User talk:Thincat

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Contents 1 Johnson Beharry 2 Extreme points of the UK 3 Re: Heptadecagon 4 Thomas the Tank Engine articles 5 Years 6 RE: Savitzky–Golay smoothing filter 7 Body Mass Index 8 Would you want to do a spoken version of Body Mass Index ? 9 Welcome to the club 10 Western Avenue, etc. 11 white peak of the three spiritual brothers 12 Doing something about the ridiculous date autoformatting/linking mess 13 Newyorkbrad's RfA 14 From the drain 15 Do not use SEDS.org as a reference 16 Sgt Pepper 17 Category comment 18 thanks 19 Coordinates 20 Gawain 21 To demise

[edit] Johnson Beharry

Thanks for the kind words about this. Just happened to see the article in BBC so I figured I would start the article. Burgundavia 13:04, Mar 18, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Extreme points of the UK

My apologies - it was my mistake. I misread the article as saying it was a hillock slight to the east of Ardnamurchan point, when in fact the opposite was the case. I've now undone my revert. Warofdreams 14:59, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Heptadecagon

I just got your message (8/3/05) about posting the heptadecagon, and wanted to tell you that I'm about to do that. (I don't log on too often.) Jonathan48 01:50, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

• I just got your kind words about the animation, thank you! This site moves too fast for me :). Jonathan48 00:49, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thomas the Tank Engine articles

Thanks for the message. I take the point about the title, but I can't think of anything better at the moment as (The Railway Series) seems less obvious and equally wrong - particuarly for some of the characters introduced in Calling All Engines. If you have some suggestions, perhaps you could comment at talk:Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends#merge proposal. Thryduulf 15:10, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Years

It's not so much that he's creating a great deal of cleaning up to do than that he's making such a massive mess that he can't be cleaned up after. I'd have to spend a good hour or two (and this is with rollback) to do that, and I'd rather spend that time checking edits for vandalism and writing new articles. His work with units is fine, IMHO, it's just that this time, he's using a bot to push his beliefs and disgregarding the opinions of everyone else. Ambi 05:58, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] RE: Savitzky–Golay smoothing filter

Thincat - Thanks a million for the citation link for the article on Savitzky–Golay smoothing filter located at URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savitsky-Golay_Smoothing_Filter I knew this paper was oft cited! Thanks again, --Colm Rice 11:15, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Body Mass Index

Just wanted to tell you your edits to the article are accurate and very much appreciated. You've got my full support and backing! I also think it would be wise to use some open-source software to create a visual chart of BMI Numbers. Cheers, and thanks.

		The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
		Good work on your edits to physiology related articles. I'm getting impressed! The magical Spum-dandy 12:54, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

I should send you a thank-you card for sending me a thank you card due to my initial thank you card. :-P The magical Spum-dandy 14:03, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Would you want to do a spoken version of Body Mass Index ?

Come on... have a go! :-) J.Spudeman 12:59, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Welcome to the club

I see that Jayjg has taken to calling you "unintelligible", too.[1] But he will only do in in edit summaries as he revert-wars on the project page, not in response to your well-reasoned comments on the talk page. Gene Nygaard 22:11, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

It's good that someone other than me reverted Jayjg. If two or three people are willing to do that, it might serve as a wake-up call to him that it is something that needs to be discussed and ironed out. But I wouldn't bet about him having gotten that wake-up call yet. Gene Nygaard 15:27, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

I think you should reconsider. I learned over 25,000 edits ago not to let the fact that someone had more edits than I did or was a sysop or whatever be an inhibiting factor in trying to improve the encyclopedia, and I'm not about to change now. Of course, a revert isn't really in order; as I've suggested on the talk page, we have a consensus on the proposed wording and you should run with it on that basis. Gene Nygaard 16:17, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Western Avenue, etc.

I think I now understand!

Are you saying that if two different references A and B say:

A: Western Avenue starts at Old Oak Common Lane and goes to Denham Roundabout along the line of the A40.

B: The distance along the A40 from Old Oak Common Lane at its junction with the A40 to Denham Roundabout on the A40 is xyz miles.

Then the article would infringe WP:NOR if it said Western Avenue is xyz miles long and giving these two references?

I agree with this as a very fine point (and so wonder whether this might not be a "point"). I think many people might allow it, even the High Priests of the sacred pillars of Wikipedia.

I thought you were criticising the lack of reference for "A" coupled with a claim that such a reference is impossible.

And I thought other people on Talk were critising that the Multimap reference did not provide "B" to WP standards.

Well, I have three thoughts:

1) Provide Multimap graphical map references that show "Western Avenue" (as text) extending between the stated points (within the accuracy of the claim of length). Only one source is then involved.

or 2) Split the Western Avenue entry in the article into the two separate claims "A" and "B" above. I'm increasingly thinking that the bulleted list should be dispensed with and (unordered) paragraphs inserted instead. But I'm not doing all this if the article is going to be deleted.

or 3) Give us a break and let's just get on. I know you (and many others) hated the article in its original form and this has plagued it ever since. I thought it was salvagable but the reversions and nit-picking has put me off from doing very much.

I know it's no excuse but even Featured Articles will have this tiny abount of synthesis. Let me also quote WP:NOR: "However, research that consists of collecting and organizing information from existing primary and/or secondary sources is, of course, strongly encouraged. All articles on Wikipedia should be based on information collected from published primary and secondary sources. This is not "original research"; it is "source-based research", and it is fundamental to writing an encyclopedia.".

I'd be delighted to get your thoughts, either here or on my talk page. Let me know what you think. We might be able to salvage something! Best wishes! Thincat 14:35, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

The above is copied from the edit I made to MartinRe's talk page. It continueed the discussion at Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Longest_streets_in_London_(2nd_nomination) which was reviewed at [2]. Thincat 13:53, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Hello again :)

Putting together two sources to create a third can be original research in some cases, but not in others, and this is probably borderline. Not Or would be two sources saying that "Tony blair is labour leader", and "labour leader is at no 10", saying that "Mr blair is at no 10" would be fine, as it's clear that A=B, B=C that the two B's in this case are the same. With road references, it's possible that they are referring to subtely different things, where on the Denham Roundabout does the western avenue stop, and where on the roundbout was it measured to? Are they referring to the same point?

I wouldn't say I "hated" the original, but there were severe problems with it, namely it was very clear OR. People were measuring the roads themselves, and updating the list based on their answers. Interesting, yes, but not encloypedic - if you go to a enclyopeda and see a list of 1-10 under longest streets in London, you would assume that those are the longest, and not just the longest so far that a group of unnamed people have measured.

The current one has problems with expansion. Without doing original research it appears very unlikely that it can be significantly added to, considering how few references were found in the three months since the last afd. (It also kept getting reverted to the complete unsourced version, but that's a different issue). Even with sources, with multiple people adding details, what are the chances that they use different maps/driving software and come up with different answers? What would happen then? Include all different answers (with the respective sources) or give approximate answers, e.g. 11-12?. Neither are particularly appealing, imagine a page full of Axx 1.2m/1.25m/1.2, or Ayy (1-2 miles).

Hopefully that makes it clearer what my objections to the article are, contributions like your addition on Harrow road (Would you believe I was born there? :) are interesting, and sourced, but I personally think they're more appropiate added to the road article.

Regards, MartinRe 15:27, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] white peak of the three spiritual brothers

Hi, I'm attempting to translate Gangkhar Puensum into latin, whose orthographical, phonological, and semantic properties strongly discourage just simply transliterating the name. Now I know very little about tibetan, dzongkha, chinese or anything else, really, from that part of the world, but it seems to me much is being said in 4 syllables. I found an alternate translation online (the only other I could find) that rendered it as "3 mountain siblings". Taking Occam's razor, I tend to believe this alternate translation, as it says much less semantically than "white peak of the three spiritual brothers". At the same time, I don't want to doubt your translation, I would just like to know what, and where your source was. Just trying to make a better translation into latin, is all. Please help.--Josh Rocchio 13:48, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Doing something about the ridiculous date autoformatting/linking mess

Dear Thincat—you may be interested in putting your name to, or at least commenting on this new push to get the developers to create a parallel syntax that separates autoformatting and linking functions. IMV, it would go a long way towards fixing the untidy blueing of trivial chronological items, and would probably calm the nastiness between the anti- and pro-linking factions in the project. The proposal is to retain the existing function, to reduce the risk of objection from pro-linkers. Tony 05:20, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Newyorkbrad's RfA

Thank you for your memorable words of support on my RfA, which closed favorably this morning. I appreciate the confidence the community has placed in me and am looking forward to my new responsibilities. Please let me know if ever you have any comments or suggestions, especially as I am learning how to use the tools. Best regards, Newyorkbrad 19:56, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] From the drain

Thanks for rescuing the phrase "other founders" from Patrick Moore. I was wondering where to put those words, when I copy-edited that paragraph and worried about their omission. Two heads are better than one. --Uncle Ed 10:51, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Do not use SEDS.org as a reference

Do not use the SEDS.org website as a reference. The website contains too much out-of-date, unreferenced, or incorrect information. Their website simply cannot be relied upon. (However, this does not discredit your comments at Talk:Andromeda Galaxy.) Dr. Submillimeter 09:56, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sgt Pepper

Thanks for the heads up about the Sgt Pepper cover. I updated the source (thebeatles.com). Snow1215 12:25, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Category comment

Hi. i saw your note on Category:Israeli-Palestinian conflict issues. just want to let you know, it was not my intention at all to create an unbalanced category. this all seems kind of ironic, as my whole point was to provide a category which would lay out the issues clearly, neutrally and helpfully. Guess I didn't succeed. is there any way that i could please ask you to reconsider? please feel free to write anytime. thanks. --Steve, Sm8900 (talk) 16:55, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, no, I'm sure you weren't (and didn't) create an unbalanced category. We are somehow misunderstanding each other. See again my comments at Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2007_December_21#Category:Israeli-Palestinian_conflict_issues. Regarding the subcategories of this category, I thought there was an imbalance in the articles included but I am not at all sure that one should criticise a category for what has been included unless the category itself encouraged a lack of balance. Thincat (talk) 12:32, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] thanks

Thanks re heads-up re BHG. As horrible a time as that had been, I have to give her props for the earnest effort to enunciate the policy theory motivating their group, which still illudes me. I'm reminded of the soldier in Dr. Strangelove who didn't want to shoot the Coca Cola machine. Pete St.John (talk) 20:32, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Coordinates

Hi, i think that when you placed the coordinates in your location finder you missed out the - as when i put 51.051644, 1.171072 into google earth which is supposed to bring up Cheriton, Hampshire when actually it brought up somewhere in the English channel which is strange as that is what you say happened to you when you placed 51.051644, -1.171072 into your location finder. I think that one of us has gone wrong somewhere! Cheers Dewster^{_^*'_} 15:28, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Ye, if you study the two carefully then you can see that once you click on the coordinates in the top right hand corner of the page that the coordinate for W has changed to - if you left it xxx.xx and to xxx.xx if you gave it a -. This makes no sense to me at all but hay. I will go around and revert all my old coordinates so that they are correct. I know it is great to see such variety. =D Many Thanks Dewster^{_^*'_} 17:02, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Gawain

Thanks for the message. I thought your edit was better, because you placed the mention of the British Library after the manuscript had come into the possession of Robert Cotton. best wishes Mick gold (talk) 08:47, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] To demise

An editors lack of a good dictionary is not generally a good reason to revert other editors changes [3] [4]. However changing an uncommon and slightly archaic wording for a more readily coimprehensible one is. ·Maunus· ·ƛ· 14:07, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

When I get home I'll look in my Oxford English Dictionary for demise as a verb (and I expect I shall indeed find it!). Thincat (talk) 15:27, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

The OED (1971 edition) does indeed have "demise" as a verb, mainly with the legal meaning "convey" but also meaning "die", the latter marked rare but not marked with an † so not known to be obsolete. The examples given of the meaning "die" are dated 1727 and 1787. It is not clear to me whether 1787 is intended as a latest date. Thincat (talk) 12:06, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I have also not heard the verb used in actual speech. It did stand out as an archaism in the Neilston article, and I did agree with your edit. But for example the not uncommon use of "demised" to mean deceased, does suggest that it was originally used as a verb, and the edit summary provoked me. Continued happy editing. ·Maunus· ·ƛ· 13:37, 4 April 2008 (UTC)