Norton Awards Revived!

Following his special appearance at last year's FNORD Awards as Guest of Honour, President Kevin Baugh of Molossia has decided to revive the original Norton Awards this year, at the suggestion of Carson Smith, the King of Ronen, among many other things.

As before, the Norton Awards are held to celebrate Emperor Norton Day on January 8th, to commemorate the anniversary of his death in 1880. A short biography of his life and achievements may be found here.

The winners of the 2005 Norton Awards are:

Cultural achievement: President Kevin Baugh - for developing the Republic of Molossia's culture.
Intermicronational achievement: Marjorie Boodlesmythe of the NFA - for getting Micro-Net back on the Internet.
Political achievement: Northern Forest Archipelago - for being mentioned in 2 articles in the macronational press, one article focusing mainly on the NFA.
New micronation of the year: Utopia - for its promotion of individual sovereignty, and Interlingua as a common tongue.
Personal achievement: Kieran Bennett, Julian Starr, and Richard Shears - for the founding of Kallidéa.

Blast From the Past: Micro-nations.org Returns!

After an absence of several months, the latest incarnation of the what is arguably the mother-of-all-micronational boards of recent years is in the process of returning.

Originally set-up as an alternative to the long-defunct Micronations Today by Lars-Erik Bryld of Corvinia, the last incarnation was in the care of Alteria's Chas Jago, under the name of Micro-Nations.Net (not to be confused with Micronations.Net), under his internet service provider ceased trading last year.

In the intervening period the missing forum was replaced by a temporary blog, and then by two successive boards provided by Majorie Boodlesmythe of the Northern Forest Archipelago. Meanwhile the actual archive of the micro-nations.org and micro-nations.net era boards had come into the possession of Richard Shears, once of the Democracy of Cherusken-Insonomia, but now of Kallidéa.

Following extensive negotiations with Chas Jago, and a meeting in Paris on January 4th, a skeleton site has been set-up, with the domain name of www.micro-nations.com, to host a revived board, plus eventually all the available archives. The actual site is hosted by Kallidéa, with the webmaster being Martì-Páir Furxheir, Foreign Affairs Minister of the Republic of Talossa and co-founder of ESTO, and while former MNO moderators Sogoln yg Ysca and Kevin have been invited to resume their former positions.