The more I think about this ...

... the more I wonder, what was Jack Kruse doing going on the LC Cruise?   There was enough notoriety surrounding his TEDx talk, that Jimmy urged on his forum for members to lobby TEDx Nashville to for the speaking slot.  I can't imagine Jimmy Moore didn't watch it.  

So I'm putting myself in his shoes and thinking to myself, this isn't good news here.  I know I'd be a bit panicky if my first two leading headliners backed out relatively late in the game (*see footnote 1) but still in time for would be cruisers to cancel their plans were their heart set on meeting either of these two.  Given the popularity of Jack's podcast appearance and being the #1 vote-getter for Encore Week, of course Jack was the guy to call.  I would have!  Jack was quirky and eccentric at the time, but his bad behavior was limited to PH near as I can tell and nobody would be harmed by a little fun talk about how your leptin receptors can't process electrons from carbohydrates and such.  Score!  With Rosedale & Kruse to replace Gary, and Wheat Belly for Wolf, all seemed well in the LC world. 

But I, like Jimmy, have been on enough cruises, and even if not there are enough news reports, that one knows these ships worry most about (in no particular order):  terrorism, high crime on the high seas and/or jumpers and infectious diseases.  As I related in my last post on this matter, I have had personal experience with the latter.  On the second day of a 10 day cruise, we received the first reports of a norovirus breakout.  We purchased the water spa package (really nice therapy pools, steam rooms, saunas, hot tile lounges -- if you ever take a cruise get this!) but only got to use it those two days.  The next day, all warm tubs were battened down.  The buffets were clear wrapped and sterile staff served food.  Not to mention a fair bit of paranoia fearing that YOU will come down with this.  My husband did.  If you come down with this you quite literally don't know your head from your butt and they quarantine you for 24 hrs minimum after it's worked its way through your system.  On a 10 day cruise, if you contract it early, there's still time to enjoy, on a cruise like Magic with 3 ports?  You could miss pretty much the only reason for taking a cruise.  

If anyone goes on cruise forums they will learn that this norovirus is insidious and for the sake of publicity, it is kept very hush hush.  We were also not informed of very much as passengers, but we were very close to the ship reaching the level where we'd be quarantined and sent back.  These things tend to make the news from time to time, but even many of these fly under the radar because it is more common than one might think.  All trip long we kept getting "maybe the spa will open back up" ... never did.  While they did refund that expense,  there were no hot tubs to be had even in the free access areas which folks tend to like to enjoy on sea days.  Whether you like it or not, it's pretty much required to squirt with hand sanitizer like 10 times a day.  It's all a big mess.  Unless you have insurance (and I'm not sure how that all works), if your ship is quarantined you get the piddly port charges back for the places the ship didn't dock and that's about it as far as what they are required to do.  

So, I imagine had Carnival been informed of Kruse's "epic biohack" from Jan 9 of this year, they would have been legitimately concerned.  If Jack had really done this he could be a serious risk, especially in the cruise ship environment.  Now MRSA probably doesn't "hit" like the norovirus, but I imagine the publicity would be even worse to have several cases tied to your cruise ship later.   

Jimmy Moore knew, or should have known, more than a month ago of this potential issue.  And I choose my words carefully here because I don't think there was an issue because I don't believe the events of Jan 9 ever happened.  If I were in Jimmy's shoes (IIWIJS), however, one way or another, I would have addressed this.  I'm thinking that like the AHS12 disclaimers, there's got to be some clause in the LC Cruise papers that allows for changes in speakers or even cancellation of the whole dang conference if there are some extenuating circumstances.  This would come down to one of those % value deals and notorious as Jack is, one 45 min presentation out of 3 days wouldn't rise to the level.  I feel sorry for the cruisers who perhaps didn't get what they signed up for, but Carnival was likely not sweating this aspect much if any.  IIWIJS, when Jack went from eccentric to certifiable -- either liar or crazy dangerous to himself and others -- in front of an audience, I would have pulled the plug on his appearance on my cruise.  Period.  That he did not should be disconcerting to those who probably don't follow all this stuff and rely on his integrity to select presenters.  So,    IIWIJS, I would have probably just canceled his appearance and sent out notice to cruisers about the circumstances.  This qualifies as out of his control, it would not have damaged him or lost him any money (** see footnote 2), and I doubt many, if any, cruisers would have complained.  Many bought their tickets to see the Messiah, not Jack.  I think this would have risen Jimmy's stock as a clear thinking arbiter/organizer.  A win win unless Jimmy is in negotiations for next year's cruise to be Optimized.

I've been amazed at the reaction to the MRSA nonsense, and frankly, per the Gallier2 comment from FTA that Aging Hippie cited (warning, lots of profanity from the usual suspect), somehow us three see-you-next-Tuesdays were being unreasonable in our response that either way (true or fairy tale) this was unacceptable for anyone, let alone a neurosurgeon.  Jack Kruse should have been summarily dismissed from any official "community" events following that nonsense ... including the LC Cruise.   Had Jimmy been truly responsible to the cruisers, none of this would ever have happened.

And Jack was just interviewed live on FNC by Martha MacCallum.  Sigh.  

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*  One has no idea what "a few months back"  from the January 6 announcement of the final lineup was for when Robb backed out.  At this point I'm more likely to err on Robb's side that he did that early on and the announcement was held off as he was the more major paleo draw

** I really get the idea most folks that go on this thing are doing it to meet up with friends.  The chance to meet or listen to LC celebs, probably not so much but I can see the draw.  

I think more folks should be upset with what the Harkness' reported were presented as weight loss success stories:

The afternoon session started with several success stories from low carbers. This session was sponsored by Andrew Dimino, the owner of CarbSmart.com. Andrew went first, with his own weight loss and health gains. Next up was Dana Carpender (HoldTheToast.com), a lady who wrote one of the low-carb books (How I Gave up my Low-Fat Diet & Lost 40 Pounds) which I found very influential back when I was first starting my own low-carb lifestyle. Dana has lost another 20 pounds since she wrote that book. Following Dana, Amy Dungan (HealthyLowCarbLiving.com) related her success story, and was in turn followed by Vanessa Romero (HealthyLivingHowTo.com), Kim Eidson, Susan Winkler, and Kent Altena (AtkinsDietGeek.com).

Here I thought Andrew, Dana & Amy of CarbSmart would be presenting other success stories.  Or perhaps just Dana's since at least she's thin (but not healthy), but it is unbelievable that Andrew and Amy presented!  THAT I'd want my money back for.