{"id":4188,"date":"2019-01-30T16:54:44","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T21:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/?p=4188"},"modified":"2019-01-30T17:06:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T22:06:17","slug":"some-mathematical-cheer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/2019\/01\/30\/some-mathematical-cheer\/","title":{"rendered":"Some mathematical cheer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Does Pi Day have anything on the newly announced Thirdsday? Photo credit: Amit Patel via Wikimedia CC<\/p><\/div>\n

I might be stating the obvious here, but the longest partial government shutdown to date gave the U.S. a rocky start to 2019. Though the government has re-opened (read the AMS announcement about it here<\/a>), a long-term solution still needs to be reached or America will face another partial shutdown. I’ll admit all of this has put me in a funk. I’ve been alternating between feeling strong concern about at least three things (which are probably just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the shutdown’s impacts):<\/p>\n

1. The families of federal workers and contractors whose jobs were affected by the shutdown<\/p>\n

2. The impacts<\/a> on scientists and their research<\/p>\n

3. Joshua Tree and other national parks that were so damaged<\/a> during the shutdown that they likely won’t fully recover in our lifetimes<\/p>\n

Surely I’m not the only one in search of some math-based cheer to distract me from what’s happening in the government or, say, the polar vortex<\/a> that’s hit the Midwest . Here’s roundup of a few cool math-related things I’ve compiled:<\/p>\n