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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."
It's not mentioned in the article, but what brought this all up in the first place was the fact that "Xenu" was winning the write-in vote before he asked viewers on his show to write in his own name instead. Xenu is the galactic overlord from Scientology myth. Colbert asked his viewers to write in his own name, and the following day he had already passed Xenu on the write-ins. The show that evening, he declared himself the new galactic overlord.
Incidentally, NASA reserved the write to call it whatever they want; they don't have to go with the vote.
that my write in vote for Bigus Dickus didn't win... I thought I had the mobs support. Cheers, endxv
All glory to the Hypnotoad!
I hardly think that a 3.3% margin of defeat is worthy of the adjective "clobbering".
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.
The Colbert Spaceport?
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
From the article: "NASA reserves the right to choose an appropriate name."
maybe the astronauts will cut off the beginning and just call it the Bert module
The next module has to be "Ernie".
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!
I wrote in "Candlejack", and apparently i was the onl
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
I wonder if he'd let it be named Serenity for a date with Inara Serra / Morena Baccarin?
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
Kohl-bear Spayss-pore
Karma: Non-Heinous
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?
It would have been "Ron Paul" if it wasn't a socialist space project!
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.
NASA mission w. asian-american"
Where's Hiu? ... you trained with that crazy Depends-toting Lisa Maire Nowak?
Watt!
What?
Yes.
No, I asked, where's Hiu?
Watt!
What?
Exactly!
Where?
Watt!
What?
Now you've got it!
Just tell me what's with Hiu
No, you've got it backwards.
Who?
That's what I said.
Where?
Watt!
What?
I'm glad we cleared that up.
Let me guess
This is awful. I've heard him pronounce his *own* name different ways on his show.
As I understand it, The Colbert Report is "the coal bear rapport" most of the time, but it was temporarily changed to "the coal bert report" during the first quarter of 2008 to signify the more improvisational format that the striking Writers Guild of America forced on Colbert. Likewise, The Daily Show got replaced with A Daily Show .
You clearly don't watch his show. He often talks about Nasa and space stuff. He even did a couple of interviews with astronauts aboard the ISS.
Mada mada dane.
I say we get an early start and begin naming our spacecraft and space stations in the fashion of Iain M. Bank's Culture. Gravitas? We don't need no stinking gravitas.
Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
I believe the correct term is actually "damaged Cylon" you insensitive frakin' clod.
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
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.
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.
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.
Good, while their messing with tourists we can do real research. Here's the list of experiments done on each expedition.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/Expedition.html
And no, just because these don't mean anything to you does not mean they mean nothing to anyone else.
Colbert's gonna have to redo his song/DLC for Rockband "Charlene (I'm right behind you)" to add in "...I think of you when I'm watchin' you from the ISS far above you..."
-=JML=-
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!
...are the people behind nearly all that is evil in the world!
Ah come on not all evil, leave some room for bankers and republicans!
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Unknown
Mistake? How so? It's pretty obvious that the purpose of the naming-competition was to get people involved and excited.
Howard Stern could get legions of his fans excited about the project too. I still wouldn't want a station module named after him.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Sometimes the direct route is not always the best route. The river meanders for a reason.
What?
42 science per dollar, at today's exchange rate
rewriting history since 2109
...are all a bunch of child molestors and rapists (in my opinion). It is my belief, that Scientologists have gay sex with children on a daily basis and are the people behind nearly all that is evil in the world!
As a Jew, I take offense to the notion that anyone can supplant my people as the #1 target of paranoid conspiracy theories! Even the Time Cube guy targets us, and I won't let you ruin that.