Great book, if even just for the level of research that went into this book. Worthy of being a Pulitzer Prize finalist that it is. This book, I guess, can be diffrently titled as “The Killing Plains: Gore and mayhem in the old American West. Here are 3 excerpts:

The woman was filthy, covered with dirt and grease from handling so much bloody buffalo meat. But to Ross’s astonishment he noticed that she had blue eyes. And he saw that under the grime her short-cropped hair was lighter in color than Indian black. She was white. Not quite believing what they had found, they took her back to what was left of her village, which the soldiers were busily looting. They were also scalping the dead Indians, men and women alike. By now scalping was the common practice on both sides. Since two men claimed the scalp of Peta Nocona, they decided to split it into two parts.

…

The tribe cut a bloody swath of violence across the coastal lowlands, looting, killing, and burning on their way to Matagorda Bay, and sweeping the entire country of horse stock as they went. They took captives, too, including a Mrs. Nancy Crosby, the granddaughter of Daniel Boone, and her baby. Since she could not quiet the child, they killed it, spearing it in front of her.

….

The whites, strengthened by the arrival of more than seventy hunters who were now afraid to be alone on the plains, eventually decided it was safe to go about their business. After burying their four dead comrades (one died accidentally) and the scalped Newfoundland dog that had died with the drovers, the whites beheaded the dead Indians and stuck their heads on stakes outside the walls. They placed the thirteen headless bodies on buffalo hides and dragged them away along with the dead horses (the Indians had killed them all), which had begun to reek.

Well, they will have to give Tebowmania a rest till next season. And the Belichick passing machine rumbles on. Coming into this game the talk was how the Patriots 31-st ranked defence is going to cope in postseason. By the end of the first half, it was clear that the Broncos will not be the team which will reveal the frailities—and weakness there are collectively among the big defenders of the Pats—of the New Englanders. By then Tom Brady have 5 TDs, a record for a postseason. Brady used All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski as a sabre—no, make that a Rambo knife—thrusting through fatally the heart (read middle) of the Denver Broncos defence.

The Pats’ defence was so good that at one time early in the third quarter, several Patriots swarmed Tebow like a tight bunch of angry hornets; we never knew who officially got the sack that time, such was the Broncos QB overwhelmed.

If the Pats meets with the Ravens, they are going to the Super Bowl.

[Update]
New York Times is implying that Tim Tebow will get found next season (“so much pixie dust”).

During Microsoft’s zenith in the late 90s, Bill Gates was asked which company he feared most. His answer was that of a garage start-up that he did not know of. Google at that time really just move out from a garage and in time, Google really grew to become a behemoth and challenging Microsoft on many fronts.

Empathy is the ability to feel others’ pain or distress; we feel bad when someone else feels bad. It’s what motivates us to give a few dollars to the homeless man on the corner, donate our time to a worthy cause, or hug a friend who has just been dumped. Scientists used to believe that empathy was unique to humans and was one of the traits that actually distinguished us from other species. Recently, however, there is increasing evidence for empathy in several species, most notably other primates.

Now, new research in Science suggests that rats are capable of empathy. The study tested how rats responded when their fellow rats were trapped, and found that they would not only spend time and energy deliberately helping their trapped companions, but they would even share food after liberating them.

Hmmm…

Both Khan and Pacquiao have been hankering for Floyd Joy Mayweather, Jr. The way at it is—Khan losing, and Pacquiao who should have lost his last fight—Mayweather can take his pick, make his mega millions and still win.

The Carrier IQ rookit and Footpath. Scary.