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The Banker horse is a small, hardy, and docile feral horse (Equus ferus caballus) living on barrier islands in North Carolina's Outer Banks. Descended from domesticated Spanish horses and possibly brought to the Americas in the 16th century, the foundation bloodstock may have become feral after surviving shipwrecks or being abandoned on the islands by one of the exploratory expeditions led by Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón or Sir Richard Grenville. Populations are found in the Rachel Carson Estuarine Sanctuary and on Ocracoke Island, Shackleford Banks, and Currituck Banks. Although not considered indigenous to the islands, Bankers are allowed to remain because of their historical significance. They survive by grazing on marsh grasses—for water as well as food—supplemented by temporary freshwater pools. To prevent overpopulation and inbreeding, and to protect their habitat from overgrazing, the horses are managed by the National Park Service, the State of North Carolina, and private organizations; populations are limited through adoptions and birth control. Bankers taken from the wild and trained have been used for trail riding, driving, and mounted patrols. (Full article...)

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In the news

Tsai Ing-wen

Caltech researchers predict the existence of Planet Nine, a planet about ten times as massive as Earth, in the outer Solar System.
Gunmen open fire at Bacha Khan University in Pakistan, killing more than twenty people.
The International Atomic Energy Agency affirms Iran has met its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, triggering the removal of some sanctions.
Tsai Ing-wen (pictured) is elected the first female President of Taiwan, and her Democratic Progressive Party wins a majority in the Legislative Yuan.
AQIM militants kill at least twenty-eight people in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Scientists describe ASASSN-15lh, the brightest known superluminous supernova ever detected, shining up to fifty times brighter than the entire Milky Way.

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- European migrant crisis
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On this day...

January 21: Feast Day of Saint Agnes (Christianity); Flag Day in Quebec

Concorde

763 – The Abbasid Caliphate crushed the Alid Revolt when one of the rebellion leaders was mortally wounded in battle near Basra in what is now Iraq.
1840 – The French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville discovered Adélie Land, Antarctica.
1912 – Raymond Poincaré, who would pursue hardline anti-German policies, began his first term as Prime Minister of France.
1963 – Following a period of chaos in Congo-Léopoldville and United Nations intervention, the secession of Katanga came to an end.
1976 – The Concorde supersonic transports (pictured) began scheduled commercial flights to London, Paris, Bahrain, and Rio de Janeiro.

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A plasma globe is a decorative novelty item that consists of a glass orb filled with a mixture of various noble gases. A smaller orb in its center serves as an electrode, so that plasma filaments form connecting it to the outer glass shell. They appear as multiple, constantly moving beams of colored light.

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