AFP

Say hello to ronnagrams and quettametres: International scientists gathered in France voted on Friday for new metric prefixes to express the world’s largest and smallest measurements, prompted by an ever-growing amount of data.

It marks the first time in more than three decades that new prefixes have been added to the International System of Units (SI), the agreed global standard for the metric system.

Joining the ranks of well-known prefixes like kilo and milli are ronna and quetta for the largest numbers — and ronto and quecto for the smallest.

The change was voted on by scientists and government representatives from across the world attending the 27th General Conference on Weights and Measures, which governs the SI and meets roughly every four years at Versailles Palace, west of Paris.

The UK’s National Physical Laboratory, which led the push for the new prefixes, confirmed that the resolution had passed in a statement.

The prefixes make it easier to express large amounts — for example, always referring to a kilometre as 1,000 metres or a millimetre as one thousandth of a metre would quickly become cumbersome.

Since the SI was established in 1960, scientific need has led to a growing number of prefixes. The last time was in 1991, when chemists wanting to express vast molecular quantities spurred the addition of zetta and yotta.

A yottametre is a one followed by 24 zeroes. 

But even the mighty yotta is not enough to handle the world’s voracious appetite for data, according to Richard Brown, the head of metrology at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory.

“In terms of expressing data in yottabytes, which is the highest prefix currently, we’re very close to the limit,” Brown told AFP.

“At the bottom end, it makes sense to have a symmetrical expansion, which is useful for quantum science, particle physics — when you’re measuring really, really small things.”

– New weight of the world –

The new prefixes can simplify how we talk about some pretty big objects.

“If we think about mass, instead of distance, the Earth weighs approximately six ronnagrams,” which is a six followed by 27 zeroes, Brown said.

“Jupiter, that’s about two quettagrams,” he added — a two followed by 30 zeros.

Brown said he had the idea for the update when he saw media reports using unsanctioned prefixes for data storage such as brontobytes and hellabytes. Google in particular has been using hella for bytes since 2010.

“Those were terms that were unofficially in circulation, so it was clear that the SI had to do something,” he said.

However metric prefixes need to be shortened to just their first letter — and B and H were already taken, ruling out bronto and hella.

“The only letters that were not used for other units or other symbols were R and Q,” Brown said.

Convention dictates that the larger prefixes end in an A, and the smaller ones in an O.

And “the middle of the words are very, very loosely based on the Greek and Latin for nine and 10,” Brown said.

The new prefixes should “future proof the system” and satisfy the world’s need for higher numbers — at least for the next 20 to 25 years, he added.

Employee departures multiplied at Twitter on Thursday after an ultimatum from new owner Elon Musk, who demanded staff choose between being “extremely hardcore” and working long hours, or losing their jobs.

“I may be #exceptional, but gosh darn it, I’m just not #hardcore,” tweeted one former employee, Andrea Horst, whose LinkedIn profile still reads “Supply Chain & Capacity Management (Survivor) @Twitter.” 

She added the hashtag “#lovewhereyouworked,” as did many other employees announcing their choice. 

Musk, also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has come under fire for radical changes at the social media company, which he bought for $44 billion late last month.

He had already fired half of the company’s 7,500 staff, scrapped a work-from-home policy and imposed long hours, all while his attempts to overhaul Twitter have faced chaos and delays.

His stumbling attempts to revamp user verification with a controversial subscription service have led to a slew of fake accounts and pranks, and prompted major advertisers to step away from the platform.

– Is Twitter dead? –

Much of the fevered talk driving engagement on Twitter late on Thursday was concerning the possibility of the site’s imminent demise.

Musk noted the irony by posting the popular meme of an actor jokingly posing over a grave. Both the man and the tombstone were overlaid with Twitter’s logo. The post was “liked” by more than 1 million users.

In a later tweet, sent during Friday’s early hours on the West Coast, the billionaire said: “Record numbers of users are logging in to see if Twitter is dead, ironically making it more alive than ever!”

The troubled social media network’s management told employees Thursday that offices were temporarily closed and inaccessible, even with a badge, according to Zoe Schiffer, a journalist for the tech industry newsletter Platformer. 

“Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore,” Musk wrote in the ultimatum, an internal memo sent Wednesday and seen by AFP. 

“This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade,” he added.

Staff had been asked to follow a link to affirm their commitment to “the new Twitter” by 5:00 pm New York time (2200 GMT) on Thursday.

If they did not do so, they lost their jobs, receiving three months of severance pay — an unusual method even in the United States, where labor laws are less protective for employees than in many other developed countries. 

Twitter did not respond to AFP requests for comment on the new measure.

“No words just grateful to say I was able to get my dream job and do more than I ever thought possible. It’s been a wild ride,” Deanna Hines-Glasgow, who was a senior client account manager at Twitter, tweeted Thursday, according to her LinkedIn profile.  

Esther Crawford, the platform’s director of product development and one of the few managers who have not been fired, who have not resigned and who still publicly support the new leader, tweeted: “To all the Tweeps who decided to make today your last day: thanks for being incredible teammates through the ups and downs. 

“I can’t wait to see what you do next.” 

Europe’s main stock markets rallied Friday as investors fished for bargain shares and shrugged off losses elsewhere.

London stocks were lifted by official data showing UK retail sales rose 0.6 percent in October, rebounding from a 1.5-percent slump in September.

The news boosted the pound which had fallen the previous day on a harsh government budget and confirmation Britain was in recession.

London stocks gained 0.8 percent, while Frankfurt and Paris each jumped 1.1 percent in value.

“There’s a strong argument that European markets look undervalued, and have suffered more this year, so there is still plenty of bargain hunting going on,” IG analyst Chris Beauchamp told AFP.

“There appears to be hope that European inflation might cool early next year.”

The pound rebounded after a sharp fall against the dollar Thursday.

Asian equities experienced mixed fortunes on Friday as cautious investors tried to gauge the outlook for Federal Reserve monetary policy after several officials tempered optimism over signs that inflation is slowing in the world’s biggest economy.

While the week has been broadly positive for global equities following softer-than-expected US consumer and wholesale price figures, a strong reading on retail sales and jobless claims showed plenty of resilience to higher interest rates.

With that in mind, St Louis Fed President James Bullard warned more hikes were needed to bring inflation down from four-decade highs, adding that US interest rates might need to go as high as seven percent.

That was followed by Minneapolis Fed boss Neel Kaskari saying he had not witnessed much evidence that underlying demand was cooling and did not want to forecast when the tightening would end.

The comments came after a similar message from other policymakers, who have sought to calm markets, which soared in the wake of last Thursday’s consumer prices reading.

They also fuelled fears among traders that the sharp rate-hiking campaign — including four bumper 0.75-point increases in a row — would tip the US economy into recession.

“Investors seem continually surprised by the Fed merely repeating its mantra,” said Interactive Investor analyst Richard Hunter.

“Rates are likely to continue rising… and may well stay higher until such time as a sustained slowdown in inflation is evident.”

– Key figures around 1130 GMT –

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.8 percent at 7,405.88 points

Paris – CAC 40: UP 1.1 percent at 6,649.57

Frankfurt – DAX: UP 1.1 percent at 14,419.01

EURO STOXX 50: UP 1.3 percent at 3,928.78

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.1 percent at 27,899.77 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.3 percent at 17,992.54 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.6 percent at 3,097.24 (close)

New York – Dow: FLAT at 33,546.32 points (close)

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.1910 from $1.1864 on Thursday

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0378 from $1.0362

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 139.82 yen from 140.20 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.12 from 87.34 pence

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.6 percent at $89.21 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.4 percent at $81.32 per barrel

The French electricity grid operator warned Friday of a “high risk” of network strain due to ongoing nuclear power plant outages, which could see businesses and households forced to curb usage to avoid outright power cuts.

In a winter outlook update, RTE said it expects France’s network of nuclear plants will be operating at just 65 percent of capacity at the beginning of next year, producing around 40 gigawatts.

That forecast is well below the 48 gigawatts the state-owned electricity group EDF says will be available on January 1, when demand usually soars as winter settles in.

Around 25 of the 56 reactors operated by EDF across France are shut down for maintenance or to evaluate and repair tiny cracks that have been discovered in cooling pipes.

The company has mobilised more than 600 people, including around 100 specialised welders and other workers brought in from the United States and Canada, but it has acknowledged delays in finishing the work.

Last week, EDF said it would have 46 reactors online in January.

RTE has rolled out an Ecowatt application and website to alert when grid usage is too high, requiring it to ask clients to cut consumption or risk voltage drops (“brownouts”) and targeted electricity cuts.

Much will depend on the weather and “a possible cold wave, even a moderate one,” RTE said.

The government is already urging people to show “restraint” with electricity use, including advertisements showing tips such as turning down thermostats, taking shorter showers and running appliances at night.

Nathan Hadlock moved to Portugal to escape the violence and lack of social welfare he saw in the United States, while still enjoying the sun and sea he had loved in California.

“Lisbon checked all the boxes,” the 40-year-old American entrepreneur told AFP.

It even has a suspension bridge that is almost a dead ringer for San Francisco’s Golden Gate.  

“My partner and I were looking to slow life down and enjoy things more. And so we made a list of the top 10 places in the world and Lisbon quickly made it to the top.”

The couple, who started a family when they moved to the Portuguese capital in 2020, were drawn by the weather, the good food, the cheaper lifestyle and the ease of travelling to other parts of Europe. 

They also wanted to escape the darker sides of US society.

“One of the main reasons (US) investors are looking to move here, is their kids’ safety. They often say, ‘I don’t want my kid to go to school and get shot,'” Hadlock insisted.

“And that’s a real thing in the United States that just no one here in Europe has to experience.” 

Jen Wittman, who uprooted from the Golden State to Lisbon during the pandemic with her husband and teenage son, said the United States was “really kind of falling apart at the seams”.

“The George Floyd incident and the pandemic, the political division, the racism… Everything was just getting overwhelming in America.”

Having a European social net made a big difference too.

“America is terrible with health care. And it’s terrible if you’re a retiree and you have a health condition. Essentially in America you can be bankrupted by an illness,” the 47-year-old said.

At around 7,000, the number of US citizens living in Portugal remains tiny compared to the 42,000 British expats who had made the country their home.

But while the influx of Brits — the largest expat community from western Europe — has begun to tail off, incomers from the States have doubled since 2018.

This year Americans are jostling with the Chinese for top spot among overseas investors lured by Portugal’s “golden visas” — residents permits issued for foreigners prepared to buy property or transfer capital to the Iberian country.

But most come on a D7 visa, which demands they have a regular “passive income” from pensions, rents or investments.

– ‘Different mentality’ –

Joana Mendonca, a lawyer for migration consultancy Global Citizen Solutions, speaks “almost every day” to US clients.

“Some come because they’re digital nomads and want to work from home by the sea,” she said. 

“There are also entire families, who dream of one day getting their children into European universities.

“And there are retired people who sell everything in the States so they can enjoy a good retirement in Portugal.”

Mendoca said Americans had “a different mentality” from other foreign investors, who were drawn to Portugal essentially by residency permits and tax exemptions.

“They really want to come and live here and adopt a different lifestyle,” she said, even though the introduction of the golden visa scheme in 2012 has contributed to an unwelcome surge in property prices.

Hadlock started off as a digital nomad in Portugal. Now he works for an investment fund that buys up land for olive and almond groves in the rolling hills of the Alentejo.

The region south of Lisbon reminds him of California’s Napa and Sonoma valleys.

– ‘Surf and good wine’ –

In Lisbon, Hadlock runs get-togethers to develop business ties between California and Portugal. The group calls itself Red Bridge, in a nod to the red suspension bridges spanning San Francisco Bay and the Tagus estuary.

Jonathan Littman, one of the members, still lives in California but is learning Portuguese.

He got to know Portuguese start-ups in Silicon Valley when Lisbon started organising yearly international web summits in 2016.

“We sort of see this as the California of Europe,” he said.

“The surfing, the coast… We both have great wine. We both have a love of seafood and healthy cuisine. We both can be a little laid back.”

Like her compatriots, Wittman and her family left the States to escape a “divisiveness” that Hadlock said is “pulling the US apart” and is palpable “as soon as you get off the plane”.

But Portugal was not their first choice.

“We tried to move to Italy but they were not accepting American visa applicants at all,” she recalled. “And so, we were like, ‘Who in Europe will take Americans?’ And it was Croatia and Portugal.”

She and her husband run their own digital marketing company and have no plans to move back.

“It’s safe. It’s inclusive. We feel safe walking around, we feel safe at night. We do things that we could never do in America without being in constant fear,” she said.

Germany’s biggest trade union agreed Friday to hefty wage hikes that are expected to cover almost four million workers facing soaring inflation, averting a major strike in Europe’s top economy.

The deal will be closely watched across the continent, as industrial action spreads due to rising costs, particularly of energy, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The agreement for hikes totalling 8.5 percent between IG Metall union — which represents workers in the key metal and electrical sectors — and employers was reached early Friday after weeks of talks and walkouts. 

The so-called “pilot agreement” in southern Baden-Wuerttemberg state, which is expected to eventually cover about 3.9 million workers across Germany, lays out how the pay increase will be introduced in two stages, in 2023 and 2024.

It also includes a 3,000-euro ($3,100) payment to combat the impact of inflation.

“Employees will soon have significantly more money in their pockets — and permanently,” said Joerg Hofmann, president of IG Metall, seen as a trend setter in wage negotiations nationwide.

The union had initially called for an eight percent increase over 12 months, the biggest hike since 2008.

Its members are from a vast range of key businesses, from the automotive to electronics sectors. 

Workers have been ratcheting up pressure — with demonstrations, and a series of “warning strikes” at the end of October, which are walkouts for a limited duration that often accompany salary negotiations in Germany.

If no deal was reached, then the union was poised to launch broader strikes lasting 24 hours.

– ‘Expensive’ deal –

The employers’ group Gesamtmetall said that, while the agreement could dent companies’ competitiveness, a serious labour dispute would have caused even greater damage. 

Group president Stefan Wolf said it was an “expensive” agreement, but added: “Now we can concentrate on work and do our part to overcome an expected recession as quickly as possible.”

Under the deal, workers’ salaries will increase by 5.2 percent from June 2023, followed by a 3.3 percent increase in May 2024.

While companies are under pressure to hike wages due to rising costs, there are fears that raising them too sharply could stoke already sky-high inflation.

German manufacturers are also facing additional pressure due to high energy costs, triggered by Russia slashing gas supplies, as well more expensive raw materials.

German inflation hit 10.4 percent in October, while the government forecasts the economy will contract by 0.4 percent in 2023. 

Berlin has been rolling out relief measures to combat rising prices, including a 200-billion-euro fund to lower energy costs. 

Workers have been staging strikes across Europe, from France to Greece, due to the cost of living crisis. 

Eurozone inflation is running at a record high, and the EU warned last week the single currency area is set to fall into recession this winter.