Fact check: Nazi scientists brought to U.S. in Operation …

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NASA's Perseverance rover hopes to discover ancient life on Mars

NASA's Perseverance rover is equipped with two microphones, 23 cameras, seven scientific instruments, plus a drone helicopter.

USA TODAY

There have been many events, both big and small, that have shaped U.S. history.Among them, a Facebook post claims, is a secret U.S. program that recruitedNazis.

A modified version of thepopular meme of Homer Simpson vanishing into a hedge depictsSimpson bearinga swastika on one shoulder and an arm extended in a Nazi salute. "World War II: ends," reads the text above, which goes on to suggest former "Nazi scientists" subsequently shifted overto NASA, as illustratedbySimpson reemerging in a T-shirt emblazoned with the agency's distinctive logo and a red baseball cap with the America flag.

The sentiment within the comments seemedlargely accepting of the claim.

"What was the alternative for them?" asked one. "Since herr fuhrer (sic) liked to shoot people..."

"Art imitates life," wrote another sharing a GIF featuring images from the Marvel movie franchise of an evil Naziscientist character and a newspaper clippingwith the headline "Germany scientists recruited by U.S.".

USA TODAY awaits comment from the Facebook user who postedthe meme in the public group Official Flat Earth & Glove Discussion.

In 1945, the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency, a subcommittee established by the Joint Intelligence Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was tasked with retrieving German scientists, doctors and engineers who were identified as intellectually vital to the Third Reich.

Journalist Annie Jacobsen statesin a 2014 interview that this was prompted by the Allies'concerns overHitler's potential weapons arsenal.

"Fall of 1944, right after the Normandy landings, scattered among the Allies'troops are these little units of scientific intelligence officers and they're working to find out Hitler's biological weapons, his chemical weapons and his atomic weapons," said Jacobsen, author of "Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program to Bring Nazi Scientists to America."

These intelligence officers eventually discovered while the atomic weapons program wasnot as advancedas initially feared, Hitler's biochemical weapons were. The hunt "for this scientific treasure and ultimately for the scientists themselves" thus ignited Operation Overcast, renamed Paperclip for the paperclips attached to the files of the most "troublesome cases," Jacobsen writes in her book.

The U.S. was not alone in this endeavor. Britain, France and especially the Soviet Union sought to enlist these German scientific experts, as well. A U.S.-Soviettechnological rivalry marked by the Space Race and Cold Warwould also serve as amotivation, and justification, for Operation Paperclip's existence.

By the fall of 1945, German scientists starting arrivingon U.S. soil. Not all the men recruited were Nazis orSS officers but the most prominent and valued among them were, having worked either directly with Hitler orleading members of the Nazi Party, such asHeinrich Himmler and Herman Gring.

Wernher von Braun, a rocket engineer, was instrumental in developing the first U.S. ballistic missile, the Redstone, and later the Saturn V rocket while serving as director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. As a Nazi ideologue and member of the SS, hetraveled to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he "handpicked slaves to work for him as laborers," said Jacobsen in a 2014interview with NPR.

Hubertus Strughold, a physiologist and medical researcher, headed the German Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine, known for its torturous medical experiments on inmates from the Dachau concentration camp. Strughold claimed ignorance of any such activity until after the war, yethe appeared among a list of 95 doctors at an October 1942 conference discussing their findings. In the U.S., he was chief scientist of the aerospace medical division at Brooks Air Force and has since been credited as the father of space medicine.

Walter Schreiber, a former Nazi general, also oversaw inhumane medical experiments involving bioweapons that resulted in countless of deaths. Following the war, he was captured by the Soviets but defected to the U.S. He worked for various government entities before finally settling in Texas atthe Air Force School of Aviation Medicine, Jacobsen writes.

While Schreiber would later serve as a witness during the Nuremberg trials, he, von Braun, Strughold and the rest of their fellow Nazis brought to the U.S. would never be held accountable for their own atrocities. Operation Paperclip remained secretthroughout much of the Cold War.

We rate this claimTRUE because it is supported by our research. Operation Paperclip was a secret initiative launched by the U.S. government to recruit German engineers, doctors, physicists,chemists and other scientific experts for U.S. technological advancement, especially in anticipation of the Cold War. Many recruited German scientists did work for NASA and various other government entities. They were not held responsible for their war crimes.

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

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80 years ago this month, Nazis invented industrial murder at quiet Chelmno – The Times of Israel

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When the Nazi death camp Chelmno began operations 80 years ago this month, a new phase of the Holocaust was launched in a small Polish village along the Vistula River.

At Chelmno, home to 35 families, the German SS pioneered methods of mass murder later deployed at death camps including Auschwitz-Birkenau. Known as Kulmhof in German, the killing site was also home to experiments in corpse disposal on an industrial scale.

In the Reichsgau or Nazi-made administrative subdivision of Warthegau, which surrounded Chelmno and included industrial Lodz, the Germans played elaborate shell games to deceive victims and bystanders. Tactics included issuing contradictory messages and forcing victims to send postcards with fake destinations.

The SS covered up where the Jews were going to, said historian Nicholas Terry, a senior lecturer in history at the University of Exeter. The theme of deception and secrecy allows us to see what it meant for the perpetrators, the bystanders, and the victims.

The first Jews gassed at Chelmno were deported from provincial ghettos during early December 1941. For many months into 1942, most Jews in the Warthegau regions 57 ghettos believed deportees were headed for labor and resettlement.

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Among Nazi death camps, Chelmno was the first to deploy gas. Inside custom-rigged mobile killing vans, vehicle exhaust was funneled into a sealed compartment where up to 50 victims were packed. At least 172,000 Jews were murdered at Chelmno during two periods of the camps operation, as well as 5,000 Roma and Sinti people.

Memorials at former Forest Camp at Chelmno, where victims were buried and later cremated, 2017 (Elan Kawesch/The Times of Israel)

To confuse the outside world as well as Jews imprisoned in the regions ghettos, some transports were sent back and forth between for example Germany, Lodz, and places east of Lodz, camouflaging Chelmno as the true destination.

These reports of Jews being resettled were widely believed outside Europe, Terry said. And at the end of the war, there was a hope against hope that more Jews had survived.

The German strategy of toying with the outside world inevitably led to degrees of self-deception among victims and bystanders, said Terry. For example, only after the Germans demanded the Lodz ghetto Jewish council hand over thousands of children for deportation did most Jews realize resettlement meant death.

War crimes investigators examine a burned-out mover van near Chelmno, of the type used by the SS to murder people (public domain)

The uncertainty has not been emphasized as much, in terms of the bystander responses, said Terry, adding that Chelmno has been overshadowed in general.

It is one of the best-documented killing sites, said Terry, pointing to German documents, among others, on materials used to make field ovens that cremated corpses. There are also a multiplicity of eyewitness accounts of gassings at Chelmno, said Terry, including one given by a Jewish prisoner who escaped the death camp in 1942 and fled to Warsaw.

At Chelmno, Jews were taken to a dilapidated schloss, or castle, and greeted in the courtyard by the so-called squire of the manor.

For the first time in the Holocaust, people were told they must take disinfection showers before the journeys next stage. After being forced through a narrow corridor in the basement, victims were packed into what appeared to be a small room.

Jews en route to Chelmno death camp from Kolo, where they transferred to a narrow-gauge rail and wagon cars (public domain)

Before people had time to react, the wagon was sealed and the engine started. After a 20-minute drive through town to the Forest Camp, the asphyxiated victims were unloaded and buried by Jewish prisoners. Every few weeks, the team of prisoners was executed to ensure secrecy.

The role played by Chelmno in the Holocaust was pivotal, researcher Chris Webb told The Times of Israel. For example, the camps first commander Herbert Lange was an absolute pioneer in the development of gas vans.

An amateur historian, Webb has researched Chelmno and the threeAktion Reinhard (Operation Reinhard) death camps Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka for more than 40 years. His books include The Chelmno Death Camp, co-authored with the late Artur Hojan.

The only difference between Chelmno and the Aktion Reinhard camps is that Chelmno used vans instead of static gas chambers, said Webb.

German soldiers help deport Jews from Zychlin ghetto to Chelmno death camp (public domain)

After the three Reinhard camps surpassed Chelmnos capacity for murder in the summer of 1942, SS officers reinvented the village-based killing center with a new task: Germany might not win the war, so evidence of the Final Solution specifically corpses had to be exhumed and destroyed at death camps and hundreds of mass graves throughout Eastern Europe.

At Chelmno, Paul Blobel of the SS carried out gruesome experiments involving flamethrowers and incendiary bombs. Eventually, he settled on using railroad tracks stacked with layers of corpses and firewood. Methodically, Blobel created improvised crematoria that were more sophisticated than crematoria at the Reinhard camps, said Terry.

Chelmno is arguably the most obscure death camp, but there are more physical traces of the Holocaust at the village than exist at most killing sites, according to experts.

Schloss manor house converted into part of the death camp at Chelmno, as seen in 1939, two years before the SS began using mobile killing vans on-site (public domain)

Theres more to see at Chelmno than at Treblinka, said Webb, referring to the Aktion Reinhard camp where 900,000 Jews were murdered. At Treblinka, no structures associated with the genocide stand today. Decades ago, 17,000 quarry stones were placed atop the mass graves to evoke communities destroyed there.

By way of contrast to Treblinka, Chelmno remains largely as it looked during the war, including the church where victims were held overnight during summer 1944 transports from Lodz. The manor house was blown up by the Nazis in 1943, before the camps second phase of operation, but the basements foundations and a staircase have been excavated.

From the perspective of Terry, Chelmno is a spatially diffused site with a staggeringly multi-staged killing process, he said. Its almost a misnomer to call it a camp. Its an extermination site.

Despite Chelmnos confusing layout, it was easy for villagers to piece together what took place there, said Terry. In the spring of 1942, townspeople witnessed victims falling out of an overturned gas van. For months, stench and smoke wafted in from the Forest Camp cremation pyres, while the camps German guards were billeted with families in town.

War crimes investigation photo of Jewish victims belongings left at the Kolo synagogue, where Jews were imprisoned overnight before transport to the Chelmno death camp (public domain)

Chelmnos SS officers worked toward the Fuhrer Nazi-speak for administrators to anticipate and execute Hitlers orders beforehand. When it came to solving the Jewish question, Chelmnos leaders improvised the transition from open-air massacres in the east to what became death camps with fixed gas chambers, a more centralized and discreet model.

At Chelmno we saw there was a degree of decentralization and improvisation in the genocide of European Jews, said Terry. Regional authorities could improvise or experiment.

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80 years ago this month, Nazis invented industrial murder at quiet Chelmno - The Times of Israel

How European Jewish refugees wined and dined Nazi prisoners for US Army intelligence – The Times of Israel

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There was something unusual about the five men who walked into the Jewish-owned Lansburgh Bros. department store in Washington, DC, one December day in 1946. Four wore long leather coats and Tyrolese hats, and spoke German to the fifth man, saying they wanted to buy Christmas gifts for their families sweets for their children and unterwasche, or undergarments, for their wives.

They started a mild altercation after becoming frustrated with their inability to communicate with the staff, and in a climate where World War II was still on everyones minds, the local military police were called in to arrest them. Ultimately, the five were brought back to where they had come from a clandestine prison camp in northern Virginia known only by its address: PO Box 1142.

What no one knew least of all the many Jews who frequented Lansburgh Bros. was that the quartet in German dress were actually high-ranking Nazis who had been apprehended by the United States during the war, including Hitlers chief rocket scientist, Wernher von Braun.

The military brass at PO Box 1142 believed that if its Nazi prisoners received lenient treatment, they would divulge top-secret scientific information that would benefit the US in the Cold War against its new enemy, the USSR. The prisoners request to go Christmas shopping in the capitals largest department store went all the way to the Pentagon.

Not only was the request accepted, but the quartet got $1,000 in spending money and an escort a guard named Arno Mayer. In the strangest part of the story, Mayer and many of the guards playing good cop at the camp were young Jewish refugees who had fled an increasingly antisemitic Europe.

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The guards little-known narrative is spotlighted in a new animated Netflix short film, Camp Confidential: Americas Secret Nazis, directed by the Israeli husband-and-wife duo Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy. The 35-minute film premiered on September 24.

A still from the new Netflix animated documentary Camp Confidential: Americas Secret Nazis. (Courtesy of Netflix)

At first the story sounded so bizarre and unreal we could barely believe it that [there was] a secret Nazi camp near Washington, DC, run by Jewish refugees, Sivan and Loushy wrote in an email. It took us some time to understand this is not a fictional story, but actually happened.

They reflected, This story involved so much absurdity, pain and double standards on behalf of the US we felt this story must be told, and brought to a wide public this hidden part of history couldnt stay buried, known only to history buffs. We believed it should be known to all and of course Netflix was the best stage we could dream of.

Due to the scarcity of archival footage from the top-secret camp, the film uses animation to tell the story. This includes an animated version of a young Mayer and his efforts to keep prisoners happy. In one scene, the ex-Nazis enjoy an indoor Christmas celebration while a bitter Mayer stands outside, refusing their offer to come in for a drink.

In a joint Zoom interview with The Times of Israel, the directors recalled their initial doubts about the accuracy of the story.

Mor Loushy, co-director of the new Netflix animated documentary Camp Confidential: Americas Secret Nazis. (Courtesy of Netflix)

OK, it was probably like an urban legend, a myth, Sivan remembered thinking.

Loushy said that she could understand if it happened after the war, but to realize it [had already begun] in 1942 was shocking to us.

Daniel Sivan, co-director of the new Netflix animated documentary Camp Confidential: Americas Secret Nazis. (Courtesy of Netflix)

The directors credited producers Jono and Benjamin Bergmann with bringing the decades-old story to their attention and then confirming it by locating an archive of oral history interviews with some of the former guards.

The Bergmanns had originally learned about the story from a German journalist and colleague. In addition to the oral history archive, they also sought to find surviving guards to interview in real life. Because so much time had passed, they could only locate one Mayer.

Just days before Sivan and Loushy were to fly from Los Angeles to New York en route to interview him, they learned there was another survivor a fellow Jewish refugee, Peter Weiss. Finding him took some sleuthing.

As the youngest in the group, we had a hunch that Peter Weiss might still be around as well, the producers said in a statement. We ended up finding him believe it or not by going through all Peter [Weisses] in the New York phone book until we found one that was over 90 years old and originally from Vienna.

As it turned out, Mayer and Weiss knew each other.

Their shared experiences refugees from Europe and a secret to be kept from everyone in their lives created a very close bond at [the camp], the Bergmanns said. They stayed in touch and visited each other for many years after that.

It seems like Arno and Peter are the only survivors, Sivan said, noting that since the films release, he and Loushy have gotten a lot of messages from family members saying their dad was also part of [the camp] We discovered more and more stories of course, about people who already passed away.

It was Jewish refugees proficiency in German that got the army interested in them as interrogators. In the film, Weiss recalls proving his knowledge by quoting Goethe. Many were originally recruited for their language skills as part of the much larger group of Ritchie Boys European emigres who trained at Camp Ritchie in Maryland in such aspects as extracting intelligence from German prisoners of war.

At PO Box 1142, one guard tricked a German prisoner into thinking he was about to be gassed, which prompted him to divulge information. Intelligence obtained from the camp reportedly included the location of von Brauns subterranean V2 rocket factory at Peenemunde, which subsequently became the target of Allied bombings.

As the war neared its end, the geopolitics became complicated. Von Braun and 300 of his colleagues at Peenemunde were captured by the US and secretly brought stateside in contravention of official American policy first to an island in Boston Harbor, then to PO Box 1142.

We had very little information about rocketry, Mayer says in the film. Rocket scientists were essential to our war effort [in the Cold War].

A still from the new Netflix animated documentary Camp Confidential: Americas Secret Nazis. (Courtesy of Netflix)

The camp brass created a new position for Mayer morale officer and asked him to make life enjoyable for the prisoners, hoping this would get them to cooperate. He gave the prisoners newspapers to read, whiskey to sip and numerous games to play, including swimming, tennis, ping-pong and chess. He taught them horseshoes and discovered they loved volleyball.

[The guards] were all shocked, Loushy said. They didnt understand. They were so ready to go and fight in Europe, be really active saving their families. Yet they found themselves in the camp playing ping-pong with Nazis.

The Jewish soldiers knew about the evils the Nazis had committed, including against their families. The filmmakers stated that many of the soldiers had arrived in the US as enemy aliens and their US citizenship depended upon their military service.

Almost all [of us] were refugees from the Nazis, Weiss says in the film. We would have preferred to treat them as the war criminals they were. In the army, you can only follow orders. I tried to suppress my rage. He states that he was not fully aware of the enormity of what had happened under the Nazi regime, but notes, My grandfather, uncle, aunt, cousin, other relatives all died in the Holocaust, like so many others.

A still from the new Netflix animated documentary Camp Confidential: Americas Secret Nazis. (Courtesy of Netflix)

Newsreel footage is shown proclaiming the first actual pictures of atrocities in Nazi murder camps, including an appalled Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower surveying liberated Buchenwald, where tattooed slave laborers had worked on V2 rockets.

Mayer is quoted saying that the V2 rockets killed countless numbers of people in London and that building them required Jews arrested by the Gestapo. [Von Braun] knew what was going on. He knew there was an Auschwitz.

The film incorporates footage of von Brauns unlikely career resuscitation in the US decades later, as a well-respected NASA administrator. Clips show him overseeing the Apollo project to put the first man on the moon and getting cheered by crowds.

According to the film, the prisoners at PO Box 1142 were never charged with war crimes, and many went on to careers at NASA and the CIA. The camp was eventually bulldozed, and its former guards generally stayed silent about their duties there.

A sizable number of the guards went on to noteworthy achievements in later life. Weiss pursued a career in human rights law, including at the UN, where he helped regulate against torture. Mayer joined the faculty at Princeton and wrote several controversial books, one on the Holocaust and another on Zionism.

Weisss commitment to human rights and regrets over his work at the camp is reflected in his final comment in the film about the question of whether you can do bad things to achieve good ends. I would say if you do that, the end that you achieve is not worthwhile.

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How European Jewish refugees wined and dined Nazi prisoners for US Army intelligence - The Times of Israel

Mixed-race cop on policing in 2021: Ive been called racist and a Nazi – New York Post

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In this era of civil unrest and partisan politics, its harder than ever for cops particularly black cops to do their jobs. In this excerpt from the new book Beaten Black and Blue: Being a Black Cop in an America Under Siege, Ray Hamilton, 42,reveals his experiences working as a mixed-race cop in San Ramon, Calif., east of Oakland, as well as his early days serving in Washington DCs tough Sixth District.

A big part of my story is that Im black and white, and that puts me right in the middle of all the race and policing issues.

And, yes, Ive dealt with different aspects of racism. On a routine traffic stop, people might say, Oh, you just stopped me because Im black.

Really? Because Im mixed race, and sometimes, you cant tell what I am.

On the East Coast, they thought I was Puerto Rican, and here in California, they dont know what I am. Theres no box to put me in, which I think is true for a lot of people. So when that happens, I call people out on that. I ask them, Could it be that I stopped you because your tail light was out, or your tags expired a year ago, or you ran a red light? It couldnt be anything like that?

That usually turns things around.

I never saw myself as looking tough or like a thug; I had curly hair and an olive skin tone. But when I was a teenager, I got stopped by the gang unit in Dallas a true felony stop with guns drawn and everything.

Put your hands on the steering wheel!

Whoa, I thought. What in the world is happening?

Youre in a gang!

No, I wasnt, and I never was. However, my cousin was in a gang, and he used to get caught up in all kinds of criminal stuff. He ended up getting shot five times, and died.

All of that really turned me away from being in a gang or doing anything criminal.

Instead, I ended up in the military. I was in the Air Force working for the Department of Defense on Bolling Air Force Base. At the time, I was working as a sports and recreation assistant, creating extracurricular events for the Air Force community.

I believe how you do your job is more of a calling than what your job actually is. And for some reason, after the military I decided I was going to apply to the DC Metro Police Department. They werent hiring at the time, and several people advised me not to join that dirty police department. I applied anyway, and I waited. I waited for two years. Most people apply to multiple departments to increase their odds of being hired. Me? I only applied to one. I believed I was supposed to work there. Eventually, after their hiring freeze was lifted, I became one of 35 people hired out of 10,000 candidates.

Thats how I started my career with the police 10 years ago.

When a person of color calls me a racist, I feel bad for them. Its like theyre conditioned to believe people treat them a certain way because theyre black.

When a person of color calls me another person of color a racist, I feel bad for them. Its like theyre conditioned to believe people treat them a certain way because theyre black. I want to say to them, Wait a minute. You dont want me pulling you over because you have your hair in cornrows, you have tattoos, youre smoking a blunt, but you dont want me to assume youre a gangster, right? You dont want me to assume that, but thats one of the first things that comes to mind. But thats not reasonable for me to do that. Thats me judging you, and you dont want me doing that. Why judge me?

During the recent riots, I was accused of being an overseer, someone who watched over slaves. Another time, someone accused me of being like the Nazis marching the Jews off to the concentration camp trains, as if I were marching people off to be killed. I was surprised by that. It really does get that dirty sometimes.

When I have on riot duty gear or the uniform in general I remember Im not here representing myself; Im here to try to keep some kind of peace. When Im wearing either one, I dont represent myself or my own ideas and thoughts. Im there to protect whatever brothers and sisters are around me.

Were not there to control people. They should feel free to protest all they want. I may even agree with them, but I dont agree with all the methods. And I cant let a few opportunists cause this thing to become a mob and be unlawful.

I think its important to hold that attitude.

Recently, a couple of guys on the line took a knee. No, no, brother! You cant take a knee when youre on the line, whether you agree with them or not. You cant take a knee because that puts everyone else at risk now. Its very awkward. Its not the time, and then it looks like were not standing together.

When Im in the uniform, Im there for a greater purpose. That purpose is to keep some kind of peace and maintain some kind of order, and to do that, you have to show some kind of solidarity.

That said, I also want to build a rapport with the community I serve. When I was in DC, especially in the project area, I was dealing with a different mindset. And I knew you had to meet them where they were and build that relationship. The beat I had was a very rough four blocks where there were murders, drug deals, you name it. I had a partner, a white dude from Arizona. Hed never been around that many black people, and this was an all-black neighborhood. When we walked that beat, my partner kind of walked behind me. You could visibly tell he was scared. I had to explain to him, Dang, man, theyre gonna pull your card if you walk behind me. Dont do that. If they see youre scared, theyll respond in a bad way. You gotta walk beside me, not behind me.

Since Im in the middle black (and white) and blue I find myself walking the line.

I know some officers have bad attitudes about the communities they serve. Yes, its often a racial divide. Some of the white cops had a different outlook. They even made patches: Were not stuck here with you; youre stuck here with us. And sadly, yes, I have heard some of the guys refer to black people as savages. Im thinking, My gosh, how are you going to deliver or render any kind of justice or service to this community if you refer to them as savages?

So, Im trying to win over the white officers and the black community.

Sadly, I do understand why some people hate us.

On one occasion, a black officer stopped a guy who was a known criminal. Everybody knew he dealt drugs, and he had drugs on him. But the officer demeaned him, I guess trying to teach him a lesson in front of the other people in the area. He made him kneel down on the concrete (that hurts), and he had him down there for more than five minutes. The crowd felt like the cop was showing off and abusing his authority. So, they started name-calling called us the slang term for cops, twelve, called us FEDS, called us all kinds of names. I believe when you name someone like that then theyre no longer a person. Like calling someone a savage or shouting out, F twelve either side of the argument theyre no longer a person.

Not too long after that, we caught a guy on a very minor misdemeanor charge, riding a dirt bike in the city. These rough riders would ride dirt bikes and ATVs in the city, and the cops would chase them. I caught this one guy, and we were just going to write him up, get his fingerprints, and process him out, but this guy had a $10,000 wad of bills on him. He claimed it was from his family business. But I know that most businesses usually dont transport cash in their waistbands. I needed to hold the money until he could bring down receipts to prove it was earned through that business. He started yelling at me that he wanted to see it put in the evidence bag. I was surprised. Did he think I was going to steal it? Apparently yes, because other cops in my district had been fired for misconduct. No wonder he didnt trust us!

I can sometimes understand the lack of trust from the community, but when you dont feel you have the support of your leaders, thats when it gets really hard. When I was on the riot team in DC, we werent able to wear our full riot gear because it looked too aggressive. Here in California, its more of the same. During one of the riots, I was hit with a bottle, and we had to shoot a rubber round back at that person. Then, we had to use tear gas to disperse the crowd. Three days later, they took away our tear gas. I was recently deployed to Sacramento, and we were told that if protesters break the windows at City Hall, we should let them.

Even in Oakland, we had to let them loot a Target, a 7-Eleven store, and a car dealership.

I know all the violence and looting are coordinated, because I saw someone watching us and monitoring our movement. Then, he called it to his fellow rioters. Not being able to do anything or take any action when laws are being broken and officers are being hurt? Thats demotivating. You end up getting what we call 4 percent. Some officers go out on duty, but they wont be proactive, and they give less than 100 percent because its a reaction to feeling powerless and not being supported. Theres also a threat of being sued by someone, even if the officers are just defending themselves. Its very disheartening.

While I grew up feeling like I never had to be anyone but who I was, these days, I feel like I am always being forced to pick a side. I try to identify with the people I work with, and I also try to identify with the community Im policing. I dont want them to feel like I said, that Im just here as an overseer. Im not here to fine you and arrest you, but I have a job to do. It can be hard to feel so stuck in the middle.

Reprinted with permission from Beaten Black and Blue: Being a Black Cop in an America Under Siege by Brandon Tatum, published by Bombardier Books (2021).

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Mixed-race cop on policing in 2021: Ive been called racist and a Nazi - New York Post

The Luftwaffe: The Making & Breaking Of The Nazi Air Force – BBC History Magazine

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Spearheaded by its forceful commander-in-chief, Hermann Gring, the Luftwaffes rise to notoriety under the Nazis appeared to corroborate their claim that Gring had built the air force als einzelner Mann (as a lone man). But in reality, the Luftwaffe had been created long before pilots such as Steinhoff took to the skies, initially as a secret Schwarze Luftwaffe (Shadow Luftwaffe) by the preceding Weimar Republic. As Heinrich Brning, chancellor of Germany between 1930 and 1932, later claimed, Hitler didnt start the Luftwaffe we did.

A likely staged shot of a German two-seater Rumpler engaging in combat with British aircraft during the First World War. (Photo by Roger Viollet via Getty Images)

To separate historical fact from myth, then, it is necessary to examine how the opportunistic Nazi regime made the air force its own both to the eventual detriment of the world and, ultimately, to itself.

Germany first began to recognise the potential of aerial warfare during the 19th century. After Prussian forces witnessed Frances use of observational and evacuation balloons during the Franco-Prussian War (187071), the newly unified German empire formed its own stationary observational balloon units. Before long, balloons were being adapted so that they could scout across long distances, transport vital equipment and drop bombs on enemy territory.

By the 1910s, military aircraft had been incorporated into the Deutsches Heer (Imperial German Army), and in 1914, Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches (the Imperial German Army Air Service) entered the First World War. Later reshaped into the Deutsche Luftstreitkrfte (German Air Force) in October 1916, it provided the army with both aerial reconnaissance and ground and air support.

Despite the strain and dangers of the dogfights, pilots often came away with more favourable memories of warfare than troops stuck in the trenches, and the image of the valiant German airman became embedded in the national psyche. Indeed, in his interwar biography of the Bavarian fighter ace Max Ritter von Mller, Hans Haller enthusiastically wrote of how there was again man and courage; there was hunting and the landing of blows. It was this chivalric aura that would soon give rise to other hallowed fighter aces such as Manfred von Richthofen (the famous Red Baron), as well as the likes of Oswald Boelcke, Max Immelmann and Werner Voss.

Manfred von Richthofen (right) talks with fellow flying officers. Before his death in combat in 1918, the Red Baron had chalked up at least 80 aerial victories. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Nevertheless, with the influx of American airpower towards the end of the First World War, the odds simply became insurmountable for the Luftstreitkrfte. After Germanys defeat in November 1918, the subsequent Treaty of Versailles banned the nation from possessing any military or naval air forces, evoking, in the words of one author, a cry of rage through German aviation circles.

Included among such circles was Hermann Gring the unlikely last commander of Richthofens Flying Circus fighter wing who declared in his diary that he wanted to restore German aviation to the world.

Cloaked with all the swagger and star power of a fighter ace, he piqued the attention of an Austrian corporal with similar aspirations of restoring Germanys prewar greatness: Adolf Hitler. The two Nazis were eventually inserted into Germanys government in 1933. In January, Hitler was made chancellor, and the next month, Gring was appointed Reich commissioner of aviation.

Yet according to the former Luftwaffe anti-aircraft assistant Georg Cordts, it was only in March 1933 that Gring truly came to realise the extent of the treasures that had fallen into his lap.

Hitler, Hermann Gring and other Nazi officials pay their respects at a First World War memorial event, 1933. (Photo by Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Secretly established the previous summer by the former Reich minister of defence, Kurt von Schleicher, Germanys so-called Shadow Luftwaffe was intended to boast 630 officers and 4,000 other ranks by the end of 1936. This, in turn, built upon foundations that had been laid a decade earlier, when a covert military flight school was set up in the Russian city of Lipetsk. The convenient arrangement not only allowed the Soviets to obtain vital German expertise in fighter tactics and aeronautical development, but also enabled the Germans to circumvent Versailles restrictions on military flight in Germany.

Between 1926 and 1933, around 120 German fighter pilots and 450 flying personnel attended the institution, where they used high explosives, engaged in live-fire practice and undertook mock dive bombing and fighter-bomber operations. Progress in boosting the number of potential pilots who could serve in the Luftwaffe had also been made by the Reich Transport Ministry, whose earlier recruitment efforts had seen the number of student commercial and civil pilots being trained double between December 1924 and March 1926.

Keen to capitalise on the gains made by their predecessors, the Nazi regime urgently accelerated the Luftwaffes rearmament, pledging around 10.5 billion Reichsmarks for the purpose in 1934. And, with the passing of the Wehrgesetz (Defence Law) on 21 May 1935, the Luftwaffe was officially established as a branch of the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) alongside the Heer (army) and Kriegsmarine (navy) all in direct contravention of the terms that had been set out at Versailles.

The Nazi Luftwaffe prided itself on its high operational standards, with only 5 per cent of applicants passing the rigorous entrance exam required to reach the interview stage for non-commissioned officer and officer ranks. Although the Jagdflieger (fighter pilots) and Kampfflieger (bomber crews) are two of the most well- known branches of the Luftwaffe today, by July 1944 there were 70 different career pathways within the air force, with the Nazis quick to praise the flyers who dont fly at every opportunity.

Those serving as aircraft engineers, mechanics, electricians, metal workers, carpenters and painters were all seen as being of particular value, as in the words of the propagandists a fast, reliable and smoothly functioning ground service is the prerequisite for the operational readiness and fighting power of the weapon in the air.

In terms of military strategy, the Nazis initially believed the Luftwaffe should be a Risiko or risk Luftwaffe, using its fearsome persona as a deterrent to fulfil Nazi ambitions of quickly seizing territory without provoking war. Although some airpower theorists favoured the installation of a heavy strategic bombing element within the air force, the Luftwaffes successful intervention during the Spanish Civil War (193639) from pulling off logistical triumphs for Francos Nationalists, to flushing out Republican strongholds had been a temporary distraction from adopting a heavyweight approach.But these early achievements shrouded many of the Luftwaffes shortcomings. By 1939, a shortage of manpower hovered over German aircraft production, and the Luftwaffe lacked a sophisticated ground-to- air communications system and integrated radar network. With Gring boasting that no enemy bomber can reach the Ruhr! (referring to the heavily industrialised region of western Germany), fervent Nazi rhetoric was also instilling a complacency within the Luftwaffe that would leave the Reich woefully underprotected.

When news broke that Germany had advanced into Poland on 1 September 1939, an airfield construction manager near Hamburg noted that both the youngest officers of the airborne units and old medal-decorated First World War officers sat around me with serious faces. As Hitlers bloodlust swelled, and as Grings eagerness to unleash the Fhrers Hammer increased, the Luftwaffe quickly found itself embroiled in conflicts across the globe.The Luftwaffe was intrinsic to the early success of the tactical phenomenon of blitzkrieg (lightning war), which was wielded to great effect in 1939 across Poland, before hitting Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries and France the following spring. Combining swift manoeuvres from highly mobilised armoured divisions with disorientating Luftwaffe air support, blitzkrieg was essential for the quick war Hitler desired and required. By June 1940, as the Allied forces retreated from Dunkirk, the Luftwaffe stood in awe at its accomplishments. I am proud today that I was able to take part in the greatest battle the world has ever seen, wrote a breathless Luftwaffe anti-aircraft gunner.

Hermann Gring with Adolf Hitler in 1944. Their blunders helped hasten the Luftwaffes disintegration, argues Victoria Taylor.(Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Filled with confidence, the Nazi leadership turned its attentions across the Channel to Britain, but Winston Churchill had no intention of accepting Hitlers request to sue for peace. Dismayed at his refusal to surrender, the fhrer ordered the Wehrmacht to prepare for an amphibious invasion of Britain code-named Operation Sea Lion on 16 July. The Luftwaffes fighter pilots and bomber crews sought to soften up the country for invasion with a relentless aerial campaign.

Although the Luftwaffe ran the RAF ragged during the resultant Battle of Britain attacking Allied shipping, British ports, airfields, radar installations and aircraft factories it did not achieve the level of air superiority necessary to make Operation Sea Lion viable. Nor was Britains defeat secured by the Luftwaffes switch to bombing its cities during the Blitz from early September 1940 until May 1941.

Disappointed, Hitler diverted his attention towards the Luftwaffes other deployments. In particular, the air force was becoming more committed to the North African campaign fighting over Libya, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. The Luftwaffe also enjoyed a stunning yet demanding performance over the Balkans from April 1941, after its fellow Axis power, Italy, had invaded Greece the previous October.

Hitlers chief priority, though, was to capture more Lebensraum or living space by invading the Soviet Union. The Luftwaffe was partially redirected from the Blitz over Britain to the eastern front for Operation Barbarossa in June 1941. However, the ensuing invasion proved a step too far, and the Wehrmacht became locked in a bloody struggle with the Soviets that drained German resources even further over-stretching the heavily deployed Luftwaffe.

Matters were made even worse for the Nazis when the Allied strategic bombing offensive started to cause chaos back at home in Germany. In January 1943, Churchill and US president Franklin D Roosevelt had promised Soviet leader Josef Stalin they would ramp up their existing bombing campaigns to further split their foe into an exhausting war on two fronts.

Although the Luftwaffe still managed to inflict heavy losses upon the Allies on occasion, the ruthless British-American firestorm that rained down on Hamburg in July 1943, and the controversial raids on Dresden between 1315 February 1945, left German airmen feeling especially deflated. The three consecutive attacks in 12 hours left every aid organisation smashed and resulted in destruction unlike anything else, said one member of the Luftwaffe after visiting Dresden on 18 February 1945. [The city] is no more.

Local residents in Dresden queue for a streetcar in 1945, surrounded by the rubble from Allied bombing raids. (Image by Getty Images)

But in truth, morale had been cracking since 1944. Temperamental and experimental aircraft such as the rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, the Heinkel He 162 Volksjger and the Arado Ar 234 were hastily constructed to little effect. Frustrated by Germanys decline, Hubert Retz, a Luftwaffe radio operator, declared in a letter to his fiance in May 1944 that it will soon be time for this circus to come to an end, otherwise there will be no city in the whole of Germany that has not been destroyed.

Overall, the Luftwaffes disintegration was hastened owing to a catalogue of blunders by both its operational leadership and political guardians. Its overcommitment at the hands of the rapacious Nazis strained the air force until fuel shortages, a slump in aircraft production, insufficient pilot training and inadequate logistical support all crippled the Luftwaffe from within.

Such was the desperation in the Third Reich that, towards the end of the war, the Nazi regime even suggested the formation of a dedicated Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) squadron to the utter horror of the Luftwaffe. Before this madcap scheme could be executed, however, the Nazis capitulated on 7 May 1945, and German aviation was set right back where it had been in 1918: defeated, disarmed, and effectively deceased.

A scathing Luftwaffe report from January 1945 perhaps captured the true reasons for the air forces undoing when it claimed that the Nazi regime had attached too little value to education and wanted too much to do with morality and the representation of dogmas [than] to be achieving the goal of a higher performance.

The Luftwaffe had been crushed under the leadership that had once helped it to fly and the price for its wartime glory would be peacetime infamy.

From jet fighters to dive bombers, these aircraft helped heighten the Luftwaffes fearsome reputation in the skies

Fitted with a liquid-cooled 1,020hp Daimler-Benz DB 601A engine, theBf 109s guts were stuffed with all the modernised apparatus of the best fighter aircraft in the mid-1930s: a retractable undercarriage, trailing edge flaps, and an enclosed cockpit. It packed a concentrated punch of ammunition, armed with various combinations of 7.9mm MG 17 machine guns and 20mm MG FF auto- cannons, though MG 151 autocannons were later experimented with.

The Bf 109E took the fight to the RAFs Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires in the Battle of Britain. Unlike its British counterparts, whose Rolls Royce Merlin engines float chambers were prone to flooding with fuel under negative G, the Bf 109s fuel-injected engine reduced its chances of stalling and kept it in the fight for longer.

The arrival of the Focke Wulf Fw 190 in 1941 caused huge concern for the RAFs Fighter Command, who were puzzled by the sudden appearance of this stubby-nosed aircraft. Fitted with a 1,700hp BMW 801-D2 radial engine, later variants of the Fw 190 could fly up to 440mph at 37,000ft, with a ceiling height of 39,370ft.

Although it initially struggled with a few teething problems, the Fw 190 was designed with simplicity in mind: its parts were easy to manufacture and replace. It was often considered to be sturdier, more forgiving to less experi- enced pilots, and a better all-rounder than the Bf 109.

The worlds first operational jet fighter had its full potential curtailed by numerous delays in its development. The Luftwaffe and Adolf Hitler were notably divided over its role, with the fhrer envisioning it as a Jabo (fighter-bomb- er) instead of a fighter interceptor.

Powered by a pair of BMW-003 turbojets, each with 5.40kN thrust, from November 1941, its developers attempted to replace these with the temperamental 8.24kN Junkers Jumo- 004 engines. Botched landings were common due to the planes long nose, which could obscure the pilots visibility on the ground.

Nevertheless, its advanced aerodynamics enabled it to reach an eye-water- ing top speed of 540mph. The Me 262s ultimate success lay in catalysing the rise of the jet engine.

The two-crew Sturzkampfflugzeug (Stuka) dive bomber entered service with the Luftwaffe in 1937, poweredby a 1,400hp Jumo 211J-1 inverted-V piston engine from 1940. With a top speed of 230mph, which climbed to over 300mph in a dive, this gull-winged harbinger of death enjoyed great precision bombing success in the Spanish Civil War and during the first year of the Second World War.But its vulnerability to attack due to its light armament rendered it increasingly obsolete. It is best known for its ear-piercing shriek while in a dive pro- duced by the wind whistling through the Jerichos Trumpet siren fixed under its wings which was designed to inflict psychological terror on the enemy.

The mainstay of Germanys bomber offensive in the Second World War, the Heinkel He 111 medium bomber was powered by 1,200hp Junkers Jumo 211D 12-cylinder, inverted-V, liquid-cooled engines. This five-crew bomber had a top speed of 270mph and a maximum range of 1,280 miles. It was involved in some of the deadliest bombing raids in history from Guernica and Warsaw, to Rotterdam and Coventry.

Its age was already beginning to show at the start of the Second World War, however: it was slow, lumbering, and unable to develop significantly beyond its 1934 specifications. Never- theless, it remained sturdy and dependable faithfully serving its Luftwaffe masters across all major German fronts until the end of the Second World War.

Victoria Taylor is an aviation historian based at Hull and Sheffield Hallam universities. Her PhD research examines National Socialism in the Luftwaffe

This article first appeared in BBC History Magazines Collectors Edition, Great Battles of World War Two: War in the Air

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The hand-cranked calculator invented by a Nazi concentration camp prisoner – Ars Technica

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Enlarge / The Curta mechanical calculator.

Getty Images

Its no bigger than a drinking glass, and it fits easily in the palm of the hand. It resembles a pepper grinderor perhaps a hand grenade.

The diminutive Curta is a striking machine, a mechanical calculator that combines the complexity of a steamship engine and the precision craftsmanship of a fine pocket watch. It first appeared in 1948, and for the next two decadesuntil it was displaced by the electronic calculatorit was the best portable calculating machine on the planet. And its story is all the more compelling in light of the extraordinary circumstances in which it was invented.

The idea of the Curta came to its Austrian-born inventor in the darkness of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Today, we take number-crunching for granted. Our smartphones have calculator apps, and most of us have a pocket calculator somewhere in our home or office. But it wasnt always so easy. For centuries, anything more than simple addition was painfully time-consuming. The first slide rules appeared in the 17th century, not long after John Napiers invention of the logarithm, but they could only handle a couple of positions beyond the decimal place. There were also various kinds of mechanical adding machines, but most were crudely built and unsuited to scientific work. By the late 19th century, more reliable desktop calculators began to appear, but they were heavy and expensive.

The shortcomings of these machines were very much on the mind of the young Curt Herzstark, whose family was in the business of making and selling calculating machines and other office equipment. Born in 1902 in Vienna, Herzstark was running the family business by the 1930s. He traveled extensively across Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, selling mechanical calculators to banks and factories. Advertisement

Thanks to an extensive interview conducted for the Charles Babbage Institute many years later, we have Herzstarks own recollections of those busy years. He recalled that as sophisticated as his companys machines were, something was missing in the world market. He remembered meeting with architects, foremen, and customs officers who needed calculating machines that were not only accurate and reliable but also portable.

People said again and again, Yes, that is nice, but isn't there anything smaller? Herzstark recalled. Slide rules were not good enough; his customers wanted precise figures, not approximations. Simply taking existing designs and making all of the various parts smaller wouldnt do the trick; the keys and knobs would be too small to use. A radical redesign was needed.

What does this kind of machine really have to look like so that someone could use it? It cannot be a cube or a ruler; it has to be a cylinder so that it can be held in one hand, Herzstark mused. And if one can hold it in one hand, then if it is miniaturized, you could adjust it with the other hand... I started to design the ideal machine from the outside first, before I designed the insides.

Herzstark began to experiment with sliders that wrapped around a cylinder so that numbers could be entered by moving a thumb or finger. He also reasoned that there only needed to be a single calculating mechanism, so long as each input digit could access it. At the heart of the device would be a single, rotating step-drum; the drum would have two sets of teeth, one for addition and one for subtraction. A central hand crank would turn the drum, and shifting the drums position by a few millimeters was enough to switch between the adding and subtracting functions. Multiplication and division were slightly more complicated, but they still required just a few flicks of the sliders and a few turns of the crank.

By 1937, Herzstark had the essentials of the design worked out; after that, it was just a matter of machining the parts and building a prototype.

And then Hitler came to power. Advertisement

On March 12, 1938, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany (during the event known as the Anschluss). Herzstark, the son of a Jewish father and Catholic mother, feared the worst, though for the next few years, the factory was allowed to continue to operate, so long as it produced machines and tools for the German army. But the situation quickly deteriorated. Two colleagues were arrested for listening to British radio stations, and when Herzstark was offered to testify on their behalf, he, too, was arrested.

I was accused of supporting Jews, aggravation, and having an erotic relationship with an Aryan woman... it was all fabricated, Herzstark said. He was sent to the Pankratz prison in Prague and later transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp in central Germany.

Conditions were horrific. When they hung someone, Herzstark recalled, we had to watch until he finally died. Terrible. They hung people so they died slowly, a wretched death. Herzstark was put to work in an adjacent factory that built components for Germanys V2 rockets. Eventually, a senior German engineer took him aside.

For the first time, Herzstark began to imagine that he might survive thewar.

For the first time, Herzstark began to imagine that he might survive the war. And then and there I started to draw the Curta the way I had imagined it, he said.

Buchenwald was liberated by US troops on April 11, 1945. A few days later, Herzstark walked to the city of Weimar, some four miles away, with the plans for his calculating machine in his pocket. He found a factory that was still functioning, and before long, he had a prototype of the machine.

Soon, however, the Soviet army arrived. Herzstark retreated back to Vienna, carrying only a box containing the disassembled parts of the device. With European industry struggling in the post-war years, Herzstark was happy to find that the government of tiny Liechtenstein was interested in his machine. A company called Contina AG Mauren was set up, with Herzstark serving as technical director. The first batch of Curtas went on sale in 1948. A slightly larger model that could display more digits, the Type II Curta, appeared in 1954.

The Curta was popular with accountants, engineers, and surveyors. Rally car navigators liked it because it could be used by touch; an experienced user hardly even needed to look at the device. Peter Boyce, a retired astronomer who worked for many years at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, used a Curta when he was a graduate student at the University of Michigan in the 1960s. He remembers it as a wonderful, precision machine, one that was especially useful outside the office. It was good to take to the telescope, where I used it instead of pencil and paper if I needed to calculate something at 2:00 am.

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The hand-cranked calculator invented by a Nazi concentration camp prisoner - Ars Technica

Sniper Elite 5 Takes The War To France, Launching In 2022 – GameSpot

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Developer Rebellion Entertainment has revealed Sniper Elite 5, the next chapter in its World War 2 marksmanship series. Once again starring sniper Karl Fairburne--who's now sporting a trendy tactical turtleneck--Sniper Elite 5 moves the action from the Italian front to behind enemy lines in France circa 1944. Fairburne has been tasked with investigating and destroying Operation Kraken, a secret Nazi project that threatens to end the war before the Allies can even invade Europe.

In typical Sniper Elite style, this means that you can expect a lot of Nazi heads and various other vital organs to be gruesomely shredded, with the game regularly slowing down to provide a kill-cam view inside of every unlucky soldier that walks into Fairburne's line of sight.

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Now Playing: Sniper Elite 5 Reveal Trailer

According to Rebellion, some of the new features of Sniper Elite 5 include real-world locations from France in 1944, a new traversal system that includes ziplines and shimmying along edges, and new multiplayer options. You'll be able to play the game in co-op with a friend, which allows a team to share ammo and items, give orders, and heal each other. On a more adversarial note, you can invade another players campaign as an Axis sniper for a game of cat and mouse.

Competitive multiplayer returns, with Sniper Elite 5 featuring 16-player battles and a Survival mode that sees just how long you and three other players can survive against endless hordes of Nazi troopers. Think Doom Eternal's Horde mode, to get an idea of what to expect.

Sniper Elite 5 will release on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, and will also be available through Xbox Game Pass on day one.

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Sniper Elite 5 Takes The War To France, Launching In 2022 - GameSpot

Covid LIVE updates as Omicron now 20% of infections in England and hundreds queue for booster jabs – Manchester Evening News

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The Omicron variant now represents more than 20% of Covid cases in England, Sajid Javid announced today.

The Health Secretary said the UK Health Security Agency believes the number of daily infections is around 200,000.

It comes as huge queues have formed outside walk-in centres in Greater Manchester today.

READ MORE: Latest Coronavirus infection rates as eight Greater Manchester boroughs see a rise

Meanwhile, a Tory MP has today compared Covid passports to "Nazi Germany".

Marcus Fysh, MP for Yeovil, Somerset, told the BBC he will be voting against vaccine passports on Wednesday.

Last night Boris Johnson said all adults will get Covid boosters by the end of the month.

The one million jabs a day target is designed to tackle the Omicron 'tidal wave' sweeping the UK.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister this morning confirmed the first death from the Omicron variant in the UK.

Mr Johnson said at least one patient has died from the Covid strain sweeping the country.

It comes as the scandal-hit PM will be investigated over claims he broke Covid laws by hosting a Downing Street quiz.

The Sunday Mirror revealed Mr Johnson chaired a virtual quiz with two colleagues by his side.

Cabinet Secretary Simon Case has widened a probe into parties last year in Westminster, while London was in lockdown.

Sajid Javid has warned some non-urgent GP appointments and surgical procedures will be delayed until the New Year.

Meanwhile, the Health Secretary refused to rule out schools being closed next month and said 10 people are in hospital with Omicron.

Coronavirus lateral flow tests have run out and the NHS booster jab booking site has crashed.

Work from home guidance is back today, as more Plan B guidance is implemented to curb the spread of Omicron.

Mr Johnson said yesterday that the country should expect a 'tidal wave' of cases, as the UKs Covid alert level was raised from three to four.

As well as work from home guidance, rules on face masks have already been tightened and Covid passes will be required to get into nightclubs and other large venues from Wednesday.

In a short speech, he said: Today we are launching the Omicron Emergency Boost, a national mission unlike anything we have done before in the vaccination programme to Get Boosted Now.

A fortnight ago I said we would offer every eligible adult a booster by the end of January.

Today, in light of this Omicron Emergency, I am bringing that target forward by a whole month.

Everyone eligible aged 18 and over in England will have the chance to get their booster before the New Year.

We have spoken today to the Devolved Administrations, to confirm the UK Government will provide additional support to accelerate vaccinations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Fears have been raised, however, that the booster rollout will place an unprecedented level of pressure on the NHS at the system's most difficult time of year.

Greater Manchester's medics have voiced concerns in the wake of Prime Minster Boris Johnson's address, with one GP telling theManchester Evening News his practice will be forced to 'cancel routine work' and 'all staff leave' until the end of December, adding the rollout will 'break general practice'.

Follow our live blog below for the latest coronavirus updates throughout the day.

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Covid LIVE updates as Omicron now 20% of infections in England and hundreds queue for booster jabs - Manchester Evening News

May you live long and be prosecuted | Efraim Zuroff | The Blogs – The Times of Israel

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This past Friday, Herbert Wahler celebrated his 100th birthday. Quite an achievement for a German, who spent a significant part of World War II serving on the Eastern front in Ukraine. Yet upon closer examination of Wahlers service record, its not that surprising, since, for a significant part of the conflict, Wahler was not dodging bullets shot at him by Red Army soldiers, but rather contributing to the efforts of Einsatzgruppe C to mass murder innocent Jews and other enemies of the Reich.

Einsatzgruppe C was one of the four special killing squads, labeled A, B, C, and D, the Nazis sent in June 1941, along with the Wehrmacht troops invading the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, to begin the mass murder of Jews, even before the formal decree of the Final Solution was officially adopted at the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942. They spread out over the entire territory, with A responsible for the former Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia; B in charge in Belarus; C active in central Ukraine and D in southern Ukraine. In the course of 1941-1943, these units, which numbered approximately 3,000 men, with assistance from members of the Wehrmacht, German police units, and local collaborators, were responsible for the mass murder by shooting of approximately 2 million persons, among them 1.3 million Jews.

Wahler served initially in a Waffen-S.S. unit, which in late July 1941 was assigned to Einsatzgruppen C. The unit went from place to place murdering tens of thousands of innocent civilians, most of whom were Jewish, and by the end of October 1941 had killed an estimated 78,000 people, and carried out the largest mass murder in the history of the Holocaust, the September 29-30 massacre of 33,771 Jews in Babi Yar, a ravine on the outskirts of Kyiv.

Despite the extremely important role played by the Einsatzgruppen in the Holocaust, relatively few of those who carried out the murders were brought to justice. The Americans conducted a trial of 24 of the senior leaders of the units, and two-thirds of the defendants were sentenced to death (14) or life imprisonment (2), but only four men were executed. All the others who were convicted had their sentences reduced. (Four others were tried and executed by other countries.) Only about 100 men were subsequently indicted in West Germany, a few were convicted and given mild sentences, and none were executed.

Given those circumstances, I was expecting that in the wake of the dramatic change a decade ago in German prosecution policy vis--vis Nazi war criminals, which made it possible to convict those who served in death camps and/or camps with gas chambers or gas vans, or camps with a high mortality rate, based on service alone (as opposed to the previous requirement of proving a specific crime against a specific victim), it would now be possible to convict people who served in the Einsatzgruppen. In fact, shortly after the Demjanjuk verdict, I met in 2011 with the directors of the Central Office for the Clarification of Nazi Crimes (the federal German agency which initiates Nazi war crimes investigations) to discuss the issue, and they confirmed that indeed they had adopted that policy.

That did not happen, however, so three years later, in the fall of 2014, I checked the Weisenthal Center archives for all the names of people who served in the Einsatzgruppen, for whom we had a date of birth. We had a total of 1,293 names (out of about 2,950) of those who served in A, B, C, or D, of which we had dates of birth for 1,069. Of those, 80 people, 76 men and four women, were born in 1920 or later. On September 1, 20104, I sent that list, which included Herbert Wahlers name, to the German Justice Minister Heiko Maas and the Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maiziere. It took the German authorities 17 months to check the list, which they informed me included three people alive in Germany, all of whom had served in Einsatzgruppe C.

I received the news with a mixture of joy and trepidation. Joy that at least three were alive, trepidation that they might not live long enough to be prosecuted which is why I sometimes find myself praying for the good health of Nazis who might be prosecuted). In the meantime, my fears turned out to be well-founded and Kurt Gosdek and Wilhelm Karl Friedrich Hoffmeister have already died without being brought to justice. Although Wahler has admitted in media interviews that he was in Kyiv during the massacre, the prosecutor in Kassel closed his case, probably because Wahler claims that he was a medic, leaving unanswered the question of who it was he was assisting, the perpetrators or the victims.

So last Friday, a demonstration was held in front of Wahlers house in Meslungen by members of the Dokumentartheaters Berlin and the AK Angreifbare Traditionspflege, and members of the Liberal Jewish community in nearby Felsberg to demand that justice be served. My message to them, which was read at the demonstration, was simple:

The passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of the murderers and their accomplices. And old age should not afford protection for merciless killers.

Herbert Wahler may think that What has been, has been, its over, as he told the ARD journalists fromKontraste, but as long as any of the men and women from the Einsatzgruppen, deaths head units, and anyone who served in the concentration camps where so many innocent human beings were murdered are alive, they cannot be allowed to live their lives in peace and tranquility. That is a privilege they denied their victims.

They must be held accountable! Even if they were not officers or did not have high ranks. In death squads and death camps, there is no such thing as a small cog. Its the small cogs, who ensured the implementation of the Final Solution, and they must be held accountable.

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May you live long and be prosecuted | Efraim Zuroff | The Blogs - The Times of Israel

Posthuman Ensemble – Announcements – e-flux

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Artists: Jeimin Kim, Lugas Syllabus, Kyoungha Lee, Lna Bi, Kim Seola, Hwang Moonjung, Tae Yeun Kim, Robert Zhao Renhui, Pei-ying Lin, Heeah Yang, Younghwan Cheon, Easthug, Changchun Project, (Chang Jun Young & Chun Jiyoon), Eun Woo Cho

Posthuman Ensemble, referring to posthuman individuals coming together in an ensemble, is an exhibition that seeks to investigate how humans can emerge from a human-centered thought to exist in harmony with other nonhuman beings.ACC FOCUS, an annual exhibition that centers on important issues every year, focused on the actions of artists constantly invoking the memory of the environment and the history as struggles at the boundaries that form the equilibrium of the ecosystem for its 2020 exhibition, Equilibrium. This years Posthuman Ensembleexemplifies ACCs participation in the efforts of those who think about the new meaning of posthuman and new identity, in the world left in the wake of a global pandemic, as a counterstrike by nature.

The word posthuman often brings up associations of the interface between humans and machinery. This is because of the more familiar concept of transhumanism, which focuses on the combination of humans with machinery in order to go beyond the ability of human in the vein of cyborgs such as Bionic Woman or Six Million Dollar Man and the like, formed during the 1950s and 1960s with the increasing focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and computing. Researchers of the posthuman have expanded their focus not only to encompass the familiar fields of transhumanism but also to include the nonhuman and humanitys relationship with those categorized as not human.

These efforts present a starting point for examining what the values we, as humanity, can pursue as posthuman in the Anthropocene period, an age where humanitys actions, as the masters of the world, lead the climate change and environmental damages. A piece of stone, a blade of grasseverything that exists around us, or defined by us as meaningless, actually exists in relationship with each and every action taken by the human. Even the artificial ones created by humanity and the humanity itself can be seen as existing in a relationship of mutual exchange with nature in the grand cycle of the ecosystem. The network between the human and the nonhuman has already been established, and all species in the ecosystem are circulating in it. Posthuman Ensembleseeks to recognize the existence of different types of nonhumans and propose a new nonhuman existence of emotionality.

Ultimately, it seeks to raise the questions on how humanity should understand its relationships with the nonhuman and communicate in that relationship. Thus, the exhibition first includes numerous beings that do not hold the attention of most humans, the ones that are deemed insignificant by humans, such as weed, fungi, and discarded items in the city. Second, it includes the unseen and the known, such as cells and viruses. Third, it includes emotions, which are a part of humanity but are not recognized by science as concrete, in the category of the nonhuman. In particular, the exhibition seeks to interpret the process involved in the interpretation of human emotions, transition of the interpretation of data, and actualization and objectification thereof by the machine being equipped with ever-developing AI technology through an idea of translation, and thus the concept behind the communication involved in it.

Ultimately, the exhibition examines how the two parties relate to and communicate with each other and thus achieve a harmonious coexistence based on mutual respect rather than superiority, and in that relationship of coexistence, how humanity can receive healing and solace from the nonhuman. The exhibition is constructed in a way that suggests whether the posthuman, to develop the gathering of the human and the nonhuman toward the configuration of an ensemble, should examine the wounded emotions of the human and the nonhuman not through the lens of charity, but rather through empathy, humility, and respect, in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic. That starts with the recognition of the nonhumans existence and their dignity as equal beings and will ultimately serve as an asset that the human can imbue the AI, hitherto seen with fear for its capacity to surpass and rule over the human.

Curated by Rue Young Ah (Asia Culture Institute, Senior Curator).

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Ayn Rand | Biography, Books, & Facts | Britannica

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Top Questions

Who was Ayn Rand?

Ayn Rand was a Russian-born American author and philosopher. Rand authored two best-selling novels, The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957). Her novels were especially influential among conservatives and libertarians from the mid-20th century.

Where is Ayn Rand from?

Ayn Rand was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 2, 1905. When the tsarist regime was overthrown in the Russian Revolution of 1917, her family moved to Crimea, where she finished high school. She returned to Russia in 1921 and then moved to the United States in 1926.

What is Ayn Rands real name?

Ayn Rand is the pen name of Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum. She adopted it when she moved to the United States in 1926. The first name, which rhymes with pine, was inspired by the name of a Finnish writer (whom she declined to identify), and the surname she described as an abbreviation of Rosenbaum.

When did Ayn Rand begin writing?

Ayn Rand arrived in Chicago in 1926 and then moved to Hollywood, where she met American filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille. Her chance encounter with DeMille led to work as a movie extra and eventually to a job as a screenwriter. Rand sold her first screenplay, Red Pawn, to Universal Studios in 1932.

What are Ayn Rands most famous works?

Rands first major work, The Fountainhead, was published in 1943. It details the struggle of a genius architect against mediocrity. Her second major work, Atlas Shrugged, was published in 1957. It follows a railroad executive and a steel magnate as they grapple with a collectivist government. Both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged explicate Rands personal philosophy of objectivism.

How did Ayn Rand die?

Rand died of heart failure on March 6, 1982, in New York City. At the time, she had been working on a television adaptation of her novel Atlas Shrugged.

Ayn Rand, original name Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum, (born February 2, 1905, St. Petersburg, Russiadied March 6, 1982, New York, New York, U.S.), Russian-born American writer whose commercially successful novels promoting individualism and laissez-faire capitalism were influential among conservatives and libertarians and popular among generations of young people in the United States from the mid-20th century.

Her father, Zinovy Rosenbaum, was a prosperous pharmacist. After being tutored at home, Alissa Rosenbaum, the eldest of three children, was enrolled in a progressive school, where she excelled academically but was socially isolated. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, her fathers shop was confiscated by communist authorities, an event she deeply resented. As a student at Leningrad State University, she studied history and became acquainted with the works of Plato and Aristotle. After graduating in 1924, she enrolled in the State Institute for Cinematography, hoping to become a screenwriter.

The arrival of a letter from cousins in Chicago gave her an opportunity to leave the country on the pretext of gaining expertise that she could apply in the Soviet film industry. Upon her arrival in the United States in 1926, she changed her name to Ayn Rand. (The first name, which rhymes with pine, was inspired by the name of a Finnish writer, whom she never identified, and the surname she described as an abbreviation of Rosenbaum.) After six months in Chicago she moved to Hollywood, where a fortuitous encounter with the producer Cecil B. DeMille led to work as a movie extra and eventually to a job as a screenwriter. In 1929 she married the actor Frank OConnor. Soon hired as a filing clerk in the wardrobe department of RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., she rose to head of the department within a year, meanwhile writing stories, plays, and film scenarios in her spare time. She became an American citizen in 1931.

Rands first successful play, Night of January 16th (1933; originally titled Penthouse Legend), was a paean to individualism in the form of a courtroom drama. In 1934 she and OConnor moved to New York City so that she could oversee the plays production on Broadway. That year she also wrote Ideal, about a self-centred film star on the run from the law, first as a novel and then as a play. However, she shelved both versions. The play was not produced until 1989, and the novel was not published until 2015. Her first published novel, We the Living (1936), was a romantic tragedy in which Soviet totalitarianism epitomized the inherent evils of collectivism, which she understood as the subordination of individual interests to those of the state. A subsequent novella, Anthem (1938), portrayed a future collectivist dystopia in which the concept of the self and even the word I have been lost.

Rand spent more than seven years working on her first major work, The Fountainhead (1943), the story of a handsome architectural genius whose individualism and integrity are evinced in his principled dedication to his own happiness. The hero, Howard Roark, blows up a public housing project he had designed after it is altered against his wishes by government bureaucrats. On trial for his crime, he delivers a lengthy speech in his own defense in which he argues for individualism over collectivism and egoism over altruism (the doctrine which demands that man live for others and place others above self). The jury votes unanimously to acquit him. Despite generally bad reviews, the book attracted readers through word of mouth and eventually became a best seller. Rand sold it to Warner Brothers studio and wrote the screenplay for the film, which was released in 1949.

Having returned to Los Angeles with OConnor to work on the script for The Fountainhead, Rand signed a contract to work six months a year as a screenwriter for the independent producer Hal Wallis. In 1945 she began sketches for her next novel, Atlas Shrugged (1957; film part 1, 2011, part 2, 2012, part 3, 2014), which is generally considered her masterpiece. The book depicts a future United States on the verge of economic collapse after years of collectivist misrule, under which productive and creative citizens (primarily industrialists, scientists, and artists) have been exploited to benefit an undeserving population of moochers and incompetents. The hero, John Galt, a handsome and supremely self-interested physicist and inventor, leads a band of elite producers and creators in a strike designed to deprive the economy of their leadership and thereby force the government to respect their economic freedom. From their redoubt in Colorado, Galts Gulch, they watch as the national economy and the collectivist social system are destroyed. As the elite emerge from the Gulch in the novels final scene, Galt raises his hand over the desolate earth andtrace[s] in space the sign of the dollar.

Atlas Shrugged was notable for making explicit the philosophical assumptions that underlay The Fountainhead, which Rand described as only an overture to the later work. In an appendix to Atlas Shrugged, Rand described her systematic philosophy, which she called objectivism, as in essencethe concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.

Although the book was attacked by critics from across the political spectrum for its perceived immorality and misanthropy and its overt hostility to religion (Rand was an atheist), it was an instant best seller. It was especially well received by business leaders, many of whom were impressed by its moral justification of capitalism and delighted to think of their occupations as noble and virtuous. Like The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged also appealed widely to young people through its extreme romanticism, its accessible and comprehensive philosophy, its rejection of traditional authority and convention, and its implicit invitation to the reader to join the ranks of the elite by modeling himself on the storys hero.

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[9/10]

My mind is blank. The Fountainhead is a saga. It had been a part of my day for six months, until today. All these days, I had so badly wanted it to be over, but today, now that it's over, I don't know why I should feel a great sense of loss. It is such a ginormous vacuum which is going to take a while to be filled with an equally good, if not better, mind-numbing piece of literature.

I had always wondered, while writing reviews, who the review should be addressed to- one who has

[9/10]

My mind is blank. The Fountainhead is a saga. It had been a part of my day for six months, until today. All these days, I had so badly wanted it to be over, but today, now that it's over, I don't know why I should feel a great sense of loss. It is such a ginormous vacuum which is going to take a while to be filled with an equally good, if not better, mind-numbing piece of literature.

I had always wondered, while writing reviews, who the review should be addressed to- one who has already read the book or the one who hasn't. Since my brain is not conscientious enough to cater to a particular demographic, I always throw in a lot of spoilers. That's why I have come up with an ingenious(lol) plan to divide my review into two sections here after, where I shall jot down my thoughts and views appropriately and accordingly.

For Neophytes:

Brace yourselves for the Ayn Rand downpour. You will be thoroughly drenched. You will be carried away gently like a paper boat. You will be shoved against a rock, when you are least expecting it. All through the book you will have this wonderful feeling of getting a handle on the not-so-obvious. You will be proud of yourself for deciphering the literature that was intended to talk to you in codes. For a fleeting moment, you will be impressed that you can be such a dilettante who can actually probe into the mind of an eminent writer like Rand. And then everything that made sense starts to fade into obscurity. You will be mired in self-doubt and perhaps self-pity too for even daring to think you can conquer Ms. Rand's wordplay and coerce the words into making themselves that much discernible for the audience.

In Leornard Peikoff's afterword, you'll have the complete profiling of the characters done, thus sparing you from some embarrassing ponderings later on. The lead character, Howard Roark, one of the most lauded characters in the world of literature, is also one of the most cryptic, incomprehensible, frustratingly inscrutable, complexly simple characters you'll ever read about. Ms. Rand has conceived the lead character in such a way that you'll be very often tempted to move over to the tenebrous side to fall in step with Howard Roark. The character defies all human logic and defying all human logic is what Rand calls the paragon of what a man ought to be. Dominique Francon, the only female character with gravitas, is only second next to Howard Roark in discombobulating anyone she comes across. Within the story, Dominique is the perfect epitome of social elegance; out of it, she is the greatest enigma. If you don't have the slightest clue what you are getting into, this masterpiece has the cunning to throw you off balance and laugh at your face. For someone who is so used to the 700-page Harry Potter books, this will be a paradigm shift. You keep slogging at it long enough and you'll be off your rocker soon. But, know this- craziness is totally worth it.

For Virtuosos:

I never attend calls for help without bringing a book along with me. My dad thinks that it's a stratagem I have invented to evade work and this has made him averse to books in general. So, one day, when my book-hating dad talked about his young days as a reader, I had to pay close attention. That's where I picked up words that sounded like "Ayn Rand" and "The Fountainhead", which I was hitherto oblivious to. I had to see for myself what could have possibly enticed my dad into reading. And I regretted my impulsive action for many days afterwards. There were days when I couldn't go any further, but abandoning a book midway is simply not me.

The primary difference between a 700 page children's book that I am used to and this 700 page long mind-boggler is that while the former is made of sequential order of events, where not even minute details like that of the flight of an inconsequential fly in the background is not spared, the latter is devoid of any detailed elucidation of the ways of the world, other than the bare necessities of who did what- instead of how it was done. Not knowing the mechanism of human interactions and knowing only the manifestations of the actions is what makes this story a skillful dilemma thrown at inexperienced readers like me.

Keating leaned back with a sense of warmth and well-being. He liked this book. It had made the routine of his Sunday morning breakfast a profound spiritual experience; he was certain that it was profound, because he didnt understand it.

Roark felt like the most empyreal, ethereal, intangible, other worldly book character among all the fictional characters I have encountered so far. Something about his stolid, aloof, unflappable persona makes him utterly unbelievable than even the impossibly ridiculous super heroes with superpowers.

It was very peculiar, thought Keating. Toohey was asking him a great many questions about Howard Roark. But the questions did not make sense. They were not about buildings, they were not about architecture at all. They were pointless personal questionsstrange to ask about a man of whom he had never heard before.

Does he laugh often?Very rarely.Does he seem unhappy?Never.Did he have many friends at Stanton?Hes never had any friends anywhere.The boys didnt like him?Nobody can like him.Why?He makes you feel it would be an impertinence to like him.Did he go out, drink, have a good time?Never.Does he like money?No.Does he like to be admired?No.Does he believe in God?No.Does he talk much?Very little.Does he listen if others discuss any ... idea with him?He listens. It would be better if he didnt.Why?It would be less insultingif you know what I mean, when a man listens like that and you know it hasnt made the slightest bit of difference to him.

Did he always want to be an architect?He..,Whats the matter, Peter?

Nothing. It just occurred to me how strange it is that Ive never asked myself that about him before. Heres whats strange: you cant ask that about him. Hes a maniac on the subject of architecture. It seems to mean so damn much to him that hes lost all human perspective. He just has no sense of humor about himself at allnow theres a man without a sense of humor, Ellsworth. You dont ask what hed do if he didnt want to be an architect.

No, said Toohey. You ask what hed do if he couldnt be an architect.

Hed walk over corpses. Any and all of them. All of us.

All the Objectivism, Individualism vs Collectivism stuff was too high-brow, finespun for me to comprehend. There were many glad moments when I found out that things were indeed what I thought they were; followed by my whoops of triumph, but The Fountainhead was way more intense and profound for an average reader to grasp.

The creator lives for his work. He needs no other men. His primary goal is within himself. The parasite lives second-hand. He needs others. Others become his prime motive.

To sum up, The Fountainhead explains four types of men- the man who was; the man who could have been; man who couldn't be(doesn't know); the man who couldn't be(knows) and contends that the first one is the ideal for all of us to swear by. And somehow this averment sounds like the most preposterous one as much as it is to accept Roark as someone to be put on a pedestal and worshipped as a trend setter.

The Fountainhead extols egotism as the superior most virtue, which highlights the cause of the story- one man against the world as we know it.

The egotist in the absolute sense is not the man who sacrifices others. He is the man who stands above the need of using others in any manner.

Rand's outright proclamations in this novel invited the ire of the society of "people for the greater good." In my honest opinion, Rand's audacious undertaking is what added to the greatness of an individual and romanticized the concept of "ego", thus making it one of the greatest literary works of the 20th century.

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The Fountainhead – Wikipedia

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Novel by Ayn Rand, 1943

The Fountainhead is a 1943 novel by Russian-American author Ayn Rand, her first major literary success. The novel's protagonist, Howard Roark, is an intransigent young architect, who battles against conventional standards and refuses to compromise with an architectural establishment unwilling to accept innovation. Roark embodies what Rand believed to be the ideal man, and his struggle reflects Rand's belief that individualism is superior to collectivism.

Roark is opposed by what he calls "second-handers", who value conformity over independence and integrity. These include Roark's former classmate, Peter Keating, who succeeds by following popular styles but turns to Roark for help with design problems. Ellsworth Toohey, a socialist architecture critic who uses his influence to promote his political and social agenda, tries to destroy Roark's career. Tabloid newspaper publisher Gail Wynand seeks to shape popular opinion; he befriends Roark, then betrays him when public opinion turns in a direction he cannot control. The novel's most controversial character is Roark's lover, Dominique Francon. She believes that non-conformity has no chance of winning, so she alternates between helping Roark and working to undermine him.

Twelve publishers rejected the manuscript before an editor at the Bobbs-Merrill Company risked his job to get it published. Contemporary reviewers' opinions were polarized. Some praised the novel as a powerful paean to individualism, while others thought it overlong and lacking sympathetic characters. Initial sales were slow, but the book gained a following by word of mouth and became a bestseller. More than 6.5million copies of The Fountainhead have been sold worldwide and it has been translated into more than 20 languages. The novel attracted a new following for Rand and has enjoyed a lasting influence, especially among architects, entrepreneurs, American conservatives and libertarians.[1]

The novel has been adapted into other media several times. An illustrated version was syndicated in newspapers in 1945. Warner Bros. produced a film version in 1949; Rand wrote the screenplay, and Gary Cooper played Roark. Critics panned the film, which did not recoup its budget; several directors and writers have considered developing a new film adaptation. In 2014, Belgian theater director Ivo van Hove created a stage adaptation, which has received mostly positive reviews.

In early 1922, Howard Roark is expelled from the architecture department of the Stanton Institute of Technology because he has not adhered to the school's preference for historical convention in building design. Roark goes to New York City and gets a job with Henry Cameron. Cameron was once a renowned architect, but now gets few commissions. In the meantime, Roark's popular, but vacuous, fellow student and housemate Peter Keating (whom Roark sometimes helped with projects) graduates with high honors. He too moves to New York, where he has been offered a position with the prestigious architecture firm, Francon & Heyer. Keating ingratiates himself with Guy Francon and works to remove rivals among his coworkers. After Francon's partner, Lucius Heyer, suffers a fatal stroke brought on by Keating's antagonism, Francon chooses Keating to replace him. Meanwhile, Roark and Cameron create inspired work, but struggle financially.

After Cameron retires, Keating hires Roark, whom Francon soon fires for refusing to design a building in the classical style. Roark works briefly at another firm, then opens his own office but has trouble finding clients and closes it down. He gets a job in a granite quarry owned by Francon. There he meets Francon's daughter Dominique, a columnist for The New York Banner, while she is staying at her family's estate nearby. They are immediately attracted to each other, leading to a rough sexual encounter that Dominique later calls a rape.[2] Shortly after, Roark is notified that a client is ready to start a new building, and he returns to New York. Dominique also returns to New York and learns Roark is an architect. She attacks his work in public, but visits him for secret sexual encounters.

Ellsworth M. Toohey, who writes a popular architecture column in the Banner, is an outspoken socialist who shapes public opinion through his column and a circle of influential associates. Toohey sets out to destroy Roark through a smear campaign. He recommends Roark to Hopton Stoddard, a wealthy acquaintance who wants to build a Temple of the Human Spirit. Roark's unusual design includes a nude statue modeled on Dominique; Toohey persuades Stoddard to sue Roark for malpractice. Toohey and several architects (including Keating) testify at the trial that Roark is incompetent as an architect due to his rejection of historical styles. Dominique also argues for the prosecution in tones that can be interpreted to be speaking more in Roark's defense than for the plaintiff, but he loses the case. Dominique decides that since she cannot have the world she wants, in which men like Roark are recognized for their greatness, she will live entirely in the world she has, which shuns Roark and praises Keating. She marries Keating and turns herself over to him, doing and saying whatever he wants, and actively persuading potential clients to hire him instead of Roark.

To win Keating a prestigious commission offered by Gail Wynand, the owner and editor-in-chief of the Banner, Dominique agrees to sleep with Wynand. Wynand is so strongly attracted to Dominique that he pays Keating to divorce her, after which Wynand and Dominique are married. Wanting to build a home for himself and his new wife, Wynand discovers that Roark designed every building he likes and so hires him. Roark and Wynand become close friends; Wynand is unaware of Roark's past relationship with Dominique.

Washed up and out of the public eye, Keating pleads with Toohey to use his influence to get the commission for the much-sought-after Cortlandt housing project. Keating knows his most successful projects were aided by Roark, so he asks for Roark's help in designing Cortlandt. Roark agrees in exchange for complete anonymity and Keating's promise that it will be built exactly as designed. After taking a long vacation with Wynand, Roark returns to find that Keating was not able to prevent major changes from being made in Cortlandt's construction. Roark dynamites the project to prevent the subversion of his vision.

Roark is arrested and his action is widely condemned, but Wynand decides to use his papers to defend his friend. This unpopular stance hurts the circulation of his newspapers, and Wynand's employees go on strike after Wynand dismisses Toohey for disobeying him and criticizing Roark. Faced with the prospect of closing the paper, Wynand gives in and publishes a denunciation of Roark. At his trial, Roark makes a lengthy speech about the value of ego and integrity, and he is found not guilty. Dominique leaves Wynand for Roark. Wynand, who has betrayed his own values by attacking Roark, finally grasps the nature of the power he thought he held. He shuts down the Banner and commissions a final building from Roark, a skyscraper that will serve as a monument to human achievement. Eighteen months later, the Wynand Building is under construction. Dominique, now Roark's wife, enters the site to meet him atop its steel framework.

Rand's stated goal in writing fiction was to portray her vision of an ideal man.[3][4] The character of Howard Roark, the protagonist of The Fountainhead, was the first instance where she believed she had achieved this.[5] Roark embodies Rand's egoistic moral ideals,[6] especially the virtues of independence[7] and integrity.[8]

The character of Roark was at least partly inspired by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Rand described the inspiration as limited to specific ideas he had about architecture and "the pattern of his career".[9] She denied that Wright had anything to do with the philosophy expressed by Roark or the events of the plot.[10][11] Rand's denials have not stopped commentators from claiming stronger connections between Wright and Roark.[11][12] Wright equivocated about whether he thought Roark was based on him, sometimes implying that he did, at other times denying it.[13] Wright biographer Ada Louise Huxtable described significant differences between Wright's philosophy and Rand's, and quoted him declaring, "I deny the paternity and refuse to marry the mother."[14] Architecture critic Martin Filler said that Roark resembles the Swiss-French modernist architect Le Corbusier more closely than Wright.[15]

In contrast to the individualistic Roark, Peter Keating is a conformist who bases his choices on what others want. Introduced to the reader as Roark's classmate in architecture school, Keating does not really want to be an architect. He loves painting, but his mother steers him toward architecture instead.[16] In this as in all his decisions, Keating does what others expect rather than follow his personal interests. He becomes a social climber, focused on improving his career and social standing using a combination of personal manipulation and conformity to popular styles.[16][17][18] He follows a similar path in his private life: he chooses a loveless marriage to Dominique instead of marrying the woman he loveswho lacks Dominique's beauty and social connections. By middle age, Keating's career is in decline and he is unhappy with his path, but it is too late for him to change.[19][20]

Rand did not use a specific architect as a model for Keating.[21] Her inspiration for the character came from a neighbor she knew while working in Hollywood in the early 1930s. Rand asked this young woman to explain her goals in life. The woman's response was focused on social comparisons: the neighbor wanted her material possessions and social standing to equal or exceed those of other people. Rand created Keating as an archetype of this motivation, which she saw as the opposite of self-interest.[22]

Dominique Francon is the heroine of The Fountainhead, described by Rand as "the woman for a man like Howard Roark".[23] Rand described Dominique as similar to herself "in a bad mood".[24] For most of the novel, the character operates from what Rand viewed as wrong ideas.[25] Believing that the values she admires cannot survive in the real world, she chooses to turn away from them so that the world cannot harm her. Only at the end of the novel does she accept that she can be happy and survive.[24][26][27]

The character has provoked varied reactions from commentators. Philosopher Chris Matthew Sciabarra called her "one of the more bizarre characters in the novel".[28] Literature scholar Mimi Reisel Gladstein called her "an interesting case study in perverseness".[18] Writer Tore Boeckmann described her as a character with conflicting beliefs and saw her actions as a logical representation of how those conflicts might play out.[29]

Gail Wynand is a wealthy newspaper mogul who rose from a destitute childhood in the ghettoes of New York (Hell's Kitchen) to control much of the city's print media. While Wynand shares many of the character qualities of Roark, his success is dependent upon his ability to pander to public opinion. Rand presents this as a tragic flaw that eventually leads to his downfall. In her journals Rand described Wynand as "the man who could have been" a heroic individualist, contrasting him to Roark, "the man who can be and is".[30][31] Some elements of Wynand's character were inspired by real-life newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst,[30][32][33] including Hearst's yellow journalism and mixed success in attempts to gain political influence.[30] Wynand ultimately fails in his attempts to wield power, losing his newspaper, his wife, and his friendship with Roark.[34] The character has been interpreted as a representation of the master morality described by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche;[35] his tragic nature illustrates Rand's rejection of Nietzsche's philosophy.[31][36][37] In Rand's view, a person like Wynand, who seeks power over others, is as much a "second-hander" as a conformist such as Keating.[38][39][40]

Ellsworth Monkton Toohey is Roark's antagonist. He is Rand's personification of evilthe most active and self-aware villain in any of her novels.[19][41][42] Toohey is a socialist, and represents the spirit of collectivism more generally. He styles himself as representative of the will of the masses, but his actual desire is for power over others.[19][43] He controls individual victims by destroying their sense of self-worth, and seeks broader power (over "the world", as he declares to Keating in a moment of candor) by promoting the ideals of ethical altruism and a rigorous egalitarianism that treats all people and achievements as equally valuable.[41][44] Rand used her memory of the democratic socialist British Labour Party Chairman Harold Laski to help her imagine what Toohey would do in a given situation. She attended a New York lecture by Laski as part of gathering material for the novel, following which she changed the physical appearance of the character to be similar to that of Laski.[45] New York intellectuals Lewis Mumford and Clifton Fadiman also helped inspire the character.[32][33]

When Rand first arrived in New York as an immigrant from the Soviet Union in 1926, she was greatly impressed by the Manhattan skyline's towering skyscrapers, which she saw as symbols of freedom, and resolved that she would write about them.[46][47] In 1927, Rand was working as a junior screenwriter for movie producer Cecil B. DeMille when he asked her to write a script for what would become the 1928 film Skyscraper. The original story by Dudley Murphy was about two construction workers working on a skyscraper who are rivals for a woman's love. Rand rewrote it, transforming the rivals into architects. One of them, Howard Kane, was an idealist dedicated to erecting the skyscraper despite enormous obstacles. The film would have ended with Kane standing atop the completed skyscraper. DeMille rejected Rand's script, and the completed film followed Murphy's original idea. Rand's version contained elements she would use in The Fountainhead.[48][49]

In 1928, Rand made notes for a proposed, but never written, novel titled The Little Street.[50] Rand's notes for it contain elements that carried over into her work on The Fountainhead.[51] David Harriman, who edited the notes for the posthumously published Journals of Ayn Rand (1997), described the story's villain as a preliminary version of the character Ellsworth Toohey, and this villain's assassination by the protagonist as prefiguring the attempted assassination of Toohey.[52]

Rand began The Fountainhead (originally titled Second-Hand Lives) following the completion of her first novel, We the Living, in 1934. That earlier novel was based in part on people and events familiar to Rand; the new novel, on the other hand, focused on the less-familiar world of architecture. She therefore conducted extensive research that included reading many biographies and other books about architecture.[53] She also worked as an unpaid typist in the office of architect Ely Jacques Kahn.[54] Rand began her notes for the new novel in December 1935.[55]

Rand wanted to write a novel that was less overtly political than We the Living, to avoid being viewed as "a 'one-theme' author".[56] As she developed the story, she began to see more political meaning in the novel's ideas about individualism.[57] Rand also planned to introduce the novel's four sections with quotes from Friedrich Nietzsche, whose ideas had influenced her own intellectual development, but she eventually decided that Nietzsche's ideas were too different from hers. She edited the final manuscript to remove the quotes and other allusions to him.[58][59]

Rand's work on The Fountainhead was repeatedly interrupted. In 1937, she took a break from it to write a novella called Anthem. She also completed a stage adaptation of We the Living that ran briefly in 1940.[60] That same year, she became active in politics. She first worked as a volunteer in Wendell Willkie's presidential campaign, and then attempted to form a group for conservative intellectuals.[61] As her royalties from earlier projects ran out, she began doing freelance work as a script reader for movie studios. When Rand finally found a publisher, the novel was only one-third complete.[62]

Although she was a previously published novelist and had a successful Broadway play, Rand had difficulty finding a publisher for The Fountainhead. Macmillan Publishing, which had published We the Living, rejected the book after Rand insisted they provide more publicity for her new novel than they had done for the first one.[63] Rand's agent began submitting the book to other publishers; in 1938, Knopf signed a contract to publish the book. When Rand was only a quarter done with the manuscript by October 1940, Knopf canceled her contract.[64] Several other publishers rejected the book. When Rand's agent began to criticize the novel, Rand fired the agent and decided to handle submissions herself.[65] Twelve publishers (including Macmillan and Knopf) rejected the book.[62][66][67]

While Rand was working as a script reader for Paramount Pictures, her boss put her in touch with the Bobbs-Merrill Company. A recently hired editor, Archibald Ogden, liked the book, but two internal reviewers gave conflicting opinions. One said it was a great book that would never sell; the other said it was trash but would sell well. Ogden's boss, Bobbs-Merrill president D.L. Chambers, decided to reject the book. Ogden responded by wiring to the head office, "If this is not the book for you, then I am not the editor for you." His strong stand won Rand the contract on December 10, 1941. She also got a $1,000 advance so she could work full-time to complete the novel by January 1, 1943.[68][69]

Rand worked long hours through 1942 to complete the final two-thirds of her manuscript, which she delivered on December 31, 1942.[69][70] Rand's working title for the book was Second-Hand Lives, but Ogden pointed out that this emphasized the story's villains. Rand offered The Mainspring as an alternative, but this title had been recently used for another book. She then used a thesaurus and found 'fountainhead' as a synonym.[66] The Fountainhead was published on May 7, 1943, with 7,500 copies in the first printing. Initial sales were slow, but they began to rise in late 1943, driven primarily by word of mouth.[71][72] The novel began appearing on bestseller lists in 1944.[73] It reached number six on The New York Times bestseller list in August 1945, over two years after its initial publication.[74] By 1956, the hardcover edition sold over 700,000 copies.[75] The first paperback edition was published by the New American Library in 1952.[76]

A 25th anniversary edition was issued by the New American Library in 1971, including a new introduction by Rand. In 1993, a 50th anniversary edition from Bobbs-Merrill added an afterword by Rand's heir, Leonard Peikoff.[77] The novel has been translated into more than 25 languages.[note 1]

Rand indicated that the primary theme of The Fountainhead was "individualism versus collectivism, not in politics but within a man's soul".[79] Philosopher Douglas Den Uyl identified the individualism presented in the novel as being specifically of an American kind, portrayed in the context of that country's society and institutions.[80] Apart from scenes such as Roark's courtroom defense of the American concept of individual rights, she avoided direct discussion of political issues. As historian James Baker described it, "The Fountainhead hardly mentions politics or economics, despite the fact that it was born in the 1930s. Nor does it deal with world affairs, although it was written during World War II. It is about one man against the system, and it does not permit other matters to intrude."[81] Early drafts of the novel included more explicit political references, but Rand removed them from the finished text.[82]

Rand chose the profession of architecture as the background for her novel, although she knew nothing about the field beforehand.[83] As a field that combines art, technology, and business, it allowed her to illustrate her primary themes in multiple areas.[84] Rand later wrote that architects provide "both art and a basic need of men's survival".[83] In a speech to a chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Rand drew a connection between architecture and individualism, saying time periods that had improvements in architecture were also those that had more freedom for the individual.[85]

Roark's modernist approach to architecture is contrasted with that of most of the other architects in the novel. In the opening chapter, the dean of his architecture school tells Roark that the best architecture must copy the past rather than innovate or improve.[86] Roark repeatedly loses jobs with architectural firms and commissions from clients because he is unwilling to copy conventional architectural styles. In contrast, Keating's mimicry of convention brings him top honors in school and an immediate job offer.[87] The same conflict between innovation and tradition is reflected in the career of Roark's mentor, Henry Cameron.[88]

Den Uyl calls The Fountainhead a "philosophical novel", meaning that it addresses philosophical ideas and offers a specific philosophical viewpoint about those ideas.[89] In the years following the publication of The Fountainhead, Rand developed a philosophical system that she called Objectivism. The Fountainhead does not contain this explicit philosophy,[90] and Rand did not write the novel primarily to convey philosophical ideas.[91] Nonetheless, Rand included three excerpts from the novel in For the New Intellectual, a 1961 collection of her writings that she described as an outline of Objectivism.[92] Peikoff used many quotes and examples from The Fountainhead in his 1991 book on Rand's philosophy, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand.[93]

The Fountainhead polarized critics and received mixed reviews upon its release.[94] In The New York Times, Lorine Pruette praised Rand as writing "brilliantly, beautifully and bitterly", stating that she had "written a hymn in praise of the individual" that would force readers to rethink basic ideas.[95] Writing for the same newspaper, Orville Prescott called the novel "disastrous" with a plot containing "coils and convolutions" and a "crude cast of characters".[96] Benjamin DeCasseres, a columnist for the New York Journal-American, described Roark as "one of the most inspiring characters in modern American literature". Rand sent DeCasseres a letter thanking him for explaining the book's themes about individualism when many other reviewers did not.[97] There were other positive reviews, although Rand dismissed many of them as either not understanding her message or as being from unimportant publications.[94] A number of negative reviews focused on the length of the novel,[98] such as one that called it "a whale of a book" and another that said "anyone who is taken in by it deserves a stern lecture on paper-rationing". Other negative reviews called the characters unsympathetic and Rand's style "offensively pedestrian".[94]

In the years following its initial publication, The Fountainhead has received relatively little attention from literary critics.[99][100] Assessing the novel's legacy, philosopher Douglas Den Uyl described The Fountainhead as relatively neglected compared to her later novel, Atlas Shrugged, and said, "our problem is to find those topics that arise clearly with The Fountainhead and yet do not force us to read it simply through the eyes of Atlas Shrugged."[99] Among critics who have addressed it, some consider The Fountainhead to be Rand's best novel,[101][102][103] although in some cases this assessment is tempered by an overall negative judgment of Rand's writings.[104][105] Purely negative evaluations have also continued; a 2011 overview of American literature said "mainstream literary culture dismissed [The Fountainhead] in the 1940s and continues to dismiss it".[1]

Feminist critics have condemned Roark and Dominique's first sexual encounter, accusing Rand of endorsing rape.[106] This was one of the most controversial elements of the book. Feminist critics have attacked the scene as representative of an antifeminist viewpoint in Rand's works that makes women subservient to men.[107] Susan Brownmiller, in her 1975 work Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, denounced what she called "Rand's philosophy of rape", for portraying women as wanting "humiliation at the hands of a superior man". She called Rand "a traitor to her own sex".[108] Susan Love Brown said the scene presents Rand's view of sex as sadomasochism involving "feminine subordination and passivity".[109] Barbara Grizzuti Harrison suggested women who enjoy such "masochistic fantasies" are "damaged" and have low self-esteem.[110] While Mimi Reisel Gladstein found elements to admire in Rand's female protagonists, she said that readers who have "a raised consciousness about the nature of rape" would disapprove of Rand's "romanticized rapes".[111]

Rand's posthumously published working notes for the novel indicate that when she started on the book in 1936, she conceived of Roark's character that "were it necessary, he could rape her and feel justified".[112] She denied that what happened in the finished novel was actually rape, referring to it as "rape by engraved invitation".[113] She said Dominique wanted and "all but invited" the act, citing, among other things, a passage where Dominique scratches a marble slab in her bedroom to invite Roark to repair it.[114] A true rape, Rand said, would be "a dreadful crime".[115] Defenders of the novel have agreed with this interpretation. In an essay specifically explaining this scene, Andrew Bernstein wrote that although much "confusion" exists about it, the descriptions in the novel provide "conclusive" evidence of Dominique's strong attraction to Roark and her desire to have sex with him.[116] Individualist feminist Wendy McElroy said that while Dominique is "thoroughly taken", there is nonetheless "clear indication" that Dominique both gave consent for and enjoyed the experience.[117] Both Bernstein and McElroy saw the interpretations of feminists such as Brownmiller as based in a false understanding of sexuality.[117][106]

Although Rand had some mainstream success previously with her play Night of January 16th and had two previously published novels, The Fountainhead was a major breakthrough in her career. It brought her lasting fame and financial success. She sold the movie rights to The Fountainhead and returned to Hollywood to write the screenplay for the adaptation.[118] In April 1944, she signed a multiyear contract with movie producer Hal Wallis to write original screenplays and adaptations of other writers' works.[119]

The success of the novel brought Rand new publishing opportunities. Bobbs-Merrill offered to publish a nonfiction book expanding on the ethical ideas presented in The Fountainhead. Though this book was never completed, a portion of the material was used for an article in the January 1944 issue of Reader's Digest.[120] Rand was also able to get an American publisher for Anthem, which previously had been published in England, but not in the United States.[121] When she was ready to submit Atlas Shrugged to publishers, over a dozen competed to acquire the new book.[122]

The Fountainhead also attracted a new group of fans who were attracted to its philosophical ideas. When she moved back to New York in 1951, she gathered a group of these admirers to whom she referred publicly as "the Class of '43" in reference to the year The Fountainhead was published. The group evolved into the core of the Objectivist movement that promoted the philosophical ideas from Rand's writing.[123][124]

The Fountainhead has continued to have strong sales throughout the last century into the current one. By 2008, it had sold over 6.5million copies in English. It has also been referred to in a variety of popular entertainments, including movies, television series, and other novels.[125][126]

The year 1943 also saw the publication of The God of the Machine by Isabel Paterson and The Discovery of Freedom by Rose Wilder Lane. Rand, Lane, and Paterson have been referred to as the founding mothers of the American libertarian movement with the publication of these works.[127] Journalist John Chamberlain, for example, credited these works with converting him from socialism to what he called "an older American philosophy" of libertarian and conservative ideas.[128] Literature professor Philip R. Yannella said the novel is "a central text of American conservative and libertarian political culture".[1] In the United Kingdom, Conservative politician Sajid Javid has spoken of the novel's influence on him and how he regularly rereads the courtroom scene from Roark's criminal trial.[129]

The book has a particular appeal to young people, an appeal that led historian James Baker to describe it as "more important than its detractors think, although not as important as Rand fans imagine".[102] Philosopher Allan Bloom said the novel is "hardly literature", but when he asked his students which books mattered to them, someone always was influenced by The Fountainhead.[130] Journalist Nora Ephron wrote that she had loved the novel when she was 18, but admitted that she "missed the point", which she suggested is largely subliminal sexual metaphor. Ephron wrote that she decided upon rereading that "it is better read when one is young enough to miss the point. Otherwise, one cannot help thinking it is a very silly book."[131]

The Fountainhead has been cited by numerous architects as an inspiration for their work. Architect Fred Stitt, founder of the San Francisco Institute of Architecture, dedicated a book to his "first architectural mentor, Howard Roark".[132] According to architectural photographer Julius Shulman, Rand's work "brought architecture into the public's focus for the first time". He said The Fountainhead was not only influential among 20th century architects, but also it "was one, first, front and center in the life of every architect who was a modern architect".[133] The novel also had a significant impact on the public perception of architecture.[134][135][136] During his 2016 presidential campaign, real estate developer Donald Trump praised the novel, saying he identified with Roark.[137] Roark Capital Group, a private equity firm, is named for the character Howard Roark.[138]

In 1949, Warner Bros. released a film based on the book, starring Gary Cooper as Howard Roark, Patricia Neal as Dominique Francon, Raymond Massey as Gail Wynand, and Kent Smith as Peter Keating. Rand, who had previous experience as a screenwriter, was hired to adapt her own novel. The film was directed by King Vidor. It grossed $2.1million, $400,000 less than its production budget.[139] Critics panned the movie. Negative reviews appeared in publications ranging from newspapers such as The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, to movie industry outlets such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, to magazines such as Time and Good Housekeeping.[139][140]

In letters written at the time, Rand's reaction to the film was positive. She said it was the most faithful adaptation of a novel ever made in Hollywood[141] and a "real triumph".[142] Sales of the novel increased as a result of interest spurred by the film.[143] She displayed a more negative attitude later, saying she disliked the entire movie and complaining about its editing, acting, and other elements.[144] Rand said she would never sell rights to another novel to a film company that did not allow her to pick the director and screenwriter, as well as edit the film.[145]

Various filmmakers have expressed interest in doing new adaptations of The Fountainhead, although none of these potential films has begun production. In the 1970s, writer-director Michael Cimino entered a deal to film his own script for United Artists starring Clint Eastwood as Roark, but postponed the project in favor of abortive biographical films on Janis Joplin and Frank Costello.[146][147] The deal collapsed after the failure of Cimino's 1980 film Heaven's Gate, which caused United Artists to refuse to finance any more of his films.[148] Cimino continued to hope to film the script until his death in 2016.[149]

In 1992, producer James Hill optioned the rights and selected Phil Joanou to direct.[150] In the 2000s, Oliver Stone was interested in directing a new adaptation; Brad Pitt was reportedly under consideration to play Roark.[151] In a March 2016 interview, director Zack Snyder also expressed interest in doing a new film adaptation of The Fountainhead.[152] On May 28, 2018, Snyder was asked on the social media site Vero what his next project was, and he responded "Fountainhead".[153] However, in 2020, Snyder revealed he was no longer pursuing the project, as he was concerned that audiences would view it as "hardcore right-wing propaganda".[154] In a 2021 interview with The New York Times, Snyder further revealed that he abandoned the project because of the polarized political climate in the United States, saying "We need a less divided country and a little more liberal government to make that movie, so people dont react to it in a certain way."[155]

The Dutch theater company Toneelgroep Amsterdam presented a Dutch-language adaptation for the stage at the Holland Festival in June 2014. The company's artistic director Ivo van Hove wrote and directed the adaptation. Ramsey Nasr played Howard Roark, with Halina Reijn playing Dominique Francon.[156] The four-hour production used video projections to show close-ups of the actors and Roark's drawings, as well as backgrounds of the New York skyline.[157][158] After its debut the production went on tour, appearing in Barcelona, Spain, in early July 2014,[159] and at the Festival d'Avignon in France later that month.[157] The play appeared at the Odon-Thtre de l'Europe in Paris in November 2016,[160] and at the LG Arts Center in Seoul from March 31 to April 2, 2017.[161][162] The play had its first American production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, where it ran from November 28 to December 2, 2017.[163]

The European productions of the play received mostly positive reviews. The Festival d'Avignon production received positive from the French newspapers La Croix,[158] Les chos,[164] and Le Monde,[165] as well as from the English newspaper The Guardian, whose reviewer described it as "electrifying theatre".[166] The French magazine Tlrama gave the Avignon production a negative review, calling the source material inferior and complaining about the use of video screens on the set,[167] while another French magazine, La Terrasse, complimented the staging and acting of the Odon production.[160]

American critics gave mostly negative reviews of the Next Wave Festival production. Helen Shaw's review for The Village Voice said the adaptation was unwatchable because it portrayed Rand's characters and views seriously without undercutting them.[168] The reviewer for the Financial Times said the play was too long and that Hove had approached Rand's "noxious" book with too much reverence.[169] In a mixed review for The New York Times, critic Ben Brantley complimented Hove for capturing Rand's "sheer pulp appeal", but described the material as "hokum with a whole lot of ponderous speeches".[170] A review for The Huffington Post complimented van Hove's ability to portray Rand's message, but said the play was an hour too long.[171]

The novel was adapted in Urdu for the Pakistan Television Network in the 1970s, under the title Teesra Kinara. The serial starred Rahat Kazmi, who also wrote the adaptation.[172] Kazmi's wife, Sahira Kazmi, played Dominique.[173]

The novel was also parodied in an episode of the animated adventure series Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures[174] and in season 20 of the animated sitcom The Simpsons, in the last part of the episode "Four Great Women and a Manicure".[175]

In 1944, Omnibook Magazine produced an abridged edition of the novel that was sold to members of the United States Armed Forces. Rand was annoyed that Bobbs-Merrill allowed the edited version to be published without her approval of the text.[176] King Features Syndicate approached Rand the following year about creating a condensed, illustrated version of the novel for syndication in newspapers. Rand agreed, provided that she could oversee the editing and approve the proposed illustrations of her characters, which were provided by Frank Godwin. The 30-part series began on December 24, 1945, and ran in over 35 newspapers.[177] Rand biographer Anne Heller complimented the adaptation, calling it "handsomely illustrated".[176]

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The Fountainhead - Wikipedia

Gen Z is looking for meaning this holiday season, but maybe not where we expect – Religion News Service

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(RNS) Its that time of year, for many of us, for shiny packages tied up with a bow. But dont expect the majority of Gen Z, which likes its faith unbundled, to accept the traditional holiday packages of rituals, practices, and beliefs that churches offer.

One of the most important findings from our new report, The State of Religion & Young People 2021, is that young people ages 13 to 25 embrace a faith that combines elements from a variety of religious and non-religious sources, rather than receiving all these things from a single, intact system or tradition.

Though majorities of Gen Z say theyre religious (71%) or spiritual (78%), less than a quarter (24%) countedattending a religious service among the most meaningful things I do during the winter holidays (e.g., Christmas, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Diwali, etc.).

Whether its through tarot cards, acts of protest, or being in nature, Gen Z instead expresses its spirituality in nontraditional ways, outside of traditional religious institutions.

RELATED: Advent, race and the intimacy of Incarnation

One Gen Zer who identifies as Muslim might turn to hip hop music as a spiritual exercise more than they reach out for God in the prayer known as Dua. A Gen Zer who identifies as Protestant Christian might engage in racial justice protest as a spiritual practice more than they read the Bible.

Both of these young people might also engage with the political theory of Karl Marx or Ayn Rand, the poetry of Rumi or St. Francis of Assisi, or the nonviolent philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr. or Gandhi as they examine lifes deepest questions.

Its easy to simply categorize Gen Z as less religious than previous generations, but our findings show that Gen Z is simply different when it comes to religion: They dont conform to traditional definitions of what it has meant to be a Catholic, Hindu, Baptist, Sikh or even atheist.

Most nonetheless feel a hunger for something spiritual in their lives and look for ways to mark the spiritual significance of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Rohatsu, even if they are uneasy with traditional, institutional ways of doing so.

Even in this rapidly changing context, their elders can have influence in their lives this holiday season. Undoubtedly, droves will attend religious services whether they want to or not, but its unlikely that faith leaders will influence young people in these settings.

Rather, the timeless building blocks of relationship still pertain: reaching out, expressing curiosity, listening authentically and pairing expertise with genuine care. We call this approach relational authority, a hallmark of last years State of Religion & Young People 2020. Young people are far more likely to be influenced by adults who demonstrate care about their lives than those even experienced faith leaders who focus on offering traditional rituals and seasonal cheer.

Our survey data backs this up. Over half (53%) agree, I wish I could talk to the people I spend time with about the things that are important to me during the holidays, while 58% agree, I dont talk to the people I spend time with about difficult things during the holidays because its volatile.

Here are three suggestions for faith leaders and others who want to make the most of their time with young people this holiday season:

A major theme from The State of Religion & Young People 2021 is the uncertainty that marks the lives of young people today. This past year has only amplified that sense. Yet, that nearly half (47%) of young people told us I dont think religion, faith, or religious leaders will care about the things I want to talk about or bring up during times of uncertainty proves otherwise.

Nearly 6 in 10 young people (58%) agree with the statement I do not like to be told answers about faith and religion. Id rather discover my own answers, while 53% agree that religion, faith, or religious leaders will try to give me answers, but I am looking for something else.

Rather than feeling threatened by the first proposition in each of these sentences, celebrate the second: Young people are seeking to discover answers about faith and religion. They just dont feel comfortable adopting a rigid system of beliefs and behaviors wholesale. Encourage their imagination and curiosity.

The majority of young people (55%) concurred that I dont feel like I can be my full self in a religious organization, while 45% of young people agreed that I dont feel safe within religious or faith institutions.

You might find it surprising that someone would feel unsafe in your synagogue, church or mosque, but consider some of the dominant identities, perspectives and political orientations that prevail there. Young people tell us frequently that they wont attend places of worship where their friends of marginalized identities wouldnt be accepted, even if those friends arent present. Be bold in sending the message that young people are welcome in your community just as they are.

RELATED: New teen Bible story book tells the old, old story in a new way

But know that this is just the first step. Trusting that this is true is something that will need to be built slowly over time, through relationship.

This holiday season might look very different for the young people in your life when compared to your own experiences growing up, but different doesnt have to mean worse. There is opportunity in these differences to listen, connect and learn more about each other, and there is opportunity to be the trusted adult that young people desperately need in their lives.

(Josh Packard (@drjoshpackard) is executive director of Springtide Research Institute and author of Church Refugees. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

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Gen Z is looking for meaning this holiday season, but maybe not where we expect - Religion News Service

Cryptocurrency and the Shocking Revelation That White Supremacists Like Money – tntribune.com

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By Thomas L. Knapp

White supremacists embraced cryptocurrency early in its development, Michael Edison Hayden and Megan Squire report at the Southern Poverty Law Centers Hatewatch blog, and in some cases produced million-dollar profits through the technology, reshaping the racist right in radical ways.

I have no doubt the claim is true. Whats also true is a note several paragraphs into the piece: Nothing is inherently criminal or extreme about it, and most of its users have no connections to the extreme far right.

Youre not going to hear much about that angle on the story in mainstream media reports on the topic, though. Political coverage of cryptocurrency tends more toward cultivating moral panic arousing the public to fright whether the facts justify that concern or not than about care with such inconvenient facts.

Having mined out the moral panics over cryptocurrency being used by drug dealers and human traffickers, it was certain beyond doubt that the next step would be tarring Bitcoin and its siblings and children with the brush of racism and antisemitism (and trying to dip libertarianism in that tar as well). NBC News gets right to work on the matter, quoting report co-author Squire:

Crypto looked to [the far right] like an interesting toy and a way of being in charge of their money and not having to use central banking. Then when you layer the antisemitism, on top of that, as in the banks are controlled by the Jews, it makes a lot of sense why these early adopters, these libertarian-styled guys, would get involved in Bitcoin so early.

Just to be clear, libertarianism is neither inherently right-wing (Im a left-libertarian myself) nor has anything whatsoever to do with anti-semitism. Many of libertarianisms foremost framers and thought leaders, from Ludwig von Mises to Ayn Rand to Milton Friedman to Murray Rothbard, have been Jews, and the Libertarian Partys platform condemn[s] bigotry as irrational and repugnant. Libertarians dislike government currencies and central banking because we like freedom, not because we hate Jews.

One attractive feature of cryptocurrency is that it reduces interference from intermediaries who might not want to do business with marginalized groups, and from governments persecuting those groups. It doesnt care whether those groups are good or bad, loved or hated, socially accepted or socially ostracized.

That doesnt just include drug dealers, or human traffickers, or child pornographers, or racists. It includes immigrants who need an easy way to send money home. It includes adult, consensual sex workers whose incomes and assets remain under constant threat from the police. It includes anyone whod like a little privacy, please.

Nor is cryptocurrency unique in that respect. You know what else all of the groups I just named use? Cash. Yes, all those people use the same little green pieces of paper you probably keep in your own wallet for times when the fast food joints debit card terminal is down.

Cryptocurrency is money that doesnt care who you are. It just does its job. And thats a good thing.

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Cryptocurrency and the Shocking Revelation That White Supremacists Like Money - tntribune.com

Seahawks vs Texans Week 14 Picks and Predictions: Learning To Fly Again – Covers

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Our preview expects the Texans to struggle offensively (again), leaving the door open for the Seahawks to build on last week's 30-point offensive performance. Read more in our NFL betting picks and predictions for Seahawks vs. Texans.

The Seattle Seahawks finally got the offense rolling last week and will look to make it back-to-back wins when they travel to Houston to take on the Texans who'll be starting Davis Mills at quarterback. Russell Wilson & Co. enter the Week 14 contest as 7.5-point road favorites following Houstons zero-point performance a week ago.

Can the Seahawks run the table and finish 9-8? Can the Texans be anything other than a tune-up game for their opponents, especially with Mills under center? Find out in our free picks, predictions and NFL odds for the Seahawks vs. Texans.

Odds via the Covers Line, an average comprised of odds from multiple sportsbooks.

This line was Seattle -6.5 on the look-ahead and opened Seattle -7.5 Sunday night. The total has also fallen with the announcement of Davis Mills starting as it was 44.5 on the look-ahead but has fallen down to 42 as of Tuesday. Use the live odds widget above to track any future line movements right up until kickoff and be sure to check out the full NFL odds before placing your bets.

Predictions made on 12/07/2021 at 3:20 p.m. ET.Click on each prediction to jump to the full analysis.

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Location: NRG Stadium, Houston, TX Date: Sunday, December 12, 2021 Time: 1:00 p.m. ET TV: FOX

Monitor gametime conditions with our live NFL weather info and learn how weather impacts NFL betting.

Seahawks: Jacob Eason QB (Out), Robert Nkemdiche DT (Out), Nigel Warriors S (Out), Tre Brown CB (Out), Adrian Peterson RB (Out), Jamal Adams S (Out), Kyle Fuller C (Out), Travis Homer RB (Out), Brandon Shell T (Out).Texans: Terrance Brooks S (Out), Chris Moore WR (Out), Jimmy Moreland CB (Out), Cole Toner OG (Out), Tyrod Taylor QB (Out), Kevin Pierre-Louis LB (Out), Deshaun Watson QB (Out).

Find our latest NFL injury reports.

The Texans are 0-4 ATS in their last four games following a double-digit loss at home. Find more NFL betting trends for Seahawks vs. Texans.

Our predictions are compiled from the analysis of the spread and total and are indications of where we are leaning for this game.Our best bet is the play that we like the most for this game, which we would actually put some of our bankroll behind.

A terrible season has gotten even worse for the 2-10 Houston Texans who lost quarterback Tyrod Taylor in last weeks shutout loss to the Colts. Likely one-and-done head coach David Culley will have to turn to Davis Mills again. Mills has started six games this season and has lost each and every one. The team has managed just seven touchdowns in Mills six starts this season.

Houston should be considered the worst team in football heading into Week 14. The Texans sit dead last in defensive success rate and dead last in EPA/play on offense. Finding one positive thing on this Houston team is like finding Waldo in Ayn Rand novel. Mills ranks 30th in ESPNs QBR rankings and could make Jimmy Garoppolos Week 13 performance against the Seahawks look like a masterpiece.

The Seahawks defense did allow 6.5 yards per play to the 49ers last week but Seattle benefited greatly from three San Francisco turnovers and five red-zone trips where the Seattle offense scored three times. In many cases, wed like to fade the Seahawks here as their 30-23 win wasn't pretty as they were outgained by 1.7 yards per play to San Francisco and had four first downs gained by penalties, but this is the Texans here. If Russell Wilson and the offense can muster 21 points off the leagues worst defense, then Houstons league-worst offense will have difficulties keeping up.

Wilson looks like he is getting healthier each week and last week was no exception as he finished with 231 yards passing and a pair of touchdowns. He got DK Metcalf involved for the first time since returning from injury and used a three-headed running back approach that totaled 131 yards and two scores. It may have taken three weeks, but the offense is starting to look like its former self and could be in for a big day versus a defense thats giving up 27 points per game on the season.

Seattle played anything but a clean game last week but as long as Gerald Everett doesnt repeat his Week 13 performance (responsible for three turnovers), it will be hard for the Seahawks not to cover. Houston lost 31-0 as 10-point road dogs last week with Taylor under center and lost 24-9 as 8-point home dogs to the Panthers in Mills first start. This is actually the shortest line weve gotten on a Mills start as he has been an underdog of eight (2x), 11.5, 17, 19 and 20 points in his first six NFL starts.

If this line decides to move north, to -8, it could very well move all the way to -9 or -9.5 for teaser protection (not allowing bettors to tease through a pair of key numbers in 7 and 3). Well lay the points with Wilson and the Seahawks.

Prediction: Seahawks -7.5 (-105)

Covers NFL betting analysis

If you missed the early number on this total that opened at 44, its tough to swallow taking the Under on 42 but still likely the right play. Houstons offense has been awful with Mills under center averaging just 10.2 points per game and was held to under six points in three of those games. Rex Burkhead is the No. 1 running back and if the Seahawks can shut down Brandin Cooks (under 60 yards receiving in his last four games) the offense will stall out, especially with an offensive line that has given up nine sacks over the last two games.

Speaking of sacks, Mills has been taken down 21 times in his last seven games while also committing eight turnovers. The Seahawks forced three turnovers last week and gave up 16 points off of two turnovers and a missed kick to the 49ers. The Houston offense is not built to sustain long drives and with Mills skillset and the O-line sitting fifth in the league in holding penalties, the Texans are always just one play away from shooting themselves in the foot.

The Seahawks allow the fewest explosive rush plays per game in the league and ninth-fewest passing plays of 15-plus yards. Mills and the offense will have to march long distances to get their points and we dont see that happening with the current personnel in Houston.

The Seattle offense hasn't been impressive over the last four games either and gained just 4.8 yards per play last week versus the 49ers. But any offense can look impressive versus the Texans. If Seattle can put up 30 points against the 49ers, there's a chance that Wilson could hang another 30-plus points this Sunday which has us nervous about taking any number below 44.

Expecting Mills and Houston to score 18 points is asking a lot, especially against a sleeper defense in Seattle that sits Top 10 against the rush and has allowed an average of 20 points per game over its last four contests.

Were avoiding the game total and hitting the Under on the Texans team total of 16.5 at -120.

Prediction: Texans team total Under 16.5 (-120)

This is Mills second go as a starter in his first season in the league. There is a ton of tape out there on the third-round rookie and this offense was averaging just 12 points per game with Taylor over the last three games. Mills does nothing to improve the Texans who might be going through the motions at this point in what has been a terrible season right from the get-go. A coaching change is likely coming following the seasons end.

Houston sits last in points per game, last in yards per game and second-last in plays per game (Seattle is last) which equates to an offense that ranks last in yards per play and last in EPA/play. Houston has topped 16 points just three times in its last 10 games and is coming off a 31-0 loss at home in Week 13. They gained just 2.8 yards per play versus the Colts No. 25 pass defense and managed zero red-zone trips

Give us the Under 16.5 points on the Texans team total for our best bet for this Week 14 matchup.

Pick: Texans team total Under 16.5 (-120)

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Seahawks vs Texans Week 14 Picks and Predictions: Learning To Fly Again - Covers

Inside the new John Madden documentary: How Fox Sports pulled off its expansive ode to the Hall of Famer – The Athletic

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Joel Santos and Tom Rinaldi describe the experience of making a documentary on John Madden as perpetually being on their own version of the Madden Cruiser.

Over the past 10 months, from a casino hotel outside the Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York to the Amador Valley in Northern California, Santos and Rinaldi have traveled the United States to interview pro football dignitaries on the subject of Madden. The interview list includes individuals known in every football household Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, Brett Favre, Lamar Jackson, Peyton Manning, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Montana, Bill Parcells, Andy Reid, Lawrence Taylor and Roger Goodell, among others. It includes lesser-known people who played a vital role in Maddens life, such as Willie Yarbrough, the driver for 23 years of the famed 85-foot luxury coach. They spoke to Virginia Madden, the NFL broadcasters wife of more than 60 years (they married on Dec. 26, 1959) who worked at a bar when the couple met. They also sat down with the man himself. The journey culminates on Christmas Day at 2 p.m. ET when Fox airs All Madden, a 90-minute documentary co-directed and co-produced by Santos and Rinaldi on the life of the Hall of Fame NFL coach and broadcaster. The doc (actual length: 72 minutes) will lead into the Packers-Browns game on Fox.

The origins of the Madden documentary date back to Fox Sports lead NFL producer Richie Zyontz, who produced Madden and is one of his closest friends. Zyontz proposed the project to Fox Sports chief executive officer Eric Shanks last January during the NFL playoffs.

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Inside the new John Madden documentary: How Fox Sports pulled off its expansive ode to the Hall of Famer - The Athletic

Whitney Hubbs’s Unholy Rites for the Spiritually Bankrupt – frieze.com

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A couple of years ago, on the cusp of turning 40, Whitney Hubbs moved from her native Los Angeles to a remote corner of upstate New York, to take a teaching job. It was isolating. It was cold and foreign. The subjects of her previous work brooding California landscapes in noirish chiaroscuro, psychosexual portraits of faceless female friends in washed-out 1970s colour-space were suddenly unavailable. These new limitations led to a revelation: her true subject matter had always been herself, but she had been veiling it with proxies and metaphor. So, she turned her camera on herself. The resulting work is raging, funny, brutal, raw; it was a quantum leap in her practice. In front of the cameras unblinking eye, Hubbs faced down her demons and laid bare her hidden desires, transmuting humiliation and degradation into pillars of personal power, as if by some unholy rite.

The pictures a collection of which have just been published, alongside an essay by Chris Kraus, in a handsome volume titled Say So (2021) by Self Publish Be Happy could be superficially described as sadomasochistic erotica, since they feature Hubbs in a variety of compromising positions (bound and gagged, piss-covered, breasts plastered with glistening blobs of pink chewing gum) and in various states of undress. But classing the work as this would do it a disservice. When we plumb their depths, these pictures reveal themselves as being less about titillation and more about universal, close-to-the-bone emotional struggles, and Hubbss attempt to overcome them.

Whitney Hubbs,Untitled, from the series Say So, 20192020. Courtesy: the artist andSelf Publish Be Happy

I was spiritually bankrupt, Hubbs told me when I asked what spurred her to make these images. This entire project was about taking agency over so many aspects of my own life, she continued. As Ive gotten older, I put up with less bullshit, so I wanted to be as direct as possible in these works. She has certainly achieved her aim. Francesca Woodman is a tempting historical touchstone, particularly in works such as Untitled (1976), for which she festooned her nude torso with an assortment of clothespins, or Self Portrait, Providence (Nude with Glass) (1976), in which she presses two pieces of glass against her naked breasts and stomach, squashing and distorting them. But the comparison doesnt quite fit: Woodmans works appear enthralledwith the dusty, gothic patina of their own sadness. Hubbs, you get the sense, wants out, struggling angrily against her issues. This lashing out feels punk and, like punk itself, prototypically macho. Unsurprising, then, that Hubbs was something of a punk herself in her youth and that among the artists she cites as her competition (she doesnt use a gentle word like inspiration) are California enfants terribles Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy, and that grimy poet of Russian dissolution, the photographer Boris Mikhailov.

Whitney Hubbs,Untitled, from the series Say So, 20192020. Courtesy: the artist andSelf Publish Be Happy

Despite this desire to joust with the bad boys, Hubbss project is also inescapably bound to traditional notions of femininity. Women in their 40s, Hubbs lamented when we spoke, are often still expected and not so politely to fade their bodies and desires into the background and take up the mantle of either saintly mother or pitiable spinster. (Unless, like rule-proving exceptions such as Jennifer Lopez, they find ways to look forever young, through some miracle of genetics or the deft application of a surgeons knife.) Hubbs flips an emphatic middle finger at all this: she is unabashed in flaunting and debasing her not-so-young flesh, though this should not be taken to mean that she is totally unafraid. Fear, in fact, proved to be a great motivator. She told me her response to the first photo shoot she did for this series was: Oooh, these kind of scare me. I should keep taking them. And, of course, she was right. Running face-first into your fear is one of the most vitalizing forces in art-making: its rocket fuel to escape the gravitational pull of by-the-numbers pablum.

Whitney Hubbs,Untitled, from the series Say So, 20192020. Courtesy: the artist andSelf Publish Be Happy

Lets be clear, though: facing-down fear might generate good art, but it does not guarantee triumph over it. Hubbss work does not travel an inexorable arc toward redemption. Quite the opposite, in fact. She insists that her photographs are about failure, and not in the trendy fail upwards kind of way. Its just that kind of failure of getting older, she told me, and things not working out the way you wanted them to. We get older, our bodies break down, we disappoint ourselves, we disappoint others. Nothings perfect, but we feel like maybe it should be. This is the most fundamental kind of bondage: we are all tied forever to our own lives. Perhaps at the root of the masochistic fetish itself is the desire to alchemize the pain of our sorry fates into pleasure though perverse play-acting. Hubbs tells me that she found making these images cathartic, which is a kind of pleasure. Immerse yourself in her work long enough, though, and you can tell that her greatest delectation comes from rage.

Main Image: Whitney Hubbs, Untitled, from the series Say So, 20192020. Courtesy: the artist and Self Publish Be Happy

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Whitney Hubbs's Unholy Rites for the Spiritually Bankrupt - frieze.com

Column: This Christmas, reach out to those who are spiritually, emotionally lonely – The Columbus Dispatch

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Pastor Ben Douglass| Special to The Columbus Dispatch

Its the Christmas season,filled withstrings oflights,festivesongsand excitement thatchildren feelwhen you say the word,Christmas.I love it, and youmightas well.

Theres ajoyand lovethat we want to share with everyone around us. But its not easy for everyone.Elvis famously sangthat hes going to have ablue, blue, blue, blue Christmas without the love of his life, and hes not alone.

Here in Columbus,nearly onein twopeople in our city feel lonely, according to a recent BarnaGroupsurvey. Think ofyour neighbors,the guys you work with, the personsittingin trafficnext to you, maybe even yourself. We area societyof manylonelypeople.

We need Christmas.We need to let Godshopeand loveflood our hearts, to rememberwhen in historytheKing of Kingscame tous, right where we werein our depression, in our loneliness, in our anxiety.When we felt the crisis of life,Gods Soncame into our world,andheloved us.He lovesyou.

When I think back to Bethlehem,I remembera young,verypregnantMary,and hernewly mintedhusbandlooking for helpin their crisisof homelessness.Doubtless they had nofamily,or they would havenot been knocking on the doors of strangers.Where would they go?

And in that moment, Mary and Joseph felt the cold realitytoo many knowof being alone.

Is it by accident that Jesus,our Savior,was born in these circumstances?Was it coincidence thattheiralonenessmade itintoournativity scene?

We are created forgenuinecommunity with God and people.In the beginning,by Gods design, he saidit wasnt good forus to bealone.

Weare created forauthenticcommunity,but sin permeates andcorrupts us,sowesettle for lesser communitieswhere we do notlive inrelationship with God, nor freely share the journey of our soul.

Into our loneliness,depression, anxietyand burnout,he came.When we did not love him, when we wererunningfromGod, thelove of Godcame to us.Immanuel, "Godwith us."

Makeno mistake,God loves you. You matter to him.He calls you back into the community you were predestined to know from the foundation of the world.

Mary and Joseph, abandoned by the world, were not abandoned by God. He was with them. Mary carriedJesuswith her everywhere she went. He is not far fromany one of us.

The greatest need of the soul is to know the God who lovesyou andcalls us to turnback towards him and find him. FindGodthis Christmas.Ask him to meet you and speak to your heart.

Wewerecreatedfordeepspiritualcommunity with Godandpeople,greater communitythan acat or dog,than aFacebook group,orrooting foryoursports team can fill.You were designed for aspiritualcommunity-you were designed forhealthyChristian community, made up of familiesand singles, men and women,people of everyage, ethnicities, and even, yes, politicalpositions.

We must live itout andseek it out.Healthy Christian communitylooks like living life togetherbeyondSunday mornings,sharing life together, sharing each others burdens, praying for each other. It looks likegetting beyond thesurface levelmakeup of what we want people to seeand being honest witheach other, and getting into each others messy lives so that we can love each other just like Jesuslovesus.

We must share it. This Christmas,wemust sharethe hope of Christmas and Christian community withthose who arealonephysically,or spiritually, or emotionally.Rememberthe neighbor next door, the coworker who lives alone,the cashier at the grocery store.Invite them into Christmas with you, to know the God who calls them intocommunity.

IfMary and Josephcame to your house, begging for a place to stay, would they find a place to sit downa moment? Would they find a cup of wateror coffee? A hot meal? Wouldthey findcommunity and help?

This Christmas, we are surrounded by lonely people.One out of every two people in our city.People who are wandering, who are far from the heart of God, and arent just superficially lonely, but are spiritually lonely, emotionally lonely, and who need to know Jesus relationally.

These men and women are longing forhonestChristianitycommunity.Lets share it.We need Christmas.

Pastor Ben Douglass isis the lead pastor at Faith Community Church on the West Side.

Keeping the Faith is a column featuring the perspectives of a variety of faith leaders from the Columbus area.

"Blue Christmas" services are meant to offer comfort for those who are grieving or otherwise seeking healing or hope around the holidays. Here are some local churches who host the services:

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Column: This Christmas, reach out to those who are spiritually, emotionally lonely - The Columbus Dispatch

A spiritual look at the violence in Columbus – WSAV-TV

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COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) Ask anyone about crime in Columbus and theyll likely have an opinion. More than 65 homicides have occurred this year, surpassing the citys record high of 46 homicides set in 2020.

The faith community has answered the call by law enforcement to be a part of the solution. Members of the clergy are putting the finishing touches on an upcoming virtual sort of town hall meeting to address the violence from a spiritual context. The Road To A Safer Columbus: A Spiritual Discussion on Violence will take place on social media at a date and time to be arranged. The public is invited.

On February 16, 2021, Columbus Police Chief Freddie Blackmon put out a call to the public.

We need all hands on deck. The Columbus Police Department and the Muscogee County Sheriffs Office cannot do this alone.

I sat down with three men from different walks of life, Muscogee County Sheriff Greg Countryman, Shawn Raleigh, an ex-con, and the Reverend Dr. J.H. Flakes, III for their take on the violent crimes being committed in Columbus. Though their paths began differently, they each made the decision to make faith the cornerstone of their lives. Dr. Flakes, who pastors Fourth Street Missionary Baptist Church says one of the initiatives the clergy will address is godly parenting.

I believe its important for us to raise the awareness within our community, within our city, within our neighborhoods that there is a godly order and when one steps outside of that order then what you will have is chaos, said Rev. Dr. J.H. Flakes, III.

Sheriff Countryman says his mother was a strict disciplinarian.

Checking on your children and knowing what your children are doing is a thing of the past, said Sheriff Greg Countryman.

Shawn Raleigh says hed like to see this next generation avoid the pitfalls hes had to face.

Youre putting everything else on a scale, put that on a scale, put your life on a scale and ask yourself is that what you really want to do? Do you really want to go to prison?, said Shawn Raleigh.

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A spiritual look at the violence in Columbus - WSAV-TV