Major Revisions to CPR
As indicated by the American Heart Association in the journal Circulation:
A single rescuer giving CPR now give 30 compressions for every 2 breaths (instead of 15 compressions and 2 breaths) for all ages except newborn infants. The compressions are to be hard and fast at ~100/min.

Drive
Left the city on Friday, heading west to a conference. It was timed perfectly to watch the clouds and follow the sun set over the flat terrain. Clouds were cumulus "Simpsons" clouds that became stretched out as dusk set in. The growing molten coin of a sun struck the clouds in stripes of pink, red, and yellow. Flocks of half-thousand migrating birds coalesced and dispersed in blankets. Beautiful. Darkness came fast. Worth a thousand pictures; too bad I didn't take any. All that's left is memory.

Creation testifies to the invisible God.

Japanese Lesson 4 - Individual & Community
The Japanese culture has an underlying pressure to conform. One physician tells me: in Japan, homogeneity extends beyond ethnicity to appearances, clothing, and accessories. If you differ, people take notice and it's not culturally acceptable to stand out. That may explain why fads start and spread so quickly there, such as why so many currently bleach/dye their hair blond or brown. (But someone has to start the trends.) My coworkers seem surprised by the "individuality" expressed in the U.S. as people dress and do "whatever they want."

There is, however a current of disconnect and isolation in many families in Asia. My Japanese boss tells me that once kids are ~10 years old, they are "on their own," even in making life decisions. (Certainly they still get money, food, shelter, and the pervasive expectation to succeed.) For children, education trumps all priorities. Adults are tied to their work. Classic cases are the men of Japan who's legendary workoholic natures isolate them from their wives and children. And this is normal. Some coworkers tell me they are so use to working, they wouldn't know what to do with free time. This is not to say the families have less love, only they spend less time together and risk becoming strangers who happen living together. For examples on the disconnect of modern Asian family, I recommend the Japanese movie Shall We Dance, or a better example, the Taiwanese movie Yi Yi. Contrast that with the fascinating movie To Live.

Japanese Lesson 3 - A View on WWII
I asked one of my colleagues about what the Japanese views of WWII were. He said many Japanese in the generation before him feel envious of the U.S. and perhaps ashamed -- not ashamed of doing anything wrong but about losing. The envy and shame seemed to be accentuated by the fact that it was the U.S. who helped reconstruct Japan after the war.

I asked, "But don't the Japanese feel any guilt for what they did?"
He responded, "The people did not know any better. The blame rests upon Emperor Hirohito and Shintoism (the national religion then). The ignorance of the people was like that of North Korea in our modern times. This is [the history] they taught at my school in Japan."

I wonder did the people know any better? Can it really be blamed on one person? It's like blaming Hitler alone for all of Germany's actions or Mussolini for all of Italy's actions. People do have consciences and people can choose right or wrong. As you may know, there were Germans during WWII who chose to do good when they hid refugees and joined the resistance movement to overthrow the Third Reicht.

Then again, in Japan, the sense of hierarchy and community over individual is so much more ingrained than in the West. And if they were like North Korea, perhaps the soldiers knew only whom they were told was the enemy.

I read another book by Shusaku Endo called The Sea and Poison. It focused on a hospital in Japan during WWII in which a team of surgeons receive a American POW, experiment on him, and kill him. Knowing what was to come down, right as the experimental operation commenced, one of the residents stepped aside because he realized the immorality of the whole business. Yet he didn't try to stop it; he just stood at a distance in nonparticipation. Another resident looked at him with disdain, thinking, 'You've already gone this far; you are as guilty as all of us.' This is an example of 1940's Japanese with consciences and knowingly choosing against it.

But this is too harsh, too much of a strawman. There is a famous Yale study on people responding to authority. You may know the Milgram experiment consisting of a researcher (E), a test subject (S) and a voice actor (A). The researcher told test subjects to be teachers prompting an oral exam. The actor played a student responding to the exam questions. If the student answered wrongly, the teachers were told to to press switches that inflicted an electric shock to the student. Each incorrect answer led to a stepwise increase in electric shock up to a lethal dose. The student would initially act angered, then start screaming, and finally stop responding altogether, as though unconscious or dead.

This study found that 65% of normal adults sampled punished the students to the maximum lethal 450 volts when commanded by an authority (the researcher). 0% stopped before 300 volts. This shows how weak people's minds are -- malleable to people in authority, not just to "group think." But the test subjects still made a choice against their conscience as revealed by their hesitancy and agitation through the process, looking back at the researcher before untimately choosing against good. It also shows how easily people choose evil.

The question then is, what leads people to make the moral choice? What distinguishes those few who resisted Nazi Germany and the few who quit early in the Yale study?

I had tapas with a handful of friends on Saturday. Among them was my good friend from South Korea. He is always an encouragement to me, spurring me towards the Lord. It still makes me wonder that my friend is a father. He took his folded cloth napkin and energetically rocked it on his arms and sang to it, showing how he sings to his son. He's still the dynamic combination of goofiness, charisma, wit, and perceptiveness.

Opium for the Guilty
I recently asked a friend, "Do you believe God exists?"
"Sometimes I do. Usually I don't."
"Let me guess. You believe God when something bad happens or worries you; not when things are good."
"Yes, yes."
"Humans are so often like that. Seeking God only when there is no other option."

This friend from Japan goes on to describe his culture as composed of agonistics, atheists, and animists. And from what I know, Japan is a desperately dark place. Even from such an environment, my friend has an awareness of God. And whether we choose to accept or deny God's existence, that does not change the reality of His existence.

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Romans 1:20

It is said that religion is the opium for the masses. However isn't atheism the opium for the guilty? What guilt? The guilt before a just and holy God. Mentioning a just and holy God right away makes most people want to stop listening. The rebellious heart bristles.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
Romans 1:21-22

The fool says in his heart,
"There is no God."
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.
Psalm 14:1

Humankind is guilty of sins and in the pleasure of evil, most deny God by the way they live. Too many times our thoughts are/were so twisted that we think: God -- the source of all good -- is the worst thing that can happen to us, when in fact nothing could be better. Let us not become callous, but instead turn from our own ways, seek after Him and never stop to run the good race.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
John 3:16-20

China's Communist Party and an "Insider"
The Washington Post recently published a story on a Party whistle-blower, Huang Jingao, who posted a letter on the Internet accusing fellow politicians of "crooked land deals," accusations which triggered an outcry from China's citizens against all the corruption. To stifle this, the propaganda department erased all Web posts and the journalist who publicized the letter was arrested. Huang started receiving death threats, his credibility was defamed (sleeping around with women and taking bribes), and he was sentenced to life in prison for allegedly accepting bribes.

Doesn't this make you wonder what is truly going on? Why the cover up? Why the two-faced media? The citizens are responding to something real. Corruption is happening.

How to root out corruption?

• Journalistic integrity and independence from political forces;
• Coupled this with government transparency to show what officials are doing and how money is (mis-)used.

Once, I chuckled at the concept of journalists as "defender of democracy" but there is some truth to that; for how do you control people? By controlling their ideas. How do you control ideas? By controlling the content and flow of information.

What about the officials?

• Checks and balances: do they exist?
• Elections: How do officials get into office? With only one political party there are no real election and no real representation, right?

Such changes sound like democracy... a dangerous idea to the Communist ears.

Arrg, I never thought of myself as so political. But governments are in place to enforce morality and justice, which I care about.

Japanese Lesson 2 - Kanji
When my Japanese colleagues are unable to tell me something in English they would sometimes write it out in Kanji (Chinese characters). However I can't read Chinese. Being that such characters are a part of the written language of the Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese, it would be benificial to know how to read and write Kanji if one wishes to communicate. I see the great benefit in Kanji's ability to span the spoken languages of these three people groups and the many spoken languages among the Chinese people alone.

There is an interesting difference in the Chinese and Japanese pronounciation of Kanji characters. In Chinese, each character represents one word and one syllable. In Japanese, the same character has nearly the same meaning but it may be pronounced with up to four syllables. (I'm not sure how it is in Korean.)

The Enemy on Our Airwaves
Interesting editorial concerning media and terrorism.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007498

There is no such thing as a private moment.

Nothing is hidden from God.