Sour Move
In a move that I feel is just not right, NASA has finally named their new room on the space station something of their own liking, Tranquility. A little backgound, first, in case you didn't know.
NASA held an online contest for the name of the new room, in which people could vote for one of NASA's suggestions or write in a name of their own liking. The reason? They wanted some public interest and support for the work that they do. Stephen Colbert, of the Colbert Report, got ahold of the story and asked his fans to name the room after him, and they obliged. The runner up was Serenity with about 40,000 votes. How many votes did Colbert get? Almost EIGHT TIMES AS MANY at just over 230,000.
Seems to me that if NASA wanted some interest in their room, they got it with a significant amount of support from Colbert. And it's just a friggin name on a room. I've got a pretty good guess that the space station would get a lot of tv time if Colbert's name were on it, because Colbert himself would make sure of it. Of course he'd have to mention it self-aggrandizingly, but even a poor showman would have to run a legitimate story next to the chest-thumping.
Instead, what NASA has done is demonstrate that no matter how much mainstream support and younger-generational support they want, they are sadly in a different class from most of America. They have just become the curmudgeony old science coots whose jobs are too important for some levity and laughter. What are we afraid of? That the rest of the world will shake their heads? We still landed on the moon first (contrary to what the kooks say) and we will be the first to land people on mars.
NASA held an online contest for the name of the new room, in which people could vote for one of NASA's suggestions or write in a name of their own liking. The reason? They wanted some public interest and support for the work that they do. Stephen Colbert, of the Colbert Report, got ahold of the story and asked his fans to name the room after him, and they obliged. The runner up was Serenity with about 40,000 votes. How many votes did Colbert get? Almost EIGHT TIMES AS MANY at just over 230,000.
Seems to me that if NASA wanted some interest in their room, they got it with a significant amount of support from Colbert. And it's just a friggin name on a room. I've got a pretty good guess that the space station would get a lot of tv time if Colbert's name were on it, because Colbert himself would make sure of it. Of course he'd have to mention it self-aggrandizingly, but even a poor showman would have to run a legitimate story next to the chest-thumping.
Instead, what NASA has done is demonstrate that no matter how much mainstream support and younger-generational support they want, they are sadly in a different class from most of America. They have just become the curmudgeony old science coots whose jobs are too important for some levity and laughter. What are we afraid of? That the rest of the world will shake their heads? We still landed on the moon first (contrary to what the kooks say) and we will be the first to land people on mars.
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