​If you're wondering why the trees seem to wave in celebration today and the skies shine with joy, it's because January 8th marks the birthday of the newest dear leader, Kim Jong-un. According to the Telegraph, the exact date of his birth was unknown and had to be discovered through "testimonies from Kenji Fujimoto, a Japanese chef who worked for the Kim family, North Korean defectors and Kim's childhood friends at the Liebefeld school in Bern, Switzerland, where he briefly studied as a teenager." Also, no one is sure if he is 28, 29, or 30 years old. An easy way to find out: Ask dear leader, as he is never wrong.

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​Last night, Beyoncé Knowles gave birth to her and Jay-Z's child, Ivy Blue Carter. The Daily News reports the baby girl was born in Lenox Hill Hospital on the Upper East Side in a private wing and that "hospital workers placed tape over security cameras and are forcing employees to turn in cell phones when they arrive for their shifts." Ivy Blue is the couple's first baby. [NYDN]

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EV Grieve's Twitter pic.

​Today is a special day. One of our favorite neighborhood blogs (and Village Voice Web Awards judge), the excellent EV Grieve, turns four today. We've seen other local blogs come and go, but Grieve has stuck around and become an indispensable source for anyone interested in the rapidly changing East Village. We read the site every day and it's led us to some of our favorite local stories.

On the blog today, Grieve explains how the sausage gets made:

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​The double-decker Henry Hudson Bridge, which links Manhattan to the Bronx, is 75 today! Originally designed for a casual jaunt in and out of the suburbs, the bridge became a thoroughfare once commuters started moving north. The Riverdale Public Library is celebrating the bridge's dodrascentennial (thanks, Google!) with a month-long exhibit featuring Depression-era photographs of the bridge's construction.

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​In case you missed it, President Obama threw a "hip-hop barbecue" yesterday for his birthday, which somehow failed to create jobs. Or so shrieks this headline from Fox Nation, Fox News' aggregation organ. Non-hip-hop artists Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock performed while "Rome burned" (look at the URL). The race-baiting and unethically edited aggregation have been mentioned elsewhere, so we'll raise a somewhat different question: where was Philips Andover's stable of up-and-coming young rappers during the Obama Hip Hop BBQ, such an important event in the genre?

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Via Angela N.

​We want to wish President Barack Obama, who is a Leo, a happy 50th birthday. Of course, not everyone is happy to let the president have his day. The birthers over at Death By 1000 Papercuts insist on making this day about the question of Obama's birth certificate.

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