Lynn F. Jacobs and Jeremy S. Hyman write:

Most college students think they’re pretty good at note-taking. And yet, not one in 10 students takes a good set of notes. Here are 10 tips for taking excellent lecture notes-from the professors’ perspective:

1. Write more, not less. You should be writing for most of the lecture. Rule of thumb: 15 minutes = 1 page of notes.

2. Write down the professor’s ideas, not yours. Some students lard their notes with their own questions, reflections, opinions, and free associations. But the point of taking notes is to get a good rendition of what the professor is saying. That’s what’ll be on the test. Leave your own thoughts for afterward or for your personal journal.

3. Forget about complicated note-taking “systems.” There’s no need to use the Cornell Note-taking System, Mind Mapping, or the “five R’s of good note taking” (whatever they may be). It’s more than enough just to simply number the professor’s points (and perhaps have a sub-number or two). Worrying about systems will just slow you down and can distort the actual “shape” of the lecture.

Extra Pointer. Be sure to set off subordinate points in your notes (that is, points that somehow contribute to the lecture but are not on the main path). Indent, and clearly identify, any illustrations, examples, comparisons, and interesting (though not central) asides. And whenever a professor uses a technical or unfamiliar term, be sure to write down-in the best case, word for word-the prof’s definition of that term.

4. Adjust your attention span. You’re used to rapid-fire content. The three-minute YouTube video, the IM, the text message, the Facebook “poke,” and-worst of all-the 140-character Twitter. All of these are quick and dirty bursts of content. But the professor’s points are often developed over 15- to 20-minute segments. Train yourself to focus-and to write-for longer intervals. Continue Reading »

Edouard Machery writes:

The Free-Cup Case: Joe was feeling quite dehydrated, so he stopped by the local smoothie shop to buy the largest sized drink available. Before ordering, the cashier told him that if he bought a Mega-Sized Smoothie he would get it in a special commemorative cup. Joe replied, ‘I don’t care about a commemorative cup, I just want the biggest smoothie you have.’ Sure enough, Joe received the Mega-Sized Smoothie in a commemorative cup. Did Joe intentionally obtain the commemorative cup?

The Extra-Dollar Case: Joe was feeling quite dehydrated, so he stopped by the local smoothie shop to buy the largest sized drink available. Before ordering, the cashier told him that the Mega-Sized Smoothies were now one dollar more than they used to be. Joe replied, ‘I don’t care if I have to pay one dollar more, I just want the biggest smoothie you have.’ Sure enough, Joe received the Mega-Sized Smoothie and paid one dollar more for it. Did Joe intentionally pay one dollar more?

So, what does it mean?

Robert Stein writes:

President-Elect Obama has little time to savor his historic victory and has to start addressing the challenges he stressed last night with a swift and sure transition from the paralyzed government now in place.

The names will be important, but decisiveness without delay would help lay to rest the doubts raised about his inexperience during the campaign and reassure an American public on the edge of panic about the economy.

0700: HAVE WALMART VOTERS GONE TO OBAMA…?

Ralph Nader asks a question that ought to be asked. And I think I know why he asks the question in the way he does. Language will offend many, but sometimes you have to yell fuck to get people’s attention.

I got a good lesson yesterday from the Israeli publication Haaretz about what happens when the sales staff steamrolls or just flat out ignores the editorial staff.

The flollowing notice arrived in my in box at 1123 on Monday:

Concerned about Barack Obama? You should be.

Many Americans have questions about Barack Obama and whether his views are good for the United States and Israel. And for good reason.

Most concerning is Sen. Barack Obama’s naive grasp of the threats against the United States and Israel.

Obama has surrounded himself with anti-Israel advisors like General Tony McPeak, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Robert Malley and Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Sen. Obama told a Jewish group he supports an undivided Jerusalem, only to flip-flop the very next day. Another time, Obama called his support for an undivided Jerusalem a “poor phrasing” of words.

From his opposition to legislation labeling Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization to his willingness to meet with Iranian President Ahmadinejad without any preconditions, Sen. Barack Obama has raised real questions about his judgment and experience.

Barack Obama has not shown the commitment to stand up to the people who would do us harm. Please share these important videos that highlight what we need to know. Click below to view.

Paid for by the Republican Jewish Coalition. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. WWW.RJCHQ.ORG

At 1248 on Tuesday, more than 24-hours later, a follow-up email arrived with the subject line: Clarification regarding commercial email sent yesterday. The message read:

Dear Haaretz subscribers,

You received an email earlier today from Haaretz.com about Barack Obama, on behalf of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

This email was issued by the commercial department and is not Haaretz editorial content.

Yours,

Haaretz.com

While I wasn;’t confused, clearly a significant number of readers were, and they were vocal enough to call Haaretz on the emailing.

She who Writes Like She Talks is just as sick of this as I am.

The question is, will it change?

Mano Singham writes:

But my expectation of caution is not entirely due to his personality and temperament. People like him face the crushing burden of being a ‘first’ (the first minority or woman) to occupy a position, any position, previously only held by white men. Such people are hesitant to take risks because they have very little room for error. If they mess up, it will be portrayed by many as due to the inability of the entire group that they are taken to represent. George Bush is easily the worst president in US history, a colossal failure by any standards, but that is not taken as evidence of the incapacity of white males to do the job. But let Obama be even a modest failure, and he will set back the cause of black people for several generations. He knows this as well as any other minority or woman who breaks through a barrier, and this will make him hesitant to take bold steps.

What may yet make him a great transformational leader despite these constraints is not his own inclinations but the fact that he is inheriting a country and a world that is in a serious mess, driven into the ditch by the most incompetent American president in history. Obama’s essential pragmatism, exceptional organizational skills, and ability to select and keep competent people to be around him (well exemplified by the smooth professionalism of his campaign) may result in him being forced to take radical steps simply to solve the deep problems he inherits, especially those of two unwinnable wars, and a hollowed out economy that is incapable of supporting the imperial ambitions of its current leadership

In that he may be like Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected in 1932 just after the collapse of the stock market in 1929 and at the beginning of the Great Depression. He was by no means a radical either but set in motion sweeping changes largely because he had to, and he had the persuasive skills to convince people that these were things that absolutely had to be done.

Tom Peters writes:

As a southern boy, born 66 years ago the day after tomorrow in a very segregated Annapolis MD, I never imagined I’d see the day. As a Naval Officer in the Pentagon during the King riots, I never thought I’d see the day. Old America always has a new trick up her glorious sleeve …

(Of course, now the work begins.)

Robert Reich writes:

First are the corporate and financial interest groups that will lobby intensely to preserve the status quo or get a disproportionate share of whatever the government is handing out. Pharmaceutical companies, insurers, and giant hospital chains will seek control over any health-care initiative. Teachers unions, textbook publishers, and state and local education interests will want to take over any educational reform. Producers of coal, ethanol, and nuclear power will try to dominate the energy and environment agenda. Military contractors will want a say over defense policy.

Wall Street will seek to retain control over its massive bailout.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff will demand that defense expenditures remain high, however quickly the Iraq War winds down.

Fiscal conservatives – including a newly-enlarged group of “blue-dog” Democrats – will fret over the ballooning budget deficit brought on by slower growth and the enormous expense of bailing out Wall Street. They”ll want to put any new spending initiatives on hold.

Business groups, Republicans, libertarians, talk-radio hosts, and the Wall Street Journal and Fox News will emit a constant and consistent cacophony of bilious rage over anything resembling a tax hike on the rich or big corporations.

Obama”s agenda may survive all this – if a deepening economic crisis focuses the public”s attention and mobilizes its support; if Obama communicates to the public clearly and compellingly why his agenda is necessary to the future; and if his vast campaign network of volunteers and Netroots transforms itself into a movement to take back politics from the lobbyists, naysayers, pork peddlars, and moneyed interests that normally run things in Washington.

Sherry Chandler writes:

It”s a gorgeous autumn day here in Central Kentucky and I plan to spend the rest of this Election Day holiday outdoors, shoring things up a bit for the cold weather.

Tonight I”ll go to bed early and find out how the chips fell in the morning.

I am relieved that this two-year ordeal of an election is over. It has been historic, not just in presenting us with the first serious (some more than others) women candidates and the first serious black candidate, but also in it”s grueling length and the obscene amounts of money it raised and spent.

I have read that the Democrats, having learned that they can raise money on the internet, are rather sheepishly re-thinking campaign finance reform.

But that”s a problem for the future.

I am tired of outraged blog posts, frantic calls to sign this or that petition, tired of e-mails telling me the horror of Sarah Palin, tired of YouTube diatribes.

The sun is shining. The day calls.

Thomas Friedman writes:

[Our] civil war that, in many ways, began at Bull Run, Virginia, on July 21, 1861, ended 147 years later via a ballot box in the very same state. For nothing more symbolically illustrated the final chapter of America”s Civil War than the fact that the Commonwealth of Virginia – the state that once exalted slavery and whose secession from the Union in 1861 gave the Confederacy both strategic weight and its commanding general – voted Democratic, thus assuring that Barack Obama would become the 44th president of the United States.

Thank you, Mr. Breathed…

On another cool morning after I wrote:

There wasn”t much excitement. There was a handful of moments when Sen. Obama loosed a zinger at Senator John McCain and two or three fists shot up and this person or that released a shout, bu no sustained on-the-edge of your seat quickening of the heart.

And this was their candidate for president of the United States. Yes, my candidate too, but Obama is the candidate who has brought thousands and thousands of young people out of political apathy to campaign and vote and share their enthusiasm with him.

What happened?

Better, what didn”t happen?

What didn”t happen was that Obama didn”t use the high point of his campaign to close the deal; to convince me that he is not simply Democratic Party Nominee for President of the United State No. 34.

On 4 November I will cast my 9th vote for a president of the United States. I wanted this year to be different. I wanted more.

Last night, I got it.

Last night United States President-elect Barack Hussein Obama made promises. He didn’t promise to end our wars. He didn’t promise to make us all rich. He didn’t even promise to make us all safe and healthy.

He made promises that he can keep.

He promised struggle up a long hill. And he promised to not only take that journey with us, but he promised to lead us toward the mountain top.

Last night he promised us:

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it’s been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years – block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

And President-elect Barack Hussein Obama asked of us that we:

[S]ummon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers – in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House – a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, “We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.” And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn – I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down – we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security – we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

For that is the true genius of America – that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This was the speech I wanted to hear on the night in August.

I feel better about my country this morning than I have in my life.

The hard work of change will soon blunt the euphoria. Yesterday I was considering closing this blog and moving on to other goals.

But this morning I know that is not the right step. I am part of a shared conscience that President-elect Barack Hussein Obama will call on in our collective future. Now is not the time to move on to other tasks; now is the time to commit to work harder, more honestly and with greater clarity in service.

I hope my readers will make similar commit tents.

What do you see as our task?

From Blogger Interrupted:

Word is that the polling place in the Alcazar in Cleveland Hts. is forcing voters to vote provisional if there is a mismatch between their ID address and the address in the poll book. WRONG.

I”ll be visiting there this morning, and reminding them what Joe says.

THEY CAN NOT GIVE YOU A PROVISIONAL BALLOT BECAUSE YOUR ADDRESS IS NOT UP TO DATE. As long as your drivers license or state-issued ID is not expired, they MUST LET YOU VOTE. Again – ask to talk to a different poll worker.

Will be there shortly. Remember – DO NOT ACCEPT THAT THE POLLWORKER KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING.

Stay tuned to Blogger Interrupted for updates.