Free Republic

Remains of the oldest known Caspian horse, otherwise referred to as the "Kings' horse" due to its popularity among royals the world over, have been unearthed in northern Iran, according to CAIS. The more than 3,000-year-old remains were found at an Iranian site named Gohar-Tappeh. In ancient times, royals often chose Caspian horses to ride them into battle and/or to pull their chariots. During more recent history, individuals such as Price Philip of England have popularized the Caspian, which is the oldest breed of horse in the world still in existence. The Shah of Iran gifted such a horse to...

Examples of zebra-horse hybrids abound, but few are as stunningly eye-catching as ‘Eclyse’ pictured here.[1,2] While most other zorses have stripes across their entire body, Eclyse looks like she’s had her face and rear flank painted by a very clever artist. But the markings are real, and she’s become a major attraction at a safari park in the German town of Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock. Her mother, Eclipse, had spent a short time at a ranch in Italy, where she shared a paddock with other horses, as well as a zebra called Ulysses. On her return to Germany, Eclipse surprised her keepers...

Horses First Domesticated in Kazakhstan? Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery NewsBotai Village Oct. 20, 2006 —New evidence from soil inside the remains of a 5,600-year-old corral indicates that the ancient Botai people of Kazakhstan were among the earliest to domesticate horses. But equine romantics might be disappointed to learn that the Botai probably ate and milked their horses as often as they rode them. The corrals are part of an archeological site in northern Kazakhstan known as Krasnyi Yar, once a large village occupied by the Copper-Age Botai, said Sandra Olsen, curator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Penn....

Genetic evidence is shedding new light on the origins of horses in the New World, during a particularly hazy period in their evolution. As the Great Ice Age came to an end, some 11,000 years ago, North America was thought to be home to as many as 50 species and subspecies of horse. But studies of ancient DNA tell a rather different story, suggesting the horses belonged to just two species. These are the stilt-legged horses, now extinct, and the caballines. The caballines are thought to be the ancestors of today's domestic horse. "It looks like, as far as we...

Scientists to start DNA analysis of ancient horse skeletons www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-10 15:19:28 XI'AN, Jan. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese and British scientists are planning for the DNA analysis of 12 horse skeletons unearthed from the burial ground of a prominent duke who lived more than 2,500 years ago in northwestern Shaanxi Province. Archeologists with Beijing University and Cambridge University have used a professional database to process data collected from the skeletons, including the size and weight of the skulls, spinalcolumns and limbs. A Cambridge laboratory will be entrusted to carry out the DNA analysis, after the State Administration of Cultural Heritage...

• Will the Obama administration's policy toward Egypt be based on a perception that the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood would be extremely dangerous? Or have they taken the position - voiced in parts of the U.S. foreign policy establishment - that the Brotherhood has become moderate and can be talked to? Initial administration reactions indicate that it does not rule out Muslim Brotherhood participation in a future Egyptian coalition government. • Since January 28, the Muslim Brotherhood's involvement has become more prominent, with its support of Mohamed ElBaradei to lead the opposition forces against the government. In the streets...

Texas donkey owners have resorted to abandoning the animals as a record-breaking drought shows few signs of ending, officials say.

Back in 2004, when academics unearthed skeletons found at a house in the ancient Roman town that was covered in ashes in 79 AD, they thought it belonged to an extinct breed of horse... What happened really was that there seems to have been a mix-up in the lab, which led to horse DNA being combined with donkey DNA, creating an artificial hybrid that actually never existed. Six years ago, the skeletons of equids having belonged to a rich Roman household in Pompeii were analyzed. There were found in the stables of a probably wealthy politician, and all five of...

Democratic National Committee gets new logo, slogan By: James Hohmann September 15, 2010 03:27 PM EDT Eager to bridge a daunting enthusiasm gap, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine recited a list of President Barack Obama’s accomplishments Wednesday to an auditorium packed with George Washington University College Democrats. It came as he unveiled a new web site, a new logo and a new slogan for his party: “Change That Matters.” As he went down a longer list, Kaine spoke passionately of how Democrats delivered an economic stimulus (he would only call it “the Recovery Act”) and “the Affordable Care Act”...

<p>PrintShareThisA living nativity scene in near the Colorado ski resort of Vail almost had to go without two crucial actors when two donkeys escaped.</p>

Two Azerbaijani bloggers were sentenced to jail on Wednesday. Charged with "hooliganism", the pair were arrested shortly after posting a satirical video online which mocked the government's alleged purchase of a dozen - suspiciously priced - 41,000 dollar donkeys from Germany. After already four months of detention, Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli are now beginning sentences of two years, and two years six months, respectively. They were charged for fighting with a pair of men in a cafe in Baku, something which they immediately reported to the police as an unprovoked attack, but which led to their arrest the same...

Afghanistan election run-off will be logistical nightmareGrowing Taliban power, inaccessible terrain and non-existent infrastructure makes the Afghan run-off a huge logistical challenge. By Ben Farmer in Kabul Published: 9:22PM BST 20 Oct 2009 A fleet of 3,500 trucks will be needed to carry voting materials to the polling stations and 3,000 donkeys to get people to remote areas. Afghanistan's 94,000 soldiers and 84,000 police, backed by 100,000 Nato-led forces, will be on duty to protect polling stations, but hundreds more will be judged too dangerous to open. Around 6,500 polling stations were opened for the Aug 20 poll, but many...

President Barack Obama used a prime-time news conference Wednesday to urge Americans to get behind his flagging health care reform efforts in Congress, seeking to reassure an increasingly jittery public that the government can overhaul the system without jeopardizing the care most citizens currently receive. Obama endorsed a House committee’s plan to fund part of the new program by imposing a surtax on families making over $1 million a year – but insisted he would not support any bill that helped fund the $1 trillion plan with a tax on middle-class families. “To me, that meets my principles,” Obama said...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will be on different networks Sunday, but both will offer the same basic message — they need to work together for the good of the country and the success of President-elect Barack Obama.

Several left-wing blogs are all atwitter about a picture of Sarah Palin from a rally in Reno, Nev., Oct. 21 which shows her wearing a red, white and blue scarf with what appears to be donkeys on it. Anyone know the story behind this? I did a Google search and gave up after 5 pages of left-wing sites commenting on it. Linked is one example from a site called Jezebel at http://jezebel.com/5067233/is-sarah-palin-making-an-ass-of-herself

It's not widely recognized that the Wall Street Journal is a left-wing rag, a propaganda organ for the Democrat Party no less than the New York Times. That's because people compare the editorials, not the news coverage. The WSJ is a schizophrenic, split-personality paper with a pro-America editorial page (yes, except for their open-borders nonsense), while that of the NYT's is so anti-American it is often outright treasonous. But if you focus on the front section news coverage, you'll see little difference between the two. A perfect example is this "news" story of April 7 in the WSJ:Democrats' Hopes for...

How wild asses became donkeys of the pharaohs 21:00 10 March 2008 NewScientist.com news service Andy Coghlan The ancient Egyptian state was built on the backs of tamed wild asses. Ten skeletons excavated from burial sites of the first Egyptian kings are the best evidence yet that modern-day donkeys emerged through domestication of African wild asses. The 5000-year-old bones also provide the earliest indications that asses were used for transport. The skeletons suggest that the smaller frames of today's donkeys hadn't yet evolved. Instead, the bones resemble those of modern-day Nubian and Somali wild asses, which are much larger than...

Democrat Debate on CNN at 2PM Didn't see a thread posted for this yet!

DENVER (AP) - A group that led a campaign to legalize marijuana possession in Denver is posting a billboard advertisement encouraging suspended running back Ricky Williams and the Broncos to get together. Williams applied for NFL reinstatement this week, his agent said. Williams has played in only 12 NFL games since the start of the 2004 season, but rushed for 3,225 yards in 2002-03. His current suspension began in April 2006 after he violated the league's drug policy for the fourth time. He tested positive for marijuana this April, again delaying his return. Williams remains under contract with Miami, where...

Hours after Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as House speaker last week, Democratic Representative Rahm Emanuel held a celebratory reception at Johnny's Half Shell, an upscale Capitol Hill restaurant. Having just overseen his party's victorious campaign as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (dccc), Emanuel resembled a mafia don who had taken down a rival family and was now receiving visitors (Harold Ickes, Paul Begala, James Carville) to kiss his ring. Filing into the restaurant along with the giddy Democrats, however, was a crowd with markedly longer faces. These were Republicans attending a reception for Arizona Senator Jon Kyl,...