Tópico: Crank

[Fenrir]

Aqui no servico esta um tedio infernal, entao fiquei navegando um pouco e achei isto:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crank_(person)

[...]

According to these authors, virtually universal characteristics of cranks include:

Cranks overestimate their own knowledge and ability, and underestimate that of acknowledged experts.
Cranks insist that their alleged discoveries are urgently important.
Cranks rarely if ever acknowledge any error, no matter how trivial.
Cranks love to talk about their own beliefs, often in inappropriate social situations, but they tend to be bad listeners, and often appear to be uninterested in anyone else's experience or opinions.

[...]

In addition, many cranks

seriously misunderstand the mainstream opinion to which they believe that they are objecting,
stress that they have been working out their ideas for many decades, and claim that this fact alone entails that their belief cannot be dismissed as resting upon some simple error,
compare themselves with Galileo or Copernicus, implying that the mere unpopularity of some belief is in itself evidence of plausibility,
claim that their ideas are being suppressed by secret intelligence organizations, mainstream science, powerful business interests, or other groups which, they allege, are terrified by the possibility of their allegedly revolutionary insights becoming widely known,
appear to regard themselves as persons of unique historical importance.
Cranks who contradict some mainstream opinion in some highly technical field, such as mathematics or physics, almost always

exhibit a marked lack of technical ability,
misunderstand or fail to use standard notation and terminology,
ignore fine distinctions which are essential to correctly understanding mainstream belief.

[...]

[JUS EST ARS]

Crank = Guglisnki

[Fabulous]

WTF?

[Danielle Bandeira]

Resumindo pode-se dizer que se trata de um indivíduo proselitista, sofista, desonesto intelectual e com mente extremamente fechada?

[JUS EST ARS]

Em linhas gerais, Crank é um cabeça-dura com idéias erradas, um "zé oreia".

[Fenrir]

...compare themselves with Galileo or Copernicus, implying that the mere unpopularity of some belief is in itself evidence of plausibility,...

É, já visto por aqui.

[Sklogw]

Fenrir, o melhor site na internet sobre cranks é o Crank Dot Net. Lá os cranks estão classificados por assunto e pelo grau de maluquice (fringe, crank, crankier, crankiest e illucid).  Ah, sim, uma das seções mais interessantes é a de fenômenos paranormais (pena que so é em inglês)

[SnowRaptor]

Conheço esses como quacks (veja minha assinatura).