NASA Names Space Station Treadmill After Colbert

willith writes "The SF Chronicle reports on the results of the International Space Station Node 3 naming contest (which we previously discussed). Comedian and fake-pundit Stephen Colbert conducted a bombastic write-in campaign and repeatedly urged his show's fan base (the 'Colbert Nation') to stuff the ballot box with his name, which resulted in 'Colbert' coming in first in the write-in contest with almost a quarter-million votes. Although the Node 3 component will not be named 'Colbert' — NASA has instead chosen to call it 'Tranquility' — one of the Node 3 components will bear the honor: the second ISS treadmill, which will be installed in Node 3, will be named the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill. The formal announcement was made on the air yesterday at 22:30 EDT on the Colbert Report by astronaut Sunita Williams."

Tranquility?

[Thelasko]

I thought serenity was the runner up?

Re:Stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

But they never claimed that they would name the node after the #1 choice - they said they'd do a poll, and then decide themselves. Not totally ignoring the poll, obviously, but also not feeling bound by it no matter what, either.

And as I always say: all is fair if you predeclare. They didn't lie about it, so what's the problem?

Let me guess: you voted for "Colbert" (or possibly "Serenity" - or possibly both, multiple times), and you either didn't read the rules beforehand or somehow convinced yourself that they would go with the popular choice no matter what after all. But that's not NASA's problem, it's your problem.

What NASA did was entirely fair.

Re:Which made it first place

[Shakrai]

Otherwise they're just making themselves liars.

How are they making themselves liars when the page had a big huge disclaimer on it that said they weren't bound by the results?

Re:Ignored

[Anonymous Coward]

Basically they chose to ignore the poll.

Which is something they reserved the right to do. Or did you not read the fine print?

explanation here

[gEvil (beta)]

On the contest page, [nasa.gov] NASA has an explanation of why they chose the name 'Tranquility', as well as a little write-up of the COLBERT thing.

Re:Which made it first place

[Abcd1234]

I've never heard that one before, is it some kind of racist comment?

It's an English idiom, but a less common one. See here [wiktionary.org].

Re:Well, hm...

[EricTheMad]

This wasn't an election, it was a poll. Even removing Colbert from the equation they didn't go with the next popular choice, which would have been Serenity. They went with the eighth most popular choice. So in the end they just ignored the results of the poll and picked the one they liked the best, which they had the right to do. So yes, Colbert didn't rig it, but it was most definitely rigged.

Re:Well, hm...

[iluvcapra]

Oh, and technically, the Nazis won a 33% of the seats in 1932, actually losing seats from their previous election. Hitler was made chancellor because Hindenburg appointed him, not because Hitler won the job through any operation of democracy. Hitler himself failed to form a majority coalition and asked Hindenburg to dissolve parliament for another election, which Hindenburg did. And then the Reichstag burned a week before the new elections, winning Hitler more seats, but STILL not enough to form a majority. So he sent brownshirts out to beat up all the leftist members of the Reichstag, and keep them out of the chamber when the Enabling Act was voted on.

The instability of the period is a direct result of the Weimar Republic's succession and election procedure, but the final consequence of the Nazis running the government was caused directly by Hindenburg's misuse of presidential powers and political violence.