I missed having the old SHortFormBlog archives online. The Tumblr site is great and all, but this is just where it all started. And in that spirit, I’d like to leave the first three-plus years of ShortFormBlog publicly accessible for anyone who wants to read them, wants to do research, or remembers having them around back in the day. It’s part of the blogosphere trend that I came in on the tail end on, just before social media took over the world. Anyway, if you see any issues, email me and I’ll do my best to get them fixed. Thanks!

• 50,000 of MJ’s song files reported stolen source

• » Two British dudes are facing trial over the alleged heist: You have to be a dedicated MJ fan to steal tens of thousands of Michael Jackson songs — including unreleased songs that Sony planned to milk by releasing over 10 albums in the next seven years. James Marks and James McCormick, the suspects in the musical heist, deny having done so, but that may not be enough to sway prosecutors. Sony, by the way, is basically a broken record when it comes to hacking, so this latest incident comes as no surprise.

• 60K number of Volts Chevrolet expected to sell in 2012
• 1,626 number of Volts the company has actually sold so far source

• » But hey, it’s still a winner! Really. The Volt received some bad press since its debut, so it hasn’t sold as many cars as it could have sold. If only sold as many cars as it won awards; it just won the 2012 European Car of the Year — but the car also won the 2011 North American Car of the Year, the World Green Car of the Year and was named Motor Trend’s Car of the Year. Now Chevy just needs to sell more cars, and the Volt can earn its recognition on the roads.

• oneAides realize early on that Sarah Palin, John McCain’s running mate, will have to learn a lot about history and current events to keep up in the public spotlight. When asked if she needed to take a break, she declined, saying “this is flippin’ awesome!”
• two “I am not your puppet! You have ruined my reputation! I am ruined in Alaska,” Palin said in a meltdown over the phone due to when Nicole Wallace, a campaign press guru, pushed a series of talking points on the vice-presidential candidate.
• three Near the end of the campaign, when Palin was a “loose cannon” and had a “swelling ego,” she told McCain: “We have to win this thing — I so don’t wanna go back to Alaska!” Despite this, Palin returned to her job for nearly a year after the election. source

• » Sure to stir presidential emotions: The made-for-TV movie regarding the “rise of Sarah Palin” airs March 10. Though HBO claimed the movie is a “balanced portrayal” of events, Palin’s Super PAC has already labeled the movie “fact change.” Which may be true. “Game Change” may have taken some dramatic liberties from the book, but you’ll be the judge of that.

• As much as we’d all love football featuring clean, hard contact without dirty plays, that sounds a little like the magical cheeseburger tree.
• Writer Jason Gay • Questioning the NFL’s efforts to make football safer for players, while recognizing that it would be virtually impossible to institute a system that dropped the injury rate to zero. The author’s comments came as part of a larger discussion of the role that violence plays in football, the commonality of defensive “bounties”, and what might be in store for football in the future as the league continues its renewed focus on the health and safety of players. What do you think? source

• 14,100 current Yahoo employees source

• » Word is that a major restructuring is happening: New CEO Scott Thompson (no relation) reportedly plans to cut back heavily at the company, which analysts see as a key example of tech company excess, in an attempt to focus on the things the company does well. While the company has had some recent success (their Open Graph collaboration with Facebook has been a boon, for example), the company has not undeservedly built a reputation of acquiring other companies (for example, Delicious) and letting them languish under the corporate structure. It used to be mentioned in the same breath as Google, but now it’s more likely to be mentioned in the same breath as AOL. Would cuts bring Yahoo back to life?

• one David Frum asks an important question: “Are we being fair to Rush Limbaugh?” Frum’s answer: “Even by the rough standards of cable/talk radio/digital talk, Limbaugh’s verbal abuse of Sandra Fluke set a new kind of low.”
• two James Poniewozik of Time suggests that the moment could become Rush’s Imus moment: “Limbaugh’s situation may not be exactly parallel, because all analogies break down at some point, but there’s a lot of basic similarity.”
• three Columnist Joel Mathis of Philadelphia Magazine loosens the focus on Rush and suggests that the reaction shows a major problem: “We stopped talking about the issues. And we focused very deeply on our own hurt feelings.” Hm.

• “That’s a pretty big burden while he’s waging war on the Catholic Church and apologizing to Islamic extremists”: In which Newt Gingrich tells CNN’s Candy Crowley that Big Oil will intentionally tank the American economy, placing an insurmountable obstacle on President Obama’s path to re-election. source

• Now is the time to heed that timeless advice from Teddy Roosevelt: speak softly, but carry a big stick.
• President Barack Obama • Speaking before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the day before he is scheduled to meet with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Although he was quick to condemn what he believed to be “too much loose talk of war”, President Obama pleased many in attendance when he confirmed he would not support “containment” of a nuclear-armed Iran. When asked about the possibility of military intervention, the President replied, “I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary to defend the United States and its interests.”source