My thermodynamics professor last semester had amazing penmanship, and he inspired me to work on my horrible chicken scratches. I almost never took notes in class because my notes were simply too awful-looking, so I didn't enjoy the process of writing. I worked at my penmanship with some online guides, and bought a slightly weightier pen (Parker IM gel). After practicing my cursive over the winter break and writing at every possible moment, I've seen some definite improvement. More importantly, I now enjoy writing and looking at the finished product. I recently bought a $25 fountain pen and some $5 Piccadilly notepads (Moleskine lookalikes), and my notes have improved even more. Anyways, I think that if we worked on our penmanship a little, we'd enjoy taking notes in class a lot more. And correspondingly, we'd get more out of each lecture! It definitely worked for me.

the obvious stupidity of Professor Murray's statement that removing 10% weight will reclaim what advanced hybrid systems do? So by those calculations, I suppose I'm losing something like 35% gas mileage when I have one fat passenger in my Honda Fit? Of course, I'm talking about Hybrid Synergy Drive and not GM's pathetic "mild hybrids" that hardly beat a 4-cylinder. Clearly lighter cars is a good thing for efficiency. But let's not get our information from someone who lost his grip on reality. The 10% figure is nonsense.