Crank (person)

"Crank" (or kook, crackpot, or quack) is a pejorative term for a person who writes or speaks in an authoritative fashion about a particular subject, often in science, but is alleged to have false or even ludicrous beliefs. Crank can also be used to describe the opinions of these people (see American Heritage Dictionary 2000 - noun definition 3). Usage of the label is often subjective, with proponents of competing theories labeling their opponents cranks, but the term still connotes someone who is well out of mainstream opinion on a matter, as well as connoting a person of dubious mental stability.

External links

• Kooks Museum, a humorous collection of kook ideas, by Donna Kossy
• Crank Dot Net, a collection of Web sites related to cranks, created by Erik Max Francis
• the Almighty LART.com, more kook appreciation
• John Baez' crackpot index, in the author's words: A simple method for rating potentially revolutionary contributions to physics.
• The Unofficial NANAE Kooks Kollection, a collection of articles on the Usenet kooks particular to the NANAE newsgroup.
• Quack Watch Lists varieties of quackery and health fraud.