Unpatriotic MREs

Contrary to the claims of some, the retort pouch — the foil-and-plastic thing (essentially a can married to a Ziploc bag) that precooked Indian food, camping food, military or humanitarian Meals Ready to Eat (MRE) rations, and astronaut meals come in — were not invented for the Apollo program, but for the Nazis. True, they didn’t really work until the intersection of plastics research and the Apollo program in the 1960s, but still that MRE might not be as all-American as it’s made out to be.

Last week’s absence of posts was due to a vacation last weekend (NYC–as always, photos eventually, once I’ve had time to pick through them with a fine toothed comb and then crop, resize, optimize, and adjust the contrast and angle and exposure) and a flurry of work ahead of a few deadlines this month. In particular, I’m presenting at Greening the Heartland and Transport Chicago (thankfully the same paper, but it’s not done yet!), all in the week just prior to CNU XIII.

More simply, I’m going to have to leave some things unfinished until the tide passes, sometime in June.