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Bracket Briefing: The 16 best NBA draft prospects in the Final Four
AT THE WATER COOLER: The theme heading into the 2013-14 season was about one of the best freshman classes ever.
Kansas' Andrew Wiggins and Duke's Jabari Parker both highlighted the one-and-done, NBA-ready cast of stars. Yet they, along with fellow projected lottery picks Joel Embiid and Aaron Gordon, won't be in Arlington, Texas, this weekend.
VIEWER'S GUIDE:One-stop shop for the Final Four
BRACKET HUB:Everything March Madness
Kentucky's star-studded freshman class, featuring six McDonald's All-Americans, garnered just as much attention than Wiggins and Parker — as the Wildcats were the preseason No. 1 team in the country.
And as much as the Wildcats struggled to put things together in November through March, they're still standing in April. And with that, they also showcase the best soon-to-be NBA players in the Final Four.
Who else has NBA upside on Final Four teams? Here's our list of the players with the most potential.
1. Julius Randle, Kentucky freshman: The power forward may be the only remaining player who will be selected in the lottery, the top 14 picks of the draft. Though concerns have arisen about his lack of size as a 6-9 NBA post player, Randle has shown the explosiveness and dexterity to take bigger defenders to the perimeter. And his production (15.1 points and 10.7 rebounds a game) cannot be denied. He should be drafted in the top seven, perhaps as high as No. 3.
2. James Young, Kentucky freshman: It would have been fascinating to see Young, a versatile and athletic swingman, as the lone star on a lesser team. He has all the skills NBA teams want in wing players, but he struggled to find rhythm thanks to Kentucky's many chemistry issues in the regular season. What stands out about Young is how well-rounded he is, especially given his potential on defense. He will be off the board in the top 20, and a big Final Four could spring him into the top 10.
3. Shabazz Napier, Connecticut senior: No one has solidified his draft stock more in the 2014 NCAA tournament than the Huskies' fearless point guard. Napier has shades of former teammate Kemba Walker in him, and like Walker (who left as a junior), he has taken major strides in his last season with the Huskies. Napier can shoot, pass and handle at an NBA level and should step immediately into a backup point guard spot after being drafted in the second half of the first round.
BRACKET BRIEFING:10 most important players in the Final Four
SCOUTING REPORT:Other coaches dissect Final Four teams
4. Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky sophomore: The leader of Kentucky's defense is not surprisingly also the non-freshman who plays the most for the Wildcats. Cauley-Stein is a legitimate 7-footer with great athleticism and natural instincts. He also has a propensity to disappear at times, and he lacks the skill to contribute much on offense. But the NBA loves defensive-minded centers, and he could reach all the way into the lottery but more likely will be drafted around No. 20.
5. Andrew Harrison, Kentucky freshman: The point guard twin has not posted the shining NCAA moments like his brother, but he has shown a commitment to making smarter decisions. Andrew took much of the blame for Kentucky's regular-season struggles but has the natural ability to translate into a nice combo guard at the NBA level. Separating him from his brother could be an advantage for both, and Andrew should be drafted in the second half of the first round.
6. Aaron Harrison, Kentucky freshman: As the shooting guard twin, Aaron has fewer opportunities to make his name known. But he has taken them in the tournament. Aaron is a better shooter than his brother but also has some of the combo guard abilities, though they aren't as developed. He is prone to trying to shoot himself through slumps, but when he's on, he can take over games. His role in the NBA will be more reined in, though, which is why he might slip to the early second round.
HARRISON TWINS:Can they lift Kentucky to national championship?
7. Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin junior: Badgers coach Bo Ryan does not often lose players early to the draft, but it's tough to imagine Kaminsky's stock rising. The 7-foot center has been one of the breakout stars of the tournament, particularly for his block show against Baylor in the Sweet 16 and then dominant 28-point, 11-rebound game against Arizona in the Elite Eight. He has great touch and is tougher than he looks. That and the height should put him in the late-first conversation.
BO RYAN:Method is well-suited for March Madness
8. Dakari Johnson, Kentucky freshman: The Wildcats' lumbering 7-0 center is loaded with potential but will be a bit of a project for any team trying to draft him. Even as a starter, he plays only 13.7 minutes a game, though his production (5.1 points and 3.9 rebounds a game) is good for those limits. Johnson needs to get in better shape to play at NBA speed, but his upside could land him in the first round this year. If he stays, he might land in the 2014 lottery or might get exposed.
9. DeAndre Daniels, Connecticut junior: The wingspan is the first thing you notice with Daniels, the skinny small forward who dropped 27 points and 10 rebounds on Iowa State in the Sweet 16. Daniels is 6-9, but his wingspan nears 7-foot and allows him to overcome a lack of strength, especially on defense. Coupled with his improved shooting this year, that could put Daniels in the early second round if he leaves now.
10. Marcus Lee, Kentucky freshman: The lanky, thin power forward has played 141 minutes of college basketball. It's the last 15 that have everyone talking. Lee showed his enormous potential as a post pogo stick in the Elite Eight against Michigan, when he had 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks. Lee has more upside than anyone left aside from Randle, but he might be better served coming back rather than being selected in the late first or early second round now.
UCONN-FLORIDA:What you need to know
WISCONSIN-KENTUCKY:What you need to know
11. Sam Dekker, Wisconsin sophomore: The Sheboygan, Wis., native small forward has all of the skills NBA teams want in a small forward: He's a strong defender with a good frame and athletic ability. But he still needs to refine his offensive skills, particularly his shooting. Under Ryan, that should be no problem at all, and he could go from a second-rounder now to a first-rounder in 2015 or 2016.
12. Patric Young, Florida senior: The muscular big man was viewed as a future lottery pick when he broke in as a freshman starter. But he has not developed much of an offensive game in the years since, and his 6-9 frame limits him as a center. Young probably will be drafted in the second round now but could be a good, gritty NBA post defender.
13. Alex Poythress, Kentucky sophomore: The forward's numbers across the board have dipped this season, but that more is a case of the strength of his teammates than his own limitations. He needs to improve his shooting range but has good athleticism and plays smarter now. Another year (with a weaker freshman class around him) could push Poythress back into the first round, but for now he's a second-rounder.
14. Ryan Boatright, Connecticut junior: A point guard playing next to a better point guard, Boatright would be best served coming back to run the show next season for the Huskies. But if he does leave now, he has shown his abilities well as Napier's wingman. Boatright has the aptitude to run the point and could be a steal in the mid- to late second round.
BRACKET BRIEFING:10 reasons Florida is so unstoppable
15. Scottie Wilbekin, Florida senior: If the Gators win it all, expect their gutsy point guard to draw NBA hype from an NCAA crowd. Wilbekin has a propensity for big moments and good decisions, the exact qualities that have kept Florida unbeaten for more than three months. But he is small and lacks elite athleticism, similar to Louisville's championship point guard last year, Peyton Siva, who was picked in the second round.
16. Casey Prather, Florida senior: The leading scorer on the national champion tends to be drafted, for good reason. Prather might be that guy if the favorite Gators win it all. He burst out with a huge first half of the season but slowed down after bruising his knee in January. Prather does not shoot well enough to have much upside, but he plays hard and smart and shoots 60.3% from the field, so he should be a second-rounder.


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Lasers play an important role in treating many conditions that affect the skin, hair, and nails. In only a few treatments (most laser companies recommend six to eight to get clearance) we can clear your skin of the unwanted hair that has bothered you for so long. Laser has another advantage, in that you NEVER AGAIN have to let the hair grow out a few days before your treatments in order to get it to work, as you do with the other methods. Laser hair removal in Estero, Florida is a gentle and effective way to permanently reduce unwanted hair from virtually any area of the body.
Laser hair removal is not only extremely effective in permanently reducing unwanted hair, but it is also extremely convenient. Laser hair removal is most effective when hair is in the growth stage. The laser is adjusted for power, size, and pulse frequency to optimize the treatment for the patient's comfort.
Although it isn't a guaranteed permanent solution for unwanted hair, laser hair removal does often produce long-lasting, and in some cases, permanent results.Patients enjoy a permanent reduction in unwanted hair and smooth, soft skin after laser hair removal treatments.
Laser hair removal can easily treat large areas of hair growth in a relatively short amount of time. While at-home self-treatment may be cheaper, it also takes much more time and effort to remove hair than it does with laser hair removal. Small areas such as the upper lip can be treated in less than a minute, and large areas, such as the back or legs, may take up to an hour.
The best results also require committing to the full process. You could see results after one or two treatment sessions, but you're unlikely to see the results you want without undergoing at least six treatment sessions.
Here are the following laser hair removal treatments in Lee County, Florida that you could choose from:
The cost of undergoing any of the latest laser hair removal procedures is consistently one of the highest concerns for potential patients.Laser is NOT expensive, especially when you factor in the value of your time. The typical price of laser hair removal in Estero, Florida 33928 is $150 to $500, depending on the area of the body that is being treated. On an annual basis, the typical laser hair removal cost can often be less expensive than waxing.
Many patients find that the typical cost of laser hair removal is surprisingly affordable. The size of the treatment area and the laser hair removal system that is used will influence the cost of your laser hair removal procedure.
We also serve nearby cities:
Insurance companies do not cover laser hair removal in Estero, Florida because of its classification as an elective procedure. Most providers will be more than happy to assist patients in determining the best course of financing and guide them in the actual application process. Most providers will accept payment with most major credit cards, and many dermatologists and cosmetic surgery centers provide in-house financing and installment plan options. Interest rates are variable, but consult with the billing department of your health care provider to find out what the typical interest rate may be.
While shopping for a bargain, never skimp on the experience and expertise of the technician you work with. While his skill level may make his services costlier, the successful outcome and low risk will more than outweigh the price difference.

subset: commoncrawl


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Bring your wardrobe to life with Skechers. Enjoy the ultimate collection of high performance footwear and clothing, from the stylish to the sporting. Forever on-trend and evermore iconic, enjoy the likes of the GOrun, GOwalk, Flex and Twinkle Toes in an ever-expanding range.
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- Home
- Jewellery
- Contemporary Earrings
- Opal-Blue Earrings
Opal-Blue Earrings
These radiant Swarovski crystal earrings are dainty but will add a glamourous edge to any outfit. Pair these statement earrings with a chunky bracelet or a very simple crystal pendant.
This earring measures 1.5inches in length.
Multi coloured Swarovski crystals in a fan effect
- As all our Jewellery is handmade, production of our pieces will take up to 10 working days - if an item is needed sooner please contact us directly after submitting your order so we can work with you on a timeline
- Orders will be dispatched within 2 working days after completion
- Bespoke/Custom Made Orders will be dispatched within 10 days or sooner if required.
- We must receive payment in full before order can be processed.
- We will send an email confirming order and receipt of payment.
- Please keep this receipt for your records.
If you experience a problem with your delivery please contact us and we will provide you with a tracking number for your package. In the event of a non-delivery (of insured packages only- €7.50), please contact us and we will replace or refund the item after 10 working days. Once we've recieved confirmation from the courrier company that the package cannot be found we will begin the refund/ replacement process. We cannot be held responsible for late deliveries, 2 day delivery is only a guideline from our courrier company and unforeseen delays must be allowed for.
Shipping Costs
- Exchange or return will be at customers own cost.
- Parcels dispatched to the UK, EU and USA will take approximately 10 working days - we can also provide quotations for FedEx if you would like the parcel sooner.
- Delivery costs to the UK and EU are €9 and to the USA €12. These prices are dependent on a standard package weight. For larger orders, please contact us for a quotation.
Azure hopes that you will be delighted with your jewellery, but for any reason you are unhappy with your purchases you may return or exchange your jewellery within 7 days of receipt. Simply download the Returns Form.pdf, complete and send it to us along with your goods within 7 days.
- Items must be returned in a resalable condition with the original packaging.
- We will issue a full refund or exchange within 28days of receipt.
- Refunds or credits will be made to the original card once package is received.
- We only take responsibility for returns which are received at our showroom. For your own protection please obtain proof of postage from the post office.
- There is no refund on custom made items, credit only.
All of our jewellery is guaranteed for 6 months. During this time, all jewellery will be repaired free of charge upon presentation of your receipt, which is your guarantee. After this period, there will be a fee for your repair:
- Restring of bracelet €20.00
- Restring of necklace €30.00
- Repair of earrings €5.00
This does not affect your statutory rights.


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Why Is Jason Alexander Pretending We Don't All Know He's Bald?
If you've not seen George "Jason Alexander" Costanza lately, perhaps you don't know that television's most famous bald man is now trying to convince the world—via a toupee? Hair plugs? Something—that he in fact has a luscious head of brown hair. As a man who has not yet had a problem with hair loss, far be it from me to tell anyone how to deal with a retreating hairline. The line I'm more concerned with is the timeline.
How does a person who spent almost a decade portraying the most beloved bald schlub in American history, a character so famous that the bald man who inspired him got famous, decide a few years later that he's going to try and trick people into thinking all his hair grew back? Isn't the point of most cosmetic manipulation deceit? People wouldn't wear Spanx if you had to broadcast loudly everywhere you went that you are wearing them. Why is he doing this with his head?
The worst part is that there was a whole Seinfeld episode about how George's toupee was silly and ugly. Jason Alexander acted out the thing and yet didn't absorb the "silly and ugly" part at all. This is like the time Lindsay Lohan was in Mean Girls, a good movie about living a fulfilling life by being yourself, and then proceeded to become a sad, lonely drug addict obsessed with fame.
[Image via AP]


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A few years ago I made a big carved Raugh desk in the middle of the living room – and in the process learned that two-year old toddlers not only regurgitate on foam, but also love to chew it (go figure) and also that mouse pee melts little craters in it. I loved the foam but the foam didn't love us. Or at least it didn't love our desert lifestyle. This week we are prototyping a new setup of a smoothly sanded walnut frame with a plush raugh foam interior… the potential seems limitless.
Save The Date…
The New Everyday Life
We finally did it! After what seemed like the most intensive planning session ever we pulled off our first installment of "The New Everyday Life" this weekend. The program was led by four workshop leaders (Trinie Dalton, Wells Pollock, Chantale Doyle and Katie Grinnan) and there were eleven participants. Unlike the larger events the group this weekend was small, and by the end of two days I felt like I had learned something about each person who turned out. The picture above of the inside of the school bus that Wells lives in and uses as a leather working studio. Before his session started he squeezed blood oranges into soda water and made sort of virgin cocktails for everyone.


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THE DAY REPLAYED – Twenty-two goals were scored in the opening six matches of the Women's Olympic Football Tournament London 2012, which saw big wins for Brazil and Sweden, narrow but significant victories for hosts Great Britain and world champions Japan, and USA come from behind to defeat France 4-2. In the final game of the day, a goal in each half gave Korea DPR side a deserved three points against Colombia.
Group E
Great Britain 1-0 New Zealand
Cameroon 0–5 Brazil
Group F
Japan 2-1 Canada
Sweden 4–1 South Africa
Group G
USA 4-2 France
Colombia 0-2 Korea DPR
Goal of the day
Sweden-South Africa, Portia Modise ('59)
With Sweden cruising 3-0 over South Africa in the City of Coventry Stadium, en route to their biggest Olympic win, a misplaced pass from Caroline Seger to captain Nilla Fischer saw Portia Modise pounce on the ball ten yards inside her own half. Carrying it just beyond the centre-circle, she spotted Hedvig Lindahl off her line and unleashed a powerful right-footed lob which sailed beyond the keeper's dive and into the net. "I saw early in the game that the goalkeeper's weakness was always coming off her line," explained Modise. "So I took a shot and it came off."
Memorable moments
Anthem emotion
As the British national anthem was played at the opening event of the 2012 Olympics in Cardiff, it all got too much for England's record goalscorer Kelly Smith, whose eyes filled with tears. The forward, who has had a glittering 18-year playing career, won a race against time to be fit to appear for Team GB at the Games after aggravating a stress fracture in March.
Bagpipe blasting
USA-France saw a colourful atmosphere at Hampden Park with the majority of the locals opting for the game's eventual winners. Yet there was also a local flavour as the sound of the bagpipes could be heard during the second half. "The crowd was awesome and they were really into it," enthused USA midfielder. Megan Rapinoe
Colour clash
When Miko Fukumoto took off her tracksuit prior to the game against Canada, the Coventry crowd spotted that her all-magenta outfit complimented LOCOG's colour scheme for London 2012 perfectly. "It was a complete coincidence," she told FIFA.com afterwards. "But it obviously brought the team and I good luck, so I might keep on wearing it!"
Domino effect
After their fantastic dance routine at the FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011™, Sweden's stars have a new party trick for London 2012: a goal celebration which saw scorer Lisa Dahlkvist push her team-mates over to create a chain reaction in which all fell to the ground in perfect sequence!
The stat
11 – Cristiane's 78th-minute goal against Cameroon saw her leapfrog German goal machine Birgit Prinz in the all-time Olympic standings. Meanwhile, Formiga became the only player to play at all five tournaments since Atlanta 1996.
The quote
"The girls have made history today. It has been mentioned so much we couldn't ignore it. We were the first women's GB team ever and we won. That will never change now," Hope Powell, Great Britain coach.
Next up
Saturday 28 July (all kick-offs local time)
Group E
New Zealand-Brazil, Cardiff, 14.30
Great Britain-Cameroon, Cardiff, 17.15
Group F
Japan-Sweden, Coventry, 12.00
Canada-South Africa, Coventry, 14.45
Group G
USA-Colombia, 17.00, Glasgow
France-Korea DPR, 19.45, Glasgow


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required a 400-ton mecha-tower with twin trilithium cores and a subspace generator. None of these things exist, but they illustrate the kind of rig you needed for Crysis to run back in the day.
see deal
Crysis 3 Hunter Edition£13.99on Amazon
While console gamers once stood out in the cold, peeking in through a frosted window at the warm living room of PC gaming, the wait for Crysis is now over. Developer Crytek's first-person shooter lives on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. Even better: it's set at a budget price. This makes Crysis an alluring purchase, considering its strong gunplay and emphasis on player choice. And even though a few stealth mishaps got me killed and angry, Crysis has aged well these past four years.
Crysis starts with a routine military operation. North Koreans have occupied a remote island in the Philippine Sea following a discovery made by U.S. scientists conducting research in the area. Contact with the island is lost, so Team Raptor (that includes you) drops in to investigate. Everything goes wrong, and pretty soon you wind up face-to-face with some nasty aliens.
Crysis' greatest strength lies in its open-ended design. This design applies not only to the environments you trek across but also the ways you fight. In regards to the former, Crysis takes place in a series of gigantic environments. Objective locations remain clear throughout, but deciding how to get there is up to you. Do you run through the front door? Do you sneak around the back? Or do you avoid the enemy compound altogether? Looking back on the straight-forward paths I chose to complete my mission, I realized that I selected one of many, many options.
Combat itself also varies widely depending on your mood. The hook of Crysis is your Nanosuit, which provides you with several "modes" to activate at your discretion. These modes include strength, speed, armor, and stealth -- all self-explanatory and all tremendous weapons on the field. If you fancy the stealth approach, you can spend most of the campaign cloaked and only de-cloak to recharge your suit's power. If you want to play fast and frantic, you can dash your way through with guns blazing. You can also dispatch enemy forces by throwing boxes at them -- a tried and true military tactic.
These suit powers let you fill the shoes of the heroic badass in a number of ways, but I also dig the weapon customization included in Crysis. Guns can be modded with different parts acquired on the field, including various scopes, grenade attachments, and silencers. I get a special sort of joy laying in brush and de-cloaking for a fraction of a second to fire a silenced round into an enemy guard before re-cloaking. If only skilled actions like this rewarded you with experience or extra points. As it stands, Crysis lacks upgrade and leaderboard systems.
The technical issues of Crysis, including some minor slowdown, pop-in, and some sound drops, don't detract much from what is an otherwise satisfying, exhilarating shooter. My frustration comes mostly from failed stealth attempts, which bear a unique twinge of disappointment. Crysis strives for realism, so when you're detected by a far-off enemy while lying motionless in a bush, that realism breaks and the result works against you.
Over time I learned to cloak and de-cloak efficiently to avoid this problem, but it still annoyed me on occasion -- especially when a quick death results in 20 minutes of lost time.
Read more details on how I wrote the Crysis review.
The console version of Crysis doesn't look quite as good as its PC counterpart (and that's to be expected). It doesn't add any new campaign content, and it doesn't include the multiplayer support packaged with the original. With that said, it's a great buy for console owners. Even without the badass Nanosuit abilities the gunplay itself entertains. And considering how many different methods you can pursue to complete your mission, no two players will tackle Crysis in the same way.
If you stay patient with occasional stealth hiccups and the brutal frequency of death, Crysis will be well-worth your time, money, and the dangers of experimental Nanosuits.
If you buy something through this post, IGN may get a share of the sale. For more, learn more.
In This Article
Crysis Review


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Family Leisure & Recreation
Getting your child involved in sport
Sport not only keeps children fit, healthy and active, but it also builds their confidence and social skills. Find out how sport can benefit your child, and find out about sports clubs and facilities in your area.
Why is sport important?
Children are becoming increasingly less active, and that is bad news for their health. Overweight children are much more likely to develop diabetes or heart disease in later life, and are more likely to be obese as adults. To guard against this, it is recommended that all children are active for one hour every day, and there is no better way to achieve this than through playing sport.
Sports bodies and facilities outside school
Sport South Africa delivers sports training and opportunities for children throughout the country.
School sports clubs
Many schools have sports in their after-school clubs. You can get more information on these from your child's school. Education departments of local authorities are also responsible for many locally available sports facilities.
Helping to keep your child safe in sport
All providers of sports activities should have child protection measures in place to ensure the safety of all children taking part. Download the following information leaflet – 'Helping keep your child safe in sport' – for advice on the right questions to ask to make sure these measures are in place and being followed.
Places to visit with your children
There are lots of interesting places for you to visit with your children all over the country – and many of them are free of charge. Even museums and libraries these days provide interactive exhibitions and interesting things to do. Find out what's on offer in your area.
Getting your child involved with music and the arts
It has never been easier for children to get creative and get involved with the arts. From music clubs and classes to acting, storytelling, even circus performance – there are plenty of activities going on either at your child's school or elsewhere in your area.
Planning a trip for a child with a disability
Planning a day out for a disabled child isn't always easy, as some venues can lack understanding or proper facilities. Before you leave, you may want to check the following things to make sure the day runs smoothly.
Call ahead
Some venues and attractions are better than others at offering facilities and assistance – so it's probably best to telephone in advance to talk things through that may be helpful for you and your child on the day. This could include booking a table at the café/restaurant, reserving seats at a special event, or booking a guide.
You could also do your research online – most attractions will have their own website.
Proof of identity for free entrance
Many venues offer free entrance for children with special needs and their care givers, so don't forget to take your proof of being a care giver. This could include your care givers allowance or Disability Living Allowance book or letter. To save time when you arrive, it may be worth ringing in advance to book tickets.
Travelling by car
Some venues offer parking for families with special needs. As this can be limited and may need to be booked in advance, try to call beforehand, so that you can be allocated a space.
Alternatively, the Blue Badge Parking Scheme provides a range of parking concessions for people with severe mobility problems who have difficulty using public transport.
Public and community transport
If you don't have a car, special arrangements can be made for disabled or mobility-impaired passengers when travelling by train, coach or bus. There are also discounts available for disabled passengers. Some areas also have community transport services for people who have difficulty using public transport.
Access to toilets
As your child may need access to changing facilities or disabled toilets it's worth checking beforehand that these are easily accessible. Some need a key to get in so it's worth knowing the system. Keys are usually available on request from the venue.
If you need a lift to get from floor to floor, check that this is easily accessible. Some venues don't have dedicated customer lifts, but might offer the service ones for use, so like toilets it's worth knowing what the facilities are.


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There will be no homecoming parade for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. The people of Hailey, Idaho, who have waited for five years for their native son to be freed, have canceled the celebration because of the threat of protests and violence.
Maybe it's just as well. Given the other things veterans are coming home to – unemployment, homelessness and mental illness, not to mention the VA – a homecoming parade can seem like a pretty hollow gesture. And outside of his family and friends, people aren't sure they really want to celebrate Bowe Bergdahl.
Bergdahl himself would probably prefer to do without the flag-waving, thanks-for-your-service stuff anyway. When he walked away from his company in 2009, at least, he was bitter about his country, his unit and his mission.
"I am sorry for everything here," Bowe wrote in an email to his parents. "These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live."
Bergdahl's story isn't new, though you'd think so from the way some politicians are dancing around the issues raised by the deal that freed him in return for five Guantanamo prisoners. Michael Hastings told it in great detail two years ago in Rolling Stone.
Hastings describes Bergdahl as an unusual kid who probably had no business in the Army to begin with. Home-schooled and raised in the Idaho mountains, he had an interest in ethics and a taste for adventure. He tried to join the French Foreign Legion, but was rejected. The Army, so desperate for recruits in 2008 that it waived its requirements on criminal histories, drug use and intellectual abilities for one soldier out of five, took him in.
Bergdahl's platoon reflected those lower standards. Hastings' reporting, along with documentary footage from a British filmmaker embedded with the unit in Afghanistan, shows a company undermanned, poorly-trained and undisciplined. That they are turning on each other now is no surprise; they were squabbling before they even finished their training.
Bergdahl was an idealist who never fit in. He studied philosophy and war manuals while the others were out partying. He read "Three Cups of Tea" and taught himself Pashto, the language spoken in eastern Afghanistan. Bergdahl had bought into the counter-insurgency theories of Gen. David Petraeus. His mission was to help the Afghan people build a new nation. "He spent more time with the Afghans than he did with his platoon," one soldier told Hastings.
But the other soldiers mocked and mistreated the villagers, Bergdahl told his parents as he steadily soured on the project. We've seen how soldiers have responded to the stress and futility of war on that faraway battlefield. Some commit violence against each other and against civilians. Many have taken their own lives. Bergdahl had a different response. After he finished guard duty one night, he left behind his rifle and sensitive equipment and just walked away. Hastings concluded Bergdahl intended to hike down the mountains to Pakistan. Before long, he was in the hands of the Taliban.
Now, after five years in captivity, Bowe Bergdahl is free – and has been dropped into the center ring of America's political circus. We argue over whether he's a victim or a villain, whether President Obama paid too high a price to bring this POW home, whether he should be court-martialed before or after Congress grills everyone responsible for negotiating his release.
The Obama administration has long considered securing Bergdahl's return as a step in ending America's war in Afghanistan. Prisoner exchanges usually come toward the close of hostilities, and the negotiations over Bergdahl were seen as preliminary to the political settlement needed to bring stability to Afghanistan.
That context has been missing from this week's debate. America still isn't ready to tackle the lessons of its longest-running war. We'd rather use Sgt. Bergdahl as a punching bag.
Hastings, who was killed in a car crash a year ago, made an attempt: "Bowe's own tour of duty in Afghanistan mirrored the larger American experience in the war – marked by tragedy, confusion, misplaced idealism, deluded thinking and, perhaps, a moment of insanity. And it is with Bowe that the war will likely come to an end."
Like Bergdahl, America went to war impulsively, and it turned out to be a lot harder than we expected. We tried to win over hearts and minds, but warriors aren't good at that. Like him, we soured on the whole enterprise and are now in the process of just walking away.
As we do, we're quarrelling over whether a screwed up American who's been locked up for five years is worth five burned-out Afghans who've been locked up for 12 years. The last American POW is coming home, and we don't even know whether to throw a party.
It turns out saying "thanks for your service" isn't as easy as we thought.
Rick Holmes, opinion editor for the Daily News, blogs at Holmes & Co. (http://blogs.wickedlocal.com/holmesandco). He can be reached at email@example.com.
Holmes: 'Thanks for your service'?
There will be no homecoming parade for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. The people of Hailey, Idaho, who have waited for five years for their native son to be freed, have canceled the celebration because of the threat of protests and violence.


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Triple-A skipper Murphy celebrated by ASU
PEORIA, Ariz. -- There was only one way to describe the scene on Saturday at Arizona State University's Packard Stadium, where Pat Murphy, the Padres' Minor League coach and former Sun Devils head coach, was honored by the school.
"It was humbling," said Murphy, who was a four-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year and led the Sun Devils to four College World Series appearances.
Murphy, who will manage the Padres' Triple-A affiliate in El Paso, returned to Tempe for the first time since 2009, when he was forced to resign after winning 629 games over 15 years following an NCAA investigation that led to probation.
The school honored Murphy with many of his former players in attendance, including Willie Bloomquist, Andre Ethier, Brooks Conrad, Mike Leake and Travis Buck. Murphy got text messages from players who are training in Florida, like Dustin Pedroia, Brett Wallace and Ike Davis.
"It was kind of extending an olive branch," Murphy said. "For president [Michael] Crow and also the athletic department to do it, just five years later ... it was really a great gesture. It was great to see all those guys [former players]. The fans were great.
"I went over with a little caution because it was pretty messy at the end ... and I wasn't happy with the way it happened," Murphy said. "But I was very humbled."
Murphy joined the Padres' organization in 2010 as a special assistant to baseball operations. He managed two seasons with short-season Eugene before managing Triple-A Tucson last season.


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Today's column examines the increasingly obvious automotive truth that your car isn't "special" just because it's a "special edition."
A friend of mine recently told me that he has been given the opportunity to trade his Fox body Mustang for – are you ready for it? – a 1998 Lincoln Mark VIII Collector's Edition. "Collector's Edition," he repeated, as he told me this, implying that no collection would really be complete without this vehicle parked right next to, say, a pristine Series I Jaguar E-Type.
A little searching on the Internet helped us understand precisely what the Collector's Edition was. Apparently, Lincoln created it by taking a standard Mark VIII, sticking on new wheel caps and "Collector's Edition" badging, and adding "genuine walnut" trim. There was also a "collector's gift" which included – this is the truth – little silver plates depicting previous "Mark" models. Finally, Lincoln included a certificate of authenticity, should anyone ever doubt the veracity of your Collector's Edition.
In other words: this was a cynical run-out model designed to appeal to people who didn't know any better.
For those of you who don't quite follow me, let's take a look at a few other special editions. I think we can all agree that the reigning champion is Lamborghini, who – at last count – offered 972 different special editions of its Gallardo supercar. My friend Andrew knows all of them. We'll be sitting at a meal and a Gallardo will go by; a Gallardo that – to me – looks absolutely identical to every other Gallardo, except maybe it has a rather grotesque rear wing, and Andrew will say: "That's the Gallardo LP575 Dash 8 Point 6 Costa Concordia. It has different floor mats than the last Gallardo special edition. You know: the LP583 Dash 7 Point 4 Amanda Knox Retrial."
Only, I don't know.
That's because the Gallardo special edition situation spiraled completely out of control. What happened was, Lamborghini debuted the Gallardo in approximately 2004, which is back when Ferrari was still making the 360. Then Ferrari came out with the 430, which made the Gallardo feel just a little bit old, so they came out with the Gallardo Spyder. And then the Gallardo Superleggera. And then the Gallardo Nera. And then the Gallardo SE.
And then Ferrari came out with another entirely new car, the 458, which just sent Lamborghini into a complete tizzy, because they couldn't afford to redesign the Gallardo yet. So they came out with even more special editions to try and convince Lamborghini owners – who, let's be honest, aren't the most discerning bunch – that the Gallardo was still new and hip. This primarily involved adding big wings on the back.
Of course, Lamborghini isn't the only culprit here. Many automakers use "special editions" to try and convince people that an aging model isn't the same old crap they should've redesigned last year, except that some bright young product planner insisted that new wheels and a special paint color would be worth at least 10,000 extra sales.
Here I am thinking specifically of Jeep, who used to come out with a new special edition every few months, presumably whenever a supplier offered them a deal. The conversations, I imagine, would go like this:
Supplier: We accidentally made 86 square alloy wheels!
Chrysler: That's OK! We will create a highly sought-after 21-unit run of the Grand Cherokee Square Wheels Edition!
Supplier: But that's only 84 wheels!
Chrysler: That's OK! We will create a highly sought after 1-unit run of the Grand Cherokee Half Square Wheels And Half Round Wheels Edition!
And so it went. My favorite example of this came in 2006, when Jeep offered a "65th Anniversary Edition" of every model in its lineup, which, when you really think about it, was sort of a celebration of America getting involved in World War II. Anyway: I had a friend who was searching for cars back then, and she was trying to decide between the Toyota RAV4, which was excellent, the Honda CR-V, which was excellent, or the Jeep Liberty, which was in its fifth year and starting to show its age. For example: while the RAV4 and CR-V offered a long list of desirable equipment and options, the Liberty primarily featured road noise.
Of course, she chose the Liberty, primarily because the local Jeep dealer had her convinced that the 65th Anniversary Edition was tremendously special and it would, someday, appreciate in value. There will only be one 65th anniversary, they told her. Never mind the fact that the anniversary edition was limited to fender badging and unique seat covers. She had to have it. So much that she paid sticker.
Now, at this point, you might be wondering: Doug, are you finally going to get on with your column and quit naming stupid special editions? And the answer is: no. There was the Porsche 911 Black Edition, the Ford Taurus 100th Anniversary Edition, the Lexus RX350 Pebble Beach Edition, the Lincoln Aviator Kitty Hawk Edition, the Toyota Tundra 1794 Edition, the Volvo XC90 Ocean Race Edition, and the Buick Regal Joseph Abboud Limited Edition. There were also several special edition Bugatti Veyrons, including the Sang Bleu, the Pur Sang, the L'Or Blanc, the Grand Sport, and the Go F*** Yourself, I'm Richer Than You.
Now, I must admit that I'm not totally against special editions, because some of them are pretty cool. Here I am thinking of the Volkswagen Jetta Trek, which included a mountain bike, and the Lexus LS400 Coach Edition, which came with a set of luggage. Unfortunately, you'd never know this if you bought one used, because both of those items are still sitting in the original owner's garage.
But I think that, going forward, there should be a ban on special editions unless there's really something to celebrate – because otherwise, they just aren't that special. No, Lincoln, "something to celebrate" does not include getting a deal on walnut steering wheels from your supplier. However: the 97th anniversary of Lincoln is coming up, and I think I speak for everyone when I say this sort of momentous event should warrant a 500-horsepower MKZ. With a manual transmission. And a certificate of authenticity.
@DougDeMuro is the author of Plays With Cars. He owned an E63 AMG wagon and once tried to evade police at the Tail of the Dragon using a pontoon boat. (It didn't work.) He worked as a manager for Porsche Cars North America before quitting to become a writer, largely because it meant he no longer had to wear pants. Also, he wrote this entire bio himself in the third person.


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Happy birthday, Lily! I hope your day is a great one!
Happy birthday to you, sweetie! My goodness, for me the half century mark is getting closer and I'm not sure how to feel about it!
I just realized something...we share the same birthday? October 8th? Wow! I knew you were a special lady!
Thanks for the kind comments on my fairy jars. They were for my granddaughter. She loved it!
Thanks for your nice comment on my pillows. They really brighten up the room.
Happy birthday, even if I am a little late.
RE: Written instructions, there are instructions for x's & o's, but it is found through Jenny's Craftsy Classes, called Quilting Quickly. She has 2 classes there. the first one is Quilting Quickly and the 2nd is QQ2.
The x's & o's pattern is in the QQ2 class. She also gives the instructions (written included) for Rag Quilt, Tumbler Quilt, Apple Core Q, Circles Q, Drunkard's Path, Advanced Strip, and Dresden.
I really like the pattern your looking for. But I think I learned the most from the 1st class.
Now as far as other written instructions, all I know is that occasionally M* looks for people to edit their written stuff before they send it to the publisher. That is how I ended up with instructions. : )
Thanks for visiting Libby, I feel much the same way, the forum is a lot of fun!
My books aren't here yet...but since DH gets the mail and other deliveries....he'll just say "you got a package". He'll be looking over my shoulder when I'm looking through them - and find stuff he likes - I think he'd better learn to sew if he wants all that stuff he likes.
thanks!! I finally switched the project to my Kenmore and got 'er done LOL
Senior Member


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Check BNN and Bulbanews for up-to-date Pokémon news and discuss it on the forums or in the Bulbagarden Discord server.
| The Ultimate Test
First broadcast
English themes
Japanese themes
The Ultimate Test (Japanese: ポケモンけんていしけん!? Pokémon Certification Test!?) is the 56th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on July 30, 1998 and in the United States on April 24, 1999.
|Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
Ash, Misty, Brock, Todd, Pikachu, and Togepi are enjoying a nice lunch until Misty points out that Ash has not won a Gym Badge in a while. After nearly choking on his food and washing it down with a glass of water, Ash claims he wins all his battles with skill, and then challenges Misty to a Pokémon battle. Todd steps in, takes pictures of Pikachu, then tells Ash that he should take the Pokémon League Admissions Exam.
The group arrives at the Pokémon League Admissions Exam building so Ash signs up and gets the testing number 7. Nearby, Jessie, disguised as a schoolgirl, complains that she didn't get number 7, causing Ash to briefly suspect her. Then, Nurse Joy enters and Brock follows her. Ash then is told by the head instructor to leave all his Poké Balls at the counter, as well as temporarily leave Pikachu in Misty's care. Shortly, Nurse Joy tells Ash, Misty, and Brock that she signed up for the exam to become a Pokémon Master. Soon after, James walks in, disguised as a schoolboy with glasses, but quickly heads for the counter once Ash sees him. When the head instructor reads James's registration form and calls out his name, James tells him to keep quiet. But unfortunately, Jessie hears this and takes James outside. Once outside, Jessie takes off her glasses and asks James what he is doing there. James confidently says that he too wants to become a Pokémon Master, as well as ask Jessie what she's doing here. Jessie explains that she wants to add another talent to her collection. Suddenly, Meowth shows up and scratches both their faces. James quickly throws Meowth a ball of yarn, then runs off with Jessie back inside for the exam.
The first exam tests a person's knowledge of Pokémon, where they answer true or false questions. Ash does his best to answer each of the questions correctly. At the Magikarp question, James becomes angry because of the time he had that Gyarados, as well as notice Jessie giving each question a "true" answer, hoping that she gets half of them right.
The second exam tests a person's ability to recognize Pokémon. The Pokémon to recognize on the screen looks like a ball. Ash think it's a Voltorb, James thinks it's a Poké Ball, and Jessie thinks it's an Electrode. The head instructor reveals the answer: a Jigglypuff seen from above. The next Pokémon to recognize looks like a swirl. Ash guesses it's a Poliwhirl, James believes it's a Omanyte, and Jessie guesses it's an Arbok when it's all coiled up. Unfortunately, the correct answer is a Poliwag. The next Pokémon for all the students to guess has a fiery tail, and Ash guesses it's a Charmander, but the right answer was Ponyta. A furious Jessie demands that she be asked easier questions, and the head instructor expels her. Once outside, Jessie wakes up Meowth and says that they're going to get revenge.
When the scoreboard comes down, Ash wonders where his score is. Misty points out that Ash's score is on the scoreboard for all the students who got the lowest scores, as Todd takes a picture, much to Ash's chagrin. Meanwhile, James stands alone in a corner, vowing that he will try extra hard for Jessie.
The third exam involves Pokémon battles, as Nurse Joy uses a Squirtle against a fellow instructor's Charmander. Next, the head instructor tells Ash and James that they each have to select a belt of three Poké Balls, even though they don't know what Pokémon are inside them. They choose their belts, and James is up first against the head instructor. The first Pokémon James sends out is a Pikachu, much to his delight. James believes that he can't lose with Pikachu and claims that he's been destroyed by Pikachu's attacks so many times that he knew them all by heart. The head instructor then sends out a Graveler. James immediately commands Pikachu to use Thunderbolt, but the attack doesn't work on Graveler. Then, Graveler sends Pikachu flying with a Tackle. Angry at this, James then sends out an Ivysaur and a Charizard at the same time. But unfortunately, the head instructor expels James for bringing out two Pokémon at once.
It is Ash's turn to face the head instructor, who sends out a Flareon. Ash pulls out his first Poké Ball, which reveals a Weezing, much to Ash's shock and displeasure (made only worse when Todd starts taking pictures of his face looking like Weezing's. The instructor has Flareon use Flamethrower, which Weezing proceeds to dodge. Coming up with an idea, Ash tells Weezing to counter with Smog, which explodes upon being hit by the Flamethrower, throwing Flareon backwards. Flareon then uses Leer, but Ash has Weezing use SmokeScreen to hide, then follow up with a Tackle, knocking Flareon out. As Misty comments on Ash being good at battling after all, Brock comments that even Team Rocket could win if they battled like that. Meanwhile, Team Rocket is taking notes of Ash's fighting strategy. Next, the head instructor sends out a Jolteon, and Ash sends out an Arbok. Jolteon uses Agility, but Arbok stops it with Glare. Then, Arbok uses Wrap but gets hurt by Jolteon's spikes. At this point, while Arbok is wincing in pain, Jolteon shakes off the Glare attack and finishes it off with Thunder. For the final round, Ash opens his last Poké Ball to reveal a Meowth, while the head instructor sends out a Vaporeon. Meowth tries to use Fury Swipes, but gets frozen in its tracks when Vaporeon uses Ice Beam, giving the victory to the head instructor. Team Rocket's Meowth scratches Ash's face and frees his fellow Meowth. The head instructor is impressed by the talking Meowth, so he goes to capture him. However, Team Rocket returns with James's Pikachu, Ivysaur, and Charizard. The head instructor demands that they return those Pokémon immediately. Jessie and James then say their mottos and remove their disguises. Then, Team Rocket orders Ivysaur to use Vine Whip, Charizard to use Flamethrower, and Pikachu to use Thunder. Before the Pokémon attack, the head instructor quickly orders them to about-face, causing Pikachu, Ivysaur, and Charizard to attack Team Rocket. Ash realizes that those Pokémon listened to the head instructor because he raised them. Then, Ash orders his Meowth, Weezing, and Arbok to also stop Team Rocket. Weezing uses Explosion, sending Team Rocket blasting off again.
Back inside the PLAE building, the head instructor tells the whole class that due to Team Rocket's interference, they have to do the entire exam all over again. The head instructor then offers Ash another chance to pass the test, but Ash refuses, saying that he's better off winning Gym Badges from Gym Leaders. Misty is now convinced that Ash has got skill. A short time later, as Ash, Misty, and Brock say goodbye to the head instructor and Nurse Joy before heading off for Cinnabar Island, Todd comes up to Nurse Joy with one of the two Meowth that got hurt in the Explosion. The Meowth then talks, revealing that it is Team Rocket's Meowth. Meanwhile, as Jessie and James vow revenge on Ash and his friends, they quickly discover that they ended up with the wrong Meowth.
Major events
- For a list of all major events in the anime, please see the timeline of events.
- Ash
- Misty
- Brock
- Jessie
- James
- Todd Snap
- Nurse Joy
- Pokémon League entrance exam instructor
- Other Trainers
Who's That Pokémon?: Vulpix (U.S. and international), Purin (Japan)
Pokémon seen at the exam:
- Ivysaur
- Charmander
- Charizard
- Squirtle
- Weedle
- Arbok
- Pikachu
- Oddish
- Meowth
- Graveler
- Weezing
- Vaporeon
- Jolteon
- Flareon
- The Pokémon Ash uses in the exam are the same species as those that Team Rocket uses to battle him outside of it: Arbok, Weezing, and Meowth. James does almost the same, in reverse: he gets a Pikachu, Ivysaur, and Charizard to use; it would have been an exact correlation had Ash's Bulbasaur not refused to evolve five episodes prior.
- This is one episode where Charizard does not keep its Japanese voice and its voice is provided by Eric Stuart.
- James receives a team similar to the one that Pokémon Trainer has in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, except with a Pikachu instead of a Squirtle.
- This marks the only appearance in the series (so far) of a Weezing other than the one belonging to James.
- This marks one of the few occasions where Meowth is seen in battle.
- Ash has trouble initially remembering what attacks Arbok can learn, despite battling Jessie's in almost every episode prior to this one. He also had trouble remembering Meowth's attacks, but this is understandable seeing as Team Rocket's Meowth hardly ever battles. Curiously, he has battled James's Weezing an equal amount of times to Arbok and had very little, if any, trouble remembering what moves a Weezing could learn.
- When Ash hands over his Pokéballs to the Pokémon League entrance exam instructor, there are 5. When the instructor closes his hand, there are 6.
- When Meowth scratches both Jessie and James, there are four lines of light. But Jessie and James faces have three marks.
- The instructor shows an image of a Poliwrath and Poliwag but calls them Poliwhirl and Poliwag.
- The instructor says Template:Type2 moves do not work on Rock Pokémon, in reference to Pikachu's Thunderbolt failing to affect his Graveler. Actually, Template:Type2 moves don't work on Template:Type2s, which Graveler is also, but have normal effectiveness on Rock-types.
- In one scene where the gang talks to Nurse Joy and Todd takes pictures of Pokémon, there is a Trainer with a green-colored Weedle. Though it may merely be a coloring error, Weedle is green when Shiny in Gold and Silver sprites, but in a different shade.
- The computer's image of a Caterpie leaves a section of its body colored the purple on the screen.
- When Ash is returning Arbok to its Poké Ball, the number seven on his jacket has vanished.
Dub edits
- Two of the slides were different in the original Japanese version. The question of Vulpix evolving into Ninetales via use of the Fire Stone was concocted by the 4Kids staff. The original question was whether or not a Wartortle was a good use against a Ninetales. The Poliwag slide with Poliwrath on it originally had the correct Pokémon (Poliwhirl) next to Poliwag.
Test 1: 2nd Question
Test 2: Poliwag Slide
In other languages
|Mandarin Chinese
|Obtížná zkouška
|Ratkaiseva koe
|European French
|L'Ultime épreuve
|Die Feuerprobe
|המבחן הגדול מכולם hamivchan hagadol mikulam
|A felvételi vizsga
|O Teste Final
|O Teste Derradeiro
|Важный экзамен
|Latin America
|¡La prueba máxima!
|El examen final
|This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of the Pokémon anime.


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(Yes, Android fans, I'm sure you're all complaining already about the four stars out of five rating. Actually, it's not really a 4/5. It's 4.5/5, or 9/10 in decimal; but our system doesn't give us the capability to award half-stars. You'll see where the missing point went. Now read on.)
Samsung's Galaxy S3 is an important product: given that smartphones now outsell PCs, and that Samsung has about a quarter of the entire smartphone market (spread among various products), it's entirely likely that the S3, its top-end product, will be the computer acquired by more people than any other in the next six months. More than HP or Dell. Word of 9m ordered (that's by carriers, but they should know their market) indicates that the S3 is expected to sell really well.
Partly that's because Samsung has acquired a giant following outside Korea. According to ComScore, in the US its phones (feature- and smart-) now make up the largest single supplier, with 60m of the 234m in use among those aged over 13.
The S3 is also interesting: Samsung really, really wants to be the alternative or equal to Apple – distinguishing itself from Android rivals through not just high-class hardware, but also through software and services. The S3 includes S-Voice, a voice-driven service that was available in the S2 (rather as Siri was available on all iPhones until Apple restricted it to just the 4S in October), and its marketing makes much of the potential of S-Voice.
I used an SGS3 (as I'll call it) as my mobile phone for slightly over two weeks. (I've used Android phones in the past, so I have accounts set up, and plenty of experience with it; see this review of the Nexus S, for instance.) A lot of comparisons here are to the iPhone because it's the only really high-end phone with comparable features that isn't running Android.
So let's start.
Appearance: taste that
Screen size: watch this
Setup: not quite down pat
As a phone: receiving you now
Battery life: excellent
Defaults: the soul of the machine
Notifications: say what?
Touchscreen and scrolling: mixed
User interface: more than one way to skin
Web browsing: read on
Camera: hold it there
Services, S-Voice and So On
Appearance: taste that
The phone comes with Android 4.0 with Samsung's own TouchWiz overlay, which means that it's not a "pure" Android 4.0 experience. (I was able to compare it on various points with the Nexus S, which had updated to the "pure" 4.0.) I used it with the default settings as far as I could (obviously there's no default for signing into an account) because that, in general, is how people use these devices. For example, most people won't change the keyboard. (Yes, I know there are tens of millions of downloads of keyboard apps from the Google Play store. Contrast: there are about 400m Android devices in use. Most people don't change defaults.)
Samsung supplied a fresh white model; it looks as tasty as an ice cream. Some people have complained about it being plastic, and about how thin the backplate is when you take it off. Clue: you don't operate it with the backplate off, and it fits on firmly. There's no torsion; it's a very solid, yet thin, device. I don't see the complaint myself. The metal rim gives it a solid feel.
There's a camera on the back at the top, and one on the top of the front, plus two little ones on the front beside it: these are used to detect whether you're still looking at the screen if you have a lock set, or for dimming it to save power. The SGS3 (as we'll call it) is very keen on saving power.
There's a physical home button in the middle of the bottom of the body. This goes against Google's idea that 4.0 should have virtual buttons only. Samsung isn't going to listen on that one. It also has backlit touch-sensitive buttons (settings on the left, the "back" button on the right), which also goes against Google's instructions. Given Samsung's position in the Android market, Google might have to just lump it.
Similarly, the back button is on the right (as it was on the SGS2), but a perplexing difference after the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus (where it's on the left). The wandering back button is one of those Android things. At least Samsung manages to standardise on it. (Windows Phone standardises the buttons' position.)
Screen size: watch this
The screen measures 4.8in (diagonally) – nearly a tablet by the official measure of some analysts (5in and up), but doesn't feel overlarge. Perhaps I'm just getting used to screens of all sizes, but it didn't feel gigantically bigger – even though the length of a whole iPhone (screen and body) fits into its screen. In terms of content, I could display five tweets on the S3 against four on the iPhone; seven emails on the S3 v four on the iPhone, so it's substantially better there. The screen is very bright.
It's also pleasant to use compared to the HTC Titan (see my review) because the power button (which also gives quick access to the Airplane, sound, and data connection modes) is on the right side, rather than the top. If it were on the top, this would be an unmanageable thumb-breaker of a phone. As it is, the button sits neatly under the thumb or index finger.
Samsung has built so many things into this device that on your first use you'll be overwhelmed with dialog boxes showing you how to use them, including things you might never want to use (tilting, shaking ... it smacks of "these elements can't be discovered, so we have to tell you about it now". I ignored most of them). You'll spend a fair amount of time ticking "never show me this again". A "guided tour" app would be preferable.
Setup: not quite down pat
The Android fresh setup experience (when you move from an old phone to a new one) isn't quite sorted yet. Manual downloads, install, approve and download – it's really rather a slog. And it emphasises again that while Apple tells you pretty much nothing about what an app will access, Android tells you everything – and it's pretty much impossible to know if an app needs all those accesses, and whether that's bad.
In both cases, you can usually be sure there's nothing amiss. But both platforms have been burnt by apps which have accessed too much (address books by oversharing apps on iOS, address books and text messages by malware on Android).
As a phone: receiving you now
Call quality is clear, and reception is very good – better than the iPhone: I live in an area with marginal reception indoors, and it could generally get a call where Apple's wouldn't, and send text messages where the iPhone couldn't. You do have to get used to the Samsung way – a little quad-tone plays when the call begins connecting (but ahead of it ringing).
Battery life: very good
Yes, it is. It lasted more than a day on a charge with power-saving mode on (as it is by default), far more than the iPhone, which is gasping after a day's heavy use. The iPhone 4S charges faster – which it needs to. Samsung's long experience making mobile phones shines through here. Plus the battery itself is replaceable, which is always handy.
Defaults: the soul of the machine
Defaults are the core of any device's experience. Most people don't change defaults. They use the default browser, default email program, default sounds, default keyboard. If you choose good default behaviours and settings, your device will be great. If you have a ton of options where the good settings are buried beyond the defaults, the device's greatness will be hidden, and it will be frustrating.
There are four defaults on the unlocked home screen: phone, chat, internet and camera. Swipe them and you go directly to the relevant application. Neat.
However, unlike "pure" ICS, which offers a camera icon on the lock screen (choose it and you go straight to the camera), Samsung complicates things. If you use a lock on the screen (and you should, whether pin or pattern), there's a direct-to-camera setting which says: "Tap and hold the screen while rotating the device to open Camera." I tried, but couldn't solve this puzzler from the lock screen. Contrast that to iOS and Windows Phone and, er, pure ICS, where you can go directly to the camera (Windows Phone is fastest in my experience) and you start to wonder whether Samsung isn't being too tricksy for its own good.
In fact, some of Samsung's defaults are a bit maddening. There was an occasional little tinkling bell to indicate the arrival of – who knows what? I couldn't figure out if it was calendar invitations, emails, "urgent" emails, text messages, tweets or what. This noise plagued me; no amount of searching through settings turned it up. It seemed to sound randomly, which meant that my options at night were: turn the sound off (and with it the alarms – not useful because I wanted to use the phone as an alarm) or turn the phone to Airplane mode (and don't forget that when you get up). Not ideal. Here was another one:
Video calls, apparently, were being diverted. This couldn't be turned off, and so a diversion icon sat in the notifications bar, insistently telling me that the video calls which I've never had a single one of were being diverted. I've no idea where they were being diverted to, either. Such distraction isn't helpful if you might also be diverting voice calls (which I do regularly).
Another puzzle: from time to time I'd be asked to choose a keyboard. I've no idea why, since there was only one keyboard that I knew of installed. Yet this was "ongoing".
Power saving is on by default, which is a good idea – it's part of what helps the phone get well over a day's use. However, the power saving is also applied to the browser, which gets a dimmed screen with three brightness settings; the browser's brightness settings are separate of the broader phone's, which must be an indication of where they think – hope? – you'll spend your time. It can be puzzling, though, to set the brightness in one place and then find the browser much dimmer (its default). Seek in the settings and you'll eventually find it.
Notifications: say what?
When iOS was on 4.x, and Android was on 2.x, it was quite obvious: Android's notifications were miles better than Apple's. With iOS 5.x, Apple has now overhauled Android: iOS's pull-down list from each app (you choose how many, from which app – eg, mail, calendars, Twitter, Facebook) compares favourably against the lack of individualised info in Android. Android's brief list (emails, "interactions" on Twitter) means you can't triage what to do so well. I also like iOS's weather notification widget (the finance-happy can replace it with stocks). Android's seem a bit ... blah. They're just not informative enough.
(Just as a reminder, here are iOS 5's notifications.)
Android definitely still has the lead in the quick access to settings such as Wi-Fi, mobile data and GPS in the top banner, plus from the power button on the side (to set Airplane mode, data connections, restart or power down). Being able to see in the notifications what settings are applied, and change them, is a plus – iOS and Windows Phone lag there.
Touchscreen and scrolling: mixed
I liked the brightness of the display, and the depth of the colours; the length of the loan didn't let me find out how well the screen resists everyday scuffing. The touchscreen was sometimes unresponsive; I couldn't say whether this was due to something in the software, or the touchscreen itself, though I'd guess it was the software.
Why? Because Android still has flaws in how it handles display output. The SGS3 has a quad-core 1.4GHz processor. Yet if you give it a long list of entries (perhaps Twitter, perhaps a load of emails) and flick-scroll them, the list stutters – seeming to stick at points before flowing on. Yes, really. iOS and Windows Phone, with far less powerful processors, will give you smooth scrolling; but because of the way Android handles screen display, even a monster CPU like this still moves as though there's sand in the system.
Alternatively, if you put your finger on a list and waggle it up and down, you'll get hysteresis – the scroll view can't react fast enough and soon it's scrolling down while you're moving your finger up, and vice-versa. This has been the subject of a lot of discussion. Google suggests it's fixed. Not in my experience. Oddly, I never used to notice it in the (Samsung) Galaxy Nexus S. I really noticed it here.
A deal-breaker? Not really, but a painful flaw in a top-flight smartphone.
On touchscreens, I'm a two-thumb typist (the legacy of having used a BlackBerry back in 2003), and I like to type at speed – which means a touch keyboard has to keep up on the corrections, because touchscreen typing is hard to do accurately; and any delay rapidly becomes a bugbear, especially if it happens because of something that is built in to the device.
The generic ICS keyboard is better than the Gingerbread one, though having used all three extensively, I still think the iOS keyboard has better error correction and other behaviours..
The Samsung one doesn't switch back to letters when you hit space bar after hitting a number. Generally, though, in such cases, letters rather than numbers are what's coming up; this means you're forced to type an extra character (the symbol-> character button) each time, slowing you down. The iOS keyboard has its annoyances, but the Samsung keyboard still feels cramped despite the much larger screen size.
The worst of it was that my mistyping became glaringly obvious. I also found that the screen seemed slow to react to my attempts to prod it to shift the cursor to correct a misspelling.
Yes, I know – Swype, SwiftKey, you can change the keyboard to what you want. I've tried others and not greatly enjoyed the experience; other people differ. So I do recommend that you try other keyboards if you have your heart set on this phone. It's almost certain to improve the experience. I didn't even find that my typing improved with longer use; if anything, it got worse.
User interface: more than one way to skin
There are some truly maddening errors in this. Samsung has skinned Ice Cream Sandwich pretty extensively, so it's hard to know without delving into geekish detail whether a flaw is Google's, or Samsung's. But let's treat the device as sui generis – an item to be considered on its own.
The Back button is on the right of the Home button, rather than on the left as it was with the Galaxy S. This in itself isn't a problem, since you accommodate quickly enough, though if you're changing from another Android phone, be prepared to re-learn some music memory. Similarly, if you're on a 2.x machine and haven't used ICS before, then prepare for some re-learning: the apps folder scrolls sideways, rather than down; the list of open apps is a big list with screengrabs, not a set of small icons.
The Android Back button's roulette-ish behaviour – will it take you back through every app and every action you've ever made, or just back to your starting place in the app? – is a separate question. That hasn't changed. In general, the Back button is a very useful thing, but sometimes (and it's unpredictable when, but generally when you're in a hurry and want to get something done) you'll press it in the wrong context, and get thrown out of one action into another, or to the home screen. Frustrating, it is, at those times.
Web browsing: read on
Since Samsung clearly thinks you'll spend lots of time in the browser, what's it like? It's still the stock Android browser (Chrome isn't yet the default). One thing that any mobile browser needs is that a double-tap will reflow the text to a readable size on the screen.
Double-tap and ...
Hmm. The default setting often set the text to overflow, so that the page would spill either side of the screen.
There is a setting which does fix this, though, so that text will reflow neatly. The browser is fast, though I think the limit has been reached; we're now bound by the speed of the connection, not the machine. And while the text reflow is very good, it lacks iOS 5's "Reader" system which reformats web text into plain text for reading.
Sometimes the text rendering was very good.
But I also found that sometimes the text rendering was – what's the word? – rubbish. Here's a large example. That's really not good rendering.
Even on a mobile site (such as AdAge, here) it could render text completely illegible. Here's how it came out when I visited the site: note that it has gone to the mobile version of the site.
Here's how it came out on the iPhone:
Here's how it came out on a Lumia 800 (sorry, no screenshot capability, so it's a photo):
And here's the link, if you want to see how it looks on your own mobile device. Clearly, it's not AdAge favouring the iPhone.
Camera: hold it there
The main (rear) camera is good – it has a macro setting for closeups. There are tons of settings; camera geeks can get lost in them, or you can just use it (as most will) as a point-and-shoot.
An apology: I was convinced that the SGS3's macro setting would punt the iPhone 4S into the distance, because viewed through the screen, it looked in focus, sharp and detailed. Having actually viewed the pics, though, it turns out that the iPhone took the better closeups. Here they are on Flickr, as a slideshow; select "show info" to see which was taken with which device.
Anyhow. The latest must-have in camera access on smartphones, though, is direct access from the lock screen. Windows Phone did this first in 2010; Apple leapt in next with iOS 5 in October 2011; ICS followed at about the same time (if you could get it) with a camera icon direct from the lock screen, even when you have a pin or pattern lock set up
However on the SGS3, if you want rapid access to the camera from the lock screen, you have to "tap and hold the screen while rotating the phone", according to the setting I ticked. Whatever this magic gesture is, I never managed to perform it, despite plenty of tries.
Services, S-Voice and So On
Samsung seems to be edging very carefully away from a core Google experience. It offers its own Samsung Music (a per-month paid offering) and also AllShare Play, which offers the chance of sharing your music and videos across multiple devices, as Apple does with music via iTunes Match, and for photo and limited video on iCloud. (AllShare Play's page says that: "For computers, you can add any computer regardless of computer manufacturer or model." What they left off was "unless it's made by Apple"; there's no Mac client, and no timetable on getting one.) Samsung clearly sees services as the way forward, and especially as the way to differentiate itself from other Android handset makers.
The most visible example is its use of S-Voice, its own voice-controlled assistant, accessed via a double press on the home button. (As with the iPhone, that button gets a lot of uses: here it's double press for S-Voice, long press for the list of running or recent apps, short press to return home. The iPhone's are different, but equally at risk of overload. That's partly why I think Samsung is ignoring Google's desire that the 4.0 home button should be virtual; it couldn't distinguish itself, and long/short/double pressing on a virtual button is comparatively hard to detect.)
S-Voice has been around longer than Apple's Siri (it arrived in the SGS2 last year), though both seem to be driven by Nuance's technology. I tested the two side-by-side over Wi-Fi, and consistently found that Siri had better speech-to-text translation, and a faster response – by some seconds for the initial speech-to-text translation, and then again for generating responses. (Unlike Siri, I couldn't find a setting to let S-Voice work from the lock screen, though no doubt it's in there somewhere.)
Of course, transcribing voice can be tricky. See if you can manage this one (S-Voice couldn't):
Siri could:
Since you're wondering, I was holding both phones side by side.
S-Voice also has a tendency to become obsessed with a topic – if you start looking for a contact, then it will believe you want a contact, no matter what other question you ask.
So S-Voice doesn't outpace Siri, which – given that they apparently have the same back-end – is odd. Sure, you can reckon that voice is a trivial frippery, though Samsung, Google, Microsoft and Apple don't seem to agree with you. It will be interesting to see how S-Voice improves in time.
Note also though that by using Nuance and feeding the results through to Wolfram Alpha, Samsung is edging away from Google in exactly the way that Apple is for voice-driven search results.
If S-Voice, rather than the built-in Google Voice, is what Samsung wants to push, what does that say about its view of Google?
Samsung is fascinating, because it has that special combination of so many possibilities – and so much heft. It's the world's biggest in both featurephones and smartphones, it's the only real rival to Apple in tablets, it designs and sells PCs, it's pushing into Smart TV, and now it's adding its own services on top. For now, Google is the dominant partner because of what it does in search and email. But the people at the top of Samsung have shown they're anything but passive. Watch this space.
The SGS3 is a great phone in many ways; it's a perplexing one in others. Having a million settings isn't always a good thing, and if you're used to Android 2.3 then prepare for some mental readjustment in shifting to 4.0, and especially Samsung's TouchWiz implementation, which brings yet more differences. Samsung has thrown the kitchen sink in here with the number of features, so that you're actually unlikely to use them all.
"I can like something without wanting it," my wife remarked about some object the other day. That's really how I feel about the SGS3. I liked it as a phone, but I never felt the tactile pleasure that I get from simply picking up a Nokia Lumia 800, nor the uncluttered sharpness of the iPhone's display and user interface. The typing frustrated me (you can fix that) and the list scrolling juddered (you can't), and the browsing is sometimes poorly rendered (you can, with a different browser) which is where the half-star (or 10%) is lost for me.
Still, if you like having a setting for everything, Android's for you. If you like having even more settings than that, seek out the SGS3. It's a very good phone in many ways. If you're in the big-spending bracket, it's one to consider very carefullly.
Buying information
Samsung Galaxy S3: £489 (16GB, white) or £499 (16, blue) from Amazon, or on contract (typically £36 per month, 24-month contract) from various carriers.
Other reviews
David Pogue, New York Times: "A phone bristling with extras"
Wallt Mossberg, All Things D: "Galaxy Quest: a phone aimed at all networks"
Matt Warman, Daily Telegraph: "Samsung Galaxy S3: full review"
Natasha Lomas, Cnet: "Samsung Galaxy S3 review"
This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information.


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Reg Presley
I heard the sad news today about Reg Presley passing. Encouraged by a friend who suggested that "a kind thought almost never falls on stony ground," I called his wife, Brenda to offer my sympathy and to say a warm hello. I was so glad I did. Hearing her voice was a clear reminder of how special Reg & his wife were together… kind and loving to each other.. with a unique common-man sense of humor.
I met Reg and the boys in New York, maybe a year or so after Wild Thing went to #1 on the U.S. charts. I liked them immediately. There was no rock & roll posing – these were just damned good guys. Every so often our paths would cross again.
Then, about seven or eight years ago Reg & I were in each other's company on a few occasions. We played Wild Thing on a UK TV show (with Carrie Rodriguez) and then Reg & Brenda showed up at a few of our shows. Each time he'd come with his trusted ocarina in his pocket and gladly join us for a show-stopping version of "that song." I love those memories.
About Wild Thing
Back in the "Brill Building" 60s, my biggest concern as a writer, was that the artist and producer recording my song would capture the feel or the groove of the song correctly .. that is, like the demo recording that I produced. I'm happy to say that many did. I've been very fortunate in that regard. But none captured the feel and the intent of the demo, better than the Troggs recording of Wild Thing, thanks to the true rock & roll spirit of Reg & the boys and Larry Page's instincts not to overproduce. I remember the first time I heard it .. it killed me!
And Jimi Hendrix felt exactly the same way. I love the story about Jimi jumping out of the shower butt naked when he heard Wild Thing playing on his radio to tell his girlfriend, "That's the record I was telling you about!!" Thanks to Reg & the boys, Jimi immediately included the song in his shows and his legendary Monterey performance soon followed.
Aside from his unique – humble but passionate – delivery as a vocalist, it should be remembered that Reg was an important writer in his own right. Sandwiched between and around Wild Thing and another of my songs, Anyway That You Want Me, in the space of a couple of years, he wrote and had hits with some cool, simple little rock & roll heartfelt songs, With A Girl Like You, I Can't Control Myself and Love Is All Around. Those honest blasts of rock & roll energy were unique in their day. Later on, you could feel similar energy with the Ramones and the Velvet Undergound. Reg & the boys should be remembered as sort of pioneers of that great stuff.
My deep condolences to Brenda, daughter Karen and son Jason – as well as to Jacqueline (Jackie) Ryan and all those from his passionate and wonderful fan club, who saw the beauty in what Reg & the boys did from the very beginning and were their champions for all these years. I'm proud to have known so many of you.
Here's to Reg .. a talented guy – a humble guy .. a nice guy. It's wonderful that he came by when he did.
Posted in 1960s, Decade of Note, Singers, Songwriters


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3 Pack of Nandita Mantra Meditation Premium Masala Incense (12 Boxes)
- Condition:
- New
- Availability:
- In Stock
- Weight:
- 600.00 Grams
"Nandita pure agarwood incense is the true tradition recipe of the most popular Indian incense enjoyed around the world. Nandita incense is a unique blend of rare herbs, flowers, resins and essential oils. When you light a Nandita incense, you assure yourself a safe and natural experience. All the ingredients of this natural product are purely organic, non toxic and ozone friendly."
- Eco friendly pack
- Hand crafted in India
- Free of animal by-products
Country of Origin: Product of India
Product Weight: 200 Grams Per Pack
Quantity: 3 Pack of 12 Boxes
Storage Instructions: Keep in Cool & Dry Place
Pakage: Box
- Light the end of the stick.
- Blow the flame out when the end is glowing.
- Place the stick in an incense burner on a heat resistant surface.
- Keep out of reach of children.
- Make sure ashes fall on fireprof surfaces, (shtrays or incense sticks holder).
- Not for human consumption & not tested on animals.


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Domo Arigato Restaurant Roboto – My travelogue
I think it was the disco panda, charging into a clutch of alien invaders, while riding an enormous shaggy cow. That's when my brain melted like butter, no longer able to sustain the thermodynamic struggle against the frying pan. A frying pan dusted with rainbow LED's, wearing bedazzled hot pants, and painted by a hundred neon lasers. Like a sun-blasted Japanese spaghetti western refracted through Tron and Blade Runner.
That's not to undersell the scantily clad cavewomen, riding a giant spider, or the disco Cylon on roller-skates, or even the mermaid riding the great white shark eating an alien invader. Each in their own glorious way, and all together with so much more, rendered complete the steady, inescapable liquefaction of my mind tank. This is the neutron star of Japanisms buried below the light canyons of Shinjuku. This is Robot Restaurant.


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Gift Voucher 50 euro
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Difficult choice? Not with the Axeswar Design Gift Voucher, for use both in our store in Ghent as on our online store. Gift Vouchers are valid for one year and are sent without shipping charges.
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Talk:Truck Hustle
| This talk page is for discussing the Truck Hustle article.
This includes commenting on the article, questioning whether it is correct, or adding suggestions for improvements
Questions about GTA games, not about the wiki page itself, should be asked at Community:Questions.Remember to always add your signature to the end of your comments/replies using four tildes:
Something I don't understand.
Phil said the reason the Triads were so desperate to be rid of the heroin was that they thought it was cursed. I'd have thought they'd be glad to let Niko take it, in that case... Sgt. S.S. 21:18, 22 December 2010 (UTC)
Mission Not Appearing
Wondering if anyone else has had this happen: I've completed Late Checkout and received Bell's call, and have his number in my phone. However, I've yet to get a mission marker to show up. Wondering if my save game has a bug, or if perhaps it's also unlocked by No. 1 (which I've yet to be able to pass)? 〆vonPreußen/talk
- Just work at No. 1, finish it and your storyline will continue, it should pop up right after. Not much can be said as for helping with the mission other then take your corners slow if you're not too great at driving. Good luck! Grand Theft AJ (talk) 07:45, 24 January 2012 (UTC)
- Ah, so it is No. 1 blocking it? Good to know. Thanks for the feedback! :) 〆vonPreußen/talk


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Class Action Fishing: Apple Sued Over Third Party User Tracking
from the seems-like-a-stretch deptOne of those class action specialist lawsuit firms, who seem to file lawsuits mostly designed to make the lawyers money, rather than correct any sort of improper actions, has sued Apple and some app makers over supposed privacy violations. At issue is the fact that some apps pass on the unique UDID code that is associated with each iPhone to advertisers. This lets advertisers track the same user across multiple apps -- similar, in some sense, to a browser cookie. The "difference" is that a browser cookie is deletable, while you're stuck with your UDID. This all came out a couple weeks ago in a WSJ article, and since these kinds of lawyers are opportunists, they're always quick to jump on any lawsuit opportunity whenever the press highlights a story like this.
Not surprisingly, it appears this case is yet another attempt to abuse the CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act), which is generally thought of as an anti-hacking law, but which is continulously stretched and abused to pull in other situations. In this case, the lawyers are claiming that accessing the UDID without permission is the equivalent of accessing a computer without authorization. Think about that for a second and then realize how silly this is. No one is hacking anything to get this info. The info is made available, and so it's been shared. Using the CFAA here is ridiculous. They also seek to use a similar California anti-hacking law in a similar way. This is clearly not what those laws are intended for.
Furthermore, it seems silly to blame Apple for the way that some app providers are sharing data. To get around this issue, the lawyers rely on two key points. First, that Apple itself recently changed its terms to ban apps from sending data to third parties such as ad networks. Of course, most people realized this was not about protecting privacy, but about forcing developers to use Apple's own ad platform. Second, the fact that Apple approves each of the apps in the marketplace. I know that some people assume this automatically adds liability to Apple for anything those apps do, but that seems like a bit of a stretch as well. It's ridiculous to assume that Apple tests all aspects of an app, and thus becomes liable for anything those apps do.
All in all this looks like yet another attempt by some lawyers to take some fear mongering and make some money out of it. It's not going to do anything to protect anyone's actual privacy.
Filed Under: ads, apps, class action, iphones, privacy
Companies: apple