Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-03-25/Featured content

This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 8 March through 14 March. Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution. (You know this disclaimer.)

Featured articles
Four featured articles were promoted this week.


 * Camille Saint-Saëns (nominated by Tim riley) Camille Saint-Saëns  was a French composer, conductor, and organist, revered by both Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Ravel as a genius. He was regarded by the music critic Schonberg  as "the most remarkable child prodigy in history, and that includes Mozart."  Among the works of this celebrated Romantic composer still performed today are his suite The Carnival of the Animals, his tone poem Danse macabre, his opera Samson and Delilah, his Symphony No. 3, known as the "Organ symphony", and his Piano Concerto No. 2.
 * Great Stink (nominated by SchroCat) The "Great Stink" was the name given to the smell of the River Thames in the hot summer of 1858. Raw sewage from London had been dumped in the river since the time of Brutus of Troy. Normally, the flow of the river and the tides would move everything eastwards, but dry weather caused a decrease in the river's flow, and the river banks soon developed a crust up to six feet thick. The stench from decaying faeces became so strong that the Houses of Parliament covered their windows with curtains soaked in lime chloride, but even this failed to mask the pong. Civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette proposed shifting the muck eastwards by propelling it along a series of sewers using pumping stations. His proposal was accepted, and Bazalgette oversaw the construction of 1,100 mi of street sewers and 82 mi of main sewers. Completed in 1875, the system dumped untreated sewage into the Thames just south of Dagenham. In 1878 the SS Princess Alice sank at this point one hour after the release of 75 e6impgal of raw sewage; over 650 people drowned. Corvus tasmanicus - Collinsvale.jpg.]]
 * Forest raven (nominated by Cas Liber) The forest raven is a passerine bird native to Tasmania and forests in Victoria and New South Wales. Its diet is opportunistic and omnivorous, and the raven has been blamed for killing poultry and lambs.
 * Uncle David (nominated by Midnightblueowl) Uncle David is a 2010 film, set in the Isle of Sheppey. It is a love story set in a caravan park and on a shingle beach, and was filmed in muted colors using two Sony HVR-Z1 camcorders.  Costumes were purchased from an Oxfam charity shop, and the extras were the inhabitants of Sheppey, described by one of the film's producers, Gary Reich, as "a truly Godforsaken wasteland". "[During] the shoot none of the locals expressed any interest in the crew's activities." Critics offered mixed reviews of the film.

Featured lists
Three featured lists were promoted this week.
 * List of tied Twenty20 Internationals (nominated by Harrias) Twenty20 cricket is a shortened form of the game, in which each side is restricted to a maximum of twenty "overs", each consisting of the delivery of six balls by one side's bowler to the other side's batspeople. The game usually lasts for three hours, with either a win, a draw, or a "no result". If both teams score the same number of runs, a draw is declared; as the match is usually part of a tournament, the winner is then decided by a "bowl-out" or, since December 2008, a super over.
 * Salman Khan filmography (nominated by FrankBoy) Salman Khan, an Indian actor, has appeared in more than 100 Bollywood films since 1988. Critical recognition came early: his second film, the 1989 musical Maine Pyar Kiya, was the top-grossing Bollywood film of that year, and Khan won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. In 2008, he became the producer of reality television shows 10 Ka Dum and Bigg Boss.
 * Laurence Olivier on stage and screen (nominated by SchroCat) The English actor Laurence Olivier was once spotted by Michael Caine waiting at the Olivier Theatre. "Do you have to pay to go in here?" asked Caine. "Yes, I bloody well do" he replied acerbically. Olivier's stage career lasted from 1925 to 1986, and his film career from 1930 to 1989. His most topical role at the moment must be his portrayal of Shakespeare's Richard III in the 1955 film version – Olivier based his mannerisms on theatre producer Jed Harris (who was also the inspiration for Disney's Big Bad Wolf).