The Anomaly Research Zone of Progressa Island is a mammoth, cultured nation, ruled by Trofim Lysenko with an iron fist, and remarkable for its keen interest in outer space, vat-grown people, and anti-smoking policies. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 9.682 billion inhabitants of the Island of Progress are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The large, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Magnitoshakhtinsk. The average income tax rate is 95.0%.

The frighteningly efficient Progressa Islandian economy, worth a remarkable 2,148 trillion Shastis a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is an enormous, deeply entrenched black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Uranium Mining, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is an amazing 221,905 Shastis, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The government records billions of hours of footage of trees, tech-mad citizens think that the laser-powered bread-slicer uPhone App is the coolest thing since sliced bread, first-time jaywalkers are also last-time jaywalkers, and the government guarantees extra-soft tissues to fire-snorting elephants. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Progressa Island's national animal is the Owl, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution, and its national religion is The Cult of Personality of Lysenko.

Progressa Island is ranked 11,554^th in the world and 436^th in The North Pacific for Smartest Citizens, with 89.43 quips per hour.