Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2014-07-23

Why, they're plum identical!

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  Plum Trees (1857) from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo by Hiroshige
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  Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) (1887) by Vincent van Gogh

Ten featured articles were promoted this week.

• Winnipeg (nominated by Nikkimaria) is the capital of Manitoba. The name Winnipeg comes from the Western Cree words for "muddy waters", although the city is fondly known locally as "Winterpeg", because of the weather, and "Gateway to the West", because of its location and transport links. The location was a trading centre for aboriginal peoples before French traders built the first fort on the site in 1738.
• Andrea Doria-class battleship (nominated by Sturmvogel 66 and Parsecboy) These two editors are frighteningly proficient writers of warship articles. This latest featured article, on a class of Italian battleships that served in the First and Second World Wars, is Sturmvogel's 51st and Parsecboy's 44th. They are principally responsible for the largest topics on Wikipedia, including the 63-article Battlecruisers of the world, the 62-article Battleships of Germany, and the 71-article Light cruisers of Germany.
• Si Ronda (nominated by Crisco 1492) Another entry in the many Indonesian films Crisco has written on, Si Ronda, or "the Watchmen", was released in 1930. Though it is now considered to be a lost film, the plot was from an orally transmitted lenong (similar to a stage play).
• Drakengard (nominated by ProtoDrake) This Japanese video game was designed for the Playstation 2 and released in 2004. An action role-playing game, Drakengard kindled a series of video games that tell the story of a religiously motivated war between the Union and the Empire.
• Jean Bellette (nominated by hamiltonstone) An Australian artist, Bellette is known for her paintings of the Greek tragedies Euripedes, Sophocles and Homer. She won the Sulman Prize in 1942 and 1944.
• The Whistleblower (nominated by 1ST7) This 2010 docudrama chronicles the unusual story of a Nebraska policewoman who was recruited to serve as a peacekeeper for a private military contractor, but was fired after alerting fifty superiors to the existence of a sex trafficking ring that operated with assistance from the company. She later sued and won a wrongful dismissal suit against them.
• Snoring rail (nominated by Jimfbleak) Another day, another flightless rail from Jimfbleak. The snoring rail is native to Indonesia, but its habitat is nearly inaccessible to humans ("dense vegetation in wet areas"). One ornithologist spent an entire year trying to find one. Unsurprisingly, we know little about it.
• Falkland Islands (nominated by MarshalN20) This archipelago was claimed by the United Kingdom in the 1760s and finally permanently settled by them in the mid-1800s. Previous settlement attempts had resulted in Argentina claiming the land, but the British retook the islands in 1833. Even today, legacy from that action still exists: the two countries went to war over the islands in 1982, and Argentina has pressed their claims again in recent years. Certainly the islanders have expressed their desire, as in 2013 99.8% voted to stay with the UK.
• 2013 Atlantic hurricane season (nominated by 12george1) Unusually, this year in Atlantic hurricanes was quiet, with no storms greater than a category three for the first time since 1994. It also had the fewest total hurricanes since 1982. Nearly a third of the year's storms hit Mexico; the largest, Ingrid, killed 23 people and caused least US$1.5 billion in damages.
• South Carolina-class battleship (nominated by The ed17) In the early 1900s, warship technology was changing faster than one could take stock of it. One of the largest leaps was exemplified by the British Dreadnought, which packed triple the main guns, more armor, and higher speed than all previous battleships. The South Carolinas were independently developed, but came from the same school of thought. Their armament featured fewer total main guns than Dreadnought but arranged them far more economically. However, to keep the South Carolinas within a congressionally mandated weight limit, its designers were forced to limit their top speed, something that severely hampered the ships in the First World War.

Five featured lists were promoted this week.

• List of songs written by Audie Murphy (nominated by Maile) Audie Murphy was a highly decorated American soldier who served with the United States Army in nine campaigns in Europe between 1942 and 1945, and received every American combat award for valor available from the Army at the time of his service. He was a collaborator on several country songs, written between 1962 and 1970. This list, along with Audie Murphy, his military career, his honors and awards, and his film career, is currently a featured topic candidate.
• List of accolades received by Gravity (film) (nominated by Cowlibob & Corvoe) Gravity is a 2013 science fiction thriller film that stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. As well as earning over $700 million at the box office, the film received awards and nominations for its direction, cinematography, score, visual effects, and the performance of Bullock. It received ten nominations for Academy Awards, of which it won seven, and 11 BAFTA nominations, of which it won six.
• Premier League Player of the Season (nominated by Bloom6132) Each year the Premier League present an award which recognises the most outstanding football player of the season. Of the twenty awards given out, Manchester United players have won the most (eight), with the mighty Arsenal second with four recipients. The current holder of the award is Luis Suárez, who won the season after being suspended for biting a Chelsea player. Shortly after winning the award Suárez was suspended for biting an Italian player at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
• List of international cricket centuries by Chris Gayle (nominated by Zia) Chris Gayle is a West Indian cricketer whose international career started in 2000; he captained the West Indies national cricket team from 2007 to 2010. In the 14 years of international appearances to date, he has scored 15 centuries (100 or more runs in a single innings) in Test, 21 centuries in One Day International matches and one century in Twenty20 International cricket. His highest score was 333—the fourth highest by a West Indian batsman.
• Hrithik Roshan filmography (nominated by Krimuk90) Hrithik Roshan is an Indian film actor and dancer who has appeared in 34 Bollywood films and has won 93 awards. He worked intermittently in the 1980s in small, uncredited roles. His first leading role was in 2000, as the dual role of Rohit/Raj Chopra in Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai. He has also worked as an assistant director on four films, all of which were directed by his father, Rakesh Roshan.

Twenty-five featured pictures were promoted this week.

• SM U-21 sinking the Linda Blanche (created by Willy Stöwer, nominated by Adam Cuerden) U-21 was one of the most famous of the U-boat submarines of the First World War, seen here sinking the British Linda Blanche, one of three ships she sank on 23 January 1915. In each case, U-21's captain insisted on obeying the prize rules, alerting nearby trawlers to pick up the crews of the ships. Willy Stöwer was Kaiser Wilhelm II's favourite naval artist, perhaps best known for his dramatic depiction of the sinking of the Titanic. He wasn't always entirely accurate—both the Linda Blanche depicted here and his Titanic image are rather inaccurate, for example—but that's more of an issue with painting from second-hand sources than any particular fault of his own. Britain was hardly likely to send the Germans the plans for the ships they sunk for the benefit of paintings, after all.
• The Fringes of the Fleet cover (created by the Daily Telegraph, restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden) The Fringes of the Fleet is a 1915 booklet by Rudyard Kipling, commissioned by the Daily Telegraph, which details various lesser-known branches and aspects of the British Navy. Like many of Kipling's works, sections often begin with poems, and a selection of these poems formed the basis for a song cycle by Edward Elgar two years later.
• Sony α77 II, top view, front view, and rear view (created and nominated by Colin) One advantage to having a lot of enthusiastic photographers about is that we have an excellent resource for images of cameras, at least once the photographers get a second good one. The Sony α77 II is the latest such camera to be superbly photographed, and presented to Wikipedia.
• Great Mosque of Central Java (created and nominated by Chris Woodrich) The Great Mosque of Central Java is a relatively recent building – construction only finished in 2006 – but was created on a massive scale. The interior is simple, but elegant (and should be a featured picture), and it has become a local tourist attraction.
• God Speed (created by Edmund Leighton, nominated by Brandmeister) One of painter Edmund Leighton's specialties was the mediæval period, showing a nostalgic view of the romantic past, as seen in this painting, God Speed of a knight's lady sending him off to battle with her token.
• Mehmed VI (created by Sébah & Joaillier, restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden) Mehmed VI was the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, which fell apart after its disastrous losses in World War I.
• Abdul Haris Nasution (created by Punt/Anefo, restored and nominated by Chris Woodrich) Abdul Haris Nasution (1918–2000) was an Indonesian General. After the Netherlands fell to the Nazis in World War II, for the first time, its colonial forces, cut off from support, allowed native Indonesians to join as officers, and Nasution signed up, rapidly rising to sergeant. He joined the Indonesian army after the country's independence in 1945; became the Regional Commander of the Siliwangi Division in 1946, during which he defined the territorial warfare theories that would mark the Indonesian Army's policies from then on. He fought against the Netherlands' reinvasion in 1948. He became the Army Chief of Staff in 1950, but, after a 1952 military protest against the parliament – with tanks – he was dismissed from the army. In his forced retirement, he wrote a classic book on guerrilla warfare, Fundamentals of Guerrilla Warfare, considered one of the most important works in the genre. He was reappointed to Army Chief of Staff in 1955. His career continued from there in a tulmultuous vein, but at this point, it would probably be better to direct readers to the article, rather than continuing to summarize.
• 1730 Map of Scandinavia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and the Baltics (created by Johann Homann, nominated by Adam Cuerden) A 1730 map of Scandinavia and its surroundings by notable mapmaker Johann Homann.
• Kampoeng Rawa (created and nominated by Crisco 1492) Kampoeng Rawa, near Lake Rawa Pening in Ambarawa, Central Java, is a somewhat-controversial collection of shops, businesses, and water activities that was suspecifically created as a tourist attraction. While popular, and fulfilling its goal of improving the welfare of the local farmers and fishermen, it lacked planning permission and was built on green belt land.
• Mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope prepared for acceptance testing (created by David Higginbotham for NASA/MSFC; nominated by Pine) The James Webb Space Telescope is the planned successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, due for launch in 2018. Plagued by a history of cost overruns and poor management, it was nearly cancelled in 2011, but narrowly escaped disaster.
• The Plum Garden in Kameido and Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige) (created by Hiroshige and Vincent van Gogh respectively, nominated by Editør) In 1854, trade between Japan and the west opened up, and the west began to be exposed to the cheap ukiyo-e prints, which were rapidly going out of fashion in Japan at the same time western artists began to hail them as masterpieces, particularly the Impressionists and their successors. Vincent van Gogh's theory of Japonaiserie was one such expression of the general Japonist movement of the time, as seen in these two artworks – Hiroshige's 1857 depiction of Plum Park in Kameido from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, and van Gogh's imitation of it from thirty years later.
• SAI KZ IV (created and nominated by Slaunger) You know, Slaunger doesn't get enough recognition. He's an excellent photographer, but doesn't really nominate that much, and has a lot more featured pictures on Commons than on here, which still doesn't represent half of his quality work. I mean, I hopped over to Commons, looked at his contributions, clicked on the first image my eyes fell on – and it was File:Boeing FA-18F Super Hornet at take off Danish Air Show 2014-06-22 aligned.jpg. That's an amazing image. Why isn't it being used here and featured as well? And that's just a random image from his uploads.
• Almond Blossoms (created by Vincent van Gogh, nominated by Hafspajen) Another of van Gogh's Japanese-inspired works. The article on this, Almond Blossoms has such a lovely turn of phrase that I must quote it: "Flowering trees were special to Van Gogh. They represented awakening and hope. He enjoyed them aesthetically and found joy in painting flowering trees."
• One-dollar, two-dollar, five-dollar, ten-dollar, twenty-dollar, fifty-dollar, one-hundred-dollar, five-hundred-dollar, and one-thousand-dollar National Bank Notes (created by American, Continental, and National Bank Note Companies under contract to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing; scanned, prepared, and nominated by Godot13) National Bank Notes are the physical embodiment of a scheme instituted during the American Civil War, wherein U.S.-state-issued bank notes were phased out, and the federal government instead sold bonds to a set of National Banks, allowing them to, in turn, print currency up to 90% of their holdings. This set represents a more-or-less complete first issue of notes, although it does not include every small variant on the notes: For example, the one-dollar note is one issued by The First National Bank in Lebanon, Indiana. I believe that a very similar note would have been issued by, say, The Vineland National Bank of Vineland, New Jersey, listing their name on it, but otherwise the same design.

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  Sultan Mehmed VI, last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor state to Turkey.
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  Edward Leighton's painting God Speed
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  Indonesian general Abdul Haris Nasution