The best of the week

Eleven articles were promoted to featured status:

• Miniopterus aelleni (nom), a bat found in the islands off the coast of south-east Africa (nominated by Ucucha).
• Ronnie Lee Gardner (nom), executed by firing squad after a 25-year judicial process, providing an interesting look into incarceration and capital punishment in the American state of Utah (KimChee).
• Common Firecrest (nom), a tiny avian ball of fur that breeds in most of temperate Europe (Jimfbleak).
• Thomas Percy (Gunpowder Plot) (nom), something of a rogue, a man who would do whatever it took to get the job done. He also reportedly had a bit on the side, was into bribery, killing and most importantly, pork pies (Parrot of Doom).
• Venture Science Fiction (nom), the on-again, off-again American digest-size magazine (Mike Christie)
• Thomas C. Kinkaid (nom), the American World War II admiral who served under General Douglas MacArthur in the Southwest Pacific (Hawkeye7).
• Limbo (video game) (nom), the puzzle-platform video game and premiere title of independent Danish game developer Playdead Studios. (Masem).
• Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia (nom), the sister of Tsar Nicholas II and "the last Grand Duchess of Imperial Russia". Her life started in a massive palace, and ended in a small apartment above a shop in East Toronto (DrKiernan).
• September 1964 South Vietnamese coup attempt (nom), an attempted coup without bloodshed (YellowMonkey)
• Chilean battleship Almirante Latorre (nom), the story of national rivalry, mutiny, and wartime action, in the first half of the 20th century (The ed17).
• SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand (nom), which helped enforce a blockade of Montenegro in 1913, and was one of the first ships to deploy seaplanes for military use (Buggie111 and White Shadows).

Choice of the week. The Signpost asked FA nominator and reviewer Ruhrfisch to select the best of this week's promotions and the four from last week (Petrified Forest National Park (nom), Robert Burnell (nom), Aylesbury duck (nom), and Dendrocollybia (nom)).

"Reading all 15 articles was a wonderful experience and showed the strengths and diversity of the encyclopedia. Trying to pick one as the best was a bit like asking a teacher or parent to pick their favorite student or child. There were four great military history articles: SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and Chilean battleship Almirante Latorre were both fascinating looks at two different early battleships, while Thomas C. Kinkaid was one of the commanders in the last engagement between battleships, and September 1964 South Vietnamese coup attempt was another in a great series on the history of Vietnam. In biographies, Robert Burnell was another in an interesting series on English bishops (and, in this case, a chancellor too), the story of Thomas Percy and his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot was engaging, and the life of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia showed truth can be stranger than fiction. Venture Science Fiction had an interesting though short life, and Limbo is a video game I'd like to see played. Biology was another strong area, with the recently identified species of bat, Miniopterus aelleni, the beautiful European bird, Common Firecrest, and the unique mushroom Dendrocollybia.

My honorable mentions go to Petrified Forest National Park, which showed there is much more to the park than fossilized trees, and Ronnie Lee Gardner, a murderer executed by Utah whose article is a model of neutrality. My choice for best article is Aylesbury duck, which I had not heard of before. I really enjoyed the story of this breed, how its rise was linked to the coming of the railroads, and how its decline was tied to the introduction of the Pekin duck and the world wars. It was the article I kept thinking of most after I had read them all."

Two topics were promoted:

• Characters of Smallville, with eight good articles. Smallville is an American television series developed by writer/producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Bignole).
• History of the New York Giants, with five good articles. One of the most prominent US football teams, The Giants were founded in 1925 (Quadzilla99).

Ten images were promoted. Medium-sized images can be viewed by clicking on "nom":

• Mission Santa Clara de Asís (nom), the mission at Santa Clara University, California (created by JaGa).
• Hera Hjartardóttir (nom), a singer-songwriter from Iceland who now lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. Her facial art is "inspired by moko and also by Celtic warrior paint", and is intended to represent both her Icelandic and New Zealand heritage. Created by the photographer Kyle Cassidy.
• Prague Panorama (nom), a 180° view of Prague, the historic capital of the Czech Republic, as viewed from Petřín Lookout Tower (Diliff; picture at top).
• Calcispongiae (nom), sponges of the Calcarea class—"cellular" sponges characterised by spicules made of calcium carbonate in the form of calcite or aragonite (Ernst Haeckel; picture at right).
• Manganese (nom), 99.99% pure manganese chips, electrolytically refined—a typical view of an air-oxidised surface (Alchemist-hp).
• Cadmium (nom), a bar of this metallic element, 99.999% pure (created by Alchemist-hp; picture below).
• Blackback butterflyfish (nom), photographed on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The species ranges from East Africa to Japan to Micronesia, grows up to 18 cm long, and may live for up to 20 years. The dorsal portion of the body turns black when the creature is frightened (created by Leonard Low, edited by Papa Lima Whiskey).
• Bison bonasus (nom), the wisent, or European bison, the heaviest of the surviving land mammals in Europe. This moulting male was photographed in a game park near Springe in Germany (created by Michael Gäbler).
• The Boulder Brain Coral (nom), a species of coral distributed in the Gulf of Mexico and the entire Caribbean region, including coastal regions of the South American mainland, where it occurs down to depths of 50 metres (created by Nick Hobgood, small edit by Papa Lima Whiskey).
• Actiniaria (nom), a painting of sea anemones (created by Merculiano and restored by Citron; picture at right).

Choice of the week. Wackywace, a regular reviewer and nominator at featured picture candidates, told The Signpost:

"One image that really impressed me this week was this panoramic image of Prague. There were some concerns during the nomination about the lighting, but I think the way the image moves from light to dark is incredibly striking. What I really appreciate about this image, though, is that you can spend ages looking at intricate details. From the bright orange tiles lining the tops of buildings, to the blue of the winding Vltava, it is the amazing things there are to see in this panorama. My regards to Diliff for taking such a beautiful and vibrant picture."