favourite humane society donation gift wishlist. Making humane society donations has never been easier or more fun (if you find this sort of thing fun, which we do!)

Terms of Service; Didn’t Read (ToS; DR) is a site that essentially distills the Terms of Service from hundreds of online companies and sites, provides a synopsis of those Terms of Service, and rates those terms of service for you. The ratings range from Class A (meaning very good) to Class E (meaning very bad). Not surprisingly, the larger the company (cough – YouTube, Twitter), the lower the rating, while smaller, more privacy conscientious organizations (such as DuckDuckGo, the “search engine that doesn’t track you”) tend to rate more highly.

In the new book The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths Are Solving America’s Coldest Cases, science writer Deborah Halber describes how amateur web sleuths are solving some of the oldest and coldest cold cases in the country. And there are dozens of these cases which these amateur sleuths have helped to solve, with exotic names like “The Lady of the Dunes”, “The Head in the Bucket”, and “Tent Girl”. While these cases bring the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew to mind, these are real cases, with real victims, that have been solved by real people just like you.

A story by the popular food section of Houston food blog 29-25, Whine + Dine, is sweeping the Internet and quickly earning Houston food server Michael Garcia, of Laurenzo’s Prime Rib, the title of “Hero,” after refusing to serve a group of Lorenzo’s regulars who heckled a special needs child with Down’s syndrome.

Starbucks Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz took to the Internet to announce an online grassroots campaign by having his DC Starbucks employees write “Come Together” on the cups of all of their customers to send a message to lawmakers about the fiscal cliff. While Internet grassroots efforts are not typically led by wealthy corporate CEOs, Schultz has instructed the baristas to write the message on the cup of each customer all this week, through December 28th.

Thanks to Henry Timms, deputy executive director of the Jewish community center 92nd Street Y, Giving Tuesday and its upcoming Twitter party is the answer for those who have looked on in disdain at Black Friday and Cyber Monday. While some are stampeding (literally) to get those Black Friday deals, and servers are crashing while consumers are virtually stampeding to Cyber Monday, there has been an air of disgust by many on social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, at the blatant, frenzied consumerism that seems to make those rabid shoppers a parody of the typical American.

There is no doubt that Staten Island is one of the areas that Superstorm Sandy hit the hardest. Stories of heartbreak and heroism are trickling out, leaving those who fared better in the super storm coming up with ways to help.

Every once in a while we get to do something that is really meaningful, worthwhile and, above all, helpful to those truly in need. As the Colorado High Park Fire wildfire near Fort Collins continues to burn out of control – currently up to 43,000 acres with just 5% containment – buildings, and one life, have been lost. And the Wolf Sanctuary, a non-profit dedicated to rescuing captive wolves and wolf hybrids, and giving them a forever home that understands and meets their unique needs, has been burned out.

We seem to most often find ourselves complaining about Facebook, so when we heard about their parental leave policy for employees, we just had to give them a pat on the back. Two thumbs up, even, for being a forward-thinking employer that gives any new parent – female or male, birth or adoption – four months of paid parental leave.

While trafficking in body parts is not allowed on eBay, apparently there is no such restriction on Facebook. And fortunate that is for Carlos Sanchez and April Capone Almon, of East Haven, Connecticut. This is the story of a desparate Facebook status update, a kind-hearted mayor, and a new lease on life.

Text to donate? We’ve had a lot of questions about the messages flying around the Internet that you can text “Haiti” to 90999 and it will create a $10.00 donation to the relief efforts in Haiti following the horrible Hatian earthquake that has left hundreds of thousands dead, and many more injured and homeless. It’s important to understand that the $10.00 will be charged to your cell phone bill.

Here’s a great way to save printer toner ink, and you don’t even have to cut back on your printing to do it! Save toner, save money, and help save the environment! This eco-friendly green* font also puts green back in your wallet! (*And we don’t mean green the color, we mean environmentally friendly!)

We try to use the Internet to do good. We hope that offsets some of the bad that people do on the Internet. For example, many of you are familiar with (and indeed contributed to) our efforts to raise funds to buy food for the people of Dushanbe, Tajikistan when they experienced such a severe winter last year. Today we’re going to talk about something much closer to home – something on a much smaller scale. In fact, such a small scale that it will take only one of you to make a difference. But somebody has to – so if you can, don’t assume that somebody else will.

Disaboom is a social networking website created especially for the disabled – and for those living with people with disabilities and handicaps. Created by Dr. J Glen House, himself living with the disability of quadriplegia, Disaboom offers both medical expertise, and the insight of community members, who share their personal stories and experiences, and the result is a powerful resource for the handicapped where none before existed.