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NASA Names Space Station Treadmill After Colbert
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."
...democracy is thrown out when it suits. Its not like Colbert was an offensive name. I'd be insulted were i Colbert.
--- I was far from home, and the spell of the Eastern sea was upon me. -Lovecraft-
I think you've ventured away from the reservation on this one....
I've never heard that one before, is it some kind of racist comment?
I'm not as worked up about this as I am about the national elections, because it was promised to be a mockery from the beginning. And really, it's from NASA, so it was double-guaranteed. They haven't had much credibility since shuttles started blowing up regularly. (Yes, I know that the whole situation is political.)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
waw, this is really 'important' news.
I really think you need to get some perspective. "Promised to be a mockery from the beginning"? Then why even bother posting in this article?
To provide some badly-needed perspective, obviously. That's why I said it promised to be a mockery from the beginning.
Just to belabor the fucking point, the same was true both times Bush Jr. was "Elected"; was it best to just ignore that? This is obviously inconsequential in comparison, but it illustrates the point that NASA is not even pretending to be acting in the interests of the public any more. Why? Because listening to the will of the public would have spurred their interest! Not listening to them will only produce further disillusionment, as has been demonstrated by this discussion. It's not just me.
One more time, NASA jumped the shark a long time ago and this is just further proof, but there are some who don't get it. As you can see, some more of them get it now.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'd prefer to name it after Limbaugh.