Craig Robinson of Flip Flop Flyin’ has designed (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!), a poster where each dot represents one word of the Beastie Boys song of the same name and each color represents which band member is singing that word. At his site, he has posted a hi-rez version of the poster and asks people who download it to donate money to a cancer charity.

via I Love Charts and JHN BRSSNDN

Eight British blood donors recently paraded around London painted in circulatory system body art as part of a campaign to encourage blood donation ahead of the London Olympics. The campaign is by the National Health Service.

via Metro.co.uk & Street Anatomy

Craig Engler of Syfy has authored the book titled Weight Hacking: A Guide For Geeks Who Want to Lose Weight and Get Fit which “is simply an operating system for nerds that shows them easy ways to incorporate better eating and sound nutrition into a geeky lifestyle.” Weighthacker is the companion resource site for made for “weight hackers” (people who devise clever solutions to lose weight). He is currently holding a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo to publish the book and if you’d like a copy, you can donate to the campaign and choose to receive the book as a perk.

Craig himself has lost 65 lbs., check out his before and after photo:

Thanks to Craig Engler for the tip!

Terminally Illin’ is a graphic novel, co-created by cancer survivor Kaylin Andres and Jon Solo that tells the story of a young woman in her 20′s who is diagnosed with cancer. While in treatment she takes a journey inside her own body and learns more about the disease affecting her and how her body fights against it.

It’s inspiring to see the medium being used for something more noble: a story about an all too real enemy to humanity, authors who are passionately dedicated to their project, and a plan to directly share any benefits with the people who need it the most.

Last year Kaylin and Jon successfully raised money on Kickstarter for a 26-page black & white preview of this story. That book was published by legendary San Francisco independent publisher Last Gasp. The current Kickstarter project (which will end on May 21) will realize their complete vision of a full-color Terminally Illin’ book that is well over 100 pages.

We have 80 pages already drawn and colored, so we’re about half way finished with the book. It’s very time consuming and without funding, this project might take years to complete. We’d like to finish it this year.

The donation benefits not only reward those who give money, they also send cool anti-cancer stuff to patients in cancer centers around the country. The oncologically proactive schwag include a “Chemo Cocktails” screen print, immune system cell pillows, and a bandana based on the Egyptian papyrus that is the earliest description and treatment of cancer from 1600 BC. Yes, cancer education just got both geeky and cool.

Inspired by the support of Kaylin’s cat Iceman through her own ordeal, there’s also a spotlight on the pets of cancer patients in the story. They form their own superhero team “Pet Justice”:

You can tell from the video that Kaylin and Jon bring a great attitude and sense of humor to this project. And that they are dedicated to creating something helpful and inspiring for those who are fighting against this disease. As Kaylin said in their first Kickstarter video:

I want to create something that speaks to other young adults on their level, having been there myself. For support, useful information, a distraction, artistic expression, and most important of all laughter which is the best medicine.

Hopefully this comic can be some help especially to the 70,000+ young adults who are diagnosed with cancer in the US each year. The American Cancer Society’s Cancer.org is a great source for more information on the disease. The original Terminally Illin’ preview comic Kickstarter video is below.

Thanks to Colin from Last Gasp for letting us know about this project!

Hacking Autism is an ambitious project to develop free software applications to improve the lives of people with autism (video). Last Fall the project hosted its first hackathon, which focused on touch-enabled applications for the autism community. Hacking Autism recently released their first app, Mihi, a simple iOS app that helps kids communicate their feelings. Hacking Autism is sponsored by HP.

To raise awareness about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, ad agency McCann Digital Israel produced a one second YouTube ad that the viewer must repeatedly play in order to read, in a clever simulation of the repeated behaviors that are a symptom of the disease. The ad was produced for the International OCD Foundation. McCann has released a case study video about the campaign:

via Adweek

Your Medical Diagnosis Options on Chuck & Beans

Ed’s Story is a documentary film series by Dr. Ed Dobson about his amazing over 11-year journey with ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease). The first film in the 7-part series is the lovely It Ain’t Over where he “reminds us that life isn’t over yet and that we don’t have to feel overwhelmed by the struggles we’re facing today.” Donations can be made to Flannel, the nonprofit organization behind the series, to help fund more films in this project.

…Difficult news can sometimes make us feel like our lives are over. Ed shows us that we don’t know the future, and that things may turn out quite differently from what we expect.

via The Awesomer

First Lady Michelle Obama participates in a tug of war with Jimmy Fallon in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House during a “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” taping for the second anniversary of the “Let’s Move!” initiative, Jan. 25, 2012.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Late Night host Jimmy Fallon battled it out in a friendly fitness competition inside The White House to raise awareness for the Let’s Move! initiative. They competed in several games together including a potato sack race, hula hoops, tug-of-war, dodge ball and more. Let’s Move! is a campaign “to bring together community leaders, teachers, doctors, nurses, moms and dads in a nationwide effort to tackle the challenge of childhood obesity.”

photo by Chuck Kennedy

These radiation safety posters were produced at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1947.

via Retronaut

images via Oak Ridge Associated Universities

Breast cancer survivor, Linda, created What Breast Cancer Is, and is Not, a powerful video that frankly describes her personal experience with cancer. She also shares harsh words for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the controversial breast cancer organization that has recently been in the news.

Breast cancer is fear, it’s being scared. It’s the unknown. It’s trauma. It’s everything plus more.

…And one more thing. One thing cancer is: it makes you frank. It makes you say what you feel, it makes you no longer scared. When your surviving, you’re ready to fight the world and I wanna tell you something right now, the foundation, you showed your ass, now you can kiss mine. Thank you.

via Lori Dorn and Crooks and Liars

Things That Cannot Screen For Breast Cancer by Lian Amaris (see Xeni Jardin’s post on Boing Boing for the backstory)

via Lori Dorn & Nick Douglas

Hellnuts by Raid71

RCHOP by by Raid71

Cosmic Kiss by Raid71

Artist Chris Thornley (aka Raid71) was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and in response created a fundraising site called Art V Cancer that sells his art posters to benefit cancer research.

Art V Cancer is run by Chris Thornley (aka Raid71 the illustrator) & Julia Hall.

A couple of years ago our life, and our family’s lives were turned completely upside down when Chris was diagnosed with a very rare incurable non hodgkins lymphoma at the age of 37.

The first thing we thought of is death, cancer = death. But having lived for these years with cancer the first thing we can say is cancer doesn’t mean the inevitable; We soon discovered that there are over 200 differnt types of cancer and that most cancers are treatable, manageable and in some cases curable. More and more people can survive cancer but there is still a long way to go.

By buying a poster from Art V Cancer, we promise to donate all profits (only a small amount will be used to pay for posting and packaging etc.) to charities researching cancer cures and supporting those who are learning to survive cancer.

via OMG! Posters

Breast Cancer Campaign She-Hulk by Maísa Chaves

Breast Cancer Campaign Wonder Woman by Maísa Chaves

Breast Cancer Campaign Catwoman by Maísa Chaves

Breast Cancer Campaign Storm by Maísa Chaves

Each one reads:

Nobody’s immune to breast cancer.

When we talk about breast cancer, there’s no women or superwomen. Everybody has to do the self-examination monthly. Fight with us against the enemy and, when in doubt, talk with your doctor.

The Mozambique satellite office of international advertising firm DDB launched a breast cancer awareness public health campaign for Mozambique’s Associação da Luta Contra o Cancer where familiar superheroines are giving themselves self breast exams. Graphic designer Maísa Chaves illustrated each of the woman for DDB: She-Hulk, Wonder Woman, Catwoman and Storm.

via Boing Boing