Apologies for the fact that we’re little chart-happy today, but we couldn’t resist sharing Phillip Niemeyer’s sweeping but easy to digest look at the last decade for the New York Times. We find the culture category especially interesting. Who would have guessed that we’d start out with Pokemon and end up with Lady Gaga? And does it really feel like almost seven years since “Hey Ya” dominated the radio? Bizarre. [Hat tip @ebertchicago]

Digg celebrated its fifth anniversary last week by unveiling Digg365, a cool graphic visualization tool that displays the site’s most popular stories of the year. It can also display the top 10 stories of any given day, week, or month. For example, on this day last year the most buzzed about item was SNL Digital Short: Jizz In My Pants, with 8,789 diggs. You can also view the top 10 breakdown by category. The top entertainment story of 2009 thus far? No surprise here: Michael Jackson Dies, with 24,851 diggs.

Playing around with this is like opening a virtual DIY time capsule. We like it. [via Fast Company]

We love a clever infographic, especially when it involves one of our favorite Beatles songs. We just discovered it was originally called “Hey Jules,” and written by Paul McCartney wrote to comfort Julian Lennon during his parents’ divorce. “Jude” was just easier to sing, plus he thought it sounded better. Watch McCartney tackle it after the jump. [via Love All This]

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This is a subway map that a blogger named David made using a list of the 250 best movies, as voted by IMDb.com users on the June 19th. Random, but pretty well-done, right? One tiny gripe: We’re a little worried that The Hangover made the cut. Sure it’s funny, but does it really belong on the same service line as The Big Lebowski and Annie Hall? Come on, people. We’re going to have to make a transfer at Groundhog Day to Romance (headed toward Fight Club), stat.

When I came across a feature called 50 great examples of infographics, I knew that it was time to call on Flavorpill’s resident design guru, Jonathan Rahmani (who you might remember from such Flavorwire hits as Making Eyes at that Font Across the Room) for a little chat about his favorites. That’s not exactly what went down. Grab the nearest stylus and watch him try to explain basic good design principles to me — a certified non-visual learner — after the jump. And be sure to weigh in on your favorite of the 50 in the comments. Read More »