How many times have you interrupted class to talk about a relevant current event that literally had happened in the past two minutes? Probably not often enough.
How long did it take you to hear about the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan? Probably too long (unless you haven't, which means you should click those links now). Here are the editors’ top 5 ways to get the daily news in 15 minutes or less--and keep up with it.

1. Avoid getting distracted by Facebook, e-mail or StumbleUpon by making Google News your homepage. We can’t guarantee you’ll get to your homework faster, but we can promise that you’ll be more productive. When something major happens, you’ll see it right away.

2. Sign up for The Daily Beast’s Cheat Sheet. Delivered to your inbox daily, the Cheat Sheet outlines a few of the top stories of the day from news organizations around the world. There’s almost always sufficient information in the summaries in the e-mail, but if a story piques your interest--and it will--you can head straight for the full article.

3. Sign up for New York Times e-mail updates and download Google Notifier. The New York Times will e-mail you as frequently or infrequently as you wish, but be sure to sign up for breaking news updates at the very least. When something happens, Google Notifier will alert you on your desktop. There’s nothing better than catching a glimpse of an international crisis while the story is still developing--especially if you’re discussing it in class.

4. Have some spare time? Head to the library to physically turn the pages of one of many, many daily and weekly newspapers, or pick up your own hard copy of select publications in McEwen School of Communications or Moseley Center.

5. Follow your most trusted news organizations on Twitter. If you’re cool with news overload, follow a few on your phone to get breaking news text updates on the go.

Don’t forget to follow The Pendulum on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and watch out for this week’s issue, hitting the stands early Wednesday morning.