Steven Colbert got a huge number of his audience to vote for his name in the NASA contest to come up with a name for the space station module. While his name was by far the winning vote, NASA has chosen to not only go with the highest-voted name, but to go with the eighth most popular name, Tranquility.  The new name was announced on Colbert’s show last night.

But Colbert didn’t go home empty-handed.  As a consolation prize, they named a new treadmill after him.  It’s the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT).  I don’t think that’s good enough.  Whether you’re a Colbert fan or not, popular vote is the American way.  I’m kinda disappointed.  I guess there’s a fine line between “Popular Vote” and “Mob Rule”, but to select the eighth most popular vote seems like a sham to me.

This article has all the details.