Colbert beat Serenity for naming rights to new ISS node

POSTED BY: Stoweaway
UPDATED: Friday, March 27, 2009 00:27
VIEWED: 18122
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2X2

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 12:40 AM

Oh no, no.. what I meant was it's not his fault that WE didn't vote enough to beat his fans... I know he's responsible for sending his fans out... but seriously, we could have done this. I can't believe that we didn't do this, really. Like some have said, I think the display that showed Serenity with 70+% was misleading for many fans, and so they didn't feel they needed to vote as often as they could have. But back in the day, I don't think there would have been any question at all, Browncoats would have demolished Colbert.

Anyway, yeah, I totally understand the annoyance! :D

RIVERDANCER

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 5:21 AM

It only let me vote once. I wanted to vote every day, but when I'd go back it showed the percentage and no vote option. I voted a few times from the various computers I could get access to, but that was all I could do.

FIDDLER

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 5:49 AM

Okay everybody, let's all just chill for two seconds. I have a few points to make.

1. Colbert was a write-in joke like MyYearbook and the others. They would never get the name, they knew it, NASA knew it, it was a publicity game, like Colbert getting the votes to have the bridged named after him (He got the votes by a wide margin, but was never followed through on because it is ridiculous).

2. The name Serenity was put in, not because of Firefly, it had absolutely nothing to do with firefly. Our big fan in the sky may be a fan, but he had no say in the choices. Serenity happens to be a very beautiful word with beautiful meaning, and it happens to go swimmingly with words like Harmony and Tranquility, etc. Every time I hear people say "Oh gosh they must be fans of firefly because..." It makes me think of someone saying Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles borrows heavily from CS Lewis because it has the word Chronicles in it, just like Chronicles of Narnia. Look, there are fans everywhere, but to think Serenity was a nod to us as if Joss were the first person to associate that word with space is hubris at best, delusional at worst. But they know who we are now. They know it for sure now.

3. Though we and Joss had nothing to do with the choice of name options, they know what it means to us now and will see that it is the right choice. But we need to tone down the Hubris, and stop thinking NASA is endorsing Firefly. The fantasy of thinking so is cute, and as a huge fanatic, it is seductive but please, let's not take all this personally.

4. Colbert nation is just that, a Nation. Even with all the votes they got, that was a tiny fraction of their population actually voting. Even still, chillaxe people, we won. We won with authority. The only names with ANY hope of winning were the four choices, because what none of you seem to realize is that they would have whittled down their choices to those four, and we DOMINATED. Those four literally represent the only names they are prepared to follow through with. The write-in was just to see what themed name they may have missed or that might be better, not what would be a popular name. Colbert being a popular vote is cute. Nothing more. They wasted their effort and missed the point. The point wasn't to vote for ANY name, or to find the most POPULAR name, it was to see if there were BETTER names than the choices. The top 8 of the top 10 write-ins were laughable.

5. I apologize if I have offended or annoyed anyone with my admonishing tone. But seriously, stop getting "krunk" over this. We have won. NASA may not have intended it, but we have won. We beat Star Trek. I say that because everyone knows that the first fully modified shuttle designed for deep space manned flight (to mars for example)will be named after that Trek flagship, the Enterprise. But for a generation or two first, we will be shinning overhead, serenity looking down at those cute little Trekkies in their Klingon costumes. baQa' bitches! lol.

We should be celebrating.

"Am I talking to Miranda now?"

ANTHONYT

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 6:56 AM

Hello,

While it would not be my preference to have a space station segment named Colbert, it dismays me that they may choose another option.

You see, there is little sense in having a vote if the vote will not matter. NASA can do what it likes, but I shake my head every time I see a meaningless voting process.

My wife likes to watch Hell's Kitchen. Chef Ramsey (sp?) who runs the show frequently asks the participants to nominate one of their own for elimination... and then completely ignores their nominations in favor of his own choice.

It's his show, and his perogative, but it rubs me the wrong way. Why bother to have them vote?

Anyhow, that's my feeling on the subject. If the write in was not going to be used, it shouldn't have been allowed.

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

RALLEM

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 10:48 AM

I'm still not watching any Colbert shows.

http://www.swyzzlestyx.com/index.html

2X2

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 11:25 AM

@ RiverDancer

Yeah, I heard quite a few people had that problem - I had the same thing happen on my laptop, except if I switched from Explorer to Firefox or Chrome, I was able to vote... Someone said it had something to do with needing a Java update, but I know nothing of such things...

Who knows how many daily votes we may have lost due to that, eh?

FREELANCERTEX

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 1:42 PM

Ant: I think a lot of times the purpose of a vote contest serves partially to narrow down their choices if they can't come to a consensus in-house, and also to see what most people think would fit best. The only reason Colbert was even on the list was because he asked his fans to put in the vote (and it might have even been in jest), and he was the only talk show host to even do that, which to me just says "you're an ass" and I don't think the boys down in Texas were anticipating any suggestions that were beyond reasonable (I'm sorry, but I really don't think names like "MyYearbook" and "Colbert" are reasonable). The reason NASA put out the names they did in the first place was because they had narrowed it down to those few, and probably just couldn't decide between them because they all fit (or they just felt like having fun and getting other people's opinions, i don't know). No where did they say (at least I didn't see it anywhere) that the results of the vote would be final, they just said "we'll take whichever names score the greatest percentage and choose from them," which I think is perfectly acceptible. They didn't say they were taking Colbert out of the running, they just said 'oops, it scored more than we thought it did' and added his name to the list of considerations.

If I went off on a tangent I'm sorry :P lol, let me know if i completely departed from the discussion, I'll try to explain better.

PHYRELIGHT

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 3:18 PM

Hmm. Maybe we should encourage NASA to name Node 3 after Colbert:

Quote:
Among the hi-tech equipment due to occupy the extra room aboard the 10-year-old space station is a unit that will convert astronauts' urine into drinking water.

(From this site: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/mar/24/stephen-colbert-name-nas
a-contest.)

FREELANCERTEX

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 3:40 PM

*among* the equipment, not the *only* equipment :P why is everyone focusing on that *one* part? @_@ notice how they termed it a "living room" in the same article?
and http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/name_ISS/index.html gives a list of the other purposes this node and its cupola will have.

PHYRELIGHT

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 3:51 PM

Because that equipment is what makes Colbert's zeal for the naming just so ironic!

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