This tends to disagree with your first point.
Sure it was only a "section" of the country...but it was 55 million people. Can't really call that kind of think "overstated."
frighteningly
impoverished
There you go again...taking a normal word and adding "ing" and "ly" to the end. And then you top it off with "impoverished?"
Snobbish bastard aren't you?
Bring on Super Hi-Vision (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Hi-Vision)
Demoed years ago by NHK. It's basically 1080*16 (4x4).
I disagree with the notion of selling the name also, but I won't go so far as to say it's basic knowledge.
but they'll spend $18 bucks on a kid's DVD to get the little bastards to shut up for 90 minutes.
Not much of a family man are you?
A list is only as strong as its weakest link. -- Don Knuth