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Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2010-10-11/Features and admins

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Features and admins

Big week for ships and music

A 17th-century painting of Orpheus with his viol (left), and the front cover of the 1609 published score, from L'Orfeo, Claudio Monteverdi's landmark opera from the early Italian baroque, and our featured article Choice of the week.


Administrator

The Signpost welcomes Eagles247 (nom) as a new admin. Eagles247, from Philadelphia, has been editing since May 2009, with 18,000 edits, 50 new articles, two GAs and nine DYKs to his name. His interests include American football articles, and he is a member of WikiProject National Football League and WikiProject College football. He intends to participate at AIV, AFD, MFD and NPP, and has increasing expertise at sockpuppet investigations.


The cover of Essai, by the significant but under-recognised 18th-century economist, Richard Cantillon
Six articles were promoted to featured status:
  • SMS Baden (1915) (nom), was Germany's last battleship of World War I, and the only capital ship not successfully sunk in Scapa Flow after the end of the war (nominated by Parsecboy).
  • Richard Cantillon (nom), although an obscure figure even within his profession of economics, is considered by some people to be the true father of economics (as opposed to Adam Smith), according to nominator Catalan. (picture at right)
  • Caesium (nom), straight from the periodic chart on your high-school chemistry classroom wall, this metal reacts explosively with frozen water, but melts in your hand (Nergaal).
  • L'Orfeo (nom) (1567–1643), the first opera by Claudio Monteverdi, the Italian composer who was the turning point between the European renaissance and baroque. This featured article completes a tryptich of his three surviving operas, all nominated by Brianboulton. (audio excerpt below)
  • William O'Connell Bradley (nom) (1847–1914), known as the father of the Republican party in Kentucky (Acdixon).
  • Daniel Sedin (nom) (born 1980), a Swedish professional ice hockey winger with the Vancouver Canucks (Orlandkurtenbach).

Choice of the week. Raul654, Wikipedia's Featured Article Director, has shepherded the process since its early days. We owe it to him that featured articles have appeared since January 2004 in a prominent spot on the main page, which has greatly increased their profile in the project. The Signpost asked Raul to select the best of the week.



Five topics were promoted, three of them prepared by WikiProject Military History. The first two complete the German pre-dreadnought series, leaving only the WWI-era Helgoland, Kaiser, and König classes and the handful of WWII-era ship articles to be done, "before this monster is finally finished", says nominator Parsecboy:

  • Wittelsbach class battleships (nom), the third class of German pre-dreadnoughts, was the first built under the naval expansion program of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz.
  • Braunschweig class battleships (nom), also with six good articles, were the last but one class of German pre-dreadnoughts.
  • Another of MilHist's Operation Majestic Titan projects, Kongō class battlecruisers (nom), with one featured article and four good articles, concerns the class of four battlecruisers/fast-battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second World War (nominator Cam).
  • Like a Virgin (nom) is about American recording artist (legend) Madonna's second studio album of this title, the singles released from the album, and the supporting tour and its subsequent live video release (nominator Legolas).
  • Brill Tramway (nom), with seven featured articles and one Good article, concerns a 10 km (six mi) privately built rail-line in the Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England—a tramway with an interesting history (Iridescent).

The German battleship Hessen passes the Levensau Bridge—from Braunschweig class battleship, one of the articles in the new featured topic of that name.


Three lists were promoted. These will be considered for Choice of the week in the next edition.


A Plains Zebra (Equus quagga) in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania
Rare samples of the transition metal, rhenium
Seven images were promoted. Medium-sized images can be viewed by clicking on "nom":
Choice of the week. Our judge, Nhobgood, considered the promotions last week, plus the three eligible promotions from the week before (Red-and-yellow Barbet, Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, and USS Oregon in dry dock). He told The Signpost:
"Definitely not an easy choice this week. All the images are excellent, some depicting interesting historical events and others adding to our knowledge of natural history. Although much of my experience is underwater, having chased a good number of darting fish and other fast-moving critters, I can really appreciate the skill that was required to capture an image of a subject moving at high speed at such a distance. For me, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor (pictured at the bottom of last week's page) sticks out above the others as a high-quality image and a great choice for nomination. – Nick"


The US Navy captured this shot of the 1988 collision between USS Yorktown (CG-48)—while it was exercising "the right of innocent passage" through Soviet territorial waters—and the Soviet Krivak I class frigate "Bezzavetniy". The collision appears to have been intentional.