This is perfectly true - box2D is indeed working just as the picture describes. Angles increase counter-clockwise from East, just like in geometry. They can also be specified as negatives, so -pi/2 is equivalent to 3pi/2. Worth noting is that Android's draw functions use degrees increasing in the clockwise direction, so you must convert to degrees and then make them negative as well.
– JimMay 11 '11 at 18:59