Near a small town in northern New South Wales horse blood is being harvested to aid researchers and diagnostics.

The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses has collated data from official stewards' documents and found 122 horses died in the past year.

Owners of a Tasmanian equestrian facility say they may have no other option as business evaporates, leaving it with dwindling resources to feed and keep 46 horses.

In the wake of the racehorse slaughter scandal, calls are growing for greater financial support for rehoming thoroughbreds and an enforceable standard of care.

Victorian racing authorities announce a plan for retired racehorses to be euthanased on farms to save them from abattoirs and knackeries, in response to an ABC investigation that exposed cruel treatment of thoroughbreds.

Senior Victorian police defend their tactics, including the pushing of a journalist and the use of pepper spray, during protests outside a mining conference, saying officers are ready to respond the same way tomorrow.

Furious connections demand answers from Racing Victoria after two fancied horses were withdrawn from the Melbourne Cup over fears they have incomplete leg fractures.

Horse sanctuaries close and horse owners are forced to consider putting their horses down amid an "unprecedented shortage of hay".

Calypso may be blind and deaf, but the gelding turns 50 today the day all horses in Australia have their birthday.

Sassy and Peanut

The developer of a 23-story tower near Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach envisions a project with 320 condo style rentals and a 140-room hotel.

Horses picked out photographs of their current keepers, and even of former keepers whom they had not seen in months, at a rate much better than chance.

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London : Bailliere, Tindall, & Cox, 1879.

London (96, Gracechurch Street) : Published by R. Lambe, May 10th. 1814.

The horseshoe prior is frequently employed in Bayesian analysis of high-dimensional models, and has been shown to achieve minimax optimal risk properties when the truth is sparse. While optimization-based algorithms for the extremely popular Lasso and elastic net procedures can scale to dimension in the hundreds of thousands, algorithms for the horseshoe that use Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) for computation are limited to problems an order of magnitude smaller. This is due to high computational cost per step and growth of the variance of time-averaging estimators as a function of dimension. We propose two new MCMC algorithms for computation in these models that have significantly improved performance compared to existing alternatives. One of the algorithms also approximates an expensive matrix product to give orders of magnitude speedup in high-dimensional applications. We prove guarantees for the accuracy of the approximate algorithm, and show that gradually decreasing the approximation error as the chain extends results in an exact algorithm. The scalability of the algorithm is illustrated in simulations with problem size as large as $N=5,000$ observations and $p=50,000$ predictors, and an application to a genome-wide association study with $N=2,267$ and $p=98,385$. The empirical results also show that the new algorithm yields estimates with lower mean squared error, intervals with better coverage, and elucidates features of the posterior that were often missed by previous algorithms in high dimensions, including bimodality of posterior marginals indicating uncertainty about which covariates belong in the model.

Anindya Bhadra, Jyotishka Datta, Nicholas G. Polson, Brandon Willard.

Source: Statistical Science, Volume 34, Number 3, 405--427.

Abstract:
The goal of this paper is to contrast and survey the major advances in two of the most commonly used high-dimensional techniques, namely, the Lasso and horseshoe regularization. Lasso is a gold standard for predictor selection while horseshoe is a state-of-the-art Bayesian estimator for sparse signals. Lasso is fast and scalable and uses convex optimization whilst the horseshoe is nonconvex. Our novel perspective focuses on three aspects: (i) theoretical optimality in high-dimensional inference for the Gaussian sparse model and beyond, (ii) efficiency and scalability of computation and (iii) methodological development and performance.

Canine-equid pairs can mimic each other’s facial expressions during play, which has never been seen between animals of different species

In rural Kentucky, teachers and students are awarded innovation grants to solve a challenge facing their community or classroom.

The Office of the State Veterinarian announced today Delaware’s first and second cases of West Nile Virus (WNV) found in horses in 2018. The first infected horse is a 3-year-old Standardbred mare and the second horse is a 2-year-old Thoroughbred mare, both residing in Kent County.

The Office of the State Veterinarian announced today Delaware’s fourth and fifth cases of West Nile Virus (WNV) found in horses in 2018. Three previous cases of WNV in horses were reported in 2018, two in August and one in September. Even though we are nearing the end of the mosquito season, the State Veterinarian urges horse owners to contact their veterinarians as soon as possible to have horses and other equines vaccinated against WNV and EEE. Neither disease has a specific drug treatment, and EEE infections in horses are fatal in 70 to 90 percent of cases, and WNV in 30 percent of cases.

Do you recall the mention, in this blog, of the “poetry in Horseshoe Crabs”? (If not, just keyword-search “poetry” on this page.) Now is your chance to prepare for experiencing that poetry for yourself, when “dancing” with the crabs during a real-life beach “party” in support of a good cause: DNERR’s annual Horseshoe Crab Spawning […]

The post Dancing with Horseshoe Crabs, Under the Stars appeared first on DNERR Blog - State of Delaware.

From exotic animals to spectacles and chandeliers, Michael Laver’s “The Dutch East India Company in Early Modern Japan” shows how well-placed gifts were essential in ...

Title: Working With Horses May Ease Stress in Kids
Category: Health News
Created: 4/29/2014 2:36:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 4/30/2014 12:00:00 AM

A five-star luxury hotel in London has been spreading a little joy amid the coronavirus outbreak by serving up free meals for key workers.

'This type of natural manipulation in ecosystems ... has barely been researched to date, but holds tremendous potential,' says researcher

The Australian racing industry is in turmoil after revelations of former racehorses being slaughtered at abattoirs, with leading trainer Chris Waller so shocked he "couldn't watch" the vision.

As the National Horse Traceability Scheme awaits an official launch, experts say horse welfare is falling short while volunteers take the lead.

X was supposed to tour behind its new album "Alphabetland." Now, bassist John Doe is home in Austin with his partner, his two horses nearby: "They keep me sane."

Meet the 'Japan pig,' a newly discovered pygmy seahorse that is as tiny as it is beautiful.

With news that Southwest is allowing mini horses on flights, here's what to know about these petite equine wonders.

Writing in Bloomberg, Marc Champion has a thought-provoking, but controversial take on horse meat, noting that the ban of horse slaughterhouses in the US has increased suffering for the animals. Is that a case for killing them here?

From crayfish to parakeets, these species are at risk of disappearing from the planet.

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The worldwide lockdown has forced us to stay at homes, stay indoors, and stay as far away from people as possible. Some are safe in their own homes and some are abroad with friends or alone. Jacqueline Fernandez, however, is locked down at a farmhouse and that farmhouse is at Panvel. Yes, we are talking about Salman Khan's very popular farmhouse where he celebrates his birthday every year.

How has the actress been spending time at that place and what exactly has the lockdown taught her? She has spilled the beans on all in her recent interview with Times of India. Speaking to the daily, she said, "At the farm, I ride horses, swim, run and do yoga to keep myself fit. Being amidst nature has never felt so good. This lockdown has helped me devote more time to activities that I enjoy. This includes reading, too."

And just like any other actor, she is also missing her closest friends and family, she says, "Earlier, I wouldn't be so much in touch with them, but lately, I have been spending a lot of time with them, though virtually." On the work front, she has films like Mrs. Serial Killer, Attack, and Kick 2. And this is what she has to say on getting back to work, "I am eagerly waiting to get back to shoots, get dressed and have fun… I am missing all that."

And Salman Khan took to his Instagram account to share a shirtless picture of himself that was slyly clicked by Jacqueline and don't miss the caption the actor has written:

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

Jacky got caught taking a pic chori chori Chupke chupke... she took one more after that which she will post on her own! @jacquelinef143

A post shared by Salman Khan (@beingsalmankhan) onApr 28, 2020 at 10:30pm PDT

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Mobile phones host cocktail of live germs, aiding spread of diseases and urging billions of users worldwide to decontaminate their devices daily, warned new study.

Around 120 horses and 150 personnel left their barracks in London for an annual training visit to the North Norfolk coast. The unit is the Queen's ceremonial saluting battery.

Dimitri Moskovich, one of Bondi's most recognisable citizens, has renewed his campaign to rid the beach of mounted police, claiming they treat the world-famous landmark as a 'horse toilet'.

America's iconic mustang has reached a critical state of overpopulation prompting some ranchers to consider slaughter as a way of managing the crisis.

More than two dozen people, including the trainer of champion Maximum Security, have been charged in a widespread international scheme to drug horses to make them race faster.

The fund, co-ordinated by the Racehorse Owners Association, is part of a £22m cash flow and hardship funding package for racing announced on Friday.

SPECIAL REPORT BY MARCUS TOWNEND: There is concern that ramifications of the coronavirus shutdown will be felt for years, rather than months, in the racing community.

Newmarket trainer Amy Murphy says maintaining a routine has been key to keep a racing stable operating inside the COVID-19 shut down.

The race, made up of 30 teams of runners, took place earlier today through the streets of Greenwich, London. Obstacles including space hoppers and steeplechases were placed close to the finish.

Nicholas Lyndhurst, who is still instantly recognisable as Rodney, recalled larking around with his former co-stars on the legendary sitcom. He is soon to appear in musical Man Of La Mancha in London.

Denise Richards has called on ex-husband Charlie Sheen to help her pay an outstanding bill that is keeping the 47-year-old from seeing her beloved horses Lily and Hansel, according to The Blast.