WWF maximum cards/ maxicards/ dorincards about São Tomé e Príncipe. Not a fish, but they call it Blackfish; a true killer, but not a true whale: The Killer Whale (Orcinus orca). Another species on these MCs: not even a true "killer whale" (not closely related): The False Killer Whale (Pseudorca crassidens)

UL (upper-left) and LL: "The False Killer Whale (Pseudorca crassidens) is a cetacean, and the third largest member of the oceanic dolphin family (Delphinidae). 

It lives in temperate and tropical waters throughout the world. 

As its name implies, the False Killer Whale shares characteristics such as appearance with the more widely known Orca (killer whale). 

Like the orca, the False Killer Whale attacks and kills other cetaceans. 

However, the two dolphin species are not closely related. 

The False Killer Whale is black with a grey throat and neck. 

It has a slender body with an elongated tapered head and 44 teeth. 

The dorsal fin is sickle-shaped and its flippers are narrow, short and pointed. 

It can grow up to 20 feet." 

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

 UR and LR: "The killer whale (Orcinus orca), commonly referred to as the orca, and less commonly as the blackfish, is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family." 

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

"The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises^[2], which belong to suborder Odontoceti (toothed whales)." 

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

"Killer whales are found in all oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas. 

Killer whales as a species have a diverse diet, although individual populations often specialize in particular types of prey. 

Some feed exclusively on fish, while others hunt marine mammals such as sea lions, seals, walruses and even large whales. 

Killer whales are regarded as apex predators, lacking natural predators and preying even [on] large sharks."

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

Trainer-killing orca Tilikum back in SeaWorld show

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12920267

I think that's a BAD idea, both for the safety of future trainers of Tilikum and others, and for the whole idea of confining big dolphins in small swimming pools.

They deserve large spaces to live properly.

===========

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Location_S%C3%A3o_Tom%C3%A9_and_Pr%C3%ADncipe_AU_Africa.svg

"São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is a Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. 

It consists of two islands: São Tomé and Príncipe, located about 140 kilometres (87 mi) apart and about 250 and 225 kilometres (155 and 140 mi), respectively, off the northwestern coast of Gabon. 

Both islands are part of an extinct volcanic mountain range. São Tomé, the sizable southern island, is situated just north of the equator. 

It was named in honour of Saint Thomas by Portuguese explorers who happened to arrive at the island on his feast day.

São Tomé and Príncipe is the second-smallest African country in terms of population (the Seychelles being the smallest). 

It is the smallest country in the world that is not a former British overseas territory, a former United States trusteeship, or one of the European microstates. 

It is also the smallest Portuguese-speaking country."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Tom%C3%A9_and_Pr%C3%ADncipe

===========

Time for a stretch.

Today, let's make a stretch and pretend that we see a heart shape in the UL maximum card, behind the False Killer Whale.

Let's say that we see a heart formed by the water, with a little tsunami overwhelming half of that heart, if you see what I mean.

Metaphorically-speaking, today the heart of Japan is overwhelmed; half by the tsunami, half by the earthquake.

On top of that, radiation is spreading.

They'll have to build a deep-concrete sarcophagus, like in Chernobyl.

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

"Screwed" by the slipping of a screwdriver.

A fatal, supercritical mistake with The Demon Core:

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

Enjoy while you can, whatever you enjoy! Vita brevis...

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

Please visit and join The Guest Heart Thursday meme!

http://clytie-randomhearts.blogspot.com/

Welcome to Guest Heart Thursday -
A place to share YOUR hearts!

How long is the Amazon? This is a "40 cm"- long Amazon. The St. Vincent Amazon (Amazona guildingii), also known as St. Vincent Parrot. WWF maximum cards / maxicards / dorincards from St.Vincent.

"The St. Vincent Amazon (Amazona guildingii), also known as St. Vincent Parrot is a large, approximately 40 cm long, multi-colored amazon parrot with a yellowish white, blue and green head, greenish-bronze upperparts plumage, and violet blue-green wings."

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LocationSaintVincentAndTheGrenadines.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Vincent_and_the_Grenadines-CIA_WFB_Map.png

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

"Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (pronounced /seɪnt ˈvɪnsənt æn ðə ɡrɛnəˈdiːnz/ ( listen)) is a country in the Lesser Antilles chain, namely in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean. 

It is also known as "Yurumein" amongst the Garifuna people^{[citation needed]}. 

Its 389-square-kilometre (150 sq mi) territory consists of the main island of Saint Vincent and the northern two-thirds of the Grenadines, which are a chain of smaller islands stretching south from Saint Vincent Island to Grenada. 

To the north of St. Vincent lies St. Lucia, to the east Barbados. 

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is densely populated (over 300 inhabitants/km²) with its 120,000 people. 

Its capital is Kingstown, also its main port. 

The country has a French and British colonial history and is now part of the Commonwealth of Nations and CARICOM."

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

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Happy Blue Monday! (meme)

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

Drill, Baby Drill...and Mom Drill, too! The Drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus) - WWF maximum cards / maxicards / dorincards from Cameroon.

"The drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus) is a primate of the Cercopithecidae (Old-world Monkeys) family, closely related to the baboons and even more closely to the mandrill.

The drill is similar in appearance to the Mandrill, but lacks the colorful face. They are semi-terrestrial monkeys, exhibiting extreme sexual dimorphism with males weighing up to 45 kg (100 lbs) - three times the size of females. They are semi-nomadic seasonally and little is known of their behavior or ecology in the wild.

Drills are found only in Cross River State, Nigeria; South Western Cameroon; and on Bioko Island, part of Equatorial Guinea. Their entire world range is less than 40,000 km², smaller than Switzerland.

Drills are among Africa’s most endangered mammals, and are listed by the IUCN as the highest conservation priority of all African primates.^[2] Drill numbers have been declining in all known habitat areas for decades as a result of illegal commercial hunting, habitat destruction, and human development: as few as 3,000 drills may remain in the wild, the highest population estimate is 8,000. Drills have also been declining in zoos internationally."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drill_(mammal)

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

You will find PINK zones, even on the black-faced Drill...:)

Happy Pink Saturday!

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

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

Libya's Terrorism Option - read from STRATFOR. Also, somebody said that sometimes,"terrorism is the poor man's revenge", just like, sometimes, "rape is the ugly man's revenge". Sure, many exceptions apply. Also, a metaphoric image for a crowd that may resort to a terrifying stampede out of fear and anger. "Prosti, dar multi!" Never MISUNDERESTIMATE [that's a BUSHism] a crowd, which gets dangerous when desperate.

Libya's Terrorism Option

A metaphoric image for a crowd that may resort to a terrifying stampede out of fear and anger. 

"Prosti, dar multi!" 

Involuntary comedy, courtesy of translate.google.com, who believes it should translate the above quote like this:

Italian to English translation

"Prost, create multi!"========In fact, it should translate it from Romanian, into:"Stupid, but many!"That's a literary quote, meaning "yes, they are stupid, but they are many!" :)

Never MISUNDERESTIMATE [that's a BUSHism] a crowd, which gets dangerous when desperate.

Libya, the West and the Narrative of Democracy | STRATFOR. Also, a vintage B-24 bomber maximum card.

Libya, the West and the Narrative of Democracy | STRATFOR

Speaking about bombers, here's a maximum card about the WWII bomber B-24.
Notice the superb quality of the ink, in this case, that did NOT smear or smudge on the glossy postcard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-24

My fellow Americans: ask what VARIOUS news media outlets can do for you. "International forces bombard targets in Libya" - Africa - Al Jazeera English. Also, "The Libyan War of 2011" from STRATFOR. Also, "resting in a hollow scraped out in the sand": The Rhim Gazelle (Gazella leptoceros), also known as the Slender-horned Gazelle or the Sand Gazelle. WWF maxicards from Libya!

International forces bombard targets in Libya - Africa - Al Jazeera English

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20110319-libyan-war-2011?utm_source=SpecialReport&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=110319a&utm_content=readmore&elq=1621940155e343128d7d68bfd40afe8a

"The Rhim Gazelle (Gazella leptoceros), also known as the Slender-horned Gazelle or the Sand Gazelle, is a slender-horned gazelle, most adapted to desert life. There are fewer than 2500 in wild."

"The palest of the gazelles, this animal has adapted to desert life in many ways. Their pale coat reflects the sun's rays instead of absorbing them, and their hooves are slightly enlarged to help them walk on the sand, although occasionally they occupy stony regions. The horns on the male are slender and slightly S-shaped, and the horns donned by the female are even thinner and lighter, and they don't curve as drastically."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender-horned_Gazelle

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

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

Happy Sunday Stamps meme!

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

The proposed theme for March 20 is anything Irish, or green...

Well, here's the funny, true story of a high school student from Romania who knew "all about ants", and "nothing about anything else", for an upcoming written biology exam.

The subject given at the exam was PACHIDERMS.

Another student whispered to him "that's about elephants!".

Dumbfounded, our student started to wing it:

"The elephant is an animal with, uh, four legs...two ears...and... uh, two eyes.

Ah! The eyes are very good!

With his eyes, the elephant sees...THE ANTS!!!

Now, as far as the ants are concerned...."

And then he spilled ALL  his expertise about ants...:)

Here, as a GREEN element for this meme, I'll say that Sahara was once a green place, with luxuriant vegetation, according to some experts.

Now, as far as Sahara is concerned, one of the animal species that lives there is...the one shown above! :)

Not a true spider, but a true swinger: Geoffroy's Spider Monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) also known as Black-handed Spider Monkey. WWF maximum cards / maxicards / dorincards from Honduras. Postmark says Tegucigalpa.

"Geoffroy's Spider Monkey, Ateles geoffroyi, also known as Black-handed Spider Monkey,[3] is a species of spider monkey, a type of New World monkey, from Central America, parts of Mexico and possibly a small portion of Colombia. There are at least five subspecies. Some primatologists classify the Black-headed Spider Monkey, A. fusciceps, found in Panama, Colombia and Ecuador as the same species as Geoffroy's Spider Monkey.
It is one of the largest New World monkeys, often weighing as much as 9 kilograms. Its arms are significantly longer than its legs, and it has a prehensile tail that can support the entire weight of the monkey and that is used as an extra limb. Its hands have only a vestigial thumb, but long, strong hook-like fingers. These adaptations allow the monkey to move by swinging by its arms beneath the tree branches."

"females are sometimes mistaken for males by human observers.<sup>[15]"


"Although they do not use tools, spider monkeys, including Geoffroy's Spider Monkey, are regarded as intelligent primates. 


A study performed in 2007 concluded that spider monkeys were the third most intelligent non-human primate, behind only orang-utans and chimpanzees, and ahead of gorillas and all other monkeys.[22] 


This mental capacity may be an adaptation to spider monkeys' frugivorous diets, which require them to be able to identify and memorize many different types of foods and their locations.[23]"


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffroy%27s_Spider_Monkey</sup>

A pink element in the above picture would be the lips/mouth of the baby monkey in the lower-left image, I guess. :)

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

Happy Pink Saturday!

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

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

What mammal has the most colorful face in the world? The world's largest species of monkey: The Mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx). WWF maximum cards / maxicards / dorincards about Equatorial Guinea.

What mammal has the most colorful face in the world? 
Besides some Hollywood "queens", "drag queens" and "whatnot"?
Not a Drill Sergeant.

"The mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) is a primate of the Cercopithecidae (Old-world monkeys) family,[3] closely related to the baboons and even more closely to the Drill.
Both the mandrill and the drill were once classified as baboons in genus Papio, but recent research has determined that they should be separated into their own genus, Mandrillus.[3]
The mandrill is the world's largest species of monkey."

Unlike the humans:
"The mandrill is recognized by its olive-colored fur and the colorful face and rump of males, a coloration that grows stronger with sexual maturity; females have duller colours. 
This coloration becomes more pronounced as the monkey becomes excited and is likely to be an example of sexual selection. 
The coloration on the rump is thought to enhance visibility in the thick vegetation of the rainforest and aids in group movement."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandrill

Seeing is believing.

Image is everything.

What you see is what you get.

Show me the [money?].

Look at the upper right maximum card: notice that the face is NOT the only body part that is brightly colored.

Also, notice the huge canine teeth!

There have been documented cases when a coordinated gang of several muscular males have had enough testosterone-induced courage, aggressivity and stamina to counterattack and kill a powerful leopard!

Eat it, too, while they were at it.

The trick is that they attacked simultaneously, not just one at a time.

"One-at-a-time Attack Rule

Ebert also refers to the One-at-a-time Attack Rule "In any situation where the hero is alone, surrounded by dozens of bad guys, they will always obligingly attack one at a time."^[1] This can traditionally be observed in many martial arts movies. During a typical fight, the hero will engage against one opponent. Upon knocking that man out, another will attack. The surplus enemies will circle the fighting pair striking fearsome poses, indicating willingness to fight at a second's notice, yet be unwilling to help the current aggressor attack the hero. The real world reason for this is that if the hero is simultaneously swarmed on all sides by enemies, it becomes difficult for the film director to frame the fight scene while still having an unobstructed shot of the action."

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

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

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

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).

YOU (yes, YOU, my reader here and now) should have started your personal contingency plan long ago! Anyway, here are some good ideas for you to implement now, before your next emergency strikes. Read:Taming Chaos with a Personal Plan | STRATFOR. Also, I show you a nice Boy Scouts maximum card / maxicard / dorincard from my good friend Terry (USA).

Please read, think about it, and DO something about it.
It may save your life, and the lives of significant others around you, even as far as some "dear, dear friend in Argentina", or something.
[Governor, you know who you are.]

Do you have scouting experience and skills, to survive off-road, in the wilderness, if necessary?
You better learn a thing or two. Or more.

Taming Chaos with a Personal Plan | STRATFOR

Read from rt.com: BREAKING NEWS - Japan on nuclear standby. Also, I show you a postcard with a cute fox kitten from Hokkaido. Did you know that some Zoo animals are very agitated right before an earthquake?

Read from rt.com: http://rt.com/news/japan-nuclear-standby/

My most favorite news source is BBC, but look at the ascent of Russia TV http://rt.com !
Intieresnii...:)

South Korea is helping Japan with almost all its reserve of boric acid.
"Japan’s Defense Ministry decided to use helicopters and fire trucks to spray water and boric acid to prevent further radiation leaks and to cool down the reactors. But the operation had to be aborted due to high radiation levels over the facility.

Japan has requested boric acid from South Korea. Seoul on Wednesday said it would provide 53 tons of the acid, which amounts to almost all the country has, except for a quantity for domestic use."

http://rt.com/news/japan-nuclear-standby/

Speaking about the Chernobyl Disaster, what happened to the wildlife in that area?

"In reality, radioactivity at the level associated with the Chornobyl meltdown does have discernible, negative impacts on plant and animal life [4,5]. However, the benefit of excluding humans from this highly contaminated ecosystem appears to outweigh significantly any negative cost associated  with Chornobyl radiation [8]. Therein lies the often paradoxical relationship between ecological and human health risk considerations. "

"The observation that typical human activity (industrialization, farming, cattle raising, collection of firewood, hunting, etc.) is more devastating to biodiversity and abundance  of  local flora and fauna than is the worst nuclear power plant disaster validates the negative impact the exponential growth of human populations has on wildlife. 

If the world cannot afford to experience more nuclear disasters comparable to Chornobyl, then how much more significant is the implication that the world cannot afford to experience additional human population growth? "

http://web.archive.org/web/20031005140805/http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/chernobyl/wildlifepreserve.htm

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

Please visit and join The Guest Heart Thursday meme!

http://clytie-randomhearts.blogspot.com/

Welcome to Guest Heart Thursday -
A place to share YOUR hearts!

My entry for today is a little anatomical heart blue shape (kind of...yes, it's a stretch, but hey!) in front of the nose of this lovely Hokkaido (Japan) fox kitten (kitakitsune).