10 JUL 2026

Day 191

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.

Albert Einstein · Physics and Reality

A large copper-alloy shield of Yetholm type, recorded from Moel Hebog and held by the British Museum; fine surface detail is not described in the sources used here.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

Moel Hebog shield

Bronze Age Britain · 1300–1000 BC · Copper alloy

Found on Moel Hebog in North Wales in 1784, this large copper-alloy shield is of the Yetholm type and is dated somewhere between 1300 and 1000 BC.

Enter lesson 5 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Efficient ViT with Shifted Windows

architectures · Swin Transformer, 2021 · Swin Transformer V2

Global self-attention grows with the square of image size. The Swin Transformer confines it to non-overlapping windows, then shifts those windows so information still crosses the grid.

Enter lesson 7 MIN

A wide oil painting of two nude women asleep together, their bodies closely entwined across a bed-like surface in soft, even light.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

The Sleepers

Gustave Courbet · 1866 · Oil on canvas

In 1866 Courbet painted two women asleep together. The work belongs to the Petit Palais and is known by more than one title, each shifting what the scene seems to mean.

Enter lesson 6 MIN