Yesterday, a long gory day.

Four playoff games, all of them elimination. It started at ten in the morning. Baseball in the morning is a bit like a goth in a bowling alley. It’s nice and all but still . . .

There goes my day, I thought.

It started with The Giants versus the Reds. The game was a symphony of tension and release. That’s to say, throughout, one felt like they were coming or dying or doing both.Terrible stuff.

Terrible, wonderful stuff.

Buster Posey gave all of NorCal a collective, multiple orgasm with his grandslam to put the Giants up 6-0. The Reds fought back. Chipped away.

I lost count of how many times the Reds brought the tying run to the plate. And each time The Giants, somehow, avoided disaster. They won. Somehow.

The first time a National League team has ever won the NLDS after losing the first two games. The first time the Reds have lost three in a row at home all season.

And the hero that led them there?

Left hanging.

There were other games and other results but there’s other places to read about them. I’m just happy that I somehow managed to get my hair cut, hit my word count for the day, cook a stew and watch a lot of baseball. Life gets easier in the offseason but it’s nowhere near as pleasant.

It was a good day.

Anyway, onto your owl pellets . . .

LINES OF ATTACHMENT: The New Yorker’s baseball writer, Roger Angell, who incidentally wrote one of my favourite baseball pieces: The Interior Stadium, talks about choosing a playoff team and how easy it is to become attached.

On the Leakiness of Surveillance Culture, the Corporate Gaze, and What That Has To Do With the New Aesthetic: Tim writes another content-dense, brain bender.

Robot Builds Ramp by Randomly Flinging 3,600 Toothpicks: What’s strange and a little wonderful here is how organic the robot-built ramp looks.

Insects shape genetics through plant defenses: Maybe insects will be a good interface to alter plant genetics. But that’d be subtle, intelligent gardening that people could only fuck up.

Warning: Genetically Modified Humans: Uh, speaking of which.

Discussion Time: science vs. democracy: And if you’d like to speak of which, there’s a discussion over on The Breaking Time.