But taken together, those episodes form a pattern of escalating maritime and air tensions in the Pacific that have frustrated and worried American officials.
This is an alarming pattern of escalating civil disorder.
There is often a pattern to escalating workplace violence, said Jim Crumbley, a senior security consultant at Amsec International, a security firm that works with corporations.
Saturday's strikes were the latest in an apparent pattern of escalating attacks on medical facilities and doctors in the Syrian civil war, according to human rights organisations.
"There has been a pattern of escalating hate speech toward Muslims, with people saying that Islam is an evil religion," Mr. Marayati said.
The pattern of escalating violence in Bahrain spared the Sakhir circuit, though there were often more police and security personnel in view than spectators.
"We believe that this murder is part of a pattern of escalating violence against indigenous leaders which responds to the Ecuadorean government and the companies' need to clear the opposition to a mega-mining project in the Cordillera del Condor," he said.
There is also a pattern of escalating threats whenever South Korea gets a new leader.
And men who kill partners, or ex-partners, sometimes follow a pattern of escalating violence.
Rather, they fit into a wider pattern of escalating violence which threatens to derail the peace plan.
Critics might complain that the upscale seats are part of a decades-long pattern of escalating ticket prices, but teams counter that the new revenue can help to keep prices relatively stable for bleacher seats and the like.
