18 FEB 2026

Day 49

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite.

William Blake · The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

A dark grey basalt statue of a standing human figure, torso only, with a heavy-browed face and hands meeting low on the abdomen. The back is carved with shallow relief images of birdmen and ceremonial paddles.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

Hoa Hakananai'a

Rapa Nui · c. 1000 AD (front); later additions (back) · Basalt

A standing figure taken from Orongo in 1868, its front cut perhaps eight centuries ago, its back carved later with birdman symbols. Two belief systems, separated by centuries, on a single stone.

Enter lesson 7 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Batching, Throughput and Latency

Inference · Continuous batching · Throughput versus latency

A cloud API can process fifty requests for the price of ten because it batches them together. Your laptop serving only you cannot, which is why the same model feels slower.

Enter lesson 7 MIN

A long row of villagers in black, standing around an open grave in pale earth. Clergy in white robes hold a crucifix. A white dog stands in the foreground. The sky is overcast.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

Courbet's A Burial at Ornans

Gustave Courbet · 1849–50 · Oil on canvas

Courbet painted his neighbours burying someone we never see, at the scale reserved for emperors and saints. The Paris critics called it ugly, brutal and deliberately offensive.

Enter lesson 6 MIN