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kohikariIs it just me, or was NASA's move to name Node 3 "Tranquility" instead of "Colbert" or "Serenity" a total cop-out?
I can understand their logic in not using Colbert, if I squint and try to fit into a hyper-publicity-conscious headspace. I can even understand not using Serenity, and instead picking from the other top names (excluding, of course, the bot-flooded suggestions like Socialvibe and Myyearbook). But choosing a substitute that means the exact same thing as one of the top three winners in the opinion poll? That's just adding insult to injury.
http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/name_ISS/index.html
All that talk about democracy and populist votes. If they weren't going to pick the names that the people want, why put up an opinion poll at all?
(A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE TOP CONTENDERS AND WHY "SERENITY" BEATS "TRANQUILITY" ANY DAY)
When the dust cleared, more than a million votes had been submitted. 1,190,437, to be exact. Of the four options provided by NASA--which, ostensibly, had been slaved over by the finest PR minds the nation can offer--EARTHRISE garnered 9% of the vote; LEGACY had 13%; SERENITY had the uncontested lead with 70%; and VENTURE brought up the rear with 8%.
"EARTHRISE" is pretty, but clunky. "LEGACY" is nice, but this is a space toilet we're talking about; I don't know about you, but when I think of what I want my legacy to be, I don't think of a urine recycling system. "VENTURE" is great and all, but doesn't go quite as well with Nodes 1 and 2, UNITY and HARMONY. "SERENITY," on the other hand, both blends well and caters to a section of the space-happy sci-fi fandom (and if you don't know what section that is, GET THEE TO WIKIPEDIA).
Of the suggested names: COLBERT led the pack (230,000 votes, according to experts, which is 40,000 more than SERENITY), with MYYEARBOOK, GAIA, XENU, SOCIALVIBE, BUDDY, UBUNTU, TRANQUILITY, SYNERGY and VISION rounding out the top ten. (Past contenders include VISTA, HORIZON, HOPE, PEACE, ENTERPRISE, and SUNSHINE; Vista and Enterprise were doomed from the start, I think, Enterprise because there's already been something named after it and...well...we all know why "Vista" was a bad idea.)
Let's get this out of the way before anything else is said: "MYYEARBOOK" and "SOCIALVIBE" are obviously automated votes from bots for some two-bit social networking sites sad about the fact that they aren't as popular as MySpace and Facebook. For all NASA's shiny technology, its anti-spam security sure is shoddy. "GAIA" and "UBUNTU" might also be bots, but there's a chance that instead of forum-crawlers and brainwashed minions of the Linux penguin cult(ALL HAIL THE PENGUIN OVERLORDS) they're just New-Agey Earth-lovers and Nelson Mandela fans.
"XENU" is, of course, the infamous evil alien overlord of the cult of Scientology, who (I think I'm getting this right) persecuted other aliens, flew them to Earth, dropped them in a volcano and hydrogen-bombed them...and their tortured ghosts are the reason why cousin Susie cuts herself in the girls' bathroom between classes. "BUDDY" is representative of everyone who ever wanted a space puppy; "TRANQUILITY" and "SYNERGY" are SAT-word versions of "SERENITY" and "UNITY." As in, someone went to thesaurus.com for ideas. *lame*
I would've liked SERENITY, or COLBERT, or even XENU or BUDDY or UBUNTU or EARTHRISE. I would've been okay with LEGACY or VENTURE or GAIA or VISION. Hell, I wouldn't even have minded SYNERGY. But dangling a democratic vote in front of us, pretending to consider using the people's choice, and then tossing even second-best out the window and going for some completely random Jonas Quinn? I'd advise against wounding the geek populace: they are unmatched in terms of viciously passive-aggressive grudges held above and beyond the call of duty.
And now, a short, pointless and entirely uncomprehensive list of the reasons why "TRANQUILITY" is inferior to "SERENITY":
(1) "Tranquility" does not cater to the fans. Fans and geeks, and fan-geeks and geek-fans, rather appreciate being catered to.
(2) 'S' comes before 'T' in the alphabet! I rest my case.
(3) "Serenity" implies a sort of humanity; you hear about "tranquil ponds" and "serene smiles," but not so much vice versa. Serenity generally retains the air of life; tranquillity feels more alien, inanimate, chemical. Forced.
(4) Take, for instance, valium, or tranquilliser darts. Firearms, drugs and restraints tend to evoke more alarm than peace and calm.
(5) Even the American Heritage Dictionary agrees with me!: "Serenity" is generally defined as a lack of stress and anxiety; "tranquility," on the other hand, involves a lot of still and undisturbed quiet. Sounds more like a dead person to me than something soothing to think of while you use the toilet and look out on the Earth...but that's just my opinion.
(6) Not to mention that no matter which way you look at it, the number of votes for "Serenity" had to be vastly greater than however many suggestions for "Tranquility" they received. As in, probably twice as many or more.
(7) Last but not least: IT'S UGLY, BITCH. "Tranquility" is just too big and clunky and unattractive, unlike the simple classical elegance of "Serenity." "Tranquility" tries too hard; do you really need a 'Q' to feel good about yourself? And why does it have one less 'L' in America anyway? I know we drop 'U's a lot, and switch some of those high-maintenance 'C's out for cheaper 'S's (and are then forced to patch up the words we took those cheaper consonants from with whatever wild 'Z's we can round up), but are we really so broke we can't even afford the extra 'L'? I mean, Christ, they're part of the 'L-M-N-O-P' bargain package at Wal-Mart, it's not like we have to import them from France.
*may have gotten a little carried away with that metaphor*
Were I to put a clumsy analogy on it, I'd ask how the American public would have reacted if, after the 2000 elections, Congress had sent a pretty marathoner onto a talk show to propose that the new president be--not Bush, nor Gore--but Nader.
Nader.
I can understand their logic in not using Colbert, if I squint and try to fit into a hyper-publicity-conscious headspace. I can even understand not using Serenity, and instead picking from the other top names (excluding, of course, the bot-flooded suggestions like Socialvibe and Myyearbook). But choosing a substitute that means the exact same thing as one of the top three winners in the opinion poll? That's just adding insult to injury.
http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/name_ISS/index.html
All that talk about democracy and populist votes. If they weren't going to pick the names that the people want, why put up an opinion poll at all?
(A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE TOP CONTENDERS AND WHY "SERENITY" BEATS "TRANQUILITY" ANY DAY)
When the dust cleared, more than a million votes had been submitted. 1,190,437, to be exact. Of the four options provided by NASA--which, ostensibly, had been slaved over by the finest PR minds the nation can offer--EARTHRISE garnered 9% of the vote; LEGACY had 13%; SERENITY had the uncontested lead with 70%; and VENTURE brought up the rear with 8%.
"EARTHRISE" is pretty, but clunky. "LEGACY" is nice, but this is a space toilet we're talking about; I don't know about you, but when I think of what I want my legacy to be, I don't think of a urine recycling system. "VENTURE" is great and all, but doesn't go quite as well with Nodes 1 and 2, UNITY and HARMONY. "SERENITY," on the other hand, both blends well and caters to a section of the space-happy sci-fi fandom (and if you don't know what section that is, GET THEE TO WIKIPEDIA).
Of the suggested names: COLBERT led the pack (230,000 votes, according to experts, which is 40,000 more than SERENITY), with MYYEARBOOK, GAIA, XENU, SOCIALVIBE, BUDDY, UBUNTU, TRANQUILITY, SYNERGY and VISION rounding out the top ten. (Past contenders include VISTA, HORIZON, HOPE, PEACE, ENTERPRISE, and SUNSHINE; Vista and Enterprise were doomed from the start, I think, Enterprise because there's already been something named after it and...well...we all know why "Vista" was a bad idea.)
Let's get this out of the way before anything else is said: "MYYEARBOOK" and "SOCIALVIBE" are obviously automated votes from bots for some two-bit social networking sites sad about the fact that they aren't as popular as MySpace and Facebook. For all NASA's shiny technology, its anti-spam security sure is shoddy. "GAIA" and "UBUNTU" might also be bots, but there's a chance that instead of forum-crawlers and brainwashed minions of the Linux penguin cult
"XENU" is, of course, the infamous evil alien overlord of the cult of Scientology, who (I think I'm getting this right) persecuted other aliens, flew them to Earth, dropped them in a volcano and hydrogen-bombed them...and their tortured ghosts are the reason why cousin Susie cuts herself in the girls' bathroom between classes. "BUDDY" is representative of everyone who ever wanted a space puppy; "TRANQUILITY" and "SYNERGY" are SAT-word versions of "SERENITY" and "UNITY." As in, someone went to thesaurus.com for ideas. *lame*
I would've liked SERENITY, or COLBERT, or even XENU or BUDDY or UBUNTU or EARTHRISE. I would've been okay with LEGACY or VENTURE or GAIA or VISION. Hell, I wouldn't even have minded SYNERGY. But dangling a democratic vote in front of us, pretending to consider using the people's choice, and then tossing even second-best out the window and going for some completely random Jonas Quinn? I'd advise against wounding the geek populace: they are unmatched in terms of viciously passive-aggressive grudges held above and beyond the call of duty.
And now, a short, pointless and entirely uncomprehensive list of the reasons why "TRANQUILITY" is inferior to "SERENITY":
(1) "Tranquility" does not cater to the fans. Fans and geeks, and fan-geeks and geek-fans, rather appreciate being catered to.
(2) 'S' comes before 'T' in the alphabet! I rest my case.
(3) "Serenity" implies a sort of humanity; you hear about "tranquil ponds" and "serene smiles," but not so much vice versa. Serenity generally retains the air of life; tranquillity feels more alien, inanimate, chemical. Forced.
(4) Take, for instance, valium, or tranquilliser darts. Firearms, drugs and restraints tend to evoke more alarm than peace and calm.
(5) Even the American Heritage Dictionary agrees with me!: "Serenity" is generally defined as a lack of stress and anxiety; "tranquility," on the other hand, involves a lot of still and undisturbed quiet. Sounds more like a dead person to me than something soothing to think of while you use the toilet and look out on the Earth...but that's just my opinion.
(6) Not to mention that no matter which way you look at it, the number of votes for "Serenity" had to be vastly greater than however many suggestions for "Tranquility" they received. As in, probably twice as many or more.
(7) Last but not least: IT'S UGLY, BITCH. "Tranquility" is just too big and clunky and unattractive, unlike the simple classical elegance of "Serenity." "Tranquility" tries too hard; do you really need a 'Q' to feel good about yourself? And why does it have one less 'L' in America anyway? I know we drop 'U's a lot, and switch some of those high-maintenance 'C's out for cheaper 'S's (and are then forced to patch up the words we took those cheaper consonants from with whatever wild 'Z's we can round up), but are we really so broke we can't even afford the extra 'L'? I mean, Christ, they're part of the 'L-M-N-O-P' bargain package at Wal-Mart, it's not like we have to import them from France.
*may have gotten a little carried away with that metaphor*
Were I to put a clumsy analogy on it, I'd ask how the American public would have reacted if, after the 2000 elections, Congress had sent a pretty marathoner onto a talk show to propose that the new president be--not Bush, nor Gore--but Nader.
Nader.