Leap Year

It comes but once every four years and this 29 February some workers are being given the extra day as holiday. Employers won't like the idea, but we tend to look at additional time as a gift.

Imagine that to adjust our timekeeping, 10 minutes had to be added to one day each year. You would expect them to be 10 minutes of free time, yours to spend as you will. You'd be miffed if they were added to one of your working hours, getting 10 minutes more work out of you for no extra money.

But is this what leap year does to us? If you're on an annual salary, you will get the same pay as normal this year, while working one extra day. Is 29 February just another working Friday, or a sneaky bonus for your employer? Who does 29 February belong to?

If you're starting to feel like a holiday today, you might be interested to hear that the National Trust has granted its whole workforce the day off. Calling it the Great Green Leap Day, they are asking staff to use it for the environment. "We're giving them this opportunity to look at steps to green their own lives at home," explains Mike Holland of the Trust. "Anything from converting to greener energy to starting a compost heap."

Just how many will be converting, composting and otherwise greening and how many will be shopping is hard to say, but Holland hopes most of the workforce have caught the vision. He says it would be good to see other workplaces catch it, so if you can just wait till 2012 there might be one for you too.

The National Trust does not want anyone to feel short-changed by their own employer. But if you do feel that way, then according to Steve Taylor, the author of Making Time: Why Time Seems to Pass at Different Speeds and How to Control It, there may be something in it.

Time as a 'gift'

The book argues that the way we perceive time is more real than the way we measure it. How else does time pass, except in our consciousness - sometimes faster, sometimes slower? When it comes to the extra day, like the extra hour when the clocks go back, he says, "We look on that time as a gift - just as in other ways we try to subtract time, like when we're on a long journey and immerse attention in a book".

Perhaps, he agrees, employers may be getting an extra unpaid day out of us. "But then in a sense," he adds, "they own us already. We give half our waking hours to them, voluntarily, and our time is our lives - we're literally giving ourselves away." A thought which makes you want to hold on to any disputed days tighter than ever.

Where did this extra day come from in the first place? We need the leap day because of the deplorable untidiness of our solar system. One of our earth years (a complete orbit around the sun) does not take an exact number of whole days (one complete spin of the earth on its axis). In fact, it takes 365.2422 days, give or take.

The leap year was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46BC, to make the calendar tidier. The extra day every fourth year made the average year 365.25 days long.

Time stealer

This was still about 12 minutes longer than the solar year, which you can get away with on the short term, but in 1267 a monk called Roger Bacon noticed that the calendar had slipped nine days in the 13 intervening centuries.

Gregory XIII: Said to have provoked protests after 'stealing' 10 days It then took the church until 1582 to accept that it was celebrating Easter on the wrong week. That year Pope Gregory XIII adjusted the calendar, introducing the system we go by today: every fourth year is a leap year, unless it is divisible by 100 and not by 400. This makes the year 365.2425 days, which is still a little under 26 seconds too long, but nothing to fret about.

As a one off, Gregory's reform also skipped the 10 days they had gained since Caesar's time, jumping from 4 to 15 October 1582. It is said that this provoked demonstrations from people demanding their stolen days back.

So how about demos today, to reclaim the working day pinched from employees by their employers? Go for it, brothers and sisters, but the TUC will not be organising it.

A spokesperson says: "Salaried workers usually receive their annual salary in twelve monthly payments and know when they accept a job that some months are longer than others and that leap years come round once every so often. Indeed, leap years have been with us 1582, so the UK workforce has had a while to get used to the idea of an extra day every four years."
OK, off you go then, back to work.

Source: BBC News Magazine

Spanish Coup

1981: Rebel army seizes control in Spain

Spain is in a state of political confusion after an attempted right-wing coup.

This evening about 200 soldiers and members of the paramilitary Civil Guard stormed the lower house of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes, firing automatic weapons and shouting orders.

They took hostage about 350 MPs debating a new government.

The group - led by Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero Molina, an officer of the Civil Guard - told all those present to lie down.

Lt Col Tejero then called on the King to make an announcement.

All streets around the building have been sealed off.

The coup plot originated in Valencia, in eastern Spain, under the command of Lieutenant General Jaime Milan del Bosch.

A supporter of the late dictator General Franco, the former commander of the elite Brunete Armoured Division near Madrid was recently transferred because of his opposition to the new political order and was suspected of plotting against it.

The general has declared a state of emergency and ordered tanks onto the streets of Valencia.

In Madrid the rebel army took over the radio and TV stations for 90 minutes. They dispersed when riot police arrived on the scene.

Attempts to restore order

The King meanwhile has called on the civil service to take on the role of parliament based at Zarzuela Palace.

The joint chiefs-of-staff issued a communiqué saying all measures had been taken to put down the rebellion and restore order.

Despite these reassurances Spaniards are now wondering how long their five-year democracy can last.

Although Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy has been fairly smooth - until now - there have been rumblings of discontent among the right.

A few weeks ago Spain's first democratically elected prime minister Adolfo Suarez resigned

.
It is believed he was under pressure by the right wing of his Democratic Centre Union party and the armed forces about concessions made to separatists in Catalonia and the Basque regions.

Source: BBC News

Do you remember anything about the day of the attempted coup or do you know any interesting stories related to it?

Or are there any other days in Spanish history that are significant or memorable for some reason?

Film Review - No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men is the most violent and infuriating film Joel and Ethan Coen have made. It’s a clever adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy story about the cruel indifference of the American west. The title is a warning that old-fashioned values no longer apply. The murder rate is enjoyably brisk, and the opening scene in the dusty Texas desert is a sensation.

A resourceful redneck called Moss stumbles across the eerie remains of a drug deal that has gone very wrong. The Mexican gangsters have shot each other to bits. Their prone bodies are starting to bloat. The air is thick with flies. A ton of heroin is stacked in the back of a pickup truck. A hopeful corpse is gripping a briefcase containing $2 million in $100 bills. The wary Moss, played with deadpan cool by Josh Brolin, ignores the drugs and walks off with the cash. The most psychotic hitman in the history of motion pictures is assigned by a mega-rich corporate giant to find the money and kill Moss. This is a return to the vintage badlands of Blood Simple for the Coens.

But this Texas is a very different country from the one they filmed in 1984. Life is infinitely cheaper. The country has been poisoned beyond repair by drugs and greed. Local codgers such as Sheriff Bell are the rare witnesses of better days. Tommy Lee Jones plays the razor-sharp cop like a punch-drunk boxer. He wears his grievances as lightly as chain mail. Sheriff Bell can identify a driver from tyre tracks in the sand, but he can find absolutely no reason to the mayhem and murders he is employed to solve.

No Country for Old Men is a sour requiem for the past, and a biblical warning about the future.

It’s also stunningly photographed by Roger Deakins. The desert landscapes are framed like paintings, and the plot hardly breaks sweat. Some things never change. The Coens never hurry their actors. There’s always time for a rueful scratch of the chin, and a long squint at the horizon.

The professional assassin hired to bump off Moss is the most absurd character the Coens have ever invented. He is bravely played by a po-faced Javier Bardem with scene-stealing weirdness. He is a satanic force of nature whose weapon of choice is a gas-fuelled bolt gun more commonly used in abbatoirs to slaughter cattle.

His most sinister feature is his hair: a classic 1960s moptop. He is an unnerving pleasure who is obsessed with destiny and coin-tossing moments that mean life or death. He is responsible for an astonishing amount of carnage.

It seems churlish to take issue with a film with such rich characters. But I lost touch with the final reel. I couldn’t picklock a meaning from the chaotic climax. It creaks with significance, but I left the cinema not entirely convinced that the glittering plaudits it has won are entirely deserved.

The supporting acts are first rate. Kelly Macdonald is terrific as Moss’s trailer-trash wife with a heart of gold. Woody Harrelson delivers a neat and icy cameo as a sharp-suited and corrupt private investigator. And Jones is in his element as the terse sheriff doomed to spend his retirement struggling with the big picture.

Source: The Times

What film have you seen recently? Write a brief review.

General Election

The General Election campaign officially starts on Friday but I'm a bit fed up of politics already.

What are the factors that you consider when deciding which party to vote for? Why? Do you think it is important to vote? Do you already know which party you will vote for or will the campaign help you make up your mind? DON'T REVEAL WHICH PARTY YOU SUPPORT!

Spanish PM faces voters' verdict

If the US election is a marathon, Spain's is a sprint.

The official starting-gun for campaigning will be fired on Friday, barely two weeks before voters go to the polls on 9 March.

In between, Spaniards will be treated to two televised debates, along with 30-second chunks of television advertising - barely enough time for a Spanish politician to say "vote for me".

But as Spaniards are acutely aware, the outcome of even the shortest sprint can be transformed in the final yards.

Last time, as 11 March 2004 dawned, the governing Popular Party (PP) had the winning line in sight. But within hours, 191 lives had been claimed by an Islamist terror attack.

Three days later the PP was voted out of office, after wrongly blaming the Madrid train bombings on the Basque separatist group, Eta.

In some ways, the 2008 general election campaign is a straight replay.

The party leaders are the same as in 2004, the threat from Basque and Islamist militants continues, and the PP has loudly and indignantly prolonged the debate over its response to 11 March.

Eta controversy

In January, a police swoop on an alleged Islamist terror cell in Barcelona refocused attention on homeland security.

In the same month, the governing Socialist Party (PSOE) admitted to having maintained secret contact with Eta, even after the gunmen broke a ceasefire in December 2006.

Terror will always be an election issue in Spain, and a fatal attack would once again transform the campaign.

But increasingly, the 2008 campaign seems destined to be decided somewhere more obvious - in voters' pockets.

After a remarkable 14 consecutive years of growth, the Spanish economy is showing signs of fatigue.

Having long outpaced France, Germany and Britain, Spain's GDP growth will fall below the EU average by the end of 2009, according to the European Commission.

At 4.4%, inflation is at a 10-year high, while January's unemployment figures were the highest for eight years.

With a decade-long housing boom also spluttering to a halt, the opposition is suddenly keener to talk economics, rather than Eta.

Missed opportunity

For Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, it is a case of bad timing.

Over his four-year term, he can point to impressive average annual growth of 3.6%, and claim to have created three million new jobs.

Today, Spaniards are wealthier than their Italian counterparts.

As recently as September, the prime minister boasted that in the Champions League of global economies, Spain had "won the most games".

In retrospect, the manager should probably have called an election back in the autumn, while his team was still winning.

Mr Zapatero's supporters stress the transformational nature of his premiership, under the slogan: "reasons to believe".

Marketed simply as "Z", he is billed as an enlightened leader for the 21st Century - a man who pushed through gay marriage, fast-track divorce and greater workplace rights for women, together with a law explicitly condemning the repression of the Franco years.

Church steps in

Such in-your-face liberalism has provoked criticism from Spain's still-influential Catholic Church.

In January, the Spanish Bishops' Conference released a statement arguing that "not all (electoral) programmes are equally compatible with faith and the demands of Christian life".

In a thinly veiled attack on the government's contacts with Eta, the statement also stressed that a "terrorist" organisation could not be considered a "political interlocutor".

Responding, Mr Zapatero made great play of complaining to the papal nuncio in Madrid.

But privately, PSOE activists relished the confrontation as an opportunity to portray the campaign as a battle between the forces of progress and reaction.

Linking Spain's bishops to the opposition, Mr Zapatero told one newspaper: "the most right-wing elements in the Church... already call the shots in the PP, and they want to call the shots in Spain".

On the right, the PP's campaign appears designed to energise its conservative base.

Party leader Mariano Rajoy has come out against adoption by gay couples, and proposed that immigrants sign a contract with the Spanish state, promising to integrate with local customs and to go home if they do not find a job.

The PP website excitedly informs us that Mr Rajoy listens to The Police, and enjoys watching the DVD of Back to the Future, a title which aptly sums up the party's election mindset.

Many senior PP figures feel that they were cheated of certain victory in 2004, and that Mr Zapatero's win - courtesy of a destabilising terror attack - upset the natural order of Spanish politics.

Close race

Spain's notoriously hit-and-miss opinion polls still put PSOE marginally ahead, but the lead has narrowed and smaller leftist and regional parties may well hold the balance of power in parliament.

Much will depend on turnout: in 2004, an unusually high level of participation after the train bombings helped propel the PSOE to its surprise win.

But historically, the PP has been more effective at getting its core supporters to the polls.

Against the backdrop of a faltering economy, the key question is: will Spaniards who indignantly turned to Mr Zapatero four years ago feel similarly motivated to back him today?

Source: BBC News

Election Spain Podcast Here you can listen to me reading the article above. I feel like a newsreader and occassionally stumble over my words. Still, it is my first attempt!

1million Brits living in Spain

Would you ever consider packing up and leaving Spain in order to start a new life in a foreign land? If so, where to and why? Do you know of anyone who lives abroad? Why did they move? What would you miss about Spain if you didn't live here?

Would you be cut out for the expat life?

A new survey suggests expatriate Britons are (1) happy with their new life abroad. BBC reporter Chris Mason spoke to two British emigres, who have made a new life for themselves on the coast of Spain.

"I suddenly decided I'd had enough. I was going nowhere, everything was the same, I (2). And so I decided to get out."

Eric Warren is originally from Leeds - but don't expect to see him out shopping in West Yorkshire any time soon.

He moved to the Costa Blanca around seven years ago - and now spends much of his time here at the San Miguel Bowls Club near Torrevieja on Spain's Mediterranean coast.

It's a mid-winter's day - and there's not a coat in sight. It feels like a summer day in Britain and it's around 18 degrees.

As Eric pushes up the sleeves on his all-white crown green bowling outfit, revealing his tanned arms, he talks me through how he ended up here.

"We came over at first for a six month (3) - but within three weeks we'd bought a house and we (4) home.

"It's brilliant. The weather is fantastic."

It's estimated that up to a million Britons might now be living in Spain, and those I've talked to seem to agree with the findings of a new survey by the NatWest bank.

It suggests more than nine out of 10 British expats think they have a better quality of life now than they did in the UK.

Golden age

Ann Eagle is the Secretary of San Miguel Bowls Club - and is originally from Newcastle. The club has around 200 members.

The vast majority are British. None of them are Spanish.

She's convinced she has a better quality of life now - and shares the view of the two thirds of expats in the survey who consider themselves to be healthier since they left Britain.

While (5) the ongoing bowls competition, she tells me: "We drive through the Spanish villages and we see late into the evening all the Spanish old age pensioners (6) - and they look rosy.

"Then I think of people at home - they would be in the house by the fire, and that's if they could afford to keep warm to start with."

But what about getting homesick? Both Ann and Eric say they know of friends who've given up on Spain because they've missed the UK - or rather usually, because they've missed seeing their grandchildren.

Exchange rates

Both (7) that getting from here to Britain only takes as long as getting from one end of Britain to the other.

There is, though, (8) concern about the exchange rate between the pound and the euro.

Sterling was weaker against the single currency at one point last month than it's ever been since the euro was launched - meaning every pound is buying less currency here.

For those on fixed, British based pensions, it's a big issue.

"It has been a very, very big problem to a lot of people," Eric tells me. "We are losing 10% or 15% a year at the moment."

So could that mean - I venture sceptically - that he could be amongst the minority of expats in the survey, who said they are eventually planning to come back to the UK? Would he consider heading home?

From behind Eric Warren's tanned smile comes an instinctive answer:

"No."

Source: BBC News

Look at the vocabulary below and then try to put them in the correct form into the gaps in the article above. You can check on the answers by reading the original article.

• to be in a rut
• widespread
• to keep a close eye on
• overwhelmingly
• a stint
• to point out
• to set up
• out and about

Rivalry gone too far?

Hamilton saddened by racist abuse

Formula One star Lewis Hamilton says he has been left saddened after being subjected to racist abuse in Spain.

The 23-year-old Briton was taunted by spectators during pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

"The truth is I feel somewhat sad," he said. "I love this country, especially the city of Barcelona. The people in Spain have always been very warm."

The McLaren driver has become a hate figure in Spain because of his rivalry with former team-mate Fernando Alonso.

The former world champion complained last season that McLaren were favouring Hamilton and fell out with the Mercedes-powered team when they refused to grant him special status. He now drives for Renault.

The Briton, who eventually finished second to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in the title race, said he hoped Spanish fans of F1 would understand his rivalry with the favourite.

"The only thing that I have done is to try to give the best of myself and try to win the championship," he told sportlifepress.com.

"At no point have I tried to deliberately prejudice Fernando but the fight has been very tough and my image in Spain has been severely damaged."

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) says Spanish circuits risk punishment as a result of the incident.

"We are surprised and disappointed at the abuse," stated an FIA spokesman.

"This is a clear breach of FIA principles and any repetition will result in serious sanctions."

Reports in a number of Spanish papers said Hamilton was booed and insulted whenever he made his way from the team motor home and into the pits on Saturday for pre-season testing at the Barcelona circuit.

"It is not right the way he is being treated," McLaren test team manager Indy Lall was quoted as saying.

BBC Radio 5 Live's Formula One commentator David Croft explained that some of those present to watch the testing had gone to great lengths to upset the British driver.

"There were about 55,000 fans present over the three days of testing," said Croft.

"(Some) were chanting nasty stuff and booing him when he made his way from the garage to the McLaren area at the back. We've never seen that at Formula One events.

"The officials at the circuit drafted in extra security guards to the stands and put some fences around the team area."

Spain will host two Grands Prix this year, the Spanish race in April at Circuit de Catalunya and the European Grand Prix on the streets of Valencia in August.

Valencia's Ricardo Tormo circuit and Jerez are also used for pre-season testing.

Although the FIA did not spell out the sanctions, either circuit could lose its place in the championship if local organisers fail to deal with any further incidents of racist behaviour.

"We would like to make a plea to the fans to behave correctly," circuit director Ramon Pradera was quoted as saying in La Vanguardia newspaper.

"No type of offensive behaviour can be tolerated."

Gerry Sutcliffe, sports minister for the British government, has demanded the FIA take action to prevent a repeat of the "sickening" racist abuse suffered by Hamilton.

Following racist abuse suffered by English footballers in Spain in recent years, Sutcliffe believes strong action is required now.

"Racism should not be tolerated and this is not the first time British sportsmen have been racially abused in Spain," he said.

"This brings in question whether the Grand Prix should be held at this track.

"I am going to write to the FIA to ask what action they are going to take in response to this.
"I am also going to write to the Spanish Sports Minister to express our ongoing concern about racism suffered by our sportsmen."

The McLaren team said they were disappointed with the reaction of some spectators at the Barcelona track.

A statement read: "Vodafone McLaren Mercedes have raced and tested on Spanish circuits for many years. Everyone connected with the team regards Spain and the Spanish people with great affection, Lewis included."

The Spanish Motorsports Federation (RFEDA) issued a stinging condemnation of fans who abused Hamilton and declared its "absolute repulsion" at the incidents in Barcelona.

"The Federation wants to show its absolute repulsion at these incomprehensible incidents and demonstrate its support and solidarity for the McLaren team and especially their driver Lewis Hamilton," said a statement.

"This type of idiots that are confusing sporting rivalry with violence should be aware that the Federation has a zero-tolerance approach to this issue."

The statement said the abuse came from a small and unrepresentative group of spectators present.

It commended circuit organisers for removing offensive banners and said the RFEDA had asked them to strengthen measures to avoid similar incidents in future.

McLaren's next test will be at the southern Spanish circuit of Jerez from 12-14 February.

Source: BBC Sport

What is your opinion on the controversy? Do you think it is just a storm in a teacup or do you think that the British press have a valid point?

Can you think of any other well-known sporting rivalries or controversies?

Train v Plane

Train in Spain sets out to beat the plane

Madrid-Barcelona link is part of 220mph network taking on the airlines.

Delays and disruption, disgruntled passengers left standing on platforms, accusations of political incompetence and financial mismanagement: the development of the Spanish railway system has a number of things in common with its British counterpart. But when the new high-speed link between Madrid and Barcelona sets off later this month, those complaints will be set aside as the super-slick Ave S103 service carves its way through the Spanish countryside at speeds of nearly 220mph.


The Ave S103 is the kind of train that British commuters can only dream of, and forms the centrepiece of plans to make Spain a model for the rest of Europe, and the world leader in high-speed trains by 2010.

Its 200-metre aluminium chassis carries 404 passengers, whose reclining chairs - which can swivel to face the direction of travel - are fitted with video and music players.

"They are the future of travel in Spain and show that the train is anything but obsolete," said Aberlado Carrillo, the director general of the state rail operator Renfe's high-speed service. "Trains will again be the dominant mode of transport in this country."

In its first term in office, the socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has spent €21bn (£15.7bn) as part of a 15-year €108bn project to transform the rail network. Around 70% of this will be spent on the Ave (short for Alta Velocidad Española, or Spanish high speed).

The aim is to have 10,000km (6,200 miles) of high-speed track in Spain by 2020, meaning that 90% of the population will be no more than 30 miles from a station through which the train passes.

The Barcelona line is to be extended to Perpignan in France, making the Catalan capital just four-and-a-half hours from Paris. Work to join Madrid and Lisbon is underway.

December saw the opening of lines connecting Madrid to Valladolid and to Málaga, which have slashed journey times and proved hugely popular. Carrillo describes the success of these two lines as "unprecedented and well ahead of what we expected. Traffic has doubled on the Málaga line, and grown by 75% on the Valladolid line."

The distinction between the Spanish and British models of investment, says Christian Wolmar, the author of a history of Britain's railways, comes from conflicting philosophies of rail's worth.

"We ignore the social values of trains," he says. "Just as we don't expect motorways to pay their own way, we shouldn't expect trains to.

"All the recent legislation in the UK, with privatisation, franchising and the complex structures of investment, has meant that it is impossible to have a rational transport policy to maximise the use of trains for environmental and economic reasons."

But, says Carrillo: "The Ave has to be profitable. From 2010, it will not receive any public subsidies. Our experience of the Madrid-Seville line is that it will be profitable."

The success of the Madrid-Seville corridor - the first high-speed link, which opened in 1992 - is partly a result of its pricing policy, with affordable tickets that help to keep demand high and trains full. The 290-mile journey takes two-and-a-half hours, and costs between €28.90 (£21.60) and €72.20 (£53.95) - prices that might make British travellers green with envy.

It will be the Madrid-Barcelona connection, though, that will test the high-speed service. Business people in Spain's two largest cities, with a combined population of 10 million, have been crying out for the Ave for decades. But its development has not been without problems. The inauguration was delayed by landslides that brought chaos to Barcelona's commuter service, as contractors rushed to finish the line at the end of last year.

When it finally gets running, the S103 will cover the 410 miles to Barcelona in two hours and 35 minutes, taking two hours off the journey time. But it will face stiff competition from the highly successful air-shuttle, with a route that is one of the busiest in the world.

The "air bridge" operated by Iberia airlines allows passengers to turn up at the airport, buy a ticket, and board, within 20 minutes. Iberia alone has 60 flights a day, carrying 8,000 people.
Antonio Mayo, who is in charge of the service, is not worried by the train. "We have faced competition from other airlines before, and we welcome the fight with the Ave," he says.

"We can offer one thing they cannot - time. In normal circumstances, a businessman can get from his house in Madrid to a meeting in Barcelona in under two-and-a-half hours. The train cannot do this."

Mayo accepts that Iberia will take a hit in the first few months, but he believes that an executive who needs to be in a meeting at 9am will always choose to fly.

Carrillo argues that the comparison between train and plane is a false one. "Time spent in a train is time won, while in a plane it is wasted," he says. "In a train you can work, read, talk, use the internet, eat, or simply relax and enjoy the journey. With a plane, the only objective is to arrive.

"Personally, I am not bothered if the plane arrives 20 minutes earlier than the train. The question is how that time has been used."

The fact that more than 80% of travellers choose the Ave over the plane on the route between Madrid and Seville supports his argument.

There is also the environmental question: trains produce at least four times less carbon dioxide per mile than planes, and even less when compared with short-haul flights. Spain is preparing itself for a future in which there may be limits on the number of flights a person is allowed to take, particularly within the EU.

In the end, says Carrillo, it will come down to the quality of the service: "What we are offering is unavailable in the rest of Europe in terms of comfort, speed and punctuality."

Look away now if you are a British commuter used to mind-numbing delays: if an Ave train arrives more than five minutes late, passengers are reimbursed the full price of their ticket. And the only problem for those hoping to get their money back is that the trains are nearly 98% reliable.

Source: BBC News

What is your favoured method of transport for short and long journeys? Discuss the advantages and drawbacks of the train and the plane. Provide examples of your experiences to justify your opinions.