A flavor of India - Bengal tiger maximum card, and a Pole Gymnastics videoclip

This is a postal card, not the back of the above viewcard. But here you can see the same pictorial postmark.

A future custom postcard that I'll create:

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

Speaking about feline moves and physical strength...

[I'm just kidding] BREAKING NEWS: Stripclub performers, pole dancers, sex acrobats, etc. from around the world are outraged by the newly-approved, worldwide mandatory routines for Pole Dancer Licensing Exam.

The routines are inspired from Indian Pole Gymnastics.

They are another symptom of job outsourcing, unless you improvise, adapt and overcome what's boring in your usual moves in pole dancing.

Customers have voiced their frustration over the lameness of the current routine, which is so simple, a GEICO cave-woman can do it.

While clothes are optional, the spectators would like to see the dancers come up with more intellectual creativity and more physical ability, in more graphic detail of the choreo kind.

Don't be surprised, next time you go to that kind of club, if you see moves inspired by these fine athletes from Bhārat Ganarājya, otherwise known as India.

Better than Ezra? No, better than Mowgli!

Watch this Indian Pole Gymnastics videoclip (cool music, too):

http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2010/08/17

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

Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

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

"Men are not dogs. Dogs are LOYAL!" - Wanda Sykes. Shipping Labels from Zazzle.com

"Men are not dogs. Dogs are LOYAL!" - Wanda Sykes. Shipping Labels from Zazzle.com

Another element of a mailpiece, that can be personalized as you wish, is your address label.
This is an example of how you can add your favorite photo to it, such as your beloved puppy.
Then you personalize it online with your own mailing address.
The image above shows the bigger model - a shipping label.
The mid-size is the address label.
The smallest size is the return label.
You can see them all, customizable, in my zazzle store. Click on the links to visit, if you want.

Every day, in USA, about 11,000 cats and dogs (many of them are adoptable) have to be euthanized [translation: put to sleep] [further translation: killed] in animal shelters.
Those unfortunate cats and dogs can't "claim sanctuary"...

Saunder's Gull (Larus saundersi) - maximum card from Vietnam, mailed later as a naked postcard (no envelope) to me by my friend Nguyen

I like very much this MC, my first from Vietnam. It was sent later, not on the date of the creation of the MC, but that's no problem.

It is really circulated thru the mail, from my friend Nguyen in Vietnam to me in USA - that's a rare thing for a maximum card.

Usually, maximum cards are not circulated as postcards, to avoid postal damage, theft, etc.

They are pure (maybe too pure), only for philatelic purposes, away from the harsh reality of the postal system.

There can be thousands of identical, Postal Administration-issued official maximum cards with a certain design.

But when you receive one as a traveled postcard, with "postal battle scars" maybe, then that is personalized to YOU, as a gesture of friendship between philatelists/stamp collectors. And the favor is returned, of course.

Even better is when you receive or send a UNICATE/UNIKAT/UNICAT maximum card, of which there is only 1 in the world, created by a collector/maximaphilist.

I like to send out nice items, too. Even very nice...

In fact, I should create a blog: "My REVERSE COLLECTION - stamps, postcards, postmarks and maximum cards that I HAVE SENT (not those that I received) to partners/friends from around the world".

In that blog, I will upload images from their online collections , and from my records of what I have sent them.

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

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

Star Wars maximum card (non-traditional) made with a custom-made postcard

This custom-made postcard is a collage.

Darth Vader, with collage(n). :)

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

Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

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

"What Happens Next: Our Look Ahead" - Forbes predictions for the next 10 years

Very interesting predictions, estimates, educated guesses, wild guesses, far-out guesses, naive guesses, clairvoyant guesses, delusional guesses and realistic guesses from many specialists - a cool article from Forbes.com. Read it now (including slides captions), and again in 10 years. You'll say Wow!, for a number of reasons...:)


"We asked our staff and contributors to forecast some of the noteworthy events of the next 10 years, a vision of the coming decade sketched from real data, projections and facts whenever possible--though we've injected a dose of rigorous science fiction to fill the gaps.

Add your own predictions in the comments section, and vote on the likelihood of future events in our interactive poll. Be bold. As Malcolm Forbes said, "Being right half the time beats being half right all the time." And time has proved him right."

http://www.forbes.com/2010/09/07/technology-energy-politics-opinions-contributors-2020_land.html?boxes=Homepagelighttop

For example, Forbes.com says this:
"2016: Virtual Jobs

America's first virtual world employee farm opens in South Carolina. Minimum-wage workers serve as bodyguards, gold harvesters in online games.".

Well, I think we could all come up with some ideas - better or worse...

Here's a maximum card that I created in 2006, while attending the Washington, D.C. World Philatelic Exhibition [Exposition].
It is a non-traditional MC, since the traditional FIP maximaphily rules say that an MC cannot have an abstract concordance of subject/theme/topic between stamp, postcard and postmark.
But I think that that rule is terribly wrong. [OMG!]
Yes, I said it. :)
Topical stamp collecting, or topical philately, means collecting by the theme.
In this case, I'd say the theme is "the stimulation of the mind - thoughts, emotions, reactions, actions..."
And yes, that's an abstract thing.
So what?
I still like my maximum card, no matter what. :)
Also, it's an UNICATE/UNIKAT/UNICAT maximum card. Only 1 copy/specimen in the whole world (I guess), since I created only 1.
Have you ever seen another one, identical (down to the pictorial postmark)? Show and tell. :)

The stamp shows a guy enjoying a Virtual Reality helmet - a world between your ears, so to speak.

I used an AD CARD, a category that so many deltiologists [postcard collectors] hate, out of principle!

But I judge a postcard by its individual merits, not by the category it belongs to.

In 2006, I made [between my ears...in my mind :)] my own prediction about Tower Records, who paid for this AD CARD.

"You will soon go out of business...Why should we pay for a whole music CD, when all we want is 1 (one) specific song?"

http://www.zazzle.com/why_stamp_postage-172279254387759379?rf=238693463283865848

We'll never forget 9/11, and (some of us) we'll never forgive it, either! - WTC1 POST CARD from Zazzle.com

WTC1 POST CARD from Zazzle.com

In Virginia, I saw a car license plate with a pentagon-shaped logo, with the Twin Towers inside the contour. The license plate ID, next to that logo, is: ULLPAY.

http://www.zazzle.com/mm_hmm_postage-172554017647834569?rf=238693463283865848

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

What would...Vlad Dracula (for example) have done about the 9/11 attack, if he were Dictator of the USA? ...:)

To the yes-men from the Democratic Party, and to the no-men from the Republican Party ("The Audacity of Nope") Vlad could have said [in Fantasy Land]:

"Now, right after 9/11, are you, ladies and gentlemen, contemplating the idea of playing your usual political games? Would you like to shove political correctness down my throat, as I am preparing this wounded country for a proper response, in self-defense?

http://www.zazzle.com/fuhgeddaboutit_postage-172290341172830415?rf=238693463283865848

This attack happened on my watch.

So I, Vlad Dracula, Dictator of USA, will NOT tell "those folks" who planned and executed this suicidal attack:

http://www.zazzle.com/make_no_mistake_postage-172367512928151380?rf=238693463283865848

Instead, I will tell "those folks" that THEY HAVE ALREADY MADE A MISTAKE!

Of the lethal kind. Starting with our almost 3,000 dead, and many more wounded.

Long story short, our enemies will face, eventually, the question "WHAT'S AT STAKE, when you attack Vlad's country?"

Let me tell you: THE STAKES ARE HIGH.

And the stakes, as an element of justice, are a very visual form of communication.

Eventually, our American armed forces will bring most of "those folks" to justice.

What justice? Poetic justice?

http://www.zazzle.com/no_no_no_no_baby_postage-172866537361275772?rf=238693463283865848

Swift justice! 

ASAP. 

Fifteen years on death row, on taxpayers money?

http://www.zazzle.com/i_dont_think_so_postage-172747464236221795?rf=238693463283865848

So: 

I declare Martial Law, 

I suspend the Constitution, 

and I send you, politicians of all colors (including political chameleons) home. 

Go filibuster yourselves in your little precincts.

Take a hike. 

The Appalachian Trail is so scenic and winding - it could take you all the way down to your "dear, dear friend in Argentina", or something. 

Transgressions galore.

[REPORTER]: - Mr.Vlad, what do you think about building a mosque at Ground Zero?

[VLAD] (perplexed): 

http://www.zazzle.com/excuse_me_postage-172194416604632509?rf=238693463283865848

For the next couple of years I will be busy, like Cincinnatus, to run this country my way, at all costs.

I know that, later on, I will be assassinated, but I'll still do it until then.

My legacy to my fellow Americans is more important than a life of luxury and of abuse of power.

Dismissed!

[Also spracht Vlad Dracula, in Fantasy Land].

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

The World Trade Center...The Pentagon...9/11/2001...actions have consequences...endlessly.

I created this as a postcard because zazzle rejected this image as a stamp: "it is too violent for a stamp, per our policies from USPS."

Hmm...

                                              
http://www.zazzle.com/well_never_forget_postage-172863772222566854?rf=238693463283865848

http://www.zazzle.com/the_pentagon_postage-172397131759321876?rf=238693463283865848

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

Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

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

Please join the "Maximaphily, traditional and non-traditional" groups at Facebook and Linkedin! :)

Please join the "Maximaphily, traditional and non-traditional" groups at Facebook and Linkedin! :)

1) The Gough Bunting, or Gough Finch (Rowettia goughensis); 2) Gough Moorhen (Gallinula comeri) - WWF maximum cards from Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited location on Earth.

"The Gough Bunting or Gough Finch (Rowettia goughensis) is a songbird species."
This bird species is endemic [lives only here] to the remote South Atlantic Gough Island .

Its "population has collapsed and it is on the verge of extinction due to the introduced population of house mice (Mus musculus), noted for its unusual aggressiveness^[4], competing with the birds for food and eating their eggs and nestlings. Consequently, it was uplisted to Critically Endangered in 2008^[5]."

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

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

This bird is protected on its native Gough Island, but not on the Tristan da Cunha Island (where it was introduced in 1956). Same archipelago, different attitudes.

"The Gough Moorhen, Gallinula comeri, is a medium-sized, almost flightless bird that is similar to the Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), but is smaller, stockier, and has shorter wings."

"On Gough Island, it appears that the bird's future is secure with the island being a nature reserve and a World Heritage Site. In the mid 1990s, it was estimated that 2500 breeding pairs existed on Gough Island. "

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

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

How is it correct to say: remotest, or the most remote? I've seen both forms used.

Now, let's analyze the distinction between island, archipelago, inhabited, uninhabited, land and "continental land".

Semantics does matter, except where it doesn't. :)

For the following discussion, it does.

"Tristan da Cunha (pronounced /ˈtrɪstən də ˈkuːnə/) is a remote volcanic group of islands in the south Atlantic Ocean, and also the name of the main island of that group. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world,^[1] lying 2,816 kilometres (1,750 mi) from the nearest [MY NOTE: continental] land,South Africa, and 3,360 kilometres (2,090 mi) from South America. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha ^[2] which also includesSaint Helena 2,430 kilometres (1,510 mi) to its north, and equatorial Ascension Island even farther removed, grouping the British South Atlantic islands into one far-flung centrally administered aggregate. Tristan da Cunha is said to be the "most remote inhabited location on Earth."^[3] It has a population of 275 (2009 figures).^[4]

The territory consists of the main island of Tristan da Cunha itself, which measures about 11.27 kilometres (7.00 mi) across and has an area of 98 square kilometres (38 sq mi), along with the uninhabited Nightingale Islands and the wildlife reserves of Inaccessible Island and Gough Island."

Being an archipelago, none of its islands is the most remote uninhabited island in the world.

They have each other, so to speak.

"The most remote island is Bouvet Island, an uninhabited and small Norwegian island in the South Atlantic Ocean. It lies at coordinates 54°26′S 3°24′E. The nearest land is the uninhabited Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, over 1,600 km (994 mi) away to the south. The nearest inhabited land is Tristan da Cunha, 2,260 km (1,404 mi) away and South Africa, 2,580 km (1,603 mi) away."

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

Please read the fascinating facts about the Tristan da Cunha archipelago:

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

WWF maximum cards from Somalia: Soemmerring's Gazelle (Nanger soemmerringii; formerly Gazella soemmerringii). Speke's Gazelle (Gazella spekei) is the smallest of the gazelle species.

What do YOU know about Somalia, besides "Pirates of the Somalian [Coast]"?
"Black Hawk Down"? That was a case of mis-allocation of resources: DON'T send your troops in the harm's way, without proper support!

Soomaaliya?
I see three redundant letter/sounds here.
"Somalia" is clear enough for me. :)
Every language in the world, including English, Esperanto, etc., is too imperfect, not phonetic enough, not optimized. None is 100% "what-you-read-is-what-you-pronounce".
There are thousands of languages and dialects, and about 26 (?) major languages.
Every language has a lot of unnecessary complications and other problems, I think.
Or, do you have a counterexample? :)

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

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

Do you have a gazelle species named after you?
I bet you don't.
But some people do:
Speke's Gazelle, G. spekei
Cuvier's Gazelle, G. cuvieri
Thomson's Gazelle, E. thomsoni
Soemmerring's Gazelle, N. soemmerringii
Grant's Gazelle, N. granti


"Speke's Gazelle (Gazella spekei) is the smallest of the gazelle species. Partially sympatric withG. gazella pelzini, it is confined to the horn of Africa where it inhabits stony brush, grass steppes, and semi deserts (Kingdom 1982, 1997). "
"This Gazelle is currently (2008) classified as endangered under the IUCN Red List."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speke's_gazelle

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Temporarily territorial:
"The Soemmerring's Gazelle is a tall gazelle with tan flanks, gradually turning to white on the belly, and long black horns. They are approximately 0.6-0.9 m (2-3 ft.) at the shoulder, and they weigh 35-45 kg (77-99 lb). The diet of the gazelle consists of acacia and bush leaves, grasses, and herbs. They inhabit open steppes with brush and acacia, as well as steppes with few trees, and scientists suggest that male Soemmerring's are temporarily territorial."


From the gazelles' perspective, there's no such thing as an O.K. Corral; no corral is OK:
"In many parts of North Africa and the Middle East, large stone corrals were constructed to drive herds of gazelle into, making for an easy ambush. This method of hunting started in prehistoric time and continued into the early part of the twentieth century. One interesting fact is that at some point in history, a Soemmerring's gazelle population became isolated on Kebir Island in the Dahlak archipelago where the gazelle actually developed a dwarf form of the larger mainland races."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soemmerring's_Gazelle

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

Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

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