Excellent, Smithers, Excellent...

There are times when I wonder if it's just me.  Times when it's increasingly apparent that the world as it is does not match the world as it should be in my head.  In politics this is always the case and I have come to terms with the fact that where I am pragmatic the world is at idealogical extremes and where I am idealistic the world is mired in political pragmatism.  So it goes.  But the world of technology is different and for reasons I don't fully understand it seems occasionally to conform to the ideals and practices I would set forth where I Supreme Commander of All Things Electrical (S.C.A.T.E).  This is both rare and enjoyable so when it does happen, it's worth making a point of.  Over, and over, and over again.  

Which is why this story about YouTube signing a deal to show an entire season's worth of live sporting events makes me more than a little happy.  

Okay, it's Cricket.  And not even the world's most prestigious cricket league.  But it's still live and it's still something that would otherwise be carried by a sports network that one would have had to pay for.  

And sure, no one in the US will ever see it, as that's the only country in which it will be blocked, but what's the most surefire way to get the people of America to demand something?  If you guessed, "Deny them it!" you win a prize.  

The pieces of the puzzle are falling into place, and while this YouTube deal is unlike to shatter the way we think of content or bring a rapid dissemination of live sporting events to the internet (one of the few things keeping me paying for cable, by the way) it is a proof of concept.  Should this experiment be successfully, it seems hard to imagine that the trend won't spread.