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Universal Patterns

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Welcome to Sequester Day, an inevitable result of our divided government. Two warring political parties are simply begging us to assign the majority of blame to one of them so we can tip the scales one way or the other and move on. Right now, it seems like the Republicans are gathering up most of the blame, but that could change. Perceived responsibility shifts as quickly as a fingers can point, and Washington is a very pointy place for political parties a the moment.

In the meantime, their relative equality produces a sickeningly repetitive pattern of behavior – accusation / stalemate / debacle / patch / repeat.

It is tiresome, and it does make one long for the simple, airless vacuum of space.

Patterns occur here too, though at least they are lovely to look at. This one is rather mysterious. I did not know that Saturn wears a Hexagonal Hat. This pattern was spotted by the Voyager spacecraft 30 years ago, and confirmed by the more recent Cassini mission. This is all happening in a thick, cloudy atmosphere that should be a bit more changeable, but the hexagon appears to be remarkably stable, just like the amazing snowflake below it and the dazzling spiral of a nearby feature – appropriately called The Whirlpool Galaxy. I’m sure there must be another one out there named Maytag.

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Describe a predictable pattern you’ve observed. Extra points if it’s beautiful.

74 thoughts on “Universal Patterns”

  1. Good morning. The first predictable pattern that comes to mind is symmetry which is found all over the place. One half is the same as the other half. Most living creatures have this although there are some people that are slightly asymmetrical with a crooked mouth or one droopy eye. Many man made objects, but not all, can be cut in half and each half will be identical in shape. I will try to think of some other less universal predictable patterns to report on later today.

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  6. 1. WordPress makes me sign in every day.
    My hands hurt so much I cannot type.
    But we are all moved in, 98% in place.

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    1. At our advanced ages, ice is our best friend. As I type this I have some applied to my sacro-ileac. Hope you get some rest and relief.

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  8. Crystals are known for being universally predictable patterns. I did a little research and found out that 400,000 kinds of crystals are known to science. They are all systematical. However, according to my research, there are 100 kinds of crystals of another kind, called quasicrystals, that are not symmetrical and form 5 sided structures. Actually, the symmetrical crystals are called periodic crystals to differentiate them from quasicrystals. So quasicrystals are another kind of predicable pattern and they were only discovered relatively recently in 1982.

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  9. I love patterns in nature, especial spirals and the fractal branching pattern. Let’s take that one for a closer look. I’m moved by the pattern of a single rich stem that gets smaller and smaller with each branching. I see in it a model of social organization, with little things getting connected to big things, with nourishment being equitably distributed.

    I can’t find a YouTube video that exhibits that, so this is the best I can do:

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    1. I find the branching patterns of trees to be fascinating, especial;ly in the winter when there are not leaves to hide the patterns of the branches.

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    2. nice. thanks steve. and jim on the crystals too and jacque on the kalaidascopes. thought of that with the busby berkley this morning

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    2. It was a lie. I was told there was a computer flub, so I posted the thing a second time. My apologies. I wish we could edit an errant post.

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      2. I thought that it had become impossible to do double postings. There was a time when I made that mistake frequently. WordPress came up with a way to prevent double posting except for the one you did today, Steve. You should look on your double post an exceptional occurrence of a rare nature.

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        1. Actually, Steve’s two posts are not identical. His prefaces to the identical videos is enough for WordPress to recognize them as different posts.

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        3. I guess Steve’s posts are not identical. Close enough for me. I say he did trick WordPress and create essentially identical posts. I know I am stretching the point when I say this.

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  12. There are patterns of steps, movements, and pauses in folk dances and activities like T’ai Chi. They are fun to watch when everyone’s feet are moving in the same patterns — but usually it’s a kinesthetic pattern, rather than visual. I’ll see if I can find an example later to imbed.

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  13. There is an ebb and flow at the bird feeders in the morning- first the nuthatches swing in, stealing the bigger nuts from the platform feeders, then a swarm of redpolls descends, followed by finches and sparrows, and finally the crossbills. This is followed by a free for all, with everyone diving, swooping, pushing and sometimes shoving, and then a sudden mass fly off, leaving the feeders empty until the nuthatches return to start the whole process over again.

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    1. 🙂 Pattern here is similar – chickadees start, LBJ’s (little brown jobs) come in, followed by the more aggressive cardinals, and then the squirrel shinnies up the neighboring post, leaps onto the baffle (garbage can lid that got turned the wrong way) that’s supposed to keep him off, and then I come roaring out to chase him away. On the third time, I’ll finally remember to turn the baffle around, making it harder for the squirrel…

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      3. A pattern I love is that we have the seemingly endless cold, sterile, silent world of winter. And then one morning, when I step outside I hear the rich, sexy bubbling of cardinals pitching woo to each other. Spring is coming.

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      4. When I hear about squirrels getting into bird feeders no matter how hard you try to keep them out I am always reminded of my old neighbor’s solution. He electrified his bird feeder and kept it turn off until a squirrel tried to get into it. When a squirrel got on the feeder he flipped the switch to turn on the electricity and sent the squirrel flying.

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        1. I don’t understand why some people think it’s OK to inflict all kinds of pain on squirrels.

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        2. What works for me is safflower seed in the bird feeder, and a corncob feeder below it for the squirrels. Peace and harmony, no electricity required.

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  14. It must be a pattern that after a period of hard work, stress and little time for myself, I head for Duluth. Where I get sick. Really sick.

    I’m home now. I’ll feel better tomorrow – when I have to return to work. That’s a pattern too.

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  15. This is one of those times I wish we had the capacity to post pictures, but then I would have had to choose one. I’ll just suggest that a good feast for the eyes can be had by googling up images for “fibonacci numbers in nature”.

    Visually and mathematically satisfying!

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  17. Beautiful patterns:
    how limestone will naturally segment itself into blocks
    turtle backs
    fish scales
    animal fur, particularly long-haired dogs
    bark of many hardwood trees
    distribution of limbs on plants
    distribution of leaves on limbs
    bird songs
    checked corn (which no one does anymore
    the many quilts we have made by my mother and daughter
    waves on the north shore
    ripple from a rock thrown into still water
    shimmering aspen in the wind
    seats set in a curved rows in any empty auditorium
    distribution of seeds in ripe sunflower head
    Fibonacci sequence
    multiples of nine
    a huge number of things under an electron microscope
    sound scheme of Hiawatha

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  18. My daughter is at the local high school today volunteering to help counsel because of a very bad pattern. There have been several teen suicides in their area lately, particularly among the Native students. One at their high school yesterday. Does it get sadder?

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    1. bless her, thats as sad as it gets for sure. the three people who i know that have been affected come to mind at once and i start welling up again for their loss and their inability tin hindsight to deal with the depression that was not apparent enough

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  19. There is a common coloring pattern in animal fur, darker fur on the top of the body and often the face, with a white throat and belly. The pattern can be a stark difference, as in a bicolor cat, or more subtle, as in a squirrel’s fur.

    Wikipedia says the appearance of white in cats’ coats is due to a white spotting gene, and goes on to say:

    Three genotypes are possible with the S (white spotting) gene, with capital S standing for a wild-type copy and lower-case s standing for the mutant.

    * SS (two dominant alleles) results in high grades of white spotting (sometimes resulting in a solid-looking white cat or a white cat with just a few color hairs)
    * Ss (one dominant, one recessive allele) results in medium grades of white spotting
    * ss (two recessive alleles) results in solid color or low grades of white spotting (sometimes as little as a few white hairs)

    I think extra points are in order for this observation, as there is much beauty to be admired in the white belly of a furry critter. It always makes me sad to see a dead squirrel in the street – so often their underbelly is exposed and they look so small and vulnerable.

    Another pattern was pointed out to me by a guy walking in the skyway in downtown St. Paul the other day. He told me he had moved here from North Carolina and had this to say about Minnesotans: “Everyone always walks in the skyway. And y’all talk about politics every day.” This one is neutral on the beauty value, IMHO.

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    1. i think the fact that we talk about politics everyday is beautiful. di the guy from carolina
      t a l k r e a l s l o w ?
      that a pattern i have noticed form there.
      i used to say they talked slow for a reason, their brains worked at that speed.

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      1. It was a brief conversation on an escalator – I’m guessing he talked faster than usual since time was limited. Or maybe he just doesn’t follow that pattern.

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  21. A predictable pattern: I open a box of Girl Scout Samoas cookies. I observe the lovely pattern of chocolate drizzled on the top of the cookie. I eat the cookie. And then another. I can never eat only one Samoa. Corollary: the rate at which a box of Samoas is emptied is exponentially faster than the rate of a Trefoils box, even accounting for the number of cookies in the box. Thin Mints disappear at a rate similar, though still slightly slower, to Samoas, accounting for the cookies-per-box ratio.

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      1. dont forget that at one time the devil was a gift form heaven. without the devil in the pattern what would life be? without pain is the rapture without sadness or despair is there joy and rejoycing? now if we could just tweak it a little bit….

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        1. too deep for me… have another Samoa, tim. (this is my pattern-when in doubt, offer food)

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    3. Samoas are my favorites as well – so there is a similar pattern at our house. Shortbread are my favorites after that.

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    1. the visual is great. i hear that picture all the time but seeing it is cool. i remember when the beatles white album came out on 8 track the guy who had the cool car was a 50 chevy with a light that blinked in color variations and intensity/ speed changes that were a similar appeal. a couple years later we just did drugs instead.

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  23. Perhaps you all noticed this when I was in England, but did anyone see the sad news on BIB Out to pasture blog?

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