World's Cutest Baby Alternates Between Terror & Delight [VIRAL VIDEO]. Also, a philatelic cover ("a symphony of blue elements") with my Big, Bad Wolf zazzle personalized stamp, that COULD be slightly more terrifying than Mommy's nose, for Baby Emerson.

See at mashable.com: World's Cutest Baby Alternates Between Terror & Delight [VIRAL VIDEO]

A philatelic cover ("a symphony of blue elements") with my Big, Bad Wolf zazzle personalized stamp, that COULD be slightly more terrifying than Mommy's nose, for Baby Emerson. 

I will mail/ post this cover today! :)

There are currently only 20 such stamps of this exact design of mine, large size, in the world.

I have previously bought a sheet of 20 stamps, medium size, of a slightly different design.

Can you spot the differences?

Se more: http://s289.photobucket.com/albums/ll201/dorincard/#!cpZZ11QQtppZZ16

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

Happy Blue Monday! (meme)

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

Japan, the Persian Gulf and Energy | STRATFOR. I also show you a nicely-franked cover, containing 12 superb postcards that I received in 2010 from my Japanese partner/friend Cockie

Please read this interesting article: Japan, the Persian Gulf and Energy | STRATFOR

Thank you again, Cockie!

Best wishes to the Japanese people, under such a catastrophic situation.

We should count our blessings, not our troubles...:)

President Abraham Lincoln - I created a set of dorincards with the 4 stamps from the 2009 series 'Lincoln 200th Anniversary of birth'. As postcard support for that, I used a multiview real postcard, two educational cards with explanatory text on the back, and a circulated ad(vertising) postcard 'commercially available' only for Sprint to send as junk mail to ITS [not IT'S] customers. Happy Postcard Friday meme!

"We interrupt this broadcast" to specify that I dedicate this blogpost, during the Presidents Day week-long unofficial celebration, to Beth Niquette, blogger extraordinnaire and all-around good person [unless she lives a double life...OMG!] , who commits a lot of resources (time, intellectual effort, etc.) for us to enjoy several blogs, including

http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/

where every Friday anybody can participate in the Happy Postcard Friday meme!

She discovered, thru genealogic research and evidence, that she is a descendant of Abraham Lincoln!!!

I took this series of 4 stamps about Lincoln:

and I decided to create non-traditional maximum cards, since I didn't have "real, commercial postcards" to create traditional maximum cards.

See other stamps with US presidents here:

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

Read about Lincoln:

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

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

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).

Word from Colonel Muammar Al Gadhafi: 'FORMING PARTIES SPLITS SOCIETIES' - see a Libyan stamp about that, issued in 1984!!! Also, 2 FDCs from Libya. Read from BBC: 'Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi appears on state TV'.

Read from BBC: 'Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi appears on state TV'.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12533069#

In 1949, George Orwell wrote 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'.
In 1984, this stamp was issued by Libya:

Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi might not be completely wrong about that...

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

There could be "democratic" societies that are deeply split, nonetheless.

There could be autocratic societies that are united, for a while, especially if the dictator is "enlightened", truly serving the interest of the nation, as needed.

Not possible, you think?

Read about Cincinnatus, Dictator of the Roman Empire, not corrupted by power:

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

This image was copied from wikipedia:en. The original description was:

English: Statue of Cincinnatus, Cincinnati, OH, 2004, by Rick Dikeman

"With one hand he returns the fasces, symbol of power as appointed dictator of Rome. His other hand holds the plow, as he resumes the life of a citizen and farmer."

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

Read from sfgate.com:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/n/a/2011/02/21/international/i093040S97.DTL&object=/n/p/2011/02/21/7002c0f9-8164-474f-8483-aba8dcc602b3.jpg

One of two Libyan air force jets is guarded by Maltese soldiers in Malta's International airport, Monday, Feb. 21, 2011. Their pilots asked for political asylum amid a bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters in Libya, a military source said.

Photo: Lino Arrigo Azzopardi / AP

The two Dassault F1 Mirage air-superiority fighter jets look similar to this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mirage_F1_Qatar.jpg

The pilots defected, rather than delivering air-to-ground superiority upon the protesters, with weaponry like this:

"Armament

• Guns: 2× 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA 553 cannons with 150 rounds per gun
• Hardpoints: 1 centreline pylon, four underwing and two wingtip pylons with a capacity of 6,300 kg (13,900 lb) (practical maximum load 4,000 kg (8,800 lb)) and provisions to carry combinations of:
  • Rockets: 8× Matra rocket pods with 18× SNEB 68 mm rockets each
  • Bombs: various
  • [DORIN'S NOTE: does the fearless leader believe that the protesters will say: Viva variety?]
  • Other: reconnaissance pods or Drop tanks
• Missiles: 2× AIM-9 Sidewinders OR Matra R550 Magics on wingtip pylons, 2× Super 530Fs underwing, 1× AM-39 Exocets anti-ship missile, 2× AS-30L laser guided missiles"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Mirage_F1

Descending into chaos...civil war: GENOCIDE ensues.

Eventually, after many protesters will die and enough military will defect, the new military junta (it's possible, is it not?) will deal with the loyalists of The Colonel.
Already, some protesters have special plans for
the (unfortunate?) members of the Amazonian Guard:


"The Amazonian Guard is an elite group of 30-40 (reports differ) virginal women who are tasked with protecting the eccentric Muammar al-Gaddafi.

Their training, as one may expect after some thought, includes both martial arts and firearms.

They have been seen following the fellow around for a few decades. Conspiracies to rape the virgin female guard upon capture of Gaddafi have been rumored during clashes and violence in Tripoli. ^{[1] [2] [3]"}

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

===========

A woman's life in Libya: a balancing act?

This 1977 FDC is about World Telecommunications Day.

But today's news is GENOCIDE.

Could space-lasers be used against the protesters? Hm...

The boxer above is mistakenly depicted.

Why?

Because he's bare-chested.

So?

It's supposed to be an amateur boxer, in the Olympic tournament.

An A-shirt is mandatory.

Only the professional boxers are bare-chested.

Anyway:

as Gaddafi's son warned, next there could be a massacre. 

He said hundreds of thousands could die.

Libya is a rich country, but 30% of people are unemployed, 66% of those employed live on a few dollars a day...

Meanwhile, dictators around the world amass riches for themselves, at the expense of "the worms", as  Elena Ceaușescu could have said.

BBC: First Valentine: Lasting legacy of 500-year-old love. Also, "Hellelil and Hildebrand: The meeting on the turret stair", my maximum card idea, my entry for Happy Blue Monday! (meme). Happy Valentine's (Voluntyne's) Day

Read from BBC (but please read also this blogpost, while you are at it): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12419712
"In 1477 Margery wrote a letter to her John pleading with him not to give her up, despite her parents' refusal to increase her dowry.

Addressing her "ryght welebeloued Voluntyne" (right well-beloved Valentine), she promised to

 be a good wife, adding: "Yf that ye loffe me as Itryste verely that ye do 

ye will not leffe me" (If you love me, I trust.. you will not leave

 me)."

==========

I would like to create a maximum  card/ maxicard/ dorincard with this Irish postcard, showing the Meeting on the Turret Stairs, 1864 (also known as Hellelil and Hildebrand), a famous painting by Sir Frederic William Burton RHA (8 April 1816 – 16 March 1900). 

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

To me, this great painting is a whole book/drama condensed in one image.

I could write quite a few observations about body language and the meaning of this image, as a whole, and in specific detail.

But soakin' [so can] you. Please comment, will you?

Everybody would have his own interpretation of this, more or less original, more or less credible.

Well, after you think about it, read this:

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/meeting_of_turret_stairs.htm

I should research if there is already a stamp (Ireland/ any other country?) with it, then create a maximum card, if possible.

:)

Here's an interesting postmark of a knight in shining armor (don't worry about the stamp -  I did not have a matching one available):

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

Happy Blue Monday! (meme)

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

From Picasa album Erin - Received Handmade cards

Great cover about Arctic Barents Race for dogsleds - if only would have had a matching stamp, instead of the lynx stamp...:)

"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 Saints, Baha'i, and Buddhism and non-religious groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous."

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

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}

Apps are displacing the WWW from your time and focus.You HAVE to read this: The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet.

You already know that the world wide web (WWW) is just a part of the Internet. But do you realize that the apps are displacing the WWW from your time and focus? All those applications you run from your smartphone, TV, etc.? Read carefully this VERY interesting duplex article from WIRED magazine.

The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet

While we focus on Information Technology updates in this blogpost, here's a very rare and cool item: a space-theme cover, with a Technology Day Station pictorial postmark from 2006.

I never met an extraterrestrial [ :) ], but I did meet people who have been in Cosmos.

First I met cosmonaut Dumitru "Dorin" Prunariu (Romania). My mother is his former biology teacher in elementary school.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumitru_Prunariu.
http://www.spacefacts.de/more/international/page/english/prunariu_dumitru.htm
http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/international/english/prunariu_dumitru.htm

Then I met astronaut Henry "Hank" Hartsfield Jr. (USA)

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

We shook hands and he autographed this space cover for me (COSMOS3b, in my photobucket.com album "dorincard").

Superb cover from Finland: 3D/lenticular/stereoscopic mini-sheet of 4 stamps Winter Sports

As you can see, it was sent to me.

At my special request, by my special local Finnish friend M.  Thank you VERY MUCH for this and your wonderful postcards and maximum cards.

BREAKING NEWS: I will send you a set of Disney movies maximum cards, that you like so much!

I created only 3 such sets!

http://s289.photobucket.com/albums/ll201/dorincard/?start=920

http://s289.photobucket.com/albums/ll201/dorincard/?start=900

We had an excellent exchange of maximum cards and postcards!

I would be ecstatic if I had at least 1 partner/friend like her in every postal autonomy in the world! :)

As I tilt the envelope, I see various positions and images. Super cool!

Congratulations, Suomi/Finland Post, for joining the philatelic ranks of Austria Post and only a few others, such as Bhutan and Tonga, in the category of  The Most Innovative and Open-Minded Postal Administrations!

LOVELY GIANT PANDA CUSTOM MAXIMUM CARD MAXICARD #10 HONG KONG CHINA. BEAUTIFUL FDOI PICTORIAL POSTMARK

LOVELY GIANT PANDA CUSTOM MAXIMUM CARD MAXICARD #9 HONG KONG CHINA. BEAUTIFUL FDOI PICTORIAL POSTMARK