The problem with opening a decision to public input is that you could be stuck with a silly outcome, as NASA has learned after the word Colbert became the runaway winner in a contest to name a new room of NASA’s international space station.

Comedy Central Insider:

NASA’s mistake was allowing write-ins. Colbert urged viewers of his Comedy Central show, “The Colbert Report” to write in his name. And they complied, with 230,539 votes. That clobbered Serenity, one of the NASA choices, by more than 40,000 votes. Nearly 1.2 million votes were cast by the time the contest ended Friday.

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