When I was growing up, I watched a lot of sci-fi movies about aliens that come to Earth. The extraterrestrials in popular culture, however, always looked so familiar that I found them far-fetched. What are the chances that E.T., the Predator, or ALF would develop arms and legs, a humanlike face, and opposable thumbs? Perhaps as a result, I associated alien life more with fantasy than with science, and I never gave much thought to what a visit would really look like. But my attitude started to change in 2020, when I read Liu Cixin's "The Three-Body Problem" and its two sequels.

State-of-the-art image reconstruction often relies on complex, highly parameterized deep architectures. We propose an alternative: a data-driven reconstruction method inspired by the classic Tikhonov regularization. Our approach iteratively refines intermediate reconstructions by solving a sequence of quadratic problems. These updates have two key components: (i) learned filters to extract salient image features, and (ii) an attention mechanism that locally adjusts the penalty of filter responses. Our method achieves performance on par with leading plug-and-play and learned regularizer approaches while offering interpretability, robustness, and convergent behavior. In effect, we bridge traditional regularization and deep learning with a principled reconstruction approach.

Amazon Prime Day is back again. It wasn't that long since the last one--the retailer held its first-ever fall Prime Day sales event in 2022, and there will be another one this fall as well. But right now, the two-day event runs through July 12. We've spent hours combing through thousands of lists to find the best Prime Day deals 2023 on WIRED-tested gear, from Fire tablets to video games and Apple Watches to standing desks. Updated Wednesday, July 12: We added a bunch more deals we love and added prices and links. If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. See the rest of our Phone and Tablet Deals for Prime Day here. Even with the addition of the 10th-generation iPad, we still think the ninth-generation iPad (8/10, WIRED Recommends) from 2021 is the best iPad for most people. It has the same shape and size as its predecessors, so all current accessories will work, including the first-generation Apple Pencil and Apple's Smart Keyboard. It retains the classic Home button with Touch ID plus thick borders around the 10.2-inch screen. This is the lowest price we've tracked. The Apple Pencil is one of the most useful tools you can add to the iPad. The second-gen pencil works with nearly every iPad in Apple's current lineup (except for the 9th- and 10th-gen iPad; if you have one, the first-gen Pencil is also on sale). Like a normal pencil, your lines get thicker as you press down harder. The Pencil is also great for navigating iPadOS, which has handwriting support in various search fields so you don't need to switch to the keyboard to type. It pairs and charges automatically when you stick it to the edge of the slate. Logitech's Combo Touch case is detachable, so you can ditch the keyboard when you don't need it and still have a kickstand case. It's fairly slim, with a lovely fabric texture, and the kickstand easily passes the lap test--it didn't wobble much or make the iPad fall off while you typed with it on your lap. If you want a bigger screen for travel, the iPad Mini (8/10, WIRED Recommends) has the edge over its peers. The design mimics the iPad Pro, with slim bezels around the 8.3-inch screen. Its compact size makes it the best slate to take with you everywhere. You might even be able to fit it into your cargo pants.

BEST TV DEAL: Amazon 65-inch Omni 4K Fire TV(opens in a new tab) -- $749.99 $1,099.99 BEST STREAMING DEAL: Hulu (With Ads)(opens in a new tab) -- $1.99/month for your first 12 months (save $72) BEST ROBOT VACUUM DEAL: iRobot Roomba j7(opens in a new tab) -- $349 $599.99 (save $250.99) BEST KITCHEN DEAL: Le Creuset Enameled Cast Iron Signature Deep Round Oven (5.25-quart)(opens in a new tab) -- $199.95 $249.95 BEST AIR FRYER DEAL: The Ninja Foodi 4-in-1 air fryer(opens in a new tab) features dual baskets and is $100 cheaper than an almost-identical model on Ninja's website -- $99 BEST HEADPHONES DEAL: Beats Studio Buds(opens in a new tab) -- $89.95 $149.95 BEST MACBOOK DEAL: The MacBook Air (M2, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD)(opens in a new tab) updates Apple's most portable laptop in almost every way, and it's back down to its lowest price ever -- $1,049 $1,199 at Amazon and Best Buy(opens in a new tab) (save $150) BEST IPAD DEAL: The 2021 iPad Mini (WiFi, 64GB)(opens in a new tab) brings portability and power in one small package -- $399.99 $499 at Amazon (save $99.01) For better or for worse, Black Friday and Cyber Monday look a lot different now than they did pre-pandemic. This year, we've unlocked a new thing to navigate as we shop for the holidays: inflation. But if there's anything retailers have learned since the pandemic, it's how to provide cushion for shoppers who are budgeting extra hard during these tight times. Mostly, that looks like stretching Black Friday deals across the entire month of November -- and in some cases, a little bit of October, too. For Cyber Monday, some retailers are releasing deals as early as Black Friday. Below, you'll find a complete list of all the holiday doorbusters that are live right now (with sales grouped by retailer, category, and brand).

If you're shopping for yourself or checking off a holiday wishlist, these Black Friday deals under $50 can help you get it done without breaking the bank. There are popular kitchen gadgets and cookware deals, plenty of toys on sale, and even a streaming discount that'll make binge-watching your favorite shows next year a more budget-friendly experience. Check out our top picks for Black Friday deals under $50 and keep more cash in your pocket this holiday. A smart speaker with bonafide benefits, like high-quality sound, voice recognition, and hands-free Alexa control, the Amazon Echo (4th Gen) can make all your smart home dreams come true. It's easy to set up and can control compatible lights, locks, and sensors, acting as a smart hub.

Categorical data is a type of data that is used to group information with similar characteristics, while numerical data is a type of data that expresses information in the form of numbers. Why do we need encoding? We will also refer to a cheat sheet that shows when to use which type of encoding. In this method, each category is mapped to a vector that contains 1 and 0 denoting the presence or absence of the feature. The number of vectors depends on the number of categories for features.

Memorial Day is a major shopping holiday in the US, but nobody wants to spend their long weekend scrolling through marketing emails. Let us save you the trouble. We scoured the web to find actual deals on the gear WIRED reviewers recommend. Below, you'll find great sales on everything from video games to furniture. Don't forget to check back, as we'll be updating this story throughout the weekend. Be sure to check out our other Memorial Day deals coverage, including the Best Memorial Day Mattress Deals, Best Memorial Day Outdoors Deals, Best Masturbation May Sex Tech Deals, and Best REI Anniversary Sale Deals for more. Updated on May 30, 2022: We've added new deals on the Roku Express 4K and Samsung Galaxy A53. Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off).

Memorial Day is a major shopping holiday in the US, but nobody wants to spend their long weekend scrolling through marketing emails. Let us save you the trouble. We scoured the web to find actual deals on the gear WIRED reviewers recommend. Below, you'll find great sales on everything from video games to furniture. Don't forget to check back, as we'll be updating this story throughout the weekend. Be sure to check out our other Memorial Day deals coverage, including the Best Memorial Day Mattress Deals, Best Memorial Day Outdoors Deals, Best Masturbation May Sex Tech Deals, and Best REI Anniversary Sale Deals for more. Updated on May 29, 2022: We've added new deals on the iRobot Roomba j7, RevAir Reverse-Air Dryer, and Zuvi Halo Hair Dryer.

Memorial Day is a major shopping holiday in the US, but nobody wants to spend their long weekend scrolling through marketing emails. Let us save you the trouble. We scoured the web to find actual deals on the gear WIRED reviewers recommend. Below, you'll find great sales on everything from video games to furniture. Don't forget to check back, as we'll be updating this story throughout the weekend. Be sure to check out our other Memorial Day deals coverage, including the Best Memorial Day Mattress Deals, Best Memorial Day Outdoors Deals, Best Masturbation May Sex Tech Deals, and Best REI Anniversary Sale Deals for more. Updated on May 28: We've added a few new deals on Osprey packs, Instacart, Jins Sunglasses, Gravity Blanket, Overcooked 2, and Allform couches, and a link to the sale at Moment.

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