Friday, December 31, 2010

Do I wish you a...Happy Face Spider? No, I wish YOU HAVE a Happy Face, because you will have a Happy New Year! :)





Happy New Year 2011!

"Theridion grallator, also known as the "happy face spider," is a member of the Theridiidae family.

The Hawaiian name is nananana makakiʻi (face-patterned spider). The binomial grallator is Latin for "stiltwalker", reference to the species' long spindly legs."

Does YOUR "smile" pattern change according to what YOU eat?
"As the pattern may change according to what food the spider has eaten (Gillespie, 1989) and as T. grallator is very small, hides during the day, and is thus not a significant prey item for any species of predator, it is more likely that the bizarre variety of patterns serves no significant adaptive purpose at all."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_face_spider


==================
Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

"From Nazareth, with love". From Nazareth "the Arab capital of Israel" ? No, from Nazareth, Kentucky, USA. I created this non-traditional maximum card with a folded card ("Christmas card") received from Romania.




Notice that I found an American stamp where Mary has the same color scheme as in the card: red robe with blue mantle.
The pictorial postmark is matching, depicting Baby Jesus.
The reason you can see pretty much the entire postmark on the picture side is because I have used an Avery transparent mailing label, to counteract the glossiness of the card.



How to remove unsoakable, self-adhesive stamps from paper? Try Pure Citrus air-freshener!

I have spotted this from Don Schilling at http://stampcollectingroundup.blogspot.com/:

"Air-Freshener Removes Unsoak[a]ble Stamps

Guest Columnist Peter Butler writes in It’s Like Magic: Removing Self-Adhesive Stamps from Paper, an article that appeared in the October issue of American Philatelist, that one of the products that seem to work well removing those pesky, unsoakable, self -adhesive stamps is an air-freshener called Pure Citrus."

The original article is here:

===============
An example of self-adhesive stamps (I show you also the back of this beautiful, luxuriant pane of stamps): Hawaiian Rain Forest.

Now, in hi-res (high-resolution) for you to properly appreciate the exquisite artwork:
Click on it, then click again, to zoom in.
:)




Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The European Pine Marten (Martes martes) - WWF maximum cards/ maxicards/ dorincards from Ireland


"The European Pine Marten (Martes martes), known most commonly as the pine marten in Anglophone Europe, and less commonly also known as Pineten, baum marten, or sweet marten, is an animal native to Northern Europe belonging to the mustelid family, which also includes mink, otter, badger, wolverine and weasel. 
It is about the size of a domestic cat. Its body is up to 53 cm in length (21 inches), and its bushy tail can be 25 cm (10 inches). 
Males are slightly larger than females; on average a marten weighs around 1.5 kg (3.5 lb). 
Their fur is usually light to dark brown and grows longer and silkier during the winter months. 
They have a cream to yellow colored "bib" marking on their throats."

Monday, December 27, 2010

Our highly-intelligent relatives, the dolphins. WWF maximum cards/ maxicards/dorincards about Montserrat, showing 4 different species of dolphins!


"(UL=Upper Left) The Atlantic Spotted Dolphin (Stenella frontalis) is a dolphin found in the Gulf Stream of the North Atlantic Ocean. Older members of the species have a very distinctive spotted coloration all over their body. 

* (UR) The Spinner Dolphin (Stenella longirostris) is a small dolphin found in off-shore tropical waters around the world. It is famous for its acrobatic displays in which they spin longitudinally along their axis as they leap through the air. 

* (LL) The short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) is a species of common dolphin. It has a larger range than the long-beaked common dolphin (D. capensis), occurring throughout warm-temperate and tropical oceans, with the possible exception of the Indian Ocean.[4] There are more short-beaked common dolphins than any other dolphin species in the warm-temperate portions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.[5] It is also found in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas. 

* (LR) The Striped Dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) is an extensively studied dolphin that is found in temperate and tropical waters of all the world's oceans."

"Montserrat (pronounced /mɒntsəˈræt/) is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. It measures approximately 16 km (10 miles) long and 11 km (7 miles) wide, giving 40 kilometres (25 mi) of coastline.[3] Christopher Columbus gave Montserrat its name on his second voyage to the New World in 1493, after Montserrat mountain located in Catalonia. Montserrat is nicknamed the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean, both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish descent of its inhabitants.

Montserrat has an active volcano, which is monitored by the Montserrat Volcano Observatory. The volcano began showing signs of erupting in the early 1990s; now considered active, it is closely watched. Montserrat's Georgian era historic capital city of Plymouth was destroyed and two-thirds of the island's population were forced to flee abroad by an eruption of the previously dormant Soufriere Hills volcano that began on April 26, 1995.[4] The eruption continues today on a much reduced scale, the damage being confined to the areas around Plymouth, including its docking facilities and the former W.H. Bramble Airport, the remnants of which were buried by flows from volcanic activity on February 11, 2010."


==========================================

Happy Blue Monday!


Sunday, December 26, 2010

"From Antarctica, with love!" - rare, circulated Antarctic cover (autographed by Father Coleman) from USAF McMurdo, Antarctica to Steven McLachlan, in Christchurch, New Zealand. The cachet and pictorial postmark depict The Chapel of the Snows, Antarctica - the southernmost religious building in the world!



Thank you, Scotty, my friend! 
I think that you really are the world's foremost authority in hands-on polar philately, after handcancelling, with various pictorial postmarks, over 10,000 philatelic items for collectors from around the world, while working many summers and winters, until 2008, in Antarctica as official USA Mail Clerk/Postmaster.

"Chapel of the Snows is a non-denominational Christian church located at the United States McMurdo Station on Ross Island, Antarctica. The chapel is the southernmost religious building in the world and has regular Catholic and Protestant services. During the Austral Summer, the chapel is staffed by rotational chaplains. The U.S. Air National Guard supplies Protestant Chaplains and the Archdiocese of New Zealand supplies Catholic Priests. The chapel is also host to services and meetings for other faith groups such as Latter Day SaintsBaha'i, and Buddhism and non-religious groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous."

Thursday, December 23, 2010

"BBC: African elephant is two species, researchers say". Also, Part 2: The African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana) - maximum card/ maxicard/ dorincard from the Republic of South Africa, and WWF maxicards about Uganda

Thank you, my friend Fi from Jo'burg [Johannesburg, RSA], for creating this UNICATE (only 1 in the world in this configuration, AFAIK= "as far as I know") maxicard specially for me! 
You have chosen the perfect position of the postmark on the postcard, when you handcancelled "under the supervision"/ "in front of" the cooperating postal clerk from the village of Krugersdorp. :)
Isn't it cool when the postmark is really visible?

WWF maxicards about Uganda



"The African Elephant is the largest living terrestrial animal, normally reaching 6 to 7.3 metres (19.7 to 24.0 ft) in length and 3 to 3.5 metres (9.8 to 11.5 ft) in height at the head, and weighing between 6,000 to 9,000 kg (13,000 to 20,000 lb).

The largest on record, shot in Angola in 1965, was a bull weighing 12,274 kg (27,060 lb) and standing 4.2 metres (13.8 ft) high, the body of which is now mounted in the rotunda of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.. (The museum's website states that the specimen weighs only 8 tons[4].) The Bush Elephant normally moves at a rate of 6 km/h (4 mph), but it can reach a top speed of 40 km/h (25 mph) when scared or upset."


Dentition (or lack of proper dentition) may be hazardous to you:
The last set of [molar] teeth last approximately until the age of 65–70. 
"Not much later, the animal dies of starvation from not being able to feed correctly. There are known cases of over 80 year old specimens in captivity."

A male elephant is called a BULL elephant.  And you thought that bullshit is always a bad thing ("that's bullshit" = "that's bad/ false/ useless!" - right?)
"These animals typically ingest an average of 225 kg of vegetable matter daily, which is defecated without being fully digested. That, combined with the long distances that they can cover daily in search of more food, contributes notably to the dispersion of many plant seeds that germinate in the middle of a nutrient-filled feces mound."

"Elephants also drink great quantities of water, over 190 liters per day."

You can talk all you want, but can YOU emit infrasounds?
"Mating happens when the female becomes receptive [MY NOTE: raping is not an option here], an event that can occur anytime during the year. When she is ready, she starts emitting infrasounds that attract the males, sometimes from kilometers away. The adult males start arriving at the herd during the following days and begin fighting, causing some injuries and even broken tusks. The female shows her acceptance of the victor by rubbing her body against his. They mate, and then both go their own way. After 22 months of gestation (the longest among mammals), the female gives birth to a single 90 cm high calf which weighs more than 100 kg. The baby feeds on the mothers milk until the age of 5, but also eats solid food from as early as 6 months old. Just a few days after birth, the calf can follow the herd by foot."

If you MUSTH know:
"Although it has often been speculated by zoo visitors[1] that musth is linked to rut, it is unlikely there is a biological connection because the female elephant's estrus cycle is not seasonally-linked, whereas musth most often takes place in winter. Furthermore, bulls in musth have often been known to attack female elephants, regardless of whether or not the females are in heat. There has been speculation that there may be a connection between musth and dominance behaviour.

Often, elephants in musth discharge a thick tar-like secretion called temporin from the temporal ducts on the sides of the head. Temporin remains largely uncharacterised, due to the difficulties of collecting samples for analysis; however, secretions and urine collected from zoo elephants have been shown to contain elevated levels of various highly odorous ketones and aldehydes. The elephant's aggression may be partially caused by a reaction to the temporin, which naturally trickles down into the elephant's mouth. Another contributing factor may be the accompanying swelling of the temporal glands; this presses on the elephant's eyes and causes acute pain comparable to severe root abscess toothache. Elephants sometimes try to counteract this pain by digging their tusks into the ground.

An African elephant chases a giraffe during musth.
Musth is linked to sexual arousal or establishing dominance, but this relationship is far from clear. Cases of elephants goring and killing rhinoceroses in national parks in Africa have been documented and attributed to musth in young male elephants, especially those growing in the absence of older males. Studies show that reintroducing older males into the elephant population of the area seems to prevent younger males from entering musth, and therefore, stop this aggressive behavior.[2][3]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musth

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

"BBC: African elephant is two species, researchers say". Also, Part 1: zazzle personalized stamp that I created, depicting The African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis)


"The African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) is a forest dwelling elephant of the Congo Basin. Formerly considered either a synonym or a subspecies of the African Savanna Elephant (Loxodonta africana), a 2010 study established that the two are distinct species[2][3]. The disputed Pygmy Elephants of the Congo basin, often assumed to be a separate species (Loxodonta pumilio) by cryptozoologists, are probably Forest Elephants whose diminutive size and/or early maturity is due to environmental conditions.[4]"



Tuesday, December 21, 2010

"WAGSTAFF: A Voice vs. An Echo." Also, a set of dorincards with Audrey Hepburn, a most classy Lady of the silver screen

I like and I follow this screenwriting blog, by Stephen Hoover:
WAGSTAFF: A Voice vs. An Echo

"True artists have their D.N.A. imprinted on their masterworks.   You can recognize the work of a master painter immediately.   Same with a writer.   Rare are unique voices -- distinct and resonating -- in any artistic field."


We should work at finding and expressing our voices.
:)
============================
This is a traditional maximum card, but can you decipher the postmark?

Out of sheer desperation, I decided some time ago to also create (occasionally) maxicards with labels (either white or transparent) so we can see the dam(ned) darn postmarks.

You think that's CURSING?

Oh, yeah - Audrey Hepburn.
Here she is:
Can YOU see the postmark now?







Europe: The New Plan | STRATFOR - "The checkbook is not the ultimate power in the galaxy. The ultimate power comes from the law backed by a gun." Also, a maxicard about European navigation on the Danube, postmarked at Sulina, Romania

Europe: The New Plan | STRATFOR

"Northern Europe is composed of advanced technocratic economies, made possible by the capital-generating capacity of the well-watered North European Plain and its many navigable rivers (it is much cheaper to move goods via water than land, and this advantage grants nations situated on such waterways a steady supply of surplus capital)."


"Southern Europe, in comparison, suffers from an arid, rugged topography and lack of navigable rivers. This lack of rivers does more than deny them a local capital base, it also inhibits political unification; lacking clear core regions, most of these states face the political problems of the European Union in microcosm."


"Central Europe — largely former Soviet territories — have yet different rules of behavior. Some countries, like Poland, fit in well with the northern Europeans, but they require outside defense support in order to maintain their positions. The frigid weather of the Baltics limits population sizes, demoting these countries to being, at best, the economic satellites of larger powers (they’re hoping for Sweden while fearing it will be Russia). Bulgaria and Romania are a mix of north and south, sitting astride Europe’s longest navigable river yet being so far removed from the European core that their successful development may depend upon events in Turkey, a state that is not even an EU member. "


"Three complications exist, however. First, when a bailout is required, it is clearly because something has gone terribly wrong. In Greece’s case, it was out-of-control government spending with no thought to the future; in essence, Athens took that black card and leapt straight into the economic abyss. In Ireland’s case, it was private-sector overindulgence, which bubbled the size of the financial sector to more than four times the entire country’s gross domestic product. In both cases, recovery was flat-out impossible without the countries’ eurozone partners stepping in and declaring some sort of debt holiday, and the result was a complete funding of all Greek and Irish deficit spending for three years while they get their houses in order."

Read more: Europe: The New Plan | STRATFOR 

==============
"As German Chancellor Angela Merkel put it, Germans are not going to retire at 67 so Greeks can retire at 58."
Poland stuck between Russia and Germany
written by: George Friedman, 10-Dec-10 http://www.stratfor.com


===================
A maxicard about European navigation on the Danube, postmarked at Sulina, Romania:



Monday, December 20, 2010

Snowflakes, snowflakes everywhere...Non-traditional and traditional maximum cards (MCs) from USA

Non-traditional maxicard, because the postmark is from USA, but the image is from Poiana Brasov, the premier winter sports resort in Romania.
Does it bother me that it's non-concordant for place?
No.
:)
I created it and I like it - it's about snowflakes, globally speaking.

Traditional maxicard - the snowflake geometry on the stamp even matches the bigger snowflake on the postcard.


Non-traditional maxicard (MC) - I have used a folded ("Greeting") card instead of a regular postcard.
Do I care that it's against "The Rules"?
Read my lips.
I don't give a...





==========================================



Followers

Labels

aircraft (2) Albania (3) Angola (2) Antarctica (5) architecture (31) Arctic (4) Argentina (1) art (6) Australia (12) Austria (5) Azerbaijan (1) bat (2) bear (10) beaver (1) Belarus (3) Belgium (2) Benin (1) best friends (48) BFF (51) Bhutan (2) BIOT (1) bird (45) bison (7) Botswana (1) Brazil (1) British Virgin Islands (1) Brunei Darussalam (1) buffalo (3) Bulgaria (6) Burkina Faso (1) Burundi (1) butterfly (2) cactus (3) Cameroon (1) Canada (4) cat (15) chamois (1) cheetah (3) Chile (1) China (23) clouded leopard (2) cock (1) Cocos (Keeling) Islands (1) cool (263) cosmos (5) cover (17) cow (3) coyote (1) Croatia (3) Cuba (2) customized postage (98) cute (79) Czech Republic (3) Czechoslovakia (1) Dahomey (1) deer (8) deltiology (108) Denmark (2) Disney (5) dog (17) dolphin (2) dorincard (327) Dracula (8) dragon (2) educational (299) EFO = errors freaks and oddities (5) Egypt (4) elephant (6) Equatorial Guinea (1) Estonia (4) Ethiopia (1) Falkland Islands (1) famous (74) fauna (127) feline (39) Fiji (1) Finland (8) fish (3) flu (2) fox (3) France (7) frog (13) funny (40) gazelle (3) Germany (7) Ghana (1) giraffe (2) Greece (1) Guinea (1) Guinea-Bissau (2) Guyana (1) H1N1 (2) Haiti (3) hare (4) hippopotamus (2) holidays (7) Honduras (1) Hongkong (6) horse (9) Hungary (2) Iceland (1) India (5) Indonesia (3) insect (2) Iran (1) Ireland (3) Israel (6) Italy (2) Japan (7) Kampuchea (2) Kenya (3) Korea (1) Kyrgyzstan (1) Laos (1) lemur (1) leopard (4) Letonia (1) Liberia (3) Libya (2) Liechtenstein (4) lion (3) Lithuania (2) love (17) Luxemburg (1) lynx (3) Macau (2) Macedonia (2) Madagascar (1) Mailer's Postmark Permit (22) Malawi (1) Malaysia (5) Maldives (1) Malta (1) mammal (86) map (12) marcophily (183) Marshall Islands (1) maxi card (333) maxicard (335) maximaphily (334) maximum card (334) MC (135) Michael Jackson (10) Moldova (3) Mongolia (1) monkey (12) Montserrat (1) Mozambic (1) Muhammad Ali (3) Namibia (6) Netherlands (3) Nevis (1) New Zealand (2) Nicaragua (1) Norfolk Island (1) Norway (1) Obama (2) Olympics (2) opossum (1) orca (2) ox (5) P-stamp (33) Pakistan (1) panda (23) Papua-New Guinea (1) Paraguay (1) personalised stamps (95) personalized stamp (1) personalized stamps (105) philately (250) Philippines (2) pig (4) plants (13) Poland (5) polar bear (7) Portugal (2) postcards (242) postmarks (234) Princeton (1) rabbit (4) ram (4) rat (1) reptile (19) rhinoceros (5) Romania (63) rooster (1) Russia (10) Rwanda (1) Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (8) Sao Tome and Principe (1) Senegal (1) Serbia (2) Slovakia (2) Slovenia (1) snake (3) snow leopard (1) soccer (5) Somalia (1) South Africa (23) Spain (9) sports (8) squirrel (3) stamp collecting (328) stamps (325) Swahili (2) Swaziland (2) Sweden (1) swine (4) Taiwan ROC (7) Thailand (1) tiger (30) trains (6) Tristan da Cunha (1) Turkey (3) Uganda (3) UK (4) Ukraine (4) UNESCO WHS (3) United Arab Emirates (4) United Kingdom (4) USA (256) USSR (1) Venezuela (1) Vietnam (3) whale (5) wild (100) wildebeest (2) wildlife (170) wolf (10) WWF (73) year (54) Yemen (2) Zambia (1) zebra (2)

Top 30 Stamp Collecting Blogs, by guidetoartschools.com

#2:
"Dorincard: Blogger Dorin C is a stamp and postcard fanatic, and luckily he's more than pleased to write prolifically and charmingly about his obsession. He has a particular bent for stamps with wild mammals on them, but his blog demonstrates an affinity for stamps of all forms and backgrounds, as long as they offer a special narrative that's worth sharing with his readers.


  • Source: http://www.guidetoartschools.com/library/best-stamp-collecting-blogs#ixzz1KirbuA4p
    "

    Some feedback received about me and my blog here

    [DORIN'S NOTE: There are over 100 million websites.]

    From alexa.com traffic rank site

    "There are 1,699,250 sites with a better three-month global Alexa traffic rank than Dorincard.blogspot.com.
    About 43% of visitors to the site come from France, where it has attained a traffic rank of 152,077.
    About 80% of visits to the site consist of only one pageview (i.e., are bounces).
    Dorincard.blogspot.com's visitors view an average of 1.5 unique pages per day.
    Visitors to the site spend roughly two minutes on each pageview and a total of three minutes on the site during each visit."



    inkling (Enthusiast)

    The best use of this site is Other.

    Likes
    • Good content

    Comments:
    Postcards and stamps, mainly featuring mammals and birds but Dorincard also has other creations
    and interests he likes to share.
    His enthusiasm for Maximum cards (a postcard and a similar themed stamps sent through the
    postal system) shines through.
    He shows how he gets the right card, stamp and postmark together.
    Visiting his site you will also learn things about the natural world told with a dry sense of humour,
    possibly with a play on words, and a unique style of headings.
    Topical and informative both for the enthusiast and casual visitor.
    • Was this useful?
    • Yes
    • No
    • Flag
    • 1 out of 1 person found this review useful.



    1 Review
    Global 1,699,251
    Alexa Traffic Rank
    France Flag 152,077
    Traffic Rank in FR

    28 Sites Linking In "


    Wedding gifts from Zazzle

    Wedding>