Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-03-05/Featured content

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Featured articles

Seven featured articles were promoted this week:

Ontario Highway 401 (nom) by Floydian. Ontario Highway 401, also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway and colloquially as the four-oh-one, is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario stretching 817.9 kilometres (508.2 mi) from Windsor to the Quebec border. The segment of Highway 401 passing through Toronto is the busiest highway in North America, and one of the widest and busiest in the world. It features the busiest multi-structure bridge in North America, located at Hogg's Hollow in Toronto, and is one of the major backbones of a network in the Great Lakes region, connecting the populous Quebec City – Windsor corridor with Michigan, New York and central Ontario's cottage country.
Battle of Arawe (nom) by Nick-D. The Battle of Arawe was fought between Allied and Japanese forces during the New Britain Campaign of World War II. The battle formed part of the Allied Operation Cartwheel, and had the objective of serving as a diversion before a larger landing at Cape Gloucester in late December 1943. The Allies secured Arawe after about a month of intermittent fighting with the outnumbered Japanese force there. There is no consensus among historians on whether the Allied offensive at Arawe was necessary. While some argue that the landing served as a useful diversion, others believe that the entire campaign in western New Britain was unnecessary and that the force employed at Arawe could have been better used elsewhere.
Faryl (nom) by J Milburn. Faryl is the debut album by British mezzo-soprano Faryl Smith, produced by Jon Cohen and backed by a 60-piece orchestra. It was released on 9 March 2009 by Universal Classics and Jazz. Smith rose to fame after her appearance on the second series of Britain's Got Talent. After its release, Faryl became the fastest-selling classical solo album in British chart history, selling 20,000 copies in the first four days, and a total of 29,200 copies in the first week, higher than any other debut album of a classical singer.
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (nom) by GreatOrangePumpkin. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary is a neo-Gothic church serving as the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Moscow. Located in the Central Administrative Okrug, it is one of only two Catholic churches in Moscow and the largest in Russia. Closed down in 1938 and nearly destroyed, following the fall of communism it once again became a church and was elevated to a cathedral in 2002 and reconsecrated in 2005.
Rachel Chiesley, Lady Grange (nom) by Ben MacDui. Rachel Chiesley, usually known as Lady Grange (1679–1745), was the wife of James Erskine, Lord Grange, a Scottish lawyer with Jacobite sympathies. After 25 years of marriage and nine children, the Granges separated acrimoniously. When Lady Grange produced letters in 1732 that she claimed were evidence of his treasonable plottings against the Hanoverian government in London, her husband had her kidnapped. She was incarcerated in various remote locations on the western seaboard of Scotland and died in captivity, after being imprisoned for 13 years. Her life has been remembered in poetry, prose and a play.
Len Hutton (nom) by Sarastro1. Sir Leonard "Len" Hutton (1916 - 1990) was an English cricketer who has been called one of the greatest batsmen in the history of the sport. Marked as a potential star as a teenager, Hutton made his professional debut with Yorkshire County Cricket Club in 1934. Three years later he was playing for the English national team, and in 1938 he scored 364 runs against Australia in a Test match, holding the record for the highest individual innings in a Test match for twenty years. Despite being injured while training as a commando during World War II, Hutton continued after the war to be one of England's best batters. He retired in 1955 and was knighted the following year. Hutton remains statistically among the best batsmen to have played Test cricket.
Prosperity theology (nom) by ItsZippy and Mark Arsten. In Christianity, prosperity theology is a doctrine claiming the Bible teaches that financial blessing is the will of God for Christians. Faith, positive speech, and donations to Christian ministries lead to one's own enrichment. The doctrine is based heavily on non-traditional interpretations of the Bible, especially the Book of Malachi. It first became prominent in the United States in the 1950s and has since been part of the Word of Faith movement and televangelism, and has recently been embraced by members of the Charismatic Movement. Churches following the doctrine are often non-denominational and served by a single pastor.

One featured article was delisted:

Francis Petre (nom): lack of citations

Featured lists

Five featured lists were promoted this week:

List of Chartjackers episodes (nom) by Vobedd. The 2009 British documentary series Chartjackers, which documented the efforts of four teenaged video bloggers to create a popular song through crowdsourcing, ran for ten five-minute episodes and one thirty-minute recap finale. The episodes, produced by Adam King and Jonathan Davenport of the production company Hat Trick Productions, were released on multiple platforms. Ultimately, the project's creation, "I've Got Nothing", peaked at number 36 on the UK charts.
List of highest-grossing films (nom) by Betty Logan. The new featured list depicts "a chart of the top box-office earners, a chart of high-grossing films by calendar year, a timeline showing the transition of the highest-grossing film record, and a chart of the highest-grossing film franchises and series". Eleven films have grossed over a billion dollars, with the 2009 film Avatar the highest grossing of all (without adjusting for inflation).
List of cities and towns in California (nom) by Kurykh. The US state of California is home to 37,253,956 inhabitants; 82.97% of the population is spread through 482 municipalities. The oldest of these, Sacramento, was incorporated in 1850; the largest is Los Angeles, which holds a little more than 10% of California's population.
Premier League Manager of the Season (nom) by Lemonade51 and The Rambling Man. The Premier League Manager of the Season, an annual association football award presented to managers in England, was established during the 1993–1994 season. Since then, it has been awarded annually under different names to the league's most outstanding manager, as selected by a panel assembled by the league's sponsor. The first (and also most recent) winner was Alex Ferguson.
List of National Historic Landmarks in Michigan (nom) by Dana boomer. The US state of Michigan is home to 34 National Historic Landmarks (NHL), located in 15 of the state's 83 counties; another three former NHLs have since been delisted. The most recently listed building is the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant; other landmarks include small communities, residential homes, steamboats, and a World War II submarine.

Featured pictures

Six featured pictures were promoted this week:

Electric steam iron (nom; related article), by Colin. The new featured picture, depicting an electric steam iron made by Russell Hobbs with a focus on the steamplate and handle, was shot on glass with a white background. Clothes irons are small household appliances used to remove wrinkles from clothing and have been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Ginevra de' Benci (nom; related article), created by Leonardo da Vinci and nominated by Crisco 1492. Ginevra de' Benci, a c. 1474 oil on panel painting measuring 38.1 cm × 37 cm (15.0 in × 15 in), is one of only four paintings by Leonardo depicting a lone female subject. The painting, named after its subject, is decorated on its reverse with a juniper sprig encircled by a wreath of laurel and palm, as well as the phrase Virtutem Forma Decorat.
Experiments in the Revival of Organisms (nom; related article), directed by D.I. Yashin and nominated by Crisco 1492. Experiments in the Revival of Organisms is a 20-minute long film documenting purported Soviet research into the resuscitation of clinically dead organisms. Produced in 1940, the film features Russian text overlaid with English subtitles. The film is now in the public domain.
Young Kaiser Ferdinand I (nom; related article), created by an unknown artist and nominated by Alexcoldcasefan. The new featured picture depicts Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, as a young boy between the ages of 10 and 12. The future emperor was born to Joanna of Castile on 10 March 1503. The painting is thought to have been completed c. 1520, after Ferdinand had assumed the throne.
Sammy Davis Junior (nom; related article), created by Allan warren and nominated by Tomer T. American actor Sammy Davis Jr. (1925–1990), who started his career in vaudeville as a child, was known for his acting, dancing, and impersonating other celebrities. The new featured picture, taken in 1986, depicts Davis in a pensive moment, resulting in what reviewer Mathew Townsend called "an expressive portrait".
Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus flower (nom; related article) by Paolo Costa. This new featured picture, taken in La Gran Sabana, Venezuela, shows the flower of Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus (also known as the Lemon Day-lily). The plant, one of the first daylilies to be bred, is found mainly in China.

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Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus photograph

The Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus blurb is misleading in several ways. It says "The plant, one of the first lilies to be cultivated, is found mainly in China."

1) It is a daylily, not a true lily. Completely different order, subfamily, family and genus. It shouldn't be called a lily as this is confusing.

2) Compare the blurb with the Wikipedia Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus page, which says "one of the first daylilies used for breeding". Being one of the first daylilies used for breeding is not the same thing as being 'one of the first lilies to be cultivated' at all. Breeding is to improve the plant line, to introduce new cultivars etc. Cultivation is likely to have gone on in China for millennia, growing the plant (but not necessarily breeding/developing it) for food and medicine. This ambiguity of meaning should be clarified.

However, a far bigger and more important problem is that I am not at all convinced that the photographed exampled is a true Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus anyway. I grow it and have been to see the Hemerocallis species and cultivars held in one of the National Collections here in the UK. All examples of the plant I have ever seen are a much more lemony-yellow than the version pictured. Given that the photographed example was not growing in its natural range, it is highly likely that it is a cultivar or a hybrid, not the true species. Hemerocallis species hybridise with each other very readily.

This brings me to one of the biggest problems in WIkipedia. We have all these rules for verifiability and sourcing in our written material, but in photographs we just take the photographer's word that the photograph shows what it purports to show. I am not suggesting the photographer here was trying to mislead; just that he or she might have been misinformed and by reproducing this photograph as a Featured Image, that error is being promulgated and given the veneer of authority and correctness. 86.134.91.157 (talk) 08:40, 7 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Additional: The image gallery on the Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus page is as below:

1 Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus
2 Close up
3 Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus
4 Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus
5 Dried golden needles

Of these, No 2 'Close Up' is definitely not Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus, nor of course is the image in the infobox on that page, the Featured Article shot discussed above. No 1 shows the colour of the plant well. 86.134.91.157 (talk) 08:48, 7 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have added a gallery to illustrate the problems with identification, but it doesn't appear to be showing in this comment box for some reason. 86.134.91.157 (talk) 08:51, 7 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm. This seems to be an FP issue, although I see several people agree with you. The nom should be corrected, methinks. ResMar 00:59, 9 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Answer of the author:

I think I did the correct identification, this file shows it:

I wrote an extended answer to this topic here: Wikipedia_talk:Featured_picture_candidates#Huge_problem_with_a_featured_picture_-_it_is_not_what_it_claims_to_be Regards, --Paolo Costa 15:29, 12 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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