UPDATE: Now That's Just Wrong

NASA needs a name for a piece of the International Space Station, and they've decided to put it to a vote. The choices they offered are Earthrise, Legacy, Serenity, and Venture. Now, anyone who knows me knows what I voted for (and they'll let you vote once a day, so I keep going back). Apparently there's a lot of people who agree with me too, because Serenity was up to 89% of the votes.

Until Stephen Colbert decided to butt in. Yeah, Colbert. The Comedy Central guy. (I'll warn you, the site makes the unpardonable sin of making the video play immediately.) This is just sick and wrong. I don't watch much tv, so I apparently don't even know how to pronounce the guy's name, but I still highly doubt that he has much of anything to do with space, and I'd be very surprised if he's done anything worthy of getting even a small rock named after him, let alone a space station. He's a comedian. And he seems to think we should vote for him. Uh, no. Sorry.

But he's winning. (The numbers on the site don't reflect the suggestions.)

Gratefully, NASA doesn't have to listen. From their rules:

NASA will take into consideration the results of the voting. However, the results are not binding on NASA and NASA reserves the right to ultimately select a name in accordance with the best interests of the agency, its needs, and other considerations. Such name may not necessarily be one which is on the list of voted-on candidate names. NASA’s decision shall be deemed final.

So basically, we need two things. We need people who actually care what the thing might be called to vote, and we need to pray that NASA isn't so stupid as to take a suggestion like this seriously.

Go vote. And go back tomorrow and vote too.

UPDATE: While Colbert didn't win, NASA didn't take it's own poll very seriously anyway. It has been named Tranquility.

What is With People Anyway?

"If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all."

I've been noticing this for a while now, but I finally found some examples that aren't full of profanity. The internet seems to be overflowing with people who insist on making extremely negative comments. Why they feel this need is beyond me. It seems like they could find something productive to do, but then again, that would defeat the purpose of the internet.

First example. Take a look at Wired Magazine's gallery for the new Tesla Roadster. Gorgeous car, ridiculously expensive, insanely fast, and all electric. Now, I have to applaud the fact that there's no "First post!" on this (I'd bet that Wired would just delete it anyway), but if you look at the second post, it starts with "B O R I N G !" Yeah, it's so terribly boring that you decided to not only read it, but take the time to comment on it.

Another example. The Sci-Fi Wire recently changed their format completely, and they've been getting all kinds of complaints ever since then. There was a recent article about a Harry Potter actor getting murdered, and some genius decided to put "Why state the obvious? And why is this story, tragic though it is, deemed suitable for inclusion on this site?"

I think you get the point. I'm in some ways glad that I don't have a blog popular enough to have to worry about these things.