Good morning everyone, this video comes to you in two discussions of new technologies.

First one is the iPad. This Wednesday apparently Apple introduced a tablet PC, something that no one ever in the history of time has ever thought to create. Really?

This is not to say that I'm not interested in it. I think it's very interesting. I do however think that if it takes off, it will take off in ways that we don't expect. Kind of like the way that blogs destroyed the format of newspapers, the iPod destroyed the format of albums and movies don't work particularly well if you're watching them on your desktop computer.

I think if the iPad works, it will work in ways we don't expect and probably could not understand right now. Like that thing's gonna make a lot of sense for study guides with interactive tests and diagrams and stuff but I don't think it's going to make sense for a like a regular textbook.

I'm an early adopter of e-readers. I've been using e-readers for about five years now. And so I spend a lot of time with them and I want to say that there are a couple of reasons why books are always going to be better than e-readers.

Here's one reason. Imagine that this is an iPad. You're not gonna do this to an iPad. I also like the flippability of books especially non-fiction where I can be like "oh what was that thing that I was reading last chapter, oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah there it is." I also like this about books: the battery life on this thing kicks ass.

Now again I'm not saying that there's no place for ebooks in the world, just saying there are advantages to the current format.

Speaking of new an exciting ways to experience media, YouTube just launched a rentals program. I decided to check out the system, see how it works, and watch a movie in the process. Since I already have Google Checkout setup, linked to my Google account, it was really easy, just popped up and I clicked and it was like "bah!" Also I'm in America, people in other countries don't have access to it, so, sorry ya'll.

So you just click play and the movie starts running and you get it for 24 hours. I watched the movie on my desktop, I paused it every once in a while, and did work and had it running in the background sometimes. And it was a pretty enjoyable experience. I generally don't like to watch long form content on my computer. Which I think is something YouTube needs to recognize, it's not going to really work unless it works with people's televisions, not with their computers, because people don't like watching long form content on their computers.

Overall though it was a good experience. BUT I have to say the $3.99 seems a little bit steep to me. I pay $5.99 a month for Netflix, I get about 5 DVDs a month in the mail, and I get unlimited streaming. This model to me does not really make sense unless I'm getting more for my money, or I'm paying less.

Now for a quick review of the movie that I watched, which was called The Cove.

Warning, this is disturbing. First let's review it was a movie, then ideologically.

As a movie, fantastic, one of the most high-energy documentary films I have ever experienced and I've watched lots of documentary films. I would watch it again, the pacing was great, the story was great, they painted the story in good, broad strokes, there was depth, there was breadth, and the results in the end of this like kickass team's espionage is more disturbing than anything I have ever seen in my life, in real life or in film.

It was definitely worth $3.99 and I really hope that the filmmakers get what they deserve, which is plenty of money to continue doing this kind of work.

I would suggest it, I encourage you to go watch it if you think that you're not going to go crazy. It's $3.99, I think it's only available in North America, and it's only available until this Sunday.

So, now or you're going to have to get it on Netflix.

As for ideology, I generally feel like we as humans are often right and we are often wrong. Very rarely do I come down on an issue and I'm like "this is the right and you are wrong."

What's going on with the "dolphin harvest" in Japan is not, there isn't a word for it. The closest word that I can come to Ender Scott Card's Xenocide.

If you've got time and you're not of too delicate sensibility, go give The Cove a watch. Maureen, I will see you on Monday.