Nick Gordon Speaks To Dr. Phil

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I know many people were anticipating Dr. Phil’s interview of Nick Gordon this week as many people are curious about what happened to Bobbi Kristina Brown.

Dr. Phil arrived to find to find Gordon in bad shape. Gordon admitted that he was taking Xanax and mixing it with alcohol, which can be fatal. Dr. Phil’s goal was simply to get him into rehab, which was the right thing to do.

As you can see in the video above, Gordon was highly unstable and erratic, and knowing he is under the influence, I would take heed in putting too much into anything he says. Xanax and alcohol combined are known to cause jumbled thinking, poor judgement, and can even induce severe panic attacks. You can read more about what Xanax and alcohol can do here.

While I saw a couple of things that raised my eyebrows, I would not put too much stock on them until Nick is of sane mind and able bodied again. When Dr. Phil does the next interview with Gordon, I will share my thoughts then.

Interestingly, it seem this combination of drugs also played a part in Whitney Houston’s death.  It makes you think if Whitney introduced these kids (intentionally or unintentionally) to these drugs?

48 Hours: Melissa Calusinski

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Did you catch 48 Hours (click here for the full episode) this past weekend? If you didn’t, its a story you don’t want to miss. Erin Moriarty tells us of the story of little 16-month-old Ben Kingan. He was at daycare and was being cared for Melissa Calusinski when she says she he started to fall asleep.

“Ben was … sittin’ in his bouncy chair, playing with his blanket. …And then he kind of falls back asleep,” she told Moriarty. “When I saw him startin’ to fall asleep, I’m like, ‘Ben, Ben.’ And no response. …he didn’t look right. …and I touched his hand. He did not wake up at all.”

Ben died from his injuries.

The police interrogated Melissa for nine hours.  She denied hurting Ben over 70 times, but then she slowly broke down.  She confessed to police that she threw Ben to the ground.

But now she says she is innocent and her confession was false.

As an expert in human behavior, I absolutely believe in false confessions and this case has all the hallmarks of it.

If you aren’t familiar with false confessions, I highly suggest reading the information presented by the Innocence Project. They have some great statistics and facts for you.

The Innocence Project found that 60% of confessions of homicide that were later exonerated by DNA were false!!

Think about that.

I am thrilled to see Kathleen Zellner has taken on this case.  I regard her as one of the best attorneys in the country. She is amazing!  Many thanks to Erin Moriarty and 48 Hours for doing this show.

I support Kathleen Zellner and Melissa Calusinski, and I hope this case gets re-examined.

Own Lumber Liquidators Laminate Flooring?

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If you own Lumber Liquidator’s laminate flooring, you might want to listen to the report by CBS’s 60 Minutes (above). Anderson Cooper tells consumers that the flooring they bought at Lumber liquidations, according to their tests across the country, are made with formaldehyde and are exceeding indoor air pollution levels designated by the EPA.  Some samples 20 times higher than what is considered safe and acceptable.

I find this story so interesting because in the last month, I was in the market for a new wood floor, and I went to Lumber Liquidators to look at their products, and my experience at their store really raised my eyebrows. I ended up not buying their product because I simply didn’t trust them. While I wasn’t looking at laminate flooring, I was looking at hardwood floor. And several of the products I was interested in (red oak) were not available. I waited three weeks and checked again, and still no stock. That was a bad sign considering the store was totally empty on my visit. I was the only customer.

I even called the retailer a couple of times to find out when they’d get more product in, and they told me they didn’t know. You don’t make money without a a product on the shelves to sell. And it certainly wasn’t flying off the shelves with no one in the store.

Of course they said they were happy to order me what I needed, but I saw a huge downfall in that offer. If I had a bad batch, I was going to stuck in a loop waiting for more orders, and what if the orders didn’t match, or had quality issues. I saw my project turning into many months of hassles without much effort. I saw a lose/lose scenario before I even started.

When I asked the store clerk if I could return boards that were defective, he told me no. They would only switch entire boxed bundles. Without inventory, it was a deal breaker. I also found that they had bad reviews online in the middle of doing my homework. Upon finding out, I called the store and identified that I saw that they had bad reviews. I asked them how they would stand by their product if different quality issues arose and they said that no one had returned a box of the product I wanted in over two years.

I didn’t buy it for one minute after reading dozens and dozens of bad reviews, and seeing a video of YouTube of the exact problems encountered.

Naturally, I decided to go elsewhere. They had a handful of red flags that told me not to buy their product before I saw the 60 Minutes report.

Now seeing Lumber Liquidators in the news and watching the owner talk, I am confident I made the right decision not to trust Lumber Liquidators. Seeing the the owner talk to Cooper, I do not trust him.

Blake Seylhouwer Takes Stand

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Blake Seylhouwer, a former radio host, says he “accidentally shot at” his wife in the testimony above. He says he didn’t mean to cause her harm, but the bullet from his high-powered rifled sprayed shrapnel and bits of concrete when it hit their driveway injuring Beylhouwer’s wife, Misty.

Misty testified that she believes her husband Blake fired at her on purpose.

When I watch Blake above, I don’t believe him whatsoever. The amount of clues he gives off in a short amount of time is staggering.

What Does Your Profile Picture Say About You?

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(First published on LinkedIn February 13, 2015)

One of the key elements of a LinkedIn profile is a photograph. Photographs can be very revealing about a person. They can reveal if a person is happy, approachable, confident and professional. Or they can do the opposite. They can convey negative emotions, a threatening pose and show an unprofessional side. I suggest you chose your photo wisely because your photo does matter.

When people join LinkedIn, you assume they want to make positive connections, so I am always stunned when I see a professionally accomplished person putting up a photo of themselves that shows a negative, threatening, or unprofessional image. I can’t help but think they don’t realize the messages they are sending.

No one wants to reach out to a grumpy face, or a face that is looking down upon you (contemptuous). Or worse, a face that looks threatening or ominous. People will turn away.

So to aid people, here are my guidelines on how to submit a photo with a facial expression that will communicate a positive vibe for you:

  1. Make sure your picture shows you relaxed and comfortable
  2. If you are happy with yourself smiling, post a photo of you truly feeling happy or positive. This is the best profile picture you can post!
  3. If you don’t like to smile or its not natural for you (that’s okay!), post a neutral expression, but make sure there are no negative undertones in the photo
  4. Avoid negative undertones in a photo:
    (a) Looking down your nose
    (b) Forehead back, chin forward

    1. (“a” and “b” above both denote arrogance)

    (c) Tension in your face

    1. i. Lines in your forehead
    2. ii. Tense or tight lips
    3. iii. Squinting or glaring eyes
    4. iv. Eyebrows pulled down
      1. (ii-iv are suggestive of anger)

    (d) Frowning or down turned lips
    (e) Drooping eyes, heavy eyelids or heavy face

    1. (d) and (e) are signs of sadness, can suggest lack of motivation

    (f) Upper lip pulled upwards without a smile
    (g) Nose wrinkled and pulled upwards

    1. (f) and (g) are signs of disgust

None of these elements in number four above are going to signal positive traits about you. But by far the worst offenders I see are those who post pictures of themselves making the contempt expression, which is a half-smile. A contempt expression is a universal expression identified by scientists that is expressed by all people. So if you are human and feel contempt, you will make this expression regardless of where you live on the planet, what your race or ethnicity is, what language you speak, etc.

And while we all make contempt expressions–it’s a fact of life–I do not recommend putting a photo of yourself in your profile expressing this emotion. It is a very negative emotion which can signal a looking-down-upon-others attitude, an attitude of superiority as in “I’m better than you”, or in a low level situation a complete disbelief and disregard for what a person is hearing or seeing.

Here is an example of a contempt expression for you.

contempt

And here is a link to another one.

If you are going to take the time to publish a profile of yourself on anywhere on the web, put your best face forward!