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Google Chrome: Meh

Last week, the guys from Google released their own web browser: Google Chrome. And thus, Google fanboys all over the ‘Net fell to their knees in religious ecstasy, chanting over and over again: “Google my master, Google my master…”

Look, I frankly just don’t see the point of all this. On the Windows platform you already have Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari. And now there’s another browser? And what does Chrome do that any other browser doesn’t? Well, nothing, actually. And it actually lacks a lot of the features that other browsers have, even boring old Internet Explorer.

After using it for about a week, I can honestly say that the one (and only) feature I like about Google Chrome is the “paste and go” feature in the address bar. If you cut and paste an address into Chrome’s address bar, you can either “Paste” it or “Paste and go”, which pastes the address then automatically loads the page in question. Nice, but hardly groundbreaking, especially when the “Right-Click Link” extension does the same thing in Firefox without the need to paste the address into the address bar.

As of this writing, Chrome doesn’t have any extensions. None. So you either get the full “Chrome experience” or you get nothing. No AdBlock, no Weave, no DownThemAll… nothing. Oh, you can hack together something similar to a lot of Firefox extensions – see this post from Lifehacker for instructions on setting up Privoxy as your ad blocker in Chrome, for example – but it’s nowhere near as elegant as Firefox.

So… for now… I’ll stick with Mozilla, thanks!

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Epic Fail from AA

Oh, now this is just horrific: when 57-year-old Teresa Olaya died, her husband Miguel arranged for the body to be shipped to her hometown of Guayaquil, Ecuador. Unfortunately for Migel, American Airlines lost the body for 4 days. When American finally found Teresa’s remains, she was “so badly decomposed… [that he] had to forgo a traditional open-casket funeral”.

It’s unclear what, exactly, happened here. Migel and his daughter Laura flew to Guayaquil ahead of the body to make arrangements. When the body didn’t show up, he was given contradictory information from American personnel, who told him at times that the body was in Miami, other times that she was in Guatemala City. What’s absolutely clear is that the body was not refrigerated. At all. “When I opened the casket, it was a terrible shock,” said Olaya. “I still can’t get it out of my mind”. It’s unclear whether Teresa’s body had been embalmed (it was picked up from a mortuary in Brooklyn, but the original article doesn’t say if embalming took place there or not). I also don’t know if embalmed bodies need refrigerating.

Dear God, people! What the hell happened here? This isn’t your average Samsonite bag we’re talking about here… it’s a giant fucking cardboard box with “HUMAN REMAINS” stamped in big letters on the side! American isn’t talking – Migel is suing for millions, and American won’t comment on “pending litigation”.  So we have no idea if the body was shuffled from airport to airport, held up in customs, or misplaced in an unheated warehouse for those four days.

This is, quite frankly, one of the most pitiful stories I’ve ever heard. It seems that American Airlines can even screw you over in death!

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Vote for the next History Blog article!

UPDATE: The people have spoken! Look for “The Border Blasters” as the next History Blog entry tomorrow morning!

I hope you guys are enjoying the History Blog! History is one of my favorite subjects, and the History Blog allows me shine a light into some of the forgotten or mysterious events in human history.

I’ve decided to do something different for my next History Blog article: to allow you to vote for which article you’d like to see!

Below are several ideas that I’ve been kicking around. In fact, I’ll probably do History Blog posts on all of them in the coming months. But which one should I do first?

Continue reading “Vote for the next History Blog article!”

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Mad Men: “The Gold Violin”

Well, folks… let me begin by saying that I just don’t have it in me this week to do an exhaustive recap of this episode. Which is a bit of a shame, given that this was a damn fine episode, maybe my favorite of season 2 so far. Let me summarize the episode as best I can, then get into my thoughts on it:

The episode begins with Don at a Cadillac dealership. He wrecked his car a few episodes ago, remember? So now he needs a new ride. The thing is that while he’s talking to the car salesman, he has a flashback of his own days in the car business. Whilst trying to sell a car to a kid, a woman comes in asking for Don Draper. When Don introduces himself, the lady says that “you’re not Don Draper”:

Later that day, Don meets with the “Young Turks”, who share their vision of what “advertising” is for “young people of today”. Don, surprisingly, seems to like their ideas.

At the end of the day, Jane convinces Ken, Hal and Sal to sneak into Cooper’s office to look at his newest painting, something Harry and Paul decline for fear of getting caught. Paul even tells the group to “call me from jail.” Harry actually initiated all this by mentioning that Cooper wants to have a meeting with him. Harry is nervous because he thinks that the meeting will only be about about the new painting, and he doesn’t know if Cooper bought the abstract artwork because he actually likes it, or because he thinks it’s a joke and will enjoy seeing his employees try to kiss his ass with compliments for something that Cooper thinks is trash.

After looking at the picture, Sal, Ken and Jane share an elevator on the way out. Ken tries to flirt with Jane by mentioning that he’s a published author; amusingly, Sal picks up on this and talks about how much he liked Ken’s story. Later on in the episode, Ken asks Sal to read a story he has been working on, and Sal invites him over for Sunday dinner.

In an amusing scene, Cooper and Harry have their meeting. Harry still thinks that it’s to admire Cooper’s new painting. Come to find out, the meeting really is about the finances of Harry’s TV department, but Cooper and Harry have a fun discussion about the painting where Harry tries to be all “arty”, only to find out that Cooper has bought the painting solely as an investment.

There’s another scene with Cooper a few minutes later where he calls Don into his office to essentially orders him to take a seat on the board of a folk art museum. Cooper is not only giving Don money and power in the office, he now wants Don to have social status as well.

Continue reading “Mad Men: “The Gold Violin””

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SONGS I LOVE: “Jungle Drum”

Emilíana Torrini is one of my all-time favorite artists. Her 1999 album Love in the Time of Science is one of my favorite albums ever. It’s beautiful, lush and haunting and is one of the best electronic albums ever made (and it was produced by Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears). For a time, it seemed that Emilíana was poised to eclipse the fame of her Icelandic counterpart, Bjork.

But then tragedy struck: her long-time boyfriend was killed in a hit and run accident, and shortly thereafter she was violently mugged in Bethnal Green, London. She withdrew from music and fame for several years, occasionally popping up to write a song (like Kylie Minogue’s smash hit “Slow”) or to sing one-off collaborations (like “Gollum’s Song” from The Lord of the Rings soundtrack, or “Hold Your Hand” from superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold’s Bunkka album).

Emilíana finally reemerged in 2005 with her second album, Fisherman’s Woman. Unlike Science, this album was almost entirely acoustic. The album is profoundly sad, perhaps as a way to exorcise the pain of losing her boyfriend. It’s an incredibly beautiful album – “Today Has Been OK” is one the best songs I’ve ever heard – but it is, for the most part, as sad as a This Mortal Coil album. It’s something you just can’t pop into the CD player on a whim.

It seems that Emilíana has gotten her mojo back with her newest album, Me and Armini. Like Fisherman’s Woman, this album has almost no electronic instruments (much less the whole “electronica” feel). Unlike Fisherman’s Woman, however, the album is mostly poppy and happy. Have a listen to “Jungle Drum”, a song slated to be the album’s second single:

[audio:jungle_drum.mp3]

I’m so glad that Emilíana’s back on track. The girl is as cute as a button (and I mean that more mentally than physically), and it just makes me all giddy inside to hear her being happy again.

Read Emilíana’s Wikipedia entry here.

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Loose Meat Sandwiches!

Maid-RiteLoose Meat Sandwiches (also known as Maid-Rites, after the restaurant chain that made them popular) are a delicious treat from the American Midwest. They’re like a Sloppy Joe without the sauce, and they’re one of the easiest sandwiches in the world to make.

In fact, they’re so easy to make that I won’t even bother making a traditional numbered list for the steps:

Ingredients:

1-2 lbs. ground beef
1 small to medium onion, chopped
1 can Campbell’s Chicken Gumbo soup
Pickle chips (optional)
Bread

Hardware:

1 knife (to cut the onion)
1 large skillet

Simply brown the ground beef with the chopped onion, then drain off the excess fat. Return the skillet to the burner and add the can of soup (DO NOT ADD WATER!). Stir well and simmer over medium-low heat for 5-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Place heaping amounts of the meat mixture on the bread and top with pickle chips.

CONSIDERATIONS:

Meat: This sandwich became popular due to the high-quality meat available almost anywhere in the Midwest. While your average grocery store ground beef will do, for best results try it with ground sirloin from a quality butcher. The difference will be amazing!

Sauce: The meat should be dry in appearance, and not make the bread instantly soggy. If you pick up the sandwich and sauce gushes everywhere, you either added water to the mixture or haven’t cooked it long enough.

Bread: Loose Meat Sandwiches are traditionally served on regular hamburger buns, although almost any type of sandwich bread will do: Kaiser rolls, onion rolls, baguettes… even plain white bread. If you’re using plain old sandwich bread, you’ll find that it works better if the bread is toasted.

Scaling: It’s hard to say exactly how many sandwiches the above recipe will make, as it depends on how much meat the diners prefer, as well as what type of bread you’re using. You can scale this base recipe up as much as you want, however.

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Technical Difficulties

Golden brown texture like sun
Lays me down with my mind she runs
Throughout the night
No need to fight
Never a frown with golden brown

Every time just like the last
On her ship tied to the mast
To distant lands
Takes both my hands
Never a frown with golden brown

Golden brown find a temptress
Through the ages she’s heading west
From far away
Stays for a day
Never a frown with golden brown

Never a frown
With golden brown
Never a frown
With golden brown

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The Legend of Fantasia Colorado

Almost every culture on the planet has some form of “monster” in their belief systems. Sometimes these “monsters” are based on actual events that have, over the generations, morphed into something far more spectacular than what actually happened. Sometimes, as in the case of “sea serpents”, they’re based genuine animals that were hitherto unknown to the people who created the stories. Yet other times the “monsters” are purely creatures of fiction, invented as entertainment to pass a long winter’s night, to keep an invading army away, or as morality tales for children.

What most of these “monsters” have in common is that they don’t exist. But in the late 1800s, there was a monster that was very real. And not only is the the story about the monster itself interesting, so too is the tale of how and why it came into existence.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to The Red Ghost.

As you probably know, the United States and Mexico fought a war between 1846 to 1848. As a result of America’s victory, the US was given undisputed control of Texas, as well as the entire states of California, Nevada and Utah, in addition to most of Arizona and parts of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. Although American settlers quickly rushed to certain parts of these new lands, much of the land would remain sparsely populated – except by Native Americans – for almost 30 years.

By the 1880s, though, much of what would one day become Arizona had been converted into ranches or farmland. That didn’t mean that everything was peaceful, however. The iconic Apache warlord Geronimo still terrorized the area, and it wasn’t uncommon for a rancher to wake up and find his livestock stolen, his fences destroyed or his neighbors killed or maimed by Geronimo and his men.

It was because of the threat of Geronimo that two women were left alone in their house on Eagle Creek in southwest Arizona one morning in 1883. Geronimo had been active in the area the past few nights, so the men of the family left early that morning to check on their sheep.

Continue reading “The Legend of Fantasia Colorado”