Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-10-03/Featured content





This week's "Featured content" covers Sunday 25 September – Saturday 1 October

Featured topic
 *  National treasures of Japan (nom) was promoted, with 13 featured lists and one good article. Reviewers were extravagant in their praise of the candidate. National treasures are the most precious of Japan's tangible cultural properties, as determined and designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. A tangible cultural property is considered to be of historic or artistic value, classified either as "buildings and structures", or as "fine arts and crafts". Each national treasure must show outstanding workmanship, a high value for world cultural history, or exceptional value for scholarship.

The topic comprises articles on the following topics: castles, residences, shrines, temples, ancient documents, archaeological materials, crafts, paintings, sculptures, Chinese books, Japanese books (nominators  and ). pictures at the top and the right

Featured articles
Ten articles were promoted to featured status:

 * , a major feat of Victorian engineering and still one of the largest ship canals in the world, just a little shorter than the Panama Canal, which was completed 20 years later. ( and ) picture at right

 * , an early US coin, struck from 1794 to 1804. The nominator,, says the story "captures the primitive conditions of the US Mint in the early days; George Washington plays a far from insignificant role in the story." picture at right

 *  Astraeus hygrometricus (nom), is a star-shaped mushroom also known as the the barometer earthstar. The nominator,, says, "in a recent mushroom-collecting foray a few weeks ago I was fortunate to find dozens of these earthstars growing on a sandy bank outside a mixed forest in the Saskatchewan north. Naturally, I had no choice but to buff up the article." picture at right

 *  Dermotherium (nom), an extinct genus believed to belong in the family of colugos, a small group of gliding mammals from the forests of Southeast Asia closely related to the primates, containing two living species. Unfortunately, colugos have one of the poorest fossil records of all mammalian orders. The subject of this article are the fossil colugos discovered, including the only unambiguous fossil colugo ever to have been described. It is known from a handful of teeth and pieces of jaw from 25–35 million year old fossil sites in southern Asia. picture at right

 *  George II of Great Britain (nom) (1683–1760), a native German-speaker and the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. 

 * , a nor'easter that absorbed Hurricane Grace and ultimately evolved into a small hurricane late in its life cycle, but which reached its peak intensity as a large and powerful cyclone that lashed the east coast of the US; it killed 13 people and caused many hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to property and infrastructure. 

 *  (1898–1991), a man who went from state senator to lieutenant governor to governor to U.S. Senator to Commissioner of Baseball and back to governor. "Chandler was a seriously busy nonagenarian who influenced Kentucky politics for the better part of six decades, says the nominator,.

 *  (1869–1938). The nominator,  says, for once from her, "something other than a bishop or a horse. So ... I present to you, an American lawyer, railroad executive, and historical writer. (See if you can figure out WHY I wrote about him?)"

 *  (1871–1954), who the nominator, says "was a Yorkshire cricketer who played before the First World War, setting some pretty unrepeatable records and impressing everyone with what a nice chap he was. He was a very good all-rounder who was one of the first cricketers to deliberately make a cricket ball swing when it was bowled; this is currently the number-one weapon in top-level cricket. He later became a very respected coach who worked successfully with both Eton schoolboys and very rough-and-ready Yorkshire cricketers."

 *  (1829–86), the 21st President of the United States, succeeding Garfield after the assassination. Arthur struggled to overcome suspicions of his beginnings as a politician from the New York City Republican machine, succeeding at that task by embracing the cause of civil service reform. 

Two featured articles were delisted:

 *  Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 (nom: prose, comprehensiveness, referencing, neutrality and MOS compliance)

 *  Tuberculosis (nom: referencing)

Featured pictures
Six images were promoted. Please click on "nom" to view medium-sized images:

 *  Brazilian rice rat (nom; related article), rare and recently discovered. Reviewer Casliber said, "nice use of fill-in flash for an elusive little critter that I am sure was hard to photograph". (created by Luís Funez).

 *  Indian Palm Squirrel (nom; related article), which can be easily domesticated and kept as a pet (any takers?). It is found naturally in India (south of the Vindhyas) and Sri Lanka. In the late 19th century, the species was accidentally introduced into Western Australia, where it has since become a minor pest that is actively eradicated. "Fantastic resolution, cute critter", said reviewer Crisco. (created by User:Muhammad Mahdi Karim).

Four images were featured from a set of five scrolls designated as a National Treasure of Japan in the paintings category. This means that all five images from the original set of five 12th-century hanging scrolls, Extermination of Evil, are now featured. They appear in the related article, Extermination of Evil. Created by an unknown artist, they are just a small part of the rich array of treasures included in the new featured topic above.

 *  Vaisravana (nom; related article)

 *  Shinchu (nom; related article) picture at the top

 *  Shoki (nom; related article)

 *  Sendan Kendatsuba (nom) 