Slashdot Mirror
NASA In Colbert Conundrum Over Space Station
After Stephen Colbert won the vote in NASA's contest to name a new module on the International Space Station, NASA found itself in a tough spot. According to Reuters, "Contest rules stipulate that the agency retains the right to basically do whatever it wants," but it may not be all that easy. At first NASA floated the idea of naming the new module's toilet "Colbert." But Last Thursday Congressman Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., urged the agency to respect the people's wishes. And Colbert turned up the heat on yesterday's weekly show: "So NASA, I urge you to heed Congressman Fattah's call for democracy in orbit. Either name that node after me, or I too will reject democracy and seize power as space's evil tyrant overlord. Ball's in your court."
I'm sorry, if NASA wants to give in, then fine, but at this point Colbert has reached the level of 4Chan for these pranks.
First he changes Wikipedia, then he gets a bridge in Hungary named after him, now a Space Station module.
There is NO reason why NASA should bother, and I'm getting bloody sick of his internet vandalism.
If NASA were smart they would name the thing "Colbert" and encurage the chap to do a "ISS Report" or similar NASA/space oriented report on his show at regular intervals. Keep space research in front of the people. Even to the point of reporting on NASA's own humorous internal mistakes/problems/gaffs with actual data supplied by NASA. National / International attention and it costs them nothing.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
Based on yesterday's post. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/31/1332257
Think Deeply.
I understand why NASA put a clause into the rules stating that it can do whatever it wants... There needs to be a way out in case some yahoos try to name the station something inappropriate, however there is nothing wrong with Colbert. It's one thing to put the literature into the rules to make sure that the name of the new module isn't "Enola Bay" and another thing to just change the name on a whim because a few people at NASA were hoping on "Serenity". Sounds a little petty to me.
They're lucky the winner was Colbert.
Imagine what it could have been named if the 'b-tards' over at 4-chan got involved.
Beta sux! Join the Slashcott! http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4760465&cid=46173047
More proof, if any were needed, that NASA is totally clueless about external communication & PR.
Any kind of PR pro would have predicted this - its not like it has never happened before in public naming competitions and even elections.
So, suck it up guys. As another poster has pointed out, play the game and make it work for you.
What I cannot understand, though is why, in these cash-strapped times, they did not auction the name off? Could have raised some much-needed funds.
Even after reading the article, I still fail to grok what the "tough spot" is. Is it just that they don't want to name it "Colbert"? That's not a tough spot, that's just obstinance.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
I think the prank is this hideous green/gray color scheme. Where is that pink one we're accustomed to and learned to love?
Something similar happened in The Netherlands, although on a smaller scale. Some company ran a contest to name a new type of potato chips (en-uk crisps) and internetters voted en masse for the name "WithoutStyle", after the similarly named blog. In the end, the company bended to the pressure, although for a short time only.
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
the NASA requirement is that the person who it is named after has to affix the signage.
they have 1 year to comply (a their own expense).
he.he.he ..
--- This meme is memory intensive
What I cannot understand, though is why, in these cash-strapped times, they did not auction the name off? Could have raised some much-needed funds.
I imagine that's just what Blagojevich said to his advisers just before putting Obama's senate seat up for auction.
Better a joke than stupid hero worship (I'm looking at you, Reagan International Airport). At least a joke name indicates that there is some thought going on.
Seriously, why shouldn't we honor someone who has helped millions of young Americans (1) enter the political discussion and (2) become aware of government folly. Colbert's more important to the zeitgeist than Serenity, that's for sure.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Chaka Fatah is proving once again what a moron he is.
It's "Fattah"... moron.
With more than a billion potential voters, they could have voted for it to be named after a Dikshit.
Businessman Anurag Dikshit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anurag_Dikshit
or politician Sheila Dikshit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Dikshit
Hey, if it was named the "Dikshit" module of the ISS, it would never be mentioned in the news (except in India, of course).
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
That is the sound of the significance of this event breaking the sound barrier as it passes over your head.
Colbert is a satirist. His job is to lampoon the establishment, popular culture, fad, etc, etc. He has just lampooned public voting competitions, which have been in vogue of late. Internet, SMS, email, telephone based, it doesn't matter. The bottom line is that these "votes" are little more than popularity contests decided by people with too much free time and little else to do with it. Colbert has simply shown how inherently vulnerable these votes are to manipulation. PZ Myers has been doing this sort of thing for years.
Public poll competitions are a thinly disguised publicity stunt. Frequently, they simply demean and trivialize the event they are promoting. In the case of NASA, this poll has been a farce from day one. Even before Colbert, justifiably, entered the competition, the top contender for the module's name was "Serenity", an obvious reference to a recent sci-fi/fantasy show.
This was a billion dollar module meant for serious scientific research and NASA, itself a multi-billion dollar publicly funded institution, had chosen as it's first choice of name, that of a fictional spaceship from some bubblegum space opera made for teenagers, which pays only lip service to scientific fact and theory. This was a (supposedly) serious scientific and educational organization about to name a space station component after something that has never and can never exist. The level of unprofessionalism beggars belief.
What is anyone supposed to think of NASA after such a stunt? Is the whole organisation composed of people who base their ideas on TV shows and loopy ideas instead of hard theory? Considering the organization's continued stance on the Space Elevator concept, despite its proven absurdity over the course of over 50 years, I would have to say that, yes NASA is composed of juveniles who have their heads in the clouds and no idea how to get their actual bodies up there.
For get "Xenu". "Serenity" was and is the real problem. Frankly, Colbert has stepped in and dignified the proceedings by finally putting and end to the debacle. NASA will save itself a lot of face in the long run by naming the module "Colbert" as a reminder of their own folly. Naming it "Serenity" would be a permanent stain on whatever dignity the organization is supposed to have.
And organisation that allows idle tweenagers, teenagers and twenagers to name space modules, rockets, or satellites is an organisation that has no right to send such things into orbit.
May the Maths Be with you!
Enjoy his humor for what it is and play with it. Name the toilet after him.
I'm off to take a "Colbert", back in 20 min.
Hey, do you have a portable "Colbert"? My Depends box is empty.
I can't believe I bothered to write this. What a waste of effort, bandwidth and humor.
NASA shouldn't name the entire node after anyone that isn't famous for doing good deeds for space. Heck, Jimmy Doolittle would be an excellent choice as the father of avionics.
Didn't Serenity get a lot of votes because of its fan-base as well?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/ (the film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_(Firefly_vessel) (from the TV show)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_(film)
Probably not so much because of:
http://www.serenity-band.com/ (the Austrian Metal band)
While the relief a toilet can enable, and that quiet time alone (hopefully it's a room with a view of the planet) could be described as Serenity, I doubt that is what voters were thinking.
Name it after Tek Jansen and everybody wins.
Before Colbert, I forgot NASA still existed.
Flush an effigy of Colbert out the air lock of the ISS and broadcast the event live.
The thing is, Republicans tend to be bigger spenders on space than Democrats, particularly manned space flight. Democrats tend to argue that putting people in space is a luxury and we should be spending money on the poor, or, pursue unmanned flights for the science.
Republicans tend to argue that manned space flight is a national security thing. It doesn't hurt the cause that two of the largest Nasa facilities are in traditionally Republican areas - Texas and Florida.
IF you name this station after a liberal, you may as well push the dang thing into the atmosphere,for all the support that it will get.
This is my sig.
In the head?
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
The civil war was about slavery and Lincoln's election, as an abolitionist Republican, arguably precipitated it even before he was sworn in, just like Obama's reputation as a liberal took the market for a nosedive.
For proof:
a) the confederate constitution is a copy of the us constitution, but, with a clause adding that slavery is a natural right and the government cannot ban slavery.
b) the most contentious issue between north and the south, was, in fact slavery. It existed with the infamous compromise in the original constitutional convention, with a series of incidents running all along the 1800's leading up to the civil war - bleeding kansas, dredd scott, the compromises.
c) abolition was the animating social issues of the day.
It's true that there were other issues. The south, being agrarian, favored free trade so they could buy cheaper British manufactured goods. The north was protectionist, and the south saw this as a sort of blackmail. As it is, the north became an economic powerhouse and won the war BECAUSE of its protectionism. This debate continues to this day. Right now the southern and agrarian ideas of free trade carry the day but the thing is, any study of history shows that free trade and a lack of workers rights makes you lose wars. Just ask the south.
But really, the civil war was about slavery.
This is my sig.
Just call it Blench Treetops (Anagram for Stephen Colbert), which you should do if you're on board it...
I'm from Minnesota. We elected Rudy Perpich and Jesse Ventura as governors. We elected Michele Bachmann as representative from the Si(x)th Congressional District. I've watched the hardest-hitting coverage of the last election on the Daily Show. I saw in the paper this morning that the courts have ruled only 400 more ballots will be recounted in the Senate race, making Al Franken's victory almost assured.
I think it's time we recognized the need for real comedians in our government structure. Now, Colbert is still alive and being funny, so he's not a good candidate for naming a government something after him, so I'm going to propose naming it after George Carlin.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
He won the vote - that proves his point that he can cajole the (fifteen to seventeen year-old North American male) public into stuffing a ballot box.
I have to say that if he continues down this road, one he's clearly been down before, it signals the beginning of the end to those of us not wearing the jersey.
April Fools or no, give it up and be a man, Coal Bear. Rather than suggest something interesting or meaningful (I submt 'The Colbert Brown Eagle'), he perpetrated this out of pure vanity, and I for one, have to offer him the North American finger gesture signifying my indignance.
There. I did it. Now I will move on with my life.
Thanks, I work out!
Mer-see bow-coo != mer-see bow cou (thanks, nice ass vs thanks very much)
I think Colber[t] actually pronounces his name as ColberT in private. This is based on me catching him one time on air saying ColberT when there was no comic reason for him to do so. ( I hate saying there's no comic reason for something since there is always the possibility that a joke flew by undetected ) It's unlikely that someone who had always pronounced their name one way would slip, though not impossible.
The name of a pod has no effect on it's usefulness. It's just a freaking name! Being named Colbert or Xenu (which would have been funnier than Colbert) is really immaterial to any science, like studying the effects of weightlessness on Twinkie shelf life, that they do up there.
What's wrong with humor in space? It's part of putting people in space. Humor and satire comes with them.
It's interesting to wonder about who exactly is pissed about a space station module being named Colbert.. Xenu would have been easy to dismiss for religious tolerance reasons, even people who hate scientology may legitimately be offended by someone poking fun at them, but the name Colbert isn't obviously offensive in any way. Yet the offense exists, or there would be no challenge to the nodule being named Colbert. The interesting question is who is being offended?
Serenity seems to have less offense value than Colbert. If it had won on it's own merits, nobody would have objected, and it wouldn't have even made the news. The people who are offended by the nodule being named Colbert aren't offended by Serenity.
I think there are people for whom space is sort of a religion. It's like a girl they've built up in their minds to some ideal that nobody can ever live up to. In their imagination, it has to them all the attributes they need it to have to be their holy land, the place where all their favorite sci-fi stories took place. And mere mortals can't go there - only NASA annointed astronaughts, so nothing ever happens there to destroy their preconceptions of the holy place.
Yeah, it's a girl and a religion. The probes NASA sends are like these folks' dingaling. Naming one of their nodules Colbert is like painting their dingaling pink.
These people need to snap out of it, and a pink dingaling paintjob is just the ticket. When and if people really start to live and work in space, outer space will offer just as many wedgies and swirlies to these people as earth has justly given them. These people need to realise this and work to correct the here and now, and not wait for the prophesised heavenly age of outer space where losers are cool for being losers. Believe me, the folks really doing things in space, aren't these people. They are winners of a game requiring non-loserness. The people these people worship are more like a boy band with a fanbase of stupid thirteen year old girls. These losers are the thirteen year old girls who have gone off the deep end - not the average fan. These losers are the drunken sports fans who paint their hairy chests, backs and beer bellies blue to cheer on their favorite football team shirtless while it snows.
Somehow, these people are being given more importance than they deserve. They are the base, they make the party. NASA uses these devout space-cultists as pillars of it's church. Without them, they'd have no cult. For that reason, NASA is afraid to alienate them. But that's exactly what they should do, since they alienate everyone else.
...
Might have something to do with that being against the law.
Not that it would have done any good either way, as any funds raised that way go into a general fund and are doled back out by Congress. (Which is a feature, not a bug. It's designed to prevent federal agencies from circumventing the budget or selling off federal resources for personal or agency gain.)
Remember that Transylvania used to be part of Hungary, and has a Hungarian-speaking minority even to this day...
Any kind of PR pro would have predicted this - its not like it has never happened before in public naming competitions and even elections.
They did predict it- they made a rule ahead of time to make sure they retained control over the name in such an event.
So, suck it up guys. As another poster has pointed out, play the game and make it work for you.
They sent a spokesman on the Colbert Report to play along with Stephen even as they got the word out about the space station. All Stephen's viewers, anyone reading news reports about this "controversy," and everyone in this thread, are all learning about the ISS as well. I'd say NASA has made it work for them quite nicely.
Even if you look at how people identified themselves abroad back then. Northerners usually referred to them selves as Americans or from the US.
Hmmm, no actually it was common up North to be affiliated with one's state. Remember that states were actually responsible for raising forces for the union army back then. So you would have the New York and the PA and Massachusetts units all joining.
Civil War was about States rights vs the rights of the Federal Government. Slavery just was the right that was most publicly in contention. In the North, it made an easy target; "See the evil slave holders!" I
You know, I used to think so too, but the smoking gun for slavery is the confederate constitution. When the USA rebelled against the King, they put into the constitution things a system of government to prevent such abuses. When the South rebelled, they KEPT the US Constitution, and only altered it so that they were allowed to keep slaves.
Protectionism didn't win the war for the North any more then free trade or workers rights made the South lose it. What wins wars historically is three things, beans, boots, and bullets. Or to put it more succinctly, resources. The South lost because it needed to import most of it finished goods. The North didn't.
Point is, those industries do not exist unless they were protected. If those industries do not exist, the North is in the same boat as the South. But the North pursued a policy of developing native industrialization through protectionism, got the industry, and won the war. Protectionism worked.
This is my sig.
SC has stated in interviews that the family pronounces it with the hard T. His father wanted to use (revert to?) the French pronounciation, but did not do so in deference to HIS father. So, in honor of his (by then) late father, SC changed from the hard T as he left South Carolina to go to Northwestern.
</anecdote>
"I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
An intriguing idea. But wrong. In the USA, we had a very tiny "long service professional" army before WW2. We didn't go the Officer Corps with conscript troops technique so common in Europe at the time.
And the South did NOT start the war with more soldiers. More officers, perhaps, but not more infantrymen.
The USA didn't maintain large Federal arsenals. Which is one reason that in First Manassas, some Confederate soldiers went into battle without weapons (and with instructions to pick up a rifle from the guy in front of them when he was killed). Or with flintlocks, or smoothbore percussion muskets (both obsolete for decades, but common as hunting weapons). Or even with shotguns.
Umm, no. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fought the Army of the Potomac for years. But most of the fighting was actually going on further west, between Grant/Sherman and various Southern generals. Keep in mind that the "Glorious Fourth of July" was as much about the surrender of Vicksburg to Grant as it was about the retreat of Lee from Gettysburg.
If Lee had had every soldier in Confederate service under his command, he'd have sat outside the siege lines at Washington while Grant and Sherman destroyed the Confederacy behind him. Contrary to popular rumour, the war wasn't just between the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia. It wasn't even mostly about them - those two Armies fought over an area that wouldn't make three good counties in west Texas, while the rest of the war went on elsewhere.
Note also that Lee wasn't the military wizard he's usually portrayed as being (and I'm a Southerner saying this). If you want the real military wizard, look carefully at General Jackson, who, unfortunately, was killed early in the fighting. Or General Forrest, perhaps, who was an unmitigated scoundrel, but a hell of a cavalry officer.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
If you think Colbert does anything out of pure vanity, why don't you give a listen to the interview on the Peabody website that he gave after winning this year...one of the most gracious guys around.
but have you considered the following argument: shut up.