Who Said This, When, and About What?

| "I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this, but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010." That's Sen. Byron Dorgan (D.-North Dakota), from a 1999 Times article on the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. The repeal was a major step toward deregulating the banking industry, which probably helped germinate our current financial mess, and (unintentionally) contained the damage somewhat as the meltdown began. (HT: GOOD)

Funny Math

| For admirers of Indexed, we bring you: New Math. On this site, Craig Damrauer offers up one new formula each Monday to describe our world. In case you were wondering: Carjacking = Can I borrow your car? - No, you can't.

Taking Cities in Stride

Last post, I let you know about Walk Score, the website that tallies a district

The Downside of Google's Data Obsession

| He didn't announce it via cake, but Doug Bowman quit his job as head of Google's visual design team last week, citing the company's "reliance on data" for design decisions as the main reason for his departure. Bowman writes on his blog that he'll miss Google's "incredibly smart and talented people" and the "occasional massage," but not "a design philosophy that lives or dies strictly by the sword of data." We've asked before whether too much data can endanger patients and cause bad writing; might it also diminish a company's workforce? (HT: Noah Harlan)

Time's 100 Most Influential People

For the last few years, Time magazine has compiled a list of the 100 people who

By Your Own Emissions

| We reported a while back that the true private mortality cost of smoking a pack of cigarettes is close to $222. It turns out smoking has a serious environmental impact as well. Assuming all 5.5 trillion cigarettes produced around the world each year get smoked, smokers produce 84,878 tons of particulate air pollution annually -- about half the pollution put out by all the cars in America.

March Madness, Hedge-Fund Style

| When entering your office pool this season, check out the collective wisdom on winners and losers, then bet against it. Slate's Chris Wilson explains.

Fear Begets Fear

| White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers recently summed up our economic trouble this way: "Greed gives way to fear. And this fear begets fear. That is the paradox at the heart of the financial crisis." Daniel Gross sees the economy hunkering on a ledge, and he has one word of advice: "Jump!"

The Morning News

| In the 1930's, Franklin Roosevelt started his day by reading half a dozen newspapers in bed. Today, you can read the printed front pages of more than a dozen major newspapers from around the world side by side right here on your browser, thanks to a feed from the Newseum, arranged by the design company Rayogram.

Another View of Los Angeles

Eric Morris has been busting L.A. transportation myths lately with his Fact and Fiction posts.

For yet another unusual view of Los Angeles, check out this beautiful set of photos in Good magazine by Mathieu Young, who set out on a 20-mile walk across the city, taking photos of everyone he met along the way.

A few examples:

Mathieu Young

Mathieu Young

Mathieu Young