User talk:DerekSmith

Your recent edits

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Mechanical advantage of trucker's hitch (and general reworking of that article)

Hi Derek! Over the last day or so I've made some fairly substantial edits to the trucker's hitch article. I saw your comments on the talk page regarding the mechanical advantage. I tried to clarify things in that section and I'm interested in your feedback. I did some tests attempting to verify or disprove various aspects of the theoretical behavior of the trucker's hitch. One interesting thing is that unlike what was described in the article, when the working end is tied-off and the force on it relaxed, it appears the tension remaining in an ideal system would only be 2:1. (It is 3:1 on the standing part while the working end is loaded.) I tried to illuminate this discrepancy in my changes to the article, but it still needs work. If you have time, please look it over and fix or let me know about anything you find that is wildly wrong. --Dfred (talk) 03:37, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

Darwin article

Thanks for your note DerekSmith. I am very busy IRL currently, but I will try to get around to reading the article within a week or two. However I have to point out that I am not an evolutionary theorist, so I may not be able to comment sensibly on the article. I also have not made really any major contributions to the Wikipedia Darwin article. However Charles Darwin himself has had a great influence on me. I am in my 60s. I am a biologist/naturalist, and I grew up in Hayes, Bromley, Kent, about 5 miles away from Down House, and used to visit the house and the garden so often as a child that I thought that the great man must perhaps be a cousin of ours. One time when I was about 10 years old, a docent let me play the piano in his living room! So I have a strong connection with Darwin the man, but as I said, I am not an expert on modern insights into evolutionary theory. Thanks again for your note, Invertzoo (talk) 13:28, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Hybridisation Zone

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I've moved it to User:DerekSmith/Hybridisation Zone where you can expand it till fit enough. --Tikiwont (talk) 13:19, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

July 2012

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Sorry, but evolutionary scientists don't share your enthusiasm for that book

Hi Derek,

Please stop you pleas to User:Rkitko, that are showing up in my watchlist, to further discuss Eugene McCarthy's book with you. He has made it clear that he is not interested in spending time on that discussion. The beauty of Wikipedia is that editors are free to contribute about a particular subject if they find it interesting, and to spend their precious time on other things if they so choose. I appreciate that you are keen about this subject and cannot accept what several people have told you, that this book is not a landmark in evolutionary theory. Sorry, but you need to curb your enthusiasm to involve scientists in a time-sink discussion. Best wishes, Sminthopsis84 (talk) 14:06, 19 July 2012 (UTC)