Colbert Wins Space Station Name Contest 471
As we speculated a couple of weeks back, it has come to pass. Reader mknewman writes to tell us that comedian Stephen Colbert has won the vote to have his name immortalized (or at least until it crashes) as the moniker on NASA's newest addition to the International Space Station. We can but wonder what NASA will do now. "NASA's mistake was allowing write-ins. Colbert urged viewers of his Comedy Central show, 'The Colbert Report' to write in his name. And they complied, with 230,539 votes. That clobbered Serenity, one of the NASA choices, by more than 40,000 votes. Nearly 1.2 million votes were cast by the time the contest ended Friday."
Not all bad (Score:4, Insightful)
Honorable Way Out for NASA (Score:5, Insightful)
Name it something else, but hang a signed picture of Colbert in the module. The fans are satisfied, a reasonable name can be applied, and Colbert gets a talking point for a show.
But please, for the love of God, no dancing! Colbert dancing with that freaky grin always creeps me out.
Re:Uncritical media breaks democracy (Score:5, Insightful)
Moot / 4chan (Score:5, Insightful)
On a similar note, what will Time do if Moot wins the #1 most influential person of the year?
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1883644_1886141,00.html [time.com]
Re:NASA won (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah! What the fuck have we ever gotten from NASA? Pretty pictures?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Spinoff [wikipedia.org]
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/spinoffs2.shtml [nasa.gov]
Re:Honorable Way Out for NASA (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would they need a way out? NASA had the chance to honor a scientist or engineer, but decided not to--Serenity doesn't honor anything but entertainment, and neither does Colbert, or Tek Jansen for that matter.
Re:So Colbert Nation greater than the Browncoats (Score:5, Insightful)
Apparently you've never been married.
Re:don't trust to hope (Score:4, Insightful)
Why shouldn't it be named after him? After all, it makes sense. Bear in mind that there's a lot of people watch the Colbert Report who are not necessarily Space Nerds. But they are people who have political interests, and are active voters. Do you not think it would actually be a really really good thing to have them interested in what NASA is doing? And thus help fund other things?
Colbert is great about generating publicity, the Colbert Bump is real -- so why not bump NASA? Who really cares what the craft is called if it will help NASA?
Re:Colbert trumps Scientology; everyone wins. (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it's important to remember all of the popular, positive attention Stephen Colbert has given to NASA over the years and science in general. He well deserves the name if for nothing else than for the great PR he brings NASA.
Did you even know there was an addition to the space station before it was on The Colbert Report? I didn't.
Mistake? (Score:5, Insightful)
NASA's mistake was allowing write-ins.
Mistake? How so? It's pretty obvious that the purpose of the naming-competition was to get people involved and excited. To raise NASA's profile and garner some free advertising. By allowing write-ins, they opened the door for Colbert to advertise for them. And apparently he drove some 230,000 people to go check out the NASA site, maybe read some other NASA material, talk about NASA with their friends, and so on.
I daresay NASA was quite successful in their effort to gain some publicity. Allowing write-ins was evidently not a mistake.
I gave up on Digg years ago...... (Score:2, Insightful)
The whole idea is nice on paper, like communism. However, most people seem to be rather dumb so things they find interesting are pretty boring.
Re:Not so fast... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Colbert trumps Scientology; everyone wins. (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see why they wouldn't name it "Colbert". I mean, yeah, it's a joke, but it's also good publicity, and what harm does it do?
I think if they don't, it's showing that the people running NASA are sticks in the mud and take themselves too seriously.
Wouldn't have mattered (Score:3, Insightful)
The Xenu ship has sailed. Everyone knows what it is now. For instance Colbert mentions it on his show all the time, and his nightly audience is bigger than the total number of votes in this NASA content.
The vote had nothing to with harming Scientology--naming it Xenu was just a nerd joke, just like Battletoad or Stephen Colbert or Serenity.
Re:Not so fast... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Colbert trumps Scientology; everyone wins. (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see why they wouldn't name it "Colbert". I mean, yeah, it's a joke, but it's also good publicity, and what harm does it do?
I think if they don't, it's showing that the people running NASA are sticks in the mud and take themselves too seriously.
As someone else pointed out in a previous thread on this subject, serious organizations, especially ones with government connections, don't like to name things after people who are still alive.
You see, if you name it after a person who has lived out their life, you can evaluate their entire life and make sure that they haven't done anything that you wouldn't want to be associated with. However, someone who is still alive might very well do something in the future (kill someone in a drunk driving accident, get caught with child pornography, shoot their wife, etc) that no one wants to be associated with.
Re:Colbert wee wees on space program supporters (Score:5, Insightful)
That's one way to look at it.
On the other hand, I think it's an example of how quickly a large group of people can be mobilized when prompted by someone they like. It seems obvious you've not spent much time watching his program.
Colbert, Stewart, and others prove that serious discussion can happen while laughing. I don't think for one second that Stephen was mocking NASA; he actually saved it from the prior leading write-in: Xenu.
Re:NASA won (Score:2, Insightful)
You are repeatedly modded as a troll in your comment history. This isn't some conspiracy and is not entirely explainable by the lackluster quality of moderation, so it indicates that you are either actively trolling, or that you are unable to consistently communicate in a way that other people find useful.
Also, note that the only thing that I have asserted is that you are a troll (and I am willing to admit that you may simply be unaware of how ineffective your style of communication is; maybe style shouldn't matter, but that's life.).
Poll was weighted to begin with (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Moot / 4chan (Score:3, Insightful)
The year in which an historical american president takes office, the year the world's economy went bust due to the head honchos at AIG, and moot wins? This is perspective?
Re:NASA won (Score:3, Insightful)
Sometimes the direct route is not always the best route. The river meanders for a reason.
Re:So Colbert Nation greater than the Browncoats (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do these "marriage is so harsh" sort of jokes always get moderated as "insightful" rather than "funny" (or "overrated")? Sad.
Re:So Colbert Nation greater than the Browncoats (Score:5, Insightful)
I like engine girl. :)
Re:So Colbert Nation greater than the Browncoats (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do these "marriage is so harsh" sort of jokes always get moderated as "insightful"...
Apparently you've never been married.
Re:Colbert trumps Scientology; everyone wins. (Score:3, Insightful)
All scams and/or religions started with but a few people believing them.
Re:So Colbert Nation greater than the Browncoats (Score:4, Insightful)
As an unmarried slashdotter, let me say:
My name is geminidomino, and I approve parent's message. Kaylee smokes Inara any day.
Re:Yes, a Mistake (Score:4, Insightful)