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Featured content

A grizzly bear, Operation Mascot, Freedom Planet & Liberty Island, cosmic dust clouds, a cricket five-wicket list, more fine art, & a terrible, terrible opera...

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By Adam Cuerden, WPPilot, Xanthomelanoussprog, and Hafspajen
Liberty Island is a federally owned island in Upper New York Bay in the United States, the location of the Lady Liberty, one of the most iconic U.S. landmarks. The origin of the Statue of Liberty project is sometimes traced back to a comment made by French law professor and politician Édouard René de Laboulaye in mid-1865. Join WPPilot over New York Harbor for a spectacular aerial tour of Lower Manhattan.
This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted to featured status from 25 January to 31 January. Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.

Featured articles

Two featured articles were promoted this week.

Corsair fighters and Barracuda bombers ranged on the flight deck of HMS Formidable during operations off Norway in July 1944.

Featured lists

Three featured lists were promoted this week.

Jimmy Anderson bowling during the second Test of India's tour of England in 2007

Featured pictures

Twenty-five featured pictures were promoted this week.

A Kodiak bear looking at the photographer on today's menu :). Luckily, this bear couldn't decide whether our photographer would be best boiled or fried, and missed his chance.
The Threatened Swan by Jan Asselijn.
Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, widefield view, by Rogelio Bernal Andreo. Space is the final frontier. As early as 1964, Gene Roddenberry drafted a proposal for the science fiction series that would become Star Trek. Today space is at long last in the hands of the public due in part to Spaceship One.
Whaler's Cove, in Point Lobos, California. Sadly, the number of tall ships has diminished, but the number of tourists has increased. Poor Whaler's Cove.
Elliðaey, an island south of Iceland, has avoided those nasty tourists. Mainly by only having one house on it.
Look, another seascape by Winslow Homer!
Hereford Cathedral wants people to visit. What a strange place. It's as if it's built for people to come to!
The Old Musician, an 1862 oil painting by Édouard Manet.
  • Liberty Island (created and nominated by D. Ramey Logan (WPPilot)) Liberty Island, best known as the location of the Statue of Liberty, is a federally owned island in Upper New York Bay in the United States. The island is an exclave of the New York City borough of Manhattan, surrounded by the waters of Jersey City, New Jersey. The statue is a colossal neoclassical sculpture designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886, a gift to the United States from the people of France. A half-buried Statue of Liberty was Charlton Heston's first "sign" to make him realize he was on Earth (when the apes had already been speaking perfect English) in Planet of the Apes. Long known as Bedloe's Island, it was renamed by an act of United States Congress in 1956. Take off from Manhattan Island in a helicopter with our resident Wikipedia Pilot & Aerial Photographer WPPilot for an exclusive ride along on the photo shoot over New York Harbor!
  • Thomas Linley the elder (created by Thomas Gainsborough, nominated by SagaciousPhil) Thomas Linley was an English tenor and musician active in Bath, Somerset. Linley was one of the "most famous of English-born [music] teachers", according to some music historians and musicologists. As his many children grew and he developed their musical talent, he drew an increasing amount of income from their concerts while also managing the assembly rooms in Bath as Musical Director. Assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes and Linley's children were the stars of his rooms. When his finances began to prosper, the family moved to a more fashionable address, Royal Crescent. It was said of Linley that he fathered a "nest of nightingales". How, nobody knows; his wife was ugly, but the children beautiful. The children started to feature in concerts further afield, including oratorios in London, and Linley demanded high fees, eventually getting rich on their performances. He lived to be fairly old, but most of his children died before him... wonder how much free will to make choices those children actually had.
  • The Threatened Swan (created by Jan Asselijn, nominated by Editør) The Threatened Swan is an oil painting of a swan made around 1650 by Dutch Golden Age painter Jan Asselijn. The oil painting on canvas is 144 centimetres (57 in) high and 171 centimetres (67 in) wide. The painting's subject is a mute swan (Cygnus olor) defending its nest against a dog. At the bottom right, the painting is signed with the monogram "A". By 1880, the painting was interpreted as a political allegory of grand pensionary (the highest official in the Dutch Republic) Johan de Witt protecting the country from its enemies.
  • Rho Ophiuchi Great Rift, Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, and Infra-red view of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex (created by ESO, Rogelio Bernal Andreo, and NASA respectively, nominated by The Herald) "The unlucky Ophiucus Set", a 3 photo set that first features "Rho Ophiuchi Great Rift" A rich collection of colorful astronomical objects is revealed in this picturesque image of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Explorer, or WISE. In astronomy, the Great Rift (sometimes called the Dark Side, Dark Rift, or, less commonly, Dark River) is a series of overlapping, non-luminous, molecular dust clouds that are located between the Solar System and the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy at a distance of about 100 parsecs or about 300 light years (2×1015 miles or 3×1015 kilometers) from Earth. The clouds are estimated to contain about 1 million solar masses of plasma and dust. The Rho Ophiuchi cloud (pronounced ‘oh-fee-yoo-ki’ and named after a bright star in the region) is found rising above the plane of the Milky Way in the night sky, bordering the constellations Ophiuchus and Scorpius. It’s one of the nearest star-forming regions to Earth, allowing us to resolve much more detail than in similar but more distant regions, like the Orion Nebula. Photograph by Rogelio Bernal Andreo of the binary star system Rho Ophiuchi. This star-forming region is located only 400 light years from Earth and is surrounded by a red emission nebula and numerous light and dark brown dust lanes. Nearby is the yellow star Antares while the globular cluster, M4, is visible between Antares and the red emission nebula. And what set of space photos would be complete without an infrared light view of Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex (by NASA). Beam me up Scotty.......
  • William III of the Netherlands (created by Nicolaas Pieneman, nominated by Editør) William III (1809 - 1890) was born in Amersfoort in the Kingdom of Holland. He was King of the Netherlands. As was the fashion in those days, he married his first cousin, Sophie, daughter of King William I of Württemberg and Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia. His extramarital enthusiasms, however, led the New York Times to call him "the greatest debauchee of the age". William succeeded his father to the throne of the Netherlands.
  • Northeaster (created by Winslow Homer, nominated by Hafspajen) Northeaster is one of innumerable paintings of marine subjects and seascapes by the talented late-19th-century American painter Winslow Homer (1836 –1910). He painted several enchanting paintings on wonderful marine subjects, depicting the fishermen's life, work, and families. Later he chose more and more to paint the sea itself, especially beautiful paintings of the dramatic, stormy seas and the waves crashing onto the rocky shore. It has been said that they "are among the strongest expressions in all art of the power and dangerous beauty of the sea." He is considered one of the foremost painters of the 19th-century US and a preeminent figure in American art. Homer's studio at Prouts Neck, Maine is a museum now.
  • Louis Guéymard in Robert le diable (created by Gustave Courbet, nominated by Crisco 1492) This is a painting of Louis Guéymard in Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Robert le diable, painted by Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet, a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. It's rather a treat to get something interesting and unique, such a major painter illustrating an opera. It's a pity the opera's absolute shite. No, seriously. Let me summarize the plot: Robert, Duke of Normandy, is a terrible person, hence him being called "Robert the Devil". However he shows signs of his good nature, such as when he gives a woman over to be raped by his men... but then thinks better of it and stops them... when he realizes she's his half-sister. I'm not even exaggerating. His father, Bertram, is a more literal devil, and is trying to convince him to damn himself by signing his soul away, because Robert's such a good person that he'd lose him otherwise. He does this by sending him to an abbey full of the ghosts of naughty nuns to get a magic branch that he can use to gain the Princess Isabelle, his object of lust. Because apparently using the branch is equivalent to signing his soul away. Never mind, the whole point is to titillate the men in the audience who have a naughty nun fetish, so who cares about a coherent plot? When he goes to get Isabelle, she thinks Robert is using witchcraft to overpower everyone. Because he is. She convinces him to break the branch, and, having lost the ability to play witchcraft freeze tag, he has to flee without her. Last act! Bertram finally reveals he's Robert's father! And Robert's about to sign the contract! But his half-sister - you know, the one he was going to allow to be raped - arrives and tells him that Isabelle is waiting in a carriage just over there, ready to go off and marry him. Robert decides he should sign the contract anyway, just to be safe. Then he hears a religious hymn floating over the breeze... and in a life-changing moment... decides to not sign the contract, and just get everything he wanted without it. Big chorus about how he has succeeded in overcoming evil, despite having never done a single likeable act in the entire opera.
    Of course, plenty of good operas have stupidities in their plot - Der fliegende Holländer is basically a teenage girl's Twilight undead pirate fanfic, about how no one understands her, and if only she could save someone bad with her love! It's saved by some extremely good music. The Magic Flute has a plot that's completely ridiculous. It's by Mozart, hence its excellent music (though why it's more popular than Don Giovanni, which is also by Mozart, but has a coherent, interesting plot, I'll never know). Maybe Robert le diable is saved by its music? No: it's written by Meyerbeer, so it was doomed from the start.
  • Portrait of Henriette Mayer van den Bergh (created by Jozef Van Lerius, nominated by Alborzagros) This painting of Henriette is by the Belgian painter Jozef Van Lerius, who specialised in mythological scenes, portraits, and genre pictures. As his article says, "much of his work is didactic in nature." To us, this portrait seems to be heading in the direction of Mark Ryden- it's a bit lowbrow.
  • Kodiak bear (created by Yathin S Krishnappa, nominated by Hafspajen) The Kodiak bear, also called Ursus arctos middendorffi - not to be confused with Venus willendorffi, is one of the largest bears in the world. The Kodiak bear, also known as the Alaskan grizzly bear, is a lovely looking giant bear with fluffy, soft and light brown fur. They are big and heavy; the small females are about 225 kg (500 lbs) and the big males around 635 kg (1400 lbs). That is quite a lot, ladies and gentlemen. That is about as heavy as a horse. They sleep in the winter and come out in the spring to eat berries and veggies and salmon when it is in season. They don't eat people; the Kodiak bears generally keep away from people. If you meet a bear, just back away slowly and silently, without running or making sudden movements or noises. However, don't go near any bear with cubs, or they will attack. Also, don't try to take away their food and don't do stupid things like throwing stones on them, because they don't like it. Like one of the morons I had the unfortunate idea to go hiking with. A bear was passing by our tent in the evening and the jerk threw a stone on the poor bear, who did nothing at all, just walked by. The bear didn't do anything during the night - very diplomatic of him, I think - but next evening when we came back from a long hike, we found the tent pulled out from the ground and totally ripped into pieces. The jerk was whining and fussing, but I have to say it gave me a certain satisfaction. Why on earth he had to throw that stone at the poor animal for? So be nice to the bears and don't force them to get angry with you. They are very intelligent animals too. The level of intelligence seems to be somewhere between that of an average canine and a primate, so individual bears have personalities and unique ways of dealing with situations. One may have lunch with you while the other has you for lunch. If you are stupid.
  • Saint George (created by Carlo Crivelli, nominated by Crisco 1492) Saint George was a soldier in the Roman army and was later venerated as a Christian martyr. A highly celebrated saint in both the Western and Eastern Christian churches, St. George is the patron saint of England. His cross forms the national flag of England and features within the Union Flag of the United Kingdom. He is often depicted as a soldier in a suit of armour or chain mail, bearing a lance, riding a white horse, and often slaying a dragon. Eastern Orthodox depictions of Saint George slaying a dragon often include the image of the young maiden who looks on from a distance, where the dragon represents Evil. He is celebrated on 23 April and he is regarded as one of the most prominent military saints. The episode of St. George and the Dragon was a legend developed by Crusaders returned from the Holy Lands. On the establishment of George as a popular saint and protective giant, Erasmus, in The Praise of Folly (1509, printed 1511), remarked "The Christians have now their gigantic St. George, as well as the pagans had their Hercules." He is the patron saint of the agricultural workers, sheep, shepherds, field workers, scouting, archers, armourers, butchers, knights, cavalry, chivalry, crusaders, equestrians, horsemen, horses, the Brazilian football team, and the Portuguese Navy, among others.
  • Japanese invasion money for Oceania: One-half shilling, one shilling, ten shilling, one pound (created by Empire of Japan, nominated and prepared from the National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian Institution by Godot13) This is a set of four notes for the Japanese government-issued Oceanian Pound, a currency issued by the Japanese for use in the Gilbert and Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and New Britain during their World War II occupation of those islands. If you look carefully at the outline of the Chrysanthemum Seal on the ½ shilling note, you'll see a smiley face.
  • Jabberwocky illustration (created by John Tenniel, nominated by FakeShemp) An illustration of the poem "Jabberwocky", a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll from his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, a sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Sir John Tenniel was an English illustrator, graphic humourist, and political cartoonist whose work was prominent during the second half of the 19th century.
The piece was titled "Stanza of Anglo-Saxon Poetry" and read:

Twas bryllyg, and ye slythy toves
Did gyre and gymble in ye wabe:
All mimsy were ye borogoves;
And ye mome raths outgrabe.

Other strophes soon followed. John Tenniel reluctantly agreed to illustrate the book in 1871, and his illustrations are still the defining images of the poem. The illustration of the Jabberwocky may reflect the contemporary Victorian obsession with natural history and the fast-evolving sciences of palaeontology and geology. The poem was soon translated (!) into other languages too, and lots of interesting poetry come out of that. In German it goes like this:

Es brillig war. Die schlichten Toven
Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben:
Und aller-mümsige Burggoven
Die mohmen Räth' ausgraben.

It sounds best in Welsh, of course:

Mae'n brydgell ac mae'r brochgim stwd
Yn gimblo a gyrian yn y mhello:
Pob cólomrws yn féddabwd,
A'r hoch oma'n chwibruo.

Nobody can deny that original touche to it.
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Il brilgue: les tôves lubricilleux
Se gyrent en vrillant dans le guave.
Enmîmés sont les gougebosqueux
Et le mômerade horsgrave.

Hafspajen (talk) 22:13, 18 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: doing it for free since 2005.
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