Hasta La Gadget!

The world of smartphones is certainly an interesting one, and you can be sure that there will be no let up where the kind of new releases are concerned. After all, technology moves at such a fast pace, that it is hardly surprising to see a slew of new models rolling out within a single calendar year. Having said that, there has been whispers going around that Nokia might actually be working alongside Meizu in order to make their way back into the smartphone industry, as the deal with Microsoft means that no new Nokia-branded phones will be released until 2016, and it seems that this alleged collaboration would be called the Meizu MX Supreme.

It remains to be seen whether such a loophole will work, and there is not much for us to work with in the first place, apart from the fact that Meizu will be the one behind the manufacturing process, while Nokia, if they actually play a role here, will be working on the hardware design as well as software. A previously leaked photo did focus on the Home button which could jolly well carry a fingerprint sensor, but until the real deal comes out, we will not know for sure.

The handset is also rumored to come with a 20.7MP shooter with a large sensor, as well as 2160p video capture ability, and that would not be surprising at all taking into consideration Nokia’s ways with a smartphone camera. Ah well, only time will be able to tell whether this rumor will become fact or debunked.

Meizu MX Supreme Leaks One More Time

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

By Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., and Jennifer A. Sherwood, M.S.P.H

In observance of Women’s History Month, there is much progress to mark for women and HIV/AIDS in America since the emergence of the epidemic three decades ago. Recently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that HIV diagnoses among females in the United States declined by 49 percent from 2002 to 2011. Additionally, as a result of effective treatment of HIV-positive pregnant women, mother-to-child transmission of HIV has been virtually eliminated in the U.S.

This progress is no small accomplishment, considering the fact that in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, the scientific and medical community failed to recognize women as a target population for research, and they were excluded from clinical trials of HIV/AIDS medications and preventive interventions. This omission proved to be a major public health oversight, and led to a rapid rise in the number of HIV cases among women, who contracted the disease primarily through heterosexual sex. Today, women account for one in four of the 1.2 million people living with HIV in America.

In the U.S., there are striking racial and geographic disparities in new HIV infections and outcomes. While African American women represent just 13 percent of the female population, they constitute 64 percent of new HIV infections and are 14 times more likely to die from AIDS-related causes than white women. Southern states contain 37 percent of the U.S. population but represent 50 percent of new HIV infections. AIDS-related mortality is also highest in the South. Contributing factors are high poverty rates, lower educational attainment, violence, and lack of access to healthcare. New HIV infections are also concentrated in urban areas, such as Washington, D.C., where 1.6 percent of women are HIV positive, a prevalence that is higher than for females living in Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, and Liberia.

In addition to being more biologically susceptible to HIV infection than heterosexual men, women’s vulnerability to HIV is also driven by social and economic factors. Poverty, sexism, stigma, discrimination, and violence increase risk for infection and are among the many structural barriers that prevent women from getting the information and services they need to prevent HIV or to seek proper care if they are HIV positive.

In spite of so much progress, the majority of women living with HIV in the U.S. are not engaged in regular medical care. It is estimated that of all women living with HIV in America, 88 percent have been diagnosed, but only 45 percent are engaged in care and just 32 percent have achieved viral suppression. When virally suppressed as the result of effective, consistent therapy, transmission of HIV to others can be reduced by as much as 96 percent. Since treatment is prevention, the low percentage of virally suppressed women in America represents a missed opportunity for dramatically reducing the spread of the disease.

If we are to end AIDS among women in America, preventing new HIV infections is essential and there are a range of tools that can help, including targeted education, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), male and female condoms, and harm reduction services for people who inject drugs. To maximize reductions in new HIV infections, a high impact strategy must be employed to use the most efficient, evidence-based, cost-effective and scalable prevention methods to target those at highest risk in the most affected areas. Women and girls, particularly vulnerable groups such as African-Americans, sex workers, women who inject drugs, and transgender women, need better, targeted information, as well as nondiscriminatory HIV prevention and treatment programs.

Routine testing for HIV is now covered as a preventive benefit under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The legislation also provides women with unprecedented access to lifesaving medications and other interventions to treat and prevent HIV infection, an important reason why implementation of the ACA must be supported, including Medicaid expansion across all states.

For too long, women’s health was neglected in AIDS research, in clinical settings, and in public policies. Now, as a result of an increased focus on women’s health and HIV/AIDS, there are hopeful signs of progress. To make further gains, a fast-tracked, comprehensive strategy is needed, mobilizing all sectors of society to prevent HIV infections in women, their partners and children, provide testing and early treatment to all those in need, combat discrimination and stigma, and eliminate violence against women. Additionally, more research on women and HIV/AIDS is urgently required, including intensified efforts to discover a cure and a vaccine.

The tide is turning. Working together and with these investments, we can achieve an HIV-free America and make AIDS history in the years ahead.

Rear Admiral Susan Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A. (ret.) is the Public Health Editor of The Huffington Post. She is Senior Policy and Medical Advisor at amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research in Washington, D.C. Dr. Blumenthal also serves as a Clinical Professor at Tufts and Georgetown University Schools of Medicine and is a Senior Fellow in Health Policy at New America. Admiral Blumenthal served for more than 20 years in senior health leadership positions in the Federal government in the Administrations of four U.S. Presidents including as Assistant Surgeon General of the United States, the first Deputy Assistant Secretary of Women’s Health, and as Senior Global Health Advisor in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She also served as a White House advisor on health. She convened the first NIH conference on Women and AIDS and an HHS Task Force with membership of more than 60 organizations. Prior to these positions, Dr. Blumenthal was Chief of the Behavioral Medicine and Basic Prevention Research Branch and Chair of the Health and Behavior Coordinating Committee at the National Institutes of Health. She has chaired numerous national and global commissions and conferences and is the author of many scientific publications. Admiral Blumenthal has received numerous awards including honorary doctorates and has been decorated with the highest medals of the U.S. Public Health Service for her pioneering leadership and significant contributions to advancing health in the United States and worldwide. Named by the New York Times, the National Library of Medicine and the Medical Herald as one of the most influential women in medicine, Dr. Blumenthal was named the 2009 Health Leader of the Year by the Commissioned Officers Association and as a Rock Star of Science by the Geoffrey Beene Foundation. She is the recipient of the Rosalind Franklin Centennial Life in Discovery Award. Her work has included a focus on HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic in the early 1980’s.

Jennifer Sherwood is a Policy Associate with amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research in Washington, D.C. She conducts research analysis, develops policy briefs, infographics and writes scientific articles. Jennifer served as an Allan Rosenfield Public Policy Fellow at amfAR and received an MSPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Jennifer has worked in West Africa, in collaboration with local ministries of health, to understand the social and structural factors related to STIs/HIV. Her research interests include the health impact and prevention of gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and HIV.

Good teeth. A sense of humor. Physically attractive. Can be trusted. The way they dress. Easy to talk to.

These are some of the common features men and women say they look for in a partner.

But new research is suggesting another overlooked quality may be a key to lasting relationships: Humility.

One study of 459 college students found that young women and men were more likely to be satisfied with their romantic partners the more they perceive them as modest and respectful. Students with more humble partners also were in general more committed to the relationship, and likelier to forgive a transgression if their partner was less arrogant or self-centered, according to researchers from the University of North Texas, Georgia State University and Hope College.

The findings reported in the current issue of the journal on Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice are consistent with other research in the developing field indicating that humility is a key component in healthy relationships.

We may live in a society that encourages personal branding, where we extol ourselves on social media and many clamor for any kind of media attention. But our hearts appear to want something different.

“Despite how we seem to operate in our culture … we still like humble people,” says Biola University psychology professor Peter Hill, a leading researcher on humility.

Sorry Sheldon

The unrestrained egotism of Sheldon Cooper, the popular lead character on the hit TV sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” may be a somewhat obvious example of an individual lacking in humility.

This is a guy who when a friend confesses she is crying because she feels stupid, responds in his empathy challenged fashion: “That’s no reason to cry. One cries because one is sad. For example, I cry because others are stupid, and that makes me sad.”

But defining humility and who has or doesn’t have it is not always so easy. The challenges include the irony that truly humble people will tend to be more modest in their self-descriptions, while narcissists devoted to embellishing their self-image are likely to boast of their regard for others.

Still, through increasingly sophisticated scientific measures and techniques, including relying less on self-reporting and more on assessments by others, researchers are building a body of work lifting up the value of this quiet virtue.

And a major value appears to be promoting caring relationships.

Two separate studies following college students over time found that humility helped develop stronger social relationships.

In particular, participants in romantic relationships who had recently been hurt or offended by their partners were more likely to be forgiving if they perceived their partner had a humble character. Partners viewed as having attitudes of arrogance or superiority were less likely to be forgiven.

Since humble people seem to be more likable, “we might cut them some slack. We might be more willing to forgive,” said Hill, one of the authors of the study reported in the journal Self and Identity.

In another study related to qualities of healthy relationships, greater humility was associated with the ability to receive love from others. Participants rating higher on a humility scale were likelier to view a recent act of kindness with a sense of gratitude and feeling loved.

Those more focused on themselves were more likely to view acts of kindness with a sense of mistrust or shame associated with the idea of needing assistance, according to the Case Western Reserve University study.

On the flip side of humility, arrogance and narcissism has a darker side.

Healthy humility

Studies have found individuals with low levels of honesty and humility appear more willing to sexually harass subordinates at work, and are more likely to be unfaithful, treat romantic relationships as a sport and are less likely to view emotional commitment as a prerequisite to sex than those with more humble characters.

In a more recent Canadian study of several hundred college students, low scores on an honesty-humility scale were associated with conspicuous consumption, a greater desire for power and a focus on having many uncommitted, short-term sexual partners.

“Through their emphasis on having more resources than do others, the money, power, and sex factors have a close conceptual link with the exploitation that characterizes low honesty-humility,” the study authors reported in the European Journal of Personality.

In practical terms, researchers indicate, this means that both individuals and couples therapists have to be sensitive to pathological expressions of narcissism even as they seek to integrate the positive values of humility into committed relationships. A healthy humility means being aware of the needs of others, to both appreciate their positive qualities and to be aware of potentially abusive behavior.

The good news, researchers such as Hill and others note, it that over time individuals only pretending to be humble tend to reveal themselves.

Those constantly clamoring for attention eventually may find themselves encountering this apparent inconvenient truth: Nice people make better friends and lovers.

David Briggs writes the Ahead of the Trend column for the Association of Religion Data Archives.
Image Dragunsk Usf; Flickr

Image Vic Flickr

In my recent post Top Ten Fixable Reasons Your Wife Won’t Sleep With You, one turn-off that really resonated with my female readers was when a guy acts “passive.”

Many women complain about their husbands being passive, not initiating activities, laying around watching TV or clicking around on their computers, and overall not appearing to have much drive or passion. This seems to be a common complaint among the women I see in couples counseling as well. Strangely though, most guys who don’t initiate anything else have no problem with initiating sex, which then adds insult to injury in their wives’ minds: “You won’t initiate anything else, but you’ll try to have sex with me?”

There is an evolutionary reason that women hate passive guys. If we visualize them in an earlier age, passive guys would not be able to defend their wives from predators, nor would they be good at hunting and providing for their families. In most ways, assertive people do better in life than timid people, because they can express their needs and get them met. And lest you think I’m saying that women are attracted to meatheads who get into bar fights, I’m talking about assertive, NOT aggressive. Aggressive mates are actually a dangerous choice, since they are likelier to do dumb things and get hurt or killed, or be rejected by the group for being difficult to get along with.

When women today say that they want their husbands to be more assertive, or less passive, here are some examples of behaviors they want to see:

– Planning dates

– Initiating conversations

– Doing projects around the house, without being nagged

– Initiating activities with the kids

– Sitting up and leaning forward, with a look of enthusiasm, during conversations

– Standing up for themselves, e.g. with coworkers or family members who take advantage of them

– Standing up for their wives, when situations arise where this is necessary, e.g. in-laws making rude remarks

– Expressing preferences, e.g. for what the wife wears, or even what she makes for dinner, ANYTHING

– Initiating sex in an assertive, or even dominant way, not by silently groping or passively saying things like, “I’m going to bed now…”

The real kicker is that some husbands actually used to act more assertive, when dating, or in early marriage, but they’ve stopped.  And of course, some never acted this way at all, but it was okay with their wives, because they were in the honeymoon phase and valued others of their husbands’ strengths, e.g. their kindness, honesty, and so forth.  So let’s figure out why some husbands act passive.  Here are some examples gleaned from couples counseling.

1. They’ve tried to be assertive, but their wives insist they are WRONG.  

Example:

Husband: Hey, let’s go out tonight.

Wife: Tonight?  Are you joking?  Did you miss that the baby woke up 5 times last night and I’m barely keeping my eyes open?  Must be nice to sleep through the night.

2. They’ve tried to be assertive, but their wives perceive this as chauvinistic.

Husband: I want you to wear the red dress.

Wife: Because you want to see my boobs?  I’m wearing the blue one.

3. They’ve tried to be assertive, but it’s in ways that their wife hates.

Husband: I’m staying late at work today so I can finish the big pitch.

Wife: Jesus Christ, again?

4. They grew up in an environment where being more go-with-the-flow was reinforced.

Husband, age 7: I want to play in Little League next year.

Your Mother in Law: Look, we’re going to have to see.  I don’t know what we have money for.  Can you just not ask for stuff all the time? Your brother doesn’t ask for things every minute.

5. You, the wife, are not that nice.

Husband: Let’s have sex right now.

Wife: Pfff.  Give me a break.

6. You and your husband actually work well as a couple in large part because he does what you say when you say it and is therefore fairly detached from his caveman assertiveness, which you actually did your utmost to beat out of him early in your marriage because you, in all honesty, value him listening to what you say more than you value your fantasies of him taking charge.

Wife: Get me a papertowel roll from the shelf and also can you start making the lunches for tomorrow, because I have to do bath.

Husband: Bounty or generic?

7. You always reject him for sex, which is hurtful, so he’s done trying.

Husband: I’m going upstairs [if you come, great and if not, I didn’t feel like a fool by actively asking you for sex and you rejecting me].

Wife: I’m going to do some more Pinterest/blogging/watching TV/internet shopping.

So, here is my point: whether this passivity is innate, learned from a young age, or learned from interactions with you, is moot.  But what is important to understand is that your husband may have become so acclimated to not being assertive that he no longer really even knows how to get in touch with his more assertive side.  Assertive is the type of thing that’s either on or off.  You aren’t going to get the guy who comes home every night at 6p.m. and lets you choose literally everything related to the home or parenting if he’s not passive in other areas too, like the boudoir.  Remember what Dr. Psych Mom always says (okay, I just said it right now, but it’s valuable information):

An assertive man is only good until he starts interfering with your nap schedule/meal planning/desire not to have sex more than once a week/[insert other rigid preference here].

I’m joking, but you have to realize: you either get an assertive husband or the ability to do whatever you want, not both. So, be careful what you wish for, because once you get assertive, you may not be able to go back to passive.  But, if you’re convinced that you want a change, here are some real ways to get your husband to embrace his more assertive side.

1. Be direct.  Say, “I’ve realized our dynamic has become me telling you what to do and you doing it.  When the kids were younger/earlier in our marriage/when dating this was a dynamic I didn’t mind as much and maybe even preferred.  But now it is frustrating for me.  If I work on being controlling, can you work on figuring out stuff for us to do, planning things, taking charge?  If I act critical of your attempts, let me know and I will try to stop.”

2. Then, actually try to stop controlling everything.  The point is for him to be in charge of something, at least sometimes.  But if you control and mastermind every single thing that occurs in the household, there is no space for him.  So step back and see if he comes forward.  E.g., if you don’t plan date nights, after a few weeks, will he?  You can’t know what he can do if you’re doing everything.

3. Stop being dismissive. If you want an assertive guy, then sometimes he is going to want to have sex on a Tuesday, when you have implicitly made it clear that Tuesdays are your day for Zumba class, DVRed Homeland, and then going right to bed.  If you laugh at his attempts to change your routine, and roll your eyes in a condescending way, you’re NOT reinforcing assertive behavior.

4. Positively reinforce when he is not passive.  Even small things, like, “I like how you filled up the gas in the car without me asking.  That was such a nice surprise. I love when you do things without me asking you.”

5. Tell him explicitly that you are attracted to him acting more dominant in bed, if this is the case.  Be like, hey, I have this fantasy that you order me into the bedroom and act really aggressive.  You can say this via text message if you want, you wussy.  If he doesn’t do it that night, say: “I don’t think I’ve been direct about this because I didn’t know how to tell you, but I really like the idea of a guy acting dominant in bed.  Tomorrow, maybe you can try.  I am going to pretend I didn’t tell you this tonight, so then you can ‘surprise’ me tomorrow.  If it goes well, I would like you to keep ‘surprising’ me like that, often.”

6. Reminisce about times that he initiated awesome activities in your early courtship. Remember when he planned that surprise day trip and packed a picnic?  He may not know how you go back to that memory in your mind to try and counteract your repulsion when you see him sitting like a giant larva on your sofa watching MMA tournaments.  Remind him, by telling him how wonderful that was and how, if he’s looking for more things to do to make you happy, he would really hit it out of the park if he did stuff like that again.

7. Ask him to make choices and then go along with them, even if your first thought is that they are woefully misguided. Say things like, “You pick where we go for dinner, I like being surprised.” Then if you end up somewhere that sucks, drink up and put a smile on your face.  If you want someone who isn’t passive, you’re not going to like everything that they do.  You have to look at the bigger picture here.  And maybe after Applebee’s, he will rip your clothes off like Christian Grey did with what’s her name in Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy.

Well, there you have it.  Ways to make your husband less passive.  Try them and report back.  Or just forward them to your husband, hoping he gets the it.

NOTE: IF YOU’RE A HUSBAND WHO RECEIVED THIS IN AN E-MAIL, IT WILL SAVE YOU A LOT OF COUPLES COUNSELING BILLS LATER ON IF YOU INITIATE A DISCUSSION TONIGHT ABOUT THIS ARTICLE AND WHAT IT MEANS TO YOUR WIFE.  PUT IT IN YOUR OUTLOOK CALENDAR RIGHT NOW FOR 9PM, UNDER CODE PHRASE “HAVE A GODDAMN DISCUSSION.”

And until we meet again, I remain, The Blogapist Who Urges You To Own Your Part In The Creation of The Larva on Your Couch.

For more, visit Dr. Rodman at Dr. Psych Mom, on Facebook, or on Twitter @DrPsychMom.

Almost two months on from the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo office and the Jewish supermarket in Paris, the “Je Suis Charlie” banners, stickers and graffiti are starting to fade from the streets and public squares.

The worst terrorists attacks on French soil for decades have left lasting scars and trauma for many people and brought to the surface difficult, simmering questions about what it means to be French and Muslim today.

France is home to Europe’s largest Muslim population. There are an estimated five million Muslims in the country.