Saturday, November 11

Today is Saturday of Week 12. I have released all the rest of the assignments (including all the blog commenting and project feedback assignments for Weeks 13, 14, and 15), so there is nothing to hold you back if you want to work ahead this weekend!

Class Procedures and Reminders

Thanksgiving break. (repeat announcement) If you have looked ahead to the Week 13 page, you saw that there is a whole week off for Thanksgiving in this class. Please try to turn in your project today if you want comments back from me before Thanksgiving break starts next Friday, and I'll have more to say about the way Week 13 works in the Monday announcements.

Project Stack. At the end of the day on Friday, I had just a few projects left in the stack, and on Monday I will start replying to the projects in order. The sooner you turn in your assignment, the sooner you will get back comments! While you are waiting on comments back from me about your Project assignment, you can check the stack to make sure I received your email.

Extra Credit. It's not too late to learn some new tech tricks this semester! Find out more in the extra credit section of this week's assignments.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Class Twitter. From yesterday's Twitter @OnlineMythIndia, here is a funny cartoon about a trickster cat in league with a mouse: Dharma the Cat.

Proverbs. Here is a lovely proverb from Germany: We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.

Storybook Archive. This project is from the Indian Epics class: Sita's Life: A Song of Valor. The adventures, both happy and sad, of Sita's exemplary life are told in later years by her son, Master Lava, the village teacher.

Free Book Online: Today's free book is The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions by Howard Pyle. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. Howard Pyle also did the illustrations:

Story of the Day. Today's story is from Aesop's fables: The Fox and the Goat. The goat makes a big mistake when he believes what the fox tells him!

Video: The video for today is Savitri and Satyavan. Find out more at Premium Prose India.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat knows hard work pays off: Effort is what makes you smart. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event on Campus: The Coffee Crawl continues until November 17! (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

Armistice Day. Today, November 11, is Armistice Day, "The Day of the Setting-Down-of-Arms," marking the end of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I on November 11 in 1918. November 11 is also the birthday of one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century, Kurt Vonnegut. You can read about Vonnegut's life and career in this Wikipedia article. Here is a quote where Vonnegut talks about the fact that he was born on Armistice Day in 1922, just a few years after the end of World War I:

When I was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

Check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day, or click here for past announcements.