Kimkins Circus

Haxor'd

2008-01-12T17:52:00.000-08:00

The Circus has NOT been hacked (it just looks that way). If it ever DID get hacked, I'd not give a damn. For anyone who takes this as a challenge let me save you some time by saying that the password isn't any of the following:-

secret
password
drowssap
admin
circus

(several pages worth removed here: a passing hacker)

kimkins
quack
blogger
mole

Hope this helps.

Q.

(tee hee, chuckle chuckle: a passing hacker)

The face of justice?

2007-12-31T17:39:00.000-08:00

I miss a month and look what happens!

2007-12-26T22:20:00.000-08:00

Whats all this about a Magic Chicken Diet?

Already there seems to be a fog of misdirection involved in this new diet, and it is interesting to note the style of those who support / run it.

Rather than simply stating that they have nothing to do with Kimkins, and leaving it at that, the posts and comments I have seen have been a mix of little attacks on those who would query it, and a lot of unnecessary self-explanation.

However, if this saga continues, it will provide a wealth of chicken ideas for my graphics, along with, perhaps, some spin-off diets:-

The Magic Mushroom Diet (you don't lose weight, but imagine that you have, and that you are now a small oak twig.)

The Magic Marker Diet (you draw, on your body, the outline of how you want to look.)

The Magic Eraser Diet (simply rub out the parts you don't want.)

2007-11-26T21:33:00.001-08:00

The new Frozen Kimkins Diet

2007-11-26T21:18:00.000-08:00

The net tightens - Kimkins Dangers has news and a fresh, accurate pic of Heidi here. She doesn't look Russian to me....

The TV Show

2007-11-15T06:47:00.000-08:00

Kimkins Exhausted has part 1 of the show transcript here.

Latest news.

2007-11-12T07:16:00.000-08:00

I am waiting eagerly for 10:00 am, and the Mike & Judy show. I have heard on the grapevine that poor Tippy got slammed six ways from Sunday. Kimkins Dangers (link to right) has a load of info, and no doubt Kimkins Exhausted will follow, if they haven't already posted as I type this!

On a different note, Mimi (who seems to be my greatest fan!) suggested a gallery of all the photoshopped images from my blog. Here it is, if anyone wants to go:-

Picture Gallery

Foxy Lady!

2007-11-05T19:46:00.000-08:00

I had to make this pic, after reading the latest news at Kimkins Dangers.

Q.

Kimkins back on Google adsense

2007-10-11T06:08:00.001-07:00

I wonder if she just re-applied, and Google didn't spot she'd been removed?

I've written to adsense-support@google.com again, lets see if a human writes back instead of a computer.

Q.

Just for fun!

2007-10-09T07:51:00.000-07:00

When I found this cat pic I just HAD to add certain things...

Q.

Asian Kimkins blog!

2007-10-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

Found this today -

http://blog.a-sir.com.tw/user1/drlimsean/archives/2007/1196.html

Can anyone read Japanese / Korean or whatever it is? I've no idea whether it is pro, anti or on the fence.

Q.

Chinese medicine, anyone?

2007-10-08T12:29:00.000-07:00

While I have a great respect for many alternative medicines, Chinese ones included, I can't help but wonder how this alleged Dr Mark (see Kimkins Dangers) will be of help to Kimkinites. Unless......

Q.

In Kimmer's Own Words

2007-10-06T18:01:00.000-07:00

From Once Upon a Diet (Thanks, Princess!) I was inspired to make this little animation. If it doesn't show in the blog, click the image to see it in all its glory:-

Q.

I seem to have upset a Kimkins supporter.

2007-10-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

Remember the tongue-in-cheek website I put up, allowing my readers to put forward their own suggestion for when Kimkins.com would finally bite the dust? Well, it has been quiet for some time now, but this anonymous entry arrived in my mailbox today:-

"when your arse grows hair"

It couldn't possibly be from Heidi herself, it is much too succinct, and it seems to be an original statement - unless it has been translated from an old Russian joke book.

Anyway, for the sake of completeness, I'll add it to the Results page.

Dosvedanya for now,

Q.

Contacting Google.

2007-10-05T17:35:00.000-07:00

adsense-support@google.com

This is the address I wrote to, explaining the uncertainty of the Kimkins diet, and pointing out that Google adwords brings up Kimkins adverts when you google Kimkins. Lets see if I get a response.

Q.

Added Saturday 6th - I got an automated response from Google, and to "Rest assured that we've received your message and we'll respond as soon as we can."

Borat has found love.

2007-10-05T17:07:00.000-07:00

While trawling the Kimkins blogs, I found this one - Borat Does Kimkins. It seems that at least one person has found love and luck thanks to Kimkins!

I enlarged one section of the post and saw this:-

Surely a coincidence?

Heidi left Kimkins fast!

2007-10-04T21:17:00.001-07:00

New Kimkins owner?

2007-10-04T18:35:00.001-07:00

Kimkins is under new management, according to Kimkins Exposed. Yet, Kimmer is staying on as an adviser. So she will still have a finger in the pie, so to speak, yet in theory, perhaps, she thinks that her new position might keep her off the hook as far as litigation goes?

She doesn't seem to realize that if you run someone over in a car, moving across to the passenger seat doesn't make any difference when it comes to court.

Heidi / Kimmer was at the helm when the health of members was damaged, she was at the helm when the fake images and success stories were added, and she was certainly at the helm when she claimed she had lost 200 pounds in under a year.

However, she is still in a position to influence the new owner (if indeed there IS one), so I think we can all look forward to a continuation of the incredible soap opera that is Kimkins.

Q.

A wonderful work of fiction?

2007-10-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

I'd be surprised if this success story is real. It is much too contrived, too scripted. Furthermore, the face in the "after" photo looks a tad.. dare I say .. Russian?

New pictures!

2007-10-03T20:23:00.001-07:00

This is the latest from Kimkins, showing what seems, at first glance to be a genuine pair of before and after photos. The alleged story is below.

"Hello, my name is Lulu, and I want to thank Kimkins so much! Because of your incredible diet plan, my life has completely turned around! I was spending too much time comfort eating, due to all the stress of ruling a barbarous planet, and my weight had skyrocketed! I started only a terrestrial year ago, spending many weeks on VLCD (eating only one mortal enemy a day) before slowly introducing carbs back into my daily intake. Your diet is fantastic! In only 12 weeks, I lost over 500 pounds, and could see my tail again! I found my skin tone improving too: the wrinkles gradually vanishing, and the putrid jaundiced color slowly turning a healthy pink. Six months into the diet, my hair grew back and, to my surprise, so did my legs! Finally, after a month of fasting on egg whites my tail fell off, immediately bringing my weight under 200 pounds! I was overjoyed at how well your fantastic diet was working! Even my own mother no longer recognized me! I could now wear clothes from regular shops instead of having to take over whole textile industries! I really cannot express my thanks to Kimkins too much! Her diet showed a new "me" that I never knew I had! I am more than a new person, I am new species! Nowadays I live in a quiet suburb of Moscow, where I am not well known, selling talkative robots on eBay."

I have my doubts about the veracity of this, but it seems no more implausible than many of the other success stories I have seen.

Q.

Look, we KNOW that Heidi and Kimmer are one and the same. Sheesh.

2007-10-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

Kimmer's words, which I found on Kimkins Dangers.

I cut out the piece I wanted to comment on.

"What a sweet note! The problem is that I am not Heidi. If you read my post earlier, I took Heidi's identity (if you want to call it that) when I first started posting on the internet. It was new and scary to me. I have a national security clearance and wasn't about to give any of MY information on a public source."

Kimmer, if this was to do with your job at Hughes Aircraft, then the security clearance she mentions would only apply to THAT company, and any military or other sensitive information she may have been involved with. National security clearance does not require you to keep personal information completely to yourself.

And fyi, I have signed a similar security clearance from when I worked in the nuclear industry. It didn't stop me sharing personal info, as long as I didn't mention things like "The plutonium is stored in that building over there."

Anyway, all this aside, I'm sure that a court of law would be able to find out whether you were indeed Heidi K. Diaz or not.

Kimkins on television.

2007-10-02T23:35:00.000-07:00

Well, is this the beginning of the end?

Click on http://ktla.trb.com/, then select "News", as shown in this pic. The Kimkins article should be near the top.

I don't know what to add. It's almost the culmination, playtime is over, now its time to sit back and let justice take its course.

What I thought was SO beautiful is that KTLA will do a follow-up article tomorrow, discussing the legal proceedings now in place and ready to go. Will CNN et al leap onto the story?

Takeaway..

2007-10-02T21:13:00.001-07:00

Kimmer removing the "evidence"?

I love looking at the psychology of all this...

2007-10-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

Tippytoes does it again. This post has been discussed on a couple of blogs that I know of, but the last two sentences struck me as interesting:-

1) I want you all to not be afraid to see positive changes being made.

Putting aside the murdered grammar, why would Tippy think that Kimkins members might fear "positive changes"? What has happened that she thinks could cause fright and alarm? Does she think that all the sanitizing and photo removal could make the members think that they had been lied to, that they had been conned? Perhaps she is afraid that they may suspect that the site is about to shut down?

2) This only means we are here to stay and getting better all the time.

Oh, that is what Tippy is afraid of. So she added a rousing ending, almost a battle-cry. "C'mon, troops, lets all pull together! We shall vanquish the heathen!"

I maybe wrong, but the winning side in a war (I might as well carry on this analogy, as Tippy herself mentions it in her post) doesn't generally need much in the way of pep-talks from the leadership. The average soldier can see when they are winning, and doesn't need to be told.

I also love the way Tippy likes using very emotive words - terrorism, hazzard (sic), war, hacker, etc. Get the emotions to over-ride logical thought. To quote one of my favorite bands, "Free thinkers can be dangerous."

Q.

Snippet.

2007-10-02T11:43:00.000-07:00

"I personally see entering the cult and the deprogramming as quite separate psychological phenomena. Getting into the cult consists of the cult recruiter getting the new initiate to stop the thought processes, to think only in cult terms and concepts, to stop thinking about their past and to give them a [narrow] frame of thought... The deprogramming process is more a freeing up of the person to once again use their mind and to reflect and think and reason and to trust their own experiences." --from a 1979 TV show, Thy Will Be Done.

Monocle.

2007-10-01T17:19:00.001-07:00

Reading only part of a senten

2007-10-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed that when a person is truly desperate to prove something, their reading ability seems to decay?

Tippy gives a great example here, when trying to define "terrorism". Her paraphrased version goes like this:-

"So for them here it is, straight from Webster’s dictonary(sic): “Terrorism. the use of force or threats to intimidate”."

Nope, wrong. The actual definition at Webster's goes like this:-

"The systematic use of violence as a means to intimidate or coerce societies or governments."

It continues:-

"The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence against individuals or property in an attempt to coerce or intimidate governments or societies to achieve political, religious or ideological objectives."

.. and:-

"The organized recourse to violent and illegal acts with the view to creating extreme fear, social dislocation, intimidation, heavy destruction or governmental disorganization, for political, extremist or personal gain."

Nothing being done against the Kimpire is even remotely violent or illegal. Nothing.

Just for fun, I can't help comparing the happenings at Kimkins.com with how, for instance, Atkins might react in similar circumstances. If serious flaws were suggested in the Atkins diet plan, how would they react? Would they gloss over it, sweep naysayers under the carpet and pretend all was rosy? Would they allow personal messages between board members to be placed on an insecure messaging system? Would any board member take it unto themselves to send off threatening little emails to those who stood against them?

Nope. In fact, many years ago, when Dr Atkins' diet first came out, and was generally disbelieved, he took the case for his diet to Congress, along with reams of medical evidence, peer reviews, and more. In short, he provided a scientific proof that his diet worked and was safe.

We have to ponder why this has not been the case with Kimkins. A properly researched diet would have facts and figures to support it: there would be medical proof, not hearsay, that it worked and didn't harm anyone. All we have are "success stories" and testimonies** that could have been written by anyone, dead or alive. Which brings me to another point - the infamous "before and after" pictures. These were obvious fakes which disappeared from the Kimkins site soon after they were found out.

In short - does any reader know of a reputable company that would operate in this fashion?

Q.

** Yes, there have been some success stories - but at what cost to future health? See Christin's video here. And she is not the only one seemingly with health problems from following Kimkins. The only genuine long term success stories come from those who did Kimkins short term. Something else to ponder.

Not a hack.

2007-10-01T10:51:00.001-07:00

My tongue-in-cheek post on Saturday about finding a way into kimkins forums (titled "Ooooooh!")" was simply a joke link to a GIF file (see still of it below). I have neither the ability nor the wish to hack any websites, even Kimmer's.
Q.

Inspired by a comment on Kimkins own board:-

2007-09-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

Ooooooh!

2007-09-29T06:27:00.001-07:00

It is with great pride and a little trepidation, that I can announce that Kimkin's Circus has managed to find a back-door way into the Kimkins PM system and forums.

I can't post what has been found on this blog, but you can click here to get a very good insight into those areas of the Kimkins site.

Q.

Grin.

2007-09-28T11:51:00.001-07:00

Ahh, the wonders of alcohol...

2007-09-28T10:34:00.001-07:00

Ladies and Gentleman, place your prophecy now!

2007-09-28T09:23:00.000-07:00

I made a little fun website where you can place your own prophecy for the day we all look forward to seeing.

Click here to enter!

No prizes guaranteed, except the big one which we are all eagerly waiting for!

Q.

Prophecy?

2007-09-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

After consulting I-Ching, some tea leaves and the pattern of gerbil migration in Europe, I felt the following vision grow within me:-

This may be more accurate than SingingLass's prophecies which can be found here at The Truth in Hiding.

Q.

Fraud Report Site

2007-09-27T06:17:00.000-07:00

Very, almost TOO, perfectly, I found a website where you can report diet scams. It is called Quackwatch.org, and has a duck with a magnifying glass as a logo.

It has a fraud report page here.

Information needed is:-

To Report an Online Fraud or Suspected Fraud

Send us the URL

Add any additional information you have about the company.
If you have special knowledge to share with a reporter or regulatory official, please indicate that and include complete contact information.

To Report a Personal Experience

Include your name, age, address, work and home telephone numbers.
Provide a detailed account of what happened to you that includes:
- Dates or approximate dates that the events occurred
- Name and location of perpetrator
- Pertinent health history, including problem for which you sought help
What would you like us to do with the information?
- Post your story to one of our sites. That usually requires inclusion of your name.
- Forward your story to a regulatory agency
- Try to help you recover money
- Help you file a lawsuit
- Give your name to a reporter who might want to interview you

There is a link at the bottom of that page - Fighting Quackery: Tips for Activists which also looks useful.

Q.

Christin's podcast.

2007-09-26T17:27:00.000-07:00

On a more serious note, I recommend that you have a look here, this is Christin's first podcast about her personal journey with the Kimkins diet and how it has affected her.

It is a very moving and thought-provoking video - Christin, my heart goes out to you, I'm sure it will all end well, and kudos to you for having the courage to post it. I eagerly await Kimmer's video reply.

Q.

Amazing revelation!

2007-09-26T05:51:00.000-07:00

I have been talking to a university professor friend who specializes in linguistic genealogy, and he has put forward an interesting theory about the "duck" symbology which is rampant on the boards.

In headline form, this is - "Kimmer IS Ducky!".

The professor's reasoning and logic is flawless. It is well known that Kimmer has a tendency to sign up under false names in order to either listen in to what others are saying, or to spout out about how good the Kimkins diet is. She is also known to lack imagination, as her aliases prove. She also appears to be able to switch her personality depending on what point she is trying to prove.

Now, imagine that she wanted to make her own blog, under the pretense of being anti-Kimkins - what would she do? Simple - she'd choose a user name from her past, and maybe tweak it a bit.

Thus, from her mother's name, Kim Drake, comes ... DUCKY! The connection is obvious! It is inescapable! But it gets worse - we have all missed so many duck oriented clues -

"Peeking Duck" because she trawls the forums checking what we have written,
"Duck the issue" .. no comment,
"Completely quackers" - self explanatory.

Some things seem to go completely over her head. Is this because she ducked?

Finally, a duck's feet are webbed, and Kimmer used the world wide web to start her business.

I was assured that there were more instances, but the professor had finished off the bottle of whisky by this time, and fallen into a deep slumber.

Q.

(Disclaimer for any Kimkins members coming across this blog:- this piece is intended as gentle satire, and does not mean that anyone on the planet really thinks that Kimmer and Ducky from Kimkins Exposed are one and the same. So please don't waste valuable space on the serious blogs / forums trying to discuss this article. )

'Nuff said..

2007-09-25T17:35:00.001-07:00

From a friend in the forums :)

Psychic Rations viewpoint.

2007-09-23T08:25:00.000-07:00

There is a fantastic summary here of the Kimkins fiasco.

As the lady in question (I couldn't find her name) isn't a full time Kimkins blogger, her blog contains a load of other stuff - yes, there IS life outside of Kimkins! lol. I found this wonderfully uplifting entry as well : The Paper Planes Of Spring.

Good on ya, cobber!

Q.

Not an ad hominem attack.

2007-09-22T11:05:00.000-07:00

Just a passing thought from reading through the happenings on the Kimkins site:-

When two people are arguing over a heated subject, who loses their temper first? Who is the first to start personal attacks rather than attack the argument? Who metaphorically sticks their fingers in their ears and says "La la la, I can't hear you"?

The loser.

Q.

Feel.

2007-09-22T10:46:00.001-07:00

From Kimkins Survivors:-

Feel

There is an immediate draw to a plan that promises you quick weight loss with no exercise. The plan promises you that you will not be hungry. It promises you quick results.You sign up. You want to know more. You find out that many of the people there are having such fast losses. You want that, too.Told to follow those with the best successes, you strive to emulate those successes. To make them your own.

You are hungry for a few days, but that goes away. Now you feel high. Happy. Light. You are eating 1200 calories a day and you don’t feel a thing.

The loss slows. You know you could probably do with a little less. You could cut a little here, shear a little there. You feel a little bit of hunger, but this time, it is only for a day. That leaves you quickly. You are eating 900 calories a day and you don’t feel a thing.

Your loss slows. You feel perhaps that you have cut back on your fiber too much, and read that others are using laxatives in different forms to keep things moving. You use this. It works. You decide that you will use this method every time you feel uncomfortable. Now you can cut back your caloric intake further. Those in the boot camp program are allowed up to 500 calories a day. You change. You conform. You are now eating 500 calories a day and you don’t feel a thing.

Your loss slows. It is said that you are eating too much because you are not exercising like the people in boot camp. You know you must be weak to not try harder. You must not want this bad enough. So you shift. You change things. Just a little. Just a smidge. Light as a feather, feeling high in your mind. No one notices your hair is brittle. It wouldn’t matter. You are now eating 300 calories a day and you don’t feel a thing.

Your loss slows. You feel palpitations occasionally as though your heart is fluttering. Your family has noticed. Your friends worry. You have made changes. You are strong in your mind, and others wouldn’t understand. They are not strong like you are. You will show them. You are now eating 200 calories a day and you are exercising. And you don’t feel a thing.

You don’t feel a thing.

The coroner pronounced you dead at 2:34 am this morning. You suffered a heart attack because your body consumed the muscles of your heart for energy, and your body could no longer sustain itself. Your mother sobs in the corner. Your daughter stands, glassy-eyed, holding your cold hand. She is four, and she doesn’t understand.

And you don’t feel a thing.

An Essay on Ducks.

2007-09-21T18:17:00.001-07:00

Thanks for Kimkins Exposed for the following, just so we all understand the problem :D

Thanks also for the inspirational cartoon!

Q.

Why the Ducks?

Friday, September 21st in Heidi Diaz, Kimkins, Kimkins Diet, Kimkins.com, Kimmer, kimkins controversy, kimkins dieting, kimkins fraud, kimkins members | 6 comments

We found it rather odd and amusing that a member of Kimkins had this to say about the recent spate of duck avatars popping up across online forums,

I have to agree with you NAME REMOVED about the HATE swallowing them up…It is like what they live for… To watch this witch hunt evolve, is truly disheartning..

What is crazy to me is the fact that I have read over there many times of them accusing the people here of being Cultists…

I am telling you all, they need to step back and examine their own heads,… Just about EVERYONE there on tha particular thread, has a DUCK for an avatar….

They are all Duckies followers! It’s right there in Duckdome. YOWSER! What is wrong with that picture??”

We’d like to weigh in here and state for the record we are under no grand illusion that the hundreds of duck avatars are for us.

No, in fact, we’re sure it’s due to Kimmer’s own words, “I’m naturally suspicious of anyone with a “duck” avatar.”

Let me try and make the situation crystal clear, as at least one Kimkins member hasn't quite got the idea behind the ducks:- Once Kimmer stated her suspicions about ducks, everyone saw a way to confuse the issue. I and the others are not "Ducky" followers, and I personally wouldn't know him or her if they quacked at me in the street.

Q.

2007-09-21T13:39:00.001-07:00

Greetings from Quackamole.

"What is this blog about?", you may ask. "What is with the deformed mole?" Well, there is a tale behind it, pun intended...

This is my small contribution to the increasingly surreal soap-opera that is Kimkins. Haven't heard of it? May I suggest you grab a can of (diet) soda, a large plate of snackage type food, and settle in for the tale.

In the beginning there was a lady who contributed to the lowcarbfriends message boards under the name of Kimmer. She built up a large following with her ideas about dieting the low carb way (Dr Atkins style) and eventually began her own site at kimkins.com with a couple of friends from LCF. I believe she charged about $15 for people to join this site, which was where she posted all manner of info about her own version of Dr Atkins, provided a messageboard for members, and promised support from herself, as she said that she had lost 180 pounds doing the diet.

Her big break came when she managed to get her diet on the front page of Women's World magazine, with a double page spread inside, extolling the virtues of her diet.

At about the same time, she increased the membership fee to $60 (for lifetime membership - remember this, it gets mentioned later). By her own admission, membership shot up to around 40,000. Do the mathematic$.

Lets shift focus back to the magazine article. In that article she referred to herself as Kim Drake. Various before and after pictures were touted round in the magazine and on the Kimkins site. However, none of Kim Drake's photographs were used. Quite strange considering that she had lost a lot of weight - surely she would want to show off her new figure!

Over the next few weeks, "Kimmer" refused to meet any Kimkins members, or even meet for interviews, claiming that she had what sounded like a form of agoraphobia, and didnt like being outside or near crowds. The low carb forums buzzed with speculation. Slowly, small snippets of information were discovered - that Kim Drake's real name was Heidi Kimberley Diaz: that many of the before and after photos on her website and elsewhere were faked, that she herself had not lost any weight at all, and looked, if anything, more obese than her "before" photo.

Running parallel to these discoveries were questions about the safety of Kimkin's VLCD diets, the suggestions that Kimkins members use laxatives as an aid to slimming, and more. Several Kimkins members and admins asked Kimmer about the safety of the diet plan:- the result was that anyone who queried the plan was banned from site (despite "life long" membership) and three admins resigned.

Further information was now coming in thick and fast - that Heidi and her husband had divorced, that Heidi had been taken to court over an unpaid student loan, that she was on disability, that her claim to be fostering children was false, two family members stated that she had scammed them, that she had been in jail (currently we don't know for what offense) and more.

Everything that was now coming out was digging a deeper and deeper hole for Heidi. At the time of writing, several government agencies are investigating her affairs, a class action suit is being organized, and other avenues are being looked into.

All because she didn't want us to know her real name, and didn't want anyone to see how she had failed at her own attempts to lose weight.

A mystery will ALWAYS attract attention, Heidi. Your diet, VLCD etc apart, actually worked. People did lose weight following your plan. So why, oh why, weren't you upfront about yourself? Yes, there may have been some cruel remarks, but I think that most people who are wanting to lose weight have often put it back on, and they would have understood your dilemma.

Nobody would have dug into your past. Nobody would have contacted your ex, or your son, or other family members. And if anyone had heard a light tapping from your closet, they'd have ignored it. Instead, the skeleton in your cupboard is now well and truly in the public domain.

Oh, about the mole with a beak - a couple of days ago, Heidi commented about not trusting anyone with a duck avatar. Within an hour, almost every poster on the Kimkins related forums had a duck avatar.

The reason for her mistrust is simple - she feels that the duck is a mole....