Full speed ahead for the WikiCup

This year's WikiCup competition has completed the first round. Here is a summary from the WikiCup 2014 February newsletter by WikiCup judges J Milburn, The ed17 and Miyagawa.

"And so ends the most competitive first round we have ever seen, with 38 points required to qualify for round 2. Last year, 19 points secured a place; before that, 11 (2012) or 8 (2011) were enough. This is both a blessing and a curse. While it shows the vigourous good health of the competition, it also means that we have already lost many worthy competitors. Our top three scorers were:

1. Godot13 (submissions), a WikiCup newcomer whose high-quality scans of rare banknotes represent an unusual, interesting and valuable contribution to Wikipedia. Most of Godot's points this round have come from a large set of pictures used in Treasury Note (1890–91).
2. Adam Cuerden (submissions), a WikiCup veteran and a finalist last year, Adam is also a featured picture specialist, focusing on the restoration of historical images. This month's promotions have included a carefully restored set of artist William Russell Flint's work.
3. WikiRedactor (submissions), another WikiCup newcomer. WikiRedactor has claimed points for good article reviews and good articles relating to pop music, many of which were awarded bonus points. Articles include Sky Ferreira, Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus and "Wrecking Ball" (Miley Cyrus song).

"Other competitors of note include:

• Hahc21 (submissions), who helped take Thirty Flights of Loving through good article candidates and featured article candidates, claiming the first featured article of the competition.
• Prism (submissions), who claimed the first featured list of the competition with Natalia Kills discography.
• Cwmhiraeth (submissions), who takes the title of the contributor awarded the highest bonus point multiplier (resulting in the highest scoring article) of the competition so far. Her high-importance salamander, now a good article, scored 108 points.

Six articles were promoted to featured status last week.

• Wells Cathedral nominated by Rodw and Amandajm. Wells Cathedral is a Church of England place of worship in Wells, Somerset dedicated to St Andrew the Apostle, and is the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells. As with other cathedrals, it is the central church of a diocese and contains the bishop's throne (cathedra). The present building dates from 1175 to 1490, an earlier church having been built on the site in 705... Wells has been variously described as "unquestionably one of the most beautiful" and as "the most poetic" of English cathedrals.
• Typhoon Maemi nominated by Hahc21 and Hurricanehink. Typhoon Maemi (international designation: 0314, JTWC designation: 15W, PAGASA name: Pogi) was the most powerful typhoon to strike South Korea since record-keeping began in the country in 1904. Maemi formed on September 4, 2003 from a disturbance in a monsoon trough in the western Pacific Ocean. It slowly intensified into Tropical Storm Maemi while moving northwestward, becoming a typhoon on September 8. That day, favorable conditions facilitated more rapid strengthening; the storm developed a well-defined eye and reached peak maximum sustained winds of 195 km/h (120 mph).
• Japanese aircraft carrier Sōryū nominated by Sturmvogel 66. Soryu (蒼龍 Sōryū, meaning "Blue (or Green) Dragon") was an aircraft carrier built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the mid-1930s. A sister ship, Hiryū, was intended to follow Sōryū, but Hiryū's design was heavily modified and she is often considered to be a separate class. Sōryū's aircraft were employed in operations during the Second Sino-Japanese War in the late 1930s and supported the Japanese invasion of French Indochina in mid-1940.
• Drama dari Krakatau nominated by Crisco 1492. Drama dari Krakatau (Drama of Krakatoa) is a 1929 vernacular Malay novel written by Kwee Tek Hoay. Inspired by Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1834 novel The Last Days of Pompeii and the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, the sixteen-chapter book centres around two families in 1920s Batam that are unknowingly tied together by siblings who were separated in 1883. The brother becomes a political figure, while the sister marries a Baduy priest-king. Ultimately these families are reunited by the wedding of their children, after which the priest sacrifices himself to calm a stirring Krakatoa.
• Tucana nominated by Casliber. Tucana is a constellation of stars in the southern sky, named after the toucan, a South American bird. It is one of twelve constellations conceived in the late sixteenth century by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. Tucana first appeared on a 35-cm (14 in) diameter celestial globe published in 1598 in Amsterdam by Plancius and Jodocus Hondius and was depicted in Johann Bayer's star atlas Uranometria of 1603. French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille gave its stars Bayer designations in 1756. The constellations Tucana, Grus, Phoenix and Pavo are collectively known as the "Southern Birds".
• No. 34 Squadron RAAF nominated by Ian Rose. No. 34 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) VIP transport squadron. It operates Boeing 737 Business Jets and Bombardier Challenger 604s from Defence Establishment Fairbairn in Canberra. The squadron was formed in February 1942 for standard transport duties during World War II, initially flying de Havilland DH.84 Dragons in Northern Australia. In 1943 it re-equipped with Douglas C-47 Dakotas, which it operated in New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies... During the 1960s it operated Dakotas, Convair Metropolitans, Vickers Viscounts, Dassault Falcon-Mysteres, Hawker Siddeley HS 748s, and BAC 1-11s, the last three types continuing in service until the late 1980s. The squadron's fleet consisted solely of Dassault Falcon 900s from 1989 until 2002, when it began operating the 737 and Challenger.

Three lists were promoted to featured status last week.

• List of songs recorded by Natalia Kills nominated by Prism. English singer-songwriter Natalia Kills has recorded songs for two studio albums and one extended play (EP), some of which were collaborations with other artists. She began her career as a recording artist by releasing the single "Don't Play Nice" on UK-based record label All Around the World Productions in 2005, under the name Verbalicious.
• Dan Savage bibliography nominated by Cirt and The Rambling Man. The American author Dan Savage (born 1964) has written six books, op-ed pieces in The New York Times, and an advice column on sexual issues in The Stranger (an alternative newspaper from Seattle, Washington). A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Savage began contributing a column, Savage Love, to The Stranger from its inception in 1991. By 1998 his column had a readership of four million. He was Associate Editor at the newspaper from 1991 to 2001, when he became its editor-in-chief, later becoming its editorial director in 2007.
• List of works by Sax Rohmer nominated by SchroCat. Sax Rohmer (pseudonym of Arthur Henry Ward; 1883–1959) was a British writer of songs sketches, plays and stories. Born in Birmingham to Irish immigrant parents, the family moved to London in about 1886, where Rohmer was schooled. His formal education finished in 1901, following the death of his alcoholic mother. After attempting careers in the civil service, as well as the banking, journalism and gas industries, Rohmer began writing comic songs, monologues and sketches for music hall performers, including Little Tich and George Robey.

Ten pictures were promoted to features status on last week.

• America's first jet-assisted take off, unknown creator, restored and nominated by Crisco 1492.
• Sofia Church by ArildV, nominated by Tomer T.
• Fernanda Lima by Alex Carvalho, nominated by Tomer T.
• SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm by Hugo Graf, scanned by Mr.Nostalgic, restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden.
• Senegalese wrestling by Pyb, nominated by Tomer T.
• Mars rovers by NASA, nominated by Tomer T.
• SMS Kaiserin Augusta by Carl Saltzmann, scanned by Mr.Nostalgic, restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden.
• Stereum ostrea by NorbertNagel, nominated by Tomer T.
• Gastric mucous membrane by Nephron, nominated by LT910001.
• SMS Gefion by Hugo Graf, scanned by Mr.Nostalgic, restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden.