FNORD 2010 Medals Are Here!

MCS, MICRAS - The FNORD Awards 2010 medals are now here, courtesy of Dr Spangle. Some group, front and back photos are below:

FNORD! Again

2009 was a year of changes and consolidation. It saw the end of Babkha, a micronation that served as a pillar of our sector since before the MCS even existed. It saw the end of the hated MicroHub, which for all of its flaws served as a continuation of the MNN tradition and one of our last links to the larger micronational world. It saw the organization of large chunks of the world into the Small Commonwealth and its Small Economy, which have escaped the pitfalls of so many other organizations by expecting less.

And thus commenced the 2009 FNORD Awards earlier this evening, hosted by its eponymous and erstwhile founder, Scott of Hyperborea.

The awards, held, as ever, in honour of Emperor Norton Day and inspired by Molossia's original Norton Awards, were judged this year by Bjorn Ironfist of Stormark, Ryan Caruso of Shireroth, Emperor Edgard of Alexandria, and Guido Zambelis of Lovely.

A traditional mix of categories has been continued, with the winners of each as follows:

• Most Promising New Micronation: Victoria
• Award for Graphic Arts: Victoria
• Award for Leadership: Chris Mules (Antica)
• Jeremy Bellamy Award for Literature: Ben Kern ( Rauðbjörn's Saga, Stormark)
• Bill Dusch Award for Cultural Development: Aryeztur Mejorkhor (Wiki of Aryez)
• Joshua Coales Award for Best New Idea: The Small Commonwealth
• Tony Au Award for Economics: The Small Commonwealth
• Iain Jacobson Award for Journalism: Max Edwards (Litovsker Tagblatt, Ashkenatza)
  
• Liam conToketi Award for Most Promising Micronationalist: Andrew Allot (Elwynn, Shireroth)
• Shane Odlum Award for Overall Achievement: Nathan Shepard (Natopia)

The winners, will, for the first time, receive real medals instead of virtual ones, courtesy of Dr. Spangle.

FNORDs 1, Norton Awards 0

It's Emperor Norton Day once again, and, as usual on Emperor Norton Day, there are one or two commemorative award ceremonies to look forward to.

There should ideally, be two, but the original Norton Awards seem to have sadly run out of steam, despite a poll showing overwhelming public demand for them.

Happily, the alternative FNORD Awards, back this year in the capable hands of its erstwhile founder Scott Alexander, has triumphed yet again with a wide variety of worthy winners carefully chosen by judging panel comprising such well-known and respected names as Ryan Caruso, Liam Sinclair, Chris Mules, Ari Rahikkala, and Ardashir Khan.

As is traditional, the award winners are listed as follows:

• Tony Au Award for Economics: Andreas Mayer
• Liam Sinclair Award for Micronational History: Jonas Windsor
• Jeremy Bellamy Award for Recwar and Storytelling: Antony Montague
• Liam con Toketi Award for Best New Micronationalist: Peter Ulsnes
• Best Original Idea: Dr Spangle
• Bill Dusch Award For Cultural Development: Troy Thompson
• Best Graphic Artwork: Scott Alexander
• Iain Jacobson Award for Micronational Journalism: Will Tomsett
• Shane Odlum Award for Overall Achievement: Hesam Jayatar

Our congratulations to all.

The FNORD and Norton Awards Return!

Rejoice, for the season of micronational awards in honour of Emperor Norton is upon us once again!

The FNORD Awards are being co-ordinated by their founder, Scott Alexander of the Institute of Micropatriology. Nominations are currently being accepted for the following categories:

Economics, Best New Micronationalist, Overall Achievement, Micronational History, Journalism, Cultural Development, Recwar and Storytelling, Best New Micronation, Best Original Idea, Best Signature/Avatar, Best Graphic Artwork.

Meanwhile, the Norton Awards are being co-ordinated by their founder, HM Kevin Baugh of Molossia, with nominations being accepted for:

Intermicronational Achievement, Political Achievement, Cultural Achievement, New Micronation of the Year, Personal Achievement

We recommend placing your nominations while you can.

The Norton NewsBlink: Awards, Abdications and Sealand

It's been an Emperor Norton Day to remember this year, with all sorts of interesting things happening...

Some Awards
As is the custom on this day, the FNORD Awards were presented in the Norton Lounge, this year by Sander Dieleman of Lemuria. As usual lots of people won various medals, while even more didn't, but that's just how such things go.

This year is the 127th anniversary of Emperor Norton's untimely death, and the fourth anniversary of the FNORDs themselves, which were created by the omnipotent Scott Alexander of many, many places as an alternative to the original Norton Awards, which seem unfortunately to have been carelessly forgotten about this year.

And then for those of you like less serious awards, you might like to check out the first ever Paper Plate Awards...

... and an Abidication
Shireroth's Kaiseress Carol abdicated today in favour of her daughter, Hypatia. Clearly disappointed at the lack of general support by most of the populace for keeping the nation going, she ended her remarkable reign with a mercifully brief yet moving speech which promised a great renaissance in the hands of the new Kaiseress.

Other than the Royal Family and President Jacobus of the FRC, we think that two ordinary Shirerithians attended the ceremony, which is probably some kind of record.

... and then there's Sealand...
which is offered now for sale, or for rent, depending on who you want to believe, as long as you have many millions of something to pay for it. NewsNow has lots of reports in many tongues, so read them while you can, before everyone gets bored and finds something else to waffle about.

And finally...
Someone from NationStates has joined the Grand Commonwealth's Babkha. In return, the Shah , who has long bound himself to join NationStates in return, will finally discover a place that's worse than the infamous salt mines...

NewsBlinks: blink and you'll miss 'em ^MTM

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.

FNORD! Malarbor Green with Envy as 2006 Winners are Announced!

THE NORTON LOUNGE, MNN - This morning His Majesty the King of Gotzborg presented the 2006 FNORD Awards, in association the Royal Institute of Micronational Antiquities (RIMA), but the Shireroth's Evil Tree God (TM) Malarbor (TM) was so jealous at the winner of the journalism award that he created his own.

Addressing the assembled audience, His Majesty thanked the awards committee and applauded the new awards, commending this year's changes and improvements, and declaring that they "represent the best examples of the people, efforts, projects and micronations which make up... the most dynamic community in our online world".

He added that, irrespective of the numerous reasons for people coming together to participate in micronations, in the end everyone walks away from their experiences "better for the interaction, better for the opportunities and better for the time spent".

The official award winners are:

Best New Micronationalist - Carson Smith
Best Revolutionary Concept - The Kingdom of Lovely
The Bill Dusch Award for Micronational Cultural Development - Ric Lyon
The Odlum Award for Individual Achievement - Ryan Caruso
The Norton Award for Excellence in the Field of Journalism - Novaya Zemlya
The Peter Little Award for Excellence in Micronational Literature - Greg Russell
The RIMA Award for Excellence in Micronational History - The Staff of Microwiki

Meanwhile, Malarbor's (TM) Malarbor Award for Journalistic Nift (TM) went to Nick "Foghorn" Leghorn.

MNN Celebrates Third Anniversary

MNN Boards- The Micronational News Network (MNN) is today celebrating the third anniversary of what many people would have once considered unimaginable- a service offering continually updates news and information for micronations.

In what started as a long overdue replacement for the old Micronations Today ezboard, MNN provided a forum-based news service, with dedicated journalists providing the articles. This formula became a success and MNN became a big hit, with users posting more than 580 news stories alone before the start of the blogging revolution.

MNN has been about more than just providing the news, however. From its first post it has provided a neutral environment where people can meet and exchange ideas, hold conferences and discuss issues. As a result, over the years MNN has hosted numerous conferences and organisations, including the Micronational Cartography Society, the Currency Exchange Organisation, the Apollo Foundation and more recently the Micronational Recreational Warfare Society and FNORD Awards.

Its success can be seen in many ways. Not only has the board amassed close to 12,000 posts and 360 members, but it has welcomed more than 75,000 unique visitors- a post and view count that would put most nations to shame.

When the Apollo Inquisitor spoke earlier today with the founder and owner of MNN, Sir Iain de Vembria, it was quickly able to engage his excitement and satisfaction. He spoke of his surprise at the growth of the service, and how it continues to grow, culminating with the recent launch of MNN 24/7- the blog service inspired by Cyberian Jack Santucci and enacted by Sander Dieleman. De Vembria accredits the success of MNN to its neutrality, stating that it

"...has succeeded by providing dedicated fora and services requested by micronationalists, [expanding] from the four original fora to the fifteen-plus ones today. Its ongoing success is founded on the principal of attracting people's interest and keeping it, which includes giving them as much control as possible, and therefore an interest in keeping things going."

When asked if he had any future plans for the service, he informed us that the news had probably been developed about as far as it could go, but that "...the existing features will be maintained, and any suggestions for new ones will continue to be accepted and implemented if they have merit."

Congratulations MNN! Heres to another three years!

Related Links:
MNN Forums
MNN Website
MNN History

The Apollo Inquisitor is a partially owned subsidiary of the Micronational News Network.

A Flurry of FNORDs

For the fourth time in three years, micronationalists are busily nominating their choices for the People's FNORD Awards. This year there are over thirty awards available for nomination, although only the most popular will make it through to the final round of voting by five top judges.

The FNORD Awards are named after a combination of Emperor Joshua Norton and the Illuminatus Trilogy and were inspired by the original Norton Awards, which have long ceased to be. Their aim is to recognise micronationalists who have "lived up to the example of crazy genius that Norton pioneered" and "made the micronational world a much more interesting place."

The format of the awards has changed over the years, but this year sees the return of the voting judges, and a record number of awards. Nominations will close at the end of this weekend in time for several days of intense voting by the judges.

FNORD Award Nominees Announced

MNN, Treesia - The FNORD Awards have moved into voting mode, with the finalisation of nominations earlier this week.

A large number of nominations have been received from a variety of nations, with all but one of the twelve awards receiving multiple nominations. The Achievement in Diplomacy award received four nominations, although three of these are to different parties involved in the Attero-Babkhan negotiations earlier in the year. Three nominations were received for Best New Micronationalist, while five nations battle it out for the title of Best New Micronation. The award to watch out for should be the Tallini award for Egotism, however, with five nominees in the running for comparison to the egotist Tallini himself.

A full list of nominations is included below.


1) Achievement in Diplomacy
* Rakesh for the Attero-Babkhan negotiations
* Ardashir Khan for the Attero-Babkhan negotiations
* Johanns for getting Arminy to merge
* The Atteran Empire (Ras Noseworthy, HIH Diga) and the Kingdom of Babkha (HIH Tahmaseb, HE Ardashir, HE Rakesh) for their national effots

2) Achievement in Constitution or Legal Framework Design
* Scott Siskind for Shireroth's "Treaty in a Can"
* The Joint Committee on Unification, Hanover and Pendronia, Chaired by Lord Sigare of Pendronia
* The Babkhan Constitution Convention
* The 4th Crimson Constitution

3) Best Website Design
* Babkha (www.babkha.com)
* Shireroth (www.shireroth.org)

4) Best New Micronationalist
* Delphi of Anticia
* Trevon Andarosel of Shireroth
* Jesus Pablo Santiago of Baracão
* J John Herueus of Treesia

5) The Odlum Award for Overall Achievement
* King Alexander for modern Hanover
* Alarico Veto Cguila for modern Baracao

6) The Peter Little Award for Micronational Literature
* The Burning Sands of Tashbaan
* The Hanoverian Never-Ending Story

7) The Sander Award for Best New Micronation
* Guimontia
* Kingdom of Gotzborg
* Kingdom of Breuddwyd
* Mediterranea
* Feianova

8) Achievement in Economics
* Char-lez Braden aka Alexander I for Hanoverian automated banking
* Sander Dieleman for phpMX
* Austi Scot Shireroth's economy.

9) Achievement in News
* MZM for The Inquisitor
* Eoin Dornan for the Furball
* Cyberia for reviving news

10) Best Forum Design
* Lachlan Powers for Feianova
* Iain for Ifreann

11) The Tallini Award for Egotism
* The Dictatorship of Guimontia
* Kieran for having a henchman.
* Jacobus
* Rakesh for nominating himself
* Lachlan for nominating himself
* Balty Majeed for adopting a son and Kumarastan

12) Best Speaker
* Rakesh Ackbar for Babkhan Election speeches, Baracaoan court rulings etc
* Xavier Cervantes of Baracao
* Scott Siskind of Shireroth