Author Archives: Carol Edwards

Why should you opt for a camping hammock? Is it really better than sleeping on the ground in a tent? The short answer is an unequivocal yes. A hammock slashes the amount of bedding-related space you need to lug with you when compared to an air mattress, and it also allows for much less time spent trying to pump up and maintain firmness throughout the night. (Because let’s be honest, most entry level air mattresses aren’t exactly the most reliable.)

The term “hammock” can be traced back nearly 1,000 years to an Arawak word that translates into “fish net.” These early hammocks were not designed for leisure but for serving as protection from dangerous Caribbean creatures and insects. Read more…

More about Travel, Culture, Camping, Mashable Shopping, and Carry On

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BEST CAMPING HAMMOCK OVERALL

MalloMe Hammock

Super comfortable and extra roomy, plus it’s a breeze to set up.

$22.09 from Amazon

IMAGE: Amazon

BEST BUDGET-FRIENDLY HAMMOCK

Honest Outfitters camping hammock

Comfortable, lightweight, and about the same price as a few cases of campsite beers.

$29.99 from Amazon

IMAGE: Amazon

BEST HAMMOCK FOR TWO PEOPLE

Wise Owl Outfitters camping hammock

Super lightweight but strong, it packs down to about the size of a grapefruit.

$37.95 from Amazon

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BEST HAMMOCK FOR MOSQUITO-HEAVY AREAS

Grand Trunk Skeeter Beeter Pro

If the only thing holding you back from experiencing the wilderness is the idea of bugs, get this.

$49.99 from Amazon

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EASIEST TO SET UP

Gold Armour Camping Hammock

Ideal for novice users, its assembly kit is extremely straightforward and intuitive.

$26.99 from Amazon

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BEST HAMMOCK FOR HIKING

Bear Butt Camping Hammock

It’s soft, lightweight, and packs down to a super small size.

$69.99 from Amazon

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BEST HAMMOCK FOR COLD TEMPERATURES

Snugpak Hammock Cocoon

This ultra warm (and super heavy) hammock is ideally suited for colder climates.

$79 from Amazon

It’s not every day a person captures footage of a javelina sprinting down a civilian street, so when someone does it rightfully creates quite the stir online.

A video recently shared to Facebook by Damion Alexander shows a javelina running at high speeds in Tucson, Arizona, and it’s the perfect combination of mesmerizing, hilarious, and utterly terrifying.

For those who aren’t familiar with javelina, though the beasts resemble pigs and boars they’re technically neither. Per the Arizona Game and Fish Department, javelina are collared peccary and reside in Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico. 

The javelina in the video can be heard grunting and seen absolutely darting along the side of the road, jumping and dodging obstacles like he’s a character in a video game. The footage is so unreal that it’s going viral and getting quite the meme treatment. Read more…

More about Twitter, Memes, Javelina, Culture, and Web Culture

Being taken for a ride by scammers isn’t fun, but getting money from the government is.

The FTC announced its latest refund program for scam victims on Tuesday. Anyone who got swindled by an outfit best known as Click4Support should get a check from the government as part of a $1.7 million settlement. The refunds will average about $30 and go out to a little less than 58,000 people.

Click4Support’s scam operation was devious, but not especially complicated. The original FTC lawsuit from 2015 accused the group of running pop-up ads that looked like they were from established tech brands designed to make credulous viewers call them for tech support. Anyone who called was routed to a call center controlled by the scammers.  Read more…

More about Scams, Settlement, Ftc, Scammers, and Tech Support

The downside of milk is getting harder to ignore as dairy and meat industry cattle use 83 percent of the world’s farmland.  Read more…

More about Mashable Video, Coffee, Milk, Almond Milk, and Milk Products

When it comes to securing the vote, officials keep pushing for the latest and supposedly greatest in election technology. According to cryptography experts at the annual RSA conference in San Francisco, that approach might just do more harm than good. 

In fact, one warned, when it comes to elections, depending on technology can be “dangerous.” Thankfully, ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, we already have a good (if not perfect) toolset to secure the vote — we just have to choose to use it.  

Speaking to a crowd of security industry professionals in the main hall of San Francisco’s Moscone Center Tuesday morning, RSA Data Security founder and current MIT professor Ronald Rivest criticized voting tech like the now infamous Iowa Caucus app.  Read more…

More about Blockchain, Rsa, Election 2020, Tech, and Cybersecurity

TL;DR: You’ll get eight courses on project and quality management on sale for just $45.99 with this limited time offer.

Unless you’ve seriously never had a job, you’ve probably dipped your toes in project management. After all, pretty much every industry is dependent on managing set projects to completion, and you’ve no doubt had some small role in making that happen. Congratulations. 

Yet even if the person two desks over from you is a project manager, it can be tricky to figure out what it is they actually do; and infuriating to find out how much they do it for. Thanks to a somewhat elusive mix of people skills, technical know-how, and psychology, project management is hard and project managers are in-demand. Read more…

More about Project Management, Bundle, Online Learning, Mashable Shopping, and Shopping Online Learning

So far in short-lived 2020, Antarctic scientists measured warm waters eating away at the planet’s most threatening glacier, Earth experienced its warmest January in over 140 years of record-keeping, and the Australian Navy rescued 1,000 residents trapped by the nation’s historic, climate-enhanced fires. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders has an ambitious, though imperfect, plan to help slash Earth’s skyrocketing carbon emissions. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, appointed a non-climate scientist to the National Security Council who incorrectly claimed Earth’s plants are in dire need of more CO2, directed his administration to officially leave the world’s climate change agreement in November, and got owned by Captain America when he childishly tweeted that the inevitable presence of winter means the planet isn’t warming. Read more…

More about Science, Global Warming, Bernie Sanders, Climate Change, and Trump

Dating when you’re 40 or older can be intimidating — unlike when you’re in your 20s or 30s, you can’t assume everyone your age is single and looking. If you’ve found yourself “on the market” again, it’s important to remember that half of U.S. marriages do end in divorce, so the dating pool isn’t as small as you might think.

Meeting people organically out in public still happens, but sometimes it’s easier and less intimidating to meet people where they are. It’s a comfort in knowing that the people you find on dating apps are single (hopefully) and looking for a romantic relationship, so at least you’re both on the same page. Read more…

More about Dating, Culture, Online Dating, Sex, and Sex And Relationships

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BEST FOR A SERIOUS RELATIONSHIP

Match

Match’s 25 years in the game make its algorithm one of the best.

• Free version: Yes
• Three months standard plan: $31.99/month
• Six months standard plan: $27.99/month
• 12 months standard plan: $26.65/month

IMAGE: eharmony

BEST FOR A LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP

eharmony

eharmony’s in-depth compatibility quiz will help you find personalized matches who are ready for a committed relationship.

• Free version: Yes
• Six months premium plan: $29.90/month
• 12 months premium plan: $19.90/month
• 24 months premium plan: $13.90/month

IMAGE: Mashable

BEST FOR THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY

OkCupid

OKCupid utilizes thought-provoking questions to find compatible matches.

• Free version: Yes
• One month A-List : $7.95/month
• Three months A-List: $6.35/month
• Six months A-List: $3.95/month
• One month Premium A-List: $24.90/month
• Three months Premium A-List: $22.90/month
• Six months Premium A-List: $19.90/month

IMAGE: Mashable

BEST FOR PEOPLE IN THEIR EARLY 40S

Hinge

Designed to be deleted, Hinge uses prompts and personal information to help you find a successful relationship.

• Free version: Yes
• One month paid: $12.99/month
• Three months paid: $6.99/month
• Six months paid: $4.99/month

IMAGE: Mashable

BEST FOR THE OVER 50 CROWD

SilverSingles

With a minimum age requirement of 50, SilverSingles caters to a more mature crowd.

• Free version: Yes
• Three months premium: $44.95/month
• Six months premium: $34.95/month
• 12 months premium: $24.95/month

IMAGE: Mashable

BEST FOR CAREER-ORIENTED PEOPLE

Elite Singles

With the majority of users being over 30 with some level of higher education, EliteSingles caters to a more mature audience.

• Free version: Yes
• Three months paid: $57.95/month
• Six months paid: $44.95/month
• 12 months paid: $31.95/month

IMAGE: Mashable

BEST FOR A CASUAL RELATIONSHIP

Tinder

The original swiping app, Tinder helps you find potential relationships or casual hookups.

• Free version: Yes
• Tinder Plus: $19.99/month
• Tinder Gold: $24.98/month

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BEST FOR OUTGOING WOMEN OR SHY MEN

Bumble

Women have to make the first move on Bumble and only have 24 hours to message a match.

• Free version: Yes
• One week of Boost: $8.99/week
• One month of Boost: $24.99/month
• Three months of Boost: $16.66/month
• Six months of Boost: $13.33/month

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BEST IF YOU DON’T LIKE MAKING SNAP DECISIONS

Zoosk

Zoosk has a “maybe” swiping option and utilizes different forms of matching.

• Free version: Yes
• One month paid: $29.95/month
• Three months paid: $19.98/month
• Six months paid: $12.49/month

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BEST FOR TESTING FEATURES WITHOUT PAYING

Plenty of Fish

While Plenty of Fish has some good features in the free version, the site is full of scammers and fake profiles.

• Free version: Yes
• Three months paid: $12.90/month
• Six months paid: $8.50/month
• 12 months paid: $6.78/month

IMAGE: Mashable

WORST “OVER 50” SITE

OurTime

OurTime claims to be the no. 1 dating app for seniors, but you should definitely avoid it.

• Free version: Yes
• One month paid: $31.96/month

Amazon will no longer allow third-party merchants to advertise products claiming to treat or cure the coronavirus, CNBC reports.

Misinformation continues to spread on social media, and it appears the same has occurred on one of the world’s most popular e-commerce platforms. The listings target fearful consumers through deceptive language. Sellers describe their cleansers, surgical face masks, and sprays as capable of “killing” the coronavirus and, in some listings, they go as far as name-dropping well-respected agencies such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control. Read more…

More about Amazon, Misinformation, Coronavirus, Tech, and Health

Michael Jordan delivered a powerful speech honoring Kobe Bryant at a public event on Monday celebrating the lives of the late Laker, his daughter Gianna, and the seven others who died in a tragic helicopter crash last month. 

But Jordan — who sobbed as he spoke about his friend he called a “little brother”— also delivered a bit of levity by joking about the “Crying Jordan” meme that became a viral sensation online in the last decade. 

“Now [Kobe’s] got me — I’m going to have to look at another crying meme for the next…” Jordan joked as the crowd erupted in cheers and laughter.

More about Meme, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Culture, and Web Culture