User:Datt Moose

Article Evaluation

The article topic I chose to look into originally was hunting and after clicking around I was to find an article on alternative hunting methods and there I found an article on sling shots. Sling shots have always been a subject of interest of mine, about three years ago I bought a traditional sling shot and wanted to learn how to use it the right way. After lots of practice and research I was able to consistently be an accurate shot up to about ten yards; hitting pop cans, squirrels and bunnies. Because of all this when I visited the Slingshot article on Wikipedia and found three aspects of it worth commenting on. Neutrality, Over-represented veiws, and Non-reliable sources.

First thing was neutrality. I picked this becasue throughout the article it talked about the sling shots not so pretty past of vandalism and teenage angst, but it talked more about the vast other uses of sling shots. From them being used in wars where they launched explosives like make shift mortars, to modern day hunting and fishing tools that continue to improve. I call this neutrality because instead of singling out one use of the sling shot they covered almost every tool utilizing rubber bands and tubbing in order to power a projectile. It told how the sling shot continues to change according to new uses we find.

The second thing I wanted to bring up was how often they talked about the sling shot being used by children In vandalism; breaking windows, shooting neighborhood dogs, and just causing problems. Although this is apart of the sling shots history they continued to bring it up time and time again, the odd part was that the article was going in chronological order starting with the invention of the sling shot all the way to current uses and models but the publisher kept bringing back up the negative beginning of the sling shot and I believe they were too aggressive with it and it felt a little over stated.

My third and final issue with the article was that I don't believe it is as credible as it leads people to think, there are several catagories in the article and each one was giving different examples of sling shots and their uses. The problem was several of the links that were supposed to be supporting evidence, but instead lead to a general article about the source but not of the actual source materials for example it read "a 1946 Popular Science article details a slingshot builder and hunter using home-built slingshots made from forked dogwood sticks to take small game at ranges of up to 9 m (30 ft) with No. 0 lead buckshot (8 mm [0.32 in] diameter)." If you follow their Popular Science link it does not take you to any evidence of what they claimed it simply leads you to a general article about the magazine brand. leading me to be suspicious about the rest of their "facts".

In conclustion I enjoyed reading this article and it was very informative. I just think it could have been better if the publisher stayed on topic through the article, try not to be so negative about the topics past and do a better job at siting their sources.

About me
Hello everybody this is my page so here is a short introduction of who I am and what I enjoy to do. I am Datt Moose and I enjoy things that a lot of people would call "old people hobbies". I enjoy hunting, fishing, golf, and walking my dog. some of my core values are creativity enthusiasm and creating a joyful environment. I am currently apart of but also almost finished with the welding program at EVCC, I am certified in all welding processes and hope to one day be an under water welder. also I think designing and manufacturing custom aluminum boat hauls would be another possible path that I would consider taking.

My Wikipedia activities
I plan on using Wikipedia to search for pages that help me develop my skills for example. Gas tungsten arc welding would be a great place for me to learn more about heat control in aluminum and how to fight warpage and discoloration in different metals this will help me improve my skills and get me ready for industry.