Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-04-18/Features and admins



This week's "Features and admins" covers Sunday 10 – Saturday 16 April

New administrator
The Signpost welcomes Bahamut0013 (nom) as our newest admin. Bob has been with the US Marine Corps since 2003 and with Wikipedia since 2006. He contributes mainly to articles that deal with the Marine Corps, military life and equipment, and video games, movies, anime, and TV shows. He is helping to construct the battleship portal with other members of Operation Majestic Titan. He has just been appointed to the Audit Subcommittee.

At the time of publication there is one live RfA: RHM22, due to finish Tuesday.

Featured articles
Eighteen articles were promoted to featured status:
 * , a princess of the Empire of Brazil. (Nominated by )
 * , a United States Senator and Justice of the Supreme Court.
 * , a 94-year-old carousel.
 * , which, according to Northern European legend, brings babies to new parents.
 * Cloud (video game) (nom), a puzzle video game in which the player assumes the role of a sleeping boy and manipulates clouds to solve puzzles.
 * , the first dollar coin issued by the United States federal government. It was minted in 1794 and 1795.
 * , the first Prime Minister of Canada.
 * Agaricus deserticola (nom), a species of fungus found in southwestern and western North America.
 * True at First Light (nom), by Ernest Hemingway. It described his 1953–54 East African safari with his fourth wife Mary, and sparked a literary controversy for its alteration after Hemingway's death.
 * , or how crime television shows have affected public opinion on forensic science.
 * , a small finch 10 cm (4 in) in length.
 * , a majestic structure in which the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt worshipped the gods.
 * , one of the most destructive tropical cyclones ever to impact the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga.
 * , a retired British Army general who at the end of the Kosovo War famously refused to enforce an order by US general Wesley Clark (requiring Captain James Blunt, the future pop star, to act against Russian forces), reputedly telling Clark "I'm not going to start the Third World War for you".
 * , home to the Aston Villa Football Club since 1897.
 * Unknown (magazine) (nom); according to nominator Mike Christie, "it was one of the few pulp magazines aimed at a mature and intelligent readership, and the memoirs of long time science fiction fans and authors are full of laments for its passing in 1943, a victim of wartime paper shortages".
 * , an English conductor who founded the London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic orchestras.
 * Nixon in China (opera) (nom), by US composer John Adams, inspired by President Nixon's 1972 visit to China.

Featured lists
One list was promoted:
 * (Nominated by .)

Featured topics
One topic was promoted:
 * New York State Route 28 (nom), with two featured articles and two good articles. (nominators and )

Featured portal

 * Portal:Arthropods (nom) was promoted, with 26 selected articles (all good articles, FAs, or FLs), 26 featured pictures, and 16 sets of 6 facts displayed on the Main Page as part of the did you know process.

Featured pictures
Five images were promoted. Medium-sized images can be viewed by clicking on "nom":
 * Shiva as the Lord of Dance (nom; related article), Chola dynasty statue depicting Shiva dancing as Nataraja. (Created by Los Angeles County Museum of Art; fibres and dirt removed, background denoised, converted to sRGB by User:Maedin.)
 * George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll (nom; related article), a Scottish peer, Liberal politician and a writer on science, religion, and the politics of the 19th century. (Created by the popular Victorian English painter George Frederic Watts.)
 * Saturn's rings in visible light and radio and Zoom on Saturn's rings with labels (nom; related article), extraordinary photographs from 2005 taken by the Cassini-Huygens mission. (Created by NASA.)
 * White-throated Rock-thrush (nom; related article); "That's one cool-looking bird", said reviewer Logan. (Created by User:JJ Harrison.)

Featured sounds

 * Kyrie eleison (nom; related article), a chanted prayer in Christian liturgy, directed by Fr. Dariusz Smolarek.
 * Soler's Sonate 84 (nom; related article), composed by Antonio Soler and performed by Megodenas.
 * Dial-up modem (nom; related article), the noises typical of a dial-up modem negotiating a connection with an internet service provider.
 * Ave Maria (Gregorian chant) (nom; related article), a traditional Roman Catholic prayer asking for the help of the Virgin Mary. Here, it is performed as a traditional Gregorian chant.
 * "A la Nanita Nana" (nom; related article), a traditional Spanish Christmas carol, performed by the U.S. Army Band Chorus in Spanish and English. Edited by Adam Cuerden for balance and noise.
 * Harry S. Truman's farewell address (nom; related article). According to nominator Adam Cuerden, the speech "sums up Truman's presidency in a very compelling way."
 * Two Christmas carols (nom) performed by the U.S. Army Band Chorus:
 * "Dormi, dormi, bel Bambin" (related article), an Italian Christmas carol.
 * "Il est né, le divin Enfant" (related article), a French christmas carol.
 * 2010 State of the Union Address (nom; related article), a video of United States President Barack Obama's first official State of the Union address.
 * "Ross's Reel" (nom; related article), a jazz piece from the early 1920s, performed by Eddie Ross.
 * "Houston, we have a problem" was delisted and replaced by a longer file that includes more context for the listener.

Information about new admins at the top is drawn from their user pages and RfA texts, and occasionally from what they tell us directly.