Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-02-11/Featured content
Featured content
A grizzly bear, Operation Mascot, Freedom Planet & Liberty Island, cosmic dust clouds, a cricket five-wicket list, more fine art, & a terrible, terrible opera...
Upper New York Bay in the United States, the location of the Lady Liberty, one of the most iconic U.S. landmarks. The origin of the Statue of Liberty project is sometimes traced back to a comment made by French law professor and politician Édouard René de Laboulaye in mid-1865. Join WPPilot over New York Harbor for a spectacular aerial tour of Lower Manhattan
.This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted to featured status from 25 January to 31 January. Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
Featured articles
Two
featured articles
were promoted this week.
- Operation Mascot (nominated by Nick-D) Operation Mascot was an unsuccessful British air raid conducted by carrier-borne aircraft against the German battleship Tirpitz at her anchorage in Kaafjord, Norway, on 17 July 1944. The attack was just one of a series of strikes against the battleship launched from aircraft carriers between April and August 1944, initiated after Allied intelligence determined that the damage inflicted during the Operation Tungsten raid on 3 April had been repaired. A force of 44 British dive bombers and 40 fighters took off from three aircraft carriers on 17 July. German radar stations detected these aircraft while they were en route to Kaafjord so the Tirpitz was protected by a smoke screen when the strike force arrived.
- actionscenes.
Featured lists
Three
featured lists
were promoted this week.
- English international cricketer has played 99 Tests and 185 One Day International (ODI) matches for his country, and has taken 380 and 261 wickets respectively. Anderson plays first-class cricket for Lancashire and since arriving on the international scene during the 2002-03 season, before his first full season of County cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 90 Test matches and over 160 One Day Internationals. He is England's all-time highest international wicket-taker when combined across all three formats, and only the fourth English bowler to take 300 Test wickets.
- Tom Cruise filmography (nominated by Cowlibob) Tom Cruise is an American actor and producer of some small renown. In 1986, Cruise played a fighter pilot in the Tony Scott-directed action drama Top Gun and also starred opposite Paul Newman in the Martin Scorsese-directed drama The Color of Money. Two years later he played opposite Dustin Hoffman in the Academy Award for Best Picture-winning drama Rain Man and the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture-winning romantic drama Cocktail. And the list goes on....
- Skydance Productions and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Star Trek Into Darkness garnered 9 wins at ceremonies such as the ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards, Golden Trailer Awards, and the California on Location Awards. It was written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof, and was produced by J. J. Abrams and Bryan Burkin addition to the three writers.
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Robert le diable, as painted by Gustave Courbet
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Featured pictures
Twenty-five
featured pictures
were promoted this week.
Spaceship One
.
- neoclassical sculpture designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886, a gift to the United States from the people of France. A half-buried Statue of Liberty was Charlton Heston's first "sign" to make him realize he was on Earth (when the apes had already been speaking perfect English) in Planet of the Apes. Long known as Bedloe's Island, it was renamed by an act of United States Congress in 1956. Take off from Manhattan Island in a helicopter with our resident Wikipedia Pilot & Aerial Photographer WPPilot for an exclusive ride along on the photo shootover New York Harbor!
- musicologists. As his many children grew and he developed their musical talent, he drew an increasing amount of income from their concerts while also managing the assembly rooms in Bath as Musical Director. Assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes and Linley's children were the stars of his rooms. When his finances began to prosper, the family moved to a more fashionable address, Royal Crescent. It was said of Linley that he fathered a "nest of nightingales". How, nobody knows; his wife was ugly, but the children beautiful. The children started to feature in concerts further afield, including oratorios in London, and Linley demanded high fees, eventually getting rich on their performances. He lived to be fairly old, but most of his children died before him... wonder how much free willto make choices those children actually had.
- The Threatened Swan (created by Jan Asselijn, nominated by Editør) The Threatened Swan is an oil painting of a swan made around 1650 by Dutch Golden Age painter Jan Asselijn. The oil painting on canvas is 144 centimetres (57 in) high and 171 centimetres (67 in) wide. The painting's subject is a mute swan (Cygnus olor) defending its nest against a dog. At the bottom right, the painting is signed with the monogram "A". By 1880, the painting was interpreted as a political allegory of grand pensionary (the highest official in the Dutch Republic) Johan de Witt protecting the country from its enemies.
- light years (2×1015 miles or 3×1015 kilometers) from Earth. The clouds are estimated to contain about 1 million solar masses of plasma and dust. The Rho Ophiuchi cloud (pronounced ‘oh-fee-yoo-ki’ and named after a bright star in the region) is found rising above the plane of the Milky Way in the night sky, bordering the constellations Ophiuchus and Scorpius. It’s one of the nearest star-forming regions to Earth, allowing us to resolve much more detail than in similar but more distant regions, like the Orion Nebula. Photograph by Rogelio Bernal Andreo of the binary star system Rho Ophiuchi. This star-forming region is located only 400 light years from Earth and is surrounded by a red emission nebula and numerous light and dark brown dust lanes. Nearby is the yellow star Antares while the globular cluster, M4, is visible between Antares and the red emission nebula. And what set of space photos would be complete without an infrared light view of Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex (by NASA). Beam me up Scotty.......
- New York Times to call him "the greatest debauchee of the age". William succeeded his father to the throne of the Netherlands.
- Northeaster is one of innumerable paintings of marine subjects and seascapes by the talented late-19th-century American painter Winslow Homer (1836 –1910). He painted several enchanting paintings on wonderful marine subjects, depicting the fishermen's life, work, and families. Later he chose more and more to paint the sea itself, especially beautiful paintings of the dramatic, stormy seas and the waves crashing onto the rocky shore. It has been said that they "are among the strongest expressions in all art of the power and dangerous beauty of the sea." He is considered one of the foremost painters of the 19th-century US and a preeminent figure in American art. Homer's studio at Prouts Neck, Maine is a museum now.
- freeze tag, he has to flee without her. Last act! Bertram finally reveals he's Robert's father! And Robert's about to sign the contract! But his half-sister - you know, the one he was going to allow to be raped - arrives and tells him that Isabelle is waiting in a carriage just over there, ready to go off and marry him. Robert decides he should sign the contract anyway, just to be safe. Then he hears a religious hymn floating over the breeze... and in a life-changing moment... decides to not sign the contract, and just get everything he wanted without it. Big chorus about how he has succeeded in overcoming evil, despite having never done a single likeable act in the entire opera.
- Of course, plenty of good operas have stupidities in their plot - fanfic, about how no one understands her, and if only she could save someone bad with her love! It's saved by some extremely good music. The Magic Flute has a plot that's completely ridiculous. It's by Mozart, hence its excellent music (though why it's more popular than Don Giovanni, which is also by Mozart, but has a coherent, interesting plot, I'll never know). Maybe Robert le diable is saved by its music? No: it's written by Meyerbeer, so it was doomed from the start.
- Of course, plenty of good operas have stupidities in their plot -
- Portrait of Henriette Mayer van den Bergh (created by Jozef Van Lerius, nominated by Alborzagros) This painting of Henriette is by the Belgian painter Jozef Van Lerius, who specialised in mythological scenes, portraits, and genre pictures. As his article says, "much of his work is didactic in nature." To us, this portrait seems to be heading in the direction of Mark Ryden- it's a bit lowbrow.
- stupid things like throwing stones on them, because they don't like it. Like one of the morons I had the unfortunate idea to go hiking with. A bear was passing by our tent in the evening and the jerk threw a stone on the poor bear, who did nothing at all, just walked by. The bear didn't do anything during the night - very diplomatic of him, I think - but next evening when we came back from a long hike, we found the tent pulled out from the ground and totally ripped into pieces. The jerk was whining and fussing, but I have to say it gave me a certain satisfaction. Why on earth he had to throw that stone at the poor animal for? So be nice to the bears and don't force them to get angry with you. They are very intelligent animals too. The level of intelligence seems to be somewhere between that of an average canine and a primate, so individual bears have personalities and unique ways of dealing with situations. One may have lunch with you while the other has you for lunch. If you are stupid.
- Brazilian football team, and the Portuguese Navy, among others.
- Japanese invasion money for Oceania: smiley face.
- Sir John Tenniel was an English illustrator, graphic humourist, and political cartoonist whose work was prominent during the second half of the 19th century.
- The piece was titled "Stanza of Anglo-Saxon Poetry" and read:
Twas bryllyg, and ye slythy toves
Did gyre and gymble in ye wabe:
All mimsy were ye borogoves;
And ye mome raths outgrabe.
- Other palaeontologyand geology. The poem was soon translated (!) into other languages too, and lots of interesting poetry come out of that. In German it goes like this:
Es brillig war. Die schlichten Toven
Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben:
Und aller-mümsige Burggoven
Die mohmen Räth' ausgraben.
- It sounds best in Welsh, of course:
Mae'n brydgell ac mae'r brochgim stwd
Yn gimblo a gyrian yn y mhello:
Pob cólomrws yn féddabwd,
A'r hoch oma'n chwibruo.
- Nobody can deny that original touche to it.
- Elliðaey (created by Diego Delso, nominated by Crisco 1492) Elliðaey is the north-easterly most of the Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands), an archipelago consisting of 15 or 18 islands (and assorted smaller rocks) located south of Iceland. The island is uninhabited, but has a large hunting lodge constructed in 1953. The lodge is owned by the Elliðaey Hunting Association. Despite rumors to the contrary circulating on the internet, the island was not gifted to the pop singer Björk by the Icelandic government.
- Hereford Cathedral set: Nave looking east, nave looking west, choir of Hereford Cathedral, and Lady chapel (created and nominated by David Iliff) Another lovely set by David, these photographs show the interior of Hereford Cathedral. There was a wooden church on this spot when Anglo-Saxon nobleman Milfrid rebuilt it in stone in 830 because he was so moved by tales of miracles wrought by Saint Ethelbert. In 1056, the cathedral was burnt by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn; it was rebuilt by the Normans and again (after the west end collapsed in 1786) by a mixed bag of architects.
- marine protected areas: Point Lobos State Marine Reserve (SMR) and Point Lobos State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA). Point Lobos is just south of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, United States, at the north end of the Big Sur coast of the Pacific Ocean. The iconic Point Lobos area is geologically unique and contains a rich and diverse flora and fauna, both on land and sea. Called the "greatest meeting of land and water in the world" by landscape artist Francis McComas, Point Lobos is considered a crown jewel in the California state park system. The original Point Lobos Ecological Reserve was created in 1973. As one of California's most well-known and longstanding no-take reserves, its large and diverse protected fish populations make Point Lobos a hotspot for non-consumptive recreational diving.
- Madonnaand child.
- The Absinthe Drinker, painted by Manet some years earlier and who reappears in this painting for no particular reason. The young boy in straw hat, meanwhile, is explicitly inspired by Antoine Watteau's Pierrot.
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William III of the Netherlands is fascinated... -
...faces off with the Jabberwock. -
...Thomas Linley the elder doesn't want to watch.
,_koning_der_Nederlanden,_Nicolaas_Pieneman,_1856_-_Rijksmuseum.jpg)
Discuss this story
Hafspajen (talk) 22:13, 18 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]