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Boaty McBoatface To Go On Its First Antarctic Mission (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A small yellow robot submarine, called Boaty McBoatface after a competition to name a new polar research ship backfired, is being sent on its first Antarctic mission. Boaty, which has arguably one of the most famous names in recent maritime history, is a new type of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), which will be able to travel under ice, reach depths of 6,000 meters, and transmit the data it collects to researchers via a radio link. Its mission will be to investigate water flow and turbulence in the dark depths of the Orkney Passage, a 3.5km deep region of the Southern Ocean. The data it collects will help scientists understand how the ocean is responding to global warming. Boaty will travel with the DynOPO (Dynamics of the Orkney Passage Outflow) expedition on the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) research ship James Clark Ross, departing from Punta Arenas in Chile on 17 March. The craft will be sent back and forth through a cold abyssal current that forms an important part of the global circulation of ocean water. In 2019 Boaty McBoatface will be fitted with acoustic and chemical sensors and sent into the North Sea to "sniff out" signals associated with the artificial release of gas beneath the seabed. A future aim for Boaty will be to attempt the first-ever crossing of the Arctic Ocean under ice, which has the potential to deliver a significant change in scientists' ability to observe change in this vital region.
Another recent example of a democratic election gone horribly wrong.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
The name is a red flag. Idiocracy is on the horizon.
It's a name that was picked by the process they used. It isn't derogatory or offensive. Silly yes, but it's not a substantive part of the mission, just the moniker. It garnered a lot of attention when it was being voted and now people know what it is. That PR is great for such an expedition. Don't get your panties all twisted because something silly won. Embrace it.
How did the competition backfire?
backfire /bakf/ (slashdot can't do phonetics!)
verb
Pronunciation
2 (of a plan or action) have an opposite and undesirable effect to what was intended.
They wanted a sensible name, they got a stupid one - their plan backfired.
They wanted popular opinion to guide the name. If they wanted a sensible name their plan should have included that as a stated requirement for submissions. Their plan didn't backfire. They are just poor planners and Snobby McSnobbypants.
Glad to see Boaty Mc Boatface in the news at last. I still can't help think that:
"...reach depths of 6,000 meters, and transmit the data it collects to researchers via a radio link."
this sort of technology (if it existed) would be much more newsworthy though.
I was a big fan of naming that waste dump in Austin - The Fred Durst Society for the Humanities and The Arts
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
Oh man. Then it could've been named after my daughter!
They shouldn't have really opened the door to just any submission either.
I can think of a few ways they could've fixed this so it would have had the desired result.
First, limit who can submit. This is unfortunately probably difficult to do though, unless you use some kind of scholastic submission process like having anyone in the fourth year of schooling and above submit names to their schools, and then letting the schools whittle-down the submissions.
Second, add extra requirements to submit. Require an essay about the name and why it would be a good one. Set a word limit or character lower-limit and use some kind of software to attempt to block out bypass attempts. Don't even bother to note to the submitter whether or not their submission qualified or not, just respond by thanking them for their interest and submission.
Third, use a tiered process to judge entries, weed-down initial submissions through a panel, then provide the final dozen or so to open vote. If those running this submission process are worried about the result this way, encourage the panel to include at least some whimsical submissions that would be acceptable should they happen to win.
There's no reason that this kind of thing has to be an entirely democratic process.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
How did the competition backfire?
They wanted a "good" name for the ship when they put the poll up. They got a name they didn't like as the result and refused to use it for the ship. When there was a popular backlash about that decision they tried to mollify people by using the rejected name for one of submersibles that the ship would carry.
Now here's an article talking entirely about the submersible without mentioning the ship at all. I think there are reasonable odds that happened because the submersible ended up with the "cool" name, while the ship got the "good" name. In fact i think if they hadn't at least named the submersible Boaty McBoatface there's at least a 50% chance this article never would have gotten posted to Slashdot at all.
So they held a contest without foreseeing the possible consequences, and when they lucked out and got a name that might be considered silly but at least wasn't obscene they refused to use it and gave the ship a "proper" name that most people probably don't even remember. And now no one is talking about the ship itself, they're only talking about the other thing with the popular name. Sounds like a backfire to me.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
The continued arrogance of the elitist snobs against a name that most people simply found found, continues to astound me.
If you like, that choice of the people for lighthearted sanity instead of hrumpfing stodgidity was the earliest indication that Trump would win the election here.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sometimes I think voting for public officials should require a little more than just showing up and demanding a ballot.
Sometimes.
It thought the mini submarine was merely named "Boaty" and not "Boaty McBoatface". The mini sub is typically hauled around by the main ship that was the original target of the naming campaign
That's double confusing in that it's a submarine, NOT a boat, and second many expected the main ship to have that name.
They blew it big time, the merchandising and tourist revenue on the ship wouldda been yuuuuuge.
Table-ized A.I.
It resembles the one the Chinese recently intercepted, and then later returned.
If the Chinese capture it, they can rename it, "Finders McKeepersface".
Table-ized A.I.
No it ain't. Idiocracy was too optimistic. When the shit hit the fan who did they seem out? The smartest man in the world. Whereas now, the swamp is being drained right into the Oval office.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
So you hate women, you hate climatologists and you think that if people don't want to be killed by truck drivers they shouldn't ride bikes?
So much for your SJW stance, you racist teabagger cunt.
I'd snitch on you to AmiMoJo if she wasn't you.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Nah, the worst is behind us, considering TV doesn't own the majority of people's free time anymore, but instead the internet does. Remember how TV tried to brand ISIS as "rebels" and "fighters" (ahh, so poetic) during the first years of the Syruan civil war and The Economist called for an airstrike on Assad so the job of ISIS would be made easier, while many independent news websites correctly identified ISIS as murderers and jihadists, which is exactly what they are? I want to see more of that happening in the future. It means we 've passed peak stupid, where "peak stupid" is basically a news cartel force-feeding doublethink on people according to what servers their interest at the given time, destroying critical and rational thought in the process.
I'm happily warmed by the heat of your rage and your bizarre fantasies :)
you racist
Inigo Montoya would like a word with you.
I'd snitch on you to AmiMoJo if she wasn't you.
Oh *you're* the dude who thinks me and AmiMojo are the same guy (or girl?). I'd forgotten who it was who developed funny theories. Out of interest are you also the AC stalker who followed me round for ages calling me servitroll_major (a nickname I love btw) in a reply to just about every post I wrote?
Or maybe we've got a whole fan club out there. When does PopeRatzo get membership?
SJW n. One who posts facts.
If outstanding accomplishment in exploration makes someone worth remembering, then more people should be familiar with the name Ahman Ibn Majid.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
have crossed the Arctic Ocean under ice, for example: http://www.history.com/this-da...
Yeah, except that thousands of people made such outstanding accomplishments. Why would UK name the thing after one that is Omanese, of all places? I'm sure they have enough of their own.
Ezekiel 23:20
"This is a distress call from the Attenborough!"
"Who?"
".. the ship carrying Boaty McBoatFace"
"HOLD ON BOATY! WE'LL BE RIGHT THERE!"
"But what many people may not realise is that there is actually more than one Boaty. The name covers a trio of vehicles in the new Autosub Long Range class of underwater robots developed at Southampton's National Oceanography Centre (NOC)."
Three? My extensive research of Scottish culture left me under the impression that there can be only one!
I hope this doesn't invalidate the authenticity of my traditional Clan McBoatface tartan kilt.
The name is a red flag. Idiocracy is on the horizon.
Idiocracy has arrived. But the name is more a reaction to it, not the cause or symptom.
The first Internet vote, long ago when People magazine tried to run their "most beautiful person" for the year, Leo DiCaprio was supposed to win. The geeks got together and sent out notices over the internett that we were going to do something about that. So we had a massive write in for Hank, the angry drunken dwarf. Hank was a regular on the Howard Stern show at the time. Well Hank won, but People Magazine named DiCaprio "most beautiful man" anyway.
Point is, it takes a certain level of stupidity to ask questions you won't accept any answer you don't like. That answer is not the stupidity, it's to assume a response you like in the first place. The people who named this UAV understand that very well.
Nerds rejoice! All hail Boaty McBoatface! Praise it with great praise!
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Now here's an article talking entirely about the submersible without mentioning the ship at all. I think there are reasonable odds that happened because the submersible ended up with the "cool" name, while the ship got the "good" name. In fact i think if they hadn't at least named the submersible Boaty McBoatface there's at least a 50% chance this article never would have gotten posted to Slashdot at all.
Hell, without the submersible and the cool name, I wouldn't have given it a 50% chance the Guardian would have even written an article. Similarly, if they had given the ship the cool name, this would just be yet another article about Boaty McBoatface's adventures that would be coming out weekly and we wouldn't even know that the submersible even had a name.
How many solar systems is that. 1000? So thats going to take some time. Better rain down with one sun first and then evaluate if more sun raining is needed?
This reaction is exactly why we can't have great things anymore!
Shit, man, if Hog keeps talking about you like that I'll have to unfoe you. Wait, who are you and what have you done with serviscope.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I guess you also strongly disapprove of DNS?
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!