You can also watch this video by clicking on the Play Button
9/28/2016
First U.S. Presidential Debate 2016: Clinton vs. Trump (captions)
You can also watch this video by clicking on the Play Button
9/27/2016
9/26/2016
Obama's Last Speech to the UN General Assembly (captions)
You can also watch the video by clicking on the Play Button
9/23/2016
Wells Fargo CEO questioned for 4 hours (video)
You can also watch the video by clicking on the Play Button
Wells Fargo Bank fined for fake accounts (captions)
"Wells Fargo built an incentive-compensation program and it appears that the bank did not monitor the program carefully," said Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau CFPB Director Richard Cordray. He added that
thousands of bank employees "misused consumer names and personal
information to create new checking and credit card accounts to inflate their
sales figures to meet their sales targets and claim higher bonuses."
The bank agreed to pay full restitution to all victims and a
$100 million fine to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's civil penalty
fund — the largest in the regulator's five-year operating history. Wells Fargo
will pay a separate $35 million penalty to the Office of the Comptroller of the
Currency, and an additional $50 million to the city and county of Los Angeles.
The settlements, which the bank said it had made provisions
for as of June 30, include an additional $5 million in customer remediation.
In connection with the “widespread illegal practices,” Wells
Fargo has also fired 5,300 employees and managers, with one notable exception:
the executives in charge.
Instead of bearing any responsibility for this scandal,
Carrie Tolstedt, the divisional senior vice president for community banking who
supervised the 6,000 retail branches where the wrongdoing took place, is
retiring, taking with her $125 million in stock and options.
Despite being aware of the problems in her division since at
least November, Wells Fargo gave Ms. Tolstedt a glowing farewell. CEO John
Stumpf called her a “role model for responsible leadership” and “a
standard-bearer of our culture.” Her compensation — more than $27 million over
the last three years — has never been dinged as a result of these problems.
Further, Ms. Tolstedt continues to be employed at the bank
through the end of the year. She stepped down only from her division
role — getting out of the hot seat just weeks before the regulatory
settlement was announced.
So, as in most banking scandals, lower- and midlevel
employees face repercussions, but senior executives are whisked out of harm’s
way, with their reputations and full stock awards intact.
You can also watch this video by clicking on the Play Button
9/20/2016
How much do you get paid? (TED Talk)
You can also watch this TED Talk by clicking on the Play Button
9/18/2016
Yes, the News Can Survive the Newspaper
One day, when your grandchildren ask you, “Grandpa, what was
a newspaper?” you can direct them back to Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016.
Last Wednesday the Newspaper Association of America, the
trade group representing the interests of major newspaper publishers founded in
1887, dropped from its name the very word that defined it: “Newspaper.”
The group will be known as the News Media Alliance.
There is one obvious reason behind the change: The number of
newspapers is dropping. The association’s membership was 2,700 in 2008. Today
it is about 2,000.
But the bigger issue, the group’s chief executive, David
Chavern, told me last week, was that the word “newspaper” is meaningless in
reference to many of the group’s members, including The Washington Post, The
New York Times and Dow Jones. They may have newspapers, but they get large
percentages of their readers online. Actually, you can’t even refer exclusively
to “readers” these days when so many millions are “viewers” of online news
video.
Then there are all those digital news organizations that
until now could not join the association because they did not have print
editions — like BuzzFeed or the Independent Journal Review.
“‘Newspaper’ is not a
big enough word to describe the industry anymore,” Mr. Chavern said. “The
future of this industry is much wider.”
The American Society of News (formerly Newspaper) Editors
made a similar decision several years ago.
Today’s industry thinking goes that the modern newspaper —
er, news company formerly known as a newspaper —can maintain
its public service mission while also providing higher-traffic bits online. But
it will most likely have to do so with fewer resources and a smaller
classically trained reporting staff.
“My mantra is, ‘We can’t be the general store that we used
to be,’” Stan Wischnowski, the executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer,
The Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com, told me. “We have to make choices —
we have to use our informed, experienced editors to make really smart
decisions.”
Through online exposure, newspapers are reaching more people
than ever. The problem is how they make money. Circulation for physical
newspapers is declining, and so is print advertising; digital ads remain less
profitable. The trick is finding a way to make up the lost revenue.
Michael J. Klingensmith, the publisher and chief executive
of The Star Tribune of Minneapolis, and the vice chairman of the soon-to-be
News Media Alliance said “The name change isn’t about not being paper anymore —
it’s really just about expanding opportunities.”
When asked how long newspapers will remain, he answered “I
figure Sunday newspapers will be around at least another 20 years, though I am
not sure I can say the same for the rest of the week.”
That leads back to where this column started. The traditional
newspaper is dying. Anyway, it has an everlasting soul that will live on.
Farmers stand up to Mafia (audio)
You can also listen to this audio file by clicking on the Play Button
Delivery drones in Africa
“LAND of a thousand
hills” is an accurate nickname for tiny landlocked Rwanda. Under its president,
Paul Kagame, it is determined to become a technology hub for Africa.
Zipline,a Silicon Valley startup, will start testing
delivery drones at a site south-west of the capital, Kigali, next month. If considered
safe by the government, a month or two later “Zips” drones will be dropping off
blood for transfusions in small boxes with parachutes at 21 hospitals and
health centres within a 75km radius. The aim is to cover the rest of the
country within a year, and to start delivering vaccines and other medicines as
well as blood.
If all goes well, drones could cut a 3.5-hour trip by car to
and from one of the country’s five blood banks to less than 45 minutes. Even
more time could be saved during the rainy season, when many of Rwanda’s roads
become impassable, says Zipline’s co-founder, Will Hetzler.
Another firm, Mobisol, wants to use drones to deliver spare
parts for its solar-power systems in Rwanda and Tanzania. The drones it is
developing could land on roofs, where they could be recharged using customers’
excess solar energy.
Perhaps the most ambitious idea comes from Redline, a
40-person company founded by Jonathan Ledgard, a former journalist for The Economist.
Mr Ledgard envisions drones - manufactured for less than $3,000 - that will
carry up to 10kg loads between small cities and towns that are poorly connected
by road. A ‘droneport’, designed by Norman Foster, a British architect, could
be built for $300,000—less, Mr Ledgard claims, than a new petrol station.
Rwandan ministers are supportive, and Redline hopes to start test flights by
the end of the year.
Unicef is working with Malawi’s government on the
feasibility of using drones to transport lab samples. Drones may turn out to be
the best option for islands in Lake Malawi, for example. The country is also
interested in using drones in agriculture, forestry and conservation, as well
as disaster surveillance.
No one expects drones to be a complete substitute for good
roads. But as drones become cheaper, they could help countries with patchy
infrastructure shift light, valuable goods more quickly.
Pablo Escobar's son is a motivational speaker (audio)
You can also listen to this audio file by clicking on the Play Button
How an Argentine port became a gang war zone
Rosario and its 1.3m residents have in recent years been
notorious for a nasty reason: a crime rate that far exceeds that of other
Argentine cities (see chart). The frequency of murders is nearly triple the
national average; 137 people have been killed so far this year. On August 25th
more than 20,000 Rosarinos marched through the streets demanding action. Half
of residents surveyed in a recent poll said they or a family member had been a
victim of crime in the past year.
Other parts of the country can be rough, too. Two-thirds of
Argentines say they feel unsafe walking in their neighbourhoods or cities,
according to IsonomÃa, a consultancy. Insecurity is top of the list of national
worries, ahead of inflation, poverty and unemployment. But Rosario, located at
one of the country’s nodal points, stands out.
Santa Fe, the province which governs Rosario, is home to a
network of 32 ports which export grain and soya around the world. That, of
course, is an economic asset. But those commercial facilities make Rosario an
ideal staging post for transporting drugs to Europe, typically via west Africa.
Bolivian cocaine arrives in the city by road; Paraguayan marijuana by river.
Most is shipped abroad, but some is distributed in Rosario’s villas:
poverty-stricken districts on the city’s outskirts where local gangs fight an
increasingly brutal turf war. “Problems used to be resolved through insults or
a punchup—now it’s with bullets,” says Gerardo Bongiovanni, who runs Fundación
Libertad, a think-tank.
Rosario’s poorest neighbourhoods are most affected, but the
spread of violence to richer parts of the city has pushed the issue up the
political agenda. Last year Sandro Procopio, a 48-year-old architect, was slain
by a bullet outside a construction site. On August 15th Nahuel Ciarrocca, a
28-year-old athlete, was shot dead during a robbery. His murder proved to be a
tipping point. “Nahuel awoke the collective conscience,” says Diego Giuliano,
president of Rosario council’s security committee. After his death a protest
named “Rosario Sangra” (Rosario bleeds) was organised through Facebook.
Santa Fe’s provincial police force, tasked with protecting
Rosario’s residents, is clearly part of the problem rather than the solution.
Many in its ranks are thought to have close links with the city’s narco gangs.
Around 200 are currently under federal investigation. The rot extends to the
very top: last October the provincial chief of police was sentenced to six
years in prison for involvement in drug trafficking. Miguel Lifschitz, Santa
Fe’s governor since December, has struggled to find a replacement: the current
chief is the third to hold office so far this year.
The judiciary is in disarray. Provincial judges hand down
lenient sentences and allow dangerous criminals out on probation. One reason
for this is an overburdened prison system. A fifth of Santa Fe’s 5,000
prisoners are held in police stations because prisons are too full to accept
them. In the absence of state justice, some of Rosario’s residents have taken
the law into their own hands. After detaining a mugger in February, a group of
vigilantes stripped him naked before calling the police. He was fortunate: an
18-year-old was lynched after robbing a pregnant woman in 2014.
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s government did little to
address the concerns over security. Since replacing her as president in
December Mauricio Macri has tried to make up for lost time. In January he
declared a national “security emergency” and authorised the air force to shoot
down aircraft suspected of flying drugs across Argentina’s borders. In April
his government published the first crime statistics since 2008. The figures
show that crime has increased by 10% since then. On August 30th Mr Macri
announced a new national strategy to “defeat narcotrafficking”. Although thin
on detail, the plan aims to tackle both addiction and dealing.
Although likely to benefit from such measures, Santa Fe is
recognised as requiring special treatment. On September 12th the national
government agreed to post federal police officers to the province until the end
of next year. This was last tried in 2014; it had some effect on the murder
rate, as the chart shows, but the root problem was left unsolved. This time
both federal and provincial forces will be co-ordinated by a “strategic
committee” which will evaluate progress every three months. Some doubt whether
the policy will work. Mr Bongiovanni reckons its ministers should seek foreign
expertise. While Argentina’s politicians scramble to find a lasting solution,
Rosarinos will continue to watch their backs.
edited from The Economist
11 Billion People By 2100 (audio)
You can also listen to this audio file by clicking on the Play Button
Bags of Cocaine Found at Coca-Cola Factory in France
 |
| Bottles of Coca-Cola on an assembly line at a factory near Paris.Credit Lionel Bonaventure/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
This week workers at a Coca-Cola factory in the French town
of Signes, near the Mediterranean coast, uncovered a drug-smuggling operation
with a French connection, when they found a huge cache of cocaine worth
approximately $56 million in a shipment of orange juice concentrate.
The drug was hidden in bags among a delivery of orange juice
concentrate and amounted to 370 kilograms, making it one of the largest such
discoveries on French soil. The shipment arrived in a container from South
America.
The prosecutor of Toulon, Xavier Tarabeux, called the find
“a very bad surprise” and said it had a street value of 50 million euros, or
about $56 million.
“The first elements
of the investigation show that employees are in no way involved,” Jean-Denis
Malgras, the company’s regional president, told the Var-Matin news website.
Coca leaves were reportedly used in the original Coca-Cola
drink in the 19th century, although the company has said cocaine has never been
an “added ingredient”.
edited from The New York Times
edited from The New York Times
A Cashless Society?
Stroll into the airy Kit and Ace store on Woodward
Avenue in Detroit and you're struck by the minimalist style that
highlights the brand's comfortable, street-smart clothing line.
But if you want to buy a scarf, maybe one that's
on sale for about $50, don't bother paying with cash. The store
won't take your Benjamins — or Hamiltons, Jacksons or Grants.
It's nothing personal. It's a no-cash policy that
has been adopted at other Kit and Ace stores, too.
How much closer, really, are we to a cashless society? Are
we looking at the beginning of a more minimalist approach to money?
"I think we are sort of on the edge of seeing more and
more businesses that don't take cash," said Jay Zagorsky, economist and
research scientist at Ohio State University.
Zagorsky has been talking about a transition to a
cashless society for some time. He points out that some parking lots
on university campuses and elsewhere no longer take
cash. Many airlines no longer let you pull out cash to buy snacks or
drinks because it's too difficult to make change.
Zagorsky sees a time, maybe in a few years, when more
retailers wil not accept cash, which could make it harder on poor families who
do not have bank accounts.
Ashiyana Somlai-Maharjan, a rep for Kit and Ace, said the Vancouver,
B.C.-based retailer has had a no-cash policy since it opened its doors.
"Our shops are designed to be a seamless shopping
experience. From the strategic layout of our merchandise, to clearly visible
hangtags, to no phones on site, and cashless registers," said
Somlai-Maharjan.
Many people still do use cash. A 2015 Survey of Consumer
Payment Choice indicates a trend away from paper checks. Debit cards are the
most popular form of payment, with 31.1% of payments covered by debit
cards. Yet 26.3% of payments are covered by cash; while
22.5% are covered by credit cards; and the rest are made by check, money order,
prepaid cards, electronic payments and online bill paying.
Retailers and others have plenty of reasons to eliminate
cash, Zagorsky said. Clerks or attendants might steal. Or there could be
robberies. No one has to count change or make sure a cash drawer
balances. Store employees don’t have to haul cash to the bank at the end
of the day.
The use of credit cards seems harmless, but it comes with a
cost — one that retailers tend to pass on to customers. They typically end
up raising the prices charged to everyone — including those who pay with
cash — to cover the fees that credit card companies charge, Zagorsky said.
Overall, people who have credit cards can benefit, because
they often carry rewards cards where they get cash back or airline miles on
their purchases.
Paul Traub, senior business economist for the Detroit Branch
of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said there's no federal
statute requiring a private business, a person or an organization
to accept currency or coins.
"Private businesses are free to develop their own
policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law which says
otherwise," Traub said.
A new book, The Curse of Cash by economist Kenneth
S. Rogoff, makes the case for encouraging the U.S. government to
drastically scale back on $100 bills. Rogoff, a Harvard University professor of public
policy, is calling for a “less-cash society”. He suggests leaving
smaller bills in circulation since he maintains that a major issue with
paper currency, particularly large bills, is that a good amount is used to
facilitate tax evasion and other crimes Cash, he argues, is king in the
underground economy.
He offers this visual: $1 million in $100 bills weighs
roughly 10 kg and can fit smartly into a briefcase.
How much shopping we will be able to do with cash could one
day depend very much on where we shop.
edited from USA Today
A beer pipeline (captions)
The turn of a tap on Friday propelled Bruges, a medieval
Belgian city, into the future — and sent its citizens to the bar — as
dignitaries and drinkers celebrated a momentous innovation: the world’s first
beer pipeline.
The two-mile pipeline, visible in one spot through a
transparent manhole cover cut into the cobblestone, carries beer from one of
the country’s oldest still-operating breweries in the center of Bruges to a
bottling plant on its outskirts.
The project
cost about 4 million euros, or $4.5 million. But the brewery discovered an
innovative way to raise the funds: promise donors free beer for life.
“As far as we know, this is the first time ever that such a
thing has been done,” Xavier Vanneste, the director of De Halve Maan, or The
Half Moon, a brewery, said in an interview. “It’s an old product, but an
innovative project.”
Bruges, a medieval city and a Unesco World Heritage site, is
visited by 2 million tourists annually. The influx of visitors made
transporting the brew daily on tanker trucks expensive, and risked forcing the
500-year-old brewery out of its home.
The last truck visited the brewery on Thursday. By Friday,
over 1,000 gallons, or 12,000 bottles of beer, began flowing through the
pipeline per hour. The brewery plans to operate the pipeline 24 hours a day.
Mr. Vanneste said the idea was rooted in the city’s existing
infrastructure.
“We got the idea from looking at other life provisions that
run through pipes,” he said. “Water pipes, electricity pipes, cable
distribution, etc. So why wouldn’t that be possible for beer?”
One potential obstacle was that the city had never
previously permitted a private company to run its own pipes beneath the
streets. Another was cost.
The mayor of Bruges, Renaat Landuyt, though initially
skeptical, warmed to the idea and approved the brewery’s plan.
Funding, however, was a different matter.
So Mr. Vanneste turned to another innovation his ancestors,
who began operating the brewery in 1856, could never have dreamed of: the
internet.
More than 500 people contributed to an online crowdsourcing
campaign that helped raise the money needed to lay the pipe.
Backers are to be rewarded “with free beer for life in
proportion to their contribution,” Mr. Vanneste said. “For example, someone
that only made a small investment will get maybe a pack of beer every year on
his birthday. But someone who paid the maximum amount may receive up to one
bottle of beer a day for the rest of his or her life.”
9/17/2016
9/11/2016
Swimming among dolphins in Hawaii
 |
| An image of spinner dolphins in Hawaii - Credit Kim Kilgroe, via YouTube |
Swimming among the dolphins in the clear waters off the
Hawaiian coast has long enticed island visitors. But federal officials say it
is harmful to the creatures when they are supposed to be resting and
socializing, and have proposed a ban on the activity.
The proposed rules announced last week by the National
Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, will prohibit swimming with or approaching within 50 yards of
Hawaiian spinner dolphins. That will end many tour group practices, which
involve approaching dolphins in a boat and snorkeling in the water with them.
Dolphins typically forage offshore in the night for fish,
shrimp and squid, then return toward land during the day to relax. They swim even
when they are sleeping. But officials say the presence of boats and
swimmers is disrupting their habits, causing “a departure from natural
behavioral patterns that support the animal’s health and fitness,” according to
the proposed guidelines.
“We think by
identifying 50 yards as the minimum distance that there still can be a viable
tourist industry in Hawaii,” Ann Garrett, an assistant regional administrator
for protected resources for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said this
week during a conference call with reporters.
Reached by phone, two tour operators disagreed.
“It could be the end of legitimate dolphin swimming,” said
Kevin Merrill, an owner of Dolphin Discoveries in Kona, on the island of
Hawaii. “We won’t be able to offer the people the quality interaction that they
expect.”
Roberta Goodman, the owner of Wild Dolphin Swims Hawaii in
Holualoa, also on the Big Island, said, “It’s kind of like asking people at a
dolphin show to stay outside the gate.”
In a typical excursion, tourists load into a boat early in
the morning. Once dolphins are spotted, tourists get out of the boat, wading in
the water nearby.
Mr. Merrill and Ms. Goodman are aware of tour operators who
behave unethically or dangerously, but that most are mindful of not harming the
dolphins and prohibit guests from touching the dolphins or swimming overhand,
which can spook the animals.
Ms. Goodman, who has worked with dolphins since 1985, does
not see signs that they are disturbed by the tour groups. “We watch them nurse,
and make love, and play, and travel and sleep,” she said. “They continue with
their natural behaviors while they’re in the water with us. They’ve accepted us
into their environment with them.”
The Marine Mammal Protection Act already prohibits the
harassment of dolphins, but the proposed rule will add the 50-yard barrier. It
will make exceptions for those who inadvertently come within 50 yards of a
dolphin, or if steering away from the dolphins will be unsafe
Mr. Merrill has been giving tours with his wife, Claudia,
since 1992. When he started, there were just a few operators, who all cared
deeply about the dolphins, but the industry has exploded in the past decade.
His groups are not in the water past 11 a.m., allowing the
dolphins their resting time. It is among the guidelines recommended by the
Coral Reef Alliance, which several tour operators voluntarily follow.
“You don’t swim with
the dolphins,” he said. “The dolphins choose to swim with us.”
Dolphins need their sleep (audio)
You can also listen to this audio file by clicking on the Play Button
Coffee-making and chemical engineering (audio)
You can also listen to this audio file by clicking on the Play Button
9/05/2016
Carlos Bulgheroni, Argentina’s Richest Man,, Dies At 71
When Carlos Bulgheroni was 28 years old, doctors diagnosed him
with cancer and said he only had five months to live. He defied all
expectations but his time finally came September 3, when, at age 71 he died
at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he was recovering from
surgery.
In the years since his first diagnosis, he and his brother,
Alejandro, built a business empire based on the oil business that turned them
into Argentina’s richest men. Forbes estimated the net worth
of the Bulgheroni brothers at US$4.8 billion, ranking the pair as the 324th richest in the
world.
The brothers didn’t exactly make their wealth out of nothing,
but they took the company they inherited from their father, Bridas Corp., and
turned it into a global player in energy. Throughout the years, it was Carlos
who was seen as the real driver of the company’s oil business, the tireless
worker who had an uncanny ability to lobby and make friends in the country’s
ever-changing political landscape. He was a great ally to President Raúl
AlfonsÃn in the 1980s before becoming a huge supporter of Carlos Menem in the
1990s and, despite a bit of a rough start with Néstor Kirchner in 2003, became
one of the few business leaders who was there in person to hear Cristina
Fernández de Kirchner’s inaugural speech in 2007.
It was this drive to seal deals that is often credited with
turning Bridas, which was once mainly a supplier to national oil company YPF, into
a key oil producer. The Bulgheronis ended up selling 50 percent of Bridas to
China’s influential state-owned oil company Cnooc in 2010 for US$3.1 billion.
For its part, Bridas owns 40 percent of Pan American Energy (PAE), the company
that operates the country’s largest oil field (Cerro Dragón) and is second only
to YPF in terms of production. And in 2012, Bridas bought Esso’s assets in Argentina,
which it renamed Axion, making the company an important player in the retail
fuel sector as well.
Even as he was politically savvy at home, Bulgheroni also looked
abroad toward opportunities in the energy sector that opened up in Asia after
the iron curtain came tumbling down. One of the most iconic photos of Carlos
Bulgheroni shows him sitting in the desert, negotiating with the Taliban
to build a pipeline through Afghanistan in 1994. The significance of that photo
goes well beyond Argentina’s borders as it confirms how Carlos
Bulgheroni effectively became the first Western business leader to
negotiate directly with the Taliban. The pipeline never became a reality as the
Taliban took Kabul in September 1996 and assassinated the president. The photo only
came to light years later, when ClarÃn published it in September,
1997.
Photos via ClarÃn
From The Bubble
9/04/2016
Italian fertility campaign backfires (audio)
You can also listen to this audio file by clicking on the Play Button
A Smart Handbag for Shopaholics
It seems paradoxical and a little more than ironic to pay
$5,000 for a handbag that purports to save shopaholics from impulse spending,
but perhaps the designers of the iBag2 were considering the fashion accessory
an investment piece.
The technologically enhanced handbag is the second version
of a previous concept bag, the iBag1, which flashed warning lights and sent SMS
alerts whenever users removed their wallet. Executives at personal finance
website Finder.com collaborated with engineers at Dublin-based Colmac
Robotics and New York fashion designer Geova Rodriguez to design the iBag2.
This time the creators created a handbag that flashes, vibrates and eventually physically
locks itself if the warnings are ignored.
The new and improved version includes a built-in GPS that
recognizes when the bag has entered a designated “danger spending zone.” A
vibrating shoulder strap then warns users, while interior LED lights flash to
signal the activation of the self-locking mechanism. The bag remains locked
until users leave the designated spending zone.
Finder.com co-founder Fred Schebesta says the iBag2 is a way
to call attention to the issue of consumer debt. “Anything we can do in order
to make people aware about credit card debt and impulse spending, we think is
really important . . . and what we’re all about.”
Last month the website commissioned a Pureprofile survey of
6,838 American adults that determined 64 percent of Americans make unplanned
purchases with their credit cards each month.
Another survey commissioned in January by the American
Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and the Ad Council found that millennials ranked
saving money as their number one goal for 2016 and 65 percent faulted impulse
buying for their lack of savings.
Ultimately, the handbag is an advertisement for Finder.com,
a website that originated in Australia and launched in the United States last
September. The site compares consumer financial products such as credit cards
and travel insurance from partner companies.
The eyebrow raising price tag of the iBag2 inevitably will
put most consumers off from purchasing one.
In this case, a far more economical method for tackling
those impulse spending urges may lie with certified financial planner Carl
Richards' recommendation - "Before buying: wait 72 hours".
You can also watch this video by clicking on the Play Button
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)