Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-06-10/Featured content

Featured content

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By Adam Cuerden

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This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 17 to 23 May, which we should have covered last week, but accidentally skipped ahead a week. Oops! Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.

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Featured articles

Four Featured articles were promoted this week.

• Ancestry of the Godwins (nominated by Dudley Miles) The story of the Godwins revolves around the character of Godwin himself; the son of an obscure thegn who fled when Ethelred the Unready accused him of "unknown crimes", he was made the first Earl of Wessex by Canute the Wet-footed. Godwin married Gytha, daughter of Thorgil the Fast, son of Ursius, who was the son of a bear. The bear didn't have a name, or didn't care to give it to the chroniclers. Godwin and Gytha had at least nine children, five of whom became earls. Their eldest daughter Edith married Edward the Confessor in 1045. Relations between Edward and the Godwins were fractious: the king's brother Alfred had been captured and blinded by Godwin back in 1035 when Alfie had attempted to seize the kingdom after the death of Canute ("there is a tide in the affairs of men"). What's it all about, Alfie?

• Cincinnati Musical Center half dollar (nominated by Wehwalt)
• Persuasion (1995 film) (nominated by Ruby2010)
• Shah Rukh Khan (nominated by Bollyjeff, [[User:Bollyjeff</a|]], and Dr)

Featured lists

Two Featured lists were promoted this week.

• James Franco filmography (nominated by FrB.TG)
• List of awards and nominations received by Jorge Drexler (nominated by Jaespinoza)

Featured topics

One Featured topic was promoted this week.

• Wikipedia:Featured topics/Overview of Lorde (nominated by Adabow)

Featured pictures

Fifteen-year-olds are not this good at self-portraiture, Cornelis Kruseman. See me after class.

Twenty-eight Featured pictures were promoted this week.

• Japanese invasion money for Burma: One Burmese cent, five Burmese cents, ten Burmese cents, one-quarter Burmese rupee, one-half Burmese rupee, One Burmese rupee, Five Burmese rupees, ten Burmese rupees, and one-hundred Burmese rupees (created by Empire of Japan; nominated by Godot13)
• Texas bluebonnet (created by Loadmaster; nominated by Pine)
• File:Campilhas March 2015-1a.jpg (created and nominated by Alvesgaspar)
• Self-portrait of Cornelis Kruseman (created by Cornelis Kruseman; nominated by Crisco 1492) Painted when he was only fifteen years old, this self-portrait shows a mastery of technique that will make you horrifically jealous of the little swot.
• Erfurt 10 Ducat (1645) depicting Queen Christina of Sweden (created by Sweden; nominated by Godot13) One of the few coins in history which depicts a monarch full-face rather than in profile, this gold coin from Erfurt in Germany depicts Queen Christina of Sweden.
• Globi coelestis in tabulas planas redacti descriptio: Plate 1, Plate 2, Plate 3, Plate 4, Plate 5, and Plate 6 (created by Ignace-Gaston Pardies; nominated by Brandmeister)
• Leo Tolstoy 1897 (created by Yann; nominated by Yann) Tolstoy sits on a bench in the grounds of Yasnaya Polyana in 1897. The bench re-appears in a postcard from the 1900s, in which Tolstoy poses with his hat and walking cane, and again in a photograph of circa 1906 where the writer sits alongside Vladimir Chertkov, the man who came to control Tolstoy's literary legacy, even under Stalin. The bench, once the stout supporter of famous men's posteriors, probably disappeared during the German occupation of Tolstoy's estate in October 1941. Its modern-day descendant is a sad construction of birch logs, often photographed by tourists who perhaps imagine that its rustic appearance is somehow "Tolstoyan".
• Lower Manhattan November 2014 (created by King of Hearts; nominated by Bammesk)
• Portrait of a Man with a Blue Chaperon (created by Jan van Eyck; nominated by Crisco 1492) This portrait by Jan van Eyck of an unknown man has only recently been confirmed as being by the master- cleaning and infra-red photography revealed underdrawing and brushwork typical of signed works by van Eyck. Another pointer is the man's stubbled face. Many of van Eyck's portraits of men show a light growth of beard or a badly-shaved visage. The small size of the painting and the uncompromising realism of the depiction suggest that it could have been a "betrothal portrait", sent to the prospective in-laws. His furry chin could indicate that this is a true portrait of the man.
• Feeding frenzy (created by Lviatour; nominated by Brandmeister)
• Alba Madonna (created by Raphael; nominated by Crisco 1492)
• The Shard from the Sky Garden (created by User:Colin; nominated by National Names 2000) London Walkthrough, Part XV: From the Sky Garden to the Shard. From Fenchurch Street take the strange lifting device up and you will reach the Sky Garden, where a boss battle awaits. It's not too hard, the boss, "Waiter", will give you a sheet of paper, from it you have to select food and drinks in order to placate him. Make sure you have enough money before coming or you'll get a non-standard game over. After the boss battle, look around, and you'll see the grim façade of The Shard in the distance, cutting into the sky near the ancient towers of London Bridge. Clearly, this is where the final boss of the game awaits...
• Sun 2 (created by NASA; nominated by Jcpag2012)
• Martin Ryckaert (created by Anthony van Dyck; nominated by Crisco 1492)
• Golden earrings from Gyeongju (created by National Museum of Korea; nominated by Blorgy555)

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10 June 2015

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Adam, were you smoking something when you the blurb for The Shard? Or did you write that nonsense to see if anyone actually read the paragraphs of text that get written each week about the featured pictures. I've never understood why the list of featured pictures mostly doesn't show any of the featured pictures. Since the award is for the picture rather than the subject, I can see little purpose in having lots of original text written on this page about the subject. If we are going to write anything here, shouldn't it be about how the photograph/graphic/restoration was achieved? But why not just show a gallery of all the FPs and give let the pictures speak for themselves? -- Colin°^Talk 15:04, 14 June 2015 (UTC)

• I've replaced the section with the technical details as per your suggestion. Xanthomelanoussprog (talk) 12:14, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

Ha ha. That "User Notes" section in the EXIF is generated by Hugin, which is the stitching software used. It doesn't usually have strange characters in it, though, but terse specification of the projection, field-of-view and exposure levels. -- Colin°^Talk 21:41, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

I thought it was some arcane notes on perspective! Anyway, well done on the stitching, especially as they were handheld! Xanthomelanoussprog (talk) 21:57, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

Actually, achieving a stitched panorama hand-held isn't hard if everything is in the distance like here, and shutter speeds are fast enough to avoid shake. A panoramic head becomes more useful to avoid parallax errors when there are close features like pavement or indoors, or to achieve longer exposures. The biggest problem here was avoiding reflections in the glass, and correcting for the blue tint in the glass. -- Colin°^Talk 07:22, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

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