How to create a non-traditional maximum card/ maxicard by using a custom postcard made from a cut-out (from a book, magazine, calendar, etc.)? Example: The Southern Right Whale (Balaenoptera australis), a dorincard mailed to me as a postcard by my friend Viviana, from Argentina

This is the repaired version, after I have re-glued the right side of the stamp. Notice the vertical wear mark to the right of the denomination 75, and the big (but faint) vertical wear mark (white) in the middle of the postcard.

 

This is the original version, as I received in the mail, with the right side of the stamp unglued, torn and folded. Luckily, the Automated Postal Systems from United States Postal Service (USPS) and from Correos de Argentina were not that brutal, this time, as to completely destroy or remove the stamp.

Notice the tear and wear marks over my ZIP code 20170, and in the lower right corner.

This is the repaired version, where I re-glued the paper as much as possible. Now the ZIP code is visible.

Why this project?

I saw that stamp with The Southern Right Whale (Balaenoptera australis), on a previous cover from Viviana (thank you, again! :) ) and I wanted to create a maximum card.

Since she did not find a regular, commercial postcard in Argentina, I decided to create one.

I cut out an image from a book, and I affixed a self-adhesive, peelable paper backing (notice the symbol in the lower right corner of the above image).

I have sent to my friend that custom postcard, and I asked her to affix the matching stamp on the picture side, and the rest of the necessary stamps on the address side.

Of course that I could have asked her to send it under cover (not undercover, like a secret :) ).

But I wanted to expose that non-traditional maximum card/maxicard/dorincard to the harsh reality and brutality of the Postal Systems.

My unique-in-the-world, UNICATE/UNICAT postal and philatelic item has really traveled in the mail, without protective cover, and it has the battle scars to prove it.

That's what I expected - no surprise.

Lessons re-learned about how to prepare a postcard, custom or not

1 - Don't affix the stamp just with saliva or water, if it's not self-adhesive. Especially if the stamp is on the glossy picture side. It may fall off, as I had cases from Norway, Luxemburg, etc.

Glue the stamp thoroughly and carefully. Make it stick.

2 - Affix the stamps (especially those on the rough-paper address side) a little away from the right margin of the postcard. That's where the Postal Machines will start tearing while processing them.

3 - Write the address (especially the apartment numbers, postal codes, etc.) also a little away from the right margin of the postcard. Don't ask me why -  I just told you. :)

4 - If you are the sender, and your address and text are confidential - tell your recipient, so they don't upload and publicize that info.

In this case here, Viviana's address is already available on her blog, so http://www.zazzle.com/according_to_my_calculations_the_problem_doesnt_postage-172223422425144979?rf=238693463283865848

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"They are called "right whales" because whalers thought the whales were the "right" ones to hunt, as they float when killed and often swim within sight of shore. As such, they were nearly hunted to extinction during the active years of the whaling industry. Today, instead of hunting them, people often watch these acrobatic animals for pleasure."

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

"The southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus Eubalaena. Like other right whales, the southern right whale is readily distinguished from others by the callosities on its head, a broad back without a dorsal fin, and a long arching mouth that begins above the eye. Its skin is very dark grey or black, occasionally with some white patches on the belly. The right whale's callosities appear white due to large colonies of cyamids (whale lice) [MY NOTE: not human lice - head or pubic]. It is almost indistinguishable from the closely related North Atlantic and the North Pacific right whales, displaying only minor skull differences."

Like a non-drunken sailor:

"One behavior unique to the southern right whale, known as sailing, is that of using their elevated flukes to catch the wind. It appears to be a form of play and is commonly seen off the coast of Argentina and South Africa.^[3]".

^{And you thought that "the 400 pounds gorilla" is a huge thing...What is almost as heavy as 3 whole gorillas?}

^"The maximum size of an adult female is 18.5 m (61 ft)^{[citation needed]} and can weigh up to 80 tonnes (79 LT; 88 ST).^{[citation needed]} The testicles of right whales are likely to be the largest of any animal, each weighing around 500 kg (1,100 lb). This suggests that sperm competition is important in the mating process.^[5] Its penis is 12 feet long.^[6]

Right whales cannot cross the warm equatorial waters to connect with the other (sub)species and (inter)breed: their thick layers of insulating blubber make it impossible for them to dissipate their internal body heat in tropical waters."

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

See, too much blubber may be hazardous to your romantic life...

BBC - Earth News - "Blue whale's gigantic mouthful measured". The largest animal in the world that has EVER lived: Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus). Maxicards from USA, Romania and Australia

Read this very interesting article from BBC, my most favorite NEWS site in the world:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9265000/9265623.stm

Now, from my most favorite website in the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
"The Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales (called Mysticeti).^[3] At over 33 metres (108 ft) in length and 180 metric tons (200 short tons)^{[4] [MY NOTE: How about LONG tons? :) ]} or more in weight, it is the largest animal ever known to have existed.<sup>[5]"


The largest animal? Says who?
The fossil record, that's who! 
We never found direct evidence (or circumstantial) to believe otherwise.




DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME: going the distance with a gorilla
"</sup>There have been at least 11 documented cases of blue/fin [whale] hybrid adults in the wild. Arnason and Gullberg describe the genetic distance between a blue and a fin as about the same as that between a human and a gorilla.^[14] Researchers working off of Fiji believe they photographed a hybrid humpback/blue whale.^[15]"

 A 19 Foot Long Blue Whale Skull at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Joey_williams_with_a_19_foot_long_blue_whale_skull.jpg

"A blue whale's tongue weighs around 2.7 metric tons (3.0 short tons)^[25] and, when fully expanded, its mouth is large enough to hold up to 90 metric tons (99 short tons) of food and water.^[7] 

The tongue is heavier than a whole average elephant.

When a pod of orcas manage to hunt a blue whale, the tongue is the first thing devoured by the Orca (Orcinus orca), misnomed as Killer Whale (it's just the largest of the dolphins species).

Despite the size of its mouth, the dimensions of its throat are such that a blue whale cannot swallow an object wider than a beach ball.^[26] 

Its heart weighs 600 kilograms (1,300 lb) and is the largest known in any animal.^[25]

 A blue whale's aorta is about 23 centimetres (9.1 in) in diameter.^[27]

During the first seven months of its life, a blue whale calf drinks approximately 400 litres (100 U.S. gallons) of milk every day. Blue whale calves gain weight quickly, as much as 90 kilograms (200 lb) every 24 hours. 

Even at birth, they weigh up to 2,700 kilograms (6,000 lb)—the same as a fully grown hippopotamus.^[3]"

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

http://delcampe.com/page/item/id,0037984740,language,E.html

What's wrong with this MC? The postcard is upside-down, based on how the mouth opens, the eye placement and the striations for expansions (see the stamp for reference). Whoever made this MC should have turned the postcard (correctly printed with the writing on the back).

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Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

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

You got big coconuts? You got big crabs! The coconut crab (Birgus latro) is the largest land-living arthropod in the world - WWF maxicards about BIOT/B.I.O.T. = British Indian Ocean Territory

"The coconut crab [(Birgus latro)] is the largest land-living arthropod in the world, and is probably at the upper limit of how big terrestrial animals with exoskeletons can become in today's atmosphere."

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

"The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) or Chagos Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Africa and Indonesia. The territory comprises the six atolls of the Chagos Archipelago (Phehandweep फेहंद्वीप in Hindi and other North Indian languages, Paeikaana Theevukal பேகான தீவுகள் in Tamil, Feyhandheebuފޭހަންދީބު in Dhivehi) with over 1,000 individual islands (many tiny) having a total land area of 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi).^[5]

The largest island is Diego Garcia (area 44 km²), the site of a joint military facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. Following the eviction of the native population in the 1960s, the only inhabitants are US and British military personnel and associated contractors, who collectively number around 4,000 (2004 figures).^[5]"

View of Diego Garcia, showing military base.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diegogarcia.jpg

"In 1966, the British government purchased the privately owned copra plantations and closed them down. Over the next five years, the British authorities forcibly and clandestinely removed the entire population of about 2,000 people, known as Chagossians (or Ilois), from Diego Garcia and two other Chagos atolls, Peros Banhos and Salomon, to Mauritius^[8] (see Depopulation of Diego Garcia). In 1971, the United Kingdom and the United States signed a treaty, leasing the island of Diego Garcia to the American military for the purposes of building a large air and naval base on the Island. The deal was important to the United Kingdom, as the United States agreed to give them a substantial discount on the purchase of Polaris nuclear missiles in return for the use of the islands as a base^{[citation needed]}. The strategic location of the island was also significant at the centre of the Indian Ocean, and to counter any Soviet threat in the region."

"The United States Air Force used the base during the 1991 Gulf War and the2001 war in Afghanistan, as well as the 2003 Iraq War."

"Diego Garcia's military base is home to the territory's only airport (one paved runway over 3000 metres long), capable of operating very heavy USAF bombers like the B-52 and the Space Shuttle if ever required in a mission abort, and only one major seaport."

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

Let's go into Virgin Territory: The Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) - WWF maximum cards about British Virgin Islands

"The Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) is the smallest of the eight species of pelican, although it is a large bird in nearly every other regard."

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

"The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands (BVI), is a British overseas territory, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S. Virgin Islands. British Virgin Islands government publications had traditionally continued to commence with "The Territory of the Virgin Islands", but recently, more legislation now simply refers to the Territory as the "British Virgin Islands". [note 1][citation needed]

The British Virgin Islands consist of the main islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and Jost Van Dyke, along with over fifty other smaller islands and cays. Approximately fifteen of the islands are inhabited. The capital, Road Town, is situated on Tortola, the largest island which is approximately 20 km (12 mi) long and 5 km (3 mi) wide. The islands have a total population of about 22,000, of whom approximately 18,000 live on Tortola."

"The first European sighting of the Virgin Islands was by Christopher Columbus in 1493 on his second voyage to the Americas. Columbus gave them the fanciful name Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Vírgenes.. (Saint Ursula and her 11,000 Virgins), shortened to Las Vírgenes (The Virgins), after the legend of Saint Ursula."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Virgin_Islands

"Saint Ursula ("little female bear" in Latin) is a British Christian saint."

She wanted CONAN as her HON[EY]. Instead, she got a HUN [executioner].

"Her legend, probably unhistorical,[2][3] is that she was a Romano-British princess who, at the request of her father King Donaut of Dumnonia in south-west England, set sail to join her future husband, the pagan Governor Conan Meriadoc of Armorica (Brittany), along with 11,000 virginal handmaidens. However, a miraculous storm brought them over the sea in a single day to a Gaulish port, where Ursula declared that before her marriage she would undertake a pan-European pilgrimage. She headed for Rome, with her followers, and persuaded the Pope, Cyriacus (unknown in the pontifical records), and Sulpicius, Bishop of Ravenna, to join them. After setting out for Cologne, which was being besieged by Huns, all the virgins were beheaded in a dreadful massacre. The Huns' leader shot Ursula dead, supposedly in 383 (the date varies)."


UNDECIMILLA
"While there was a tradition of virgin martyrs in Cologne by the 5th century, this was limited to a small number between two and eleven according to different sources. The 11,000 were first mentioned in the 9th century; suggestions as to where this came from have included reading the name "Undecimillia" or "Ximillia" as a number, or reading the abbreviation "XI. M. V." as eleven thousand (in Roman numerals) virgins rather than eleven martyred virgins. One scholar has written that in the eighth century, the relics of virgin martyrs were found, among which were included those of a girl named Ursula, who was eleven years old-–in Latin, undecimilia. Undecimilia was subsequently misread or misinterpreted as undicimila (11,000), thus producing the legend of the 11,000 virgins.[8] Another theory is that there was only one virgin martyr, named Undecimilla, “which by some blundering monk was changed into eleven thousand.”[9]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Ursula

"Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes in 1521 named 'Eleven Thousand Virgins' what is now known as Saint-Pierre and Miquelon."




""72 Virgins"


The concept of 72 virgins in Islam refers to an aspect of paradise. In a collection by Imam at-Tirmidhi in his "Sunan" (Volume IV, Chapters on "The Features of Heaven as described by the Messenger of Allah", chapter 21: "About the Smallest Reward for the People of Heaven", hadith 2687) and also quoted by Ibn Kathir in his Tafsir (Qur'anic Commentary) of Surah Qur'an 55:72, it is stated that:

"It was mentioned by Daraj Ibn Abi Hatim, that Abu al-Haytham 'Adullah Ibn Wahb narrated from Abu Sa'id al-Khudhri, who heard Muhammad saying, 'The smallest reward for the people of Heaven is an abode where there are eighty thousand servants and seventy-two houri, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine and ruby, as wide as the distance from al-Jabiyyah to San'a.[63]

[edit] Views

Margaret Nydell states that mainstream Muslims regard this belief about 72 virgins in the same way that mainstream Christians regard the belief that after death they will be issued with wings and a harp, and walk on clouds.[64]"

Another interpretation of the relevant passages of the Qur'an is The Syro-Aramaic Reading Of The Qur'an written by Christoph Luxenberg. In respect of this particular point, Luxenberg argues that the relevant passage actually translates to a portrayal of paradise as a lush garden with pooling water and trees with rare fruit, including white raisins (considered to be delicacies at the time that the Qur'an was written), not virgin maidens.[65][66]

Regarding the above statement, Hafiz Salahuddin Yusuf has said: "The narration, which claims that everyone would have seventy-two wives has a weak chain of narrators." [47]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/72_virgins

Some would say to Hafiz: YOU ARE the weakest link!

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Her name is Andress, not...Undress:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_Andress

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/