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Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

theatlantic.com

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Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#211

Post by gumby »

mrob wrote: post #2

The solution is simple. Continue calling the boat Boaty McBoatface. Ignore all references to the government's preferred name. They can choose what's painted on the side, but the name depends only on what people call it. If enough people call it Boaty McBoatface its name really is Boaty McBoatface. If your job depends on calling it the government's preferred name then subtly alter the timing of your speech to make it…

Yes! It's "name" is probably some registration number anyway.

And regardless I doubt anyone will call it "Boaty McBoatface". It'll be abbreviated into something anyway. BMBM or Boaty or something.

And it will demonstrate that resistance is futile!

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#212

Post by gumby »

jernfrost wrote: post #22

I don't agree with a lot of the conclusions of this article. E.g. they propose that voting "probably" works the same way in all other countries as the US. There are plenty of objections to be made against that. E.g. 1) the US being a two party state means that getting representatives which represents the great variety of voter opinions is exceedingly difficult. 2) US elections are so dominated by advertisement, expen…

> [Boaty McBoatface] represent the will of people who bothered to vote on an issue most people likely don't give a dam[n] about.

Indeed the vote was obviously silly and did in fact achieve its desired goal: publicity for arctic research. The officials are insane if they don't go along with the choice. It's an opportunity for further publicity on arctic research for decades to come!

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#213

Post by Natanael_L »

vidarh wrote: post #101
baddox wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see much fun in that. The funny thing about getting the ship named Boaty McBoatface is that it would be painted on the ship and would be named as such in official documentation. The ability to casually refer to the ship by that name does exist, obviously, but how often do people refer to specific government ships by name anyway?

One has to wonder if someone will decide to apply an unauthorised paint job at some point..

A banner would be safer

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#214

Post by hartpuff »

aninhumer wrote: post #169
hartpuff wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did I say you said everything should have whimsical names? I asked if that is what you thought. Can't you tell the difference? So what's your presumably non-childish objection to other things being given "whimsical" names?

>So what's your presumably non-childish objection to other things being given "whimsical" names? I don't object to that either?

My God, this is completely ridiculous, but I'll try one more time.

Do you or do you not believe everything should have a whimsical name?

To save time: If your answer to this is "No, I do not believe everything should have a whimsical name", then what is your non-childish objection to whimsical names in some cases?

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#215

Post by oldmanjay »

baddox wrote: post #59
mrob wrote: post #2

The solution is simple. Continue calling the boat Boaty McBoatface. Ignore all references to the government's preferred name. They can choose what's painted on the side, but the name depends only on what people call it. If enough people call it Boaty McBoatface its name really is Boaty McBoatface. If your job depends on calling it the government's preferred name then subtly alter the timing of your speech to make it…

I don't see much fun in that. The funny thing about getting the ship named Boaty McBoatface is that it would be painted on the ship and would be named as such in official documentation. The ability to casually refer to the ship by that name does exist, obviously, but how often do people refer to specific government ships by name anyway?

The problem with this "joke" is that it's a mildly amusing story at best. Having it painted on the boat is just prolonging something that never really made it to the amusement level of a joke with legs.

I hope the officials hold firm. Long after the easily entertained public has moved on, they can do their job without being reminded of how poor the sense of humor in the general populace actually is.

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#216

Post by jghn »

WorldMaker wrote: post #184
gryphonshafer wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happens with airports a lot. Some really wonderful and generous old pilot or aviation engineer dies, so the field gets renamed in honor of the person. But aviators still refer to the field by it's traditional name. It's not a slight against the honored dead; rather, it's just out of habit and the fact that it's tremendously easier to remember "$CITY_NAME Airport" than it is "$GUY_WHO_DIED Field".

Another fun example is the Louisville International Airport which was originally named Standiford Field, thus the airport code SDF and even locals still sometimes refer to it as Standiford, but in this case was renamed to the more obvious choice (Louisville International Airport) to confuse people less. A further tangent, but the more obvious airport code LOU is still in active use across town at Bowman Field, the ci…

Random aside but when I was a kid in the early 80s I found a radio in my grandparents basement which could pick up the radio chatter at Bowman. I would listen to that thing every time we visited

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#217

Post by pimlottc »

_asummers wrote: post #130
theseatoms wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise in Chicago, the Sears Tower is now technically the Willis Tower.

It got bought again, though I don't know if the newest buyers plan on changing the name again.

Perhaps, but the name Willis is not from the current owners, but simply one of the primary tenants. The previous owners threw in naming rights as part of the rental agreement.

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#218

Post by bobwaycott »

Grishnakh wrote: post #181
chollida1 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The solution is simple. Continue calling the boat Boaty McBoatface. Ignore all references to the government's preferred name. This is good advice. In Toronto we have a baseball stadium called the Rogers Center ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Centre ). It was originally called the SkyDome but it was bought by a company called Rogers and renamed. Everyone still refers to it as the Skydome. Corporate branding b…

I have a counterexample for this one: in Phoenix, there's an outdoor arena/pavilion that used to be called "Desert Sky Pavilion", a nice non-corporate name referring to the local geography. Well it went through that whole corporate branding crap, and while I was there at least, it seemed like people were calling it "Cricket Pavilion" (which was the current name at the time). Here's what Wikipedia says about the namin…

The Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion. I died.

Then I wondered why there are so many telco/media stadiums/pavilions/etc., and not more furniture stores in the mix.

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#219

Post by cpeterso »

xenophonf wrote: post #140

This is the country of the author who gave us ship names such as Gunboat Diplomat , You'll Thank Me Later , and (my personal favorite) I Blame Your Mother . You'd think the NERC would understand that it's all in good fun and would have the grace to use the name chosen by us unwashed masses. I mean, it's irreverent, but it isn't obscene, so who cares?

"Culture ship name" was the first thing I thought when I first read about Boaty McBoatface. :)

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#220

Post by aninhumer »

hartpuff wrote: post #214
aninhumer wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So what's your presumably non-childish objection to other things being given "whimsical" names? I don't object to that either?

My God, this is completely ridiculous, but I'll try one more time. Do you or do you not believe everything should have a whimsical name? To save time: If your answer to this is "No, I do not believe everything should have a whimsical name", then what is your non-childish objection to whimsical names in some cases?

That's a false dichotomy. I do not believe everything should have a whimsical name nor do I believe they shouldn't.

(Except in the sense that variety is preferable, but I don't think that's what you're getting at.)

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