Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/January 2019

Jan 1

Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht (Time, which day and year doth make)

If the translation is used in English as a title for the work, then it should surely be in title case. If it is not, then why is it translated into an archaic form of English? Kevin McE (talk) 21:00, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I understand that the capitalisation of baroque/Baroque varies from one style guide to another, but MOS:GENRECAPS says Names of musical or literary genres do not require capitalization at all, unless the genre name contains a proper name such as the name of a place. Kevin McE (talk) 21:00, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I wasn't aware this page exists, and answered the same question before, besides the day passed. Again, for those looking only here: It's only a translation, not a title, not a name, just a help to understand the German, therefore sentence case. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:47, 3 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Jan 2

with a species name highlighting its similarity to the carrion crow (C. corone).

This left me wondering what name had originally been given to the Australian raven: if we could clarify that it is the Latin specific name that is similar to that of the carrion crow it might be helpful. Perhaps 'with a Latin species name...', or linking 'species name' to Binomial nomenclature. Kevin McE (talk) 21:00, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Jan 3

The 1958 team was the first from the university to be invited to a bowl game, the Tangerine Bowl, where they would have faced Florida State. Because that stadium prohibited integrated football games...

What stadium? It is not clear to the reader that any stadium has been named, because 'Tangerine Bowl' is presented as the name of a match.

The owners of a stadium can prohibit something, the stadium can't. Kevin McE (talk) 21:00, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Kevin McE, that's ignoring normal usage. "Manchester United sign Kyle Walker" is readily understood, and I don't think that "the board of directors of Manchester United have agreed a contract with Kyle Walker" is either an improvement or better writing, even if it is strictly speaking more accurate. It's common to make this sort of truncation Jimfbleak - talk to me? 08:30, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

But a club acts as a juridical person, a stadium doesn't. Not a fair comparison. The lack of clarity about what stadium strikes me as a bigger issue, though. Kevin McE (talk) 10:47, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Jan 4

Since 1945, Horrocks has been regarded by some historians as one of the most successful British generals of the war

Seems something of a truism to say that opinions about the war have been expressed since the war: those first two words are highly redundant. Kevin McE (talk) 21:00, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

As he was involved in three wars, a little clarity is provided by those first two words. - SchroCat (talk) 14:53, 3 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Jan 5

His accolades include nominations for...

An accolade is something given, and this is a list of things he was considered for, but ultimately not given. In the article, the word is only used in relation to the 2011 Sexiest Man Alive title (I was robbed, I tell ya...) Maybe "His work has been recognised with nominations for..." Kevin McE (talk) 21:00, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Jan 6

The approximately 30-foot-tall (9 m) sculpture

9m can replace 30-foot (I'd prefer 30 feet tall: is this an ENGVAR thing?), not 30-foot-tall, so '30-foot(9 m)-tall' or '30 feet (9 m) tall' (my preference would be for the latter unless ENGVAR dictates). Kevin McE (talk) 21:00, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Jan 7

in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

I would suggest that Quebec is probably well known enough to be presented without disambiguators, and the city name and the eponymous province together certainly looks like overkill. Kevin McE (talk) 21:00, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Jan 8

This genus was first described in 1884 by American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh based on a nearly complete skeleton discovered in Garden Park, Colorado, in rocks belonging to the Morrison Formation.

I think a comma is needed after 'Marsh', but what really disturbs the flow of the sentence is the comma after Colorado. I would suggest "This genus was first described in 1884 by American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, based on a nearly complete skeleton discovered in rocks belonging to the Morrison Formation in Garden Park, Colorado. " Kevin McE (talk) 21:00, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Jan 9

In 1915, the new Mint director, Robert W. Woolley, came to believe that he was not only allowed but required by law to retire coin designs

It seems to almost tease the reader to say that he 'came to believe this' without telling whether it was a true or (as appears to be the case) false supposition. Kevin McE (talk) 21:00, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I would have no objection, as FAC nominator of this article, to "incorrectly believed" for "came to believe".--Wehwalt (talk) 09:11, 3 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Jan 10

and sodomy was pursued in ecclesiastical courts.

I really hope this is meant to indicate that charges of sodomy were pursued in ecclesiastical courts. Might the article summariser be trying to shock or cast aspersions? Kevin McE (talk) 21:00, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Jan 20

I initially proposed this at the blurb talk but I see now that this is a better place. In regards to the San Junipero blurb, I propose removing the spoiler "most of the action takes place in a simulated reality". Whereas readers who click on the article know what they're getting into, they don't have the expectation that there might be Black Mirror spoilers on the main page. It additionally makes the blurb a little more hook-like. The other removal I'm requesting is mention of "Girlfriend in a Coma", as the song is a very minor part of the episode and we have mention of "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" already. To avoid going under the minimum character limit, I suggest we add back some lost information with the sentence: "The first episode written following the show's departure from Channel 4, "San Junipero" was inspired by nostalgia therapy and originally featured a heterosexual couple." — Bilorv_(c)(talk) 17:00, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

(Just noting that Bilorv was the FAC nominator, and I have no objection to any of this.) - Dank (push to talk) 17:59, 31 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I've taken silence as consensus and updated the blurb accordingly. — Bilorv_(c)(talk) 12:52, 3 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Jan 22

Today's featured article is Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, but it uses File:Birds Nest Cropped.jpg as the thumbnail, which is a real-life image of the Beijing National Stadium and, as far as I can tell, does not exactly depict the subject nor is used in the article. I know that there are no freely-available images that would adequately depict the subject (being a video game, all screenshots and artwork are invariably non-free by definition), and the video game was set in an in-game version of the 2008 Beijing Olympics so the image is still slightly related, but it still feels quite incongruent to me; in fact, I first read the article title and thumbnail together, my wild imagination initially imagined it was referring to a real-life appearance of Mario and Sonic characters at the Olympic Games. I am but a small editor among giants here, but if we really cannot find any freely-available images to depict the subject, perhaps we could consider omitting the thumbnail entirely in the future? I don't wish to step on anyone's toes, but it's just a small suggestion. ― A Poor Historian (talk) 16:24, 22 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. People haven't been looking at this page lately, and I didn't see this until now. This only has 3.5 hours left on the Main Page; removing an image would force the two columns on the page out of alignment, and people generally like to have some warning that that's going to happen. So let's treat this as food for thought. WP:ERRORS is one place for requests like this one, and there may be others, over time. - Dank (push to talk) 20:27, 22 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]