The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry: Review

A book that I have had on my list to read for forever is The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry.  Its a book that starts with a bit of a tangential mystery but delves into the world of Psychiatry and the phenomenon of diagnosing Psychopaths.  As defined a psychopath is a person who exhibits anti-social behaviors that are at the basis caused by a person's complete lack of empathy.  Jon Ronson wrote another very interesting book, The Men Who Stare at Goats, so I was quite excited to delve into this one.

Ronson begins his journey after receiving a request to help solve a puzzle that went out amongst a slew of Academics.  Ronson's path to find who sent the puzzle eventually leads him down another path, one to examine what separates most people from those who posses the traits that make up a Psychopath. Ronson introduces a wide variety of people on his quest to find psychopaths and what makes them.  From Bob Hare who invented the most widely used list of traits, to Scientologists who battle the psychiatry profession as being far too willing to label everyone with a disorder.  The book introduces people like Tony, who has been institutionalized while likely scoring high on the checklist, to the former CEO of Sunbeam Al Dunlap, who definitely scores high.  That story moves from Ronson being a self proclaimed expert at spotting Psychopaths, to a more nuanced view of how hard it actually is to spot personality disorders, especially ones as dangerous as Psychopathy.  

The book is very good.  Ronson has an easy reading style, and the book is relatively short.  Its an engaging book that really makes you start to wonder just how clear cut so many mental disorders ad labels are.  A definite suggested read.

NCAA Football: Far too early power rankings

Whats that?  Its the middle of the summer and football is still months away?  Its time to hit the old standby of predicted power rankings!

These rankings are of course likely to be wrong, but it is important to get them out and start looking at which teams might be risers and fallers based on the program's picks for them in season.  This first go through is a simple rating based mostly on returning depth and contribution, recruiting rankings, and the teams recent history.  Likely next week I'll have a post that will have simulated the entire college football season to see where it will put teams.  This first pass is also what I use early in the season to make predictions, and help smooth the numbers until the season is a few weeks old.

 In general, the top 25 feels about right with two teams standing out that I think will be far worse off than the program likes early on.  Florida State took a tumble last year under direction of Willie Taggert, and they now are facing the loss of Deandre Francois and an offensive line that has been a sieve.  The program sees the previous two years and strong recruiting and thinks maybe last year was a blip.  The same thing goes for Louisville, who fell tremendously and I don't think they'll be able to move up much past that.  They've got a lot of returning production, but that production was bad last year. 

On the other side, Utah is likely far too low, as still is likely Boise State. Utah returns a lot of talent, and has been on a nice upswing the last few years in the Pac-12, with relatively little competition outside of USC in the South.  The Broncos continue to be the class of the Mountain West, and while they have to replace veteran signal caller Brett Rypien, theyve got a lot of guys to pick from to do it. 

1	Alabama
2	Clemson
3	Michigan
4	Georgia
5	Ohio State
6	Louisiana State
7	Auburn
8	Oregon
9	Oklahoma
10	Notre Dame
11	Michigan State
12	Washington
13	Penn State
14	Southern California
15	Wisconsin
16	Central Florida
17	Florida State
18	Florida
19	Oklahoma State
20	Miami(FL)
21	Iowa
22	Louisville
23	Mississippi State
24	Tennessee
25	Texas

The full rankings are after the jump.

Movemind: Speculative Short Stories Review

I'm really a big fan of the mind bending genre.  Stories with a twist or another way to look at the world are always intriguing, so when I saw Movemind: Speculative Short Stories while perusing the free section on Amazon, so I jumped right on it.  As it tends to be with most of these self-published books, this was hit and miss.  The highs were really good, with The Patriotic Amnesiac and Second Fear delivering on the twist and futurism fear.  Devilish Tricks might be the best of the bunch, exploring how we're never as smart as we think we are.  Others, like the Legend of the Lost, are light hearted and fun.  However, there were several low points. The Principled Principal felt more like a Hallmark film, while the Lost Chapter was just a dud.  The First and Second Constants were just te author ruminating on feelings and political beliefs, not exactly mind bending or asking people to examine a situation in a new unique way.  If this book is cheap I would pick it up because the highs are quite good, but most of the good stuff is up front.