Author: Awais

’Tis the season for baking batch after batch of Christmas cookies: Think snowflake-shaped sugar cookies, jolly gingerbread people, jammy linzer bites, and more. Whether you’re organizing a cookie exchange or setting out a platter for Santa, you’re sure to find something special in our collection of all-time favorite Christmas cookie recipes.We’ve got heirloom-status recipes, like buttery spritz cookies, as well as new creative hits, like peppermint bark cookies. Plus, there are plenty of new-school spins on old-fashioned favorites, like fruitcake-inspired cookies and coffee-spiked molasses wonders. No holiday spread is complete without peanut butter blossoms; our less traditional version calls for…

[Submitted on 12 Jun 2025 (v1), last revised 14 Nov 2025 (this version, v2)] View a PDF of the paper titled Symmetrical Flow Matching: Unified Image Generation, Segmentation, and Classification with Score-Based Generative Models, by Francisco Caetano and 3 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Flow Matching has emerged as a powerful framework for learning continuous transformations between distributions, enabling high-fidelity generative modeling. This work introduces Symmetrical Flow Matching (SymmFlow), a new formulation that unifies semantic segmentation, classification, and image generation within a single model. Using a symmetric learning objective, SymmFlow models forward and reverse transformations jointly, ensuring bi-directional consistency,…

I’ve hit my breaking point with Spotify. Between the relentless price hikes and its annoying AI-generated music, I couldn’t justify the monthly bill anymore. So I went hunting for alternatives. Not the usual suspects like Apple Music or YouTube Music, which would just swap one subscription for another, but free options that wouldn’t nickel-and-dime me into submission. In the process, I discovered an ecosystem of open-source music streaming apps, all of which are YouTube Music clients that deliver ad-free streaming without subscriptions, logins, or guilt trips about premium features. Each one has a distinct personality and a reason you might…

This post was sponsored by Weglot. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own. When Google’s AI Overviews launched in 2024, dozens of questions quickly surfaced among SEO professionals, one being: if AI now curates and summarizes search results, how do websites earn visibility, especially across languages? Weglot recently conducted a data-driven study, analyzing 1.3 million citations across Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT to determine if LLMs cite content in one language, would they also cite it in others? The result: translated websites saw up to 327% more visibility in AI Overviews than untranslated ones, a clear signal…

Meditation app Headspace is bringing back one of its biggest annual deals this Black Friday. Through December 4, you’ll be able to get 50 percent off the regular annual subscription price, bringing a full year of guided meditations, sleep sounds and mindfulness tools down to $35 per year. If you’ve been looking to build a better daily routine, this discount makes it easier to start.Headspace has become one of the most recognizable names in digital mindfulness. The app blends practical meditation guidance with structured courses and calming soundscapes designed to make everyday stress easier to manage. Its programs cover everything…

Why It Works Roasting the acorn squash and onion wedges on separate baking sheets and along the perimeter of the pans ensures even cooking and caramelization on the vegetables.Covering the onions with aluminum foil for the first 10 minutes of cooking steams and softened their outer layers, guaranteeing that every bite of onion is tender—no burnt or raw onions here.Preheating the empty baking sheet before roasting the acorn squash promotes searing and helps the squash brown. Come fall and winter, well after juicy tomatoes have faded from market stands, winter squashes step into the spotlight to become a star ingredient in…

and hear about AI. “AI is going to solve the hardest problems and change our world”, “AI can make you 10x more productive”, “AI is going to end the world,” are common headlines these days. There is increasing discussion that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), an AI that can match or surpass human capabilities in a wide variety of cognitive tasks, is just around the corner. Responses are varied: from being skeptical about these claims, optimistic that this may solve many challenging problems, to worrying that this may take jobs or even dominate the human race.  Although AGI is a genuine…

I use SocialBee every day to plan campaigns, keep my content calendar on track, and manage multiple LinkedIn pages without getting lost in spreadsheets. The visual calendar makes it easy to see exactly what will publish on each LinkedIn profile, and the post editor lets me adjust captions, links, and media for every platform in one place.What I like most is how SocialBee takes you from idea to approved, scheduled post in one workflow. I can brainstorm, write, design, get feedback from the team, and then schedule LinkedIn posts at the best times, all inside the same app. The AI…

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a fun one, especially if you’ve grown up rooting for a Big Ten school. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play…

Whether you’re prepping for Thanksgiving or thinking ahead to the December holidays, the time for leftovers is officially here. Investing in high-quality food storage containers now can help save a lot of headaches and money in the future, especially when it comes to holiday entertaining and events.  Luckily, plenty of retailers are already offering early Black Friday deals on food storage containers, with discounts up to 46 percent. We scoured the internet to find the best discounts on shopper-loved brands, including Pyrex, Tupperware, and Rubbermaid.  Best Early Black Friday Deals on Food Storage Containers Rubbermaid Brilliance Food Storage Set, $28…