publishedmedium:san jose mercury news

U.S. flag at half-staff 328 days last year : Is the tribute overused ? - San Jose Mercury News
▻http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_30080628/u-s-flag-at-half-staff-328-days
#en_berne

Nearly every day, somewhere in the country, the Stars and Stripes was lowered to half-staff last year in one of the most significant official gestures of mourning and respect, an Associated Press analysis found.

The centuries-old practice can be a visible, public answer to extraordinary loss, as when more than four dozen people were killed last month at a gay nightclub in Florida. But as the nation marks Independence Day on Monday, flag buffs have noted that the honor has been extended more widely over time, including to celebrities and police dogs. And some have questioned whether the country has lowered the bar on the lowering of the flag.
[…]
Eight states had orders lowering the U.S. flag in effect over more than 30 days; Massachusetts led all others, keeping the flag at half-staff for over a quarter of the year, including on the Fourth of July.
[…]
Even denying flag honors to a convicted felon didn’t fly in Rhode Island. Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo initially declined to lower flags this year for longtime former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci, a Republican-turned-independent who’d been convicted of corruption. Amid an outcry from Cianci fans, Raimondo changed her mind “out of respect for the office he held for 20 years.”

Difficile d’imaginer en effet que Levallois-Perret ne porte pas le deuil de son maire emblématique lorsque celui-ci achèvera le cours de son existence. Et son patronyme mériterait de rejoindre, voire remplacer, ceux des immortels spéculateurs fonciers qui ont donné leurs noms à la commune.

Boats sit idle as algae threatens Dungeness crab season - San Jose Mercury News
▻http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_29112765/boats-sit-idle-algae-threatens-dungeness-crab-season

San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf typically bustles this time of year as workers prepare to haul millions of pounds of Dungeness crab that are a tradition at Thanksgiving and other holiday meals.

But crab pots are sitting empty on docks, boats are idled and fishermen are anxiously waiting for California authorities to open the lucrative Dungeness crab season.

California has delayed the Nov. 15 start of its commercial crab season after finding dangerous levels of a toxin in crabs. Officials in Oregon and Washington are testing crab samples and will decide soon whether to open its coastal season by Dec. 1 as planned.

A massive bloom of microscopic algae — which produced a natural toxin called domoic acid that is harmful to wildlife and fish — in the Pacific Ocean is threatening the crab industry during a time when many fishing outfits make their most money. It’s also roiling coastal tourism and marine ecosystems.

A closure along the entire West Coast would be a blow to the industry, which harvested nearly $170 million worth of Dungeness crab in 2014.

“Everybody is counting on crab to make it, so this is pretty disappointing,” said Larry Collins, president of the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association. “Whenever they test clean, we’ll go get them. I’m very hopeful that it’s sooner than later.”

Experts say the warm conditions that set up the toxic algae bloom — while not attributed to climate change — does offer a picture of what’s to come as ocean temperatures are projected to warm. Already, warmer ocean temperatures off New England have shaken up fisheries there, contributing to the collapse of the region’s cod fishery and the shift northward in the lobster population, studies have found.

▻https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acide_domoïque

Use of illicit drugs becomes part of #Silicon_Valley's #work_culture - San Jose Mercury News
▻http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_26219187/use-illicit-drugs-becomes-part-silicon-valleys-work

“I’ve had them from Apple, from Twitter, from Facebook, from Google, from Yahoo, and it’s bad out there,” says Cali Estes, a Miami-based addictions coach who has helped 200 tech workers — many of them high-level executives — struggling with everything from cocaine and heroin to painkillers like oxycodone and stimulants like Adderall, a prescription drug used to treat attention-deficit disorders.

“And it’s a lot worse than what people think because it’s all covered up so well,” says Estes. “If it gets out that a company’s employees are doing drugs, it paints a horrible picture.”

#drogue #travail #performance #addiction

Too many electric cars, not enough workplace chargers creating tension on #Silicon_Valley tech campuses - San Jose Mercury News
▻http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_24947237/too-many-electric-cars-not-enough-workplace-chargers

Just three years later, SAP faces a problem that is increasingly common at Silicon Valley companies — far more electric cars than chargers. Sixty-one of the roughly 1,800 employees on the campus now drive a plug-in vehicle, overwhelming the 16 available chargers. And as demand for chargers exceeds supply, a host of thorny etiquette issues have arisen, along with some rare but notorious incidents of "charge rage."

▻http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site571/2014/0119/20140119__charging~3.JPG

#voiture_électrique @reka

Bus passenger set on fire: Oakland teen charged as adult in hate crime attack - San Jose Mercury News
▻http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_24477162/oakland-teen-charged-adult-hate-crime-attack-student

Bus passenger set on fire: Oakland teen charged as adult in hate crime attack

Silicon Valley must protect against catastrophic sea-level rise - San Jose Mercury News
►http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_20451180/mercury-news-editorial-silicon-valley-must-protect-against

shore up the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta’s deteriorating 1,300 mile levee system that protects the fresh supply of water that 65 percent of Californians drink. An earthquake could cause the utter failure of the levees in minutes, a catastrophe that could obscure other damage. A break in a strategic location would allow the salt water of the San Francisco Bay to pour into the fresh water of the Delta, destroying the fresh water that provides half of Silicon Valley’s supply. This could happen any day. But the state holds the levees hostage to a broader and more controversial comprehensive water plan.