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Let me direct your attention to the new soft drink: Hitler did nothing wrong. 4chan has been around for a while now.

by woodman 10y ago

toyg 10y ago
Indeed. TBH they were incredibly lucky to land an inoffensive name that sounded fun, and should have made the best of it. Alas, British upper class is not exactly the most dynamic bunch...
- dan1234 10y ago
  FTA: But why couldn't the main vessel itself have carried the name? Here's one reason: imagine the ship were to get into trouble at some point in the future. Imagine the headlines. Remember, the places it will work are extremely hostile; they are dangerous. I can sort of see the reasoning there. “4 dead after Boaty McBoatface sinks” would be a difficult headline to take seriously.
  - DanBC 10y ago
    Vs "Four dead after Sir David Attenborough Sinks?"
    - Aeolos 10y ago
      "Sir David Attenborough lost with all hands." Boaty McBoatface was an awesome name. Such a missed opportunity...
  - woodman 10y ago
    If that is a serious concern then any kind of name outside of a serial number could look bad in a headline. "Attenborough caught dumping diesel, killing baby seals".
  - tfm 10y ago
    Another beautiful misdirect from the science correspondents :-) One might reasonably argue that the onus would be on the headline writers there to lend the appropriate gravitas. On the other hand ... there'd still be more publicity for the research programme. How much coverage was there for the prosaically named Ocean Researcher V when it sank, resulting in death of two researchers?
  - JorgeGT 10y ago
    "Four dead after British research ships sinks"?
  - lb1lf 10y ago
    -For that exact reason, Churchill instructed the SOE (Or, more probably, the armed forces in general, but it has been a while since I came across this anecdote) that whimsy or plain silly codenames for operations were OUT. He didn't want any widows to receive a letter stating that 'It is with utmost regret we inform you that your husband died heroically for the Empire during the execution of operation PINK UNDIES' or something of the sort. Makes a lot of sense.
    - woodman 10y ago
      You'll never be able to please everybody, just look at the WMO and their tropical storm naming methodology. I've actually heard someone complain about a perceived bias in the ethnicity of the names. You wouldn't even be able to use a true random number, because of tetraphobia [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraphobia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraphobia
- woodman 10y ago
  I'm surprised that they made no mention of Mister Splashy Pants [0]. Greenpeace went through the exact same thing, but stuck with the funny name - which turned out to be a really good move. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Splashy_Pants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Splashy_Pants
  - nekopa 10y ago
    Regarding the good move, from the wikipedia article linked above: After their initial reluctance Greenpeace embraced the result of the popular vote and used the name at the center of its campaign. The added publicity, at no cost to Greenpeace, gave it enough impact to convince the Japanese government, and the plan to hunt Humpback whales was abandoned in December 2007 Now that is a great result.

Let me direct your attention to the new soft drink: Hitler did nothing wrong. 4chan has been around for a while now.

by woodman 10y ago

Let me direct your attention to the new soft drink: Hitler did nothing wrong. 4chan has been around for a while now.

toyg 10y ago

Indeed. TBH they were incredibly lucky to land an inoffensive name that sounded fun, and should have made the best of it. Alas, British upper class is not exactly the most dynamic bunch...

dan1234 10y ago
FTA: But why couldn't the main vessel itself have carried the name? Here's one reason: imagine the ship were to get into trouble at some point in the future. Imagine the headlines. Remember, the places it will work are extremely hostile; they are dangerous. I can sort of see the reasoning there. “4 dead after Boaty McBoatface sinks” would be a difficult headline to take seriously.
- DanBC 10y ago
  Vs "Four dead after Sir David Attenborough Sinks?"
  - Aeolos 10y ago
    "Sir David Attenborough lost with all hands." Boaty McBoatface was an awesome name. Such a missed opportunity...
- woodman 10y ago
  If that is a serious concern then any kind of name outside of a serial number could look bad in a headline. "Attenborough caught dumping diesel, killing baby seals".
- tfm 10y ago
  Another beautiful misdirect from the science correspondents :-) One might reasonably argue that the onus would be on the headline writers there to lend the appropriate gravitas. On the other hand ... there'd still be more publicity for the research programme. How much coverage was there for the prosaically named Ocean Researcher V when it sank, resulting in death of two researchers?
- JorgeGT 10y ago
  "Four dead after British research ships sinks"?
- lb1lf 10y ago
  -For that exact reason, Churchill instructed the SOE (Or, more probably, the armed forces in general, but it has been a while since I came across this anecdote) that whimsy or plain silly codenames for operations were OUT. He didn't want any widows to receive a letter stating that 'It is with utmost regret we inform you that your husband died heroically for the Empire during the execution of operation PINK UNDIES' or something of the sort. Makes a lot of sense.
  - woodman 10y ago
    You'll never be able to please everybody, just look at the WMO and their tropical storm naming methodology. I've actually heard someone complain about a perceived bias in the ethnicity of the names. You wouldn't even be able to use a true random number, because of tetraphobia [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraphobia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraphobia
woodman 10y ago
I'm surprised that they made no mention of Mister Splashy Pants [0]. Greenpeace went through the exact same thing, but stuck with the funny name - which turned out to be a really good move. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Splashy_Pants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Splashy_Pants
- nekopa 10y ago
  Regarding the good move, from the wikipedia article linked above: After their initial reluctance Greenpeace embraced the result of the popular vote and used the name at the center of its campaign. The added publicity, at no cost to Greenpeace, gave it enough impact to convince the Japanese government, and the plan to hunt Humpback whales was abandoned in December 2007 Now that is a great result.