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Features and admins

The best of the week

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By Tony1 and Dabomb87
A panoramic photograph with an amphitheater surrounded by a castle wall in center. The dull colors are interrupted by green trees and beyond the walls are white houses with red tiled roofs and a blue ocean.
Scroll across to see the new featured picture: User:Muhammad Mahdi Karim's panoramic shot of the Old Fort of Zanzibar and the Stone town in Tanzania, East Africa, shot from the House of Wonders, the tallest building in the vicinity.
Interactive large-image-viewer (non-Flash)


This week's "Features and admins" covers Saturday 19 – Friday 25 February

New administrators

The Signpost welcomes The Bushranger (nom), from the US, as our newest admin. He is an active member of the MilHist and Aircraft WikiProjects, participates in the battleships project WP:OMT, and has many DYKs under his belt. He has expertise in templates and categories.

At the time of publication there are three live RfAs: Boing! said Zebedee, Kudpung, and Neelix, due to finish on 1, 2 and 3 March, respectively.

Arial photograph of an L-shaped concrete hydro-electric dam set against road swerving in a green landscape. The center of the damn is colored white as water rushes down the spillway.
Grand Coulee dam in Washington State, constructed between 1933 and 1942
An old black and white photograph with a crowd on the end of embankment for a steel bridge which recedes into the hilly background spanning the river. On one side the bridge are tracks with a steam locomotive. On the other side is occupied horse drawn wagons.
From the new featured article Empire of Brazil, a multiracial gathering at the inauguration of a railway bridge near Rio de Janeiro, c. 1888
A poster titled "Prosperity: At Home, Prestige Abroad". A man with top hat in hand and holds a man sized American flag stands atop gold coin "Sound Money", support held by men of many classes. In the background are ships "Commerce" and factories "Civilization".
New featured picture: a poster for William McKinley's 1900 presidential campaign, in which he symbolically stands on the gold standard, supported by soldiers, businessmen, farmers and professionals
A computer generated image of a rubber bulb attached to a circular metallic mount
New featured picture: computer-aided design using the advanced program Cobalt: here, the image of a coffee espresso tamper was based on a 3D solid model.

Eight articles were promoted to featured status:

  • Mantra-Rock Dance (nom), a musical countercultural event held in 1967 at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. (Nominated by Cinosaur)
  • Morgan dollar (nom), one in a long line of US dollar coins that proved unpopular with the general public. Today the coin is probably most famous for its widespread use in Westerns, but the true story of its origin and production is probably just as interesting. (RHM22)
  • Leslie Groves (nom), the man behind the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bombs. (Hawkeye7)
  • Empire of Brazil (nom), a 19th-century nation that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom Pedro I and his son Dom Pedro II, both members of the House of Braganza—a branch of the thousand-year-old Capetian Dynasty. (Lecen, Astynax, Hchc2009, and Arthur Holland; picture at right)
  • Johnstown Inclined Plane (nom), the world's most steeply inclined railway, was built after the catastrophic 1889 flood; it fulfilled its purpose as an escape route for future floods in 1936 and 1977. It is now primarily a tourist attraction. (Nominated by Niagara)
  • Grand Coulee Dam (nom), the largest power station in the US and one of the largest concrete structures in the world. (NortyNort; picture at right)
  • Pipe Dream (musical) (nom), which nominator Wehwalt says "is a musical derived from a rather raunchy novel by Steinbeck, and even though Rodgers & Hammerstein toned it down considerably, it is probably the most sexualized plot of their joint works. There is just no getting around the fact that the female lead is a prostitute, and her madam is a major character."
  • Clathrus ruber (nom), a species of fungus in the stinkhorn family, with striking fruit bodies that are shaped somewhat like a round or oval hollow sphere with interlaced or latticed branches. (Sasata)

Seven lists were promoted:

Two featured lists were delisted:

Six images were promoted. Medium-sized images can be viewed by clicking on "nom":

Seven featured sounds were promoted.

Chopin's Scherzo No. 3 for piano
Performed by User:La Pianista
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Beethoven's 32 Variations in C Minor for piano
Performed by User:La Pianista
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Claude Debussy's La plus que lente for piano (1910)
Debussy's parody of the slow waltz, performed by User:La Pianista
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Its a long way to Tipperary (1915 song of World War I)
Replaces a previous featured sound file that was judged to be overprocessed; this one is the original.
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Take me out to the ball game (1908)
An early-20th century waltz song composed by Albert Von Tilzer, which became the unofficial anthem of baseball. This version was sung by Edward Meeker on an Edison Records phonograph cylinder in 1908.
Problems playing this file? See media help.
Pietro Mascagni: "Symphonic intermezzo" from the one-act opera Cavalleria Rusticana (1910)
Performed by the Fulda Symphonic Orchestra in 2002, conducted by Simon Schindler
Problems playing this file? See media help.
James Scott's piano rag, Grace and Beauty
Performed by User:Adam Cuerden, assistance from User:Jujutacular
Problems playing this file? See media help.
A photograph of a bird perched on a branch. Its ash colored features uncannily resembles tree bark.
New featured picture: a piece of tree bark? No, a Tawny Frogmouth in "cryptic" pose—when threatened, it will stay perfectly still with eyes almost shut and bill pointed straight, relying on camouflage for protection.

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

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  • Why is this feature called "Best of the Week" when it includes new admins? Passing an RFA does not mean the admin is necessarily a great editor, or even the "best". The subheadline needs to be changed to something a little more appropriate. AD 22:30, 1 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    • Best of the week refers to the practice, not seen this week but usually seen in this section, of asking an outside editor to pick their favorite of the newly promoted articles or pictures as the 'best of the week'. I don't think it has anything to do with the admins. Sven Manguard Wha? 08:20, 2 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • What an awesome variety of featured content this week! Reading this always makes me feel proud of Wikipedia. -- œ™ 06:25, 2 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    • Agreed. Also kudos for discovering and utilizing the ability to put images into the featured sounds. I had no idea that was possible, (I really need to look at template documentation pages more often.) Sven Manguard Wha? 08:20, 2 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
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