Cirque du Soleil is absolutely great. I have only seen two shows, both on VHS in class, but nonetheless incredible. However, I did get to go to the Cirque du Soleil school in Quebec City this March. I got to learn all sorts of Cirque performances; trapeze, trampoline, Chinese yo-yo, juggling, diving and rolling, walking on balls, etc. and at the very end they all surprised us with a performance! Very great people, and an experience I'll never forget!
Being a student currently, I prefer to use paper and pencil. Not only does it make me remember my notes, but I can also make little drawings about those notes to help me remember. I feel the same way especially in math and chemistry classes. Finding all those symbols would take too much time to keep up with the lecture. There's also the temptation for people to completely ignore the lecture and play games or surf the net.
I am a daily reader of neatorama, and I use the tags occasionally, but never use the search by date. Text and picture size is fine the way it is, in my opinion.