Barack to Michelle: "The lithium crystals! Beam me up, Scotty!"

[Jackeens]

On May 20, the night of the primaries in Oregon (a satisfying win in a liberal state) and Kentucky (another discouraging blowout in Appalachia; he had lost West Virginia the week before by 41 points), stood off-stage at the Des Moines Historical Society Museum in Iowa. He had wanted to go back to the state of his first great triumph to give a speech unofficially kicking off the fall campaign, even though Clinton officially was still in the race. "That's an interesting belt buckle," he said to Michelle, mischievously. She feigned offense and said, "I am interesting, next to you. Surprise, surprise, a blue suit, a white shirt and a tie." Obama grinned and bent down until he was almost at eye level with her waist. He jabbed a playful finger toward her belt buckle, and let loose his inner nerd. "The lithium crystals! Beam me up, Scotty!" Obama squeaked, laughing at his own lame joke as Michelle rolled her eyes.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/11/06/the-best-of-newsweek-s-top-secret-election-project-vols-ii-iii-and-iv.aspx

[KT2000]

1. Love that story

"let loose his inner nerd" LOL! :rofl:

Pretty cute!

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. Except that lithium would not have worked. They needed dilithium.

Alas, my inner geek is not so inner.

[ClarkUSA]

6. Obama is right. Star Trek trivia: "lithium crystals were used as a predecessor for dilithium"

From "The Mineralogy of Star Trek":

"Dilithium was first mentioned on the fourth episode produced of TOS, called Mudd’s
Women, which aired as the sixth installment of the first season on October 13, 1966. It plays an
important role in this episode and during one scene Captain Kirk is seen holding a damaged
crystal commenting on its beauty. It is obvious from the scene that he is holding a quartz crystal
which was used as a readily available prop. For collectors of Star Trek memorabilia or of
minerals, this specimen would have a value quite above its normal value as a crystal of one of the
most common minerals on earth. What happened with this specimen is unknown. It should be
noted, though, that in the episode mentioned it is referred to as Lithium Crystal. The Star Trek
web sites make it very clear that lithium crystals were used as a predecessor for dilithium in
early starship warp drives. As the Enterprise of TOS was not a ship equipped with early warp
drives and that its science officer, Mr. Spock, eventually went on in a later episode to find a way
to synthesize dilithium, one can only conclude that the reference on the episode was to dilithium
as it became known in innumerable subsequent episodes."

http://www.minrec.org/pdfs/STAR%20TREK%20Article.pdf

[TechBear_Seattle]

8. And according to the material you quoted, the Enterprise did not have an early warp engine

Therefore, Scotty would not have given a Highland fling about lithium, only dilithium. :hi:

[MattBaggins]

3. Tsk tsk.. It's Dilithium crystals

Damn geek wantabes

[Jackeens]

5. TechBear_Seattle & MattBaggins? You GEEKS!!!! LOL

[ClarkUSA]

7. Lithium crystals begat dilithium crystals according to "The Mineralogy of Star Trek"

See reply #6 above for the quote and link.

[az chela]

4. These 2 have it all.How lucky we are to have them