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Despite Russia's attempts to control the Internet and manipulate opinion, especially over events in Ukraine, the truth seeps out. Social-media activists help ensure the free flow of ideas and facts.

The lie couldnt last for long, not in the Internet Age.

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On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin admitted for the first time that the troops in unmarked uniforms who took control of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula last month were Russian soldiers after all, not the local militia that he had claimed.

What made Mr. Putin fess up?

Perhaps it was the fact that many Russians are bypassing the Kremlin propaganda machine and turning to social media activists for the truth. One example is the Ukraine Crisis Media Center. It runs a fact-checking website called StopFake.org, which relies on dozens of volunteers to gather information that can refute the distortions and propaganda about Russias actions in Ukraine.

In the continuing struggle over Ukraine, the use of the Internet to spread the truth remains a powerful tool to counter Putins attempts to paint a false picture of events. It may even have helped push Russia into an agreement at talks Thursday in Geneva that calls for all illegal armed groups in Ukraine to be disarmed.

Nearly two-thirds of Russians say it is important that people have access to the Internet without government censorship, according to a 2013 Pew poll. Among young adults, this embrace of Web freedom is even stronger. But over the past two years, Putin has sought to rein in the Internet and other media in order to manipulate public opinion.

In January, investors close to Putin took control of the largest social media network, VKontakte. And a law that took effect Feb. 1 allows websites to be blocked if they are seen as extremist or inciting antigovernment protests. More than 100 sites have been shut down so far in an attempt to stifle political opposition.

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An Internet army of truth-tellers

Americas mainstream media still pretendsit is the custodian of serious journalism, but that claim continues to erode as the corporate press shies away from its duty to challengepropaganda emanating from various parts of the U.S. government, as Danny Schechter describes.

By Danny Schechter

First the good news: The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service was not only the best covered of its awards this year, but it recognized a series of disclosures that made many media outlets nervous, if not adversarial the publication of National Security Agency secrets leaked by Edward Snowden.

The award recognized the reporting by the Guardian in England and also Bart Gellmans work in the Washington Post even as they, did not recognize the work directly of Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras whose independent reporting appeared in many newspapers.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden speaking in Moscow on Oct. 9, 2013. (From a video posted by WikiLeaks)

Poitras and Greenwald still make the news world nervous because a) they are outspoken, b) not always under the control and discipline of traditional editors, and 3) have an openly respectful and positive relationship with their source as if that is a high crime or misdemeanor.

It is significant that they were recognized by the Polk awards, but not the Pulitzer board. In some higher circles, their source, Edward Snowden, is still considered a traitor or worse.

The Pulitzer Prize is the big enchildada in the media world announced in a formal ceremony at the Pulitzer room in the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism on New Yorks Morningside Heights. The journalists who win these prizes are recognized for life as Pulitzer Prize Winners, a sign that they reached the highest heights in the profession. Its a ticket to raises and more recognition.

I once was once told by a former dean of the same J School where I taught as an adjunct that they considered themselves the Taj Mahal of American Journalism. I didnt have the heart to remind her that the original Taj was built as a tomb.

Almost as significant as the prizes to stories emanating from a whistleblower was the award to an investigative report into coal miners who were denied black-lung disease benefits, a report produced by one of the not-for-profit media organizations, the Center for Public Integrity. A CPI reporter, Chris Hamby, won that one.

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The Corruption of Mainstream Media

Sartorius Stedim Biotech introduces advanced system for agar and membrane transfer

Sartorius Stedim Biotech (SSB), a leading global supplier for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, is introducing Microsart @media to complement Microsart @vance, a product line for microbiological quality control in these sectors.

Microsart @media are agar media dishes for Microbial Limits Testing according to the USP (Chapter <61>) and EP (Chapter 2.6.12). They are pre-filled with various agar media types, such as Tryptic Soy Agar or R2A Agar, sterile packaged and ready-to-use in combination with Microsart @filter units. Moreover, the Microsart @media features an innovative patented lid that allows touch-free transfer of the filter membrane onto the media without using any tweezers. In addition, easy access to the colonies after incubation is given due to the liftable lid. The intelligent design and ease of use eliminates almost all handling mistakes.

The combination of Microsart @media and Microsart @filters introduce a brand-new agar and membrane transfer concept. Thanks to their concerted development the matching Microsart @media active lid fits perfectly onto the Microsart @filter base. The few steps required between sampling and incubation save time and labor, while delivering more reliable results. The touch-free membrane transfer eliminates membrane manipulation and handling, thereby minimizing a major source of secondary contamination.

About Sartorius The Sartorius Group is a leading international laboratory and process technology provider covering the segments of Bioprocess Solutions, Lab Products & Services and Industrial Weighing. In 2012, the technology group earned sales revenue of 845.7 million euros. Founded in 1870, the Goettingen-based company currently employs around 5,500 persons. The major areas of activity of its Bioprocess Solutions segment cover filtration, fluid management, fermentation, cell cultivation and purification, and focus on production processes in the biopharmaceutical industry. The Lab Products & Services segment primarily manufactures laboratory instruments and consumables. Industrial Weighing concentrates on weighing, monitoring and control applications in the manufacturing processes of the food, chemical and pharma sectors. Sartorius has its own production facilities in Europe, Asia and America as well as sales subsidiaries and local commercial agencies in more than 110 countries.

Excerpt from:
Microsart @media: Maximum Safety In Microbiological Quality Control

News media representatives are invited to attenda behind-the-scenes tour of the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center's hangar in Palmdale, Calif., andthe center's main campusat Edwards Air Force Base on Tuesday, May 20, 2014.A morning briefing will focus on the Alternative Fuel Effects on Contrails and Cruise Emissions (ACCESS-II) flight experiment in Palmdale, followed by a tour of the NASA Armstrong main campus at Edwards in the afternoon.

Participants should plan to meet at the center's Palmdale Visitor Control Center at 7:15 a.m. PDT.The event will give journalists and social media users an opportunity to learn more about scientific research being conducted on the effects of alternate fuels, including synthetic and biofuel formulations, on engine performance, emissions and aircraft-generated contrails at altitudes typically flown by commercial airliners. In addition to a full briefing of the experiment, participants will also have a chance to ask questions of aircraft crew, pilots and scientists involved in the research process.The ACCESS-II experiment will include aircraft and scientific contributions from multiple NASA centers including Glenn and Langley research centers, as well as international partner agencies the German Aerospace Center and the National Research Council of Canada.

At 11:30 a.m., participants will depart Palmdale for NASA Armstrong's Edwards campus. Activities will resume at 1 p.m. with a tour that will include:

-Hangars housing various science, test, and unmanned aircraft

- A look at current aeronautics technology research and testing

- A tour of the model shop where scale concepts are developed

-A tour of the Experimental Fabrication Machine Shop

- Q&A with NASA research pilots-An interactive flight suit demonstration

Media representatives interested in participating in the ACCESS II project update and AFRC tour should confirm their plans to attend by contacting Peter Merlin at the NASA Armstrong Public Affairs office no later than 3 p.m. Thursday, April 24, at 661-276-2679, or emailpeter.w.merlin@nasa.gov.For more information about the ACCESS II project, visit:

http://1.usa.gov/1gRxQfz

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Media Invited to Briefing, Tour Highlighting Alternative Jet Fuel Research

PowerDVD 14 Ultra $100.00

Support for Blu-ray, 3D, Ultraviolet, 4K and h.265 make PowerDVD the closest thing to an all-encompassing multimedia center you'll find. But it's still a few features short.

Tired of constantly switching between iTunes, Windows Media Player, VLC, and other programs for different media tasks? I am. Cyberlinks PowerDVD, with its support for Blu-ray and 4K as well as most other types of video, audio, and images has the potential to be that all-in-one media solution weve been searching for. The latest iteration, PowerDVD 14, is close but no cigar due to some missing basics. However, the addition of support for up-and-coming technologies such as h.265 and the UltraViolet media delivery system make it a uniquely powerful player.

PowerDVD 14, which runs on Windows PCs, comes in three flavorsthe $50 Standard version, which handles DVD and HD files; the $80 Pro, which adds Blu-ray and 4K support; and the $100 Ultra which throws in 3D and the companys Power Media Player app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. All three versions include PowerDVD Remote for iOS and Android which allows you to use your mobile devices asyou guessed ita remote control for PowerDVD.

In terms of what you see on the screen, PowerDVD 14 is the best Blu-ray/DVD/video player out there. Normal playback includes hardware acceleration, but theres also a CPU mode with TrueTheater enhancements which will make a lot of materialprimarily DVDslook more high-def. The interface is handsome and well thought out, with the notably unintuitive exception of having to click on the fast forward icon to slow down a video. Theres also a ten-foot interface for use from your couch with the aforementioned remote software.

PowerDVDs 10-foot interface is much like Windows Media Centers.

My initial encounters with PowerDVD 14 were frustrating, due to the way it handled background tasks such as media collection and network path scouting. A pre-release update mostly fixed this; however, I still ran into instances where the program would seem to hang, especially at first run. The only other issues I ran into were the inability to drag files from an archive directly to PowerDVD (VLC can handle this), and just the audio portion of certain FLV videos being played.

In my other codec support tests, PowerDVD 14 played AVI/PCM, DivX 5, DivX HD, MPEG 1/2/4, Xvid, most FLV, Quicktime, AVCHD, WMV, h.264, and OGG Theora. Audio track support includes AAC and 5.1 Dolby Digital. PowerDVD 14 now also supports HEVC, the High Efficiency Video Codecmore on that in a bit.

In my music tests, PowerDVD 14 played 5.1 surround, FLAC, WMA, MP3, OGG Vorbis, APE, lossless WMA, Apple lossless (new), M4A, and all types of wave files up to 96kHz/32-bits (the max my system supports). PowerDVD also supports JPEG, BMP, TIFF (compressed and uncompressed), and PNG photos, and it offers some nice fades when you play a group as a slideshow. The photo browser is top-notch and presents your images in calendar style according to the data taken. Alas, theres no tag editing for photos or music files.

PowerDVD lets you browse your photos by calendar date. It also supports a wide variety of music files.

Link:
Cyberlink PowerDVD 14 review: Media playback app has what you need -- almost