Geopolitical Journey, Part 8: Returning Home | STRATFOR - and remember the Pearl Harbor attack

Geopolitical Journey, Part 8: Returning Home | STRATFOR

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Maybe some Europeans disregard or dismiss now the importance of USA (who saved their asses more than once).
But I say that USA is also the dream of freedom for many (most?) people from around the world. Despite all the problems and mistakes.

Whoever "You" are: "Don't tread on me!"..."Don't mess with me!"..."Don't provoke me!"..."Don't [F] with me!"..."Don't attack me!"...Coz if you do, you'll have a rude(r) awakening, and you'll see that I [USA] can do much more than...mass-print "Wal-Mart dollars". :)

"Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is portrayed at the very end of the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!, and in the 2001 film Pearl Harbor, as saying after his attack on Pearl Harbor, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."^[1] The supposed quotation was abbreviated in the film Pearl Harbor (2001), where it merely read, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant."


"In The Reluctant Admiral, Hiroyuki Agawa, without a citation, does give a quotation from a reply by Admiral Yamamoto to Ogata Taketora on January 9, 1942, which is strikingly similar to the famous version: "A military man can scarcely pride himself on having 'smitten a sleeping enemy'; it is more a matter of shame, simply, for the one smitten. I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counterattack.""
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoroku_Yamamoto's_sleeping_giant_quote

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor

http://www.zazzle.com/thank_you_us_navy_postage-172842548723945705?rf=238693463283865848

Cool shades of blue: Great Smoky Mountains National Park - maximum card from USA

"The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee-North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains or the Smokey Mountains, and the name is commonly shortened to the Smokies. The Great Smokies are best known as the home of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which protects most of the range. The park was established in 1934, and, with over 9 million visits per year, it is the most-visited national park in the United States.^[1]

The Great Smokies are part of an International Biosphere Reserve. The range is home to an estimated 187,000 acres (760 km²) of old growth forest, constituting the largest such stand east of the Mississippi River.^[2][3] The cove hardwood forests in the range's lower elevations are among the most diverse ecosystems in North America, and the Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest that coats the range's upper elevations is the largest of its kind.^[4] The Great Smokies are also home to the densest black bear population in the Eastern United States and the most diverse salamander population outside of the tropics.^[5]

Along with the Biosphere reserve, the Great Smokies have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The U.S. National Park Service preserves and maintains 78 structures within the national park that were once part of the numerous small Appalachian communities scattered throughout the range's river valleys and coves. The park contains five historic districts and nine individual listings on the National Register of Historic Places.

The name "Smoky" comes from the natural fog that often hangs over the range and presents as large smoke plumes from a distance. This fog, which is most common in the morning and after rainfall, is the result of warm humid air from the Gulf of Mexico cooling rapidly in the higher elevations of Southern Appalachia.^[6]"

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smoky_Mountains}

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Please visit:  http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

Geopolitical Journey, Part 7: Poland | STRATFOR - and a horse maximum card from Poland

Geopolitical Journey, Part 7: Poland | STRATFOR

I like very much not only WHAT George Friedman has to say, but HOW he says it.
"Le style c'est l'homme".
Meaningful and enjoyable reading! :)

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This is the only maximum card that I have, so far, from Poland. But there are so many more interesting Polish stamps, postmarks and postcards that could be used to create interesting  maxicards...:)

Is it the same breed of horse on the stamp and on the postcard? I don't know. Do you? Only an expert could say. Anyway, I like it as it is, even if there might be different breeds. What I wouldn't like, though, would be if the breeds are clearly VERY different - then it would look awkward. :)

"From Africa, with Love": Good Samaritan Hippo saves wildebeest, zebra babies - see this YouTube sensation

Hippo saves wildebeest, zebra babies: "Videos showing a hippo rescuing a wildebeest calf and then a zebra foal from drowning in a strong-flowing river are causing a sensation."

Beware, safari-goers!
"Aggression

Hippopotamuses are by nature very aggressive animals, especially when young calves are present. Frequent targets of their aggression include crocodiles, which often inhabit the same river habitat as hippos. Nile crocodiles, lions, and spotted hyenas are known to prey on young hippos.^[50] Hippos are very aggressive towards humans, whom they commonly attack whether in boats or on land with no apparent provocation.^[51] They are widely considered to be one of the most dangerous large animals in Africa.^[52][53]

To mark territory, hippos spin their tails while defecating to distribute their excrement over the greatest possible area.^[54] Hippos are retromingent, likely for the same reason.^[55]

Hippos rarely kill each other, even in territorial challenges. Usually a territorial bull and a challenging bachelor will stop fighting when it is clear that one hippo is stronger. When hippos become overpopulated, or when a habitat starts to shrink, bulls will sometimes attempt to kill infants, but this behavior is not common under normal conditions.^[49] Some incidents of hippo cannibalism have been documented, but it is believed to be the behavior of distressed or sick hippos, and not healthy behavior.^[8]"

"Adult hippos cannot swim and are not buoyant. When in deep water, they usually propel themselves by leaps, pushing off from the bottom. They move at speeds up to 8 km/h (5 mph) in water. Young hippos are buoyant and more often move by swimming —propelling themselves with kicks of their hind legs. Adult hippos typically resurface to breathe every 3–5 minutes. The young have to breathe every two to three minutes.^[8] The process of surfacing and breathing is automatic, and even a hippo sleeping underwater will rise and breathe without waking. A hippo closes its nostrils when it submerges."

"Even though they are bulky animals, hippopotamuses can run faster than a human on land. Estimates of their running speed vary from 30 km/h (18 mph) to 40 km/h (25 mph), or even 50 km/h (30 mph). The hippo can maintain these higher speeds for only a few hundred meters.^[8]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippopotamus

Well, not faster than "a human"; faster than SOME humans, I would say.

I don't have maximum cards with the regular hippo species, so here are MCs with Pygmy Hippopotamus species:

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Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

Please visit: http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/

Asian Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus) also known as the Moon Bear or White-Chested Bear - WWF maximum cards about Pakistan

"Asian Black Bear

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Himalayan Bear)

The Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus), also known as the Moon bear^[2] or White-chested bear^[3] is a medium-sized species of bear, largely adapted for arboreal life, which occurs through much of southern Asia, Korea, northeastern China, the Russian far east and Honshū and Shikoku islands of Japan."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_Bear

There are many dangerous "entities" lurking in the wilderness of "The Pure Land" (a.k.a. Pakistan). This one here is NOT the deadliest. So don't shoot this innocent animal - it has no hidden agenda and it just wants to satisfy...bear necessities.

Oh, wait - killing may not be the worst thing that can happen, even to a bear!

"Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) is a Hong Kong-based charity that seeks to end cruelty to animals in Asia.

The AAF was founded in 1998 by Jill Robinson, who felt compelled to create the organisation after learning of the plight of the Asiatic Black Bear known as the “Moon Bear” because of the yellow crescent on its chest. Moon Bears are farmed throughout Asia for their bile, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine. The methods used in bear bile farming involve bears living up to 25 years in crush cages with metal catheters inserted into their abdomens for bile extraction or open wounds through which the bile drips.[1]"

"In February 2009, Animals Asia rescued a dozen malnourished, diseased Asiatic Black Bears from abusive bile-harvesting farms in southwest China. The bears were given to Animals Asia under an agreement made in 2000 with the government to save sick bears from state and illegal farms. The animals went to the foundation's Moon Bear Rescue Center outside Chengdu, which has handled 260 freed bears since the agreement was signed. [5]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_Asia_Foundation

http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/bear-bf-12.html

http://www.animalsasia.org/blog/

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1024&bih=653&q=bear+bile+farming&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Great Union Day (Romanian: Ziua Marii Uniri, also called Unification Day) occurring on December 1, is the national holiday of Romania.

"Great Union Day (Romanian: Ziua Marii Uniri, also called Unification Day^[1]) occurring on December 1, is the national holiday of Romania. It commemorates the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia, which declared the Union of Transylvania with Romania.

This holiday was set after the 1989 Romanian Revolution and it marks the unification of Transylvania, but also of the provinces of Bessarabia and Bukovina with the Romanian Kingdom, in 1918."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Union_Day

A previous Unification was accomplished by Michael The Brave, in 1600:

"Michael the Brave (Romanian: Mihai Viteazu(l), Mihai Bravu, 1558 - August 9, 1601) was the Prince of Wallachia (1593–1601), of Transylvania (1599–1600), and of Moldavia (1600), the three Romanian principalities^{note 1} being joined in the form of personal union for a brief time under his rule."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_the_Brave