Patterns

The other night at dinner, I suggested to two of my grandchildren that pretty much everything they need to know about the world can be reduced to numbers and words.

The context was a conversation in which they were complaining about school, homework — and most specifically — math.

Maybe the greatest problem with math education for our children is its failure in real time to demonstrate math’s relevance to their lives.

The grandchildren at dinner that evening are bright, engaged kids who do well in school, including in math. But they seem to hold the opinion that most numerical topics are too abstract to spend much effort worrying about.

I’m no educational genius and I don’t actually know how to address their doubts about math but one of the silly games I often play with them at dinner revolves around each day’s date.

For example, yesterday’s date using the American style of shorthand was 12/2/22, a one followed by four straight twos. In a few weeks we will reach a Thursday on 12/22/22, a one with five straight twos.

Last month we had a date that can be expressed in both the American and European shorthand as 11/11/22. And that was only one of twelve such dates over this entire century of some 36,524 days!

Those 12, of course, are the specific dates when the month and day are identical and add up to the last two digits of the year, i.e., starting on 1/1/02, through 11/11/22, and ending up on 12/12/24 a few years from now.

It’s silly but it seems to at least elicit giggles from the kids at an old man’s strange fixation with dates.

And sometimes it also opens up musings about the beauty and synchronicity of the numerical patterns that are all around us, if we only look.

LINKS:

• US World Cup dream ends (DW)

• Biden signs bill averting rail worker strike despite lack of paid sick days (CNBC)

• Alex Jones has filed for personal bankruptcy (CNN)

• Trump saddled Republicans with flawed candidate Herschel Walker as the Senate nominee, but in the final weeks of the state's runoff election it looks like Trump has abandoned him. Some Republicans believe Trump's involvement would hurt Walker on Dec. 6 — but he hasn't even spent money to turn out the vote. [HuffPost]

• Amid GOP worries, Herschel Walker’s campaign desperately pleads for cash (NBC)

• VIDEO: Obama Campaigns With Warnock Before Georgia Senate Runoff (NYT)

• A federal appeals court on Thursday ended an independent review of documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate. The decision is a win for the Justice Department, clearing the way for prosecutors to use the entire tranche of documents seized during an Aug. 8 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. [AP]

• Federal judge orders former top lawyers in Trump’s White House to testify in criminal grand jury probe (CNN)

• Appeals Court Scraps Special Master Review in Trump Documents Case (NYT)

• Virulently antisemitic comments by Kanye West spark new GOP criticism (Politico)

• Rapper Ye under fresh denunciation for praising Hitler, Nazis in Alex Jones interview (WP)

• Trump Embraces Extremism as He Seeks to Reclaim Office (NYT)

• Right-wingers are out to scrub Twitter of everyone but them, with Elon Musk's help. Extremists are reportedly working to "purge" a list of 5,000 people from Twitter, including progressive journalists, Democrats, celebrities and researchers. [HuffPost]

• The GOP Can’t Hide From Extremism (Atlantic)

• Pentagon debuts its new stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider (ABC)

• GOP tension builds over House speaker race as McCarthy and critics prep for floor fight (CNN)

• Arizona's Cochise County finally certifies its election results after a court order (NPR)

• DHS warns of heightened threats ahead of holidays (The Hill)

• Supreme Court agrees to hear arguments on Biden's student loan plan, closing in on a resolution (USA Today)

• Lawsuit claims legislation used to fund DeSantis’ migrant flights is unconstitutional (CNN)

• Jobs Growth, Wage Gains Remained Strong in November (WSJ)

• Putin is open to talks and diplomacy on Ukraine, Kremlin says (Reuters)

• Biden Says He Is Willing to Talk to Putin About Ukraine, With Conditions (NYT)

• Kremlin Turns Down Biden’s Conditions for Putin Talks (Moscow Times)

• EU reaches deal for $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil (AP)

• Further easing of COVID testing requirements and quarantine rules in some Chinese cities was met with a mix of relief and worry, as hundreds of millions await an expected shift in national virus policies after widespread social unrest. We look at the fierce debate over the future of the zero-COVID policy, with anger over lockdowns but also fears about opening up. (Reuters)

• U.N. Calls Ambassadors for Meeting With Taliban in Kandahar (Foreign Policy)

• Indonesia's parliament is expected to pass a new criminal code this month that will penalize sex outside marriagewith a punishment of up to one year in jail, officials have confirmed. (Reuters)

• The Colorado River could face a doomsday scenario as soon as July. Water could get so low in Lake Powell that its hydroelectric dam needs to be shut down. That means much less water would flow to Arizona, Nevada and California. (WP)

• 'Rats will hate this job posting' - New York City seeks rat czar (BBC)

• Anxiety disorders are underdiagnosed and undertreated (WP)

• College Football Playoff expands to 12 teams in 2024 season (AP)

• The Hall Of Fame Math For Barry Bonds And Roger Clemens Doesn’t Add Up (538)

• World’s oldest recorded tortoise prepares for 190th birthday party (Guardian)

• Nation’s 56,000 Acres Of Spinach Crops Cooked Down To Single Half-Cup Serving (The Onion)