"Recently, two different vaccine refusal disputes led to two different outcomes." - BJC
"Some people ignore the overwhelming evidence and still believe the connection [to autism] exist because it was given credence in 1998 by the publication of a fraudulent research paper in the British medical journal The Lancet. That paper was later retracted when it was discovered that the chief researcher, a British surgeon named Andrew Wakefield, had manipulated the data and failed to disclose that he had been paid more than $600,000 by lawyers looking to win a lawsuit against vaccine manufacturers." -
"The use of fetal cell lines from the 1960s is another sticking point in the vaccine debate." - Christianity Today
"Tada revealed that her discharge was delayed because the hospital wanted to make certain that all the proper medical equipment arrived at her home prior to her release." - Christian Post
"[S]everal outbreaks over the past few years have begun in religious communities with poor vaccination rates. The current measles outbreak in New York, for example, has been linked to vaccine refusal among ultra-Orthodox Jewish families in Rockland County. Prior to that, an unvaccinated Ohio Amish community saw a massive measles outbreak in 2014. In 2013, a smaller outbreak was traced back to an evangelical megachurch in North Texas." - Washington Post
A just-published study in The Lancet: “people who smoked marijuana on a daily basis were three times more likely to be diagnosed with psychosis compared with people who never used the drug. For those who used high-potency marijuana daily, the risk jumped to nearly five times.” - Christian Post
I set out on a journey to lose some weight this year, partly expecting to fail, as in the past. To my surprise, I’ve reached my goal with three months to spare.
My motives for the project were mixed. I wanted to be a better steward of my body, abilities, and energy (1 Cor. 6:19, 4:2). I wanted to demonstrate to my son the power of daily discipline over time (1 Tim. 4:8, 2 Tim. 1:7, 1 Cor. 9:27) and strengthen my ethos in conversations with him about his personal goals. I also just wanted to look and feel better. I have to be older, but I don’t have to be heavier.
What has worked for me may not work for anyone else. But if you struggle with your weight, there may be some ideas here you can use.
Many factors went into making this effort successful. The biggest influence was unexpected success at work in pursuit of complex, but measurable, goals. I wondered: if, at work, I could reach what seemed at first to be impossible output targets, could I get rid of pounds the same way?
The target took shape as a New Year’s resolution: I’ll lose 18 lbs. in 2018—given my past patterns and my small frame, a substantial goal. The following were the core principles.
