The Iraq War: Recollections - STRATFOR

The Iraq War: Recollections

!!! My first item sent from ANTARCTICA (USAF McMURDO BASE, APO AP 96599) specifically to me: 3-in-1 (front and back) custom, non-traditional MAXIMUM CARDS / MAXICARDS / DORINCARDS that I created by POSTCARDIZING a sheet (2 pages) taken from a book!!! :)

!!! My first item sent from ANTARCTICA (USAF McMURDO BASE) specifically to me: a 3-in-1 (front and back) custom MAXICARD that I created by POSTCARDIZING a sheet (2 pages) taken from a book!!! :) This is "the front view"...because I say so. :) It arrived with battle scars: a few tears on the left - but hey!...it came all the way from ANTARCTICA, my 7th continent. 

Now I have items mailed to me from all 7 continents. Cool, huh? :)

You, too, can achieve that - due diligence required.

The above page image "tells the tale" and shows a tail of a HUMPBACK WHALE (Megaptera novaeangliae).

Now, the stamp shows the same species of CETACEAN, but it primarily depicts the Bering Glacier, in Alaska.

What on Earth is the concordance between an "Alaska stamp" and an "Antarctica postcard and postmark"?

Keyword: MIGRATION.

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

!!! My first item sent from ANTARCTICA (USAF McMURDO BASE) specifically to me: a 3-in-1 (front and back) custom MAXICARD that I created by POSTCARDIZING a sheet (2 pages) taken from a book!!! :)This is "the back view", where I  put my address. So, I have created here 2 more MAXICARDS by strategically placing those two stamps.

"The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from 12–16 metres (39–52 ft) and weigh approximately 36,000 kilograms (79,000 lb). The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is an acrobatic animal, often breaching and slapping the water. Males produce a complex song, which lasts for 10 to 20 minutes and is repeated for hours at a time. The purpose of the song is not yet clear, although it appears to have a role in mating.

Found in oceans and seas around the world, humpback whales typically migrate up to 25,000 kilometres (16,000 mi) each year. Humpbacks feed only in summer, in polar waters, and migrate to tropical or sub-tropical waters to breed and give birth in the winter. During the winter, humpbacks fast and live off their fat reserves. The species' diet consists mostly of krill and small fish. Humpbacks have a diverse repertoire of feeding methods, including the bubble net feeding technique.

Like other large whales, the humpback was and is a target for the whaling industry. Due to over-hunting, its population fell by an estimated 90% before a whaling moratorium was introduced in 1966. Stocks have since partially recovered; however, entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships, and noise pollution also remain concerns. There are at least 80,000 humpback whales worldwide. Once hunted to the brink of extinction, humpbacks are now sought by whale-watchers, particularly off parts of Australia, New Zealand, South America, Canada, and the United States."

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

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Happy Blue Monday! (meme)

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

Kim Jong-il - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. "Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim (according to Soviet records)[2][3][4][5] (born 16 February 1941 (Soviet records) or 16 February 1942 (North Korean records) – 17 December 2011[6]), was the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)."

Kim Jong-il - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim (according to Soviet records)^[2][3][4][5] (born 16 February 1941 (Soviet records) or 16 February 1942 (North Korean records) – 17 December 2011^[6]), was the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)."


"Personality

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (July 2010)

Like his father, Kim had a fear of flying,^[107] and always traveled by private armored train for state visits to Russia and China. The BBCreported that Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian emissary who traveled with Kim across Russia by train, told reporters that Kim had livelobsters air-lifted to the train every day.^[108]

Kim was said to be a huge film fan, owning a collection of more than 20,000 video tapes and DVDs.^[109] His reported favorite movie franchises included Friday the 13th, Rambo, Godzilla, and Hong Kong action cinema,^[110] and any movie starring Elizabeth Taylor.^[111] He was the author of the book On the Art of the Cinema. In 1978, on Kim's orders, South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choi Eun-hee were kidnapped in order to build a North Korean film industry.^[112] In 2006 he was involved in the production of the Juche-based movie Diary of a Girl Student – depicting the life of a girl whose parents are scientists – with a KCNA news report stating that Kim "improved its script and guided its production".^[113]

Although Kim enjoyed many foreign forms of entertainment, according to former bodyguard Lee Young Kuk, he refused to consume any food or drink not produced in North Korea, with the exception of wine from France.^[114] His former chef Kenji Fujimoto, however, has stated that Kim has sometimes sent him around the world to purchase a variety of foreign delicacies.^[115]

Kim reportedly enjoyed basketball. Former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ended her summit with Kim by presenting him with a basketball signed by NBA legend Michael Jordan.^[116] Also an apparent golfer, North Korean state media reports that Kim routinely shot three or four holes-in-one per round.^[117] His official biography also claims that Kim composed six operas and enjoys staging elaborate musicals.^[118] Kim also referred to himself as an Internet expert.^[119]

US Special Envoy for the Korean Peace Talks, Charles Kartman, who was involved in the 2000 Madeleine Albright summit with Kim, characterised Kim Jong-il as a reasonable man in negotiations, to the point, but with a sense of humor and personally attentive to the people he was hosting.^[120] However, psychological evaluations conclude that Kim Jong-il's antisocial features, such as his fearlessness in the face of sanctions and punishment, serve to make negotiations extraordinarily difficult.^[121]

The field of psychology has long been fascinated with the personality assessment of dictators, a notion that resulted in an extensive personality evaluation of Kim Jong-il. The report, compiled by Frederick L. Coolidge and Daniel L. Segal (with the assistance of a South Korean psychiatrist considered an expert on Kim Jong-il's behavior), concluded that the “big six” group of personality disorders shared by dictators Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Saddam Hussein (sadistic, paranoid, antisocial, narcissistic, schizoid and schizotypal) were also shared by Kim Jong-il—coinciding primarily with the profile of Saddam Hussein.^[121] The evaluation also finds that Kim Jong-il appeared to pride himself on North Korea's independence, despite the extreme hardships it appears to place on the North Korean people—an attribute appearing to emanate from his antisocial personality pattern.^[121] This notion also encourages other cognitive issues, such as self-deception, as subsidiary components to Kim Jong-il's personality. Many of the stories about Kim Jong Il's eccentricities and decadent life-style are exaggerated, possibly circulated by South Korean intelligence to discredit the Northern regime.^[122] Defectors claim that Kim has 17 different palaces and residences all over North Korea, including a private resort near Baekdu Mountain, a seaside lodge in the city of Wonsan, and a palace complex northeast of Pyongyang surrounded with multiple fence lines, bunkers and anti-aircraft batteries.^[123]

Finances

According to the Sunday Telegraph, Kim had US$4 billion on deposit in European banks in case he ever needed to flee North Korea. TheSunday Telegraph reported that most of the money was in banks in Luxembourg.^[124]"

Kim Jong-il 김정일 金正日
Supreme Leader of North Korea
In office 8 July 1994 – 17 December 2011[1]
President	Kim Yong-nam
Premier	Hong Song-nam Pak Pong-ju Kim Yong-il Choe Yong-rim
Preceded by	Kim Il-sung
Succeeded by	TBD
Chairman of the National Defence Commission of North Korea
In office 9 April 1993 – 17 December 2011
Deputy	Jo Myong-rok
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	TBD
Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army
In office 24 December 1991 – 17 December 2011
Preceded by	Kim Il-sung
Succeeded by	TBD
General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea
In office 8 October 1997 – 17 December 2011
Preceded by	Kim Il-sung
Succeeded by	TBD
Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Worker's Party of Korea
In office 8 October 1997 – 17 December 2011
Preceded by	Kim Il-sung
Succeeded by	TBD
Personal details
Born	Yuri Irsenovich Kim 16 February 1941 Vyatskoye, Soviet Union(Soviet records) 16 February 1942 Baekdu Mountain, Japanese Korea (North Korean records)
Died	19 December 2011 (aged 69)
Political party	Workers' Party of Korea
Spouse(s)	Kim Young-sook Song Hye-rim Ko Young-hee Kim Ok
Children	Kim Sul-song Kim Jong-nam Kim Jong-chul Kim Jong-un
Alma mater	Kim Il-sung University University of Malta[citation needed]
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	North Korea
Service/branch	Korean People's Army
Years of service	1991–2011
Rank	Wonsu
Commands	Supreme Commander

Kim Jong-il
Chosŏn'gŭl	김정일
Hancha	金正日
McCune–Reischauer	Kim Chŏngil
Revised Romanization	Gim Jeong(-)il

http://dorincard.blogspot.com/search?q=dprk

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^{See some DPRK stamps on MAXICARDS from WWF.}