Oh yes. For sure. I'd even take VHS over not having it at all.

Diminishing returns with video. Comes a point when my eyes cannot discern any added benefit. That signals the wallet to stay closed.

I've seen 4K end-to-end systems (capture, editing, playback). I really can't see any added benefit. 1080's fine for me.

My eyes are also 5 decades old and full of floaties, so there's that..

I bought into Blu-Ray early. So early that my display at the time was 720 only. That barely afforded me any jump in video quality.

When I upgraded the projector to 1080, that's when blu-ray worked for me. The jump from 720 to 1080 was scary good. And I'm stil there.

1080's good enough to see the fuzz on the fibers that make a sweater. Enough to see brushed steel. That's good enough for me. 720 and below was potato.

There was a plant in England that made CDs (retail, none of this "organic" stuff) that made CDs for Deutsche Grammophon in the late 80's / early90's that had some kind of defect that have bits of the aluminum substrate degrading to the point it can't be read anymore.

I have a friend with hundreds of these. Avid CD collector with 10,000+ titles (not a joke, typo or hyperbole.)

Other than that.. retail CD and DVD, and Blu-Rays are pretty much good for decades. How many? Dunno, but I have late 80's CDs that are still good. In all this time, I've had one hit by cd rot, and I sent it back to the vendor and got a replacement from a different vendor.

Conversely, last year I have a disc in a Ranma blu-ray volume have a factory pressing defect. I took so long to play the particular volume after purchase that the retailer (RightStuf) refused to exchange it. I bought an entire new volume from a different vendor. no skin off my nose.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Kinda has a point tho. My example of "90 minutes of explosions and one-liners" is Airplane!

You'd rather spend 2 hours being told how horrible you are if you're not a member of the currently-protected classes.. or would you rather spend an hour and a half trapped in an airplane! laughing your head off at the barrage of sillyness being thrown your way?

Airplane! was simply a long string of jokes arranged head-to-tail in a way that roughly outlined a story. Move 'em around, take some out, put 'em back in 30 years later, it really doesn't much ruin it. You'll have fun. You'll laugh. And when you see the stuff going in the background on rewatches, you'll laugh even harder... while... the preachy, socially-sensitive film just sours like old milk and fish.

Airplane! and cinema of that era didn't bash you over the head repeatedly about how horrible the cis white patriarchy ruling class is. and how everything is our fault. (Did I get the Karl Marx bingo right? I mentioned "class!")

I know what I prefer. So.. kiss off, Wachowskis, fuck off Disney, and fuck off anyone else who's gone to pandering hell.

And that's what it is. Pandering: "To cater to the lower tastes and desires of others or exploit their weaknesses. "

I suspect what many.. including myself.. are calling "woke" lately is actually pandering. Pandering, to make bank or obtain votes on some of the most vulnerable people there are. I find it so distasteful as to be nauseous. And people who are callign it out, rebelling against it, are being downvoted, downmodded, shouted down, protested, called Nazi, and worse.

TL;DR -- the Corporations, and the Government too, took the concept of "Woke" -- the real "Woke" of being aware and fighting against oppression, and turned it into a way to make a lot of Money and Power.

Zootopia was re-written to deal with the apparently inconceivable notion that Trump would be elected.

The directors changed the story to include the authoritative sheep in bitch's clothing and her "fascist" hold on the corrupt cops. It was re-written to show cops as racist. It was re-written to make the girl cop the hero, and the girl politician the villain.

It would be the next-to-last decent film Disney made. I truly enjoyed it, watched it 6x in theater and bought the bluray the day it came out, but it was the last of the Great Films from Disney. Everything after that -- with the exception of Moana -- has been tinged with even more overt animus at its viewers.. so I stopped watching Disney altogether, and when I buy something from them, I buy it used on Ebay. Used, no shrinkwrap. Not a penny for the mouse.

#BringBackLassater

Disney (and Pixar's) current decline started when Lassater was fired for some trumped-up #metoo thing. Fuck that. The best storyteller in cartooning was fired to get him out of the way and install this.. shit... disney has calling the shots since.

My Intro to Journalism class in high school was like this. Everything we wrote was scrutinized to ensure it was focused through the proper, correct lens. Our teacher was a raging Feminazi, of the ERA and NOW type. Stickers everywhere on her car. Loved wearing Che Guevara shirts. Basically a Commie bluehair before technicholor hair was permissible in society.

One semester and I walked. And along the way lost whatever respect I had for journalists / newspapers. That was 1987. Every year since then has shown me that teacher wasn't an isolated thing -- I'd say all journos do it to push their agenda, "reporting what happened" is way, way down on the list of things that matter to them.

Selling the News and Pushing Narratives is their job. Reporting on what happened is a mere side effect, and has been for a very long time now.

That pretty much started the day CNN came into being in 1980. 24 hours to fill.. with what? There's not enough news in the world... then or now.. to fill 24 hours of news channel. So, they did what journos do best -- spout opinion in the hopes The Plebes will consider it fact. Judging by the state of the world, they were successful.

Shall we talk about the BBC? I peruse their site every now and then, as a counter-balance to American news outlets. Why is the BBC so preoccupied with Africa? I'd say 70% of the BBC News front page is all about Africa and has been for at least a decade. Does the UK feel that guilty about their past in Africa that they won't shut up about it?

I lay the pieces of the broken modern world at the feet of the "journalists" of all countries who contribute to the worsening divisions in our world. "Hate this group! Hate them! They're different than you! And look at that other group! Isn't it an OUTRAGE that they do what they do? Heavens! Where's my clutching pearls and smelling salts?" -- the result of modern journalism.. prob. since Pulitzer and Hearst.

Trust No One. Do Your Own Homework, Form Your Own Opinions.

TruSt tHE SciENcE

The Science: Stating the obvious -- water's wet, fire's hot, sleepless nights make for tired people WHERE'S MUH MILLIONZ IN GRANT MONNNNEY?!?!

No wonder people lost faith in all our institutions -- not just "scientists"

America.. where those who can, do.

Those who can't, sue. Or teach. Or teach others who can't do, to sue.

You mean... "A manipulation in how we read things have resulted in us declaring CO2 to be a bad gas, so we can push forward our plans to have the entire world be like Europe, while delivering *massive* windfalls to China in the form of heavily increased battery purchases from them."

Fuck that. CO2 wasn't a problem before 2014 and now it is. Why? Why why why? First it was "there's a hole in the ozone, stop with the CFCs." OK, done. Now our ACs are worse than ever, requiring ever-larger compressors, evaporators, etc. Then when that drum's skin broke from the constant beating, they had to trot out a new fear target.. CO2.

I will vote for anyone who stands up to Europe on this front. I will vote for anyone who reverses the EV mandates. In short, I wish someone would bitch-slap Brussels with a dose of cold reality. Their own farmers are trying.. and winning. Didn't protesters hose down some EU bigshot building with liquid manure a few weeks ago? Glorious.

Eloquently and succinctly put. This should be the dictionary definition of "woke." It is also strangely reminiscent of Struggle Sessions. ...it's almost like a Cultural Revolution is *trying* to start here. And here, like in China 50 years ago, it's the brainwashed youth pushing it.

No. People will still fly. But, people will stop flying your airline or your airplanes if you start showing a trend of killing passengers, or shedding parts while in flight. Or worse, lose a whole airplane or half a dozen.

Can your company take it, or will something like this make it tank?

Once lost, confidence is very hard to regain. Take Pan American World Airways, for instance. One of the nails in Pan Am's coffin was people started associating Pan Am and "bomb" and "palestinians" and then Lockerbie happened, and .. *poof*. Gone. People will stay away if you're known for killing people, fault of yours or not.

Someone give 'im a thump, he's stuck in the groove again..

Ruf. Ruf ruff! WOOF! RrrrrrrrRUFF! *angry paw shake* RUFF RUFF ruh RUFf, WOOOF *more paw shaking*

It would seem the dog took offense at being mis-specied.as human.

Man. *anything* today creates outrage! Even the dogs are riled up and angry!