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May 2020

Helical Scan

Why is that shiny thing inside the VCR crooked?

Did you ever look into the open door of a VCR (if you were old enough to have access to one years ago) and wonder why that shiny round component inside looked crooked or ‘lopsided’? I remember thinking that as a kid. It looked like it hadn’t been mounted correctly.

Civilian MREs

Another COVID-19 quarantine survival technique

In the military, we often ate ‘Meals, Ready to Eat’ (MREs) in the field. After taking inventory of my freezer today during the ongoing coronavirus quarantine, I realized that microwave dinners are basically just MREs for civilians.

QAnon Quackery

A socialist perspective

Recently, I received the following text from a family member eager to share a compelling video they had viewed. This isn’t the first time I’ve been sent a link to QAnon-related content, but it has been a while (especially since I ditched social media) and I was a little surprised that this stuff is still making the rounds. I don’t know if this is due to the conspiracy theory gaining something of a ‘second wind’, or if it just never really subsided like I had imagined, but either way I’ve finally decided—reluctantly—to address it here and share some of my thoughts.