Thanks for the defense, bm. (To be perfectly honest, that evidence was of me talking engineering, but since engineering needs physics to an incredible degree, I think it's still good. )
As for why I provoke the cranks, it's because when I first came here, one of the cranks appeared in my first thread to make wild claims about physics, presented as immutable facts. I was at first unsure whether he was a crank or a real scientist speaking on a level of understanding above mine (though I suspected crank.)
If I did not have the level of knowledge I do in regards to physics, I might have believed him, and spread such information elsewhere (whenever a question of physics [or any other academic subject, really] arises among my friends and coworkers, I am usually considered the "go-to" guy for a correct answer.)
I see this as unjustifiable, and so I provoke the cranks in order to make it apparent what their true colors are.
As for C2, he ignored an effort on my part to mend fences and declare a truce between us, instead choosing to use something I said in another discussion to put forth a lie, and criticize me for the very behavior he was engaging in at that moment, not to mention lending support to a bigoted schizophrenic (MRP) arguing with me in that discussion.
And then he comes here, trolling this thread in order to accuse me and others of being trolls! I've seen reasons to try and maintain good relations with C2, but every time I start to think I should do so, he does something like this, and gives me an even better reason not to.