When it comes to threads and orientation changes, it seems the normal thing to do is something like this:

public class Bwent extends Activity {
    private static Bwent instance;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle icicle) {
        super.onCreate(icicle);

        instance = this;
    }

    //...

That way, if you're making a network request with a thread, and someone changes the orientation of the phone, the thread will know to use the new Activity.

However, is it possible that the thread could finish during the time Android is destroying the old Activity and creating a new one?

Is there a moment in the process where the thread still might be pointing to the wrong Activity, or a partially destroyed activity?

It seems like there shouldn't be, but even using a Handler created in the main thread, I'm having intermittent issues with a thread trying to update an object that no longer exists. It's rare, but it does happen.