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Insider trading is rife on Polymarket:

Analysis by the Anti-Corruption Data Collective, a non-profit research and advocacy group, found that long-shot bets—­defined as wagers of $2,500 or more at odds of 35 percent or less—­on the platform had an average win rate of around 52 percent in markets on military and defense actions.

That compares with a win rate of 25 percent across all politics-focused markets and just 14 percent for all markets on the platform as a whole.

It is absolutely insane that this is legal. We already know how insider betting warps sports. Insider betting warping politics—and military actions—is orders of magnitude worse...


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Last weekend, I strapped two Garmin running watches to my wrists and raced a 10K—the top-of-the-line Forerunner 970 on one arm, and the budget-friendly Forerunner 165 Music on the other. Whether you're toeing the line at your first 5K or chasing a marathon PR, one thing I learned is that even the most powerful running watch in the world won't help you on race day if you haven't set it up properly beforehand. Here's the checklist I wish I'd had before race day.

How to train with a Garmin watch before a race

Once you've registered for a race, it's time to start training. Step one: Set up a training plan in Garmin Connect. Once in the Garmin Connect app, navigate to Training & Planning > Training Plans to browse free plans for distances from 5K to marathons. Once you select a plan and sync it to your watch, daily workouts will push directly to your wrist.

Beginner-friendly Garmin Coach plans are compatible with many models, including Forerunner 55, Vivoactive 5, and Venu 2/3. You start getting daily suggested workouts and more personalized, adaptive training plans with Garmin Run Coach in the more advanced watches, like the Forerunner 165 and 265. Jump up to the 570, you'll get projected race time and pace. The most advanced coaching features—like real-time stamina and endurance scores—are selling points for higher-end models, like the Forerunner 965 and 970.

Before race week, take a look at your HRV Status and Training Readiness score. In theory, these metrics tell you whether your body has actually absorbed your training, or whether you've been digging yourself into a hole. HRV Status is available on the Forerunner 255 and above. Training Readiness is available on the Forerunner 265 and above, including the 955 and 970. The Forerunner 165 gives you a simpler "Body Battery" reading, which is still useful, albeit less granular.

And remember to manually add your race as an event. Open Garmin Connect and go to Training & Planning > Courses, or look for the "Events" section. Add your race by entering the distance, date, and location. This does more than just mark the calendar—on supported watches, it activates a Race Calendar widget and begins surfacing a race-day countdown.

If your race doesn't show up in the Garmin calendar, but it does have a published GPX or course file, you can download it and load it onto your watch via Garmin Connect. On race day, this gives you turn-by-turn navigation, elevation previews, and the ability to see exactly where you are on course (with compatible watches).

How to set up your Garmin watch the night before your race

Here's the checklist I've cooked up after several races with several different watches:

  • Charge your watch fully. Obvious, but easy to forget after a week of tapering distractions. Plug it in the night before so you start race morning at 100%.

  • Confirm your data screens. Set up your race activity profile so the data fields you actually want—pace, heart rate, lap pace, distance—are front and center. Go to Settings > Activities & Apps > Running > Data Screens. Edit your screens so you're not fumbling through menus mid-race. An extra tip here: For racing, less is more. A cluttered screen with eight data fields is harder to read at race pace than two or three big numbers.

  • Set up alerts. Pace alerts, heart rate alerts, or time alerts can keep you disciplined in the early miles. Set a minimum and maximum pace range if you tend to go out too fast, or a heart rate ceiling if you're racing by effort. Custom alert configurations are available across most Forerunner models, but heart rate zone alerts and the ability to set complex multi-condition alerts are more robust on the 265 and above.

  • Configure auto lap. By default, Garmin watches auto-lap every mile or kilometer. For a race, decide whether you want to lap by distance, by the race's official kilometer markers, or manually. If you want to manually control your laps, which is useful for shorter races like 5Ks, turn off Auto Lap and use the lap button yourself. In the 970 exclusively, you can toggle on the "Timing Gate" option, and your watch will automatically trigger laps as you pass the predefined official course marker, in addition to showing the actual distance run.

  • Check satellite signal. The night before, open the running activity on your watch and let it acquire a GPS signal. This helps pre-load satellite data so you get a faster lock on race morning.

  • Set up Garmin's race day features. On higher-end models, make sure you toggle on any race-specific tools available on your watch. This might include Garmin's PacePro feature, which gives you a customized pacing plan for your race. Enter your goal time, and it will account for elevation changes and suggest a smart pacing strategy mile by mile.

Another feature I plan to use during my next half-marathon is real-time stamina, available on the 970. This feature estimates how much energy you have left in the tank and projects whether your current pace is sustainable. It's a great reality check in the middle miles.

How to set your Garmin watch on the morning of your race

  • Get a GPS lock early. Open your activity before getting into your corral. Wait for the GPS signal indicator to go solid. Don't start running until you have a clean lock, or your first splits will be inaccurate.

  • Put on your heart rate monitor (if using one). If you race with a chest strap like the HRM-Pro Plus, strap it on and let it connect to your watch before the start. I personally don't race with one, but a chest strap will give you more accurate heart rate data when wrist-based optical sensors can struggle to keep up.

  • Enable music (if using it). If you're racing with music, queue up your playlist before you get to the start corral. On any watch with "Music" in its name, you can store and play music directly from the watch without your phone.

How to use your Garmin watch during a race

  • Use the lap button intentionally. Hit the lap button at official mile or kilometer markers if they don't line up with your auto-lap. This gives you splits that actually reflect the race course rather than GPS-calculated distances that can drift by several seconds per mile.

  • Glance, don't stare. It's easy to become a data zombie mid-race. Train yourself to glance at your watch for one or two numbers—current pace and heart rate, for example—and then get your eyes back on the road. The watch should be a tool, not a distraction.

  • Trust your training. No watch can run the race for you. At some point, put the data in the background and run on feel. The best use of a race-day watch is to keep you honest in the first half so you have something left for the finish.

What to do on your Garmin watch after a race

  • Save and sync immediately. When you cross the finish line, let the watch record for a few extra seconds before stopping your activity. (Damn you, Strava tax!) Then sync to Garmin Connect over Bluetooth while your phone is nearby. Your race data, including splits, heart rate graph, and elevation, will all be waiting for you in the app.

  • Review your race analysis. In Garmin Connect, pull up the race activity and review your pace curve, heart rate response, and cadence data. Look for where you faded, where you had a surge, and how your heart rate tracked to your perceived effort. This is some of the most valuable post-race coaching you can get.

Whether you're wearing a $199 Forerunner 55 or the $750 Forerunner 970, working through this checklist before race day will make you a smarter, more prepared racer. The fancier watch gives you more tools—but only if you actually know how to use them.


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Netflix's conflict-heavy anthology series Beef, from creator Lee Sung Jin, just concluded its second season, which saw wealthy country club managers Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan go head-to-head with the help, played by Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton. That followed up a first season involving Steven Yeun and Ali Wong in a road-rage scenario that developed to operatic levels of chaos before the run of episodes was over. All dramatic, but also funny! Nothing wrong with a little conflict, as long as it's happening to other people.

Dead to Me (2019 – 2022)

Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini make for an all-time-great TV pairing in this dark, twisty comedy about a couple of women who become united in tragedy—and lies. Applegate is Jen Harding, a realtor whose husband was killed in a hit-and-run incident; she's not dealing well, and takes a bit of inspiration from Cardellini's Judy, who has maintained a cheery disposition following her fiancé Steve's death from a heart attack—easier to do, given that Steve's still secretly alive. And then we discover that Judy has a storage unit with a car that looks suspiciously like the one that killed Jen's husband—and that's all just part of the first episode. The show only gets wilder from there—like Beef, but sneakier and more passive-aggressive. Stream Dead to Me on Netflix.

The Other Black Girl (2023)

Nella Rogers is an editorial assistant at the (fictional) Wagner Books, a major publisher in NYC. She's also the only Black woman working for the company, and is initially thrilled when Hazel-May McCall (Ashleigh Murray) is hired as on as a fellow editorial assistant and, well, the other Black girl. At first the quiet Nella and outspoken Hazel bond, but Nella begins receiving threatening notes, and advice from Hazel gets her in trouble. Is this a comedic show about two Black women who can't work together without conflict and competition? Or is there a deeper mystery? (It's very much the second one, FYI). Stream The Other Black Girl on Disney+ and Hulu.

Bad Sisters (2022 – 2024)

A pitch-perfect (and pitch-dark) comedy, the Irish import Bad Sisters picked up several well-deserved Emmy nominations in its first year. Writer and co-creator Sharon Horgan leads the cast as Eva Garvey, oldest of five sisters, including Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), who's married to John Paul, an abusive and isolating husband. When the dude winds up dead under rather suspicious circumstances, down-on-his-luck insurance investigator Tom (Brian Gleeson) starts poking his nose into things. We know the sisters definitely wanted John Paul dead, but did they actually do the deed? Tom's family business will go under if he has to pay out on the life insurance policy, so he's motivated to pin the (potential) crime on at least one of the women. Stream Bad Sisters on Apple TV.

The White Lotus (2021 — )

Another darkly comic, season-long anthology series, the similarities between our subject and White Lotus grew even stronger in the second season of Beef, which finds a couple of managers of a luxury country club in an ever-escalating tiff with the help. The opening episodes of Mike White's show, meanwhile, begins with a flash forward to the rather horrible outcomes that will be faced by at least some of the holiday makers traveling to one of the title's White Lotus resorts (each season being a distinct storyline and location, with the occasional recurring character). The first season's manager, Murray Bartlett’s Armond, makes clear to the staff that the ultra-wealthy guests are little more than overgrown children, and need to be coddled as such. At these very fancy resorts, at which people have paid absurd amounts of money to be pampered, competitiveness and general toxicity ensure that everyone’s going to have a miserable time, whatever the price. Like Beef, The White Lotus attracts A-list talent each outing. Stream The White Lotus on HBO Max.

Your Friends and Neighbors (2025 – )

In Your Friends & Neighbors, Jon Hamm plays Andrew "Coop" Cooper, a recently divorced, recently unemployed New York hedge fund manager. In an effort to keep up an illusion that nothing in his life has changed, he begins breaking into the homes of his wealthy neighbors to steal and sell their stuff, inadvertently catching on to their secrets as well. This dark comedy isn't exactly about how hard it is to be a once-rich white guy, but neither is it a pointed lesson in the downfalls toxic masculinity. Coop is an insider forced into the role of an outsider (playing an insider), offering him a unique perspective on the artifice at the center of a life based on flaunting wealth. Stream Your Friends and Neighbors on Apple TV.

Barry (2018 – 2023)

Bill Hader won a couple of Emmys for his performance as Barry Berkman, a depressed and anxious hitman who discovers a love of acting that leads him to look for a life beyond killing people, even though he's rather good at it, and keeps getting drawn back in. Barry's mentor and father figure in his quest to rebuild his life on the stage is the wildly eccentric Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler, who also won an Emmy here), who's entirely supportive of Barry—until he learns of his protégé's double life. Stream Barry on HBO Max.

Fargo (2014 – 2024)

This season-by-season anthology crime drama finds us in the Midwest, mostly, blending crime drama, small town secrets, and healthy heaps of dark humor (if you're familiar with the Cohen Bros. movie that inspired the show, you'll know exactly what's meant by that). The quirky characters in the shifting cast are sometimes lovable, sometimes reprehensible, but they're consistently compelling—as with Beef, there's the sense that characters will get what's coming to them, while also making room for moments of surprising grace. Stream Fargo on Hulu.

How to Get to Heaven From Belfast (2026 – )

How to Get to Heaven comes from Irish playwright and Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee, though that earlier and justifiably beloved show will only moderately prepare you for the latest. Three high school friends from Belfast reunite after learning that their fourth bestie has died unexpectedly—except that maybe she didn't, a mixed blessing given that they all have secrets that they were hoping to bury. Now they're off to investigate the mystery of the maybe-murder, and find themselves immediately in way over their heads and in a complex web of lies, secrets, and old vendettas. The tone is all over the place in a way that somehow works, and has a beating heart beneath all the chaos. Stream How to Get to Heaven From Belfast on Netflix.

I Hate Suzie (2020 – 2022)

Popstar turned actress Suzie Pickles (Billie Piper) has just been hired for a new Disney series when she has, in the opening episode of I Hate Suzie, the worst day of her career: a compromising phone hack has left her exposed, literally and figuratively to the world. Support at home is in short supply given that the prominent penis in some of the pictures doesn't belong to her husband. Lucy Prebble and Piper resume a collaboration that began with The Secret Diary of a Call Girl and the highly acclaimed play The Effect for this dark, funny show about a woman on the verge of a breakdown. Piper is phenomenal, as always, playing a character whose bio is similar to her own—the whole world's out to get her, but early fame has left her both deeply vulnerable and wildly self-involved. Stream I Hate Suzie on HBO Max.

No Good Deed (2024)

I'm adding this one largely for the Lisa Kudrow of it all, but there's a similar vein of dark comedy here—plus, No Good Deed is a pretty great show that a lot of people missed. The setup sounds like a juicy crime thrillers: Kudrow is retired pianist Lydia; Ray Romano is her husband, Paul. The two are in rather tricky financial straits and need to sell their home without wanting to seem too desperate to prospective buyers—and also hide a secret involving a death a few years prior. For all that, it's a comedy, with a great supporting cast that includes Linda Cardellini, Luke Wilson, O-T Fagbenle, and Teyonah Parris. Stream No Good Deed on Netflix.


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Before you send your next Instagram DM, be warned: Whatever you share with that friend, influencer, or business could potentially be seen by anyone—including but not limited to hackers, law enforcement, or even Meta itself. As of today, May 8, 2026, Instagram DMs are no longer end-to-end encrypted (E2EE). Your messages are vulnerable, whether you're discussing a reel you saw, or sharing your Social Security number. (Please don't do this.)

E2EE is necessary for any messaging service that wants to protect its users' privacy. This level of encryption ensures that the only people who can read the contents of a conversation are the ones with access to the devices involved. When you send a message over E2EE, the program encrypts, or "scrambles," it. Each device contains a "key" to decrypt, or "unscramble" the message. If you try to intercept the message without the key, all you'll see is a mess of code. Even Meta couldn't read your encrypted Instagram DMs in the past, which makes this change frustrating.

Why is Meta taking away E2EE on Instagram?

It's not clear why Meta is taking this drastic step. In fact, the company has yet to publicly announce it, despite the change going into effect today. Instead, back in March, Meta quietly updated an Instagram help page to note the new policy, writing "end-to-end encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after May 8, 2026." Meta advised users to download chats that may be impacted, and that they might need to update Instagram to do so. Other than that, however, the company has been mute on the policy shift.

What's more, Instagram has spent the past seven years on a crusade to offer E2EE on all of its major messaging platforms. WhatsApp has always offered encrypted messaging, but the company also brought E2EE to Instagram and Facebook Messenger. There are critics of E2EE out there, including those who argue that the tech makes it more difficult to protect children on the platform. Meta has had a poor track record for how it handles underage users on its platforms, so perhaps it's feeling the pressure to change. But while it's true that ending E2EE means it's easier to track the conversations that minors are having on Instagram, it is now also easier to track anyone's chats. Governments and law enforcement will likely celebrate the change, but anyone who cares about user privacy will not.

Should you stop using Instagram DMs?

If you're a die-hard privacy fan, sure, you won't want to use Instagram for messaging any longer. (In fact, you may want to ditch Meta apps as much as possible.) But Instagram is far from the only insecure messaging platform out there. If you have an iPhone and text Android users (or vice versa), your texts are not encrypted (at least not until Apple starts supporting RCS E2EE with iOS 26.5); if you use Telegram without "Secret Chats," your messages are not E2EE; if you use Group Me, Discord, Google Chat, or any number of popular messaging apps, your conversations are not totally private.

That doesn't mean you need to stop using these apps, but you should understand the privacy and security implications. Without E2EE, your conversations are accessible by the company that hosts the app, and may be accessible by anyone who requests your data or seeks it by force. As such, don't rely on Instagram DMs for anything sensitive. Don't share details you wouldn't be comfortable discussing in public, or that you wouldn't want Instagram (or a hacker) to see. That could include financial information, corporate secrets, Social Security numbers, etc.

For now, it might be best to treat Instagram DMs as a place to discuss Instagram. "Here's a fun reel I found;" "look at this picture;" "have you seen this account?" For all serious conversations, turn to an E2EE app—perhaps one of Meta's, or something like iMessage or Signal.


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I've never really felt the need to own a power station, but when my city got hit with winter storms that took out our power for multiple days, that changed. They're the kind of thing you don't know you need until you need it—so consider learning from my mistake and get one ahead of time. When I finally bought one, I went with the EcoFlow Delta 3 Ultra Plus, which is now $1,499 (originally $2,199) after a 32% discount. The EcoFlow website is also having an up to 45% sale on multiple products right now.

I've only had a brief power outage since I got the Delta 3 Ultra Plus, so I haven't been able to test it to its full potential. However, I've gotten pretty comfortable with it and used it in ways I never thought I would, like being able to run my projector on my deck or backyard for an outdoor movie night. It gives you 3,072Wh of power with an output of 3,600W and a 7,200W peak, meaning it can keep a 120W refrigerator cooling for about 35 hours, according to Mashable's review.

I am impressed by the functionality of the EcoFlow app, too. You get the ability to prioritize which devices receive power the longest, so when battery power is scarce, the essentials will keep running while the other devices shut off. How that might work in the real world: You leave your refrigerator plugged in overnight, along with your phones and a heater. You can prioritize your refrigerator so if the battery runs low during the night, it will shut off power to your phone and heater to keep your fridge running longer. You can also monitor your energy use, and the app will automatically start charging your power station if it detects a storm is coming.

Carrying it around is very easy with the telescoping handle that you can pull out from under it, however, rolling it around anywhere that isn't a flat, smooth surface is difficult.


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Despite expert advice against relying on chatbots for mental health questions and concerns, people are turning to AI programs like ChatGPT for help. The company has faced criticism for how its products have handled certain mental health issues—including episodes where users died by suicide following conversations with ChatGPT. As part of a campaign to address these problems, OpenAI is now rolling out a voluntary safety check system for users who might be concerned about their thoughts.

As reported by Mashable, OpenAI just launched "Trusted Contact," a new feature that lets you choose a trusted person in your life to connect to your ChatGPT account. The idea isn't to share your conversations or collaborate on projects within ChatGPT; rather, if the chatbot thinks your personal chats are veering in a concerning direction with regards to self-harm, ChatGPT will reach out to your Trusted Contact, letting them know to check in on you.

How ChatGPT's Trusted Contact works

chatgpt trusted contact
Credit: OpenAI

To set up the feature, choose someone in your life who is 18 years old or older. (The contact must be 19 or older in South Korea.) ChatGPT will send that person an invitation to become your Trusted Contact: They have one week to respond before the invite expires. Of course, they can also decline the invitation if they don't want to participate.

If the contact agrees, the feature kicks in. In the future, if OpenAI's automated system thinks you're discussing harming yourself "in a way that indicates a serious safety concern," ChatGPT will let you know that it may reach out to the Trusted Contact, but also encourages you to reach out that contact yourself, with "conversation starters" to break the ice.

While that's happening, OpenAI has a team of "specially trained people" to analyze the situation. (It's not all automated, it seems.) If this team concludes that the situation is serious, ChatGPT will then alert your Trusted Contact via email, text, or through an in-app notification in ChatGPT if they have an account. OpenAI says the notification itself is quite limited, and only shares general information about the self-harm concern, and advises the contact to reach out to you. It won't send any chat transcripts or summaries either, so your general privacy should be preserved, all things considered.

OpenAI says that it's working to review safety notifications in under one hour, and that it developed the feature with guidance from clinicians, researchers, and mental health and suicide prevention organizations. The feature is, of course, entirely voluntary, so the user will need to enroll themselves (and a contact) in if they feel it would help them. As long as they do, however, this could be a helpful way for friends and family to check in on people when they're struggling—assuming they're sharing those thoughts with ChatGPT.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Lifehacker's parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.


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In my years reviewing speakers, I've learned a couple of things: Reputation and price get me to buy it, but if I dig the look, I'll keep using it over better options. This is what Marshall speakers, in general, nail. They look great while still doing their basic job as a portable speaker well. Right now, the Marshall Emberton III is $129.99 (originally $179.99), its lowest price yet, according to price-tracking tools.

My wife and I have been using the Marshall Emberton III for a few months now, and we love it. The moment she first saw it, she fell in love with the look and wanted to keep it on display on the kitchen counter before she even turned it on. We now use it on our kitchen counter and listen to music while we cook or clean up.

The Emberton III is a portable speaker, so it's designed to be taken outdoors, resist the elements with its waterproof IP67 rating, and play for long sessions with its 32-hour playtime. It does all these things well while looking and feeling premium. The sound it produces is distortion-free, even at max volume, which is surprising for a small portable speaker, and it's loud for its size.

The main downside is that there is no adjustable EQ on its app, but it can't have everything. There are physical controls on top of the speaker to skip songs and pause the media. There is also a battery bar that tells you how much juice you have left. The design is simple yet efficient, and I can't stress enough how much my wife and I love the retro look of the speaker. You can read more about it on ZDNET's review. If you're looking for a fun, good-looking portable speaker you can happily display, get the Marshall Emberton III while it's at its lowest price.


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