Short Takes – 11-28-22

Bird flu outbreak drives Nebraska to cull 1.8 million more chickens. NPR.org article. No human illness threat. Pull quote: “The bird flu outbreak has also contributed to the rise in consumer prices for eggs and poultry meat, on top of hiked-up costs from inflation.”

China rocket taking 3 to space station to blast off Tuesday. Phys.org article. Pull quote: “After the Shenzhou-15 spaceship makes an automated docking with the Tianhe core modules' front port, the station will be expanded to its maximum size, with three modules and three spaceships for a total mass of nearly 100 tons, Ji said.”

Biden calls on Congress to intervene to avert rail shutdown. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “In response to Biden’s call, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement, “This week, the House will take up a bill adopting the Tentative Agreement — with no poison pills or changes to the negotiated terms — and send it to the Senate.””

Workplace killers: people kill their colleagues for different reasons than other shooters. TheConversation.com article. New terminology – “Workplace mass shootings (WMS) are undertaken by attackers who either work or worked for an organisation where the attack occurs.” Pull quote: “Workplace attacks are quite homogeneous in motive. They are mostly attributed to revenge and often derived from attackers’ perceptions of being denied “organisational justice” and being treated unfairly. Figures show that more than half of WMS are perpetrated by current employees with less than 25% of attackers having been in post less than a year. In almost 50% of cases, attackers left employment but returned months later to “settle scores”.”

Probable Maximum Flood Events Will Significantly Increase Over Next Decades. HomelandSecurityNewswire.com article. Pull quote: “University of Melbourne lead collaborator Professor Rory Nathan said: “No country in the world has yet updated the operational procedures used to estimate PMPs to account for climate change, and this research provides the first evidence that these procedures need to be reviewed.”

Giant Wind Farms Arise Off Scotland, Easing the Pain of Oil’s Decline. NYTimes.com article. Pull quote: “Many people who honed their skills on the offshore oil platforms that dot the waters off Scotland find it relatively easily to switch to the wind industry. “What we have got is a very ambidextrous community that will turn their hand to anything that needs doing,” said Willie Watt, a retired oil services executive and former chairman of the Wick Harbour Authority board.”