march uk clip
TRANSCRIPT
46 MENSHEALTH.COM | March 2015
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Pity the modern man’s pants: Today’s big smartphones and fat wallets con-
spire to create some odd bulges. Thankfully, there’s hope: The phone wallet
case pulls double duty to streamline your slacks and squelch any mixed signals
about your state of arousal. Matt Altschul, president and CEO of CM4, a com-
pany that designs and sells phone cases, points out key features that keep your
device ding-free, your Amex in place, and your style dialed in. —GILLIAN FRANCELLA
The MaterialIf your phone could talk, it would ask
you to buy it a soft-touch rubber or sil-
icone case to disperse shock. And
Altschul recommends a fabric interior
to swaddle your credit cards. If you
choose to go the stylish route, opt for
genuine leather. Just remember: an
overstuffed Costanza wallet will lose
its shape over time. To fix that, dab
water on any stretched-out areas. As
they dry, they’ll shrink to original size.
The Stitching The Stitc ghingA glued seam is a split waiting to
happen, so look for stitching. Choose
nylon thread over cotton. For one
thing, nylon is stronger, so it can take
more case-cramming abuse before
breaking. It’s also water-resistant,
which means it won’t rot like cotton if
it gets wet (from rain or your attempt
to remold it). How do you tell the
threads apart? Nylon is synthetic; it’ll
appear sleek and shiny, not fibrous.
The PortholesThe PortholessCases with narrowly cut access holes
make plugging in your headphones
or charger a pain. Pretest by bringing
your add-ons to the store. To make
sure they’re secure, listen for a click
as you insert the plug, Altschul says.
OUR FAVORITESTWO CASES THAT HIT ALL THE MARKS—AND
LOOK GOOD DOING IT—ARE THE IFLIP WALLET WW
($30, IFLIPWALLET.COM) AND THE LUGANO
WALLET BY WW SENA ($40, SENACASES.COM).
BUY Q
Making a Case for the Phone Wallet
The Phone HolsterAim for a skintight fit to keep sweat
and crud out, says Altschul. And for
screen protection, look for a beveled
top edge that’s at least 1 millimeter
high. To measure, go old-school: Bring
a pencil to the store, slide the phone
in the case, and place the graphite tip
against the screen beside the bev-
eled edge. The distance between the
screen and top of the case should be
about the same size as the tip.
Is picking the winner of the
Big Dance a crapshoot? You
wish—that would imply that your
odds were fathomable. But 68
teams going head-to-head in
single-elimination games over
six rounds leaves some 147
quintillion ways to blow your
office bracket, says Sheldon
Jacobson, Ph.D., a computer
science professor at the Uni-
versity of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign. (The number again:
147, followed by 18 zeros.)
So Jacobson has calcu-
lated an edge: The chart below
shows the percentage of times
each seed has won to advance
to a new round since the play-
off format was standardized in
1985. That’s 30 seasons of data
at your fingertips. Pick a No. 16
seed to go all the way and you’re
crazy—or seeking a permanent
invite to the office pool.
Take the Long ShotYes, low-ranked teams typi-
cally wash out of the first
round. But 12th-placed seeds
historically go 44-76 in their
first games. That’s a 37 percent
win record. Twenty have made
the Sweet Sixteen, but that
luck does run out: Only one has
ever made it to the Final Four.
Measure More MatchupsAnother Cinderella team that
might win some early rounds?
No. 11 seeds move on 34 per-
cent of the time. And just over
40 percent of those victors ulti-
mately make it to the Sweet
Sixteen before being taken out.
Forget Some FavoritesPicking all four No. 1 seeds as
your Final Four isn’t just lazy.
It’s statistically stupid. There’s
only a 1.7 percent shot of all
making it. Three? A 12 percent
chance. Two? Well, 32 percent
of the time both may be there.
It’s better to select one No. 1
to make it: That’s happened 38
percent of the time. —G.F.
DATA BOMB
BUILD A BREAKOUT BRACKET
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
SEED
0%
6%
15%
21%
37%
34%
39%
51%
49%
61%
66%
63%
79%
85%
94%
100%
0%
1%
2%
5%
17%
14%
18%
4%
9%
17%
33%
33%
46%
51%
64%
87%
ROUND TWO
32 teams
0%
0%
0%
0%
1%
5%
6%
2%
7%
7%
11%
7%
16%
25%
47%
68%
SWEETSIXTEEN
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
3%
0%
1%
4%
1%
3%
5%
0%
12%
22%
40%
ELITEEIGHT
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
3%
1%
2%
3%
3%
8%
10%
23%
FINAL FOUR
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
1%
1%
1%
0%
1%
3%
3%
15%
THEBIG
GAME
Winning Percentage by Seeding per Round Since 1985*
*The tournament includes four regions, so four teams always start out with the same seed designation.
If they all reach the final four, three of those same-ranked seeds must lose to the other to advance.
ROUND ONE
64 teams
BRACKET ROUND
GOOD
CALL!
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