Top UK investor lobby slams Xstrata pay plan

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Somalia's Sharif to stand for new term as president

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Feds to seize disputed dinosaur Friday

Federal officials have plans to seize a dinosaur skeleton that paleontologists and Mongolian officials say was taken illegally from that country.

Yesterday, a federal judge signed a warrant allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HSI) to seize the fossils, which belong to a 8-foot-tall and 24-foot-long (2.4-by-7.3 meter) Tarbosaurus bataar skeleton.?

Officials plan to collect the dinosaur on Friday from the facility where auction house Heritage Auctions has been storing it in Sunnyside, N.Y.

"It's a big package we have to pick up," said Luis Martinez, spokesman for ICE HSI. "We will keep it at a government location until we can repatriate it to Mongolia. Of course that all depends on the legal outcome."

The dinosaur is now the subject of a civil case initiated by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney.

Shortly before the fossils went up for auction on May 20, Mongolian President Elbegdorj Tsakhia attempted to prevent the sale of the Tarbosaurus, a type of tyrannosaur, saying the fossils were almost certainly taken illegally from his country. Heritage Auctions, which was in charge of the sale, sold the dinosaur for $1.1 million on the condition that the courts approve the sale.

  1. More science news from msnbc.com

    1. Happy 100th birthday, Alan Turing

      Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: The centennial of computer pioneer Alan Turing's birth is providing an opportunity to look back at his brilliant life and his tragic end.

    2. Dairy farms once prospered in Sahara
    3. Feds to seize disputed dinosaur Friday
    4. Talisman of ancient googly-eyed god found

On Monday, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office announced it was filing a civil suit to take possession of the dinosaur, with the intent of returning it to Mongolia. In its complaint, the government contended that the fossils were subject to forfeiture, because those who imported them did so knowing they were stolen and because false information was provided on the customs forms.

After the fossils are seized they are expected to be held at an undisclosed facility while the legal case proceeds, Martinez said.

Follow LiveScience writer Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry ? or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook ? and ?Google+.

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NBC discussing plan to remove Curry as host

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Ron Paul supporters sue GOP, claiming intimidation

(AP) ? Supporters of GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul have filed a lawsuit against the Republican National Committee and nearly every state party claiming they improperly helped Mitt Romney during the primaries while using intimidation and threats of violence to thwart them.

Paul's campaign says the Texas congressman doesn't support the lawsuit. An RNC official called it frivolous.

The lawsuit asks a federal court in California to clarify whether delegates attending the national convention in August can vote for any candidate they choose, even if they were won by Romney. Most state parties require delegates to vote for the candidate who won them in primaries or caucuses.

The lawsuit was filed June 11 by more than 100 people who say they are delegates, though some aren't on lists released by state parties.

Associated Press

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Surface: The New Windows 8 Tablet from Microsoft

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) finally unveiled the reason behind the "secret event" that they revealed a few days ago as the company revealed a new Windows 8 tablet in the market. This is Microsoft's first forray in the tablet market.

This new tablet's name is "Surface" and there would be two new versions available in the market. Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft remarked that the tablets that the company will be launching are actually PCs because it is based on their newest OS, Windows 8. He was also quoted stating "The Surface is a PC...a tablet..and a new experience."

Surface: Specifications and Features

Operating Software: Windows RT?

  • Processor: Nvidia ARM processor
  • Weight: 676g?
  • Thinness: 9.3mm
  • Display: 10.6-inch ClearType HD Display?
  • Battery Life: 31.5 W-h?
  • Features: Office Home & Student 2013 RT, Touch Cover, Type Cover
  • Connectivity: microSD, USB 2.0, Micro HD Video, 2x2 MIMO antennae
  • Storage: 32 GB and 64 GB
  • Accessories: VaporMg Case & Stand

Operating Software: Windows Pro

Follow us

  • Processor: Intel Core i5
  • Weight: 903g
  • Thinness: 13.5mm
  • Display: 10.6-inch ClearType HD Display?
  • Battery Life: 42 W-h
  • Features: Touch Cover, Type Cover, Pen with Palm Block
  • Connectivity: microSDXC, USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort Video, 2x2 MIMO antennae
  • Storage: 64 GB and 128 GB
  • Accessories: VaporMg Case & Stand

Manufacturing a Windows 8 tablet is something that is not new to the market but this is the first time Microsoft has decided to formally enter the tablet market. Apple is currently dominating the tablet market through its iPad line and so far, none of the competitors in the market have come close with this kind of success. Technological experts and analysts are divided when it comes to the success of "Surface" in the tablet market. Some experts are doubtful that Microsoft can directly compete with Apple in terms of tablets since the company has a big and loyal following.

There are also experts who are saying that price would be a crucial factor in determining the sucess of the Windows 8 tablet in the market. Carolina Milanesi, the Reasearch VP at Gartner expressed the same sentiment in her statement. Here is what she said regarding Microsoft's Windows 8 tablet:

"Microsoft can offer a competitive price for these specifications as it doesn't need to pay itself a licence for the Windows 8 software which other manufacturers will have to do, and that might make its PC and tablet-making partners unhappy. They seem to be be targeting a professional audience. So they are going head-to-head with Apple within the corporate sector. Price will be key - these devices won't be at the bottom end of the market. They will probably let other manufacturers fight over that space."

Microsoft has not yet announced the official price for the Surface but the company already disclosed that it will be officially released in the market after 90 days.

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Russia says to contribute $10 billion to IMF

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Ohio AG probing Chesapeake Energy's conduct

By? Dan Gearino

The Columbus Dispatch Tuesday June 19, 2012 3:28 PM

Attorney General Mike DeWine is reviewing allegations of fraud by Chesapeake Energy that may have led to investment losses for Ohio pension funds.

He said this in a letter to Ohio Citizen Action, an environmental advocacy group that wrote to DeWine earlier this month raising concerns about various aspects of Chesapeake?s conduct.

?My office is reviewing the retirement system trading data in order to calculate possible losses attributable to the alleged fraud,? he said in the letter. ?Please be assured that we will monitor the situation and take appropriate action if it appears that Ohio resources have been lost due to fraudulent activity.?

A Chesapeake spokesman had no immediate comment.

Ohio Citizen Action has cited the collapse of Enron as an example for the harm that could be done to Ohioans if Chesapeake?s financial problems continue to mount, leading to investment losses and an inability to cover obligations.

The Oklahoma-based company has leases on about 1 million acres of land in Ohio?s Utica shale, which is more than any competitor.

Chesapeake?s share price has fallen in recent months because of high debt levels and reports that its CEO, Aubrey McClendon, uses company resources for his private benefit. Several class-action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of shareholders.

In response to the heightened scrutiny, McClendon has stepped down as chairman and the company is taking steps to add more board members who are not directly connected to McClendon.

?We?re definitely glad to see (DeWine is) taking this very seriously,? said Sandy Buchanan, executive director of Ohio Citizen Action.

She also raised concerns about the process for approving drilling permits. DeWine said those issues should be brought up with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

dgearino@dispatch.com

@dispatchenergy
?

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Patriots coach Bill Belichick puts early pressure on players

Editor's note: As off-season work across the league winds down, the focus is shifting to the steamy summer workouts ahead. The countdown to training camp has begun.

The Patriots' aggressive free agents signings - Jonathan Fanene, Trevor Scott, Brandon Lloyd, Steve Gregory and several others - and a draft that added some needed defensive contributors, give New England a deep roster.

During organized team activities and minicamp, Bill Belichick began the task of crafting that roster into a team, and according to his quarterback, he put pressure on his players early and often.

?We?ve done a lot of installation and there?s been a lot of stuff thrown at the players, so mentally, probably more than our level of comfort,? Tom Brady said. ?I think coach has really put the pressure on us to see how much we?re retaining from week to week, so guys have worked hard at it. ... You can really see the team you?re going to be, see the level of competition, the level of focus, the level of concentration.?

What?s new: Offense

In terms of scheme, there's not much change. Bill O?Brien left for Penn State and Josh McDaniels returned as offensive coordinator, but the general premise remains the same, and Tom Brady is still the quarterback. After three seasons away in Denver and St. Louis, McDaniels brings some new wrinkles and a fondness for screen passes. In terms of personnel, the receiver group has gotten a big addition in Brandon Lloyd, who had success with McDaniels with the Broncos and Rams. Lloyd looked like he was fitting in quickly with the Pats during OTAs and minicamp. Jabar Gaffney and Donte' Stallworth, players Brady trusts and know the offense (unlike since-released Chad Ochocinco), have been brought back as well.

What?s new: Defense

The Patriots began the 2011 season with a shift to a base 4-3 defense - no small thing for Belichick, who had long been associated with the 3-4. But Belichick intimated during draft weekend this year that as NFL offenses become more spread out, he felt change was needed, and it looks like New England will be sticking with a base 4-3. The team drafted pass rushers in Chandler Jones and Jake Bequette, and signed Scott away from Oakland. Scott made a big impression during off-season workouts. All three players are similar physically (tall, athletic and around 270 pounds), and are tangible evidence that the biggest issue for this defense in recent seasons - pressuring the quarterback - is getting needed attention.

Camp goals

1. Determine the corners. The oft-maligned secondary should be improved this season. Ras-I Dowling, who started the first two games of his career before missing the rest of the season with a hip injury, is back. The Patriots also drafted Alfonzo Dennard and signed veteran Will Allen. They join Devin McCourty and Kyle Arrington. Belichick would like to move McCourty to safety (which also is a suddenly crowded position), but he'll likely stay at cornerback until concerns about the others at the position are answered.

2. Setting the offensive line. Matt Light retired, which wasn't a surprise. The Patriots drafted Nate Solder in 2010 to eventually become Light?s successor at left tackle. Though Brian Waters (excused for personal reasons) wasn?t with the team at minicamp, he is expected back at right guard. Left guard Logan Mankins is rehabbing a torn ACL suffered in the Super Bowl, and right tackle Sebastian Vollmer had a back procedure, so things elsewhere on the line aren?t as settled. The center job is Dan Connolly?s to lose, unless the Patriots think he?s the best option at left guard until Mankins is healthy. In that case, Dan Koppen play center. Marcus Cannon is probably the best option until Vollmer is 100 percent.

3. Sorting out the running backs. New England has gone with a committee approach for several years, and that likely won't change. BenJarvus Green-Ellis, the Patriots' leading rusher the last two seasons, signed with Cincinnati in March. Second-year backs Shane Vereen (injured much of 2011) and Stevan Ridley (5.1 yards per carry on 87 attempts) are the top candidates, though Danny Woodhead, veteran pickup Joseph Addai and undrafted rookie Brandon Bolden are also competing for touches.

Breakout player: Stevan Ridley, RB

New England had just five runs of 20-plus yards last season, but all of them came from Ridley. Just as it looked like he was picking up steam, he fumbled in the both the regular-season finale and AFC divisional round game against Denver, and the coaching staff sat him for the rest of the postseason. The coaches are hoping it's lesson learned for Ridley.

?As a running back you never want to see the ball on the ground. You can hang your head on it or you can move forward and continue to try to be a better player, and that?s what I have to do. That was last year, it?s a new year, I?m not looking back, man, all I?m going to do is focus on what?s in front of me and try to be a better player and not make the same mistakes.? ? Ridley

Bottom Line

The Patriots reached the Super Bowl XLVI despite having a defense ranked at or near the bottom of the league in almost every category. The major problems have been addressed, so the expectation is for measurable improvement.

The offense has been reloaded, Tom Brady is still at the top of his game, and Belichick the coach did a masterful job overcoming the mistakes of Belichick the GM last year.

All of which is to say: heading into camp the Patriots still look like the class of the AFC. They?ll use the preseason to refine the offense and bond the young defense to get everyone on the same page and play with a swagger that was lacking last year.

Prediction: First, AFC East

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How to blow $6 billion on a tech project | Cheap Curt's


In 1997, the Defense Department began its quest for the perfect family of radios: software-defined radios that, like computers, could be reprogrammed for different missions and could communicate with everything the US military used. Digital signal processing could adaptively use available radio spectrum based on the needs of the moment, turning soldiers, tanks, planes, and ships into nodes of a broadband radio-based network.

The goal was to solve radio problems like this one in Afghanistan, detailed by the Center for Public Integrity in January 2012. Soldiers?who watched an ambush forming on a ridge nearby found themselves limited by the hugely variable needs of their many radio systems:

They had short-range models for talking with the reconstruction team; longer-range versions for reaching headquarters 25 miles away; and a backup satellite radio in case the mountains blocked the transmission. An Air Force controller carried his own radio for talking to jet fighters overhead and a separate radio for downloading streaming video from the aircraft.?Some of these radios worked only while the troopers were stationary; others were simply too cumbersome to operate on the move.

But the program meant to fix the mess, called the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), instead became a massive 15-year software and hardware development mess of its own, involving five sub-programs and multiple multi-billion dollar contracts. It has been a financial disaster for the DOD. Billions were?thrown away on technology that will never see the light of day, despite multiple heroic efforts to pull the project back from the brink of disaster.

JTRS provides a textbook case of what not to do in a technology development program, proving that even a few great ideas can?t save a project that has been over-specified and under-tested, and that remained blinkered to what?s going on in the world around it.

Pyrrhic victory

In May 2012, the Joint Program Executive Office JTRS, the DOD office that manages JTRS, announced what should have been a crowning achievement of the 15-year program: hardware certification. The Ground Mobile Radio (GMR), one of the main JTRS sub-programs and the first radio to use the military?s new Wideband Networking Waveform (WNW) standard, had been certified for use by the National Security Agency.

?This achievement enables the Department of Defense to harness years of investment and technological progress associated with the GMR development,? said a JTRS Joint Program Executive Office spokesperson in a statement at the time.

GMR formed the cornerstone of the Army?s plan to build mobile ad hoc networks that connected troops in the field to each other, as well as to Army and Air Force aircraft flying in support, and to commanders back in operations centers. With WNW as the network?s backbone, the Soldier Radio Waveform for communicating to handheld and other mobile radios, and waveforms for satellite and ground-to-air communications as well, the GMR would be the router on the battlefield Internet. And now it was ready to go.

Well, sort of. After burning through over $6 billion just to develop GMR, the Army had actually cancelled the project back in October 2011 after it failed the Army?s Network Integrated Environment?(NIE) testing. Big, bloated, and complex, the GMR couldn?t handle the heat of White Sands, New Mexico, and it proved to be less ?iPhone? than ?mainframe? in complexity.

In a?July 2012 article in the National Defense Review, Air Force Lt. Colonel Dan Ward, an acquisition officer deployed in Afghanistan, bluntly spelled out the failings of the GMR:

The NIE exercise highlighted the uncomfortable fact that soldiers might sometimes have to send critical messages during a fight. An impatient lot, they may not be terribly excited about waiting 10 minutes for the radio to run through a slow series of boot-up processes? If someone were to make a television commercial for the GMR, it would undoubtedly include a line about sophistication being worth the wait. Except in combat, sometimes you really can?t wait. Too bad the GMR was supposed to go to war, because it would apparently be a pretty sweet system in an environment where the temperature and operational tempo are both low.

So although GMR is ?certified for use,? the Army doesn?t actually want to use it. And the system isn?t done costing the government money. While the Army waited years for GMR, it spent $11 billion more on ?legacy? radios based on technology from the Cold War. As Ward pointed out, the Army may yet pay billions more to get the radios it actually needs?just as the war in Afghanistan is winding down.


Open source radio

At its core, JTRS was built on what sounded like a good idea: separating radio standards from transmission hardware by creating an open ?operating system? common to all military radios. If radios? waveforms were defined in software rather than hardware, they could be moved like applications from one set of hardware to another, or upgraded with a simple software update.

Taking a page from open source licensing schemes like GNU, the core software architecture and the ?waveforms??application-specific formats for radio communication?were made available to anyone building radios for the DOD, with the provision that any implementation of the code be contributed back to the JTRS code repository. It was a success, if success can be measured by number of contributions: that repository now holds four million lines of code.

The core of JTRS is the Software Communications Architecture, an application framework for radios built on the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) and a POSIX-based real-time operating system. (SCA has managed to find a life outside of DOD in an open-source implementation that runs on Windows and Linux, called OSSIE.)

The idea behind the open architecture was to ensure that all the communications gear that each of DOD?s services bought would work together seamlessly. And since the core software and the waveforms would be freely available to anyone?even companies that didn?t get in on the main JTRS programs?the overall cost of getting new radios should fall dramatically by allowing competition between manufacturers based on a well-defined standard. In other words, JTRS was supposed to commoditize the software-defined radio market.

When I spoke with then-JTRS program executive Dennis Bauman?back in 2008, he said that the open code base allowed JTRS to ?enroll? new vendors on a rolling basis. While there was still an open competition for the design phase of each component radio program, manufacturing would always have more than one option. ?We require that we qualify at least two sources,? Bauman said; those qualified vendors would compete annually to manufacture radios in lots.


That approach paid off, at least with some of the first transitional handheld radios that could interoperate with the broader JTRS program. For example, in 2007, Thales won the contract for the Consolidated Interim Single Channel Handheld Radio?(CISCHR)?a project merged into JTRS from the US Special Operations Command. But Harris developed a version of its?Falcon III radios on its own that was ?JTRS Compliant? and could use the Soldier Radio Waveform, as well as other legacy radio formats that were ported to the architecture, by using the common JTRS repository. Harris?sold over 100,000 ?JTRS-compliant??radios to the Army and Marine Corps in open competition with the ?official? Thales radio; the competition between the two for JTRS business saved the Army $104 million on the first batch of 39,000 radios alone.

If JTRS had just been a software standards effort focused on waveforms, this might be an article about the ?genius of JTRS.? Unfortunately, it wasn?t. And this isn?t. The various services, especially the Army, weren?t content just to have companies compete on the software standard. They increasingly wanted more hardware features as well.

Some of the most fundamental problems with JTRS (and especially with the GMR sub-program) are common to any large, failing technology project?only on a more massive scale. The scope of JTRS was so huge from day one that no manipulations of the ?iron triangle? of project management?could keep cost and schedule under control.

Inadequate understanding

Military technology often pushes at the edge of the doable?that?s why agencies like DARPA exist.? But when JTRS was originally conceived in 1997, the only significant previous work on software-defined radio was an Army project called SpeakEasy?the first version of which took up the entire back of a military truck. Clearly, an ambitious project like JTRS had plenty of basic research to chew through before it could produce anything useful. In hindsight, the military badly underestimated the challenges before it.

?In the end, building a radio that worked with all the different waveforms envisioned by the project required bending some fundamental rules of physics.?

In a letter?sent?to the chairman of the House Armed Service Committee in October 2011 explaining the cancellation of the GMR program, acting Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Frank Kendall wrote that ?the technical challenges of mobile ad hoc networks and scalability were not well understood due to the immaturity of the technology? when the program began.

First and foremost was the software development problem. When JTRS started, software-defined radio (SDR) was still in its infancy. The project?s SCA architecture allowed software to manipulate field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) in the radio hardware to reconfigure how its electronics functioned, exposing those FPGAs as CORBA objects. But when development began, hardware implementations of CORBA for FPGAs didn?t really exist in any standard form.

Moving code for a waveform from one set of radio hardware to another didn?t just mean a recompile?it often meant significant rewrites to make it compatible with whatever FGPAs were used in the target radio, then further tweaking to produce an acceptable level of performance. The result: the challenge of core development tasks for each of the initial designs was often grossly underestimated. Some of those issues have been addressed by specialized CORBA middleware, such as PrismTech?s OpenFusion, but the software tools have been long in coming.

Then there was the range of requirements demanded by the waveforms themselves. Each waveform called for different frequencies; while the radio?s electronics could be software-configured for those, significantly different frequencies required divergent antenna properties and modifications to the radio hardware itself. In the end, building a radio that worked with all the different waveforms envisioned by the project required bending some fundamental rules of physics.

Having an undefined technical problem is bad enough, but it gets even worse when serious ?scope creep? sets in during a 15-year project.

Article source: http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/XP2cnvhZ1dc/

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