Times are Europe/Rome, the same as Prague.

Tue 27 Oct · today

• 14:30–15:30 · 🎾 Tennis, court 4 · Tenis Vyšehrad, Lumírova 973/1, Praha · Sportelo, 250 CZK · free cancellation online until 10:30 today

Wed 28 Oct

• Nothing timed.

Thu 29 Oct

• 09:00–09:30 · 🩸 Blood test, Synlab · Jankovcova 1518/2, Praha 7 · order 2026058765, paid, walk-in, fasting recommended
• 12:00–13:00 · 💬 Lorenzo & Inna, coaching · Microsoft Teams (online)

• Intimissimi orders 2003989511 + 2003989496 · waiting for pickup · Intimissimi SC Palladium, Náměstí Republiky 1 (daily 09:00–21:00) · no code, show the pickup email at the till · last day about 27–28 Oct ⚠️ (the 23 Oct email said "5 more days to pick up")
• JP-KONTAKT order 20/2026/4730 (white VSS 180/70 height-adjustable desk with assembly, 15,239 Kč) · paid and invoiced · no delivery date yet · JP: 466 052 030
• Nothing else · no other parcels expected

• 🇺🇦 Talks, but no pause. Ukraine, Russia and the US meet again for talks next month; the Kremlin says that means no let-up in fighting, though it's open to local "humanitarian" truces. The first, in Russian-held Oleshky and brokered by Melania Trump, starts early Wed 28 Oct. RTÉ · Independent
• 💥 Strikes. Overnight 25–26 Oct Russia fired 4 missiles and 140 drones; Moscow says it hit power stations in Kharkiv and Khmelnytskyi, port terminals in Chornomorsk and a cargo ship bound for Odesa. A Ukrainian drone attack on Voronezh killed 2 and injured 17. ISW/Critical Threats · RTÉ
• 🛰️ Starlink row. Kyiv calls Musk's claim that it broke Starlink's terms "physically impossible"; Starlink and Starshield access has been restored. Independent
• 🚁 Rescue drones. Ukraine has started flying wounded soldiers off the battlefield by drone. AP
• 🇮🇷 Mecca pact in Tehran. Saudi, Pakistani and Turkish top brass met Iran's leaders on Mon 26 Oct to head off a return to war. No concrete result beyond "continue discussions", but Iran called the talks "very good". Al Jazeera · CBS
• ⚖️ Trump: "decision time". "Do I finish it off… or do I make a deal? It's getting to be decision time." He named Pickaxe Mountain as a possible target. The last US strikes were on 1 Sep, and he's said none before the 3 Nov midterms. Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia continue. CNBC

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

• Trial request "within 10 days"? Mattino 5 (Emanuele Canta, 26 Oct) reports Pavia prosecutors are ready to ask for Andrea Sempio to be sent to trial, "maybe within 10 days, at the latest by the end of next week", and think the defence's expert reports haven't dented the case. TV reporting, not an official filing. Virgilio
• Storie Italiane, 26 Oct. Sempio's consultant Palmegiani said the Stasi review request and the trial request will both come "within a few days"; ex-lawyer Lovati repeated his "poteri forti" theory. ilSussidiario
• Background: the Ferri file. Last week's new murder file on the 2010 death of Giovanni Ferri has no official link to the Poggi case. Gente
• Online. No notable new X discussion or YouTube video.

• 🎛️ Bitwig. No new release; 6.1.4 (13 Oct, rekordbox integration) is still current, and stem separation is promised "this winter". Bitwig
• 🎚️ Traktor. No new release; Pro 4.5.1 (9 Jul) is current, and 4.6 is only a forum rumour. NI Community
• 📺 Tutorials. No fresh Bitwig or Traktor tutorial from the last 1–2 days.
• 🐧 Ubuntu tip: last boot's errors. journalctl -b -1 -p err shows only the errors from the previous boot, useful after a freeze or bad shutdown. Use -b 0 for the current boot.
• 📦 Package: duf. sudo apt install duf gives a clean colour table of every mounted disk with used and free space, a friendlier df -h.

Update first, Reset last. If Grok Bot's computer acts up, use Settings → Computer → Update Bot's Computer: it moves the box to a fresh instance and keeps your files and logins. Just below it, Settings → Computer → Reset Bot's Computer is the last resort: it restores the last saved snapshot and can lose recent unsynced work, so only use it if Update didn't help.

• 🦷 Cavities without drilling. In a Phase III trial of 830 children under 6 (JAMA Pediatrics), silver diamine fluoride painted on in seconds stopped decay in over half of affected baby teeth, with no drill or anaesthetic. ScienceDaily
• 💉 Personalised melanoma vaccine. In a 1,137-patient trial, Merck and Moderna's mRNA vaccine plus Keytruda cut the risk of recurrence within two years by 42%. Merck plans to seek approval soon. NYT via Portside

The Eiffel Tower from the Champ de Mars (Benh Lieu Song, public domain). Wikimedia Commons

The Eiffel Tower leans away from the sun. Only one side heats up, so on a clear day its top traces a rough circle about 15 cm across. Heat also makes it a few millimetres taller in summer; the popular "15 cm taller" claim is a myth. toureiffel.paris

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Caravaggio, Vocazione di san Matteo (1599–1600) · Cappella Contarelli, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome

Matthew and his companions are counting money in a dark room when Christ and Peter come in from the right. A sharp shaft of light follows Christ's pointing hand, which echoes Michelangelo's Adam. The bearded man at the table points at himself, or maybe at the boy beside him, and people still argue about which one is Matthew. It's free to see in a working church near Piazza Navona; bring a coin for the light.

«Caravaggio, frequentando la strada, inventa la fotografia. In un interno di bottega, buio, la luce di un riflettore investe un gruppo che sembra all'improvviso distolto dall'impegno di contar denaro per una imprevista variazione di programma: l'arrivo di due pellegrini, che invece di chiedere assistenza vengono a proporre qualche novità, qualche nuovo affare. […] Noi siamo lì, testimoni di questa offerta che non si può rifiutare.»

Vittorio Sgarbi, Caravaggio (Milano, 2005), p. 43, quoted on Osservarte (4 Nov 2013). Osservarte

lambent (LAM-bent): of light or flame, softly glowing or flickering over a surface; of wit or style, light and brilliant.

• Candles cast a lambent glow over the old wooden table.
• Her lambent humour kept a three-hour dinner from ever dragging.

• deka (DEH-kah): blanket. Večer je zima, vezmi si deku. (It's cold in the evening, take a blanket.)
• topení (TOH-peh-nyee): heating. Topení v bytě ještě nejde. (The heating in the flat isn't working yet.)

First edition, Rój, Warsaw 1934 (public domain). Wikimedia Commons

Bruno Schulz, The Street of Crocodiles (Sklepy cynamonowe, 1934; Italian Le botteghe color cannella)

Linked stories about a boyhood in Drohobych, a small Galician town. The narrator's father is a mad, magnificent figure who breeds birds in the attic and lectures the seamstresses on mannequins, and the town's shabby shops turn into a dream. Poe's strangeness, Hrabal's way of making the everyday fantastic, and prose so rich it almost hums. Short and unforgettable.

Get it: Amazon.it · Italian edition, Le botteghe color cannella. Tutti i racconti, i saggi e i disegni, Einaudi (2008), edited by Francesco M. Cataluccio, translated by Anna Vivanti Salmon and others

Kes (1969, Ken Loach)

Billy Casper, a scrawny, bullied kid in a Yorkshire mining town, takes a kestrel chick from a nest and trains it; the bird becomes the only thing in his life that's really his. Adapted from Barry Hines's A Kestrel for a Knave and shot around Barnsley with mostly non-professional actors. Very funny (Brian Glover's PE-teacher football match) and heartbreaking: the working-class underdog story Fante and Bukowski fans will love.

A common kestrel, Billy's bird (Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 2.5). Wikimedia Commons

Trailer: The Criterion Collection on YouTube

Where to stream: Czechia (Kes): not on any subscription service; rent or buy on Amazon Video and Apple TV. Italy (Kes): streaming on MUBI and MUBI Amazon Channel. JustWatch CZ · JustWatch IT

Caravaggio, Bernini and Pozzo: Great Art Cities: Rome · Great Art Explained (James Payne, UK) · English, 21:39, published 17 Jan 2025

Payne walks through Baroque Rome's churches, from Caravaggio's Contarelli Chapel (today's Vocazione) to Bernini's sculpture and Pozzo's trompe-l'œil ceilings. Clear, well researched and beautifully filmed: a good one-coffee companion to today's painting. YouTube

• You Can See Everything (Uvidíš všechno, the Elizabeth Holmes doc, 174 min, English original) · opens Thu 29 Oct · Flora daily at 18:00 from 29 Oct to 1 Nov, 18:30 on 2 Nov, 19:40 on 3–4 Nov. cinemacity.cz
• Artificial · not listed yet.
• The Social Reckoning · not listed yet.
• Musk (Elon Musk documentary) · not listed yet.