This Day in History: February 11th, 2006: Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shoots his friend in the face while hunting
Because remember: if we outlaw guns, only vice presidents will accidentally shoot people in the face.
Happy birthday, best story of the 21st century so far.
![Hey guys, it’s our birthday: The stuff we learned in 2012
After finishing your champagne, Nosh on some cake! As you may or may not know, ShortFormBlog started in earnest on January 1, 2009, and things have kind of gone pretty crazy since then. Among the milestones we hit this year? A nice little mention from Time Magazine, a night at the Shorty Awards (where I got a chance to say hey to the We Are the 99 Percent folks), and some of our coolest articles ever. But we got into this because of the news, so with that said, hit the jump to see our favorite stories from 2012, displayed Summary Sandwich style. — Ernie @ SFB
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The year’s biggest story, and what we learned from covering it The Chicago Sun-Times nailed it earlier this week, rough as it is to admit. With two major shootings and the major debate it caused, it’s the year of the gun. The question is, will things change in 2013?
How Hurricane Sandy brought us together after the storm In 2011, a hurricane got fairly close to causing major damage to NYC. In 2012, it actually happened. The monetary toll was high; so was the resiliency.
The year that politics went totally flip(-flop) The trend started in 2011 with a smiling Herman Cain. In 2012, we got Etch-a-Sketches, doghouses and binders full of women. Will 2013 be a year off?
Oh yeah, Obama won a second term or something Nate Silver called it. Though the president had a fallow period after the first debate, he eventually made it back. And he got on the cover of Time, too.
The ever-precarious situation in Sryia Syria was very volatile in 2012, but we kept you guys up to date. Meanwhile, there’s already too much drama around Benghazi, so let’s focus on those lost.
The opportunities we got to stretch our wings and try new things One of the best things we got to try in 2012 was The Pitch, an experiment in writing long-form articles. We also got the chance to experiment with the form a little, which was a real joy.
» And again, thank you: The reason SFB has continued to be fun after all this time has been because of the people we get to chat with and talk about the news with through this site. Seeing a post of ours impact so many people is awesome, and it’s something we look forward to doing in 2013. So again, thank you, from the entire team. (photo by Mamapyjama/Flickr)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/e90b6d522853ee82001440b11664ed07/tumblr_mfxm7nlbXT1qas8z9o1_500.jpg)
After finishing your champagne, Nosh on some cake! As you may or may not know, ShortFormBlog started in earnest on January 1, 2009, and things have kind of gone pretty crazy since then. Among the milestones we hit this year? A nice little mention from Time Magazine, a night at the Shorty Awards (where I got a chance to say hey to the We Are the 99 Percent folks), and some of our coolest articles ever. But we got into this because of the news, so with that said, hit the jump to see our favorite stories from 2012, displayed Summary Sandwich style. — Ernie @ SFB
Happy Birthday, USA Today. The newspaper critics once described as “television you can wrap fish in” is turning 30-years-old. Read “A Newspaper That Influenced Us All” in Garcia Media, a fascinating look back at what this project meant to the industry and its design community.
FJP Fun Fact: USA Today did try to launch a television program. Called, originally enough, USA Today: The Television Show, it launched in 1988 and was cancelled a year and a half later due to poor ratings.
FJP Quibble: USA Today launched on September 15th, 1982, so happy pre-birthday.
A very kind post here from Mario Garcia — and today’s our 30th birthday! We’re looking forward to the next 30 years.
Ball-shaped logo or not, fact is that USA Today did a lot to modernize newspapers. Happy birthday, fellas!
Happy 75th anniversary Golden Gate Bridge!
Golden Gate Birthday.
How Common Is Your Birthday?
(via @stiles)
People with lighter colors are more unique. There. We said it.
Stephen Hawking turns 70, misses his own birthday speech: Hawking, one of many famous people (Elvis, David Bowie, Kim Jong-Un) to have a birthday today, was recovering from an infection, but pre-recorded the speech ahead of time. He’s turning 70, despite doctors predicting he wouldn’t pass 25. source
It is time to acknowledge this failure and adopt a more effective course for the federal role in education. Policymakers must abandon their faith-based embrace of test-and-punish strategies and, instead, pursue proven alternatives to guide and support the nation’s neediest schools and students.A policy assessment written by Lisa Guisbond, Monty Neill and Bob Schaeffer • Suggesting that No Child Left Behind, the Bush-era education law passed under bipartisan circumstances, should go the way of the dodo. The policy, now seen as an example of ineffective government overreach by many, celebrates its 10th birthday today, and politicians who once supported the law — including Rick Santorum, who voted for it and tried to push an intelligent design amendment into the bill — no longer do. Guisbond, Neill and Schaeffer’s report, which suggests revisiting the law based on the lessons learned from the past decade, is available to read over here. source (via • follow)
Happy birthday, Kim Jong-Un! The new North Korean leader’s birthday, his first as Supreme Leader of North Korea, was celebrated by the country’s propaganda machine thanks to a documentary that aired on state television. The video reveals him riding a horse, hanging at an amusement park, and … most importantly, suggesting way back in 2009 that he’d be willing to wage war with South Korea and the U.S. if they shot down a North Korean rocket. In other words, bro knows a thing or two about threats.
Our third birthday: In case you missed it because you were partying like Andrew W.K. (and who isn’t?), we threw up our 2011 year in review last night in honor of our birthday — January 1, 2009. It’s in Summary Sandwich form, meaning that fans of finding blurbs hidden inside other blurbs will have reason to cheer for this one. Hope you guys are enjoying your 2012 so far. We certainly are! (photo by thepinkpeppercorn on Flickr)
Congrats Tumblr!
Don’t screw this up Yahoo.
In 2007, I was...
I started tumblr when I was at one of the lowest points of...
Exclusive: How the Syrian Electronic Army hacked the...
soon
Yahumblr.
A lot of cake. A lot of reasons to celebrate. A lot of big news. In celebration of our birthday tomorrow — we started on January 1, 2009 — we thought we’d share a few anecdotes from the past year. The past twelve months of this silly experiment of telling people the news with big numbers and short blurbs has been a pretty exciting one, and we certainly gained a ton from this year. (In fact, we just hit our 20,000th follower this evening. Whoo!) There were many highlights and lowlights, and we wanted to reflect on a few of those. Hop over to the jump to see them in Summary Sandwich form.
Capturing history as it was made: The Times commemorates its 130th birthday with a look back at memorable photos and front pages.
Photos: 130 images pulled from our archives
Image: The first edition of the Los Angeles Times on Dec. 4, 1881. View more front pages here.
Happy birthday, L.A. Times. My, how you’ve grown.
Google’s epic doodle in honor of Freddie Mercury: This music video for “Don’t Stop Me Now” redefines the doodle. Check it out on Google’s Japanese front page, where it’s already up (it’ll go up in the U.S. on Tuesday, to ensure everyone sees it, since it’s y’know, Labor Day here). It’s amazing. Mercury would’ve been 65 today. Read up more on the rock icon over here, in the words of close friend and Queen bandmate Brian May.
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
