It’s official: Obama is the President.

RTFA: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6222353…

Chief Justice John Roberts has administered the presidential oath of office to Barack Obama for a second time, just to be on the safe side.

The unusual step came after Roberts flubbed the oath a bit on Tuesday, causing Obama to repeat the wording differently than as prescribed in the Constitution.

White House counsel Greg Craig said Obama took the oath from Roberts again out of an “abundance of caution.”

The chief justice and the president handled the matter privately in the Map Room on Wednesday night.

I’m going to trust that they got the wording right this time.

For another dose of the train wreck Roberts unleashed during the inauguration, check out the previous coverage on RTFA:

Roberts double-flubs: Obama can retake Oath of Office, just like Coolidge and Arthur

Chief Justice Roberts botches Presidential Oath

RTFA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-ArigMKhi4&fmt=18

This series of 3 videos takes you through the complete build of the wind powered cart that goes directly downwind faster than the wind.

So, as time has gone on, it seems the Internet consensus has shifted, and people generally accept that the idea of “Directly Down Wind Faster Than The Wind” is possible. We’ve been following this story the whole time, the outcome is really satisfying!

My original approach to the issue was this: let’s not argue about the theory of it all; if it works, it works. That’s why RTFA provided the first public mirror of the build plans. It seems like talk is easier than action, and as a result of the discussion, minds have been changed.

Well, now that we know DDWFTTW works, I suggest that it’s time to make some carts and figure out what cool things can be accomplished. For example, how big can these things get? What about a salt flats race? Does this idea map onto boating? (i.e. does an underwater propeller work as well as wheels)

Anyway, Spork has provided us with several videos that demonstrate how to construct your own carts. If you’re home for the holidays, I suggest that this is the perfect thing for the extended family. Spend some time in the workshop, and make your own inexplicably cool, self-propelling cart.

For more information, see the previous RTFA post about the DDWFTTW build plans. We’ve also got a separate post including the DDWFTTW parts list.

Thanks for the update, Spork!

RTFA: http://blog.kiwitobes.com/?p=51

The other day at work, I made this video showing the opening of Wal-mart retail locations over time. It’s pretty fun to watch how it starts very slowly with the first location in Arkansas in 1962 and then spreads into different regions over time.

(you can download a high-resolution AVI version here)
It actually is built entirely from data that’s in Freebase, including the map itself.
Here’s how it works:
Freebase has a topic for every zip code, along with it’s longitude and latitude. Here’s one example. One query pulls out all the ZIP codes along with their longitudes and latitudes. You can turn longitudes and latitudes into graphical coordinates with some simple transformations (which will vary based on the region you’re plotting and how big your image is) – here are the ones I used:

x=(longitude+127)*16
y=(50-latitude)*20

If you plot all the ZIP codes using a library like PIL, you get a nice map with dots that roughly match population density, which has the advantage of looking a little bit like a night-time satellite photo of the United States.

Cool video. Great method! This general algorithm can be applied in so many ways.

RTFA: http://www.mapsofwar.com/ind/history-of-religion.h…

How has the geography of religion evolved over the centuries, and where has it sparked wars? Our map gives us a brief history of the world’s most well-known religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism.
Selected periods of inter-religious bloodshed are also highlighted. Want to see 5,000 years of religion in 90 seconds? Ready, Set, Go!