Month: October 2025

Life Imitates Art: The Real Louvre Heist After “Lupin” | October 19 2025, 14:49

Just yesterday we watched the first episode of the series “Lupin”, in which Assane Diop, inspired by the adventures of the fictional thief Arsène Lupin from Maurice Leblanc’s novels, together with two accomplices, carefully plans and steals a necklace that once belonged to Queen Marie-Antoinette from the Louvre. The episode was very cool, I hope the whole series is too.

And today I see in the news that today criminals stole jewels of “immeasurable worth” from the section where the French royal regalia are kept in the Louvre, and then fled the crime scene on scooters. The thieves entered the Apollo Gallery, where the French crown jewels are housed, using a ladder and, presumably, small chainsaws. Nine items were stolen from the collection of Napoleon’s and the Empresses’ (Josephine’s and Eugenie’s) jewels, including a necklace, a brooch, and a tiara. The entire theft took seven minutes. At least one of the stolen items was found near the museum. It appears the robbers dropped it during their escape.

What a coincidence

Chicago Airport’s Cannabis Amnesty Boxes: A Pre-Flight Solution | October 18 2025, 22:07

At Chicago Airport, there are these boxes for voluntary donations of marijuana to the police. And they are located AFTER the TSA screening line.

“These boxes belong to the Department of Aviation, but are serviced by the Chicago Police,” said police representative Maggie Huynh.

In general, they give passengers flying from Chicago the opportunity to dispose of marijuana before boarding the plane, as transporting it across state borders is illegal. Although marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, authorities claim they do not intend to arrest people found with it at Chicago airports. The TSA stated that if marijuana is found, they will refer the matter to the police. Chicago Police, while not recommending traveling with drugs (nicely said), states that they will not arrest a person if the amount they possess does not exceed the legal limit. They simply direct them to this box to voluntarily surrender what was found (what else to do with it, as carrying it on the plane is illegal by law)

So why use these specific boxes instead of, say, a regular trash bin? Because, as Huynh explained, only police have access to these boxes and can empty them — this helps prevent the marijuana or related products from falling into the “wrong hands.” And evidently, they must incinerate the waste somewhere…

AI Salesbots at Your Door: The Future of Autonomous Presentations | October 16 2025, 15:47

I’m telling the manager now, why do we need to present our AI solution, it’s AI, let it present itself. I imagine that in the near future, bots will be knocking on doors to sell themselves (and maybe not just themselves), while the door will have built-in bot protection.

Haunting Tales of Hotel Room 441 | October 16 2025, 12:27

I am starting to like my hotel. I am in room 446

Items we have read report that if you do stay at this hotel, avoid the fourth floor, or at least Room 441. That is where a lady from the other side lurks at the end of the bed, kicking the feet of guests who attempt to sleep there. And those guests are attempting to sleep there because they want to have the haunted experience. Don’t ask. Ever read Stephen King’s horror short story 1408”? The Congress Plaza is said to be its inspiration and a portion of the source that has brought Mr. King’s net worth to $500 million.”

Items we have read report that if you do stay at this hotel, avoid the fourth floor, or at least Room 441. That is where a lady from the other side lurks at the end of the bed, kicking the feet of guests who attempt to sleep there. And those guests are attempting to sleep there because they want to have the hauted experience. Don’t ask. Ever read Stephen King’s horror short story 1408”? The Congress Plaza is said to be its inspiration and a portion of the source that has brought Mr, King’s net worth to $500 million.”

Navigating a Luxury Hotel: A Maze of Misdirections | October 16 2025, 05:55

I currently live in a luxury hotel (as they describe themselves) for $400 a night. It must be said, I barely found a hotel – everything was sold out. It all started with the fact that there was no hot water in the room. They gave me a new room, which also did not have hot water. But in this new room, a plumber came and whacked the faucet, causing it to turn even more, and then the warm water started flowing. Well, good, now I know how to bang it. But I spent almost half an hour searching for this second room, wandering the corridors and following signs that lead nowhere. When I told the receptionist that only ghosts could improve my mood from the lack of hot water and the forced move, the lady at the reception smiled cunningly and said that anything can happen. And after that, I spent half an hour looking for the room.

Imagine, you are given room 446. You exit the elevator. There you see signs

“to the right 438-456”

“to the right 466-476”

“to the right odd rooms”

“to the left 400-432”

“to the left 478”

You follow the corridor and at the very end of it

“to the right 439-487”

“straight 429-437”

“back 427-401”

Ok, I have 446, so to the right. There’s a door

“straight 439-477”

Hm. Ten rooms just lost by turning towards the door. Well, alright, my 446 is somewhere here.

You enter, and it’s not there. There’s 445 and 447.

It turned out that as I walked from the elevator following the arrow “to the right 438-456”, it wasn’t in vain it said “to the right – odd”. But then where are the even ones? Also to the right! Just not mentioned. The even numbers are behind one of the doors marked “to the right – odd”. You have to walk about ten meters and see on the right side of the corridor a blind door of the same style as the wall with a “exit” sign and numbers 438-454. So the even numbers are behind this door, but how would you know? And what if you have 445? Well good, we go through the door. But there’s nothing there.

Absolutely nothing, just stairs to the fifth and third floors. But there’s also an unmarked door. And behind this door, hurray, even numbers.

Whoever navigated this needs to be beaten with whips. The fact that the hotel is 132 years old does not excuse it)

Yuki’s Predictable Howling Cycles | October 16 2025, 03:02

Yuki is like clockwork. Twice a year, he enters a mode of howling. Just like a wolf at the Moon. Last year, the autumn howl started on October 15-16, 2024, and ended on the 20th. Today, October 15, 2025, it began. Prior to this

* March 15, 2022,

* October 27, 2022,

* February 2, 2023,

* April 1, 2024, lasted four days.

* October 15-16, lasted 4 days

Update: October 19, 2025, it ended

Yuki, we have everything recorded!

From Tesla Model Y to Model S Plaid: A Swap Experience | October 14 2025, 16:51

Recently, my Tesla Model Y fell ill, and the dealership gave me a Model S Plaid as a loaner car. It’s simply a monster, accelerating to 100 km/h in 2 seconds. Over a thousand horsepower. But after driving it for a week, Nadezhda and I realized that we would still not trade our Model Y for a Model S.

Well, the fact that it’s unusually low to the ground is a minor issue. We would get used to that. But getting out from behind the wheel is always incredibly awkward for me. My belly isn’t that big, but in the Model S, it’s like a real cockpit. You have to carefully sit down and climb out, whereas in the Model Y, you just jump in somehow and go.

Moreover, the Model S is really noisy inside compared to the Model Y. You can hear the road. And this is for a price twice that of the Model Y. Also, for some reason, the mode where you just walk away from the car works less sensitively, and locks the car only when you are already quite far away.

And then there are the turn signals. What idiot decided to put their buttons on the steering wheel? It’s impossible to get used to that. The steering wheel still turns, and the buttons are always somewhere unclear.

But, damn it, it’s very beautiful from the outside. Especially with a light interior.

By the way, Tesla has somewhat poorly thought out the mechanism for issuing a replacement car, and it works with only one driver. You can’t set two keys for two different phones. Moreover, it would be nice to store the settings in the cloud and receive a replacement car already adjusted to your preferences.

And the car fell ill in an interesting way too. It’s funny when the car on the highway tells you that there’s a little problem, the engine is dead, but you should not distract yourself, just keep driving. After parking, the car might theoretically not drive, but so far all is normal. If not, we will tell you. Meanwhile, your drive will not sound the same.

As I understood, the car simply switched from 4-wheel drive to 2-wheel drive. Funny that such a fallback exists at all. Already fixed, it needed an inverter replacement.

Gold and Gadgets: Tracing Global Influence and Metal Monopolies | October 14 2025, 03:13

Rajesh Exports states on their website that they process 35% of the gold mined on the planet. Of course, they are exaggerating, but overall, India and Rajesh do shape the market. It turns out that 11% of all the gold on the planet is adorned on Indian women. Additionally, it was found that in 1947, 70% of all mined gold was in the USA. From 1934 to 1970, it was legally prohibited for private individuals to own gold in the USA. Approximately 22% of all the gold ever accounted for on the surface of the Earth has been mined from a plateau in South Africa called the Witwatersrand. And if you consider all the gold mined throughout history, it would amount to less than an Olympic swimming pool.

China buys up silver, with India not far behind. Interestingly, platinum is significantly used in the production of catalytic converters for vehicles – almost 40% of the global production goes there. China, of course, holds much of this production.

Practically every smartphone, tablet, or touchscreen monitor that we use is coated with a thin layer of indium tin oxide (ITO). This material has a unique combination of properties: it is almost completely transparent while also conducting electricity excellently. This allows the screen to register your touches.

Although lithium is now strongly associated with batteries, historically and still today, a significant portion of it is used in the production of glass and ceramics.

Unraveling the True Meaning of “Admission to the Bar” | October 14 2025, 01:20

It turns out that the phrase “barristers must gain admission to the bar” is not at all about bars and baristas, as I would have thought, had I not read that it’s actually about lawyers in the US. Admission to the bar” — is the official admission to legal practice (for barristers). And a Barrister” is a lawyer who represents clients in court. There’s also Solicitor” — a lawyer who works with clients and documents.

Historically, bar” literally means a bar (barrier) in court, separating the area where the judges and lawyers sit from the rest of the hall. Being called to the bar” means being called to the barrier,” i.e., being admitted to represent cases in court. Today, the bar” refers to the legal profession as a whole or the legal community.

Actually, it all started when I saw the title (professional designation) “Esq.” with a guy’s name and realized I didn’t understand any of these letters often listed after names. There are a lot of them, and you’ve probably seen PhD, M.D., or CPA numerous times.

From Vision to Bookshelf: Launching “Recommender Algorithms” | October 13 2025, 11:54

Finally, I have released a book! It is called Recommender Algorithms — it contains more than 50 recommendation algorithms with mathematical explanations, detailed descriptions, and code examples.

It all started early in the spring in Germany, when I attended the ACM conference and made the first sketches of the book’s structure, analyzing reports on the RecSys stream. And now, six months later, the book has been published.

Why did it appear? Because there is no single, accessible source either online or in print where the recommendation algorithms of various types and purposes are thoroughly examined. There are articles focused on narrow aspects, but to collect and systematize the developments — from fundamental to the most recent — until now, it seems, no one has managed to do it for some reason. Maybe no one needed to. Suddenly, I found I needed to. I don’t know if I succeeded, but I am eager for your feedback.

Available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. There is a Russian automatic translation (surprisingly, but very decent), but I do not know how to sell it yet.

https://www.testmysearch.com/books/recommender-algorithms.html?FB

(This is not my only book, but today — just about this one.)