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MKK: Cyrax & Sektor
Cyrax and Sektor, the yellow and red (respectively) robots of Mortal Kombat 3 were named Mustard and Ketchup during production. This has proven to be rather prescient, as the two bots have consistently been the condiments to the main plot's hotdog (And, yes, I am absolutely stating that, like all hotdogs, the Mortal Kombat storyline is primarily made from randomly assembled rat and pigeon meat).
Mortal Kombat 3 is all about Shao Kahn's invasion of Earth, but there was also a side story that featured Sub-Zero. Separate from literally everything else that was happening, Sub-Zero was disowned by his assassin clan when they decided to "upgrade" their elite ninja into cyborgs. The first three cyborgs created were Sektor, Cyrax (both of whom volunteered), and Smoke (who very much did not volunteer). Smoke had general issues from his activation, so he wandered off to be a hidden kharacter. Sektor and Cyrax, though, were tasked with hunting and killing (or at least maiming) Sub-Zero. And, because Shao Kahn decided to suck the souls out of every human on the planet, Cyrax and Sektor were the only robot-people standing when all the people-people dropped dead. So, basically, there were four Lin Kuei left on the planet, and three of them were programmed to kill the fourth. That's screwed up!
Now, unlike the other "clone" characters in previous Mortal Kombat titles, Cyrax and Sektor were, from a plot perspective, effectively interchangeable. Sub-Zero and Scorpion were bitter rivals from opposite clans (and one is a ghost). Mileena and Kitana were sisters cooperating just long enough for one to murder the other (and one is a monster). Cyrax and Sektor were just two robots with the same origins and goals. Even their endings were two variations on the same theme: Sektor's non-kanon ending saw him "winning" the tournament through a massive self-destruct at Shao Kahn's base, and Cyrax wound up getting lost and trapped in the desert. Basically, these robots were born to die, and neither actually defeated Sub-Zero, even in the fantasy world of fighting game endings. Poor ol' cyborgs…
However, they were fairly popular kharacters, and it was only natural that they would show up in future installments. They could only Wile E. Coyote after Sub-Zero for so long before that got old, though, so it was time to separate the bots and give them individual stories. And, as any graduate of the David Cage School of Writing knows, there are only two stories about robots:
1.	Can a robot learn to be human?
2.	Skynet
And, conveniently enough, we've got two robots here! Hooray!
Cyrax actually wound up with a kanon ending in Mortal Kombat 3. Sub-Zero was attacked by Cyrax, but he fought back with ninja ice powers and hitherto unknown and rarely seen again l33t haxxor powers. Actually, maybe Sub-Zero wasn't so l33t, as his reprogramming led to that previously mentioned "Cyrax wanders into the desert and is lost within the sands" ending. Whoops! Luckily, Cyrax was collected by either the Lin Kuei or Sonya's Special Forces. Mortal Kombat 4 was a confusing time! However, it's agreed that by the end of MK4, Cyrax was starting to reawaken as a "human", and decided the guys who turned him into a mechanical abomination weren't all that great, so could someone restore my body, please? The Special Forces were happy to oblige (reminder: Jax is already kind of a cyborg, so they have a little experience), and Cyrax became… well… he was technically already a cyborg that was mostly robotic, but some Special Forces procedures were able to make Cyrax a cyborg that was now mostly human. Or at least mostly human on the inside. He needed his mostly robot on the outside parts for his next adventure.
By Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (MK5), Cyrax was working for the Special Forces, because Uncle Sam don't restore your humanity for free. Cyrax was on a routine patrol (or something) in Outworld when he was attacked by Reptile. Reptile managed to damage Cyrax's go-home thingy, and, without that thingy, Cyrax could not go home. Oh no! But Nitara the Vampire appeared, and made a deal with Cyrax: retrieve a magical orb from a lava pit, and she would send the poor bot home (and never mind the fact that Nitara had Reptile attack Cyrax in the first place). Cyrax decided to cooperate, and, since he was apparently lava-proof thanks to his robotic enhancements, he was able to retrieve the mystical ball. Nitara was true to her word, and Cyrax was sent home. Thanks Nitara! Since the sphere was actually the Dragon King's soul-egg, this technically means Cyrax was responsible for the revival of Onaga and all the death and destruction he caused… but, if Cyrax knew that, he moved that information straight to his recycle bin.
Cyrax took MK: Deception off, and then returned in MK: Armageddon to try to gain Blaze's power and completely restore his own humanity. He didn't succeed. He died. And isn't that the most human thing of all?
But what was Sektor up to during that timeline? Well, Sektor was the one cyborg that was not reprogrammed by Sub-Zero, so he was still on the Lin Kuei payroll after Mortal Kombat 3. He spied on Cyrax and/or Sub-Zero during Mortal Kombat 4, but then the Lin Kuei had a change of management. … Mostly because Sektor tried to kill the old management. The official story is that Sektor's programming became "corrupted" after having to fight mutant hordes and centaurs and whatnot, but it's probably just that Sektor finally had it with being the least effective robotic assassin in history (reminder: Sub-Zero is still alive). Sektor signed his resignation with the Lin Kuei Grandmaster's blood, but Sub-Zero was able to freeze Sektor's attempted coup in its tracks. This was the exact moment that Sektor decided he was going to start his own stupid assassin clan, and it would be all ninja robots, because ninja robots have been working out so well for everybody up to this point. He even came up with a cool name (The Tekunin), and probably made his own logo and uniforms and everything. Unfortunately, when he participated in Mortal Kombat: Deception: Tournament Edition, he didn't really get anywhere, and wound up just getting jobbed by Sub-Zero (again). That'll teach you to unionize, you damn robot!
Sektor successfully creates a spare ninja robot or two while no one is looking before Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, and even manages to buy some Final Fantasy surpluss on eBay and winds up with an airship base. He's kind of a general threat to humanity in Armageddon, but even his warship filled with robot ninja isn't enough to rank a threat higher than the dude with an entire dimension full of sword mutants. As a result, he's little more than a mid-boss-level kharacter in the grand scheme of things, and I don't think Sub-Zero even has time to deal with his nonsense this go-round. Subs was too busy with his undead brother and the other robot attempting to turn the Lin Kuei into another, different army of demon robot ninja. Damn, Sektor, some other guy stole your bit!
Sektor, like Cyrax, eventually winds up at the final battle of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, and gets his red butt murdered in the melee. He probably got taken out by, like, Stryker or something.
The universe reboots back to a Mortal Kombat 1 backup, so, hey, we get to see Cyrax and Sektor as "unmodified" humans for the first time in the franchise. It turns out that Cyrax was from Botswana, and Sektor was apparently the son of the Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei. Wow! That sure does make his future/past actions that much more ironic! Or something! Also, like Sub-Zero the Original, Cyrax and Sektor participated in the original Mortal Kombat 1 tournament. At this point, the two humans were basically in the employ of Shang Tsung/Outworld, and were spoilers meant to weed out any worthwhile candidates for championhood. This is a diversion from the original timeline, where the Lin Kuei were hired to kill Shang Tsung, but, hey, Shang Tsung is a pretty freaky dude, maybe he just wanted to see if he could take out a ninja assassin, too. Regardless, Sektor and Cyrax (naturally) fail, but they do reveal differing personalities before their inevitable cyberization. Sektor is a dedicated child of the Lin Kuei, and relishes in his kill-based vocation. He is all in when asked if he wants to also become a heartless robot. Cyrax, meanwhile, has some reservations about the whole "lose your autonomy and soul" thing, and even spares Johnny Cage's life after winning a match. The general impression here is that Cyrax was probably going to hang up his wrist-mounted buzzsaws and magical bombs if given a chance… but that ain't gonna happen. Sektor and Cyrax return as robots before Nu MK2 is out, and successfully capture Sub-Zero the Younger to create a new robot buddy. Unfortunately, the bots have to pledge loyalty to Shao Kahn in exchange for Sub-Zero, so they spend reformatted MK3 as Baraka-esque Outworld stooges. Sektor and Cyrax definitely assist in Sindel's final battle against the forces of good (which, incidentally, is very successful at killing the forces of good), but they're not seen again after the fight. They probably snuck out the back when Nightwolf exploded.
The Mortal Kombat X comic is kind of murky on the whole kanon front, but it does dovetail into what actually happens in Mortal Kombat X, so we'll go ahead and call this next part 100% kanon. At the end of Mortal Kombat 9, literally all named Lin Kuei kharacters were either dead, a robot, or both (see Sub-Zero, Cyber). Shao Kahn was dead, too. Seeing a marvelous opportunity, Sektor took over the Lin Kuei. He tossed out any dissenters, robotocized everybody else, and the Lin Kuei was reborn as the new Tekunin. Score! But Sub-Zero eventually gets over being a robot/dead, and returns to screw up the Tekunin with his rarely seen stealth ninja abilities. And he's a master hacker again! He drops in a virus that spreads to the majority of the clan, and, before Sektor has time to react, Cyrax has been "infected" with remembering his own soul. Sub-Zero then defeats Sektor in mortal kombat, decapitates the bot, and wins back control of the Lin Kuei. Cyrax, now completely aware of his humanity/love of all the little critters of nature, massively self-destructs in an effort to wipe the Tekunin off the face of the Earth. He succeeds, and Sub-Zero goes on to lead the new Lin Kuei… which is still an assassin's guild, so, uh… I mean, they might still murder people, but at least they use less fossil fuels than the robots? Sub-Zero also keeps Sektor's head, and occasionally uses it as a projector when he can find Sektor's HDMI cord.
Of course, aside from a head cameo, Cyrax and Sektor do not appear in the actual plot of Mortal Kombat X. Their comic adventure must have impressed somebody, though, because, while C&S are not playable kharacters in MK11, they do get the exact same comic plot again. Kronika the Goddess of Time is committed to her master plan of generally annoying the good guys into forsaking the universe, so she brings Cyrax and Sektor forward in time from some unspecified "the past". Sektor goes to work immediately, and gets an assembly line going on converting the Lin Kuei into robot ninja. And, again, Sub-Zero infiltrates his base (this time with a buddy!), uploads that "free-will" virus (good thing he kept those files! Saved him hours of coding!), and "awakened" Cyrax, again, sacrifices himself to see the Tekunin deactivated (again). Sektor actually escapes death this time, though, and is remodeled thanks to some assistance from Kano. And then Kano blows him up. Because you don't trust Kano, stupid.
Please look forward to Mortal Kombat 12, where Cyrax and Sektor will not be playable, but the all new Relish menaces Sub-Zero to fill out a scene or two.
Next time: Witchy Women
Posted by gogglebob. Categories: Mortal Kombat Komplete. Tags: cyrax, mortal kombat, Nitara, reptile, sektor, smoke, sub-zero, The David Cage School of Writing.
MKK: Smoke & Blaze
Here's your ninja cowboy robot demon cyborg for the franchise.
Smoke was introduced as Hidden Ninja Male #2. Like Reptile, he was intended to be little more than a playground rumor, and could be battled by pressing down + start on both controllers when the digitized head of Dan "Toasty" Forden appeared on the screen (a random occurrence usually prompted by an uppercut). –Look, it was the 90's. There was weirder stuff in NBA Jam. It had Hilary Clinton.– Anywho, Smoke was simply a gray palette-swap of Scorpion, and his defining trait was that he was enveloped in the "smoke" graphical effect that was usually reserved for a few toasty fatalities. Like when his fellow hidden characters initially appeared, there was no real explanation for Smoke's existence.
And then things got real complicated, real fast.
It was revealed that Smoke, like Sub-Zero, was a member of the Lin Kuei assassin's guild. And, like Sub-Zero, he was bumming around Mortal Kombat 2 to complete a hit on Shang Tsung. But, as everyone noticed Shang Tsung continued to be alive after two separate tournaments, the Lin Kuei started to lose face on account of their blemished kill count. Lin Kuei leadership decided that robots were the answer, and, after "cyberizing" two willing participants, Smoke and Sub-Zero were next on the chopping (off flesh) block. Smoke and Sub-Zero attempted to escape, but only Sub-Zero was successful. Smoke was captured, and transformed into a vaguely blue-gray robot in need of a decent muffler.
Smoke was different from the other metal boys, though. Smoke, unlike Cyrax and Sector, retained his soul and some level of autonomy. He was still programmed to hunt and kill Sub-Zero the (fleshy) traitor, but, upon finding his former blood brother, he broke free of Lin Kuei control, and officially joined the forces of good. Hooray! Unfortunately, Smoke was still kind of a crappy ninja-robot, and he was defeated by Shao Kahn's hordes somewhere along the way. He was dragged back to Outworld (maybe as a trophy, or maybe so Kano could have a new robot buddy), and Sub-Zero… kinda forgot Smoke ever existed. Maybe he just assumed the poor 'bot exploded while no one was looking? I don't know. Point is that Smoke was deactivated and left in Shao Kahn's tower for a solid number of games.
While Smoke's robot brothers saw a few more adventures over the course of the franchise, Smoke himself did not return until Mortal Kombat: Deception (basically MK6). By this point, Noob Saibot (the original Sub-Zero and another hidden character of Mortal Kombat 2) was unemployed and looking for a new startup opportunity. He decided robots were the future, and stumbled upon the deactivated Smoke. Noob decided he was going to start his own robot ninja army, and chose to revive Smoke with a new, demonic upgrade. What is the kanon explanation for how the undead ninja transformed and resurrected a long-dead cyborg? I think you know!
So Cyborg-Ninja-Demon Smoke was reborn as Noob's slave, and the duo became a tag team that wound up dominating the coveted "sub boss" rung on the ladder of Mortal Kombat: Deception. However, technically, they had nothing to do with the big bad of that adventure (The Dragon King), and, aside from generally menacing Sub-Zero (II), they didn't really do much together. They returned as separate characters with similar goals in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, and Smoke started to regrow his own conscience/consciousness when Sub-Zero once again appealed to his cyber-humanity. Smoke was theoretically free of Noob's influence by the end of MK:A… but then the universe reset, so it didn't matter a puff.
Mortal Kombat 9 was "only" a modified retelling of Mortal Kombat 1-3, but the title also decided to provide a complete backstory for Smoke. Smoke has always had smoke-based magic, and, like Sub-Zero's ice or Liu Kang's fire, it was always kind of assumed this was just some special power, and, who cares how he got it? I saw a yogi breathe fire once, it doesn't matter if it was because he ate too much curry or was blessed by a god. But, for whatever reason, Smoke was granted a backstory that apparently went back to his infancy. Smoke was once a wee baby named Tom, but was abducted by a cult (it's the MK Universe, so we're going to assume this was a cult of ninja), and sacrificed to some generic demon. Tommy Boy died, but his physical form returned as an enenra (a "real" Japanese mythical creature/yōkai), a sort of smoke monster. The enenra killed everyone in the room, and then returned to simply being baby Tomas. Some Lin Kuei were in the next apartment over, heard the carnage caused by one hell of a baby, and decided to adopt and raise the demon child. Couple in some random amnesia that was caused by the whole situation, and Tomas grew up believing he was simply a normal boy ninja that incidentally possessed magical smoke powers.
So, to be clear, Smoke has apparently been an undead smoke demon from day one. This will be important in a minute.
Back to what actually happens during Mortal Kombat 9. During this iteration of Mortal Kombat 2/3, Sub-Zero is captured by the Lin Kuei, and Smoke escapes (mostly thanks to Raiden attempting to stymy the annoying unlock conditions for Cyber Smoke). So, on the surface level, their roles are reversed: a human Smoke revives the humanity within a Cyber Sub-Zero. Cool! Then, just when things are looking up for Smoke (for once!), he gets his fool ass killed in a battle with Sindel, Queen of the Banshees. Like all of the other defeated heroes, Smoke is revived by Quan-Chi as an undead servant in his armies.
Smoke was already an undead demon, he just happened to possess a human form thanks to what appeared to be an unholy clerical error. And we can't even claim this was some kind of unintended retkon, as this whole "undead" thing happened in the very title where his demonic origins were introduced. And, while Smoke is not a playable character in Mortal Kombat X, he returns during story mode just long enough to claim he will no longer be known as "Smoke", but is now "Enenra" (dude is not great at coming up with interesting codenames). So the Mortal Kombat writers are leaning completely into this "revelation".
What does this mean? Basically, Smoke is a former-robot ninja undead smoke demon that died and came back as a double-undead demon from hell.
He's one of Mortal Kombat's more straightforward kharacters.
Next time: We'll cover the four-armed subboss of… Wait. There's another hidden character? No, that can't be right. We just covered Jade and Smoke, and Noob Saibot appeared during the Sub-Zero I rundown. There's another one? Can I get a picture?
No. We already covered those doofs. What? Zoom in and enhance?
Oh! Right! It's 4:20 somewhere, let's cover Blaze.
Blaze's backstory goes way back to the beginning of the MK Universe, and we'll cover the finer details of that story when we cover Edenia's two large adult sons in a few game's time. For right now, we'll look at the basics: Blaze is a fire elemental (shocking, I know), and it was his job to be involved in the single stupidest idea the gods of the MK Universe (who already base dimensional conquest on fighting tournaments) ever devised. When the time was right, Blaze was destined to "awaken" and battle some random dudes to determine the fate of the universe as we know it.
Unfortunately, Blaze got kidnapped like seven seconds into this plan, and, geez, you'd really think someone would have made sure that wouldn't happen. Come on, gods, could you guys have set up like one firewall for your firedude?
Anyway, Blaze got brainwashed, and was forced to guard the egg of the Dragon King, the only way for Onaga to revive after his untimely death of being poisoned and smacked around with a hammer by Shao Kahn for a solid two days. Blaze was stuck hanging around some lava and guarding the egg, but he did get a brief sabbatical during Mortal Kombat 2 to go out and play in the background of the Pit II stage. Incidentally, some versions of Blaze's story claim that he was kidnapped after that fight in Mortal Kombat 2, but MK: Armageddon clearly states that Blaze got stuck guarding the egg hundreds of years ago (when the antagonist of that tale awakens and founds the Red Dragons), and MK Kontinuity would never have such a glaring error. It just isn't done!
Onaga's Egg becomes a plot point during MK: Deadly Alliance, and Blaze becomes an actual playable (though extremely hidden) kharacter. This was all meant to be a lead-up to the finale of the PS2-era MK trilogy, and certainly wasn't an excuse for Boon to once again introduce a hidden kharacter that he could claim was "there all along". Blaze is distinctly introduced as an amnesiac, and, having been freed from his egg-duty by completely failing to guard the egg against a vampire, lizard, and robot, Blaze was free to roam the countryside and beat up random kombatants. He also returned for MK: Deception's PSP-based revision, Unchained, and, since the plot of MK: Annihilation was starting to coalesce, Blaze finally remembered it was his job to fight dudes to find the dudest of them all. Sweet! He's been kind of doing his job all along!
Blaze became the final boss of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation when he happened to remember that he had nigh-infinite, literally godly power. Blaze was only supposed to test the mettle of a pair of cranky brothers, but, since he had spent the previous two games getting pistol-whipped by the likes of Kano and Kobra, Blaze decided to invite literally everybody in the Mortal Kombat universe to his special fighting ziggurat. Everybody killed everybody else for the glory of finally battling Blaze, and, in the end, Shao Kahn managed to win the tournament after nearly killing Raiden. This would have led to Shao Kahn gaining Blaze's nigh-omnipotent (though apparently easily forgotten) power, so Raiden called a do-over on the whole universe.
Now Blaze is back to hanging out in Pit backgrounds and guarding dragon eggs in the "new" Mortal Kombat universe. Sorry, you not-so-human torch.
Next time: The boss(es) of the place.
Posted by gogglebob. Categories: Mortal Kombat Komplete. Tags: blaze, hidden character, mortal kombat, noob saibot, onaga, smoke, sub-zero.
MKK: Scorpion & Sub-Zero(s)
I covered Hanzo "Scorpion" Hasashi's journey in great detail a couple of years back (man, 2015? Time flies in universes that don't reboot), so I'll just cover the highlights here:
Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Normal ninja dude that gets murdered by Sub-Zero before the end of the first level.
Mortal Kombat 1: An avenging ghost skeleton from hell that payback-murders Sub-Zero. Mission accomplished!
Mortal Kombat 2: Still an avenging ghost, still trying to kill Sub-Zero, but learns that "this" Sub-Zero is actually OG Sub-Zero's lil' bro. Vows to become a protector skeleton for Baby Sub-Zero.
Mortal Kombat 3: An avenging ghost that is accidentally released from Hell. Kind of a free agent, but eventually winds up protecting Baby Sub-Zero.
Mortal Kombat 4: An avenging ghost that completely forgot what he was doing. Tries to kill Baby Sub-Zero again, but backs off when he is informed Quan Chi is responsible for the death of his family. Drags Quan Chi to Hell.
Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance: An avenging ghost that spends a lot of his free time torturing Quan Chi. Eventually, Quan Chi gains the upper hand, and has his new oni buddies toss Scorpion into The Soulnado.
Mortal Kombat Deception: An avenging ghost that is made Defender of the Realms after The Soulnado accidentally spits Scorpion out in Heaven. The Elder Gods are even worse at their job than Raiden, so appointing a murder skeleton the guardian of reality apparently seemed like a good idea.
Mortal Kombat Armageddon: An avenging ghost that is really pissed off. The Elder Gods said they would bring back Scorpion's family and tribe in exchange for helping out during Deception… but Scorps didn't read the fine print, and his friends and family were returned to "life" as undead fire skeletons (just like dad!). Scorpion attempted to kill just about everybody in this contract dispute, and, considering the world then wound up in a reboot, he kinda did.
MK v DC: An avenging ghost that thought Batman was Sub-Zero in disguise. This ended… poorly.
Mortal Kombat 9: An avenging ghost that is living MK1-3 again.
Mortal Kombat X: A dad. Thanks to some unusual plot contrivances, Scorpion is revived as a perfectly normal dude who incidentally possesses hellfire-based magical abilities. Score! Scorpion reboots his ninja clan, and even adopts another fighter's son as his own. And he's best friends with (baby) Sub-Zero! He still sends Quan Chi to Hell, though, so everything isn't completely topsy-turvy.
Mortal Kombat 11: A dad and an avenging ghost. Time travel grants us Diet and Original Scorpions, so you've got your choice of skeleton man or regular man. Take your pick!
So, tldr, Scorpion is the most popular character, and no one has a damn clue what to do with the damned soul.
And now for a different story…
Once upon a time, there was a man named Bi-Han. Bi-Han was an assassin of the Lin Kuei clan, and was regarded as their best and brightest. So, when an albino wizard with spikes on his neck came calling with a job, Bi-Han was hired. And Bi-Han, like a boss, made his way through some magical temples, killed a rival ninja, and ably completed Quan Chi's tasks, despite the fact that this all had to be done with the handicap of taking place during Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero. Quan Chi then inevitably betrayed Bi-Han, and the two squared off for the fate of the world in the very bowels of Hell. Bi-Han was successful, but he also learned that he was only able to fight in Hell because his soul was tainted by evil. Maybe it was because he worked with an evil sorcerer. Maybe it was because it was literally his job to kill hundreds of people. Maybe it was because he did not delete downloaded roms after 24 hours. Whatever the reason, Bi-Han, aka Sub-Zero, was informed that if he did not change his ways, he would be damned for all of eternity.
Then Mortal Kombat happened, and Scorpion BBQ'ed Sub-Zero but good. Sorry, bud, we don't all get to have a wonderful life.
This is kanon
But anyone that knows mythology knows that if you are killed by an undead spirit of vengeance, then you will rise again as an undead spirit of vengeance. Or maybe that's vampires? Whatever, Bi-Han aka Sub-Zero was reborn as Bi-Han aka Noob Saibot.
So, a quick word about hidden characters in Mortal Kombat: We'll talk about this more when we get to the relevant character, but Mortal Kombat more or less created the whole concept of a "hidden fighter" in fighting games when Mortal Kombat 1 V3.0 first unleashed Reptile onto the scene. By the time of Mortal Kombat 2, MK's adoring public was already expecting crazy hidden fighters with even more ridiculous unlock conditions. A big ol' question block became part of the game progression, and gray ninja Smoke and green ninja woman Jade were the obvious hidden characters of MK2. There was also Noob Saibot, an even more hidden ninja that was colored entirely black, and was so named because the franchise (and Noob) was created by Boon and Tobias (and read those names backwards if you didn't catch that bit of wordplay immediately). Fighting Noob Saibot in Mortal Kombat 2 required a single player winning 50 consecutive versus matches. Assuming a credit cost 50¢ at the time, this meant that to even see Noob, at least $25 had to be deposited into a MK2 arcade cabinet.
What am I getting at? Noob Saibot was trolling the audience from the very beginning.
Back to anti-reality: Bi-Han-now-Noob-Saibot became a nefarious shadow wraith, and the canon explanation (mostly a retcon) for his presence in Mortal Kombat 2-3 was that he was working for Shao Kahn, but secretly spying on everyone on behalf of Quan Chi and Shinnok, whom he was now damned to serve for eternity. He was released from duty when Shinnok was defeated during Mortal Kombat 4, and briefly went back to his old job with Shao Kahn during Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance (or at least the confusingly named GBA port of it, Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition). That ended when Shao Kahn died (or "died"), and Noob Saibot, after years of infernal enslavement, could finally collect his undead unemployment.
The throne of Hell was empty after Shinnok and Quan Chi wound up dead (damned? Vaporized? Just that general incapacitation that occurs to Mortal Kombat kharacters when they're not directly involved in the plot?), so Noob decided it was time for a promotion. He got his own robot ninja, Smoke, and started a tag-team operation with the ultimate goal of grooming a robot-demon army. To be clear, that is an army of robots that are also demons, and not demons that are incidentally working with robots. Nanomachines are involved. Regardless, Noob and Smoke ambushed Noob's brother, Other Sub-Zero, but Sub-Zero escaped. Quan Chi decided to resurface then, and Noob, Smoke, and Quan Chi all decided to storm Sub-Zero's front gates together. It was kind of like The Wizard of Oz, except there wasn't a Dorothy, and the Tin Man was an undead robot ninja demon that could turn into a gas. That motley crew failed, but Sub-Zero was able to restore Smoke's consciousness. He attempted to do the same for his brother, but Noob continued to be a jerkass demon. There was some rumbling in Noob's Annihilation ending that original, compassionate/alive Sub-Zero was going to resurface as a controlling force… but the universe rebooted about seven seconds later.
So, good news, the universe is fresh and new again, and Bi-Han/Sub-Zero is alive and chill again. Bad news though, the world rebooted at about the start of Mortal Kombat 1, so, despite everyone's best attempts to avoid such a fate, Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero is still kanon. This means that when Scorpion inevitably killed Sub-Zero all over again, he became Noob Saibot, again, just like last time. Unlike last time, though, since his big reveal as OG Sub-Zero was already spent back during Deadly Alliance, this Noob Saibot was out and proud, and basically became Quan Chi's personal bodyguard for much of the story. And then he got tossed into The Soulnado. Whoops.
The Soulnado should have either torn Noob Saibot to pieces or made him Defender of the Realms (there's precedent!), but it wound up doing exactly nothing. Noob Saibot laid low for the entirety of Mortal Kombat X, and, like in the original timeline, only decided to skulk out of the shadows when his bosses got murdered. In this case, he joined up with the bad gal du jour in exchange for a promised clan of shadow ninja. Every last kharacter in Mortal Kombat 11 fails, though, and the universe gets flushed down the toilet once again. So will Noob resurface as Sub-Zero again, or will he be doomed to be a Noob forever? Time will tell!
So let's try this story again…
Once upon a time, Bi-Han aka Sub-Zero was a warrior that fought in the first Mortal Kombat, but was fatally defeated by his rival, Scorpion. However, Bi-Han was not the only cryomancer in the Lin Kuei. There was his younger brother, Tundra. There was also his sister, Ice, his other brother, Freezing, his estranged cousin, Frost, his weird uncle, Kinda Cold But I Guess You Could Turn Down The Thermostat If You Want, and his dog, Cool Joe Canine. But this story isn't about any of them, this is simply the story of Kuai Lang, formerly Tundra, who decided to adopt the title of Sub-Zero upon the immolation of Sub-Zero I.
Sub-Zero the Younger is a very different person from his brother. Well… not technically, as they both looked identical between Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat 2, but, when Sub-Zero decided to avenge his brother by completing Lin Kuei's contract on Shang Tsung's head (oh yeah, that's why Bi-Han showed up for MK1), he made two important choices. One, he brought backup in the form of Smoke, another Lin Kuei assassin who had control over… I don't know… probably earth or something. Second, Sub-Zero proved himself to be less blood-thirsty than his bro. Despite being in the tournament for the exclusive purpose of murdering a dude, Sub-Zero did not needlessly murder some rando during Mortal Kombat 2 (probably Baraka. He's always the chump), and this mercy conveyed to Scorpion that Sub-Zero II was certainly not the vicious Sub-Zero I. Never mind that an immortal vengeance creature should probably be able to tell two different people apart for all sorts of other reasons, but I suppose poor perception is one of the drawbacks of being a skeleton without, ya know, eyes. Regardless, Scropion and Sub-Zero became best buddies for a game or two as a result, and everyone went home happy.
Wait, crap, nothing happy ever happens in this franchise. So we had two Mortal Kombats, and a Sub-Zero was supposed to kill Shang Tsung in both of them. And, while the newest Sub-Zero at least survived Mortal Kombat 2, he didn't actually complete the contract, as Shang Tsung still lived. This meant the Lin Kuei assassins had to make a difficult choice to regain their fallen honor. Options available included:
• Send more assassins to kill Shang Tsung
• Declare the contract null and void, as Shang Tsung proved to be an other-worldly sorcerer
• Find out who the hell kept putting out a hit on Shang Tsung, and offer a refund
• Launch a social media campaign that would convince everyone that killing Shang Tsung was for nerds
• Turn everyone into soulless robots
So the Lin Kuei, naturally, decided to go with the robot option. Look! They were going to try the social media option, but Bi-Han was the only one with their clan's facebook password. It happens!
So Sub-Zero and Smoke were chosen to become soulless robots in the first of a line of robot assassins that clearly wouldn't attempt to destroy all of humanity immediately. Sub-Zero and Smoke escaped, though. Well… mostly. Smoke was captured and automated, and Sub-Zero got away with a pretty significant (and bitchin') scar. Then Shao Kahn invaded all of Earth, and Sub-Zero got stuck fighting the forces of Outworld and robot ninja programmed to hunt and kill exclusively him. This is when we all learned that Sub-Zero is not only an expert ninja, but also some kind of computer genius. It's kanon that, during Mortal Kombat 3, Sub-Zero fought the forces of evil, reprogrammed Cyrax, reprogrammed Smoke and reawaked his soul, and found the time to reawaken the true soul of the Lin Kuei (or something). Basically, in one game, Sub-Zero went from a fledgling fugitive to nearly the leader of his clan. Though I suppose promotion opportunities were ripe as almost everyone else on Earth was effectively dead at the time…
Comparatively, Mortal Kombat 4 was a pretty chill time for Sub-Zero. Sub-Zero decided to fight against Shinnok because he read a plot synopsis of Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, and thought it was time to avenge his brother (or prove he was better than him). Scorpion plum forgot that this Sub-Zero had no input on his death or the death of his family, though, so Sub-Zero did have to deal with an angry skeleton during the battle. In the end, Scorpion and Sub-Zero made up, again, and Sub-Zero went home pretty satisfied when Liu Kang defeated Shinnok. Sure, Sub-Zero failed to kill the final boss again, but you really can't get upset when Liu Kang saves the world. He's good at it.
Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance presented a much worse time for Sub-Zero. One day, Sektor, the one robot that Sub-Zero decided not to reprogram, showed up, and murdered the Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei. Sub-Zero chased Sektor off with a broom, but the Lin Kuei was left without a leader. Sub-Zero, figuring that he was currently the only Lin Kuei member with a backstory and a name, decided to take up the mantel of leader. Literally. The position came with a rad dragon medallion, and, fun fact, it enhanced his ice powers a hundredfold. Sweet! It had the unfortunate drawback of making him look about 50 years old, though. The other assassins told him it made him look "distinguished", but that was probably just because he wouldn't stop making ice mirrors and sighing loudly. It was a rough time for Sub-Zero morale.
Sub-Zero then was the first Mortal Kombat kharacter to become a fake dad. Sub-Zero, now Grandmaster, took on a pupil, Frost. Frost was an unruly girl with ice powers just like Sub-Zero, so it only made sense that he would be able to help her to be a better person through training and whatever assassins do when they're not assassinating people. Unfortunately, Sub-Zero completely failed, and, while everyone was supposed to be saving the world during Deadly Alliance, Frost betrayed Sub-Zero, and stole his rad medallion. This backfired immediately, and Frost was overwhelmed by her own overflowing cryomancy, transforming her into a comatose Frostsicle. Sub-Zero, not really anxious to ever see Frost again, decided to find the deepest ice box in Outworld to stow his treacherous protégé. And, score, he managed to find his family's ancient land in Outworld, and, apparently, this was when he discovered his ice powers had some kind of origin story, and it wasn't just a "Guile can throw fireballs because whatever" situation every time he shot snowballs at an opponent. Neat!
With knowledge comes cool equipment powerups, so Sub-Zero donned the armor of his people in time for Mortal Kombat Deception. So, if you're curious why Sub-Zero looked like The Shredder for a game or two, there you go. Sub-Zero then became super best friends with Kenshi, a blind swordsman, and the two had whacky adventures in Outworld that really didn't have much to do with anything. They probably learned something about disabilities and tolerance and killing dudes with swords for arms. Sub-Zero then encountered his long lost brother, Evil Shadow Man, and Sub-Zero barely escaped with his life. He was also reacquainted with Smoke, who was now a robot demon that was none too pleased that Sub-Zero forgot he existed for like three games. Oh, and then Sub-Zero finally got home, only to discover that Frost had reawakened, got home before him, and murdered a healthy portion of his clan. Whoops!
Things only got worse during the events of Mortal Kombat Armageddon, when Smoke and Noob invaded the Lin Kuei temple, and converted anyone that wasn't already killed by Frost into a robot demon. Sub-Zero technically "won" that battle, but the Lin Kuei were not looking too good by the end of Armageddon. Luckily, this was about when the universe rebooted, so no one had to dig out a manual on demon robot assassin clan maintenance.
The new universe of Mortal Kombat 9 started about the same: Sub-Zero took up the mantle of Sub-Zero after the death of Sub-Zero. But! This time, instead of Smoke being captured and transformed into a robot, Sub-Zero was captured, and automated into Cyber Sub-Zero. And that was kind of cool! Except he wound up having the same arc as Cyber Smoke (is robot, rediscovers soul, decides to fight for virtue) with the added handicap of being murdered about seven seconds into joining the forces of good. Cyber Sub-Zero then becomes an evil zombie robot, but Quan Chi immediately transformed Zombie Robot Sub-Zero back into simply Zombie, Fleshy Sub-Zero, because there was no way this albino sorcerer was going to deal with a zombie that required update reboots every three days.
So Undead Sub-Zero (but not Noob Saibot, he was already double dead at this point) served Quan Chi and Shinnok for a little bit, until Raiden (maybe accidentally) revived a group of revenants that included our favorite frosty buddy. Alive Sub-Zero then follows his old "destiny" again: he becomes grandmaster of the Lin Kuei, fights off Sektor and his evil robot ninja, and even begins a new friendship with Alive Scorpion. Frost, rather chilly in any timeline, nearly cocks it up, but Sub-Zero bonds with Scorpion over some footage of his entire family being murdered, and all is forgiven.
Mortal Kombat 11 continues the trend of Sub-Zero being vaguely tangential to the plot. The big bad of the game has recruited Frost and some time-displaced Cyber Ninja to her cause, and it naturally comes down to the all-star team of Scorpion and Sub-Zero to squash this threat. Sub-Zero, once again, reprograms Cyrax and more-or-less destroys the Cyber Initiative, thus ending the threat of this army of mooks that weren't going to be useful in anything but a Musuo game anyway. When the universe is rebooted, Sub-Zero doesn't distinctly have anything to do with the final victory (no Ice God Sub-Zero for you), and is vaporized having not ever found that sweet armor in this timeline.
Personally, I find that ending for a beloved kharacter to be a little… cold.
Next time: Six arms, two characters.
Posted by gogglebob. Categories: Mortal Kombat Komplete. Tags: Lin Kuei, mortal kombat, noob saibot, quan chi, scorpion, smoke, sub-zero.
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[MSFS] Toulouse France V2.2
FlightSimAddons Thursday, December 3, 2020 Edit this post
Toulouse France for microsoft flight simulator
Toulouse France
Toulouse is the capital of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the region of Occitanie. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the Mediterranean Sea, 230 km (143 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean and 680 km (420 mi) from Paris. It is the fourth-largest city in France, with 479,553 inhabitants within its municipal boundaries (as of January 2017), and 1,360,829 inhabitants within its wider metropolitan area (also as of January 2017), after Paris, Lyon and Marseille, and ahead of Lille and Bordeaux.
Toulouse is the centre of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus (formerly EADS), the SPOT satellite system, ATR and the Aerospace Valley. It also hosts the European headquarters of Intel and CNES's Toulouse Space Centre (CST), the largest space centre in Europe. Thales Alenia Space, ATR, SAFRAN, Liebherr-Aerospace and Airbus Defence and Space also have a significant presence in Toulouse.
The University of Toulouse is one of the oldest in Europe (founded in 1229) and, with more than 103,000 students, it is the fourth-largest university campus in France, after the universities of Paris, Lyon and Lille.
The air route between Toulouse–Blagnac and the Paris airports is the busiest in France, transporting 3.2 million passengers in 2019. According to the rankings of L'Express and Challenges, Toulouse is the most dynamic French city.
Founded by the Romans, the city was the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom in the 5th century and the capital of the province of Languedoc in the Late Middle Ages and early modern period (provinces were abolished during the French Revolution), making it the unofficial capital of the cultural region of Occitania (Southern France). It is now the capital of the Occitanie region, the second largest region in Metropolitan France.
Toulouse counts three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Canal du Midi (designated in 1996 and shared with other cities), and the Basilica of St. Sernin, the largest remaining Romanesque building in Europe, designated in 1998 along with the former hospital Hôtel-Dieu Saint-Jacques because of their significance to the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route. The city's unique architecture made of pinkish terracotta bricks has earned Toulouse the nickname La Ville Rose ("The Pink City").
GPS: 43° 36′ 16.2″ N, 1° 26′ 38.4″ E
v1.0: initial release
v1.1: Add City of Space
v1.2: Fix some texture flickering issues
v2.0: Fix a big issue with the LOD management system, due to the way Google Earth Decoder places and sizes the tiles. Now, there should not be any FPS issues, and framerate should be better and more consistent
v2.1: Add a fix for possible CTD issues
V2.2: Change LODs settings
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[MSFS] Abad Studios Airbus A319 V3
description: airbus a319 merged with asobo a320 cockpit. - 18 liveries added. -modern flight model -real physics -ground services correct...
a330-300 merged with asobo a320 cockpit - 10 liveries added. -modern flight model -real physics -ground services correctly: stairs, fuel an...
description: airbus a318 merged with asobo a320 cockpit. - 13 liveries added. -modern flight model -real physics -ground services correctly...
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FlightSimAddons©: [MSFS] Toulouse France V2.2
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


SMC products address the challenge of providing maximum performance while minimizing energy costs and downtime. The sampling of products below demonstrates how SMC continually innovates to meet the evolving needs of the tire manufacturing process.
SMC's airline equipment provides unsurpassed sensing, air regulators and air filtration performance for your pneumatic system. With our large range of pneumatic preparation products, we can provide the clean dry air necessary to achieve the peak performance required by your fluid power system. Our connectors simplify the plumbing of all your components. SMC's innovative one-touch and uni-thread one touch fitting technology provides dramatic time savings during the installation of both air fittings and pneumatic flow controls. We offer many variations and sizes to suit any application. Tubing is made in several sizes and packaged in a variety of lengths.
Vacuum generator units, vacuum cups, vacuum buffers, vacuum sensor switches, fittings and vacuum instrumentation solutions allow the broadest utilization of technology and performance to meet your design specifications. Most options are modular allowing you to add only those that are relevant to your application. SMC vacuum cups are available in many different materials, sizes and shapes, and include options like stroke buffers to ensure that a perfect fit is made for each application. The diverse performance characteristics of SMC vacuum products allow utilization in a wide array of applications from manufacturing, packaging, assembly, to material handling. Precision combined with performance and a full line of accessories offers a comprehensive engineering solution to meet your specific need.
Standard design and dimensions make the media valve series a simple replacement valve. SMC's direct operated 2-port solenoid valves have improved durability and double their service life due to the unique construction. Built-in wave rectifier results in a quiet operating series of valves that is suitable for a wide variety of applications.
Series CS2 air cylinder is a double acting, non-lube air cylinder. Aluminum die-cast is used for both the rod and head covers, which means a maximum weight reduction of approximately 50% (basic 125mm bore, 100mm stroke). This series is available in bore sizes 125mm, 140mm and 160mm with maximum strokes up to 1600mm (depending on the mounting configuration). Air cushions are standard on both ends. Other options include auto switches, rod boots, and Rc, NPT or G thread types.
Electric actuators offer distinct advantages over their pneumatic counterparts. Acceleration and speed are controlled and predictable. Multiple positions are possible with high precision and repeatability. Pushing forces can be programmed. With no need for compressed air, infrastructure and energy costs are lower. LE is SMC's current line of electric actuators, designed with a focus on easy setup and operation. Function parameters come preset, plus an "Easy Mode" setting option allows you to be operational quickly. The LE line is available in a variety of types including: sliders, rod and guided rod, slide tables, rotary, grippers, and miniature. Accessories include actuator controllers, and gateways.
Pneumatic products need special lubricant, seal material and design considerations to withstand elevated temperature applications. SMC offers solutions that deliver performance in the extreme temperatures as high as 150°C.


Details domestic missions including outreach and congregational support for Japanese, Native American, Hungarian, and Czech churches. BookCondition : Good-; front cover separating from book; chipping and tearing to thin spine; text secured by saddle staples; rubbing and staining to covers; former owner's name in ink on front cover.
In the wake of the end of the First World War, the Reformed Church in the United States instituted a movement for the spiritual education and material relief. The history and objectives of the Forward Movement are detailed here, including the funding of numerous colleges. Also includes the separate staple-bound Financial Supplement. Book Condition : Good; occasional spotting to text pages, block, and covers; creasing of top right corner cover and most pages; shelf wear at top edge including chipping.
"...a book of photographs, meditations, and testimonies shared with sugar cane cutters, immigrants, field workers, and viejos (long time residents in the plantation settlements) of the Dominican Republic." This book combines the author's work with stories from the residents and migrants and includes many b&w photos. A theme is that other's perseverance through struggles can strengthen one's faith and resolve. Book Condition : Very Good-; text unmarked; some rubbing to covers; waviness to spine.
8 James Hudson Taylor: Pioneer Missionary of Inland China Hunnex, Gloria G.
Short biography of 19th century missionary to China written by the daughter of two of Taylor's colleagues, contains several b&w illustrations. Reading copy only. Book Condition : Fair; crayon marks to inside covers, free end papers, and title page; chipping/bumping to spine ends and cover corners; mild scuffing to cover; spotting to text block; occasional spots of foxing to text. No Dust Jacket as issued.
10 An African Education: The Social Revolution in Tanzania Kurtz, Laura S.
A history of education in Tanzania, with special focus on the Arusha Declaration of 1967, by a Pennsylvania born educator. Hardback in dustjacket. 248 pages. Book Condition : Good +; Interior is clean, no tears or creases, no writing except name (of author's relative) on front free endpaper. Cover is clean with some light wear. Binding is tight. Dustjacket is worn, multiple chips and tears; glass ring spot; rubbing and creasing. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" t all.
Written by a former Christian missionary in Japan, these vignettes detail domestic mission efforts among Japanese expatriates during the early 20th century. Includes incidents of of discrimination faced by Japanese-Americans. Book Condition : Fair; major scuffing to covers and spine; small tear exposing matting at top spine end; no text marks but occasional stains on pages; bumping to cover corners; former owner's names inside front cover and on front free end paper; light age toning inside covers; binding slightly relaxed but intact.
Part of the Studies in the World Church and Missions series. Considered to be a classic title on missionary work, this work is Nevius' call for what he calls an indigenous church and influenced a generation missionaries in Korea and other countries. Book Condition : Very Good-; rubbing and scuffing to covers (especially rear); creasing, edge, and corner wear; no internal markings.


text:
Shifting the safety mindset
DJJ strengthened its safety culture by focusing on P-SIFs—potentially serious injuries and fatalities—a process-oriented approach for preventing workplace injuries.
© Daco / stock.adobe.com
The David J. Joseph Co. (DJJ), Cincinnati, sought to shift its safety mindset in 2016 when it formalized the prevention of potentially serious injuries and fatalities (P-SIFs), a process it started in 2015. These incidents could result in life-altering injuries or fatalities if circumstances were slightly different.
Terry McWhorter, DJJ's director of corporate safety, says this process-oriented approach to safety focuses on the goal of prioritizing and preventing the more serious workplace injuries. It arose from a paradigm shift in incident prevention.
Focus on prevention
"Numerous studies, particularly the BST/Mercer study published in 2011, concluded that the long-standing approach focused on reducing the number of less-serious incidents to effectively reduce those incidents with more serious outcomes isn't necessarily true," McWhorter says.
He continues, "The precursors and causal factors that lead to the less-serious incidents are not the same as those that contribute to P-SIFs. This was evident in the study, and we have also seen the same when trending our incident experience within DJJ."
Heinrich's Triangle, which was introduced in the book Industrial Accident Prevention: A Scientific Approach, written by William Heinrich in 1931, claims that focusing on near-misses and first-aid incidents reduces fatalities and lost-time injuries. However, the approach has been criticized more recently by some safety professionals as oversimplifying the relationship between near-misses and serious incidents, while some also say it places too much blame on the worker.
"From a workplace safety perspective, we have to look beyond the traditional methodology as illustrated in Heinrich's Triangle and prioritize SIF prevention," McWhorter says.
Additionally, he says, just because a company has gone a certain time frame without a recordable incident doesn't necessarily mean that unsafe acts and close calls did not occur.
Addressing a close call
Mobile equipment and pedestrian interactions represent a key critical risk area for recycling operations. "Tragically, pedestrians being struck by mobile equipment is the prominent cause of fatalities in our industry, and you can see the potential by just observing activity in a recycling facility," Terry McWhorter, director of corporate safety for David J. Joseph Co. (DJJ), Cincinnati, says. "We also have the additional challenge and responsibility to separate customers from mobile equipment activity and keep them protected while on-site."
More than five years ago, DJJ formalized a process for the prevention of potentially serious injuries and fatalities (P-SIFs) that involves examining the actual and potential outcomes of a safety incident and identifying and addressing precursors that could result in serious injury or fatality.
McWhorter explains how the company had a near-miss incident a couple of years ago at one of its locations that involved a front-end loader that was moving a scrapped car. The driver happened to catch a glimpse of a hard hat on the other side of the scrapped car in the path the loader was moving. He stopped the loader, lowered the load and noticed a person walking through the site.
"That was a near-miss as the pedestrian was in the path of a loader that was moving forward," he says.
To prevent a recurrence of the situation, he says DJJ looked beyond the actions of the driver and pedestrian to other activities that were going on in the area. McWhorter says in addition to car processing, the area had bulk storage tanks for fueling equipment, which meant all the other mobile equipment the location operated came to the area to refuel. Containers to receive scrap also were in the area, which was frequented by tow trucks and other third parties.
To address the risk, DJJ reconfigured the area, limiting it to car processing. The bulk containers storing fuel and the containers used for scrap were relocated. Better delineating the car processing area helped to eliminate the potential for interaction between the mobile equipment and pedestrians, McWhorter says.
While workplace safety has a behavioral element, these behaviors often are the result of a decision influenced by something else, he says. While employees still need to be aware of the operating environment, if DJJ can put positive controls in place and eliminate the possibility of interaction, that is the company's goal, McWhorter says.
Adding positive controls to prevent incidents is only one aspect of SIF prevention. "Once we implemented the corrective actions, we have to make sure they are effective going forward," he says, adding that DJJ makes and communicates changes that it deems necessary.
Instead, SIF prevention looks at actual and potential outcomes and prioritizes focusing on addressing precursors that can result in serious injury or fatality.
To determine whether an incident qualifies as a P-SIF, McWhorter says DJJ looks at its actual outcome and compares it with the potential worst-case scenario.
"We then look at what kept that worst-case from happening," he says. "What safety systems and controls were designed to be in place, and which ones failed? If all the controls failed and a small dose of luck, such as time or position, prevented a more serious result, this would obviously be a P-SIF. If one safety control remained in place and prevented the worst-case, then SIF potential is high. If more than one safety control were still in place, we try to avoid stringing multiple 'what-ifs' together."
McWhorter says DJJ also considers whether a SIF was "possible" or "probable." He offers an example: "If I am walking down a sidewalk, trip and fall to the ground, there is a possibility I could suffer a serious life-altering injury, but the probability would be very low. Conversely, if I were to fall from a working surface that is 10 feet high, the probability of it being a SIF is very high."
Assessing critical risks
DJJ has identified 12 critical risk categories for SIF prevention, McWhorter says. Many of these risk categories apply to industries beyond scrap recycling, including working at heights, hazardous energy, machine guarding, falling/flying material, working around trucks and trailers and torching and hot work, he adds.
In the recycling industry, specifically, McWhorter says mobile equipment and pedestrian interactions represent a key critical risk area. "Tragically, pedestrians being struck by mobile equipment is the prominent cause of fatalities in our industry, and you can see the potential by just observing activity in a recycling facility," he says. "We also have the additional challenge and responsibility to separate customers from mobile equipment activity and keep them protected while on-site."
While P-SIFs are "reactive" because they are in response to an event, McWhorter adds, they can help reduce risks by thoroughly investigating the causes.
McWhorter says investigations play an important role in identifying and addressing P-SIFs. While most accidents are attributed to employee behavior, he explains that "those behaviors are often the result of decisions that are influenced by equipment layout, the environment, management systems or other cultural factors." For that reason, eliminating the hazard or implementing engineering controls where possible can reduce the chance of making the wrong decision, he adds.
Each of DJJ's locations, which number more than 60, has trained incident investigation core teams with members from management and hourly teammates from different departments, which ensures a more thorough investigation because they bring varying perspectives, skill sets and knowledge to the task.
"[W]e also have a P-SIF review team, comprised of senior leaders from operations, safety, engineering and legal, that will review all findings, ask the appropriate questions and approve the investigation before distribution," McWhorter says.
As a result of these investigations, DJJ has developed controls for the 12 P-SIF risk categories that the company has identified in its operations.
Creating institutional and industry change
Once a P-SIF investigation has been completed, DJJ creates a P-SIF Alert, which contains a description of the P-SIF, the findings of the investigation, corrective actions and supporting photos and even video, he says. "This alert is then distributed throughout the organization with specific follow-up actions," McWhorter says.
"Most often, there are corrective actions that must be implemented in similar processes at other locations," he adds. "We also assign this as an action item in our electronic EHS (environment, health and safety) management system, so we can track progress."
"It is an iterative process," Chris Bedell, DJJ senior vice president and general counsel, says. "It is not static."
DJJ is interested in sharing the root causes and corrective actions it implements with the broader recycling industry, Bedell says. He also serves as co-chair of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) Safe Operations Committee. He says one of his main focuses in this role is educating the industry on what P-SIFs are and why they are so important.
Additionally, follow-up meetings at the location where the P-SIF occurred will verify whether the corrective actions are effective at mitigating the risk, McWhorter says. If changes are deemed necessary, that location will advise the overall organization as to what those changes consist of.
Since DJJ formalized its SIF prevention program in 2016, the company has been tracking its P-SIF rate. "We include this rate in our reports with our recordable, DART (days away, restricted or transferred) and lost-time rates, but highlight the P-SIF trend for focus," McWhorter says. "Like many others, we have seen our incident rates decline over the years but need to recognize the precursors are different and avoid complacency."
Bedell says SIF prevention is a key part of DJJ's culture, which is founded on four core values: safety, respect, integrity and excellence. As part of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor Corp., DJJ also has accepted the overall enterprise challenge to become the world's safest steel recycling company, he says.
"We strongly believe there are so many benefits to being a safe organization," Bedell says, citing improved team, community and customer relationships. "Safety excellence leads to business excellence."
The author is editor of Recycling Today and can be contacted at dtoto@gie.net.
Counting on a rebound
Addressing the larger issue


Microsoft is planning to bring Windows Phone's WordFlow keyboard to the iPhone. Yep, it's finally happening.
Do you own an iPhone (5S or newer)? Do you think your native iOS keyboard could use improvement?
Word Flow keyboard has long been one of the highly praised features on Windows Phone and was used to break the Guinness World Record for fastest texting. We are now working on extending this keyboard to other platforms, starting with iOS.
Before publicly releasing this keyboard to the App Store, we'd love to give Insiders like you a preview. With your feedback, we'll build a roadmap of improvements to the keyboard over time.
If you're interested in participating in this beta program, just send an email to [email protected] with subject line "I want in!" and we'll be in touch!
As the email states, if you own an iPhone and are interested in participating in the beta program for the WordFlow keyboard for iOS, you will need to send an email to [email protected] with the subject line "I want in!" to be able to get in.
It will be interesting to see how Microsoft's WordFlow keyboard works on iOS. The company's keyboard on Windows Phone is really good and definitely beats the native iOS keyboard. If you are a fan of the WordFlow keyboard on Windows Phone, are you glad that Microsoft is finally bringing the keyboard to iOS? Discuss in the comment section below.
Thanks, Kyle for the tip!


For authentic, classic, western boots, Roper is the brand to trust. Your little one can express her taste is fashion with these bright purple floral western boots! Perfect for work, or play she is sure to stand out in style!


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The 2007 MTV Movie Awards: Hollywood Gone Wild
By now, we all know that awards shows in Hollywood are all about taking home the big prize-well, not the MTV movie awards. It seems that this show isn't about winning but more on Hollywood stars having a great time and keeping the censors on the edge.
The show was hosted by Sarah Silverman, who made a few people cringed during her opening stand-up comedy act, particularly, the one she made about Paris Hilton going to jail. The cameras panned in on Paris Hilton during the joke and she wasn't smiling.
Plus, it's not going to be an MTV Movie awards without controversial scenes like Sarah Silverman and Jessica Biel's near-kiss and Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen's on-stage make-out session.
The show was broadcasted live from the Gibson Amphitheater and it was all too obvious that the stars were enjoying themselves by giving the Censors a thorough workout. Everyone was cussing, including Bruce Willis who let out a "Yippee kay ay, motherf----", even Jack Nicholson joined in on the bleeping party and dropped an F-bombed during his thank-you speech when he received the Best Villain.
There were also some power-packed performances like Rihanna and Jay-Z's rendition of "Umbrella" and Amy Winehouse performed her hit song "Rehab".
But let's not forget that this is an Awards Show so there are winners. The biggest winners are Pirates of the Caribbean and Borat who took home two awards each. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest won the best movie and Johnny Depp won Best Performance. During his speech, Johnny Depp thanked Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney for not firing him. Indeed, thank God they didn't or we wouldn't have Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
Sacha Baron Cohen also won two awards, one for Best Comedic Performance for his classic portrayal of the Kazakh journalist, Borat, and the other is for best kiss which he shared with Will Ferrell for their performance in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, this is where all the manly kissing and groping started. I was waiting for an appearance of Borat, but Sacha, during his thank-you speech for Best Comedic Performance, said that Borat is in rehab for driving under the influence of horse urine.
If you missed the show, too bad, you probably won't catch another one like it next year since the Censors will still probably have this event in mind before they allow MTV to do another live show. Here's a list of the winners:
* Best Movie: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest * Best Performance: Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest * Best Villain: Jack Nicholson, The Departed * Breakthrough Performance: Jaden Smith, the Pursuit of Happyness * Best Comedic Performance: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan * Best Kiss: Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby * Best Fight: Gerard Butler vs. "The Uber Immortal"- 300 * Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet: TRANSFORMERS * mtvU Best Filmmaker on Campus: Josh Greenbaum- Featured Film: Border Patrol * Best Movie Spoof: United 300 by Andy Signore * MTV Generation Award: Mike Myers
Posted by natalie1981 at 9:28 AM
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Q: Using "if let" on swiftyJSON makes my coredata assignment go awry I have some JSON data I'm working with on swiftyJSON.  I'm putting it into core data.  If all the fields are there, it works fine, but some of the fields are empty, and I'm trying to "protect" against the empty ones.
Here's the section of code that works just fine, if all fields are populated:
        // Iterate through each item in the JSON
        for (_,subJson) in readableJSON[]["data"] {
            let title = subJson["title"].string!
            let url_title = subJson["url_title"].string!
            let entry_id = subJson["entry_id"].string!

        let newPet: NSManagedObject = NSEntityDescription.insertNewObjectForEntityForName("Pets", inManagedObjectContext: context)

        // Store the data in CoreData "Pets"
        newPet.setValue(self.title, forKey: "title")
        newPet.setValue(url_title, forKey: "url_title")
        newPet.setValue(entry_id, forKey: "entry_id")

        } // end of "for items in JSON struck

But, to try and protect against an empty field, I tried doing this to the JSON iteration:
        if let entry_id = subJson["entry_id"].string {}

But when I do this, the newPet.setValue throw this error:

Use of unresolved identifier 'entry_id'

In this case, I know that entry_id always exists, so I'm confused.
Thoughts?

A: An if let statement only binds that variable within its own block:
if let entry_id = subJson["entry_id"].string {
    //entry_id exists in this block, and is non-nil
}
else {
    //entry_id was nil, doesn't exist
}

//entry_id doesn't exist anymore

If you would like to bind to that name for the parent scope, use guard let:
guard let entry_id = subJson["entry_id"].string else {
    //entry_id was nil, doesn't exist
    //you MUST break, return, or call a @noreturn function from here
}

//entry_id exists for the rest of this scope, and is non-nil

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


his ministry represents Blessed Sacrament's effort to reach out to those parishioners who because of infirmity can no longer attend Mass yet want to continue to participate in the life of the parish. Many of these people are elderly and have no one else to visit them, so the volunteer is providing an important service.
If someone falls ill or becomes homebound, please call the parish at 323-462-6311. We will put you in contact with Fr. Leo Prengaman. He makes arrangements for the sick person to be visited in his home. The minister brings Holy Communion as well as a parish bulletin and spends time with the sick person, beginning and ending the visit with a prayer.
Our ministry is always looking for individuals interested in volunteering. Please contact one of the leaders below.
Fr. Leo will provide you with a training class and some idea of how to approach the visits and what to do, as well as things to avoid. Once your training is successfully completed, the parish will provide you with a pyx (a blessed container for the Holy Eucharist) and Mr. Heil will assign you to one or more needy parishioners.
When do volunteers usually get sent out?
Visits are often on Sundays but not necessarily so; they are set at the convenience of the volunteer and the best time for the needy parishioner.


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Pennsylvania's Seat Belt Laws: What You Need to Know
Posted On behalf of Schmidt Kramer on Mar 20, 2019 in Car Accidents
Wearing your seat belt is one of the best ways to keep you protected from harm in case of a car accident. Despite this well-known fact, many drivers and passengers fail to use their seat belt, which can result in serious injury or death. Additionally, not wearing your seat belt can subject you to fines and legal frustrations.
The Harrisburg car accident lawyers at Schmidt Kramer have prepared the following information below on the various seat belt laws in place in Pennsylvania to help keep you safe on the road.
Statistics on Car Accidents and Seat Belt Use
Wearing your seat belt can increase the likelihood of surviving an accident by up to 60 percent. National research indicates that you are 25 times more likely to be killed if you do not buckle up and are ejected from the vehicle.
It is important to wear seat belts, even if the journey is not very far. Three out of four crashes occur within 25 miles from the driver or passenger's home.
According to the latest statistics by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, 80.2 percent of people involved in car crashes in the state were wearing seat belts in 2017. However, 50.3 percent of people who died in car crashes were not wearing seat belts. Additionally, 911 people who had serious accident injuries in 2017 were not wearing seat belts. A lap/shoulder belt reduces the risk of fatal injuries to front seat passengers by 45 percent.
Wearing seat belts is also important to protect child passengers. When properly installed, child safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71 percent for infants and 54 percent for toddlers.
Wearing a Seat Belt in Pennsylvania
There are a number of laws regarding seat belt use in Pennsylvania. There are different rules for drivers and passengers, depending on their age and location in the vehicle.
Drivers must wear their seat belts at all times under state law. They must also secure a child from birth to age eight in an approved car seat or child passenger restraint system. Children under two must be in a rear-facing seat until the child exceeds the manufacturer's maximum height and weight limits.
Drivers are also responsible for securing a child ages four to eight in a seat belt system and an appropriately fitting booster seat. Driving anyone between the ages of eight and 18 years old must wear a seat belt at all times.
If the driver is under 18, he or she cannot operate a vehicle that has more passengers than it has seat belts.
All front seat passengers must wear seat belts. Children passengers should be buckled up at all times and in any seat. The back seat is the safest location for child passengers.
Penalties for Not Wearing a Seat Belt
If a driver does not secure a passenger between eight and 18 years of age in a seat belt system anywhere in the vehicle, the penalty is a $10 fine plus court fees.
Failing to secure a child from four to eight years of age in a seat belt system and appropriately fitting child booster seat can result in a $75 fine plus court fees or proof of a car seat purchase.
Click It or Ticket Campaign
Pennsylvania participates in the national Click It or Ticket campaign in which law enforcement agencies conduct specific enforcement activity in May and November to promote highway safety. During these time periods, drivers and passengers are especially reminded to buckle up to avoid facing unnecessary injuries or penalties.
Get Legal Help If You Have Been Injured in a Car Accident
If you were injured in a car accident, it is important that you learn about your rights. The skilled team of attorneys at Schmidt Kramer can review the specifics of your case and explain your options for recovery.
Contact us to schedule your free consultation. We work on a contingency fee basis, so you are not charged any legal fees unless we recover compensation on your behalf.
Give us a call at (888) 476-0807 to get started.
Contact Our Legal Team TODAY
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$10,043,952 - Personal Injury Case
Gerry Kramer won a personal injury action for $10,043,952.13 in Northumberland County on behalf of a volunteer firefighter who was the victim of Intentional Tort. The 50-year-old volunteer firefighter was seriously injured when a barn collapsed, causing a spinal injury which left him a paraplegic. The claim was brought against the arsonist who intentionally started the fire. It is believed that the verdict is the highest ever in Northumberland County.
$4,034,000 - Personal Injury Case
A couple from New Berlin, Pennsylvania was awarded over $4,000,000 because the husband was shot while turkey hunting. The 51 year old client lost his sight because a convicted felon - who should not have even possessed a gun - went hunting illegally, and broke with impunity the most fundamental rule in hunting: identify your target before you pull the trigger.
$2,200,000 - Auto Accident Case
Scott Cooper obtained a verdict on behalf of his client who is the widow of a man who died in a crash on Interstate 78 in Lebanon County. The awarded verdict of $2.2 million was in a nonjury proceeding before a federal judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. That verdict includes $100,000 in punitive damages assessed against the owner of the trucking company.
$1,024,040 - Wrongful Death Case
Scott Cooper settled a wrongful death case on behalf of the widow of a police office who was killed in a car accident in the line of duty for $1,024,040.80. The claim against the other driver was amicably resolved before suit was filed for the entire available policy limits for the other driver. The case took place in Adams County, PA.
$950,000 - Personal Injury Case
Gerry Kramer won a $950,000.00 suit in Perry County for a motor vehicle accident. The personal injury action for a wrongful death was filed on behalf of a 19-year-old female killed in the accident. The victim was a passenger in a vehicle that left the roadway striking a fixed object.
$742,000 - Wrongful Death Case
Scott Cooper settled a wrongful death claim for $742,000 on behalf of a the estate of a trash worker killed in a car accident in Franklin County. The case was amicably resolved for all of the available insurance policy coverage for the other driver and under insured motorist carrier. Also, Mr. Cooper was able to amicably resolved all subrogation interests with the worker's compensation carrier for a lump sum and agreement for the subrogation claim to be waived in full.
Gerry Kramer won a $215,000.00 personal injury action on behalf of a drunk driving victim in York County. The victim was a 56-year-old man who was struck by drunk driver in Lancaster County, PA. He suffered a subdural hematoma which resulted in severe headaches.
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BangScrewTheCops – Emori Pleezer – Live Streams Her Getting Fucked By A Cop!
BangScrewTheCops – Layla Love – Hijacks The Police Cruiser And Gets Fucked For Being A Bad Girl!
BangScrewTheCops – Penelope Reed – Fucks The Cop That Saves Her From Being Mugged!
BangScrewTheCops – Naomi Mae – Fucks The Cop That Responds To Her 911call!


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Tag: paint job
Matt And Geoff's Great Brooklyn/Queens Adventure
I was born in Brooklyn and went to high school there (via a bus and two subways). I figured I'd done my time. Did I have to go back?
I asked fellow meteorologist Matt Scott if he wanted to go to the city? Helaine had business on the other side of the state and I'm drawn to New York. I know Matt is too. We just didn't know what we'd do once we got there!
Not to make a joke of it, but even as we left Connecticut we didn't have a clue where we'd go or what we'd do.
"I've never been to Brooklyn," he said.
We drove over the Throgs Neck Bridge, onto the Cross Island and then the LIE.
There are signs on the Throgs Neck stating photography is strictly prohibited. At the same time on any given Saturday and Sunday the Brooklyn Bridge is infested with thousands of tourists and locals–most with cameras. What makes the Throgs Neck so insecure? Do they really think it's a more tantalizing target than the storied Brooklyn Bridge?
I asked Matt if he'd like to see where I grew up and went to grade school? What was he going to say? I was driving!
A few minutes later we were standing in front of PS 163. The front door was propped open. A man was outside smoking a cigarette.
"I went here 50 years ago," I began.
Shit, that makes me sound old. Luckily, I'm immature for my age.
Before long we were in the school.
This building is the equivalent of one of the locales for MSNBC's prison doc block! It was a school unsuited for me run by a woman I suspect hated me. From grade two to six I suffered inside.
The only saving grace was it was an amazing school for learning–even for someone who fought learning as much as I did! PS163 was firmly grounded in "tracking." That's the practice of grouping students of similar abilities together. Tracking has lost favor today. I'd be surprised to hear it's used anywhere, though it certainly benefited me. I spent five years competing in a class of overachievers.
We had no gym. We had no recess. We had little outdoor activity–ever. Imagine.
There was… there still is a large room in the front of the building where, for a few years, we did some sort of cockamamie square dancing.
I was astounded to see numbers still painted high on the walls. This was where each class lined up in the case of emergency. The numbers corresponded to room numbers. This paint job is at least fifty years old!
PS163 worked out so well I asked Matt if he wanted to see Electchester, where I grew up? Again, to my surprise he said, "Yes."
Everything looked smaller as we wound our way through the south end of Flushing. We headed to Kissena Blvd. then the LIE's service road and up Parsons Boulevard where I lived. I put the top up on the convertible and we got out.
I've used this analogy before, but these buildings (and the ones across the street at NYCHA's Pomonok Houses) are reminiscent of the worst of Soviet style architecture! Considering the two complexes had well over 5,000 residents we were pretty devoid of amenities and services.
Because of how our individual building was turned to the street it was always much more convenient to enter through the basement which was 100% concrete and had asbestos wrapped exposed pipes and conduits. Maybe if I'd used a more formal and 'softer' entrance my experience would have been different. I'll never know.
Matt and I walked around the building as I took photos. I wasn't about to go in an see who was living in 5E where my family moved in 1953.
Stopping at these two places was amazing even though my experiences at both were sub-optimum. I decided to give Matt his trip to Brooklyn… but would he mind if we stopped at my high school?
We drove down Jewel Avenue to the Van Wyck Expressway then westbound on the LIE to the BQE. Without a GPS the rest was dependent on instinct and luck.
"See that tall antenna?" I asked Matt, pointing at a tall radio tower atop a building. "That's my high school."
We took the turns I thought would get us there while Matt tried to keep the antenna in sight. When we turned onto Fulton Street we were home free.
The neighborhood has really changed for the better. The brownstones on Ft. Greene Place were decrepit and often abandoned when I went to Tech. Now the neighborhood is gentrified. Don't think of looking at a brownstone for less than seven figures.
I remember getting off the GG (now G) train at Fulton Street and walking by three bars before turning toward the school. Even at that early morning hour I remember watching drunks stumble out as I walked down the street. The bars are gone. The new stores are nice.
Brooklyn Tech is currently surrounded by scaffolding. There's some sort of major renovation going on. This is, after all, a school built as a stimulus project during the Great Depression. It's aged.
We walked three sides of the immense school building stopping at every outside door to see if it was open. At the very last door we saw three men at a car. The adjacent door to the school was slightly ajar.
New Yorker's aren't usually quick and free with information, but they answered yes.
"I graduated forty years ago and haven't been back since. Can we go in?"
The boss looked at one of his workers and told him to take us in. We couldn't stay long. There was work to be done.
No matter how large a high school you went to mine was larger! Allow me to sing.
Tech alma mater molder of men.
Proudly we rise to salute thee again.
Loyal we stand now six thousand strong.
The rest of the song is inconsequential. Six thousand boys went to Tech. That's the important part.
Most of the school was eight stories tall with five corridors per floor. A smaller part of the building went to eleven stories. Yes, we had elevators, but you could only use them between certain designated floors.
"What's that up there?" Matt asked looking at a glass covered area on the highest floor.
"That's the foundry."
Yeah, we had a foundry. In high school I poured molten pig iron! I know what a cope and drag are and how to make a wooden pattern for pouring.
Tech was where you learned to be an engineer. Our course of study was perfectly designed to fill the needs of 1940's America. Alas, it was a little long in the tooth upon my arrival in 1964.
We stopped for a few photos in the 3,000+ seat auditorium and a look at some of the intricate work produced by government employed WPA artisans. Remember, Tech was built both as a school and as a make-work project to employ people during a horrific economic crisis.
Again, this was a great stop. I was totally shocked we'd been let in. Thank you unknown custodial staff. I appreciate your kindness.
When Matt originally mentioned Brooklyn it was because of a weekly flea market he'd read about. It was in the neighborhood and we headed right there.
As is the case with much of New York City this flea market was a veritable United Nations. Every possible shade of skin as well as an immense variety of accents were represented. There was enough diversity to make everyone a minority.
It's tough to describe what was being sold because so much of it was totally off-the-wall. Yes, there were books about Hitler. Yes, there was a Jesus Christ Action Figure.
"It has wheels," said the guy trying to sell it.
Like Tech this was a bad neighborhood at one time. Not anymore. I said to myself, "I could live here," though I'm not really sure that's true. Certainly on this lazy summer's afternoon it was quite lovely and inviting.
The flea market closed at five and we were back in the car heading toward the Brooklyn Bridge. Last August I'd walked the bridge with my friend Steve. I thought Matt would enjoy it too. I had only the vaguest of guesses where the bridge was as we set out.
"There it is," Matt blurted, but he was looking at the Manhattan Bridge.
Typical out-of-towner mistake. A bridge is a bridge–right? But knowing where the Manhattan Bridge was the same as knowing where the Brooklyn Bridge was because they're so close to each other.
We found on-the-street parking a few blocks from the entrance to the bridge's walkway. A whole day in New York City without paying for parking! My father is proud!
The Brooklyn Bridge provides an incredible vista from which to view the city. Crossing the East River the bridge connects Downtown Brooklyn with Downtown Manhattan. It's about a one mile walk.
I bought a bottle of water from a vendor and we headed over.
I cannot recommend this trek enough. Looking south you see Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. In the distance tall cranes mark the port facilities in New Jersey.
To the north is the nearby Manhattan Bridge and a glimpse into Midtown. The Empire State Building dominates most northward views.
The East River is a working river. There's plenty of commercial traffic though not the international fleet found on the Hudson.
There were lots of interesting looking people on the bridge, but none more interesting than the couple (by her accent, French) who found a girder with hand rails which led over the auto roadway to the edge of the bridge. It looked scary. They had just begun to head back when I spotted them.
After the bridge roundtrip we were hungry and found the Water Street Restaurant and Lounge. Surprisingly it wasn't busy. I had a Cajun Blackened Sirloin Burger with BBQ Sauce, Andouille Sausage, Crisp Onion Ring, Cheddar Cheese. Matt had the Norwegian Lox Sandwich with Avocado, Pickled Cucumbers, Lime Mayo on Black Rye.
Good choice! Dinner was tasty.
Our last stop was the area under the two bridges. This being the weekend there were weddings taking place with the Manhattan skyline as backdrop. When you get married down by the banks of the East River you're inviting anyone around to stop and watch. It's really quite sweet, romantic and frugal!
We stayed near the river until the sun went down, then headed home.
We'd set out with no firm plan and yet (even Matt will admit) had a really fun day. It was nice to go back home. It was nice to see how Brooklyn's changed. It was good for Matt to discover Brooklyn.
Author Geoff FoxPosted on August 3, 2009 Categories UncategorizedTags America, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Bridge, car heading, Christ Action Figure, Connecticut, Cross Island, East River, Empire State Building, engineer, fellow meteorologist, Geoff, GPS, Hitler, Manhattan Bridge, Matt, Matt Scott, Midtown, MSNBC, New Jersey, New York, new york city, paint job, Statue of Liberty, Steve, There it is, Throgs Neck Bridge, United Nations, Van Wyck ExpresswayLeave a comment on Matt And Geoff's Great Brooklyn/Queens Adventure


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She Persisted
The perfect book to inspire a new generation of persistent women, She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton is a beautifully illustrated children's book that young readers can learn a lot from. Clinton explains that being a girl can be hard, and there will be times when someone will tell a girl that she cannot do something because she is a girl. She goes on to tell her young readers that girls can do anything and gives examples of thirteen influential American women who were told they could not do something, but they did not take no for an answer ― they persisted!
Of the thirteen women mentioned in She Persisted, some names will ring a bell, like Harriet Tubman, Hellen Keller, Oprah Winfrey, and Sonia Sotomayor. Clinton explains the incredible feats these women accomplished after being told they couldn't simply because of their gender. Other names may not be as familiar, and you can learn along with your child. For instance, Clinton includes the story of Claudette Colvin. Claudette was only fifteen years old when she refused to give up her seat on the school bus to a white woman and inspired Rosa Parks to do the same. Florence Griffith Joyner, who to this day hold the records in the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints from when she won gold at the 1988 Summer Olympics ― this makes her the fastest woman ever. Virginia Apgar dreamed of being a doctor well before it was considered normal for women to be doctors. Even after qualifying to be a doctor the head surgeon, who was a man, told her that she shouldn't become a doctor because of her gender. But Virginia persisted and went onto create the Apgar score to treat a newborn baby's heath ― hospitals around the world still use the Apgar score today. Like Virginia, Nellie Bly also had a man tell her she couldn't' do the job she wanted to do, he told her that working women were a "monstrosity," so she proved him wrong and became a reporter. She went undercover as a sweatshop worker and a patient in a mental hospital and exposed the institutions and their terrible conditions.
A wonderful story to read with your budding feminist child, well suited for children ages four to eight to read on their own. She Persisted is bound to inspire a new generation of strong and empowered activists!
CRITICS HAVE SAID
★ "[A] lovely, moving work of children's literature [and a] polished introduction to a diverse and accomplished group of women." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Exemplary . . . This well-curated list will show children that women's voices have made themselves emphatically heard." —Booklist
"[She Persisted] will remind little girls that they can achieve their goals if they don't let obstacles get in the way." —Family Circle
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