 All Stone, No Blarney “Aye, me lad, did I ever tell ye how me and me six brothers had to go work the mines just so our Mam could afford potato chips?” What? You don’t have any brothers. Your Mom always has plenty of potato chips around the house. And you don’t even like to go into an underground parking garage, let alone some mine.
“And me just ten-years-old and all! Evil days, them was! A’course that was back when the Ballyknocknaclough Soapstone Pit was the only job a lad like me could get ‘round these parts. Soapstone country, this was. The soapstone dust in the air, I swear ye couldn’t see to the end of your clay pipe! Lot of blood, sweat, and phlegm all so some fancy Orangemen could keep their cool drinks cool and their hot drinks hot, I’ll tell ye that.”
Uh, Brendan? You grew up right here in Wichita. I was there, remember?
“Oh, and the Sisters at the school, they loved their whiskey stones as well. Saints preserve ye if ye ran afoul of Sister Mary Maria Marie if her drink had gotten watered-down. Put her in a foul temper, I can tell ye. Take President Kennedy’s name in vain when her Tullamore Dew had got weak and she’d give you thirty whacks across the knuckle with a cabbage. I can still remember it hanging there on the wall, that cabbage…”
What are you talking about? We both went to Hadley Middle. There weren’t any nuns there.
“We had a set of our own whiskey stones, but in them days there was just the one refrigerator in the whole village. Right in the village square for us all to use, under the statue of Shane MacGowan. Alas, the village square was three hours away from our house by donkey cart, so we took ours neat as often as not.”
OK, next time I’ll know better than to let you drink Irish whiskey.
Warranty: 1 Year SPARQ USA
Condition: New
Features:
- 100% natural soapstone rocks are used to chill (or heat) your low-volume drinks without dilution
- Retains temperature out of the freezer (or microwave) for 1 hour or more
- Tumbling process wears down the edges, meaning they won’t scratch your glass
- Never wear out or lose their ability to chill (or heat) your drinks
- Non-porous, odorless and tasteless
- Will not react to household cleaners
- Chill (or warm) and enjoy a perfectly balanced spirit
- Recycled soapstone from factory excess
-
FDA approved GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe)
Additional Photos:
| Specifications |
| Dimensions: |
(9) Standard Size Stones: approx 7/8” cubed each |
| Weight: |
0.50 lbs |
| Material: |
100% Natural Soapstone |
How to Use
- Keep Cold Drinks Cold:
- Place stones in freezer for 2 hours or more
- When ready, add 3-4 standard size stones per drink and enjoy
- To clean, rinse with warm water
- Keep Hot Drinks Hot:
- Place (2) stones in the microwave for no more than 30 seconds
- Add the stones to your drink and enjoy
- To clean, rinse with warm water
Care
-
NOT recommended for use in a cocktail shaker
-
NOT recommended in a delicate wine glass (eg. Riedel)
- Work best in small volume drinks (2-3 ounces)
- Not meant for high volume drinks unless you use a large number of rocks to sufficiently chill your drink
- To clean, simply rinse in water and air dry before storing in freezer or drawer
- Soapstone is non-reactive to common household cleaners
General Warning: DO NOT handle or make direct skin contact with stones warmer than room temperature. DO NOT let children handle stones or put them in their mouth.
In the box:
- (1) SPARQ USA Whiskey Stones – Set of 9
from Woot! - One Day, One Deal http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=22367
In its first policy explicitly addressing social media, Major League Baseball (MLB) endorsed the use of Facebook, Twitter and other networks by its players under certain conditions.
“We wanted to make sure we were encouraging them to engage in social media because we think it’s a good way to bring fans closer to the game and engage with them in a meaningful way,” MLB spokesman Matt Bourne told Mashable.
In a memo preceding the new set of guidelines, league vice president of public relations Pat Courtney wrote, “We hope that you will not view this policy as a blanket deterrent to engaging in social media.” Courtney specified interacting with fans, promoting charitable work and “sharing non-confidential information about you and your activities” as good uses of social platforms. He also warns players that tweets and posts are public, cannot be effectively retracted and will be reported by the media.
The policy comes with some interesting restrictions. Players are forbidden from posting official MLB media property such as video and audio content without prior authorization. They’re also not allowed to post links to official MLB sites without permission.
Social media use by players was previously only governed by a league rule prohibiting the use of electronic communication devices during games and within 30 minutes of start times, Bourne said. That rule is still in effect.
MLB’s first comprehensive policy comes as a result of the league’s collective bargaining agreement, which was negotiated last November. Players and team owners agreed a set of guidelines would be established for modern times. Twitter was just months old when the players and owners reached their last bargaining agreement, in 2006.
Do you think pro sports leagues should have official social media policies? Do you agree with MLB’s guidelines? Let us know in the comments.
Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, EricHood
More About: Facebook, Social Media, sports, Twitter 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/03/16/baseball-social-media/?utm_source=feedburner&u...

My wife is thrilled with the "new" iPad 2 she inherited when my new iPad arrived. I wanted to configure it for her so she could get up and running, so I thought I would just change a few settings here or there and give it to her using my settings. After about 30 minutes of tweaking, I decided to start over from scratch.
The reason is simple: there are just so many settings underlying the personalization of the iPad that un-doing them all was nearly impossible. It was much easier to add the things that I knew she would want rather than remove the things that she might not. Even the things that I knew I wanted to change, like Messages, left residual effects behind. For example, Spotlight had cached my iMessages, and continued to show them even after I had logged out of my iCloud account and into my wife's.
Long story short: start clean, sync back the apps and media you want to keep, and work from there. Here's how.
Backup your iPad and transfer purchases from iPad (optional)
Before you reset the iPad, you probably want to back it up and transfer all of your app and media purchases to iTunes. You can do this by connecting your iPad to iTunes and Control + clicking (or right-clicking, or two-finger-clicking on a trackpad) on the iPad in the devices list in iTunes. You'll get a contextual menu that lets you sync, back up or transfer purchases.

Of course you can always re-download apps and music from the App Store/iTunes Store, but if you have large applications it will be faster to sync them from iTunes.
You may also want to backup your iPad, just in case. Chances are you already backed it up before transferring yourself over to the new iPad, but it doesn't hurt to do it again.
Full Reset
All of your data from the iPad can be deleted very simply either from iTunes (by clicking the Restore button on the device summary screen, and then choosing "Set up as a new device" once it's wiped) or right on the iPad. On the device, go to Settings » General » Reset and choose Erase All Content and Settings. You will be asked to enter your passcode lock (if you have one set) and then confirm your choice.
(Aside: you may have set the option to delete your data if you enter the wrong password 10 times. However, the iPad will start to introduce a delay after a certain number of mistaken entries, so that isn't a good way to reset your iPad on purpose.)
Once you do that, the iPad will reboot, and after a few moments you will see the initial configuration settings. One of these is the setup detail for an iCloud account. Even if you are planning to share App Store purchases, each person should have their own iCloud account/Apple ID. The reason is that Messages, FaceTime, and many other setting are specific to particular users. Also, more and more applications will start to be able to sync documents through iCloud, and you will most likely want those to be personalized.
The good news is that Apple provides you several places to enter different Apple IDs. For the initial setup, make sure to enter the Apple ID of the primary user of the iPad. If you need to create one, you can do it right on the iPad.
Sharing App Store Purchases
One Apple ID can be used on up to 10 "devices and computers" ("devices" here refers to iOS devices). It is very important to note that "[o]nce a device or computer is associated with your Apple ID, you cannot associate that device or computer with another Apple ID for 90 days." So you'll want to get this right the first time.
In most circumstances, the only thing you'll want to share an Apple ID for is App Store purchases. To change that Apple ID, go to Settings » Store and tap on the Apple ID. Then tap "Sign Out" to logout the current Apple ID from the App Store. Then log in with the Apple ID you have used for purchases in the past.
Sharing Calendars and Contacts
Sharing calendars is very easy. Just go to iCloud.com, log in with your Apple ID, and click on the calendar you want to share. Then enter the email address of the Apple ID you want to share your calendar with, and decide if you want to give them "View & Edit" access (so they can add, delete, and change events on your calendar), or just "View Only" access. (Unlike Google Calendar, iCloud calendars do not have an option for only sharing "Busy/Free" information without specific details.)
You don't need to do anything at all to enable that sharing on the iPad itself; that's done at iCloud.com.
My wife and I share our calendars that way, but we also want to share our contacts too. As you'd expect, we have not only family members in common, but also friends. If we are planning to meet at a restaurant, I'll enter the information into my iPhone, and it will sync to her iPhone (and iPad) too.
On my wife's iPad, I went to Settings » iCloud and turned off Contact syncing, since that connects to her account and is empty. Then I went to Settings » Mail, Contacts, Calendars, chose "Add Account..." and then select iCloud from the list of account types. I entered my iCloud information, and then only enabled Contact syncing.
Pro tip: When setting up contact sharing on my wife's iPhone 4S, I waited for the contacts to sync and then went to Settings » General » Siri » My Info and chose my wife's contact information.
Other Apple IDs
Here are some other places you'll need to enter your Apple ID:
-
Home Sharing: Settings » Video » Home Sharing
-
FaceTime: Settings » FaceTime
-
Messages: Settings » Messages
-
Game Center: For some reason, Game Center settings aren't in the Settings app, but if you launch the app, it will prompt you for your Apple ID.
(Note: iTunes Match under Settings » Music appears to default to the same Apple ID as in the App Store, which makes sense since it's linked to music purchasing)
You may also want to download and install Find My Friends and iBooks as the first two must-have apps, since Apple does not include them with iOS by default.
Apple even suggests using one Apple ID for iCloud and one for the App Store as an alternate setup. Whether you choose to do this for your config is up to you, but if you want to avoid buying essential apps separately for your family's two devices (or more) then you probably want to use the same Apple ID for the App Store on all of them; you might want to turn off automatic download of app purchases to the hand-me-down device, though -- and the same with Photo Stream.
Another important decision is which Apple ID you want to use for Find My iPad. I associate all of our iOS devices and Macs with our main Apple ID (the same one used for making App Store and Mac App Store purchases). That way, we can have a single "console" for tracking down anything that goes missing, rather than having to remember a list of Apple IDs and their associations with specific devices.
Worth the effort
Resetting the iPad might seem like extra work, but I believe that it's well worth it. You may find that you and your spouse (or whoever receives your hand-me-down iPad) have very different preferences. Fortunately my wife and I both agree that Keyboard Clicks (Settings » General » Sounds » Keyboard Clicks) are awful, and the side switch (Settings » General » Use Side Switch To) on the iPad should be used for Lock Rotation, not Mute.
If you passed your previous iPad along to a family member, let me know what other settings you customized for them. We discussed sharing an iPad between spouses back in 2010.
Thanks to PJ and David C. for suggesting this post. Giving your former iPad to a spouse or family member: the quick guide originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
from TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog http://www.tuaw.com/2012/03/17/giving-your-former-ipad-to-a-spouse-or-family-...
New submitter EuNao writes "TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), the organization based on 'ideas worth sharing,' launched a new initiative this past week. It is called TED-Ed, and it aims to engage students with unforgettable lessons. There are many places in the world where a wonderful teacher or mentor is teaching something mind-blowing, but as it stands now not many people have access to that powerful experience. Ted-Ed aims to bring that engaging experience to everyone who has an internet connection. Here are summaries and links to the nine videos that were initially released." Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
from Slashdot http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/03/18/058257/ted-education-video-lessons-fo...
Twitter is awesome. But is a little too awesome?
Celebrities have tried to kick the habit, yet failed. College students have copped to social media addiction. Research has shown that people may have a harder time resisting Twitter than alcohol, sleep and sex.
Half of Twitter users log in to the network every day, and they tweet a ton. During Super Bowl XVLI in February, two moments landed in the tweets-per-second record book. Location and language are becoming less important; the network is now available in 28 languages and recently added Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu to the list. A Kenyan chief even tweets in Swahili to help promote peace and order in his district.
That ubiquity and utility has caused dependence in many, though. The infographic below provides a nice summary. OnlineSchools.com culled research and reporting from a number of sources — including Mashable — to show just how attached we’ve all become to Twitter. Check it out and see if the findings hit a little too close to home.
Are you addicted to Twitter? Are you addicted to other social networks? Let us know in the comments.
 Courtesy of: Online Schools
More About: infographics, Twitter For more Social Media coverage: 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/03/16/twitter-addiction/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_m...
While it may not be the good news the Android army was hoping for, TWC's got some Big Apple-sized bits to share. Via its Untangled blog, Time Warner announced it's finally adding local channels to its iPhone / iPad app and TWCTV site, including CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC and Univision (because you can never have enough novelas). Unfortunately, the goodies won't be up for everyone's viewing pleasure, as the additions are only for folks within the NYC boroughs. That said, the cable giant plans to add "a few more markets by the end of the year." Want to find out if your favorite local news show made the cut? The full list can be found at the source link below. Time Warner Cable brings 26 local NYC channels to iOS app, website originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Mar 2012 05:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | TWC Untangled | Email this | Comments
from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/17/time-warner-cable-nyc-local-channels-ios-a...
We’re pleased to announce that Roger McNamee, co-founder of Elevation Partners will be speaking at Mashable Connect, our signature conference.
Mashable’s largest conference, Mashable Connect, is returning to Orlando, FL from May 3-5, and this year we will explore the future of digital with some of the brightest minds in the industry.
Roger and his partners launched Elevation Partners, an investment partnership focused on the intersection of media and entertainment content and consumer technology. Prior to Elevation Partners, Roger managed top-ranked funds at T. Rowe Price Associates, and launched Integral Capital Partners as well as co-founded Silver Lake Partners, the first private equity fund focused on technology businesses.
Throughout his career, Roger has delivered presentations about the biggest trends in technology. The focus of his talks have been about Google, Microsoft, HTML 5 and the future of apps. During Mashable Connect, Roger will unveil a brand new presentation, sharing his newest insight into the future of digital.
Lastly, Roger is a musician who performs 100 shows a year in the band Moonalice, where he plays bass and guitar.
Additional Confirmed Speakers
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Lawrence Lessig is is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. Professor Lessig is a global pioneer and leading expert in the area of contemporary copyright law and Internet privacy.
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Duane Bray is a partner at IDEO, where he heads the firm’s Global Digital Business. He routinely explores the intersection of technology and people, revealing and elevating the emotional connections that we forge with digital media.
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June Cohen is executive producer of TED Media, and was responsible for bringing the TED Conference online, and growing its audience from 1,000 attendees to 150 million viewers worldwide. Previously, she was VP of content at HotWired.com, the pioneering website from Wired Magazine.
-
Alexander Ljung is the founder and CEO of SoundCloud, the world’s leading social sound platform that enables anyone, anywhere to create and share originally created sounds across the web.
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Joe Trippi and his team pioneered the empowerment message and the online community tools that have become the basis of movement politics all around the world. Joe was heralded on the cover of The New Republic as the man who “reinvented campaigning.”
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Hilary Mason is the chief scientist at bit.ly, where she makes sense of vast data sets. Her work involves both pure research and development of product-focused features.
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Burt Herman is co-founder of Storify, a platform for creating stories with social media, and founder of Hacks/Hackers, a worldwide organization bringing together journalists and technologists.
-
Adora Svitak is the author of three books and an international teacher, speaker and activist. Since the age of four, she has been exploring what she can do with the written word: everything from championing literacy and youth voices to guest blogging for Mashable, Edutopia and the Huffington Post.
These are only a few of the many prominent figures who will be speaking at Mashable Connect. You can see a full list of speakers here.
Event Information

Our annual destination conference, Mashable Connect, brings our community together for three days to connect offline in an intimate setting at the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World®. Registration is now open.
Held in a unique location away from everyday distractions, Mashable Connect is a rare and valuable opportunity to be surrounded by digital leaders across industries. You’ll spend time with Mashable’s passionate and influential community, hear from top speakers who will provide insight into the the technologies and trends that are shaping the next era of digital innovation, and get to spend time with the Mashable team.
To keep Mashable Connect as intimate as possible, only a limited amount of tickets are available.
A Look Back at Last Year’s Mashable Connect
1. Mashable Connect Race Powered by Gowalla
 Team members check in to a race location at Magic Kingdom during the Mashable Connect Race powered by Gowalla. Click here to view this gallery.
Supporting Sponsor
Sponsorship Opportunities
A limited number of sponsor opportunities are available for Mashable Connect. This is an excellent opportunity to get in front of Mashable’s passionate and influential audience. Contact sponsorships@mashable.com for opportunities.
More About: Events, mashable connect For more Media coverage: 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/03/16/roger-mcnamee-mashable-connect-speaker/?utm_so...
The parties may be coming to an end, but the chatter surrounding SXSW is still percolating on social media — the event is definitely ending with a bang.
Over the course of four days, Meltwater Group analyzed 483,000 conversations, mostly on Twitter. Overall, the event led to an average of 97,000 conversations per day on social media.
SEE ALSO: SXSW 2012: The Year of Infectious Optimism
Monday’s hot topics included Al Gore and Sean Parker’s discussion, the homeless hotspots offered at SXSW, and announcements from Marvel Comics and General Motors. The most talked-about celebrities were Rainn Wilson, Leonardo Dicaprio and Tobey Maguire.
Did you join the SXSW conversation on social media? What was your favorite event? Let us know in the comments.
More About: features, infographic, Social Media, sxsw For more Social Media coverage: 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/03/13/sxsw-day-4-whats-hot-on-social-media-infograph...
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