In Which I Decide to Institute more Draconian Teaching Policies

Because my students do not have reliable access to email I provide them with my phone number with the caveat that they only text me, they don't call me, because I don't pick up on numbers I don't know and texting usually ends up being cheaper in this country than phone calls.  Starting next semester I am going to add another caveat that religious texts are an automatic 10 points off a student's final grade, with a possible additional penalty of -2 points multiplied by the number of people to whom I am supposed to forward the text.  An extra penalty calculated by how much it annoys me will be applied to any texts sent between the hours of 9pm and 7am.

This morning's (at 4:30am) annoying religious text message, capitalization preserved:

Morning is not only sun rise but A Beautiful Miracle that defeats darkness and spread light.

Now the ancient Egyptians did indeed believe that sunrise was a defeat of darkness, since the sun god had to take the form of a cat every night to slay the serpent of darkness, and it is possible that I might credit my sweet little orange cat Tamerlane with making the sun come up, but Tanzanians habitually mistreat cats.  Furthermore,  we all should be able to think enough to realize that if this Beautiful Miracle (physics: now with extra miraculosity!) was permanent, without revolution causing planetary night, Earth would probably only be habitable at the line between day and night.  At least, that's how it works in science fiction.   This is, however, an opportunity for a gratuitous cat photo.

Sunny Tamerlane practices for his nightly battles.
I miss my sweet kitties.