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Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-07-29/Featured content

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Even mammoths get the Blues


This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 12 July through 18 July. Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.

Male Frigate bird

Five Featured articles were promoted this week.

  • Columbian mammoth (nominated by FunkMonk) The Columbian mammoth was native to the southern half of North America, evolving from the steppe mammoth about 1.5 million years ago. The last specimens appear to have died out about 11,000 years ago. The largest adult specimens stood 13 feet high and weighed about 10 tons; only bones and hair have been recovered from deposits so far. Examples of their dung and stomach contents have also been found- it's estimated that a full-grown mammoth consumed about 400 pounds of vegetation and tree bark a day, browsing in their preferred habitat of open parkland (groves of trees set in grassland). There is possible evidence of hunting by humans from about 22,000 years ago. Sites associated with the rise of the Clovis culture from about 15,000 years ago provide evidence of hunting with spears, butchering, and the utilisation of bones for tool-making. The Columbian mammoth may have become extinct through overkill and/or climate change – warmer temperatures allowed the replacement of parkland by forests impassable for mammoths, treeless grasslands, and deserts.
  • Frigatebird (nominated by Aa77zz and Casliber) Frigatebirds are tropical seabirds with black plumage, forked tails, and a wingspan up to 2.3 metres (7.5 ft), which allows them to float over the water for days on the wind currents. The males have a distinctive red gular pouch, which they inflate during the breeding season to attract females. Frigatebirds spend most of the day soaring in flight over the ocean, hunting for fish and squid. At night they sleep on trees or cliffs.
  • Hurricane Gonzalo (nominated by Juliancolton) Hurricane Gonzalo started as a tropical wave off the west coast of Africa at the beginning of October, 2014. Moving across the Atlantic against "hostile winds", this area of low atmospheric pressure encountered a Kelvin wave moving eastwards- showers and thunderstorms associated with the tropical wave became more concentrated. The wave then passed the "upper-level trough axis" that had been causing the hostile winds, and developed into a "small surface low pressure area" and then a tropical depression. This depression then became a category 4 hurricane, which passed over Bermuda twice. After causing extensive damage in the Caribbean, the remains of the storm hit Europe as a large storm system.
  • SMS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse (nominated by Parsecboy) SMS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was a German battleship, launched in 1899. She was of a pre-Dreadnought type, with four main guns of 9.4 inch calibre, and driven by three steam engines. This type, common to many navies, was rendered outgunned and obsolete when HMS Dreadnought arrived in 1906, with her ten 12-inch guns and more powerful steam turbines. Kaiser Wilhelm served until 1910, when she underwent a major refit and was placed in reserve. On the outbreak of war in 1914, she and her four sister ships were formed into a battle group to serve in the Baltic. Eventually, shortage of manpower led to her decommissioning in February 1915. She became a depot ship, and was sold for scrap in 1919.
  • The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (nominated by Brianboulton) The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold is a semi-autobiographical novel by Evelyn Waugh, published in 1957. The protagonist is a successful novelist; enervated and insomniac he resorts to barbiturates and alcohol. Depressed by the oncoming winter, Pinfold embarks on a cruise. As he rests in his cabin he becomes aware of noises and voices somehow transmitted from other parts of the ship. The voices gradually become more distinct and threatening, assuming the identities of a BBC radio interviewer and two women. Waugh had himself suffered from harassing voices on board a cruise he took to Colombo in 1954; a doctor diagnosed him as suffering from the effects of a mixture of "chloral and bromide", washed down with crème de menthe. He'd been afflicted with writer's block and financial worries at home which had given him insomnia, and the boozy cocktail was self-medication. When paraldehyde was substituted for chloral, the delusions ceased, and Waugh was able to return to writing. Pinfold was written over the next two years.
Taylor Swift

Five Featured lists were promoted this week.

Sega Nomad
Convair NB-36H
Two mohurs or double Mohur, from British India, 1835, depicting King William IV.
Guinea baboon, Papio papio adult and juvenile
Egg fruit

Sixteen Featured pictures were promoted this week.


What if we staged a revolution, and no-one noticed?