Slashdot Mirror
Going Pink For October
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.
Imagine a month filled with pink fluffy ponies. Bring it on.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
So I guess Slashdot was just ahead of the curve back in April?
A good reason to revert to OMG Ponies!
There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
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 ...
What color do I make my website for prostate cancer?
IT's funny how Slashdot will post the story, but not do the deed...
makes ya think...
First post?
OMG, Cancer!!!
//WR
how does this help? I admit I didn't read through the article so what's going on - do they have links to cancer charities on these pink pages?
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!
Only 'flamers' flame!
Does slashdot hate my posts?
You can go pink, but don't be surprised if someone thinks it's for National Coming Out Day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Coming_Out_D ay/
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 :).
Oh no... it's the future.
We should stop celebrating breast cancer awareness and start celebrating breast awareness. 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.
It seems like the next month we're gonna have to go with black themes, to promote bright-color-induced eyestrain awareness.
Don't forget to turn your websites black and white. Oh, you did already.
We guys can't get breast cancer because we don't have breasts. We have pecks, those of us who are still men, and the rest are a bunch of transexuals!
Friggin liberals!!
For the ultimate in both Breast Cancer awareness and just plain old awareness of breasts, be sure to visit this Fifth Annual Boobiethon (http://boobiethon.com/) - women baring their breasts for cancer awareness... not to be missed! You can say you helped out the fight against cancer when you donate to see all the wonderful boobies! :)
"The Hunt for Pink October"
Prostate cancer kills as many men as breast cancer kills women, but do we men get a month or a ribbon or a colour changing website campaign? Breast cancer "research" also gets about 5 times the funding too...
I'm sorry, but until there is some equality there, my stuff is staying the same colour!
You're using her as bait, Master!
I'm all for Breast Cancer Awareness, don't get me wrong, but how about we promote prevention instead of detection once in a while?
"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 suggest you read Slashdot
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?
I have breasts, Turn-X Alphonse, can you milk me?
So why the fuck should I care? Everywhere I look there is 'Breast cancer this, that or the other thing' going on. All this 'awareness' seems more like the trendy thing people do to show they care for PR's sake rather than a genuine attempt to help. And more to the point, it seems like the trendy thing people get behind because it affects women. Nobody seems to give a shit about things that happen almost exclusivly to men. Prostate cancer kills a similar number of men each year but nobody give a turd about that. I have never seen a 'walk to stop industrial accidents' (in which men are almost always the victim) campaign - at least not involving my bank - CIBC - which is always having some breast cancer thing going on. Violence against women is a problem, even though men are victimized at far higher rates and have always been. And even if it has nothing to do with the male/female thing there are far more deadly things out there that need to be dealt with. Traffic accidents are 10x as deadly but only my insurance company has ads encouraging safe driving. And alcohol. Alcohol is a huge killer, but you'll never see anyone trying to discourage drinking (no no no no, by all means, continue drinking, but 'please drink responsibly' o_0).
So, why should I care? Come on, give me a reason. Is your campain a narrow minded female-centric PR move or simply a gross waste of resources that could be spent better elsewhere?
Why pink--More women get colon cancer than breast cancer--how about brown
My first thought on reading the title was that there was some sort of marketing campaign starting for The Pink Panther series of movies.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
Netvibes' new Cinnamon release has a pink theme that looks pretty good.
Slashdot Classic
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 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.
Insert witty sig here.
Maybe after October, we can have a bake-sale for the deficit!
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?
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Men die younger, they have Prostate cancer to worry about, higher suicide rates, reckless activities, higher incidence of autism and are more likely to die in wars. After aout 70 years old, women outnumber men by so much it is not funny.
It is time to start taking care of men!!!
, because it usually isn't detected or diagnosed until it hits an advanced stage.
http://www.johnwnickfoundation.org/index.html
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
Jeanne Sather, a breast cancer survivor, at Assertive Cancer Patient 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.
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.
signat-url: http://www2.potsdam.edu/dctm/prescor/signat-url.h
http://www.johnnowak.com/
http://justcurio.us/ is way ahead of the curve
Exactly what the comment says - will slashdot turn pink for a great cause?
Every year millions of innocent boobies around the world are lost to the effects of cancer, won't you please help stop this scurge so that all of us can enjoy the presense of more boobies in our daily lives? Please give to the American Breast Cancer Foundation and support its cause.
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/
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/
I guess that explains why that flier was pink. :ms:
....Temporarily pretend you give a shit about something month/week/day.
God Be Gone
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.
"All the darkness in the world can not quench the light of one small candle."
> It is time to start taking care of men!!!
;)
To begin with I suggest a few anger management courses to get those stress levels down.
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.
I'm fairly confident that everyone is aware of breast cancer. We certainly get it thrust in our faces enough. They're basically saying that people in general, and women in particular, are essentially stupid and ignorant and have to be reminded all the time of things they need to take care of like regular breast exams. If this is indeed an issue, they should look at the real reasons why people aren't getting regular breast exams (costs, lack of insurance, etc.) instead of just blindly assuming that people are stupid.
It's a very dark ride.
And by the way, guys can get breast cancer too
Yup, just like Ryan O'Reily
You just got troll'd!
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.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
I make it a policy to never support anyone who has the arrogance to self-declare a National or International/World day, week, month or year of anything.
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, International Year Of The Family, National Alzheimers Week, World AIDS Orphan Day... every day is fully booked three times over by countless random special interests that might be worth caring about, if they weren't more interested in fzcking with the calendar than working on their pet projects.
If I declare this decade to be the InterGalactic Commemoration Decade Of The 31st Year Since The Birth Of The Future Universal God-Emperor Ashgar, who is going to pay *me* any attention?
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.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
This is a great idea so I've gone pink too.
Bradford L.
http://www.modemhelp.net
wasn't feb or mar or april Breast Cancer Awareness month?
... i've already lost my mom to breast cancer in my teens. i do contribute to medical distributed computing (mainly for showing off my ePenis on stats pages) but i guess i'm just too bitter to "contribute" or hang a ribbon around :P
call me bitter, but i don't support any of those "causes"
Men don't organize, especially not for the collective interests of men. We are hardwired to compete with each other, grouping together like that would be too "weak". Sure, it can be unfair in the era of identity politics, but that's the way it is and it's not going to change. Actually, gay men seem to deviate from male norms in this aspect, maybe they could get going on broader men's issues once they acheive their more immediate identity group's goals, that's the only solution I see. So, any gay men care to comment on the possibility of them leading a men's interest movement in some hypothetical world where the gay issue is settled? It seem that lesbians were quite prominent in the feminist movement incidentally.
The real issue here is prevention.
Early detection, which is essentially what breast cancer awareness month has become, is not the same as prevention, which has more to do with controlling cancer risk-factors.
I would like to see more emphasis on controlling the risks: eating habits, obesity, environmental/heredity factors.
I wonder what the creative artists at gOOgle could come up with for their logo for October....
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
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?
Laugh all you want, but my Hard Core Setup Engineering blog has proudly gone pink today. After giving me two wonderful daughters, by wife has been diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. Cancer is serious stuff my friends. I hope you never have to find out personally.
This story goes a little bit deeper than this. I'm all for ending the scourge of cancer, but going all out on an initiative to eliminate breast cancer exclusively is blatantly disgusting. Prostate cancer kills as many men as breast cancer does women. Everywhere I go I see various initiatives for breast cancer funding, eg tshirts, donation drives, this current colouring scheme, but I don't see a peep about prostate cancer.
Basically, what it all boils down to is the disposable status of men in society. "Womens Health" departments get far greater funding than those for specifically mens health concerns (if those departments exist). Men are engaged in the "glass cellar" jobs that are so unpleasant and so critical to the running of society, the jobs with the highest mortality rates, suffer higher rates of depression and suicide, do worse in schools, are homeless more often, die sooner, are victims of homicide more often etc etc. Millions of men have served, often against their will, and died in the cause of liberty becasue a society expected them to. When it comes to women though, it's "my body, my choice". Battered men get assaulted at the same rate as women in relationships, but there are far far fewer battered mens shelters than for women. Etc etc
No, I'm not a misogynist. This is the untold component of "male privelige" in society.
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.
Yuck. But if the point of this is raising awareness "What's that pink ribbon for? Breast cancer awareness, hmmm, what is that about?" etc. then it's doing its job. If it's a campaign for awareness, the goal isn't money, it's getting the word out. I guess they could do more, like put big signs hanging from the dog collar (as an example), though I doubt that would be very practical.
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.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
I'll give it 5 minutes.
No match for "CHECKOUTMYVAGINA.COM". >>> Last update of whois database: Sun, 01 Oct 2006 23:22:25 EDT
Sig: I stole this sig.
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 by feeling it, which is your best chance of catching it early.)
At some point within the next five years, I'm probably going to have to undergo breast reduction surgery. I'm still young enough that it hasn't become medically necessary yet, but my doctor's been suggesting it since I was 16. I'm terrified of this. I hate surgery. I hate the risk that I'll lose all feeling in my breasts. I hate the fact that I probably won't even have the option to breast-feed. I hate the fact that no matter what, I'm going to end up with scars on my breasts.
But you know what? At some point, assuming they don't come up with a sure-fire cure for breast cancer, I'll go through with it. Because I'd rather have scarred, numb, tiny breasts than risk dying.
As such, as you might imagine, I am EXTREMELY supportive of breast cancer research. I try to do whatever I can to get those extra dollars in that might allow me to avoid having surgery. I try to attend those goddamn money-raising breast cancer things, despite the fact that I hate hate hate crowds. If I were any good at dealing with people, I'd organize one. Or several. I do do as much as I can within my areas of expertise to raise awareness. Because. Well. I watched my mother go through chemotherapy. I watched my father go through chemotherapy. I heard about my aunt, and my cousins, going through chemotherapy. And every last dollar that goes to breast cancer research is one more chance I have of not dying.
You want prostate cancer awareness to reach the level of breast cancer awareness? Then advertise it yourself. I'm busy.
Give me a break. How many men suddenly die of prostate cancer in their 30s? Very few. It's something you tend to get as you get older, and it takes a long time to kill you. Breast cancer attacks younger women (and, don't forget, a fair number of men), and can kill them in just a few years. The loss of lifespan for prostate cancer is nothing like that for breast cancer.
Here's something else wrong with your logic: you seem to assume that somebody sits down and says, "This diseases deserves a big campaign, that one doesn't matter." Wrong. Breast cancer gets the attention it gets because a lot of people who give a shit went out and did a lot of work. If your favorite disease doesn't get the attention you think it deserves, you're free to do the same.
What, you think do-gooders are lame? A lot you know. When I was born, people were still afraid of polio. My mother tells me that she couldn't see an ordinary fly without being afraid for her kids. As well she might be: thousands of Americans were killed or crippled by that disease in the early 50s. So a bunch of people got together, raised some money (mostly by going door to door!), got a vaccine developed, and eradicated the sucker, at least in industrial countries.
So please, either stop whining and show you give fuck — or just stop whining.
This shit must infuriate people with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
I love slashdot. The answer to "both my sisters were just diagnosed with breast cancer; what can I do?" is "#ff99cc".
Since your journal entry about this appears to be closed for comments, I'll reply here.
Any woman insulted by the OMG Ponies gag is either not very intelligent, or has not seen MySpace. We are not laughing at women in general, we are laughing at stupid teenage girls. Just to make sure you don't miss this, I am referring to those teenage girls who are stupid, not implying that all teenage girls are stupid.
Note also that I do not speak for all Slashdotters, but I suspect many will back me up that the majority of the posts on April 1st were not anti-female in general, but as I said above, anti-stupid-MySpace-teen-girl.
Really, when we make fun of l33tsp33k and Counter-Strike players, when we make fun of Duke Nukem and Bruce Campbell steriotypes, or when we make fun of jocks, we are not making fun of men in general, but a particular breed of stupid men.
If the OMG Ponies really offends you that deeply, I suspect that it's got less to do with it making fun of women, and more to do with it making fun of something you like. Maybe it's the hearts, or the pink, maybe you like ponies but hate OMG, something like that. But IANAT (I Am Not A Therapist), so I don't really know. I do know it doesn't offend all intelligent women -- my mother thought it was absolutely hilarious.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I dislike it because women read that shit and then retaliate with the kind of 24/7 male bashing you see day in and day out on TV, newspapers, and in the movies.
It's all about do unto others as you'd have others do unto you and all that.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
http://www.hostmerit.com/
Added, also will be donating 25% of all profits this month.
-Kris
More people get prostate cancer, but more die of breast cancer.
We could still use a PR campaign though - even if older men don't look good on posters.
Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others. -Groucho Marx
I would have us not be afraid to have a sense of humor, and yes, I'd have them bash male steriotypes. I'd have to be an utter moron to identify with one closely enough and say "Hey, that's me you're insulting!" It's like the Taco Bell Chihuahua...
Let's just say you need to watch a little more Carlos Mencia, and laugh, and understand.
Perhaps you could give me an example of this retaliation of which you speak? And maybe explain how any of it is directly a result of OMG Ponies?
Also, the headline in your journal calls it "utter mysogynism." This is obviously not true, as I said, to any intelligent woman.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Score: 5, Informative
Now I have to go check my boobs...
Just to start this off (if anyone wishes to continue the debate), prostate cancer (PC) is a somewhat more tricky thing to deal with at the moment. Tests (I'm thinking mainly about PSA here, which is fairly common for detecting PC) have quite a high false positive rate, and they're not all that sensitive. In many cases, by the time PC is detected, the only realistic options may end up being removal of the prostate or radiation treatment, which can result in a reduction of the quality of life of a person (those "leaky hose" analogies come to mind). In addition, PC tends to be more prevalent in older generations, and death by PC may not end up being that much earlier than death by other causes -- yes, it's not very nice to live with, but there's not really a magic bullet to make all people feel better after treatment. With the increase in life expectancy, and development of better treatments, this may change and allow a more positive PR campaign to be carried out.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
Creamy yellow (think about what this cancer affects first...)
Ask me about repetitive DNA
It's OK to not argue. Maybe share stories, give support, or be positive. Bickering over the lack of popularity of prostrate cancer is very stupid. Go call your Mom, and tell her you love her.
"And by the way, guys can get breast cancer too."
Perhaps we should make our sites pink and blue since this is not common knowledge in order to increase "awareness".
Are they showing more cross-sections of the President's prostate again? Ya know, fer my money, you can never have enough of that sort of thing.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
I've achieved *awareness* of the existence of breast cancer. Hooray, problem solved, right?
I'll consider supporting breast cancer efforts when prostate cancer efforts get as much publicity/money/etc. as breast cancer does. It's time to end the inequality among cancer research efforts.
Not to detract from breast cancer, but October is also Domestic Violence Awareness Month, so purple would be another fine color for your site.
Perhaps something like:
G(.)(.)gle
(all in pink, of course)
Ok. I call your bluff. Show us one woman - any woman - who agrees with you.
I'll even hold my breath.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Because it kills women at 35. Other cancers may kill more, but they do it at a later age. When grandma dies it is sad, but the kids are grown up or being taken care of by mom. When mom dies the kids have a problem.
Heart disease kills the majority of women, but at old age. It seems like it gets less attention because people are supposed to die when they get old, so old age diseases seem less important.
I came up behind a car the other day on the way home. It had two magnetic pink ribbons stuck to the trunk, and a license plate frame with little pink ribbon icons all around it. As I passed the car I glanced over and noticed that the woman driving the car was smoking!!
How stupid is that?
I would also like to point out the hudge difference in results from treatment between breast and prostate cancer. A woman having a breast removed is mostly a cosmetic loss, and can be managed with an implant, while a man having his prostate removed will have difficulties with sex, and urination (controlling it) among other things.
Where's National Breast Awareness Month? Why limit it to just cancer? Sounds like discrimination to me.
The rainbow is pretty gay en Europe too...
I imagine it helps to run and operate a porn site. You're probably close to half way there already.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Hmm. Well, I'm all for the pink month, especially since it is very true that men can - and are - getting breast cancer.
But I must admit I'm far more concerned about women getting breast cancer, and think my feelings on the subject are those spoken in The Princess Bride: "There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world."
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Why in the world is this tagged under "boobies"?
/.
Come ON
That's just WRONG!
Remember when Windows were washed, mice were trapped and UNIX guarded the harem?
So our websites will be all black that month!
That is, once we convert from Novenber's brown
(prostate exam campaign) backgrounds, and, of course,
October's pink.
Ain't CSS wonderful? Sure beats actually DOING something about the problem(s)!
PLEASE FOLLOW OUR EXAMPLE OR YOU ARE ALL MYSOGYNIST RASCIST SHITHEADS!
-aqk
I thought most of the internet consisted of pink, breast-aware sites already?
Gah! Sorry about that (now that I'm days too late) always keep drunk people off your computers.
My rantings, only longer and with better spelling..