Your turn

Sometimes it's hard to fully describe what a Masters in Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences means as compared to a degree in Physics, Divinity, History, or International Conflict Resolution (to name a few areas of expertise my friends are studying).

In those disciplines, the degree means that you've spent time on the cutting edge of research, possibly even attempting to add your own thoughts about a certain problematic area. For me ... well, I think my degree is showing me that it pays to listen to other people. I'm not exactly doing original research (although I have come up with an innovative way to save small mining towns and farm towns in the Rust Belt and the Midwest from becoming empty shells--commuter havens and bedroom communities).

So, in deference to those who have made comments and suggestions in the last couple weeks, I'd like to turn over part of the blog to them.

A certain divinity student in Connecticut suggests that Jesus, as portrayed on The Book of Daniel, is not exactly innovative like I had said. He appears mainly to counsel Aiden Quinn on his painkillers, which is all fine and dandy, but it's not exactly religion. After all, shouldn't Jesus be worried about whether Aiden is loving his his fellow man as he loves himself? Maybe Jesus doesn't have to cover that subject because Aiden Quinn is already doing pretty well in that regard. Either way, Jesus as presented on the show is a sort of Jesus-lite, more of the "angel on the shoulder" than a personal savior. This is not to argue it's a bad show, but to argue that my adjectives used to describe it were stretching just a bit.

And a certain Conflict Resolution student in England suggests that the recent assessment of the destruction of MAD (which I discussed before) has sent the academics scurrying to their ivory tower to contemplate what this means. He thinks that China may not be the problem so much as a state like Iran (in a couple years).

If I post in error on some important physics point, I'll expect to hear from Switzerland, and if I my history is bad, I suspect I'll hear from Chicago.

Many thanks to those who have corrected me. I know who to listen to.