Around about 12/10/10 16:04, Neil Bird typed ...
How can I get the animated sidebar items, as are onhttp://meta.wikimedia.org/w/ ? Is it an extension, config, skin edit, or what?
OK, found it.
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.mediawiki/34545
Although the thread there says it doesn't work in 1.16 without patching, but it seems OK for me.