Britons vote to name $287m research ship "Boaty McBoatface"

boing
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This just goes to show you shouldn’t always ask the public for their opinion. That’s how the Republicans ended up with Trump.

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‘Boaty McBoatface’ is fine, but since it’s a polar research vessel, I favor the ‘I.C. Wiener’

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I’ve often thought that my next boat would will be named [REDACTED].

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It’s situations like this that make me love the internet so darn much.

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i hope they embrace it. Greenpeace did when people came up with Mr. Splashypants for that whale back in the 90s, and it got them a ton of free exposure and goodwill. But i’m guessing that they won’t, sigh.

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If it would be a reactor powered ship, its perfect name would be “Gone Fission”.

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I hope they use it. It’s a fun name, and probably the nicest most benign thing ‘Teh Internet’ has ever created under such circumstances. :slight_smile:

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When you’re spending almost $300 million, I think a little dignity is called for.

B. Boatington Boatworth, for example.

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After Nunavut was split off from Canada’s Northwest Territories, the “leftover bits” went searching for a name. The search ended when “Bob” kept appearing at or near the top of opinion polls.

Saskatchewan’s capital Regina was originally named “Pile of Bones.” I recall an article listing how with a few close decisions turning out differently - including Saskatchewan not becoming its own province - the capital of the Canadian north-west would now be Pile of Bones, Bob.

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“Name of Vessel” is fine with me.

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Seriously, if you’re going to ask the internet you should be thrilled that you get something this benign.

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Weird names for research vessels aren’t unusual. Some colleagues of mine recently were on a research cruise aboard the RV Falkor. When I heard about the name, I joked that it was named after the flying dog-thing in The Neverending Story, expecting that it was really named after some dead Dr. Falkor or something. But, no it really is named after the Neverending Story character.

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Now that’s climate change!

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In this case it was a BBC personality.

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I had to google if another Attenborough had died while I wasn’t paying attention.

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Since I’m a science fiction snob, I think it would’ve been great if they settled on a name from Ian Banks’ Culture series.

Youthful Indiscretion
Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence
So Much For Subtlety
Screw Loose
Prime Mover
Of Course I Still Love You
Limiting Factor
Little Rascal
Kiss My Ass
Just Read The Instructions
Flexible Demeanour
Cargo Cult
Just Testing
Xenophobe
Very Little Gravitas Indeed
What Are The Civilian Applications?
Congenital Optimist
Size Isn’t Everything
Sweet and Full of Grace

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You mean @Falcor? But you speak as though it were a fictional character.

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