This wasn't a triumph / I'm making a note here,
giant boom / Even though there were no indications /
Orbital Science / We do what we can, and then explode / This isn't good for all of us / But least there's nobody dead.
This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 10 to 16 November 2014. Anything in quotation marks is taken from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
Murder of Leigh Leigh(
nominated by
Freikorp and
Ohconfucius) Leigh Leigh was a 14-year-old girl from
Fern Bay on the east coast of Australia, who was murdered on 3 November 1989. Leigh was assaulted by a group of boys after she returned distressed from a sexual encounter on the beach.
World Fantasy Award for Best Collection(
nominated by
PresN) The World Fantasy Award for Best Collection is given each year for collections of fantasy stories by a single author published in English. The
World Fantasy Awards are given each year by the
World Fantasy Convention for the best
fantasy fiction published in English during the previous calendar year. During the 40 nomination years, 140 writers have had works nominated; of which 36 were recipients (including ties and co-authors).
The Raven(created by
Gustave Doré, restored by
Lise Broer,
nominated by
Crisco 1492) "And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting / On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; / And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming, / And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; / And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor / Shall be lifted—nevermore!"
Gustave Doré was a master of eerie woodblock engravings, and here pairs with probably the only horror poet anyone is likely to have ever read,
Edgar Allan Poe.
Bathsheba(created by
Willem Drost,
nominated by
Hafspajen) The
Books of Kings are probably the most fun parts of the Bible (or Torah). You probably won't get that much spiritual enlightenment from them, but if you want some damn good stories... This one's a rather nasty little piece of trickery. The theoretically holy and wonderful
King David sees
Bathsheba bathing on the roof of her house from his palace, and falls in love lust with her, and seduces her. But she is married to his friend,
Uriah the Hittite, currently loyally serving him as an officer in the army. David tries to call Uriah back, and get him to have sex with his wife while there's still time to pass off David's baby as his - but Uriah is too busy trying to serve David as a soldier than to focus on his wife. Finally, David sends Uriah out to the front lines, ordering him to be put in the heat of the battle, and he's killed. So David takes Bathsheba as his wife. Well, one of his wives. One of David's many, many wives. He repents eventually, but still... Anyway,
King Solomon, his son from this marriage, was his successor on his throne, was known as an intelligent and wise ruler. He presumably didn't get it from his father.
The Gulf Stream(created by
Winslow Homer,
nominated by
Crisco 1492) An 1899 oil painting by
Winslow Homer, The Gulf Stream shows a man in a small rudderless fishing boat struggling against the waves of the rough sea. The painting has been described as "a particularly enigmatic and tantalizing episode, a marine puzzle that floats forever in a region of unsolved mysteries", but, at one point, sick of the inquiries about the fate of the man in the painting, he wrote, "You can tell these ladies that the unfortunate negro who now is so dazed & parboiled, will be rescued & returned to his friends and home, & ever after live happily."
Lars Kruse(created by
Michael Ancher,
nominated by
Crisco 1492) Noted for his daring rescues of shipwreck victims, chief life-boatman
Lars Kruse was a fisherman from
Skagen,
Denmark who rescued about two hundred people during his lifetime. Lars Kruse was depicted in several paintings (including this one) by
Michael Ancher of the
Skagen painters, as well as featuring in poems and novels; in particular, he had his heroism and unfair treatment by the authorities in (initially) refusing to recognize said heroism celebrated in a poem and prose account by the Danish poet and dramatist
Holger Drachmann.
Great tit(created by
Francis C. Franklin,
nominated by
The Herald) The
great tit is a roughly sparrow-sized bird common throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Central and North Asia, with a yellow stomach, olive back, and black and white head. After last week, I'm refraining from naughty puns, but feel free to make your own now. The great tit is quite a vocal bird, and has up to 40 types of calls, from soft single notes such as "pit", "spick", or "chit", to a loud "tink" used by adult males as an alarm or in territorial disputes. One of the most familiar is a "teacher, teacher", often likened to a squeaky wheelbarrow wheel, which is used in proclaiming ownership of a territory.
Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses(created by
Vincent van Gogh,
nominated by
Crisco 1492) People think about van Gogh as a painter who painted with strong colours, oranges, yellows, reds, sunflowers and fields that are glowing in the sun. But he could be a very sensitive and delicate painter too, using pastel colors, sky blues and delicate pinks. Or, like in this painting cream and whites with soft light greens. Painted near the end of his stay in the
Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy in 1889-90, this still life is usually interpreted as reflecting
Vincent van Gogh's optimism for the future. He would be dead from suicide less than three months later. The painting was valued at $60 million when it was gifted to the National Gallery of Art by
Pamela Harriman in memory of her husband, an irony of fate - van Gogh hardly ever sold a painting while he was alive.
Selfoss(created by
Martin Falbisoner,
nominated by
EuroCarGT) The river
Jökulsá á Fjöllum is the second longest river in Iceland, and, as it approaches the coast, it drops down a series of waterfalls, to reach the ocean, the
Selfoss being one of these, and
Dettifoss, and
Hafragilsfoss the others.
Jökulsá á Fjöllum flows from the melting
Vatnajökull glacier, and flows through the former
Jökulsárgljúfur National Park (now part of
Vatnajökull National Park), which was formed by the explosion of a volcano situated directly beneath the river. The river is located in the northeast of Iceland and forms the eastern boundary of Ódáðahraun, a wild and enchanting, untamed landscape of lava field that makes one feel this is the way the world looked when it was created.
Council of Lithuania(
nominated by
Neelix, with initial work by
M.K.) In the closing years of the
First World War,
Lithuania, which had been part of the Russian Empire, found itself invaded by Germans. Paradoxically, this was, on the whole, a good thing for Lithuania: Lithuania had been trying to gain independence for years, and Germany didn't want to upset the Russians by merely grabbing their territory, but could form an alliance with an independent Lithuania. They allowed the
Vilnius Conference on independence, hoping that the conference would come down firmly on independence and a closer relationship with Germany, but the conference only came down for independence, the closer relationship dependent on Germany recognizing them as an independent state. The conference created the
Council of Lithuania, formed from a group of men of a variety of social classes and positions, and they were set the task of negotiating terms, but it wasn't until Germany finally lost the First World War in 1918 that the Lithuanians were finally in sufficiently good of a position to push through the independence they wanted.
World War II and reconquest by Russia lurked in the country's future, but, for the time, Lithuania was free.
This wasn't a triumph / I'm making a note here,
giant boom / Even though there were no indications /
Orbital Science / We do what we can, and then explode / This isn't good for all of us / But least there's nobody dead.
This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 10 to 16 November 2014. Anything in quotation marks is taken from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
Murder of Leigh Leigh(
nominated by
Freikorp and
Ohconfucius) Leigh Leigh was a 14-year-old girl from
Fern Bay on the east coast of Australia, who was murdered on 3 November 1989. Leigh was assaulted by a group of boys after she returned distressed from a sexual encounter on the beach.
World Fantasy Award for Best Collection(
nominated by
PresN) The World Fantasy Award for Best Collection is given each year for collections of fantasy stories by a single author published in English. The
World Fantasy Awards are given each year by the
World Fantasy Convention for the best
fantasy fiction published in English during the previous calendar year. During the 40 nomination years, 140 writers have had works nominated; of which 36 were recipients (including ties and co-authors).
The Raven(created by
Gustave Doré, restored by
Lise Broer,
nominated by
Crisco 1492) "And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting / On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; / And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming, / And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; / And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor / Shall be lifted—nevermore!"
Gustave Doré was a master of eerie woodblock engravings, and here pairs with probably the only horror poet anyone is likely to have ever read,
Edgar Allan Poe.
Bathsheba(created by
Willem Drost,
nominated by
Hafspajen) The
Books of Kings are probably the most fun parts of the Bible (or Torah). You probably won't get that much spiritual enlightenment from them, but if you want some damn good stories... This one's a rather nasty little piece of trickery. The theoretically holy and wonderful
King David sees
Bathsheba bathing on the roof of her house from his palace, and falls in love lust with her, and seduces her. But she is married to his friend,
Uriah the Hittite, currently loyally serving him as an officer in the army. David tries to call Uriah back, and get him to have sex with his wife while there's still time to pass off David's baby as his - but Uriah is too busy trying to serve David as a soldier than to focus on his wife. Finally, David sends Uriah out to the front lines, ordering him to be put in the heat of the battle, and he's killed. So David takes Bathsheba as his wife. Well, one of his wives. One of David's many, many wives. He repents eventually, but still... Anyway,
King Solomon, his son from this marriage, was his successor on his throne, was known as an intelligent and wise ruler. He presumably didn't get it from his father.
The Gulf Stream(created by
Winslow Homer,
nominated by
Crisco 1492) An 1899 oil painting by
Winslow Homer, The Gulf Stream shows a man in a small rudderless fishing boat struggling against the waves of the rough sea. The painting has been described as "a particularly enigmatic and tantalizing episode, a marine puzzle that floats forever in a region of unsolved mysteries", but, at one point, sick of the inquiries about the fate of the man in the painting, he wrote, "You can tell these ladies that the unfortunate negro who now is so dazed & parboiled, will be rescued & returned to his friends and home, & ever after live happily."
Lars Kruse(created by
Michael Ancher,
nominated by
Crisco 1492) Noted for his daring rescues of shipwreck victims, chief life-boatman
Lars Kruse was a fisherman from
Skagen,
Denmark who rescued about two hundred people during his lifetime. Lars Kruse was depicted in several paintings (including this one) by
Michael Ancher of the
Skagen painters, as well as featuring in poems and novels; in particular, he had his heroism and unfair treatment by the authorities in (initially) refusing to recognize said heroism celebrated in a poem and prose account by the Danish poet and dramatist
Holger Drachmann.
Great tit(created by
Francis C. Franklin,
nominated by
The Herald) The
great tit is a roughly sparrow-sized bird common throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Central and North Asia, with a yellow stomach, olive back, and black and white head. After last week, I'm refraining from naughty puns, but feel free to make your own now. The great tit is quite a vocal bird, and has up to 40 types of calls, from soft single notes such as "pit", "spick", or "chit", to a loud "tink" used by adult males as an alarm or in territorial disputes. One of the most familiar is a "teacher, teacher", often likened to a squeaky wheelbarrow wheel, which is used in proclaiming ownership of a territory.
Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses(created by
Vincent van Gogh,
nominated by
Crisco 1492) People think about van Gogh as a painter who painted with strong colours, oranges, yellows, reds, sunflowers and fields that are glowing in the sun. But he could be a very sensitive and delicate painter too, using pastel colors, sky blues and delicate pinks. Or, like in this painting cream and whites with soft light greens. Painted near the end of his stay in the
Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy in 1889-90, this still life is usually interpreted as reflecting
Vincent van Gogh's optimism for the future. He would be dead from suicide less than three months later. The painting was valued at $60 million when it was gifted to the National Gallery of Art by
Pamela Harriman in memory of her husband, an irony of fate - van Gogh hardly ever sold a painting while he was alive.
Selfoss(created by
Martin Falbisoner,
nominated by
EuroCarGT) The river
Jökulsá á Fjöllum is the second longest river in Iceland, and, as it approaches the coast, it drops down a series of waterfalls, to reach the ocean, the
Selfoss being one of these, and
Dettifoss, and
Hafragilsfoss the others.
Jökulsá á Fjöllum flows from the melting
Vatnajökull glacier, and flows through the former
Jökulsárgljúfur National Park (now part of
Vatnajökull National Park), which was formed by the explosion of a volcano situated directly beneath the river. The river is located in the northeast of Iceland and forms the eastern boundary of Ódáðahraun, a wild and enchanting, untamed landscape of lava field that makes one feel this is the way the world looked when it was created.
Council of Lithuania(
nominated by
Neelix, with initial work by
M.K.) In the closing years of the
First World War,
Lithuania, which had been part of the Russian Empire, found itself invaded by Germans. Paradoxically, this was, on the whole, a good thing for Lithuania: Lithuania had been trying to gain independence for years, and Germany didn't want to upset the Russians by merely grabbing their territory, but could form an alliance with an independent Lithuania. They allowed the
Vilnius Conference on independence, hoping that the conference would come down firmly on independence and a closer relationship with Germany, but the conference only came down for independence, the closer relationship dependent on Germany recognizing them as an independent state. The conference created the
Council of Lithuania, formed from a group of men of a variety of social classes and positions, and they were set the task of negotiating terms, but it wasn't until Germany finally lost the First World War in 1918 that the Lithuanians were finally in sufficiently good of a position to push through the independence they wanted.
World War II and reconquest by Russia lurked in the country's future, but, for the time, Lithuania was free.
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