Future

NEW YORK - Carnival Cruise Lines prices have taken a dip this spring, according to pricing data, and some industry observers blame headlines about problems on several Carnival ships. Todd Elliott, owner of Cruise Vacation Outlet, said his agents had seen a drop in price of 20 percent or more for equivalent cruises. "Rates are far lower than I have seen in a while; for example, the Carnival Dream, seven nights, Eastern Caribbean out of Port Canaveral, May 4 is $299 per person," he said.

If Chip Kelly drafted Matt Barkley, a quarterback virtually no one thought he could be interested in, then there is no reason to think that he can't start this season. History says fourth-round quarterbacks hardly ever start in the NFL, let alone as rookies. But the NFL is evolving and in certain segments becoming more like the college game than vice versa. And there's something about the Great Kelly Unknown that suggests anything is possible. There are some pertinent reasons to support Barkley's candidacy, among them his decision-making, accuracy, and moxie.

The abrupt hiring of Houston Rockets assistant general manager Sam Hinkie as 76ers president of basketball operations and general manager, coupled with the swift kick the organization gave to Tony DiLeo on Friday, shows that owner Joshua Harris is going full-bore in doing away with one culture and giving birth to another. Harris has made his billions by propping up distressed companies, restoring them to value, and, in some cases, increasing their value. But in less than one year, the 76ers regressed badly after being one victory away from the Eastern Conference finals.

Q: For the last two months, I have been taking a green coffee bean extract recommended by Dr. Oz on his show. So far, I've lost 10 pounds without even trying. What's your opinion of it? A: Generally, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. But this stuff may actually work. Excitement about the weight-loss magic of green coffee bean extract began this year, after a "randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, linear dose, crossover University of Scranton study.

Latasha Williamson, 12, of the J. Cooke Middle School, peers into a solar furnace exhibit yesterday at the 45th Annual Delaware Valley Science Fair, held at the Civic Center.

Hero Scholarship recipient Raymond S. Fredericksdorf (right) holds jumbo ticket to Hero Scholarship Show yesterday on City Hall tower, with help from (from left) Vyette and Milt Rosenberg, Norb McGettigan, Reginald Beauchamp and Abe Rosen. Fredericksdorf's father, Police Officer Raymond F. Fredericksdorf, was killed in 1972 in the line of duty.

Does man use tools or vice-versa? This question haunts 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick's masterwork about the evolution of humanity from monkey to man and of tools from club to computer. The Chestnut Hill Film Group is offering a rare opportunity to see Kubrick's 1968 masterpiece on the big screen, and to understand that no one imagined the way the future looked more evocatively than the filmmaker in his hugely influential, if sometimes impenetrable, space opera. 2001: A Space Odyssey is scheduled to be shown at the Chestnut Hill branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

It is of great importance to follow the news reports such as those published in The Inquirer about the emerging countries of South America - Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Peru, among others - because the true future of the United States lies with the republics south of the border. It is not far away the day when Hispanics of U.S. citizenship will represent America before the Latin American republics, hence the need to speak the Spanish language on the part of those willing to travel, do business or settle there.

'You can never plan the future by the past," said Edmund Burke. Too often, however, government plans for the future are based only on past experiences. When government does look forward, it may be for only one budget cycle. As a departure from this norm, the city controller's office undertook a project to make suggestions for the future based on an analysis of the challenges and opportunities that await Philadelphia in the next century.The product of that project became the book, "Philadelphia: A New Urban Direction.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - A plan to turn Mali into a stable democracy rather than a terrorist haven drew massive support Wednesday as various nations and international groups pledged $4.22 billion to help reconstruct the West African nation. The objective of the donors' conference in Brussels had been to raise $2.6 billion to support a $5.6 billion plan drafted by Malian officials aimed at helping what many observers view as a failed state reemerge as a stable, secure democracy. By Wednesday evening, the pledges made far exceeded that goal.

Downingtown East senior Jay Harris will be pursuing a rap career instead of heading to Michigan State on a football scholarship. Sports, D3.

From the broken concrete of Deemer's Beach, you can see north up the Delaware River toward Philadelphia, south down Delaware Bay toward the Atlantic, and east over two miles of sun-tipped waves to hazy New Jersey to get a sense of what people lost when they turned their backs on the waterfront. "There was the tidal bathing pool, and the trolley, and the baseball ground, and the roller rink, and the dance hall, and the arcade, and the 1,500-foot-pier, and the place where the Wilson Line ships used to dock," said Harold West, owner of the property since 1987.

IN AN IDEAL basketball world the 76ers would be set to move forward with a new coach, perhaps a new president, maybe a new general manager or at least word that the one in place (Tony DiLeo) will be here beyond June 30, when his contract expires. Since April 18, when it was announced that coach Doug Collins was resigning and majority owner Josh Harris stated that the organization is now basically a blank canvas, we have heard nothing from the team. There have been reports of background checks on perspective coaches, various names thrown about as to whom may replace Collins.

NETANYA, Israel - The huge reservoirs of natural gas discovered off the coast of Israel now flowing toward shore have the potential to transform the once energy-strapped country into a lean, green manufacturing machine - capable of supplying cheap, clean energy to its citizens, factories, and vehicles for a generation. Until now bereft of the petroleum bonanza that created the modern Middle East, Israel suddenly finds itself a major player in the Mediterranean, and perhaps even the European, natural gas market.

CHICAGO - A 2-year-old born without a windpipe now has one grown from her own stem cells, the world's youngest patient to benefit from the experimental treatment. Hannah Warren has been unable to breathe, eat, drink, or swallow on her own since she was born in South Korea in 2010. Until the operation at an Illinois hospital, she had spent her entire life in a hospital in Seoul. Doctors there had told her parents there was no hope. The stem cells came from Hannah's bone marrow, extracted with a special needle inserted into her hip bone.

Looking at unraced horses, hundreds of them, plucking out a thoroughbred with a future, maybe even in the Kentucky Derby - it takes a certain confidence. Tom McGreevy had it even before he began picking horses out. On his first day on Penn State's campus as a transfer student in 1972, McGreevy knocked on the head football coach's door. He wanted a tryout as a placekicker. "I think we have enough kickers," Joe Paterno told him. McGreevy, who believed Penn State's kickers had been lousy, persisted, explaining he'd been practicing for a couple of years before transferring over from York College.

Air-traffic controller furloughs ended over the weekend. Snarled operations that caused delays for travelers, especially in the New York City area, are back to normal. But no one knows for sure what the legislation untangling the situation, passed by Congress and signed by the president, will mean for 149 small airport traffic-control towers slated for reduced hours or closure June 15 because of the federal spending cuts. Airfields affected by the closures - including Trenton-Mercer Airport, where Frontier Airlines now flies to 10 cities, and the Harrisburg, Latrobe, and Lancaster airports in Pennsylvania - are hopeful the transfer of up to $253 million from an airport-improvement program to prevent reduced operations and staffing through Sept.

It was at the height of the mango season in west Kenya that Phil Hughes saw a way to bend the future. He was a Peace Corps volunteer at the time, 10 years ago. And the mangoes were, well, awesome - creamily lush and sweet, a variety called Ngowe, indigenous to Zanzibar, reddish-yellow. They were beautiful things. Hughes is not an animated speaker. But over a salad at the Reading Terminal Market one recent afternoon, he was getting worked up recalling his days in Africa. "Most of the year you can't get mangoes.

The little East Greenwich Library operated for 57 years on a shoestring budget and the efforts of an enthusiastic group of volunteers. Four years ago, the Gloucester County Library System took it over at the local library association's request. Then the county system decided that the library was too small, too expensive, and too little used. Last month, the county Library Commission announced that it was not renewing the lease on the four-room redbrick schoolhouse where the library is housed, so the facility will close in January 2014.