Britain lets public name a new Polar Research Vessel

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

The UK Natural Environment Research Council has in preparation a £200 million state-of-the-art polar research vessel. It’s a serious contribution to the science of the area, a topic of increasing importance.

Because it’s funded via taxation, someone thought it a good idea to let the Great British Public come up with a suitable name for the vessel.

http://www.nerc.ac.uk/press/releases/2016/10-ship-naming/

At the time of posting, there is a very clear runaway winner. The people have spoken. So, welcome to the fleet, Royal Research Ship Boaty McBoatface.

https://nameourship.nerc.ac.uk/entries.html

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I approve.

3

The site doesn’t work properly for me. I can’t get the list of entries to load.

I think she should be called the Ice Queen.

4

Aw, we broke it…

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It’s been struggling all day. Chrome loads it more consistently than FF, but I think they weren’t expecting anything like the traffic they’ve ended up with. There’s some gems among the suggested names: RRS Usain Boat, RRS Do You Want Ice With That?, RRS I Like Big Boats & I Cannot Lie etc

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A sampling of names submitted today:

Its Bloody Cold Here
Coldtrouser
Deepwater Horizon
Thanks For All The Fish
Whats Up Hotdog
What Iceberg?
Icey Lady
Do You Want Ice With That?
I’m the Captain Now
I’m So Cold
Don’t Panic and Stay Cool
Polor the Explorer
Chilly Business
Slippery When Wet
Red Rum
Capt’n Birseye Get Off My Cod
1 Tom Collins On the Rocks
Notthetitanic
Big Metal Floaty Thingy-Thing
Immacrackdatice
Science!!!
Bust A Polar Cap (In Yo Ass)

7

Those sound like great ship names … for Culture ships.

8

I saw some good suggestions, really, but couldn’t figure out how to see what name, if any, is in the lead.

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RMS Wherestheicegone

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RRS Behind Blue Ice

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So the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) in England built this fancy new ship for a lot of money, and naturally decided to put the name of the ship to an internet vote.

What did the Internet come up with?

Boaty McBoatface, of course.

They did give themselves an out:

I hope they stick with that name though. It has a nice ring to it.

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I’m amazed they could agree on anything.

13

That’s just like the story when Stephen Colbert set up all his viewers to petition NASA to name a new wing of the ISS after him. NASA likewise reserved the right to have the final say.

They ended up naming the new module Tranquility, but the high-tech zero-G exercise treadmill in the module was named the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or C.O.L.B.E.R.T.

14

Look, you have to have somebody vetting nominations.

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I’ve merged Rigamarole’s IMHO thread with the existing MPSIMS thread. Carry on.

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Polar Research Vessel, you say? How about keep it simple and call it PRV? What could go wrong?

17

I assume the name has been chosen to honor the exploits of the original Boaty McBoatface under Lord Nelson at Trafalgar.

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It’s amazing what a few scripts can do to a website that wasn’t designed to prevent bots from voting. Britain has roughly 60 million people. 280 million of whom voted for Boaty McBoatface.

As of now the main page linked in the OP says the voting website is off the air for “technical difficulties”.

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Erebus or Terror.

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Was it supposed to be limited to British residents? 'Cuz if anyone on the Internet could vote, I wouldn’t necessarily assume bots.