The AccordionGuy was sending off SquishyCows if you emailed him with a request.  The only catch was that you had to take a picture of the SquishyCow in an interesting locale.

I had a similar request for a 'cow from Calum when I posted a pic of the adorable SquishyCow at ISPCon.

So I went to a conference in Las Vegas and nabbed a pair of SquishyCow for Calum.  But first, I took them on the road to do some sight seeing.




You can see my pics along with Joey's and hopefully more (Calum!) here.

Tonight I am listening to CBC Radio and they are broadcasting EuroQuest.

While on air, the host mentioned that there is a blog for the show called EuroQuest EuroBlog on Blogspot!

Its interesting to see that a current affairs show for Radio Netherlands would use a blog for their homepage.  A blog, or (to describe the real functionality) a web page that puts the most recent entries at the top of a page and automatically archives pages is the ideal forum for a radio show.



Another blogger that got much attention by the CBC was the person who wrote the World Cup blog.  This photo blogger moved around the city taking pictures of all the celebrations through the past month.  I heard him on the radio three times.  Four years ago the CBC would never have brought on a member of the public in this way at all.

en francais s.v.p.

The World Cup is on now and what a shock to discover that I can't even listen to it on line.  I am supporting two teams: Trinidad and whoever is playing England.  I supported Trinidad because a team with the slogan 'Soca Warriors' is so cool, it deserves everyone's support.  And besides Trinidadians (along with other West Indians) brought roti to Toronto for which I shall, in return, support their national football teams.

I wanted to watch the Trinidad - England game.  But I had a lot of meetings that day so I couldn't leave the office.  A ha I thought, I can listen to the BBC or Radio Eirrean stream.  (I recalled how when we were in Ireland 4 years ago the Ireland - Germany game was playing on the radio in every shop we walked into).   But on Thursday, no joy.

BBC / Radio Eireann don't play the games on the Internet stream outside of the UK / Ireland.  They block it via IP address.  I searched and searched but I couldn't find a site that was broadcasting a pirate stream.  I also searched for a stream from Trinidad and no joy their either.

FIFA has very effectively locked down Internet broadcasting of the game.  I know FIFA has broadcast contracts in most of the world, considering the incredible global popularity.  So is it a surprise that it has restricted broadcast via Internet in regions with the highest broadband adoption.  I think FIFA's decision is pretty traditional broadcast thinking.  Stick to traditional broadcast mediums where the revenue model is clear i.e. million dollar ad contracts with Carlsberg.  But why wouldn't FIFA want North Americans to be able to watch games via Internet broadcast, including commercials?  Its only growth region is North America considering football is already pretty popular in India and China.

Old school thinking.  It would have been fun to see the load that broadcasting the World Cup would have on the US Internet backbone!

But there are some interesting items on the World Cup on the InterWeb such as a vidoe archive sponsored by Nike & Google.  Here's a great video of the Brazilian team - all the more beautiful because it uses fab Brazilian music.

Yahoo is sponsoring a Flickr Set of all World Cup fan photos.  You can see those here.