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."
Naming it Xenu would have hurt Scientology, not helped it. Xenu is considered top secret by the Church of Scientology and its lawyers, and they sue people who post the texts--they forced Slashdot to remove a comment for the first time in its history. People wondering what Xenu is would look it up and find out about OT III. It would have been a great blow to have that out there. Thanks to Colbert and his mindless viewers who do everything he says, that won't happen, and the opportunity is gone.
Consider me biased since I'm sick of Colbert's schtick, and I'm sick of his college kiddie fans who parrot everything he says and spam his videos to Digg.
All right, but apart from the Pretty Pictures, Light-Emitting Diodes, Infrared Ear Thermometers, DeBakey's Ventricular Assist Device, Artificial Limbs, Aircraft Anti-Icing Systems, Highway Safety Grooving, Improved Radial Tires, Chemical Detection, Video Enhancing and Analysis Systems, Land Mine Removal, Fire-Resistant Reinforcement, Firefighting Equipment, Temper Foam, Enriched Baby Food, Portable Cordless Vacuums, Freeze Drying Technology, Water Purification, Solar Energy, Pollution Remediation, Better Virtual Software, Structural Analysis, Internet-Connected Ovens, Powdered Lubricants, Improved Mine Safety and Food Safety Systems, what have we ever gotten from NASA?
**TODO** [X] Steal someone elses sig.