Ye stately homes of England

David Iliff, or Diliff, as he is known on here outside the file pages for his many, many, excellent photographs, is one of Wikipedia's longest-standing professional-standard photographers. This featured picture of Waddesdon Manor is merely the latest in a long series; his first upload to Commons, this excellent photograph from back in 2005, is still a superb image. He has consistently produced gorgeous work for Wikipedia and, while he's certainly not alone in his photographic efforts for Wikipedia, the Signpost salutes him this week.

This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 25 to 31 May.

Featured articles

Ten featured articles were promoted this week.

We have a lot of gorgeous architectural pictures this week. Here's another one by Diliff, of Wells Cathedral.

Deathrow (video game) (nominated by czar) An Xbox science-fiction sports game created by Ubisoft centred around the fictional sport of Blitz, a more-violent combination of basketball, hockey, and American football, with a Blade Runner-like design æsthetic.

Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746–1817) (nominated by Gwillhickers) A Polish military engineer, who managed to not only become a Polish, Lithuanian, and Belarusian military hero, but was a friend of Thomas Jefferson and assisted the Americans in the American Revolutionary War. Seriously, just read the article, it's an amazing story of someone who never saw what he saw as a just war without hurrying over to help out in it, and who, at the end of his life, tried to use his fortune to help educate and free the American slaves, although his plans were thwarted after his death.

Gubby Allen (1902–1989) (nominated by Sarastro1) A cricketer who captained England in eleven Test matches, later served in the administration of cricket and had a role in the subject of another recently-promoted featured article, the D'Oliveira affair. This was a complicated situation involving Basil D'Oliveira, a mixed-race South African cricketer who was playing for English teams, and the threatened cancellation of a tour of South Africa should he be included on the national English team. Calls for Allen's resignation began after it came to light that he was partially responsible for D'Oliveira's initial exclusion from the team.

Invisible rail (nominated by Jimfbleak) might sound like an unusual train, but it is actually a large flightless bird. Its name stems from the difficulty of finding it; a German ornithologist commented in the 1930s that "I am solidly confident no European has ever seen this rail alive, for that requires such a degree of toughening and such demands on oneself as I cannot so easily attribute to others."

Babe Ruth (nominated by Wehwalt ) was quite likely the greatest baseball player of all time. Starting in 1914, Ruth changed baseball to focus far more on home runs, something that endures in the present iteration of the game. Outside baseball, Ruth was a celebrity known just as much for his drinking and womanizing as for his baseball skills.

Voting Rights Act of 1965 (nominated by Prototime ) prohibited discrimination in voting. Designed to supplement the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the US constitution, the Voting Rights Act ended widespread disenfranchisement of racial minorities, particularly in the Southern region of the country. It has been championed as the most effective civil rights law ever enacted in the US.

Union Films (nominated by Crisco 1492) was a film production company located in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. The latest in a lengthy series of Indonesian film articles from the nominator, Union Films produced seven movies before it was dissolved in 1942 as a result of a Japanese invasion and occupation. All are now considered lost.

Przevalski's nuthatch (nominated by Fuhghettaboutit ) is a bird endemic to parts of Tibet and China. Partly translated from the companion French Wikipedia article, Przevalski's nuthatch was only given a separate species designation from the white-cheeked nuthatch in 2005, though many bird organizations have not followed suit.

Empress Matilda (nominated by Hchc2009) was a claimant to the English throne during a nearly twenty-year civil war ("The Anarchy"). The nominator says that Matilda was "one of the few female war-time leaders of the medieval period", and that "even at the end of her long life she was felt to still be a powerful personality".

Clackline Bridge (nominated by Evad37 ) is an unusual Australian work of engineering—it carried a major highway over both a waterway and a railroad by using a curved, sloped design. Designed and constructed in the 1930s, Clackline was quickly outdated and had to be widened in 1959 and 1960, but continuing concerns about safety led to further alterations in the 1970s. The bridge was bypassed in 2007 and 2008, but it continues to see use in local road service.

Featured lists

Five featured lists were promoted this week.

Godot13 took this lovely photograph of the Hawksmoor Towers at All Souls College, Oxford.

The discography of Kumi Koda (nominated by Prosperosity) includes 31 albums and 56 singles. Koda, a Japanese pop singer, has found great success in her native country, reaching the top of the charts put out by Oricon and G-Music.

The List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films (nominated by Favre1fan93, TriiipleThreat, Fandraltastic and Richiekim) includes a quickly expanding roster of movies that revolve around Marvel's superheroes. It includes nine released films; four more named movies are on the way, with two more (unnamed) planned and a plethora of ideas for more. The Avengers, the 2012 film that featured most of the universe's characters, is the third-highest grossing film of all time, while the series as a whole will soon surpass the Harry Potter films as the most lucrative of all time.

Anatomical terms of motion (nominated by LT910001) can range from flexion to adduction to plantarflexion. They are scientific terms used to describe specific motions capable of being done by humans, so that "eversion", for instance, describes when you stand on the outside of your foot.

The list of international cricket centuries by Graeme Smith (nominated by Vensatry) is 37 items long. Smith, a recently retired South African cricketer, is the country's second-highest centurion of all time.

The Latin Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album, (nominated by Hahc21) as the name suggests, is awarded to an alternative music album put out by a Latin artist in the previous year. First awarded in 2004, five of the eight victors have come from Mexico, including the only two-time winner Julieta Venegas.

Featured pictures

Five featured pictures were promoted this week.

This stunning view of the El Atazar Dam in Spain is a new featured picture.

Marriott Henry Brosius (created by Bureau of Engraving and Printing, restored and nominated by Godot13) Marriott Henry Brosius (1843–1901) served Pennsylvania from 1889 to 1901 as a Republican in the United States House of Representatives. He also served as a soldier in the American Civil War, reaching the rank of second lieutenant.

El Atazar Dam (created by Carlos Delgado, nominated by Crisco 1492) El Atazar Dam, near Madrid, Spain, is a curved, arch dam blocking a narrow gorge.

Hawksmoor Towers, All Souls College, Oxford (created and nominated by Godot13) The towers, designed by renowned architect Nicholas Hawksmoor, for All Souls College, part of Oxford University. Godot13, besides his excellent work with currency, is also a talented photographer.

Wells Cathedral (created and nominated by Diliff) Wells Cathedral, in Somerset, England, has been described as "unquestionably one of the most beautiful" and "the most poetic" of English cathedrals. Diliff's photograph of it, like the Waddesdon Manor one that leads this page, is, as you might expect from those quotes, stunning.

Waddesdon Manor (created and nominated by Diliff) Waddesdon Manor is a country house in Buckinghamshire, England, built in the style of a French château in the late 19th century. Now owned by the National Trust, its "theme of unparallelled luxury" makes it an impressive and popular visitor attraction.