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SZA, singer

"Smoking on My Ex Pack" is a song by American singer-songwriter SZA (pictured) from her second studio album, SOS (2022). It is one of the album's three rap tracks, built around hard-hitting drums and a sped-up sample of a 1980s ballad. Before the album's release, SZA was viewed as an R&B artist who made melancholic music aimed at a female audience, or "sad girl music". Disillusioned, she conceived "Smoking on My Ex Pack", among other songs, to combat such narratives, which she believed was stereotyping of her as a Black woman. With the track, she experimented with more lyrically and sonically aggressive music, making a foray into hip hop. "Smoking on My Ex Pack" speaks positively of her own sex appeal and negatively of her ex-lovers, reveling in SZA's braggadocious, taunting persona: one lover has his penis ridiculed. Critics were positive about the new sound, and they deemed the lyrics candid and scathing enough that she had the potential to become a fully fledged rapper. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Schick model of the Temple Mount foundations

... that 150-year-old wooden models of the Temple Mount (example pictured) are important to archaeology, as their creator was the last European ever permitted to survey its foundations?
... that when Sarah Jane Baker was released after 30 years, she was the United Kingdom's longest serving transgender prisoner?
... that Massachusetts gave the United States its first openly LGBT state legislator to be elected, as well as the first out congressperson and state attorney general?
... that the Royal Mint reportedly shipped rare silver coins to New Zealand in unsecured bags, claiming they had not been advised to take extra precaution?
... that Toshiki Seto was cast in the television adaptation of Senpai, This Can't Be Love! because, according to the creator, he could express emotion through his stare?
... that the judge in the 1938 King v Bourne trial stated that performing an abortion might prevent a "physical or mental wreck"?
... that the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs feature 62 percent of the league's teams?
... that the John Snow pub is named for a shy British epidemiologist who did not drink?

In the news

Akinobu Okada

In baseball, the Hanshin Tigers (manager Akinobu Okada pictured) defeat the Orix Buffaloes to win the Japan Series.
An earthquake strikes Karnali Province, Nepal, leaving more than 150 people dead.
American entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried is convicted on charges of fraud and money laundering over his role in the bankruptcy of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
NASA's Lucy space probe flies by the asteroid Dinkinesh, the first target of the mission.

On this day

November 8

Trần Nhân Tông

1278 – Trần Thánh Tông, the second emperor of Vietnam's Trần dynasty, took up the title of retired emperor, but continued to co-rule with his son Nhân Tông (pictured) for eleven more years.
1957 – En route from San Francisco to Honolulu, Pan Am Flight 7 crashed into the Pacific Ocean due to unknown causes, killing all 44 people on board.
1971 – English rock group Led Zeppelin released their fourth album, which became one of the best-selling albums worldwide.
1974 – British peer Lord Lucan disappeared without a trace, a day after allegedly murdering his children's nanny Sandra Rivett.
2020 – Second Nagorno-Karabakh War: Azerbaijani forces defeated the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh in the Battle of Shusha, reclaiming the town after 28 years.

Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz (d. 1773)
Dorothea Bate (b. 1878)
Arnold Bax (b. 1883)
Chika Kuroda (d. 1968)

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Today's featured picture

The field sparrow (Spizella pusilla) is a small sparrow in the family Passerellidae. It is distributed across eastern Canada and the eastern United States, with northern populations migrating southwards to southern United States and north-eastern Mexico in the fall. The bird is about 140 mm long with a mass of about 12.5 g. Its head is grey with a rust-coloured crown, white eye-ring and pink bill. The upper parts are brown streaked with black and buff, the breast is buff, the belly is white and the tail is forked. There are two different colour morphs, one being greyer and the other more rufous. This field sparrow was photographed in Central Park, New York City.

Photograph credit: Rhododendrites

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