Digital Books – where are they going?

Recently it has been published that McGraw-Hill a major publisher of academic textbooks has invested in Inkling intending to use the platform for sale of its own publications.
The deal itself is not the issue of this post, but rather a small announcement regarding the way that inkling operates. They publish interactive text books that incorporate audio and video with the written text.
In my view this is the real meaning of electronic or digital books. The multi-media approach to publishing. This way finally the medium will allow the full use of its capacities for writers, to express themselves, and for learners in the case of textbooks to enjoy the full potential it carries in their studies. If you study music you no longer have to listen to it on one device and read the analysis separately, but you can do it at the same time, and the book (text) can refer to the piece while it is being played. If you study physics you can have a video explaining a specific action with motion while relating to the text of the book. Add the ability to add notes and markings and you have the perfect teaching tool.
Two weeks ago I received notice from my publisher that my book will be rendered by them in electronic format as they see the electronic format as complementing the hard copy. If I had known when I started writing my book that what Inkling is offering would be possible – I would have written a different book.
How will this affect fiction writing?????

Secondary effects of Middle East revolutions

I do not intend to analyze the political or "justice" side of Middle East revolutions going on now in the region. The questions such as: Was this the right time to do them? Will the new regimes be better first to the people who helped raise them, and second for the rest of the world? Are in my opinion best left for History to answer.
But we cannot ignore the fact that these events happen in the worlds richest in oil regions and that while up until now the revenues and the flow regimes of the oil operated in a known and relatively predictable way.
Whether the new regimes (political and profit distribution) will stop the flow of oil, or just raise the prices, the deviation from the known methods and systems will cause uncertainty. In the short term that will lead to increased costs, but in the long term to the creation of emergency reservoirs, and therefore for a long term (if smaller) increase in prices.
The increased cost of this precious resource will not stop at increased travel costs in the developed economies. Worse than that, the secondary effect will be an increase in food prices (oil is important resource in food production and transportation) in all economies and especially in the less developed ones. As food riots (see Jordan five years ago) as a result of food prices increase, can lead to further impoverishment of these economies, combined with a tendency of revolution we may see that phenomena spreading to other regions in the world. In the movie "Under Siege" the terrorist leading the attack speaks of the term revolution as a process not a step. It continuously revolves. We may witness the embodiment of that statement.