Commonwealth celebrates one year

Tara, CCT, Grand Commonwealth- Celebrations have been kicked off in the Commonwealth Capital Territory, with the Shahan-Ri of the Grand Commonwealth delivering the birthday address celebrating the Commonwealth?s first anniversary.

With the forums adorned in their new birthday banner, citizens from the many nations have begun festivities both in the capital and in cities around the nations, heralding in the second year of existence. The closure of the fourth session of the Majlis-i-Dharma is also imminent, with the voting on two final bills set to close in hours.

The past year has not been without troubles for the Commonwealth, who startled the microworld with its launch on April 29th last year. Nations were shocked that the planning for the merger could have gone on in secret without being leaked or uncovered by anyone. This caused many nations to see the Commonwealth as a threat, a perception that some still hold to this day.

The Commonwealth welcomed two new members into the fold over the past year; firstly the Republic of Karnali in the middle of 2005 and the Imperial Kingdom of Interland at the start of 2006. Interland?s joining occurred at the same time as one of the founding nations, the Empire of Lemuria, left to be refounded as the Confederated Rianites of Lemuria.

Having now been in existence for a year, the Commonwealth has proven to the microworld that large mergers are a possibility between nations, and that it is possible for nations with even the most distinctly different cultures to unite. Having surpassed the tenure of Tymaria now by 39 days, the prospects are only looking up for the burgeoning Commonwealth.

From Shirefox to Moogle, and iGlobe

Shireroth Plans New Search Engine

SHIREKEEP, SHIREROTH - Hot on the heels of Shirefox, the Shirithian toolbar for Firefox created by Fax Celestis, we can exclusively reveal the development of a new micronational edition of Google, to be called Moogle.

Based on the Google Web API for developers, the Moogle home page will feature special search features for micronations, based on those already included in Shirefox, and some other unique features that are still under development.

Moogle will also continue Google's tradition of displaying special versions of its name banner to celebrate special days. The banner system will initially be tested with Shirithian holidays, but will be expanded to show the holidays of other micronations that want to be included at an appropriate milestone during beta testing.

MCS To Go Global With iGlobe

THE MCS - News of other technical innovations has also come from the MCS, where an insider has informed us that the new activity index formulae are but the first part of a more ambitious plan for the MCS Map to accurately reflect the sizes of its members on a daily basis.

The MCS will set up an interactive database called iGlobe with special software that will allow each nation to be redrawn every day to an appropriate size, based on its citizen and activity levels. To achieve this, each nation will be required to include a very complex piece of javascript on its forum for the software to recognise, so that it can automatically monitor board activity and census statistics. At the end of each day the MCS map will then be updated with the amended borders and republished. This system will also allow random skins to be applied to the map each day. Apparently suggestions received for them so far include skins in the style of Shireroth, Aronphei, the People's Republic of Hell, and Pokey the Penguin.

It also is believed that the MCS will work in partnership with intelligence agency SHINE to include a more efficient way to remove unwanted nations. This will include reclassifying these nations as non-nations, and recalibrating their activity with a negative activity index number. That way, when an official non-nation is inactive, only a small land area for it will appear on the map, and when it is actually active, it will disappear altogether. It is believed that a preliminary test of this system has already been used on parts of the latest version of the map against unspecified "enemies of the Republic".

It is understood that the iGlobe database will be very resource intensive and as a result require external funding to secure its long-term survival. To do this the MCS will trademark iGlobe as a brand and develop a number of commercial services, which would include applying the system to the mapping of Planet Earth (ultimately being linked to surveillance satellites and cctv systems for an comprehensive automated global census) and producing pulsating luminous globes, which will be sold through IWOOT and also called the iGlobe, and that people would be able to customise with their own real or fictional maps, and set to interact with a selection of external influences, such as music or clapping, as well as real-time population data.

Experiments with producing "real maps" of Planet Earth have already begun, although apparently there is some way to go before the MCS will be able to put actual countries on them.

In Other News...

- Shireroth has denied that the MCS's ruthless reduction of land claims was the only way it could be guaranteed enough land for the anticipated expansion it will undergo as a result of a secret new recruitment plan and its subsequent effect on its MCS activity index rating.

- MCS Head Cartographer Bill Dusch has rubbished claims that he has followed Ryan Caruso's example and registered the entire copyright of Shireroth in his name with the State of New York, as part of a plot to revitalise the ailing nation as a new home for Soloralism and to create a fourth incarnation of Menelmacar.

- Film director Mike Newell has stated that allegations that his latest production, "Sealand the Movie", is an elaborate April Fool, are completely unfounded.