Shirt.Woot

Excellent. Propaganda we can't understand but are strangely drawn to. And great to see kaseyfleming back in the game.

Yeah, so what does it say?

I hope those are tentacles and not flippers. 'Cuz if they are, I don't think science is to blame.

wr7en wrote:Yeah, so what does it say?

kaseyfleming wrote:Thanks!
it should should say "SCIENCE" then "Human Testing Today" and at the very bottom "for the future"

Soo, it was boots' turn was it?
so why the secrecy?

Seems lovely at first, then somewhat disturbing when you look closely.

Well played, kaseyfleming!

lstaff wrote:Seems lovely at first, then somewhat disturbing when you look closely.

Well played, kaseyfleming!

Yes. Very nice!

Seems like I saw this advert on a wall in an episode of 'Firefly'...

While you maybe could not wear this in a biosafety level four lab, you could wear it in a biosafety level 3+ lab. You'd just have to autoclave it

Japanese? Tentacles? I know exactly where this is going.

Talk about doing a double take.

I'm tempted to get this, if only just to enrage my Japanese friends. The grammar is far from perfect, so that's sure to drive them nuts!

Why 行く (to go)? I don't really know what I would use there, but maybe start or continue or resume or something or that sort would be better?

That said. Maybe there was a great deal of thought behind that! It is the very first time I have ever seen the compound for human testing, so who am I to criticize.

cmbuzzkill wrote:I'm tempted to get this, if only just to enrage my Japanese friends. The grammar is far from perfect, so that's sure to drive them nuts!

Don't think it's going to be the grammar that will enrage them. I love human testing jokes and Japan in general but the combination is just a bit too close to reality to be in good taste. In world war 2, there was a unit that performed human experimentation on captives. Look up Unit 731 on wikipedia, it's all rather ghastly...

Does this actually say anything in Japanese? Nice illustration regardless. I love the double helix as a background pattern.

Where's the shout out to Futurama?

I can't quite put my tentacles on it, but this shirt seems to be in bad taste somehow. I'm sure that with all that has happened to Japan up until now, this would probably be considered a tad offensive to some.

Nice touch with the three-eyed happy face. It looks so innocent and pretty and then it's all what the?!...

gingerschnapps wrote:I can't quite put my tentacles on it, but this shirt seems to be in bad taste somehow. I'm sure that with all that has happened to Japan up until now, this would probably be considered a tad offensive to some.

I completely agree especially since syndactly was one of the major birth defects recorded after the war.

http://www.rerf.jp/radefx/genetics_e/birthdef.html

For what it's worth, my MIL and most of her siblings were counted in that study and were unaffected even though my husband's obachan is a certified survivor who was working as a nurse just outside Hiroshima and her unit was sent in to help with cleanup on day 5.

Once again, Woot fails at Japanese. I wish they'd just stay away from the language all together.

人体実験　- human body experiments...this is ok

は　行く　- will go. Human experiments will go???

将来のために　- 'for the future'. But it's the wrong word for 'future'. The proper word would be 未来 (mirai)

It's not as bad as the marshmallow one that used the word for the flower mallow or something, but still pretty bad, unless you don't care. I suppose most people don't and think I'm being too pedantic.

And on a cultural and historical note, what struck me about it was not that it might offend Japanese people (like me) because of I don't know, atom bomb stuff (which actually did not cause birth defects and such; other industrial pollution that happened in the 1950s-70s did, as well as contaminated baby formula, etc.) Instead I thought of Japan's dark past of the Imperial Army conducting horrible human experiments during WWII in China.

So, all around this design strikes all kinds of wrong chords for me.

makiwi wrote:Once again, Woot fails at Japanese. I wish they'd just stay away from the language all together.

人体実験　- human body experiments...this is ok

は　行く　- will go. Human experiments will go???

将来のために　- 'for the future'. But it's the wrong word for 'future'. The proper word would be 未来 (mirai)

It's not as bad as the marshmallow one that used the word for the flower mallow or something, but still pretty bad, unless you don't care. I suppose most people don't and think I'm being too pedantic.

And on a cultural and historical note, what struck me about it was not that it might offend Japanese people (like me) because of I don't know, atom bomb stuff (which actually did not cause birth defects and such; other industrial pollution that happened in the 1950s-70s did, as well as contaminated baby formula, etc.) Instead I thought of Japan's dark past of the Imperial Army conducting horrible human experiments during WWII in China.

So, all around this design strikes all kinds of wrong chords for me.

I didn't know about any of that (except the A-bomb of course). But it still struck me as dark and sick in an unclear sort of way. The hint of subjugation, perhaps as well.
I love a good sick joke as much as the next guy, but couldn't wear this shirt. It's only funny if you interpret it as the path to unlimited supply of sashimi, but even then ....

Seriously Woot?! W T F?! This is horrible!

Next up...
"Come spend your final days in our newest resort town, Auschwitz."

Didn't the Japaneses had already done that to the Chineses, Koreans, and Russians back in WWII? Remember Unit 731 (731部隊/ななさんいちぶたい）of Imperial Japanese Army? They have done bunch of whooped-up things including but not limited to vivisection, weapons testing and germ warfare attacks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

[quote postid="5189582" user="makiwi"]Once again, Woot fails at Japanese. I wish they'd just stay away from the language all together.

********

Unthinking, ignorant racism is ALWAYS funny.

I came here to mention Unit 731 and how this hits kinda close to home but it looks like multiple people already did.

[quote postid="5189448" user="lstaff"]Seems lovely at first, then somewhat disturbing when you look closely.

just a little too close to the thalidomide scandal in the fifties and sixties.... I'll go with disturbing

Wait! Where's the T-Rex?
I thought this was about SCIENCE!

For those of us not incensed by the message, will anyone chime in on the fit of Woot shirts? I have not ordered one before. Are they an average t-shirt, or more of a slimmer, fashion cut?

To add to the Japanese nitpicking, the shirt has "SCIENCE" in an English transliteration to katakana (サイエンス = "saiensu"), which kind of gives an impression that the Japanese language has no word for the concept of science.

科学 "Kagaku" would be it.

Otherwise, agreeing that the Unit 731 undertones are somewhat unfortunate.

I feel as if I should look at it with 3D glasses.

It's not a Woot shirt if there is no butthurt over it.

Wow! What an awesome thing to wake up to on a Sunday morning, definitely better than any cup of coffee. Thanks to woot and and boots and everyone that supported the design in the derby!

cmbuzzkill wrote:I'm tempted to get this, if only just to enrage my Japanese friends. The grammar is far from perfect, so that's sure to drive them nuts!

All I can say to that is: turnabout is fair play.

Somethings tells me to be offended by this but I'm not from that part of the world so I don't know how I feel other than it's not for me.

tutzi wrote:[quote postid="5189448" user="lstaff"]Seems lovely at first, then somewhat disturbing when you look closely.

just a little too close to the thalidomide scandal in the fifties and sixties.... I'll go with disturbing

My thoughts were similar; I thought that this design ends up being grossly insensitive -- however unintentionally -- to the mothers of thalidomide babies, and how it's fortunate that most of those women have died by this point, so that they won't have a chance to see this. As far as any surviving thalidomide children, I have, for some reason, less sympathy for their feelings on this matter; perhaps I feel that they're less vulnerable -- for obvious reasons.

TGHanks wrote:All I can say to that is: turnabout is fair play.

Thank you, TGHanks, that's exactly what I was going to say. Engrish.com anyone? As far as the grammar is concerned, if anyone is anal enough to be grumpy about it, tell them imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and to get off their high horse.

Why is it okay to say "Learn to speak right or go home" in this context? Would you approve saying it to a recent immigrant to the US?

Give her a little credit for trying.


As far as the content of the shirt, I'm not even referring to that here.* I just have a problem with folks who rip the artist a new one for trying and doing her best to include another language.


*FWIW, I had never heard of Unit 731 before. Until I read the wiki article immediately before writing this post, I thought this shirt was a funny reference to tentacle BLIMEY!.

Goodness! Japan and tentacles goes together like PB & J.

Lovely work from Kasey, and a great pick by Boots.

yay! I'm super glad to see this one made it after all. Now the benefits of human testing can be shown to all!

Congrats, Kasey! Glad to see you back in action at woot. Nice pick, Boots!

Thank you for clearing this up. I hate when I see something and am skeptical about the translation. I think you are right in saying why it bothered you, it struck a chord. Much appreciated, won't be purchasing.

makiwi wrote:Once again, Woot fails at Japanese. I wish they'd just stay away from the language all together.

人体実験　- human body experiments...this is ok

は　行く　- will go. Human experiments will go???

将来のために　- 'for the future'. But it's the wrong word for 'future'. The proper word would be 未来 (mirai)

It's not as bad as the marshmallow one that used the word for the flower mallow or something, but still pretty bad, unless you don't care. I suppose most people don't and think I'm being too pedantic.

And on a cultural and historical note, what struck me about it was not that it might offend Japanese people (like me) because of I don't know, atom bomb stuff (which actually did not cause birth defects and such; other industrial pollution that happened in the 1950s-70s did, as well as contaminated baby formula, etc.) Instead I thought of Japan's dark past of the Imperial Army conducting horrible human experiments during WWII in China.

So, all around this design strikes all kinds of wrong chords for me.