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This is ridiculous. The "best photos of the year" are all related to a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or the conflict in Iraq. Certainly these deserve some, if not most of the focus of a "year in review", but there's a lot more in the world than pain.
Human struggle and conflict is, in essence, the most unifying and often most beautiful and powerful force that acts to unify and inspire people to work together against the inumerable fates that seek to destroy us and the bonds we share with others. The pictures of fear and death are ironically beautiful since they show the extremes of the human condition, and in only those conditions where someone can discover their worth of what we really are as humanity. This is why you don't see some vapid picture of two old men playing chess in a park, it has no inherit meaning, story, or real substance, etc. This is what's going on in the world, and its so wonderfully captured on innumerable technical and artistic levels.