International Year of Astronomy 2009

"The International Year of Astronomy 2009 is a global effort initiated by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and UNESCO to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the Universe through the day- and night-time sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery.

There will be a variety of philatelic materials generated to commemorate IYA2009 specifically or feature astronomy as a theme or topic, in general." You can read more here.

Korea was the 1st country to issue stamps commemorating the year of astronomy. Here you can see the Planetary Nebula NGC 3132 which looks like a planet but is actually composed of clouds of gases and dust created by the explosion of a star’s unstable outer layer; and the Whirlpool Galaxy M51 composed of hundreds of billions of stars and interstellar matter.

Date of issue : January 15, 2009

Quantity : 850 000 stamps each

Denomination: 250won

Size of stamp: 40mm x 30mm

Perforation : 13

Paper: White unwatermarked

Designer : Jiwon MO

Congratulations to SL BENFICA!

21st March 2009

The Final match between Sporting CP and SL Benfica for the Final of the League Trophy/Carlsberg Cup 2009!

SL Benfica 3-2 Sporting CP

A match is just a match but from it only one team can rise as the winner!


Congratulations to SL BENFICA!

AQUIHASELO - Science in Portugal

"In 2008, the “AQUIHASELO” hobby challenged the Portuguese once again to submit themes for this year’s philatelic emissions, and later to send in drawings for the stamps that were to illustrate the winning motives.
And the challenge was once again readily accepted and creativity revealed in a vivid way. Hundreds of themes put forward were voted by thousands of people. Of the five finalist themes, «Science in Portugal» was the one which gained the preference of the jury.
This year, the “AQUIHASELO” did not forget the younger ones and created a hobby exclusively for them – the ”AQUIHASELO JÚNIOR”– which winning theme was the «Multiplication table».
The growing number of people who have joined this initiative, held for the second year in a row, shows how far imagination may go when it flies on the wings of a stamp."

You can read more here.


Issue:
2009 / 03 / 04

Stamps:
2 x €0,32

Format:
40 x 30,6 mm

Perforation:
13 x Cross of Christ

We care

Cover destroyed (partially!)

Today I've received this printed apologies request by the US Postal Service! It was my first time.

Is it common for you to get this? Or you just don't care that they care?

2009 International Women's Day

2009 International Women's Day

When we think of women we immediately think of our loved ones: wife, sister, mother, etc... or if not... we at least think of the most famous kiss in the world!

But never forget that not everything is heavenly when it regards to women around the world... here are some Global Issues ... (more details here)

* Females in developing countries on average carry 20 litres of water per day over 6 km
* Globally women account for the majority of people aged over 60 and over 80
* Pregnant women in Africa are 180 times more likely to die than in Western Europe
* 530,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth each year
* World population hit 6,872,741,131 on 1 January 2009
* Of 1.2 billion people living in poverty worldwide, 70% are women
* 80% of the world's 27 million refugees are women
* Women own around only 1% of the world's land
* AIDS sees women's life expectancy of 43 in Uganda and Zambia
* 5 people are added to the world's population every 2 seconds
* Women are 2/3 of the 1 billion+ illiterate adults who have no access to basic education

And you? How do you treat women?

Pink Floyd

Postal authorities, leave those stamp collectors alone.
Hey, postal authorities, leave those stamp collectors alone!
All in all youre just another stamp collector in the wall.
All in all youre just another stamp collector in the wall.

STOP

It's time to say STOP to the high number of stamp sets that the postal authorities issue every year around the world....

Hey, postal authorities, leave us alone!

2009 Darwin

"The year 2009 marks two fundamental anniversaries in the fields of biology and modern science: 200 years since the birth of the English naturalist Charles Darwin and 150 years since the publication of his seminal work, On the Origin of Species." read more here.

Charles Robert Darwin FRS (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist who realised and demonstrated that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors through the process he called natural selection. The fact that evolution occurs became accepted by the scientific community and much of the general public in his lifetime, while his theory of natural selection came to be widely seen as the primary explanation of the process of evolution in the 1930s, and now forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory. In modified form, Darwin’s scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, providing logical explanation for the diversity of life. (in WIKI)

Issue date:
2009 / 02 / 12