MeasurementBlog

Announcement on ‘Colbert Report,’ Treadmill Named C.O.L.B.E.R.T.
Official patch for “C.O.L.B.E.R.T.,” the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill. Click image to enlarge. Credit: NASA
(See our earlier article: Naming Colbert or Not)

The International Space Station module formerly known as Node 3 has a new name. After receiving more than a million responses in an online poll, NASA is naming the node “Tranquility.”

The name Tranquility was chosen from thousands of suggestions submitted by participants on www.nasa.gov. The “Help Name Node 3″ poll asked people to vote for the module’s name either by choosing one of four options listed by NASA or offering their own suggestion.

Tranquility was one of the top ten suggestions submitted by respondents to the poll, which ended March 20.
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Just learned that Stephen Colbert, the TV satarist/comic, has a bunch of votes on the NASA website to name a new component, Node 3, of the Space Station after him, i.e. colbert. As he said on the Today Show, today:”Why not?”.

It’s not exactly a measurement or measurement education topic, but it fits the Deming vs Dilbert Model quite well, in my opinion.

According to NASA’s web page:

NASA wants your opinion in naming the International Space Station’s Node 3 – a connecting module and its cupola – before the two segments travel to space and are installed on the orbiting laboratory. The name should reflect the spirit of exploration and cooperation embodied by the space station, and follow in the tradition set by Node 1- Unity- and Node 2- Harmony

So, what would you do? Would you like to name part of the International Space Station after a USA TV comic, or not? Well, if the answer is yes you better do it really soon, the voting ends tomorrow, March 20, 2009 at 4:00 pm EDT in the USA.

For those of you who wish to read more, I added some of the NASA info below.

Where do you vote? Click here to go to the NASA web page where you can vote “COLBERT” or “NOT” or anything you want. More than a million votes have been tallied as of today. (NASA’s suggestions are: Earthrise, Legacy, Serenity and Venture)

Here’s more about Node 3 from the NASA web pages:
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Physicists are not gods, nor are they always right. I’ve learned that hard lesson many times over while both working for and learning from some noted and not-so noted physicists and trying to act god-like in my own encounters with geeks of any persuasion (I admit to being one, too).

Doctors of Medicine fall into the same category, yet that’s another story or three…later.

There’s a few experiences on physicist encounters of the first kind that I’d like to share.

First, I have to say, I have met many Physicists who were incredibly brilliant and also down-to-earth people. Same thing with Medical Doctors. But even exceptional people have feet of clay like my own, I think, at times.

Bottom line: we all can act like idiots sometime, again proving the Dilbert hypothesis that we all do, sooner of later. It’s truly a human condition.
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For those of you who do not know Dilbert, you have been missing some of the wittiest and most humorous satire about American organization work life and technology ever published. It is the creation of Scott Adams, a talented observer and cartoonist.

His website is an easy one to remember: Dilbert.com. Plus he has a regular blog that echoes many of his observations at dilbert.com/blog/ that you can visit by CLICKING HERE.

It is loved by most hard-working nerds and underlings who work in large organizations, especially those who work for poor and or uncaring bosses. Many have survived such experiences, but few forget them.

It is a part-time model for symptoms of idiocy in corporate life in far too many organizations in the USA, and doubtless elsewhere now with Globalization. Too many people identify regularly with certain Dilbert themes and situations! Adams has a limitless wealth of situations available!
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