Today, Jensen Ackles, who plays Soldier Boy on The Boys and played Dean, one-half of the Winchester brothers on Supernatural, shared an exciting message on Instagram (via TVLine). In it, he reveals that both Jared Padalecki—who played his brother Sam—and Misha Collins—who played angel Castiel on Supernatural—would have roles in the upcoming season of The Boys.
This reunion has been much talked about, in no small part because Eric Kripke is the showrunner of The Boys and was the creator of Supernatural. In addition to Ackles, Kripke has also brought several Supernatural alums into The Boys, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jim Beaver, Rob Benedict, and Christian Keyes.
In a previous interview with TVLine, Kripke said that having Padalecki on the show was all about “finding the right role… even if it’s just for a guest shot.”
We don’t have any details yet on who Padalecki or Collins will be playing. One hopes, however, that we’ll see all three actors on screen together in one way or another.
When we find out whether we’ll see our Supernatural fam together in the same frame, however, is unclear: There’s no news yet on when season five of The Boys will premiere on Prime Video.[end-mark]
Sydkoreanska ET News rapporterar att Samsung förväntas introducera en foldable som viks två gånger. Denna så kallade ”trifold” kommer enligt utsago lanseras samtidigt som nästa Galaxy Fold och Galaxy Flip nu i sommar.
Masstillverkningen kan inledas i april. Till skillnad mot Huaweis trifold sägs Samsungs enhet bara vikas inåt, så att den flexibla panelen är skyddad när konstruktionen är hopvikt. Eftersom ingen av de tre skärmdelarna är vänd utåt kommer enheten ha en separat extern skärm.
Inre panelen är enligt ryktet 9,96 tum medan den yttre mäter 6,49 tum på diagonalen. ET News skriver att Samsung bara kommer tillverka runt 200 000 exemplar till att börja med, så det blir en nischad smartphone.
Enligt flera rapporter har Oneplus satsat på en ”liten” toppmodell i 6,3-tumsklassen. Vad telefonen heter är inte bekräftat men potentiella namn är Oneplus 13 Mini eller 13T. Om ryktena stämmer kommer Oneplus lilla telefon få ett mer väl tilltaget batteri än andras stora telefoner.
Enheten har rentav potential att sätta något slags batteritidsrekord: en 6,31-tums AMOLED-skärm i kombination med energieffektiva chippet Snapdragon 8 Elite och ett batteri med minst 6000 mAh. En dylik kapacitet är 20 procent större än batterierna i de största flaggskeppen från Samsung och Google. Även Pixel 9a förväntas erbjuda ett ovanligt stort batteri men 5100 mAh är långt från 6000 mAh.
Källan nämner att Oneplus ”mini”-telefon kommer ha en platt skärm. Förhoppningsvis får vi mer handfast information om enheten under våren.
Vi vet inte exakt varför kugghjulen i Googles gigantiska maskineri ibland rör sig så långsamt, men en av de väntade funktionerna som dröjt är möjligheten att se batterihälsan. Redan Android 13 hade ett dolt gränssnitt för att visa batterihälsan, men finessen har fortfarande inte släppts trots att vi snart är framme vid Android 16.
Kanske debuterar dock batterihälsan just i Android 16 för Pixel. Ett nytt gränssnitt för batterihälsan har upptäckts i Android 16 beta 2. Utöver att visa batterihälsan i procent innehåller gränssnittet tips för hur batteriers livslängd kan förlängas.
En praktisk fördel med indikatorn är att användare vet om försämrad batteritid beror på batteriet eller något annat. Batterihälsan gör det även lättare att veta ifall det är idé att investera i batteribyte, eftersom det går att se hur mycket batteriet degraderats. En annan bonus är bekräftelse på att det faktiskt hjälper att undvika höga och låga nivåer, eftersom batterihälsan då sjunker långsammare än annars.
It’s weird this isn’t talked about more, but Elon basically kidnapped his son. He used his lawyers to near bankrupt Grimes in her custody battle and it’s unclear if she has any access to her son at this point.
Grimes can be an unsympathetic figure at times, but this is just awful. Especially since it seems Elon is using this young boy as an anti-assassination tactic.
Jesus Christ.
The more I look into this, the worse it gets.
Grimes has two other children with Elon. They were both born from surrogates. The rumor is that at least one of the embryos was implanted without Grimes’ knowledge. I’m guessing there were embryos left over from the first surrogacy.
Grimes once tweeted 5 months after the birth she had not seen her child yet. Not even photos. This was the text of a deleted tweet from Grimes…
“Tell Shivon to unblock me and tell Elon to let me see my son or plz respond to my lawyer. I have never even been allowed to see a photo of these children until this moment, despite the situation utterly ripping my family apart.”
Shivon is another woman Elon donated sperm for in vitro who ended up having twins around the same time as the Elon/Grimes surrogate.
Elon was in control of the embryos. Implanted one and then birthed another son named… *sigh* Techno Mechanicus.
I say again… Jesus Christ.
People in the comments saying Grimes deserves this need to understand you can have sympathy/empathy for bad people. Grimes being a problematic ignorant weirdo does not mean she is undeserving of sympathy. Especially when innocent children are involved.
I have sympathy for a lot of people who say and do bad things. I grew up Catholic and was indoctrinated as a child into a cult of guilt. Just as my parents were before me. I still struggle with that guilt to this day despite escaping the church. But the brainwashing imposed by organized religion is strong. Especially when it is done to children. I have great sympathy for everyone who went through a similar experience, even if they did not break free from it. And while I don’t excuse bad things and believe they are still responsible for their actions as adults, I still maintain a lot of empathy for them.
Bad people can still be victims.
I have personally expressed sympathy for Donald Trump on several occasions. This is despite my blaming his rampant incompetence during COVID for causing my mother’s death.
I don’t hate him any less. I still very much wish for him to face consequences. But he is a sad old man and my sympathy circuits don’t just switch off because I hate him.
I think that helps remind me I am still human. That I am not “one of the baddies.” And I also think understanding the tragedy and trauma and abuse that turn people into monsters is helpful in a “know your enemy” context.
As the saying goes, hurt people hurt people.
All of that aside, I still think “don’t kidnap” is a pretty sound moral stance no matter who is involved.
Dagens fråga hade kunnat handla om huruvida vi känner oss beroende av mobilen, men en smartphone har blivit ett så oumbärligt verktyg i dagens moderna samhälle att alla mer eller mindre är beroende.
Vi behöver mobilen för att tillgodogöra oss information, för kommunikation och arbete, för kalender, påminnelser, alarm, bankärenden, betalningar, för nyheter, väderprognoser och otaliga andra användningsområden.
Frågan handlar därför istället om hur många gånger vi kollar mobilen om dagen. Antalet går förstås inte att hålla reda på manuellt men alla mobiler har idag funktioner för digital hälsa (om de inte har inaktiverats manuellt).
På Pixel-telefoner går det att se hur många gånger om dagen vi låser upp mobilen så här: Öppna inställningarna och tryck på kategorin Digitalt välmående och föräldrakontroller. Tryck därefter på ”upplåsningar” till vänster under cirkeldiagrammet. Då går det att se antalet upplåsningar dag för dag. Andra tillverkares telefoner bör erbjuda liknande statistik.
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By SilentPancake
I believe this is originally a quote from Rick & Morty, but I think it's just as funny on its own and works equally well for people who don't care for the show.
Oneplus-telefoner har med vissa undantag erbjudit ett fysiskt reglage som växlar mellan tre ljudlägen. Tack vare reglaget är det snabbt och enkelt att exempelvis byta från och till ljudlöst läge, utan att behöva väcka telefonen.
Enligt ett rykte från Weibo kommer reglaget ersättas med en fysisk ”trestegs”-knapp i framtida modeller. Knappen är anpassningsbar och stödjer flera olika funktioner. Källan liknar denna påstådda knapp med nya kamera-knappen i Iphones.
I guess we’ll call it the MGCU. Just rolls off the tongue, no? According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hasbro and Legendary are teaming up to build a whole Magic: The Gathering entertainment universe across film and TV. It will begin with a movie, and spin out from there.
As THR notes, Legendary has the reins of several franchises that are currently running in TV and movies, most notably the Dune universe and the Godzilla movies and Apple TV+ series. Hasbro, of course, has a whole lot of toys-to-series-or-movies experience, including the ever-looming Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover event.
Last fall, Hasbro announced a Magic: The Gatheringanimated series at Netflix, with Star Trek: Picard’s Terry Matalas as showrunner (picking up after Netflix and previous showrunner Anthony Russo parted ways). How this fits into the new universe is unclear.
Magic: The Gathering was originally released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, which was bought by Hasbro in 1999. The game can be played with physical or virtual cards, and involves wizards battling each other. The world is complex, the game extremely popular: It’s only surprising that this hasn’t become a cinematic universe already.
There’s no word yet on who will be writing and/or directing these Magical adventures.[end-mark]
I added one of my own, which I know I’ve written about before, but not here, I don’t think.
It’s about Patrick Stewart tugging on his tunic top, which always wanted to ride up when he (or anyone wearing the uniform) sat down. Because Patrick can’t do anything halfway, he made it very dramatic. Over time, he began to use it as a little bit of business in appropriate moments.
This is a story about that.
We were filming on the bridge. The scene started with Wesley standing, and after half a page or so, he sits down at the conn and I think plots a course or something.
Whenever Wesley sat down, he pulled his jacket tight, just like Picard always did. If you look, you’ll see that we all do that. That’s an important bit of context: we all did that.
So it was like take four of the scene. After we cut on take three, this producer came into the set and stood off camera, just to the right of the viewscreen, as we were looking at it. We do take four, and while we are resetting for take five, this producer comes over to me, leans down so nobody can hear him, and says, “You can’t pull your tunic down like that. That’s the Picard Maneuver, and only Picard can do that.”
So, first of all: this guy is so far out of his lane, he isn’t on the map. If anyone is ever going to talk to an actor, especially in between takes, it always goes through the First Assistant Director, and the Director. It’s a matter of professional respect, and it’s important for our work. If anyone can come up and give us notes or whatever, we will end up with all these conflicting notes, unsure which one to actually listen to.
I’m just 17 or so, and even I know all of this, but I don’t want to get in trouble, so I just say, “…okay. How am I supposed to stop it from riding up to my tits when I sit down? Because that’s what happens.”
He looks so annoyed at me, and sort of bark-whispers, “Just don’t touch it.” And he scurries away into the darkness of the stage.
I am so tired of being treated differently than these same people treat the adults, and I still haven’t learned how to speak up for myself, directly. But I am about to engage in a bit of malicious compliance, the only form of resistance I know how to employ.
We reset, they roll, and when Wesley sits down, his tunic comes all the way up, just like I said it would. It exposes my fake muscle suit, my bracers holding up my trousers, and absolutely ruins the take.
“Cut!” The director calls from offstage.
“Wil, you have to pull your tunic down,” he says, with this tone of utter confusion. Like, obviously.
“Yeah, I know,” I say, looking straight at the guy who is about to wish he’d stayed in his lane, “but [his name] told me that I wasn’t allowed to do the Picard Maneuver, so…” and I shrug, the tunic still bunched up.
That guy turned so bright red, he lit up in the darkness. Everyone on the entire crew looked at him. He sputtered something, and quickly fled the stage.
I made eye contact with Brent and with Frakes. They both looked back at me, communicating their approval. It felt great.
I can’t say for sure that we printed the next take and moved on, but it’s a great way to end the story so let’s go with that.
That guy never gave me a note again. If I recall correctly, my little tunic tug (similar to, yet legally distinctly different from the Picard Maneuver) is in the final cut of the episode
Neil Gaiman and his estranged spouse Amanda Palmer were sued today in a trio of U.S. states by a former New Zealand nanny of their son. “This claim arises out of Defendant Neil Gaiman’s sexual abuse of Plaintiff, and his … Continue reading →
If you’re curious why Trump thinks there is extra water being held back because of an insignificant fish, this video explains it all.
This is one of the best YouTube documentaries I’ve seen in a while. Though it will probably make you very angry.
And if you want the short version, Fox News made up the fish crisis on behalf of some rich almond farmers and the fish already died a while ago.
Also, I love how the fish gets progressively smaller throughout the video.
The water Trump wants “turned on” would kill salmon fishing and ruin large swaths of land because saltwater encroaching inland is really fucking bad for the soil. He’s basically saying, “Let’s destroy an industry and ruin land for no reason.”
LA does not need more water. The only issue they had was intense demand lowering water pressure. You cannot tap thousands of hydrants at many different elevations and expect to get good pressure without completely overhauling the water infrastructure.
NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Image: NASA.
In a late afternoon post to X, SpaceX founder Elon Musk stirred up some confusion and consternation among the space community.
Without any indication ahead of time, Musk suggested that the Crew Dragon capsule, named ‘Freedom,’ may make an early departure from the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams onboard.
The pair have been on orbit since June 2024 when they arrived on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft as part of the Crew Flight Test mission. Ultimately, NASA made the determination that they would come home on Dragon because of lingering uncertainties surrounding Starliner.
“The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so,” Musk wrote shortly after 5 p.m. EST. “Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.”
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft that launched NASA’s Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, seen from a window on the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. Image: NASA.
NASA leadership stressed repeatedly and in multiple forums that Wilmore and Williams are not “stranded,” but rather that Starliner didn’t have enough assurances around it to support a crewed trip back to Earth.
The spacecraft experienced issues with its propulsion system and experienced helium leaks during the trip to the space station, but was ultimately able to return to Earth safely. Because of ongoing work, Starliner hasn’t been certified to fly full, six-month crew rotation missions. It remains unclear when it will next fly.
“That was a unanimous decision not to return them on the Starliner,” said former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson during a reporter roundtable in December. “We finally knew with all that extra testing that they had done at White Sands, we knew what the cause was of why that valve was not performing, but we did not know why and that was just not worth taking the risk.”
Because of the decision to bring Starliner home autonomously and without its crew, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) pivoted and removed NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson from the crew lineup to make space for Wilmore and Williams to come home.
Cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov (left) will assist commander Nick Hague (right) during the Crew 9’s climb to space. The two empty seats will be used by Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams when all four return to Earth next March. Image: SpaceX
The duo, along with original Crew-9 members NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexandr Gorbunov, were originally scheduled to undock from the ISS in late February, following the arrival of the Crew-10 quartet.
However, an issue with the Crew Dragon designed to carry the Crew-10 mission to orbit, which happens to be the fifth and final planned Dragon to enter service, caused a launch delay to no earlier than late March.
“Fabrication, assembly, testing, and final integration of a new spacecraft is a painstaking endeavor that requires great attention to detail,” said Steve Stich, NASA’s CCP manager said in a Dec. 17 blog post. “We appreciate the hard work by the SpaceX team to expand the Dragon fleet in support of our missions and the flexibility of the station program and expedition crews as we work together to complete the new capsule’s readiness for flight.”
Spaceflight Now reached out to NASA to see if it is planning on making any changes regarding the timing of either the Crew-9 return or the Crew-10 launch and is waiting to hear back.
In addition to the one above, where Elyane, Egwene, and Nynaeve are looking ornately powerful on horseback, the photos give us glimpses of what we’re in store for in the upcoming episodes. What’s that glowing orb that Moiraine is manipulating? What kind of drinks are Elyane and Aviendha imbibing? Why and Suian channeling with such forceful anger? When will we finally see more of the Waste that Rand and the group of Aiel are obviously gazing at?
We have more answers than questions, though season three’s official synopsis may help us out:
After defeating Ishamael, one of the most powerful of the Forsaken, at the end of season two, Rand reunites with his friends in the city of Falme and is declared the Dragon Reborn. But in season three, the threats against the Light are multiplying: the White Tower stands divided, the Black Ajah run free, old enemies return to the Two Rivers, and the remaining Forsaken are in hot pursuit of the Dragon… including Lanfear, whose relationship with Rand will mark a crucial choice between Light and Dark for them both. As the ties to his past begin to unravel, and his corrupted power grows stronger, Rand becomes increasingly unrecognizable to his closest allies, Moiraine and Egwene. These powerful women, who started the series as teacher and student, must now work together to prevent the Dragon from turning to the Dark… no matter the cost.
Okay, so I still have questions! We sadly still have a few weeks left to get answers: The Wheel of Time keeps turning when season three premieres on Prime Video on March 13, 2025.
Here are the other first look images.[end-mark]
Credit: Prime VideoCredit: Prime VideoCredit: Prime VideoCredit: Prime VideoCredit: Prime VideoCredit: Prime VideoCredit: Prime VideoCredit: Prime Video
It makes me so angry that Trump’s favorite song is the gayest song in existence and he has no clue and he even dances like he is yanking dicks and I can’t laugh at this because facism.
Trump has about a dozen songs that he demands be played at every party, every event, without fail. He eats the same food almost every meal. He watches the same movies. And he watches Fox News, which is fairly repetitive.
I don’t know what that says about his psychology, but it is definitely sad.
ah we’re forgetting the interview where the village people confirmed it wasn’t meant to be about gay people and it was co-opted
Ah, I see.
So the group formed by two gay French music producers that was named after Greenwich Village because it was a “gayberhood” and whose first single was “San Francisco (You’ve Got Me)” did not write Y.M.C.A. as a gay anthem?
I hadn’t realized.
I guess I just assumed because their song “Sex Over the Phone” was released during the AIDS epidemic and was meant to encourage safe sex between gay men.
But now that I watch the video of Sex Over the Phone, I can see just how straight the Village People were.
And the super duper straight “Macho Man” video.
It’s always important to compose your shot so you get the ass and the bulge in the same frame.
There is “In the Navy” about all of the straight seamen serving their country in the straightest way possible.
They perform the entire video next to a giant erect cannon.
No symbolism there.
I guess you are correct. The Village People were straight guys writing straight songs for big strong straight presidents.
En av alla de saker som Donald Trump nu har infört är en ny definition av kön. Japp. Vita huset har publicerat en text som presenterar en definition av kvinnor och män och som fastslår att alla individer måste höra till den ena eller den andra av dessa grupper.
Detta är förstås fullständigt förödande för transpersoner och kommer att göra livet svårt för dem som har någon form av intersextillstånd (eller DSD som det också kallas, för differences of sex development).
Låt mig ta ett exempel. I en bok jag läste beskrivs en kvinna som kallas Jenny. Hon föddes som flicka, växte upp som flicka, gick igenom vad som såg ut som en kvinnlig pubertet – men hon fick aldrig mens. När hon gick till en gynekolog fick hon en chock. Hon fick veta att hon inte hade något kvinnligt reproduktivt system. Hon har den kromosomuppsättning som män brukar ha: XY. Internt har hon inga äggstockar, utan testiklar. Men hon har ett tillstånd som gör att hennes kropp inte kan ta upp eller reagera på det testosteron som testiklarna producerar. Det gör också att hon inte kan producera spermier, så hon är steril.
Låt oss nu se var Jenny hör hemma i Vita Husets definition av kön. Jag läser:
“Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.
Rent biologiskt är det här en jättedum definition. Men det är också genast uppenbart att Jenny inte hör hemma någonstans. Definitionen av manskönet är formulerad på ett motsvarande sätt.
Jenny producerar ingen reproduktiv cell, könscell, över huvud taget. Eftersom alla mänskliga individer ska passa in i en av de här definitionerna, så som texten är skriven, så förmodar jag att hon borde räknas som “male”, av hankön, eftersom hon i alla fall har en del av apparaturen för att producera den mindre sortens könsceller.
Alla kan se att detta är absurt. Jenny har växt upp som kvinna, och har aldrig setts som annat än kvinna. Ska hon definieras ut ur hela människosläktet då? Eller ska hon till att börja med kastas ut från alla toaletter och omklädningsrum för kvinnor?
Just för hennes del kommer förhoppningsvis inget att hända, eftersom jag har svårt att tänka mig att någon kommer att inspektera ens interna reproduktiva system vid ingången till sådana ställen. Men andra som inte lika lätt smälter in i omgivningens förväntningar får det svårt.
Jag vill påstå att det här försöket är löjligt utöver att det är farligt. Det kommer alltid att finnas fall som inte passar in. Alla försök att knåda in hela verkligheten i helt entydiga fack kommer att leda till sådana fall där vissa individer eller företeelser hamnar fel hur man än gör.
Det enda rimliga är att låta världen vara lite diffus och kategorierna att ha genomsläppliga ramar. Det måste finnas utrymme både i föreställningsvärden och i samhället för att allt i världen inte är så prydligt avgränsat.
Var och en som läser det här idiotiska dokumentet borde känna sig förolämpad redan av rubriken: Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. Försvarar de kvinnor på det är sättet? Jenny kommer inte att känna sig försvarad. Återställer de biologisk sanning? Alltså, de har nog inte diskuterat det här med biologer. Löjligt.
Hösten 2023 introducerade Qualcomm ett nytt ljudchipp med stöd för XPAN som sömlöst växlar mellan wifi och Bluetooth. Nu har Qualcomm bekräftat att de första trådlösa hörlurarna med XPAN är på gång och kommer presenteras ”väldigt snart”.
Fördelarna Qualcomm hävdar att XPAN för med sig är längre räckvidd, stabilare anslutning och högre ljudkvalitet, tack vare att hörlurarna både kan utnyttja Bluetooth och hemmanätverket. Tekniken ska kunna leverera förlustfri 24-bit 96 kHz över wifi med samma energiförbrukning som 96 kHz lossy över Bluetooth.
En nackdel är att surfplattan eller mobilen hörlurarna ansluter till också måste stödja Qualcomm XPAN för att det ska fungera och alla enheterna behöver vara anslutna till samma wifi-nätverk.
If you want to know when I pretty much drew a line though my friendship with Neil Gaiman, it was when Neil acknowledged that he made moves on his early-20s nanny on her first day of employment. This meant that the absolute best case scenario of this whole situation was that he didn’t have the sense or wisdom to understand that making a move on a woman 40 years his junior, economically dependent on him, and whom he had met just literally hours before, was an extremely questionable idea. And by extremely questionable I mean dude what the fuck how do you not understand the actual consent issues involved here. The answer I came to is he probably did understand, and that when all was said and done, the “absolute best case scenario,” which is still very terrible, was not where we would end up. And indeed, that’s not where we are today.
And, while you should in no way consider me anywhere but on the periphery of any of this, please direct your attention and care to those who rather persuasively allege harm at his hand, it still fucking hurts. Neil’s been a friend, he’s someone whose work I’ve admired immensely, and it’s not entirely inaccurate to say that I owe a fair amount of the trajectory of my career to him. In 2006, he declined a spot on the finalist list for the Best Novel Hugo, which meant that the next book in the vote tally moved into the list. That book was Old Man’s War. We didn’t know each other at the time and he didn’t know which book would benefit from his action, but that doesn’t matter. It was a huge boost for me in the SFF community, and I thanked him for it when we finally did meet in 2009. He’s been kind to me and to my family and I’ve been happy to know him, and I think he was happy to know me.
Nothing about him having been my friend or boosting my career excuses or mitigates his actions, both alleged and admitted. This is not a defense of him. He’s done what he’s done and as noted above, the absolute best case scenario is still terrifically bad. The acknowledgement of friendship is context.
Here are two things about me, one which you know and one which you may not. The first is that I’m well-known for having public opinions on the internet, and the second is that when I get stressed and upset about things in my personal life I get real quiet and internal about it. I acknowledge this seems at least superficially contradictory, but I don’t think it is: there’s “public persona” me and there’s “private life” me. They’re both me, tuned differently, and I’ve made the point over the years that both modes exist. Usually having both is not a problem! But when someone you consider a pretty good friend who is also a public individual fucks up badly, well, then it becomes a problem. Or at least, complicated.
When the first set of allegations came out last year, I made a brief post about it and then otherwise kept quiet, because this was my friend and I needed to work out what was going on, and how a person I had as a friend had this other part to his life that was for me new and rotten information, and also there was the rest of my life to deal with, which is not insignificant. This was not enough for some people and maybe still isn’t, and that’s their opinion to have. Likewise, when I decided for myself that I was out, I didn’t make a public declaration of it. No matter how public he or I are, our friendship existed in that other sphere too, and that sphere is where I made that decision. I was out, and when it was done, in my head, it was done. Again, this will not be enough for some people, and again, that’s their opinion to have.
Why bring it up now? One, because I know other people who are being run through the same wringer with this, dealing with the person they knew and this other person they didn’t, but they’re actually the same person and now they have to integrate all of it into their understanding. I want them to know, from the bottom of my heart: fucking same. Some of these folks are friends of his. Some are fans. Some are both! All of us are sitting with it, and while, again, we are all on the periphery of harm here, it’s still something we have to work on. Some will do it publicly, some will do it privately, some will take more time than others to get where they’re going with this. They should be able to do it how they want. Maybe others should offer them some grace about it.
Two, because I’ve done my thinking about it, made my decisions, and have had time to live those decisions and am at a point where talking about it doesn’t make me feel sick or pressured to say something more than I’m prepared to say. Neil’s been a friend, and an important person to me, and someone I’ve been happy to know. But the friendship has been drawn down and done, and at this point, given everything I’ve written above, I don’t think he’ll complain much about that. He’s got a lot of work to do, and I hope he gets to it soon.
(Three, because I see some deeply shitty people hoping I’m “next,” which among other things means they are explicitly hoping that I’ve done things close to what Neil is credibly accused of, to actual other people, just so they can have the satisfaction of seeing me “owned.” And, well. Those people can go fuck themselves.)
This has been a bad crazy week, and it’s just Wednesday, in a year that’s been pretty terrible a mere fifteen days in, and which I don’t think is going to get any better from here. Take care of yourselves out there, folks.
Nyligen läste jag en thriller där intrigen kretsade kring att huvudpersonens världsbild var vriden på ett sätt som gjorde att någon som kände honom kunde manipulera honom i en viss riktning. I slutet av boken, efter många villospår, gick det upp för honom att komplotten var en helt annan än han trott, och det brott som begåtts egentligen var ett helt annat än det han försökt lösa. (Tänker inte säga vilken bok det var, för det kan ju förstöra upplevelsen för den som vill läsa den.)
Undrar om det inte vore en bra insats för folkhälsan om män började preppa genom att skaffa sig lite bekanta och börja umgås med folk. Det brukar ju sägas att många män saknar vänner att vända sig till när det behövs. Ensamhet kan vara belastande för hälsan.
Någon kanske har följt den här bloggen länge och minns att jag var lite frustrerad över människosynen i Stjärnklart av Lars Wilderäng. Det störde mig att människor beskrevs som så handfallna och inkompetenta, och att det bara var spänniga preppers som förstod hur de skulle bete sig i en kris. I verkligheten brukar det ju inte alls vara så.
Det finns ju andra sorters skildringar även i skönlitteraturen. Jag blev väldigt förtjust i The Year Without Sunshine av Naomi Kritzer, som vann en Hugo som bästa långnovell 2024. Läs den! Där är folk väldigt konstruktiva när krisen inträffar. Inte alla, men vanligt folk beter sig vettigt.
Nu föll det mig in att det vore väldigt roligt att läsa en lite satirisk berättelse som handlar om en större katastrof som slår ut lagom mycket infrastruktur. Den nördiga preppertypen av Lars Wilderäng-typ bestämmer sig för att det är läge att “bug in”, och barrikaderar sig. Under tiden kavlar kvarterets tanter upp ärmarna och fixar latrin och sophantering och hjälper dem som är sjuka. De har kontakter och är organiserade genom scouterna, kyrkan, bokcirkeln och allt vad det kan vara. När preppertypen väl kryper ut ur sin håla fungerar kanske inte allt helt oklanderligt, men folk har hanterat det som behöver hanteras. Som en extra knorr kanske han (det är såklart en han) har drabbats av något elände som han inte kan hantera själv, och får hjälp av de här personerna som han tidigare såg ner på. Det skulle vara precis samma vändning i världsbilden som i thrillern jag läste.
När jag beskrev den här tanken för sonen kallade jag hjältarna för “Bertil och mormorsgänget” efter en av våra grannar som har en förmåga att vara med i nästan varje förening som existerar. Sonen tyckte att det lät som en rolig bilderbok, och det skulle det nog vara. Men en bilderbok för vuxna och inte nödvändigtvis för barn, tänker jag mig.
