In case you were wondering, Vice President Joe Biden did not order all the cattle guards in Montana to be fired, pull tabs from cans will not buy dialysis machines, and neither do plastic bottle caps provide prosthetic limbs for wounded soldiers. 
According to snopes.com (the debunker of Internet email), Internet lies, rumors and humor fall into distinct categories of legend and myth. Two of the categories are virtually the creation of the power of email and the Internet.
Slacktivism: A uniquely human form of email nonsense, it's ideally suited to the gullible and appealing to the lazy. Slacktivism is effortless activism. Change the world by simply forwarding an email!Get a free computer from Bill Gates by just putting your name on an email! Boycott a company June 5! Forward an email and automatically help a dying child!
According to snopes.com, "Slacktivism comes in many forms, but its defining characteristic is its central theme of doing good with little or no effort on the part of the person inspired to participate through the mechanisms of forwarding, exhorting, collecting, or e-signing."
Glurge: Heart-tugging stories featuring angels, puppies and children, all of which carry a moral lesson and are presented as true.
The thing about Glurge is that it actually can be true, which gives it its power. One example of a true Glurge is the story of premature twins born in 1995.One twin struggled to live; the other was strong. When the weak baby was placed with the strong one, the strong twin put her arm around her sister, stabilizing her sister's breathing and calming her down.
On the other hand, Glurge can be false.National Geographic never ran an article about a mother bird that burned in a forest fire to protect her chicks.
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