NASA Names Space Station Treadmill After Colbert 383
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."
Ignored (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Tranquility? (Score:5, Interesting)
That was my reaction when I saw the show last night, too.
They not only decided to ignore the write-in winner, but also to ignore the winner amongst the 'finalist' names that NASA had selected.
Based on numbers reported from MSNBC [msn.com]:
From that, we know that Tranquility is under 114,427 ... but we also know [nasa.gov] the relative percentages of the 4 that NASA proposed (which gives us: Earthrise : 24k; Legacy : 35k; Venture: 21k), the total number of votes, and that there were another 4 above Tranquility in the rankings ... even if there was a multi-way tie between Xenu/Socialvibe/Buddy/Ubuntu and Tranquility, and Synergy and Vision got negligible results ... Tranquility couldn't have gotten more than 86k votes.
Re:Your tax dollars at work (Score:3, Interesting)
C'mon, it's NASA. They spout well-formed (or at least tortured and over-extended) acronyms like a Tourette's sufferer curses*.
*Yes, I know, this is an extremely rare symptom, much more prominent in the stereotype of this disorder than justified by reality. Comedy is a cruel Muse, don't you think?
Re:Stupid (Score:4, Interesting)
Exactly what is the POINT of running a poll then, if they are going to pay no mind whatsoever to the results? I agree the "Colbert" voters were being tools, but the other entries on the list were perfectly acceptable and the winner of the poll, Serenity, is a perfectly appropriate name. It is also consistent with the NASA convention of naming things after particularly popular and inspirational science fiction vessels, as was the test shuttle Enterprise named for the starship Enterprise thanks to a massive write-in campaign by Trek fans. Naming the module Serenity would have shown that NASA still honors science fiction storytellers in the modern age, without whom the largest portion of interest in space and technology wouldn't be there.
Besides .. 'tranquility' IS SYNONYMOUS WITH 'serenity'. Same exact concept, but NASA wanted to use their own word, not the people's. This is NASA giving the middle finger to Serenity fans, no other way to interpret it. Dumb, dumb, stupid, idiot move, NASA. Way to be pricks for no good reason.
Re:Ignored (Score:4, Interesting)
Or the successful repair/upgrade missions to the Hubble Space Telescope
Or, you know, building a space station...
Or any of the 2700 other successes they've had. Yes, you're right...the manned program...not going so good...but considering that they'd jettison it if they weren't forced to keep it by Washington...they're doin alright.
Re:Well, hm... (Score:3, Interesting)
Cool thing about a Constitutional Republic: if you're in the minority your vote does count.
Tell that to a republican in washinton or a democrat in texas. If your in a Constitutional Republic, your vote only counts in a swing state.
Re:Well, hm... (Score:4, Interesting)
With me, Colbert's personality and manner is fun to watch, fun to maybe participate in if it's not malicious (as with this vote), and definitely not something to emulate. However, now we have a large portion of the nation who's interested in what's happening on the ISS and knows how to edit wikipedia. If they went to the site after his show, they even got to see a locked down article in place!
In short, I don't see Colbert's show as promoting this behavior, I see him as exploiting the fact that this is the way our society's willing to act right now. You're just killing the flamboyant messenger.
Re:Well, hm... (Score:2, Interesting)
If the US switched to a proportional system, the odds of a minority government headed by Rush Limbaugh would become greater than zero, and that's a risk I'm happy that the founders avoided.
Hitler was elected as head of a minority government.
Re:Tranquility? (Score:5, Interesting)
What was wrong with "Node 3"?
Why do you ask, Child 1?
Hi Thanshin,
Funny, but I am indeed (male) child 1, and my family having some Chinese cultural influence, I am literally referred to as "(male) child 1", and I don't mind at all.
Re:Well, hm... (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, sure. But the thing I keep coming back to is this: democracy isn't about ensuring that we get good and wise leaders. No system can do that. It's about making sure we can kick the really bad ones out.
Here's something interesting. I'm only two degrees separated from Saudi Arabia's Prince Bandar. We have a mutual friend. So whenever he's in the news, I always listen to what he is saying. Mostly, what he does is act for an apologist for the Saudi regime. One point he likes to make is that monarchies aren't really that different from democracies. When a monarchy screws up, it gets thrown out, only instead of it being done by an election, you have armed people in the streets.
The point he's missing, of course, is that things have to get really awful for that to happen. They've either got to be so bad that people risk being arrested and tortured by the secret police, or that everybody in the country rises up at the same time. You can't throw out the monarchy because you don't like, let's say, their trade policies. Nobody is going to throw out the monarchy because they think the next monarchy might have marginally better taxation policies.
The thing that makes a republic the best form of government ever devised is the low cost of participating in revolution. All you've got to do is check somebody else's box on the ballot. That means the people in power have to pay attention to the future well-being of the people if they don't want to lose power. You don't even get that under direct democracy.