The British gymnast Nile Wilson steps on stage and introduces himself.

In a broad Leeds accent, the 27-year-old describes himself as an Olympic medallist, the owner of several successful businesses, and the face of a YouTube channel with more than 1.5million subscribers.

Then he pauses and, as if hes slipped off the pommel horse, he begins again.

Im self-destructive, he says. Competing at the highest level of sport, I spent four to five nights a week at the casino alone. Once I drink alcohol, I struggle to stop for days or even weeks at a time.

I believe both introductions are true for the same reason. What can be our strength quickly turns into our weaknesses.

This is the dichotomy of sporting excellence.

By starting young, athletes are malleable.

Like gymnastics, football asks its participants to adopt an elite performance mindset from an early age. In general, those who turn professional in both sports have generally begun to participate before they are six years old, and are in systematic coaching before they turn 11. And at the end of that, there is no guarantee of a pro career.

There are consequences to this model.

Increasingly, this type of coaching means children are pushed into developing an addictive personality; a single-minded focus in which nothing is done in moderation.

Wilson describes this reality, flitting from the sporting (endless hours of training) to the innocent (watching The Lion King movie every night as a small child) to the more sinister (trying to drink more than his friends when out socialising).

Elite athletes, often driven by the rush of competition and desire to win, certainly display behaviours resembling addiction, explain sport psychologist Marc Sagal and addiction expert Ned DeWitt. Their focus, discipline, and pursuit of excellence can border on obsession. These qualities can contribute meaningfully to success but can also create problems like life imbalance or relationship challenges.

I brought the same intensity to a night out as I did to gymnastics, Wilson said. It was a competition, I wanted to win.

In this context, Tottenham Hotspur and England footballer James Maddisons eye-raising comment that he likes to be the main man at a roast dinner begins to make sense.

But as Wilson foreshadows, this mentality can have serious and even traumatic consequences.

Im obsessive, Im competitive, Im a risk-taker, and Im a show-off, Wilson summarises. You can see where Im going with this. It sounds like a pretty good concoction to create a champion and maybe an addict.

When it comes to footballs relationship with addiction, the crumbs are peeking out from under the carpet.

Brentfords Ivan Toney and Newcastle Uniteds Sandro Tonali are both serving lengthy suspensions for betting (eight and 10 months respectively) with the legal process revealing that both players were gambling addicts.

The biggest game has started against an illness, Tonalis agent, Beppe Riso, said after the news broke. Sandro is used to big games and usually he wins them. Sandros experience will save the lives of other kids.

Nottingham Forests Harry Toffolo was also handed a suspended five-month ban in September, with the FA Commission stating the bets were the result, at least in large part, of significant mental health challenges.

Their experiences are not unique in football players including Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney, Paul Merson, Peter Shilton, Andros Townsend and Dietmar Hamann have all spoken about struggles with gambling.

Other addictions are prevalent across the game. This month, The Athleticreported on the scale of tramadol use within the sport, a strong, prescription only painkiller which former Liverpool and England goalkeeper Chris Kirkland said left him suicidal. Earlier in November, Rooney spoke about his reliance on alcohol during his early twenties, while Dele Allis emotional interview with Gary Neville in July saw the pair discuss Allis dependence on sleeping pills. Gambling, however, is seen as particularly dangerous because it has no direct physiological impact on performance.

Besides the horrific guilt, the next day I could perform to the best of my ability, Wilson explained.

The game has changed, adds Michael Bennett, head of player welfare at the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) players trade union in England. Its very much more data-driven. Gone are the days when you could go out drinking at the weekend, then play on a Tuesday. All the data is checked, from training and in matches. So its very difficult to do what you used to, back in the day. That leads itself to the possibility of other vices.

Football is at the sharp end of wider problems. Research released this month by Ipsos and GambeAware shows that, amongst the general population, nearly two-thirds of problem gamblers (64 per cent), had never spoken to anyone about their issues. Though the overall number of gamblers between 18 and 24 has fallen, those remaining are far more likely to bet more than they can afford (42 per cent).

The Sporting Chance clinic, set up by former Arsenal and England captain Tony Adams in 2000 to support players with various mental, emotional and addiction issues, had more than 35 players require residential rehabilitation last season, with over 50 per cent related to gambling.

In 2014, research from the Professional Players Federation, an organisation of athletes associations across UK sport, stated footballers and cricketers were three times more likely to become problem gamblers than other men in their age group. Eight years on, EPIC, a consultancy group specialising in problem gambling, said professional athletes were now four times more likely than others to develop issues.

The modern footballer has no shortage of stress, pressure to perform, access to certain substances, and a culture that sometimes normalises risky behaviours, all of which might contribute to addiction and other mental health problems, say Sagal and DeWitt.

These numbers are startling and beg the question of why.

There is an increasing belief that the increasing pervasiveness of addictive personalities is a contributing factor.

When Kobe Bryant, one of the most influential athletes in history, wrote an article for The Players Tribune, he titled it Obsession is natural.

For Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Bryant, and his legendary work ethic, maybe. Later on in that piece, he expanded on that intensity: I swore to approach every matchup as a matter of life and death. The mindset he coined as mamba mentality is not so different at all from an obsessive personality.

Three years after his untimely death, Bryants legacy continues.

Newcastle winger Anthony Gordon, then at Everton, paid tribute to the 41-year-old when he died in a helicopter crash, posting on Twitter: RIP to the greatest competitor the sports world has seen. A true definition of hard work and dedication. A Kobe video or quote has gotten me through some tough times during my career. Thank you for inspiring me CHAMP.

Gordon, in turn, has displayed elements of that mentality. Speaking to the Newcastle matchday programme last month, he revealed: I get really obsessed with things. Whatever is on my mind for those couple of weeks, Ill buy all the gear, research every detail of it; its just my personality.

I think thats a good thing because I dont settle for just being average at something I want to be the best at everything I do. Its a good mindset to have, but I think it stresses the people around me out.

While the latter part of that statement hints at some minor repercussions of an obsessive personality, this is not to pick out Gordon, or even to say he is at risk but to highlight how widespread this attitude is within sport. The England Under-21 international is not an extreme example.

During the 2017 Womens European Championship, Sarina Wiegman, then coaching her native Netherlands national team, found herself so consumed by the job that she left a planned family day halfway through the tournament, telling her loved ones: Im sorry, I cant relax. I cant do this.

In other sports, legendary England rugby union international Jonny Wilkinson was famous for his obsessive preparation something that he revealed post-retirement had left him with acute anxiety.

Wilkinson, who refused to leave training sessions until he had completed six consecutive successful kicks from the touchline, maintained a stratospheric success rate of 95.7 per cent during the final five years of his career at French club Toulon. He also taught himself how to kick drop goals with both feet then unprecedented in case of such an opportunity as that which arose for him in the last minute of Englands 2003 World Cup final win.

I spent my career surviving the pressure I put on myself, Wilkinson recounted.

With football getting faster, more intense, and with more games in the schedule than ever, players are forced to wring themselves dry with increasingly less rest. To reach the top and to stay there players almost have to be addicted to the fitness, training, and development part of the process.

NFL player Maxx Crosby is a recovering alcoholic. The Las Vegas Raiders defensive end has openly spoken about how he has an addictive personality, but sees the positives of it, in that it allowed him to refocus on his American football career once he went sober in 2020.

Yeah, Im an addict, Crosby told ESPN this year. I went through what I went through, but this is way bigger than that. For me, it helps that I have that addictive personality, but Ive always loved football.

In an interview this month, Nile Ranger, another footballer to reveal a gambling addiction, told The Athletic: Im an addictive personality. I got addicted to it, that feeling of winning would be outrageous, that adrenaline was crazy. It was a major contribution to the unravelling of his career.

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Nile Ranger: 'Im Haaland if Id eaten and behaved better. I didnt. I thought I knew it all

In research carried out in 2017 by the University of Bradford, several footballers who had spent time at the Sporting Chance clinic were anonymously interviewed.

One of those, given the pseudonym of Tony, had made more than 300 professional appearances and played in the Premier League. He now suffered from depression and alcohol misuse and outlined the connection with the obsession he developed during his playing career.

The report states: After being rejected as a player at 18, he had worked on a building site and then at 21 was signed to a team; he was determined that he would not be rejected a second time. He described himself as having been very focused on his game, training exceptionally hard. It meant everything to him: I lived and breathed it, I even ate it

As his level of play gradually dropped with age, Tony described it as a slippery slope in terms of self-worth. He developed an alcohol dependency, and made attempts to take his own life.

Of course, players can have an obsessive personality and be intensely driven without it leading to addiction in other areas of their lives.

I was addicted, I know I was; I was addicted to football and addicted to scoring goals and addicted to trying to be the best, says former Newcastle and England striker Alan Shearer, now a colleague at The Athletic. Those things pushed me.

Goals were the biggest rush Ive ever experienced. You score one and you crave another. But all I can do here is talk about myself and that obsession never really filtered into other areas of my life. I liked going out and having a drink and a laugh with the lads, for example, but it never became more than that.

Everything else was in moderation. I loved winning and still do, but not to the point where it took over my life. My obsession, if thats what it was, was very channelled.

What I do understand is how difficult it can be for footballers and other elite athletes to cope with losing that addiction, that focus. When youve had those incredible adrenaline spikes, when youve enjoyed adulation, you can see why people might look for compensation elsewhere. I was very lucky; I went from one dressing room to another with my television work. I know Ill never have that feeling of scoring again, but at least Ive got something else.

But when talking about psychology, it is more useful to think of risk factors rather than causal effect. This is a field which operates through predisposition rather than guarantees.

Addiction is a compelling urge to act or use a substance despite negative consequences, explain Sagal and DeWitt. Its driven by the brains reward system and operates on a continuum with varying degrees of severity.

This begins to explain why an addictive personality can lead to off-pitch difficulties the brains reward system has been conditioned throughout a career.

For a long time, sporting development was based on the 10,000 hours theory now considered to hold flimsy relevance as the original study was based specifically on violin students which encouraged early specialisation and constant pushing.

With players being picked up by academies at earlier ages, and the dedication required to make it at an elite level ever higher, the brain is encouraged to become even more obsessive. When that obsession becomes focused on off-field issues, the risk of addiction grows ever greater with other implicit parts of football accentuating that danger.

Footballers face extended periods of boredom and elevated levels of pressure. There is also the potential of isolation with players, often on short-term contracts, competing with team-mates for places. This is the nature of the profession hours of travelling for matches and sitting in hotels, before the burst of activity for 90 minutes in front of thousands of passionate people.

Footballers have a lot of time on their hands and are earning a lot of money, explains former Stoke City and Crystal Palace manager Tony Pulis, who has been involved in professional football for just under 50 years as a player and then coach. The game is a real drug and a real high. Sometimes players need to fill it if theyre not getting that high, and look for other things. Gambling is an avenue to get that.

Frank, another player in the University of Bradfords research, spoke about the difficulties he had adapting to all the free time. He called the hours after training finished for the day a lonely place to be and described an aimlessness that led to depression and gambling.

You need to rest as a footballer, says Charlie Daniels, who made more than 450 professional appearances, and played in the Premier League for Bournemouth. He currently works as manager of Championship club Watfords under-18s side. And so that means youre sitting down a lot, and need some sort of stimulus. It might start as a social thing but it gets the better of some people, and they become addicted. Maybe its a release.

A release from the pressure with large sums of money, long stretches of down-time, and with the same obsessive personality that has driven their sporting success.

As a professional athlete, you might well have thoughts about persevering and pushing through a determination to never stop seeking that victory, even though its difficult, sports psychiatrist Dr Tim Rogers told The Athletic in February 2021.

Those are great attributes if youre 1-0 down in the 87th minute of a football match, but not great if youve already lost 500 and youve only got 100 left.

Ex-Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson, who presented the documentary Football, Gambling and Me about his own addiction, spoke of a similar mentality.

Maybe you were a sensation seeker, maybe you tried to do unusual things, an academic put to him, after testing revealed his betting tactics were far less conservative than an average gambler.

I tried to play football like that, yeah, Merson replied. My teammates at Arsenal would always say, Stop hitting the glory ball, the killer ball. But thats what made me the player I was. Other people would play safe football. But I didnt play like that, it was all or nothing.

Looking back at it now, thinking about it, thats exactly the same as my gambling. That impulsivity which made me so effective on the pitch almost killed me off it.

Research has implied that sportspeople are also more likely to display traits of psychopathy, with several of those characteristics such as a desperation to win, being committed, and a lack of empathy suggestive of a negative link with problem gambling.

Jeremy Snape is a sports psychologist and former international cricketer who has worked with clients including Crystal Palace, the England rugby union team, and the South African cricket side. The Athletic asked him about the difficulties of his job whether he felt the need to find a balance between creating an elite performance mindset versus a healthy mindset for everyday life.

The path to mastery is steep, alluring and slippery, Snape said. For elite performers, the same obsessive drive for continual improvement and gratification can spill over. What does success and failure really mean? It needs a more broad and balanced appraisal across our sport, mental health, relationships and life.

While medals and records are great achievements, winning at all costs may be too high a price to pay for some.

His answer gets to the heart of the dual-purpose role psychologists play. On one hand, they were hired to produce the winning machines of elite-level competition. On the other, they are often the employee responsible for looking after players mental health even if that intervention comes with a sporting cost.

The older members of footballs current generation of players did not necessarily have that support. In 2011, Englands Football Association produced a 117-page document on academy restructuring as part of its Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP). Just half a page and seven bullet points was devoted to player welfare.

Within that half-page, there was little guidance or structure on how that welfare should be administered just that clubs should do something. As a comparison, the sections frameworking performance analysis how many games should be filmed, how many analysts should be employed et cetera were extensively detailed over several pages.

As of two years ago, one Premier League club had just one player care officer across the entirety of the academy age groups on the boys side. That is not thought to be atypical, with clubs employing more analysts than player-care staff. The responsibility of that job is to create close relationships with players but the workload is spread far too thinly.

Clubs can educate players from a young age about addiction risks and promote a culture of openness, say DeWitt and Sagal. (This can mean) Encouraging early help-seeking and providing psychological support can act as a strong defence against addiction. Normalising talk in and around mental health and wellness is important, while finding ways for pros who have experienced and overcome addiction to connect with and relay their experiences to academy players is another smart approach. When physical testing is already done on under-nines players, following up with the mental side seems a no-brainer to implement.

Strides are being made at the older ages.

Completing a wellness assessment on a tablet device each morning is now typical practice, as well as the rise of wearable trackers such as sleep bands. However, these do not pick up every issue while players do not always have the incentive to self-report when they want to start games every week.

To Pulis, its about seeking distraction over obsession. Youngsters coming into the game who havent been indoctrinated fully need to find another avenue, perhaps a dual-career, which they can enjoy as well as their football, he says. There should be a real force of direction that pushes clubs to guide players into something that can take the strain away, to address the free time.

Finding solutions is difficult. Footballs encouragement of addictive personalities is not done out of vindictiveness or apathy. But it is a by-product of the pursuit of elite performance and an industry that is only just starting to recognise the strength of the mind as well as the body. As mentality is weaponised from ever-younger ages, those traits can spill out in unforeseen and extreme directions.

Footballs relationship with addiction is extensive the money, the escapism, the rampant gambling advertising. Dozens of tales lie in its wake and not all will end as happily as Toney and Tonali, who are anticipated to return to playing next year after serving their bans.

But before all those risk factors comes the brain. And without further player care, existing pathways are predisposing athletes to vulnerability too.

(Top image: Sam Richardson for The Athletic, images: Getty Images)

Link:
An addictive personality can facilitate sporting greatness but what are the consequences? - The Athletic

India had a "mental issue" in their Cricket World Cup final defeat to Australia, according to their former captain Madan Lal.

Travis Head's 137 propelled Australia to a six-wicket victory in Sunday's final atNarendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Head's knock is the second-highest score by an opener in a men's World Cup final.

And Madan Lal, who played for India between 1974 and 1987, believes the tournament hosts had a mental slip at the most inopportune moment.

"It is a little bit of a mental issue, you can say that," he told Stats Perform.

"In a final, if you make mistakes, then you have no chance of winning.You have to make less mistakes [than the opposition] as that isthe only way you aregoing to win.

"You can say [India are having] mental issuesbecause in the last 10 ICC tournamentswe've played in the finals [knockout rounds], but we didn't win any. That can be addressed.

Definitely [this was their best chance]because of the way the team was playing andthe way their bowling attack was performing.

"I was thinking that India would go through and win, but at the end of the day, when Australia came into the final, then I said it was a 50-50 game. It's not a game that can be easily won.

"I think it's a bit sad. India had done very well. They won all their ten matches, butinthe last one, they couldnt cross the line."

Virat Kohli starred for India in the World Cup, scoring 765 runs.

He tallied a half-century in the final, having plundered a ton in the semi-final, whichtook him above India legend Sachin Tendulkar in the all-time rankings for ODI centuries.

"Hes fantastic, a world champion, a superb player," Madan Lal said of Kohli.

"The good thing about him is the way he looks after himself, the way he approaches the game, his attitude.

"Plus, if you see when he's batting, we always know that if he bats for 15 minutes, he will get 100 runs.

"And another good thing about him is that he looks at the scoreboard. He plays according to the situation of the game, like Head did [in the final]."

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India's World Cup capitulation caused by 'mental issue', suggests ... - sportsmax.tv

Insufficient support against a backdrop of rising levels of stress and mental health in the workplace is costing UK employers billions of pounds, according to a new study commissioned by a Blackpool businessman.

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It is estimated that around 15% of people experience mental health problems in the workplace while more than 15% have a neurodiverse condition such as ADHD or autism.

The results of the report, which was recently conducted by Lancaster University for Joe Best of Perfect Support, come, he says, as no surprise.

Perfect Support, based in the town, works to improve workplace wellbeing at companies across the UK.

Changing corporate attitudes around awareness has become a personal mission for the 51-year-old, whose own story also continues to inspire those he helps.

Despite leaving school with no qualifications and being diagnosed with dyslexia while at university, Joe went on to pass his Law degree at the age of 35 followed by a Masters - and now plans to go on and do a PhD in Occupational Health and Wellbeing.

If you give me a chapter to read, I know it's going to take me three or four times longer than someone else. And my university tutors kept saying to me have you bothered checking your spelling? and they eventually advised me to go and get tested. Thats when I got the diagnosis. All this time it seems I had just hidden it really well. I became good at just verbalising.

One of the best workplace comments I can remember, was when my manager said: You don't look dyslexic! That sort of summed it up.

He added: With any neurodiverse condition you can take two routes - You can wear it as a label and let it tie you down or you can adopt the attitude of so what, Im dyslexic.

I think, the reason I went in for my solicitor's exams and my Masters degree, is because of that. My mentality is such that no one tells me I can't do it. I like to prove them wrong. I feel really proud of what Ive achieved.

I have real empathy. When people say to me I can't do this because I'm dyslexic, I say but look, Ive got a Masters degree. I had to work my backside off to get it, but I did it!

If the managers take the time to figure out why a person is struggling in the workplace and give them the support, they can do their job. And it does frustrate me that managers sometimes just don't take that time and effort. Im very passionate about that.

It's this passion that tempted Joe out of semi-retirement five years ago to establish Perfect Support, growing his network of 14 coaches. Each of them brings qualifications and experience across of wealth of specialisms including ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, autism, Bipolar Disorder, Tourettes, stress, anxiety, depression and grief.

He said: The majority of people don't want the coach coming into their workplace and sitting next to them. Or them having to find a spare room somewhere or having to leave their desk. With virtual support no one has to know except them and their line manager. And they dont even have to do it in work hours. We're really flexible with our clients.

With more than 15% of people in the UK neurodivergent, any organisation of a fair size is likely to have neurodiversity within their workforce. It is estimated that around 50% of those dont even know they are neurodiverse.

Lancaster Universitys report states: Ensuring neurodiversity among a workforce can bring significant benefits for organisations. Dyslexic individuals, for example, are inherently creative, think outside the box and are great at seeing patterns in big data, all valuable skills for any workplace. For this reason, people with dyslexia are increasingly being sought by employers. Companies are having recruitment drives aimed specifically at people with dyslexia.

In 2020, the number of people living with anxiety and depressive disorders rose significantly because of the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting an increase of 26% and 28% respectively in just one year. It is estimated that 15% of working-age adults live with a mental disorder.

The report continues: Without effective support, mental disorders and other mental health conditions can affect a persons confidence and identity at work, capacity to work productively, absences and the ease to retain or gain work.

Workplace stress can result in demoralised workforces, low morale, more absence, and higher staff turnover.

After exploring career paths in Law and IT, Joe has never felt more rewarded than in his current role.

People are struggling in the workplace, and it's not their fault, he said. If they've got a neurodiverse condition, they can still do that job, they just need a bit of guidance. Its the same with mental health.

Some companies embrace it, and other companies just don't want to know. Theres still that stigma and mentality among employers. Even if the company is really good at putting the support in place, sometimes the managers just don't understand it.

Everyone always dumbs you down - Oh, you're dyslexic, you can't read or youre autistic so you won't talk to someone or socialise. Rather than looking at all the negatives, why arent they spinning that and saying what's the positives? What does it mean to our workforce?

By turning the focus to mental wellbeing, employers can do their part to make the world a better place to work. The report showed that only 39% of UK employees said their workplace provided good mental wellbeing support, suggesting that, sadly, more work needs to be done.

Read this article:
Empathy and passion drive Joe's mission to increase mental health ... - Blackpool Gazette

In the high-stress world of collegiate athletics where young athletes can become celebrities overnight, media speculation has become a significant problem for stars like LSUs Angel Reese. On November 17, Reese sat out LSUs game against Southeastern Louisiana following a second half against Kent State on November 14th where Reese was also benched. That was a shocking absence, considering Reese is a walking double-double, a defending national champion, and the Most Outstanding Player of the 2023 NCAA national tournament.

To say that Reeses absence has ignited a storm of conjecture is an understatement. The medias speculation has become so severe that Reese tweeted please dont believe everything you read on November 19th before sitting out once again on November 21st when LSU defeated Texas Southern 106-47.

In many ways, the buzz makes sense. Theres an air of mystery surrounding Reeses absence and in the face of uncertainty, its human nature to fill in the blanks. And given all thats at stake in a wild womens basketball season that feels like anyones game at this point, it can be argued that some level of curiosity surrounding high-profile players like Angel Reese is a good thing.

After all, gaining eyes in womens sports is almost always beneficial as increased attention to the sport at large fuels growth in a historically underrepresented and under-resourced industry. People are paying attention to womens college hoops like never before and female athletes should be the topic of everyday conversation, just as their male counterparts so often are. But its the nature, not the presence, of the speculation surrounding Reese thats unsettling.

Over the past few weeks, Reeses absence has been attributed to everything from her grades to her attitude. And these reports are fueled in large part by rumors and cryptic social media posts rather than credible sources. Its wrong, said Kevin Robbins, a professor of practice at the University of Texas School of Journalism and Media on such speculation. Robbins adds that in the quest for attention and relevance, sports media, much like the media at large, often succumbs to the temptation of speculation.

The rush to be the first to report on a story can overshadow the need for accurate and verified information. But according to Robbins, this impulse to speculate has sunk so many stories of people over the years. It leaves athletes vulnerable to the harmful consequences of baseless rumors.

Its also impossible to ignore the racial undertones of implying that a young, Black athlete like Angel Reese has an attitude problem and/or a low GPA. Reese certainly faced criticism for how the former was perceived when she mimicked Iowa star Caitlin Clarks You cant see me gesture and pointed to her ring finger en route to dominating Iowa in last years championship. Although Clark had engaged in similar displays of confidence throughout the season, Reese was so heavily criticized that the word classless trended on the website formally known as Twitter following LSUs historic win.

This season, its also entirely possible that Reese isnt playing for personal reasons that have nothing to do with her attitude and grades. But the default assumptions place the onus of responsibility on Reese, rather than giving her the benefit of the doubt.

Although disingenuous, its somewhat unsurprising that sports media is making such assumptions. In fact, its become a fairly common practice within the industry to assume the worst about college athletes who frequently face criticism for sitting out games or taking time off for unique, individual circumstances. For instance, at the end of every college football season, star players sit out bowl games to avoid injury and maintain their draft status, and, like clockwork, are branded as selfish, disloyal, or, in the words of Kirk Herbstreit, are seen as contributing to an era of player [that] just doesnt love football.

In reality, these athletes are, more often than not, sitting out to preserve their health and future livelihood. There are perfectly understandable reasons to say no to a risky, non-playoff bowl game that will only pad their coachs resume and offer few professional benefits to the athletes themselves.

This disdain isnt reserved only for college football players. Although transfers often receive similar criticism for leaving their teams mid-career (never mind that coaches frequently do the same without critique), across sports, mental health is the most common reason college athletes have considered transferring in recent years.

According to the NCAA, 61 percent of women and 40 percent of male athletes who contemplated transferring in 2021-2022 considered doing so for mental health reasons, followed by conflicts with coaches or teammates, and concerns over playing timeall of which are legitimate reasons to change programs. But blame, buzzwords and fiery speculation, rather than pausing to listen to the athletes and look at the facts, generate significant press year after year.

Is it legal and acceptable for sports media to fill in the blanks and promote polarizing commentary surrounding college athletes? Sure. Is it ethical? Thats where things get dicey.

Robbins underscores the ethical concerns surrounding media speculation, emphasizing two codes of ethics that sports journalists adhere tothe Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics and the Associated Press Sports Editorsin addition to codes of ethics provided by their outlets. The SPJ code, similar to the Hippocratic Oath, emphasizes the principle of do no harm. However, Robbins raises questions about whether speculation adheres to this ethical guideline, considering the potential harm it can inflict on athletes like Angel Reese who are often victims of narratives beyond their influence or control.

At the moment, we do not know officially why [Reese] was pulled from that game and then didnt play in the second half, Robbins says of LSUs games against Kent State and Southeastern Louisiana. And although speculation surrounding her absence has boiled down to aforementioned grade and attitude related issues are largely unverified, there is vast potential for speculation and misinformation to cause actual harm to young athletes in the process.

So lets take those two examples, Robbins says. One implies shes not making the grades, the other implies that shes got a bad attitude. Those things are alive and theyre going to live now forever because theyve been out there. You cant take that away. Youve planted a suggestion and so that follows her even if its untrue. I dont see how thats not harmful to someone.

Although it can be tempting to brush off such speculation as just thatsupposition and shallow rumors, college athletes have become even higher-profile celebrities with the advent of NIL so their reputations matter more now than ever. Reeses NIL valuation, for example, currently sits at $1.3 million, fueled by her unique Bayou Barbie branding, which has landed her six-figure deals with lucrative companies like Mercedes and Coach. Reeses celebrity status has reached such a significant level that she revealed in August that shes taking online classes at LSU to maintain a low profile.

College athletes are also uniquely susceptible to mental health issues, burnout, and threats to identity when they physically cannot play, whether thats due to injury or any litany of other reasons that can limit their productivity and threaten their personal health. College athletes earning potential is also under threat when they dont play because NIL deals and even scholarships have the potential to be rescinded due to a lack of productivity.

In other words, the unique pressures that have always existed for college athletes are still here. And in addition, theres a lot more monetarily at stake now than, say ten years ago, when the character of college athletes are called into question. And although Reese has masterfully turned bad press into millions of dollars in the past, the discourse surrounding her now could hurt her, as ambiguity is rarely on the side of college athletes.

Tigers head coach Kim Mulkey has cleared up some uncertainty surrounding Reese, but not much. Its very obvious Angel was not in uniform, Mulkey said during the postgame press conference following LSUs dominance against Southeastern Louisiana. Angel is a part of this basketball team and we hope to see her sooner rather than laterIm not going to answer anymore. Thats it. Thats all yall need to know, OK?

With so much happening all at once, there could be many reasons Mulkey has chosen to be vague surrounding Reeses absence. Its worth asking: could Mulkeys non-response be her way of guaranteeing Reese a sense of anonymity and privacy amid a hostile news cycle? Mulkey confirmed as much following LSUs victory over Texas Southern, addressing the media in the postgame press conference: Sometimes you want to know more than youre entitled to know. Im trying to protect my players. Robbins believes that Mulkey could be sincere in her desire to protect her players by pleading the fifth. It could be [the case], but thats the problem. We dont know because the language shes using is so general. And if thats the case, wouldnt you feel like its the coachs responsibility to contain these rumors and protect her player and protect her program?

Speculation, fueled by cryptic social media messages and ambiguous circumstances, can have lasting repercussions on an athletes reputation. Reflecting on the evolving landscape of journalism, Robbins acknowledges the challenges posed by the rise of social media. Before just anyone could weigh in on their digital platform of choice, the dynamics were different, but in todays fast-paced digital era, rumors can multiply exponentially, making it crucial for coaches and institutions to control the narrative.

[Mulkey] doesnt have to be specific about it, Robbins says. But at least she can eliminate some of the possibilities at this point. And she can come out and say This has nothing to do with attitude and this has nothing to do with grades and so you can forget that. And then its on the record, its attributed to her, and thats what needs to happen.

According to Robbins, maintaining the integrity of truth in such situations is on the coach and [Kim Mulkey] needs to be forthright. Angel Reese is one of the biggest names in womens college basketballso Kim Mulkey is responsible to attend to this, to control rumors and speculation now because its harming her player, its potentially harming her program, her reputation.

As the womens basketball college season unfolds, the ethical considerations surrounding media speculation have thus far taken center stage amid an otherwise positive and exciting news cycle. The potential harm to athletes, already navigating a demanding and stressful work environment, raises questions about the responsibility of sports media and the institutions they cover. The need for responsible reporting, adherence to ethical guidelines, and the protection of athletes from unwarranted speculation become paramount when the human cost is so high.

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Please dont believe everything you read The ethics of speculation in sports media - Awful Announcing

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The royal family is riven with ambition, suspicion and competition with the Prince and Princess of Wales at the heart of it all, according to an explosive new book about The Firm.

In Endgame, royal reporter and author Omid Scobie moves beyond Prince Harry to detail an alleged power struggle between King Charles and Prince William.

He explores the new kings relationship with his disgraced brother Prince Andrew and examines why Kate is perfect in the mould of Britains future queen.

Scobie examines the UK medias coverage of past controversies surrounding William and Kate, and makes sensational claims about the heirs attitude towards his brother Harry.

Ahead of the books release on 28 November, here are some of the biggest royal revelations from Endgame:

One of the key themes of Scobies book is the alleged rift between King Charles and Prince William

(Getty)

Scobie highlights an alleged rift between King Charles and his son, the Prince of Wales. In Endgame, William is painted as an ambitious, hot-headed prince, determined to lead the royal family into the future, with Scobie claiming that he wants to rip up the rulebook and do things the Cambridge way.

He adds that, while William respects his father, the difference in their views might become an issue over the years ahead. Scobie writes that William and Charles are united in their frustration towards Prince Harry but do not see eye to eye about how the institution should be run.

He describes Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace, the offices of Charles and William respectively, as hives of competing agendas and different ideas about how to modernise the monarchy. Scobie also claims William is not giving his father the same space Charles did with the late Queen, as the 41-year-old eyes the throne. Theres no time for that, the author writes.

The book looks at favourable coverage in the media of William and Kate

(PA Wire)

Through the lens of a number of incidents in 2019, Scobie provides an analysis of the UK medias relationship with the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Prince Harry has previously claimed stories about his wife were leaked to the British press. Calling it a dirty game in the couples 2022 Netflix docuseries, Harry said negative news coverage about Meghan helped steer unwanted media attention away from other members of the royal family.

Scobie brands William and Kates 2019 holiday to Balmoral Castle a showy publicity stunt. That year, the prince and princess were praised for booking a 73 a head Flybe flight from Norwich to Aberdeen amid reports that Harry and Meghan had chartered four private flights in 11 days. What wasnt included in the PR gamesmanship, Scobie writes, was that the Cambridges scheduled flight did not have the Flybe logo on its side.

Since airline bosses were keen for them to use a properly branded plane, an empty one was sent from the headquarters in Humberside, around 123 miles north of Norwich. The same plane also returned empty to Humberside after the family landed in Aberdeen.

In total, the two flights released over four and a half tons of carbon emissions. Their perfect family trip was exposed for what it really was; a showy publicity stunt, Scobie says. A source close to William and Kate reportedly said they were unaware Flybe had switched the flights and did not seek any special treatment, in a statement to MailOnline.

Prince Harry has been very open about his mental health struggles

(Apple TV+)

Scobie believes the relationship between William and Harry is unlikely to be mended, as the rift between the brothers continues to push them apart.

The heir and the spare have grown apart in the aftermath of Harrys bombshell allegations against the royal family since resigning as a senior member and relocating to the US with Meghan.

In Endgame, the British journalist claims William believes Harry blindsided the family with their public complaints and oh so California self-importance. A source reportedly told Scobie William is convinced his younger brother is being brainwashed by an army of therapists and that he no longer recognises who Harry has become.

He feels he has lost Harry and doesnt want to know this version of him, a source close to William told Scobie. Harry is reportedly ready to move on from the whole saga, whether he and Meghan receive an apology or not over their alleged treatment by the royal family since their wedding.

Meghan was regarded more difficult than Kate because she had opinions

(PA)

Scobie gives Endgame readers his take on the reportedly frosty relationship between Kate and Meghan, writing that they were never close.

Citing multiple sources, he claims Kate was never a fan of the former actress. One person reportedly told Scobie the Princess of Wales has spent more time talking about Meghan than talking to her. He also reveals that Kate has jokingly shivered when Meghans name has come up on recent occasions.

Describing Kate as an institutional dream come true, Scobie suggests the future queen has successfully sublimated her authentic self, becoming an enigma to the public and perhaps even herself. He claims Kate, who was born in Reading and attended St Andrews, where she met Prince William, has had several rounds of elocution lessons and now sounds posher than her husband.

In contrast, one former palace aide told Scobie Meghan was regarded as being difficult because she had opinions.

They wanted Meghan to just go with everything that was suggested and not create any additional work, he writes. It was a combination of her not conforming with how women marrying into the family are expected to behave and certain individuals just being lazy.

Prince Harry has become increasingly distanced from his family in the UK

(Getty Images for2022 Robert F. Kennedy Gala)

Queen Elizabeths reign ended last year, as the long-serving monarch died on 8 September 2022. Scobie writes that the Sussexes had no idea that Buckingham Palace was preparing for her final few hours, when Charles rang Harry and asked him to make his way to Balmoral Castle immediately.

When Harry reached out to William to check whether they could travel to Scotland together, he was said to have been met with radio silence.

Harry was reportedly informed William had secured a flight for himself and his uncles, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. Meanwhile, the duke received no details about joining that flight.

A source told Scobie: It was upsetting to witness. [Harry] was completely by himself on this.

Harry sent his brother a follow-up text message but he still didnt hear back from William despite the fact that seats were available on the Dassault Falcon private jet the prince had chartered.

William ignored him, said a family source. He clearly didnt want to see his brother.

In the end, Harry flew out by himself in a private plane, costing $37,000, from Luton airport.

A source claimed William completely ignored Harry in the time surrounding the Queens death

(Getty)

Harry had no idea his grandmother had died at 3.10pm on 8 September, over two hours before his own flight took off. While the duke was still racing against time to make it to Her Majestys bedside, Buckingham Palace was preparing to break the news of her death to the world, Scobie writes.

[Harrys] team literally had to beg for them to wait for his plane to land and they reluctantly agreed to hold the statement back for a little bit, Scobie shares a statement from a close family friend. But, when Harrys plane was delayed by bad weather over Aberdeen International airport, they could wait no longer and the announcement went live at 6.30pm, he writes.

When the plane landed at around 6.50pm, Harry received a text message from Meghan, urging him to call her after she received a BBC breaking news alert that the queen had died.

Harry was crushed, a friend of the duke told Scobie. His relationship with the queen was everything to him. She would have wanted him to know before it went out to the world. They could have waited just a little longer, it would have been nothing in the grand scheme of things, but no one respected that at all.

Prince Andrew with his brother Charles

(Getty Images)

Scobie says that Charles, like his late mother, has a soft spot for Prince Andrew, who stepped back from royal life over intense scrutiny of his ties to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Stonewalling and expelling his son came easy enough, he writes, referring to Charles approach in dealing with Harry, although its a different story with his own brother.

Amid Andrews fall from grace, Scobie writes, Charles was tearful over fears for the shamed dukes mental health.

The Duke of York was stripped of his military titles by his mother after one of Epsteins victims Virginia Giuffre accused him of sexually abusing her at his apartment in Belgravia when she was 17. Andrew strongly and repeatedly denied the allegations, and later paid a multimillion-pound amount to settle the lawsuit.

According to r Scobie, it was William who set the wheels in motion in distancing the royal family from Andrew, although the Queen was the official face of Andrews reckoning. Charles, he claims, didnt want any part of it.

Harry is apparently now in a great place and focusing on his physical and mental fitness

(Getty)

In the two years since the royal family became embroiled in a race row over Harry and Meghans son, no one except Charles is said to have addressed the alleged conversation about Prince Archies skin colour.

After they relocated to Montecito, California, Harry and Meghan sat down for an interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021. During their hour-long conversation about their treatment by the royals, Meghan claimed that a senior member had speculated about the colour of Archies skin while she was pregnant.

While the issue has reportedly been privately addressed in letters between Meghan and Charles, neither Kate nor William have reached out to the Sussexes about the matter.

The silence has caused a lot of confusion and upset, says a source close to the family.

With the long rift between him and his family showing no sign of healing, Prince Harry is focussing on his role as a father to Archie and Princess Lilibet.

According to Scobies account, Harrys also prioritising his physical and mental fitness, adding that the duke works out regularly with his personal trainer. His routine also includes regular hikes, bike rides, and ice baths.

Endgame will be released in the UK on 28 November. You can read The Independents review of the book here.

Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace, and the Sussexes were all contacted for comment.

More here:
Nine royal revelations from Omid Scobie's scathing new book ... - The Independent

Stories about ceasefire deals and hostage releases are dominating the news agenda, as Israel and Hamas finalise an agreement to see some of the dozens of captives held since 7 October freed.

Up to 50 women and children look likely to leave Gaza over the coming days. Yet almost nothing has been said about the fate of scores of men, many of whom would have served with the Israel Defence Forces, the sworn enemy of Hamas.

Their families know nothing about how they are being treated, or if they are being subjected to abuse or torture. At the very least, they will be suffering psychologically, in the knowledge that previous Israeli captives taken by Hamas were held for years on end.

Theo Padnos is an American journalist who spent 22 months as a hostage after being kidnapped by Islamist extremists before being passed to a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda in Syria in 2012.

To give an insight into what it's like to be detained by an armed group, and the mental toll of life in captivity, he told 'Upfront: The Podcast what he went through during his time as a hostage.

"These people are undergoing horrific experiences. And if they emerge without emotional scars for the rest of their lives, with their lives intact, I'm not sure that their psychology will be intact," Mr Padnos told host Katie Hannon.

"I wasn't allowed to speak. I had my handcuffs behind my back. I was blindfolded. I had to lie in a corner. If I moved, then I had punishment."

"I felt that they were in the process of killing me over a period of days. My psychological experience of this - I didn't think I was going to survive."

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Mr Padnos, an Arabic speaker, was a freelance reporter seeking to cover the Syrian civil war when he was captured.

During his time in captivity, he was shuffled between tiny cells and dark rooms with different prison guards, while being regularly tortured and interrogated by senior members of a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda.

"In my case, they were just so violent with me that I assumed that their process was to subject me to a certain degree of punishment over a period of time and then when the emir - or whatever sheikh was in charge of my destiny - he was going to say, 'this person, we've punished him enough and now let's just kill him."

While Hamas and Al-Qaeda are both Sunni Islamist armed groups, there are key and significant differences between them. Hamas is an armed group with religious but also political and nationalistic objectives. It has participated in elections, and seeks the creation of a Palestinian state within the borders of modern Israel.

It is not known whether captives currently held by Hamas are being subjected to physical torture. One of the two elderly female hostages released since 7 October said she had been beaten when she was abducted and taken to Gaza, but was then treated well during her two-week captivity in the enclave.

Men with a military background may or may not be receiving the same treatment. Regardless, the psychological stress of captivity will be unavoidable, says Mr Padnos.

He says over time he was allowed to communicate with his captors. To gain their trust and protect himself psychologically, he says he developed a 'second self.'

"A terrorist organisation is a cult, and I developed a cult personality, a cult self, a second self, that could easily get along with the people in the cult."

"And I accepted my second self, just as they do. We've got to kill the Jews, when they said that I would say we've got to." Mr Padnos explained.

"[When they said] we've got to show the world that we're not really terrorists. We're actually freedom fighters. When you go home, you will do this? I told them, of course."

"And then as soon as I left, I retrieved my first self: Theo."

To the surprise of many at the time, Mr Padnos was released in 2014, one week after another American journalist who was abducted in Syria, James Foley, was beheaded by Islamic State.

Qatari diplomats brokered Mr Padnoss release with his captors, after being directly contacted by his family.

The United States unequivocally denied paying any ransom money to secure his freedom.

He was released to United Nations officials in the Golan Heights, the disputed territory between Syria and Israel.

It was initially difficult to mentally readjust to life outside captivity, he says.

"For the first 24 hours, it was not real. I kept thinking that I was going to wake up and go back. And oftentimes I did, when I was sleeping. In the first days after my release, I woke up and I was like, okay, I'm back in prison. And the whole freedom thing was a dream."

"Every person I saw on the street, I'm like, he's probably a terrorist." he said of the days after his release.

"I was looking at all these Israeli guys like, that guy, he's not a real Israeli. He's an al-Qaeda guy. I didn't trust anybody."

He told Katie Hannon he has been thinking often about what the captives in Gaza have been going through since 7 October. He believes that the only hope of seeing all of them released is a longer-term ceasefire.

"The way to begin those negotiations is to stop the violence. In my view, there's just no incentive for the captors to let their captives go if all they're going to get is a respite of a day or two."

"You know, the thing where they say we're indifferent to death, that's true. They're not kidding about that. That's really true. Like when they're underground and the bombs are coming from above, those people have an insouciant and indifferent attitude towards death, and it's very dangerous for the captives."

"My personal view is that... the hostage-takers, they're going to let the women and children go because [they perceive their] God has told them to... They're not going to let anybody else go, unless they advance their own war aims, which are significant."

Listen to Theo Padnos speaking to Katie Hannon on Upfront: The Podcast here, on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify.

Read more:
Life as a hostage: A former captive on the psychological impact - RTE.ie

ONE club often deemed to be in crisis heads to one who really is in deep trouble on Sunday. Expect Everton fans, aggrieved at their clubs points deduction, to create a red-hot atmosphere at Goodison

Here are the latest match odds for Everton vs Manchester United from ourtop-rated football bookies. Odds are subject to change.

Before the international break, a look at the league table made happy reading for the blue half of Merseyside after a poor start to the season, theyd climbed well clear of the relegation zone.

Two weeks on and its a case of dont look now.

Ten points have been lopped off for breaching financial fair play rules and suddenly the Toffees are back in an all-too-familiar position in the drop zone.

This game, therefore, becomes much about the mental attitude, both of the home players and supporters.

If off-field problems are able to be put to one side, Everton are in a healthy position. Form is good with Dominic Calvert-Lewin fit and firing again, while manager Sean Dyche appears to have now moulded the team into the shape he wants its basically a 4-4-2 with Abdoulaye Doucoure pushing on as a second striker to support DCL.

Dwight McNeil and new signing Jack Harrison are providing the width, while at the back youngster Jarrad Branthwaite has formed a strong partnership with the no-nonsense James Tarkowski.

Youd expect Dyche to have introduced a siege mentality among his squad following recent events and that is almost certain to be the case among the angry fans as ever, the ones punished most by the clubs failings.

Goodison has long rocked for big games like this and the points situation will only add to the fervour.

The current United side doesnt look the strongest in standing up to that sort of intimidation and theyve certainly struggled to convince so far this season.

Theyve lost three of their last five matches as pressure grows on boss Erik ten Hag, who has a touchline ban for this one. Another loss would not surprise.

Find our best bets for the Everton vs Manchester United game below. Odds for the bets are provided by the best sportsbooks per our expert reviews. Odds in the bettings tips are subject to change.

ready to create an us against the world outlook following the clubs points deduction during the international window.

Boss Sean Dyche will likely have tried to foster a similar feeling among his squad but just as important will have been reminding his men that if they continue their recent form, they wont have to worry about having 10 points taken off their final tally.

The Toffees have improved notably over the past couple of months and they head into this one having claimed 10 points from the last 15 available.

Uniteds form isnt as bad as the figurative clouds surrounding Old Trafford but even when theyve won its been unconvincing, with no victories by more than a single goal so far.

Back Everton to win at 7/4 at Spreadex

Having scored only once prior to the start of this month, Mykolenko has found the net in his last two games, while hes managed a shot in his last three.

The fact he got up to score a header early on at Crystal Palace last time out shows hes been given licence to get forward and it looks worth backing a player full of confidence to pull the trigger at least once in this match.

Odds-against looks a generous offer about the Ukrainian, whose runs down the left could well cause trouble.

Bet on Mykolenko over 0.5 shots at 11/8 at bet365

Everton have made more tackles than any other Premier League side this season and the expected raucous atmosphere should only increase the numbers as Bluenoses roar their men to get stuck in.

Garner makes the top 10 in the division for tackles and since moving into a more central midfield position, hes landed this bet in all five games.

Again, the price looks a big too big and worth snapping up.

Back Garner 3+ tackles at 21/20 at Ladbrokes

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Everton vs Manchester United betting preview: Odds and predictions... - The Sun

G-A-Y Late to close (Image: G-A-Y)

Jeremy Joseph, the owner of Heaven and G-A-Y, has announced that with great sadness G-A-Y Late is set to close.

The bar owner made the announcement on social media on Friday (24 November) evening. In a statement, he wrote: It is with great sadness that Ive made the decision to close G-A-Y Late on Sunday [10] December.

The announcement follows others from Joseph in the last couple of years where he has discussed closing his venues.

Referring to Covid and the issues that presented Joseph said he created the G-A-Y Foundation to give me a purpose and on a day-to-day basis I worked at rediscovering the happiness in what I do in running venues.

He continued by saying that he knew G-A-Y Late would be the biggest challenge & it has been continuously. Between constant building works and Crossrail Joseph said I just found it too disheartening to continue. He also said it had become impossible to run a venue under constant building work. It is a losing battle, he stated.

The development of the St Giles and Denmark Street area presented further difficulties, namely blocking the venues entrance, fire exit, and queue. He also referred to customers & staff being attacked. He added: Despite so many attempts to get police to visit & support G-A-Y Late, there are no regular checks on the venue.

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A lack of police officers meant its impossible to guarantee customer and staff safety, he went on to say.

Joseph said hed done everything but running the bar had come at a great cost to my own mental health. He then said, It is simply not possible to run G-A-Y Late in its current location.

Joseph explained that staff would be deployed between G-A-Y Bar and Heaven. He also said he had plans for an updated version of G-A-Y Late in Heavens DP & Stage Bar. Joseph also detailed some plans to increase capacity at Heaven having knocked a wall down and making it wheelchair accessible.

He closed by thanking customers and staff for making the bar one of the most successful LGBT venues in the UK. This is something Im very proud of & something that can never be taken away.

The post G-A-Y Late to close with great sadness announces owner appeared first on Attitude.

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G-A-Y Late to close with great sadness announces owner - Yahoo Lifestyle UK

Health Horoscope Today, November 26, 2023: Here's what your daily health horoscope says about your health, work and relationships.

Your financial sector will expand, and you will benefit. Youll be good in terms of your health as well. Trading will be profitable this month. At the beginning of this month, professional men and women under this sign may run into some issues. However, this pressure test will make you more resilient. You only need to remember to stay focused and have a positive attitude. If your efforts are in vain, you might pay the price afterwards.

Love tip: Your lover and you will have a wonderful relationship. Activity tip: Start reading books. Lucky colour for work: Purple. Lucky colour for love: Blue. Health tip: Eat healthy food.

Money will be given to you in all conceivable ways. Save some for any unexpected hospital appointments you may have. Your trading approaches will work. If you have any exams coming up, good luck studying! Youll accomplish your objectives and feel admirable in front of your loved ones. Professionals looking for a new position or seeking a change will be fortunate around the end of the month.

Love tip: You may make up with your lover. If you are anticipating someones return in your marriage or relationship, everything will work out well for you. Activity tip: Do swimming. Lucky colour for work: Lavender. Lucky colour for love: Yellow. Health tip: Youll have a terrific month because a healthy mind stays in a healthy body.

Fortunately, youll have a trouble-free time throughout this time. Your plans will work well and help you to secure abundance. You will put in a lot of effort starting in the first week of the month to take advantage of a wonderful chance. Dont push yourself though. If you have been improving your skills and tactics, things will be different.

Love tip: You actually stand a high chance of getting married. Activity tip: Do your favourite activity. Lucky colour for work: Black. Lucky colour for love: Green. Health tip: Dont eat outside food.

Take a step back and make an effort to stop thinking about money. It will benefit your mental well-being. Examine your previous investment choices. Make sure you find the loose end that has been giving you trouble lately. Its possible that giving something your complete attention did not result in the desired results in your personal life. But in the one where you work, youll be in command!

Select Topics of your interest and let us customize your feed.

Love tip: Couples who have different ideas about how to take their relationship to the next level may feel a little alone in their struggles. Activity tip: Do meditation. Lucky colour for work: Pink. Lucky colour for love: Brown. Health tip: Do a workout to stay fit.

There will be many jobs and projects waiting for you at your workplace. Staff of an MNC, in particular native staff, will be required to manage issues, create schedules, attend meetings and close sales. Youll become affluent, and according to your choices, youll live a life fit for a king. However, use caution because there is a remote possibility that you might make bad decisions while inebriated and commit fraud or lose money. Aside from that, avoid making poor lifestyle decisions.

Love tip: Maintain and resolve your connections as much as you can. Activity tip: Go for a walk. Lucky colour for work: White. Lucky colour for love: Orange. Health tip: Eat home-cooked food only.

Accepting financial plans is okay, but downplaying how well things are going is not. But dont worry about it. Because there is a potential that you could have a misunderstanding with your co-workers, professionals should also make sure they convey their views in meetings appropriately.

Love tip: Couples need to reevaluate their relationship and demand space for themselves. Activity tip: Do dancing. Lucky colour for work: Dark blue. Lucky colour for love: Peach. Health tip: Regular exercise will help you avoid stress eating and making yourself a victim of a completely new issue.

Natives will perform very well in their workplace. Your continuous initiatives will be successful and be a huge help to them. Your financial situation will improve. Not only will you be able to make a lot of money, but your investments will also be profitable. If you have experience trading, everything will go as planned and you will make a significant profit. Prioritise your health while pursuing wealth.

Love tip: You must exercise patience and wait for the ideal opportunity to sneak away with your lover. Activity tip: Dont take too much stress. Lucky colour for work: Red. Lucky colour for love: Light brown. Health tip: Youll benefit greatly if you monitor your eating patterns and design an appropriate diet around them.

The stars will be on your side and keep peace in your financial sphere. Commerce would not be a wise choice for the residents. Make sure to take a break from your work so you may think about ways to advance your current responsibilities. You will be able to relax as a result. Your graph will get better as soon as you realise everything is in your favour.

Love tip: Decisions will be made in favour of those dealing with family issues. Remain calm and avoid worrying. Activity tip: Help your mother with the household work. Lucky colour for work: Orange. Lucky colour for love: Dark green. Health tip: Take care of your health.

Your real estate purchases and investments will both reap rewards this month. You will also find a new way to finance your way of life and your property if you put in more effort. Pick a healthy way of living as well. The debt and legal problems will be handled. The moment has come to act in order to progress and become affluent.

Love tip: You will seek worth in your emotions, and romance will blossom in your lives. Activity tip: Spend time with your loved ones. Lucky colour for work: Grey. Lucky colour for love: Light green. Health tip: You must regularly workout.

You should always be prepared for the unexpected. Thanks to your income, your financial condition will dramatically improve. Trading, though, wont be a smart move right now. Locals must avoid it whenever possible. It will also be good for natives who are looking for work. Keep yourself healthy and joyful.

Love tip: Spend time with your loved one and try to understand each others point of view. Activity tip: Go on a tour, and relax for some days. Lucky colour for work: Parrot green. Lucky colour for love: Grey. Health tip: Stay stress-free.

Youll take pleasure in your time in the workplace. Dont let your focus wander. For improved concentration, try some nuts. Do this in the first few days of the month for best results. Prioritise your studies.

Love tip: You will meet your partner. Activity tip: Do some creative work. Lucky colour for work: Light blue. Lucky colour for love: Black. Health tip: Stay fit and exercise.

You might not have learned the lesson that spending money could negatively impact your overall financial status. There will be luck for new job hunters. Students will have a good time. Not only will you perform well on the challenging exams and internships you have coming up, but youll also feel mentally healthier and be able to concentrate better.

Love tip: Go on a date with your loved one. Activity tip: Spend time with your family. Lucky colour for work: Silver. Lucky colour for love: Brown. Health tip: Go on a strict diet.

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Health Horoscope Today November 26, 2023: You will be able to concentrate better today - Health shots

Max Bennett is the co-founder and CEO of Alby, a start-up that helps companies integrate large language models into their websites to create guided shopping and search experiences. Bennett holds several patents for AI technologies and has published numerous scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals on the topics of evolutionary neuroscience and the neocortex. He has been featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list as well as the Built In NYCs 30 Tech Leaders Under 30.

We have been trying to understand the brain for centuries, and yet we still dont have satisfying answers. The problem is that the brain is really complicated. The brain contains over 86 billion neurons and over 100 trillion connections all wired together in a tangled mess. Within a cubic millimeter of the brain, which is about the width of a single letter on a penny, there are over a billion connections. Even if we mapped all 100 trillion connections, we still wouldnt know how the brain works.

The fact that two neurons connect to each other doesnt tell us much about what they are communicatingneurons pass hundreds of different chemical signals across these connections, each with unique effects. Worst of all, this is made even more challenging by the fact that evolution doesnt design systems in coherent waysthere are duplicated, redundant, overlapping, and vestigial circuits that obscure how different brain systems fit together.

These problems have proven so difficult, that some neuroscientists believe it will be many more centuries before we ever make sense of the brain.

But there is an alternative approach, one that searches for answers not in the human brain, but within fossils, genes, and the brains of the many other animals that populate our planet. In recent years, scientists have made incredible progress reconstructing the brains and intellectual faculties of our ancestors. This emerging research presents a never-before-possible approach to understanding the brain. Instead of trying to reverse-engineer the complicated modern human brain, we can start by rolling back the evolutionary clock to reverse-engineer the much simpler first brain. We can then track the changes forward in time, observing each brain modification that occurred and how it worked. If we keep tracking this story forward from the simple beginnings through each incremental increase in complexity, we might finally be able to make sense of the magical device in our heads.

As the evidence continues to roll in, a story has begun to reveal itself. The first brain evolved over 600 million years ago; one might think that over such an astronomical amount of time, the story of brain evolution would contain so many small changes that it would be impossible to fit into a single book. But instead, amazingly, it turns out that the main reconfiguration of brains occurred in only five key steps, referred to as the five breakthroughs.

Each breakthrough emerged from a new set of brain modifications and gifted our ancestors with a new suite of intellectual faculties.

Each breakthrough was built on the foundation of those that came before. Just as the ancestors of lizards took fish-like fins and reconfigured them into feet to enable walking, and the ancestors of birds took those same feet and reconfigured them into wings to enable flying, brain evolution too worked by repurposing the available biological building blocks to face new challenges and enable new feats.

If we want to understand the human brain, and what is missing in current AI systems, the framework of these five breakthroughs offers a wonderfully instructive and simplifying approach.

Before brains evolved, animals didnt move around much. They were most like todays sea anemones and coral; they waited for food particles to come to them, at which point they would snatch food out of the water with their tentacles. But they did not actively pursue prey nor avoid predators.

However, around 600 million years ago, our ancestors evolved into a small worm-like creature the size of a grain of rice. These worm-like ancestors were the first animals to survive by moving towards food and moving away from danger. Not so coincidentally, these were the first animals to have brains.

This worm had no eyes or earsit perceived the world only through a small portfolio of individual sensory neurons that each detected vague things about the outside world. Some neurons got activated by the presence of light and others got activated by the presence of specific smells. Despite perceiving almost nothing detailed about the external world, these worms could still navigate around using a clever technique called steering. This was the first breakthrough.

When a piece of food is placed in water, molecules fall off of it and disperse throughout its surroundings. This produces what is called a smell gradient, where the concentration of these molecules is high directly around the food source and becomes progressively lower the further away from the food source you get. It is this physical fact that evolution exploited to enable the first form of navigation.

The first brains had two primary motor programsone for moving forward, and one for turning. Although these worms couldnt see, they could find the origin of food by applying two simple rules: whenever the concentration of a food smell increases, keep going forward; whenever the concentration of a food smell decreases, turn randomly. Taking advantage of how smell gradients work, if you keep applying this algorithm, eventually worms will make it towards the source of the food smell.

In other words, steering worked by categorizing things in the world into good and bad worms steer towards good things like food smells and away from bad things like predator smells. This was the function of the first brain, and from it emerged many familiar features of intelligence, from associative learning to emotional states.

There are many debates about what the final steps are on the road to human-like artificial intelligence. From the perspective of the five breakthroughs, what is missing is not the first breakthroughs in the evolution of the human brainsteering and reinforcement learningnor the most recent breakthrough, which was language. Instead, AI systems have skipped the breakthroughs that evolved halfway through our brains journey; we have missed the breakthroughs that emerged in early mammals and primates.

Early mammals emerged 150 million years ago, as small squirrel-like creatures in a world filled with massive predatory dinosaurs. They survived by burrowing underground and emerging only at night to hunt for insects. From the crucible of this incredible pressure to survive was forged a new brain region called the neocortex. The neocortex enabled these early mammals to imagine the future and remember the past, in other words, to simulate a state of the world that is not the current one.

This was the breakthrough of simulation. It enabled these animals to plan their actions ahead of time. It enabled our squirrel-like ancestors to peek out from their burrow, spot nearby predators, and simulate whether or not they could successfully make a dash across the forest floor without getting caught. Simulation also gifted these mammals fine motor skills, as they could plan their body movements ahead of time, effortlessly figuring out where to place their paws to balance themselves and jump between tree branches. This is why lizards and turtles, lacking a neocortex, move slowly and clumsily on the forest floor, while mammals like squirrels and monkeys crack open nuts and climb in trees.

To accomplish all this, the neocortex creates an internal representation of the external world, what AI researchers call a world model. The world model in the neocortex contains enough details of how the world actually works that animals can imagine themselves doing something and accurately predict the consequences of their actions. In order for a mouse to imagine itself running down a path and correctly predict whether a nearby predator will catch it before it gets to safety, its imagination needs to accurately capture the nuances of physics: speed, space, and time.

We already have AI systems that can make plans and simulate potential future actions, the most famous modern example being AlphaZero, the AI system that recently beat the best Go and chess players in the world. AlphaZero works, in part, by playing out possible future moves before deciding what to do. But AlphaZero and other AI systems still cant engage in reliable planning in real-world settings, outside of the constrained and simplified conditions of a board game.

In real-world settings, planning requires dealing with imperfect noisy information, an infinite space of possible next actions, and ever-changing internal needs. A squirrel dashing from one tree to the next has, literally, an infinite number of possible actions to take, from the low-level choices of exactly where to place each individual paw, to the higher-level choices of exactly which path to take. How the neocortex enables mammals to plan in such complex environments is still beyond our understanding; this is why we do not yet have robots that can wash our dishes and do our laundry, the secret to which lives within the minuscule brains of squirrels and rats and all the other mammals in the animal kingdom.

One of the key problems in the field of AI alignment is ensuring that AI systems understand the requests that we make of them. This has also been called the paperclip problem, after Nick Bostroms allegory of asking an AI system to run a paperclip factory as efficiently as possible, at which point his imagined AI system goes on to convert all of earth into paperclips. This thought experiment reveals that AI can be dangerous even without it being intentionally nefarious: the AI system did exactly what we told it to do, but failed to infer the true intent of our request and our actual preferences. The paperclip problem is one of the biggest outstanding challenges in the field of AI safety.

When humans speak to each other, we automatically infer the intent of each others words. This ability was part of the fourth breakthrough, the breakthrough of mentalizing. It emerges from parts of the neocortex that appeared with early primates. These primate areas endow monkeys and apes with the ability to simulate not only the external world but also their own inner simulation itself, enabling them to think about their own thinking and the thinking of others.

Early primates got caught in a political arms race; their reproductive success was defined by their ability to build alliances, climb political hierarchies, and cozy up to those with high status. We see this in the social groups of modern nonhuman primates like chimpanzees, bonobos, and monkeys. The most powerful tool in surviving the political world of primate life was the evolution of mentalizing, which enables primates to predict the consequences of their social choices, to imagine themselves in other peoples shoes, to infer how they might feel and what they might do and what they want.

The new areas of the neocortex in primates contain the algorithmic blueprint for how to build AI systems that do the same. One way or another, in order to create safe AI systems, we will have to endow these systems with a reliable understanding of how the human mind works, without which our AI systems will always risk accidentally weaponizing an innocuous request like optimizing a paperclip factory into a world-ending cataclysm.

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What Brains of the Past Teach Us About the AI of the Future - Next Big Idea Club Magazine