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).

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Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

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

You got big coconuts? You got big crabs! The coconut crab (Birgus latro) is the largest land-living arthropod in the world - WWF maxicards about BIOT/B.I.O.T. = British Indian Ocean Territory

"The coconut crab [(Birgus latro)] is the largest land-living arthropod in the world, and is probably at the upper limit of how big terrestrial animals with exoskeletons can become in today's atmosphere."

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

"The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) or Chagos Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Africa and Indonesia. The territory comprises the six atolls of the Chagos Archipelago (Phehandweep फेहंद्वीप in Hindi and other North Indian languages, Paeikaana Theevukal பேகான தீவுகள் in Tamil, Feyhandheebuފޭހަންދީބު in Dhivehi) with over 1,000 individual islands (many tiny) having a total land area of 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi).^[5]

The largest island is Diego Garcia (area 44 km²), the site of a joint military facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. Following the eviction of the native population in the 1960s, the only inhabitants are US and British military personnel and associated contractors, who collectively number around 4,000 (2004 figures).^[5]"

View of Diego Garcia, showing military base.

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

"In 1966, the British government purchased the privately owned copra plantations and closed them down. Over the next five years, the British authorities forcibly and clandestinely removed the entire population of about 2,000 people, known as Chagossians (or Ilois), from Diego Garcia and two other Chagos atolls, Peros Banhos and Salomon, to Mauritius^[8] (see Depopulation of Diego Garcia). In 1971, the United Kingdom and the United States signed a treaty, leasing the island of Diego Garcia to the American military for the purposes of building a large air and naval base on the Island. The deal was important to the United Kingdom, as the United States agreed to give them a substantial discount on the purchase of Polaris nuclear missiles in return for the use of the islands as a base^{[citation needed]}. The strategic location of the island was also significant at the centre of the Indian Ocean, and to counter any Soviet threat in the region."

"The United States Air Force used the base during the 1991 Gulf War and the2001 war in Afghanistan, as well as the 2003 Iraq War."

"Diego Garcia's military base is home to the territory's only airport (one paved runway over 3000 metres long), capable of operating very heavy USAF bombers like the B-52 and the Space Shuttle if ever required in a mission abort, and only one major seaport."

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

Let's go into Virgin Territory: The Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) - WWF maximum cards about British Virgin Islands

"The Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) is the smallest of the eight species of pelican, although it is a large bird in nearly every other regard."

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

"The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands (BVI), is a British overseas territory, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S. Virgin Islands. British Virgin Islands government publications had traditionally continued to commence with "The Territory of the Virgin Islands", but recently, more legislation now simply refers to the Territory as the "British Virgin Islands". [note 1][citation needed]

The British Virgin Islands consist of the main islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and Jost Van Dyke, along with over fifty other smaller islands and cays. Approximately fifteen of the islands are inhabited. The capital, Road Town, is situated on Tortola, the largest island which is approximately 20 km (12 mi) long and 5 km (3 mi) wide. The islands have a total population of about 22,000, of whom approximately 18,000 live on Tortola."

"The first European sighting of the Virgin Islands was by Christopher Columbus in 1493 on his second voyage to the Americas. Columbus gave them the fanciful name Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Vírgenes.. (Saint Ursula and her 11,000 Virgins), shortened to Las Vírgenes (The Virgins), after the legend of Saint Ursula."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Virgin_Islands

"Saint Ursula ("little female bear" in Latin) is a British Christian saint."

She wanted CONAN as her HON[EY]. Instead, she got a HUN [executioner].

"Her legend, probably unhistorical,[2][3] is that she was a Romano-British princess who, at the request of her father King Donaut of Dumnonia in south-west England, set sail to join her future husband, the pagan Governor Conan Meriadoc of Armorica (Brittany), along with 11,000 virginal handmaidens. However, a miraculous storm brought them over the sea in a single day to a Gaulish port, where Ursula declared that before her marriage she would undertake a pan-European pilgrimage. She headed for Rome, with her followers, and persuaded the Pope, Cyriacus (unknown in the pontifical records), and Sulpicius, Bishop of Ravenna, to join them. After setting out for Cologne, which was being besieged by Huns, all the virgins were beheaded in a dreadful massacre. The Huns' leader shot Ursula dead, supposedly in 383 (the date varies)."


UNDECIMILLA
"While there was a tradition of virgin martyrs in Cologne by the 5th century, this was limited to a small number between two and eleven according to different sources. The 11,000 were first mentioned in the 9th century; suggestions as to where this came from have included reading the name "Undecimillia" or "Ximillia" as a number, or reading the abbreviation "XI. M. V." as eleven thousand (in Roman numerals) virgins rather than eleven martyred virgins. One scholar has written that in the eighth century, the relics of virgin martyrs were found, among which were included those of a girl named Ursula, who was eleven years old-–in Latin, undecimilia. Undecimilia was subsequently misread or misinterpreted as undicimila (11,000), thus producing the legend of the 11,000 virgins.[8] Another theory is that there was only one virgin martyr, named Undecimilla, “which by some blundering monk was changed into eleven thousand.”[9]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Ursula

"Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes in 1521 named 'Eleven Thousand Virgins' what is now known as Saint-Pierre and Miquelon."




""72 Virgins"


The concept of 72 virgins in Islam refers to an aspect of paradise. In a collection by Imam at-Tirmidhi in his "Sunan" (Volume IV, Chapters on "The Features of Heaven as described by the Messenger of Allah", chapter 21: "About the Smallest Reward for the People of Heaven", hadith 2687) and also quoted by Ibn Kathir in his Tafsir (Qur'anic Commentary) of Surah Qur'an 55:72, it is stated that:

"It was mentioned by Daraj Ibn Abi Hatim, that Abu al-Haytham 'Adullah Ibn Wahb narrated from Abu Sa'id al-Khudhri, who heard Muhammad saying, 'The smallest reward for the people of Heaven is an abode where there are eighty thousand servants and seventy-two houri, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine and ruby, as wide as the distance from al-Jabiyyah to San'a.[63]

[edit] Views

Margaret Nydell states that mainstream Muslims regard this belief about 72 virgins in the same way that mainstream Christians regard the belief that after death they will be issued with wings and a harp, and walk on clouds.[64]"

Another interpretation of the relevant passages of the Qur'an is The Syro-Aramaic Reading Of The Qur'an written by Christoph Luxenberg. In respect of this particular point, Luxenberg argues that the relevant passage actually translates to a portrayal of paradise as a lush garden with pooling water and trees with rare fruit, including white raisins (considered to be delicacies at the time that the Qur'an was written), not virgin maidens.[65][66]

Regarding the above statement, Hafiz Salahuddin Yusuf has said: "The narration, which claims that everyone would have seventy-two wives has a weak chain of narrators." [47]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/72_virgins

Some would say to Hafiz: YOU ARE the weakest link!

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Her name is Andress, not...Undress:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_Andress