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Patents are curious things. They can go unnoticed and the nuggets they contain can suddenly be seen in new products or they can be discovered early on and never come to fruition.
So, it’s worth taking news like this with a pinch of salt but there’s plenty here to be excited about.
There’s no release date rumored for the HomePod 2, but my guess is it’ll be here this fall. With all this technology in it, it's likely to be the same price as the current model ($349) or higher.
Hundreds of workers and trucks from Florida Power and Light are heading north to assist in restoring power to areas expected to be impacted by Hurricane Sandy.
FPL is deploying 865 employees and contractor restoration workers and about 250 trucks to seven different utilities from Virginia to New Jersey to help in the efforts, company officials said Monday.
The workers began leaving Monday and will stop in South Carolina Monday night before they're dispatched Tuesday to provide restoration assistance.
Keys Energy Services was also sending seven linemen to Delaware to assist in power restoration. They will leave on Tuesday.
Sandy came ashore in southern New Jersey as a strong post-tropical cyclone Monday night, and is bringing heavy rain and wind gusts to a large portion of the northeast coast of the U.S.
FPL officials said they're staggering their crews to make sure they're prepared for any outages that might happen in their service territory, but they're also prepared to send additional help if needed.
"We are happy to help other utilities because when FPL's customers are impacted by a hurricane, tropical storm or other natural disaster, other utilities often provide assistance to us," the company said in a statement.
Scientists have developed a new antibiotic from human breast milk.
The British team from London's National Physical Laboratory have developed the new drug which can wipe out drug-resistant bacteria, it is claimed.
"We need on average 10 new antibiotics every decade. So I don't just want some for my old age: I want them for my children's old age."
It is also hoped it could tackle genetic disorders such as sickle-cell anemia.
It comes as the Government has created a specialist panel to tackle antibiotic resistant bugs which kill 700,000 people a year worldwide and 10,000 in Britain.
The discovery gives new hope the fight against superbugs, as the chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies told the Times she is confident new antibiotics will be discovered.
"We need on average 10 new antibiotics every decade," she told the paper.
"So I don't just want some for my old age: I want them for my children's old age."
The panel has revealed if new drugs are not discovered by 2050 up to 10 million lives could be lost a year worldwide.
Dame Davies said the Government was not putting plans in place yet and believes the problem is "crackable".
"We're planning to sort this," she told the Times.
"But if others do not walk with us, it is not something we can sort on our own. This is a global problem. I'm optimistic about this, the science is crackable."
"The problem of antibiotic resistance will be at least as intractable because each nation takes a different view of what is required."
As Europe's fashion giants brace for what could be the toughest leg of their expansion in China, a South African retail tycoon has launched a bold assault on the world��s most populous nation.
Christo Wiese is promising to open 500 of his New Look stores in just three years, catapulting the British brand into the same league in China as the world's top fashion chains - Spain's Inditex and Sweden's H&M .
China is a big draw for retailers who hope to tap the aspirations of a fast-growing middle class, with mid-range names benefiting as consumers trade down from luxury brands since Beijing's clampdown on corruption and conspicuous spending.
But recent history offers plenty of examples of failure. Western brands that have struggled in China include Gap Inc , Abercrombie & Fitch and Marks and Spencer , which decided last year to close five stores in smaller cities to focus on flagship stores in large cities and online.
"Most of the Western fashion labels that are mid-range fail in China. A large part of it is that the styles and the fit are so completely different," said Shaun Rein, founder of market intelligence firm China Market Research.
New Look, a chain founded in 1969 and bought last year by Wiese's investment vehicle Brait SE , does not want to make the same mistake. It now runs 94 stores in China, out of a global total of 852, and hopes to have up to 150 by next March.
"I will definitely give it a try if it is a foreign brand and as long as I like it," said Chen Jie, a 32-year-old businessman from Shenzhen who was carrying an H&M bag in a shopping district in Hong Kong. "Price is not an issue but the design and quality must be good."
While New Look is cashing in on the popularity in China of British style - it is adding the "London" tag to its logo for its Chinese stores and website - it is also catering for local tastes.
Sven Gaede, managing director of New Look's international business, says the firm has an advantage over many European rivals as 85 percent of what it sells in China is sourced locally and more than a third is designed exclusively for China.
That has allowed New Look to tap into the current popularity in Asia of culottes - flared, three-quarter length trousers. Gaede said they account for 12 percent of the firm's sales in China, though they are not popular in its European markets.
"South Korea and Japan drive a lot of the trends that the Chinese customer seeks, so our ability to be able to identify those trends, source them locally and get them into our stores quickly is key," said Gaede.
That helps explain the success of the Uniqlo chain of Japan's Fast Retailing <9983.T> in China, which already has almost 500 stores in the country and is aiming for 1,000 stores in about five years - more than in Japan.
"It's pretty hard for the foreign fast brands to do the localization that Uniqlo does in China as it was born with the Asian gene," said Violet Shen, a marketing executive in Shanghai.
The "fast fashion" model was pioneered by Inditex, which can bring new styles from the catwalk to stores in Europe within days from factories mostly in Spain and North Africa. However, Inditex does not have the same advantage in China.
"As their proportion of sales increases in the East, it challenges this model. You can't hub out of Spain," said Dominic Jephcott, chief executive of supply chain experts Vendigital.
Denmark's Bestseller, which runs brands like Vero Moda and Jack & Jones, says over 90 percent of its products sold in China are also produced in China and most of the designs for the Chinese market are adjusted to local tastes.
Anders Kristiansen ran the China business of Bestseller before taking over as New Look chief executive in 2013. Gaede said Kristiansen's experience in Asia is one of the reasons behind the group's aggressive expansion strategy.
"We see that fashion becomes more and more global and that China doesn't differ much from the rest of the world regarding trends and fashion," said investor relations head Nils Vinge.
"There are of course local differences but that is true for every market. H&M has a business model that can adapt to this," Vinge said, declining to elaborate.
"You have to keep your global brand image and you can't be that creatively different in China than other markets. The Chinese travel around the world," he said. "It is good to localize. But it hard to localize an aspiration."
"To find 500 stores of real estate and roll that out in the right way ... I think it is virtually impossible," said Franklin Yao, managing partner at strategy consultants Smith Street.
But the more established New Look's brand becomes in China, Gaede said, the better the locations and terms it will be offered, adding that the firm was now pushing into smaller cities.
"We are less wedded to the number each year and we are more wedded to getting quality locations," he said.
Most international brands initially launch on Chinese ecommerce sites like JD.com and Alibaba's Tmall and Taobao, but are keen to build up their own online operations to protect margins and integrate ecommerce and store services.
Partnering with Chinese sites and local payment and delivery service providers is essential to reach consumers across such a vast country, said Vendigital's Jephcott.
"It is a hard physical push and a very hard digital push, all premised on a strong relationship with the logistics partner like Taobao," Jephcott said, noting that Taobao has established a delivery network of micro-stores even in small towns.
A tractor-trailer crash along Interstate 83 in York County is creating headaches for drivers during the morning rush hour. The crash happened just after 8 a.m. along I-83 south near Exit 24 in Manchester Township.
According to 911 dispatchers, a big rig ran off the road and slid down an embankment.
Traffic is slowly making its way around the scene in the left lane.
Motorists should expect heavy delays near the crash site.
You'll almost always find M. L. Carr sitting on the last seat of the Boston Celtics' bench, a towel wrapped around his neck and hands cupped at his mouth so that every word he says can be clearly projected onto the court.
Most games, Carr is content to remain in that familiar spot and urge his teammates with a wave of his towel or make a few unsavory remarks to the opposition.
But when the National Basketball Assn. championship series suddenly turned violent in Game 3 Sunday, Carr squirmed in his seat and hoped Celtics Coach K.C. Jones would send him in.
"That was my type of game," Carr said before practice Monday at the Forum. "Of course, I wanted to play! I could've helped the team in that type of situation. My rule is, I don't play dirty until somebody provokes me. Then, I get dirty. I wouldn't have taken anything off anybody."
Perhaps it was fortunate for all concerned that Carr, who has a long and controversial history of fighting, didn't get in until after all the scuffles were over and the outcome had been determined. If Carr had played earlier, it might have touched off an all-out brawl on the court and caused rioting in the Forum seats.
Even when Carr merely waves that towel over his head, it inspires hatred in the usually laid-back Laker fans. The Lakers themselves try to ignore Carr in hopes that he'll just go away.
"I have no comment on M. L. Carr," Laker Coach Pat Riley said tersely.
Without question, the Celtics' 34-year-old small forward with the big mouth is the most hated Celtic in Los Angeles, as well as most everywhere else in the league. People boo Danny Ainge and call Kevin McHale a thug, but at least the fans have respect for those players' basketball talents.
Not so with Carr, an 11-year veteran who used to be a Celtic regular but who rarely plays anymore and will probably retire after the playoffs. There is a genuine dislike, mostly because of his brash towel waving, that unmistakable smile and strut, his previous on-court bouts and just his overall attitude.
"People see me as arrogant and cocky, and I don't really have any qualms with that," Carr said.
"They're probably right. I accept that image as part of the love-hate thing that is part of the Celtics. A lot of people see me as the embodiment of the Celtics because I'm into Celtic pride and Celtic mystique. I go along with it because I'd rather they yell at me on the bench than someone on the court."
It isn't often that a player will match a fan heckle for heckle, but Carr makes it a regular feature.
Before Game 1 against the Lakers in Boston last week, Carr traded good-natured sneers and jeers with Jack Nicholson, the actor and Laker fan. And when he gets some playing time, Carr has been known to, uh, get physical, as his record of fine and ejections clearly shows.
This much is clear, though: For a player whose remaining ability is marginal, Carr certainly has drawn a lot of attention to himself. In Boston, his attitude has made him almost as popular as Larry Bird, which is saying a lot. In the NBA's other 22 cities, fans no doubt want to shove that towel down his throat.
"I went on a speaking tour last summer and everywhere I went, the first words out of people's mouths were, 'I hate M. L. Carr,' " Celtic teammate Cedric Maxwell said in a recent Sport magazine article. "(But) If you rank the most popular athletes in Boston, M. L. is No. 3, behind Larry (Bird) and Doug Flutie. And if Fl...
Although Carr maintains that he doesn't seek the attention, you can tell by his reaction that he thoroughly enjoys it. Positive or negative, it doesn't matter as long as Carr gets noticed.
About an hour before the start of Game 3 Sunday at the Forum, Carr and a few teammates went out to shoot. They drew scattered boos from Laker fans, who circled the court to get a closer look. When they noticed that Carr was smiling and clowning with teammates, the inevitable heckles began.
"Hey, M. L.," one man yelled. "Why you warming up if you're not going to get in the game?"
"I don't work weekends," Carr said, smiling. "Do you?"
Another fan cussed out Carr in Spanish. But since Carr doesn't know the language, his only comeback was "No comprende, man."
This is all part of M. L.'s act, one that has been around the NBA for 11 seasons.
Carr's mouth has always been his best, but certainly not his only, weapon.
Carr has been involved in several notorious fights and can't even remember how much money he has lost to fines and suspensions. He was thrown out of a game last season and fined $1,750 for decking Detroit Piston center Bill Laimbeer with a forearm to the face. He was fined $3,000 just this season for joining the notori...
Perhaps most damaging to Carr's reputation was his fight with Atlanta's Tree Rollins in 1982. Both players were ejected for throwing elbows and, according to Rollins, Carr threatened him with a knife. Carr denied it and a league investigation proved nothing, but Carr thought he could never live down that episode.
"That was something that affected me, but it didn't devastate me," Carr said. "It was something I didn't want to linger over my head."
Carr has been a member of two championship teams since joining the Celtics in 1979-80, the same year Bird arrived in Boston. He played a supporting role on the 1980-81 championship team, averaging 7.4 points and 25 minutes. But last season, at 33, he was most known for waving the white towel over his head and taunting ...
So far in this championship series, Carr has played only in the final stages of the first and third games, both blowouts. But the way Carr figures it, he's fortunate to still be in the league at 34.
"I think the word I'd use to describe it is blessed," said Carr, who admits he doesn't have great basketball skills. "Millions of people would like to be in my position. Not only kids but big people.
"I wouldn't tell any kid to go chase a dream of basketball if it isn't going to materialize. But I always thought I could make it," said Carr, who finished his collegiate playing career at Guilford College in North Carolina in 1973.
He thought that even after he had been cut by the Kentucky Colonels of the old American Basketball Assn. and had failed subsequent tryouts with Kansas City, Philadelphia and Boston.
Carr continued playing basketball at night in the old Eastern League and took day jobs. He worked as a prison guard for a brief time and was a used car salesman for almost a year. Carr laughs when asked to recall his days as a fast-talking used car salesman.
"It was like anything else," he said. "You set a goal and you go for it. In two months, I was the second-leading salesman."
Eventually, Carr landed a spot on the St. Louis Spirits' roster and then joined the Detroit Pistons when the ABA-NBA merger took place. Known for defense and aggressiveness more than scoring, Carr still averaged in double figures in his three seasons with Detroit.
After the 1978-79 season, Carr signed as a free agent with the Celtics. Since Carr had been a starter, the Pistons wanted Bob McAdoo, then with the Celtics, as compensation. Celtic President Red Auerbach agreed to the deal, provided Detroit would also give Boston two first-round draft choices. "I had talent," Carr said...
Ever since the deal, Carr has been caught up in being a Celtic. He says the so-called Celtic pride isn't a cliche to him. When the Celtics held a pregame retirement party for Red Auerbach earlier this season, Carr was so overcome by emotion that he cried.
"If I'm upset, I don't care who knows it," Carr said. "If I'm sentimental about something, I want people to know it. I'm not too big to cry. I cry all the time. And when I'm happy, you'll see a smile as big as Magic Johnson's."
Monday, Carr was not smiling. The Celtics had not only lost Game 3 of the series to the Lakers but had been pushed around in the process. In this instance, Carr wanted people to know he was mad.
"I'm here to win ballgames," he said. "I'm not going to compromise anything to win. If they put me in Game 4, it'll be a war. If K. C. calls my name, I'll be ready."
Already, you can hear fans at the Forum booing.
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Jet Airways pilots belonging to the National Aviators Guild have deferred the strike planned from April 15, with the management set to meet lenders on Monday.
The union had decided its pilots will not report to service on Monday, April 15, with their deadline to the management to clear their salary dues expiring on April 14.
The airline has about 1,400 pilots, and about 75 percent are members of the Guild.
"It is come to our notice that there is a critical meeting planned tomorrow (Monday) morning with the airline management and SBI," said the union in its letter to members.
"In light of the meeting, the members have requested, through their team leaders, that the call of 'No Pay No Work' be deferred to give the airline a chance of survival. Accordingly, as requested, the Committee would like to inform all that the decision stands deferred for the time being," it added.

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