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It’s Not About the Bike: The Jackets and Lights to Keep You Cycling All Year Round

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It’s Not About the Bike: The Jackets and Lights to Keep You Cycling All Year Round


FAQs

We asked Joshua Hale, general manager of commuter bike specialists Quella, to answer all our questions on how to get your bike ready for winter and keep it running smoothly all year long.

How can cyclists stay visible to drivers without turning into a rolling Christmas tree?

It is not just the quantity of lights that’s important. Placement also makes a huge difference. A bright front and rear light are essential—ideally one steady and one flashing—to help you stand out without dazzling anyone on the road. Reflective details on moving parts like your jacket, ankles, or pedals also catch drivers’ eyes naturally. Good quality lights and reflective accents do a lot more than overloading on LEDs.

What’s the smartest way to layer clothing for warmth without overheating?

Layer clothing with breathability in mind. Start with a moisture-wicking base layer to keep sweat off your skin, add an insulating layer like a fleece or thermal jersey, and finish with a windproof or waterproof shell. You’ll warm up fast once you’re moving, so it’s better to start slightly cool. Zips and vents that can be opened on uphill climbs and closed on descents will come in handy. Other lightweight accessories such as gloves, a buff, and overshoes can also increase your comfort without adding bulk.

How can you adjust your tire size or pressure to ride safely on wet or icy roads?

In winter, opt for wider tires with a grippier tread—28 mm or more, if your bike allows it. The extra width increases contact with the road, giving better stability and traction. Lowering your pressure slightly (by around 10–15 psi) also improves grip on slippery surfaces without feeling sluggish. Avoid slick tires when it’s icy, and check your tires regularly, as wet roads pick up more glass and grit.

What are the easiest and most effective upgrades for commuters?

Mudguards are top of the list. They keep both you and your bike cleaner and drier. Good-quality lights with USB charging make daily use simpler, and winter-specific gloves can save your fingers on frosty mornings. Wider handlebars and padded bar tape also add comfort when the roads get rough. It’s all about small upgrades that make you want to keep riding, even when it’s cold and dark.

Why does your bike need more maintenance in the winter, and what quick maintenance tips can you suggest?

Winter is tough on bikes, with grit, salt, and moisture working their way into every moving part. Regular cleaning is the single best thing you can do, even if it’s just a quick rinse and wipe-down after wet rides. Keep your chain clean and lightly oiled, check brake pads more often, and make sure cables or hydraulic lines aren’t sticking. A few minutes of care each week prevents costly repairs later, and your bike will feel smoother and quieter every ride.



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The Best Cozy Earth Pajamas Deal We’ve Seen All Year

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The Best Cozy Earth Pajamas Deal We’ve Seen All Year


I love having a whimsical, comfortable wardrobe, and that doesn’t apply just to daytime clothes. My pajama collection is quite extensive, with the added requirement that each pair be both cooling and extra soft. I’m someone who overheats easily in her sleep, and with sensitive skin, it’s not a winning combination.

I’ve been growing my Cozy Earth pajama collection for years, usually getting a new set during Black Friday. Obviously, that shopping event has come and gone, but this sale gives you one more chance. And, believe it or not, it’s even better than what Cozy Earth ran sale-wise for its pajamas during Cyber Week.

Standard PJs

Courtesy of Cozy Earth



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We Just Found Out Taylor Swift Sleeps on a Coop Pillow—They’re Having a Flash Sale to Celebrate

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We Just Found Out Taylor Swift Sleeps on a Coop Pillow—They’re Having a Flash Sale to Celebrate


While I’m a mattress and sleep product expert, thanks to years of hands-on experience, I’m also aware that my opinion is not the end-all, be-all for everyone. However, when a megastar is also a fan of a product you’ve reviewed, it’s a good confirmation that you’re on the right track.

Taylor Swift, as it would turn out, is also a fan of Coop Sleep Goods—which we can confirm based on this December 10 Late Show With Stephen Colbert appearance.

Coop’s got some of our favorite pillows, particularly the Original Adjustable pillow. It comes in three shapes: the Crescent, the Cut Out, and the Classic, which is a traditional rectangular shape. I love (and regularly sleep on) the Crescent, which has a gentle curve on the bottom to allow for movement while maintaining head and neck support.



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Nvidia Becomes a Major Model Maker With Nemotron 3

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Nvidia Becomes a Major Model Maker With Nemotron 3


Nvidia has made a fortune supplying chips to companies working on artificial intelligence, but today the chipmaker took a step toward becoming a more serious model maker itself by releasing a series of cutting-edge open models, along with data and tools to help engineers use them.

The move, which comes at a moment when AI companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are developing increasingly capable chips of their own, could be a hedge against these firms veering away from Nvidia’s technology over time.

Open models are already a crucial part of the AI ecosystem with many researchers and startups using them to experiment, prototype, and build. While OpenAI and Google offer small open models, they do not update them as frequently as their rivals in China. For this reason and others, open models from Chinese companies are currently much more popular, according to data from Hugging Face, a hosting platform for open source projects.

Nvidia’s new Nemotron 3 models are among the best that can be downloaded, modified, and run on one’s own hardware, according to benchmark scores shared by the company ahead of release.

“Open innovation is the foundation of AI progress,” CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement ahead of the news. “With Nemotron, we’re transforming advanced AI into an open platform that gives developers the transparency and efficiency they need to build agentic systems at scale.”

Nvidia is taking a more fully transparent approach than many of its US rivals by releasing the data used to train Nemotron—a fact that should help engineers modify the models more easily. The company is also releasing tools to help with customization and fine-tuning. This includes a new hybrid latent mixture-of-experts model architecture, which Nvidia says is especially good for building AI agents that can take actions on computers or the web. The company is also launching libraries that allow users to train agents to do things using reinforcement learning, which involves giving models simulated rewards and punishments.

Nemotron 3 models come in three sizes: Nano, which has 30 billion parameters; Super, which has 100 billion; and Ultra, which has 500 billion. A model’s parameters loosely correspond to how capable it is as well as how unwieldy it is to run. The largest models are so cumbersome that they need to run on racks of expensive hardware.

Model Foundations

Kari Ann Briski, vice president of generative AI software for enterprise at Nvidia, said open models are important to AI builders for three reasons: Builders increasingly need to customize models for particular tasks; it often helps to hand queries off to different models; and it is easier to squeeze more intelligent responses from these models after training by having them perform a kind of simulated reasoning. “We believe open source is the foundation for AI innovation, continuing to accelerate the global economy,” Briski said.

The social media giant Meta released the first advanced open models under the name Llama in February 2023. As competition has intensified, however, Meta has signaled that its future releases might not be open source.

The move is part of a larger trend in the AI industry. Over the past year, US firms have moved away from openness, becoming more secretive about their research and more reluctant to tip off their rivals about their latest engineering tricks.



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