Discs haven't superseded mag tape. The cost factor is with the disc, but in streaming mode tape can beat a spinning disc in speed of writes. Not only that, you might be surprised at how robust the tape market has become since defense in depth backup strategies were developed in the wake of cheap,reliable discs. Of course, it is all about to change again as Flash becomes cheaper and more reliable.

If your tape breaks, you can splice it, losing only certain files. Solid state memory and optical disks do not have that option.

[Bismarck] Don't they splice themselves?

Spectacular thunderstorm here. Some of the lightning made the scene look like daylight. Not all that much rain, surprisingly.

What Rosie said, but with a very hefty downpour of rain followed by a few hours of drizzle.