Read from BBC: "Saudi Arabia 'detains' Israeli vulture for spying". Hands on the Griffon. See world stamps featuring the Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus)

From my personal collection: Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) - Romanian stamp from a nice series of 8 stamps from 1967.

Yes, it's a CTO (cancelled-to-order) stamp.

So what? I like it - I keep it.

It would have been cool to have it really circulated, or still on a cover, or on a maximum card, but hey!...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12120259#

See other world stamps featuring the Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus):
http://www.birdtheme.org/species/imagespage.php?spec=1206&fl=G

Gyps, not Gypsy
"The Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) is a large Old World vulture in the bird of prey family Accipitridae.

The Griffon Vulture is 93–110 cm (37–43 in) long with a 230–269 cm (91–106 in) wingspan, and it weighs between 6 and 13 kg (13.2 and 29 lb). "

"Like other vultures, it is a scavenger, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals which it finds by soaring over open areas, often moving in flocks. It grunts and hisses at roosts or when feeding on carrion."

Don't mess with a Griffon while it's eating HISS food - it may become DISGRUNTLED.

CARRION, child!

The Griffon Vulture can live as long as a longeviv human.

Since when is CARRION a healthy diet?

"Little is known about the average life-span of these birds, but it is approximated at 50 to 70 years in the wild, but the oldest death recorded in captivity is 118 years old.^[1]

It breeds on crags in mountains in southern Europe, north Africa, and Asia, laying one egg. Griffon Vultures may form loose colonies. The population is mostly resident."

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

See cool maximum cards with Griffon Vulture (and dogs, and other subjects) in the photobucket album of my philatelic friend and fellow maximaphilist [strictly traditional FIP, I might specify :) ] "Tangorn", from Israel:

http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa153/Tangorn/#!cpZZ7QQtppZZ16

Winter Garden Postage Stamps from Zazzle.com, mosaic artwork by Cristina-Mary Buzamet (Romania)

http://www.zazzle.com/winter_garden_postage-172800864997904047?gl=CristinaMaryBuzamet&rf=238693463283865848

Winter Garden Postage Stamps from Zazzle.com

To see more of her cool mosaic artwork ("gestual mosaic"), please visit: http://www.zazzle.com/cristinamarybuzamet

cristinamarybuzamet's Store at Zazzle

Best wishes to you, Cristina-Mary! You found your vocation and your job, all in one! That's very rare! :)

Un An Nou Fericit - 2011! [A Happy New Year - 2011!]

More links:

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/cristinamary-buzamet.html

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:

Orient Express Train: Romanian cover and maximum cards with joint-issue stamps Romania-Austria

Thank you, my dear friend Teodor from Romania!  Multzumesc! :)

Salzburg (Austria) Railway Station

Sinaia (Romania) Railway Station - read the placard on the train car: Venice - Simplon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Orient-express_histoire.png

"The Orient Express was the name of a long-distance passenger train service originally operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. It ran from 1883 to 2009 and is not to be confused with the Venice-Simplon Orient Express train service, which continues to run.

The route and rolling stock of the Orient Express changed many times. Several routes in the past concurrently used the Orient Express name, or slight variants thereof. Although the original Orient Express was simply a normal international railway service, the name has become synonymous with intrigue and luxury travel. The two city names most prominently associated with the Orient Express are Paris and Istanbul, the original endpoints of the timetabled service.

In 1977, the Orient Express stopped serving Istanbul. Its immediate successor, a through overnight service from Paris to Vienna, ran for the very last time from Paris on Friday, June 8, 2007. After this, the route, still called the "Orient Express", was shortened to start fromStrasbourg instead,^[1] occasioned by the inauguration of the LGV Est which affords much faster travel times from Paris to Strasbourg. The new curtailed service left Strasbourg at 22.20 daily, shortly after the arrival of a TGV from Paris, and was attached at Karlsruhe to the overnight sleeper service from Amsterdam to Vienna.

On 14 December 2009, the Orient Express ceased to operate and the route disappeared from European railway timetables, reportedly a "victim of high-speed trains and cut-rate airlines".^[2]The Venice-Simplon Orient Express train, a private venture using original carriages from the 1920s and 30s, continues to run from London to Venice and to other destinations in Europe, including the original route from Paris to Istanbul.^[3]"

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

Trains on stamps, Part 3: stamps from Romania, Dahomey, Guinea-Bissau...and Burkina Faso, too!

Dahomey is now Benin.

Guinea-Bissau: not Guinea, not Equatorial Guinea, not Papua-New Guinea.

Burkina Faso, the country formerly known as Upper Volta.

Romania - roughly a third of it... is a region called Transylvania. :)

That concludes our brief geo-history moment, boys and girls. :)

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).

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

Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

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

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

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

Geopolitical Journey, Part 4: Moldova | STRATFOR

Please read: Geopolitical Journey, Part 4: Moldova | STRATFOR

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

My opinion is that "MIGHT makes RIGHT", so the Empire called The Soviet Union grabbed and annexed lands and nations as much and as long as it could.

Moldova, as dirt-poor as they say it is, belongs to Romania, for all the historical and cultural reasons. And much more.

Despite all the deportations to Siber-space [Siberia] and the forced Russification, Moldova will remain forever a Romanian land, struggling with its enemies at the crossroads of history.

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

Consider this my e-postcard for today's blogpost: National Library of Moldova, in Chisinau:

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

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

Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

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

Geopolitical Journey, Part 3: Romania | STRATFOR

Geopolitical Journey, Part 3: Romania | STRATFOR

Please read this very interesting series from George Friedman, one of my most favorite political journalists, analysts, and more.

A Romanian military vessel in the Black Sea.

Another one:

Geopolitical Journey, Part 2: Borderlands | STRATFOR

Geopolitical Journey, Part 2: Borderlands | STRATFOR

Please read this very interesting series from George Friedman, one of my most favorite political journalists, analysts, and more.

A Romanian military vessel in the Black Sea.

Geopolitical Journey, Part 1: The Traveler | STRATFOR

Geopolitical Journey, Part 1: The Traveler | STRATFOR

Please read this very interesting series from George Friedman, one of my most favorite political journalists, analysts, and more.

A Romanian military vessel in the Black Sea.