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Colbert Wins Space Station Name Contest
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."
Really naming it the "Colbert" room isn't as lame as if everyone voted for "i can haz space station" or something. Plus he may have actually raised public awareness of space programs a little bit. He certainly drove traffic to NASA's website. And if 200,000 people actually voted for him, you can imagine how many people voted for a "real" option or read some of the NASA content.
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.
Yep, I guess the difference lies in "to kill hundreds of thousands of people".
You just got troll'd!
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
Yeah! What the fuck have we ever gotten from NASA? Pretty pictures?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Spinoff
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/spinoffs2.shtml
Apparently you've never been married.
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?
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.
"I don't want more choice, I just want nicer things!"
-Jennifer Saunders as Edina Monsoon
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.
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.
Indeed it doesn't seem odd at all. It is as if they are naming it exactly what they decided to name it prior to this false exercise in allowing people to vote on the name.
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.
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.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
That was a bit of a shame. Despite everything that happened, NCC-1017 was a fine ship and Captain Matt Decker was a good man. Ultimately the sacrifice of the Captain, crew and ship saved countless systems and billions of lives from the planet killer.
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.
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.
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.).
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
It was obvious NASA wanted Serenity when you looked at all of the subpar default options and the similarity in the name Serenity with the names of other modules. What they DIDN'T count on was the raw might of the Colbert Nation (of which I am one)!
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Sometimes the direct route is not always the best route. The river meanders for a reason.
What?
Why do these "marriage is so harsh" sort of jokes always get moderated as "insightful" rather than "funny" (or "overrated")? Sad.
myselfmusic
I like engine girl. :)
The enemies of Democracy are
Why do these "marriage is so harsh" sort of jokes always get moderated as "insightful"...
Apparently you've never been married.
All scams and/or religions started with but a few people believing them.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
As an unmarried slashdotter, let me say:
My name is geminidomino, and I approve parent's message. Kaylee smokes Inara any day.
But Colbert != Stern. It's like saying you don't want something named Gandhi because you don't want it named Hitler.
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