Featured content
When music was confined to a ribbon of rust
Some sort of archaic technology from the dark ages, we believeThis Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 10–16 May.
Featured articles
Fifteen featured articles were promoted this week.
- Southern Cross (wordless novel) (nominated by Curly Turkey) Can a picture be worth more than a thousand words? Southern Cross (1951) by Laurence Hyde comprises 118 images that narrate the impact of atomic testing on Polynesian islanders. Created many years after the peak of the wordless novel genre, the work is a response to US nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll. Nominator Curly Turkey notes that "you'll likely read it for the artwork rather than the story", a sentiment shared by most critics.
- Camas pocket gopher (nominated by Gaff) Thomomys bulbivorus, the "camas pocket gopher" or "camas rat", is a rodent endemic to the Willamette Valley region of Oregon, US. The highly defensive critter is characterized by huge incisors, perfect for tunneling through the hard soils of its habitat. The burrowing rodent causes extensive crop damage in areas of heavy agricultural use. Farmers use poisoned bait or traps placed in the burrows to control gophers, while one domestic solution involves the use of blank .22 cartridges, which kill the rodent by blasting its face with hot gas. The manufacturers of the device claim that the smell of decomposing rodent bodies discourages other gophers from setting up home in your lawn.
- Florence Nagle (nominated by Sagaciousphil, Eric Corbett, Richerman, Giano, and Dr. Blofeld) Florence Nagle was a breeder of horses, dogs, and other animals, who successfully challenged discriminatory practices in horse racing. She became one of the first two women in the UK licensed to train racehorses, and continued to fight for women's rights until her death in 1988. Nagle was an extremely successful breeder of Irish setters and Irish wolfhounds, winning many prizes at Crufts and other shows. Believing that "dogs should be capable of carrying out the work the breed was developed to do", she promoted the use of the wolfhound in hunting down that most dangerous of predators, the hare.
- Jacobus Anthonie Meessen (nominated by Crisco 1492) This 19th-century Dutch photographer worked throughout modern-day Indonesia, imaging both the landscape and the people. On his return to the Netherlands, Meessen presented King William III with an elaborate album of 153 photographs from the Dutch Indies.
- Richie Farmer (nominated by Acdixon) Farmer went from the 1992 NCAA Tournament to Kentucky politics to the United States Penitentiary, Hazelton. A basketball star in high school and at the University of Kentucky, Farmer parlayed his fame into political office, serving two terms as Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner. A rising star who was picked as a running mate in a losing gubernatorial bid, an investigation into ethical and legal violations resulted in a sentence of 27 months in federal prison.
- Children of Mana (nominated by PresN) The sixth in the Mana series developed for the Nintendo DS, this role-playing video game features a "top-down" perspective; it requires the player to guide her characters through the terrain and fight off hostile creatures. The game enjoyed modest commercial success, and while its graphics and music have been praised, several critics disliked the monotonous gameplay.
- Battle of Labuan (nominated by Nick-D) Labuan, a small island off the coast of North Borneo, was occupied by Japanese forces in January 1942. They built two airfields using conscripted labour, and subjected the island's population to harsh treatment. The Australian Army were assigned the task of kicking the Japanese out of Borneo in March 1945. A beachhead was established on Labuan in June, and the Japanese were forced into a small area called the "Pocket" by Allied troops; after an artillery bombardment the area was cleared of IJA troops by 21 June. Allied air bombing and naval bombardment had destroyed all the buildings on the island. The liberating troops were faced with supporting about 3,000 homeless civilians as well as reconstructing the airfields.
- HMS Nairana (1917) (nominated by Sturmvogel 66 and Ian Rose) A passenger ship turned aircraft carrier turned passenger ferry, Nairana was closer to sinking in peacetime than in war. It was hit by rogue waves and nearly sunk on two separate occasions. Sturmvogel also notes that "There was also an amusing incident with a Tasmanian devil, which evoked visions of the classic Looney Tunes character for us."
- "Space Seed" (nominated by David Fuchs and Miyagawa) "Space Seed" is one of the best remembered episodes of the US science fiction television series Star Trek, mostly because of the bravura performance of Ricardo Montalbán as Khan Noonien Singh, the leader of a group of genetically engineered superhumans who left Earth two centuries before and are found by the crew of the USS Enterprise in cryogenic sleep. Singh was later used as the villain in two films, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek Into Darkness.
- 2003 Sri Lanka cyclone (nominated by Hurricanehink) Although the center of this slow-moving tropical cyclone stayed hundreds of miles away from Sri Lanka, its expansive circulation fueled torrential rains over the island nation, with one location receiving 100 mm of precipitation in just an hour. The resultant flooding was the worst Sri Lanka had seen in over a half century, killing 260 people and displacing as many as 800,000. According to nominator Hurricanehink, this article was improved as part of an ongoing effort to diversify Wikipedia's coverage of tropical cyclones.
- SMS Königsberg (1905) (nominated by Parsecboy) A German light cruiser, the Konigsberg was sent to German East Africa shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. She attempted to raid French and British merchant shipping, but was restricted in her operations by coal shortages- only one ship and the Royal Navy cruiser Pegasus were sunk. When the Konigsberg steamed into the Rufiji River to effect repairs, British cruisers blockaded the river mouth. The German sailors managed to occupy the attentions of a succession of enemy ships for several months before disease and shortages of ammunition, coal, and food took their toll. Eventually two British shallow-draft monitors were sent upriver; they damaged the Konigsberg, which was then scuttled by her crew. The ex-captain of Pegasus bought the salvage rights in 1924 for £200, stripping the wreck of non-ferrous scrap before selling the rights on. Salvage work continued sporadically until 1965, and the Konigsberg collapsed into the riverbed in 1966.
- British contribution to the Manhattan Project (nominated by Hawkeye7) The Manhattan Project was the name given to the massive scientific, technical and logistical project to develop the atomic bomb. The British contribution of scientific research undertaken from 1939 onwards, was soon overtaken by the United State's contribution, supported by vastly superior resources in personnel and manufacturing capability. American suspicion of Britain led to the rapid curtailment of cooperation between the Allies after 1945.
- Corona Borealis (nominated by Casliber) A minor but ancient Northern Sky constellation, Corona Borealis encompasses several intriguing star systems, as well as a prominent galactic supercluster. One star served as the prototype of a very rare class of stars called R Coronae Borealis variables, while another is a recurrent nova that periodically blossoms to many times its normal brightness. There are several multiple star systems, one of which harbors no less than six individual members. The constellation has symbolized various objects to different peoples throughout history, from a crown in Greek mythology to an Aboriginal boomerang.
- Tales of Wonder (magazine) (nominated by Mike Christie) Tales of Wonder was a UK science fiction magazine which ran from 1937 to 1942. It featured early work by British author John Wyndham, as well as Americans Murray Leinster and Lloyd A. Eshbach. Tales of Wonder also featured some of the earliest work by two sf Grand Masters, Jack Williamson and Arthur C. Clarke, though the former's contribution was a reprint and the latter only supplied nonfiction articles on science.
- 1880 Greenback National Convention (nominated by Coemgenus) Coemgenus explains, "This article is about the political convention of a minor political party in 1880. The eventual nominee, James B. Weaver, collected only three percent of the presidential vote that year, but the issues debated in the convention's platform fights— women's suffrage, child labor, immigration, and the eight-hour-day— would become nationwide discussions for later generations." The party was named after the "greenback", a nickname for a form of fiat currency issued by the US government during and after the American Civil War. They were against a return to a monetary system based on gold and silver, believing that an unbacked currency would benefit business and agriculture by raising prices and making debt easier to redeem.
Featured lists
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Four featured lists were promoted this week.
- List of accolades received by Haider (film) (nominated by Krimuk90) Haider, a 2014 Indian crime-drama film, has won some 33 awards and received nominations for many more (including several IIFA Awards categories to be decided in early June). A modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, the film follows the protagonist Haider as he searches for his missing father during the Kashmir conflict of 1995. This is the latest in Krimuk90's string of film-related featured lists.
- Amy Adams filmography (nominated by Cowlibob) From another prolific film editor, this list chronicles the work of Amy Adams, an American actress whose professional career started with her role in the 1999 black comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous. Known for her performances in films such as Junebug, Enchanted, Doubt, The Master, American Hustle, and Big Eyes, among others, Adams has won two Golden Globes and appeared in numerous television shows.
- List of songs recorded by Ricky Martin (nominated by Tomica) Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin has recorded songs in Spanish, English, Italian, and Portuguese since his debut album in 1991, having begun his career as lead singer of the band Menudo at the age of 12. His best-selling song, "Livin' la Vida Loca", was an international success, topping the Hot Latin Songs chart for nine weeks and selling over a million physical copies in the US.
- List of unusual dismissals in international cricket (nominated by Vensatry) There are ten different ways for a batsman to be dismissed in cricket, of which four are regarded as unusual, and are not credited to the bowler. These are: handling the ball, hitting it twice, obstructing the fielding side by word or deed, and taking more than three minutes after the dismissal of the previous batsman to be ready to play. This article lists the eighteen occasions on which an unusual dismissal has occurred in matches between national teams. It includes two instances where the batsman was retired by his team's captain without the umpire's permission, and one dismissal in a women's One Day International, when Dilani Manodara scored runs so slowly that the game was at risk of becoming a two day event.
Featured pictures
Six featured pictures were promoted this week.
- Black lory (created and nominated by Crisco 1492) The black lory is a bird common to West Papua and the Indonesian island of Misool. It is medium-sized and black, with a red and yellow undertail. First described by a French explorer in 1776, it was given its formal name of Chalcopsitta atra by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, the "first anational European". Scopoli never did see a black lory, but he was able to derive from the explorer's informal description an accurate determination of the new species. Why was he "anational"? Unfortunately our article on him doesn't explain...
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To think that this glorious spiral galaxy was once categorized as an annoying distraction in the night sky.- Government of Ceylon rupee (created and nominated by Godot13) In the 1920s, the "poverty line" in Colombo was defined by colonial administrators as a monthly income of 9 rupees for a man, 7 rupees for a woman, and 6 rupees for a child, so this 5 rupee note from 1929 would support a family of four for about five days in the poorest slums. The complicated patterns on the note are made from engravings produced by a rose engine lathe, although the note itself is printed by the cheaper lithographic process.
- Pinwheel Galaxy (created by NASA/ESA; nominated by Pine) This high-resolution image of the Pinwheel Galaxy is a composite of 51 individual exposures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope between 1994 and 2003, along with some material from ground-based telescopes. You may think that a particularly long time to take a photo, but also consider that the photons required for its creation had been traveling for 21 million years before reaching their destination.
- Parantica aglea (created by Jkadavoor; nominated by Pine) The Glassy Tiger butterfly is a species native to India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Burma. "Fuliginous" (sooty) black with bluish-white markings, it eats Tylophora tenuis, a plant which is being studied for its reputed anti-ulcer properties.
- Rosette Bearing the Names and Titles of Shah Jahan (creator unknown; nominated by The Herald) You may not have heard of Shah Jahan, but you've no doubt seen his transcendent contribution to world architecture, the Taj Mahal, perhaps with a despondent princess in front. This magnificent example of Islamic art contains his names and titles in the centre, surrounded by an intricate floral network resembling a walled garden, and on the outside various birds in gold. Since anything created by man is imperfect, there's a deliberate mistake somewhere in the rosette.
- Cassette recorder (created by Evan-Amos; nominated by Crisco 1492) Here's a sentence that won't make any sense to your children: "I bought a cassette recorder at Radio Shack." It played cassettes, small plastic boxes holding thin ribbons of tape coated with ferric oxide (rust) or chromium dioxide (posh rust). The amount of music that could be recorded depended on the thinness of the tape- the thinner the tape the more could be packed into a cassette. The most common cassettes were C60, holding 30 minutes of music a side, C90 holding 45 minutes of music a side, and C120, holding 5 minutes of music followed by 30 seconds of high-pitched squealing as the tape got chewed up. Hey, don't knock it- Kate Bush based a whole musical career on those 30 seconds!
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Featured topics
One featured topic was promoted this week.
- Sega video game consoles (nominated by PresN; contributions by Red Phoenix, Indrian, SexyKick, TheTimesAreAChanging, and PresN) The result of a "multi-year collaboration", this topic encompasses a series of articles on video game consoles developed by the Japan-based company Sega. Sega, which introduced the highly recognizable Sonic the Hedgehog character, turned to gaming consoles after interest in its arcade machines fell during the 1980s. Five articles in this series of eleven have been promoted to featured articles, and one of them—the Sega Genesis—is at the helm of its own subtopic.
The fuliginous Parantica aglea
Discuss this story
Always good to see Featured Topics mentioned here. Credit also goes out to Red Phoenix, Indrian, SexyKick, and TheTimesAreAChanging for their individual works on the articles in the Sega consoles topic. GamerPro64 21:33, 29 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]