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Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-11-12/Featured content

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Featured content

Wikipedia goes to church in Lithuania

The gleaming white of St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Vilnius, Lithuania, as photographed by the very talented architectural photographer David Iliff, is a new featured picture.
This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 26 October to 1 November 2014. Anything in quotation marks is taken from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.

Nine featured articles were promoted this week.

Jack Crawford; at the time, he was the youngest player to accomplish the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in first-class cricket.
HMS Formidable on one of its less happy days, 4 May 1945, after a kamikaze attack.
A map of Highway 403 in Ontario, Canada

Articles that gained featured status

  • The Boat Race 1993 (nominated by The Rambling Man) Another part of The Rambling Man's drive to put as many articles about the Boat Race up to FA level, this covers the 1993 vintage, which RM says is a personal favourite. The race—held annually on the River Thames between crews from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge—was an interesting one. New technology was employed by Cambridge in the form of the cleaver blades they used, while Oxford favoured the more traditional macon oar. Also notable on the day was one of the Oxford rowers, Matthew Pinsent, who found himself on the losing side for once (although with five Olympic gold medals to console him, it probably doesn't cause him too much grief). Cambridge extended their lead in the competition to 70–68.
  • Carl Hans Lody (nominated by Prioryman) Lody was a reserve officer of the Imperial German Navy, who spent the opening months of the First World War spying on Britain. He'd received no training for the work, and was easily identified by the British counter-espionage agency MO5(g), the forerunner of MI5. They allowed him to carry on spying to gain information about German espionage techniques and spy networks. The work was relatively easy for MO5(g): Lody would send his reports un-coded to an address in Sweden known to be a postbox for German agents. By October 1914 MO5(g) had ordered his arrest; he travelled to Ireland in order to escape, but unwittingly left a trail so obvious that police tracked him down in less than a day. He stood trial, was convicted, sentenced to death and, on 6 November 1914, "shot at dawn by a firing squad at the Tower of London in the first execution there in 167 years". A hundred years after his death he appeared as TFA.
  • Chandralekha (1948 film) (nominated by Kailash29792) Chandralekha is "a 1948 Indian Tamil historical fiction film directed and produced by S. S. Vasan. Starring T. R. Rajakumari, M. K. Radha and Ranjan in the lead roles, the film follows two brothers named Veerasimhan and Sasankan, who fight with each other over ruling their father's kingdom and for marrying the village dancer Chandralekha", according to the article. The story is based on a chapter of George W. M. Reynolds's 1848 novel Robert Macaire: or, The French bandit in England. The film was in production for five years and became the most expensive film made in India at the time.
  • Endometrial cancer (nominated by Keilana) Something of a rarity: a health and medicine FA, (and a fantastic article it is too). The article concerns that cancer which "arises from the endometrium (the lining of the uterus or womb). It is the result of the abnormal growth of cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body." While strongly related to obesity, the cancer is also "associated with excessive estrogen exposure, high blood pressure and diabetes." It is the third most common cause of death from female cancers and caused 76,000 deaths in 2012. The re-write and review process included an expert review from Cancer Research UK.
  • Jack Crawford (cricketer) (nominated by Jhall1 & Sarastro1) Crawford was "a rather arrogant but massively talented cricketer", according to Sarastro. Crawford played for Surrey and South Australia as an all-rounder. He could score quickly, with powerful shots, and bowled an accurate medium-paced off spin. He made his debut for England before he was 21 years old, but only played in 12 matches for England, "although critics believed he had a great future in the sport and was a potential future England captain".
  • HMS Formidable (67) (nominated by Sturmvogel 66) HMS Formidable was an aircraft carrier ordered for the Royal Navy before the onset of the Second World War, which was completed in late 1940. Sturmvogel 66 tells us that the ship had an extremely active role during the war, which included service in most major theatres of British involvement. The ship was "worn out by her wartime service and was scrapped as uneconomical to repair in 1953 after a brief period ferrying troops about shortly after the end of the war".
  • Acacia pycnantha (nominated by Melburnian & Cas Liber) This plant is also more commonly known as the golden wattle; it has "profuse fragrant, golden flowers [that] appear in late winter and spring, followed by long seed pods". The plant is native to southern Australia, and since 1988 it has been the official floral emblem of the country. Despite such high official note for the flower, it is considered a weed in a range of countries, including South Africa, Tanzania, Italy, Portugal, India, Indonesia and New Zealand.
  • Ontario Highway 403 (nominated by Floydian) This highway is a 125.2 km (77.8 mi) road that runs through Ontario, between Woodstock and Mississauga. The road was first proposed in the 1950s, its first section was opened in December 1963, and it was finally completed in August 1997.
  • No. 1 Squadron RAAF (nominated by Ian Rose) FAC delegate Ian Rose once again turns into FA writer Ian Rose, as he turns his attention to a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) squadron. Formed during the First World War, the squadron saw action in the Sinai and Palestine Campaigns; it was also active during the Second World War, in the Malayan and Dutch East Indies campaigns, where it suffered severe losses. It flew missions during the Malayan Emergency in the late 1950s, and had been quiet since, until being assigned to the military intervention against ISIS. Aircraft from the squadron conducted their first mission, and their first strike, over Iraq in October 2014.


"Histopathologic representation of endometrioid adenocarcinoma demonstrated in endometrial biopsy. Hematoxylin-eosin stain."

Two featured lists were promoted this week.

On top of numerous awards and nominations, Robert Downey, Jr. now has a shiny gold star for his filmography.

Lists that gained featured status

Fifty-five featured pictures were promoted this week.

The south side of the Taj Mahal is a new featured picture.
Bangles are common ornaments, primarily for women, in some Asian cultures. This photo is from Bangalore, India.
The red weaver ant
Sunrise, Inverness Copse by the symbolic World War I artist Paul Nash.
Timeline of the universe, in shot glass form. A delicious cocktail, but four dimensional and slow to make. Also, it's quite strong, containing all the alcohol that has ever existed.
The 1936 Cuban five peso note, showing Máximo Gómez.
The first Czechoslovakian banknote issue


Midsummer Eve bonfire on Skagen's beach by P. S. Krøyer.