NationStates Jolt Archive

Office of the Central Directorate: Schultaria Prime, Schultaria Prime

“Your 'Generous Proposal'? Absolutely NOT! I refuse to even consider the possibilities that you're proposing!”

Central Director Schultz's words reverberated off the walls of his personal office while a team of a half-dozen advisors, many of whom had been personally invited by the federal government, sank deeply into their seats opposite the aging head of state. While he fumed and ruminated for everyone in earshot to hear, the guests made little attempt to quell his tirade despite their relative youth and obvious advantages in numbers. For eight terrifying minutes, Elliot Schultz lectured his guests on the complexities of national politics and the precariousness of his position as elected leader of the Schultarian People. An unusually abbreviated speech for a historian, but the caustic gravel in his voice forced time to slow down and take heed.

Virtually none of the six had expected this reaction from the Schultarian leader and had expected the meeting to be a formality. They would sit down and talk to the leader for forty-five minutes, an hour at most; he would voice his opinions, and then the meeting would end with a short press release to be filed away in the government archives. Instead, the informal congress was passing its fourth hour while the sun filled windows of the Central Director's office gave way to the multicolored cacophony of neon and LED glowlights which filled the capital city's nightlife. None of the party had eaten or been allowed the briefest of breaks to attend to their toiletries; the hypnotic litany from Elliot had exhausted their stamina.

Sensing the signs of victory from attrition, the Central Director closed his tirade abruptly in mid paragraph. He offered no closing remarks, but the suddenness of his actions shook the consciousness of his guests enough to have made his points stick... perhaps permanently. The scowl from his face dropped and his posture softened from cold military rigidity to something more warm and friendly; his body language in general offered a more human touch to his beleaguered and wary guests which they noticed but did not capitalize. No one wanted to provoke his ire, and few had the wherewithal to continue the debate.

“I hope you hate me for what I've just said,” Elliot mused as he reclined in his weathered chair, “the more you hate, the more you learn. It is my only hope that you understand just how much this proposal would mean the dismantling of a bureaucratic system that's only twelve decades old with a completely new and untested alternative.”

One of the six retorted, “perhaps we should just lay out the plan for the media and the public to cannibalize.”

Central Director Schultz smiled, “my thoughts exactly.”

-----

HIFEX NEWS AGENCY: SCHULTARIA PRIME, SCHULTARIA PRIME (21:49 SCT)

USSSP Government Considers Reassessment of State and Protectorate Administrative Divisions, form a Unified Schultarian “Statecity”

-”Significant” Population Density Reached Says Department of the Interior; Local and National Constitutional Authorities to Consider Public and Legal Ramifications.

Recent population estimates released by the Census Division of the Department of the Interior show Schultaria Prime's national population density exceeding twelve thousand persons per square kilometer, a figure which has prompted some ambitious members of the Schultarian government to call for a reassessment of the nation's critical infrastructure and political administration. Since the release of these numbers on Tuesday, nearly three dozen infrastructure, social welfare, and administration divisions have petitioned the National Assembly and Central Directorate with proposals to address the nation's continuing land crunch. In the aftermath of the nation's agricultural crises, few officials on either the state or federal levels have not taken heed of this new development.

One of the more popular, and somewhat extreme, proposals has called for the abolishment of all independent local government in exchange for a highly centralized national system of bureaucracy. Though the origins of this proposal are as old as the original debates over the national Schultarian constitution, the proposition has been offered new life due to the release of this demographic assessment. The proposal, which appears to have the backing of at least one Protector-Regis and one State Governor in addition to key members of the Ministry of Agriculture, is currently seen as one of the most debated and popular topics of national reform.

While neither members from either the Assembly or the Directorate could be reached for direct interview, Assembly Speaker Jenna Karlow released a public media statement calling for those who are most concerned about this milestone to “practice restrained and thoughtful debate” on the subject. In a concurrent release, the Central Directorate replied with the following:

”We are pleased to see that our nation has rebounded so quickly from a disaster so thorough and devastating as we have experienced.

We are grateful to every Schultarian citizen for their industry and creativity along with our friends the Manhattanites and Sharinians throughout this ordeal. Without your contributions, the worst harvest in nearly four millennia of recorded history might have claimed the lives of up to a quarter billion of irreplaceable parents, children, and friends. Thanks to all of you, however, the worst of what we endured was barely a ripple. Imported food supplies have made up the short term losses, and new urban agricultural projects designed with joint TAPRES research efforts have begun to show critical stages of self-sufficiency.

Now we are faced with a problem of a new sort. Even with our agriculture rebounding, we see our nation facing a significant, population-motivated, crisis. While this is certainly something that isn't new to our nation, recent events have exacerbated the need to adapt government institutions and communication to better respond to large scale civil action. Schultaria Prime's government and its subsidiary local institutions are now the caretakers and guarantors of safety to over sixty-six thousand million citizens, an issue that is both admirable and frustratingly complex. Even though our nation is working diligently to provide the necessary restructuring of basic services and infrastructure to better cater to this increased demand, we are faced with the issue of streamlining our decades-old bureaucratic hierarchy to match our exacting standards of quality, efficiency, and amiability.

Therefore, as a formal gesture to all highly developed states of similar stature, the national government of the United Socialist States of Schultaria Prime hereby extend open audience to any and all interested parties with their contributions or plans to help assist our nation's needs.”

[Hope this was what you were looking for. Needed a excuse to put Word 07 to work for once. >.>]

Izistan City Informer: News from the masses for the masses!

Reforms in Schultaria Prime?
Population density reaches an incredible ~twelve thousand people per square kilometer.
In the aftermath of a serious Schultarian agricultural crisis which caused the deaths of almost a quarter billion Schultarians, the Hifax News Agency reported today that the government is seeking proposals to address the nations lack of land for habitation and agricultural purposes.
A local popular, albeit controversial, proposal is the merger of all local governments into one massive centralized government. We asked random people on the streets of Izistan City what they thought:

“Why don’t they simply up and colonize some land? Or hell, conquer it. I mean Jesus; I can’t imagine living in a urban jungle like that!“ – Sasha, 46, on undisclosed business from Cambrai.

“They are known for their technology right? And I know they’ve got a national space program, I wrote the articles for Space Monthly. Surely the twin hammers of sea based agriculture and space colonization can help; I mean we chose to go down the imperialistic path but I have it on good authority that we still investigating the other options. Migration isn’t a end all answer people! We’ve got it and a National Procreation Agency, but this city is nearing five hundred million in population, approaching ZMI megacity levels for god’s sake. We have got to do something, and fast; and so do the Schultarians!” – Tomas, 28, member of the Space Settlement Society.

“Good god. Since when has centralized government proven to be good at anything? I really hope they don’t go down that path.” Jessica, 24, anti-communist protester on street corner.

Office of the Central Directorate: Schultaria Prime, Schultaria Prime

After a long day of cabinet meetings and sweet talking Assembly persons in a concerted attempt to consolidate the nation's recent political buzz under the Directorate's banner, the last thing Elliot Schultz wanted to do was concentrate on the “constitutional” subject during his rest. Despite whatever good intentions the Schultarian head of state had to waste his leisure time, his ambitions were interrupted by a cautious knock on the massive double story wooden doors of his office. While the Central Director might have normally dismissed the possible intrusion or told his impending guests to wait while he collected his thoughts, the evening's surprise guest was more of an expected courtesy call.

Since the release of the Directorate's message to international newswire services representing no less than a quarter trillion inhabitants of the reading public, the Department of State cordoned a portion of its message intercept service to look for messages regarding the “Statecity” plan and its reflection of Schultarian politics internationally. When Directors Covey and Haarvekord inquired how long it might take to get their first legitimate international news reports covering the subject, and possible diplomatic reaction from Schultaria Prime's closer states, the State Department seemed confident. They had suggested “most major international papers would have this story at least within their first 10 pages for the day's news cycle”. That was four days ago.

Motioning for the security to open the door, Elliot greeted the group of three advisors as they strolled across the Central Director's office. “Let me guess, you have some news to tell me about the lack of news our little 'debate' seems to be having on the international scene?”

One of the three responded while still approaching the desk, “I'd prefer to take it as a sign of strength sir. Perhaps other nations are either too confused about our government or too scared about trying to tackle a nation such as ours... Normally by now we would have had at least one tin-pot autocrat promising to 'reform' our nation through the use of their 'efficient' Sovietesque military.”

Elliot smiled at the remark; he always appreciated a good observational jab every now and then to liven things up. “So, do we have anything noteworthy to read so far, or have our friends in HIFEX become that shiftless in reporting to the international community.”

The head of the three raised her right hand to shoulder height and cleared her throat while pulling out a small holopad / data tablet interface. “We do have a small report for the evening,” she said while assembling the delicate and technically precise Mark I holoprojector with almost automaton like efficiency. “Of the nearly forty major newswire services Hifex contacted, approximately three quarters of them have not actually submitted the story for global release. Within the ten remaining, half of those sent the news on the end of the weekend cycle while the remaining five waited until Monday morning to release the information on their respective international pages.”

“And the results,” the Central Director inquired with a tone of genuine curiosity.

“Only one major national news source has directly commented on the national debate: the nation of Izistan. As for the actual tone of the story, it appears to be largely critical of the debate as seen in their range of interviewees. Those who are recorded by the Izistani media seem to posit technical, rather than political, solutions suggesting our nation physically alleviate our population pressure than restructure the government.

Although I'm fairly sure this report isn't exactly what we're looking for, especially in the realm of technical political experience for high density nations, the article is internationally important. Since they're one of our oldest defense trading partners, and the first nation to offer us their tactical nuclear weapon technology in good faith to the Schultarian Defense Forces, the reactions of their people could reflect on the diplomatic policies of their state authorities.”

Elliot sighed, “I'll make sure to read the translation in depth tonight, thank you for your update.”

The three bowed slightly, heading for the door as soon as they disassembled their equipment. Before the Directorate's personal guard opened the intricately crafted portal, the elder statesman chimed, “before you go, could you do one last thing?”

“Yes sir?”

“Resubmit the damn story, but make sure there are more people awake on the other end of the wire.”

Everyone in the room had a good laugh that evening at the media's expense.

["and the first nation to offer us their tactical nuclear weapon technology in good faith to the Schultarian Defense Forces" I'd actually forgotten completely about this until now. Man, where has the time gone...]

Hello, welcome from Mimi Ohyes, trade minister of the Commonalitarianism. We can offer a unique product that may help you with some of your problems.

We can build 90 story sky farms. These are sometimes called vertical farms. The top level houses a massive solar absorption dish and rotary wind turbines to generate energy to power the cooling system in the building. The windows are made with a thin film solar nanocoating that generates 3 watts per square foot. An individual sky farm can generate 1.8 megawatts of solar energy from the windows alone. The internal systems are designed to absorb grey water and purify water for use by the population. Each floor houses a variety of organic gardens for produce. The system is designed as a farm ecosystem, with different plants and crop animals interacting together to produce food and fertilizers. Greens, tubers, fish, chicken, flowers, and a variety of crops create a complete closed ecosystem. Internal systems are carefully monitored using standard computing systems. The basements and lower levels contain processing centers for sewage and solid waste. The waste is processed into biofuel and fertilizer which are used in the skyfarm or exported to the local population. The construction is modular in nature and stackable so it can be built fairly quickly. Many of the materials are more lightweight and stronger than steel. We use a variety of materials in the construction including resinated carbonated weave fiber, bioplastics, and composite materials. We have mass produced these in our cities, so we can produce them fairly cheaply.

It would cost approximately $350 million for a skyfarm that is 90 stories tall. This would be the equivalent of 180 acres of open land, with our stacked growing systems, and intensive agricultural methods.

Here is a recent article on the subject.

http://nymag.com/news/features/30020/

”Blue” Tower – Schultarian Department of State: Schultaria Prime, Schultaria Prime

As the capital city shifted from its afternoon duties to the nighttime watch, few people inside of the State Department's massive five tower campus paid much attention to the droves of employees strolling to the nearest bus stop or metro for their ride home. Persuaded by equal parts exhaustion and duty the employees of the communications building prepared for yet another tedious night of filing translated government proclamations and hundreds of kilograms of data tapes from little known nations. All of this was part of the incredible intelligence apparatus which the state had built virtually from nothing, and as an institution was perhaps one of the best informed organs of diplomacy in the Primex region if not amongst its closer trans-national allies. Of course, the long and grueling hours of translation and archiving terabytes of data daily gave the Communications building's external color scheme a whole new meaning. Few people who wished to have a career and a social life where they could be proud of their contributions to Schultarian diplomacy stayed in the “Blue” Tower for any longer than a decade.

Mary Anvid was one of the few who actually enjoyed her position, and rightfully so. A gifted linguist in Greek, Arabic, Persian, and Hebrew she had graduated cum laude from the University of Schultaria Prime – Edgen and landed a comfortable position with the Department barely a month into the independent world. While she worked best with little more than her dictionaries and frequent trips to the archives, Mary earned the respect of her coworkers quickly with her sharp memory and willingness to take the reigns of power in otherwise undesirable positions. It was these qualities which singled her out for the special division designed to intercept communiques about the newest “Statecity” plan, and her excitement for the job was sincere. All those who had the chance to apply were offered quite generous bonuses and some additional weeks of paid vacation once their duties had officially expired. She hoped the money would be enough for her to place a down payment on a larger apartment ten floors above her cramped studio accommodations; something she, her fiancé David, and both of their families saw as a wonderful step forward.

Now, five days into the project, Mary and her subordinates began to feel as though they were part of some sort of administrative punishment program. While the rest of the Communications building was abuzz with activity from NATO member states and the reams of data concerning Schultaria Prime's friendly, but distant, diplomatic communications with the rest of the world, the special intercept team was busy pitching neeotkos coins off the walls into wastebaskets. Despite the continuing pressure being placed by local media on the subject, it appeared (at least to the dozen or so who had volunteered to work for the project) that the world was not so interested in Schultaria's internal politics. Although it certainly meant a lighter workload for Mary she felt somewhat cheated...

“Ms. Anvid?”

A thickly bearded man topped with neatly combed red hair and an impeccably pressed suit knocked on the open door of her office with a small attaché in the opposite hand. Had he been anyone else but her immediate supervisor she might have played around sarcastically with the limited work she was actually doing, but she felt that she needed to earn the bonus her bosses were offering for the assignment. Without a second thought she sorted the sparse collection of papers on her desk and motioned for he superior to enter. “My apologies Mr. Mondoc, but the assignment's current lack of work has really thrown off my schedule. I'm so used to spending my nights translation communiques from our Mediterranean and Arabian bureaus that...”

Before she could finish her sentence Mondoc nodded and opened the case, “This might be a little more attuned to your old work load. Granted it's not much, and it's already been translated, but I want you to send a reply to this nation whom we received some information from concerning the “Statecity” plan.” Turning around to leave he noted sympathetically, “I know this isn't what you had in mind for exciting work, but if it makes you feel any better I know the higher ups in the government aren't too pleased about this lack of interest either. While we still aren't getting any significant measures of political commentary from anybody... well that's anyone's guess. However, at least this will give you the chance to represent the nation as a whole; and if anyone on the other side of the line is asking, we are interested in the designs if they can be conducted on a multilateral basis.”

-----

Holographic Communique to the Nation of Commonalitarianism - Trade Ministry

”On behalf of the United Socialist States of Schultaria Prime, we would like to thank you for your willingness to engage our nation in helping to resolve our current population density concerns in a manner consistent with our cultural ideals of finding practical solutions through the pursuits of science and engineering. If our archives serve us correctly we believe your nation has contacted us on this issue before, and now might be a reasonable time to pursue your proposal in concordance with a multitude of other reforms our nation is currently developing politically as well as ecologically.

Since the Firestorm of Famine some time ago, our nation has worked concurrently on urban agricultural projects thanks in large part to the nations of Sharina, Manhattan Prime, and Spacer Guilds, but a creative nation seeks to learn from as many experienced teachers as possible. Your contributions towards helping develop and improve our current agricultural and waste treatment facilities would certainly be beneficial. The assistance rendered by other friendly nations to help us improve the material side of our population concerns is always welcomed and appreciated by the Schultarian people, and allows us the chance to help refine our long term constitutional concerns without being so dangerously sidetracked by short term losses of the essentials.

The one major concern I voice for our nation, although I do not speak for those better versed in the matters of urban planning in Schultaria Prime, is the current height limitations and design aesthetics that might be imposed from such devices. Schultaria Prime, Schultaria Prime, our national capital, is already home to over one billion eight hundred million citizens with an increasing influx of new tenants and permanent residents daily, and similar situations are occurring in Tarannu, Edgen, Myrle, Dolec, Heerlu, and dozens of other major cities across the Schultarian landscape. Such population pressures prohibit our nation's ability to pursue new building projects as land is at an immense premium; however, if your nation would be willing to collaborate with our architectural, engineering, and ecological authorities I am sure that we could incorporate the inherent efficiencies in your designs with a series of additions to our current urban agricultural program.

I have sent the details of your plan, as well as the recommendations from the Department of State to expedite this proposal, to the necessary authorities in the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Assembly, and the Central Directorate.

Thank you for your time,”

-Mary Anvid
-Chairwoman of The State Department of Schultaria Prime: International Aid Division

OOC: Izistan, the time is about four semesters, three major changes, two new computers, and a new house plus a brother in law. Nationstates, however, is eternal (haha).

We are willing to send over a team of specialists from the Ecotechnic Institute centered in Liberty City. Doctor Boronis Cruonian will be leading the team. He is a specialist in autonomous building design, and holds degrees in Ecological Engineering, Bioshelter Design, and Green Architecture. Joining him will be a team of specialists from multiple disciplines-- indoor agriculture, environmental studies and other discpiplines. He is famed for his design of the Fountain Eco-Park, and the Green Pyramid Autonomous Bioshelter.

Vertical farms are a fairly common site in the Commonalitarianism. We are more than willing to make additional suggestions on their design. We have included a design which puts some of the sewage, fish ponds, mycology farms, fertilizer production and water treatment underground up to ten stories deep. We can further improve the energy production capacity of the farms by including a regenerative biofuel fuel cell system. This would store the solar energy production and wind energy production when the wind was not blowing and the sun not shining. It would also use biofuel processed on site to help run the building.

We look forward to working closely with you on improving the ecological footprint of your civilization and helping you solve some of your population problems.

Regards,

Mimi Ohyes, Trade Minister to the Commonalitarianism.

The Ecotechnic Institute: Joining together green commerce, ecological engineering, and environmental stewardship to build a bright green future.

”Yellow” Tower - Schultarian Department of State: Schultaria Prime, Schultaria Prime

Secretary of State Carl Xardas was nervous... and rightfully so.

Despite the sheer volume of data being pumped out into the international news media from Hifex's vast print, audio, video, and holographic connections, little was actually being accomplished diplomatically from the effort. Over seven days of subtle but constant reinforcement of the Assembly's and Directorate's messages, only two stories of note were of any significance to be passed on to the desk of the chief executive. Schultaria Prime was looking for politically creative solutions from foreign nations and entities, or any similar states who have encountered such a demographic problem with the unique “restraints” of Schultarian culture. What had been received thus far was an aging opinion piece and a request for technological exchange; both beneficial to the material concerns of the nation's well being, but not the intended goals of the message.

Of course Carl did his best to turn the meager results into substantial footholds. The Commonalitarian agricultural proposal as negotiated by Mary Anvid stood to provide a fiscal benefit to the nation's coffers by the tune of at least 300 billion merlons in recouped agricultural losses; something which was welcomed by the Directorate and passed by the Assembly under their blessing. Outside of that negotiation, now handled through the administrators from the Ministry of Agriculture, Doctor Xardas had several tough choices to make. Nearly seventy-five million merlons of Designwerks media equipment had been spent under the Assembly's prerogative to provide an open message, only to be greeted mainly by static by what the Schultarians thought were their closest diplomatic partners.

Reading the recent reports, the Secretary's nervousness gave way to anger. Sealed in the soundproofed privacy of his office two hundred and eighty nine stories above the ground, he took one of the many data pads of bad news from his desk and threw it at the curved, polished, walls of steel and black granite. “Where the hell is the world's god damned interest,” he cried to the dented but otherwise running tablet computer, “that bastard Dreadfire yawns on television and thirty Hamptonshires and Praetonias clamor to yell the loudest while nearly seven billion people living in this nation are facing conditions that make old New York City look as sparse as Siberia and we can't even get the time of day from NATO? The central military headquarters, built with our money and our expertise no less, is less than two hundred kilometers from here but not a one has expressed enough care to give even a form letter of solidarity!”

An image of Director Sarnow Haarvekord briefly flickered in and out of existence from the Secretary's data pad, “a little frustrated, aren't we Carl?” He laughed as the seasoned diplomat suddenly fumbled with the computer in order to gain his composure. “We all have our bad days. Granted this isn't one of our more glorious periods, but we'll get through it.”

Carl sighed, placing the battered but operating metallic machine on a tripod picture frame in front of his desk, “I'm very sorry sir. I hope I didn't offend you by my outburst, but if I may Director...”

Sarnow nodded his head, “As one frustrated official to another I understand what you're going through. Trust me no one is happy about what's going on, but we're ready to conclude the issue as simply being a lack of interest from the international community. We haven't heard from a majority of our allies in months: Sharina, Spacer Guilds, and Manhattan Prime, to say nothing of the New Alliance Treaty Organization, haven't opened up dialog to even exchange formalities. Your analysis?”

“To be honest sir, perhaps we're just not internationally controversial enough... Too bad it's at the expense of so many lives.”

All the Director could do was nod sadly in agreement.

..::Class 4 Communique, 256kb Encryption::..
FR: Sir Seamus O'Connel, Imperial Representative to and Director of the New Alliance Treaty Organization
TO: Secretary of State Carl Xardas, Schultaria Prime
SUB: Greetings

As the new head of NATO I feel it is my duty to send my formal greetings to NATO's host government. While this communique would suffice as such, I would also like to arrange a meeting to discuss the changes to NATO's bureaucratic structure being discussed among the representatives to NATO and how they might effect Schultaria Prime. On the rare occasions that I have to actually watch the news, which is maybe five minutes every day given the pace being set here at headquarters, I have noticed that your news stations have been giving much interest to the creeping population densities in your nation. As an Imperial citizen, I can give some insight into how we handle the problem. If you are interested, that can be the second item on the agenda.

With regards,
Sir Seamus O'Connel

..::End Communique, End Encryption::..

Doctor Boronis Cruonian was stunned at the potential scale of the project.300 billion merlons was potentially thousands of farms. It would not be enough to just build them. Efficiencies in placing the farms would be needed. He thought hard. He was pleased with the chance to do a project on this scale. Piles of papers on local crops and diet were on the tables. They would try to build the farms around local consumption and diet to make the farms as efficient as possible. They had visited many of the local markets and spoken with various markets as well as some of the farm organizations. One of the specialists was also looking over the best distribution system to limit waste and get the product to markets as quickly as possible.

The only place he had found any privacy was on the rooftops. Even here they were being converted into livable spaces. Gardens, playgrounds, and gymnasia. It hadn't completely taken hold yet but every inch was a potentially usable space.

Being here was an experience. It was like moving through a sea of people. Every inch of space was filled. There was little privacy. You often had very little space to make conversations.

He was about to make another offer. The ecotechnic institute had developed modular lightweight roof garden system made out of recycled bioplastics. These were simple rectangular trays with drainage systems, a variety of soil types, drip irrigation, and an underlayer composed of a waterproof ecologically friendly styrofoam analog which would be laid down before the trays were put in place. Also a variety of tiles made from recycled bioplastics in a variety of designs could be put down to create walkways. The trays were available in 4 inch depth and 8 inch depth varieties. The system could be moved easily for roof repairs. In addition, they had turf tile trays to create a similar effect to grass on the roofs of the cities. Generally the roofs were checked for load then a wall was built to prevent people from falling. After this was done the roof gardens were laid down. This would improve air quality, help deal with rainwater, and provide spaces for people to gather where people hadn't gathered before. The general price was $14 per square foot for generic 4 inch deep trays and turf tiles, and $28 per square foot for 8 inch trays. A variety of things could be grown in the trays. They had vegetable garden packages as well as simple beautification packages.

Boris Cruonian began the writeup of the green roof package. He had also prepared the crop mix for the skyfarms.
He opened a piece of mail from Green Developers Inc. They were offering a share in their high end ocean going mega barge.

Liberty Ship Mark 2.

Liberty Ships twenty-five decks house residential space, a library, schools, and a first-class hospital in addition to retail and wholesale shops, banks, hotels, restaurants, entertainment facilities, gymnasium, martial arts center, international art gallery, casinos, offices, warehouses, and light manufacturing and assembly enterprises. A seawater purification plant is built into this facility. There is also a recycling center, and waste reprocessing center allowing for close to complete reclamation of waste. The waste is processed into fertilizer to maintain the parks and gardens. It is also used in the small botanical garden inside the ship. The recycling center processes used metal for the light assembly plants. The police center bunker inside the ship provides for protection of its citizens and preparation drills against piracy. There is also a small recruiting station for the military with a mutual association for the different services available. A ferryboat transportation system provides departures every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, to 3 or more local cities giving ship residents access to the local neighborhood and up to 30,000 land-based residents a chance to spend a day on the ship. The windows on the ship are made of a clear solar cell material able to resist typhoon force or greater winds providing power to the ship making it require little outside power sources. The windows can resist most all small arms fire. Also a submarine dock is available for up to four tourist or transportation submarines.

A virtual private network is built throughout the ship. This virtual private computer network provides cheap VOIP telephone service, international satellite cable television access, and has optional secure access to the internet through a separate channel.

Parks and promenades boast waterfalls, ponds, and extensive landscaping. Ours includes a small botanical garden. Most levels feature large saltwater aquariums. Included is a small marine science center for oceanic research. In addition, there is an aquaculture center for growing fish, and sea vegetables. There are small hydroponic gardens to provide fresh fruits and vegetables. There is also a pleasure district for gambling and relaxing activities. The shopping mall, one of the world's largest, is also one of its most beautiful. Portions are dedicated to individual countries, featuring culturally characteristic architectures. There is also a weekend flea market and an open space for small business kiosks. The 100-foot-wide main deck leads to a marina at the stern. There are over 200 acres of open area for recreation and relaxation. Included is a small artificial lake stocked from our aquariums for fishing. Also there is a small firing range to practice target shooting. Small electric transport with recharger stations are available throughout the ship. There are also bicycle paths in the recreational areas for recreational riding.

The vessel's flat bottom hull construction, along with its extraordinary size, results in unmatched and unprecedented stability providing a smooth ride in the roughest seas. The safety of the vessel is enhanced by the use of 600 individual air/water tight hull sections. These hull sections are coated with a light hard ceramic armored coating to prevent damage from other ships bumping into the ship. Extensive use of 4 hour rated firebreaks between decks areas within the decks enhance fire safety. The ship is virtually fireproof. The electro-static ventilation system supplies uncontaminated, filtered and purified air. It has automatic detectors for chemical and biological agents and will automatically locate the presence of such agents in any part of the ship. There is an entry processing center for incoming travellers. This includes a series of checkpoints for bombs, biological agents, and other material which you wish to be checked for.

The ship's design accepts up to 40,000 full time residents, 30,000 daily visitors, 10,000 nightly hotel guests, and 20,000 full time crew. This population of 100,000 people provides a wealth of talent and diversity for the private businesses aboard the ship and to those they visit daily on their adventures ashore.

Liberty Ship has a flight deck can accept are turboprop aircraft in the 38 to 40-passenger range. While fixed wing aircraft are economically and strategically more practical we can eliminate the landing strips and replace them with helicopter pads and a large recreation facility for the residents if you wish. A retractable dome is available to seal the landing pad against hurricanes and typhoons.

length: 4,500 feet, width: 750 feet, height: 350 feet
price: $12,000,000,000

We also have a cooperative buy in plan where permanent residents can buy shares for $300,000 a piece, a maximum of 3 shares can be purchased at any given time per customer. There is a maintenance fee of $300 per month per share to keep the residential areas in the ship in order. If we collect 40,000 shares in your market we will build a new ship for you. This is especially good for overcrowded countries.

OOC: This is a modification of a real proposed future project called Freedom Ship International. It is a proposal to build giant massive ocean going barges. If you like technology it is pretty interesting. It might provide some relief from your population pressures... A few pictures.

http://www.freedomship.com/freedomship/gallery/new/new.shtml

Uxbridge Agricultural Industries Ltd.

Sir,

One is greatly concerned by the present plight of the people of Schultaria Prime, particularly with regard to the scant access to food with which they are faced in time of famine. Indeed, this is of particularly concern to myself and my company it being that the same are in a position to render assistance to you in this regard in a manner that would be mutually beneficial to us both.

As you may or may not know, Uxbridge Agricultural owns vast estates in the Crown Commonwealth, both in mainland Praetonia and, significantly, in the colonies. In order to provide the domestic Praetonian market with food, Uxbridge has expanded rapidly into highly efficient automated farming. We are thus one of the lowest cost suppliers of food, with the quality of all our multitude of products independently certified by the Association of Concerned Consumers' Inspection Panel.

I for one can see little reason, Sir, why you, with your pressing lack of land and space, should seek to dedicate large tracts of that precious resource to the production of food in extremely high-cost hydroponic farms - food that shall, for the lack of exposure to the environment for survival in which it has evolved - can only be of worse quality as a result. Worse, due to the need to maximise space efficiency, this medicore-quality food produced at high cost by these space-consuming farms, cannot possibly be grown in varieties that have the tastes and desires of the common citizen at heart.

Allow me, Sir, to come to point. Uxbridge Agricultural is quite prepared to provide you with all the food you could need, grown and reared in the open air, safety and quality inspected and assured, for a price far lower than you could possibly produce it yourselves in the unsatisfactory conditions with which you have been burdened, not only removing forever the terrifying prospect of further famine and starvation, but also freeing space that can then be redeveloped and reallocated to easing the conditions to which the common multitude are subjected.

I anticipate, Sir, that you will be concerned for the security of your food supply, being as it will dependent on a "foreign" supplier. Having conversed with my own Government, the Board of Trade and the Prime Minister, I have received written assurances from His Majesty himself, which I enclose with this document, that Schultarian food supplies should be given parity in priority to Praetonian food supplies, should a shortage emerge, in honour of past ties between our two nations.

I do not suppose for a moment, Sir, that such an eventuality should occur in reality save for some unforseeable cataclysm which could befall any country or supplier. I should also point out, without intending any offence, Sir, that the Schultarian food system is hardly reliable as it is, and thanks to circumstance providing Uxbridge Agricultural with better land upon which to pursure agriculture, your food supply is will be much more reliable here than on your own landmass.

I await your consideration and reply.

Yours,

Sir William Farnsdale, KBS,
Chairman of the Board of Directors,
Uxbridge Agricultural Industries Ltd.

The Stumbling River Tavern – Five Blocks from the Government District: Schultaria Prime, Schultaria Prime

For the first time in what felt like weeks, the leaders of the Assembly, Directorate, and Cabinet offices dropped their personal shields of formality and political bluster under the dark and muffled coziness in one of the Capital's many hidden taverns. While the world outside of the tavern reflected the insanity of Schultaria Prime's hyper-urbanization, the surroundings tucked away in this little corner of sleepy heaven were a godsend. Save for the barkeep, a few wait staff, and the humming of a brightly polished collection of taps and vintage soda fountain dispensers, none of the din of the one billion eight hundred million residents could be heard by the priceless gathering of political elites.

All of the major Assembly party leaders & the Speaker, the Secretaries of State, Budget, & Agriculture, the leaders of SID-2 & 8, and the three leaders of the Central Directorate enjoyed simple conversation over thick beer and equally heavy steak. Within an hour the party relaxed in isolation from their daily frustrations, despite their competing political statuses and what talking heads on the 24 hour news networks lusted for; a macabre amalgamation of politics and pro wrestling which many a money whoring station manager pushed on the viewing public. As the conversation ebbed with the consumption of the main course, Central Director Schultz and Speaker Jenna Karlow motioned for the rest of the assembled guests to finish their friendly tête-à-têtes for an informal roundtable discussion.

“First off, a congratulations to Mr. Xardas and his staff at the State Department,” a proud Karlow chimed with a fresh bottle of stout clenched in her thin, resolute, hand, “for the first time in nearly a year, ole' Carlie here finally did what only genocidal maniacs ever seem to do... get the attention of NATO and the Havenites!”

Raucous laughter filled the room, and the nation's fourth in political succession downed her half liter with nary a second thought.

“Also, our hats are off to Assemblers Norogeninna and Nalken for their Chihuahua-esque yipping on the Assembly floor,” Central Director Schultz replied with a cadence only a moderate amount of whiskey could provide, “in addition to wonderful entertainment on the nightly news, your legislation has passed through what could be the single most important piece of farm legislation in years. Thanks to you, I drink to remember and not as a reset button.”

Two hours later

With the flow of booze slowing to a trickle, and a good portion of the party departing or gone, Directors Schultz and Covey retired with Gregor Nalken, the Socialist Party leader, Assembly President Karlow, and Secretary Xardas for an informal meeting in the Tavern's lavish wine room. Elliot reclined against a sturdy rack of white wine apparently content just to let the Scotch from the evening's festivities course through his head, but nothing he did with political contacts could ever be purely informal. After Director Joan Covey gave a subtle all clear, the Central Director's attitude changed as his posture stiffened and gaze became focused.

“I hope everyone had some fun tonight; I know I certainly did, especially after the progress we've made internationally to help close the gaps in our food supply and constitutional questions. Everyone here should be proud for a week's worth of work well done, even if the news ignores it on Monday.”

Everyone murmured a few self-congratulatory remarks with a handful of token nods.

“This doesn't mean, however, that the week certainly wasn't without it's concerns. Most of them, as in the debate over whether the money used by Hifex to publicize our recent demographically inspired crisis milestone, appear to have some resolution thanks to the quick response of Commonlitarian, Scandavian, and Praetonian nations to our repeated calls. Granted it really isn't the kind of significant political and demographic analysis assistance we were looking for, but the gaps in our ag-infrastructure thanks to the failures of the Agriculture ministry to allocate enough irrigation resources might finally be patched no thanks to them.”

Director Covey continued, “this is all well and good, but the problem both Elliot and I have with this support isn't that it has come at all, but the time in which it came. Now no one over the course of this evening, save for the two SID directors and us in the Directorate, minus Director Haarvekord, have any reason to suspect anything is amiss with the tenor of these responses. However, it has been brought to Central Director Schultz that the timing of the Praetonian and Scandavian messages were unusually suspect. As ranking members of the Assembly committee on foreign intelligence, we thought it proper to disclose this information with you along with Secretary Nalken.”

“But why me,” Gregor replied, “I understand that this is certainly a diplomatic issue with the nations of Scandavian States and Praetonia, but why all the sudden rabid conspiracy theories and hushed whispers behind closed doors?”

A small pop of static burst behind the Secretary's ears as an eerily familiar recording jumped from the Central Director's datapad. ”'...bastard Dreadfire yawns on... thirty ...tonshires and Praetonias clamor to yell the loudest... nearly seven billion people living in this nation... make old New York City look as sparse as Siberia and we can't even get the time of day from NATO? ...ot a one has expressed enough care to give even a form letter of solidarity!'”

Carl tensed himself in an involuntary attempt to rebut, but the Central Director wasted no time. “This was intercepted by SID-8 during a routine analysis of satellite communication and found unencrypted bouncing off a series of weather and telephone relays that, when traced back as best as the computer techs could tell me, had apparently saturated the primary NATO telecommunication interface, to say nothing about regional telecommunication networks in Haven and Primex, with your diatribe. Luckily for you the signal was weak and on a frequency too obscure or this little tidbit might have directly hit a foreign news service and completely castrated you as a diplomat before I woke up to hear the good news from our friends abroad.”

Incensed, Elliot continued with a very deliberate staccato to hammer the words into the Secretary's mind. “Your little tantrum, thanks be to whatever in the sky, hasn't apparently painted us a country of screaming children yet, but now the State Department is going to be under a tighter Assembly leash since we know you love to yell at the expense of spending enough time to think about securing your datapads. From here on out we go on status quo until any of the three suggest we have to change our tactics otherwise. And if I receive any, and I MEAN ANY, indication from other members of the State Department, Assembly, or SID that a potential deal may have fallen through because of this incident then I will consider your job vacant. Any questions?”

Gregor sighed and responded sarcastically, “from toast of the town to nearly losing my job, how can a man get so damn lucky?”

The Central Director's response was terse and unsettlingly matter of fact. “You have work to do and a lot of letters to write. Get it done, and don't screw it up with another outburst over the phone.”

OOC: I'll make sure to draft suitable responses to everyone's replies with Carl sometime within the next two days or so, but I wanted to give a little added internal political dimension to tense the situation. Hopefully this is palatable to all parties involved.

Doctor Boris Cruonian was watching the news in his 7 foot x 5 foot cubicle hotel room. He had folded up the bed into the wall and pulled out a bench seat. The television was built directly into the wall along with most of the amenities from the high end hotel. He took a sip of green tea from a recyclable paper cup. They at least had good lighting here.

What passed for news here was unbelievable, he watched the red haired newscaster in a bikini announce the weather. Today it will be a mild 60 degrees with a low smog index. At least the news people looked good. He flipped through several channels until he reached a sports program. It looked like a combination of boxing and wrestling. He relaxed a little bit, focusing on the moves of the two men in the ring.

Doctor Cruonian had a feverish moment of insight. He thought, "If we can build tall, why not deep underground."

He took his datapad out and began writing, then sketching a new design for a "Deep Farm."

Deep Farm

Depth: 80 Meters
Width: 80 Meters x 80 Meters
Floors: 10 Floors

Construction Materials: Enzyme Bonded Concrete, Fiber Reinforced Concrete, Recycled Steel, Bioplastics

Construction: These are simple square levels in which plants are grown. There is a quiet elevator systems between the different levels of the deep farm.

Energy: The system is underground so it does not need a huge amount of heating and cooling. The system uses a pellet burning cogeneration system, it processes non-edible plant material into pellets which are burned to create energy. It also uses an anaerobic digester to convert collected human and animal waste into manure and biogas.

Wastewater Treatment: The system uses a living machines system to purify blackwater so it can be used to water the plants in the farm.

Farm Systems: The internal system is a bioshelter farm which houses aquaponics-- fish tanks for tilapia, hydroponics-- for growing different kinds of food, aeroponics-- for beans, strawberries, and other plants, small plot grains-- rice, wheat and corn, miniature fruit trees, mycology farms, and chicken coops. Because the food is grown indoors it is all organic with very few pesticides. A wide variety of foods is grown creating an indoor farm ecosystem. The system is designed to be very dense with trellises, stacking trays, and multiple layers of crops. In addition to food, a number of pharmaceutical herbs are grown.

There is an evapotranspiration system to recollect lost water, and collection stations to collect refuse to use in the pellet burning cogeneration system.

The upper levels include a refrigeration and transportation area to bring food to market.

Cost: $200 Million