Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-01-17/Features

Several articles dealing with controversial topics tried to achieve featured article status last week, but were not successful in their efforts so far.

Reading David Irving at the British Library
Controversial World War II historian David Irving was nominated for featured article status for the second time by GeneralPatton on 7 January, following a failed nomination last September. Initially the improved article received an endorsement from Slim, but its comprehensiveness was soon questioned by Dbiv.

Dbiv also challenged an assertion in the article that Irving's book, Hitler ' s War, was restricted by the British Library to a desk in the Rare Books Room because it was deemed pornographic. This triggered an extensive discussion of whether the book could in fact be read elsewhere in the library, and whether the Rare Books Room was restricted to pornographic literature.

Finally, Peter O. made an attempt to turn things around by revisiting the original comprehensiveness objection. The objection was not resolved and the nomination ultimately failed.

Two articles related to abortion were also nominated last week, Morality and legality of abortion and the U.S. court decision Roe v. Wade. However, both still had unresolved objections, so it appears the nominations will not succeed.

Understanding the Kardashev scale
On a more esoteric note, the Kardashev scale, which is apparently used to measure the technological advancement of a civilization based on how much energy it can harness, also went through the featured article nomination process last week. The scale has been applied hypothetically in futurology and science fiction, but according to the article our present human civilization is not advanced enough to even qualify as a Type I civilization (it registers a "score" of 0.8 instead).

Well, it turns out that the article about the Kardashev scale is not advanced enough to qualify as a featured article either. Problems reported included confusing diagrams and failure to cite sources correctly, making it appear to be original research. Its nomination, which turned out to be a resubmission of a previous nomination by Ctrl build, received no new support and was rejected.

On the other hand, Albert Einstein, who might be described as one of the scientists who helped humanity make significant progress along the Kardashev scale, received overwhelming support and was designated as a new featured article last week. Other articles so honored included Matthew Brettingham, Pulaski Skyway, Cat's Eye Nebula, and Nintendo Entertainment System.

Meanwhile, it appears that being a famous painting can be helpful in becoming a featured picture as well, since Hans Holbein the Younger's portrait of Thomas More received this status. A gallery of last week's new featured pictures: