Featured content
This week's featured content
This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 6 to 12 March.
Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
Featured articles
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Seven featured articles were promoted this week.
- William Sterndale Bennett (nominated by Smerus) (1816–1875) was an English composer, pianist, conductor and music educator. By the age of twenty, he had begun to make a reputation as a concert pianist, and his compositions received high praise. In 1837 Bennett began to teach at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), with which he was associated for most of the rest of his life. For twenty years he taught there, later also teaching at Queen's College, London. Throughout the 1840s and 1850s he composed little, although he performed as a pianist and directed the Philharmonic Society for ten years. In 1858 Bennett returned to composition, but his later works, were considered old-fashioned and did not arouse as much critical enthusiasm as his youthful compositions had done. He was Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge from 1856 to 1866. In that year he became Principal of the RAM, rescuing it from closure, and remained in this position until his death. He was knighted in 1871. He died in London in 1875 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
- The Westminster Assembly (nominated by Jfhutson) was a council of theologians and members of the English Parliament appointed to restructure the Church of England which met from 1643 to 1653. Several Scots also attended, and the Assembly's work was also adopted by the Church of Scotland. The Assembly was called by the Long Parliament before and during the beginning of the First English Civil War. The Long Parliament was influenced by Puritanism, a religious movement which sought to further reform the church. They were opposed to the religious policies of Charles I of England and William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. The Assembly worked in the Reformed Protestant theological tradition, also known as Calvinism. It took the Bible as the authoritative word of God, from which all theological reflection must be based. It produced a new Form of Church Government, a Confession of Faith or statement of belief, two catechisms or manuals for religious instruction, and a liturgical manual for the Churches of England and Scotland.
- The passenger pigeon (nominated by FunkMonk and 7&6=thirteen) (Ectopistes migratorius) is an extinct species of pigeon that was endemic to North America. Its common name is derived from the French word passager, meaning "passing by", due to the migratory habits of the species. It was sexually dimorphic in size and coloration. The male was 39 to 41 cm (15.4 to 16.1 in) in length, mainly gray on the upperparts, lighter on the underparts, with iridescent bronze feathers on the neck, and black spots on the wings. The female was 38 to 40 cm (15.0 to 15.7 in), and was duller and browner than the male overall. The juvenile was similar to the female, but without iridescence. It mainly inhabited the deciduous forests of eastern North America and was also recorded elsewhere, but bred primarily around the Great Lakes.
- Christ lag in Todes Banden (nominated by Gerda Arendt and Thoughtfortheday) is a cantata for Easter by the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. One of his earliest church cantatas, it was probably intended for a performance in 1707, an early work in the genre to which he later contributed complete cantata cycles for all occasions of the liturgical year. It is a chorale cantata, a style in which both text and music are based on a hymn. In this instance the source was Martin Luther's eponymous hymn.
- Serpin (nominated by Evolution and evolvability) are a superfamily of proteins with similar structures that were first identified for their protease inhibition activity and are found in all kingdoms of life. They are notable for their unusual mechanism of action, in which they irreversibly inhibit their target protease by undergoing a large conformational change to disrupt its active site. The conformational-change mechanism confers certain advantages, but it also has drawbacks: serpins are vulnerable to mutations that can result in serpinopathies such as protein misfolding and the formation of inactive long-chain polymers.
- York City F.C. is a professional association football club based in York, North Yorkshire. Its history from the 1980–81 to the current season (nominated by Mattythewhite) saw fluctuating fortunes in the 1980s and 1990s, and relegation from and return to the Football League. The club won its first and only league title after finishing first in the Fourth Division in 1983–84 with 101 points. They were the first team to score this many points in a Football League season. In the 1990s, they knocked Premier League clubs Manchester United and Everton out of the League Cup in successive seasons. In March 2003, York were taken over by the club's Supporters' Trust, and were relegated into the Conference National in 2003–04, ending seventy-five years of Football League membership.
- Physical limitations acquired from spinal cord injury affect sexual function and sexuality (nominated by Delldot) in broader areas, which in turn has important effects on quality of life. Damage to the spinal cord impairs its ability to transmit messages between the brain and parts of the body below the level of the lesion. This results in lost or reduced sensation and muscle motion, and affects orgasm, erection, ejaculation, and vaginal lubrication. Psycho-social causes include depression and altered self-image. However, many people with SCI have satisfying sex lives, and many experience sexual arousal and orgasm. Drugs, devices, surgery, and other interventions exist to help men achieve erection and ejaculation. Although male fertility is reduced, many men with SCI can still father children, particularly with medical interventions. Women's fertility is not usually affected, although precautions must be taken for safe pregnancy and delivery.
Featured lists
Two featured lists were promoted this week.
- Bedfordshire is a county in the East of England. It has an area of 1,235 square kilometres (477 sq mi), and a population estimated in 2016 at 640,000, with an increase of 11% over the previous ten years. As of March 2016 there are twenty Local Nature Reserves in Bedfordshire (nominated by Dudley Miles): eight in Bedford, eleven in Central Bedfordshire and one in Luton. Local Nature Reserve are designated by local authorities under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. The local authority must have a legal control over the site, by owning or leasing it, or having a legal agreement with the owner. They are sites which have a special local interest either biologically or geologically, and local authorities have a duty to care for them.
- Ethel Barrymore (1879–1959) was an American actress of stage, screen and radio (nominated by SchroCat). Barrymore's first Broadway role was in The Imprudent Young Couple. She soon found success, particularly after an invitation from William Gillette to appear on stage in his London production of Secret Service. She began her film career in a series of silent films, but she never dedicated herself to the medium fully. She appeared in her first talking film, Rasputin and the Empress and began radio broadcasts on the Blue Network with The Ethel Barrymore Theater. Her film work became increasingly prominent in the 1940s and 1950s, and she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for None but the Lonely Heart.
Featured pictures
Four featured pictures were promoted this week.
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