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During the post-Soviet era, the port city has acquired a reputation throughout Russia as a bastion of the underground economy. Darkin himself laid the foundation for his rise to power with a company that officials at the Interior Ministry in Moscow characterized as a "hornets' nest of organized crime." At the time, his current wife was married to Igor "The Carp" Karpov, an underworld figure well known in the city. When snipers shot and killed "The Carp" in broad daylight, Belobrova agreed to marry the governor.

"What is happening in the Russian Far East is, in a grotesque way, characteristic of all of Russia," says Vitaly Nomokonov, a law professor at the University of Vladivostok and the author of a textbook on organized crime in the Far East. "The most criminal area of all here is big business, which really ought to be clean, given its close ties to politics."

For this reason, says Nomokonov, there is absolutely no doubt that the top brass in Moscow know perfectly well what is going on in Vladivostok, though they continue to support Darkin. Because of his past, he is susceptible to blackmail and is easily manipulated. He guarantees the "otkat," or commission for high-ranking officials.

During the Putin era, the total amount of bribes being paid in Russia has increased from $33 billion to $400 billion. "Even President Medvedev has admitted there has been no progress," says Professor Nomokonov. "Why is this the case? Because the people in power lack the political will."

Setting The Stage

Even if a vice-governor or a customs director is occasionally arrested on corruption charges, the pickings are still abundant for gold-diggers in Vladivostok. The APEC summit of Asia-Pacific nations will be held in September 2012 on Russky Island, off the coast of Vladivostok. For this reason alone, 15 billion will have been spent on bridges, new construction and infrastructure by then.

When Governor Darkin looks down from his office in Vladivostok's "White House," he doesn't just see a city that is cleaning itself up for the big event in the best of Potemkin traditions with a few improved streets along the route to the airport, or fresh paint on buildings that line the streets.

He also sees heavily loaded ferries breaking through the ice near the half-finished bridge across the Zolotoy Rog Bay. On the island across the bay, which barely had enough drinking water for its residents until recently, some 15,000 construction workers from around the world are working furiously to complete the set for the summit, which is intended to win the respect of U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and other world leaders.

A project that is deeply Russian in its mixture of energy and pomposity is taking shape on the island. While the champagne glasses for the Obamas are already standing on the dining table in the presidential suite, only a few kilometers away Gennady Paskotin, a retired army officer, is complaining about what was sold to him as a "townhouse." He was forced to leave his former apartment due to the construction. Now he is checking the new 57-square-meter (613-square-foot) dwelling, with its plasterboard interior walls, for crooked alignment. The developer billed the government 150,000 for this drafty alternative housing. "A joke," says Paskotin, who makes ends meet on a small officer's pension.

"Our entire system is so unbelievably corrupt," says an official with United Russia in Vladivostok, "that the only way to save it would be to shoot officials, as they do in China."

Originally posted here:
Shadow Economy And Media Control - Russian's Fed Up With Putin's Manipulations

ARMONK, N.Y., March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Production Resource Group, L.L.C. (PRG) is pleased to announce the release of Vx76 Software Version 3.0 software for both the PRG V676 and V476 Lighting Control Consoles. The V676 and V476 consoles have been used on many high-profile projects including: Bridgestone Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show, The Grammy Awards, Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark on Broadway, the Chrysler exhibit at the North American International Auto Show, the UK's Let's Dance, and the Academy Awards. They are currently available at PRG offices in Europe, Australia, Japan, and throughout North America.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120301/NY63133 )

Version 3.0 includes several new features that extend the console's capabilities along with a number of enhancements that both programmers and designers will appreciate. The Media Display has been moved to the Function Palette on the front panel of the console for easy access to media clips. The Console now includes CITP Media Protocol Control.

Along with an expansion to 4,000 channels of control, v3.0 has a revised Patch spreadsheet that provides an improved interface for editing and tagging data, as well as the ability to view multiple dimmer addresses patched to a single control channel. Other programming features in the v3.0 release include: Group Copy by parameter, Copy and Move Subs, Copy Channel Using Group, and Manual Data Undo. There are also a number of new tools provided in the Group Super Palette such as Multi-Level Ad Hoc Selecting by filtering Channels, Palettes, Presets, Dynamics, Cues, and Intensity States. A smart grouping feature provides user-definable channel selection.

The Vx76 software application provides an integrated 3D programming environment, which includes real-time status and off-line editing. The v3.0 software Layers feature adds functionality to the Plan View and provides the user with many different "views" of the system. In the Plan View, users may also draw Regions, which can be easily manipulated.

A new Basic Profile Editor is also now available on the V676/V476 product pages of the PRG website http://www.prg.com/product/v676-control-console/. The Profile Editor application is used for creating a basic profile definition for a fixture that does not currently exist in the console, as well as importing fixture profiles. This is a stand-alone application that runs on any Macintosh operating on Snow Leopard or Lion.

For more information on the Vx76 v3.0 Software, please visit: http://www.prg.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Vx76-v3.0-Software-Datasheet.pdf

For more information on PRG, please visit http://www.prg.com.

About Production Resource Group - Production Resource Group, L.L.C., (PRG) is the world's leading supplier of entertainment and event technology to a wide range of markets, including corporate and automotive events, concerts, special events, theatre, television and film, trade shows, and installations, such as theme parks, museums, retail stores and performing arts centers. PRG provides integrated services and equipment, including audio, video, lighting, rigging, scenery, and rigging and automation systems, for these markets from more than 40 offices in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

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PRG Releases Vx76 Software Version 3.0 for V676 and V476 Lighting Control Consoles

Washington: An unencrypted laptop computer stolen from NASA last year contained command codes used to control the International Space Station (ISS), media reports said.

The PC Magazine reported that the March 2011 theft of the computer containing the ISS command algorithms was just one of "5,408 computer security incidents (in 2010 and 2011) that resulted in the installation of malicious software on or unauthorized access to (NASA) systems", the agency's Inspector General Paul Martin informed the US House of Representatives in the letter dated Wednesday.

Other laptops stolen during the period in question contained data related to Orion, the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) being built for NASA's future manned spaceflight missions. NASA reported "the loss or theft of 48 Agency mobile computing devices" between April 2009 and April 2011, reported Xinhua.

Such security incidents resulted in losses of more than $7 million. NASA believes some IT security breaches in the past two years originated from amateur hackers and cybercriminals, but that others may have been the work of foreign agents.

NASA has a $1.5 billion annual IT budget, of which approximately $58 million is spent on IT security. But the space agency is behind the curve when it comes to encrypting some of its most vulnerable IT assets, said the magazine.

Federal agencies encrypt about 54 percent of their laptops and other mobile devices on average, but as of Feb 1, 2012, NASA had only encrypted 1 percent of its own mobile systems.

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NASA loses command codes to control space station

One of the best kept secrets of President Obamas 2007-08 campaign was how much its structure and strategic focus was influenced by the Bush-Cheney reelection strategy. Obama wanted to create the same kind of voter databases and contact schemes. He marveled at the Bush operations ability to identify potential supporters, learn their likes and dislikes, and keep them motivated.

Obamas team looked at the 2004 race with a mixture of revulsion and awe. Bushs composite approval rating on Election Day was 48.9 percent (48 percent according to Gallup). The country was becoming more dubious about the Iraq war. Bushs Supreme-Court-sanctified presidency looked to be in jeopardy.

Bushs challenger, John Kerry, harnessed every available tool within the Democratic Party to build voter turnout. Labor unions and party activists abetted those efforts with the most expensive and far-flung get-out-the-vote effort ever. And it worked. Kerry expanded the Democratic vote by more than 8 millionfrom Al Gores 50,999,897 to his 59,028,444. The only two comparable cycle-to-cycle boosts in voter turnout were President Carters 11.6-million-vote gain over George McGoverns lackluster 1972 campaign, and President Johnsons 8.9-million-vote vault over President Kennedys 1960 total. But Kerrys was more impressive. He took on a White House incumbent, built off Gores 2000 plurality of 48.4 percent, and found 8 million new votes.

And lost.

Because Bush was the better community organizer.

Bush increased his vote by 11.6 million, also without precedent in modern Republican Party presidential politics. In the key state of Ohio, the president upped his vote by more than 500,000. Bush also won two states that he had lost to Gore: Iowa and New Mexico. The Bush ground game increased its cycle-to-cycle vote in Iowa by more than 117,000 (18 percent) and in New Mexico by more than 110,000 (41 percent). Neither state, unlike Ohio, had a ballot initiative to ban gay marriage (which Democrats argue artificially increased that states GOP turnout). Bush became the first president to win reelection with a 48 percent approval ratingby organizing a bigger Bush-Cheney community.

Obama and his team went to work on Bushs get-out-the-vote efforts and microtargetinga new method of voter outreach that combined consumer preferences with polling data to sharpen voter appeals and increase the success of direct campaign contact with potential voters. Obama also built permanent grassroots organizations and harnessed enthusiasm for change.

The enthusiasm for Obama now is not like it was then. But ground operations are robust. In just about any big city, one can find Obama reelection events. Take Las Vegas. From Tuesday until March 31, the campaign has 156 (you read that right, 156) events plannedmeet-ups, voter-registration drives, phone banks, neighborhood walks, house parties, and coffees. An outlier? The campaign has 63 events scheduled for the same period in Raleigh, N.C. Obamas Chicago headquarters builds awareness and connectedness to these events and reelection messaging via Facebook (25.3 million likes), Twitter (12.7 million followers) and other social-media platforms.

They have taken a majority of the voter-contact techniques that were the hallmark of the Bush-Cheney campaign and the [Republican National Committee and] taken it into the data arena with social media, said former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie. They are storing data and matching it up. They are very far ahead of the curve on this, and on the conservative/Republican side, we are dangerously behind. I dont know why.

Gillespie knows that Obama doesnt need the turnout operation he had in 2008 to win. Obama won 52.9 percent of the vote four years ago, and he can slough off 2.5 percent and still prevail, even more if a third-party candidate is in the mix. They know they wont have as much organic turnout as they did in 2008, Gillespie said. So they are trying to offset it with manufactured turnout. I do admire it.

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Ground Control

GIVING a statutory body the power to force news outlets to publish an apology smacks of government control, the media union says.

An independent media inquiry, headed by former Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein QC, has recommended that a News Media Council be created to regulate news and current affairs coverage in print, online, radio and television.

It would combine the roles of Australian Press Council and relevant functions of the Australian Communications and Media Authority to enforce standards and deal with complaints.

But Christopher Warren, the federal secretary of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, said government regulation of the media should be resisted.

"Where the Media Alliance parts company with Mr Finkelstein is this notion that a government can somehow impose self-regulation on the news industry by statute," he said.

"As far as we are concerned, a government-funded body with the power to determine what newspapers should and shouldn't publish smacks of an attempt to impose government control on a free press."

Under Mr Finkelstein's proposal, the News Media Council would be an independent statutory body funded by the government instead of the current arrangement where industry funds the Press Council.

It would have the power to require news outlets to publish an apology, correction, retraction or give a person a right of reply.

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Media union to fight 'government control'