text:
Talvitie is a Finnish surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Heikki Talvitie (born 1939), Finnish diplomat
Helge Talvitie (born 1941), Finnish politician
Mari-Leena Talvitie, Finnish politician
Pentti Talvitie (1922–2003), Finnish diplomat
Tiia-Maria Talvitie (born 1994), Finnish biathlete
Virpi Talvitie (born 1961), Finnish illustrator and graphic artist

Finnish-language surnames

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Behavior science plays an important part in understanding how customers perceive and engage with a product. It therefore plays an integral role in many successful tech companies, impacting the product design, user journey and product messaging.
In a recent session that Prof. Ariely had with one of the entrepreneurs that we are working with, they explored how customers in emerging markets perceive the concept of insurance; How do you convince people that earn a meager wage that health insurance or unemployment insurance is important? How do you explain to them that it makes sense to put aside a small sum for a service that they perceive is "virtual" and that they may or may not need?
The Invisible Gorilla – Chabris and Simons combine the work of other researchers with their own findings on attention, perception, memory, and reasoning to reveal how faulty intuitions often get us into trouble.
Why smart people make stupid money mistakes – In their fascinating investigation of the ways we handle money, Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich reveal the psychological forces—the patterns of thinking and decision making—behind seemingly irrational behavior. They explain why so many otherwise savvy people make foolish financial choices.
Thinking fast and slow – Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation―each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions.


text:
WaPo: I was a combat interpreter in Afghanistan, where cultural illiteracy led to U.S. failure
When comparing the Taliban with the United States and its Western allies, the vast majority of Afghans have always viewed the Taliban as the lesser of two evils.
Zeeshan Aleem: Was there a significantly better way to withdraw from Afghanistan?
Anand Gopal: Well, there was and there wasn't.
There was a better way to do it if Washington faced certain hard ground truths. What would have been the better way was if the U.S. government had secured a deal with the Taliban that began a process of transfer of power to them, while the U.S. was still in the country. But that would have meant completely undermining the Afghan government to do that; it would've meant recognizing the Afghan government, basically, is a creation of the U.S. entirely, and has no real legitimacy on the ground. So that would've been a pretty major paradigm shift, almost a greater paradigm shift than just simply cutting and running, I think.
As I said, they could, but of course, they couldn't.
And Gopal uses the same line as Ahadi (in WaPo)
So really, you had a one-sided war in those years, between 2001 and 2004, where the U.S. was fighting an enemy that didn't exist, and innocent people were the ones who were suffering. That really is what created the Taliban's resurgence. The Taliban wasn't a popular force in 2001, but in these communities, people saw the Taliban as a lesser of two evils to the violence perpetuated by the U.S. and by the U.S. proxies.
Labels: Afghanistan, Banality, Boredom, Determinism, Liberals Make Nihilism Attractive, Make it Idiot-Proof, Middle East, Naturalism, Politics, The Press

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: java regular expression @path param optional i need help with a java regular expression, I need to accept HTTP request at these paths:
categories
categories/533446dd2cdc5af82a027d9e,

533446dd2cdc5af82a027d9e stay for @Path param called "id";

I'm working on this regular expression:
categories(\/)?([a-z0-9]{0,25})?

but it's not working, can you help me?
thanks guys :)

A: Have a look at the following example :
String str1 = "categories/533446dd2cdc5af82a027d9e";
String str2 = "categories";
String pattern = "categories(/[a-z0-9]{0,24})?";
System.out.println(str1.matches(pattern));
System.out.println(str2.matches(pattern));

Output :
true
true

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The particular BMW M3 #DTM Champ Edition Style will be back soon after two decades and also this time it's surpassed all the objectives on the folks since that auto is merely spectacular. Several may well say who's has a resemblance to this race auto regarding Spengler although that is certainly a rumor along with practically nothing else. In the event you understand the auto with your own personal little brown eyes you should certainly not say that will. Because this is the specific version auto there's only 1 coloration that is released that is certainly iced black color steel. It has as well as flaps along with different types of darker stainless- factors along with the added wheels are shiny black color.
The particular design on the auto has become held the identical while using the BMW L design and style on the top on the CFRP along with the footwear top. The particular logo can be specific to the rear section of the the front tyre arches and as well within the graphics on the backed part windows.
The particular inside the auto possesses sill strip which usually replicate the design on the helmet with Spengler. The interior cut deprive on the as well as fibers has the personal on the new champ combined with the serial variety of the car.
In addition to the exterior designing the interior even offers many exclusive designs including the steering wheel keeping the sign regarding Alcantara® along with the palm braking system levels possesses "M Electrical power stitched about it.
The particular car's performance will be an issue that is pretty amazing along with L Hard disks, competitors bundles, L Driver's bundle, L DCT Drivelogic, excited chairs, specialized navigation process along with park your car distance control.
Pertaining to quick product sales to elevate, the company possesses offered fifty four new custodians for the auto also it will probably soon turn out to be easily obtainable in the different intercontinental marketplaces. This can be an issue that definitely help make the folks content who will be interested in new automobiles. Those who can be the first managers would likely receive enable you to enroll in this new driver training course regarding BMW L Fasciantion Nordschleife along with the teaching would be due to the one and only Bruno Spengler. This kind of training curriculum seemed to be added a lot after following determination in order to release the car seemed to be built.


There is an ongoing debate about which cloth diaper detergent is safe for your baby and which should be avoided. Babies are very sensitive to aggressive detergents and other chemicals like adult shampoos, bubble baths, creams, oils, etc. It is common knowledge that all babies' clothes should be washed using very mild detergents so that skin irritation or breathing problems are prevented. Heavy duty chemicals should be kept away from children at all cost not only regarding safe storage, but also when it comes to clothes and diaper washing.
Many moms in the United States are opting for cloth diapers instead of disposable ones because the former brings many benefits. One of the most important upsides of using cloth diapers for your baby is the eco-friendliness and the fact that they are hypoallergenic, breathable and thermo-regulating. Disposable diapers have a huge negative impact on the eco-system. An estimated 27.4 billion disposable diapers are used each year in the US, resulting in possible 3.4 million tons of used diapers adding to landfills annually. If everybody switched to cloth nappies, the world would be a whole lot healthier place to live in. Once you have decided to use sloth diapers, the logical question that arises is what cloth diaper detergent to use? You will be surprised.
It is not necessary that a safe cloth diaper detergent has to be expensive or unavailable in many shops. It does not even have to be a popular brand. All you have to look for in a detergent is that it is labeled "free and clear". There is a myriad of such products out there on the market; you just have to take some time and read the label when you come to the supermarket. You should avoid anything that uses dyes or perfumes, which can irritate your baby's skin.
Did you know that fabric softeners are one the most toxic elements in your house and are full of harmful chemicals? They also break down the fire retardancy of infant clothing. Instead, you can add ¼ cup white vinegar to your rinse cycle as a natural fabric softener; skip artificial fabric softeners altogether or try dryer balls. Make a change that affects your entire family for that matter and switch to "free and clear" detergents for all your clothes and exclude fabric softener altogether from your washing routine. That way you will not need to separate the baby's clothes from other clothes, which will save you precious time and money.
And one more thing – try avoiding cloth diaper detergents, or any other washing products for that matter, which say "baby" on them, because they are usually full of perfumes and are not actually gentle for baby's skin.


I have decided to keep a gratitude journal. They are available everywhere now, titled and ready to record your thanks. But any kind of notebook will work. I'm feeling blessed right now. God has given me so many gifts and graces and I find that sometimes, because life gets in the way, I can forget to say a simple "thank you." And because my needful prayers can sometimes consume me, that "thank you Lord" can easily be left hanging in the air. So, with pen in hand, I will pray my thank you in writing it down.
The other morning sitting in my prayer chair, a book that had been closed for many years, caught my eye. I hesitated (don't know why) but then picked it up and opened it to the daily reading. The book is called, "Simple Abundance, A Daybook of Comfort and Joy" it was written by Sarah Ban Breathnach. My mom gave me this book years ago. I had read it then and it became one of those books to keep. One that you don't want to get rid of because you know whenever you are called to open it, it will speak to you. Well yesterday was that day!
There it was, Gifts of the Magi. It was written with such simplicity and beauty.
She lists seven sets of gifts, saying that the real gifts of Christmas were wrapped in miracles. Here are the miracle gifts that she writes about.
The first gift was of Spirit, the Spirit of the Unconditional Love of God for mankind.
The next gift came from a Jewish teenage girl, Mary, whose Christmas present was selflessness, the complete surrender of ego and will needed to bring Heaven down to earth.
The gifts of her betrothed Joseph were trust and faith.
The Infant Child brought forgiveness, wholeness, and second chances for God's people.
The angels' gifts were tidings of comfort, joy, and peace, with the assurance that there was nothing to fear, so rejoice.
The shepherd boy's gift was generosity in giving Jesus his favorite lamb.
The Wise Men, the Magi, offered not only gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but their real gifts were wonder, acceptance, and courage. They offered wonder by surrendering logic, reason, and common sense to follow a Star. Accepting the impossible situation, they found themselves in, they suspended skepticism long enough to double-cross King Herod. With courage, they made the long journey to kneel before the Christ Child, accepting Him as King even though they found him in a cave lying in a straw-filled manger.
And in the spirit of Christmas, we need to share these gifts of little miracles, to family, friends and even to casual acquaintances.
Never forget that we are God's hands on earth. And never forget that there are many times when God works his miracles through us.
I hope each and everyone one of you has a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May the Lord continue to bless you and your loved ones!
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Gold Imports by India Rebound in July After Slump in First Half
Shruti Srivastava and Swansy Afonso, Bloomberg News
An employee hands a 50-gram gold bar to a customer inside a Titan Co. Tanishq jewelry store during the festival of Dhanteras in Mumbai, India, on Friday, Oct. 25, 2019. Gold sales on the most auspicious day in India to buy the metal tumbled this year as high prices and concerns about an economic slowdown saw customers limit purchases. Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg , Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) -- Demand for gold in India rebounded in July, with imports jumping by a quarter from a year earlier, as lockdowns to combat the coronavirus in the second-largest consumer of the metal were slowly eased.
Overseas purchases rose to 25.5 tons in July from 20.4 tons a year earlier and were almost double the amount shipped in the previous month, according to a person familiar with the data, who asked not to be identified as the information isn't public. Finance Ministry spokesman Rajesh Malhotra didn't immediately respond to a call to his mobile phone.
Shipments in July showed the first year-on-year increase in 2020. Still, that may not be enough to compensate for the 79% fall in imports in the first half of 2020. Demand is forecast to slide to a record low this year, hammered by all-time high prices and as the country heads toward its first annual economic contraction in more than four decades after virus-related restrictions shuttered businesses and left millions jobless.
The rapid spread of the virus in India, which has the world's third-highest tally, is also damping demand as consumers are worried about stepping out, according to N. Anantha Padmanaban, chairman of the All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council.
"There's a long way to go before demand comes back," he said. "Maybe from October, consumers will come to buy for festivals. How long can they postpone purchases for weddings and other occasions?"
Twitter banning Trump is not a violation of the first amendment: Wedbush Securities' Pachter
Finding the next generation of FAANG stocks: Eric Jackson
History indicates we should buy large cap tech when it's down 10-15 per cent: Wedbush Securities' Kulina
More room to grow for precious metals: Derivatives strategist
Netflix could set the stage in lowering guidance for FAANGs as we enter Q3: Synovus Trust's Morgan
Tech fears weigh on markets


While there are television critics who would define the work of Howard Leeds as unadulterated pap and lowest common denominator entertainment, it is undeniable that the writer/producer has had his thumb on the pulse of the American TV audience's taste for over 50 years. He started out as a child actor and worked his way up through the ranks of MGM Studios, where he learned the business from the inside. Among his first writing jobs was for the sitcom "Meet Millie" and "The George Gobel Show" in the 1950s. His prolific output kicked in during the 1960s when he wrote for such hits as "My Three Sons," and "Bewitched." He turned to producing around this time as well with the shows "My Living Doll," "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir," and, most successfully, "The Brady Bunch." He sensed the wants of American family audiences and hit his stride in the 1980s when he produced and/or wrote nearly 400 episodes for such kindred-comedy-with-a-twist hits as "Different Strokes," "Silver Spoons," and "The Facts of Life." Leeds was executive producer and writer for the campy cult hit "Small Wonder,"a show that garnered a huge underground following, about a young girl robot (shades of the aforementioned "Doll") living with the inventor's suburban family.


The Mister Paco bed from top Italian brand Bonaldo is an elegant, modern upholstered bed & is available as an adult bed or as a childrens bed (a separate product).
The metal feet are lacquered silver & the upholstery is available in a great choice of fabrics & leathers. Both fabric & leather covers are fully removable too. To see samples online click here, alternatively we can send them to you or please visit our London showroom.
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MULTICULTURAL CHURCHES & Catholic researchers of multicultural parishes share the best ways to create growing multicultural communities.
by Peter Feuerherd, NC Reporter, 6/14/18.
Brett Hoover and Hosffman Ospino, two experts on multicultural ministry from both coasts, agree: The church needs to get this right as it moves into a future with a declining base of white Catholics.
For Hoover and Ospino, there are elements to watch out for as parishes attempt to incorporate different ethnic groups.
Ospino, a native of Colombia and professor of religious studies at Boston College, conceded that not every pastor or parish leader can be bilingual. But anyone with cultural sensitivity can allow leadership to percolate from ethnic groups.
Being hospitable doesn't need translation.
Hoover once met a parish usher, "a person of great heart," who knew no Spanish, but was able to communicate a warm welcome to everyone who entered the church via gestures and smiles.
Ospino, author of a forthcoming book from Fordham University Press titled Cultural Diversity and Paradigm Shifts in Latino Congregations, suggests that people from all groups in a parish occasionally come together to share faith experiences. Different views, for example, on how Catholics of all nationalities approach the Blessed Mother is a good faith icebreaker.
Be prepared for culture clash.
"For most of us, our parish is the Catholic world," said Hoover. Newcomers from different cultures will, by definition, see Catholic culture and practice in a different light. "It's the culture clashes that irritate people," he said.
In his extensive studies of Catholic bicultural parishes, Hoover frequently finds himself in a bridge role. Simple items, such as the use of collection envelopes, carry cultural baggage. Mexicans are used to giving to the church, but not so much in weekly Sunday Mass settings. Tradition there focuses on particular celebrations.
Demographic trends are creating grief in the wider culture.
Immigrants are unsettled by their experience. Those who have been in the U.S. for a while can resent the loss of how things "used to be." Multicultural parishes can be "crucibles of grief" for all kinds of cultural anxieties, said Hoover, an anxiety that is being played out in American politics and social life.
Parish leaders need to be aware that many white Catholics, perhaps the majority, voted for President Donald Trump. For Latinos, the president's immigration policies are often viewed as a personal threat.
CHURCH ATTENDANCE & Gallup research: Percentage of Americans identifying as Protestant has declined sharply & those professing no religious identity, up to 20% from as little as 2% just over 60 years ago.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Weekly church attendance has declined among U.S. Catholics in the past decade, while it has remained steady among Protestants.
… Currently, the rate of weekly church attendance among Protestants and Catholics is similar at most age levels. One exception is among those aged 21 to 29, with Protestants (36%) more likely than Catholics (25%) to say they have attended in the past seven days.
…Although weekly attendance among Protestants has been stable, the proportion of adults identifying as Protestants has shrunk considerably over the past half-century. And that trend will continue as older Americans are replaced by a far less Protestant-identifying younger generation.
DENOMINATIONS & Largest 25 Denominations/Communions from the 2012 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.
The Hartford Institute for Church Research, retrieved from http://hirr.hartsem.edu/research/fastfacts/fast_facts.html#sizecong, 11/9/16.
By Joanna Piacenza, Robert P. Jones, American Values Atlas, 8/30/15.
Earlier this year, we took a look at the top three religious traditions that dominate the U.S. Now, using the metro areas variable of the American Values Atlas (AVA), we turn to our country's cities, where we find a similar trend: Catholics and the religiously unaffiliated dominate.
* Catholicism is the top religious group—or tied for the top religious group—in 15 of the major metro areas.
* The religiously unaffiliated is the top "religious" group—or tied for the top religious group—in 10 of the major metro areas.
* And don't forget about white evangelical Protestants, who take the top prize in six of the major metro areas.
* Atlanta is the only metro area that doesn't have Catholics, the religiously unaffiliated, or white evangelical Protestants in the number one slot; that prize goes to black Protestants.
* Urban areas attract the unaffiliated; the religiously unaffiliated are among the top three religious groups in every metro area polled.
* Catholics also love cities; Catholicism is among the top three religious groups for nearly every metro area—only Nashville, Charlotte, Indianapolis, Kansas City, and Atlanta don't have Catholics among the top three.
* In every metro area where Catholicism takes number one, religiously unaffiliated takes number two.
* All but nine metro areas have Catholicism and the religiously unaffiliated in the top two.
* Nashville has the largest percentage of one singular religious group: nearly four in ten (38 percent) residents identify as white evangelical Protestant.
* Portland has the largest percentage of one singular "religious" group: 42 percent identify as religiously unaffiliated.
Explore more of the AVA here.
Although most U.S. Hispanics continue to belong to the Roman Catholic Church, the Catholic share of the Hispanic population is declining, according to a national survey of more than 5,000 Hispanics. Meanwhile, rising numbers of Hispanics say they are Protestant or are unaffiliated with any religion. Indeed, 24% of Hispanic adults are now former Catholics, with changes in religious affiliation occurring primarily among Latinos ages 18 to 49. Among Latino immigrants who have switched religions, about half did so before coming to the U.S. The survey also finds that in every major religious group, more Latinos favor the Democratic Party than the Republican Party, though there are some differences in party affiliation across groups.


You've asked for more retail-focused content, and we heard you. Introducing our new series, "From the Trenches," with tips on how to sell more, better train your employees, get your customers engaged, and more. Look for the second part of this series after Thanksgiving, and subscribe to make sure you never miss anything.
The best thing about my job is that I have so much in common with everyone who walks through the door. We all share a passion for hiking and the outdoors, and immediately, we have a connection. Not everyone working in retail can say that.
What is your greatest strength as part of the sales staff?
I'm really good at selling footwear.
What's something you've come up with to boost your sales and make your job easier?
I started working for Eastern Mountain Sports with a basic knowledge of boots. I've always been a hiker and backpacker, and right from the beginning I could explain the benefits of high-cut or low-cut boots. I could look at the tag and tell you which were waterproof and which weren't. But I also learned quickly that there's a whole lot more to a boot than what you can read about on the hang or on retail training sites like 3point5.com.
I decided to test drive all the boots we sell. It's pretty obvious, right? It doesn't take much; a little bit of walking around the store in every new pair that comes in is enough to discern the differences in fit, support, and weight. Now, when a customer describes what kind of boots they like, and what sort of trips they take, I can quickly identify a few pairs that they should try on. Nobody wants to spend two hours trying on 15 pairs of boots. When I do more of the legwork, they get a better fit faster, saving us all time and frustration.
Have a sales tactic or training method you want to share, or a question you want us to answer or an issue you need help with? Email Assistant Editor Kassondra Cloos at kcloos@aimmedia.com or call her at 303-253-6352, and you could see your shop or your employees featured here.
从直销���厂 (Factory direct): Are foreign manufacturers the new retail competition?


text:
Crystal meth, MDMA, marijuana, heroin, handguns confiscated by police in narcotics bust
Ashley White
Police confiscated crystal meth, MDMA pills, marijuana, heroin and handguns from a Youngsville man.
The Lafayette Police Department Tactical Narcotics Team, created to combat illegal drug activity in the city, was called on Tuesday to a motel in the 2200 block of Northeast Evangeline Thruway after complaints.
Agents found two handguns, more than 610 grams of crystal meth valued at $123,400, nearly 250 MDMA pills valued at $7,400, nearly 30 grams of marijuana valued at $570 and about 17 grams of suspected heroin valued at $6,700, according to LPD.
Brandon Michael, 34, was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana, heroin, MDMA, cocaine, meth and drug paraphernalia. He also was charged with possession of a gun in the presence of controlled dangerous substances and by a person against whom a protective order is issued. Michael was charged with having money derived from drug proceeds.
He was booked into the Lafayette Parish Correction Center.
Contact Ashley White at adwhite@theadvertiser.com or on Twitter @AshleyyDi.


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Rheem Opens a New PROSTOCK Store South of Atlanta with Hughes Supply.
McDonough, Ga.-based store will distribute Rheem HVAC parts and aftermarket supplies to local contractors.
Last month, Rheem distributor Hughes Supply opened a new PROSTOCK location just 30 miles south of Atlanta in McDonough, Ga. Hughes Supply provides residential, commercial, light industrial, institution and government plumbing supplies, as well as a complete line of commercial and residential HVAC supplies.


The SFB 1078 kindly invites you to the International Workshop of the German Biophysical Society.
Venue will be the BBZ Verdi at the lake Wannsee in Berlin.
Early bird registration is now open! Early booking discount is available until May 10, 2019.
You will be redirected to the registration website.
Download template for an abstract.
Download information about conference fees.
More details and workshop program will follow shortly.


text:
Everything Digital Money Can Do – and What it Can't
Digitalization affects all sectors – and monetary transactions are no exception. But can digital money such as bitcoin really be considered currency? And how digital have traditional currencies already become? G+D provides answers for the payments of today and tomorrow.
The basic concept is still plausible. During the 2008 global financial crisis, confidence in state institutions was shaken to such an extent that the popularity of the bitcoins introduced shortly before the crisis quickly skyrocketed. People often speak of bitcoin as a new "digital currency" that will go as far as replacing cash – but it will not come to this. Although anyone can buy bitcoins and even use them to make payments in various countries or on the internet, the commonly-used concept of a new "currency" is misleading because the term should be reserved for money that is backed by a central institution such as a central bank.
"That is not the case with bitcoin," explains Florian Gawlas, Technology Director at G+D Mobile Security. "Furthermore, bitcoin is used mainly as a digital investment in the hope of a good increase in value. Because of the underlying group of users who rely on this money, we refer to it as Digital Community Money – DCM for short – and not digital currency."
In this case, the "community" consists of people from all over the world who have bought bitcoins, which are based on the underlying blockchain technology.
The revolutionary aspect here is that it removes the payment process from the structure of the established financial system.
Florian Gawlas, Technology Director at G+D Mobile Security
"The revolutionary aspect here is that it removes the payment process from the structure of the established financial system," explains Florian Gawlas. "There is also a technical difference, since with blockchain technology, accounts are not stored centrally in a bank, but are instead replicated on multiple computers. Any private individual can operate one of the computers in the network."
In total, there are almost 1200 DCM of this type in the digital world, which differ considerably in terms of their market capitalization. The following example shows that bitcoin will probably never be suitable for everyday use: If we assume that all businesses in a country such as Germany suddenly begin accepting bitcoin as a payment method, this digital money would soon be overburdened. "The total money supply is much too small; at the moment, the bitcoin blockchain is at full capacity at 3 to 4 transactions per second. That is not even enough to keep the supermarkets going in a small German town. Therefore, as things stand, bitcoin does not fulfill the technical prerequisites to function as a mass payment method," says Gawlas. By way of comparison, credit card provider Visa facilitates many thousands of transactions per second. A further disadvantage of bitcoin is that its value cannot easily be calculated. For example, between March and mid-October 2017, it fluctuated between around 1,000 and almost 6,000 US dollars. Consequently, although the idea of creating a monetary system that lies outside of the established financial system has romantic appeal, implementing it on a mass scale simply is not yet practicable.
Credit: Paul Paladin
Digital Currencies Will Not Quickly Replace Cash
Nonetheless, the extent to which digital currencies could represent at least a practical supplement – in a regulated form with a central bank in the background – has come under consideration time and time again. However, the goal is not to eliminate cash, but rather to some degree to offer an additional service. The Swedish Riksbank is currently working on a project investigating the possible implications of a digital currency, or e-krona, for society and the economy. "However, there is no intention of replacing cash with it," says Tilo Fritzhanns, Director Business Development at G+D Currency Technology. "Utimately, citizens will decide whether they can trust a digital currency. And that is where cash still scores very highly."
Utimately, citizens will decide whether they can trust a digital currency.
Tilo Fritzhanns, Director Business Development at G+D Currency Technology
There is also a further problem to consider; namely the need for a veritable tectonic shift in the financial system. "Some states are also skeptical about digital currencies because they could weaken the position of commercial banks." Traditional banking transactions would then be completed to an increasing extent via the central bank, which could lever important filter functions out of the commercial banks. "That would leave the current multi-level financial system on the scrapheap, which is not in the interests of any country," says Fritzhanns.
Analog and Digital Worlds United
Fast transfers with Instant Payment
Digitalization has already produced several examples of how the "old" and "new" worlds can best be combined; for example, the traditional production line in a car factory can be upgraded to Industry 4.0 standards using smart technology. When it comes to cash, the solution may lie in the interplay between proven systems and new features. The only question is: What are the benefits of digital money? Of course, it allows transfers to be made in seconds – even from mobile end devices – making the eCommerce sector faster. Payments would reach online shop operators almost at the same time as the order. However, a digital currency is not necessary to achieve this, since it is already possible to some extent with our traditional financial system. "Instant payment is also an interesting alternative because it feels like a digital currency to end users, but is not associated with the same economic risks since it is based on established monetary systems," stresses Tilo Fritzhanns.
Pioneer USA and Scandinavia
"Instant payment" is already in place in the USA and Scandinavia. This means that bank transfers can be completed in just a few seconds. In Europe, the intention is to use the SEPA standard to circumvent market fragmentation. A SEPA transfer takes one working day, while the SCTinst tool derived from this system allows payments to be made in 10 seconds – and this may drop to as little as 2 seconds in the future. EBA Clearing will launch an instant payments platform in November 2017, with the European Central Bank set to follow suit a year later.
In the period until these systems are available for use, various FinTech companies such as PayPal, are attempting to close this gap in the market. "Third parties such as these position themselves between banks and customers," explains Maria Veleva, Product Manager for Financial Service Solutions at G+D. By contrast, Veleva advises banks to provide their own products and continue ensuring customers can contact their banks directly without needing to work around third-party applications. Since "G+D is the world's leading security partner", the company offers support to financial institutions in this regard.
When Machines Pay Each Other
In the meantime, a new area of application has emerged for digital money. As Industry 4.0 has taken root, new applications for Digital Community Money have opened up. The community in question does not consist of people buying bitcoins, but rather of machines communicating with each other – and paying one another for their services. In times when autonomous driving is possible, smart machines are proving just as competent in regulating accounting procedures independently.
"Of course, the demands on money used among machines differ from those used by humans, and will therefore take a little getting used to within society," says G+D's Tilo Fritzhanns. "However, we do see real prospects for digital money in the IoT sector, since it involves many amounts in the cent and subcent ranges, which need to be transferred rapidly. In that scenario, having an internal system makes sense." For example, pay-per-use models would be easier to implement if an industrial company did not buy a machine, but simply paid its manufacturer when the machine is actually in use. The exchange takes place via a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) connection, which provides data and regulates the digital payment at the same time. "Requirements have simply changed in the IoT sector," says Fritzhanns. "We want machines to become more autonomous, and this also includes machines being able to complete payments among themselves." However, even these payment methods are not necessarily going to replace cash and our traditional financial system. Rather, the long history of cash shows that multiple variants can coexist – and the amount of cash in circulation is actually continuing to grow. So the end of the banknote is not in sight – it's just getting some smart, digital siblings.
Bitcoin? In a Way, the History of Money is Repeating Itself
And as is the way with siblings, there are some similarities. One of the main ones is that the value of both banknotes and digital currencies is based on confidence. This is clear if we look at the history of money, with which hardly any company in the world is more closely connected than G+D. Founded in Leipzig in 1852, the company came into being in the middle of the Industrial Revolution and the advent of paper money in Europe. Just two years later, G+D printed the first banknotes for the Weimarische Bank, which was not even ten years old at the time, but was permitted to issue its own cash. "People went to the bank and exchanged their good gold for a piece of printed paper," explains Astrid Wolff, who manages the G+D's company historical archive. "This was a real, far-reaching cultural transformation – especially when you consider that the banknote was not yet legal tender in the German Reich until shortly before the First World War. This means that nobody was obliged to accept banknotes. After all, the Reichsbank only honored notes that it itself had issued, but did not guarantee those issued by private banks."
The first printed banknote by G+D
For this reason, people today exchanging US dollars or euros for bitcoins that have not even been around for ten tears and that are not backed by any regulatory authority is as exciting as the radical change that took place almost 170 years ago. "In those days, banknotes were already a virtualization of money, since the material used to make them no longer represented an adequate equivalent value," says Wolff. "It finally became a mass medium by the end of the First World War, since by then, banknotes were also available in smaller denominations. Despite hyperinflation in the 1920s, confidence in banknotes has not wavered since then." We therefore now find ourselves at a cultural threshold reminiscent of that faced in 1850. However, it remains to be seen how confidence in digital money will develop.
Think Tank Digital Currencies
New Thinktank
G+D wants to continue to drive this development itself, and has founded a cross-sectoral Thinktank to this end. "As with all major business and economic topics, we are working together in an interdisciplinary approach to be able to offer new services, and develop existing services through broader expertise and solid analysis," explains Head of Strategy Philipp Schulte. "After all, the future of cash is and remains a central issue that we want to shape for ourselves and our customers."
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text:
Lake Tauca is a former lake in the Altiplano of Bolivia. It is also known as Lake Pocoyu for its constituent lakes: Lake Poopó, Salar de Coipasa and Salar de Uyuni. The lake covered large parts of the southern Altiplano between the Eastern Cordillera and the Western Cordillera, covering an estimated  of the basins of present-day Lake Poopó and the Salars of Uyuni, Coipasa and adjacent basins. Water levels varied, possibly reaching  in altitude. The lake was saline. The lake received water from Lake Titicaca, but whether this contributed most of Tauca's water or only a small amount is controversial; the quantity was sufficient to influence the local climate and depress the underlying terrain with its weight. Diatoms, plants and animals developed in the lake, sometimes forming reef knolls.

The duration of Lake Tauca's existence is uncertain. Research in 2011 indicated that the rise in lake levels began 18,500 BP, peaking 16,000 and 14,500 years ago. About 14,200 years ago, lake levels dropped before rising again until 11,500 years ago. Some researchers postulate that the last phase of Lake Tauca may have continued until 8,500 BP. The drying of the lake, which may have occurred because of the Bølling-Allerød climate oscillation, left the salt deposits of Salar de Uyuni.

Lake Tauca is one of several ancient lakes which formed in the Altiplano. Other known lakes are Lake Escara, Ouki, Salinas, Lake Minchin, Inca Huasi and Sajsi, in addition to several water-level rises of Lake Titicaca. The identity of these lakes is controversial; Sajsi is often considered part of Lake Tauca, and the lake is frequently divided into an earlier (Ticaña) and a later (Coipasa) phase.

The formation of Lake Tauca depended on a reduction in air temperature over the Altiplano and an increase in precipitation, which may have been caused by shifts in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and increased easterly winds. It was originally supposed that glacial melting might have filled Lake Tauca, but the quantity of water would not have been sufficient to fill the whole lake. The lake was accompanied by glacial advance, noticeable at Cerro Azanaques and Tunupa. Elsewhere in South America, water levels and glaciers also expanded during the Lake Tauca phase.

Description

Overview
Lake Tauca existed on the Altiplano, a high plateau with an average altitude of , covering an area of  or . The highland is in the Andes, the world's longest mountain chain which was formed during the Tertiary with a primary phase of uplift in the Miocene. Its central area, which contains the Altiplano, is formed by the eastern and western chains: the Eastern and Western Cordillera of Bolivia, which reach an altitude of . The Eastern Cordillera creates a rain shadow over the Altiplano. The climate of the Altiplano is usually dry when westerly winds prevail; during the austral summer, heating induces easterly winds which transport humidity from the Amazon. A north-south gradient exists, with mean temperatures and precipitation decreasing from  and  in the north, to  and  in the southern Lípez area. Although precipitation decreases from north to south, the evaporation rate throughout the Altiplano exceeds . Most precipitation is recorded between October and April. Occasionally during winter (but also in summer), frontal disturbances result in snowfall. Strong winds and high insolation are other aspects of the Altiplano climate. Much of the water balance in the present-day Altiplano-Atacama area is maintained by groundwater flow. The terrain of the Altiplano consists primarily of sediments deposited by lakes and rivers during the Miocene and Pleistocene. A Paleozoic basement underlies Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments. The Andean Central Volcanic Zone and the Altiplano–Puna volcanic complex are in the Cordillera Occidental.

Lake Tauca was one of many lakes which formed around the world during glacial epochs; others include the Baltic Ice Lake in Europe and Lake Bonneville in North America. Today, the Altiplano contains Lake Titicaca, with a surface area of , and several other lakes and salt pans. The latter include the Salar de Uyuni, at an altitude of  with an area of , and the Salar de Coipasa, covering  at an altitude of . Lake Titicaca and the southern salt flats are two separate water basins, connected by the Rio Desaguadero when Titicaca is high enough. The theory that the Altiplano was formerly covered by lakes was first proposed by J. Minchin in 1882. The formation of such lakes usually, but not always, coincided with lower temperatures. No evidence has been found for lake expansions in the Altiplano region below an altitude of .

Geography

Larger than Lake Titicaca, Tauca was over  long. According to 1978 reconstructions, the lake would have consisted of three basins (Poopó, Coipasa and Uyuni) linked by narrow straits. Around 14,100 BP, Tauca covered the southern Altiplano. Several different estimates for its surface area exist:

Lake Tauca was the largest paleolake in the Altiplano in the last 120,000 years at least, and comparable to present-day Lake Michigan. Its predecessors are known as Lake Minchin and Lake Escara. Other lake cycles are known as Ouki (120,000–98,000 years ago), Salinas (95,000–80,000 years ago), Inca Huasi (about 46,000 years ago), Sajsi (24,000–20,500 years ago) and Coipasa (13,000–11,000 years ago). Inca Huasi and Minchin are sometimes considered the same lake phase, and other researchers have suggested that Lake Minchin is a combination of several phases. The Ouki cycle may be subdivided in the future, and a number of sometimes-contradictory names and dates exist for these paleolakes.

Water depths reached . Water levels were about  higher than Salar de Uyuni, or . According to research published in 2000, the lake level varied from . Some disagreement about water levels at various sites may reflect differing isostatic rebound of the land covered by the lake. The original 1978 research on the Tauca phase postulated its shoreline at . Of the previous lake cycles in the area, only the Ouki cycle appears to have exceeded that altitude.

A later phase in lake levels (known as the Ticaña phase) was lower, at ; the drop from Tauca was abrupt. The late phase of Lake Tauca, Coipasa, had a water level of  or  and covered an area of about . Transitions between lake cycles occurred in about one thousand years.

Lake Tauca was the largest lake on the Altiplano in the last 130,000, 120,000 or 100,000 years. Although the preceding paleolake (Minchin) was probably shallower, there is disagreement about the methods used to ascertain water depth. Some consider Minchin the larger lake; a 1985 paper estimated its size at , compared with Tauca's . Confusion may have resulted from the incorrect attribution of Tauca's shorelines to Lake Minchin; a shoreline at  formerly attributed to Lake Minchin was dated to the Tauca phase at 13,790 BP. The theory that Tauca is the largest lake follows a deepening trend in the southern Altiplano paleolakes which contrasts with a decreasing trend in the level of Lake Titicaca during the Pleistocene. This pattern probably occurred because the threshold between the two basins progressively eroded, allowing water from Titicaca to flow into the southern Altiplano. The lakes left erosional benches, fan deltas (where the lakes interacted with ice) and lake-sediment deposits, and eroded into moraines.

The lake and its predecessors (such as Lake Minchin) formed in the area currently occupied by salt flats such as the Salar de Uyuni, Salar de Coipasa, Lake Poopó, Salar de Empexa, Salar de Laguani, and Salar de Carcote—several tens of meters beneath the Tauca water level. The present-day cities of Oruro and Uyuni are located in areas flooded by Lake Tauca. Salar de Ascotán may or may not have been part of Lake Tauca. The submergence of a large part of the Altiplano under Lake Tauca reduced the production of dust there and its supply to Patagonia, but "restocked" the sediments and thus increased dust supply once Lake Tauca dried up. The terrain above  was affected by glaciation. In the Coipasa basin, a major debris avalanche from the Tata Sabaya volcano rolled over terraces left by Lake Tauca.

Hydrology

At a water level of , the total volume of the lake has been estimated to be  to  at a level of . Such volumes could have been reached in centuries. The quantity of water was sufficient to depress the underlying bedrock, which rebounded after the lake disappeared; this has resulted in altitude differences of . Based on oxygen-18 data in lake carbonates, water temperatures ranged from  or . Tauca may have been subject to geothermal heating.

The lake was deep and saline. The salt content seems to have consisted of NaCl and Na2SO4. Estimated salt concentrations:

Estimated salt concentrations (based on a lake level of , for sodium chloride, lithium and bromine):

Some of this salt penetrated aquifers beneath the lake, which still exist. A significant excess NaCl concentration has been inferred for Lake Tauca, possibly stemming from salt domes whose contents moved from lake to lake.

Glacial meltwater may have contributed substantially to Lake Tauca's development. Strontium isotope data indicates that water draining from Lake Titicaca through the Rio Desaguadero may have contributed between 70% and 83% of Lake Tauca's water, an increase of between 8 and 30 times the current outflow of Lake Titicaca via the Desaguadero. A drop in the level of Lake Titicaca about 11,500 BP may have resulted in its outflow drying up, favouring the disappearance of Lake Tauca. According to other research, the increased outflow of Lake Titicaca would have had to be unrealistically large to supply Lake Tauca with water if Titicaca was its principal source. Other estimates assume that one-third of Tauca's water came from Lake Titicaca, no more than 15% for any lake cycle, or the much-lower four percent (similar to today's five-percent contribution from Titicaca to Lake Poopó). During the Coipasa cycle, Lake Poopó may have contributed about 13% of the water. About 53% of Lake Tauca's water came from the Eastern Cordillera. About 60,000 years ago, the Desaguadero probably began transporting water from Lake Titicaca to the Uyuni area and the southern paleolakes. Tauca was fed by the Río Grande de Lipez on the south, the Río Lauca on the northwest and the glaciers of the two cordilleras on the east and west. The lake's total drainage basin has been estimated at about . If lake levels reached an altitude of , the lake may have drained into the Pilcomayo River and from there through the Río de la Plata into the Atlantic Ocean.

Although earlier theories postulated that large lakes formed from glacial meltwater, increased precipitation or decreased evaporation (or both) are today considered necessary for lake formation; a complete glacial melting would have had to occur in less than about a century to produce the required volume. The water volume would be insufficient to explain Lake Tauca's high water levels; however, some smaller lakes in the southern Altiplano probably expanded from glacial meltwater alone. The lake may have contributed to increased precipitation by influencing land breezes. According to strontium isotope data, there may have been little water exchange between Tauca's Uyuni and Coipasa basins. During the Coipasa lake cycle, the Coipasa-Uyuni and Poopó basins had a limited connection. Minor water-level fluctuations occurred during the lake's existence.

Based on a  surface area, the evaporation rate has been estimated at over —comparable to the discharges of the Nile or Rhine. Less than half of this evaporation returned to the lake as precipitation; in the central sector of the lake at Tunupa, this would have increased precipitation by 80%, delaying the retreat of glaciers in the area. Groundwater from Lake Tauca may have drained into the Quebrada Puripica, northeast of Laguna Miscanti. Given the height of the sill between the two basins and evidence found at Poopó, water may have drained from the Coipasa-Uyuni basin into Lake Poopó during the Coipasa cycle.

Glacial debris and ice were probably present at the lake, with fan deltas at Tunupa overlapping the Lake Tauca shore. At Tunupa and Cerro Azanaques, glaciers reached their maximum size shortly before the lake level peaked and probably contributed to water levels when their retreat began. Two minor glacial advances, over 12,000 BP and about 11,000 BP, appear to coincide with Lake Tauca.

Lake Tauca left up to  thick sediments in the southern Altiplano, and tufa deposits formed in the lake. The continental environment Pleistocene sediments were formed from lacustrine carbonate deposits. These rocks contain amphibole, clay minerals such as illite, kaolinite and smectite, feldspar, plagioclase, potassium feldspar, pyroxene and quartz. The composition of these rocks resembles that of the Altiplano soils. The sedimentation rate in the Uyuni basin was about .

Biology

Low concentrations of pollen are found in sediments left by Lake Tauca in the Salar de Uyuni. Lake Minchin sediments contain more pollen (indicating that it may have had a more favourable climate), but the lack of pollen may be the product of a deeper lake. Polylepis may have thrived in favourable salinity and climatic conditions. Increased Polylepis and Acaena pollen is observed towards the end of the Tauca episode.

The lake was deep enough for the development of planktonic diatoms, including the dominant Cyclotella choctawatcheeana. Other diatoms noted in Lake Tauca are the benthic Denticula subtilis, the epiphytic Achnanthes brevipes, Cocconeis placentula and Rhopalodia gibberula, the planktonic Cyclotella striata and the tychoplanktonic Fragilaria atomus, Fragilaria construens and Fragilaria pinnata. Epithemia has also been found.

Sediments at the shoreline contain fossils of gastropods and ostracods; Littoridina and Succineidae snails have been used to date the lake. Other genera included Myriophyllum, Isoetes (indicating the formation of littoral communities) and Pediastrum. Algae grew in the lake, leading to reef knolls (bioherms) formed by carbonate rocks. These grew in several phases, and some were initially considered stromatolites. Some dome-shaped bioherms reach a size of , forming reef-like structures on terraces. They developed around objects jutting from the surface, such as rocks. Tube- and tuft-shaped structures also appear on these domes. Not all such structures formed during the Tauca episode. Similar structures have been found in the Ries crater in Germany, where Cladophorites species were responsible for their construction. Taxa identified at Lake Tauca include Chara species. The water above the tufa deposits was probably less than  deep. In some places (linked to Phormidium encrustatum and Rivularia species), limited stromatolitic development took place.

Duration

The existence of Lake Tauca was preceded by a dry period, with minor lake events recorded in Salar de Uyuni in the Late Pleistocene at 28,200–30,800 and 31,800–33,400 BP. The earlier Lake Minchin formed at the site of Lake Tauca. This period was accompanied by the disappearance of ice from Nevado Sajama. A dry period is also noted in Africa and other parts of South America around 18,000 BP, and the retreat of the Amazon rainforest may have produced the lake low-water mark. The era may have been drier than the present. The drying of Lake Minchin left a salt layer about  thick in the Salar de Uyuni, where gullies formed. Some ooid sediments formed before the Lake Tauca phase. Around 28,000 BP, lake levels rose in Lake Huinaymarca (Lake Titicaca's southern basin), preceding Lake Tauca by about two millennia. During this period, lakes in the Uyuni basin were intermittent. Previous lakes in the basin were generally small and shallow.

The radiometric age of Lake Tauca ranges from 72,600 to 7200 BP. The duration of the lake highstands may be overestimated due to radiation scatter. Radiocarbon dates have been obtained on crusts containing calcite, gastropod shells, stromatolites and structures left behind by algae. The Lake Tauca shorelines formed over more than century-long periods.

The first research, by Servant and Fontes in 1978, indicated a lake age between 12,500 and 11,000 BP according to C-14 dating. These were bracketed by dates between 12,360 ± 120 and 10,640 ± 280 BP for the highest deposits at Salar de Coipasa and Salar de Uyuni, and 10,020 ± 160 and 10,380 ± 180 BP for deposits which formed shortly before the lake dried. The reliability of the dates was questioned in 1990, and a later estimate was set at 13,000 to 10,000 BP. In 1990, Rondeau proposed ages of 14,100 to 11,000 BP based on radiocarbon dating and 7,000 to 14,800 BP based on uranium-thorium dating.

In 1993 it was suggested that Lake Tauca had an earlier phase, with water levels reaching , and a later phase reaching . Research published in 1995 indicated that the lake was shallow for over a millennium before rising to (and stabilizing at) its maximum level. Water levels between 13,900 and 11,500 BP reached ;  was reached between 12,475 and 11,540 BP, and  between 12,200 and 11,500 BP.

Research in 1999 indicated an earlier start of the Tauca lake cycle, which was subdivided into three phases and several sub-phases. Around 15,438 ± 80 BP (the Tauca Ia phase), water levels in Salar de Uyuni were  higher than the current salt crust. Lake levels then rose to  above the salt flat, accompanied by freshwater input (Tauca Ib). Around 13,530 ± 50 BP (Tauca II), the lake reached an altitude of ,  not exceeding . At this time, strong gully erosion and alluvial fans probably formed in Bolivian valleys. Between 13,000 and 12,000 BP, the lake reached its greatest depth——of the Tauca III period. Dates of 15,070 BP and 15,330 BP were obtained for the highest shoreline, at . After 12,000 BP, water levels decreased abruptly by . An even-earlier start was proposed by 2001 research, based on sediments in the Uyuni basin, which determined that Lake Tauca began developing 26,100 BP. A 2001 review indicated that most radiometric dates for Lake Tauca cluster between 16,000 and 12,000 BP, with lake levels peaking around 16,000 BP. A drop in oxygen-18 concentration in the Nevado Sajama glaciers has been associated with increased precipitation around 14,300 years ago. A 2005 book estimated the duration of the Lake Tauca phase at between 15,000 and 10,500 BP.

Research in 2006 postulated that the Lake Tauca transgression began 17,850 BP and peaked at altitudes of  between 16,400 and 14,100 years ago. Spillovers into neighbouring basins may have stabilized the lake levels at that point, and the level subsequently dropped over a 300-year period. The following Coipasa phase ended around 11,040 +120/-440 BP, but its chronology is uncertain.

A 2011 lake history study set the beginning of the lake-level rise at 18,500 years ago. Levels rose slowly to  17,500 years ago, before accelerating to  by 16,000 years ago. Contradictions between lake depths determined by shorelines and diatom-fossil analysis led to two lake-level-rise chronologies: one reaching  17,000 years ago and the other reaching  between 17,500 and 15,000 years ago. The lake level would have peaked from 16,000 to 14,500 years ago at  altitude. Shortly before 14,200 BP, the lake level would have begun its drop to  by 13,800 BP. The Coipasa phase began before 13,300 BP and reached its peak at  12,500 years ago. The Coipasa lake's regression was nearly complete around 11,500 years ago. A 2013 reconstruction envisaged a lake level rise between 18,000 - 16,500 years ago, followed by a highstand between 16,500 - 15,500 and a decrease in lake levels between 14,500 - 13,500 years ago.

Lake Tauca is sometimes subdivided into three phases (Lake Tauca proper, Ticaña and Coipasa), with the Tauca phase lasting from 19,100 to 15,600 BP. The Coipasa phase, originally thought to have lasted from 11,400 and 10,400 BP, was corrected to 9,500 to 8,500 BP and later to 12,900 - 11,800 BP; it was preceded by a 400-year long lake level rise and was followed by a 1,600 years long decline. During this phase, lake levels rose to  altitude or  with a surface area of ; the depth of the lake reached . According to a 1998 publication, Lake Tauca and the Coipasa phase lasted from 15,000 to 8,500 BP. The Coipasa phase has also been identified in Lake Chungará. The Coipasa phase was much less pronounced than the Tauca phase and shorter in duration. An earlier lake phase, Sajsi (24,000–20,000 years ago), is sometimes considered part of Lake Tauca with the Tauca and Coipasa cycles. The Sajsi lake phase preceded the Tauca phase by one or two millennia and water levels were about  lower than during the Tauca stage; it coincided with the Last Glacial Maximum.

The Ticaña phase was accompanied by a  drop in water level. The Tauca and Coipasa phases are sometimes considered separate. Lakes Tauca and Minchin have been considered the same lake system and called Lake Pocoyu, after the present-day lakes in the area. "Minchin" is also used by some authors as a name for the system.

The Chita tuff was deposited in Lake Tauca at  altitude approximately 15,650 years BP, when the lake may have been regressing. Another tuff of uncertain age was deposited above Tauca-age sediments and tufas at the southeastern Salar de Coipasa. Data from Tunupa indicate that lake levels stabilized between 17,000 and 16,000 years ago. A  lake-level drop occurred by 14,500 BP, with the lake drying between then and 13,800 years ago. Rising temperatures and a drop in precipitation were the likely triggers of lake and glacial retreat at the end of Heinrich event 1. In contrast, data from the Uyuni-Coipasa basin indicate that water levels peaked 13,000 years ago. The drying of Lake Tauca during the Ticaña lowstand has been linked to the Bølling–Allerød climate period and increased wildfires on the Altiplano; Lake Titicaca may have dropped beneath its outflow, cutting off the water supply to Lake Tauca. Glacial retreat at the beginning of the Holocene may also have been a contributing factor. As the lake receded, decreased evaporation (and cloud cover) would have enabled sunlight to increase the evaporation rate, further contributing to a decline in lake surface area.

A pattern of lake cycles becoming longer than the preceding one has been noted. Water from the lake may have contributed to increased oxygen-18 at Sajama around 14,300 years ago, possibly triggered by evaporation. As the lake level dropped, Lake Poopó would have been disconnected first; the sill separating it from the rest of Lake Tauca is relatively shallow. Coipasa and Uyuni would have remained connected until later. Water levels in Lake Titicaca's Lake Huinaimarca were low by 14,200 BP. By the Antarctic Cold Reversal, Lake Tauca was dry.

The end of the Tauca phase was followed by dry and cold conditions in the Puna, similar to the Younger Dryas, then by an early-Holocene humid period associated with decreased solar radiation. After 10,000 BP, another drought lasted from 8,500 BP to 3,600 BP, and peaked from 7,200–6,700 BP. The world's largest salt pan was left behind when Lake Tauca dried up, with approximately  of material left at Salar de Uyuni. Lake basins in the Altiplano which had filled during the Tauca phase were separated by lower lake levels. Channels between the lakes testify to their former connections.

Climate

There are few reconstructions of how the climate looked before and after the Lake Tauca highstand. It has been estimated that summer precipitation would have increased by  and temperature dropped  for Lake Tauca to form. According to a 1985 estimate, increased precipitation of  would be needed; the estimate was subsequently revised to . With a  temperature decrease, a 20–75% increase in precipitation would be required to form the lake. Research in 2013 indicated that the climate at the Tunupa volcano (in the centre of Lake Tauca) was about  colder than present, with rainfall estimated at . A 2018 estimate supported by 2020 research envisages a temperature decrease of  and a mean precipitation 130% higher than today, about ; this precipitation increase was concentrated on the eastern side of the catchment of Lake Tauca while the southernmost watershed was almost as dry as present-day. In a coupled glacier-lake model, temperatures were conditionally estimated at  lower than today. In the southern Altiplano, precipitation exceeded  during this epoch. In the central Altiplano, precipitation was 1.5 to three times higher than today. In and around the Arid Diagonal, precipitation doubled from  to . Around the lakes precipitation may have increased nine-fold.

The formation of Lake Tauca coincides with Heinrich event 1 and has been explained with a southward shift of the Bolivian high that increased transport of easterly moisture into the Altiplano and a strengthening of the South American Summer Monsoon due to a decrease in the cross-equatorial transport of heat. Earlier highstands of Altiplano lakes may also correlate to earlier Heinrich events. Increased cloud cover probably increased the effective precipitation by reducing evaporation rates. In contrast, insolation rates do not appear to be linked to lake-level highstands in the Altiplano; the lake expansion occurred when summer insolation was low although recently an insolation maximum between 26,000 and 15,000 years ago has been correlated to the Tauca stage. The humidity above the lake has been estimated at 60%, taking into account the oxygen-18 content of carbonates deposited by the lake.

Coinciding with Lake Tauca, between 17,000 and 11,000 BP glaciers expanded in the Andes between 18° and 24° south latitude. At Lake Titicaca, glacial tongues approached the shore. The equilibrium line altitude of glaciers in the dry Andes decreased by . Such glacial advances may have been preceded by the humid episodes which formed Lake Tauca. Around 13,300 BP, maximum glacier size in southern Bolivia is associated with a highstand of Lake Tauca. Glaciers did not expand everywhere, however, and there is little evidence for glacial expansion at El Tatio, Tocorpuri and parts of the Puna. Glacier expansions at Llano de Chajantor and surroundings may or may not have occurred. Frequent incursions of polar air may have contributed to glacial expansion. At Tunupa, a volcano located in the centre of Lake Tauca, maximum glacial extent lasted until the lake reached its highest level. Glacial shrinkage beginning 14,500 years ago probably occurred at the same time as a drop in lake levels, although dating ambiguity leaves room for debate.  The Cerro Azanaques moraines reached their greatest extent from 16,600 to 13,700 BP. The existence of Lake Tauca coincides with the Late Glacial Maximum, when temperatures in the central Altiplano were about  lower. Part of the glacial advance may have been nurtured by moisture from Lake Tauca, a conclusion supported by oxygen isotope data from the Sajama glaciers and by paleoclimate reconstructions around the former Lake Tauca. The Chacabaya glacial advance may be contemporaneous with Lake Tauca. Just like the Lake Tauca highstand may have coincided with the first Heinrich event, the Younger Dryas may be associated with the Coipasa highstand and the second Central Andean Pluvial Event although the Younger Dryas ended two millennia before the CAPE. The second CAPE was caused either by changes in the South American monsoon or by changes in the atmospheric circulation over the Pacific Ocean, and its end has been attributed to a warming North Atlantic drawing the ITCZ northward. Today, the average temperature at stations at an altitude of  is .

Context
The formation and disappearance of Lake Tauca was a major hydrological event that was accompanied by several millennia of wetter climate. Its formation and the later Coipasa lake phase is associated with the Central Andean Pluvial Event (CAPE), which occurred from 18,000–14,000 to 13,800–9,700 BP. During this epoch, major environmental changes occurred in the Atacama as precipitation increased between 18° and 25° degrees south. In some areas, oases formed in the desert and human settlement began. The Central Andean Pluvial Event has been subdivided into two phases, a first one which began either 17,500 or 15,900 years ago and ended 13,800 years ago and a second phase which began 12,700 years ago and ended either 9,700 or 8,500 years ago; they were separated by a short dry period that coincides with the Ticaña lowstand. The second phase of the Central Andean Pluvial Event has been subdivided further into a wetter earlier and a drier later subphase. During the Coipasa lake cycle, precipitation may have focused on the southern Altiplano and been transported there from the Chaco; the main Tauca cycle may have been accompanied by precipitation from the northeast. A glacial advance in the Turbio valley (a feeder of the Elqui River) between 17,000 and 12,000 years ago has been attributed to the Central Andean Pluvial Event. Other indicators point to dry conditions/lack of glacier advances in central Chile and the central Puna during the highstand of Lake Tauca, glaciers had already retreated from their maximum positions by the time it began and the Central Andean Pluvial Event may not have been synchronous between the southern Altiplano and the southern and northern Atacama.

Increased precipitation during the Tauca phase was probably triggered by the southern movement of the ITCZ and the strengthening of the South America monsoon, possibly caused by chilling in the northern hemisphere and North Atlantic, along with higher water temperatures off Northeastern Brazil. Combined with a southern shift of high pressure zones, increased moisture during late glacial times would have flowed from the Amazon. This change, which occurred from 17,400–12,400 years or 18,000–11,000 BP, is recorded in Bolivian Chaco and Brazilian cave records. Some 20th century phases of higher water levels in Lake Titicaca have been correlated with episodes of increased snow cover on Northern Hemisphere continents; this may constitute an analogy to conditions during the Lake Tauca phase. The Tauca phase may have been triggered by the southern shift of tropical atmospheric circulation and a weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation that decreased northward heat transport. An intensification and southward shift of the South Atlantic Convergence Zone may have contributed to the precipitation increase but not all records agree.

Another theory posits that vegetation changes and lake development would have decreased the albedo of the Altiplano, resulting in warming and moisture advection of moisture towards the Altiplano, but such positive feedback mechanisms were considered questionable in a 1998 study. Persistent La Niña climatic conditions may have contributed to the lake's filling and also to the onset of the first CAPE. Conversely, a global climatic warming and a northward shift of the monsoon occurred around 14,500 years ago, and the northward shift of the ITCZ accompanied the Ticaña lowstand. The ideal conditions for the development of paleolakes in the Altiplano do not appear to exist during maximum glaciation or warm interglacial periods.

Related events

During the Tauca phase, a large lake formed at Lake Titicaca; the pampas around Titicaca were left by that lake and the paleolake Minchin. Lake Titicaca rose by about , reaching a height of , and its water became less saline. Another shoreline, at  altitude, has been linked to a highstand of Lake Titicaca during the Tauca epoch. The highstand, in 13,180 ± 130 BP, is contemporaneous with the Tauca III phase. Titicaca's water level then dropped during the Ticaña phase and probably rose again during the Coipasa.

Lake Titicaca probably overflowed on the south between 26,000 and 15,000 BP, adding water to Lake Tauca. Titicaca's outflow, the Rio Desaguadero, may have been eight times that of today. Lake Titicaca was thought to have had a low water level during the Tauca phase before evidence of deeper water was found. Higher lake levels have been found at the same time in other parts of the Altiplano and areas of the Atacama above . This was not the first time Lake Titicaca rose; Pleistocene lake-level rises are known as Mataro, Cabana, Ballivian and Minchin. The overflow from Lake Titicaca into the southern Altiplano was possible for the last 50,000 years; this might explain why there is little evidence of large lakes in the southern Altiplano in the time before 50,000 years ago.

Lakes also formed (or expanded) in the Atacama at that time; highstands in Lejía Lake began rising after 11,480 ± 70 BP, and in Salar Aguas Calientes high-water levels lasted until 8,430 ± 75 BP. Highstands in Laguna Khota occurred around 12,500 and 11,000 BP. The formation of a lake at Salar de Llamara and some Salar de Atacama highstands are associated with Lake Tauca and the Coipasa highstand. Traces of the Tauca humid episode have been found at Salar Pedernales, past 26° south latitude. Lake Tauca's highstand correlates with river terraces in Peru's Pisco River; terraces dated 24,000–16,000 BP in its tributary, the Quebrada Veladera; enlarged drainage systems in the Quebrada Veladera; a humid period at Lake Junin, and new soil formation in the pampas south of the Quinto River in Argentina and in the Ahorcado river valley in Peru. During the second Central Andean Pluvial Event, soils also formed in a wetland of northern Chile.

During the Tauca phase, water levels in Laguna Miscanti were higher than today; shorelines formed from an event in Ch'iyar Quta and Lake Tuyajto; saline lakes formed in the Lipez area, and water levels rose in the Guayatayoc-Salinas Grandes basin, in Laguna de Suches in Peru and lakes at Uturuncu and Lazufre. Some Atacama Altiplano lake levels increased by , Lake levels rose in Laguna Mar Chiquita, Laguna La Salada Grande in the  and Salina de Bebedero in Argentina.

Downward expansion of vegetation and increased discharge in the rivers draining to the Pacific Ocean has been correlated to the Tauca period. Evidence exists at the Quebrada Mani archeological site for a higher water supply 16,400–13,700 years ago. During the Tauca, greater flow occurred in rivers in the Atacama region as well as a higher groundwater recharge; more precipitation fell in the Rio Salado valley; flooding in the Río Paraguay-Parana basin and the contribution from Andean rivers such as the Rio Salado and Rio Bermejo increased; the excavation of the Lluta River Valley, Quebrada de Purmamarca and the Colca Canyon may have been aided by an increased water supply, river incision changed, river terraces formed in the Lomas de Lachay, erosion occurred along the Pilcomayo, and an increase in Pacific plankton was probably linked to increased runoff (and an increased nutrient supply) from the Andes. groundwater-fed wetlands developed in the Cordillera de la Costa, and valleys and large salt caves formed northwest of the Salar de Atacama.

Glaciers advanced in the Cordillera de Cochabamba. An ice cap formed over the Los Frailes ignimbrite plateau; its demise after the end of the Lake Tauca period may have allowed magma to ascend and form the Nuevo Mundo volcano. Moraine formed at Hualca Hualca and Nevado de Chañi where glaciers expanded; the Choqueyapu II glacier in the Eastern Cordillera advanced; moraines formed from glacial advances in Argentina (including the Sierra de Santa Victoria); basal sliding glaciers formed at Sajama; periglacial phenomena became more significant in northwestern Argentina from increased moisture supply; glaciers and probably also rock glaciers grew at Sillajhuay; snow cover in the Atacama Altiplano increased to about 10% above  elevation; A glacial advance in central Chile around 15,000 years ago, also associated with increased precipitation and the Lake Tauca period, was probably triggered by tropical circulation changes.

Landslide activity decreased in northwestern Argentina but increased at Aricota, Locumba River, Peru; alluvial fans were active in the Cordillera Oriental of Peru; tufa deposition began in the Cuncaicha cave north of Coropuna; the climate grew wetter over the southern Amazon as evidenced in Brazilian cave deposits; precipitation and forest cover in Pampa del Tamarugal increased with an interruption ("Late Pleistocene Pampa del Tamarugal desiccation event") during the Ticaña lowstand; the vegetation limit in the Atacama desert descended towards the coast; groundwater discharge in the Atacama increased; wetlands developed at Salar de Punta Negra; the "Pica glass" formed in the Atacama as a consequence of increased vegetation and the occurrence of wildfires in this vegetation and plant pathogens such as rust fungi were more diverse than today. Prosopis tamarugo grew at higher altitude thanks to a better water supply; and vegetation coverage increased in the Atacama Altiplano.  The well dated record of Lake Tauca has been used to correlate climatic events elsewhere in the region.

Environmental consequences

Paleoindian settlement in South America commenced during the Lake Tauca and Ticaña stages, facilitated by the more favourable environment during the CAPE; the Viscachani culture around Lake Titicaca was contemporaneous with Lake Tauca. The earliest human dispersal in the region around Lake Tauca occurred towards the end of the Ticaña phase, with the Coipasa phase coinciding with the definitive establishment of humans in the region and also their spread through northwestern Argentina, where conditions were favourable. In the Atacama area, Tauca-age paleolakes had provided the environment for first settlers; the end of the paleolake phase coinciding with Lake Tauca was accompanied by the end of the first phase of human settlement, which had occurred during the Central Andean Pluvial Event; now humans left the desert. Likewise in the Altiplano, the wet period that was contemporaneous to Lake Tauca allowed the settlement of Cerro Kaskio and Cueva Bautista close by, and the Central Andean Pluvial Event did the same in the Pampa del Tamarugal and the southern Atacama valleys. The initial peopling of the Salar de Atacama region was during the Lake Tauca time, but a sharp population drop took place after its drying. Inca towers on the Altiplano have been built with rocks left by Lake Tauca.

Some fossil water reserves in the dry Andes formed during the Tauca phase, the groundwater in the northern Chilean Central Valley and part of the groundwater under Pampa del Tamarugal for example date back to the Lake Tauca wet phase. Lake Tauca may have supplied water to the Rio de la Plata region, sustaining life there during dry periods.

The Lake Tauca and preceding cycles left evaporite deposits, with sediment layers left by the lake in the Salar de Uyuni reaching a thickness of . The high aerosol content of the air in the Uyuni region has been attributed to fine sediments left by Lake Tauca. Diatomaceous deposits containing clay or calc were left behind by the lake, and ulexite deposits were formed by sediments in its deltas.

The taxonomic similarity between fish species of the genus Orestias in Lauca National Park and Salar de Carcote has been attributed to these watersheds' being part of Lake Tauca; in general the evolution of these fish was heavily influenced by the various lake cycles including these that preceded the Tauca cycle. The drying of the ancient lakes would have fragmented amphibious habitats, generating separate populations. During the Tauca and subsequent Coipasa cycles the Atacama Altiplano had far more life than today, including now-extinct deer and horses.

Altiplanos and paleolakes in Latin America

See also

 Aucanquilcha, Coropuna, Irruputuncu, Uturunku

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

 The endemic gastropod fauna of Lake Titicaca: correlation between molecular evolution and hydrographic history
 Late Quaternary paleohydrology and surficial processes of the Atacama Desert, Chile: Evidence from wetland deposits and stable isotopes of soil salts
 Plausible effects of paleolake Tauca on the Altiplano circulations and rainfall from WRF model simulation

Former lakes of South America
Geology of Bolivia
Tauca
Geology of Peru
Tauca
Pleistocene South America
Late Pleistocene
Holocene


text:
Golden boy Alex is a Law unto himself
Published: 10:39 AM March 5, 2009
A HAT-TRICK of gold medals for Havering Mayesbrook under-13 Alex Law led the way at the Eastern Counties Indoor Championships at Chelmsford on Sunday. Alex opened up with a long jump PB of 4.55m, came from behind to win the 60m sprint in another PB of 8.
A HAT-TRICK of gold medals for Havering Mayesbrook under-13 Alex Law led the way at the Eastern Counties Indoor Championships at Chelmsford on Sunday.
Alex opened up with a long jump PB of 4.55m, came from behind to win the 60m sprint in another PB of 8.3 seconds, before smashing his hurdles best with 10.1, the fastest indoors this winter nationally by an under-13 boy. Two other hurdlers struck gold in PB times.
Jack Edgar-Hill equalled his career best of 8.5 seconds with an impressive win in the under-17 hurdles, while Angela James smashed her PB to clock 9.5 seconds to win the under-20 and senior race. Rylie Trott in only her second race indoors improved her PB to 10.1 seconds to win a deserved silver in the under-15 hurdles.
Joe Ramie improved his indoor best with an excellent 6.80m leap for gold in the under-20 long jump, with Adam McCarthy taking bronze and McCarthy later clocked 9.9 seconds for a hurdles bronze.
Holly Thomas was fourth in the under-17 women's hurdles and Nikki Peachey tackled this event for the first time.
Harriet Scott ran away with the 1,500m title for Team London North at Saturday's Indoor City Challenge to confirm her return to fitness from her injury-enforced lay-off.
The medical student led from gun to tape, with a final kick that saw off Sheffield's Helen Singleton, who had beaten Harriet in the National championships, clocking 4.30.96. Harriet said: "I was in lane one to start with and I found myself at the front, so I thought 'I have to push on here otherwise they are just going to be gunning for me."
Sara Luck and Luke Stott were also in the London North team which earned second place overall.


You find every gaze that meets you with – 'I know – I'm awake – I'm here – and I'm ready' and you say YES.
is arising even as the old dissolves.
On November 26th, at 4:00 PM EST, join with thousands of impassioned people for this global synchronized meditation giving thanks to Mother Earth, clean water, and to help protect the waters of Standing Rock. 30 minutes of silence + 30 minutes of prayer: this is a stand for our water, our earth, and our great grandchildren.
choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. The you must accept the consequences.
must work, if your perception of the world is to be changed.
indeed a point in changing your thoughts about the world. Here you are changing the cause.
The effect will change automatically.


text:
Falcon Gets Extra Wings
To raise $100 million in an initial public stock offering, Falcon Financial first had to calm investors' fears that dealerships are danger zones. It meant creating a comfort zone for prospective backers who didn't know the dynamics of the dealership business, says Vernon Schwartz, CEO of Falcon, a Stamford, CT-based firm specializing in loans to dealers for acquiring, building and renovating dealerships.
Steve Finlay | Apr 01, 2004
To raise $100 million in an initial public stock offering, Falcon Financial first had to calm investors' fears that dealerships are danger zones.
It meant creating a comfort zone for prospective backers who didn't know the dynamics of the dealership business, says Vernon Schwartz, CEO of Falcon, a Stamford, CT-based firm specializing in loans to dealers for acquiring, building and renovating dealerships.
"Most people perceive dealerships as risky businesses," he says. "The reality is that very few dealers go out of business. A light goes on when you start explaining that part of it to investors."
Launched in December, the IPO lets Falcon expand a product line that had been limited to a 15-year fixed rate loan. Falcon has added two. The trio better suits dealers' various needs and wants, says Schwartz.
New is a variable-rate franchise loan of an amount beyond 90% of a dealership's real estate value. It's to raise money to acquire a new dealership, buy out a partner or recapitalize an existing dealership, but at a rate that's not locked in.
Also new is an enhanced commercial mortgage loan of up to 90% of dealership real estate value at fixed or variable interest rates. "It's suited to a dealer who's looking to improve his facility or buy real estate, and doesn't need anything beyond 90% of the real estate," says Schwartz.
"Until now, we had to say, 'This is what we have, you have to fit into our box,'" he says. "Now we can really fit into dealers' boxes."
Some dealers feared getting trapped in the 15-year fixed rate, a dreadfulness that Schwartz calls more perceived than real.
He says, "They were looking for more flexibility. They were saying, 'Not only am I tied up for 15 years, I have to take a fixed rate. Can't you do a variable rate?' Now we can."
The fixed rate is predictable, going no higher or lower during the term of the loan. The variable rate can change monthly.
"To a degree, it depends on the dealer's sense of where rates are going as well as his or her propensity for risk," says Schwartz.
Falcon requires dealers who opt for a variable rate to buy a cap of about 12%.
"Even if the dealer is willing to take the risk that rates will not go to 20%, we're not," says Schwartz.
He and David Karp, both of mortgage backgrounds, founded Falcon in 1997, taking note of the dealership consolidation movement.
Recalls Schwartz, "We didn't know much about the dealership business. But we saw significant changes taking place in the industry. You had the emergence of the publicly owned dealership groups promoting the idea that there were economies of scale to be garnered by amassing dealerships.
"But for the independent dealer interested in acquiring more dealerships, there was no where to go for more capital. Traditional lenders would lend on real estate, but nothing more. We saw a significant opening for a creative approach to provide financing not only on the real estate but on Blue Sky franchise value as well.
"Unfortunately, we had a limited product. That limited our attractiveness. Now we're hoping to get a real kick in the demand."
Falcon has done about $120 million a year in loans with the 15-year fixed-rate loan. The firm has made 110 separate loans in excess of $640 million. Schwartz expects a "healthy increase" from the additional products.
Driving dealer demand for capital these days are the number of auto makers ("virtually all of them," says Schwartz) urging their dealers to improve facilities. That ranges from creating separate showrooms (often requiring new construction) to adopting auto makers' blueprints for a common design (often requiring just renovations).
Schwartz says that, during Falcon's infancy, partner Ron Greenspan, a former San Francisco dealer, "showed us the ropes and validated our initial positive thoughts about the business."
Schwartz says he developed an early appreciation of dealers' financial savvy.
He explains, "The biggest mistake you can make is underestimating their sophistication when it comes to financing. They may articulate it differently than a finance person. But when it comes to the essence, dealers are as sharp at financing as at running their businesses.
"That's what motivated us to offer new products, that these guys think through their long-term plans. They're sophisticated, have an intuitive sense of risk and know what they want."


SAN JOSE -- All lanes of northbound Interstate Highway 680 in San Jose are open after a major injury collision this morning, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The first report of the collision came in at 2:48 a.m. on I-680 just north of North Capitol Avenue, CHP Officer Peter Van Eckhardt said.
The collision had closed all northbound lanes until 3:52 a.m. when officials opened one lane.
At least three vehicles were involved in the collision, Van Eckhardt said.
CHP officials issued a Sig-alert at 3:04 a.m. and canceled it at 4:29 a.m.


Hmm…so there's a problem. What to do about it?
I've done a lot of researching on this issue and even brainstormed a few business solutions of my own but something I've tried recently that has blown me away is ThredUP.
Basic Concept: Curated online consignment store.
What makes it awesome: MASSIVE selection, high quality brands at drastic (like 75%) discounts, professional photos of clothing, and a solid website. I checked out their return policy right away because seriously, sizing varies soooo wildly but they offer free shipping (on purchases $80+) and free returns if you choose store credit.
I had no idea how much I would enjoy trying on new clothes in my own closet! I can instantly see how that shirt looks paired with my favorite skinny jeans or how that dress will look with my gladiator sandals. Dressing room lighting is notoriously awful so being able to check a new outfit out in natural light in my own bedroom is amazing.
I've been working on building my own capsule wardrobe (loved the idea the second I heard of it!) and my usual practice of hitting up IRL consignment and thrift shops has not been cutting it. The majority of clothes I've been finding are cheaply made, too trendy, and the selection isn't really my style. The mall generally has clothing that is more durable and more to my tastes but the prices are sky high and there's that big issue of sustainability. ThredUP has been a total delight – it really feels like the best of both worlds.
P.s. I didn't get paid to write a word of this. I have genuinely been crazy impressed by this company.:) Btw it sounds like OhDearDrea digs them too and she even offers a 40% off code!
Poshmark: Non-curated online consignment shop but you can haggle prices.
The RealReal: Super high end designer consignment (like they-offer-financing-high-end).


text:
Furnish a Room: surveying film books of 2009
December 30, 2009 at 10:51 am by Ray Pride
December 30, 2009 January 3, 2010 Filed under:
Film Books
As I write, I am surrounded on three sides by books; one window looks out onto the horizontal play of snowfall. Inside it's warm: books do furnish a room.
Ways of reading and ways of writing are shifting; that opening paragraph's fourteen characters too long to Twitter. Whatever to do! From the cool hearth glow of computers and laptops, rampant idle bloggotry is committed every hour of the day and night. Everybody's writing about movies even if no one's making a remunerative career of it for the moment. Scanning these bookshelves, especially of the titles on film from past decades that seemed important enough to acquire, alphabetize and dust, I wonder how many tomes on the subject will be committed between covers, hard or soft, in coming years. The tacky tens: the decade when the listicle became literature!
For me, the year's most important film book is "Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Farber" (Library of America, $40). A definitive collection of the great critic's lifetime achievement, its 800 pages of perceptive prose accuses me from across the room: it took a lifetime to write, I can take a few months to steep in it. A major disappointment was Richard Brody's "Everything is Cinema; The Working Life Of Jean-Luc Godard," (Metropolitan, $40), the best passage of which was excerpted in the New Yorker with a large black-and-white production still of a youngish Godard directing "Breathless." As the book progresses, it becomes a mash note turned sour, the screws tighten, the author's dislike of his subject growing more intense as the years rush past increasingly fast. So it was a pleasant surprise a few months later to read Mitchell Zuckoff's "Robert Altman: The Oral Biography" (Knopf, $25), which manages to feel sly yet ragged, comprehensive yet maddeningly incomplete, very much like Robert Altman's films, and apparently, his cussed life. Time magazine's 76-year-old would-be eminence grise, Richard Schickel, took the occasion to bash the director's work and inebriate ways. The errant blowhard had much less to say about the book. Zuckoff's knowing ways are evident in the way he deals with Warren Beatty, offering the champeen ditherer his say, then following up with co-workers who had problems with him but not with Altman. Throughout, many of the anecdotes are melancholy, others infuriating, others excellent twinkles. To wit: Altman and Tim Robbins were "relaxing" to come up with an ending to "The Player," and recalling the end of "M*A*S*H," where the credits are spoken on the loudspeaker, Robbins relates that he suggested the screenwriter pitch the movie we've just seen. "Bob was like this [stands up, starts pacing around excitedly, waving his arms]. He walked out and he comes back and he goes, 'I'm never giving you credit for that!'" Good times.
In his 67th year, Werner Herzog is finally getting credit for his baroque sense of humor, with the outright inanity of "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" and the eerie oddities of "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?" Still, I don't know how anyone could not watch Herzog's peroration against the "obscenity" of the jungle from Les Blank's "Burden of Dreams" within grinning madly, if not laughing out loud. Herzog found the time recently to enlarge his notes on that same film, to translate his crabbed spider-scrawl to the narrative "Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of 'Fitzcarraldo" (Ecco, $25). His dealings with Klaus Kinski are well known to aficionados, and Kinski's own suppressed 1988 memoir, "All I Need Is Love," on the shelf beside me, tells his side. "Herzog is a miserable, spiteful, envious, stingy, stinking, money-hungry, malicious, sadistic, insidious, backstabbing, blackmailing, cowardly person, and a liar through and through… Driven by a pathological addiction to cause a sensation, he himself provokes the most senseless difficulties and dangers and puts the safety and even the lives of others on the line—only so he can later say that he, Herzog, has mastered the seemingly impossible." Herr Herzog, have you any hyperbole? "Kinski ranted and raved for two hours—It was ugly, sickening, in fact. As I always knew, the man has no resilience. He is like an overbred racehorse that can run exactly a mile and then collapses. Now it is as if the jockey has to carry the horse to the finish line." Tell me you don't hear that grave yet jocular Teutonic intonation with every syllable. There's beauty, too. "I looked around, and there was the jungle, manifesting the same seething hatred, wrathful and steaming, while the river flowed by in majestic indifference and scornful condescension, ignoring everything: the plight of man, the burden of dreams, and the torment of time."
Also of note: Wes Anderson's almost-pocket-sized coffee-table book "The Making of 'Fantastic Mr. Fox,'" (Rizzoli, $35) filled with the gimcracks of that pint-sized gem; Shawn Levy's thorough, engaging biography, "Paul Newman: A Life," (Harmony, $30) which I wrote about earlier this year, and "Life as We Show it: Writing on Film," edited by Brian Pera, Masha Tupitsyn (City Lights, $18). A mix of essays that range from impenetrable erudition to gentle play, "Life" shows a range of ways to sink into movies. Lynne Tillman's "Other Movies" snaps to with her crisp sensibility, her observational equipoise: you can't fault a plank in the gleaming parquetry of her prose. Looking at life like a reflection of cinematic space: flashes of movies past in the teeming cockroach present, movie star illumination that shines on the grungy quotidian. Of the dozen or so standouts in the twenty-five selections, Claudia Rankine shows what prose does that the image doesn't: passages describing moments that can fix, transfix, rather than yielding to the next, oncoming now. Like movies. Like life. Like writing.
Restoration Tragedy: Keeping Up With The Past Why does this array seem like the future for anyone who's film-fixated? A few reasons, among them that streaming is not what many consumers take it for.
A Woman's Work: A Review of Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché Pioneer filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché gets spoken of in cluttered new documentary.
Speak, Fraternity: Tim Kinsella On Publishing The Shooting Diaries of Luc Dardenne Chicago's Featherproof Press publishes a translation of the first volume of Luc Dardenne's shooting diaries.
Climax Daddy: The Modern Dance With Filmmaker Gaspar Noé Love the heaven, fear the hell.
Wander Boys: A Review Of Werner Herzog's Nomad Werner Herzog retraces his friendship with the late writer Bruce Chatwin.
Genre Buck: Listing Two Decades of Harmony Korine What is "Harmony Korine"?
All I Need Is Love
Bad Lieutenant Port Of Call New Orleans
Brian Pera
Burden of Dreams
Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of 'Fitzcarraldo"
Everything is Cinema; The Working Life Of Jean-Luc Godard
Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Farber
Klaus Kinski
Life as We Show it: Writing on Film
Lynne Tillman
Masha Tupitsyn
Mitchell Zuckoff
My Son My Son What Have Ye Done?
Paul Newman: A Life
Richard Schickel
Robert Altman: The Oral Biography
Shawn Levy
The Making of 'Fantastic Mr. Fox
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When you're pregnant, it's hard enough taking in all the changes to your life and to your body, let alone what your maternity notes mean. This guide will help you translate them into plain English.
What are maternity notes for?
At your first appointment with the midwife, you will be given a personal pregnancy record book called your maternity notes. Always keep them somewhere handy. And remember to bring them to all your antenatal appointments, and importantly, when you go into hospital to give birth.
As well as a record of all your tests and scans, your maternity notes are a reference guide. They include all the emergency numbers and some general advice and tips for staying well during your pregnancy. They are useful documents to have so read through them with your partner.
What's in your maternity notes?
What do the maternity note abbreviations mean?
Here's a list of the most common abbreviations you might see in your maternity notes and what they mean.
What happens during a baby scan?