NorthGeek

Pro (outdoor) baseball lives in Canada!

UPDATE: I meant to say that pro OUTDOOR baseball lives in Canada -- please forgive me, Jays fans. I’m not forgetting about Toronto’s MLB team, it’s just that this experience really gave me that “now, this is what sports should be like” feeling.

If you haven’t yet, go check out Nat Bailey Stadium for a Vancouver Canadians baseball game. This minor league club, currently at 11-11 and 4 games back of the first place Everett AquaSox, know how to put on a show for their fans. Nat Bailey Stadium, at Main and 30th in Vancouver, is a beautiful and well-maintained outdoor ballpark seating just over 5,500 loyal fans (I think -- although Wikipedia disagrees). Tonight’s game, the third of five home games in a row against the Yakima Bears, was a special “fireworks” evening at the stadium -- with ongoing entertainment following Vancouver’s 10-1 crushing of the Bears. The club didn’t disappoint -- winning big for the first nine innings, and putting on a spectacular pyro show after the game.

Aside from being in a fun and energetic setting among the thousands of fans, in an open-air (packed) stadium, with the sun heating up the perfectly manicured natural grass field, there are plenty of things to keep the whole family entertained. Mascot races, animated beer and hotdog guys roaming the stands, and more -- including a choreographed dance by the club’s grounds crew after the 5th inning at every home game:

I took this next video with my phone to send to my friends back home in Montreal, to show them how magical local baseball is:

Tickets to see the Canadians play are just $12.50 and less -- depending on your student status, age, and whether you buy packaged deals. They also do a great job hosting groups in picnic or BBQ areas, and they even offer corporate boxes. The kids have a blast, too -- even if they’re not into the baseball, there are plenty of activities and areas to keep them entertained.

While at Nat Bailey Stadium, be sure to check out the Canadians Baseball Hall of Fame -- see who has worn the C’s uniform. It’s pretty impressive! Who knew Sammy Sosa once lived in Vancouver to play for the Canadians?? Also, keep your eyes open for General Manager Jason Takefman -- he’s got a pretty amazing story!

Here’s a short clip from the fireworks show after the game:

GO CANADIANS GO!

Best World Cup ads of all time?

We’d love to know what World Cup ads (doesn’t matter if they’re for the actual World Cup or just for some big-spending apparel brand, as long as they hold the World Cup theme) you think are the best of all time. We just posted this one -- which I, Daniel, think is the greatest. EVER.

Let’s hear your voice! To get you started, here are some more that NorthGeek really enjoyed:

Nike writes the future – in time for FIFA World Cup 2010

This is a bold statement, but I’m going to go on record and say this is the single greatest ad I have ever seen -- and just in time for FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Special thanks to my friend Ariel for the heads-up. Wow.

Sony Ericsson calls on EU to help save our planet

NorthGeek’s good friends at Sony Ericsson have informed us of an announcement made today by an alliance of global companies, including Sony Ericsson, demanding that the EU further restrict hazardous substances in consumer electronics. Joining forces with Sony Ericsson are Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and the public interest organizations ChemSec, Clean Production Action and the European Environmental Bureau.

Sony Ericsson has made products that showcase more sustainable materials available through their GreenHeart™ strategy which takes a holistic approach to reducing negative environmental impacts and positively affecting those who use its products. Sony Ericsson’s Naite™ handset is the first GreenHeart™ product available in Canada. Some of its environmental benefits include:

The official press release follows:

Sony Ericsson calls on EU to further restrict hazardous substances in consumer electronics

Sony Ericsson joins forces with an alliance of public interest organizations and global technology brands to persuade the European Parliament to ban the use of hazardous substances in consumer electronics from 2015 onwards.

Brussels 19 May 2010 – In a partnership announced today Sony Ericsson joined Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and public interest organizations ChemSec, Clean Production Action and the European Environmental Bureau, to call for a strengthening of the EU Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive.

Currently the RoHS directive restricts some heavy metals and two types of BFR. However, Sony Ericsson along with other members of the alliance is calling for restrictions on all brominated flame retardants (BFR) as well as PVC. When BFR and PVC are incinerated under substandard recycling conditions, they form halogenated dioxins that are potent toxic chemicals. Sony Ericsson believes these brominated flame retardants and PVC should be phased out from electrical and electronic products as soon as possible. Over the past 18 months Sony Ericsson has been developing products without these unwanted substances and believes that substitute materials are available and could be rolled out across the industry with little disruption.

“Sony Ericsson is committed to a complete phase-out of halogenated organic substances from its products, and at the current time has phased out almost all brominated flame retardants (BFR),” said Daniel Paska, Environmental Expert at Sony Ericsson. “We believe the electronics industry has a responsibility to move proactively to find substitutes to replace BFR and PVC and are therefore calling on EU legislators to show leadership on this issue by voting to tighten the RoHS directive.”

Sony Ericsson along with the other members of the alliance will lobby EU legislators who are currently in the process of debating whether to tighten the existing RoHS directive and invites other members of the industry to join them.

“Sony Ericsson is committed to delivering products with the best possible environmental performance in the industry”, said Mats Pellbäck Scharp, Head of Corporate Sustainability at Sony Ericsson. “That is why we support strong environmental legislations. We have also introduced a range of GreenHeart™ pioneer phones that showcase more sustainable materials like recycled plastics, waterbourne paints and energy efficient chargers. We have also committed to making the majority of our 2011 portfolio compliant with GreenHeart™ requirements.
Sony Ericsson has to date phased out all PVC in its products and nearly all halogenated flame retardants.

For more information on GreenHeart™ and our environmental work, please visit the Sony Ericsson GreenHeart™ web page at http://www.sonyericsson.com/greenheart or the Sony Ericsson Greenheart™ blog at http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/greenheart/

Vancouver Schools to rally community to recycle E-waste this Earth Day

NorthGeek has been made aware of an excellent initiative involving a few Vancouver-based high schools – we wanted to help spread the word. BEST OF LUCK to the students involved, and be sure to help out, NorthGeeks!

Students aiming to recycle more than 30,000 kilograms of E-waste through Best Buy’s Tech It Away program.

To help divert some of the 270,000 tonnes of electronic waste that end up in Canadian landfills each year, Best Buy Canada has teamed up with three Vancouver high schools to lead a city-wide E-waste recycling drive through its Tech It Away program on Earth Day, Thursday, April 22. On that day, Vancouverites can drop off their used, broken or unwanted personal electronics for free and safe recycling at one of the three schools and do their part to help keep Canada green.

The official event site can be found here: http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/techitaway.aspx

The participating schools – Eric Hamber Secondary, Killarney Secondary and Sir Charles Tupper Secondary – will each receive $10,000 in grants in honour of their environmental effort. Plus, as added incentive, the school that collects the most electronics for recycling will receive $2,000 to fund a student-led environmental initiative. Last year participating schools recycled 30 tonnes of E-waste and this year the students are aiming to beat that benchmark.

What: Students from three Vancouver secondary schools will host E-recycling events for their communities at large
A variety of electronics will be accepted including: TVs, Computers, Laptops, Printers, Cell Phones, Batteries, DVD players and more. A full list is available at http://www.bestbuy.ca/techitaway

When: Thursday, April 22, from 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Where: Best Buy Tech it Away events will take place at:

The most impressive proposal? Maybe!

As taken from Vimeo:

This long exposure, and the making of footage, were shot over three nights in Raleigh, North Carolina as a proposal to Emily Kern.

Both the Time lapse and video were shot with Canon 7Ds.

See more at http://www.derickandemily.com

Artists for Haiti – We Are The World 25

Some Canadians in this one, as well!

When I get older, I will be stronger, they’ll call me freedom

This is a beautiful, inspirational song written and originally performed by K’naan, a Somalian-born Torontonian musician. This rendition showcases an incredibly impressive roster of Canadian talent, making up Young Artists for Haiti. Have a look and listen, it gave me the “proud to be Canadian” shivers…

Special thanks to our boy, Alfredo.

The Phantom HD camera, high-speed filmography, music, & Stephen Hawking – all very cool things.

This is a very cool clip of some high-speed footage captured with the impressive Phantom HD camera (in my opinion, a RED with uber-cool high-speed capabilities), and interesting music which I am assuming is taking either actual audio from, or at least quotes from acclaimed theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking. Enjoy!

[UPDATE 03/09/10] — For those of you interested in purchasing this beast of an HD cam to capture your home videos, you’ll have to prioritize your purchases… If you’re into nice cars, don’t buy one, you’ll need your $118K for this Phantom HD camera. If you want some kick-ass HD capabilities in a smaller form factor and smaller budget, I would check out the RED Scarlet -- here.

For those interested in high-speed filmography, check this video out, too -- also shot with the Phantom:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Zedmo secures substantial investment from local business

(digg this story!)

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – February 4th 2009
John Stapleton, Business Tech, AP

“Thursday was a huge, huge day for us” exclaimed Noah Bloom, co-founder of Zedmo, a Vancouver-based startup developing the universe’s greatest location-based mobile social community.

“I was just going about my day as I normally would – checking my email, browsing the news stories on my America Online portal, and updating my eHarmony profile, when I received a phone call from an angel, who claimed his name was Mike” continues Bloom. “I didn’t believe Mike for a second, so I quickly looked around the room of 2010 cohort enemies – uh, I mean companies – to see who could be playing this evil trick on me. Anthony was sitting in his chair not on the phone, Jamie was busy tweeting his next publishable masterpiece, Mack was under his desk wearing a hood, and Team Romania was hard at work shining their Google pens. Daniel, my co-founder, was busy complaining about his recent ski accident, so it surely wasn’t him pranking me.”

What happened next, forever changed the face of Zedmo. A struggling startup duo of Bloom and Daniel Wolfe, who dropped everything to join the 2010 Bootup Labs Cohort, were, until yesterday, surviving off leftover sandwiches found in dumps around the city, and the occasional “fresh” peanut butter and tuna sandwich.

“Being a startup is very tough,” says Wolfe. “It’s not like in the movies where you can rub a lamp and a naked woman comes out of it. It’s tougher than that.”

As you can tell by now, the Associated Press mandates us writers to write our stories in such a way that the reader needs to read all the way to the end of a story to find out what the story is actually about. But, because I know my audience is fairly small, I will cut to the chase here.

Nester’s, a top-notch grocer (according to some, but not all… ANTHONY NICALO…) located just steps from the Bootup Labs office in one direction, and steps from Zedmo’s underground home lair in the other, has made a significant investment in Zedmo. Without acquiring any equity in Zedmo, Nester’s has injected $5,200 worth of groceries into the startup. Terms of the deal are still a bit shady, but a spokesperson for Nesters, Mr. Michael Grocerman, has told the Associated Press that, “…the orange juice cannot be diluted.”

So, how did Daniel Wolfe ever score such a great co-founder, with the ability to close investments so early in the game? We asked, and he explained.

“I have what’s called a silver tongue. That’s it.”

And you thought the Olympics were the biggest story out of Vancouver.

When asked what Zedmo plans to do with this influx of food, they were quick to point us in the direction of their appointed PR agency, for reasons of secrecy and not giving too much away to the competition:

“First, they supplied the 2010 Cohort with Odwalla juices, so as not to cause any unfriendly conflict or envy around the office. Further to this, Zedmo hopes to build on this investment by purchasing fancy foods and supplies, such as turkey, cheese and crackers, and non-generic cling wrap. No further comments, my clients are very tired from the celebrations last night.”

Although this recent investment has placed Zedmo founders Noah and Daniel in the spotlight among “everybody who’s anybody” from the Valley up to Vancouver, the dynamic duo promises to remain down to earth, although sources tell the AP that Daniel was spotted drinking Tropicana orange juice, while Noah was seen washing his hands with a bar of Lever 2000 – for all his 2,000 body parts (including hands).

For more information on Zedmo and their location-based mobile application, please contact info@zedmo.com

PLEASE NOTE: Zedmo is still accepting further investment, so don’t be shy.