In a press conference Friday, President Obama gave this answer to a question about the sequester:
Observe:
Star Trek and Star Wars fans everywhere:
Advertisement
What exactly did President Obama say wrong? Let's break it down.
Star Trek tells us that a mind-meld (also known as a Vulcan mind-meld) is a "a telepathic link between two individuals, allowing for the exchange of thoughts, thus in essence allowing the participants to become one mind."
Advertisement
Whereas Star Wars teaches us that "Jedi mind tricks," or "Force persuasion," are the use of Force powers to influence the minds of others and is "most commonly used to coerce into agreement... or to cause one to reveal information."
The Star Wars Expanded Universe does reference a battle technique called a "force meld" or "Jedi meld," an ancient Jedi battle technique "where a number of Force users joined their minds together through the Force, drawing strength from each other."
So President Obama could be a Star Wars EU fan making a very obscure reference, but given the context of his statement and his remark about using the "Jedi mind-meld" to "force Republicans to do the right thing," it seems VERY unlikely.
We, and our partners, use technologies to process personal information, including IP addresses, pseudonymous identifiers associated with cookies, and in some cases mobile ad IDs. This information is processed to personalize content based on your interests, run and optimize marketing campaigns, measure the performance of ads and content, and derive insights about the audiences who engage with ads and content. This data is an integral part of how we operate our site, make revenue to support our staff, and generate relevant content for our audience. You can learn more about our data collection and use practices in our Privacy Policy.
If you wish to request that your personal information is not shared with third parties, please click on the below opt out button. Please note that after your opt out request is processed, we may still collect your information in order to operate our site.
We value your privacy
We and our partners use technology such as cookies on our site to personalize content and ads, provide social media features, and analyze our traffic. Click below to consent to the use of this technology across the web. You can change your mind and change your consent choices at anytime by returning to this site.
BuzzFeed
Information storage and access
The storage of information, or access to information that is already stored, on your device such as advertising identifiers, device identifiers, cookies, and similar technologies.
Personalisation
The collection and processing of information about your use of this service to subsequently personalise advertising and/or content for you in other contexts, such as on other websites or apps, over time. Typically, the content of the site or app is used to make inferences about your interests, which inform future selection of advertising and/or content.
Ad selection, delivery, reporting
The collection of information, and combination with previously collected information, to select and deliver advertisements for you, and to measure the delivery and effectiveness of such advertisements. This includes using previously collected information about your interests to select ads, processing data about what advertisements were shown, how often they were shown, when and where they were shown, and whether you took any action related to the advertisement, including for example clicking an ad or making a purchase. This does not include personalisation, which is the collection and processing of information about your use of this service to subsequently personalise advertising and/or content for you in other contexts, such as websites or apps, over time.
Content selection, delivery, reporting
The collection of information, and combination with previously collected information, to select and deliver content for you, and to measure the delivery and effectiveness of such content. This includes using previously collected information about your interests to select content, processing data about what content was shown, how often or how long it was shown, when and where it was shown, and whether the you took any action related to the content, including for example clicking on content. This does not include personalisation, which is the collection and processing of information about your use of this service to subsequently personalise content and/or advertising for you in other contexts, such as websites or apps, over time.
Third-party vendors
Information storage and access
The storage of information, or access to information that is already stored, on your device such as advertising identifiers, device identifiers, cookies, and similar technologies.
View CompaniesHide Companies
Company
Lotame Solutions, Inc.
OpenX Software Ltd. and its affiliates
The Rubicon Project, Limited
Index Exchange, Inc.
comScore, Inc.
DoubleVerify Inc.
LiveRamp, Inc.
Taboola Europe Limited
PubMatic, Inc.
Outbrain UK Ltd
EMX Digital LLC
Nielsen Marketing Cloud
Google (DFP / AdX)
Personalisation
The collection and processing of information about your use of this service to subsequently personalise advertising and/or content for you in other contexts, such as on other websites or apps, over time. Typically, the content of the site or app is used to make inferences about your interests, which inform future selection of advertising and/or content.
View CompaniesHide Companies
Company
Lotame Solutions, Inc.
OpenX Software Ltd. and its affiliates
LiveRamp, Inc.
Outbrain UK Ltd
EMX Digital LLC
Nielsen Marketing Cloud
Google (DFP / AdX)
Ad selection, delivery, reporting
The collection of information, and combination with previously collected information, to select and deliver advertisements for you, and to measure the delivery and effectiveness of such advertisements. This includes using previously collected information about your interests to select ads, processing data about what advertisements were shown, how often they were shown, when and where they were shown, and whether you took any action related to the advertisement, including for example clicking an ad or making a purchase. This does not include personalisation, which is the collection and processing of information about your use of this service to subsequently personalise advertising and/or content for you in other contexts, such as websites or apps, over time.
View CompaniesHide Companies
Company
Lotame Solutions, Inc.
OpenX Software Ltd. and its affiliates
LiveRamp, Inc.
Outbrain UK Ltd
Google (DFP / AdX)
Content selection, delivery, reporting
The collection of information, and combination with previously collected information, to select and deliver content for you, and to measure the delivery and effectiveness of such content. This includes using previously collected information about your interests to select content, processing data about what content was shown, how often or how long it was shown, when and where it was shown, and whether the you took any action related to the content, including for example clicking on content. This does not include personalisation, which is the collection and processing of information about your use of this service to subsequently personalise content and/or advertising for you in other contexts, such as websites or apps, over time.
View CompaniesHide Companies
Company
Lotame Solutions, Inc.
LiveRamp, Inc.
Google (DFP / AdX)
Measurement
The collection of information about your use of the content, and combination with previously collected information, used to measure, understand, and report on your usage of the service. This does not include personalisation, the collection of information about your use of this service to subsequently personalise content and/or advertising for you in other contexts, i.e. on other service, such as websites or apps, over time.
{{ blurb }}
{{/blurb}} {{#picture_url}}