About a month ago, I declared my intention to step down as editor-in-chief of the Signpost upon finding two successors. After combing through several applications, I am delighted to say that this search is at an end: Gamaliel and Go Phightins! will be stepping into my role, while Pine will continue as the publication and newsroom manager. All three are experienced Wikipedians with significant prior or current involvement with the Signpost. I will continue to serve as the newspaper's editor emeritus, where I am looking forward to stepping back while assisting the new editors in any way I can. Details on these positions will come in this column next week.
Please join me in welcoming Gamaliel and Go Phightins, and we would appreciate if you would bear with us as we work through this transition period.
Looking back at my time as the editor of the Signpost, we attempted to continue expanding the newspaper's scope to include both the English Wikipedia and Wikimedia movement. While our coverage has been patchy at times, especially with regards to breaks between arb report writers and technological initiatives, I believe that we accomplished our goals. As this week's ten-year Signpost anniversary article shows, many of the Signpost's biggest stories came in the last few years. For "News and notes" and general Wikimedia news—the sections I put much of my personal effort into—these ranged all over the world, from Wikivoyage to Gibraltar to the Russian Wikipedia and the National Archives and Records Administration.
Still, the stories that will stick with me are the memorials, particularly the life and death of Ihor Kostenko, a Ukrainian Wikipedian. While I never personally met Ihor, writing about his death made me feel like we had lost a kindred spirit. A fan of sports, geography, history, and warships, Ihor and I shared many interests; we were even near each other's ages. What more could he have done with a lengthier life?
We will unfortunately never have the answer to that question, but we do know what he did with his life, and it will live on through every person that encounters the work he did online. The legacy we make today will be left for the world of tomorrow. Will we leave a fractured, contentious, and cantankerous community beset by an unwillingness to adapt to a new generation? Or will we leave them with something worthy of the fifth-highest ranking on the Internet?
The Wikipedia Signpost was founded by Michael Snow, beginning with the publication of the January 10, 2005 issue. That issue contained ten articles, all written by Snow, beginning with his introduction "From the editor". It also contained the first Arbitration Report ("The Report On Lengthy Litigation", or TROLL), which would become a long-time staple of the Signpost. Snow headed up the Signpost until August, when Ral315 took over.
The Signpost conducted an interview with Jimmy Wales in February. In December, it featured the first installment of a comic strip called WikiWorld, created by cartoonist Greg Williams. WikiWorld, which ran intermittently until 2008, remains one of the most fondly remembered Signpost features.
The Signpost covered several significant news stories in 2007. It reported on WikiScanner, a tool which matched edits made by anonymous IP editors to a number of organizations, resulting in revelations which proved embarrassing to numerous companies and media and political organizations. Embarrassing for Wikipedia was the Essjay controversy, where a well-regarded Wikipedia editor and Wikia employee was revealed to have lied about his academic credentials and background. And revelations that the article of a nutrition author was edited by his own public relations agent led to one of the most amusing headlines in Signpost history, "Nutritional beef cooks PR editor".
Early in 2008, the Signpost reported on a controversy which erupted over a number of historical images depicting Muhammad. Visual depictions of Muhammad are offensive to many Muslims. The presence of the images on Wikipedia prompted a 100,000 signature petition demanding their removal, but Wikipedia editors ultimately decided to retain the images. Later in the year, the Signpost reported on another image controversy after an image of the cover of the Scorpions' album Virgin Killer prompted media complaints and even a brief blacklisting of Wikipedia by the Internet Watch Foundation.
In a year of sensitive and controversial news stories, perhaps the most difficult was the Signpost's two-part series on the relationship between Jimmy Wales and Canadian commentator Rachel Marsden. Their brief relationship was the subject of salacious stories in the news media, but unlike most news outlets the Signpost treated the matter seriously instead of as gossip. It reported on the relationship and the fallout from the scandal, investigating allegations of impropriety and exploring how the matter affected the encyclopedia.
HaeB took over the Signpost in June. In August, the Wikipedia Signpost officially shortened its name to the Signpost to reflect its coverage of Wikimedia projects beyond the English Wikipedia.
Behind the scenes, in late May, the Signpost gained a bit more exposure when its featured content section became part of Portal:Featured content.
2015
Go Phightins! and Gamaliel will take over leadership of the Signpost towards the end of January.
Where will the Signpost go in 2015? Much of that depends on you. We'd like to expand our coverage in many ways, reviving "News and Notes" as a regular section and doing more to check in with other projects and initiatives on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. For us to be able to do that, we need you. Offer your ideas on our Suggestions page or visit our Newsroom to see where you can help.
ByThe ed17Mahan in June 1944, shortly after a refit in California.
Over seventy years ago, the US destroyer Mahan was patrolling off Ponson Island in the Philippines when eleven Japanese kamikaze aircraft appeared over the horizon and attacked. The bombers in the group bored in with bombs armed. US Army fighter aircraft shot down three and damaged two; Mahan's gunners took out another four.
Training crewmen aboard the Mahan-class destroyer Shaw to use an unshielded 5"/38 caliber gun.
George Pendergast, who edits Wikipedia with the username Pendright, was eighteen years old when he joined Mahan's crew in April 1944. About half of the ship's crew at that time was made up of green, untested teenagers. Pendergast served aboard the ship as a fireman, second class, a low-end position that "required little brainpower but much speed and dexterity." He would function as one of a three-part crew: one each for oil, air, and water. These individuals had to work very closely together when hunting a submarine, a process that required the destroyer to run quickly at varying speeds. "Through a system of communication, the bridge would send down an order for 'full steam ahead': that meant the fireman had to bat open twelve burners, feeding oil into the firebox, as quickly as possible; the man on the air had to feed the air simultaneously for proper combustion; and the water checker had to feed more water into the boiler, or it might go dry and blow. Now, five minutes later, the next order might be 'stop', which meant all twelve burners had to be batted closed, the air guy had to cut the air, and the water checker had to cut the water, so it would not overflow and kill the fire." The steam produced through this process would be fed to the engine room, which controlled the propellers that actually moved the ship.
Pendergast's position kept him in the often unbearable heat of the fireroom, blind to the world outside. In non-battle situations, this was not a problem. Pendergast would stand watches of four hours on and eight or twelve off. If he was off watch between 8am and 4pm, however, he would have to report to the fireroom regardless. "You might chip paint, do some painting, clean burners and floor plates, or do other menial tasks," he said.『The Navy made sure you kept busy—no days off!』Still, when the sailors were off duty, there was little more to do besides sleep, eat, read, and write home. Many men took to gambling their salaries, a problem so pervasive that the navy limited salary dispersal while underway to just five dollars every two weeks—the sailors were paid in cash, a practice unknown to many people today.
If the ship was in battle, the stress level changed. Being below Mahan's deck, Pendergast had little clue as to what was going on outside. They were forced to use the tempo and weight of the ship's armament to compensate. "The guns told you what was happening," he told me. "If you heard the five-inch guns booming away, the enemy was still at a distance. When the 40-mm anti-aircraft guns started blasting away, they were getting closer. When you'd hear the 20-mm guns, you knew it was time to worry."
Wartime US film depicting kamikaze strikes and the explosions they caused.
On 7 December 1944, those 20-mm guns were used extensively. Mahan was not a large ship, displacing only 1500 to 1800 long tons. Furthermore, it was primarily intended for surface and anti-submarine warfare, and as such was not heavily armed with anti-aircraft weapons—by 1944, wartime refits brought the major weaponry to four 5-inch, two twin 40-mm, and four to six 20-mm guns. Exactly three years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the battle that brought the US into the Second World War, Mahan faced down the eleven Japanese aircraft off Ponson Island. Despite its crew's best efforts, the ship was hit by three Japanese kamikaze aircraft. The kinetic impact of these strikes was augmented by the fuel they were carrying. One struck the superstructure, where the bridge—staffed by the captain and crewmen at the helm—was located.
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I was at my general quarter's station in the forward fire room when Mahan was rocked by the impact of the three Japanese suicide planes. We knew we'd been hit, of course, but we didn't know by what. Yet, there was no panic ... we were startled but fortunately unhurt. Both boilers remained on line until they were later shut down. It all happened so quickly that many of the details of 7 December 1944 have escaped me. But one detail has stuck with me: the fact that we did not know what was actually taking place topside, which seemingly made that unknown almost as nasty as the event itself.
”
After receiving the order to abandon ship, Pendergast and his crewmates climbed up to emerge into a world that had changed greatly since they last saw it:
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On deck, there was an inferno of fire and explosions; the ship's superstructure had been reduced to rubble, and the forward magazine was exploding. While trying to get our bearings, the torpedo men were jettisoning Mahan's twelve torpedoes but were hard pressed to avoid hitting the sailors who had gone over the side. Some of us made our way through the debris to the fantail [stern or rear of the ship] and took turns going over the side into the waters of Ormac Bay; I lost my loosely tied shoes. Within an hour or so, another destroyer picked up our group. Once we climbed the ladder to the deck of the ship, we were rewarded with a swig of whiskey by a pharmacist mate. The ship remained under attack for most of the day. Later, we were transferred to another ship, and then to several more before reaching Pearl Harbor. There, we were housed in a stockade because we had no IDs except our dog tags. When that was sorted out, we boarded the USS Columbia, a cruiser, bound for Terminal Island, California, arriving two months after the sinking.
”
The difference in scale between a battleship (top) and Mahan (third from top) is clearly visible.
Pendergast went on to serve in the much quieter Caribbean and European theaters aboard Cone from 18 August 1945 until 21 March 1946. He later got a degree and became a government accountant and auditor.
In his mid-eighties, Pendergast got involved with Wikipedia after a local military museum asked him to write about women in the military. Accordingly, his first edits on the site were to Cadet Nurse Corps in October 2011. He was motivated by the idea of contributing to something with a lasting sense of value and by bringing his shipmates' war history up to the "level they rightfully earned." In the years since, he's written featured articles on Mahan and the Mahan-class destroyer, which examines the entire eighteen-strong class of warships that Mahan led. The latter was featured on Wikipedia's main page on 16 January and was visited approximately 48,000 times in a four-day period. He has had a very positive experience on the site, and plans to keep contributing for as long as he is able to.
I asked Pendergast whether the current generation of US history enthusiasts—people who have had little direct experience with conscription, let alone war—is missing crucial life experiences that derogatorily affect their views and writing. He does not think so. "There have been many successful coaches in sports—yet some of them never played the game or ever played it very well. Historians are another example."
For older individuals who want to contribute, Pendergast advises that they should make use of Wikipedia's mentoring processes, such as the Teahouse, the adopt-a-user program, or the upcoming co-op, and choose a subject that they are both passionate about and knowledgeable in. He also noted that studying articles near their preferred topic would help them learn the intricacies of wiki markup, and that they should join Wikipedia groups and activities when offered. Finally and most importantly, "be bold, but don't bite off more than [you can] chew."
Near the end of our correspondence, I backtracked to ask Pendergast about his most vivid memory from that day.
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It was after going over the side and paddling around the waters of Ormoc Bay. Believe me, there was despair and reason for doubt. What was going to happen to us? Would we be strafed, run over by another ship, or eventually rescued? Meanwhile, we needed to get away from the burning and exploding Mahan, as well as the fighting on the beach. So, we made our way out to the open water without incident where we were sighted and rescued.
It's hard to believe that the event occurred over seventy years ago. It was our lucky day!
Annual report released: On January 21, the Wikimedia Foundation released its annual report for 2014. It is the seventh annual report released by the Foundation. A Foundation blog post describes the creation of the report.
Wikimania 2016: On January 20, the Wikimedia Foundation announced that the site for the 2016 Wikimania conference will be Esino Lario, a small comuneinLombardy, Italy. Six bids were submitted last year and of those, Atlantic City, Chennai, Dar es Salaam, and St. Louis were disqualified by the jury, leaving only Manila to compete with Esino Lario. Posters on the Wikimedia-l mailing list largely praised the decision, but one expressed surprise that the population of the Italian village (772) was smaller than the expected number of conference attendees.
Steward elections: This year's elections for the position of steward will be held from February 8 to 28. Candidates can stand for the election until January 28, and as of press time eight candidates are in the running. There are currently 34 stewards.
I have edited Wikipedia off and on for the past ten years. For as long as I have been a Wikipedia editor, there have been WikiProjects: sub-groups of the larger Wikipedia community dedicated to a particular subject matter or a certain task. WikiProjects are all over the map: some of them are dedicated to highly specific subjects; others are dedicated to high-level concepts like "biographies." Some WikiProjects have a very specific focus on encyclopedic content; others, like the Department of Fun, provide support in more indirect ways. There is a WikiProject for pretty much everyone, and if there isn't one for you, you can easily start one. In fact, they are so easy to start that we currently have over 2,000 WikiProjects.
Unfortunately, a proliferation of WikiProjects does not mean a proliferation of activity. Many WikiProjects that get started end up becoming inactive. What's happening? Several factors are at play. WikiProjects require significant effort to maintain, so they decline after their maintainers move on to do other things. Some arguments have been made that WikiProjects become less relevant as some subject areas get more complete coverage on Wikipedia. Others have tied the decline of WikiProjects to an overall decline of participation on Wikipedia.
Whatever the cause, WikiProjects are failing to live up to their potential. The English-language Wikipedia is huge. As with any large community, it can be hard for any one person to feel like he or she belongs. By grouping people together by their interests, WikiProjects have the potential to make Wikipedians feel like they are a part of a close-knit community. They can help Wikipedians of all levels of experience navigate our policies and procedures, ensuring that they are confident in their editing and that there is less cleanup work for the administrators. They have the potential to provide the social support that encourages newcomers to stick around and build our encyclopedia.
The potential WikiProjects have encouraged me to start WikiProject X, a new project funded by a Wikimedia Foundation Individual Engagement Grant that focuses on figuring out what makes some WikiProjects work and not others. Our research will focus on current WikiProjects and the subject areas they cover, determining where WikiProjects provide adequate support to the editing community and where they do not. I plan on interviewing many Wikipedians, including people who don't normally get involved on WikiProjects. I want to know what resources you need to support your editing.
Isarra, a Wikipedian and experienced MediaWiki designer, will lead our design effort. We will be drawing from our research data and other sources of inspiration, including the Teahouse and other existing WikiProjects. We should begin to think beyond static pages and lists. WikiProjects should make you feel engaged. They should put relevant information front and center, and always feel up to date. They should be easy to maintain, and no one should have to re-invent the wheel. They should be a safe space for users. They should make editing Wikipedia an easier and more satisfying experience for everyone.
This benefits more than just online users. I run many in-person editing events with my local Wikimedia chapter, usually organized around a specific theme. The experience of having a knowledgeable Wikipedia editor walk you through the ropes is difficult to replicate online. At the same time, there is only so much you can accomplish at a single event. I would like to be able to refer the people we train at our events to a WikiProject, where they can pick up where they left off. This would help bridge the gap between offline and online, where offline event organizers work with online participants from around the world, complementing each other's efforts. Very few WikiProjects are currently equipped to pull this off, but with the right tools, more should be able to do this.
We want to hear your perspective on this endeavor. We are collecting stories at Wikipedia:WikiProject X/Stories and are recruiting people and WikiProjects for pilot testing at Wikipedia:WikiProject X/Pilots. You are also encouraged to sign up for our newsletter if you are interested in learning more.
James Hare is the current president of Wikimedia DC. He has edited Wikipedia since 2004.
The views expressed in these op-eds are those of the authors only; responses and critical commentary are invited in the comments section. Editors wishing to submit their own op-ed should email the Signpost's editor.
The radio show Little Atoms, broadcast weekly on London's Resonance FM, featured a lengthy conversation with journalist and author Johann Hari on its January 20 episode about his new book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs. In 2011, it was revealed that Hari had engaged in a spree of pseudonymous edits maligning other British journalists, accusing them of being anti-Semitic, homophobic, alcoholic, and supporters of Sarah Palin (see previous Signpostcoverage). This, coupled with revelations of plagiarism, prompted Hari to return his prestigious Orwell Prize and leave The Independent. Before the book discussion, Hari and host Neil Denny briefly discussed the issue. Hari said
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I did two things that were really awful things to do; one was when I interviewed people sometimes I would use material they had spoken elsewhere or written down and acted as if it had been said directly to me. And also on Wikipedia sometimes I would edit other people's entries under a pseudonym and I was horrible and nasty about some of them. Those are both awful things to do.
”
Denny asked if he would offer an apology specifically to two of his targets, Nick Cohen and Francis Wheen. Hari, who has previously published a public apology, and privately contacted some of his specific targets, asked Denny to deliver private letters of apology to the two men.
Studying Wikipedia: V3reports (January 21) on Jimmy Wales' appearance at BETT 2015, an annual UK technology trade show. He said that students should be taught how to properly use Wikipedia. "A hundred percent of all students are using Wikipedia. This debate that we used to have five years ago about should students use Wikipedia or not is frankly irrelevant. They are using Wikipedia. It's just a fact of reality. What we need to do is teach students how to use Wikipedia. It has its strengths and it has its weaknesses. It's really crucial that we educate this next generation on those strengths and those weaknesses."
Speaking Wikipedia: Fusionsings the praises (January 21) of Spoken Wikipedia, a series of audio recordings of Wikipedia articles read by editors, and singles out five of them for particular praise. One of them is the recording of the article death erection by Wikipedian and freelance voiceover artist Jules Ismail (Theroachyjay). Fusion compares Ismail's style to that of a "movie theater announcement" and in the recording Ismail performs a small section of Waiting for Godot that was quoted in the article. Another one, Bhutanese passport, has received significant social media attention because the reading, in what may be Bhutanese-accented English, is widely perceived as comic. The resulting attention has prompted article protection and a talk page debate about the appropriateness of the recording.
Give me Liberty: The West Liberty Indexreports (January 21) on efforts by town librarians and members of a non-profit local development organization to improve the article for West Liberty, Iowa as part of an effort to enhance the city's online presence.
Preserving musical heritage: The Times of Indiareports (January 20) efforts to preserve and make accessible traditional Indian musical compositions using projects like Telugu Wikisource. These include the works of musicians of centuries past like Annamacharya and the bandishes of current musicians like Neela Bhagwat.
In the greenhouse: A profile (January 18) of citizen journalistEliot HigginsinThe Independent mentions the frequent vandalism of his Wikipedia article. Higgins said "I've been using the internet since 1997 – it's not like I'm some delicate flower."
Net neutrality: In the New York Daily News, Professor Tim Wu, who coined the phrase network neutrality in 2003, writes (January 17) that non-profit websites like Wikipedia would slow down in the absence of net neutrality.
Genetic sexual attraction: In an article (January 17) about incest and rape, The Daily Beast notes the contentious discussions on Wikipedia regarding the article genetic sexual attraction due to the few scholarly references to the concept.
Penn State: Penn Livereports (January 16) that the wins of former Pennsylvania State University coach Joe Paterno were quickly restored in several Wikipedia articles following the news of a settlement in a lawsuit against the NCAA. The settlement restores Paterno's 111 wins that were vacated by the NCAA in the wake of the Sandusky scandal. Wikipedia editing in relationship to this lawsuit has been the subject of prior Signpostcoverage.
Slums and suburbs: The Watford Observerreports (January 16) that the Wikipedia article for South Oxhey, a suburb of Watford, described it as a "slum of Watford". The newspaper reports that the vandalism remained for two days, but according to the edit history, it remained for a week.
This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 4 January 2015 through 11 January 2015. Anything in quotation marks is taken from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
The Woman Trapped in a Sex Toy was the cover story in the April–May 1939 issue of Marvel Science Stories. Apparently.Jack Parsons, who might fit the mad scientist archetype. He died in a laboratory explosion at the age of 37 (and probably read the above magazine).I'm a marmot!The Boat Race 2003
June 1941 uprising in eastern Herzegovina(nominatedbyPeacemaker67) The June 1941 uprising was the uprising by Serbs "against the authorities of the Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH)". The NDH was a puppet state formed after the defeat and occupation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers (Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy). The state was controlled by the Ustaša–Croatian Revolutionary Movement, known as the Ustaše, a Fascist and ultra-conservative terrorist organisation, who intended to create an ethnically pure Croatia by killing, expelling, or converting to Roman Catholicism those Serbs living in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The majority of the population of eastern Herzegovina were Serbs; from the first week of June 1941 the Ustaše carried out attacks, shootings of hostages, and massacres in the region. Isolated incidents of resistance against the Ustaše and the NDH gendarmerie escalated into full-scale rebellion on 23 June, after news of the German invasion of the Soviet Union reached the region. The revolt was finally suppressed by the intervention of Italian troops, followed by mopping-up operations by the Croatian Home Guard. Peacemaker67's written a damn good article – near impossible to condense it into a paragraph without losing a lot.
The Boat Race 2003(nominatedbyThe Rambling Man) Every year, Cambridge and Oxford Universities' rowing crews race on the Championship Course against each other. The 2003 event was numbered as the 149th Boat Race of the Boat Races, an annual rowing race between the University of Oxford, or the "Dark Blues", and the University of Cambridge, or the "Light Blues". First held in 1829, the side-by-side rowing event is held on the River Thames between Putney and Mortlake. This 186-year-old rivalry is followed throughout the United Kingdom and broadcast worldwide. On Wikipedia, The Rambling Man is trying very hard to have a featured article on every single one of these annual sporting events, and that is awesome. To quote his description of this race from the featured article candidate page: Hot on the heels of "a man jumping in front of two boats" and "cleavers not spoons", I humbly submit to you this meagre offering. It seemed unlikely that anything would match the excitement of the 2002 race but this race took the proverbial biscuit. Dramaz beforehand with broken oars and wrists, and the closest finish in the long history of the event. The winning margin is estimated to have been approximately five hundredths of a second over the course of an 18-minute race. That's close.
Marvel Science Stories(nominatedbyMike Christie)Marvel Science Stories was a US pulp magazine which published a total of fifteen issues in two separate runs, both edited by Robert O. Erisman. The publisher for the first run was Postal Publications, and the second run was published by Western Publishing; both companies were owned by Abraham and Martin Goodman. It appeared in August 1938, and carried stories with more sexual content than was usual for the genre.
Olympic marmot(nominatedbyinnotata) The Olympic marmot is a marmot that lives on Mount Olympus. In ancient Greek mythology, it is the Olympic marmot that serves the Greek gods their afternoon tea and the gods use them as cushions during the winter season... Well, okay, it's not. It occurs only in the U.S. state of Washington, on the middle elevations of the Olympic Peninsula. This is not a joke anymore, it is true, it was declared the official endemic mammal of Washington. The closest related species are the hoary marmot and the Vancouver Island marmot. It has a brown coat and long, bushy tail, and it is a vegetarian with a diet of dry grasses, which it also uses as bedding in burrows. The Olympic marmot lives in colonies, which are found in various mountain locations. These vary in size, from a single family to multiple families with up to 40 marmots. Olympic marmots are very sociable animals who often engage in play fighting and they communicate with whistles. During hibernation, beginning in September, they are in a deep sleep and they emerge again in May.
Battle of Schliengen(nominatedbyAuntieruth) At the Battle of Schliengen (24 October 1796), both the French Army of the Rhine and Moselle under the command of Jean-Victor Moreau and the Austrian army under the command of Archduke Charles of Austria claimed victories. During the French Revolutionary Wars, Schliengen was a strategically important location for the armies of both Republican France and Habsburg Austria. Control of the area gave either combatant access to southwestern German states and important Rhine river crossings. On 20 October Moreau retreated from Freiburg im Breisgau and established his army of 32,000 along a ridge of hills. His retreat was closely followed by Charles' combined force of 24,000 soldiers. Moreau halted at Schliengen, and arranged his forces along a high ridge. Charles, appreciating that Moreau was in a strong defensive position, attacked the French flanks, rather than the centre. After a day of battle Moreau, realising that Charles' forcing of his flanks from their positions made his centre vulnerable, decided that retreat was the best option. Moreau reached the French border by 3 November. He had offered an armistice to Charles, but this was refused by the Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II, who was Charles' brother. Charles' forces were then ordered to lay siege to the fortifications at Kehl and Hüningen, which kept them occupied for the winter.
Jack Parsons (rocket engineer)(nominatedbyJJARichardson and Midnightblueowl) John Whiteside Parsons (1914–1952) (born Marvel Whiteside Parsons (no, seriously), and better known as Jack Parsons), was an American rocket and chemical engineer, propulsion researcher, inventor, businessman, writer, and Thelemiteoccultist. Parsons' "distinctive technical innovations" in rocketry, and advocacy for space exploration and human spaceflight, make him regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the U.S. space program. Parsons was associated with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and was one of the principal founders of both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Aerojet Engineering Corporation. He invented the first castable, composite solid rocket propellant, and pioneered the advancement of both liquid and solid-fuel rockets. Born in Los Angeles, California, Parsons was raised by a wealthy family in Pasadena. Inspired by science fiction literature, he developed an interest in rocketry in his childhood and in 1928 began amateur rocket experiments with his best friend Ed Forman. He was forced to drop out of Pasadena Junior College and Stanford University due to financial difficulties during the Great Depression, but in 1934 together with Forman and Frank Malina formed the Caltech-affiliated GALCIT Rocket Research Group, supported by Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory chairman Theodore von Kármán. In 1939 they gained funding from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to work on Jet-Assisted Take Off (JATO) for the U.S. military. In 1942 they founded Aerojet to develop and sell their JATO technology; the Group became JPL in 1943. Parsons was also a devotee to Thelema, Aleister Crowley's new religious movement, and in 1942 he succeeded Wilfred Talbot Smith as high priest of the Agape Lodge, the church of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) in California. Parsons fell out of favor with Crowley, however, when he endeavoured to immaculately conceive a vessel of the goddess BabaloninEnochiansex magic rituals with his future wife Marjorie Cameron, alongside future Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Parsons continued the operation alone in order to conjure the Antichrist into the physical plane. (Seriously, we're not making this up). Parsons was banned from rocketry by the U.S. government, apparently not for his efforts to bring forth the Apocalypse, but for his Marxism/libertarianism and alleged spying for the Israelis. He was killed in an explosion which was, according to your point of view, an evil conspiracy planned by dark forces or caused by him storing a large amount of dangerous chemicals in his house. Scientists, keep in mind: don't mess with the Antichrist, it doesn't pay off... well, other than in minor things, maybe, like a Moon crater being named after you.
William F. Raynolds(nominatedbyMONGO) William F. Raynolds (1820–1894) was a civil engineer and graduate of the United States Military Academy who served in both the Mexican–American War and was a brevetted brigadier general for meritorious service in the American Civil War. In 1848 during the American occupation of Mexico, he led the first successful mountaineering expedition to the summit of Pico de Orizaba, which, at (18,620 feet (5,680 m)), is the tallest mountain in Mexico and third tallest in North America, and inadvertently set an American alpine record that was not surpassed for 50 years. The Mexicans refused to believe that the Raynolds expedition had reached the top, until a French team climbed up in 1851 and discovered the "Stars and Stripes" flying there, with "1848" carved into the flagstaff. Afterwards he returned to his pre-war task of mapping the US-Canada border. In 1859, he was in charge of the Raynolds Expedition, the first U.S. government sponsored expedition to the region that later became Yellowstone National Park. Heavy snowpack from the previous winter forced the expedition south of Yellowstone and they became the first government sponsored party to enter Jackson Hole and survey the Teton Range. Reynolds designed and surpervised numerous lighthouse projects and several of those lighthouses are still in use and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He saw plenty of service during the American Civil War, which included "chasing Stonewall Jackson up the Shenandoah Valley" and being in charge of the fortifications of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Raynolds retired after 40 years of military service in 1884. While he climbed the tallest mountains in Mexico, built lighthouses, and made maps of the US-Canada border, it was MONGO that got his article to featured status. Wikipedia not good enough for you, Raynolds?
[[[Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, BWV 22|Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, BWV 22]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)(nominatedbyGerda Arendt)Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe (Jesus gathered the twelve to Himself), BWV22, is a church cantatabyJohann Sebastian Bach, written for the last Sunday before Lent. He composed it as an audition piece for the position of director of church music in Leipzig, and first performed it in a church service there at St. Thomas on 7 February 1723. The work begins with a scene from the Gospels in which Jesus predicts his suffering in Jerusalem, but substitutes a contemporary Christian for the disciples, who, while not understanding Jesus' words, decides to follow him anyway. The work, structured in five movements, shows that Bach had mastered the composition of a dramatic scene, an expressive aria with obbligatooboe, a recitative with strings, an exuberant dance, and a chorale in the style of Johann Kuhnau, his predecessor in Leipzig. Elements such as a "frame of biblical text and chorale around the operatic forms of aria and recitative" became standards for Bach's Leipzig cantatas and even his Passions.
Kenwalch's Castle, an Iron Agehillfort and one of the Scheduled Monuments in South Somerset. Hillforts and other earthwork defences can be a bit hard to follow from close up on the ground. As I learned last year, taking my mother to one when she visits and wants to see a castle is a bad idea.
Elliðaey(created and nominatedbyAlchemist-hp)Elliðaey is one of the small islands in Breiðafjörður, a large shallow bay, about 50 km wide and 125 km long, in the west of Iceland. Breiðafjörður has a spectacular land and seascape consisting of shallow seas, small fjords and bays and an inner part of intertidal areas dotted with about 3,000 islands, islets and skerries. The islands in Breiðafjörður have an unbroken history of human use but now only few islands are inhabited year-round. Many islands are used for summer residences and natural resources such as eiderdown harvesting is the main source of income for many farmers.
Carl Linnaeus(created by Alexander Roslin, nominatedbyԵրևանցի (Yerevantsi))Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist here depicted by the less famous – but still rather renowned Swedish painter Alexander Roslin. So what's the big deal? He was running around in the fields naming everything in Latin, and thus to be blamed for the fate of many poor naturalist students causing many painfull hours for botanist, biologists, zoologists and related species who spent weeks and month of their precious time chanting Latin names (like Zygophyllum spinosum, Zygophyllum spinosum, Zygophyllum spinosum and Glycyrrhiza echinata, Glycyrrhiza echinata) in a desperate effort in remembering them. That is what we think today. But from the beginning ... Linnaeus was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe, proclaimed by Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau to the "greatest man on earth". He is considered the father of modern ecology and taxonomy, developing the foundations for the binomial nomenclature with Systema Naturae. The Swedish king Adolf Frederick granted Linnaeus nobility. Linnaeus was born in southern Sweden, studied at Uppsala University, lived in the Netherlands between 1735 and 1738, where he published a first edition of his Systema Naturae. He then returned to Sweden, and became professor in medicine and botany at Uppsala University. He made a number of journeys through Sweden to collect and classify plants and animals. The Apostles of Linnaeus continued his work classifying species around the world. The Swedish one hundred kronor note bears an image of Linnaeus based on this portrait.
Kuchipudi performer(created and nominatedbyAugustus Binu)Kuchipudi /kuːtʃiˈpuːdi/ is a Indian classical dance from Andhra Pradesh, India. It is also popular all over South India. Bharata Muni who wrote the Natya Shastra about 3000 years ago had explained various aspects of this dance form. Later sometime in the 13th century, the impetus to kuchipudi was given by Sidhendra Yogi. Kuchipudi dancers are quicksilver and scintillating, rounded and fleet-footed, they perform with grace and fluid movements. Performed to classical Carnatic music, it shares many common elements with Bharatanatyam. Kuchipudi is as ancient as Natya astra (1st century BC) in which mention is made of a dance drama form besides solo. An invocatory verse also indicates that four forms of dance were prevalent then, of which ‘Dakshintya’ or South Indian form is apparently the earliest version of Kuchipudi.
Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting(created by Artemisia Gentileschi, nominatedbyChris Woodrich)Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting was painted by Artemisia Gentileschi, a very unusual woman of the late Renaissance and early Baroque era and also one with a somewhat tragic fate. She was born into a family of artists in Rome, Italy in 1593, and was a noted and extremely talented painter in her own right- one of the very few woman artists who made a career of her own in a society where women were not practitioners. Gentileschi’s father, Orazio was a well-known artist and Artemisia trained in his workshop for a long time before launching her own career. Her life was also shadowed by an unfair tragedy. In the 1610s, Artemisia was raped by a member of the workshop, Agostino Tassi, an event which affected her for the rest of her life and is reflected in her art, in themes such as Judith Slaying Holofernes(if you don't like bloody scenes avoid that link about Holofernes) and Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist. The abstract concept of "Painting" was traditionally represented by a female allegorical figure, and this painting is both self-portrait and allegory. Gentileschi’s portait of herself as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura) was rather daring and slightly controversial for her in that period, when women were expected to be muses but not creative artists. She is dressed in a shimmering green robe, with her hair tied up and a chain of gold from which hangs a mask. She holds in her hand a brush, and in the other the palette. The distorted position is typical for the beginning of the Baroque era.
Sailing yacht Zapata II(created and nominated by D Ramey Logan a.k.a. WPPilot)Sailing yacht Zapata II is an offshore yacht and a featured picture nominated by our sporty pilot contributor WPPilot (who actually IS a pilot). Originally the all-wooden Calkins 50 sailboats were considered the Rolls-Royces of the Southern California sail boat racing scene. The 50-year-old Zapata II was originally commissioned for a prominent Southern California yachtsman in 1964, she would become the only other Calkins 50 built to this particular design configuration e.g. a yacht with flush decks. San Diego naval architect Skip Calkins built first her sister ship and won the 1957 Transpacific Yacht Race with a young David Ullman on-board. The design was considered so advanced, it was banned from racing for the next two years in the event. The “C-50s” were competitive racers, equally renowned for both exceptional craftsmanship and quality. "Zapata II" has a long racing history and is still raced every year in the opening day race for its affiliated yacht club. Zapata II hails out of Newport Harbor Yacht Club, in Newport Beach, CA, and we are invited to a glorious free tour out on the Californian waters on this yacht!!!
Neil Gaiman(created by Kyle Cassidy, nominatedbyJ Milburn)Neil Gaiman, born Neil Richard Gaiman; ( on 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. He has won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards, as well as the Newbery and Carnegie medals. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book (2008). The fourth episode of the British science-fiction drama Doctor Who'ssixth series was also written by Neil Gaiman, entitled the "The Doctor's Wife" ... Spoilers: The Doctor's Wife in this case is the consciousness of the TARDIS, not his actual wife.
United States Capitol(created by Martin Falbisoner, nominatedbyAgnosticPreachersKid) The United States Capitol is the seat of the United States Congress, housing the federal government of the United States. The building was rebuilt several times. The first building was designed by William Thornton and built in the neoclassical style completed in the year 1800, around which the city was laid out, situated at the Capitol HillinWashington, D.C., USA. In spring 1792, United States Secretary of StateThomas Jefferson proposed a design competition to solicit designs for the Capitol and the "President's House", and set a four-month deadline. The prize was $500 and a lot in the Federal City. At least ten individuals submitted designs for the Capitol; A late entry by amateur architect William Thornton, submitted on January 31, 1793, won praise for its "Grandeur, Simplicity, and Beauty" by Washington, as well as from Thomas Jefferson. Thornton was inspired by the east front of the Louvre, as well as the Paris Pantheon for the center portion of the design. Thornton's design was officially approved in a letter dated April 5, 1793. After the in 1814 Burning of Washington, by British forces that set fire to the White House and the Capitol, it was rebuilt again and further expanded in the 1850s, with the design of Philadelphia architect Thomas U. Walter. The East Front of was rebuilt in 1904, following a design of the architects Carrère and Hastings. The next major expansion to the Capitol was in 1958; the old columns can be seen at the National Capitol Columns. Rebuilding is still continuing, and a new project is on the verge of being actualized.
PlayStation 4(created by Evan Amos, nominatedbyCrisco 1492) The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a gaming console made by Sony. Released on 11-15-2013 in North America it is an eighth generation system and competes with the Microsoft Xbox One and the Nintendo Wii U. This console is shown with the DualShock 4 controller that is included with the system.
"His Majesty the KING-EMPEROR has been graciously pleased to approve of the grant of the Victoria Cross to the undermentioned soldier of the Indian Army for conspicuous bravery whilst serving with the Indian Army Corps, British Expeditionary Force."
Darwan Singh NegiVC. Hey, don't look so surprised, guys, you made it into the Signpost!
Additionally, outgoing arbitrators Beeblebrox, David Fuchs, Newyorkbrad, and Timotheus Canens remain on the committee until the conclusion of the GamerGate case, which was opened during their terms. As has become customary over the years, the new committee has had plenty of work to do in its first few weeks, including several motions and clarification requests as well as three cases.
Open cases
There are no pending case requests at the time of writing. Three cases remain open and one was closed by motion.
What started as an Internet row has developed into an extremely vitriolic dispute between a large number of Wikipedians and ultimately into one of the largest arbitration cases of recent times. Given the involvement of several prominent editors with lengthy track records (including involvement in multiple previous arbitration cases) and the sheer number of parties (27), the case is likely to be an important landmark with an impact reaching significantly beyond the GamerGate controversy article and its various daughter articles.
After repeated delays, the arbitrators' proposed decision was made public on 19 January (two days ahead of the revised target date), and the talk page was significantly re-structured to allow individual editors to make statements but to prevent threaded discussion. Among the proposed remedies, sitebans are proposed for five editors (two parties are currently indefinitely blocked), while other proposed remedies range from reminders and admonishments to topic bans, the breadth of which has been the subject of much discussion between arbitrators.
A much narrower case than GamerGate, but one which may also have important ramifications. The case concerns allegations that administrator Wifione (talk·contribs) has engaged in undisclosed paid advocacy to advance a public relations and reputation management campaign on Wikipedia, and that he has possibly abused his access or status as an administrator, particularly with regard to articles about and editors acting on behalf of competitors.
The evidence phase closed on 16 January and the case has now entered the workshop phase, which is open until 23 January. The target date for the proposed decision is 30 January.
Whereas in previous eras arbitration cases mainly revolved around geo-political conflicts such as Israel-Palestine, Eastern Europe, and the "Troubles", the hot topics of the current era appear to revolve around gender and sexuality, and this case is no exception. With ArbCom previously having adjudicated on disputes concerning abortion, the gender gap, sexology, and the Manning naming dispute, and the GamerGate case wrapping up, we now have a case about articles relating to the intersection of Christianity and sexuality (though the case scope was widened upon acceptance from Catholicism and homosexuality).
Although nothing on the scale of GamerGate, this is a relatively large case, with 13 named parties. The case is currently in the evidence phase, which remains open until 2 February, while the current target date for the proposed decision is 16 February. At the time of writing, only one editor has thus far presented evidence.
The Acupuncture case was accepted and closed by motion on 12 January. The motion authorises standard discretionary sanctions for the topic area of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, in addition to the existing discretionary sanctions on pseudoscience and fringe science authorised in the 2006 Pseudoscience case.
A motion to create a central log for all discretionary sanctions was passed on 20 January; all discretionary sanctions are now logged at Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Discretionary sanctions/Log rather than on individual case pages. Additionally, each year's log will be blanked after five years.
Voting is underway on motions to rename two historic cases with active discretionary sanctions provisions.
Other business
Sphilbrick (talk·contribs) has been promoted from a trainee to a substantive arbitration clerk.
The clerks team is seeking new volunteers to assist in its work; interested editors are asked to email the clerks' mailing list (clerks-llists.wikimedia.org).
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