Apple reports “amazing” demand for the new iPad and some analysts think consumers might have bought one million of them over the weekend. At an average selling price of about $600, that’s a $600,000,000 weekend — not including sales of Smart Covers, which I imagine have a markup big enough to make Steve Jobs blush. Almost.

My son and I were at an Apple Store briefly on Saturday on unrelated business. The store was no more full than it usually is on the weekend, which is to say: Very. But the front-right corner — the iPad 2 corner — was packed together asses and elbows. We avoided that mess on our way to the Genius Bar. But on our way out, a gentleman abandoned his demo iPad just as we walked by. So I sat my son down on a stool* so he could play. OK, OK — Dad got in a little playtime, too.

First impression: My iPad 1 looks and feels thick and ugly and heavy compared to the new model. The tapered edges fit the hand much more comfortably. Apple somehow shaved off about one-seventh of the original weight, but made it feel like they copped it in half. The new razor-thin aluminum bezel is a tiny fraction of the thickness of the old one, and really makes the device disappear into your hand. There’s barely any there there — just that gorgeous screen.

We played a quick round of Age of Zombies, which was new to both of us. Had so much fun, I launched the App Store when we got home and installed it on my iPad. And on my iPad, the thing took seemingly forever to load and the controls weren’t as responsive. GarageBand is such a marvel that I didn’t even consider buying it — I think it’s going to need that dual-core processor and new graphics subsystem to really shine. And it does shine.

Didn’t get a chance to try out the camera, but it’s been universally panned. That said, taking pictures with a tablet looks and feels more than a little goofy, and I was half-surprised Apple included one. The front camera, however, for FaceTime calls, is drool-worthy in the extreme. I want that.

The Smart Covers? The polyurethane ones aren’t exactly easy on the eyes, but the leather ones are gorgeous and all of them make you gasp with a little delight when you see how well and easily (and smart!) they function.

I’m still waiting for iPad 3 next year before I upgrade. Melissa and I are on an every-other-year upgrade cycle for our iPhones and iPads — and iPhones get the odd-numbered years. But after playing with the new 2 on Saturday, it’s not going to be easy to stick to the plan.

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How bad is the nuclear reactor situation in Japan? Bad, but not that bad:

Friday’s tsunami easily overcame sea walls at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant and flooded the diesel generators that power the plant’s cooling systems. Operators have been using sea water to cool the nuclear fuel, though this has resulted in a build-up of pressure that’s required operators to vent the reactors’ cooling vessels by releasing radioactive steam into the atmosphere. The radiation in the steam is, at this point, relatively modest, and the most highly radioactive material remains contained in the reactors’ cores. The two explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi plant were the byproduct of hydrogen build-up, and neither is thought to have released significant amounts of radiation into the atmosphere.

So far, so good. But:

While it could get really bad really fast if one of the reactors themselves were to crack open—a full meltdown would release significant amounts of radioactive elements like iodine-131 that disperse rapidly in air and water, greatly increasing the chances for birth defects, thyroid cancer, and other problems—health experts are currently cautiously optimistic. As of this weekend, radiation levels in the plant’s control room were 1,000 times higher than normal but only eight times above normal in areas surrounding the plant. According to Ron Chesser, director of the Center for Environmental Radiation Studies at Texas Tech University, both of those levels are technically safe for humans, who absorb an average of 360 millirems of radiation per year from cosmic rays and manmade sources. Still, three elements in particular— iodine-131, strontium-90 and cesium-137—are worrisome because they mimic substances found naturally in the body.

I know a little something about iodine-131 — I’ve done my research because someday I’ll probably need to drink a little to nuke my overeager thyroid gland. Iodine collects in the thyroid and nowhere else, which is why drinking an irradiated dose of it kills off the gland but leaves you otherwise unharmed. And surviving without a thyroid is no big deal; just take your synthroid and watch your diet.

But strontium-90 and cesium-137? I get the feeling you really don’t want to have to mess with those.

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Click to embiggen and for the full details from StrategyPage.

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Mercury is about to get a whole lot less mysterious, as NASA’s MESSENGER (get it?) probe prepares to become the first spacecraft to orbit the planet. Read:

At about 8:45 pm Eastern Daylight Time on March 17, the MESSENGER spacecraft will execute a 15-minute maneuver that will place it into orbit around Mercury, making it the first craft ever to do so, and initiating a one-year science campaign to understand the innermost planet.

Mercury is an extreme among the rocky planets in our solar system: It is the smallest, the densest (after correcting for self-compression) and the one with the oldest surface and largest daily variations in surface temperature and the least explored.

Understanding this “end member” among the terrestrial planets is crucial to developing a better understanding of how the planets in our solar system formed and evolved.

Mercury is a strange one — it has a cratered surface like our moon, but like a McBLT, the hot side stays hot and the cool side stays cool. Can’t wait to see the pictures.

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From an interview with publisher Adam Engst:

Apple’s iBooks store still has many fewer titles than Amazon’s Kindle store. I think you also said that the process of getting books into iBooks is a hassle… can you explain?

Not in a family publication.

Seriously, I can’t say that working with Amazon has ever been easy for publishers (and we haven’t done much with it), but working with the iBookstore has been the most amazingly horrible, opaque, and frustrating experience I’ve had. Apple’s software is terrible, the iTunes Connect Web site is lousy, and support questions often aren’t answered for – and I’m not kidding here – months. It’s gotten a little better over time, but mostly it makes my stomach hurt.

I had no idea Apple’s backend software for iBooks publishers was so bad, but it doesn’t surprise me as a very unsatisfied user of the iBooks Store.

Reading using iBooks is a joy in that way Apple does so well. Everything just works, and the polish and the little details are — and I sound like an Apple PR person when I use this word, but it’s the right word — magical. But after about a month, I stopped reading books using iBooks, and switched exclusively to Amazon’s Kindle for iPad.

Because the iBooks Store sucks. Selection is limited compared with Amazon, but the real problem is finding the stuff you want that is for sale. I’m convinced that whatever lessons Apple learned from running the iTunes Store (a joy) and the App Store (another joy) were tossed out the window when they were devising the iBooks Store. It’s clunky, slow, difficult to navigate, uninformative and generally bad.

It’s just awful.

Meanwhile, Amazon lets me shop on Amazon.com, which I’ve been doing for a dozen years, and which knows all my likes and dislikes, and which downloads all my purchases to my Mac, my iPhone, and my iPad. And starting next month, to my new Kindle, too.

It’s usually Apple’s policy to screw their content providers to provide maximum benefit to their users. With iBooks, Apple’s screwing everybody. They need to shape up to win back this book buyer.

(Hat tip, Gruber.)

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Union thugs, liberal airheads, my ultimate geek-out and Miracle Max — all on another exciting episode of… The Week in Blogs!

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The Space Shuttle Endevour has been rolled out for its final flight, with mission commander Mark Kelly. The US Government is now two shuttle flights away from being out of the business of manned spaceflight.

Despite remarkable achievements in the private sector, it’s hard not to see this as the end of an era — and ending with a whimper, not a bang.

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Trifecta: So, ya miss W yet?

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Trifecta: We take a look at the dark side of last month’s rosy jobs report. This one ain’t for the squeamish.

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Buried deep in the WSJ‘s Wisconsin coverage is a hidden gem from that other midwestern state battling public unions. No, not Indiana — the other, other state:

Another fight over public-employee collective-bargaining rights is under way in Ohio, where Republican Gov. John Kasich supports eliminating most bargaining rights for the state’s 400,000 public workers. A bill that cleared the Senate is now in the Republican-controlled House and is expected to be passed after a series of committee hearings that began this week.

I mention it because later today I’ll be speaking with Chris Littleton for Coast to Coast Tea Party. He’s President of the Ohio Liberty Council, which he describes as the “Chamber of Commerce” for tea parties — and he’s part of the fight there in Ohio. Looking forward to this one.

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Over at Cumulative Model, Aaron C has been doing tremendous work keeping track of inflation/deflation risks. Today is no different, as he has charts stuffed with BEA data showing that expenses (food, rent, gas, etc) are rising as a percentage of disposable income.

Normally, workers would demand higher wages to match, but as I emailed to Aaron just now, fears of

unemployment should easily keep a lid on wage demands in the face of rising expenses. But something’s got to give — either prices fall in line with income & employment, or we double dip. Or am I missing something?

I haven’t heard back yet, but that double dip is looking perhaps as likely as not.

UPDATE: Aaron replies:

That’s my feeling. If gas gets much above the 4%, I think we’ll double dip. It’s not quite as high a share of DI as in ’08, but healthcare has put more stress on budgets.

Earlier today, David Paul Kuhn asked, “Could gas prices sink Obama’s reelection?”

Seems that way to me.

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Trifecta: Watch Michael Moore rouse the rabble in Wisconsin! Watch as Bill and Scott and Steve have tremendous fun at his expense!

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Well, of course they don’t:

“We don’t have any contacts in the administration,” said Avi Zonneveld, founder of Muslims for Progressive Values, based in Los Angeles. “The Canadian government is much more accessible,” she said.

Classically-liberal Muslims are the poor victims of false consciousness, and must be shunted aside in favor of authentic Muslims – you know, the ones in favor of shari’a and the veil and maybe blowing stuff up and all that.

Or so goes the thinking in the White House, apparently. And if you needed a clearer indication that this administration is led and staffed by faculty-lounge Marxists with absolutely no concept of where America’s interests lie, well, there ya go.

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Trifecta: It’s a rapid response episode as Scott Ott, Bill Whittle and I take on the latest nonsense at National Public Radio.

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When the Saudi pat us on the head and pledge to “ensure adequate supply” of oil to global markets, that doesn’t mean everything is OK. The Saudis are excellent capitalists, and like to squeeze the world for every dime on a barrel it can get — without squeezing us dry. If oil prices rise too far, too fast, then the economy shuts down — and demand goes down the toilet.

And ask any Saudi prince: It ain’t cheap bringing in chartered jets full of scotch. They need our economy to stay healthy.

So the message I take away from the story is that the Saudis are afraid that our recovery hasn’t really gained much momentum, and that we’re just one oil shock away from taking a ride on the Double Dip.

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Hair of the Dog: See the evil experiments Dr. Christiane Amanpour is conducting in ABC’s dungeon, David Gregory gets transmogrified into a cricket, and madman John McCain zaps an entire Chinese city out of existence.

It’s a very scary episode, kids.

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BREAKING: Nevada Swinger Senator John Ensign is likely to announce his retirement.

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Nice piece in the WSJ about the mess that is ObamaCare. And the very first item in a very long list of the law’s complaints and injuries is this one:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has handed out nearly 1,000 waivers to allow select companies, unions and states to escape, at least temporarily, some of the burdensome new insurance rules she has created. This is a continuation of the trend of the “Cornhusker Kickback” and the “Louisiana Purchase” that Senate Democrats used to get the law passed in the first place, and that so disgusted the American people.

Isn’t there an Equal Protections case to be made against ObamaCare? When the HHS director gets to pick and choose winners and losers at whim, I’d say the law makes a mockery of the 14th Amendment. There might even be a Due Process problem here.

Or am I totally off-base on this one?

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All these years later, and I still never tire of reading fresh takes on Firefly.

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Union thugs, a cry for help from Libya and nuclear Teddy Roosevelt — all on another exciting episode of… The Week in Blogs!

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Coast to Coast Tea Party: Today I talk with Steve Lonegan of the New Jersey chapter of Americans for Prosperity, about the counter-protest he put together in Trenton last week in support of Governor Chris Christie.

It’s always fun to interview New Jersey people — they hold nothin’ back.

Bonus: Lonegan’s prediction about Christie and 2012.

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OK, so all-electric vehicles [er, mostly-electric -ed.] are a flop. The good news is, Nissan can pull the plug on the Leaf at any time. The bad news is, GM will keep building subsidized Volts at your expense for as long as their political masters in the White House deem they should.

Crony capitalism: It’s not just for Asian potentates!

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Are my inflation fears overblown? Perhaps — the surge in commodity prices ought to tamper demand, and even with today’s good jobs report it’s not exactly like the labor market is so tight that workers will demand (or get) inflationary wages.

That said, the Fed is monetizing more than half a trillion dollars in federal debt this year, and Washington continues to borrow money at unsustainable rates. Eventually, the urge — need? — to inflate that debt away might well prove irresistible.

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Funniest thing you’ll see all week — New Yorker comics re-done with Charlie Sheen quotes.

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Trifecta: How to survive the mancession.

Bonus: Best laughing baby video evah.

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Just a thought: You can always spend money you’ve saved, but you can’t save money you’ve spent.

That, and don’t count on Uncle Sam to honor those Social Security payout projections.

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$100-$150 discounts on new and refurbished first-generation iPads, direct from Apple.

$349 for a base model? I might just get one for the five-year-old. And a bulletproof case.

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