Thu 8 Oct (today): nothing timed. Fri 9 Oct: Prague local elections, day 1 (all day). Voting 14:00–22:00 at ZŠ Jaroslava Seiferta, Vlkova 800/31, Praha 3 (okrsek 3007). Bring Italian ID/passport + Czech residence card; both ballots go in one official envelope. Sat 10 Oct: Prague local elections, day 2, voting 08:00–14:00, same school. 11:00–12:00 Tennis, Cibulka. (Vote before or after, polls close at 14:00.)

• Amazon.de, order 306-5184824-0481921: Mercedes GLK X204 black velour rear car mats (€22). Dispatched 6 Oct, arriving 10–12 Oct, home delivery in Prague. No pickup code needed.

Nothing waiting at a pickup point.

Ukraine

• Russia's 7 Oct missile-and-drone barrage killed at least 28 across Ukraine, per the Interior Ministry. A Kh-101 cruise missile hit an apartment block in Pryluky, killing 20 including five children. Kyiv, Kremenchuk and Oleksandriia were also hit. (Kyiv Post)
• At the front, Ukraine's Operation Vivaldi in northern Donetsk has pushed Russian troops back around Lyman. ISW estimates Russia had a net loss of about 81 km² in September. (Kyiv Post)
• Kyiv says it's working on five ceasefire tracks (full truce, Black Sea navigation, food exports, India-led and US-backed energy truces). Putin flatly said "No" to a mutual halt on ship and refinery strikes. (Kyiv Post)

Iran

• Tehran says it will answer the latest US proposals through mediators, and calls its right to enrich uranium a "red line" after VP Vance demanded a meaningful cut in enrichment capacity. (Iran International)
• Rubio says the Strait of Hormuz is open, with oil flows near pre-war levels. The IRGC insists it's closed and under Iranian control, and Iran's army says it's ready for pre-emptive strikes. (The National, Euronews)
• Pezeshkian told Putin by phone that Iran is ready for a "balanced and fair agreement" to end the war if the US respects international law. (Iran International)

• Tg1 exclusive: the September 2007 RIS Parma report on Alberto Stasi's bike pedals listed only the positive Combur test (a generic blood screen). The officer's own working notes show the human-blood-specific OBTI test came back negative, and that result never made it into the record. Pavia prosecutors are reportedly weighing a new file. (RaiNews)
• Sempio defence: lawyers Angela Taccia and Liborio Cataliotti were back at the Pavia court on 7 Oct listening to the "non-relevant" wiretaps. Taccia says something "interessante" came up. Their counter-filings are due by 18 Oct (the investigation was closed on 28 Sep). They've also asked prosecutors whether Sempio is under investigation for corruption in the file linked to ex-deputy prosecutor Venditti, with no answer yet. (LaPresse)
• No standout new YouTube or X item beyond the Tg1 footage of Capt. Marino's testimony.

• Bitwig: nothing new. The current release is still 6.1.3 (23 Sep), and no new 6.1 tutorial has turned up in the last two days. If you missed them, Bitwig's own three-video Sampler series is still the best intro.
• Traktor: quiet. Pro 4.5.1 (9 Jul) is still current per NI's update-status thread. No fresh tutorial worth flagging.
• Ubuntu tip: forgot sudo? Type sudo !! and bash reruns your last command as root. No retyping needed.
• Package: sudo apt install pv. Pipe Viewer shows a progress bar, speed and ETA for anything going through a pipe. For example, pv big.iso | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=4M lets you watch a USB write finish.

Tip: the box's Update button. If Grok Bot's computer acts up (the desktop won't render, commands hang), go to Settings, then Computer, then Update Grok Bot's Computer. It moves the box to a fresh instance and keeps your files and logins, though installed software has to be reinstalled. It's a two-click confirm ("Click Again to Confirm"). Leave Reset for last, because it restores an older snapshot and can lose recent work.

• Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles now has about 180,000 giant tortoises, the highest estimate ever recorded. In the 1800s they were down to fewer than 1,000. (University of Exeter)
• In California, lab-reared sunflower sea stars released off Monterey started eating the urchins that have been stripping kelp forests, an early step toward restoring the kelp. (SFGate)

On Venus, a day is longer than a year. It takes about 243 Earth days to turn once on its axis but only about 225 to go around the Sun. It also spins backwards, so the Sun rises in the west.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Giuditta che decapita Oloferne (best-known version c. 1620, Uffizi, Florence; an earlier version is in Naples, Capodimonte).

Vittorio Sgarbi, il Giornale, 12 April 2026 ("Artemisia, la spietata verità della pittura del Seicento"):

"La Giuditta che decapita Oloferne è il quadro inevitabile. Non solo perché è il più celebre, ma perché è il più inesorabile." "Giuditta non rappresenta la forza. La esercita."

(il Giornale)

mercurial (adj.) means quick to change mood or mind, lively but unpredictable.

• "Prague's October weather is mercurial: sun at noon, rain by seven."
• "Her mercurial boss praised the plan on Monday and scrapped it on Tuesday."

• obálka (OH-baal-kah) means envelope. "Oba hlasovací lístky dejte do jedné obálky." (Put both ballots in one envelope.)
• okrsek (OH-kr-sek, with a rolled syllabic r) means polling district or precinct. "Volím v okrsku 3007." (I vote in precinct 3007.)