Time Magazine-- you may remember, that same magazine currently featuring half of Bill Gates' face, partially obscured by an Xbox 360 console and its glowing eye, looking for all the world like reference to the commmon "Borg" image of Gates used for Microsoft stories on Slashdot-- is running an admittedly non-scientific poll, asking readers which of the three next-generation consoles they are interested in. (Click the image or the headline for the full story.) However, copping to the fact that the survey's results aren't scientific simply does not cover the kind of gross manipulation that is going on there. That they should gerrymander the order of consoles in the list is hardly surprising. The Xbox 360, of course, is first, followed by the "Nintendo 'Revolution'" and the "Next-Gen Sony Playstation". How this order is justified is nearly impossible to explain. It isn't in alphabetical order according to the name of the manufacturer or the console itself. It isn't in order of release. The naming convention itself is inconsistent-- Nintendo and Sony are named, but Microsoft is not-- no doubt to avoid any possible negative stigma attached to the name due to their behavior in non-gaming markets. The Xbox 360 is referred to by its proper name, without quotes, but quotes are placed around the "Revolution" by Nintendo. This could conceivably be because this is a codename; but regardless, it stands out, making the reader believe that Time is making a sarcastic comment about it, suggesting that Nintendo's console is not really revolutionary. In the last entry, the ubiquitously annoying phrase "Next-Gen" is put in front of Sony Playstation-- even though the console was already announced as the PlayStation 3 officially, and there was little speculation that it was ever going to be called anything else; it was Microsoft playing name games to avoid having Xbox 2 up against PS 3. The results of this jiggering can easily be seen in these results, which are sure to contribute to the "interest and enjoyment of Time.com users"-- not to mention Microsoft itself, which was garnering nearly 80% of votes yesterday, compared to almost 16% for Nintendo and a paltry 5% for Sony. Unscientific, indeed.