BBC
    The first thing that came to my mind when I read this was, "How the hell did a blind Chinese dude escape from anywhere?"  Reading further, it was comforting to know that it indeed a group effort that resulted in the escape of Chen Guancheng.  Now people are growing alarmed about how many friends and family of his are being detained and people are seriously questionning the legitimacy of this government.  This is turning out to be a repeat of events of the 1987 when a different escaped convict fled to the US embassy for shelter in what would turn out to be a 2 year deal.  Although he has actually never been convicted of anything, he and his family were placed under house arrest over growing suspicion and although he hides behind the safety of the American mission in China, his family remains under house arrest with many of his friends and family members detained in unknown locations.  
    I am pretty impressed that a blind dude did somehow manage to scale a wall built around his house by the Chinese government and then flee 100 miles to safety all without his eyesight.  His colleagues declared "that this escape had taken months to plan, and was carried out by a network of activists." 
    Chen announced that he doesn't want exile from China, but protection for the time being.  He was under arret for an unofficial crime, the American embassy wants to be assured however that if they protect him that his friends and family will remain safe.   

BBC
    Kenya is really famous for one thing, running.  Not just running, but specifically the insane amount of long distance prodigies it spits out each year.  However, the kids there are not really motivated to win a Gold Medal but really it is just a way of life.  They have to run to school each day, because they can't afford cars.  Each way is a hefty 40 minute run, and at the altitude Kenya is at, would have most American runners weezing in just a couple of minutes.  Most kids even end up running back for lunch each day putting a nice 2 and a half hours of RUNNING not jogging on their tiny, almost fragile legs.  They know they must become great at running because that is what will secure a good future for them and their whole village.  They know the best way to get anywhere is to get accepted into a European college with a track scholarship and that means they have to fly pretty damn fast.  Whats so touching is how motivated these kids are and how selfless their intentions really are.  The amount of good runners in Kenya is phenominal, and to say its because of good genetics (although this is very true) does not give them must credit for the insane amount of work they put into their sport, about 2.5x that of most professional athletes.  I find it very unfair that I will more likely than not, be more succeusful than most of them despite the fact that I am pretty lazy and don't put any effort into what I want to do with my life yet. 
    They know their goal.  They know however that America doesn't want them for what they want to do, but instead for their natural/aquired ability to run long distance.  The good thing is that unlike most places we have been focusing on in Africa, these kids have the ability to make something of themsel 

BBC
    It is kind of hard to believe that one simple equation can have a dramatic effect on the oh-so-stable world economy.  We would like to think that the decisions we make are based on our whim and not that of programmed thought and reactions which are out of our control.  However, the Black-Scholes equation is no ordinary equation either however and is a result of financial uncertainty over 100's of years.  
    A young man named Scholes was always interested in the stockmarket and even during his teen years begged his mom to let him open a stock-market account to trade with.  After he got a job at MIT, he was presented with a problem that would forever change his, and billions of other lives.  It was the concept of being able to establish a certain price on an item, and then you can buy that item at that stated price anytime in the next year, regardless if the actual price of the item goes up or down.  Intrigued, he dives deeper into how the variables all correlate and fit together and after a couple years comes up with the Black-Scholes forumua.  
    This formula quickly showed is prowess by eliminating all the current stock traders who were generally succeusful by relying on experience and intuition.  Now basically all the market relied on this one formula, but everyone began to become dependent on the equation and next thing you know, companies could bankrupt themselves over a mistake made in simplifications of the math.      
    The lesson to be learned is that although you can make yourself falsely believe that you have definit control over a stock market, it is really all up to chance and no formula can really change that. 

NPR LINK
                
Recently I wrote an article about the financial crisis that has destroyed
Spain’s economy.  This next move,
by the rather poor country of Argentina, will be the biggest blow yet.  Argentina’s female president, Cristina
  Fernandez, has declared her plans to nationalize the Spanish Oil company.  Both countries are currently facing
financial challenges at the moment. 
However this was a very foolish move because every single other time this
has been attempted it has failed miserably usually with the instigator losing
millions and gaining nothing.  She
says it is mandatory to help her country gain a market in the development of new
energy sources, without which would leave her country in the dust. 
The president declared in her defense “I am a head of state, ad not a
hoodlum. “   She also stated
that Repsol, the Spanish Oil Company, will be compensated, however the amount
will be determined by an Argentine panel. 
Company shares have plummeted in value since this seizure for obvious
reasons and foreshadowing the obvious downfall of her plan. 
The company states that it shares were worth 10.5 billion before the
seizure, however now they are already drastically less so how much they get
compensated is up in the air at the moment.  
The Spanish retort to all this by saying “Fernandez’s left-leaning
government has mismanaged the economy and is in need of money.” 
Argentina is a lagging behind many of the other countries starting to
develop in Latin America.  Despite
all this, she is very popular in her country receiving over the 54% of the
vote. The problem now she says is
that they need a steady flow of foreign exchange, a feat that will be hard to do
seeing as she just angered many of the world’s most powerful countries.        

BBC
The French Socialist party has come out ahead in the recent
  polls.  Leading by a mere 2% (28%
to 26%) they proved their dominance and popularity over Nicolas Sarkozy.  This election has been dominated
primarily by widespread anxiety over not only the French economy, but the entire
Western European financial crisis. 
Something interesting about this is it the first time a French President
running for re-election has not come out ahead in the primaries since the
1950s.  Not only is there a
socialist party running for election of the French government, but the French
Communist Party also obtained a whopping 11% of the votes. 
This really goes to show you how desperate the French, and on a broader
  note, Western Europeaners are about this crisis they are experiencing.  Most French parties are promising to adopt 
the American policy of taxing citizens who aren’t currently living in the
country.  Also the Socialist party
  has promised to raise taxes on big corporations and people earning more than 1m
  euros a year.  Not only that he
plans on raising the minimum wage, hire 60,000 more teachers and lower the
retirement ages as a few of his more radical promises. 
This is crazy that France is so desperate that its people are willing to
turn to a system that enslaved their country less than a century ago.  This is all do to a terrible welfare 
system that is overly generous to the people and is starving the government of
all its tax payer dollars. 

BBC LINK
    Libya has been a very oppressed country under the rule of its former tyrant, Gaddafi.  During his rule, proffessional athletes were neglected and received little to no financial aid from sponserships.  In fact, Libya hasn't receieved an Olympic medal, well... Ever!  
    Fortunately, Gaddafi's reign has come to an end and the people have a chance to rebuild and where better to start than the Olympics.  Mohamed Khawaja, who has as described by many as "a pocket model" of his heroes, Usain Bolt and Michael Johnson.  Standing at well under 6ft and weighing just 65 kilograms.  He doesn't appear to be any stud.  
    This coulnd't be further from the truth.  It is joked that he carries not an ounce of fat, and the crazy thing is this is basically true.  In the making of this star, nothing went to waste.  
    With a 400 meter time of under 45 seconds, he shows promise in bringing Libya its first ever olympic medal and starting the time for change and rebuilding.
    I know that one Olympic medal won't bring drastic change to the impoverished country of Libya, but I do think it can provide a great starting point for a country to flourish.  All you can do now is pray for the underdog and hope he can bring to his country an Olympic medal to mark as the transition point from rags to riches for the country of Libya.  I bet that come the summer olympics, he will pull off a spectacular gold medal finish and a movie might even be made about him and his journey to break free from the shcakles that bound his country for over 3 decades! 

BBC LINK
    I saw this one fact and it angered me.  "Half of all Spain's youth are unemployeed."  
    What angers me is that the unemployment rate seems to be rising and inflations occuring and what not, but we only have ourselves to blame.  This generation of youth are the laziest bunch of people I've seen in or read about ever.  Its pathetic.  They have adults urging them to get active and involved in their communities and they think that they are better than that so decide to reside in their basements playing video games and doing recreational drugs.  Whats even more stupid is some of my tax paying dollars (I work two jobs currently) are going to end up going to their sorry asses because they did nothing to prepare themselves for a demanding job and more likely than not will just fail.  Then they will just be like  "oh well" I still get unemplyment maybe I just am not cut out for working.  
    Half of Spain's youth is unemployed is a sign of how lazy people are becoming.  Its awful because its been proven in hundreds of studies throughout time that if you don't do anything accomplishing you will never feel accomplished and become depressed.  They are setting themselves, and the future up, to faill.  The current systems arn't working and are the results of people going down the wrong paths more and more over the years.    
    The worst part is I don't see a solution to this crisis that doens't require a complete revamp in the entire "system".  When somethings beyond fixable, I  believe you have to scrap everything and start anew. 

BBC LINK  
  The Taliban's "Spring offensive" has officially began with a series of coordinated attacks across the country of Afghanistan.  A total of 19 people were killed and about 30 more injured in the biggest attacks since September of last year.  An interesting fact I thought was that their "fighting season" begins when the warmer weather melts snow in the mountain passes that run along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan, allowing easier crossing.  Two rockets hit the British embassy.  
    What really bothers me is that it was reported that the insurgents were heard yelling that they intended to fight to the death.  However, they gave no cause for which they were fighting and no attempt at any form of a peaceful settlement.  I believe they have simply been brainwashed into believing that the only option is violence.  
    On another note, many countries including Japan and Germany reported their embassies being hit in the attacks.  However, Russia denies any damage to its embassy, which was right in the middle of the whole thing.  I have started noticing recently that Russia has been acting very strange when dealing with the Middle East and Northern Africa.  
    Something I also found to be comical was that Afghan forces managed to capture two suicide bombers, alive.  The only way you can do that is if they simply choose not to detonate their device.  This leads me to believe that they were not really wanting to ever be suicide bombers.  This in turn leads you to assume they didn't believe in the cause the Taliban sent them out to give their life for.  This all goes back to the question of is it really Taliban soldiers we are fighting, or brainwashed people who are just pawns in the Taliban's sick game.