So Apple decided to unload 1,000 surplus iBooks in Richmond, VA today (story here) and over 5,500 people show up. People were trampled, strollers crushed, and people kicked… and even the people who GOT an iBook were complaining… What gives?

The Constant GardenerI went to a screening of the new movie, The Constant Gardener, starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Wiesz… and while it was long-winded, boring as all get-out, and so humorless it made Bob Saget seem like a genius, it was pretty damn thought-provoking and shined a light on something that may or may not be happening (human testing on tuberculosis meds in exchange for AIDS drugs in poverty-stricken Africa), but still, can’t a movie about conspiracy be exciting and well-paced without weighing it down with visual verisimilitude? Shaky cams… handhelds… digicam-feeling cinematography… an emptiness of character… it was all there… but what was missing was the heart. I didn’t feel anything for any of the characters… The only time I felt anything was hearing about one of the main characters who had his tongue cut out, his “manhood” cut off and shoved where his tongue should be, and crucified and nailed while still alive… Visceral and painful, it was the one time in the film when I said, “Awww, I feel for a character.” Otherwise, a threateningly long, overwrought movie…

So what does this have to do with the stampede for iBooks? Nothing. Nothing at all.

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