The Kwok has been mailing all over the place. He has complained to facebook, and to the Panda’s Thumb. He has written to CFI-Michigan in advance of my visit here, telling them to throw a pie in my face. I have heard from quite a few friends in the scientific community that Kwok has written to them, as well, telling them what an awful jerk I am and how they should not ever associate with me. He has now cc’ed to me a message he sent to several of my colleagues at UMM, with an incredibly ironic title.
Internet stalking by your colleague, Professor Paul Z. Myers
Dear Professor [redacted]:
While I am relieved that your colleague, Dr. Paul Z. “PZ” Myers, survived his automobile accident without any personal injuries, I must write to you and your colleague, Professor [redacted], as the senior members of your discipline, to complain about ridiculous, quite unnecessary, harassment and internet stalking which was done by Professor Myers and some of his acolytes and friends last week at both his blog, Pharyngula, and at Facebook.
I have filed complaints with both Facebook and Science Blogs, and Facebook seems to be taking seriously my complaint, since it is in the midst of an ongoing investigation.
Here are some representative examples of the harassment and internet stalking that I had to endure from Myers and others posting at Pharyngula:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/03/the_revenge_of_kwok.php#comments
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/03/survivor_pharyngula_day_four.php#comments
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/03/survivor_pharyngula_day_three.php#commentsStarting on Friday night I was subjected to further abuse, such as more harassment and internet stalking by Myers and some of his Facebook friends at Facebook.
When I noted on his wall that I felt compelled to contact the organizer of an April 8th talk at Saint Katherine’s College that will be presented by my friend, Brown University professor of biology Kenneth R. Miller, in light of Myers’ own bizarre behavior such as his “condemnation” of a Roman Catholic, and alert her to the possibility that Myers might be a disruptive person at Ken’s talk, Myers wrote this:
Pz wrote on your Wall:
“Wait…you mean I might be standing in line for Ken Miller’s talk, and the organizer might send a beefy security guard over to expel me?
Please, please, please make it so. That went so well last time it happened.”
Myers’s behavior would be deemed unacceptable by Dr. Ruth Simmons, President, Brown University. I strongly suspect that had he conducted himself in such a fashion as a Brown professor, she would have insisted upon his immediate resignation for conduct unworthy of a Brown professor.
I think it is worth noting how Myers is perceived over at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pz_myers
His abysmal conduct stands in stark contrast to other, more prominent, critics of creationism like Drs. Eugenie Scott, Jerry Coyne and Kenneth R. Miller:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenie_Scott
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Coyne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_R._Miller
Regrettably, I have decided to demand from Myers some financial compensation for his egregious behavior. He will have to purchase on my behalf a used Leica M7 rangefinder camera body (The price will vary, but somewhere in the range of approximately $2200 to $2500.). I hope you and Professor [redacted] will persuade him to act favorably on my request.
Respectfully yours,
John Kwok
Kwok also sent me a little addendum.
PS: Internet stalking by your colleague, Professor Paul Z. Myers
Dear PZ –
I’m not amused at all by your egregious conduct towards me. In fact, if you’ve been reading PT lately, I made a thinly-veiled reference to you yesterday, observing that you are a lunatic.
I fully expect you to comply with my request, which will be in lieu of an actual lawsuit. Moreover, I don’t expect you to announce this at either Pharyngula or Facebook, since if you do, I’ll be compelled to demand more compensation from you.
Will you please grow up and act your chronological age for once? I also expect you to refrain from criticizing religions, especially the Roman Catholic Church.
I have an old friend from whom you can purchase a used Leica M7. Once you are ready to contact me, I’ll tell you how.
Respectfully yours,
John Kwok
I leave the diagnosis of Mr Kwok’s condition in the hands of the readers.
Kwok is escalating now. Just got this:
Dear PZ –
You owe me now $5,000 worth of photo equipment. If you don’t have it, then ask your pal Dawkins for a loan (Since he received a multi-million dollar advance from Simon and Schuster for his next book. Incidentally, Simon and Schuster publishes Michael Behe’s and Frank McCourt’s books.). Thanks for demonstrating that you are indeed an internet stalker:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/03/john_kwok_sends_email.php#comments
I was hoping you would ignore me completely instead of yet another inane pontificiation of yours at Pharyngula. But instead, you’ve demonstrated why I believe Dr. Ruth Simmons, President of Brown University, would have demanded your resignation as a member of her university’s faculty, simply for indulging in the kind of ridiculous, often lunatic, conduct that you so obviously relish.
Respectfully yours,
John Kwok
Since he does seem to be ramping up his demands, the next time I post one of his missives, it will include full contact information and IP addresses for Mr Kwok, as per my notice on the left sidebar.
Uhclem @500, good one! Worth a chuckle.
Seriously, though, Kwok is a magnificent kook the like of which only occurs occasionally.
He brings to mind Earl Curley or Edmond Wollmann (from Usenet, back in the day).
A prime specimen.
Yes, yes full disclosure in this information age is a good thing. Would hate for you to be charged with stalking again, let us lackys take off some of the burden.
I’m only slightly serious.
Oops, Pieter B, hadn’t seen your #496 when I posted…
Anyway, he’s a rare one.
Wow, Kwok’s e-mails are just sooooo unbelievably hilarious! I’ve been reading the comments, and getting quite a kick from them, when I noticed that many of the commenters are making demands. So I have to pause in my reading to say: I WANT AN ASTEROID NAMED AFTER ME!!!!!
(Phew! I feel so much better now that I’ve got that off my chest. Okay, back to reading comments.)
Zookeeper! Zookeeper! Those monkeys are killing each other!
Deja vu?
http://scienceblogs.com/erv/2008/07/green_buttocks.php#comment-970602
Perhaps we could run a book on how often the term ‘mendacious intellectual pornographer’ will appear in Kwok’s novel.
This so reminds me of my favourite The Far Side comic, where the psychiatrist is writing ‘just plain nuts’ on his pad!
Scroll to the end to find the comic itself:
http://creekjournal.blogspot.com/2007/10/just-plain-nuts.html
Wait.. mendacious intellectual pornography… wanting a $2000+ camera…
Is he hinting at starting a pornography studio? Kinky!
Wow. “You checked out my website many times! Now you must buy me a camera!”
There’s a legal strategy I’ve never seen before…
Is it too late to emulate the great Kwok and namedrop?
Kwok is not Texan, though. Maybe he asked one of his Facebook friends to do it?
Stark #507
Thanks for the link. I am new to this Blog but I had read enough of Kwoks crap to know he needed banned. Even so I had no Idea how stupid he actually is.
After reading his comments on green buttocks I have to conclude that he is the fucking stupidest fucking fucked up fucktard that I have ever fucking heard of. He is so bad I just used up my weakly allotment of the word fuck to describe him.
Also he goes on about his multiple graduate degrees. Does anyone know if this is true. I understand that a graduate degree doesn’t always mean “smart”, but it usually means not completely, mindlessly stupid. I wanted to use the F word in there but like I said I used up my allotment already.
I know a degree alone won’t make you wealthy or even well off but I would think someone with multiple science degrees could afford his own camera. I can, and I’m just an electrician with an Associates degree.
Gee,
the Kwokster has gone off the deep end hey….
Impressive !
John Kwok,
if you read this,pull yourself together and call it a day mate,you are becoming FBI interest material,and fast.
Quit while youre behind,its a blog man.
As far as sore losers go, Kwok is king of them!
John Kwok reminds me of a guy I met in college who called himself Magnus (not his real name). He would go on and on about how great he was in school and how he went to a magnet school in Texas. One of his “claims to fame” was that some student at his high school quoted him on an AP exam question.
I’m a computer scientist with a twisted sense of humor so I once gave him a computer game I had written and told him I didn’t think he could beat it. I admitted to him I wasn’t able to beat it myself. He played it several times and lost each time but claimed he got closer to beating it than any of the rest of us could. Of course the game was impossible to win and the computer player just played randomly. It was hilarious because he was the only person in the room that didn’t know it wasn’t beatable.
Well me. I’m not even [redacted].
John Morales, I’m glad to know that I’m not the only Usenet veterano still around. GMTA
What a fucking psychopath.
Camera equipment?
Mr. Kwok is clearly unbalanced.
Religion will do that to you.
How about this.
Dear Mr. Kwok,
I find you irritating. And so, logically, you now owe me a BMX Z3 roadster. I have a friend who can sell you a used one for me. Buy it for me or I will sue you for being a obnoxious twit. Also, I’m going to e-mail all of your friends and tell them what a wackaloon you are and then, I’m going to accuse YOU of stalking. Because, of course, that makes sense.
Definition of a kwok:
A sub-viral life form whose whole existence is an attempt to make earwigs seem intelligent and intellectual.
Kwoks never come in pairs or multitude as their stoopid seems to cause immediate oblivion when more than one present.
I thought he was a loon, but now I see he’s an extortionist. If he sues, counter-sue.
oh well here’s the kwokophone again in case anybody missed it.
It’s not worth putting on the air unless the cowardly little fart threatens to sue me.
http://acksisofevil.org/audio/kwokophone.mp3
Awwww Fuck it, this asstard is definitely worth another take
John Kwok performing on a Qwerty Kybd in a fugue state Gm
http://acksisofevil.org/audio/kwok2.mp3
Hi PZ,
Why not just go to the police?
This is clearly stalking and an attempt at extortion (however it’s spelled).
I know it has amusement value, but you never know what looneys like that are capable of, so maybe it’s a smart thing to just press charges and get it over with.
So wait, he just decided that PZ needed to buy him a new camera body? I am very confused.
I find it funny that even in a letter he can’t resist the name-dropping!
[Wow, what an ugly thread of comments this is]
Look that man with mental problems made some crazy demand!!1!
His so stooopid!!!1!
Look at him isn’t he stoopid??+!
I can say I wantz camera too!!!11
Isnt I cool !!!1?+
young european – if you knew anything about the history of Kwok and Pharyngula/PZ Myers, you would not have posted the above nonsense.
Initially, back before the “survivor” thing ever happened, I responded sympathetically to him (his intial complaint concerned PZ’s modest remarks that Ken Miller was a (small “c”) creationist), but he merely went on and on about his school (or alma mater as he referred to it) and his “famous friends”. He was roundly mocked and abused for his absurdity, upon which he resorted to numerous, pathetic yet hilarious, threats. He has also tried to alter PZ’s Wikipedia entry.
Kwok is a nutcase, who decided to roughhouse under a hornet’s nest.
Befriend him on facebook if you wish, but I wouldn’t bother coming here and moaning – as he did – that he has been unjustly vilified.
All Kwok ever had to do was the shut the fuck up. I would offer you the same advice.
Cordially
AnthonyK
“I made a thinly-veiled reference to you yesterday, observing that you are a lunatic.”
he sounds a bit Ignatius J. Reilly sometimes.
I knew there was something vaguely familiar about his tone and vocabulary! The parallels are so close that I believe you could make a very good case that he is consciously aping Reilly. Does anyone know if he sells hot dogs in New Orleans for a living or if he has trouble with his valves?
John’s is an unhealthy obsession. This is really sad…
Stu
@ Shonny #521:
Maybe the word “Kwok” will ascend to such great heights of usage as “Santorum”…
AnthonyK – I knew most of that, but I don’t care about the details.
I just find the mocking of a mentally disturbed person unsympathetic. Myself I reserve that kind of mocking for sane people (and hypothetically as a defence tactic against a truly dangerous mentally disturbed person, but that’s not what this is, this is mocking for fun).
I agree with (the few) who find this mocking unseemly. There was no need for Myers to post Kwok’s letter. Of course, taking the high road is not something you associate with this blog, so I’m not the least bit surprised.
Of course, taking the high road is not something you associate with this blog, so I’m not the least bit surprised.
And that’s why heddle the sociopath comes here to sneer at all the people who don’t take the heddle high road, the one where he gets to hope he can go to heaven, where God will scoop out his compassion so he won’t have to feel the slightest shred of it, in a Cosmic Milgram Experiment.
Fuck you, heddle, you make Kwok look sane by comparison.
Did I say sane? Sorry, I meant to say, heddle makes kwok look human by comparison. Of course, that isn’t a compliment to kwok by any stretch of the imagination.
Perhaps post 534 wasn’t heddle, just somebody who knows heddle’s MO so well that he knew to include the classic heddle hypocrisy and attempt to derail the thread by making it all about heddle, who is probably jealous of all the attention Kwok is getting.
young european #528
Buzzkill.
Not to ruin anybody’s fun, but based on its contribution history, that Wikipedia editor is highly unlikely to be John Kwok, what with their pro-creationist slant and all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/128.194.15.14
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Of_Pandas_and_People&diff=prev&oldid=277245599
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Privileged_Planet&diff=prev&oldid=271851460
Laughable, yes; John Kwok, no. On the other hand, Kwok should be happy that he’s gained supporters from among the creationists, right? More Facebook friends for him!
Wait? What? Kwok comes to a blog and goes on a social network, comments, and when the blog owner (or supporters) comments back, it is stalking by the blog owner?
And the requests for camera equipment? Isn’t that considered blackmail or extortion or something? Usually when someone says “If you don’t give me this, I will do this” the person making the threat is the one who gets into legal trouble.
Kwok is quite possibly a danger to himself and other, he is acting completely irrationally.
Not much to add to this WTK?-fest. But I will simply note that asking for the particular camera that he did – a Leica M7 – fits perfectly with his name-dropping, faux upper-crust intellectual, MO. Any photo geek will tell you that Leica users have always been the “east-coast elitists” of the camera world. And yes, the true elites – while having dabbled briefly in digital before the prices came down and the unwashed masses were able to partake as well – use film – but only for the very woo-worthy reason that film images just have that “certain, unexplainable something” that the cold logic of digital could never hope to duplicate.
It’s a Kwok-worthy demand, by a mile – pretentious, vacuous, and nonsensical with more than a little touch of good ol’ sad and disturbing thrown in for flavor.
Having only one oar in the water can cause one to go in circles.
I go away for a day and a half and return to find the Kwok that keeps on giving has indeed been generous again. Can’t wait for the next round. Oh, and I want a pony too.
I have a Minolta rangefinder camera you can buy to give to Mr. Kwok. You can knock the lens off with a hammer, since he only wants a body.
I’ll send you my wish list later if you are really Santa.
Not only that but he always demands this camera from people that cross him. That’s what I learned from comment # 507.
At least Kwok is saner than the Texas School Board.
By a long shot…
Seeing everybody’s reaction to a rude demand for something, I now present a polite request for an item. Complete with a valid reason for why I deserve it.
It comes down to this, on Monday I shall be seeing my doctor about going in for in-patient treatment to get stabilized on my psych meds, or maybe even switched to something else. There’s a few other things that need to be dealt with, but that’s about it.
Since this will likely take a couple of weeks at least, knowing that a cheap digital camera plus a couple of extra memory cards awaits my return home would be a great help. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just as long as it works, and gets me out of my apartment.
A brand new iMac with a MacTel Core 2 Duo chip, a 2 gigahertz processor, and 4 gigs of RAM would be even better, but I shall not be disappointed (much) if that is not in my future.
If nothing else, a book from my wish list would be nice, email mythusmage -at mythusmage -dot- com for details.
ok,so far, if I tally correctly, PZ is up for a Leica camera, a few disposable cameras, a Ferrari, a cask of ale, a Macbook and about a gazillion ponies.
Geez, Pharyngulites are easily pleased.
I’d like a plastic rocket to go with my pony…
The Kwockies’ Amazon (UK) profile—complete with name dropping (geesh!)—lists not only the previously-mentioned gallery, but also:
And indeed, several in the bottom row are credited to His Kwockiesness. I particularly liked the penultimate one in the bottom row, which is a excellent example of the “microphone stand growing out of the centre of the dancer’s head” school of photography.
Feccking extra c. His Kwokiness. Grrrcr!
Oh my,he went to the same school as Lucy Liu !!
Now Im really impressed !
clinteas, #552
Which one?
According to her IMDB biography Liu graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1986, a mere six years after Kwok’s graduation.
I’m impressed by your supernatural ability to tell sane trolls form insane trolls. Less so by your natural ability to be a smug asshole.
#539:
Yes, and the IP seems to be in Texas. Texas A&M to be precise.
As an undergraduate at Brown, a university that deeply loves its president, Ruth Simmons, (I’m serious, everyone here has a Ruth fetish) I say that Kwok taking President Simmons name in vain is a step too far. This means war.
True to his word (PZ’s), godless ejaculators are still running amok here.
Glad to see cumulative selection has not altered this blog.
Soooo, give it up, PZ. What keeps those RMs at bay?
Glad to see the influx of retarded drive-by trolls is steady on this blog.
The Kwok emails are so much funnier if you imagine them read with Stewy’s voice from Family Guy.
“I also expect you to refrain from criticizing religions, especially the Roman Catholic Church.”
Wow. So it’s slightly more okay for PZ to criticize Scientology than the RCC, one of the most widespread and damaging religions in the world? Good luck with your demands, buddy boy.
Better yet, good luck staying out of the sanatorium.