Stunning Examples of Data Visualization

I, also, was expecting to see visualizations that were able to draw out information or truths that traditional forms wouldn't be able to do. To me that would be stunning. Instead I see data turned into art, in many cases (especially the stock data one, for example) obfuscating the data. Some of the color palettes are stunning, if that's what they were going for...

The intent seems to be to portray the data as art. At that I think it succeeds. They are rather visually appealing.

I think the goal is to draw the casual observer into the data and contemplate what they are seeing. Perhaps with the goal of conveying a message that might have been missed if they were "boring" graphs.

These are the glossy box for the (perhaps) "boring" technical data inside, flip them over for the technical specs of what you are seeing.

I tried a test. Can I guess what any of these graphs are graphing without reading the article? The answer was a resounding no.

Here's a fully zoomable one i found in a link on one of the flickr pages... just click the + button and you can use your mouse wheel to zoom in/out... pretty cool and super high res: http://www.closr.it/show/Aoq6CwSieQ5