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Singer-songwriters Finneas O'Connell and Billie Eilish

Guitar Songs is the second extended play by American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish. Written by Eilish and Finneas O'Connell (both pictured), it was released through download and streaming services on July 21, 2022, as a surprise. Eilish decided on the surprise release because she wanted to share new music with her fans as soon as she could. Guitar Songs consists of two realist sentimental ballads, combining simple acoustic guitars that emphasize Eilish's soft vocal performance with personal lyrics that derive from contemporary life events. One of the tracks, "The 30th", is titled after the day of a friend's near-fatal car crash: November 30, 2021. In the lyrics, Eilish ponders over whether the friend would have survived had some circumstances in the accident been different. The other track, "TV", discusses eating disorders, disillusionment, and a desire for numbness to distract oneself from pressing world issues. "TV" also references the June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Laser Ranging Retroreflector

... that scientists shooting lasers at a mirror on the Moon (pictured) discovered that their telescope was not where it should be?
... that upon the announcement of the verdict in the trial of Lina E., court spectators shouted "fuck class justice" and "you are friends of fascists"?
... that Jon Brower Minnoch weighed twelve times his 110-pound (50 kg) wife?
... that none of the actors in Poppy Garden, a film depicting a father and son's struggle for survival during the Colombian conflict, had previously acted in a film?
... that Jon Secada became the first black artist to top the Hot Latin Tracks chart in 1992, with the Spanish version of "Just Another Day"?
... that Smoke over Birkenau by Polish writer Seweryna Szmaglewska, published in 1945, was one of the first and most influential works about the Auschwitz–Birkenau concentration camp?
... that when TVBoy's daughter said she wanted to be a footballer like Alexia Putellas, he painted a mural of Alexia as a superhero to inspire other girls?
... that Igor Stravinsky suggested that performances of his song "The Owl and the Pussy Cat" should be "a little hooted, a little meowed, a little grunted"?

In the news

South Korean flooding

Flooding and landslides in South Korea (pictured) leave at least 40 people dead and 6 others missing.
In the United States, actors in the SAG-AFTRA trade union go on strike, joining writers in the Writers Guild of America strike.
Flooding and landslides in northern India leave at least 100 people dead.
Czech-French writer Milan Kundera dies at the age of 94.
In the Netherlands, the governing coalition collapses and Prime Minister Mark Rutte announces his upcoming resignation.

On this day

July 21: Belgian National Day (1831)

Yuen Long attack

365 – A large earthquake occurred near Crete, triggering a tsunami, and causing widespread destruction around the eastern Mediterranean region.
905 – Louis III, Holy Roman Emperor, was captured during his attempt to restore Carolingian power over Italy by King Berengar I and blinded.
1918 – World War I: An Imperial German Navy U-boat opened fire on a small convoy of barges and defending aircraft near the American town of Orleans, Massachusetts.
2013 – Nour Ahmad Nikbakht, an Iranian diplomat in Yemen, was kidnapped by al-Qaeda militants and held hostage for the next two years.
2019 – People returning from anti-extradition bill protests were attacked (pictured) by suspected triad members in Yuen Long, Hong Kong, leaving 45 people injured.

Geoffrey I, Count of Anjou (d. 987)
Albert Luthuli (d. 1967)
Ruth St. Denis (d. 1968)
Anthony Annan (b. 1986)

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The Japanese sports anime television series Yuri on Ice had a total of 12 episodes. The series first premiered on TV Asahi on October 6, 2016, and finished airing on December 22, 2016. It was produced by MAPPA, directed by Sayo Yamamoto and written by Mitsurou Kubo. The character designs were by Tadashi Hiramatsu, and the music was composed by Taro Umebayashi and Taku Matsushiba. The series revolves around the relationships between Japanese figure skater Yuri Katsuki, also known as Yuri K., his idol, Russian figure-skating champion Victor Nikiforov, and up-and-coming Russian skater Yuri Plisetsky, also known as Yuri P. The series was made available for streaming by Crunchyroll shortly after its broadcast in Japan, and then Funimation provided an English dub of the series, starting on October 24, 2016. (Full list...)

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Jeanette Scissum is an American mathematician, space scientist, and diversity advocate. Born in Guntersville, Alabama, she gained bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics at Alabama A&M University. After a brief teaching career, Scissum joined NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in 1964, as an entry-level mathematician, the first African-American mathematician to be employed there. Her career achievements included techniques for improved forecasting of the sunspot cycle and leading activities in Marshall's Atmospheric, Magnetospheric, and Plasmas in Space project. After returning to Alabama A&M to complete a PhD, Scissum worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center as a computer systems analyst. This NASA photograph shows Scissum at her desk at Marshall Space Flight Center in the 1960s or 1970s.

Photograph credit: NASA; restored by Adam Cuerden

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