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!

Travel the world with 10,100 horsepower

I’ve been looking at buying a new boat for some time now. My budget is somewhere int eh range of, oh, $300. That’s not $300,000, and definitely not $300,000,000 – I mean $300. One boat I will not be buying, is this one:

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not not buying this boat because it’s the coolest looking THING I’ve ever seen with multiple 52″ LED TV’s inside it, certainly not because it’s powered by two 4610HP engines, and not even because it comes with a pretty cool tender – an 880HP twin turbo V12 handcrafted sports car:

The reason I’m not buying this boat – if you must know – is because when I called the designer, he told me that $300 wouldn’t even be enough to buy the universal remote for the main entertainment system, let alone buy the boat.

This magnificent combo of marine (and land) engineering is a product of Strand Craft. Contact them here.

Blogging from 36,000 feet

This US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Orlando is on a brand spankin’ new (well, at least it looks that way) Airbus A321. The interior is beautiful – so 2010-esque, the lighting is targetted and pleasant, the seats comfortable, more legroom, and, best of all – WiFi baby, WiFi!!

The first week of GoGo In-Flight WiFi aboard US Air’s fleet of A321 jets is absolutely FREE to use – that is from June 1st – 8th 2010. After this, it will be about $10 to connect for your flight. Some notes:

- Web browsing speeds are satisfactory.
- Skype connected, but I’m not popular enough to have had any friends online to test with. The “test call” with the Skype system worked like a charm.
- My SIP phone (through Acanac, using X-Lite) disconnected after I heard “Hello?” on the other end of the line – I guess bandwidth isn’t high enough.
- I couldn’t get online in Mac OS X – thank the lord for Bootcamp (I run XP Pro, and it connected on my first attempt)
- For more info, check out US Airways’ WiFi page and GoGo (by Aircell).

Adios from somewhere 36,000 feet over the Carolinas!

Sharp Dressed Man

Have you ever seen such an epic wedding drummer? This man is playing the wrong gig.

Rick K. and the Allnighters performing Sharp Dressed Man at Knoebels Grove 7/13/08 (via @chrisonhismac)

Wait, there’s more. Mony Mony:

Wipeout:

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.

Some cool announcements at Google IO – Android 2.2 and Google TV

Here are two videos that Google put together to officially introduce a couple of their announcements to the world. The first is for Google TV, and the second is for their mobile operating systems’s latest iteration, Android 2.2 (Froyo). My thoughts follow the videos. Enjoy!

This, while very cool and exciting at first glance, isn’t exactly anything BRAND NEW. Maybe this will be the first web-connected TV initiative to be adopted buy the masses, as it’s being backed by some little company called Google -- but it certainly isn’t the first and only device (or service) of its kind. Have a quick Google search session (ironic? What other search engine do you use) for Popcorn Hour, Western Digital HDTV, MythTV, TViX, Apple TV, and… dare I say, Playstation 3. Oh, and there’s Windows Media Center PC’s -- I know, you’re all yelling at me. But, if you want a TRUE home theater experience, then you’re going to need to support the real players in the game -- and they all support Microsoft’s MCPC OS.

This is very exciting -- although I’d be much happier if 2.2 was released yesterday, as opposed to just announced. We all sort of knew all the specs Froyo was going to be boasting. 2-5 times faster overall performance, WiFi hotspot-in-a-box, etc -- and some things we assume but they didn’t mention, like Flash support. What about my battery? Will it make my Nexus One battery last longer than 4 hours? Pretty please?

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/

Google’s IO can be viewed LIVE on YouTube (go figure)

You can watch the live stream right here on NorthGeek, or you can head over to the Google Developer’s channel on YouTube, to catch all of this week’s IO action LIVE, in beautiful HD (if you want). Enjoy!

[Note: If nothing is live right now, prerecorded content will be posted here.]

Beer can chicken – yummm!

Our good friends over at Broil King, the BBQ experts, have provided us with a delicious recipe for making beer can chicken. We hope to get some video footage of us making this recipe on a sweet new 2010 Broil King (I’m personally hoping for the Porta-Chef Pro – click on the image below for full-size).

The steaming beer keeps the meat moist while the high heat crisps the skin, delivering a perfect bird each time, every time. Genius Tip: Make sure that the bird is well balanced before closing lid. Otherwise your bird may tip, spilling the beer. When removing cooked chicken from grill, use oven mitts and be careful not to spill contents of beer can as it will be very hot. Let the bird rest 10 minutes before removing can.

1 whole chicken about 4 lbs. 1 can beer (16 oz – tall boy) 2 tablespoons salt 1 teaspoon black pepper 3 tablespoons of your favourite dry spice rub 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Remove neck and giblets. Discard. Rinse chicken inside and out; pat dry with paper towels. Rub chicken lightly with oil then rub inside and out with salt, pepper and dry rub. Set aside.

Preheat barbecue on HIGH.

Open beer can and pour off half of the beer. Place beer can on a solid surface. Grabbing a chicken leg in each hand, plunk the bird cavity over the beer can.

Turn one side of the burner completely off and the other side to MEDIUM. Place the bird-on-a-can on the side that is turned off to use the indirect cooking method. Balance the bird on it`s two legs and the can like a tripod. Make sure it is well balanced before closing the lid.

Cook the bird over MEDIUM indirect heat for aproximately 1 1/4 hours or until the internal temperature reads 170 degrees F (77 degrees C) in the breast area and 180 degrees F (83 degrees C) in the thickest part of the thigh.

Carefully remove from grill using oven mits. Let rest for 10 minutes before removing can. Becareful not to spill, contents will be hot. Carve chicken and serve immediately.

For more great BBQ recipes visit Broil King’s On the Grill website.