Walmart as a Virus

So intensely cool (but I'm a geek for this sort of thing): an animated history of Walmart's growth until 2006.

The choice of color, sort of a pea-green blob, transforms one of the last quarter-century's amazing (and most omnitopian) success stories into something akin to a viral outbreak.

While I love this project, I'd prefer the author of this animated map to have used the infamous Walmart smiley-face. Really, do you think they'd sue?

Check it out: http://projects.flowingdata.com/walmart/

Thanks to Jared Elson for posting this link to Facebook.