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Swift performing "Delicate" on her Reputation Stadium Tour

"Delicate" is an electropop song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift (pictured), taken from her sixth studio album, Reputation (2017), and released as a single in March 2018. It was written by Swift and its producers, Max Martin and Shellback. The lyrics are about insecurity with a new love interest. To create a sound accompanying the vulnerable sentiment, Martin and Shellback manipulated Swift's vocals with a vocoder. "Delicate" is a ballad with dense synthesizers and house beats. In the music video, Swift dances barefoot through public places, dripping wet from the rain and invisible to others. Music critics praised Swift's songwriting and the mellower production compared to the album's overarching brash sound. The song featured in 2018 year-end lists by Billboard, Slant Magazine, and Rolling Stone. A sleeper hit in the U.S., "Delicate" peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped Billboard's airplay charts: Mainstream Top 40, Adult Contemporary, and Adult Pop Songs. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

East African Mounted Rifles

... that during the First World War the East African Mounted Rifles (pictured) sometimes painted stripes on their horses to camouflage them as zebras?
... that Kiriko, a "fox girl" character for Overwatch 2, was teased through a coded message that translates to "What Does the Fox Say?"
... that William Hartnell was the only original Doctor Who cast member who remained by the end of the second season?
... that the First National Bank Tower, standing at 634 feet (193 meters), is the tallest building in the state of Nebraska?
... that New Zealand academic and runner Roger Robinson has continued competing in races into his 80s despite knee replacement surgery in both knees?
... that the Michigan banner survived an attack by uniformed men from Ohio during the Ten Year War?
... that the lenient sentencing of two Europeans convicted in 1918 after the death of a black man in the East Africa Protectorate led to inquiries from the British Colonial Office?
... that in 2021, two Swedish prison inmates took correctional officers as hostages, demanding twenty kebab pizzas?

In the news

Annie Ernaux

After an explosion damages the Crimean Bridge, Russia attacks many Ukrainian cities with missiles.
Annie Ernaux (pictured) is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
An attack at a nursery in Nong Bua Lamphu province, Thailand, leaves 36 victims, mostly children, dead.
Svante Pääbo is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on human evolutionary genetics.

On this day

October 11: Mawlid (Sunni Islam, 2022); Feast day of Saint James the Deacon (Anglicanism); National Coming Out Day

Apollo 7 launch

1142 – The Treaty of Shaoxing was ratified, ending the Jin–Song Wars, although sporadic fighting continued until 1234.
1311 – The peerage and clergy of the Kingdom of England published the Ordinances of 1311 to restrict King Edward II's powers.
1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: The Royal Navy captured eleven Dutch Navy ships without any losses at the Battle of Camperdown.
1942 – World War II: At the Battle of Cape Esperance on the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, American ships intercepted and defeated a Japanese fleet sent to attack Henderson Field.
1968 – Apollo 7 (lift-off pictured), the first manned mission of NASA's Apollo program, and the first three-man American space mission, launched from Complex 34 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

María Teresa Ferrari (b. 1887)
Thích Nhất Hạnh (b. 1926)
Amitabh Bachchan (b. 1942)

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Today's featured picture

The red knot (Calidris canutus), or simply known as the knot in English-speaking Europe, is a medium-sized shorebird that breeds in tundra and the Arctic Cordillera in the far north of Canada, Europe, and Russia. It is a large sandpiper in the genus Calidris, second only to the great knot. Six subspecies are recognised. Its diet varies according to season; arthropods and larvae are the preferred food items at the breeding grounds, while various hard-shelled molluscs are consumed at other feeding sites at other times. North American breeders migrate to coastal areas in Europe and South America, while the Eurasian populations winter in Africa, Papua New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand. The species forms enormous flocks when not breeding. This red knot was photographed in Boat Harbour in New South Wales, Australia.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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