The Signpost

To the Alps, he said. Later he said, there shall be no Alps!!!

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This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 29 March through 4 April. Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; refer to their page histories for attribution.

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Featured articles

Six featured articles were promoted this week.

British press depiction of Paul Kruger attempting to appease the uitlanders in 1899; Britain's Joseph Chamberlain looks on, unimpressed

• Paul Kruger (nominated by Cliftonian) Paul Kruger was a prominent Boer leader, and President of the South African Republic (or Transvaal) from 1883 to 1900. Kruger was born in 1825 to a long-established Boer family in the British Cape Colony. His family took part in the Great Trek of 1836, moving northeast away from British rule to the Transvaal. In accordance with Boer custom, Kruger became an enfranchised burgher and farmer at age 16; over the next decade, he was mentored by the Boer trekker leader Andries Pretorius, who was fighting British expansion into the Orange River area. The fractious nature of Boer politics began to evolve into a unified national consciousness after Britain's annexation of the South African Republic in 1877. The First Boer War of 1880–1881 ended in a peace treaty which restored the Transvaal's independence, with Kruger as elected President from 1883. With the Witwatersrand Gold Rush of 1886 came a massive influx of "uitlanders" (out-landers), mostly British; the income of the republic was derived mainly from taxing these immigrants, but they were given only limited civic representation. The lack of a franchise for British immigrants was one of the factors leading to the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. As the war turned against the Boers in 1900, Kruger was despatched to Europe to prevent his capture; after his death in Switzerland four years later, the victorious British authorities allowed his body's repatriation and accorded him a state funeral. His statue has stood in the centre of Pretoria since 1954.

The Sirens and Ulysses by William Etty

• The Sirens and Ulysses (nominated by Iridescent) The Sirens and Ulysses is a painting by English artist William Etty "completed and exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1837". It depicts the Sirens as nude women squatting next to piled male corpses in various stages of dissolution. They beckon to a passing brass boat, on which a massive Ulysses struggles against his bonds; the Sirens would lure him to his death if he were not leashed. Etty based the corpses on studies that he made in a mortuary; the lividity and bruising in the face of the right-hand stiff is rather curious. The artist used glue-size to bind the pigments; by Etty's own account, he used too much, and the paint hardened into an inflexible layer which cracked and flaked off. The problem was made worse by the painting being almost the size of two snooker tables; the painting flexed when moved. The Sirens and Ulysses failed to sell at the Royal Academy—it was then purchased, sight unseen, by a Manchester cotton merchant who quickly offloaded it on his brother, who then gave it to the Royal Manchester Institution. Etty, who considered it his masterpiece, pressured the Institute to loan it for an exhibition in 1849, against their objections over possible damage. It was exhibited again in 1857, but afterwards, its poor condition meant that it was kept in storage. After over a century of unsuccessful attempts to repair the painting, it was restored by Manchester Art Gallery from 2003 to 2010 and is now again on public display.
• Three-cent silver (nominated by Wehwalt) Brother, can you spare a trime? This US three cent coin was issued for circulation between 1851 and 1872; from 1848, so much gold flooded the eastern US economy that its price relative to silver dropped to the point where it was profitable to export silver coins as bullion, get paid in gold, and then send the gold to the Mint to be made into gold coins, which were then used to buy more silver coins. The US economy soon ran out of small change, so the decision was taken to introduce a coin with a reduced amount of silver in the metal (three parts silver to one of copper). The new coin was the first to have a face value greater than its intrisic value; it was set at 3 cents because the reduction of postage rates from 5 cents to 3, and the valuation of Spanish reals at 12 cents made it desirable to have such a coin. The trime went into circulation in 1851 and it stayed there until the economic chaos of the Civil War caused coin hoarding. The three-cent silver was last minted in 1873, and the nickel version in 1889.
• Hermeneutic style (nominated by Dudley Miles) The hermeneutic style is Latin written using recherché and plutinobibulous words. It was used by writers of the late Roman and early medieval periods—the second-century scrivener Apuleius is the first known to have used the style in his asininious metamorphics. Almost all writers in late tenth-century England wrote in this style, being profoundly influenced by an education which emphasised the study of difficult Latin texts.
• Ulysses S. Grant (nominated by Coemgenus) Hiram Ulysses Grant was the Commanding General of the Union Army during the American Civil War. He went on to be elected the 18th President in 1868 and served two terms. Hiram became "US Grant" when he was nominated by Congressman Hamer for West Point— Hamer wrote "Ulysses S. Grant" by mistake! Faced with accusations of drunkenness, he resigned from the Army in 1854. After struggling in civilian life, the Civil War gave Grant the opportunity to return to the military. Quickly he distinguished himself both through battlefield victories and a staggering number of casualties at theBattle of Shiloh; President Abraham Lincoln famously said of him "I can't spare this man; he fights." Victorious in war, he was later elected President under the slogan "Let us have peace". His Presidency was dogged by scandal and historians have largely labeled it a failure, though more recent historians have reassessed it more favorably. During his life, Grant wrote a well-received memoir that is still well-regarded by critics. It helped rehabilitate his reputation and at his death a mausoleum was constructed for him, leading Groucho Marx to wonder who was buried there.
• Edward II of England (nominated by Hchc2009) Edward II was King of England from 1307 to 1327. Born in 1284, he was the fourth son of Edward I; two of Edward II's brothers died before he was born, and the third died when Edward was about three months old. Piers Gaveston became a member of Edward's household in 1300. The two soon developed a close relationship – even to the extent that Marlowe depicted them as lovers – the nature of which is still obscure; after Edward became king it was complained that there "were two kings in one kingdom". Forced into exile twice by Edward's barons, Gaveston was eventually captured and executed in 1312. Military defeats, famine, and civil war followed. By 1326, Edward's Queen, Isabella, was shacked up in France with her lover, Roger Mortimer, and her son, Prince Edward. Isabella and Mortimer invaded England in September of that year. Edward was captured in November, and in January 1327, he abdicated in favour of Prince Edward, who became Edward III. Edward II was moved to Berkeley Castle, where he met his end, or, alternatively, where his end met a poker.
• Of Human Feelings (nominated by Dan56) A 1979 album by jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, Of Human Feelings wasn't released until 1982, after a deal with a Japanese record company fell through. The album's jazz-funk numbers were recorded in one take, with no mixing or overdubbing, and represent a development of Coleman's harmolodics, in which all of the musicians play "individual melodies in any key, and still sound coherent as a group". It received considerable critical praise and is still regarded as a canonical jazz album.

Featured lists

Four featured lists were promoted this week.

2013 Pacific hurricane season summary map. It's "hurricane season"!

Actual living Trekkies at a Star Trek convention: in the earth year of 2003. "Live long and prosper". Sadly, Leonard Nimoy, aka Spock, departed this world on 27 February 2015, at 83 earth years of age, in Bel Air, California: thus fulfilling his motto to the end. Godspeed, Spock.

• Timeline of the 2013 Pacific hurricane season (nominated by TropicalAnalystwx13) 15 May 2013: Dear Diary, today the 2013 Eastern Pacific hurricane season officially started. We're expecting twenty storms, starting with Alvin and ending with Sonia. Raymond's going to be a real blowhard, but Erick's intending to degenerate into a remnant low-pressure area. (Loser.) People are really looking forward to 30 November, when it all officially stops.
• List of awards and nominations received by Ariana Grande (nominated by FrankBoy) Ariana Grande is an American singer and actress. She started her acting career with the Fort Lauderdale Children's Theater in the lead role in the musical Annie, and then went on to perform with several symphony orchestras. Grande then co-founded the singing group Kids Who Care, which performed charity concerts in South Florida. By the age of 13 Grande had decided to pursue a musical career, although she didn't turn her back on theatrical work. Grande got a role in the musical 13 on Broadway, and also sang jazz at Birdland. She told her Los Angeles-based managers that she wanted to record an R&B album when she turned 14—it wasn't till August 2013, when she was 20, that her first album was released. The awards listed are from 2013 onwards, afterYours Truly sold 138,000 copies in its first week of release.
• List of Dharma Productions films (nominated by Krimuk90) A list of the thirty Bollywood films produced by Dharma Productions from 1980 up to today. The list includes two films yet to be released, and their plots aren't included; you might have some fun trying to guess what they'll be from reading the broad range of themes covered by the company over the last 35 years.
• List of accolades received by Star Trek (film) (nominated by Miyagawa) Star Trek is the 2009 American science fiction action film. It is the eleventh film in the Star Trek film franchise. While to most Trekkies, this data has already been committed to memory, for the rest of us, we have a list of every award and nomination from this episode of the movie series. From the Academy Awards to Writers Guild of America Awards, this film was nominated for just about every award the entertainment industry has to offer. "Beam me up, Scotty!'"

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  Charlotte Perkins Gilman before restoration
 
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  After restoration (and cropping out that grey border); this version became a featured picture.

Featured pictures

Fourteen featured pictures were promoted this week.

Poet Terrance Hayes.

M81 "in a land far far away". We are currently checking to ascertain if this was a destination during the new Featured List's: "Star Trek's", journey into Space.

The Japanese destroyer Yamakaze, going under, as photographed through the periscope of the submarine that sank her.

High quality red threads from Austrian saffron

• Terrance Hayes (created by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, nominated by Crisco 1492) A great poet, and now we all know it. Terrance Hayes was a Professor of Creative Writing at Carnegie Mellon University until 2013, at which time he joined the faculty of the English department at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2014, he was made a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. "First you'll marvel at his skill, his near-perfect pitch, his disarming humor, his brilliant turns of phrase. Then you'll notice the grace, the tenderness, the unblinking truth-telling just beneath his lines, the open and generous way he takes in our world", Cornelius Eady once stated with regard to the quality of Terrance Hayes's poetry.
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman (created by C.F. Lummis, restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden) Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an American author and feminist, best known for her 1890 short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", about a woman shut up for three months in a room by her doctor husband. The theme of the story is women's lack of autonomy, which is detrimental to their well-being. The story was inspired by Gilman's own experiences with postpartum psychosis and the rest cure prescribed by her doctor. She wrote that "the real purpose of the story was to reach Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, and convince him of the error of his ways". Mitchell had instructed Gilman to "live as domestic a life as far as possible, to have but two hours' intellectual life a day, and never to touch pen, brush, or pencil again as long as you live." Gilman followed the doctor's directions until determining that they would destroy her. This was in 1887. Sounds depressing ....
• Portrait of a Man (created by Hans Baldung, nominated by SchroCat) Portrait of a Man (1514) by Hans Baldung; this is an unknown sitter, but a wealthy man, possibly a Swabian of noble origins. Hans Baldung Grien or Grün (c. 1484 – September 1545) was a German artist in painting and printmaking who was considered the most gifted student of Albrecht Dürer. Throughout his lifetime, Baldung developed a distinctive style, full of color, expression, and imagination. His talents were varied, and he produced a great and extensive variety of work including portraits, woodcuts, altarpieces, drawings, tapestries, allegories, and mythological motifs. Baldung was given his nickname "Grien" due to his preference for the color green – he usually wore green clothes. Why not? Green, for lack of a better word, is good. Green is right. Green works.
• Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa (created by User:Cancre, nominated by Yakikaki) Are you in the market for a sweet Benedictine abbey located in the territory of the commune of Codalet, in the Pyrénées-Orientalesdépartement, in southwestern France. Well, abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa is a Benedictine abbey located in the territory of the commune of Codalet, in the Pyrénées-Orientales département, in southwestern France, that you can also visit when in New York. Well, kind of: parts of it now make up the Cloisters museum in New York City.
• King Lear, Act I, Scene I (created by Edwin Austin Abbey, nominated by Crisco 1492) The banishment of Cordelia, the youngest of King Lear's three daughters in the play of the same name. She is banished for refusing to profess her love to him in return for one third of the land in his kingdom. Shakespearean tragedy is the classification of drama written by William Shakespeare; it features a noble protagonist, who is flawed in some way and placed in a stressful, heightened situation, and ends with a fatal conclusion. The primary characters in a Shakespearean tragedy are of high status, either by socioeconomic class, like King Lear and Hamlet, or by military rank, like Othello and Macbeth. The main character(s) in a Shakespearean tragedy further the central conflict of the play to the point that their lives, families, and/or socio-political structures are destroyed. Ohh, if not but for the drama of it all!
• Houses at Auvers (created by Vincent van Gogh, nominated by Hafspajen) Houses at Auvers is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh, painted in June 1890. Although considered iconic in the modern period, during his lifetime van Gogh sold only a single painting, yet he never ceased to paint. His work resulted in powerful and emotional canvases that contain more than the depicted subject.
• Rüdesheim am Rhein (created and nominated by DXR) Panoramic photograph of Rüdesheim am Rhein, looking east. Rüdesheim am Rhein is a winemaking town (900 years in the making) located in the Rhine Gorge, aUNESCO World Heritage Site. The area was settled first by the Celts, then, after the turn of the Christian Era, by Ubii and later by Mattiaci. In the first century, the Romans pushed their way to the Taunus. InBingen, they built a castrum, and on the other side, near what is now Rüdesheim, lay a bridgehead on the way to the Limes. The Romans were followed by the Alamanni, and then, during the Migration Period(Völkerwanderung), the Franks. Archaeological finds of glass from this time suggest that there was already viticulture in Rüdesheim even then. The town's origin as a Frankish Haufendorf (roughly, "clump village") can still be seen on today's town maps. Rüdesheim had its first documentary mention in 1074. Its livelihood came mainly from wine-growing and shipping, particularly timber rafting. On 1 January 1818, Rüdesheim received town rights. In 1977, within the framework of municipal reform, Assmannshausen, Aulhausen, and Presberg also became new Ortsteile of Rüdesheim. Well, it's about time.
• Wood samples (created by Anonimski, nominated by The Herald) A high-quality image of 16 wood samples. Pinus sylvestris: (Pine) -Picea abies: (Spruce) -Larix decidua: (Larch) -Juniperus communis (Juniper) -Populus tremula: (Aspen) -Carpinus betulus: (Hornbeam) -Betula pubescens: (Birch) -Alnus glutinosa: (Alder) -Fagus sylvatica: (Beech) -Quercus robur: (Oak) -Ulmus glabra : (Elm) -Prunus avium: (Cherry) -Pyrus communis: (Pear) -Acer platanoides: (Maple) -Tilia cordata: (Linden) -Fraxinus excelsior: & (Ash) – Wood has been used for thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. Would you hand me some glue, too? Thank you ....
• Napoleon at the Great St. Bernard (created by Jacques-Louis David, nominated by Crisco 1492) One of the most famous paintings of all time, this is the Belvedere version of Napoleon Crossing the Alps. It shows a strongly idealized view of the real crossing that Napoleon and his army made across the Alps through the Great St. Bernard Pass in May 1800. In reality, the painting was first and foremost propaganda, and Bonaparte asked David to portray him as "calm, mounted on a fiery steed". The crossing had actually been made in fine weather, and Bonaparte had been led across by a guide a few days after the troops, mounted on a mule. That would also make a great featured picture – Napoleon Crossing the Alps on a Mule. If any of the painters among us cares to give it a go, please by all means get out your paint set and have at it! You could, one day, in a few centuries, be as famous as Jacques-Louis David, or perhaps not.
• Sinking of Japanese destroyer Yamakaze (created by United States Navy, nominated by TomStar81) The Imperial Japanese Destroyer Yamakaze (photographed through the periscope of the USS Nautilus by Cdr Brockman) was the eighth of ten Shiratsuyu-class destroyers and the second to be built for the Imperial Japanese Navy under the Circle Two Program (Maru Ni Keikaku). On 25 June 1942, while steaming independently fromŌminato towards the Inland Sea, Yamakaze was torpedoed and sunk with all hands by USS Nautilus (SS-168) approximately 60 nautical miles (110 km) southeast of Yokosuka. Yamakaze (山風 "Mountain Wind"^?)and the other Shiratsuyu-class destroyers were modified versions of the Hatsuharu-class, designed to accompany the Japanese main striking force and to conduct both day and night torpedo attacks against theUnited States Navy as it advanced across the Pacific Ocean. None of the ships have survived.
• Tribuna of the Uffizi (created by Johann Zoffany, nominated by Armbrust) This painting shows the northeast corner of an octagonal room in the Uffizi gallery—the room is known as the Tribuna. Built in the late 1580s, the room houses important antiquities and paintings from the Medici collection. Zoffany received a commission from Queen Charlotte to make a painting of the room. Zoffany managed to have extra artwork brought in from the Pitti gallery, some of which is artfully arranged on easels and on the floor. A selection of British gentlemen are depicted having a gander at the top-shelf stuff, the shrewd Zoffany having realised that the Queen might not recognise any of the artworks, but she'd know them geezers anywhere. Even if the Queen didn't recognize them, today's viewers might recognise important works like Raphael's Madonna della seggiola and Titian's Venus of Urbino.
• Saffron threads (created by Hubert1, nominated by Crisco 1492) Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the saffron crocus. Saffron's taste and iodoform—or hay-like–fragrance result from the chemicals picrocrocin and safranal. It also contains a carotenoid pigment, crocin, which imparts a rich golden-yellow hue to dishes and textiles. Its recorded history is attested in a 7th-century BC Assyrian botanical treatise compiled under Ashurbanipal, and it has been traded and used for over four millennia. In February 2013, a retail bottle containing 0.06 ounces could be purchased for $16.26, or the equivalent of $4,336 per pound, making it one of the most costly spices on the market.
• Messier 81 (created by Ken Crawford, nominated by The Herald) Messier 81 or "M81", also known as Bode's Galaxy, is around 12 million light years away. It has an irregular satellite galaxy known as Homberg IX. Only onesupernova has been detected in Messier 81; at the time, it was the second-brightest supernova observed in the 20th century. It was observed with Champagne and caviar for those who were able to enjoy it. The stellar explosion is said to have briefly outshined an entire galaxy, radiating as much energy as the Sun or any ordinary star is expected to emit over its entire life span, before fading from view over several weeks. Sounds like we missed a great show! Looking for some travel destinations for your bucket list? Bode's Galaxy is only 12 million light years away, a celestial "hop skip and a jump", should you decide to join the nextStar Trek adventure – at warp speed, naturally.
• Self-portrait of Salvator Rosa (created by Salvator Rosa, nominated by Crisco 1492) "Keep silent unless what you are going to say is more important than silence". Salvator Rosa was an Italian Baroque painter, poet, and printmaker who was active in Naples, Rome, and Florence. As a painter, he is best known as "unorthodox and extravagant". While his plays were successful, they also gained him powerful enemies among patrons and artists, including Bernini himself, in Rome. By late 1639, he had to relocate to Florence, where he stayed for eight years. His criticisms of Roman art culture won him several enemies. An allegation arose that his published satires were not his own, but stolen. Rosa indignantly denied the charges, but one of the satires deals so extensively and with such ready manipulation of classical names, allusions, and anecdotes that it makes for a interesting conversation. During a Roman carnival play, he wrote and acted in a masque, behind which his character bustled about Rome distributing satirical prescriptions for diseases of the body and, more particularly, of the mind.

That is disturbing. I have just the prescription for you.....

Two weeks rest here, in Rüdesheim am Rhein you are to have no cell phone or internet connectivity and a case of fine Rhenish wine. Have a nice rest.

Good articles

Apart from these featured contents, forty-six good articles were promoted this week.

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