In this article, we study the correspondence between the geometry of del Pezzo surfaces $S_{r}$ and the geometry of the $r$-dimensional Gosset polytopes $(r-4)_{21}$. We construct Gosset polytopes $(r-4)_{21}$ in $\operatorname{Pic} S_{r}\otimes\mathbb{Q}$ whose vertices are lines, and we identify divisor classes in $\operatorname{Pic} S_{r}$ corresponding to $(a-1)$-simplexes ($a\leq r$), $(r-1)$-simplexes and $(r-1)$-crosspolytopes of the polytope $(r-4)_{21}$. Then we explain how these classes correspond to skew $a$-lines($a\leq r$), exceptional systems, and rulings, respectively. As an application, we work on the monoidal transform for lines to study the local geometry of the polytope $(r-4)_{21}$. And we show that the Gieser transformation and the Bertini transformation induce a symmetry of polytopes $3_{21}$ and $4_{21}$, respectively.

We classify linear weighted graphs up to the blowing-up and blowing-down operations which are relevant for the study of algebraic surfaces.

In this paper we study ruled surfaces which appear as an exceptional surface in a succession of blowing-ups. In particular we prove that the $e$-invariant of such a ruled exceptional surface $E$ is strictly positive whenever its intersection with the other exceptional surfaces does not contain a fiber (of $E$). This fact immediately enables us to resolve an open problem concerning an intersection configuration on such a ruled exceptional surface consisting of three nonintersecting sections. In the second part of the paper we apply the non-vanishing of $e$ to the study of the poles of the well-known topological, Hodge and motivic zeta functions.

We classify normal affine surfaces with trivial Makar-Limanov invariant and finite Picard group of the smooth locus, realizing them as open subsets of weighted projective planes. We also show that such a surface admits, up to conjugacy, one or two $G_a$-actions.