LEARNING SECRET: Don’t Take Notes With A Laptop. “In each study, however, those who wrote out their notes by hand had a stronger conceptual understanding and were more successful in applying and integrating the material than those who used took notes with their laptops.” I’m not surprised. When you take notes by hand you have to do a fair amount of mental pre-processing. When you type notes, it tends to flow from your ears straight to your fingers with less conscious thought.

Transcribing everything seems to match the mentality of the dweeb in The Paper Chase who said “My outline is better than the casebook — it’s longer than the casebook!”

AT AMAZON, Deals Galore at the Headphone Store.

Also, markdowns on Stanley Tools.

HMM: Google-released Chrome extension allows easy in-browser Webmail encryption.

TEACHER CHARGED WITH RAPING BOY flipped out with jealousy when he had a prom date.

IN CASE YOU’VE BEEN DISTRACTED BY ALL THE OTHER SCANDALS AND DEBACLES, ObamaCare Is Still A Disaster: “More than 2 million people who got health insurance under President Barack Obama’s law have data discrepancies that could jeopardize coverage for some, a government document shows. About 1 in 4 people who signed up have discrepancies, creating a huge paperwork jam for the feds and exposing some consumers to repayment demands, or possibly even loss of coverage, if they got too generous a subsidy.”

I’m not sure Obama’s up to the heavy lifting.

SKYNET WILL FIND THEM USEFUL: The Robots Running This Way: Boston Dynamics is building robots that walk and run like living creatures. Some of these machines are now headed for the world’s toughest terrain.

JACLYN CASHMAN: Hillary’s secret ‘lunch’ with prez raises questions. “Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl officially became an issue in the 2016 presidential race this week when Hillary Clinton backed the president’s reckless swap for the soldier with the Taliban.”

Related: Mediaite: Fmr. Soldier: Military Told Unit to ‘Not Tell the Truth’ About Bergdahl.

Also: Afghanistan: Obama’s War. “Last week, when President Obama made his trip to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, he claimed that ‘America’s war in Afghanistan will come to a responsible end.’ This turned out to be the greatest applause line of his speech. With his assertion, Obama, in effect, declared himself the hero of the Afghan war – the one who put an end to that nightmare. But what Obama failed to mention was that it was his war, and that nothing but unattractive scenarios lie ahead for that war-torn state. . . . Why is Afghanistan, as Bob Woodward correctly termed it, Obama’s war? Del Castillo’s sharp pencil work shows that during the period 2002-2013, $650 billion have been appropriated for the Afghan war effort, and a whopping $487.5 billion of that (or 75%) took place after President Obama took office.” Most of the casualties, too. Including some who were looking for Bergdahl.

UPDATE: More members of Bergdahl’s platoon speak out: Bergdahl Was ‘That One Guy That Wanted To Disappear.’

Also: Chuck Todd: W.H. Caught ‘Flat-Footed’ by Bergdahl Response. Don’t they even read Rolling Stone? Oh, who am I kidding? Nobody reads Rolling Stone. But if they had, Michael Hastings could have filled them in. You know, before he died.

Related: “Wonder how long it is before oppo on outspoken members of Bergdahl’s platoon starts popping up.” How long does it take for Valerie Jarrett to call the NSA? Then launder through Journolisters. . . .

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: You Should Be Shaving With A Laser. Actually, I use a phased tachyon beam. That way, I’m already shaved an hour earlier when I get out of bed.

ACCOUNTABILITY: Jail for woman who told husband she had been raped to hide her affair.

POT BROWNIE FREAKOUT: The Dowd Abides.

AND YET I’M SURE SOMETHING IMPORTANT WAS LEFT OUT: BREAKING: Multiple Ethics Complaints Filed Against Harry Reid.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 391.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: White House Spin Doctors Flub Bergdahl Release.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held captive by the Taliban for five years, has been freed in exchange for the release of five detainees from the Guantánamo Bay prison. Since the news broke, celebration has given way to controversy over the soldier’s record and the terms of his release.

President Obama gave the news the full Rose Garden treatment, appearing alongside Bergdahl’s parents in a widely publicized address. After he hugged the President, Robert Bergdahl addressed his son in Arabic and Pashtu, and used a phrase which translates to “in the name of Allah, the most merciful.” Mr. Bergdahl has come under fire in the past for tweeting “God will repay for the death of every Afghan child, ameen.”

As a further complicating issue, it seems Sgt. Bergdahl himself may not have been a model soldier. . . .

However shady this whole affair may be, one can’t help but be glad that this young man is reunited with his family. And we at AI feel little desire to judge the actions of a troubled young man facing combat; nor do we think parents should be harshly condemned for every remark made while living with their loved ones in the shadow of war. But it was the White House that politicized this family and brought them under a spotlight better left unlit. Rather than let Sgt. Bergdahl quietly return home, the White House turned the klieg lights on the Bergdahl family, and left them blinking in a glare that did not serve them well.

Whatever else this episode may be, it is not a clear win for the United States or for the increasingly rattled and off-balance Obama Administration. Nor will it endear the President to veterans who are disgruntled about the ongoing scandal of VA fraud and incompetence.

The utterly counterproductive and inappropriate rollout of the news indicates that somebody in the President’s circle has at least temporarily lost his or her grip on reality. How a competent professional could have thought this story was the kind of big win to put on center stage escapes us. The President would be wise to ask whether some of his political operatives are losing their edge; his enemies create enough trouble for him without his friends getting involved.

They’re not LeBron. They can’t play at this level.

THE ATLANTIC: President Obama’s Prisoner Swap Weakened the Rule of Law. But to be fair, so has his whole presidency.

NOVEMBER IS GETTING CLOSER: Obama’s climate team tries to calm Dems.

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And, MP3 Music Deals Galore.

CHEATING: An Insider’s Report on the Use of Race in Admissions at UCLA.

NO WONDER THE WHITE HOUSE DECIDED TO DO THE BERGDAHL TRADE WHEN IT DID: 79% of WaPo/ABC poll respondents hold Obama personally responsible for VA scandal.

Not sure the distraction is working out as intended, though.

ANNALS OF THE .1 PERCENT: Sen. Elizabeth Warren got $525,000 advance for new book. So here’s a new proposal, to accompany my revolving-door surtax: Book advances received by serving government officials or those less than one year out of office are taxed at 75%.

MISSISSIPPI: Eliana Johnson: Tea Party Forces A Runoff. Given that Cochran didn’t really want to run this time, and that a runoff just helps the Dems, stepping down would probably be the noble thing to do. Will he do it?

JAMES TARANTO: Who Here’s A Horton? The left’s bizarre defense of the Bergdahl deal.

Congressional Republicans, and some Democrats, are accusing Obama with having violated a law prohibiting the release of detainees from Guantanamo without advance notification to Congress. Obama’s position, outlined in a signing statement, is that the law unconstitutionally limits his authority as commander in chief.

It seems to us the president has the better of that argument: Holding or releasing enemy combatants is indeed a command decision, not a legislative one. Even if Congress has a colorable case, a court might find the dispute to be a nonjusticiable political one. And even if it’s justiciable, what remedy could a court grant? An injunction ordering the Taliban to get back to Gitmo?

Thus the test of Obama’s ability to free terrorists from Guantanamo is a political more than a legal one. And the politics look to be tougher than the administration anticipated. Why, even Michael Tomasky is likening the president to the hapless Michael Dukakis.

Ouch.

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ISN’T HAPPY WITH OBAMA:

Amazing cover, even if it’s a bit derivative.

Related: “Suck it up and salute.”

AN IDEA SO CRAZY IT JUST MIGHT HAVE WORKED: What if Team Obama had just told the truth about Bowe Bergdahl?

MORE ON DUKE UNIVERSITY’S SEXUAL-HARASSMENT KANGAROO COURT.

Following his expulsion, McLeod filed a lawsuit accusing Duke of violating his due process rights, prohibiting testimony from key witnesses and relying on second-hand testimony in order to find him guilty of sexual misconduct.

The expulsion would keep McLeod, an Australian native in the U.S. on a student visa, from obtaining the degree he needs to be hired by a Wall Street investment firm that offered him a job.

Judge Smith ruled that McLeod “is likely to suffer irreparable harm if he is expelled from Duke University pending a final determination on the merits in this action.”

Smith found, however, that it was “unlikely” that Duke would “suffer any damage or loss as a result of this preliminary injunction.”

Nope. Duke’s damage is self-inflicted. Who would send a son there in the face of such obvious prejudice? Well, maybe someone planning on filing a lucrative Title IX suit. . . .