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[WHPR Day 2333] USAF Merger, Country Additions, American Hero, DHS UPdate, PSA: Heartbleed

Dateline: Thursday, April 10^th, 2014 (Day 2333)
Location: James S. Brady Press Room, The White House

I would like to thank everyone who contributed, here’s to a good month of media!

Today’s WHPR:
: 1: USAF Merger Update
: 2: Country Additions
: 3: American Hero: BigcDizzle
: 4: DHS Update and interview
: 5: PSA: Heartbleed Bug

Editors: SecMed Blondeninja
Contributors: TellUrGrlThx, Wild Owl, WookyJack, Paul Proteus



USAF Merger
_TellUrGrlThx

For the last month we have heard more and more about this USAF MU merger and all I’ve heard about it is players wanting to know more and more about it. So I sat down with current Secretary of Defense Pfeiffer to learn some more about the merger that he didn’t already say in his article on Wednesday.

What has been the hardest challenge so far in the USAF Merger?

Pfeiffer: Working to ensure that all of our key players were on the same page and that things went smoothly for our members.

We all remember when the USAF Merger was first mentioned and published in the WHPR. Can you give us a better understanding on why the old system was replaced with the new one that you made?

Pfeiffer: As I wrote in my article: This organizational structure evenly spreads out the responsibility of running the unit, without placing too great a burden on any single person, and respects the fact that the President is the ultimate authority in our military. Appointing a single meta commander only would have created a de facto Commander in Chief, when we already have one of those elected each month. This system creates a system of equals working together long term, rather than a single person dictating to subordinates.

There have been debates on the USAF MU Merger for months on if we need it or not. Can you give us a better understanding on why this merger has to happen and what benefits and or cons will we gain from it?

Pfeiffer: Game mechanics support it, plain and simple. Having our entire military in a single unit allows for greater ease of command and control by the President, and puts us in a prime position when the admins decide to have one of their little contests. Additionally, during those times that the admins activate unit battle boosters, we can have our entire military dumping massive amounts of damage with greater potency two or three times per day.

There is no fighting that logic. This merger is happening and it will for sure shape our military to become even stronger. We will for sure be stay tuned for more information on this merger and look forward to results of it. Thank you for reading America.




Game Changers: Country Additions
_{Wild Owl}

Plato’s decision to add new countries in eRepublik is certainly an interesting one that has spiced up the game in the past few days for everyone. eRepublik shall be adding a total of four countries, two of which shall be controlled by voters’ decision and two by admins. This has resulted in increased media activity as we see people shouting to add a country of their choice in their friends feed. All sorts of rewards from tanks and food to gold have been offered by many parties to get their chosen country in the game. However this is much bigger than just getting some random countries added for kicks; the ramifications are significant

From a US perspective, we would not want the addition of a hostile country near our borders. Cuba, which is generally being backed by eSerbia and some other players who seem to enjoy roleplaying Castro or simply want to be a thorn in our side, is at the top of the leaderboards right now with a considerable lead that it has maintained since the end of day 1 and will likely do so till the end. At this time, from a purely military standpoint, the best choice for Americans will be to boost up Ecuador’s chances of joining by voting for Ecuador, as it is being voted for by many of our allies in South America, who wish to have another country added in their continent. Ecuador, currently ranked two in the standings, is well placed to get in, and pushes out several other undesirables from the list which can end up hurting eUS interests directly or indirectly. As much as I’d like to see another country in eRepublik personally, as would many others, I realise that by voting individually we stand to lose in the face of organised voting by many of our opponents who are voting in groups. Therefore,I strongly encourage Americans to vote for Ecuador.


Other countries that I see doing well in the competition are Iceland (backed by most of the Nordic nations and some Dutch citizens, who’d like another neighbour in the region), Georgia (backed by Romania and some Turks), Azerbaijan (backed by the considerable RL Azeri population in the game), Armenia (which will almost certainly end up as a resource colony for one of the Middle East countries) and Jamaica (backed by Cipelici). Africa also has a few options, with Morocco and Nigeria both doing well in the stats while Cameroon is struggling. Personally, I expect eRepublik to add an African country anyway to increase their user base in that continent. Many have debated in great detail the pros and cons of having the former Soviet Republics in the game, filling the portion of the map that is empty just north of the Middle East, and if added, I’m quite sure that they’ll add a new dimension of diplomacy to eRepublik. Stay tuned for updates and make sure to help out your nation by voting right.




American Hero: BigcDizzle
_WookyJack

Do you want a great example of what it is to be an eAmerican Hero? To get cut with an awkward situation and still stay true and loyal to everyone while yelling, ‘Come at me, bro!’ I know one such man.


Who is BigCDizzle? Why is he important? Well, I’m going to tell you:

BigCDizzle recently took over the position of Commanding Officer of the current Fed Military Unit SHIELD. If you didn’t know SHIELD is not the first Fed military unit. There was an unfortunate schism that led to a split between the Federalist party and the self-sustaining military unit that is now the most powerful MU to date. BigC was one of the individuals who was torn between party and MU. It was with a heavy heart that that such an event took place for him, but BigC stuck to his guns and supported both avenues.

He also has an outstanding resume. After his two initial runs at the Fed Party Presidency he laid out his strongest platform to prove he was ready to lead the a top 5 party. After he won the election and became Party President he immediately addressed an important issue about the party: its lack of hunger. He clamored for party members to ignite that fire in their bellies. “We’ve become complacent. We have fallen into the illusion that what we did yesterday will be good enough for today. We’ve stopped striving, stopped pushing, ”we’ve lost our hunger for greatness.” He is not the first to recognize a need for change and he will not be the last.

Furthermore, he was not a one and done kinda guy. He had great ideas, a powerful sense of pride when defeating enemies on the home front and even vied for a position in the highest office in the eUSA.



At some point many folks ask themselves when is enough, enough? BigC’s resume is not given the justice it deserves. His small resume actually speaks leaps and bounds. Although he never ascended to the highest position of the country he unselfishly and unequivocally put the country and party before himself.

Today he still continues on trucking. He is currently sitting at 16 True Patriot medals, which translates into 363,283,549 damage for eUSA. His greatest single battle was Achieved while successfully defending Baja against Mexico on day 2,033. BigCDizzle has been loyal to the stars and stripes since his first day in February 2012. This is why he definitely dons the tremendous title of an eAmerican Hero.



DHS: What is it? Interview with Sec; Tyler Bubblar
_{Paul Proteus}

The Department of Homeland Security, a government position many don’t know much about. Especially in the current political climate, many don’t appreciate the difficult and essential nature of the position, an issue that we here at the WHPR are ready to rectify. Until recently, the DHS was staffed by IndexInfinity, and now upon his departure has been passed to none other than Tyler Bubblar, a player with extensive DHS and National experience, who we were lucky enough to interview.

Summarize for us the job of DHS, and its relevance now

Tyler Bubblar: DHS monitors the Party President elections to prevent shenanigans. If an emergency arises during other times DHS takes point on the ATO operation that ensues.

What’s the nature of funding for DHS?

Tyler: We rely strictly on donations as far as funding goes.

What happened to IndexInfinity and what experience do you have in DHS preceding your current appointment?

Tyler: IndexInfinity is out of town on vacation for the immediate future and will have limited to no Internet access. I trained him as my Deputy several months back. After 3 months as DHS Secretary I handed the reins over to him.

Anything else people reading should know about DHS?

Tyler: With the Serbian group so diminished as long as we're smart and careful the top 5 and congress is secure. We are however just one Rogue Party President away from being right back in the midst of a PTO threat. We must vet our PP candidates and get the non official candidates to drop off the ballot once the actual candidate is chosen. An ounce of care goes a long way.


^{Tyler staring down potential PTO threats}

Thank you Tyler for your time, and it’s good to know the DHS, and eUS are in good hands.




PSA: Heartbleed Bug
_Blondeninja

The Heartbleed Bug is a recent (past 2 days) bug that has lit up the internet as it quickly became one of the largest vulnerabilities in recent times. Technically named “CVE-2014-0160” or more colloquially “Heartbleed” because of the vulnerability it exploits, has quickly ravaged the internet and you may be at risk!

I know the WHPR is eRep news, however this could affect us all as eRep players especially as the vast majority of us have accounts elsewhere on some of the vulnerable websites. Such sites include Yahoo, and imgur, which are probably the largest. While the big names such as Google are not at risk the bug is widespread enough that it is fairly safe to say at least one site you use has been exposed. The bug exploits OpenSSL (The secure connection library a site uses. (notice the https)) implementation of the heartbeat extension, hence it’s name. Essentially while this is fixed in newer versions many sites still used the version old enough to be at risk.

The bug has made it’s way across a fair amount of the surface web, and has infected many sites and is probably still being used against many others as we speak. Please keep yourself updated on what sites are infected, change your passwords preemptively just in case. Stay safe out there people!

~ Blondeninja

If you wish to read more about this please see here




Your SecMed; Blondeninja -|-DepSecMe😛 Wookyjack
"You can never walk a mile in someone else's shoes, but you can walk a mile in your own and be proud of it."



Contributors: TellUrGrlThx, Wild Owl, WookyJack, Paul Proteus



Huge New WHPR!
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/2390429/1/20
USAF Merger, Country Additions, American Hero, DHS UPdate, Heartbleed Bug

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