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"Figures in billions except for World War II and post-9/11 totals; all are in fiscal year 2011 dollars." At The New York Times on July 24, 2010.

"Going viral" puts you on the map. It gets you a flood of traffic, a ton of links and lots of attention on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Plus it's cheaper than traditional advertising and you get to be the flavor of the moment. The problem is, it's difficult to do in the first place and even harder to repeat. Unless you're The Oatmeal.

"Every fall, I explain to a fresh batch of Ph.D. students what a Ph.D. is. It's hard to describe it in words. So, I use pictures. Read below for the illustrated guide to a Ph.D." By Matthew Might

An excellent interactive graphic of the Gulf Oil Spill's current effect on wildlife. By The New York Times on July 14, 2010.

"In theory, political cartoons should be a means to get a controversial point across in a concise, effective and humorous way. In reality, most usually convey less information than, say, grunting or gesturing." By Christina H at Cracked.com on August 3, 2010.

"In theory, political cartoons should be a means to get a controversial point across in a concise, effective and humorous way. In reality, most usually convey less information than, say, grunting or gesturing." By Christina H at Cracked.com on August 3, 2010.

500 Years of modern science, reason & critical thinking via the medium of gross over-simplification, dodgy demarcation, glaring omission and a very tiny font.

"Humans rule the world. There is no debate about that, but we certainly shouldn't think we are distinct in many area when comparing us with animals. Think we are the only creatures on the planet with a sense of humor, or have a culture, or show emotions such as love? Think again." | The Infographics Showcase

"The Wikileaks Iraq war logs provide us with a unique picture of every death in Iraq. These are those events mapped using Google Fusion tables" By Simon Rogers at The Guardian on October 23, 2010.

"Mapping the distribution of religious groups is often a frustrating exercise. Good data on the numbers of adherents of any particular faith or sect, let alone the intensity of their beliefs, are often lacking, while the spatial intermingling of different religions presents formidable cartographic challenges. As a result, even the best maps of religion at the global scale are deeply flawed. Britain, for example, is almost always mapped as solidly "Protestant Christian," even though by 2005 it was estimated that more Britons were attending weekly services in Muslim mosques than in Anglican churches. As British Muslim populations are highly concentrated in urban areas, and as many non-church-goers still think of themselves as vaguely Christian, depicting Britain as a Christian land may be roughly acceptable. But more accurate cartography would portray Britain, like most of Europe, as largely secular and partly Muslim. " By Martin Lewis at GeoCurrent Events on October 22, 2010.

"Accusations today over the timings of terror alerts and elections. The Bush administration used to raise threat levels around campaign time, apparently. Is Obama doing the same with European terror alerts to create a rally-round-the-president effect? I wondered if there was a correlation between terrorism and elections we could actually see."

This is an interactive graphic that portrays Russia's geopolitical desires. Rollover and click on each of the four buttons in the upper-left hand corner to learn more.

By Nathan at FlowingData on April 19, 2010.

"Investigate how form and function are related in cells through scientific illustration. How can illustration show us the relationship between form and function in a cell?"

From Armor Games, a new Tower Defense Game that's supposed to be pretty good.

World map of useless stereotypes

Thanks to the tireless curators behind brilliant sites such as 50 Watts, BibliOdyssey, Paleofuture, and How to Be a Retronaut, to name just a few of the Internet's treasure troves, we now have collections of archival material that would have been unthinkable even a decade ago.

In the past 20 years, the US economy has grown nearly 60 percent. This huge increase in productivity is partly due to automation, the internet, and other improvements in efficiency. But it's also the result of Americans working harder-often without a big boost to their bottom lines. Oh, and meanwhile, corporate profits are up 20 percent. (Also read our essay on the great speedup and harrowing first-person tales of overwork.)

"Earth as various maps from Super Mario? Genius. If only we really had warp pipes. Worlds identified include the U.S. as Donut Plains (ouch) and Eastern Europe as the Forest of Illusion. Can you spot any other interesting choices?"