From Wikipedia : Crank (person) “Crank” is a pejorative term
used for a person who unshakably holds a belief that most of his
or her contemporaries consider to be false. A crank belief is so
wildly at variance with those commonly held as to be ludicrous
to many. Cranks characteristically dismiss all evidence or
arguments which contradict their own unconventional beliefs,
making rational debate an often futile task; this is the
essential defining characteristic of the crank: being impervious
to facts, evidence, and rational inference. (Ver resto do
artigo) 10 hours ago Rank: 1 / 5 (5) Labeling everybody who
disagrees with conventional wisdom as a “crank” represents a
simplistic information filter. The problem of our era — the
Information Age — is information overload. To excel in science,
we must avoid the temptation to adopt simplistic information
filters. In theory, the value of science is that all of our
beliefs can be supported by arguments, observations and
experimental data. Appeals to authority and ad h