On the Mongolian steppe, there are predators, there are prey, and there are the bankhar. These large, powerful dogs weigh up to 125 pounds, with shaggy, thick coats that give them a bear-like appearance. For 15,000 years, bankhar dogs have been the guardians of the steppe, safeguarding both sheep and livestock. But during the era of Soviet socialist campaigns, that special connection between herder and bankhar dog was nearly lost, along with the bankhar itself. Now, an ambitious project aims to return bankhar dogs to their traditional role as livestock guardians. It’s an endeavor that may also give the Mongolian steppe, and its rich cultural traditions, a chance to thrive again. |
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During the early 20th century, several violent and controversial Iron Workers’ Union (IWU) strikes, protests, and a lengthy, but largely victim-free bombing campaign rocked the city of Los Angeles. In 1910, brothers John and James McNamara were tasked with organizing a bombing of the Los Angeles Times newspaper plant; when the bomb exploded, it ruptured a gas main and caused a fatal fire that killed 21 people. All but one of the victims were L.A. Times employees. The publisher of the L.A. Times, Harrison Grey Otis, erected this memorial which features emotive, combative, and profound words while offering “peace to their ashes.” |
In the 1910s and ‘20s, long before Prince and Beyonce fascinated generations, America vested its quick-changing emotions in Ma Rainey, “The Mother of the Blues”—a gender-role-flaunting singer with sky-high charisma, great business sense, and a voice that could bring people from laughter to tears and back again. Rainey spent decades touring the country, wearing diamond tiaras, recording nearly a hundred records, and throwing at least one illegal queer orgy. She was, in the words of historian Robert Philipson, “one of the first black divas in history.” |
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