WWF maxicards about Kampuchea/ Cambodia: The Banteng (Bos javanicus), The Water Buffalo or Domestic Asian Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), The Kouprey (Bos sauveli), The Gaur (Bos gaurus)

Stay away (or at least stay alert) from the crowds...including celebratory crowds, pilgrims, rioters, etc.

Not only bulls can create a deadly stampede.

Best wishes to the people of Cambodia! 

A country whose history is written in deep blood, especially because of their own countrymen, The Khmer Rouge members.

Read about the genocide: it's mind-boggling how the local power-players (and several countries!) have shifted alliances among them. Foe-turned-friend-turned-foe-turned....

What a tragedy...The Killing Fields...

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

On a more peaceful note (but remember the Latin adage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_vis_pacem,_para_bellum ):

UL(upper left image): The Banteng (Bos javanicus), also known as Tembadau, is a species of wild cattle found in Southeast Asia. Banteng have been domesticated in several places in Southeast Asia, and there are around 1.5 million domestic banteng, which are called Bali cattle. These animals are used as working animals, and for their meat.[2] Bali cattle have also been introduced to Northern Australia, where they have established stable feral populations.[3] *

UR: The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is a large bovine animal, frequently used as livestock in southern Asia, and also widely in South America, southern Europe, north Africa, and elsewhere. * 

LL: Kouprey (Bos sauveli, from khmer [kuː prej] 'wild ox', also known as Kouproh or Grey ox) is a wild forest-dwelling ox found mainly in northern Cambodia but also believed to exist in southern Laos, western Vietnam, and eastern Thailand. It was discovered in 1937. *

LR: The gaur (pronounced /ˈɡaʊər/) (Bos gaurus, previously Bibos gauris) is a large, dark-coated forest animal of South Asia and Southeast Asia. The largest populations are found today in India. The gaur belongs to the Bovinae subfamily, which also includes bison, domestic cattle, yak and water buffalo. The gaur is the largest species of wild cattle, bigger than the African buffalo, the extinct aurochs (the ancestor of domestic cattle), wild water buffalo or bison. It is also called seladang or, in the context of safari tourism, Indian bison. The domesticated form of the gaur is called gayal or mithun.

Thanks, Wikipedia.org - my most favorite website!

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Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

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

Happy Thanksgiving! The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) - a dorincard/maximum card/maxicard/MC that I created using an Avery label to absorb the postmark ink. The postcard is very glossy - the postmark might have been ruined by that glossiness.

The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) species from USA is NOT the ancestor of the domestic turkeys that we butcher and devour every Thanksgiving Day.

"The domestic turkey [...] was domesticated from the South Mexican subspecies of the Wild Turkey."

So we have our domestic turkey from the other United States: The United Mexican States - Spanish:  Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)).

"Turkeys are popularly believed to be unintelligent, with claims made that during a rain storm turkeys will look up until they drown. Despite this image, the turkey is no more or less intelligent than a comparable animal,^[6] and while the birds will look at the sky for up to a minute during a rain storm, this is due to a genetic nervous disorder known as tetanic torticollar spasms.^[6] Other jests include that it is clumsy and too stupid to realize it can't fly, but both traits are due to modern breeding that makes turkeys much heavier than their wild relatives.^[6]"

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

This frog likes some trees, but not the forest: The European tree frog (Hyla arborea) - WWF maxicard from Liechtenstein

Frogs, in general, are very sensible to pollution - birth defects will soon appear, with extra legs and various other deformities. They are a "barometer" of their environment. We should pay more attention at how we are destroying our planet, day after day.

We all should make more efforts to stop that destruction.

Or else.

"The European tree frog (Hyla arborea) is a small frog that can grow to a maximum length of 4.5 cm.

They are the only members of the widespread tree frog family (Hylidae)indigenous to Mainland Europe. Characteristic are the discs on the frog's toes which it uses to climb trees and hedges. There are three or four species and many subspecies:

• Hyla arborea (Linnaeus, 1758) (common or European tree frog)
• Hyla meridionalis Boettger, 1874 (Mediterranean tree frog or stripeless tree frog)
• Hyla intermedia Boulenger, 1882 (Italian tree frog) (not always considered a species)
• Hyla sarda (De Betta, 1853) (Sardinian tree frog)

The European tree frogs actually don't live in forests, but rather prefer sunny forest edges, bushy heaths, wet dune pans, wet scrubland and extensively used meadows and parks with ponds rich in submerged vegetation without fish nearby. These habitats are increasingly influenced by human activity. Hyla arborea, the common tree frog, is endangered in western Europe (nearly extinct in Belgium) while the more common Mediterranean tree frog lives in wet gardens, treegarths, vineyards, campings, and near pine trees."

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

A formidable predator: The American Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana), often simply known as the Bullfrog, in Canada and the United States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:North-American-bullfrog1.jpg

I like this image above because it shows the full body (extended legs can be seen in other images), not just the head, or just the eyes, as in my other MCs, that you can see down below in this blogpost.

I printed a mailable postcard (not simply a photo print) with it, at winkflash.com.

I attached a bullfrog stamp, because I will definitely create a maximum card with it - I just wait for a concordant (pictorial) postmark opportunity from anywhere in USA .

Tell me about the postmark in the maxicard below, an MC created by a good friend of mine - not quite visible, huh?

Also, the bullfrog looks like an ordinary little frog, judging by the little you can see out of the water.

http://www.delcampe.com/page/item/id,0037984113,language,E.html

"The American Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana)^[1][2][3]), often simply known as the Bullfrog in Canada and the United States, is an aquatic frog, a member of the family Ranidae, or “true frogs”, native to much of North America.^[4] "

"Stomach content studies going back to 1913 suggest the bullfrog preys on any animal it can overpower and stuff down its throat. Bullfrog stomachs have been found to contain rodents, small turtles, snakes, frogs—including bullfrogs, birds, even a bat, as well as the many invertebrates which are the usual food of ranid frogs."

"Prey motion elicits feeding behavior. First, if necessary, the frog performs a single orienting bodily rotation ending with the frog aimed towards the prey. This is followed by approaching leaps, if necessary. Once within striking distance, the bullfrog emits its feeding strike, which consists of a ballistic (eyes closed as during all leaps) lunge that ends with the mouth opening, extension of the fleshy and mucous-coated tongue upon the prey, often engulfing it, while the jaws continue their forward travel to close (bite) in close proximity to the prey's original location just as the tongue is retracted back into the mouth, prey attached. Large prey that do not travel entirely into the mouth are literally stuffed in with the forearms. In laboratory observations, bullfrogs taking mice usually dove underwater with prey in mouth, apparently with the advantageous result of altering the mouse's defense from counterattack to struggling for air."

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

http://www.zazzle.com/bullfrog_postage-172019185732176058?rf=238693463283865848

Frog species from Africa (Part 4): is this The Big-eyed Tree Frog (Leptopelis vermiculatus), or one of the other similar 48 species from genus Leptopelis? - dorincard/maxicard from Venda

Can YOU identify this species?

"Leptopelis genus of frogs found throughout Africa. They are medium sized, semi-arboreal frogs, with distinctively large eyes. They vary greatly in color and patterning, but as juveniles tend to be bright green in color, and as they age they turn to a brown. There are 49 species currently recognized, but most are not well understood and their taxonomic status can vary greatly by source. They have a number of common names, including forest tree frogs, leaf frogs and big-eyed frogs."

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

Frog species from Africa (Part 3): The Grey Foam-nest Treefrog or Southern Foam-nest Treefrog (Chiromantis xerampelina) - maxi card from Venda

The Grey Foam-nest Treefrog or Southern Foam-nest Treefrog (Chiromantis xerampelina).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiromantis_xerampelina

Frog species from Africa (Part 2): The Angola River Frog or Common River Frog (Afrana angolensis) - maxicard from Venda

I found it in wikipedia.org not as Rana angolensis, as on the postcard, but as The Angola River Frog or Common River Frog (Afrana angolensis).

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

Frog species from Africa (Part 1): Anchieta's Ridged Frog or Plain Grass Frog (Ptychadena anchietae) - maximum card from Venda

Anchieta's Ridged Frog or Plain Grass Frog (Ptychadena anchietae).

Check this out: 

"Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montanes, dry savanna, moist savanna, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland, rivers, intermittent rivers, freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marches, hot deserts, arable land, rural gardens, urban areas, and ponds."

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

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

A frog without any inner Prince - no point in kissing it. The Fiji Tree Frog (Platymantis vitiensis) - WWF maxicards about Fiji

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

http://s289.photobucket.com/albums/ll201/dorincard/WWF/

Click the above link to my photobucket album, to access more WWF images from my collection.

Geopolitical Journey, Part 5: Turkey | STRATFOR - and a maximum card showing Ottoman Turks

Geopolitical Journey, Part 5: Turkey | STRATFOR

Here's a maximum card from Romania, showing invading Ottoman Turks hard at work during the Dark Ages, having a "democratic debate" with "the infidels".
No, Rodney King, we can't all get along [for too long]. Sooner or later, our interests will clash.
Aygara Damtee Yu.

http://www.zazzle.com/yes_thats_an_euphemism_postage-172784866997600135?rf=238693463283865848

The favor has been returned, on and off, by most European countries. The armies of the Ottoman Empire fought numerous times to conquer Europe.
Immigration is a modern "strategery" for "those folks". Or any other folks, sin embargo - creo que si.

http://www.zazzle.com/make_no_mistake_postage-172367512928151380?rf=238693463283865848

Do not "misunderestimate" them!

Millions of people, many of them innocents, have been killed over time either in the name of the Christian God, or in the name of Allah.
Those two Gods (unless they are one and the same= THE one and only God) may be great, but great is also the number of the killings performed in their name.
So-called fidels (from both religions) slaughtered the so-called "infidels".
What a waste of human life, is it not?
Meanwhile, God (The Supreme Genetic Engineer, in charge of our Universe) may be watching us from a distance (is he distancing himself from us?) and saying:

http://www.zazzle.com/sheesh_postage-172193995595441185?rf=238693463283865848

The fresco can still be seen in living colors, after hundreds of years.
"Voroneţ is a monastery in Romania, located in the town of Gura Humorului, Moldavia. It is one of the famous painted monasteries from southern Bukovina, in Suceava County. Between May and September 1488, Stephen III of Moldavia (known as "Stephen the Great") built the Voroneţ Monastery to commemorate the victory at Battle of Vaslui. Often known as the "Sistine Chapel of the East", the frescoes at Voroneţ feature an intense shade of blue known in Romania as "Voroneţ blue". "[T]he exterior walls — including a representation of the Last Judgment on the west wall — were painted in 1547 with a background of vivid cerulean blue. This blue is so vibrant that art historians refer to Voroneţ blue the same way they do Titian red."[1]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorone%C5%A3_Monastery

Example 3 - How I created a dorincard (= freestyle maximum card) from a FOLDED POSTCARD ("Greeting Card")? In my definition, a dorincard can be either a traditional (FIP CfM-compliant) maximum card, or a non-traditional maximum card. This one here is non-traditional. :)

See the two previous posts.

"The Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) is a passerine bird, and a member of the family Corvidae native to North America. It belongs to the "blue", Canadian or American jays, which are, among the Corvidae, not closely related to other jays. It is adaptable, aggressive and omnivorous, and has been colonizing new habitats for many decades."

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

Example 2 - How I created a dorincard (= freestyle maximum card) from a calendar page? In my definition, a dorincard can be either a traditional (FIP CfM-compliant) maximum card, or a non-traditional maximum card. This one here is non-traditional. :)

See Example 1 (the previous post), for more details - not to repeat everything here.

"The Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) is a passerine bird, and a member of the family Corvidae native to North America. It belongs to the "blue", Canadian or American jays, which are, among the Corvidae, not closely related to other jays. It is adaptable, aggressive and omnivorous, and has been colonizing new habitats for many decades."

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