This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 15 January to 4 February. Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
Musidora: The Bather 'At the Doubtful Breeze Alarmed'(nominated by Iridescent) is a name given to four nearly identical oil paintings on canvas by English artist William Etty. The paintings illustrate a scene from James Thomson's 1727 poem Summer in which a young man accidentally sees a young woman bathing naked, and is torn between his desire to look and his knowledge that he ought to look away. The scene was popular with English artists as it was one of the few legitimate pretexts to paint nudes at a time when the display and distribution of nude imagery was suppressed. Musidora was extremely well received when first exhibited, and considered one of the finest works by an English artist.
The 2012 Tour de France(nominated by BaldBoris) was the 99th edition of the race, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started in the Belgian city of Liège and finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The Tour consisted of 21 race stages, including an opening prologue, and covered a total distance of 3,496.9 km (2,173 mi). In addition to the prologue, the first two stages took place in Belgium, and one stage finished in Switzerland. Bradley Wiggins won the overall general classification, and became the first British rider to win the Tour.
Dubrovnik(nominated by Peacemaker67) was a flotilla leader built for the Royal Yugoslav Navy by Yarrow Shipbuilders in Glasgow in 1930 and 1931. She was one of the largest destroyers of her time. Resembling contemporary British designs, Dubrovnik was a fast ship with a main armament of four Czechoslovak-built Škoda 140 mm (5.5 in) guns in single mounts. She was intended to be the first of three flotilla leaders built for Yugoslavia, but was the only one completed. During her service with the Royal Yugoslav Navy, Dubrovnik undertook several peacetime cruises through the Mediterranean, the Turkish Straits and the Black Sea. During the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, Dubrovnik was captured by the Italians. After a refit, which included the replacement of some of her weapons and the shortening of her mainmast and funnels, she was commissioned into the Royal Italian Navy as Premuda. In Italian service she was mainly used as an escort and troop transport. In 1942, she was part of the Italian force that attacked the Allied Operation Harpoon convoy attempting to relieve the island of Malta. In 1943, she broke down and put in to Genoa for repair and a refit. In 1944, following the replacement of her armament, she was commissioned into the German Navy as a Torpedoboot Ausland with the designation TA32. The ship saw action shelling Allied positions on the Italian coast and laying naval mines. In 1945, she took part in the Battle of the Ligurian Sea against two Royal Navy destroyers, during which she was lightly damaged. She was scuttled the following month as the Germans retreated from Genoa.
The 2003 Cricket World Cup Final(nominated by Vensatry) was a One Day International match played between Australia and India at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa. It marked the culmination of the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the eighth edition of the tournament. It was the first time that these two teams had met at this stage of a World Cup. For defending champions Australia it was their fifth World Cup final, while for India it was the second after their 1983 victory. Australia won the match by 125 runs to claim the title for the third time.
SMS Schwaben(nominated by Parsecboy) was the fourth ship of the Wittelsbach class of pre-dreadnought battleships of the German Imperial Navy. Schwaben was built at the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven. Schwaben was armed with a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) guns and had a top speed of 18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph). She spent most of her career as a gunnery training ship from 1904 to 1914. After the start of World War I, the ship was mobilized with her sisters as the IV Battle Squadron. She saw limited duty in the North Sea as a guard ship and in the Baltic Sea against Russian forces. The threat from British submarines forced the ship to withdraw from the Baltic in 1916. For the remainder of the war, Schwaben served as an engineering training ship for navy cadets. She was retained by the Reichsmarine after the war and reactivated from 1919 until 1920, serving as a depot ship for F-type minesweepers in the Baltic. The ship was stricken from the navy list in 1921 and sold for scrapping in that year.
Jennifer Lawrence(nominated by FrB.TG, SNUGGUMS and Krimuk2.0) (born 1990) is an American actress. As of 2016, Lawrence is the highest-paid actress in the world, and her films have grossed over $5 billion worldwide. She appeared in Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2013 and Forbes Celebrity 100 the following year and in 2016. Lawrence is known in the media for being a vocal advocate of feminism and gender equality, and is the founder of the Jennifer Lawrence Foundation through which she supports various charitable organizations.
Sabre Wulf(nominated by Czar) is an action-adventure game by Ultimate Play the Game, initially released for the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1984. The player navigates the pith-helmeted Sabreman through a 2D jungle maze while collecting amulet pieces to bypass the guardian at its exit. The player does not receive explicit guidance on how to play and is left to decipher the game's objectives through trial and error. Sabreman moves between the maze's 256 connected screens by touching the border where one screen ends and another begins. Each screen is filled with colourful flora, enemies that spawn at random, and occasional collectibles. Several gaming publications recommended the game, and Crash magazine readers named it the "Best Maze Game" of 1984. Sabre Wulf was a bestseller and a financial success.
Grasshoppers(nominated by LittleJerry, Chiswick Chap and Cwmhiraeth) are insects of the suborder Caelifera within the order Orthoptera. Grasshoppers are typically ground-dwelling insects with powerful hind legs which enable them to escape from threats by leaping vigorously. They are hemimetabolous insects which hatch from an egg into a nymph or "hopper", which undergoes five moults, becoming more similar to the adult insect at each developmental stage. At high population densities and under certain environmental conditions, some grasshopper species can change colour and behaviour and form swarms. Under these circumstances they are known as locusts.
Millard Fillmore(nominated by Wehwalt) (1800–1874) was the 13th President of the United States, the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former congressman from New York, Fillmore was elected the nation's 12th Vice President in 1848, and was elevated to the presidency by the death of Zachary Taylor. He was instrumental in getting the Compromise of 1850 passed, a bargain that led to a brief truce in the battle over slavery. He failed to win the Whig nomination for president in 1852, but gained the endorsement of the nativist Know Nothing Party four years later, and finished third in that election.
The American Bible Challenge(nominated by Bcschneider53) was a biblical-themed American television game show created by the Game Show Network. The series was hosted by Jeff Foxworthy, with Kirk Franklin joining Foxworthy as co-host and announcer in the second season. Each season of the series was played as a nine-episode tournament with six episodes of opening rounds, two semi-finals, and a final. The show became Game Show Network's highest rated original program in the history of the network. In 2014, it received two nominations at the 41st Daytime Emmy Awards, one for the series as Outstanding Game Show, and the other for Foxworthy as Outstanding Game Show Host.
The red-throated loon(nominated by MeegsC) (Gavia stellata) is a migratory aquatic bird found in the northern hemisphere. The most widely distributed member of the loon family, it breeds primarily in Arctic regions, and winters in northern coastal waters. Ranging from 55 to 67 cm (22 to 26 in) in length, the red-throated loon is the smallest and lightest of the world's loons. In winter, it is a nondescript bird, greyish above fading to white below. During the breeding season, it acquires the distinctive reddish throat patch which is the basis for its common name. A monogamous species, they form long-term pair bonds. Both members of the pair help to build the nest, incubate the eggs, and feed the hatched young.
The mangrove swallow(nominated by RileyBugz) (Tachycineta albilinea) is a passerine bird in the swallow family that breeds in coastal regions from Mexico to Panama. It has blue-green upperparts, blackish flight feathers, a white rump, a black tail and white underparts. The sexes, although similar in plumage, differ slightly in size. The mangrove swallow is very territorial when breeding, much like the related tree swallow. Its nest is normally built in a hole or crevice near water and less than 2 m (6.6 ft) above the ground.
The Russell family(nominated by Aoba47) is a fictional family who appeared on American soap opera Passions, which aired on NBC (1999–2007) and later on DirecTV (2007–08). The family was created by the soap's founder and head writer James E. Reilly; it originally consisted of four characters—the married couple Eve Russell and T. C. Russell, and their children, Whitney and Simone Russell. The Russells are one of the four core families in the fictional town of Harmony, and are characterized by their friendship with the Bennetts and Lopez-Fitzgeralds and their feud with the Cranes. As the series progressed, four more characters were added to the family.
Dark Angel(nominated by Freikorp) is an American cyberpunk television series that premiered on the Fox network in 2000. Created by James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee, it starred Jessica Alba in her breakthrough role. Set in 2019, the series chronicles the life of Max Guevara, a genetically enhanced super-soldier who escaped from a covert military facility as a child. In a post-apocalyptic Seattle, she tries to lead a normal life, while eluding capture by government agents and searching for her brothers and sisters scattered in the aftermath of their escape. Dark Angel was the first and only series produced by the company Cameron/Eglee Productions, and was filmed in Vancouver at Lions Gate Studios. A series of novels continued the storyline, and a video game adaptation was also released. Dark Angel is considered to have Gothic and female empowerment themes.
Interstate 94(nominated by Imzadi1979) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from Billings, Montana, to the Lower Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. In Michigan, it is a state trunkline highway that enters the state south of New Buffalo and runs eastward through several metropolitan areas in the southern section of the state.
Aitraaz(nominated by Krish!) is a 2004 Indian Hindi-language romantic thriller directed by Abbas–Mustan. Produced by Subhash Ghai, it stars Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. The film tells the story of a man accused of sexual harassment by his female superior. It was released in 2004 to positive reviews, Chopra receiving widespread critical acclaim for her performance as Sonia Roy. Aitraaz was a commercial success, grossing over ₹260 million (US$3.1 million) at the box office against a budget of ₹110 million (US$1.3 million). It has been noted for its bold subject of sexual harassment. The film received several accolades, particularly for Chopra.
Operation Paravane(nominated by Nick-D) was a British air raid of World War II that inflicted heavy damage on the German battleship Tirpitz. The attack was conducted in 1944 by 21 Royal Air Force heavy bombers, which flew from an airfield in the north of the Soviet Union. The battleship was struck by one bomb, and further damaged by several near misses. This damage rendered Tirpitz unfit for combat, and she could not be repaired as it was no longer possible for the Germans to sail her to a major port. Following Operation Paravane, the German Navy's commander decided to use Tirpitz as a static artillery battery to protect the town of Tromsø. The Allies were unable to confirm the extent of the battleship's damage, and conducted two further heavy bomber raids against her in late 1944. Tirpitz was sunk with considerable loss of life during the second of these attacks.
Viking metal(nominated by 3family6) is a style of heavy metal music characterized by a lyrical and thematic focus on Norse mythology, Norse paganism, and the Viking Age. Viking metal is quite diverse as a musical style, to the point where some consider it more a cross-genre term than a genre, but it is typically seen as black metal with influences from Nordic folk music. Common traits include a slow-paced and heavy riffing style, anthemic choruses, use of both sung and harsh vocals, a reliance on folk instrumentation, and often the use of keyboards for atmospheric effect.
Burning Rangers(nominated by Jaguar) is a 3D action video game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Sega Saturn. The game is set in a futuristic society in which fire is the remaining danger. Players control one of an elite group of firefighters, the Burning Rangers, who extinguish fires and rescue civilians in burning buildings. Most of the tasks the players complete are centred around collecting energy crystals to transport civilians to safety. In lieu of an in-game map, Burning Rangers features a voice navigation system which directs players through corridors. It received mostly positive reviews. Critics unanimously commended the game's soundtrack and audio, with the voice navigation system receiving particular praise. The response to the graphics was mixed, with some critics asserting that it had the best visuals on the Saturn, although it was noted for its poor collision detection and occasional glitching.
God of War: Ascension(nominated by JDC808) is a third-person action-adventure video game developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game was first released in 2013, for the PlayStation 3 console. It is the seventh installment in the God of War series and prequel to the entire series. Loosely based on Greek mythology, the game is set in ancient Greece with vengeance as its central motif. The player controls the protagonist Kratos, the former servant of the God of War Ares, who tricked Kratos into killing his wife and daughter. In response to this tragedy, Kratos renounced Ares, breaking his blood oath to the god. Kratos was therefore imprisoned and tortured by the three Furies, guardians of honour and enforcers of punishment. Helped by the oath keeper Orkos, Kratos escapes his imprisonment and confronts the Furies to be completely free of his bond to Ares. It received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised its fundamental gameplay and spectacle as true to the series. Some reviewers said the story was not as compelling as previous installments.
Apus(nominated by Casliber) is a small constellation in the southern sky. It represents a bird-of-paradise, and its name means "without feet" in Greek because the bird-of-paradise was once wrongly believed to lack feet. First depicted on a celestial globe by Petrus Plancius in 1598, it was charted on a star atlas by Johann Bayer in his 1603 Uranometria. The French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille charted and gave the brighter stars their Bayer designations in 1756.
The red wattlebird(nominated by Aa77zz and Casliber) (Anthochaera carunculata) is a passerine bird native to southern Australia. At 33–37 cm (13–15 in) in length, it is the second largest species of Australian honeyeaters. It has mainly grey-brown plumage, with red eyes, distinctive pinkish-red wattles on either side of the neck, white streaks on the chest and a large bright yellow patch on the lower belly. The sexes are similar in plumage. It is one of the largest nectarivorous birds in the world, feeding from a wide variety of flowering plants. Insects also comprise part of its diet. It is territorial and at times aggressive to birds of other species, often defending rich sources of nectar.
The Australian women's national wheelchair basketball team, known as the Gliders, played in the 2012 Summer Paralympics(nominated by Hawkeye7) in London. The team, of twelve included nine Paralympic veterans with fifteen Paralympic Games between them, and three newcomers playing in their first Paralympics. The Gliders were in the group that included Brazil, Great Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. After a narrow victory over Brazil, and an easier one against Great Britain, the Gliders were defeated by Canada, but won their final match against the Netherlands to finish at the top of their group. The Gliders went on to win the quarterfinal against Mexico and the semifinal against the United States, but lost to Germany in the final, winning silver.
Richard Feynman(nominated by DVdm and Hawkeye7) (1918–1988) was an American theoretical physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics for which he proposed the parton model. For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman, jointly with Julian Schwinger and Sin'ichirō Tomonaga, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965.
Spalding War Memorial(nominated by HJ Mitchell) is a First World War memorial in the gardens of Ayscoughfee Hall in Spalding, Lincolnshire. It was designed by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. The proposal for a memorial to Spalding's war dead originated in 1918 with Barbara McLaren, whose husband and the town's Member of Parliament, Francis McLaren, was killed in a flying accident during the war. The memorial consists of a brick pavilion at the south end of the garden and a Stone of Remembrance, both at the head of a long reflecting pool, which incorporates the remains of an 18th-century canal. Today it is a grade I listed building.
The Siberian accentor(nominated by Jimfbleak) (Prunella montanella) is a small passerine bird that breeds in northern Russia from the Ural Mountains eastwards across Siberia. It is migratory, wintering in Korea and eastern China. Its typical breeding habitat is subarctic deciduous forests and open coniferous woodland, often close to water. Breeding over a huge area, the Siberian accentor has a large and apparently stable population. It is therefore evaluated as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Prince Romerson(nominated by KAVEBEAR) (c. 1840–1872) was a Union Army soldier of Native Hawaiian descent. One of the "Hawaiʻi Sons of the Civil War", he was among a group of more than one hundred documented Native Hawaiian and Hawaii-born combatants who fought in the American Civil War while the Kingdom of Hawaii was still an independent nation. Romerson enlisted in the Union Navy in 1863 as part of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron, responsible for maintaining the blockade of the ports of the Confederacy. After being discharged from naval service, he reenlisted in the Union Army under the 5th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry, and was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 1864. Romerson fought with the 5thUSCC until the end of the war. Illness prevented him from continuing with his regiment's reassignment to Clarksville, Texas, and he was mustered out in 1865.
"Yesterday's Enterprise"(nominated by David Fuchs) is the 63rd episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was the 15th episode of the third season, first airing in syndication in 1990. In the story, the crew of the Enterprise-D must decide whether to send the time-traveling Enterprise-C back through a temporal rift to its certain destruction, to prevent damaging changes to their timeline. Filming of the episode lasted a week, with some elements of the script ultimately not included due to time constraints. In syndication, the episode outperformed most of the third season's episodes with a 13.1 Nielsen rating, the third-highest number for the series at the time. The episode is cited as a favorite by crew members and reviewers, and is widely regarded as one of the best episodes of the series.
The Danish Girl is a 2015 British-American biographical romantic drama film directed by Tom Hooper. It is an adaptation of the 2000 fictional novel of the same name by David Ebershoff, which was loosely based on the life of Danish painter Lili Elbe, one of the earliest recipients of gender reassignment surgery. The film premiered at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival in 2015, where it received the Queer Lion. Focus Features initially provided the film a limited release at four theaters in 2015 before expanding to over 700 theaters in the United States and Canada in 2016. The Danish Girl grossed a worldwide box office total of over $64 million on a production budget of $15 million. It garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories(nominated by Cowlibob) with particular praise for the performances of Alicia Vikander and Eddie Redmayne. The film received four nominations at the 88th Academy Awards with Vikander winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
The Essex Wildlife Trust(nominated by Dudley Miles) is one of 47 wildlife trusts which cover the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1959, and it describes itself as Essex's leading conservation charity, which aims to protect wildlife for the future and the people of the county. As of January 2017, it has over 34,000 members and runs 87 nature reserves, 2 nature parks and 11 visitor centres.
Rise Against is an American rock band from Chicago. Their discography(nominated by Famous Hobo) consists of seven studio albums, one compilation album, eight extended plays, eleven singles, six promotional singles, two documentaries, and seventeen music videos.
Tropical cyclones, and their antecedent or remnant weather systems, have affected Bermunda(nominated by Juliancolton) in all seasons, most frequently in the late summer months. The islands are situated far outside the main development region for Atlantic hurricanes, but within the typical belt of recurving tropical cyclones. Most storms form in the central Atlantic or western Caribbean Sea before approaching Bermuda from the southwest; storms forming north of 28°N are unlikely to impact the territory. According to the Bermuda Weather Service, the islands of Bermuda experience a damaging tropical cyclone once every six to seven years, on average. Due to the small area of the island chain, landfalls and direct hits are rare. A study of recorded storms from 1609 to 1996 found that direct hits from hurricanes were most common in early September and late October, with an intervening relative lull creating two distinct 'seasons'.
The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its variants were the highest awards in the military of Nazi Germany during World War II. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded for a wide range of reasons and across all ranks, from a senior commander for skilled leadership of his troops in battle to a low-ranking soldier for a single act of extreme gallantry. Presentations were made to members of the three military branches of the Wehrmacht—the Heer, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe—as well as the Waffen-SS, the Reichsarbeitsdienst and the Volkssturm. There were also 43 recipients in the military forces of allies of Nazi Germany. There were 368 Knight's Cross recipients of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS whose last name is in the range "Ba–Bm".(nominated by MisterBee1966)
The Indian Premier League (IPL)(nominated by Lourdes) is a domestic, annual Twenty20 cricket tournament in India, organized by the IPL Governing Council, under the aegis of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. It is the most watched Twenty20 tournament and the second-best paying sporting league globally. IPL was established in 2008 and currently consists of eight teams in eight cities across India. As of December 2016, there have been nine seasons of the IPL tournament, with the latest IPL season conducted from April to May 2016, which was won by Sunrisers Hyderabad.
A women's Twenty20 International (T20I) is an international cricket match between two teams, each having T20I status, as determined by the International Cricket Council. In a women's Twenty20 match, the two teams play a single innings, each of which is restricted to a maximum of 20 overs. A five-wicket haul refers to a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. As of 20 January 2017, eleven five-wicket hauls have been taken in women's T20Is(nominated by Ianblair23).
Bradley Cooper(nominated by FrB.TG) (born 1975) is an American actor and producer. He is one of the highest-paid actors in the world, and has been nominated for several accolades, including four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. His career began with a guest role in the television series Sex and the City in 1999. He first gained recognition as Will Tippin in the spy-action television show Alias and found his breakthrough in 2009 with The Hangover, a successful comedy which spawned two sequels. In 2014, he portrayed Joseph Merrick in a Broadway revival of The Elephant Man, garnering a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.
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