17 MAY 2026

Day 137

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives an infusion from the will and affections.

Francis Bacon · Novum Organum

A gold and enamel brooch in the shape of a standing or walking mute swan. The swan is collared by a gold crown with six fleur-de-lys tines, and has a pin on its right side for fastening. A gold chain ending in a ring is attached to the crown.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

Dunstable Swan Jewel

Renaissance · Gold and enamel

This medieval jewel was discovered by chance, and its origins are as mysterious as they are royal, shrouded in a veil of intrigue.

Enter lesson 5 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA)

training · parameter-efficient fine-tuning · ΔW ≈ BA, rank r ≪ width

Instead of rewriting every pretrained weight, LoRA freezes the base model and learns a pair of thin matrices whose product stands in for the update.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

At night, four people sit inside a brightly lit diner seen through a large glass window; the urban street outside is dark and empty.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

Nighthawks

Edward Hopper · 1942 · Oil on canvas

Four people occupy a lit diner while the street outside stays dark. Hopper finished the canvas in 1942; the Art Institute of Chicago bought it within months.

Enter lesson 6 MIN