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Intrigue ... former Manly majority shareholder Scott Penn and Peter Peters.

SCOTT PENN is no longer the majority shareholder of the Manly Sea Eagles. And for that, he can thank his uncle, Peter Peters.

In a delicious twist in the battle of control for the premiers, former media manager Peters unwittingly relinquished his family's majority control of the clubs when he donated two memorabilia items, match programs for the 1972 and 1973 grand finals, for fundraising.

Those programs, along with a couple of other memorabilia pieces, fetched more than $70,000 when sold by the Manly-Warringah Rugby League Football Club. The MWRLC, also known as the District Club, used those funds to buy additional shares which bumped down Penn Sport's stakeholding from 50.07 per cent to 49.5 per cent.

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Collector's item ... Grand Final souvenir program from 1972.

As of Thursday, Penn's majority stake became a minority one. However, he wasn't even aware he'd been outmanoeuvred in his battle for control of the Sea Eagles until he was blind-sided by the developments at a fiery board meeting that night.

Since gaining majority shareholding, Penn has complained that his stake isn't reflected in the boardroom, pointing to the fact he held only three of the seven director's seats. Last October he told The Sun-Herald he wanted to amend the constitution to ensure the biggest owner got the most seats. Ironically, he now has his wish. The Surfside syndicate comprising the Quantum group (37.57 per cent), along with District Club (12.93 per cent) together now hold the balance of power.

''If he has put that point of view in the past, the case now stands that he is not the majority shareholder,'' said Quantum boss Phil Sidney, who was recently appointed the board spokesman after Penn was stripped of the role. ''So, on his own argument, he is not the majority shareholder and he should not have the majority of seats on the board. Which is now the case.

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Manly memorabilia puts Penn control to the sword

U.S. State Department Announces Resolution of United Technologies Corporation Arms Export Control Enforcement Case

Media Note

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

June 28, 2012

________________________________________

United Technologies Corporation (UTC) has agreed to pay more than $75 million as part of a global settlement with the State Department and Justice Department to address arms export violations to China, false and belated disclosures to the U.S. Government about these illegal exports, and many other compliance failures.

An extensive enforcement review by the Department of States Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance has addressed several hundred civil violations of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). The State Department has reached administrative agreement with United Technologies Corporation to terminate and resolve these violations. This settlement highlights the role of the Department in protecting sensitive American technologies from being illegally transferred to, or received by, unapproved foreign actors.

The Department determined that UTCs numerous violations demonstrated a systemic, corporate-wide failure to maintain effective ITAR controls. Since 2006, UTC operating units and subsidiaries (including Pratt & Whitney, Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation and Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation) have disclosed to the Department hundreds of ITAR violations. A number of the violations may have caused harm to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests.

Accordingly, the Department proposed to UTC a consolidated resolution via an administrative settlement which would ensure immediate, comprehensive and effective remedial action across the companys many operating units and subsidiaries. Among the civil violations settled by UTC are several arising from the unauthorized provision in 2002 and 2003 of U.S. origin, ITAR-controlled engine software for military attack helicopters in the Peoples Republic of China. Concurrently with the administrative settlement, UTC has also agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve criminal charges related to these transactions. UTC subsidiary Pratt & Whitney Canada Corporation (P&W Canada) has pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut to a criminal violation of the AECA and ITAR, while UTC, Hamilton Sundstrand and P&W Canada have also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement regarding this and other related charges. UTC and the Departments of State and Justice coordinated the resolution of the civil and criminal matters.

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U.S. State Department Announces Resolution of United Technol

Corporate decision makers often believe that social networks will improve company culture. But their employees are far less positive about such effects.

The role of social networks in the enterprise so far has been an attempt to make hierarchies and business processes more transparent, democratic and community-building. While social network users have a place at all levels of a company, its part at the workplace is seen very differently depending on if they are highly-placed or closer to entry-level. The wide discrepancy between how these two sides of company staff illustrates how the executives who are implementing new social tools may not be addressing the needs of the employees who will actually be using them.

Executives and employees disagree

Deloittes recent survey, The Social Divideshows just how much employees and executives disagree when it comes to the role of social media in building workplace culture. Far more executives think that social media has a positive effect on workplace culture than employees do - 45 percent versus 27 percent. The same is true for its effect on increased management transparency - 38 percent versus 17 percent. Similarly, 41 percent of executives believe that social networking helps build workplace culture, but only 21 percent of employees agree.

Social media cant replace traditional methods

The value of a distinct workplace culture is something that all corporate roles can agree on- 94 percent of executives and 88 percent of employees believe it is important to business success. Organizations succeed when they value both strategy and culture, according to Deloitte, and executives seem to be searching for a quick solution. In the surveys findings, it is shown that executives may be using social media as a crutch in building workplace culture and appearing accessible to employees. This new tech does influence how people communicate, particularly the younger generation, but managers still must build trust through face-to-face meetings, live phone calls and personal messages.

Link:
Employees Less Supportive of Social Networking Than Executives

Facebook may test your patience from time to time, but unless youre engaged in the social networking sites multitude of interactive time wasters, theres not much to do but post photos and status updates. If youre the problem-solving type after a deeper online social experience, the newly-minted Hacker Rank might be for you.

A fun social platform for hackers to solve interesting puzzles, build quick hacks, code game bots and collaborate to solve real-world challenges, states the sites byline, positioned above an interactive, OS X-styled Terminal window. Hacker Rank is currently in beta and in order to get involved, youll need to figure out a logic puzzle.

Going by an earlier TechCrunch article, the site previously allowed users to solve the challenge before signing up. This has since been removed and now you must first login via the pseudo-console, at which point youll be able to put your brain power to work.

Despite the hacker moniker, you wont have to dust off your scripting abilities to get involved; the challenge simply requires you to remove x candies from a predetermined pool, with you and the AI taking alternating turns. Whoever takes the final candy is the winner.

Is there a market for a social networking site that includes a higher degree of thought than figuring out how youre going to tag your awkward drunken party photos? I think theres a yes in there somewhere.

Hacker Rank [via TechCrunch]

Link:
Hacker Rank, The Social Networking Site For Fun-Loving Ne’er-Do-Wells

I just returned from a wonderful week in Washington DC, where I gave workshops on social networking to scientists at the Fourth Biennial National IDeA Symposium of Biomedical Research Excellence (NISBRE). I was delightfully surprised that so many of the scientists there came to my workshop not only to learn, but to support the use of social networking in science what a good sign!

Anyhow, as a part of the workshop, I created a wiki jam-packed with just every resource I could find on social networking for researchers and educators. I shared it with the NISBRE folks, and now I want to share it with you.

The wiki is broken down into sub-categories, with pages for each of the major networks as well as general resources on the topic. I hope it will become not only a resource, but a place of discussion somewhere scientists from all backgrounds share their experiences and discuss how to use Web 2.0 tools effectively.

But, like any wiki, it needs input. What links have I missed? What other specific topics should I include? Whether youre a scientist who is contemplating jumping into the social media world, or an online guru with advice for beginners, your opinions are valued and desired. So head over to the wiki, become a member, and add your thoughts/links!

More Social Media for Scientists:

Read the rest here:
Social Media for Scientists Part 6: The Wiki