Best of the Decade

Best Pictures of the Decade

The privately run Federal Reserve spent more money in a year then the annual GDP of the entire nation...in secret.




The Hubble Telescope trained it's lens on a dark section of space, 1/10th the size of the moon. Galaxies with billions of stars were there for discovery. Amazing.

(click on pictures to enlarge)

Dec 26, 2004 a Tsunami created a 30 meter wave in Asia and claimed the lives of over 200,000 people in 11 countries.

This poor soul made his choice. Burn or jump.

Disgraceful.

"I hear you, the rest of the world hears you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear from all of us soon". The rally cry that began two wars.

Feb 1, 2003 the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry.

The small Palestine boy armed with a rock opposes an Israeli tank. He was later shot and killed.

Shock and Awe. Those three words no longer hold the same meaning as originally intended.

There isn't a person of a certain age alive today that does not remember this day. It was as if everything wasn't going to be alright for the first time...and we were scared in a very elemental way.

The setting sun....on Mars.

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5 Best Movies

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The Incredibles

Wedding Crashers

Gladiator

Y tu Mama Tambien

Barbarian Invasions

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5 Best Athletes

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Tiger Woods

Roger Federer

Lance Armstrong

Kobe Bryant

Tom Brady

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5 Best Tech

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Google

iPod

Facebook

WiFi

DVR

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5 Biggest Stories

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Browning of America. In 30 years white people will be a minority, most likely in perpetuity.

The Marketing of Obama. Some of the slickest branding since Ronald Reagan's campaign and massive outlays on TV elected the first Black President.

Uncle Sam takes over. Bailouts for Wallstreet and takeovers for GM and Chrysler. Never has so much money been spent so jarringly...except for...

The Secret Fed. $1.5 Trillion in TARP spending by the Government was peanuts compared to the $12 Trillion spent by an agency with no oversight that is privately controlled. We haven’t even begun to feel it’s affect.

WalMart. The retail chain became a retail juggernaut that makes gobs of money when the economy is good...or bad.

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3 Things We Never Knew We Needed

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Red Bull

YouTube

Wikipedia

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5 Biggest Stock Winners

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Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc +7,434% Keurig and gourmet coffee. What a combo.

Hansen Natural Corporation +6,455%. Energy drinks

Terra Nitrogen Company +6,156%. Fertilizer so a tomato only looks like a tomato

Southwestern Energy Corp +5,411%. Natural Gas is a hot commodity

Amedysis,Inc +4,452%. Health Services for the aging Boomers

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5 Most Influential

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George W Bush- Pre-emptive war was added to our lexicon

Osama Bin Laden- The face that launched the next wave of Imperialism

Ben Bernake- Current Federal Reserve Chairman and the most powerful man in a Global Economy ever. No one has spent more in the history of the world in so short a span. Did I mention in secret? Ok well I just did again.

Steve Jobs. From Pixar to iPods he is selling what the masses want. Style and substance carry the day.

L. Page and S. Brin. Google them. Oh wait they are Google.

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5 Best in Science

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Large Hadron Collider- The largest and most expensive demolition derby for protons ever.

Climate Change- Human causal or not it is a big story.

Stem Cell Research- Holds a possible key for much that ails us

Human Genome Project- Perhaps someday we’ll can scan a new date for a “pass” or “fail”

Ardi Hominid- Another ancestral link to Human Evolution. Can Creationists really believe the Earth is 6000 years old still?!

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5 Best TV Shows

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Six Feet Under

Family Guy

The Daily Show

Lost

Sopranos

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3 Best of YouTube

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Dick in the Box

2 Girls 1 Cup- If you haven’t seen it don’t. It the name of all things good and decent. Don’t. Consider yourself warned.

Lonely Girl- Dorks unite ... and fall in love.

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Most Impactful Deaths

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Pat Tillman

The NFL footballer/atheist that gave up millions to fight in Afghanistan. Only to be shot in the head 3 times by reported “friendly fire”. His clothes and notebook were burned by fellow soldiers in attempt to cover-up the cause of death. Tillman’s thoughts and grievances shared with his family about the expansion into Iraq were lost in that notebook. He went from a recruiting nightmare scenario to a re-branded patriot hero used to sound a call to service.

A world that more than ever...became about image/perception and no lie was too offensive.

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Neda Agha-Soltan

27 year old Iranian woman was protesting the Islamic regimes fraudulent election and was shot dead in the streets of Tehran. Bystanders videotaped the incident and she became the face of injustice. Iran was not a country of Evil doers. It is made up of people like us...and right and wrong is not a punch line it is a brutal truth.

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THE BANK SWAGGA Blog wishes for all of you in the coming years...the best decade of your lives.

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-Life is complicated and far from perfect but it is still great.