Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2010-10-18/Features and admins

New administrator
The Signpost welcomes Looie496 (nom) as our newest admin. Looie496 is a neuroscientist who specialises in learning and memory, with a focus on the hippocampus; many of his publications have involved theta rhythm. He has been contributing since April 2008, and since then has co-maintained WikiProject Neuroscience. More recently, Looie496 has been involved in an effort sponsored by the American Society for Neuroscience to encourage more scientists to contribute to Wikipedia. He is interested in dispute resolution, and has participated at ANI, WQA, and various other noticeboards, with an eye to contributing to AIV, UAA, and RPP.

Featured articles
Four articles were promoted to featured status. These articles will be considered next week by the judge for Choice of the week.
 * (2004), the strongest storm to hit the Pacific island of Yap in half a century, causing major damage to property but no loss of life (nominated by )
 * , one of Richard Nixon's political slogans, and another article in the ongoing series prepared by on this American politician.
 * Hydnellum peckii (nom), the "bleeding tooth fungus", aka "strawberries and cream": it looks like candy, but doesn't taste like it, says nominator . (picture at right)
 * , an individualistic and colourful sportsman, known for his habit of fielding at point blank range to intimidate opposition batsmen. He once spent three weeks in hospital after taking a hit in the chest by a ball.

Four featured articles were delisted:
 * Claudius (nom: sourcing)
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (nom: comprehensiveness, sourcing)
 * Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress (nom: comprehensiveness, Manual of Style issues, sourcing, and list/trivia issues)
 * Bratislava (nom: structure, lead, undue weight, sourcing, and images)

Featured lists
Five lists were promoted:
 * . Twenty-two players have represented the Afghanistan national cricket team in One Day Internationals (ODIs) (nominated by )
 * . These sites are selected for their cultural and/or natural significance. One natural site, the Pyrénées – Mont Perdu site, contains the Pyrenees mountain chain and is shared with France.
 * , which includes three Major League Baseball All-Stars, one Major League Baseball record holder and three World Series champions.
 * Mark Buehrle holds the record for making the most Opening Day starts for the White Sox, with eight ( and ).
 * , consisting of twenty-three studio albums, six live albums, and seventeen compilation albums. Dion is the best-selling Canadian artist in history.

Choice of the week. We asked FL nominator for his/her choice of the best. The choice is from both last week plus the three new FLs from the week before:
 * "Out of the five lists from this week and the three from the previous week, I'm going to go with Keeper of the Archives from last week. I found it interesting and informative on a subject that was a bit further outside the mainstream than most Featured Lists. I would have suspected any article about a subject going back to the 1600s to be scanty on sources and information, but found quite the opposite with this article. I probably shouldn't have been surprised that Oxford kept good records on their record-keeping position!"

One featured list was delisted:
 * List of Baja California Peninsula hurricanes (nom: lead, comprehensiveness)

Featured pictures
Ten images were promoted. Medium-sized images can be viewed by clicking on "nom".
 * Fridtjof Nansen (nom) (1861–1930): Nansen was a Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel laureate (created by George Grantham Bain Collection and restored by ). (picture at right)
 * Melo aethiopica (nom), the "crowned baler", is a very large sea snail in the volute family. This specimen was collected by the photographer, H. Zell, in the Indonesia/New Guinea region.
 * Antidorcas marsupialis (nom), a male springbok in Etosha National Park, Namibia, East Africa (created by Hans Hillewaert).
 * The chemical element zinc (nom), prompting one reviewer to ask "I'd love to see how might do one of the non-metallic elements, such as carbon or sulfur. Those ones definitely need better pictures."
 * Three faces of rhodium (nom): the chemical element rhodium in three guises, each 1 g in mass: powder, a pressed cylinder, and an argon-arc-remelted pellet (created by ).
 * The chemical element nickel (nom), Typical view of electrolytically refined nodules. Nickel is used in superalloys, stainless steel, and other important alloys; green nickel salts are visible in the pores (created by ).
 * Loliginid squid by night (nom), with bioluminescent eyes and exposing the inside of its mouth—where the arms meet (created by Nick Hobgood). (picture at right)
 * White-spotted jellyfish (nom): this mollusc is native to the southwestern Pacific, where it feeds primarily on various snail species. Photographer Nick Hobgood told The Signpost, "I encountered this jellyfish while I was scuba-diving at a depth of about 12 meters, off a 45-meter wall on the east side of the mouth of Fort-Liberté bay in northern Haiti. Local fishermen say the bay is a breeding area for jellyfish, attracting juvenile Loggerhead sea turtles that feed on the jellyfish, and claim that the Mangrove complex in the southern part of the bay is home for Manatees." (picture at top)
 * Noctilucent clouds (nom): noctilucent clouds—the "ragged-edges" of a much brighter and pervasive polar cloud layer in the upper atmosphere, visible in a deep twilight. Martin Koitmäe photographed these ones over Kuresoo bog, Soomaa National Park, Estonia.
 * Seven Pillars of Wisdom (nom), a rock formation in Wadi Rum, Jordan. The name was given in memory of T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), and his autobiographical book, its plot based in the area during the Arab Revolt. The image was cropped and tilted 1.5º after debate on the review page (created by ). (picture below)

Choice of the week. DerHexer is a regular reviewer and nominator at Common’s featured picture candidates. He told The Signpost: This was not an easy decision, because there were very interesting subjects to choose from. In particular, three more of Alchemist-hp's fine pictures of chemical elements were promoted: Nickel and Zinc. But all in all, I preferred what is a beautiful underwater shot of a white-spotted jellyfish (phyllorhiza punctata). Although not entirely sharp, the photo still shows many details and amazing colours of a world not often visited by humans. That photo may have convinced me to join that hidden world and possibly even to take pictures there for Wikimedia projects!

Featured portal

 * Portal:Business and economics was demoted for want of good maintenance (3 October).