Trigger warning: Stalking, graphic death and rape threats, doxxing, threats of swatting, impersonation
I’ve been putting off writing this for a while now, because it involves dredging deep into some incredibly ugly stuff.
Most of you know that I’ve been stalked for years by a stalker (or stalkers) who has created fake social media profiles in my name to harass other people, and sent explicit, violent rape and death threats to me, my family, my friends, and those who follow me on social media.
This person, or these people, have made repeated rape and death threats directed at me, my wife, my father, and people who have expressed support for me or been rumored to be connected somehow with me online. They’ve sent death threats containing photographs of my partners. They’ve doxxed my family and partners.
The harassment has escalated over the past three years, as the rape and death threats have become more frequent, more violent, and more graphic. The stalker has escalated to threats of swatting (phoning fake tips to the police to have SWAT teams sent to the homes of the target). My websites have been DDoSed.
Last December, as I was leaving for Florida to help care for my mom, who was in the final stages of terminal cancer, I had an unexpected and rather uncomfortable conversation with Portland PD about an email I’d supposedly sent them saying I was stockpiling guns and the voices were telling me to murder my wife.
Fortunately, I have been documenting and reporting the stalking, rape and death threats, and harassment as it’s happened. The nature of the conversation changed once they pulled up the previous police reports and realized this was part of an ongoing pattern of harassment.
So how did we get here? And what does this have to do with polyamory?
Propaganda and the Poly Scene
So how did we get here? And what does this have to do with polyamory?
My first inkling something weird was going on came when a number of different people, some of whom I hadn’t spoken to in years, all messaged me to say “Do you know someone named Louisa Leontiades? She says she’s a journalist and she’s asking questions about you.” A few of those people sent me screenshots of messages or emails they’d received:
Louisa is a client of a former partner. After the relationship with that former partner ended, Louisa started messaging pretty much every female-presenting person who’d ever interacted with me online, going back through this very blog for decades, looking for women willing to dish dirt.
Next thing I know, somehow there are more “exes” that are accusing me of having “abused” them than the total number of people I’ve ever dated. Few forms of gaslighting are more head-twisty than someone you’ve never dated, never talked about dating, never wanted to date, never had sex with, never talked about having sex with, and never wanted to have sex with telling all and sundry about how you abused her when you were “together.” For a while, I quite literally thought I was going insane.
These “survivor stories,” as Louisa calls them, tended to the bizarre (like the woman who I’ve never been sexually or romantically connected with and never been in the same room with except in passing at a party claiming I abused her by flirting with someone else in front of her), toward the utterly untrue (a former partner claiming I “got her into” BDSM and that a 25-year-old is “too young to consent” to BDSM, when in fact she was interested in BDSM long before we ever met, and the fact her ex-husband wasn’t interested in BDSM was one of the reasons she divorced him), and the technically kind of true if you squint hard enough (my ex-wife claiming she was an “abuse victim” because I yelled at her on the phone once—which did happen—but declining to mention that it happened after we’d separated, when she broke into my house one night while I was out of town, stole a bunch of stuff like consumer electronics, then sold it to buy a new laptop).
As a side note, there’s a lesson here in how to spot the difference between journalism and a smear campaign. If a journalist hears “he yelled at me once on the phone,” he or she will ask followup questions: “Did this sort of thing happen often? What happened?” Ethical journalists also disclose personal or financial connections with the stories they cover.
My goal is not to go through all the rather strange “survivor stories” here. I may end up doing that at some future point, but that’s not the point of this blog post.
Right now, I’m here about the aftermath of these weird, wordy-but-vague accusations, what it says about the way many people see “social justice” as a tool of bullying and control, and how the poly scene’s support for “social justice” led directly to a barrage of rape and death threats against a whole bunch of other people beyond just me.
Louisa published these “survivor stories” from exes and non-exes with results you might predict: the Internet Hate Machine cranked up into full gear, I had to lock down comments on my blog because random strangers started posting death threats, I lost friends.
With all the various contradictory stories (“Franklin dated someone ten years younger than he was, he’s obviously an abuser,” “Franklin refused to date me because I’m younger than he is, he’s obviously ageist”), they became a sort of Rorschach test, with different people seeing different things in them. It’s kind of a Gish gallop of accusations.
One dude on social media wrote that I was clearly a bad person, because it was plain to him that I’d written the stories myself as a sort of humblebragging, since the theme to a lot of them is “I knew when I dated Franklin that he was polyamorous but he’s so awesome I wanted him all to myself and he said no.”
Seriously. Someone over on Quora actually said that.
Dr. Elisabeth Sheff, a sociologist and author who serves as an expert witness in court for abuse cases, published an analysis of the “survivor stories” that concluded the stories don’t actually describe abuse.
The poly community as a whole thought about her analysis, set aside their first knee-jerk emotional response, said “huh, I wonder if there’s a reason she might have reached those conclusions,” went back, and re-evaluated the survivor tales with a more considered eye…
Hahahahaha, I’m kidding, that didn’t happen. Instead, the Internet piled on to Dr. Sheff. She was threatened personally and professionally, and received so much harassment and abuse she was forced to back away from the whole situation. You know, classic straight-up bullying.
And it wasn’t just threats. A lot of folks sent her emails that they probably wouldn’t think of as problematic—messages like “don’t you realize you’re just hurting women who have been abused?” and “I’m so disgusted that an academic would support an abuser” and “I used to be such a fan of yours, but this has really made me rethink that,” because they couldn’t even consider the possibility that she might, you know, be right.
After that, things got even weirder.
“I want a just, fair, and equitable society, and I don’t care how many rape threats it takes to get there.”
Now let’s fast forward a bit, to a nonprofit polyamory convention run by a registered nonprofit in London, called “PolyDay.”
COVID interrupted the convention for a couple of years. During the COVID lockdown, a team not previously involved with PolyDay announced they would be taking over the PolyDay name and launching a new for-profit convention under that name.
The organization that owns the PolyDay convention informed these people firmly that it owns a trademark on the name, and they would not be permitted to use it.
Lockdown ends. The organizers of PolyDay announce the convention was on once more. I don’t know if the person who tried to steal the name started the rumor or merely amplified it, but anyway, someone starts a rumor that I own PolyDay, or run it, or somehow profit from it, depending on which version you believe. (For the record, I have absolutely nothing to do with it—I live in Portland, and it is owned and operated by a nonprofit in London.)
As the rumor spread through the North American polyamory scene, people said “Hey, we can look up the history and organization of PolyDay and figure out if this rumor is true.”
Hahahahaha, I’m kidding, that didn’t happen. Instead, a large number of people determined to make a more just and equitable society and stand up for women raced to their keyboards to send a flood of rape and death threats to the scheduled speakers at PolyDay. So many threats of serious violence poured in, the conference organizers canceled the event.
Apparently, threats of rape and murder are how some people think we create a more peaceful, more enlightened Utopia.
And it just kept going. Once this kind of harassment and bullying gets going, it takes on a life of its own. A former BBC and Guardian journalist named Jonathan Kent published a book on polyamory. Someone started a rumor that I profit from the book somehow, or (depending on which version you believe) that I secretly wrote it under his name, or something.
By now, I’m sure you can predict what happened next:
People looked up Jonathan online and realized he’s actually a person, a reporter with a long documented history, and not an alter ego for me? Hahaha no. Of course not.
People harassed him, called for a boycott of his (I mean “my”) book, threatened and harassed his podcasting co-host…because in this brave new world of empathy, compassion, and social justice, that’s what you do. You harass and intimidate anyone you don’t like, or anyone associated with anyone you don’t like, or anyone rumored to be connected to anyone you don’t like, so that one glorious day, if you harass and threaten enough people, you’ll wake to a world of perfect social justice.
Meanwhile, of course, the rape and death threats aimed at me and those close to me kept rolling in. My co-author Eunice and I released a science fiction novel; a bookstore that planned to host a book event got harassed into dropping the event. Some random stranger I’ve never met made a YouTube video about what a terrible person I am, repeating the “survivor stories,” insisted she wasn’t making the video for money, then used it to beg for Patreon donations.
So it goes.
And is still going. People are still following me around on social media, doxxing and threatening my partners, friends, and folks who follow me.
Just like with the “survivor stories” themselves, the stalking and threats have become a Rorschach test of their own. A random woman on Facebook told me, with what seemed like perfect sincerity, I must be making it all up, because men never get stalked, only women have stalkers.
So here’s the thing: The North American polyamory community has a problem.
I want to be clear this is not a problem everywhere. Poly folks elsewhere largely seem to roll their eyes at all this.
But the poly scene in North America is overrun with folks who are okay with using rape and death threats as a way to express themselves, who don’t do even the barest minimum of fact-checking, who are so caught up in righteous fury that sending women anonymous messages saying “I am going to rape you to death, here’s a photo of your house” seems like a perfectly reasonable way to support social justice for women.
Now, if this is you, if you’re one of the people who sat down at your computer to type out threats to Dr. Sheff or to the people scheduled to speak at a conference because you heard a rumor that it was somehow connected to me and couldn’t be arsed to fact-check, this essay is not for you. You are irredeemable and I don’t care what you think of me. I don’t quite understand the mentality of someone who says “I’m going to stand up for women and justice by sending a bunch of people I’ve never met anonymous emails saying I’m going to murder them if they present at this conference,” and honestly I don’t want to. If this is you, fuck off.
If this isn’t you, and you’re on the sidelines saying things like “I don’t know what the hell is going on but I don’t want to get involved,” well, I get it, I really do. I’ve been there myself. I’ve unquestioningly accepted stories because they fit a narrative I believed in, and discovered later that the things I’d been told didn’t actually happen, at least not the way they were presented to me. (I may write about that at some point as well.)
And I’m not saying the fact that a bunch of bullies and Internet trolls have taken it on themselves to send rape and death threats all over the Internet because, you know, that’s how you support women and fight for social justice automatically proves that what I’m saying is true and what they’re saying is false. Only that mmmmaybe it might be worthwhile to look a little closer, you know? After all, if people are wrong about basic things that can easily be checked, like who runs a nonprofit conference or who wrote a book, perhaps it might possibly be worth considering whether or not they’re trustworthy about things you can’t easily verify.
Moving the Overton window
I’d like to believe this is a fairly new thing—that twenty years ago, communities dedicated to egalitarianism and self-determination wouldn’t so quickly embrace this kind of toxic behavior. That’s probably wrong—the same thing was common in the 1970s feminist circles—but I do believe that events like GamerGate brought a new level of toxicity into acceptability.
If you don’t believe bullying and threats are okay, but you really don’t want to (or don’t care enough to!) get involved in other people’s drama (or you really don’t care enough to get involved), so you stay out of it, or you “don’t take sides”, or you choose a default rubric like “believe all women” because investigation is too much effort, well, that’s kind of how we ended up here, in a world where harass and threaten in the name of social justice, because they feel safe in their communities who appear to support them, or at least don’t oppose them.
Just a thought.
Brandolini’s Law, or the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle, tells us it takes longer to refute bullshit than it does to put it out there, and if there isn’t a corollary that tells us this is especially true when people have been told that it’s morally wrong to question the bullshit, there ought to be.
Few subcommunities have figured out how to deal with vague claims of mistreatment that kinda follow common narratives, and anyway few people really have the inclination to try to sort through it all. It’s easier to just assume that where there’s stuff that kinda looks like smoke, there must be fire, and accept a generalized “so-and-so is a bad person even if I’m not exactly clear on what he or she did.” Kinda the way people who still say the 2020 election was stolen say “there are thousands of affadavits about election fraud, it must be true.”
I mean, hell, I’ve done this myself. When you want to do right by the people around you, and you know enough about social justice to understand the uphill struggle people have faced for years getting anyone to take abuse they’ve faced seriously, you default to believing whatever you’re told by anyone who presents as an abuse survivor—a noble inclination, but one that is also easy to exploit.
Abuse is about power and control. When the poly scene went after Dr. Sheff, everyone else got the message loud and clear: Do as we say, or you’re next. Believe what we tell you to believe, or you’re next. Don’t ask questions. Keep your head down. Hate who we tell you to hate, or you’re next.
So perhaps this might be a good guideline: When you see people facing off against each other, with both sides claiming they’ve been mistreated, it might be helpful to ask yourself, “which of these two sides is sending rape and death threats, punishing anyone who steps out of line, and controlling the narrative through intimidation and threats of violence?” Because it’s hard to champion social justice and also think those things are okay.
I know the people sending the rape and death threats are a small minority, whose noise and zealotry make this seem more common than it is. That’s the thing, though: if you want your community to be a good space, sometimes you need to stand up to the bullies.
It’s okay to ask questions and look for more information. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
Note: Any comments containing abuse apologism, denialism, threats, rationalization, whataboutism, sealioning, or victim-blaming will be deleted.
OpenAI asked Scarlett Johansson to provide voice acting that would be used in the company’s new AI voice assistant, but the actress declined, according to a statement obtained by NPR on Monday. And after last week’s demo, Johansson says she was shocked to hear a voice that was identical to her own. Especially since…
It’s been over a decade since we last caught up with Vin Diesel’s sci-fi antihero Richard B. Riddick—Diesel’s been spending most of his time voicing Marvel’s Groot and doing Fast & Furious movies—but it’s time to dig those goggles out of storage. The fourth film in the series, titled Riddick: Furya, is officially on…
Har du någon gång pratat i telefon och känt ”jag önskar jag kunde spela upp en ljudeffekt just nu?”. Någon på Google måste ha gjort det för telefonappen är på väg att få ljudeffekter, vilka kallas ”ljud-emojis”.
Snart kan du spela upp en sorgsen trombon, applåder, festskrål eller skratt vid lämpliga (eller olämpliga) tillfällen. Dessa ljud spelas tillsammans med en animation när uppringaren trycker på en emoji under samtalet. Ljudeffekten spelas upp för båda parterna. Nyheten är redan tillgänglig för vissa som kör betaversionen av telefonappen.
Express emotions and moods with sounds like applause, laughter, sad trombone, and more with tappable emoji while you’re in a call.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) killed net neutralityback in 2017 under former president Donald Trump, but on Thursday, it brought it back from the dead.
Announcing the theme for Terry Pratchett Day 2024: START IN THE WRONG PLACE.
You’ll hear people say time and time again that you can start anywhere with Terry Pratchett’s work, but don’t start in the right place*, so let’s truly embrace the joy and chaos to be found in the many routes through Discworld and beyond.
We will be making Sunday 28th April, Sir Terry Pratchett’s birthday, one brimming with bookish delight, celebrating the many ways we love and travel through his work, and we’re inviting you to join us.
Follow along with The Terry Pratchett Estateto stay up to date. We will be sharing more ahead of the weekend on how to get involved.
*A lot of people say the right place is anything but the right place, which in turn, may make it an equally wrong place…
We were at the farmer’s market on Saturday morning where I spotted a rare sight: grass-fed beef ribs! I snatched up the last rack (much to the disappointment of the woman shopping after me) and headed home, formulating my culinary game plan. That night, I salted the meat, let it sit for an hour, then seared it off in a heavy skillet to get that nice mahogany crust. Then, after letting it rest for half an hour, I seasoned generously with more salt, pepper, garlic powder, smoked paprika, thyme, and oregano. I elected to go slow cooker over oven-roasted so, when the time came, I set the the rack in my crock pot and covered it with a bottle of cooked-off red wine, olive oil, honey, apple cider vinegar, and one can of DOP San Marzano tomatoes. Everything was set up. All I had to do was press START before I went to bed and the ribs would be fall-off-the-bone done in the morning, slow simmering until lunch.
The next morning, Akemi woke up first and headed into the kitchen where I heard her utter a “Oh no.”. I assumed it had snowed. It was only while I was brushing my teeth, thinking about those delicious ribs, that I realized the “Oh no” had not been a reaction to the weather. It had been a response to the discovery I had forgotten to press START!
The beef ribs had sat out all night in the marinade, roughly 12 hours. What was I to do? On the one hand, the FDA advises people NOT to consume raw meat that has been left unrefrigerated for more than two hours. On the other hand, I was REALLY looking forward to those beef ribs.
A quick internet search yielded conflicting advice. There was the very real danger that the meat was, by now, covered in dangerous pathogens that would make us very, very ill. And yet, I was somewhat comforted by seemingly knowledgeable experts posting in foodie forums who pointed out the FDA was just covering their asses with those guidelines and, besides, people in countries without refrigeration leave their meat out for days. So, who was I to believe? In the end, my twitter followers…
Yes, I put it to a vote. And received a lot of interesting opinions. I left my fate (and lunch plans) in the hands of roughly 1,100 mostly strangers. The results…
And so, 4+ hours later after cooking on high, I deemed the beef ribs “done” and put them under the broiler for 2 minutes each side (in the hopes that would kill off any toxins), then brushed them with a glaze comprised of amaro (reasoning the alcohol would also sterilize the ribs), honey, a mango-based hot sauce, and olive oil and seared them off one last time.
I mean, they looked pretty tasty.
Despite the confidence of two-thirds of the random twitter users who voted, I remained cautious and only had a single rib. Akemi, for her part, only hazarded a bite. Delicious! Sweet and savory, slightly spicy, with nary hint of bacterial infection. To be on the safe side, I chased it down with a shot of amaro figuring the booze would kill any potential bacteria and, after all, who ever heard of anyone getting sick after drinking alcohol?
Most food poisoning takes effect within an hour or two after consumption, so I anxiously awaited the results. Three hours later, I posted an update:
Feeling no ill effects, I had another rib for dinner. Akemi, for her part, went all in, consuming three (!). We slept on it/them. And the following morning…
I guess that’s it. Unless it turns out to be one of those rare cases where food poisoning kicks in days, sometimes weeks later, I think we’re all good.
In the end, not only did I enjoy some delicious ribs, but I was provided much-needed material for this blog! All the same, next time around, I’ll definitely be hitting “ENTER” on that slow-cooker.
There’s good news and bad news, Witcher fans: The Netflix adaptation has been renewed for a fifth season, but that’s the last you’re going to get. And if you’re keeping Witcher-score, that means three seasons for Henry Cavill, and two for Liam Hemsworth, who steps into Geralt’s shoes for the currently-in-production fourth season.
The last two seasons will, according to Netflix, be filmed back-to-back, so presumably you won’t have to wait a number of years for the grand finale. And they will cover three of Andrzej Sapkowski’s books: Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow, and Lady of the Lake.
At this point, season four has a typically vague summary:
After the shocking, Continent-altering events that close out Season 3, the new season follows Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri, who are separated and traversing the war-ravaged Continent and its many demons. If they can embrace and lead the groups of misfits they find themselves in, they have a chance of surviving the baptism of fire — and finding one another again.
Are there ever events in this show that aren’t shocking and Continent-altering? Creator and showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich gave a few clues about what to expect, pointing at Vilgefortz and his betrayal. She told Tudum, “We want people to go back and start looking at all of the clues and breadcrumbs that we have laid out to see how these two people align. Because, clearly, there’s a lot more going on with Emhyr, Vilgefortz, and their past—and their future.”
Quite a few new faces are set for the upcoming season, including Sharlto Copley as Leo Bonhart and Laurence Fishburne as Regis, “a world-wise barber-surgeon with a mysterious past.” No premiere date has been announced just yet.[end-mark]
Truth Social’s stock price appears to be making a slight rebound Wednesday after losing more than half of its peak value in the month of April. That’s a bit surprising considering the fact that the far right’s favorite meme-stock company has been exposed for buying into the woke ideology of DEI.
Youtube har för vissa blivit den mest använda strömningstjänsten för video. Mängden material på Youtube är förstås större än på alla andra strömningstjänster eftersom vem som helst kan ladda upp videor och starta en kanal (även om kvaliteten varierar kraftigt).
Enligt data från Nielsen är Youtube den största VOD-tjänsten i USA, med Netflix som tvåa. Youtube Premium passerade 100 miljoner prenumeranter i början av året och människor världen över tittar kollektivt över en miljard timmar om dagen bara på TV-appen.
Dagens fråga handlar just om hur mycket vi tittar på Youtube i snitt. Blir det flera timmar om dagen eller knappt något alls? Youtube-appen berättar precis hur mycket vi tittar på tjänsten. Öppna Youtube på telefonen, tryck på profil-bilden nere i högra hörnet och scrolla därefter ned till ”visningstid”.
Den sidan berättar hur mycket vi tittar på Youtube om dagen i snitt, högst upp. Appen visar även hur mycket vi har tittat dag för dag och hur mycket vi kollat på Youtube totalt de senaste sju dagarna.
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Noise-canceling headphones offer a tech bro’s solution to the world of sound. They deem everything in your natural environment as “noise” that can be canceled out, allowing you to purely listen to your devices. The technology is generally considered good for your ears by reducing the overall noise levels you’re…
People have always been dubious about the safety of microwave ovens. I came across a microwave that kept whirring and spinning even with the door wide open – it simply wouldn’t turn off. The microwave was promptly kicked to the curb, but I started to wonder: should I be concerned for my safety?
The show is based on a series of novellas that George R.R. Martin put out in the universe of A Song of Ice and Fire (check out our readalong we did of it in 2013 here) and centers on Ser Duncan the Tall (a.k.a. Dunk) and his faithful squire who answers to the name Egg. Peter Claffey, whose credits include Bad Sisters and a part in the upcoming third season of Vikings: Valhalla, is taking on Dunk, while Dexter Sol Ansell, who recently played Young Coriolanus Snow in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, will play Egg.
The two actors, based on their headshots above, also fit in well with the look of the characters we know from the books.
Here’s the official logline for the show:
A century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros… a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall (Claffey), and his diminutive squire, Egg (Ansell). Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne, and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.
The series is written and executive produced by Martin and Ira Parker. Other executive producers include Ryan Condal (co-showrunner of House of the Dragon), Vince Gerardis, Owen Harris, and Sarah Bradshaw.
No news yet on when the series will go into production or make its way onto HBO. [end-mark]
We’re going back to The Matrix—but there’s a new captain at the helm. Drew Goddard is set to write and direct a new movie in the Matrix franchise, with original co-writer and co-director Lana Wachowski as executive producer.
This is, to put it mildly, unexpected news, and Goddard is an unexpected choice. A writer on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel, Goddard made his film debut as the director and co-writer of the meta-horror Cabin in the Woods. He wrote the screenplay for Cloverfield, then moved into adaptation territory, co-writing World War Z and flying solo for The Martian (for which he was nominated for an Oscar). He also directed Bad Times at the El Royale, and created a little show called Daredevil.
That’s a lot of generally interesting stuff, but none of it gets anywhere near Matrix territory, especially after the fourth film, of which Emmet Asher-Perrin wrote, “Like the first Matrix film, Resurrections is perfectly encapsulated: a leaping off point, or a finished thought depending on the angle you’re viewing it from. What’s incredible is that, regardless of your vantage point, it delves so much deeper than the story that proceeded it.”
In a statement quoted by Deadline, Warner Bros.’ President of Production, Jesse Ehrman, said, “Drew came to Warner Bros. with a new idea that we all believe would be an incredible way to continue the Matrix world, by both honoring what Lana and Lilly began over 25-years ago and offering a unique perspective based on his own love of the series and characters.”
Which characters? Where in the timeline will we be? What is happening? [end-mark]
(hides face) Yeah, have had things like this happen. Deepest sympathies…
There is an advanced readers proof edition of the US edition of Neverwhere, in which “flat” was find and replaced to “apartment”. People said things apartmently.
There is an advanced readers proof of American Gods in which “round” (as in he walked round the lake) was changed to “around”, in which someone wore around spectacles.
I was lucky, they were caught before the actual book came out.
Clone Club: we’re back! Or at least we will be in June, which is when the Krysten Ritter-starring Orphan Black sequel Orphan Black: Echoes premieres. The series has a new teaser, sort of; this is pretty much the previous teaser, just shorter, and with the date added at the end. But AMC has bestowed upon us a short synopsis:
Set in the near future, Orphan Black: Echoes takes a deep dive into the exploration of the scientific manipulation of human existence. It follows a group of women as they weave their way into each other’s lives and embark on a thrilling journey, unravelling the mystery of their identity and uncovering a wrenching story of love and betrayal. Ritter plays Lucy, a woman with an unimaginable origin story, trying to find her place in the world.
This is extremely in keeping with the plot of the original series, which starred the incredible Tatiana Maslany as a whole bunch of clones who discovered a whole bunch of secrets about their origins. But how far in the near future are we? Could anyone from the previous series turn up? Is that too much to wish for? What is Helena up to these days, anyway?
Echoes also stars Keeley Hawes, Amanda Fix, Avan Jogia, Rya Kihlstedt, and James Hiroyuki Liao, with Reed Diamond in a recurring role. Anna Fishko (Fear the Walking Dead) is creator, writer, and executive producer on the series, and original Orphan Black co-creator John Fawcett is on board as director. The opening titles feature Julien Baker:
It’s a lot healthier to go for a daily walk than to sign up for a gym membership you won’t be using because you hate that kind of exercise. It’s a lot healthier to eat a frozen meal than to skip a meal because you were too tired to cook something healthy. It’s a lot healthier to take a quick shower than to procrastinate an elaborate routine for days. Don’t aim so high that you won’t be hitting anything!
this is actually really helpful and affirming thanks
Meddelandetjänsten Telegram har hamnat i blåsväder igen. I vissa ospecificerade länder kan användare få en gratis prenumeration i utbyte mot att personens telefon utnyttjas för att skicka upp till 150 inloggningskoder i månaden via SMS till andra användare.
Tyvärr är detta precis så oseriöst och integritetskränkande som det låter, om inte hela teknikbloggosfären fått allt om bakfoten. Erbjudandet är en usel idé av flera anledningar. Dels är det suspekt att få en inloggningskod från en främlings telefon istället för direkt från företaget som tillhandahåller tjänsten.
Accordingly, you understand and agree that Telegram will not be liable for any inconvenience, harassment or harm resulting from unwanted, unauthorized or illegal actions undertaken by users who became aware of your phone number through P2PL.
Men främst är det en integritetsmardröm att användares telefonnummer kan distribueras till upp till 150 andra personer i månaden. Personerna som får inloggningskoder från främlingar kan svara på SMS-meddelandet, spara numret i kontakterna eller i vissa fall använda numret för att leta rätt på personens hemadress, om de skulle få för sig detta.
Telegram skriver att de inte ansvarar för trakasserier eller skada som uppstått genom oönskade, obehöriga eller olagliga handlingar från personer som fått tag på användares telefonnummer genom erbjudandet.
Enligt företaget är erbjudandet till för att göra utskicket av SMS-koder mer driftsäkert i vissa områden, men det rimmar illa med en tjänst som påstår sig värna om användares integritet.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed in the early morning hours of Tuesday, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority. The cause of the collapse was a container ship striking a column, which sent the bridge into the water of the Patapsco River below. The entire thing was captured on video…
Since I started learning to cook eggs in a pan I have been trying to solve various problems in my usual way… buying gadgets.
Because I love gadgets.
My first problem was that I wasn’t happy with my whisking. I didn’t feel like I was getting the egg whites and yolks fully incorporated. So I bought this fork whisker thingie.
It has little holes in the tines for optimum whisking!
Or so the Amazon page said.
I thought it would be the size of a normal fork. But in reality, it was gigantic and unwieldy.
I felt it was so large that it actually made it *harder* to whisk eggs.
So that has been retired to the drawer and has not seen the light of day since.
Then I was having trouble flipping my omelettes. So I got a special omelette flipper.
This helped a little, but it was too thick and I still had trouble getting it underneath.
Into the drawer it went with its whisking fork friend.
These have a very thin edge and really get underneath the omelette well. This was my first big success in egg gadgetry. I was able to achieve my first successful fold using this.
Then I was becoming frustrated with egg cracking. I couldn’t do it consistently. I tried on the side of the pan. I tried on the flat countertop. I was improving over time, but I still felt like a gadget could be helpful.
In my brain I was envisioning some electronic doodad that used A.I. cracking technology to perfectly open the egg.
It’s just a small dish with a raised edge in the middle. Just about the simplest solution imaginable. Doesn’t even take batteries.
And it is fucking fantastic.
It’s called the “Crack'em” and so I like to say “Release the Crack'em!” when I use it.
You do have to develop a technique, but once you get that down, it cracks eggs perfectly. And it gives you a nice clean section to pull apart the eggshell. And the yolk doesn’t drip out as much before you are ready to release it.
Everyone should get a Crack'em.
I still wanted to solve my incorporation issue. I got better at whisking but I still felt like a gadget could improve things.
This thing is nuts. For the low price I am really amazed at how solid and well-built it feels. And it fucking pulverizes the eggs into a perfectly homogenized substance where white and yolk no longer exist and you just have… egg.
Pure 10,000% incorporated egg.
And with this gadget I was able to increase my egg fluffiness by 20%. And my eggs were already pretty damn fluffy.
The egg pulverizer is also very easy to clean. You just run water and turn the blade and angle it so it doesn’t spray you in the face. You will get sprayed in the face before you figure out that angle. So prepare yourself for that.
And that is my gadget journey so far.
I’m considering this weird flippy pan that would allow me to cook my omelettes evenly on both sides, but I am in a scrambled eggs era so I’m not sure I need that right now.
It also looks like I could easily yeet hot omelette juice into my face if I am not careful. So I might just stick to my traditional pan.
OH! And one non-gadget thing I learned.
If you have seen The Bear there was a scene where Sydney cooks an omelette and crunches potato chips on top.
And it works! Tastes great on scrambled eggs as well.
Potato chips, who would have thought?
It’s a little embarrassing to be 42 and just now learning how to use a stove and cook things in a pan. I have a few gaps in my assortment of adulting skills. When you spend 20 hours per day in bed for the past two decades, certain things just aren’t a priority.
When my parents were around we would split up tasks according to our strengths. My dad was good at cooking. My mom was good with the budget. I was good at technology. We used to joke that the 3 of us almost added up to 1 functional person.
But after my parents died I realized I had to learn those adult tasks they took care of for our family unit. And I’m reminded of those awful boomer memes where they think young people can’t figure out a stick shift and cursive.
And what they don’t seem to realize is that life skills can be learned at just about any stage of said life. I mean, if you give someone YouTube and an empty parking lot, they can learn to drive stick if they need to.
And I guess they could learn cursive as well if they develop a pen-palling hobby or something.
What I’m trying to communicate is that learning things later in life is not some impossible task.
And so that is what I’m doing.
I learned how to budget my money (mostly). I learned how to do my laundry. I learned how to cook things in a pan.
I keep having to relearn how to write a check because I don’t do it very often and that is kind of annoying. So if a boomer put me on the spot and surprised me with an urgent check that needed to be filled out, I would have to do a google image search on my phone as a reminder.
But yeah, I’m figuring shit out.
Also, I learned cursive from Sister Mary and I learned how to drive a stick shift as a teenager.
So… you better hide that Jeep.
If you see a post-it note where you parked and it says “It’s mine now!” in cursive… wasn’t me.
To be clear, THIS is how nights of the future should be lit
This is bat friendly street lighting, which not only looks sick as fuck but allows bats to pass through without disturbance, as they cannot see red.
orange and especially white lights deter bats and prevent them from reaching feeding grounds at nighttime. Please if you can, write to your local council and encourage red street lights!!!!
cranked up into full gear, I had to lock down comments on my blog because random strangers started posting death threats, I lost friends.
ALT
