User:Vant0024/sandbox

Alex's Sandbox
Assignment # 1 to be added soon

heading 2
section 2

Wikipedia Articles
"Cuneiform." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 Sep. 2013. Web. 29 Sep. 2013.

"Niagara Falls." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 Sep. 2013. Web. 29 Sep. 2013.

"Terracotta Army." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 Sep. 2013. Web. 29 Sep. 2013.

"Votive offering." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 14 Sep. 2013. Web. 29 Sep. 2013.

Non-Wikipedia articles
"Anathema." Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 29 Sep. 2013.

"anathema." ''Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition''. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 29 Sep. 2013.

"cuneiform." ''Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition''. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 29 Sep. 2013.

"cuneiform." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2013. Encyclopedia.com. 29 Sep. 2013.

Kastenbaum, R. "Sacrifice." Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. 29 Sep. 2013.

"Niagara Falls." ''Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition''. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 29 Sep. 2013.

"Niagara Falls (waterfall, United States and Canada)." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2013. Encyclopedia.com. 29 Sep. 2013.

"Qin tomb." ''Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition''. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 29 Sep. 2013.

Roman, A. “Niagara Falls”. The encyclopedia of the Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment and Environmental Information Coalition. 22 Aug. 2008. Web. 29 Sep. 2013.

"sacrifice." ''Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition''. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 29 Sep. 2013.

"Shihuangdi." ''Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition''. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 29 Sep. 2013. "Terra-cotta army." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 29 Sep. 2013.

Discussion
I chose my Wikipedia articles mainly based on personal interest. Once I established that there were Wikipedia articles on the topics that I was interested in further researching I confirmed there was other sources on the same topics. The topics i selected are votive offerings, cuneiform, the Terracotta Army and Niagara Falls. Upon reviewing the articles content I was pleased with the information provided and the length of the articles. I used encyclopedia’s that were accessible online and I had used in the past. I found that the topics I chose were not available in the Canadian encyclopedia (except Niagara falls) as they were not Canadian subject matter. The same could be said for The Encyclopedia of the Earth, which I was not previously familiar with. Some of the articles have different names but the same content; when I searched by my original topic I was redirected to the new article. I found that some of the selected Wikipedia articles were longer than the other sources but the difference in length was mainly due to having additional information that was found in other articles in the encyclopedia but only mentioned in the core topic source.

Votive offerings are a topic I am very interested in because when I see them in museum exhibits they allow me a glimpse into people’s beliefs. When I searched for votive offerings in non-Wikipedia sources I was redirected to gift sacrifices, sacrifices and a more narrow type of votive offering called an anathema.

I was recently at the Royal Ontario Museum exhibit about Mesopotamia and was interested in their writing system Cuneiform. As an ancient writing system as opposed to a more popular culture topic I found that other encyclopedia’s had multiple entries about different information as it was a broad category.

I originally searched for Terra-cotta warriors as that was the way that I am used to referring to them but found that the encyclopedia entry redirected me to Terra-cotta army. Wikipedia had most of the information under one topic but Encyclopedia Britannica had two other articles I was redirected too. One was the archaeological site they were found at, the other was about the emperor of china whom they were constructed for.

Niagara Falls was the easiest to locate of the topics I selected. There was at least a small blurb in each encyclopedia I tried. I was interested in the actual waterfall not the city by the same name. I was not redirected to an alternate heading but there was a broad amount of subject matter in reference to the falls.

I found Wikipedia to be the most user friendly of the sources. It was easier to find alternate or related topics then the other encyclopedias. I found that other sources like the Canadian Encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia Smithsonian and the Encyclopedia of the Earth just came back with no results as opposed to a related topic that may be of interest. The Encyclopedia Britannica offered too many options that were not related to the topic being searched and the exact match result was so far up on the page I initially looked right past it. Wikipedia also seems the most accessible of the encyclopedia’s I used and the content was just as good and in some cases the most up to date and well maintained.

Niagara falls are 3 waterfalls known by a collective name and located between Canada and the United States of America. The falls are fed by the Niagara River which is part of the great lakes basin. The great lakes basin contains approximately 20% of the world’s fresh water and was formed during the last ice age (18,000 years ago) leading to the water being called fossil water. The Canadian portion of the falls are known as the Horseshoe Falls due to their shape. The cliffs that the falls cascade over are the result of ancient erosion and in the mid- 1800s geologists observed that the water continues this erosion causing the falls to expand.