Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-05-09/Features and admins



This week's "Features and admins" covers Sunday 1 May – Saturday 7 May

New administrator
The Signpost welcomes Catfish Jim and the soapdish (nom) as our newest admin. He is primarily a content editor, focusing on subjects relating to Scottish history and geography, and is a member of WikiProject Scotland. He says that he has fallen into an informal anti-vandalism role, and intends to work more in this area as an admin.

Featured articles
After two weeks off from promotions, featured articles has caught up, with an impressive 19 promotions:
 * , a volcano in the Southern Volcanic Zone, one of the three distinct volcanic belts of South America, lies in an extremely remote area of poorly glaciated mountains. (Nominated by )
 * , an Indian Muslim who became a secretary to Queen Victoria, and influenced her views on India. Described variously as "exemplary and excellent", and "thoroughly stupid and uneducated". ( and )
 * , a minor novelist and playwright who was WB Yeats' lover and Ezra Pound's mother-in-law.
 * , subject of a popular song, this 222 m ship sank in a huge storm with 11-metre waves on a Canadian lake, with all hands lost; the cause remains a mystery.
 * , a brilliant but controversial West Indian cricketer, mainly in the years before the Second World War.
 * , the second-longest lasting Atlantic hurricane, a 27-day phenomenon in 1971.
 * , an aerial photography technique invented in 1907: it involved a homing pigeon that would be fitted with an aluminum breast harness to which a lightweight time-delayed miniature camera could be attached. A version of this article has been in the German and Czech Wikipedias, and has now been brought to English-speakers by the nominator,.
 * , an early modernist architect who left a lasting architectural legacy in London. His largest buildings remain prominent examples of the 1930s monumental style, but he is probably best known for and had the longest lasting influence with his stations for London Transport. picture at right
 * , a 266-mile (428 km) highway that follows a major corridor in the state of Michigan.
 * , the only Archbishop of Lichfield, UK, ever. Nominator says, "a very obscure little guy, but [surrounded by] papal intrigue, royal prestige-seeking, and wild accusations".
 * . Extra-terrestrial aliens who landed in 12th-century England? (,, and ) picture at right
 * Science Fantasy (magazine) (nom), one of the mainstays of British science fiction for 17 years, from 1950 to 1967.
 * , the fourth in what will eventually be a ten-article topic about the Great Redesign of US coinage from 1907 to 1921.
 * , a German naval captain and the only commander of the battleship  Bismarck during its eight months of service in World War II.  picture at right
 * Macrotarsomys petteri (nom), a rat that has had a dramatic shrinking in its range on the island of Madagascar, possibly due to climate change and the direct impact of human activity. (Ucucha)
 * SMS Bayern (1915) (nom), launched during World War I, was the lead ship of the Bayern class of battleships in the German Imperial Navy. picture at right
 * USS New Ironsides (nom), a wooden-hulled broadside ironclad built for the US Navy during the American Civil War. The ship spent most of her career blockading the Confederate ports of Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina in 1863–65.
 * , one of the most well-covered and documented tours in popular music; it was a key part of U2's reinvention in the 1990s, during one of its peaks in commercial popularity.
 * , one of the most reviled coins in the history of the United States.

Featured lists
Four lists were promoted:
 * (Nominated by .)
 * (Nominated by .)
 * (Nominated by .)
 * (Nominated by .)

Featured pictures
Six images were promoted. Medium-sized images can be viewed by clicking on "nom":
 * DNA structure (nom; related article), the DNA double helix, including several key features relevant for biology: elemental content, the base pairing scheme, and the position of the minor and major grooves. (Created by User:Zephyris.) picture at right
 * Paul Simonon (nom; related article), an English musician, born 1955, best-known as the bass guitarist for punk rock band The Clash. (Created by Rama.)
 * Bufonaria perelegans shell (nom; related article), also known as the Near-elegant Frog Shell. (Created by User:George Chernilevsky.)
 * QR Code Structure (nom; related article), a specific matrix barcode (or 2D code), readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera phones. (Created by User:Zephyris.)
 * Leaf tissue structure (nom; related article), a representation of a simple but extremely important piece of biology. (Created by User:Zephyris.)
 * V-22 Osprey (nom; related article), an American multi-mission, tilt-rotor aircraft  with both a vertical take-off and landing, and short take-off and landing capabilities. (Created by Markus Maier of the US Airforce.) picture at top

Featured sounds
Six sounds were promoted.
 * Bruckner's motet, Ave Maria (nom; related article), performed by the United States Navy Band's Sea Chanters ensemble.
 * White noise (nom; related article), covering all frequencies of sound.
 * Drum cadence A (nom; related article), standard military march drum cadences, performed by the United States Navy Band, along with the next two files.
 * Drum cadence B (nom; related article)
 * Four Flams (nom; related article)
 * Zez Confrey's Kitten on the Keys (nom; related article), a piano rag played by the composer, first released 1922. picture at right

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