Skip to content
The Daily Triptych110 / 365

20 APR 2026

Day 110

I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them.

Baruch Spinoza · Tractatus Politicus
A pale magnesite standing figure of a man, 113 centimetres (3 ft 8 in) high, carved fully in the round, narrow in depth, with a calm frontal stance.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

Statue of Ashurnasirpal II

Assyrian Empire · 9th century BC · magnesite

Carved in magnesite in the ninth century BC, this standing figure of an Assyrian king was found at Kalhu and entered the British Museum in 1851.

Enter lesson 5 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Dataset Distillation

data · dataset distillation · 2018 and 2020 arxiv papers

A model can be trained on a handful of synthetic images and still approach the accuracy it would reach on tens of thousands of real ones if those few are built for the purpose.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

Written before source checking was enforced · facts in this lesson are unverified

A wide triptych in oil on panel: at left a garden with a divine figure and the first humans; at centre crowds of naked figures among oversized fruits, animals and pale structures; at right a dark realm of hybrid creatures and torment.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

The Garden of Earthly Delights

Hieronymus Bosch · 15th–16th century · Oil on panel

Three hinged panels open onto Eden, a crowded garden of naked figures, and a dark punishment — painted so densely that no single reading has ever settled what Bosch meant.

Enter lesson 7 MIN

The daily email

Four lessons in your inbox, every morning at seven.

One object, one idea, one masterpiece, one game. Deep links to that day’s pages. Unsubscribe with one click, any time.