Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-08-27/Featured content

This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 17 to 24 August 2014. Anything in quotation marks is taken from the respective articles and lists, or their nominations; see their page histories for attribution.

Featured articles
Sixteen featured articles were promoted this week.
 * Noye's Fludde (nominated by Brianboulton & Alfietucker) is a one-act opera by the British composer Benjamin Britten, which tells the story of the Biblical character Noah and his ark. The multi-FA writer Brianboulton teamed up with first-time FA-er Alfietucker for this delightful article and we can only hope for more top-notch stuff from both, either singly or in future collaborations.
 * Harry Glicken (nominated by ceranthor) was an American volcanologist killed by a lava flow on Mount Unzen, Japan at the age of 33. Described by the nominator Ceranthor as "a first-rate scientist and one strange dude", Glicken was an acknowledged expert in the field of volcanic debris avalanches.
 * Frédéric Chopin (nominated by Smerus) was a Polish composer and pianist, who is also listed as one of the level 3 vital articles; he was one of the leading musicians of the Romantic era. Another excellently written and beautifully presented article, one of three FAs promoted this week from the classical music sphere.
 * The Boat Race 2012 (nominated by The Rambling Man) Part of The Rambling Man's drive to put as many articles about the annual Boat Race, the article on the 2012 race is the first to reach featured status. The race—between crews from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge along the River Thames—was won by Cambridge in a controversial year for the contest, which saw the race stopped because of a protester who swam in front of the boats.
 * Thief II: The Metal Age (nominated by JimmyBlackwing) is a 2000 computer game featuring Garrett, a master thief who works in and around a steampunk metropolis called the City. The game was a commercial success, but it didn't save its publisher, Looking Glass Studios, who closed down within a couple of months of the release.
 * George Formby (nominated by SchroCat & Cassianto) was a music hall star, singer-songwriter, comedian and film star—and an unlikely one at that. While still trying to find his place on screen, one film producer thought him "too stupid to play the bad guy and too ugly to play the hero". The producer reckoned without the cheeky grin and the ingrained need of the British to have double entendre and smut in its cultural output, not forgetting the ukulele, of which he was a maestro, his playing still revered by amateurs and professionals alike.
 * John Gielgud (nominated by Tim riley & SchroCat) was one of the true greats of the British stage—and one of our level 4 vital articles to boot. A member of the Terry family theatrical dynasty, he enjoyed a career that spanned eight decades. Tim riley—notching up the first of two FAs in two days—led an overhaul, with co-nom SchroCat going one better with two FAs in one day.
 * The Bread-Winners (nominated by Wehwalt) is an 1883 novel by John Hay, former secretary to Abraham Lincoln, although published anonymously. It was controversial when published, as it presented a hostile view of organised labour; less contentious now, it is the latest FA from the hugely prodigious Wehwalt.
 * Sonic: After the Sequel (nominated by Tezero) is a 2013 video game based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Created by a Brazilian student it is an unofficial work that is set between the official games Sonic 2 and Sonic 3.
 * 1998 FA Charity Shield (nominated by Lemonade51) 3–0 to the Arsenal, and against Manchester United too ... glory days!
 * Katy Perry (nominated by SNUGGUMS & Samjohnzon) is an American singer, songwriter and actress who started her career singing gospel music before moving into pop. As is compulsory for modern celebrities, Perry has also released her own brand of perfume and gone through a short-lived and public marriage and divorce.
 * Jules Massenet (nominated by Cg2p0B0u8m & Tim riley) was a French composer of over thirty operas, who came to embody French opera of the Belle Époque. His two most frequently staged operas are Manon (1884) and Werther (1892), although "he also composed oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, incidental music, piano pieces, songs and other music".
 * Nagato-class battleship (nominated by Sturmvogel 66) The Nagato-class battleships were a pair of dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during the First World War, although not finished until after the war's end. Both were ineffectual during the Second World War, with one destroyed in a magazine explosion, and one was a target for US nuclear weapon tests during Operation Crossroads in mid-1946. She survived the first test with little damage, but was sunk by the second test.
 * Secret of Mana (nominated by PresN) is the third video game FA of the week. This one is a 1993 action role-playing game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. "Set in a high fantasy universe, the game follows three heroes as they attempt to prevent an empire from conquering the world with the power of an ancient flying warship"; this is PresN's twelfth FA.
 * Freedom from Want (painting) (nominated by TonyTheTiger) is a 1943 oil painting by the American artist Norman Rockwell. It is the third of the Four Freedoms series, based on the "Four Freedoms" goals enunciated by the US president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his 1941 State of the Union Address. The series of paintings has subsequently become part of the Featured Topic Four Freedoms, (see below).
 * John Plagis (nominated by Cliftonian) was a Southern Rhodesian flying ace in the RAF during the Second World War, particularly as "part of the multinational group of Allied pilots that successfully defended the strategically important island ... [ of Malta ] against numerically superior Axis forces". Plagis ended the war having been awarded the DSO, DFC & Bar.

Featured lists
Five featured lists were promoted this week.
 * List of local nature reserves in Greater London (nominated by Dudley Miles) London is one of the largest urban areas in Europe, but almost two-thirds of it consists of green space and wetlands. Dudley Miles has provided us with a fantastic list of the 142 official Local Nature Reserves in the 607 sqmi of the capital.
 * List of works by W. Somerset Maugham (nominated by SchroCat) W. Somerset Maugham was one of the most prolific and high-profile English writers of the 20th century, whose influence was acknowledged by writers that included George Orwell, Ian Fleming and Anthony Burgess. A curmudgeonly soul, he was the most commercially successful and gifted writers of his time.
 * List of accolades received by Her (film) (nominated by Sock & Cowlibob) Her, the 2013 comedy-drama film, earned 110 nominations from mainstream sources, and garnered 46 awards. Receiving particular praise was the script by Spike Jonze, which described the life of a man who develops a relationship with a female voice produced by an intelligent computer operating system.
 * Aishwarya Rai Bachchan filmography (nominated by Krimuk90) The screen career of the Indian actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan began in 1997, with her appearance in Iruvar, a Tamil-language political drama. Since then she has gone on to appear in over forty films in five different languages: Krimuk90 has catalogued the lot—his fifth filmography nomination on an Indian celebrity.
 * List of Billboard Hot Rap Songs number-one hits of the 2010s (nominated by Holiday56) The specialist Hot Rap Songs chart, produced by Billboard, the music industry magazine, ranks the most popular hip hop songs in the US. Holiday56 has built on a previous FL (covering the 1980s and 90s) with this 21st Century addition.

Featured pictures
Five featured pictures were promoted this week.
 * Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (created by Thomas Gainsborough, nominated by Sagaciousphil) Mrs. S, or Elizabeth Ann Linley, as she was also known, was the first daughter of the composer Thomas Linley, and wife of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. This was painted by Gainsborough in around 1785–1786.
 * The Washington Family (created by Edward Savage, nominated by Armbrust) is a portrait of US President George Washington, First Lady Martha Washington, two of her grandchildren and an enslaved servant. Savage painted this between 1789 and 1796.
 * Soldiers Playing Cards and Dice (The Cheats) (created by Valentin de Boulogne nominated by Adam Cuerden) de Boulogne painted this c. 1618–1620, oil on canvas, it is our third classical painting to be featured this week, and the first of two from the always-active Adam Cuerden.
 * Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge (created by Saffron Blaze, nominated by Tomer T) Great image of Ottawa's Strandherd-Armstrong Bridge, a 143 m construction across the Rideau River that has eight lanes for vehicles, two bicycle paths and two pavements.
 * SMS Gazelle (created by Hugo Graf, restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden) Part of a series of featured images of Imperial German Navy ships, the SMS Gazelle entered service in 1901; it was painted by the German artist Hugo Graf in 1899.

Featured topics
One featured topic was promoted this week.
 * Four Freedoms (nominated by TonyTheTiger) With the promotion this week of Freedom from Want, the series of Four Freedoms paintings by the American artist Norman Rockwell becomes a Featured Topic. The nominator, TonyTheTiger, describes the four works as an important "series of works that served as illustrations for a series of essays in response to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's human rights declaration, Four Freedoms".