(Thumbnail image: The Starting Five)

It’s that time of year for annual Top 10 best of/worst of rankings: Books, movies, sports moments – you name it, it’s on a list somewhere.

But some media outlets have said “enough!” to boring year-end superlatives. They’re putting a different spin on their auld lang syne for 2009.

We’re looking at different perspectives from China Daily, High Times, Foreign Policy Magazine, and The Onion.

First, the state-run China Daily has a little fun with the country’s notorious bureaucracy with their “Top 10 Darndest Things Officials Said in 2009.”

Coming in at number one:

"We are of high-level positions. So don't bother to call the police."

The folks at High Times roll out a Best Cannabis Strains of the Year list. Which is their number one?  Space Bomb? A-Train?

You’ll have to buy the December issue to find out:

“Senior cultivation editor Danny Danko travels the world, smoking and sampling, to bring you this unparalleled list of the top names in herb.”

Foreign Policy’s Niall  Ferguson ranks which dead intellectual could have predicted the year’s financial meltdown.

Is 2009’s top departed economic brain John Maynard Keynes? Karl Marx? Adam Smith?

Nope. Thanks to his writings on evolution and fitness – it’s Charles Darwin.

“…we are all Darwinians now -- except in the strange parallel worlds of fundamentalist Christianity and state-guaranteed finance.”

While 12 months might be all some news outlets can handle, The Onion has put together the Top 10 Stories of the Last 4.5 Billion Years.

Getting the top spot is: “Evolution Going Great, Reports Trilobite.”

Coming in at number two is: “Internet Archeologists Uncover Long-Lost ‘Friendster Community.’”

“It was called Friendster, and at its peak it was a vibrant social network with more than 50 million members.”
“Fifty million!”
“But then, out of the blue, the civilization just ended and the site was completely abandoned.”

So, what will you remember about 2009?  Be sure to check out our sources and feel free to suggest your own memorable moments of the past million or so years in our comments section.