Posts made by eobox91103

@bi4smooth said in Anyone Recieved Letter In The Mail From Flavaworks Studios?:

Can I ask a significant question here:

How did Flavaworks get your address (since you say you received a paper mail item)?

Various sources I researched said that FlavaWorks sent these threats to current or former paying subscribers, ostensibly to recover damages for sharing their IP, but mostly intended to "out" their customers as gay porn consumers unless they paid a ransom. The term "extortion" comes to mind.

One of the early cases here involved a customer who was a "prominent Hollywood figure" who seemed an ideal target for this kind of scam. A strategic error on the part of FlavaWorks is that such "prominent figures" also have good attorneys to smash the bits out of such a scheme, as opposed to the C-team that FlavaWorks retained (and apparently didn't pay).

A side note here is that FlavaWorks was also sued successfully by the cities of Miami and Chicago for their production locations: In Miami, the issue was running a "business" in a residential area, and in Chicago, it was filming CocoDorm material in a residence with lights on and windows open so people on the street got a free show. It wouldn't have surprised me to hear that the FlavaWorks people were on the sidewalk trying to sell tickets to the passers-by.

I'm going to a conference in Dubai next month, and my travel agent said that the airfares are actually a bit cheaper if I return through Southeast Asia. (I know that's weird given that I'm in Canada, but prices are set by supply & demand, not cost.) Apparently a very covid-safe place is Phuket island in Thailand, as the government has pretty much isolated it from the rest of the country and put in strict vaccination and testing requirements for both visitors and residents.

I visited there for one day on a cruise ship stop a couple of years ago, and I enjoyed the scenery, the food, and the people. I'm not interested in the sex tourism angle. Has anyone spent time there, have any recommendations of hotels, tour guides, places to see, etc.? Thanks in advance for any insights you have!

@hottie124 said in Help with my ratio:

@eobox91103 you guys are amazing thank you!! I didn’t think to have to go after the most updated freeleaches for the biggest bang for your buck! Man, keeping your ratio up is a lot of work

You're very welcome. It's tough to get started on a torrent site that monitors ratio (not all of them do)--it's tempting to excitedly download big torrents that have nobody else seeding them, and get in ratio jail in a hurry.

I just did a search, and there are several freeleech torrents posted in the last couple of hours that have many files in them--so pick a small number of the files and then watch your upload ratio climb.

Another way to help your ratio is to upload some new material (i.e., make a new torrent). It's not that hard, and there are help pages here to guide you through the process. If you don't have any material that isn't here, send me a chat/private message (only works if you've been a member for six months or more), and I can put something on DropBox that you can download, and then make a torrent for it here.

@bi4smooth said in Help with my ratio:

@hottie124
So, it's not enough to just seed freeleech torrents - to get the most "bang for your buck" you need to seed freeleeches EARLY - as-in SOON AFTER they become freeleech!

To do that, search specifically for freeleech torrents, and look for those with relatively low numbers of seeders!

Also, I suggest looking for freeleech torrents that are huge, with a large number of files, and then select just a few of those files to download (and example being https://www.gaytorrent.ru/details.php?id=ab1d1a53af0f5b6a3f627acd8bc2072f3c5549679cb33bc7 that was posted about an hour ago). That one totals 18 GB, but if you select only 5% of the the total, you'll download that very quickly and become the "source" for many other leechers. For example, just select the photos (not the videos), as most people will want those. You could add a few smaller videos as well. This technique also works well with non-freeleech torrents if you're able to download those.

@amazeingrave said in High school teacher charged after locking COVID-positive 13-year-old child in trunk to 'quarantine':

I wish people could just react logically instead of getting into fist fights on planes because someone isn't wearing a mask.

I agree that a calmer approach is needed: Instead of a fist fight, just escort the offender out of the aircraft's door. Ideally this would be done at the gate with the jetbridge attached, but it's also effective if the plane is flying at 10,000 feet.

@geobear40 said in Leftie NFL is trying to move the Superbowl from California to Texas:

@eobox91103
Not statewide but Sofi stadium is located in Los Angeles county which has some of the country's greatest restrictions on personal freedoms in the Country.

So if it's a county government thing, then we should purge this thread of mentions of the state governor (Newsom--note correct spelling).

But the essence of my question remains: "Can someone identify the most recent county-wide lockdown for us?" See https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-12-21/l-a-county-says-no-lockdown-needed-now-as-california-require-boosters-for-health-workers from about two weeks ago.

@raphjd said in Leftie NFL is trying to move the Superbowl from California to Texas:

@eobox91103

I guess you forgot that they have had a lot of them.

"Had" is a verb in the past tense. Those lockdowns occurred when vaccinations were less/non-available, and understanding of transmission mechanisms were not as well understood.

Can you identify the most recent statewide lockdown for us?

@raphjd Lockdowns in California? My friends in California would find this quite surprising.

See https://covid19.ca.gov/safely-reopening/, updated four days ago. The top banner says,

Thanks to millions of vaccinations, California’s economy is open. There are no county tiers, capacity limits, or physical distancing requirements. But COVID-19 has not gone away. To safely go about our daily lives, we need to keep taking steps to prevent the spread.

If you want examples of lockdowns, look at some European countries or China.

@iaimtoplease said in Twitter suspends Daily Wire's Matt Walsh after he posted gender critical 'transphobic' tweets:

can't help but think of this photo when i see matt walsh content

I don't know the context of the photo (or even the overall discussion), but the picture reminds me of a Zoom meeting a couple of weeks ago when one of our younger associates stood up with his laptop camera on. It was a very pleasant view, but I wasn't able to hit "print screen" quickly enough. Damn....

@bi4smooth said in Turn-on: Mixed condom use:

Several years ago, I used to host sex parties... some bottoms would insist on condoms, others would insist on bare... but my favorites let the top decide.

That said, I'd estimate that ALL, or at least nearly all, of those bottoms became HIV+ in time... being a "party bottom" is not synonymous with "safer sex practices"...

One data point: A friend of mine (gay/total bottom) preferred to fucked bare, but in the late 1990's/early 2000's many tops insisted on using a condom...so he would supply a condom, which he had punctured a few times with a very small needle. It would often break during fucking, and he'd get a load inside of him.

He became HIV+, and fortunately the meds are working for him. But I don't think many of the tops that he stealthed were very pleased.

@bi4smooth said in Russia rejects European Court of Human Rights order to recognise same-sex unions:

I don't pretend to be in the mainstream of the Republican Party anymore - but I won't concede my party to a cadre of fools and idiots! I fight for the values that made the Republican Party great once - the Party of both Lincoln & Reagan, the party of BOTH Bushes!

Depending on how one defines "mainstream," it's possible that neither of us are outside of the mainstream. There's very noisy faction (e.g., Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham) who have had both their balls and their brains removed to enable ongoing genuflection to the Dear Leader. But there are also many people who support traditional conservative values who are keeping their heads down until the madness passes. Unfortunately, America is losing eminences grises of Republican sanity with the passing of Robert Dole, John McCain, George H.W. Bush, etc.

I think a key thing to watch in the Republican party (or any party, for that matter) is whether it defines itself by things it is for, as opposed to things that it is against. In economic matters (a traditional strong point of the Republican party), it might not make a lot of difference whether one is for a balanced budget or against deficit spending. But there's huge gulf between being for people being able to openly celebrate Christian holidays, and against allowing Muslims, Jews, or Hindus to celebrate theirs.

My prediction: this dark time will pass, or it will be the end of our current 2-party system - if not the end of our democratic-republic entirely!

I would like to agree with your prediction, but I'm probably less optimistic. Many historians argue that the framers of the US Constitution did not want a partisan system--they thought that the checks and balances inherent in a three-branch structure would suffice to keep things on an even keel. Until the 12th Amendment in 1804, the second-place finisher in the Electoral College would become Vice President. (Can you imagine Hillary Clinton as veep under [!] Donald Trump, or Trump as veep under Biden?) In practice, though, the American government needs a two-party system, but both parties need to have a healthy diversity within them, rather being driven by an orthodoxy creed like one has in Russia or North Korea. Most legislators in the Republican party, as well as members of the "progressive caucus" within the Democratic party, remind me of mindless robots such as one finds in many old Star Trek episodes. Americans deserve better.

@geobear40 said in Over half of COVID-19 hospitalizations in NYC were not due to COVID-19:

@eobox91103

Try using a search engine other than Google regarding Covid related articles. Google eschews toward the Biden administration view of Covid.

I do not use Google.

I also know the meaning of "eschew," which is pretty much opposite from the way you used it.

@geobear40 said in Over half of COVID-19 hospitalizations in NYC were not due to COVID-19:

@eobox91103
No one in the US has died from Omicron. People have died who also had Omicron.

Not true. See https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20211224/first-omicron-death-in-u-s-was-reinfection and https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-omicron-survival-rate/fact-check-omicron-does-not-have-a-100-survival-rate-as-posts-online-claim-idUSL1N2T72E6

There's still a lot that we don't know, in part because of the lag between infection, hospitalization, transfer to ICU, and death. We'll know more in several weeks.

Until then, let me pose a thought experiment: Are you so sure of your beliefs that you would (a) willingly infect yourself with the omicron variant, and (b) refuse any treatment other than over-the-counter cold remedies? If you answer in the affirmative, I'll nominate you for a Darwin award.

@geobear40 said in Over half of COVID-19 hospitalizations in NYC were not due to COVID-19:

@eobox91103
Omicron is like have a winter cold nothing more.

The death rate for people with omicron is very much higher than that for people with a winter cold.

I suggest that you become more familiar with facts before posting nonsense like this.

"Almost half of reported NY COVID-19 hospitalizations are not due to COVID-19"

That means that almost half of them are due to COVID-19, and it's a very large number.

This reminds me of a newspaper article (supposedly) published in Oklahoma several years back, that said, "The late Mr. X suffered four gunshot wounds, but fortunately three of them were not fatal."

@mdx8472 said in Anyone having trouble getting on gay-torrents.net?:

@bi4smooth I used the link and reset my password. Unfortunately, it's still kicking me back to the password/register page after getting a confirmation message that my password was successfully changed.

I'm assuming that when you go back to the log-in page, you enter your username and new password, and it still blocks you? Is it possible that your browser automatically enters your old password?

I couldn't find a 'help" link on that site, so I posted a forum message mentioning the problem (but not your username), and I'll let you know if I get a response.

@mdx8472 This is the link I use, from which I get prompted for a username:password: https://www.gay-torrents.net/torrentslist.php

@bi4smooth said in France’s Macron Stuns As He Declares Un-Vaxxed ‘Not Citizens’.:

...The stupid statement - which was not an official declaration, just something said...

It would be amusing if someone in France responded to him, "But M. Macron, your statement was irresponsible, and thus by your own logic you are not a citizen of the Republic, and thus you are not eligible to be President."

@mdx8472 said in Anyone having trouble getting on gay-torrents.net?:

It seems that there's a 404 error problem with gay-torrents.net and if you try any of the workarounds, you are prompted that your username/password is incorrect.

Does anyone have any word from mods or admins from there about it?

It's working fine for me. If you continue to have problems, I suggest using their help desk. If you get completely locked out, send me a private chat message with your username on that site, and I'll see if I can get a message to someone who can help.

@arago44 I'm surprised FlavaWorks can even afford the postage to send you a letter. That firm has been in trouble for years: The civil action mentioned in the link from @geobear40 was dismissed; see https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/22240353/John_Doe_v_Flava_Works,_Inc_et_al for a chronology, although you'll need a subscription to read the actual court documents.

More recently, FlavaWorks tried suing Adam4Adam for copyright infringement, claiming that A4A used/uses, without permission, copyrighted FlavaWorks images in advertising third-party products. (Disclaimer: I have a subscription to Adam4Adam, and I see and delete their third-party advertisements. I am not familiar with FlavaWorks' material and have no opinion on the merits of FlavaWorks' claim.)

To make a long story shorter, FlavaWorks apparently lost this action (although I haven't found documentation of that). A4A then pursued--and prevailed over--FlavaWorks for reimbursement of legal costs, but FlavaWorks did not respond. Last summer a Florida court ordered the seizure and sale of much of FlavaWorks intellectual property (i.e., their porn catalog) in order to pay A4A's legal costs. There's a popularized story about this at https://bananaguide.com/article/112977/flava-works-takes-hit-in-lawsuit-against-adam4adam. Philip Bleicher, principal of FlavaWorks, had the following amusing comment regarding this:

"We unfortunately hired some attorneys who turned out to be of the same caliber as Rudy Giuliani — and two of them are currently under investigation by the bar disciplinary commission and one was recently disbarred...We are cleaning up this mess, not going out of business and have filed Chapter 11 to reorganize these debits [sic]"

The Giuliani reference seems to fit, because Bleicher apparently doesn't like to pay his counsel. There's a carefully thought-through rant by an attorney retained (but not paid) by FlavaWorks at https://gulisanolaw.com/phillip-bleicher-criminial-conman-liar/. I especially enjoyed the following line from the attorney who was stiffed,

I made the following counter-offer to Mr. Bleicher: “go fuck yourself and pay me for the work I did.”

I think the bottom line is that FlavaWorks is in its death throes and cannot be taken seriously at this point. I'm not going to offer legal advice in a forum like this, but I will say that if I received a letter from FlavaWorks, I would ignore it.