Threading - will threads run in parallel?

[Rene Pijlman]

SolaFide:
>(get() is a function which waits for a ping on a specific port, thus
>stopping the program for a while.)
>
>Will these run together, 

Thread 2 can run while thread 1 is blocked for I/O and v.v.

>Also, is it possible to split off a program for the terminal that
>started it? As in I type in python test.py and test.py runs in the
>background and lets me do other things in that terminal?

Platform? Shell?

-- 
René Pijlman