February 22 & 23, 2017 En route to Sydney, Australia
Thursday was a full day at sea with way too many things to do. Breakfast in the morning, followed by Morning Trivia at 10:15. The first speaker at 11:00 was Dr Ravi Jayaram, a British doctor talking about “The MMR: How The Media Created A Public Health Disaster”. This was about the sequence of events that led to concerns about links between the MMR vaccine and autism, the subsequent drop off in vaccination rates and the rise in cases of measles and mumps. Dr Jayaram discussed the apparent rise in cases of autism, the facts behind the original scientific paper that sparked the scare and the role the media unwittingly played in fueling the concerns. This problem originally appeared in Britain but was quickly picked up by the American press with the same results.
The second lecture was by Gordon Dedman, a member of the Australian Army, speaking on “Bushcraft Survival: Survival Priorities and the 10-Piece Kit.” How to live off the land with topics about shelter, fire, acquisition of water and food, natural navigation, signaling, primitive skills, flora and fauna. All in three sessions.
There was a third lecture but we took too much time at lunch in the Britannia Restaurant and missed the session. However, we did make Afternoon Trivia. After dinner (Formal), the evening show was the Cunard Singers and Dancers doing various dances titled “La Danza”.
Friday was a bit less frantic, just Morning Trivia, another presentation by Dr. Jayaram titled “It Shouldn’t Happen To A Children’s Doctor”. Basically, his last 25 years as a children’s doctor, the highs and the lows. This was followed by lunch, afternoon Trivia and dinner (Informal). Evening entertainment was Simon McKinney, a New Zealand comedian and character impressionist. He was good with British, Australian and New Zealand accents, not so good with American accents.
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