13 MAY 2026

Day 133

The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point.

Claude Shannon · A Mathematical Theory of Communication

A print depicting a central figure of a woman whose nose is grotesquely enlarged and features its own eyes and mouth. The central face is flanked by two other figures: to the left, a man wearing glasses and holding a pipe; and to the right, a woman in a bonnet holding a child.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

Characters and Caricaturas

William Hogarth · 1743

In an engraving from 1743 William Hogarth tackled a question that still confounds artists: what’s the difference between caricature and characterisation?

Enter lesson 7 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

TensorRT and Kernel Fusion

systems/inference · Kernel fusion · Reduce GPU memory traffic

Between two successive GPU operations sits a round trip to memory. A compiler that fuses those operations into one kernel can leave intermediate values on-chip, cutting traffic the model never needed to pay.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

A pale young woman in three-quarter view fills a small panel, her face softly modelled against a dense mass of dark green foliage, the composition cut off across the upper torso.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

Ginevra de' Benci

Leonardo da Vinci · 1476 · Oil on panel

Leonardo’s portrait of a Florentine aristocrat is barely larger than a face. Oil on a tight panel, it keeps the sitter close and the rest of the world out.

Enter lesson 6 MIN