Thu 22 Oct · today

• Nothing timed.

Fri 23 Oct

• 09:00–09:30 · Blood test at Synlab · Jankovcova 1518/2, Praha 7 · order 2026058765, paid; walk-in, fasting recommended (the calendar now has it on Friday, not Thursday)

Sat 24 Oct

• Nothing timed.

• JP-KONTAKT order 20/2026/4730 (VSS 180/70 height-adjustable desk, white, with assembly) · paid, no delivery date yet · JP's own delivery to Kubelíkova 39 · for delivery questions JP points to its logistics team, logistika@jp.cz, tel. 725 468 221
• Nothing else expected; all AlzaBox items are collected.

Kyiv's Southern (Pivdennyi) Bridge, whose metro section was damaged overnight (Олег Тоцкий, CC BY-SA 3.0). Wikimedia Commons

• Missiles on Kyiv overnight. At least 15 wounded, eight in hospital; the metro section on the Southern Bridge was damaged. A woman was killed in Kharkiv region. Moscow says 630 Ukrainian drones flew toward the region, 163 of them toward the capital. DW
• Talks "in principle" for mid-November. After Witkoff met Putin in St Petersburg, Ushakov said Russia is ready to resume three-way talks after the US midterms, but found little "substance" in the Ukrainian and European proposals. Trump: "the closest we've been." Russia freed US citizen Stephen Hubbard. France 24 · Guardian
• Hormuz mines: US says false. The IRGC claims its mines stopped three tankers on unapproved routes; the US military calls the account false and no shipowner or flag state has reported a strike. Oil Price Live
• Iran threatens undersea cables. IRGC deputy Yadollah Javani warned Iran could target internet cables in the strait if its infrastructure is hit. CBS sources say the US is trimming its troop footprint in the region while indirect talks via Pakistan and Qatar continue. CBS News

Garlasco, the castle tower (Awd, CC BY-SA 3.0). Wikimedia Commons

• Sempio on Rai1. Interviewed by Eleonora Daniele on Storie Italiane (21 Oct): "Puoi avere tutte le ragioni del mondo, ma devi riuscire a dimostrarle in aula." He says he fears a conviction, can't picture a normal life, and that he could have been more careful with his interview statements. MilanoToday · ANSA (video)
• Defence attacks the time-of-death findings. Sempio's forensic consultant Sabino Pelosi (Mattino 5) says the prosecution's selectin tests, in Cristina Cattaneo's report, are "non sufficientemente attendibili" to show Chiara survived for a long interval. The defence is preparing five counter-reports. Il Sussidiario · Il Mattino
• The 81 wiretaps. Lawyer Angela Taccia reviewed the audio at the Pavia court; the defence still wants the excluded recordings back in the file. No new ruling yet. Novanews

• Bitwig. No new release; still 6.1.4 (13 Oct). Bitwig
• Traktor. No new release; Traktor Pro is still on 4.5.1 (9 Jul). NI
• Tutorials. Nothing new worth sharing for Bitwig or Traktor in the last two days.
• Ubuntu tip: which package owns this file? dpkg -S /usr/bin/convert (or any path) prints the installed package that put it there. Handy before removing something, or when a config file appears and you don't know where it came from.
• Package: vnstat. sudo apt install vnstat runs a tiny background service that logs network traffic per interface; vnstat -d or vnstat -m then shows daily or monthly totals. Useful on a metered or hotspot connection. packages.ubuntu.com

See how much you've used. Settings has a Usage & Billing tab with your included and on-demand usage plus plan controls; open Settings → Usage. It only shows on accounts where billing is enabled, so if the tab isn't there, that's why.

Bangka slow loris, Nycticebus bancanus (Gunay M.E., CC BY-SA 4.0). Wikimedia Commons

• A "possibly extinct" primate is alive. The venomous Bangka slow loris, last scientifically recorded in 1930–32, has been documented again: a rescue centre on Bangka, Indonesia, handled more than 90 of them in 2015–2025 and released 86 back into the forest. Study in Spixiana. Reuters via BusinessLine
• Captive-born cheetahs are breeding in the wild. Twelve cheetahs released into seven South African reserves: nine survived the two-year study, every female bred within four months, and they now count 36 cubs and 19 grand-cubs. The Wildlife Society

The Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza (CC BY-SA 3.0). Wikimedia Commons

Cleopatra lived closer to the Moon landing than to the building of the Great Pyramid. Khufu's pyramid at Giza went up around 2560 BC; Cleopatra died in 30 BC, about 2,530 years later, and Apollo 11 landed in 1969, about 2,000 years after her. Britannica: Great Pyramid · Britannica: Cleopatra

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Antonello da Messina, Ritratto d'uomo (Ritratto d'ignoto marinaio), c. 1465–1476 · Museo Mandralisca, Cefalù

A man in a dark cap and dark coat looks out from a black-green background, half-turned toward us, with a two-day beard and a thin, sidelong smile. Antonello learned the Flemish oil technique and its close-up realism, and here uses it for a face, not a saint: no name, no attributes, just a personality. Baron Enrico Pirajno di Mandralisca collected it in the 19th century and left his collections to Cefalù; Sciascia and Consolo wrote about that smile. Close up, the panel shows old scratches, which Sgarbi reads as the work of someone trying to "exorcise" it. Wikipedia

«Il paradigma di questo dipinto è che rappresenta una persona che sorride compiaciuta, quasi beffarda, del male che ha fatto ed è capace di fare. Una sottigliezza psicologica straordinaria che solo un grande come Antonello poteva rappresentare in maniera così magistrale.»

Vittorio Sgarbi, interviewed by Antonio Sanfrancesco. Famiglia Cristiana, 1 Aug 2013

perfunctory (per-FUNK-tuh-ree): done only because it has to be, with little care or interest.

• The handover note was so perfunctory that the night nurse had to call twice.
• He gave the contract a perfunctory glance and signed it anyway.

• čtvrtek (CHTVR-tek): Thursday. Ve čtvrtek nemám nic v kalendáři. (I have nothing in the calendar on Thursday.)
• nalačno (NAH-lahch-no): on an empty stomach, fasting. Na odběr krve přijďte nalačno. (Come to the blood test on an empty stomach.)

First edition, Kiepenheuer, Berlin 1932 (H.-P. Haack, CC BY 3.0). Wikimedia Commons

Joseph Roth, Radetzkymarsch (1932)

Three generations of the Trotta family rise and drift with the Habsburg empire, from a lucky act of courage at Solferino to a grandson lost in a dead-end garrison on the eastern border. Roth writes the slow end of a world with irony, tenderness and a lot of drink; it's the other side of the coin from Švejk's same empire. If you like Hašek's Austria-Hungary and Maupassant's cool eye, this is the great novel of that world.

Get it: Amazon.it · Italian edition, La marcia di Radetzky, Adelphi (Gli Adelphi 94), translated by Laura Terreni and Luciano Foà Wikipedia

Marcello Mastroianni as Baron Fefè (public domain). Wikimedia Commons

Divorzio all'italiana (1961, Pietro Germi)

A bored Sicilian baron (Marcello Mastroianni, all tics and twitchy moustache) falls for his young cousin (Stefania Sandrelli) and, with divorce illegal in Italy, plots to push his wife into an affair so he can kill her and plead "crime of honour" for a light sentence. A razor-sharp satire of Sicilian codes and Italian law; it won the Oscar for best original screenplay.

Trailer: official LUX Film trailer on YouTube

Where to stream: Czechia: not streaming right now (not listed on JustWatch CZ). Italy: free on RaiPlay (with ads). JustWatch IT

None of the four films is on Cinema City's programme yet (checked the full cinemacity.cz film list, 67 titles including upcoming ones).

• Artificial · not listed · US release 25 Dec 2026, UK 22 Jan 2027; no Czech date yet.
• You Can See Everything (Uvidíš všechno) · not listed at Flora · opens in Czech cinemas 5 Nov via Aerofilms. Aerofilms
• The Social Reckoning (V zajetí sítí) · not at Cinema City · already in Czech cinemas since 8 Oct.
• Musk (Alex Gibney) · not listed · no Czech date or distributor.