Here they come, the couple plighted –
On life's journey gaily start them.
Man and maid for aye united,
Till divorce or death shall part them.
...and also featuring mostly-naked men and absinthe, which are, strangely, unrelated.

Six featured articles were promoted this week.

• Shepseskare (nominated by Iry-Hor) Shepseskare, an ancient Egyptian Fifth Dynasty pharaoh, lived in the middle of the 25th century BC. Traditionally believed to have reigned seven years, the paucity of artefacts from his reign has led some Egyptologists to think that he only reigned for a few months. He has no known pyramid, though the barely-started construction of a pyramid at Abusir, between other Fifth Dynasty pyramids belonging to known pharaohs has been suggested to be all the work on Shepseskare's that his short reign allowed. It amounts to a few weeks' work levelling the ground and digging a ditch. Otherwise a couple of cylinder seals carved with his name, a few impressions of seals and some cursory mentions in historical records are all that's left of him.
• Bramshill House (nominated by Dr. Blofeld) Bramshill House is one of the largest Jacobean mansions in England. There was a manor house on the site from 1360, in a 2,500-acre (1,000 ha) wooded park. In 1605, Baron Zouche bought the estate, demolished the house, and built a 15-bedroom mansion. The house is reputed to be haunted by fourteen ghosts, but we think that's transparent nonsense. Well, translucent nonsense, anyway. I mean, you can only partially see through ghosts. Must be precise.
• God of War III (nominated by JDC808) The God of War, the God of War / I'm destined for, I'm destined for / A terribly famous conqueror / With a sword upon his thigh! / When army's meet with angry shout, / Or war-like rout, or war-like rout / You'll find me there without a doubt / The God of War am I! is what goes through my head every time I see the game mentioned. Made worse because the music to Thespis is lost, but I set it to a theme from Victoria and Merrie England and... but I get way off topic. This is the third in the popular video game series which sees the anti-hero Kratos slaughter his way through the Greek gods. In this one, he manages to kill Helios, destroying the sun, Hera, destroying all plants... and generally makes a huge mess of things. Eh, well. It'll probably be alright in the end. Probably....
• American Arts Commemorative Series medallions (nominated by RHM22) American Arts Commemorative Series medallions are ten gold-coloured medals that depict American artists, architects, writers, poets and musicians. They were made from 90% gold and 10% copper; later issues had a smidgen of silver to alter the appearance. The medallions were intended to compete with Krugerrands and other gold bullion coins. They were made in two sizes, "one ounce", containing one Troy ounce of gold, or 31 grams, and "half ounce", containing 16 grams of gold, and were sold to the public for the market price of the gold content "plus the cost of manufacture, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses including marketing costs." Which, by our reckoning, makes the half-ounce coin a bit expensive compared with its big brother. The gold price was set using the previous day's closing price on the London bullion market, so sales rose and fell depending on whether the price of gold had risen or fallen in the meantime. Not that they sold very well at the best of times: They were eventually withdrawn from the market and replaced by a gold coin. If you're thinking of buying one, the rarest is the 1983 half-ounce Alexander Calder, of which it's estimated there are only 8,000 left. Why not buy several and make a mobile; it'll still be cheaper than buying one of Calder's mobiles.
• Cucurbita (nominated by HalfGig, Sminthopsis84, and Chiswick Chap) The genus Cucurbita, which includes butternut squash, courgettes (zucchinis to our American readers), various pumpkins, and other squashes and gourds, is a delicious and important part of the human food supply. Evidence of domestication goes back at least eight thousand years in the Americas, and happened as far north as Canada and as far south as Argentina. Cucurbita pepo, a species with a wide variety of cultivars, including the famous orange pumpkin, is believed to be one of the oldest domesticated plants, if not the oldest. They reached Europe after Columbus' voyage, with the earliest record being a French devotional book, of all things, from between 1503 and 1508. Famously, pumpkins replaced the traditional turnip in the carving of jack-o'-lanterns. This Hallowe'en, say no to revisionism. Carve a turnip. Then have a nice pumpkin pie or a butternut squash stew, because they're delicious, hearty meals for a cold autumnal evening. Or, if you live in a place unlike Scotland where it's hot in October, then, if they're available and not out of season, why not roast pumpkin and butternut squash, cut them into cubes, add cherry tomatoes, some pine nuts, a little olive oil, perhaps, and have a delicious cold salad?
• Exhumation of Richard III of England (nominated by Prioryman) Long thought to have been thrown from the old Bow Bridge in Leicester into the River Soar, the remains of Richard III of England were rediscovered under a car park once used by social workers. Acting on a hunch, archaeologists dug up part of the site of the long-lost Greyfriars church in which Richard's tomb had been once been located. On the first day of the dig, the skeleton of a thirty-year-old man was found, with signs that he'd been severely hacked about, both before and after death. The skeleton's spine was also severely curved in an S-shape, which would have made his right shoulder higher than his left. The skeleton's genome was sequenced and compared with that of a direct descendant of Richard's sister, Anne. It matched, confirming that these were indeed the villain's remains. Following standard archaeological practice, it was intended that Richard should be re-interred in the nearest consecrated ground, which is Leicester Cathedral, and, after some controversy, he'll finally be re-interred there on 26 March. Try and get ringside seats: We want featured pictures of his skeleton, and we're running out of time for that.

• 
  The Kiss
  Oh! Sir! You forget yourself!
• 
  Lady Seated at a Virginal
  I am trying to concentrate! If everybody would at least keep quiet, I could start this sonata.
• 
  Self-portrait with Two Pupils
  Oh, Adélaïde, that was wonderfull!

Three featured lists were promoted this week.

• List of scheduled monuments in North Somerset (nominated by Rodw) Over the last year or thereabouts, we've had a long series of list of scheduled monuments – historical sites or buildings of national importance – from the various administrative divisions of Somerset, England. Like all in that series, there has been a valiant effort to get photographs for as many monuments as possible. The list includes various prehistoric burial sites – including the fairly well-known Aveline's Hole and quite a number of barrows – complete with barrow wights if my Tolkien has taught me anything – Bronze and Iron Age hillforts and other settlements, deserted Roman and Medieval towns, farmsteads, castles and houses, village and church crosses, a relatively well-preserved priory, 17th- and 18th-century industrial buildings, and even a World War I gun emplacement.
• Savilian Professor of Astronomy (nominated by Bencherlite) Created by Henry Savile in 1619, this professorship at the University of Oxford was part of a campaign to improve the understanding of mathematics in England, alongside the related Savilian Professorship of Geometry. Originally requiring an understanding of Aristotle and Plato, to have begun before any higher sciences were studied, this original part of the bequest was likely dropped long ago. With a number of great scientists and researchers, the Savilian Professors include twenty people who can be said to have improved our understanding of astronomy and related fields, and also include George Johnson.
• List of New York Islanders draft picks (nominated by Gloss) The New York Islanders are a professional ice hockey team in the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League who, since 1972, have have selected 459 players from a predetermined list, in 52 drafts. This article lists all 459 of them. Only two of those – Denis Potvin and Bryan Trottier – have played over 1,000 games for the Islanders, and eight others have played more than 1,000 games in the NHL. Five of the players have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

• 
  Kullervo, from Finnish mythology, cursing shirtlessly.
• 
  Eugen Sandow, posing in very little clothing. Though this is somewhat well-dressed for him...
• 
  "Thor will deal with the nudity! Thor SMASH!"
  "...Could you try less smash?"
  "No, thinking is for the weak! Thor SMASH!!"

Forty (!!!) featured pictures were promoted this week.

• Old Route 66 (created by Dietmar Rabich (XRay), nominated by Crisco 1492) Get your kicks on this scenic highway, depicted here as it enters Amboy, California. The historic U.S. Route 66 used to travel from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California, and it remains a behemoth of American popular culture. Quite a nice photo by Dietmar Rabich; we hope to see more.
• Young Knight in a Landscape (created by Vittore Carpaccio, nominated by Hafspajen) A painting by the classic Italian Renaissance artist Vittore Carpaccio, Portrait of a Knight shows a young knight, surrounded by a series of symbolic objects and animals. The heron fighting with the hawk in the sky might hint at a battle; an alternative theory is that this is a memorial portrait. In the left lower corner is a white ermine and a scroll stating "I prefer to die rather than to incur dishonour" ( malo mori quam foedari ). The European legend had it that a white stoat would rather die before allowing its pure white coat to be besmirched, thus this could be an allusion to the knight's pure character and morality, or maybe his fate. Art historians continue to debate, without any signs of it resolving.
• Self-Portrait with Two Pupils (created by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, nominated by Hafspajen and Crisco 1492) Unsurprisingly, this is a self-portrait by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (sitting) with two of her pupils, Marie-Gabrielle Capet and Marie Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemond – the latter of whom we'd like to see an article on, although apparently none of her well-praised works survives, at least, not attributed to her. Sign your work, kids. Anyway! Labille-Guiard was a female painter who trained other women artists, because art schools were not open to women at the time. These three women were unusual woman artists who counted among their customers several members of the royal family, and even other members of Parisian society. However, women were not considered serious painters, and were barred or all-but-barred from the Art Academies; for instance, in the early 1790s, Labille-Guiard had to campaign for the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture to be reopened to women, and, even when she succeeded, the number of women painters allowed in was still limited to only four. Self-Portrait with Two Pupils was part of a campaign for recognition of women when it was exhibited at the Salon at the Académie Royale. It was still a slow process. Fast quiz: QUIZ, check your knowledge about women painters.
• Lady Seated at a Virginal (created by Johannes Vermeer, nominated by SchroCat) A c. 1670 genre painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Vermeer, Lady Seated at a Virginal depicts a young woman in a blue silk dress playing the virginal, a keyboard instrument similar to a harpsichord. Virginals were usually decorated on the inside lid, and this one has a painting of a landscape there. The painting on the wall is probably a copy of Dirck van Baburen's painting The Procuress, which was once owned by Vermeer's mother-in-law.
• Triple Portrait of Cardinal de Richelieu (created by Philippe de Champaigne, nominated by SchroCat) The Triple Portrait of Cardinal de Richelieu is a painting by Philippe de Champaigne (1602–1674), a Brabançon-born French Baroque painter and a founding member of the French Academy for Painting and Sculpture. He was mainly active in Paris, where he portrayed the entire French court, the French high nobility, royalty, high members of the church and the state, parliamentarians and architects and other notable people, some more than once. And he was simply crazy about Cardinal de Richelieu, he painted him from the left, right, facing him, sitting, standing ... sometimes he painted him three times in the same painting too (guess when!)... he just simply couldn't have enough of him. Or was it the other way round?
• Thor's Fight with the Giants (created by Mårten Eskil Winge, nominated by Armbrust) Thor's Fight with the Giants displays the Norse god Thor (or "Tor" - the spellings vary throughout Scandanavia and Germany) fighting the Jötunns, or Giants, one of his primary antagonists in Norse mythology. He can be seen here in his chariot, pulled by the goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, smiting the giants with his hammer Mjölnir. In the painting, Mårten Eskil Winge depicts him as clean-shaven and blond-haired. This is not very accurate to the mythology, which gives him red hair and a beard, but does, at least provide a plausible excuse for his appearance in the Marvel Comics.
• Bath Abbey set: Exterior, nave looking east, and nave looking west (created and nominated by David Iliff) The wonderful set of featured photos of Bath Abbey were taken by our excellent photographer David Iliff. Bath Abbey, a now-Anglican parish church in Bath, Somerset, England, was founded in the 7th century, has a cruciform floor plan, and was rebuilt several times. It is a spectacular example of the Perpendicular style, a Gothic style strongly associated with English architecture. The vaulting over the nave is made from local Bath stone. The west front has charming sculptures of angels climbing to heaven on ladders, a theme inspired by Jacob's dream. The church is an active place of worship, and is also used for secular civic ceremonies, concerts, and lectures, a stone's throw from where naked Romans sweated under the stern gaze of a Celtic god. As for the details of the photograph, we don't know what the flautist is playing; his audience seems to be listening intently... but no-one's throwing coins into the bowler hat. Maybe they did after the photo?
• Portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel (created by Francisco Goya, nominated by SchroCat) Portrait of Doña Isabel de Porcel is a painting made by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya around 1805, and depicts a young woman with her hands on her hips, dressed festively with a high Spanish mantilla on her head with a black lace veil. The veil is worn over a high comb, and this ingenious arrangement covers her head and shoulders. This fashion came into use in the warmer regions of Spain towards the end of the 16th century, starting in the Andalusia region of Spain. Women still wear mantillas in Spain during Holy Week (the week leading to Easter), bullfights, and weddings.
• Kullervo Cursing (created by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, nominated by Crisco 1492) Kullervo Cursing is a painting by the Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela. It depicts a scene from the Kalevala in which Kullervo curses a herd of cows, turning them into bears who attack a woman who tormented him. Kullervo is an ill-fated character from the Finnish Kalevala epic. Kullervo is the only tragic character in Finnish mythology. He survived a massacre of his tribe and was raised by his enemy Untamo's tribe. Kullervo grew up thinking his family was dead, amongst people who hated him and whom he did not trust, knowing that they were his people's murderers. Later, he was sold into slavery and mocked and tormented further. When he finally ran away, he finds his family, only to lose them again, and unknowingly seduces and has sexual relations with his sister, whom he thought dead. When she finds out it was her own brother who seduced her, she commits suicide. Kullervo becomes mad with rage, returns to Untamo and his tribe, exterminates them using his powers, and commits suicide. The story of Kullervo differs from all other folktales in that it describes the effects of child abuse. In the end of the poem, the character Väinämöinen warns parents about abusing their children:

Wainamoinen, ancient minstrel,

As he hears the joyful tidings,

Learns the death of fell Kullervo,

Speaks these words of ancient wisdom:

"O, ye many unborn nations,

Never evil nurse your children,

Never give them out to strangers,

Never trust them to the foolish!

If the child is not well nurtured,

Is not rocked and led uprightly,

Though he grow to years of manhood,

Bear a strong and shapely body,

He will never know discretion,

Never eat the bread of honor,

Never drink the cup of wisdom.

^{Translation by John Martin Crawford}

• The Kiss (created by Francesco Hayez, nominated by Hafspajen) The Kiss is a painting which, unsurprisingly, depicts a passionate kiss, painted by the Italian artist Francesco Hayez from about 1859. It is, possibly, his best-known work. This magical kiss is one of the most passionate and intense representations of a kiss in the history of Western art. The painting is enormously popular in Italy, seen as a symbol of Italian Romanticism that emphasizes deep feelings rather than rational thought, and that presents a reinterpretation and a reevaluation of the Mediaeval romantic love ideals.
• Caucasus embroidery (unknown creator; nominated by Alborzagros) This is a Verni or Azerbaijani kilim, a flat-weave rug (rather than one that has a knotted pile). The Azerbaijani rug was declared a Masterpiece of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in November 2010. According to the article's section on the Verni, "The technical perfection and utmost emotionality of these carpets is a sort of acme of the Azerbaijani carpet art". Usually, when the conversation turns to the emotional life of a carpet, there's a Camberwell Carrot involved.
• Moss leaf cells (created by Des Callaghan, nominated by The Herald) Live leaf cells of the moss Bryum capillare form a beautiful repeating pattern. Sadly, our article on the genus is terrible: Your project for the week is to improve it to "tolerable". There's only a few letters difference between terrible and tolerable, so it shouldn't be too hard!
• Toyota FJ Cruiser (created by Stefan Krause, nominated by FakeShemp) The Toyota FJ Cruiser is a retro-styled SUV introduced by Toyota in 2005. It's a rugged performer, and has been offered in variants such as the Trail Teams Special Edition and the ARB Edition FJ Crawler. The "F" is the engine type and, according to the official Toyota blog, the "J" stands for "Jeep"- the original Land Cruiser of the 1950s used a "B" engine, and was known as the Toyota Jeep BJ. It was a simpler time...
• Woman in Blue Reading a Letter (created by Johannes Vermeer, nominated by SchroCat) Woman Reading a Letter is a painting by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It was the first Vermeer acquired by the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. The painting depicts... er, well, a woman... reading a letter. The woman wears a blue silk dress and is standing in front of a window; some clues in the painting, like the map of the Netherlands on the wall, suggest that the letter was written by a traveling husband or lover. Those were the days: People wrote and read letters.
• Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time (created by Bronzino, nominated by Étienne Dolet) Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time is a complicated, obscure, and ambivalent allegorical painting by the Florentine artist Agnolo Bronzino. The themes of the painting appear to be lust, deceit, and jealousy, displaying the kind of eroticism that was characteristic of the Mannerist period. It depicts Cupid to the left of Venus, who holds the golden apple she won in the Judgement of Paris; Time, at the upper right of the scene with a the hourglass, is pulling away a curtain revealing what will come. The identity of the other figures remains uncertain. The screaming figure has been interpreted as Jealousy or Despair — though some believe this figure to represent the ravaging effects of syphilis, meaning that one single tempting, desirable mistake can have terrible consequences later. The creature at the right-hand extending a honeycomb may represent Pleasure or Fraud; the boy scattering roses might be Folly or Pleasure. The painting was brought by Napoleon from Paris to Vienna, and today it is hosted by the National Gallery, London.
• Portrait of an African Man (created by Jan Mostaert, nominated by Crisco 1492) The subject of a recent new article which ran on the "Did you know?" section of the main page, Portrait of an African Man depicts an unidentified African man who is speculated to be a soldier, a nobleman, or Saint Maurice of the Roman Theban Legion, a 3rd-century Roman legion who converted to Christianity and were martyred. This is the only early modern European painting which features a man of African descent independently. Now, when can we get a painting of an African man by an African artist as a Featured Picture?
• Jeju Province (created by NASA, nominated by Alborzagros) This is Jeju Island, home to Jeju Province, one of the nine provinces of South Korea. Before 1910, the islanders were regarded as foreigners by the mainland Koreans. In 1910, Korea, including Jeju, was annexed by Japan, and a period of hardship and oppression followed for the islanders. This occupation ended in 1945 with the Surrender of Japan at the end of World War II. Three years later, in 1948, a year-long leftist uprising against local government and police forces resulted in the deaths of between 14,000 and 30,000 islanders in a period of violent suppression, massacres, and executions, aided by the mainland's official intolerance of islanders. Movements for the island's independence sprang up in the wake of the resulting genocide, which was never prosecuted.
• Chocolate brownie (created by ɱ, nominated by The Herald) A chocolate brownie! It's brown, it's got chocolate, it's a chocolate brownie. It's a nice, quite tempting bit. Perfect to make your own Wikilove message with to thank your friends... Or go out in your kitchen and bake one, because... why not? Just melt precisely eight ounces of chocolate with butter and add a very small amount of flour, also add 3/4 cup of granulated sugar, which sweetens it up if semi-sweet chocolate is used, also add 1/4 cup of brown sugar, which gives a moist texture... go on and add 3 eggs, which give the brownies a fudgy texture, try to also add chocolate chips or chunks or some delicious bits of caramel, yum, to the brownie batter. You can even add chocolate frosting on top. We take no responsibility for this luxury brownie recipe. If you want to go safe, try the naked chef's brownie recipe instead. Nakedness will be a theme in this issue....
• British soldiers loading a shrapnel shell (created by Photopress, restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden) The gun is a Quick Firing 18-pounder, and the shrapnel shell being loaded has the typical red-painted tip (below the fuse) and band. The shrapnel shells fired by the British army used a time and percussion fuze designed by the German arms manufacturer Krupp in 1905. They were manufactured under licence by Vickers, who had to pay Krupp £40,000 in royalties after the war. These shells were fired at a rate of up to one million a week; many fell into soft mud and failed to explode... so if you go camping in a Flanders field, be careful where you hammer in the tent pegs.
• Bulb Fields (created by Vincent van Gogh, nominated by Crisco 1492) Bulb Fields, completed in 1883, is van Gogh's first garden painting. The fields of blue, white, yellow, pink, and red hyacinths were depicted in parallel rows of flowerbeds emerging towards a vanishing point directly opposite the viewer. It was one of Van Gogh's attempts to explore his interest in perspective. Later he abandoned this style, to favor more asymmetric compositions. So many flowers here, almost as many as the number of van Goghs we've featured. Now, what the article really needs is how many individual flowers there are. Get counting!
• At the Café (created by Édouard Manet, nominated by SchroCat) Edouard Manet's 1879 painting, At the Café is also called The Café-Concert, and should not be confused with an 1878 Manet painting also called At the Café. It depicts people sitting, eating, and drinking... not only coffee, apparently: it looks more like beer. Manet (1832–83) painted scenes from the Cabaret de Reichshoffen on the Boulevard de Rochechouart in Paris. The cabaret was one where "where women on the fringes of society freely intermingled with well-heeled gentlemen", according to the Walters Art Museum, who holds the painting.
• Messier 106 (created by NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team and Robert Gendler with acknowledgment to R. Jay GaBany; nominated by The Herald) Seems like something to do with space or the conquest of it never escapes the featured photo section for long, and it's not hard to see why. Here we are looking at another galaxy through the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope... with a little help from an amateur astronomer. Part of the emission from the center of Messier 106 is produced by a process that is somewhat similar to that in a laser, although this rather larger scale process produces bright microwave radiation. Messier 106 is located a little over 20 million light-years away, practically close enough for a weekend visit, if you're able to withstand the deep freeze it will require to get you there. Don't forget your sweater! Also, be sure to contact advanced aliens first: the lack of any proven way to revive people from cryogenic sleep might make your trip very expensive suicide otherwise.
• CG 4 (created by ESO, nominated by The Herald) Cometary globule CG4 glows menacingly in this image from ESO's Very Large Telescope. We have a source for that, actually – that's part of the official description, which also calls it "the gaping mouth of a gigantic celestial creature". Oh no! CG4 is a star-forming region located in the Puppis constellation, which is just a short hop away at only 1,300 light-years away from earth. When the stars are right, it will awaken and approach the earth, but we don't... think it can exceed light speed, so we're probably safe for now... er... moving on... Although it looks huge and bright in this image, it is actually a faint nebula and not easy to observe, making it stealthy and perfect for sneaking up on us. The exact nature of CG4 remains a mystery, because no-one likes to admit there is an alien horror a mere millennium or so of travel away from us. If you happen to visit Messier 106 and enjoy a good mystery, consider a "quick thaw" on CG4, drop in, and transmit the footage of your horrific demise at the jaws of this hideous creature back to earth, so we may learn the terrible truth at last.
• Ocellaris clownfish (created by Nick Hobgood, nominated by Jim Carter) The photo depicts an ocellaris clownfish, a nice little fish in love with an anemone. They can be found in the seas near northern Australia, Southeast Asia, and Japan. The clownfish have a particular lifestyle. They are born male and at some point in their lifespan change sex to female. They are also completely dependent on their accompanying sea anemone, with which they have a symbiotic relationship, needing the anemone for survival and shelter. When the fish is chased, it will swim rapidly to the sea anemone, who will sting every fish but the clownfish. In exchange, the clownfish keeps the anemone free from from parasites and clean.
• L'Absinthe (created by Edgar Degas, nominated by Crisco 1492 and SchroCat) "Absinthe is not good for you" was the consensus at the time Degas completed this painting, and it's clear that he agreed. The seated people are off center, and staring off into the distance, sitting so near to each other, yet also sitting miles apart. The drab colors suggest a life wasted, one of loss and depression, similar to how the French were facing social isolation in the face of advanced modernization and development. Now, why am I thirsty?
• An International High Noon Divorce (created by Samuel D. Ehrhart, restored by Adam Cuerden, and nominated by Adam Cuerden and Paris 16) An International High Noon Divorce is a caricature by Samuel D. Ehrhart for Puck magazine, parodying the the circus-like atmosphere of the divorce of Anna Gould and Le Comte Boni de Castellane. Anna Gould is depicted holding a bouquet made of indictments against her husband. The correspondents are just behind, together with a bunch of hopeful creditors. However, things didn't end with the divorce. Her husband tried to get the marriage annulled so that he could marry again as a Catholic. Time magazine wrote on April 13, 1925:

  Probably not since Henry VIII tried in vain to get an annulment of his marriage with Catherine of Aragon has a matrimonial case been so long in the courts of the Roman Catholic Church as that on which nine Cardinals have just handed down a final decision. The male in this case is the son of one of France's most historic houses − Le Comte Boni de Castellane. The female is the daughter of a United States stockbroker, the late Jay Gould − the present Anna, Marquise de Talleyrand Périgord, Duchesse de Sagan. On March 14, 1895, Anna became La Comtesse de Castellane by a marriage solemnized in Manhattan by the late Archbishop Corrigan. After three children were born, La Comtesse obtained a civil divorce from Le Comte on grounds of infidelity. In 1908, she married Le Marquis de Talleyrand Périgord, Duc de Sagan. Thereupon, Le Comte asked the Vatican to annul the marriage, apparently that he might be free to marry again, within the Church.

Anna Gould was a bit spiteful, to be honest, challenging the annulment, and, in the end, winning her case that the marriage had been valid, thus keeping him from being able to marry again as a Catholic. Oh, did we mention she married his cousin two years after divorcing him?

• Eugen Sandow (created by D. Bernard & Co, Melbourne; restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden) The photo shows the early bodybuilder Eugen Sandow modelling. Biffy and great, the Father of Bodybuilding stands in a striking position in this picture, in no way ridiculous or silly. He wanted from the beginning to illustrate the Grecian Ideal, which he introduced to bodybuilding. He even posed several times as the statue The Dying Gaul, consistently trying to model his body after the ancient Greek and Roman ideals of beauty. Now, here's a question for you: Did the men buying these magazines only buy them because they wanted to become buff like him, or did they buy them because they wanted him?
• Portrait of Dr. Gachet (created by Vincent van Gogh, nominated by SchroCat) The Portrait of Dr. Gachet shows Paul Gachet, the doctor who took care of Van Gogh during the final months of his life but never managed to cure him. Vincent van Gogh's first impression of Gachet was unfavorable. Writing to his brother Theo, he remarked: "I think that we must not count on Dr. Gachet at all. First of all, he is sicker than I am, I think, or shall we say just as much, so that's that. Now when one blind man leads another blind man, don't they both fall into the ditch?" This remark shows that one should always trust one's first impressions. Too bad he started rationalizing instead of getting the **** out of that place at high speed – who knows: he might have lived like fifty years more, and what a loss for humanity that he didn't. He was only thirty-seven when he committed suicide. The painting was sold for the first time in 1897 by Van Gogh's sister-in-law for 300 francs; in 1990, it was sold for a record price of 82.5 million dollars at an auction in New York.
• Ridge between Segla and Hesten (created by Simo Räsänen (Ximonic), nominated by Jim Carter) This photograph depicts the ridge between the two mountain peaks Segla and Hesten, on the Norwegian island Senja. A large island near the coast of Norway, Senja is often called "Norway in miniature", with numerous small fjords, beautiful scenery, and steep and rugged mountains that rise straight from the sea. The island had exactly 7,782 inhabitants on 1 January 2008.
• Margaret Lee (created by Hans Holbein the younger or his workshop, nominated by Crisco 1492) This is a painting of Margaret Lee, one of the chief ladies-in-waiting of Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII of England. She looks a bit severe and harsh, but then ladies-in-waiting were not supposed to outshine their patrons. At least she didn't drink absinthe. Margaret accompanied Queen Anne everywhere, from the secret meetings with Henry VIII, through her marriage, and until Anne's last unfortunate days in prison when Henry ordered Anne's execution at the hands of a French swordsman. Ladies out there: if a man is treating one woman badly, have no hopes he will treat you better. Learn from history, as Winston Churchill always said, and beware the bladed frog.
• Heliconius ismenius (created by Diego Delso, nominated by Jim Carter) The Tiger Heliconian is a orange and black striped butterfly found in Central and northern South America, known for feeding only on specific plants like granadilla. They are toxic and non-palatable to predators, and the pattern showing beautiful orange and black tiger stripes along the long wings is a warning: "Don't eat me, I taste bad, man!"
• The Absinthe Drinker (created by Édouard Manet, nominated by SchroCat) In this painting, a devotee of the Green Fairy is already in her company, having drunk her Fairy Liquid.... did we get that link right? The titular The Absinthe Drinker has a glass of green absinthe beside him. A dark shadow behind him is haunting him for messing around with the bottle... Absinthe was not good for you. It's the thujone that causes the damage: the active ingredient of the infused wormwood. But only when drunk in excess or over-regularly. None of you would do that... right?
• King Gustav III of Sweden and his Brothers (created by Alexander Roslin, nominated by SagaciousPhil) King Gustav III of Sweden and his Brothers is a painting by Alexander Roslin from 1771. Gustav (left) and his two brothers are gathered around a table, studying a plan of fortifications, in flattering flashy velvet, lace, and silk clothes, á là Rococo fashion. Frederick is standing and Charlie is to the right. (Pretty sure that's not the right Prince Charles being linked there.... Anyway! Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until sadly he was assassinated during a masquerade ball. He was an enlightened ruler who fostered the arts, sciences, and education, and further fostered the arts by having his assassination be the subject of an opera by Daniel Auber and the inspiration behind Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera. He was actively engaged in building up the Swedish culture (from scratch, mainly) eh, irony. Gustav III attracted many artists to his court, and when they didn't come to him, he went to them instead. Gustav visited Roslin in Paris to sit for this painting. Roslin's talent was greatly appreciated by all manner of royalty: they all wanted to look good when they finally got into the Signpost. His ability to capture the personality of the sitters gives us a chance to get close to the people he painted. His masterful ability to reproduce the silks, lace, pearls, and gold filaments made him a real asset in those days... and even today. If you zoom in on the painting, you will see that the artistic rendering of the fabrics and other objects is masterful and truly spectacular.
• Discharge tubes set: Helium, Neon, Argon, and Krypton (created by Alchemist-hp, nominated by The Herald) Gas discharge tubes of the first four noble gases. By using electricity to turn the gases into a plasma – a state of matter full of ionized atoms - a characteristic glow is emitted. It's sort of the opposite effect of the one you get from drinking absinthe.
• The Allegory of Faith (created by Johannes Vermeer, nominated by SchroCat) The Allegory of Faith is a painting created by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer in about 1670–72 which depicts a woman in a fine white and blue satin dress with gold trimmings. She sits on a platform a step higher than the black and white marble floor, her right foot on a terrestrial globe and her right hand on her heart as she looks up, adoringly, at a glass sphere hung from the ceiling by a blue ribbon. Vermeer's iconography in the painting is largely taken from Cesare Ripa's Iconologia, an emblem book (a collection of allegorical illustrations with accompanying morals or poems on a moral theme) which had been translated into Dutch in 1644 by D. P. Pers.

• 
  Vittore Carpaccio's Young Knight in a Landscape depicts an unknown knight...
• 
  This photograph, printed in the Illustrated War News shows unnamed but very sexy British gunners loading a shrapnel shell during World War I
• 
  Portrait of an African Man by Jan Mostaert is speculated to depict a soldier, a nobleman, or Saint Maurice, but no-one knows for sure.

• 
  Spectacular panorama of the Norwegian island Senja.

2015-03-11

Why the Core Contest matters

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By Casliber

Casliber is a reviewer, administrator, former member of ArbCom, and coordinator for the yearly Core Contest, as well as, with more than one hundred featured articles and countless good articles under his belt, one of English Wikipedia's most prodigious editors. We featured an interview with Casliber to commemorate this fact last May; here he presents his views on core content on Wikipedia through the lens of the annual Core Contest, and why you, too, should participate.

Wikipedia was in many ways a very different place a decade ago, but in some important ways it was also very much the same. In October 2004, user Danny created the page for the first of three eponymous "Danny's contests", one of Wikipedia's very earliest organized content drives. The three iterations of Danny's contest—focusing, in turn, on creating new articles, destubbing, and featured content—would see editors rewarded for their work in key areas of Wikipedia by hundreds of dollars in Amazon vouchers. The third contest, held in September–October 2006, was the most innovative of these, focusing on improving the quality of established broad articles and in particular on trying to correct or influence the flow of featured content. In introducing the contest, Danny presaged many of the changes that Wikipedia would undergo, stating:

“

We have to start changing the focus from quantity to quality. We have to make sure that the key articles that we do have are as good as possible. Rather than getting another million articles, we need 100,000 Feature-quality articles.

”

It was on these principles that the contests' spiritual successor, the first English Wikipedia Core Contest, was organized in November 2007. Running from November 25 to December 9, 2007, the Core Contest presented its rationale in its introduction, stating that "we all acknowledge the ideals of quality over quantity and the vital importance of core topics - yet how many really key articles do we each know of in really poor shape? ...so to improve [on] this situation we are announcing a two-week-long contest focusing on Wikipedia's most important articles." Danny and several other users had begun development on Veropedia at the time, an early Wikipedia content scraper which solicited recommendations on high-quality Wikipedia articles from editors for the purposes of static re-hosting, a motivating factor in their assistance in organizing this newer, broader effort. Mirroring the negotiations that still take place with broad community initiatives today, the project generated extensive discussion in late 2007, with the greatest topic of concern in particular being sourcing the monetary reward. This was at first to be fulfilled by Danny again, but after a delay in sourcing it (according to speculation, due to the condition of the success of Veropedia) the winners were finally announced and their prize money awarded on November 25, 2008, with the prize money supplied by Proteins. But despite the success of this first iteration of the contest, the bumpiness of actually awarding the winners discouraged future versions, and so the project went on an indefinite—and seemingly final—hiatus.

I have been interested in contests and games as a way of promoting content-building on Wikipedia for as long as I've been an editor here, and in a particularly glib moment in 2008, I started drafting the Flaming Joel-wiki award, a wiki-award offered to editors who improve one of the many subjects mentioned in Billy Joel's eclectic song "We Didn't Start the Fire". When I stumbled across relics of the Core Contest page in late 2011, I immediately saw value in this project and began the process of reviving it. The community scaffold that keeps Wikipedia running had gone through quite a bit of changes and improvements in the intervening time, so I was able to solve the funding issues which were so problematic in the first effort through application to the Wikimedia UK's microgrants program, which provided enough for a modest but sizable prize.

I decided to use vouchers to steer away from a direct cash incentive, hoping that that would lead to more scholarly and Wikipedia-related purchases on the part of the prize-winners, and I chose Amazon again because I suspect that any winner of such a contest could find something of use to purchase through them. I think that a prize on hand as an incentive is an important thing to have: they are a nice concrete gesture for the hours of work that some folks put into the place and a way to move away from sticks and towards carrots in steering featured content quality and focus.

I have run the competition on four occasions since then: March 10 to March 31 2012, which saw £250 in Amazon vouchers shared by six editors; August 2012, which saw the same prize shared by seven editors; April 2013, with the prize shared by three editors; and 10 February to 9 March 2014, with the prize shared by five. Each time the prizes have come from a WM UK microgrant, and buoyed by the success of this program, I resurrected the Stub Contest as well. Each time the contest has run, I have been impressed by the work that has been done, with the top 2 to 3 entries of each contest being particularly memorable. I almost hate singling out a favorite article, as that would mean omitting others I see as being just as important and enjoyable, and I invite readers to take a look at the diffs in the entries section of the contests to see first-hand what it is that I find so exciting about this program.

The featured article process is becoming ever more rigorous, but while this rigour is improving the quality of the articles we generate though the process, it is at the same time leaning heavily in favor of smaller, more esoteric, and more narrowly-focus articles more easily navigable through the straits of featured article candidacy. I continue to be excited about the Core Contest because I see it as a way of encouraging the expansion of broad articles that are typically neglected by our article improvement incentives, a problem that, though it first emerged in Danny's time, has only become more and more stark today. In examining the edit histories of many of the articles brought before the contest, I notice that the majority of our coverage of broadly-constructed topics, those most critical to our success as an encyclopedia, have seen little in the way of substantive community improvement over the years; except in the cases where specific editors make focused drives to bring an article to good or featured status, our core articles as they appear today were mostly written long ago, their content having changed for the most part only cosmetically in recent years. Though the times and the context we edit in have changed, the central principles of the Core Contest remain the same as they were when the contest first ran: to improve the encyclopedia where it matters most yet sees it the least. I see Wikipedia as being at a crossroads: the novelty of being newfangled is wearing off, replaced by the rigour of guidelines, restrictions, and rules that have proven essential in the evolution of Wikipedia. I believe that Wikipedia is traversing a grey area, where the goal is status as an established and reliable online encyclopedia, and we need to strive to ensure our core content is being improved along the way.

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