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Going Pink For October 352

Posted by kdawson from the in-all-seriousness dept.
Matthew Oliphant is inviting anyone and everyone to turn their Web sites pink during October, which is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Nearly 150 sites have done so as of this writing. And by the way, guys can get breast cancer too.
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Going Pink For October More

Going Pink For October

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  • OMG Ponies!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by nacturation ( 646836 ) <nacturation AT gmail DOT com> on Sunday October 01, 2006 @06:29PM (#16269609) Journal
    Imagine a month filled with pink fluffy ponies. Bring it on.
     

  • Finally (Score:4, Funny)

    by IPFreely ( 47576 ) <mark@mwiley.org> on Sunday October 01, 2006 @06:30PM (#16269621) Homepage Journal
    A good reason to revert to OMG Ponies!
  • I redid mine last month ... but went with Brown. Oops. Who could've expected that pink would make a comeback? Ah well. Maybe I could put a ribbon-image on it instead ...

  • Strangely unfamous cancer (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Henry V .009 ( 518000 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @06:31PM (#16269633) Journal
    What color do I make my website for prostate cancer?
    • Violet.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by dema ( 103780 )
      What team is playing the Raiders right now?

    • Re:Strangely unfamous cancer (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01, 2006 @06:43PM (#16269769)
      I always make that point too. Prostate cancer is as prevalent in males as breast cancer is in females, and kills about the same number of people too.
      But for some reason there isn't the same concern for it.

      What is really disappointing is that some women criticise men for not caring about breast cancer, but seem completely unconcerned themselves about one of the most common cancers for men.

      As with most things gender-related, it shouldn't be a case of competition, but it is for the simple fact that there is an overwhelming lack of effort out there on the part of men's health issues.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by lakeland ( 218447 )
        Prostate cancer has a much higher tendency to affect older people than brest cancer. When you're old, people expect you to get sick... People don't like the idea of previously healthy 40 year olds suddenly getting mortally ill and prostate is less of a problem in this age bracket than brest cancer.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dfghjk ( 711126 )
          Not only that, but prostate cancer is very slow growing and easily treated if you catch it early. Furthermore, if the patient is quite old the doctor may not treat it at all since prostate cancer takes a long, long time to develop.

          I get prostate exams yearly, or more often if you count what my boyfriend does ;-)

      • Re:Strangely unfamous cancer (Score:5, Insightful)

        by t-twisted ( 937590 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @07:13PM (#16270053)
        I have mod points but I can't let this pass:

        The only reason breast cancer awareness is so high is because women, WOMEN, organized themselves and brought both the public and government's attention to it. This was more a grass-roots effort that became a force to be reckoned with than a "oh, never mind the men, we women are more important!" action. Breast cancer was thought to be treatable and curable through early detection and women set out to prove it through these campaigns, rather than continue the barbaric treatment of lopping off their breasts and blasting them with chemotherapy to treat any and all signs of cancer.

        Yes, prostate cancer is high among men, it's the second leading cancer for men. For every 3 men who die of prostate cancer, 4 women die of breast cancer, so it's almost, but not quite, equal. What makes it more unequal is 70% of all prostate cancer cases occur in men 65 years or older in age. Compare that to 50% of all cases of breast cancer cases occur in women 61 years or older in age. In addition, prostate cancer can be so slow-growing as to be a non-issue in men - they frequently die of causes OTHER than prostate cancer due to age.

        I think it's misguided to be "bitter" that one group garners more attention than the other, when one group isn't doing as much as the other to bring attention, publicity and resources to their cause. You're right, this isn't about a competition, this about who is doing what for their "own". And don't think men do not benefit from the publicity and research generated from these campaigns, as men can get breast cancer, too.

        However, I can't even believe you went there with your "overwhelming lack of effort out there on the part of men's health". Please. Do you know how differently signs of a heart attack present themselves in women than men? Yet the rhetoric (tingling in left arm, shortness of breath, etc) is always about signs of impending heart problem in a man, not a woman, yet heart disease is the #1 killer of women, too.

        Don't be upset because a group of people got organized. Organize yourself and get out there.

        T.

        • Re:Strangely unfamous cancer (Score:5, Insightful)

          by mordors9 ( 665662 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @07:29PM (#16270189)
          You are certainly correct about women organizing and making breast cancer more of a cause celebre than prostate cancer or for that matter lung cancer or heart disease. And I agree it shouldn't be an us against them situation. Unfortunately the competition for research dollars does seem to be a zero sum game. It also reminds me of the outrage that arose a few decades ago when women's groups raised the awareness of the American public that little girl's weren't being treated fairly in the schools. Now girls are graduating high school and going to college at a much higher rate than boys. There seems to be very little concern about that either.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by snarkth ( 1002832 )
          For the most part, males don't discuss this sort of thing in quite the detail women do, when it comes to body functions. It's a fundamentally old, and stupid, social firewall rule. *snarky*

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by proverbialcow ( 177020 )
        Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is one of my biggest pet peeves about breast cancer awareness.

        I think the risk of prostate cancer is higher by a considerable margin. A quick Googling for information got me: 18% for prostate cancer, 14.3% for breast cancer. Plus, how many more men die from it because they leave it untreated?

        As one previous poster noted, Prostate Cancer Awareness Month was September. Not a great sign for your awareness-month when nobody knows when it is.

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by ByTor-2112 ( 313205 )
          What would you rather talk about, breasts or prostates? I think you have your answer! That, or you have a rodent fetish...

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Thrip ( 994947 )
        What do you mean by "out there"? Who do you expect to make that effort? I'm no expert on the subject, but it seems to me that a lot of breast cancer survivors have been very vocal in trying to raise awareness, whereas prostate cancer survivors tend not to be overly eager to talk about it. Let's face it, men choose to suffer in silence because our macho image is more important to us than our health. And if some guy tries to get me to wear a ribbon or buy a teddy bear in support of prostates everywhere, I'm j

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dfghjk ( 711126 )
        It's not a competition, but breast cancer kills more women each year than prostate cancer kills men. It generally strikes younger and treatment is more disfiguring. All in all, I'm happy to have to deal with prostate cancer rather than breast cancer although I know that if I live long enough I'm sure to get it eventually. Fighting the slow effects of andropause with hormone replacement is likely to have a very beneficial effect on prostate cancer (although that opinion is controversial).
      • But for some reason there isn't the same concern for it.


        Maybe breasts are just more beautiful and attractive than prostates. :-)

      • Warning: I'm not entirely emotionally rational on this subject. Please read the rest of my post with this in mind.

        Look. I am a woman at extremely high risk for breast cancer. My mother had breast cancer. My father had cancer. Going back further, the family history I have of cancer borders on the ridiculous. Furthermore, I have extremely large breasts, which is another risk factor. (The more tissue, the more room there is for tumors to grow. Also, larger breasts make cancer harder to detect just b

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Hahnsoo ( 976162 )
      Apparently, it's light blue for Prostate Cancer, and Prostate Cancer awareness month is September (at least it was last year).
       
      Breast Cancer strikes fear in the heart of many women despite being one of the most treatable cancers. I'm sure TFA has his/her heart in the right place, even though I can't see how making pink websites would make a difference.
    • Not sure, but I can tell you the color for colon cancer...

  • Not ponies (Score:4, Funny)

    by Kuku_monroe ( 753761 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @06:32PM (#16269649) Homepage
    OMG, Cancer!!!

  • I'm in what else can I do? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by josepha48 ( 13953 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @06:39PM (#16269713) Journal
    less than two years ago one of my sisters was diagnosed with breast cancer. Today I just discovered my other sister has breast cancer. It's spread to her bones, so the doctors are treating her with chemo. She's 47!

    So what's the #xxxxxx code for pink or do we just use 'pink' ( which is kinda dark ).

    What else can we do?

    BTW: guys, get your selves checked for prostate cancer!

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      BTW: guys, get your selves checked for prostate cancer!

      That's why my website is "Going Brown For October"!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by thewiz ( 24994 ) *
      So what's the #xxxxxx code for pink or do we just use 'pink' ( which is kinda dark ).

      Check here http://www.htmlvalidator.com/htmlval/fontsandcolor s.html [htmlvalidator.com] for a selection of pinks.

    • Re:I'm in what else can I do? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Speare ( 84249 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @07:16PM (#16270089) Homepage Journal
      If you are somehow GIMP-challenged to the point of not understanding the eyedropper tool, here are a few I snagged from graphics on a breast cancer site:
      • #ff99cc
      • #eeaac3
      • #f594cb
      • #f197c0
      • #fbd9e1
      • #f50f95
      The first one is a "safe 216" color, which I threw in as a bonus for the really ancient websites and video cards stuck in 256-color modes.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by davidc ( 91400 )
      #ffcccc looks good.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jc42 ( 318812 )
      So what's the #xxxxxx code for pink or do we just use 'pink' ( which is kinda dark ).

      Yeah; I was wondering about that. You'd think they'd have a standard shade. So I followed a few of the links, and looked around the source. I didn't find a #xxxxxx number anywhere.

      When I re-enabled the web pages' colors, I didn't find many that were pink, and those seem to have done it with a background image. Hmmm ...

      Anyone know if there's a standard pink here, and what its RGB values are?
      • Just use whatever colour of pink you find looks good. 99% of people have improperly calibrated monitors and won't see the correct color anyway, so it's not like it matters.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by neoform ( 551705 )
      http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ [worldcommunitygrid.org] they've got a "help defeat cancer" program.. i run it on all my computers as the screen saver..

  • Breasts (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tx ( 96709 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @06:40PM (#16269729) Journal
    I'm all sypathetic for cancer sufferers of course, but I have to say I'm personally much more interested in non-cancerous mammaries. I vote we have a National Breast Awareness month (without the cancer) next month. Dunno what color we should turn our websites for that though, I would've said pink, but apparently it's been taken :).
    • You seem to be plenty aware of breasts. Any more awareness might cause an explosion. (You could stare at your chest for a while, but it might not be as exciting.)

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by eikonos ( 779343 )
      I vote we have a National Breast Awareness month (without the cancer) next month.

      I like your idea, but maybe we can just use the other eleven months to celebrate breasts without cancer? ;)

  • questioning its use (Score:4, Funny)

    by xIcemanx ( 741672 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @06:41PM (#16269739)
    We should stop celebrating breast cancer awareness and start celebrating breast awareness [theonion.com]. Millions of lives are tragically affected by unawareness of the full size and scope of these breasts. Failure to screen breasts early and often can lead to a rapid deterioration of sexy roles and a premature end to one's film career. Regular examination of breasts needs to be an important part of people's lives.
  • "The Hunt for Pink October"

  • "Awareness"? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Hao Wu ( 652581 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @06:55PM (#16269891) Homepage
    What does awareness do except make people falsely believe that something is being done about a problem?

    "Awareness" is organized complacency.

    If you want to fight breast cancer, then do it in a laboratory or hospital setting - someplace where caring actually matters. (...and stick your "pink-website" concept back up your ass where it came from...)

    • I completely agree. However, the "awareness" items that are sold in stores contribute to meaningful things like research. Pink websites don't have the same effect unless all of the ad revenue is being donated to some laboratory. If people just promote awareness without actually helping a cause, then you're right, they can stick their pink site up their ass, because it's not helping anyone. The OMG PONIES theme could be used out of spite.

    • Re:"Awareness"? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by davidc ( 91400 ) <cdpuff&gmail,com> on Sunday October 01, 2006 @07:28PM (#16270181)
      Awareness might make the difference between a woman having a mammogram, or not.

      Let's not be ignorant about this: screening and early detection can make a huge difference in breast cancer (others, too!). I just don't agree that awareness makes people think they are safe. And, yes, something is being done about the problem, starting with screening.

      Every bit of publicity helps. Please don't belittle educational programs. Grass-roots education for regular screening arguably helps as much as the latest whiz-bang chemotherapeutic agent. If you catch it early, you markedly improve survival rates.

  • How much more awareness are you expecting? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Will_Malverson ( 105796 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @06:57PM (#16269915) Journal
    Is there any woman still out there not aware that sometimes her boobs can develop lumps that will kill her? If such an utterly clueless person exists, is turning websites pink really the best way to communicate with her?
  • My first thought on reading the title was that there was some sort of marketing campaign starting for The Pink Panther [wikipedia.org] series of movies.

  • Why the focus on breast cancer? (Score:5, Informative)

    by windowpain ( 211052 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @07:09PM (#16270007) Journal
    I lost a dear friend to breast cancer in 1998 but I think it's screwy to focus so much on it. Look at this PDF table [cancer.gov] from the National Cancer Institute. It shows that estimated deaths from digestive system cancers (136,180) will be more than triple the number of deaths from breast cancer (41,430) this year. Both figures are for both male and female deaths. Even when you look at just female deaths, digestive system cancers will kill half again as many women as breast cancer will (60,970 vs. 40,970).

    Another example of misplaced public health priorities due to the publicity machine.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by LoverOfJoy ( 820058 )
      I think part of it is that breast cancer can be detected and treated early much easier than other cancers. Are there very good warning signs of digestive system cancers? If not, what will awareness do? Possibly get people to donate money is about all it can do. But if people learn how to check themselves for breast cancer and see a doctor if they find signs of it, they may actually be able to do something about it. It doesn't take much work to stay alert of the potentials of breast cancer. Awareness can go
    • I think it's because guys want to save the boobies!

      On a more serious note; my wife and I raced in the Komen Race for the cure in Milwaukee last weekend. Breast cancer hit close to home when her aunt was diagnosed a few weeks ago. Besides our $25 each to race, we raised $250 in donations. You know what, it felt damn good to do something; even if it wasn't a lot.

      We (and some friends) plan on doing the "Bowling for the Cure" this January as well. Cuz, bowling's what we do in Milwaukee when not drinking b
  • Maybe after October, we can have a bake-sale for the deficit!

  • Disease Gap... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @07:11PM (#16270023) Journal
    Nothing disturbs me more about "charities" than the promotion of one disease over another.

    Besides breast cancer, we all hear about AIDS constantly, and calls for donations. Yet, AIDS research already recieves a disproportionally large ammount of money, if you look at the number of people who die from it, and the ammount spent on other serious diseases.

    Are there any organizations that you can donate to, that just tackle critical diseases at large, rather than having tunnel-vision on one single issue?
    • Nothing disturbs me more about "charities" than the promotion of one disease over another.

      I hate to say it but this mentality is not only old but also very illogical. You fight the fights that you have a chance to win. There is no cure-all solution and focusing on diseases that we've had a great deal of success treating is money better spent due to patient recovery. Not only this but the research for a particular cancer is doubtlessly valuable to other cancer research.

      Are there any organizations that yo

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbIII ( 701233 )
      Yet, AIDS research already recieves a disproportionally large ammount of money, if you look at the number of people who die from it

      There are a lot of fairly nasty diseases in Africa but AIDS is the one that is having the most impact.

    • AIDS research already recieves a disproportionally large ammount of money, if you look at the number of people who die from it, and the ammount spent on other serious diseases.

      Some statistics on AIDs:

      Over 42 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, and 74 percent of these infected people live in sub-Saharan Africa.

      There are 14,000 new infections every day (95 percent in developing countries). HIV/AIDS is a "disease of young people" with half of the 5 million new infections each year occurring among peop

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nido ( 102070 )
      good points... These charities are disinclined to actually "cure" the problem for which they raise money, as they'd be causing their own irrelevancy.

      Also, from the information I've read, both breast cancer and aids are non-issues.

      A large part of the breast cancer cases in the west stem from a single fasion accessory: the brassiere. Bras (especially the kind with underwires) restrict the flow of lymphatic fluid in the breast. See A Pinch of Cancer: Can Wearing a Bra Kill You? [chetday.com]. Also worth noting is the th
    • Screw that, man. Why should diseases get all the money? I want to donate my money to an organization that solves problems, in general, without actually focusing on any particular problem.

      To really be fair, though, I'm going to insist that they not give my money to anyone who's trying to solve a specific problem, either. I want my dollars to go to people who are trying to solve every problem at once. That's the only way I can really be egalitarian.

  • One cancer patient says Gag Me With a Pink Ribbon (Score:5, Interesting)

    by reifman ( 786887 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @07:12PM (#16270051) Homepage
    Jeanne Sather, a breast cancer survivor, at Assertive Cancer Patient [assertivepatient.com] says "Gag me with a pink ribbon: Where pink marketing really runs wild is in the for-profit sector. Retailers offer pink-themed merchandise, then donate only a tiny share of the profits to cancer research. I'm tripping over these products everywhere I go this month. At the pet store, a pink dog collar printed with pink ribbons sells for $9.99; the tag says 30 cents (30 cents!) from the sale of this product will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the 800-pound gorilla of cause marketing." and more.

  • This is dumb. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by prescor ( 204357 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @07:14PM (#16270057) Homepage
    I'm a guy who three years ago had a lump-ectomy. (Mammograms are NOT fun, y'all. The girls can KEEP 'em!) Fortunately, it was benign.

    That said, "pink sites" is a dumb idea. Or sites of any OTHER color to support a cause. Still, I support freedom of speech and all that. Anyone who wants their site pink because of breast cancer or panther fetishes or whatever, well, more power to 'em.

    I still think it's stupid.

  • Its NOT just sites - its CITIES! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by nighty5 ( 615965 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @07:22PM (#16270133)
    I noticed this last week while walking home from work, passing the Opera House (Sydney) down to the park it was illumiated in completely pink. It looks really cool.

    This effort is global, cities around the world are getting involved in the cause.

    I'm suprised nobody else has seen this, maybe most stay in underground server rooms not to notice?

    http://www.globalillumination.org.au/ [globalillu...ion.org.au]

    For Australia, "Porches in Pink will begin a day after the Global Illumination on Sunrise, with Australian porches remaining pink for the duration of October to show Australians' support for breast cancer research." ::

    http://www.porchesinpink.org/ [porchesinpink.org]

  • Just another.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kbox ( 980541 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @07:31PM (#16270207) Homepage
    ....Temporarily pretend you give a shit about something month/week/day.
  • more women die of lung cancer than breast cancer? Isn't the goal to save lives? Most people already know what the pink ribbon means. Let's start reminding them about a worse killer.
  • I've been making a spreadsheet to track all the various causes, charities, awarenesses, and other various things I have to observe in my life. Breast Cancer gets its turn then.

  • And by the way, guys can get breast cancer too

    Yup, just like Ryan O'Reily [hbo.com]

  • I have a solution (Score:3, Funny)

    by GodfatherofSoul ( 174979 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @07:51PM (#16270367)
    Early detection wouldn't even be a problem if women weren't so damned sensitive about strangers groping their breasts. Every time I try to diagnose a girl at the local bar I get smacked and treated like a pervert.
  • Have all the breast cancer awareness you want. Add prostate cancer to the mix too, raise all the money you like, but I am not fucking changing the colour scheme of my web site to something horrid that makes it unreadable so I can be politically correct.

  • Will google have a logo? (Score:5, Funny)

    by cvd6262 ( 180823 ) on Sunday October 01, 2006 @09:35PM (#16271301)
    I wonder what the creative artists at gOOgle could come up with for their logo for October....

  • pink my butt (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cdn-programmer ( 468978 ) <<ten.cigolarret> <ta> <rret>> on Sunday October 01, 2006 @10:05PM (#16271555)
    While I definately want to keep breasts where they belong, it occurs to me this is an opportunity for wee geeks to show how insensitive we can be.

    A common joke in engineering circles is that engineers tend to use their personalities for birth control.

    I expect programmers and web masters have this technique refined somewhat.

    So if we are to support breasts and the idea of keeping them where they belong, then perhaps it behooves the primary beneficiaries to share the benefits with wee geeks rather than the jocks (jokes anyone?) in the crowd which urban lore would suggest are questionably more desireable?
  • Thanks for the awareness? How come there's no breast cancer prevention month? Wouldn't an attempt to educate people on how to spot the disease early on and get it properly treated be a better use of resources than some stupid pink theme? It's always walk for a cure, or some other crap like that. They NEVER talk about preventing breast cancer. They use mammograms for that. But with the way things are now you'd think you could stop breast cancer with a big smile and a long walk.

  • Why? (Score:2)

    by mh101 ( 620659 )
    So, nobody would know about breast cancer, except for the fact that web sites change to a pink color scheme for a month? Uh, yeah, sure.

  • How about a National CANCER Awareness month (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SetupWeasel ( 54062 ) on Monday October 02, 2006 @01:40AM (#16273399) Homepage
    This shit must infuriate people with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

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