A mushroom, a motorway, a Munich gallery, and a map

This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from May 5, 2013 through May 11, 2013.

Fourteen featured articles were promoted this week.

• Boletus luridus (nom) by Casliber and Sasata. Boletus luridus, commonly known as the lurid bolete, is a fungus of the bolete family, found in deciduous woodlands on chalky soils in Asia, Europe, and eastern North America. Fruit bodies arise in summer and autumn and may be abundant. It is a solid bolete with an olive-brown cap up to 20 cm (8 in) in diameter, with small reddish pores on the underside. The stout ochre stem reaches dimensions of 8–14 cm (3–6 in) tall and 1–3 cm (0.4–1.2 in) wide, and is patterned with a reddish meshwork. Though edible when cooked, it can cause gastric upset when eaten raw and can be confused with the poisonous Boletus satanas.
• USS Kearsarge (BB-5) (nom) by Inkbug. The USS Kearsarge (BB-5) was the lead ship of her class of pre-dreadnought battleships. It was a United States Navy ship, named after the sloop-of-war Kearsarge. Her keel was laid down by the Newport News Shipbuilding Company of Virginia on 30 June 1896, she was launched on 24 March 1898, and commissioned on 20 February 1900. Between 1903 and 1907 Kearsarge served in the North Atlantic Fleet, and from 1907 to 1909 she sailed as part of the Great White Fleet. In 1909 she was decommissioned for modernization, which was finished in 1911. In 1915 she served in the Atlantic, and between 1916 and 1919 she served as a training ship. She was converted into a crane ship in 1920, renamed Crane Ship No. 1 in 1941, and sold for scrap in 1955.
• Leningrad première of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 (nom) by Nikkimaria. The Leningrad première of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 occurred on 9 August 1942 during the Second World War, while the city of Leningrad was under siege by Nazi German forces. Dmitri Shostakovich had intended for the piece to be premièred by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, but because of the siege that group was evacuated from the city. The world première of the symphony was held in Kuibyshev with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. The Leningrad première was performed by the surviving musicians of the Leningrad Radio Orchestra, supplemented with military performers. Most of the musicians were starving, which made rehearsing difficult: musicians frequently collapsed during rehearsals, and three died. The orchestra was able to play the symphony all the way through only once before the concert.
  

  

• Norman Selfe (nom) by Wittylama. Norman Selfe (1839–1911) was an Australian engineer, naval architect, inventor, urban planner and outspoken advocate of technical education. After immigrating to Sydney with his family from England as a boy he became an apprentice engineer, following his father's trade. Selfe designed many bridges, docks, boats, and much precision machinery for the city. He also introduced new refrigeration, hydraulic, electrical and transport systems. For these achievements he received international acclaim during his lifetime. Decades before the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built, the city came close to building a Selfe-designed steel cantilever bridge across the harbour after he won the second public competition for a bridge design.
• Gustav Holst (nom) by Brianboulton and Tim riley. Gustav Holst (1874–1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite The Planets, he composed a large number of works across a range of genres, although none achieved comparable success. His distinctive compositional style was the product of many influences, including the English folksong revival of the early 20th century.
• California State Route 75 (nom) by Rschen7754. State Route 75 is a short, 13-mile (21 km) expressway in San Diego County, California. It is a loop route of Interstate 5 that begins near Imperial Beach, heading west on Palm Avenue. The route continues north along the Silver Strand, a thin strip of land, through Silver Strand State Beach. It passes through the city of Coronado as Orange Avenue and continues onto the San Diego–Coronado Bay Bridge, which traverses the San Diego Bay, before joining back with Interstate 5 near downtown San Diego at a freeway interchange.
• Freedom for the Thought That We Hate (nom) by Cirt. Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment is a 2007 non-fiction book by Anthony Lewis about freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of thought, and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The book starts by quoting the First Amendment, which prohibits the United States Congress from creating legislation which limits free speech or freedom of the press. Lewis traces the evolution of civil liberties in the United States through key historical events. He provides an overview of important free speech case law, including United States Supreme Court opinions in Schenck v. United States in 1919, Whitney v. California in 1927, United States v. Schwimmer in 1929, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan in 1964, and New York Times Co. v. United States in 1971.
• God of War (video game) (nom) by JDC808. God of War is a third person action-adventure video game developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. First released on March 22, 2005, for the PlayStation 2 console, it is the first installment in the series of the same name and the third chronologically. Loosely based on Greek mythology, it is set in Ancient Greece with vengeance as its central motif. The player controls the protagonist Kratos, a Spartan warrior who serves the Olympian Gods. The goddess Athena tasks Kratos with killing Ares, the God of War, who is responsible for Kratos accidentally killing his family. As Ares besieges Athens out of hatred for Athena, Kratos embarks on a quest to find the one object capable of stopping the god: the legendary Pandora's Box. After an epic quest, Kratos is successful and replaces the defeated Ares as the new God of War.
  

  

• Hurricane Hattie (nom) by Hurricanehink and TheAustinMan. Hurricane Hattie was the strongest and deadliest tropical cyclone of the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season, reaching a peak intensity equivalent to that of a Category 5 hurricane. The ninth tropical storm and seventh major hurricane of the season, Hattie originated from an area of low pressure that strengthened into a tropical storm over the south-western Caribbean Sea on October 27. Moving generally northward, the storm quickly became a hurricane and later major hurricane the following day. Hattie then turned westward west of Jamaica and strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (260 km/h). It weakened to Category 4 before making landfall south of Belize City on October 31. The storm turned south-westward and weakened rapidly over the mountainous terrain of Central America, dissipating on November 1.
• Creek Turnpike (nom) by Scott5114. The Creek Turnpike is a 33.22-mile-long (53.46 km) freeway-standard toll road that lies entirely in the United States state of Oklahoma. The turnpike forms a partial beltway around the south and east sides of Tulsa. The Creek Turnpike's western terminus is at the Turner Turnpike in Sapulpa, while its northeastern terminus is at the Will Rogers Turnpike in Fair Oaks; both ends of the Creek Turnpike connect with Interstate 44. Along the way, the highway passes through the cities of Sapulpa, Jenks, Tulsa, and Broken Arrow, and the counties of Creek, Tulsa, Wagoner and Rogers.
• Japanese battleship Yamashiro (nom) by Dank and Sturmvogel 66. Yamashiro was the second of two Fusō-class dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Launched in 1915 and commissioned in 1917, she initially patrolled off the coast of China, playing no part in World War I. In 1923 she assisted survivors of the Great Kanto Earthquake. Yamashiro was modernized between 1930 and 1935 with improvements to her armor and machinery and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style. Nevertheless with only 14-inch guns she was outclassed by other Japanese battleships at the beginning of World War II, and played auxiliary roles for most of the war. By 1944, though, she was forced into front-line duty, serving as the flagship of the Southern Force at the Battle of Surigao Strait. During fierce night fighting in the early hours of October 25 against a superior American force, Yamashiro was sunk by torpedoes and naval gunfire.
  

  

• USS Saratoga (CV-3) (nom) by Sturmvogel 66. USS Saratoga (CV-3) was a Lexington-class aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into one of the Navy's first aircraft carriers during construction to comply with the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. She was one of three prewar US fleet aircraft carriers, along with Enterprise and Ranger, to serve throughout World War II. The ship took part in the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the New Georgia Campaign and the Bougainville Campaign. During the Battle of Iwo Jima it was badly damaged by kamikaze hits and was forced to return to the United States for repairs. During this time it was permanently modified as a training carrier. In mid-1946 the ship was a target for nuclear weapon tests during Operation Crossroads. She survived the first test with little damage, but was sunk by the second test.
• Tripura (nom) by Dwaipayanc. Tripura is a state in North East India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers 10,491 km2 (4,051 sq mi) and is bordered by Bangladesh to the north, south, and west, and the Indian states of Assam and Mizoram to the east. As of 2011, the state has 3,671,032 residents, constituting 0.3% of the country's population. Indigenous communities, known in India as scheduled tribes, form about 30 per cent of Tripura's population. The Kokborok-speaking Tripuri people are the major group among 19 tribes and many subtribes; Bengali people form the ethno-linguistic majority.
• Duino Elegies (nom) by ColonelHenry. The Duino Elegies are a collection of ten elegies written by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Rilke, who is "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", began writing the elegies in 1912 while a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis at Duino Castle. The poems, 859 lines long in total, were dedicated to the Princess upon their publication in 1923. During this ten-year period, the elegies languished incomplete for long stretches of time as Rilke suffered frequently from severe depression—some of which was caused by the events of World War I and being conscripted into military service. Aside from brief episodes of writing in 1913 and 1915, Rilke did not return to the work until a few years after the war ended. With a sudden, renewed inspiration—writing in a frantic pace he described as a "boundless storm, a hurricane of the spirit"—he completed the collection in February 1922 while staying at Château de Muzot in Veyras. After their publication in 1923 and Rilke's death in 1926, the Duino Elegies were quickly recognized by critics and scholars as his most important work.
  
  

Three featured lists were promoted this week.

• Leuchtenberg Gallery (nom) by Fram. The Leuchtenberg Gallery was the collection of artworks of the Dukes of Leuchtenberg, on public display in Munich. Widely recognized during the 19th century, it is considered one of the most important private collections of all time. It is located at the Palais Leuchtenberg, in Munich, and several of its elements have been moved to other galleries across the globe.
• Latin Grammy Award for Best Salsa Album (nom) by Hahc21 with Status. The Latin Grammy Award for Best Salsa Album is awarded yearly at the Latin Grammy Awards ceremony, and given to vocal or instrumental salsa albums recorded by solo artists, duos or groups. The accolade was first presented in 2000 to cuban singer Celia Cruz.
• Kevin Shields discography (nom) by Idiotchalk. Irish musician Kevin Shields has released three studio albums as a member of the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine. Beginning his musical career in the late 1970s, he formed My Bloody Valentine from 1983 until its disbandment in 1997. Later on, he collaborated with a wide variety of artists as a solo singer.
  
  

Three featured pictures were promoted this week.

• Manhattan in 1873 (nom, related article) originally created by George Schlegel, restored by Adam Cuerden, and nominated by Mediran. George Schlegel Lithographing Co. (1849–1957) was a printing company based in New York. This lithograph shows the Manhattan borough of New York City as it appeared in 1873.
• Saint-Augustin drawing (nom, related article) created by Victor Baltard and nominated by Tomer T. The Église Saint-Augustin de Paris (Church of St. Augustine) was built between 1860 and 1871. Victor Baltard was the architect. The church is approximately 100 meters (330 ft) long and 80 meters (260 ft) high.
• Armenian Genocide (nom, related article) created by Sémhur and nominated by Proudbolsahye. The Armenian Genocide involved the post-World War I Ottoman Empire's maltreatment and execution of ethnic minorities in its territory such as Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks. The death toll is estimated at 1 to 1.5 million people. Although the consensus among historians is that "genocide" is the correct term, the government of Turkey disputes this, and government officials attempted to prosecute author Orhan Pamuk in 2005 for his statements concerning the deaths of Armenians. The charges were dropped for technical reasons after an international outcry and an inquiry from the European Union.
  
  

2013-05-13

PR firm accused of editing Wikipedia for government clients; can Wikipedia predict the stock market?

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By Go Phightins!

PR firm accused of editing Wikipedia for government clients

An article published on May 10 on Odwyerpr.com written by Greg Hazley documented a "sparring match" between Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and public relations firm Qorvis partner Matt Lauer. Lauer, who is not related to the Matt Lauer of the US' Today show, disputes Wikipedia's guideline discouraging public relations firms from editing articles on their clients, saying "This inane policy would violate the basic tenets of even the most partisan of small-town newspapers or the most crooked court rooms. This dangerous policy violates the fundamental rules of reporting, of debate, and of discussion." Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Paid editing Wales responded via Twitter, saying "Your complaints are deeply dishonest to the point of being embarrassing."

Lauer's firm, Qorvis, created several sockpuppets to try to "whitewash" the pages of his clients. There was a thread about this on Wales' Wikipedia talk page regarding Qorvis in February which referenced a sockpuppet investigation into the matter. When it was confirmed, Wales suggested to Lauer that his clients should fire him for his misuse of Wikipedia.

A previous article in the Daily Dot detailed some of Wikipedia's "voluminous" evidence against Qorvis—though Lauer denies that it is true—and continued to slam Lauer:

“

Remember Lauer's claim that some creatively slanderous Wikipedian had written that CEO Michael Petruzzello was known as the "Super Gypsy among the Washington elite?" The Daily Dot discovered that the edit was actually made by the exact same Qorvis IP address listed above: 38.100.14.250. Either inside jokes from Qorvis staffers were leaking on to Wikipedia, or the "Super Gypsy" really is Petruzzello's nickname. Regardless, the fact that Lauer omitted this key information from his blog post shows that either he's either [sic] being dishonest or is ignorant of what his employees are doing on Wikipedia. Either way, it calls into question everything else Lauer has said about Qorvis' activity on the site.

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The O'Dwyer article concludes with a comment from Wales stating that in his experience, which he describes as "comprehensive", people who are paid representatives are bad editors who insert biased information and that they do it because "that is what paid advocates do." Still, despite Wales' strong words, Wikipedia's conflict of interest and paid editing guidelines are purposely vague, and attempts to strengthen or weaken them have faced strong resistance.

Can Wikipedia predict the stock market?

A report conducted by researchers at the Warwick Business School has concluded that a trading strategy based on the frequency of views would have yielded up to a 141 per cent improvement over a random strategy. IT Business of Canada wrote about the report. Their article commented that:

“

While basing a trading strategy solely around such data is likely a risky proposition, it is an interesting real-world case study of big data in action, and how publicly accessible information on group behavior can be used to make better and more informed decisions.

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The report found that using Wikipedia from late 2007 to 2012 may have "provided some insight" into how the market was going to perform, but said that no such relationship exists between views of Wikipedia articles on actors and filmmakers.

The report can be viewed in its entirety via Nature.com here.

In brief

• Australian bookmaker and COI: The Wikipedia article on Tom Waterhouse, who is described there as a fourth-generation bookmaker and businessman, came into the public spotlight this week after the Age, an Australian newspaper, published an article detailing his staff's alleged involvement. While Waterhouse is quoted as saying that "I've only asked them to make sure [the content] abides by what is legal," the newspaper detailed efforts by several editors to remove well-referenced information.
• Citation needed: boingboing.net published a brief blurb regarding the Wikipedia article entitled citation needed which, ironically, does not have any ^{[citation needed]} tags.
• Rachel Johnson factual error: A brief article in the London Evening Standard commented that Rachel Johnson's Wikipedia page had a factual error and that, when she tried to correct it herself, she received a rebuke from administrator Orangemike. The error has now been fixed after the implementation of a reliable source. Mike commented to The Signpost that he was not contacted by the paper prior to their running the story and that he left the "usual warning" about conflicts of interest.
• Wikipedian featured: The Oregonian published a feature on Wikipedian Jason Moore, who lives in Oregon. On Wikipedia, he is known as Another Believer. (Editor's note: Jason gave the Signpost permission to disclose his real name.)
• Track Wikipedia edits live: TheAtlanticCities.com released an article announcing the creation of a live map tracking from where in the world Wikipedia edits come. The map, which can be viewed here was designed by two programmers and uses geographic locations of IP addresses to generate its data.
• Basketball player called "faggot" on Wikipedia: The Huffington Post published an article with a screenshot of this diff before the revision was deleted. The revision showed an edit that read, "He just revealed he is a faggot!" The Huffington Post obtained the screenshot from Queerty.com, which in turn received it from an "eagle-eyed reader".
  
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2013-05-13

Race and politics opened; three open cases

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By Neotarf

The Race and politics case has been accepted for arbitration, and the evidence phase is now open. Two other cases remain open.

Open cases

Race and politics

The evidence phase of this case, which deals with sourcing methods in articles pertaining to race politics, is scheduled to close May 21, 2013, the workshop is to close on May 28 and the proposed decision is scheduled to be posted June 4.

Argentine History

In the case, brought by Lecen, an editor is accused of systematically skewing several articles involving former Argentine president Juan Manuel de Rosas to portray a brutal dictator as a democratic leader, in keeping with the political motives of Argentine "nationalists" or "revisionists".

The evidence stage was scheduled to close 12 April 2013, the workshop stage on 19 April, and a proposed decision was scheduled for 26 April.

Tea Party movement

This case was brought to the Committee by KillerChihuahua, who alleges the discussion over this American political group has degenerated into incivility. Evidence for the case was due by 20 March 2013, the workshop was to close on 27 March, and a proposed decision was scheduled for 3 April.

Other requests and committee action

• Clarification request: WP:ARBPIA/Jerusalem: A request by Sm8900 seeking advice over a committee-mandated RFC that appeared to have bogged down was closed with the committee advising against intervention in the current process or assessment of effectiveness of the mandated dispute resolution process before its completion.
• Clarification request: Scientology: A request by Prioryman seeking to clarify the scope of discretionary sanctions in Scientology-related articles was closed with the advice that discretionary sanctions apply to any edits that are about Scientology and are deemed disruptive, whether or not the relevant articles are tagged with the appropriate wikiproject banner.
• Clarification request: TimidGuy ban appeal: A 29 April 2013 request, initiated by MastCell, requests the release of voting information for the rejection of Will Beback's ban appeal, or failing that, an explanation of why such information cannot be provided. (Note: this is not the same as the request of the same name brought on April 5, 2013, by IRWolfie.)
• Clarification request: Discretionary sanctions appeals procedure: A request to clarify the appeal process for discretionary sanctions warnings was filed by Sandstein.
  
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