My earlier response to Louis is a bit one-sided. There may be occasions when threats are genuine or at least the signs are clear that a person may be approaching the stage of going berserk. I can't recall all the details but there was a prof. in engineering, I believe, at a university in Montreal, a Russian immigrant, who sent emails all over the place screaming about his mistreatment by the head of his department whom he alleged had claimed his (the immigrant's) research as his own. As I recall these posts showed clear signs that the fellow was reaching the end of his tether. I received the post on a list not at all related to the issue. He was trying to get anyone, anywhere to listen. He ended up killing at least one prof. (of course not the guilty party). His charges turned out to have merit. Of course real action was taken on his complaints only after he went berserk. I am sure others have more details on this episode but I think I have the main points correct. The fellow needed some sort of counselling and no doubt his manner of setting out his grievances did not help him, but the real culprits were all those who stood by and did nothing in order to protect the department head from this "troublemaker". It is interesting to note that this chap was able to use his universities' email system to spread his complaints far and wide without being disciplined. He was actively using the Internet to garner support in his personal battle! Cheers, Ken Hanly P.S. Some might think that the poor chap just didn't understand the North American custom of senior faculty claiming credit for work done by junior faculty. In these cases though, the senior prof. usually has some in-put and papers will be signed as jointly authored. This went beyond that. The head was just appropriating this fellow's work and publishing it under his own name as I recall.
