This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 17 December 2017 through 11 January 2018. Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
Elcor, Minnesota(nominated by DrGregMN) is a ghost town in the U.S. state of Minnesota which existed between 1897 and 1956. In November 1890, the seven Merritt brothers discovered ore on the Mesabi Range, and a new iron rush began. An influx of people of many ethnicities from many nations followed, and Elcor became a microcosm of U.S. immigration, mirroring the cultural assimilation of the time. At its peak around 1920, Elcor had two churches, a post office, a mercantile, a primary school, a railroad station, its own law enforcement, and housed a population of nearly 1,000.
The golden jackal(nominated by William Harris) is a wolf-like canid that is native to Southeast Europe, Southwest Asia, South Asia, and regions of Southeast Asia. Compared with the Arabian wolf, which is the smallest of the gray wolves, (Canis lupus), the jackal is smaller and possesses shorter legs, a shorter tail, a more elongated torso, a less-prominent forehead, and a narrower and more pointed muzzle. The golden jackal's coat can vary from a pale creamy yellow in summer to a dark tawny beige in winter. It is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List due to its widespread distribution and high density in areas with plenty of available food and optimum shelter.
The British hydrogen bomb programme(nominated by Hawkeye7) was the ultimately successful British effort to develop hydrogen bombs between 1952 and 1958. Operation Grapple involved Britain's first airdrop of a thermonuclear bomb. Although hailed as a success at the time, the first test of the Green Granite design was a failure. The second test validated Orange Herald as a usable design of a megaton weapon, but it was not a thermonuclear bomb, and the core boosting did not work. A third test attempted to correct the Green Granite design, but was another failure. In the Grapple X test in November 1957, they successfully tested a thermonuclear design. The Grapple Y test the following April obtained most of its yield from nuclear fusion, and the Grapple Z test series later that year demonstrated a mastery of thermonuclear weapons technology. An international moratorium on nuclear tests commenced on 31 October 1958, and Britain ceased atmospheric testing for good. The successful development of the hydrogen bomb, along with the Sputnik crisis, resulted in the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, in which the nuclear Special Relationship was restored.
The More Hall Annex(nominated by SounderBruce) was a building on the campus of the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, that once housed a functional nuclear research reactor. It was inaugurated in 1961 and shut down in 1988, operating at a peak of 100 kilowatts thermal, and was officially decommissioned two decades later in 2007. The reactor was housed in a reinforced concrete building designed in the Brutalist architectural style by UW faculty members. They designed the reactor room with large windows which allowed observation from the outside, in an attempt to demonstrate the safety of nuclear energy. The Nuclear Reactor Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, after a campaign led by an architecture student in response to the proposed demolition of the building. Despite concerns from preservation groups and the City of Seattle, the UW Board of Regents had the building demolished in July 2016. It will be replaced by a new computer science building that is expected to open in January 2019.
The Rhode Island Tercentenary half dollar(nominated by Wehwalt) is a commemorativefifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1936. The coin was designed by John Howard Benson and Arthur Graham Carey. Members of Rhode Island's congressional delegation sought a coin for the 300th anniversary of Providence, and Senator Jesse Metcalf added authorization for one to a bill for another commemorative coin that had already passed the House of Representatives. The amended bill was approved by both houses of Congress, and was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A total of 50,000 coins were struck at the three mints then in operation. When the coins went on sale on March 5, 1936, the quantity made available to the public sold out in a matter of hours. Rhode Island insiders were holding back quantities for later sale once prices rose. That conduct incensed coin collectors, and the abuses led Congress to move toward banning commemorative coins. The coins are listed for hundreds of dollars today, depending on condition.
Knuckles' Chaotix(nominated by Joebro64) Is a 1995 side-scrollingplatform game developed and published by Sega for the 32X. A spin-off of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the game features Knuckles the Echidna and four other characters collectively known as the Chaotix. Critical reception to Knuckles' Chaotix has been mixed. Critics found the tethering physics cumbersome, although some appreciated it as an attempt by Sega to innovate in the series. It is seen as the last in the "classic" 2D style of Sonic games before the series moved to 3D. Some characters and concepts introduced in the game were featured in later Sonic games and media. Despite interest from fans, it has not been re-released beyond a brief period through GameTap in the mid-2000s.
Chains of Love (TV series)(nominated by Aoba47) is an American dating game show that aired for six episodes in April and May 2001 on United Paramount Network (UPN). Adapted from a Dutch television series, it revolves around a man or woman being chained to four members of the opposite sex over four days and nights. This person, identified as the "Picker", is given $10,000 and can remove three contestants one at a time. The Picker can give a portion of the money to each eliminated participant. When left with a single partner, the Picker can choose to either split the money or keep it. American television personality Madison Michele hosted each episode.
Cragside(nominated by KJP1 and DBaK) is a Victoriancountry house near the town of Rothbury in Northumberland, England. It was the home of William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong, founder of the Armstrong Whitworth armaments firm. The original building was a small shooting lodge which Armstrong built between 1862 and 1864. In 1869, he employed the architect Richard Norman Shaw to enlarge Cragside. The result was described by the architect and writer Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel as "one of the most dramatic compositions in all architecture". Armstrong filled the house with a significant art collection; he and his wife were patrons of many 19th-century British artists. Cragside became an integral part of Armstrong's commercial operations: honoured guests under Armstrong's roof, including the Shah of Persia, the King of Siam and two future Prime Ministers of Japan, were also customers for his commercial undertakings. In 1971 the National Trust asked the architectural historian Mark Girouard to compile a gazetteer of the most important Victorian houses in Britain which the Trust should seek to save should they ever be sold. Girouard placed Cragside at the top of the list; in 1977, the house was acquired by the Trust with the aid of a grant from the National Land Fund. A Grade I listed building since 1953, Cragside has been open to the public since 1979.
The Tottenham outrage(nominated by SchroCat) of 23 January 1909 was a wages theft in Tottenham, north London, that resulted in a two-hour chase between the police and armed criminals over a distance of six miles (10 km), with an estimated 400 rounds of ammunition fired by the thieves. The robbery, from the Schnurmann rubber factory, was carried out by Paul Helfeld and Jacob Lepidus, Jewish Latvian immigrants. Of the twenty-three casualties, two were fatal and several others serious, among them seven policemen. The two thieves committed suicide at the end of the pursuit.
The Lancashire Fusiliers War Memorial(nominated by HJ Mitchell) is a First World War memorial originally dedicated to members of the Lancashire Fusiliers killed in that conflict. Located in Gallipoli Gardens in Bury, Greater Manchester (historically in Lancashire), in north-west England, it was unveiled in 1922—on the seventh anniversary of the landing at Cape Helles, part of the Gallipoli Campaign in which the regiment suffered particularly heavy casualties. It originally sat outside the Lancashire Fusiliers' headquarters in Wellington Barracks but was relocated when the barracks closed in the 1970s. It was moved again in 2009, this time to sit in a public park renamed Gallipoli Gardens, outside the Fusilier Museum, which moved at the same time. The memorial was designated a Grade II listed building in 1992. It was upgraded to Grade II* in 2015 (on the centenary of the Cape Helles landing), along with two other memorials related to the Gallipoli Campaign; later that year it was recognised as part of a national collection of Edwin Lutyens' war memorials.
The southern boobook(nominated by Cas Liber) is a species of owl native to mainland Australia, southern New Guinea, Timor and the Sunda Islands. The smallest owl on the Australian mainland, the southern boobook is 27 to 36 cm (10.5 to 14 in) long, with predominantly dark brown plumage with prominent pale spots. It has grey-green or yellow-green eyes. It is generally nocturnal, though is sometimes active at dawn and dusk, retiring to roost in secluded spots in the foliage of trees. The southern boobook feeds on insects and small vertebrates, hunting by pouncing on them from tree perches. Breeding takes place from late winter to early summer, using tree hollows as nesting sites. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed the southern boobook as being of least concern on account of its large range and apparently stable population.
The Rogožarski IK-3(nominated by Peacemaker67) was a 1930s Yugoslavmonoplane single-seat fighter, designed by Ljubomir Ilić, Kosta Sivčev and Slobodan Zrnić as a successor to the Ikarus IK-2 fighter. Its armament consisted of a hub-firing 20 mm (0.79 in) autocannon and two fuselage-mounted synchronisedmachine guns. It was considered comparable to foreign aircraft such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109E and came into service in 1940. The prototype crashed during testing; a total of twelve production aircraft had been delivered by July 1940. Six IK-3s were serviceable when the Axisinvasion of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941. All six were in service with the 51st Independent Fighter Group at Zemun near Belgrade. Pilots flying the IK-3 claimed 11 aircraft shot down during the 11-day conflict. According to one account, to prevent them from falling into German hands, the surviving aircraft and incomplete airframes were destroyed by their crews and factory staff. Another account suggests that one aircraft survived the invasion and was later destroyed by sabotage. The IK-3 design was the basis for the post-war Yugoslav-built Ikarus S-49 fighter.
Ho Ho Ho(nominated by Aoba47) is a 1997 Christmas album and the third studio album by American singer and drag queenRuPaul. Released on October 28, 1997, by the record label Rhino, it is RuPaul’s first album featuring Christmas music and consists of thirteen tracks. Music critics frequently described the album as an example of camp though RuPaul clarified that it included several more serious covers, specifically "All Alone on Christmas" and "Hard Candy Christmas". Ho Ho Ho was praised by critics following its release and during retrospective reviews; its cheerful and humorous compositions were frequently cited as the album's highlights, though some commentators responded negatively to the record's use of humor and the lack of clarity in its overall message. It was included in a 2016 parody list discussing the alt-right, the "War on Christmas", and the bathroom bill. The album peaked at number 27 on the Heatseekers AlbumsBillboard chart, selling a little more than 4,000 copies in one week. To support the record, RuPaul filmed a television special as part of his VH1 talk show The RuPaul Show (1996).
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