Today’s theme: small things of beauty

The redesigned Politics page on NYTimes.com: That gray election sidebar is a pretty nice touch, and it’s a really unique navigation feature for an institution like the times. The infographics are just sublime, too. The Senate, House and Governors race pages all make really great use of maps and the interactivity is just icing on the cake. Even the pages for individual races are beautiful. A data nerd’s dream.

NPR’s 404 page: Lots of sites just give you an error message they can’t find the page you’re looking for. NPR’s developers provide some utility with a dash of humor — Links to archive stories about Amelia Earhardt, The Watergate Tapes, Luggage, Jimmy Hoffa and Waldo, with the tagline: “It’s a shame that your page is lost, but at least it’s in good company; stick around to browse through NPR stories about lost people, places and things that still haven’t turned up.”

SketchNotes iPhone app: Mike Rohde is a writer and designer who takes beautiful notes, and app maker Six Voices does the work justice with slick navigation and a beautiful interface. (Download it, it’s free.)

Another of my occasional link dumps as I clear out my online reading list:

This past weekend was a tough one for NFL bookies, in what’s already a tough season:

“The issue isn’t just that some bad teams are getting blown out. It’s that none is stepping up and making a game of it, limiting the casino’s losses.

The individual gamblers are having a field day.

“We’ve had bad teams in the NFL before, but usually one or two step up and cover,” Kornegay said.

He paused and issued a gallows humor laugh.

“I feel like we’re in a knife fight and we’re losing.”

[Yahoo Sports -- Bad NFL teams turn sports books into losers]

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More than half of the $845 million the Ricketts family paid to buy the Chicago Cubs was borrowed money. Yikes.

[CNBC Sports Biz -- Cubs Deal: A Financing Miracle?]

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This is just a good idea if you’re in a car accident and need to recreate it with an easy-to-use-to-sue-someone diagram. Printable accident reports, too.

[AccidentSketch.com]

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The New York Times sent a buyout package to its employees this week, in hopes of getting 100 people to walk to avoid layoffs. Some interesting staffing numbers from the packet:

Editors at the Book Review: 14
Reporters at Metro: 50
Size of the Opinion/Editorial Department: 49
Size of Sports Desk: 57
Critics in the Culture Department: 18
Editors at The Times Magazine: 21
Size of Business Desk: 85
Size of Washington Bureau: 45
Size of Week in Review: 5
Total size of Art Department: 113
Size of Metro: 103

To compare, the World-Herald’s sports desk has seven full-time editors.

[NY Observer -- Times buyout package reveals more than expected]

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And with the nation in full swine-flu terror mode, I’ll close with some activism. A compelling article from Wired that attempts to debunk some of the myths perpetuated by the “anti-vaccine” lobby.

[Wired - An epidemic of fear: How panicked parents skipping shots endangers us all]

Oh, and about that swine flu: Wired also has a really good Q&A that clears up some confusion about the H1N1 vaccine. (Read: There’s NO WAY to get sick from a flu shot.)

[Wired - H1N1 Flu Shot: 3 major fears debunked]