Mon Amur Léopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) cartes maximum - Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande du Nord

This was a folded card, which I glued to postcardize it, and I added a mailing label with a valid UK address, on the back. As far as Royal Mail UK is concerned, it's a postcard, so it's eligible for the requested pictorial postmark.

In USA, the postal associates don't care (rightfully so) if it's a cover, or a postcard, or a folded card, or some philatelic souvenir page that is not intended for mailing.

What matters in USA is that I relinquish stamps in exchange for collectible postmarking, with no obligation of later postal delivery of each item separately, by a mail carrier. 

Just return them to me in the SASE that I provided to you, USPS.

Unless I request separate delivery, and I have enough postage on each item that I want to be returned alone on the same day as the postmark date.

I don't know yet if the British postal employees would be willing to philatelically postmark for me some souvenir cards/pages, that are not covers and not postcards.

But I already verified that postcardized items (that were originally folded cards, or cut-outs from books) are acceptable.

On the other hand, I wish that USPS would not charge for the return envelope with the postmarked items inside.

Royal Mail UK considers that I already relinquished enough postage for the project.

USPS, please consider, and you might see a (small) spike in revenue. :)

Amour is Love in French; Amur is a river.

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

There are about 300 in zoos worldwide.

"The Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis), also known as the Far Eastern leopard, Korean leopard, and Manchurian leopard, is a wild feline predator native to the mountainous areas of the taiga as well as other temperate forests in Korea, Northeast China and the Russian Far East. 

It is one of the rarest felids in the world with an estimated 30 to 35 individuals remaining in the wild.^[2] The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has deemed the Amur leopard critically endangered, meaning that it is considered to be facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.^[1]"

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

Pink nose leopard...(in the top postcard)

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Happy Pink Saturday! (still open on Sunday!)

^{Please visit "Pretty in pink"/ "Show us your pink" [objects, that is :)] meme here:}

^{http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/}

"College is a waste of time", says Dale J. Stephens - read from CNN.com. Also, I show you metaphoric maximum cards about that, from USA, UK and SWA (South-West Africa, present-day Namibia)): virtual reality, Cape buffalos, grizzly bear and John Lennon

Please read and think about it - you don't have to agree 100% with him to recognize his valid points, among all his points [of view].
The title sounds too dismissive - it's for catchiness purposes...:)
I agree with a lot of his arguments. :)
College is a waste of time - CNN.com

"I left college two months ago because it rewards 

conformity rather than independence, 

competition rather than collaboration, 

regurgitation rather than learning 

and theory rather than application. 

Our creativity, innovation and curiosity are schooled out of us.

Failure is punished instead of seen as a learning opportunity. 

We think of college as a stepping-stone to success rather than a means to gain knowledge. 

College fails to empower us with the skills necessary to become productive members of today's global entrepreneurial economy.

College is expensive. 

The College Board Policy Center found that the cost of public university tuition is about 3.6 times higher today than it was 30 years ago, adjusted for inflation. 

In the book "Academically Adrift," sociology professors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa say that 36% of college graduates showed no improvement in critical thinking, complex reasoning or writing after four years of college. 

Student loan debt in the United States, unforgivable in the case of bankruptcy, outpaced credit card debt in 2010 and will top $1 trillion in 2011."

Cape buffalos need to stay with The Herd...But do YOU?

Seize the opportunity when you have the chance, not when you would PREFER.

Timing.

Think Facebook.

Listen to the "music/vocation" deep inside you.

If possible.

Imagine that you CAN do it - what would you like to do with your life?

Do your thing...

Later on, you might consider also doing what OTHERS would like you to do with YOUR life...

Maybe.

Best wishes to YOU, with or without college studies and degrees!

"A major function of college is to signal to potential employers that one is qualified to work. 

The Internet is replacing this signaling function. 

Employers are recruiting on LinkedIn, Facebook, StackOverflow and Behance. 

People are hiring on Twitter, selling their skills on Google, and creating personal portfolios to showcase their talent. 

Because we can document our accomplishments, and have them socially validated with tools such as LinkedIn Recommendations, we can turn experiences into opportunity. 

As more and more people graduate from college, employers are unable to discriminate among job seekers based on a college degree and can instead hire employees based on their talents.

Of course, some people want a formal education. I do not think everyone should leave college, but I challenge my peers to consider the opportunity cost of going to class. 

If you want to be a doctor, going to medical school is a wise choice. I do not recommend keeping cadavers in your garage. 

On the other hand, what else could you do during your next 50-minute class? How many e-mails could you answer? How many lines of code could you write?

Some might argue that college dropouts will sit in their parents' basements playing Halo 2, doing Jell-O shots and smoking pot. 

These are valid but irrelevant concerns, for the people who indulge in drugs and alcohol do so before, during and after college. It's not a question of authorities; it's a question of priorities. 

We who take our education outside and beyond the classroom understand how actions build a better world. We will change the world regardless of the letters after our names.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dale Stephens."

College is a waste of time - CNN.com

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Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

Please visit: http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/ (wait until Beth posts the today's Linky tool for the meme, then make your entry, if you want to join).

Who's afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf? Everybody (almost)! Who's afraid of the Small, Good Aardwolf? Nobody! Except the termites. I show you WWF maximum cards / maxicards / dorincards from Eritrea, with The Aardwolf of northeastern Africa (Proteles cristatus septentrionalis)

This is another strange animal species, which has been named after 3 different animals: hyena, wolf ("earth wolf" = aardwolf) and jackal ("maanhaar jackal").

But it's a member of the Hyaenidae family. The "black sheep" of that family. (Here's another animal name...)

"The aardwolf (Proteles cristata) is a small, insectivorous hyena, native to Easternand Southern Africa. The name means "earth wolf" in Afrikaans/Dutch.^[2] It is also called "maanhaar jackal".^[3] Unlike other hyenas, the diet of the aardwolf almost completely consists of termites, other insect larvae and carrion.^[4]

The aardwolf is the only surviving species of the subfamily Protelinae. 

Two subspecies are recognized: Proteles cristatus cristatus of Southern Africa, and Proteles cristatus septentrionalis of eastern and northeastern Africa.^[5][6] 

It is usually placed in the Hyaenidae, though formerly separated into the family Protelidae. 

The aardwolf lives in the scrublands of eastern and southern Africa. 

These are the areas of land covered with stunted trees or shrubs. 

The aardwolf hides in a burrow during the day and comes out at night to search for food. 

It is related to hyenas, but unlike its relatives, it does not hunt large prey."

You think ALL animals are God's creatures? "Like" [= a cliché of young people], he created all of them on purpose, no matter how dubious or nefarious is that purpose to us?

Look what the aardwolf does to the termites, beloved creatures of God.

The aardwolf "is a mass killer of insects. 

It feeds mainly on termites and can eat more than 200,000 in a single night, using its long, sticky tongue to collect them."

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

What do YOU know about Eritrea?

Me, neither - welcome to the club.

Now let's have a look.

They speak these languages: 

Tigrinya, Arabic, Tigre, Saho, Bilen, Afar, Kunama, Nara, Hedareb.

State of Eritrea ሃገረ ኤርትራ Hagere Ertra دولة إرتريا Dawlat Iritrīya
Flag Emblem

"Eritrea ( /ˌɛrɨˈtreɪ.ə/ or /ˌɛrɨˈtriːə/;^[6] Ge'ez: ኤርትራ ʾErtrā, Arabic: إرتريا Iritrīyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. 

The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The northeast and east of the country have an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. 

The Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands are part of Eritrea. 

Eritrea's size is approximately 117,600 km² (45,406 sq mi) with an estimated population of 5 million."

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

As seen from AFAR (and ISSA)

"The Afar Depression (also called the Danakil Depression or the Afar Triangle) is a geological depression, includes Afar Triple Junction, near the Horn of Africa, also a part of the Great Rift Valley, where it overlaps Eritrea, the Afar Region of Ethiopia, and Djibouti. 

Afar is well known as one of the cradles of hominids, containing the Middle Awash, site of many fossil hominid discoveries such as Ardi, (ardipithecus ramidus); Gona (Gawis cranium), site of the world's oldest stone tools; and Hadar, site of Lucy [MY NOTE: no, not Lucy from I love Lucy!], the fossilized specimen of Australopithecus afarensis."

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

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Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

Please visit: http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/ (wait until Beth posts the today's Linky tool for the meme, then make your entry, if you want to join).