Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-06-06/Featured content

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Featured articles

Madame guillotine in rural England: a 19th-century print of the Halifax Gibbet, the subject of a new featured article. At least 52 people are known to have been beheaded by the device, which was dismantled after Cromwell forbade its use.

New featured article: the air-tractor sledge, damaged in Australia and used in the Antarctica as a tow until abandoned. It is presumed to be still under the ice. This photograph is from 1912.

A brown and white striped horse hoof, with a dark colored leg partially visible — Striped hooves are a characteristic trait of the Appaloosa, the visually striking breed of horse that is the subject of a new featured article.

Fourteen articles were promoted to featured status:

William Brill (nom), an Australian country boy who became a World War II bomber pilot, eventually commanding No. 467 Squadron RAAF. (Nominated by Ian Rose)
Sack of Amorium (nom), one of the most memorable events of the Byzantine–Arab Wars, with major religious consequences. (Constantine)
Halifax Gibbet (nom), one of many decapitation devices in use long before the French Revolution. A replica is on display in the town of Halifax in England. (Malleus Fatuorum) picture at right
Appaloosa (nom), a breed of spotted horses originally developed by the Nez Perce Indian tribe and now registered by the third-largest breed registry in the world. (Dana boomer) picture at right
Water Rail (nom), a bird of the rail family which breeds in well-vegetated wetlands across Europe, Asia and North Africa, in some places migratory and in others a permanent resident. (Jimfbleak)
RAF Northolt (nom), a Royal Air Force "station", or airport, on the north-west outskirts of London. (Harrison49)
Holy Thorn Reliquary (nom), probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry, to house a relic of the Crown of Thorns, and bequeathed to the British Museum in 1898. The article has been kindly read by the British Museum curator, "who said nice things about it" and forwarded it to the author of the main source, according to the nominator Johnbod.
Thatgamecompany (nom), an American independent video game developer co-founded by University of Southern California students Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen. The studio is currently a second-party developer for Sony Computer Entertainment, and is under contract to create three downloadable games for the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Network service. (PresN)
Brockway Mountain Drive (nom), a famous scenic drive in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that was built as a project of the US government during the Great Depression. This is the first article on a US country road to achieve featured status. (Imzadi1979) picture at bottom
Draped Bust dollar (nom), which began mintage in the same illegal standard as its predecessor, the Flowing Hair dollar; but this was changed when the US Mint hired a new director, Elias Boudinot, who was known for his honesty. (RHM22)
Air-tractor sledge (nom), the first plane to be taken to the Antarctic—a converted fixed-wing aircraft taken on the 1911–14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition. Abandoned when it broke down while towing a train of four sledges in 1913, most of its remains are believed to lie beneath the ice at Cape Denison. (Apterygial)
Logarithm (nom), a fundamental mathematical phenomenon, introduced by John Napier in the early 17th century as a means of simplifying calculations. The nomination involved much debate as to the appropriate level of technicality in such an article, and the treatment of the theme in the lead. (Jakob.scholbach) picture at right
Liber Eliensis (nom), a 12th-century English chronicle and history, covering the period from the founding of the abbey in 673 until the middle of the 12th century. It incorporates documents and stories of saints' lives and is typical of a genre of local history produced in the last quarter of the 12th century. (Ealdgyth)
Homicide: Life on the Street (season 1) (nom), an American police procedural television series from 1993, adapted from David Simon's 1991 non-fiction book Homicide: a year on the killing streets. (Hunter Kahn)

Featured lists

No featured lists were promoted this week.

Featured pictures

Five images were promoted. Medium-sized images can be viewed by clicking on "nom":

Nudibranch sea slug (nom; related article), a species of sea slug that reaches 60 mm in length; the nudibranch photographed is yellow with three black stripes on its mantle; the marginal band fades from dark golden yellow at the edge, to a buttery yellow. (Created by Nick Hobgood.)
Maid of the Mist (nom; related article), a boat tour of Niagara Falls, and the name of the boats used for the tour, which takes tourists into the dense mist of spray inside the curve of the Horseshoe Falls, also known as the Canadian Falls. (Created by User:Saffron Blaze.)
Shasta Dam under construction (nom; related article), an arch dam across the Sacramento River at the north end of the Sacramento Valley in California; this photograph of its construction was taken in 1942. (Created by Russell Lee, US Farm Security Administration) picture at right
Pair of Chinese shoes for bound feet (nom; related article). Foot binding was practised on young girls and women for approximately a thousand years in China, from the 10th century to the first half of the 20th century; it resulted in lifelong disabilities for most women who endured it. (Created by Daniel Schwen.)
Pittsburgh at dawn (nom; related article), a panorama of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from Washington Heights. (Created by Matthew Field.) picture at top

Featured sounds

New featured sound: Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49: Finale, Allegro assai appassionato

There are four new featured sounds.

"Finale, Allegro assai appassionato" from Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 (nom; related article), performed by Alisa Weilerstein, Awadagin Pratt and Joshua Bell at the White House Evening of Classical Music on 4 November 2009.
Repeal of Prohibition (nom; related article), a 1933 newsreel, widely shown in cinemas at the time, on the end of more than a decade of alcohol prohibition in the US (produced by Universal Studios).
Granados's, Spanish Dance No. 5 (nom; related article), performed on guitar by Sharon Isbin.
Farewell of Slavianka (nom; related article): Vasily Agapkin's 1912 "Farewell of Slavianka" performed by the United States Coast Guard Band.

User:Nick Nolte took this panoramic of Lake Superior and surrounding woodlands from the top of Brockway Mountain Drive, the subject of a new featured article.

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6 June 2011 (all comments)

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The name of the article isn't The Book of Ely, it's Liber Eliensis - this should be corrected. The two most recent editions of the work use that title. Ealdgyth - Talk 01:19, 7 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed. Dabomb87 (talk) 04:26, 7 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

RAF Northolt

Hello, just a minor correction, RAF Northolt is situated in the north-west of Greater London not the north-east as stated. Thanks Grim²³ ★ 10:55, 7 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I looked at the map provided, and after all this time mixed up east and west. Now fixed; sorry. Tony (talk) 12:29, 7 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I added something to the Newsroom a few days ago, but haven't received any response. Would this be the right place to suggest mentioning the launch of Wikipedia:Today's featured list on 13 June? Or would that be News and Notes territory? —W F C— 21:30, 7 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

We don't know that they're going up on 13 June for certain yet, but 29 supports and 0 opposes suggests that there is a decent chance of consensus being reached. —W F C— 21:32, 7 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This is up to Raul, or if not, who? Can you keep me posted? Tony (talk) 10:29, 8 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Raul has helped considerably with backend development, as well as giving some advice on blurb structure, although he is yet to declare his position. That he has helped should not automatically be taken to assume that he supports the proposal as-is. But the final decision rests with the community here. —W F C— 10:48, 8 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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