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.

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