In September 1992 the world changed for the better. Technology, so often the bane of modern civilisation, reached out a helping hand to both music fans and journalists.

A generation said goodbye to fragile vinyl records and unreliable audio cassettes when Sony released the first minidisc player.

At last teenagers could could “get down” to the music of their choice, without worrying about a tape breaking. Journalists could quickly and reliably record broadcast quality interviews on a device capable of fitting easily in a large pocket.

A new, and better day had dawned. And we forgot that every dawn is followed by a sunset.

Production of portable minidisc players ended in 2011. Now Sony have announced that they will cease making stereo systems with minidisc capabilities. A long night lies ahead.

Here at Broadsheet we are proud of our long tradition of independence regarding audio formats. However we also feel that no MP3, WAV file or tweet can ever replace the magic of the minidisc.

So tonight we’ll pour a glass of wine, and bring back memories of the heady days of 1992 by listening to the music of Reef in the best way possible.

On a minidisc.

Ireland.

Having quite the day.

Slightly Bemused writes:

Thought this might be of interest. The report (below) states 54 countries have ‘assisted’ in rendition flights. Depending on your source, there are 193-196 ‘countries’ in the world, making 54 a sizeable percentage.

On page 83, the section on Ireland starts. it ends with “In June 2011, the U.N. Committee against Torture stated that it was “concerned at the various reports of [Ireland’s] alleged cooperation in a rendition programme, where rendition flights use the State party’s airports and airspace,” and that it was “also concerned at the inadequate response by the State party with regard to investigating these allegations.””

To misquote someone else, it hasn’t gone away, you know

Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition

(Pic:RTE)

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