El perfil psicológico de Fidel Castro realizado por su guardaespaldas

LA TERCERA

Alejandro Tapia

Juan Reinaldo Sánchez, que falleció esta semana y que durante 17 años fue escolta del líder cubano, realizó en secreto un análisis sobre la personalidad de Castro que entregó a La Tercera antes de morir.

Juan Reinaldo Sánchez fue durante 17 años la “sombra” de Fidel Castro. En su función de guardaespaldas del “Comandante en Jefe”, Sánchez tomó nota de todas las actividades, públicas y privadas, del entonces líder cubano e incluso llegó al extremo de probar sus alimentos por temor a un envenenamiento. También compartió uno de los pasatiempos favoritos de Castro en su residencia de descanso en Cayo Piedra: el buceo.

Durante el escaso tiempo libre que le daban sus funciones, Sánchez -que falleció el lunes en Miami a los 66 años y que el año pasado publicó el libro “La vida oculta de Fidel Castro”- comenzó a indagar en el perfil psicológico del entonces líder cubano. 

Sin que nadie supiera, a partir de 1985 Sánchez elaboró un retrato completo de Castro, que hasta ahora se mantenía inédito. En diciembre del año pasado, Juan Reinaldo Sánchez entregó esta información a La Tercera en el marco de varios proyectos sobre los que trabajaba, dado el acceso privilegiado que tuvo a Fidel y a su círculo de hierro. Eso, hasta que se fugó de Cuba en 2008.

Este ex teniente coronel no sólo fue un especialista en seguridad, sino que también fue abogado y estudió psicología. “Al terminar mis estudios universitarios en 1985 y dado los conocimientos adquiridos en psicología operativa de la contrainteligencia y sin divulgar mis propósitos a nadie, me di la tarea de hacerle un análisis psicológico a Fidel Castro”, reveló Sánchez.

Para el guardaespaldas, el perfil que realizó la CIA sobre Castro en diciembre de 1961 y que se conoció en los 90, no era suficiente, por el escaso tiempo transcurrido luego del triunfo de la Revolución en 1959. Entonces se puso manos a la obra. “El tener la oportunidad de estar más de 17 años cerca del dirigente cubano, me permitió tener información real de la personalidad de Fidel, tanto de su vida pública como su intimidad”, contó Sánchez.

Lo primero que narra el guardaespaldas es que Castro es “efusivo y dominante”. Y agrega: “Mientras que públicamente es una persona locuaz, comunicativo, franco y sociable, en su intimidad se refleja como riguroso”. En ese sentido, revela una dualidad en el rasgo de la extroversión.

“Esta dualidad se refleja en el hecho de que necesita el reconocimiento público de sus acciones y de ahí que se muestre comunicativo, afable, comprensivo, etc. Pero en su intimidad, donde está el Fidel Castro real, es dominante, riguroso, controlador y necesitado de que todos sepan que es la máxima expresión del poder, que no está dispuesto a perder en ningún momento”.

Juan Reinaldo Sánchez plantea que incluso después de la enfermedad que en 2006 lo obligó a delegar el poder a su hermano Raúl, Fidel Castro “no lo hizo del todo. Obligó a Raúl a que propusiera a la Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular que aprobara un acuerdo en donde Raúl se viera obligado a consultarle todo a él”.

El ex escolta desmenuzó también otros rasgos de la personalidad de Castro, que dividió en “sanguíneos” (activos, optimistas, comunicativos y sociables) y “colérico” (dominantes, violentos e impulsivos). Sánchez explica: “Mientras que en su vida pública ha tratado de aparentar una persona sanguínea, en su vida íntima tiene características de colérico con temperamento flemático”.

“Un ejemplo de lo anterior lo tenemos en una reunión en los años 80 en la Unidad de la Defensa Civil del Municipio Playa, donde se analizaron las medidas epidemiológicas en La Habana. Al doctor (Héctor) Terry, viceministro de Salud de aquella época, se le ocurrió manifestarle a Fidel que de acuerdo a un estudio realizado por él, se había detectado un déficit de vitaminas en la dieta alimentaria de la población. Fidel montó en cólera y lo trató de inepto. A los pocos días el Dr. Terry fue sustituido. Fidel mandó a realizar un estudio, que dio como resultado que el Dr. Terry tenía razón. Fidel terminó por orientar la distribución por la libreta de racionamiento un suplemento alimentario de polivitaminas, pero Terry jamás fue reingresado a su puesto ni tuvo excusas de Fidel Castro”, sostiene Sánchez.

El fallecido guardaespaldas de Fidel sostiene que los rasgos significativos de la personalidad del ex presidente cubano pueden definirse por “la dependencia, los gustos y las motivaciones”.

¿Vida de lujos?

En cuanto a la dependencia, “Fidel requiere de las adulaciones a sus discursos. Las medidas que toma le resultan tan reconfortantes que sube su ego de manera considerable. Y es capaz de recompensar a aquellos que lo adulan con nuevos cargos”, dice.

A su vez, “Castro, lejos de la imagen que proyecta, sus gustos están centrados en una vida de lujos y privilegios, como la pesca submarina, caza de patos y exquisitas comidas”. Sánchez concluye que Fidel posee una “personalidad híbrida”, pero con características como “egocentrismo, ambicioso, manipulador, controlador y dado a los placeres de la sociedad de consumo que tanto critica”. De todos modos, esto corresponde a la vida que supuestamente Castro llevaba en la época en que Sánchez era su escolta. Desde entonces, han transcurrido dos décadas.

Psicóloga cubana da testimonio de las razones que la obligaron a abandonar su carrera

Martí Noticias

El informe psiquiátrico [1961] que la CIA hizo de Fidel Castro

ABC.es

Un líder neurótico, narcisista y cuya única prioridad es «mantenerse en el poder». Así es como definía un equipo de psiquiatras de la CIA hace 53 años a Fidel Castro en un curioso informe que este martes ha sacado a relucir el diario «Clarín». Y es que, a pesar de que fue elaborado en 1961, muestra de forma clara las tensiones que existían entonces entre el bloque capitalista y comunista –unas tiranteces que, según explicó la pasada semana el presidente norteamericano Barack Obama, serán poco a poco sustituidas por un acercamiento de posturas y una eliminación paulatina del embargo.

La Agencia Central de Inteligencia elaboró este informe en octubre de 1961. Apenas dos veranos después de que finalizara la revolución en la región y seis meses después de que las tropas exiliadas cubanas trataran (sin éxito) de invadir con la ayuda de Estados Unidos y de John F. Kennedy la Bahía de Cochinos. A su vez, está fechado únicamente diez meses antes de que se iniciara la crisis de los misiles de Cuba.

En el documento (que tiene una extensión de aproximadamente tres caras de folio), la CIA explica en primer lugar que Fidel Castro no está en ningún caso loco, aunque cuenta con una personalidad inestable vulnerable a la presión psicológica. Destaca también que adora sentirse adulado por las masas, cuenta con grandes ansias de permanecer en el poder y necesita enfrentarse a un adversario para entender que su existencia es perfecta.

Neurótico

La CIA hace hincapié además en que Castro es inestable y necesita los halagos de sus congéneres para sentirse pleno: «Excepcionales elementos neuróticos de su personalidad son el hambre de poder y su necesidad de reconocimiento y adulación por las masas: es incapaz de obtener completa satisfacción de cualquier otra fuente». Algo así le sucedía con el Che Guevara, de quien el estudio afirma que era totalmente dependiente: «Su estabilidad emocional sufriría si el Che no mantuviera una actitud firme y positiva hacia él», destaca el texto.

En este sentido, el informe también señala que, si el líder fuese odiado por aquellos a quienes pide aprobación, «el resultado sería un desorden en su personalidad, su ineficacia política e, incluso, una enfermedad emocional clínica como la depresión». A su vez, el equipo psicológico afirmaba que cualquier crítica lo vuelve inestable y hace que pierda el contacto con la realidad.

Egoísta y con miedo a la pasividad

Entre los rasgos que más definen la personalidad de Castro, el equipo señala que uno de los más claros es su absoluto egoísmo (característica que llegan a considerar como su «Talón de Aquiles». «Narcisista al extremo, en la victoria debe controlarlo todo, sin delegar autoridad. Cuando se enfrenta a la derrota, su primera preocupación es retirarse para reagrupar sus recursos», completa el texto.

A su vez, los expertos también consideraban por entonces que Castro contaba un miedo atroz a las desgracias que le pudieran suceder debido a su pasividad (entre ellas, perder el poder por no haber sabido reconocer a tiempo los peligros que le atacaban). Esta característica se relaciona con su necesidad psicológica de encontrarse siempre en la cima, controlando a la sociedad y velando por ella como si estuviera formada por menores de edad.

En este sentido, los psiquiatras de la Agencia Estatal de Inteligencia también entendían que, «pese a depender de las masas para su sostén (…) no confía en ellas lo suficiente como para llamar a elecciones Su prioridad es mantenerse en el poder. Él probablemente destruiría a ambos, a sí mismo y al pueblo cubano, para preservar este estatus». Con todo, el documento destacaba también la gran capacidad intelectual de Fidel Castro y sus dotes como «líder revolucionario y agitador»-.

Cuba: "Quedarse atrás"

Diario de Cuba

Verónica Vega

QUE.ES

Qué terrible es quedarse botado en la carretera porque el vehículo donde viajas se averió, y ver cómo los demás siguen, veloces, a su destino.

Esta sensación de impotencia la percibo en tantas caras a diario. La desesperación de no poder seguir el ritmo de quienes escapan a las acrobacias matemáticas que exige un salario estatal, el fruto de un modesto negocio, una remesa irregular y exigua.

Los precios, como dice un amigo, son malos para el corazón…  Desvergonzados, cínicos, como si se diseñaran desde otro mundo: 809,95 CUC por un televisor plasma; 595,25 por una cocina con horno; 105,60 por una simple tostadora eléctrica… Un pullover por 9,11 CUC; un par de zapatos deportivos 45 CUC…

Pero las protestas no pasan de muecas, murmullos, ¡chistes!. Es la salida emergente del cubano, su eterna ¿alegría?, ¿apatía?… Una mezcla de miedo y de vanidad.

Hace poco, cuando se desaparecieron los desodorantes por un peso convertible y en su lugar las estanterías exhibían rutilantes sucedáneos  a tres y cuatro pesos convertibles, le pregunté a una dependienta cómo era posible que un producto de primera necesidad no estuviera a un precio más asequible y me  respondió: "Es que no hay de esa línea ahora".

¿Pero cuántos pueden darse el lujo de pagar casi cuatro dólares por un desodorante?, le pregunté.

La dependienta salvó la situación con un gesto ambiguo. Dos mujeres junto al mostrador me miraron indignadas por hablar de lo que no se habla: la miseria.

Muchos clientes no recogen el menudo de vuelto (especialmente si son hombres y les despachó una mujer) porque sienten el peso de esa opinión latente, ese secreto a voces: eres pobre, eres un muerto de hambre.

Mi hijo me cuenta que en la escuela donde estudia inglés, cuando indicaron un ejercicio con el tema: "¿Qué hiciste en las pasadas vacaciones?", prácticamente todo el grupo contó historias de su estancia en Varadero. La mascarada era tan evidente que el propio profesor dijo con ironía: "Bueno, y si todos estaban en Varadero, ¿por qué ninguno de ustedes se vio?"

En el receso, varios jóvenes salen a comprar manzanas, tukolas, maltas… ¡jugos de 3,30 CUC! Comprar una chuchería en pesos cubanos para calmar el ruido del estómago es delatarse. Portar un simple MP3 también.

Los que pueden, exhiben sus vistosos teléfonos táctiles (no importa si no tienen saldo), en medio de la clase abren sus laptops. Quiénes o qué sostiene esa imagen queda bajo la superficie, como la masa sumergida del iceberg.

He visto a jóvenes portar esplendentes y enormes relojes que no funcionan. He visto a un muchacho proferir palabrotas porque se le rasgó el calzoncillo de marca que ya no podrá exhibir bajo el jean, en un mínimo acto de triunfo.

Al fin se despenalizó la prosperidad, (como pedía Yoani Sánchez), pero, ¿a qué costo? Estamos aún más lejos de asumir lo que realmente somos. ¿Cómo despenalizar ahora nuestra pobreza?

No la transitoria que nos daba fuerzas mientras luchábamos (o creíamos luchar) por un futuro en el que las tiendas estarían pródigamente abastecidas y los ciudadanos, sin moneda de intercambio, sin tarjeta de crédito, en un acto de suprema conciencia, tomaríamos solamente lo necesario.

Hablo de la pobreza que nunca se fue, que se trasmutó de humildad en carencias disimuladas, reprimidas, en sufrimiento y vergüenza. La pobreza que implica la cruda realidad del dinero que objetivamente se obtiene (ese que nos quita el sueño y la alegría, que se cuenta con ansiedad y vemos desaparecer con angustia), contra los precios desaforados que exigen el Estado y los cuentapropistas.

Viendo esta carrera de discapacitados en una competencia perdida de antemano, las trampas, las caídas (los que quedan tendidos a lo largo de la pista), me acuerdo de un comentario que escuché una vez: "Lo que le pasa a los cubanos es lo mismo que pasó en la Edad Media, con la Santa Inquisición, las cacerías de brujas… ¡Estamos sugestionados…!"

Pero, ¿qué golpe de realidad peor que esta estampida insostenible romperá el hipnotismo?

Little Girl Lost: More than 600 people ignore lost child in TV experiment

ITN

Bodily maps of emotions

Bodily topography of basic (Upper) and nonbasic (Lower) emotions associated with words. The body maps show regions whose activation increased (warm colors) or decreased (cool colors) when feeling each emotion. (Credit: Lauri Nummenmaa et al./PNAS)

Read on KurzweilAI >>

Victory in Sports: Dominance, Not Pride

TIME

Why we find things beautiful

The Economist

Motivate the Brain: Why Dopamine Doesn't Work

ForaTv

Behavior therapist Andrea Kuszewski explains the effects of dopamine, "the pleasure neurotransmitter," on motivation and why incentives don't work.

Teaching a robot to anticipate human actions

KurzweilAI

By Amara D. Angelica

“Hey, you spilled my last beer!” “Sorry, Frank, Kinect crashed.”

A robot that anticipates your actions (credit: Robot Learning Lab, Computer Science Department, Cornell University)

Why can’t a robot be like a servant (to paraphrase My Fair Lady)? You know, one who would anticipate your every need — even before you asked?
The folks at the Personal Robotics Lab of Ashutosh Saxena, Cornell assistant professor of computer science have gone and done just that.
When we last (virtually) visited the lab, we learned that the roboticists taught  “hallucinating” robots to arrange your room for you, and before that to pick up after you, These are important robot skills if you’re disabled, for example — or you live in a dorm.
Now they’ve taken the next step: they’ve taught a Cornell robot to foresee a human action, the person’s likely trajectory, and what it needs to do to help the person. Let’s say you’re walking toward a refrigerator carrying something with both hands; the robot could open the door for you (as shown in the video below).
Anticipating human actions
Understanding when and where to open the door (or when and how to pour a beer, also in the video) can be difficult for a robot because of the many variables it encounters while assessing the situation. But the Cornell team has created an elegant solution.

(Left) Robot’s video view. (Next) Heatmap of objects. (Next) Heatmap of trajectories (Right) Robot opening the door (credit: Robot Learning Lab, Computer Science Department, Cornell University).

For starters, the Cornell robot has access to a Microsoft Kinect 3-D camera and a database of 3D videos. The robot identifies the activities it sees, considers what uses are possible with the objects in the scene, and determines how those uses fit with the activities.
It then generates a set of possible trajectories or continuations into the future — such as eating, drinking, cleaning, putting away — and finally chooses the most probable. As the action continues, the robot constantly updates and refines its predictions.
“We extract the general principles of how people behave,” said Ashutosh Saxena, Cornell professor of computer science and co-author of a new study tied to the research. “Drinking coffee is a big activity, but there are several parts to it.” The robot builds a “vocabulary” of such small parts that it can put together in various ways to recognize a variety of big activities, he explained.
In tests, the robot made correct predictions 82 percent of the time when looking one second into the future, 71 percent correct for three seconds, and 57 percent correct for 10 seconds.
“Even though humans are predictable, they are only predictable part of the time,” Saxena said. “The future would be to figure out how the robot plans its action. Right now we are almost hard-coding the responses, but there should be a way for the robot to learn how to respond.”
This is amazing research, getting us closer to the robot butler in Robot & Frank and countless other science-fiction stories.
The research was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office, the Alfred E. Sloan Foundation and Microsoft.
Saxena will join Cornell graduate student Hema S. Koppula as they present their research at the International Conference of Machine Learning, June 18–21 in Atlanta, and the Robotics: Science and Systems conference, June 24–28 in Berlin, Germany.

rss Anticipation

Cómo enfocarse en las tareas útiles, ¡fácilmente!

microsiervos

Irónicamente titulado Cómo enfocarse en la era de la distracción lo normal es que quien vea esta infografía de Visua.ly ni siquiera termine de leerla completa. ¿Apostamos?

Financial strain pushes many veterans to the breaking point

inplainsight

Courtesy Adam Legg

Navy veteran Adam Legg said a long jobless spell after tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan left him feeling hopeless and led him to "go weeks without smiling, walking around like a shadow, like you're not there."

By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

Hundreds of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been flying home to a fresh fox hole: A debt crater that’s sucking in entire military families and could be helping to fuel the veteran suicide crisis.

Courtesy Adam Legg

"I was a watch commander where I had 25 to 30 
people working  beneath me, in charge of millions 
of dollars worth of ammunitions, weapons, vehicles, 
computers," said Adam Legg, a Navy veteran. "And 
then  when I come home, not only can I not find 
a job, I can't take care of my family."

A bad job market, a long backlog for federal disability benefits, and occasionally unwise spending habits have been conspiring to strain the financial and mental health of many veterans, experts say.

"We keep hearing of suicides rising. How much pressure do you think one person can take?" asks Christopher Fitzpatrick, deputy director of VeteransPlus, a nonprofit that has fielded more than 170,000 calls from ex-service members with imminent financial concerns. 

"No one wants to talk about the fact that there are other reasons, besides PTSD, for suicide at 2 in the morning. You know how we know? We have an online form people use to contact us, and we get those emails — they’re sent at 1, 2, 3, 4 in the morning. People are reaching out, literally: 'Can you please help me? I’m losing everything.'"

It's a problem that could get even worse in coming years, with more than one million service members expected to make the transition to civilian life.

Navy veteran Adam Legg, 30, ran into financial trouble following two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. A jobless and hopeless period that began after his service separation in 2009 led him to "go weeks without smiling, walking around like a shadow, like you're not there," he said.

He couldn't secure a job at his local McDonald's or at dozens of other companies to which he applied in Central Florida. With a wife, Melissa, and a young daughter to feed, he maxed out a credit card that he was able to pay off with money he'd saved during his eight years in the Navy. 

'Very, very dark place'
But bigger bills — like the mortgage — went untouched. After losing his Florida home to foreclosure and two cars to repossession, Legg said he began to consider suicide. 

"When you feel like you can’t take care of your family, feed them, shelter them, it’s a very, very dark place. A feeling of uselessness that maybe they would be better off if you’re not around," Legg said. 

"We've been below the poverty line, absolutely. I was a watch commander where I had 25 to 30 people working beneath me, in charge of millions of dollars worth of ammunitions, weapons, vehicles, computers. And then when I come home, not only can I not find a job, I can’t take care of my family. If it weren’t for my wife, if she was not supportive the way she was, I really don’t think I’d be here right now."

According to VeteransPlus, fewer than 20 percent of their clients have stockpiled a six-month savings cushion while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan despite untaxed, hazardous-duty wages that fattened paychecks.

Some returning veterans planned to live off their credit cards until landing civilian work, even though the veteran unemployment rate is two points higher than the civilian rate, Fitzpatrick said. Some expected to support themselves via VA benefits, apparently unaware that average wait time for that money approaches — and sometimes eclipses — one year.  

The Pentagon urges military personnel and their families to bank some money while in the service. This year, during “Military Saves Week," service members were reminded to “set a goal, make a place and save automatically.” Service members also can take advantage of the Thrift Savings Plan, a federally sponsored retirement savings and investment program resembling a civilian 401(k).

But even some of those who build up savings while serving abroad find their stash exhausted after buying gifts for family and plucking shiny toys, like motorcycles, for themselves when they come home from war, according to VeteransPlus.

"We don’t like using the word ‘entitlement,’ but often that’s what it really is for these young men and women who feel like they’ve served their country and are coming home with some money and ‘now it’s my turn,’" Fitzpatrick said. 

Move west, young man
For Legg, the way out was to escape Florida, not his life. He and his wife packed up their daughter, dog, cat and remaining belongings and recently drove to the Pacific Northwest. Two things lured the Legg family to Baker City, Ore.: a lower cost of living and its proximity to a military-friendly college, Eastern Oregon University. 

He's now a full-time student, living off of his GI Bill and his VA benefits for a diagnosed anxiety disorder (not PTSD), damaged knees, a bad back, and an injured left arm — combat baggage that requires daily Vicodin consumption. They live in a small, rented house.

Melissa was scheduled to deliver their second child last Wednesday. Soon, Legg plans to file for bankruptcy. 

Courtesy Adam Legg/ Navy veteran Adam Legg and 

his family moved to Oregon from Florida.

"I have no choice. We're at that rock bottom line," he said. "I'm not the only one. Of the (veteran) friends I've kept up with, most are struggling." 

Many veterans panic when they face getting kicked out of their homes, or must decide between buying food or diapers, said Kristy Kauffman, executive director of Code of Support, an Alexandria, Va.-based nonprofit that proclaims to "bridge the gap between civilian and military America."

"It happens far too often. We get at least one call, email, or referral every week," she said.

Kaufmann agrees with Fitzpatrick that poverty is one factor behind the veteran suicide rate, adding: "It does increase the risk." 

"The vast majority of those who have worn the uniform," she said, "are imbued with a strong sense of mission and pride in 'getting it done.' For those who have trouble reintegrating into the civilian world — whether due to physical or mental health issues, or lack of employment opportunities — it's that loss of mission that seems most debilitating."

The Mysterious Difference Between Those Who Make It Rich And Those Who Don't

Business Insider

tripwow.tripadvisor.com

James Altucher 

Rob told me JB was dead. JB was my best friend growing up. We sat next to each other on the bus. After school we’d play ping pong or pinball or monopoly or ride bikes.

Every single day we did this for eight years. Then we drifted apart.

Rob said, The last time I spoke to him he sounded like a ghost.

It was like there was nothing there, Rob said.

I hadn’t seen JB in 20 years.

He dropped out of college, Rob said, and never really had a job. His parents gave him money to live. He didn’t want to do anything.

He changed his phone number every few weeks, Rob said. So he was hard to keep in touch with.

I didn’t understand. Why did he change his number every few weeks?

He’d meet a girl, and then a few weeks later he’d get tired of her but not want to deal with it. He’d change his number so the girl couldn’t reach him, Rob said. And he moved a lot.

He had no Facebook page, no internet presence, it was hard to track him down, Rob said.

And it’s true. I had never found him on the Internet.

JB hurt his leg a few years ago, Rob said, and had no insurance because he never had a job. So got addicted to painkillers.

He was into the drug scene, Rob said.

So no job, drifting phone numbers, a hazy identity, drug, nerve damage, pain killers.

One day he never woke up, Rob said.

He was 39.

I don’t feel sad about this. People die. I haven’t seen him since we were 18 and on graduation day.

But I wonder about one thing Rob said.

“He was like a ghost the last time I spoke with him.”

We know when the body and mind are giving up. We know when spirit is exhausted. When the emotions don’t care.

He never had anything he wanted to do, Rob said.

Is that all it is? Do we just need something to do? Something that we want to scratch just a tiny bit so we continue one more day?

We don’t have to save the world. Or invent warm ice. Or time travel. Or even have a passion or a purpose.

When I was dead broke and crying I wanted to die just so my kids could have my life insurance policy. What got me to get up and go again?

And then later, when it happened again. And then again.

Why didn’t JB do that?

I call it “the push”.

You’re riding the bicycle up the hill all the time in life. Everything in life wants you to decay. To be subjugated. To be violated. To be tired. To become a ghost.

To roll back down the hill just when you thought you were close to the top.

It’s fucking tiring to live.

What can give us THE PUSH?

I don’t know.

For me, today, it’s just this post. Some days, it’s to see my 11 year old smile. Sometimes, I just want to take a walk. Or help Claudia. Or do something fun and creative.

What’s your PUSH today?

A little bit, every day, compounds.

A little push today turns into a big life tomorrow.

My one requirement: I have to give something. I have to enjoy it.

Else, it’s too draining. It’s a shit stain. I slip back on the hill.

A deep breath. You can do it, I tell myself. One more turn of the pedals. THE PUSH! Get over the hill!

I want to live.

Read more: http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2013/04/how-to-be-rich-the-push/#ixzz2RnGGphWZ

The Human Zoo [Episode 1]

The Human Zoo is a place to learn about the one subject that never fails to fascinate - ourselves. Are people led by the head or by the heart? How rational are we? How do we perceive the world and what lies behind the quirks of human behaviour?

Michael Blastland presents a curious blend of intriguing experiments to discover our biases and judgements, conversations, explorations and examples taken from what's in the news to what we do in the kitchen - all driven by a large slice of curiosity.

Nick Chater, Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick University, is on hand as guide and experimenter in chief.

Our thoughts, John Milton said, are a kingdom of infinite space and they might take us anywhere -whether our subject is writ large, like the behaviours of public figures or the contradictions of politics, or located in the minutiae of everyday life. We can show how what happens on the big stage is our own behaviour writ large - like the old Linda Smith joke about the Iraq-war coalition's failure to find chemical weapons: "I'm the same with the scissors".

The Human Zoo explores why it is that our judgements are so averse to ambiguity, how mental energy is linked to our legs, why we don't want to be in the dock when the judge is hungry - and other thoughts that have nothing to do with anything much beyond the ironing.

Producer: Toby Murcott

Listen on BBC >>

 

Gay? Conservative? High IQ? Your Facebook ’likes’ can reveal traits

cosmiclog

David Stillwell / Cambridge

A graphic from the "You Are What You Like" Facebook app illustrates how the pages you click on can tell others about your personal traits, even if you don't mean to do so.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

When you click a "like" button on Facebook, you could be telling the world whether you're gay or straight, liberal or conservative, intelligent or not so much — even if you don't intend to. That's what researchers found when they ran tens of thousands of Facebook profiles and questionnaires through a computer algorithm to find the obvious as well as not-so-obvious connections.

The results were published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and you can sample the method for yourself at a website called YouAreWhatYouLike.com.

"The main message of the paper is that whether they like it or not, people do communicate their individual traits in their online behavior," said lead author Michal Kosinski, operations director at the University of Cambridge's Psychometrics Center.

Some of the correlations are obvious: For example, If you're a fan of the "I'm Proud to Be a Christian" Facebook page, it's a pretty safe bet that you're a Christian. But others are hard to explain: Why is it that liking the "Curly Fries" page is associated with having a high IQ? Why does the computer model put "Sometimes I Just Lay in Bed and Think About Life" in the category for homosexual females, while "Thinking of Something and Laughing Alone" is linked to heterosexual females?

"These little patterns are really not perceptible to humans," Kosinski said. Sometimes, it takes a computer.

Kosinski and his colleagues conducted their experiment over the course of several years, through their MyPersonality website and Facebook app. More than 8 million people took the MyPersonality survey, which asked participants about their personal details and also had them answer questions about personality traits. About half of the test-takers gave their OK for the researchers to match up their survey results with Facebook likes, on an anonymous basis. More than 58,000 of the volunteered profiles from U.S. respondents were selected for matching.

The results were analyzed to produce correlations in more than a dozen categories, including five widely accepted personality attributes (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and emotional stability). Those are the attributes analyzed on the "You Are What You Like" website. The other categories included IQ, religion, politics, sexual orientation, age, gender, race, relationship status, alcohol and drug use, tobacco use, life satisfaction, number of friends — and even whether a Facebook user's parents had separated by the time the user was 21.

This PDF file shows you which Facebook pages are the best fit for each of the categories.

YouAreWhatYouLike.com

Researchers set up a website that assesses your personality based on Facebook "likes."

The researchers' computer model did the best at predicting black-vs.-white and male-vs.-female (95 and 93 percent accuracy, respectively). It could distinguish correctly between Republicans and Democrats 85 percent of the time, and between Christians and Muslims 82 percent of the time.
The accuracy rates for predicting sexual orientation were 88 percent for males and 75 percent for females. But don't think reaching that result was as easy as seeing who clicked the "like" button for "Gay Marriage." Less than 5 percent of the gay users were fans of such obvious pages, Kosinski and his colleagues said. The predictions were based instead on inferences from likes for less obvious pages. For example, the computer model associated the fan pages for Kathy Griffin and "Wicked, The Musical" with homosexual males, while heterosexual males were associated with the pages for Bruce Lee and WWE wrestling.
OK, maybe the pages weren't all that much less obvious.
The model wasn't as accurate (60 percent) when it came to predicting whether a user's parents stayed together or separated before the user turned 21. But even that level of predictive power could be "worthwhile for advertisers," the researchers said. "For instance, digital systems and devices (such as online stores or cars) could be designed to adjust their behavior to best fit each user's preferred profile," they wrote.
"I know the paper might sound like we're criticizing Facebook, but not at all," Kosinski told NBC News. "I'm a fan of Facebook."
Kosinski pointed out that an analysis of your credit card purchases, online music preferences, video rentals and Web browsing habits could come up with personal profiles at least as detailed as the ones that he and his colleagues produced. It just so happens that the Facebook likes were accessible enough to yield a vivid illustration of how such analyses work.
"It's possible this will lead some people to say, 'Maybe I shouldn't be using Facebook, or I shouldn't be using Google.' And that could be bad," he said. That kind of technophobia could hamper technological and economic progress, he said. Instead, the research should lead people to think twice about what they share online.
"We hope this information will help users start a discussion with organizations like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, or even policymakers about the rules of the game online," Kosinski said.
Update for 3:55 p.m. ET March 11: Kosinski's two co-authors, David Stillwell of Cambridge and Thore Graepel of Microsoft Research, passed along their comments in a news release from Cambridge.
"Consumers rightly expect strong privacy protection to be built into the products and services they use, and this research may well serve as a reminder for consumers to take a careful approach to sharing information online, utilizing privacy controls and never sharing content with unfamiliar parties," Graepel said.
"I have used Facebook since 2005, and I will continue to do so," Stillwell said. "But I might be more careful to use the privacy settings that Facebook provides."

Top 10 jobs that attract most psychopaths

WND/ Joe Kovacs

articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

In today’s turbulent world, many people may wonder if the person with whom they work just might be the next psychopath to make news headlines.

According to the author of a new book, there are actually some professions that attract psychopaths more than others, and civil servants (including politicians), lawyers and TV and radio people are among those ranking very high.

Psychologist Kevin Dutton, author of “The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success,” has created a top 10 list for the most attractive and least attractive professions for psychopaths.

The Journal of Abnormal Psychology notes that psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by anti-social behavior, selfishness, egocentricity, callousness, manipulativeness and lack of empathy.

But in an interview with Smithsonian.com, Dutton said one of the reasons he wrote his book was to debunk two myths about psychopaths: that they’re either all “mad or bad,” and secondly, that psychopathy is an all-or-nothing thing, that you’re either a psychopath or you’re not.

“When psychologists talk about psychopaths, what we’re referring to are people who have a distinct set of personality characteristics, which include things like ruthlessness, fearlessness, mental toughness, charm, persuasiveness and a lack of conscience and empathy. Imagine that you tick the box for all of those characteristics,” Dutton explained.

“You also happen to be violent and stupid. It’s not going to be long before you smack a bottle over someone’s head in a bar and get locked up for a long time in prison. But if you tick the box for all of those characteristics, and you happen to be intelligent and not naturally violent, then it’s a different story altogether. Then you’re more likely to make a killing in the market rather than anywhere else.”

Dutton claims the professions that seem to have the most psychopaths are:

1. Chief executive officer
2. Lawyer
3. Media (Television/Radio)
4. Salesperson
5. Surgeon
6. Journalist
7. Police officer
8. Clergy person
9. Chef
10. Civil servant

Dutton also lists the following professions as least attractive to psychopaths:

1. Care aide
2. Nurse
3. Therapist
4. Craftsperson
5. Beautician or stylist
6. Charity worker
7. Teacher
8. Creative artist
9. Doctor
10. Accountant

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/top-10-jobs-that-attract-most-psychopaths/#QL83H7AA1LrodDZv.99

Calls for mental health reform grow after Newtown massacre

Strange New Details Emerge About Newtown Murderer

Jason Howerton

NEWTOWN, Conn. (TheBlaze/AP) — As the nation paused for the one-week anniversary of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, new details emerged Friday about the gunman.

Acquaintances recalled that Adam Lanza was able to take apart and reassemble a computer in a matter of minutes but rarely spoke to anyone.

Daniel Frost took a computer class with Lanza in high school. He said Lanza used to slither through the hallways wearing the same green shirt and khaki pants day after day.

A loner, Lanza hardly ever talked to classmates and once gave a presentation entirely by computer, never uttering a single word.

A week ago, Lanza fatally shot his mother before blasting his way into the Connecticut school and killing 20 children and six teachers. As police approached, he fatally shot himself in the head.

Media & Politicians Stir Up Frenzy But Won’t Report Educational “Child Find” Law That Could Have Prevented Newtown, CT Massacre

NoisyRoom

In light of the recent massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, we learn today that, “The Newtown school gunman’s mother was so angry at education chiefs for failing her son, she thought ‘screw them’ and refused to stop dealing with them anymore, a relative has claimed. Nancy Lanza pleaded for better services for her disturbed son Adam, but was apparently rebuffed so many times, she took it upon herself to home school him.”

One can imagine there isn’t a Special Education Director who isn’t wondering if they could do more to identify students with mental health disorders. In fact, there are some who know they can do more – *and the law requires them to do it. However, the administrative apparatus of the public school system is managed in a way that restricts access to the supports and services needed by children with mental illness or disabilities.

Too often, pressure from school Superintendents require Special Education Directors to reduce their budgets, thus leaving Directors no choice but to purposely deny eligibility, interventions, appropriate services and/or supports to children who need them. In essence, school districts claim these children are fine or they’re “cured” because they really don’t need interventions or services despite clear warning signs that something’s very wrong.

Adam Lanza was no exception. Educational professionals report they saw Adam Lanza’s problems as early as 9th grade. At Newtown High School, he was often having episodes and the protocol used by the school was to call his mother, Nancy Lanza, and have her come in to diffuse each crisis.

The head of security for the school district at the time, Richard Novia, told AP reporter Adam Geller, “He would have an episode and she’d have to return or come to the high school and deal with it.”

While Nancy Lanza suffered in silence and rarely spoke of the seriousness of Adam’s problems, the indicators of her son’s severe mental illness were there. Nancy Lanza’s friends knew Adam had switched schools more than once and that Nancy tried home schooling him.

John Tambascio said, “I always said that I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes. But I thought, “Wow. She holds it well.”” Russell Hanoman said Adam was “clearly a troubled child.” Ryan Kraft, who babysat Adam when he was younger, said, “His mom Nancy had always instructed me to keep an eye on him at all times, never turn my back or even go to the bathroom or anything like that. Which I found odd, but I really didn’t ask; it wasn’t any of my business.”

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) includes a legal mandate requiring school districts, under the “Child Find” provision, to seek out and find children who exhibit significant problems at school, to include developmental and functional problems; not just academic problems. Most parents aren’t aware of this and the media and politicians won’t tell you about it, but all school districts know.

Under IDEA, anyone concerned about an individual can refer the student, confidentially, to the school district for assessment.

Usually, it is a teacher who refers a student for assessment. Unfortunately, due to the nationwide “budget constraint” mantra from the educational system, we are told that teachers are discouraged by their districts in the referral of students with suspected disorders and that “it’s a big waste of time as districts take no forward motion” according to one teacher who has asked to remain anonymous.

Did Lanza’s school district follow the Child Find law? Did they refer him for a psycho-educational assessment and provide the interventions and services needed? As we now know, they did not.

You may wonder, “Why at school?” Children with mental illness or disabilities experience the majority of their difficulties within and because of school. The random, unpredictable and social dynamics and demands of all school campuses generally intensify the manifestations of a child’s disorder.

Their inability to properly navigate the school environment is the first warning sign that, without proper interventions and supports, they will be unable to navigate in the real world when they reach adulthood.

Unfortunately for parents, their distraught and possibly violent child is often denied an assessment by the school district or, if given an assessment, they’re denied Special Education eligibility and/or appropriate supports and services, especially if the child is demonstrating “adequate academic progress.” Parents are often pleading and begging for help from the school.

This is where school districts misinterpret the law. Clearly, IDEA legislation requires that students who demonstrate issues of functional, social, and/or emotional development are to be assessed and the needed interventions, supports and services must be provided.
If Adam Lanza’s school district had followed the law, they would have requested Nancy Lanza’s consent to conduct a psycho-educational assessment in all areas of suspected disability, which includes mental health, in order to get to the bottom of his mental illness, thus enabling them to determine the interventions and services he needed (to include institutionalization if necessary). In addition, he would have been closely monitored via an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).

Adam Lanza’s problems were no secret; his brother told reporters that Adam suffered from a “personality disorder” (the clinical term is usually “sociopath” or “psychopath”). Adam Lanza’s mental illness was evident and Nancy Lanza’s problems with the school district have been reported.

Ask yourself… could things have been different if the school district had followed the law just a few short years ago? Would it have revealed the severity of his mental illness? Would interventions have been provided that may have prevented the murder of 27 innocents? We’ll never know the real answer to that question now.

But we do know his mother, Nancy Lanza, suffered in silence, was murdered by her son and friends and educators knew something was seriously wrong with Adam Lanza.

Often, when a parent is struggling at home with a child who has a mental illness or disability, they are completely overwhelmed and very few can understand this unless they walk in the parent’s shoes. More often than not, parents are not aware of the laws and provisions of IDEA and rarely do they have the energy or resources to fight the educational apparatus’ complex, bureaucratic and lengthy legal process. Not all school districts create barriers such as what is described in this article, but the problem is that the vast majority do.

Like Nancy Lanza, many parents end up pulling their children out of school and implementing a home school program. Consequently, removed from the social world, the child’s problems may appear to diminish somewhat… but those problems re-emerge when they are adults and attempt to re-enter mainstream society.

Did you know that twelve children commit suicide every day in the US? Everyday. One must ask what educators knew and what they did or didn’t do while those children were in their care.

Adam Lanza became an evil killer and educators saw signs of trouble as early as the 9th grade. One must ask what educators knew and what they did or didn’t do while he was in their care.

For parents of children with autism, it’s important to correct the media’s unsubstantiated reference to Asperger’s Syndrome with regard to Adam Lanza. Although Adam Lanza’s brother said “somewhat autistic,” if reporters had done their due diligence, they would have learned that an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is not a mental illness and it was not in any way related to what Adam Lanza did.

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