THERE ARE HEROES AND HEROES - JUST ANOTHER MEME

The 12^th April is marked by a number of events both cultural and historical that can be described by the term meme. A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena.

The first such event I can personally recall is the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the 12^th April 1945. He was still in office and his vice president Harry S. Truman became the 33^rd President of the United States. I was a very young child at the time, but I can recall my parents being terribly upset. My father cried. Although their sympathies lay with the communist party, they were very strong Roosevelt supporters. Why I have a memory of this I cannot say. Perhaps it was the sight of my father in tears. I can recall more vividly hearing the radio newscast of the 1948 election results when Truman astounded all by beating Thomas Dewey at the poles.

Famous photograph of Truman grinning

and holding up a copy of the newspaper

that (erroneously) announced his defeat

The next event relates to Terrance Stanley "Terry" Fox CC OD, (July 28, 1958 – June 28, 1981) a Canadian humanitarian, athlete, and cancer research activist. On the 12^th April 1980, with one leg having been amputated, he embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research. The Marathon began Fox dipped his right leg in the Atlantic Ocean near St John’s, Newfoundland, and filled two large bottles with ocean water. He intended to keep one as a souvenir and pour the other into the Pacific Ocean upon completing his journey at Victoria, British Columbia.

Although the spread of his cancer eventually forced him to end his quest after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres (3,339 mi), and ultimately cost him his life, his efforts resulted in a lasting, worldwide legacy. The annual Terry Fox Run, first held in 1981, has grown to involve millions of participants in over 60 countries and is now the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research; over C$500 million has been raised in his name.

Laurence A. Canter and the late Martha S. Siegel were partners in a husband-and-wife firm of lawyers who, on 12^th April 1994, posted the first massive commercial Usenet spam. To many people, this event, coming not long after the National Science Foundation lifted its unofficial ban on commercial speech on the Internet, marks the end of the Net's early period, when the original netiquette could still be enforced.

Canter and Siegel were not the first Usenet spammers. The "Green Card" spam was, however, the first commercial Usenet spam, and its unrepentant authors are seen as having fired the starting gun for the legions of spammers that now occupy the Internet.

In 1997, the Supreme Court of Tennessee disbarred Canter in part for illegal advertising practices. William W. Hunt III, of the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility, said at the time that he believed it was the first time a lawyer had been disciplined for Internet advertising practices. Cybersell, a company established by Canter and Siegel in 1994, was dissolved by default in March 1998 after repeatedly failing to file annual reports or pay its incorporation fees. 

In May 2010, Laurence Canter attended ROFLCon on the ‘Heroes of Usenet’ panel.

Jay Furr, Laurence Canter and Brad Templeton

from the "Heroes of Usenet" panel at ROFLcon II 

ROFLCon is a biennial convention of Internet memes that first took place April 25–26, 2008, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The meeting was first announced in late 2007. The ROFLCon team spent months tracking down people associated with memes, but many of the invited guests did not attend. The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information. 

Attendance was open to the public after pre-registration and a fee. The primary events of ROFLCon were moderated panel discussions with the Internet celebrities, and question and answer sessions with the audience. Several guest speakers gave talks on issues pertaining to Internet culture. Various Net celebrities attended, such as the authors of the webcomics xkcd, Questionable Content and Dinosaur comics, Jay Maynard “The Tron Guy”, moot, Leeroy Jenkins, the Brothers Chaps, and many others.