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This website explains why it is important to evaluate websites.

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Table of Contents

Part 1: The Need to Evaluate Internet Resources
Part 2: Evaluating Online Resources
Part 3: Checklist on Evaluating Online Resources
Part 4: Improve Your Evaluation Skills
Part 5: Content Issues: Plagiarism, Copyright, and Accessibility

Why Do We Need to Evaluate Online Resources?

Everyone and anyone can create content online. Today, it's hard to determine whether an internet resource you find is authentic or not.
Evaluating online resources is an important step in any research process. Identifying trustworthy content should be part of your research journey.
If you're looking for factual resources, search through newspaper publications, TV news, journals, official pamphlets, books, and magazines. But, nowadays people opt to search for information on the Internet. They tend to believe anything posted on the Internet without even checking for credibility.

Satire and fake news sites publish erroneous data; people believe these sites because of their persuasive, believable nature. If you're looking for a credible resource, you should avoid hoax sites as this may affect the veracity of your study.

Meanwhile, many content publishers rely heavily on copying content and owning those as theirs to get decent followership. Duplicating content and passing it as if it is their own content is copyright infringement or plagiarism.

In this guide, we will help you improve your knowledge and skill in evaluating online resources. We will guide you on how to check a resource for authenticity and credibility.

Moreover, we will discuss skills that you will need to assess a resource such as speed reading and skimming. As an evaluator, you should be familiar with the different citation and referencing styles. Also, we will review several content issues like plagiarized content, DMCA, and copyrights, and web content accessibility.

Evaluating Online Resources

There are several aspects that you should look for in evaluating online resources. You should check:

who published the content (Authorship),

where was it published (Publication),

when was it published (Currency and Relevance),

the truthfulness and integrity of the facts (Accuracy),

how it is written and presented (Purpose and Objectivity),

and what references are cited within the article (Links)

Authorship

The author of the content is a concern when considering the eligibility of the content. First of all, the author should be an expert on the subject discussed in the article. He should have the credentials to back up his knowledge of the subject matter.

Usually, the information about the author can be found on the website along with the content. The name of the author can be found below the title, on the side of the article, or at the bottom. Sometimes, more information on the author is found below the article, also known as an author's bio. An author may be credited if he is oftentimes mentioned in other authoritative websites.

But, it is not easy to verify an author's background through the Internet. Website articles and resources rarely have fact-checkers or editors for copyediting an article. Another thing to consider is that authors vary in tone and purpose. Some do it for their personal blog. Other authors are advocates of a cause, while others do it for marketing their product or service.

Publication

If the information about the author is not present, the publisher of the resource article can be checked for authority.

Take a quick look at the website. Are you familiar with the publication name? Is the publisher reputable and credible on the subject matter? Look at the website name, its logo, the URL of the website, and other indicators that can prove its reliability on the topic. One quick look at the URL can help you determine if it's a reliable source or not. Trustworthy websites end in .org, .edu, .gov, or any recognizable web address.

Another way to check the publisher's site is via it's About Us and Contact Us page. These pages will contain information about the publisher. You can countercheck their details by conducting another search.

Reliable websites publish content that is relevant or under the same scope as the resource page that you found. Check how often do they publish content and if they published related content as well. News and publication websites (NYTimes, BBC, The Washington Post, TIME, etc.), are authority sites for facts. Consider the resource's credibility if the publisher has mentioned or been mentioned by authority sites.

Currency and Relevance

In conducting research, the currency and timeliness of data are important in making inferences for data gathering and analyses.

David Loshin, President of Knowledge Integrity, is a well-known thought leader in data quality and management. He has defined the difference between currency and timeliness when it comes to data:

"Currency," Loshin explained, "refers to the degree to which data is current with the world that it models. Currency can measure how up-to-date data is, and whether it is correct despite the possibility of modifications or changes that impact time and date values. Currency rules may be defined to assert limits to the lifetime of a data value, indicating that it needs to be checked and possibly refreshed."

On the other hand, timeliness refers to the time expectation for the accessibility of data. Timeliness can be measured as the time between when data is expected and when it is readily available for use."

Information changes throughout the years. On the Internet, it's easy to get lost among the billions of data available at your fingertips. Even academic articles such as theses and investigative reports can have obsolete data. Out-of-date content has information that is not relevant or applicable in today's time. How can you determine if the content that you're looking at isn't outdated? How do you check if the data you have is current and timely?

Look for the date of publication. Oftentimes, it is located near the title of the resource. You can look for the date at the side information of the article, and even at the end of the article.

Currency is a modern issue; some websites update their articles to adapt to the modern world. Data does not become obsolete, but you need to check its relevance to the current times. For updated content, look for the date of publication and the date when it was recently changed and updated.
Here's an example from Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL):
The American Psychological Association (APA) is used as a citation style in academic and scholarly articles for social sciences. Since it started in 1929, the APA style has changed over the years and it is in its 6th edition.

With that said, updated resources oftentimes tag relevant statistical data with proper citations and referencing. Aside from that, these resources mention other resources and link back to them, regularly updating any link references should they find that those links are obsolete.

Accuracy

In writing, accuracy refers to a writer's correctness in using the language system. This means that the writer's use of grammar and vocabulary should be correct and as good as it could be.

Minimal errors are virtually present in all kinds of publications, but poor spelling and grammar can easily reflect how careless an author is, and this may result in distrust. Again, web resources are prone to technical errors since not all web publications go under the scrutinizing eye of a copy editor.

Online resources can be verified easily through a quick search on the Internet. Other resources provide a reference list that can help in double-checking facts cited in the article.

Purpose and Objectivity

An online resource clearly serves its purpose  it should teach, inform, explain, or persuade. By reading the article, it should become evident what the article aims to impart to its readers. The author should not be biased with his views reflected in the article unless stated otherwise. You should comprehend whether the content is backed up with facts or based on opinion and propaganda. The content should show its intended audience.

Links

Links are used to citing and credit references found on other websites. During the evaluation, links on the content are useful and relevant to the topic of the content. On the other hand, links on the content should proceed to an existing web page. In any case that the links within the content proceed to a 404 page or "Not Found", the content may be outdated, thus may be unreliable for new information.

Checklist on Evaluating Websites

We'll help you assess online resources easier with this concise infographic checklist brought to you by Hosting Facts:

Improve Your Evaluation Skills

Effective evaluation of online materials requires a set of skills. To effectively evaluate online materials, you must be able to do proper speed reading and skimming of content, as well as citing of references. Possessing these skills will give you the ability to objectively and successfully critique online materials. Let's discuss in detail how these skills can help you in evaluating content.

Speed Reading and Skimming

Before you will be able to evaluate any material, you will have to read it first. Going through the whole thing, even up to every punctuation mark, can eat up your time. Reading entire materials will not be practical especially if you have a lot of materials piled up. Therefore, it is vital that you possess speed-reading and skimming skills.

The average reader can run through approximately 200 words per minute. A good reader can reach 400 to 500 without sacrificing comprehension of what he had just read. Any more than 500 words risk losing comprehension so going beyond that is not advisable. We shall then consider those who can read at least 400 words a minute as a speed reader. It is, however, crucial that comprehension is maintained as there is no point in being able to finish a material quickly if you were not able to pick up anything from it. Speed reading is, therefore, a fast-paced manner of reading that retains understating of the material.

There are two, speed reading, techniques: scanning and skimming. Scanning is a very quick running through of the material in an attempt to find a specific piece of information. If you pass through an article very quickly in search of a name, a date, an amount, or the likes, what you are doing is scanning. Skimming, on the other hand, is rapid reading that goals to get the main ideas contained in the material in an effort to get the general overview of the content. Skimming is then considerably slower the scanning.

In trying to evaluate online materials, what you would most likely do is to skim through them. Unless, of course, if you're trying to look for specific information that you are trying to verify. Skimming through an article allows you to quickly complete a material without losing its essence.

Skim effectively and finish a lot of materials with less time. Always remember than comprehension must never be sacrificed for speed. Speed reading is a total waste of time if you did not understand what you have just read.

Citation and Referencing Styles

In order to check the validity of the facts stated in online material, references must be presented so that you can verify them. It is the responsibility of the author of the material to include citations and references in a way that follows standard referencing styles, but as the evaluator, you must also be aware of how to do this so that you can use it as criteria in critiquing the said material.

First of all, have a check on the references for the material. Make sure that these are credible resources. A lot of satirical sites and content are available on the web and one may easily come across them and eventually use them as part of the material. The writer must be careful enough to distinguish the validity and credibility of the site or content that he is basing his material from.

There are a couple of ways to include ideas from other materials into your own. It can be done by quoting, summarizing, or paraphrasing. Quoting is done by directly placing portions or parts of what was included in your resource material. It is a word-for-word placement of the resource material. Summarizing is providing a shorter version of the resource material while acknowledging that your material is based on the information you got from the source. Paraphrasing is trying to reword your source material but with the necessary attribution of where you got the idea from.

These three methods of including ideas from other materials should have a list of references. This list of references must obey one of the referencing standards and styles. There are two prevailing referencing styles that are being followed: the APA format, and the MLA format.

The Modern Language Association (MLA) format is distinguished by the following characteristics:

1. Authors' and editors' names are spelled out completely. If there are more than three authors, list the first one only and then write "et. al" as a substitute for all other authors.

2. Important words in a title are capitalized.

3. The shortened name of the published is placed.

4. Only the city is placed on the place of publication.

5. Dates are placed at the end of the citations.

6. The second and subsequent lines are indented while the first line is made to align with the left margin.

7. The in-text citation uses the author's name and page.

On the other hand, the American Psychological Association (APA) format is as follows:

1. All authors are listed and use the last name, and then the first initial.

2. Only the first word in a title is capitalized.

3. Full names are used for publishers.

4. Includes state abbreviations for the place of publication.

5. Dates are placed after the author's name.

6. The first line of the citation is indented while subsequent aligned to the left margin

7. In-text citations use the author's name, date of publication, and page number.

Always remember that citation is done because you have the responsibility to give credit to the author of your source material. You would not want to steal other people's work. Also, you would not want other people from passing off your work as their own so you must also do the same for the work of others.

The MLA Style Center is the best and most interactive guide you can check out for your research. Aside from a citation guide, they also have a research format guide for your paper and an FAQ section.

Meanwhile, to see how APA citations are usually written in reference lists, visit this guide made by The University of Western Australia. It's already updated to the 6th edition. Here you can check how different resources are cited, such as Books and eBooks, Journal articles, Newspapers & Magazines and Web sources (pages, blogs, social media, etc).

Content Issues: Plagiarism, Copyright, and Accessibility

Plagiarism, copyright infringement, and problems with accessibility are some of the issues that you may stumble upon when dealing with online content. Let's discuss in detail the implications of each of these content issues.

Plagiarism: Problems of Duplicity

One of the biggest sins you can commit while writing online materials is plagiarizing, which is the omission of reference to the original source of information, which gives the impression that it is the writer of the material at hand who originally said a statement even if that is not the case. This can be done on purpose or as a result of neglect. Even if it is by mere neglect that the citation was not made, plagiarism is still inexcusable. Plagiarism can be committed against written or spoken texts, and even against graphical content such as photos, drawings, sketches, paintings, and the like.

As an evaluator of online materials, your goal is to identify whether the author of the material you are assessing committed plagiarism, may it be partial or total in nature. Plagiarism should never be tolerated, and it is the responsibility of the evaluator to ensure whether or not plagiarism was committed in any piece of material that he handles, especially those that the general public can see.

Plagiarism is really unfair to the original owner of the unduly cited content. It takes credit away from him and awards it to the plagiarizer. All the hard work, creativity, and that the original owner of the content is put into waste, while the plagiarizer is praised for creating outstanding content - of course, why would anyone copy something that he does not consider as at least a good write-up, statement, or photo?

DMCA and Copyright Issues

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines copyright as the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something (as a literary, musical, or artistic work). With a copyright, you can sue others who try to reproduce your work without your permission or consent. It is a protection given to the original creator, or to whom he grants the said protection, to benefit from his work.

In essence, violation of copyright (or more commonly referred to as copyright infringement) and plagiarism are similar. However, copyright infringement backed up by a legal construct while plagiarism is more of an ethical issue for academic, journalistic, or corporate institutions. Both of these promote originality and creativity as they protect the original creator of the work.

Copyright infringement and plagiarism do not go hand-in-hand. Not all cases of copyright infringement are cases of plagiarism as well, and vice versa. You can plagiarize content that does not qualify for copyright, and you can also commit infringement even if you have provided the necessary citation.

When talking about copyright, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) almost always follows. The DMCA is a copyright law of the United States which was made to implement two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), as well as to heighten the penalties given to those who commit copyright infringement. The provisions of the DMCA will be discussed in detail on future write-ups focused on the topic. For now, it must just be fully understood that copyright infringement is a serious matter and there are strong laws against it.

As an evaluator, you must deal with copyright infringement issues before matters get worse. It is your duty to uphold the observance of applicable laws and ethical standards.

Content Accessibility

One billion people, or 15 % of the world's population, experience some form of disability, and disability prevalence is higher for developing countries. One-fifth of the estimated global total, or between 110 million and 190 million people, experience significant disabilities. - WorldBank.org

One billion people. A significant amount of this population has access to the Internet, but sadly, not all can access content found on the Internet. With the increasing demands for website accessibility, several countries have already pushed for accessibility legislation to support the disabled users' rights to information.

Disabled users commonly addressed by these efforts are those with visual, mobility, auditory, seizures, and cognitive disabilities. Those with visual disabilities include low vision and color blindness. Motor disabilities include those who lack muscle control due to tremors or neurological conditions. Hearing impairments such as deafness are included in auditory disabilities. Meanwhile, people with seizures are a special case; those triggered by visual strobes or flashing effects are mainly affected in this category. Last but not least, cognitive disabilities range from developmental to learning disabilities.

How Does Website Accessibility Help These Users?

Website accessibility helps users to understand and access a website's information with the help of certain tools that aim to assist them in browsing a website. But, if a website is not optimized for accessibility, disabled users will have a hard time browsing a website.

There are available tools for the auditory and visually challenged to interact and use the Internet. Text-to-speech software and/or text-to-Braille hardware help blind users to access a website. For poor-sighted users, having a function to make the texts enlargeable would be helpful especially those without prescription glasses. Highlighting linked texts through underlines or contrast highlights will aid visually impaired users, especially those who are color blind.

Those with disabled motor abilities will benefit from large clickable areas like buttons on a website since they will lack precision in clicking small buttons. Moreover, coding a website that will let users navigate the website easily via a keyboard or a single switch device can help them browse through the website even without using a mouse or a standard keyboard.

Today, playing videos has been less complicated as well. Those with hearing complications can now watch and understand the context of these videos through closed-captioning or via sign language. Meanwhile, flashing effects on websites are known to trigger seizure attacks. Minimizing or fully avoiding these effects will not be put those who are prone to seizure at risk.

Developmental or cognitive disabilities perhaps is the biggest challenge of them all. With various content available in different formats and in different contexts or degrees of reading difficulty, those who have a difficult time comprehending these content will shy away from a resource. Ideally, resource content should be easy to understand, written in plain language, and equipped with instructional diagrams and even audio-visual aids.

To know more about website accessibility, Hosting Facts has another resource guide for web designers and developers on how to make your website accessible to all. This includes a brief history of web accessibility, steps on how to make your website accessible, and tools you can use to assess your website for accessibility in accordance with the guidelines set by WCAG 2.0.

With online content made accessible to everyone, even people with disabilities can understand and learn more information from the website.

Further Readings and References

APA citation style: Introduction. (n.d.) Retrieved July 21, 2016, from https://guides.library.uwa.edu.au/friendly.php?s=apa

Disability Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2016, from http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic

Evaluating Information. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2016, from http://guides.library.jhu.edu/c.php?g=202581

Evaluating Internet Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2016, from https://www.library.georgetown.edu/tutorials/research-guides/evaluating-internet-content

How to Make Websites User-Friendly and Accessible for Everybody. (n.d.) Retrieved July 21, 2016, from https://hostingfacts.com/website-accessibility-guide/

Loshin, D. (2011). The Practitioner's Guide to Data Quality Improvement. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann.

The MLA Style Center. (n.d.) Retrieved July 21, 2016, from https://style.mla.org/

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The Complete Guide to Evaluating Online Resources - hostingfacts.com

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Table of Contents Part 1: The Need to Evaluate Internet Resources Part 2: Evaluating Online Resources Part 3: Checklist on Evaluating Online Resources Part 4: Improve Your Evaluation Skills Part 5: Content Issues: Plagiarism, Copyright, and Accessibility Why Do We Need to Evaluate Online Resources? Everyone and anyone can create content online.

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Watch the video by Erin Foley who gives some excellent advise about evaluating websites!

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Topic: Determining Source Validity
Grade: 9th
Discussion Question: How do you know if an online source provides valid information?

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Watch this video to gain additional knowledge about fact checking.

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Using a variety of tools and resources, students will evaluate web-sources for validity.

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B.IV.3 Learners gather information appropriate to the task by systematically questioning and assessing the validity and accuracy of information.

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Read the information found on this website to help you figure out if a source is credible.

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These OWL resources will help you develop and refine the arguments in your writing.

What type of evidence should I use?

There are two types of evidence.

First hand research is research you have conducted yourself such as interviews, experiments, surveys, or personal experience and anecdotes.

Second hand research is research you are getting from various texts that has been supplied and compiled by others such as books, periodicals, and Web sites.

Regardless of what type of sources you use, they must be credible. In other words, your sources must be reliable, accurate, and trustworthy.

How do I know if a source is credible?

You can ask the following questions to determine if a source is credible.

Who is the author? Credible sources are written by authors respected in their fields of study. Responsible, credible authors will cite their sources so that you can check the accuracy of and support for what they've written. (This is also a good way to find more sources for your own research.)

How recent is the source? The choice to seek recent sources depends on your topic. While sources on the American Civil War may be decades old and still contain accurate information, sources on information technologies, or other areas that are experiencing rapid changes, need to be much more current.

What is the author's purpose? When deciding which sources to use, you should take the purpose or point of view of the author into consideration. Is the author presenting a neutral, objective view of a topic? Or is the author advocating one specific view of a topic? Who is funding the research or writing of this source? A source written from a particular point of view may be credible; however, you need to be careful that your sources don't limit your coverage of a topic to one side of a debate.

What type of sources does your audience value? If you are writing for a professional or academic audience, they may value peer-reviewed journals as the most credible sources of information. If you are writing for a group of residents in your hometown, they might be more comfortable with mainstream sources, such as Time or Newsweek. A younger audience may be more accepting of information found on the Internet than an older audience might be.

Be especially careful when evaluating Internet sources! Never use Web sites where an author cannot be determined, unless the site is associated with a reputable institution such as a respected university, a credible media outlet, government program or department, or well-known non-governmental organizations. Beware of using sites like Wikipedia, which are collaboratively developed by users. Because anyone can add or change content, the validity of information on such sites may not meet the standards for academic research.

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Research and Evidence - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University

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These OWL resources will help you develop and refine the arguments in your writing. There are two types of evidence. First hand research is research you have conducted yourself such as interviews, experiments, surveys, or personal experience and anecdotes.

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Use CARRDSS to Evaluate Sources By: Clifton Public School

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Use CARRDSS to Evaluate Sources By: Clifton Public School

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Library Girl's Tips for Spotting Fake News By: Jennifer LaGarde

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Library Girl's Tips for Spotting Fake News By: Jennifer LaGarde

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This infographic will help you spot fake news that a website might provide.

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ISTE provides 10 websites that can be used to check facts.

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In a political climate where sharing fake news has become commonplace, it's more important than ever to rely on trustworthy and dogged fact-checking services to vet information.

Our job as digital citizens requires more than just being informed. We must also be vigilant about verifying information before posting it online. Being able to evaluate the acurracy, perspective and validity of digital media and social posts is one of the five competencies of DigCitCommit, an initiative designed to prepare students to stay safe, solve problems and become a force for good.

While taking a second look at claims made by politicians and even journalists is a start, we still can't outsource our brains and our judgment, says Tessa Jolls, president of the Center for Media Literacy. "In my view, we have to look as critically at the fact-checking sites as we do the news articles themselves," she says.

A good fact-checking site uses neutral wording, provides unbiased sources to support its claims and reliable links, says Frank Baker, author of Media Literacy in the K-12 Classroom and creator of the Media Literacy Clearinghouse. He adds, "Readers should apply the same critical thinking/questioning to fact-check sites."

Here's a rundown of 10 of the top fact- and bias-checking sites to share with your students.

While not a fact-checking site, AllSides curates stories from right, center and left-leaning media so that readers can easily compare how bias influences reporting on each topic.

This nonpartisan, nonprofit project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by U.S. political players, including politicians, TV ads, debates, interviews and news releases.

This nonprofit and self-described liberal-leaning research center monitors and corrects conservative misinformation in the media.

This nonpartisan website where Internet users can quickly and easily get information about eRumors, fake news, disinformation, warnings, offers, requests for help, myths, hoaxes, virus warnings, and humorous or inspirational stories that are circulated by email.

This nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit website run by the Center for Responsive Politics tracks how much and where candidates get their money.

This Pulitzer Prize winning website rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials. Run by editors and reporters from the independent newspaper Tampa Bay Times, Politicfact features the Truth-O-Meter that rates statements as "True," "Mostly True," "Half True," "False," and "Pants on Fire."

This independent, nonprofit newsroom has won several Pulitzer Prizes, including the 2016 Prize for Explanatory Reporting. ProPublica produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

This independent, nonpartisan website run by professional researcher and writer David Mikkelson researches urban legends and other rumors. It is often the first to set the facts straight on wild fake news claims.

This nonpartisan, nonprofit organization uses public policy data-based journalism to make politics more transparent and accountable.

Although the Washington Post has a left-center bias, its checks are excellent and sourced. The bias shows up because they fact check conservative claims more than liberal ones.
Jennifer Snelling is a freelance writer based in Eugene, Oregon, and mom to two digital natives. This is an updated version of a post that originally published April 18, 2017.

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Top 10 sites to help students check their facts | ISTE

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Students need to be vigilant about verifying information before posting it on social media. You can help them by teaching them to find trustworthy sources and doggedly fact-check and vet information.

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Use this infographic to think about the sources that you are using.

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USM Libraries Checklist for Evaluating Web Resources

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USM Libraries Checklist for Evaluating Web Resources

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You can use this checklist to help you evaluate resources.

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Checklist for Evaluating Web Resources | USM Libraries | University of Southern Maine

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Is the Web a good research tool? This question is dependent on the researcher's objective. As in traditional print resources one must use a method of critical analysis to determine its value. Here is a checklist for evaluating web resources to help in that determination.

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Berkeley provides helpful information about evaluating resources.

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Library Guides: Evaluating resources: Home

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Library Guides: Evaluating resources: Home

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Explore this website to learn about what is considered fake news.

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There are four broad categories of fake news, according to media professor Melissa Zimdars of Merrimack College.

CATEGORY 1: Fake, false, or regularly misleading websites that are shared on Facebook and social media. Some of these websites may rely on "outrage" by using distorted headlines and decontextualized or dubious information in order to generate likes, shares, and profits.

CATEGORY 2: Websites that may circulate misleading and/or potentially unreliable information

CATEGORY 3: Websites which sometimes use clickbait-y headlines and social media descriptions

CATEGORY 4: Satire/comedy sites, which can offer important critical commentary on politics and society, but have the potential to be shared as actual/literal news

No single topic falls under a single category - for example, false or misleading medical news may be entirely fabricated (Category 1), may intentionally misinterpret facts or misrepresent data (Category 2), may be accurate or partially accurate but use an alarmist title to get your attention (Category 3) or may be a critique on modern medical practice (Category 4.) Some articles fall under more than one category. Assessing the quality of the content is crucial to understanding whether what you are viewing is true or not. It is up to you to do the legwork to make sure your information is good.

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Subject and Course Guides: Fake News: Home

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There are four broad categories of fake news, according to media professor Melissa Zimdars of Merrimack College. CATEGORY 1: Fake, false, or regularly misleading websites that are shared on Facebook and social media. Some of these websites may rely on "outrage" by using distorted headlines and decontextualized or dubious information in order to generate likes, shares, and profits.

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Use the MLA Checklist: Evaluating Sources to see if a web source is reliable.

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Is this a reliable resource? Use the resources provided to help you prove your answer.

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NOW IN BOOK FORM!

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Information about psychotronic mind control blockage using an Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie

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Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in the history of the United States.

Fast Facts

It took Thomas Jefferson 17 days to write the Declaration of Independence.

On July 2, 1776, Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain.

On July 4, 1776, Congress voted to accept the Declaration of Independence, marking July 4 as Independence Day.

To learn more, you may want to:

U.S. Constitution
The foundation of the American government, its purpose, form, and structure, are in the Constitution of the United States. The Constitutional Convention adopted the Constitution on September 17, 1787.

The Bill of Rights is the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. It guarantees greater constitutional protection for individual liberties and lists specific prohibitions on government power. There are 27 Constitutional Amendments in all. The 27th Amendment, which was originally proposed in 1789, was not ratified until 1992.

Where to View the Constitution

You can view the original, parchment copy of the U.S. Constitution at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. You can also view an online copy of the U.S. Constitution or order a printed copy of the Constitution.

The U.S. National Anthem
The Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem of the United States. To celebrate a victory over British forces during the War of 1812, U.S. soldiers raised a large American flag at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 14, 1814. Inspired by those events, Francis Scott Key wrote a poem called "Defence of Fort M'Henry," which eventually became the Star Spangled Banner and the United States national anthem.

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U.S. History and Historical Documents | USAGov

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Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in the history of the United States. It took Thomas Jefferson 17 days to write the Declaration of Independence. On July 2, 1776, Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain.

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Help Save The ENDANGERED

From EXTINCTION!

The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

Rare photo of the elusive tree octopus
(Enhanced from cropped telephoto)

The Pacific Northwest tree octopus ( Octopus paxarbolis) can be found in the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula on the west coast of North America. Their habitat lies on the Eastern side of the Olympic mountain range, adjacent to Hood Canal. These solitary cephalopods reach an average size (measured from arm-tip to mantle-tip,) of 30-33 cm. Unlike most other cephalopods, tree octopuses are amphibious, spending only their early life and the period of their mating season in their ancestral aquatic environment. Because of the moistness of the rainforests and specialized skin adaptations, they are able to keep from becoming desiccated for prolonged periods of time, but given the chance they would prefer resting in pooled water.

An intelligent and inquisitive being (it has the largest brain-to-body ratio for any mollusk), the tree octopus explores its arboreal world by both touch and sight. Adaptations its ancestors originally evolved in the three dimensional environment of the sea have been put to good use in the spatially complex maze of the coniferous Olympic rainforests. The challenges and richness of this environment (and the intimate way in which it interacts with it,) may account for the tree octopus's advanced behavioral development. (Some evolutionary theorists suppose that "arboreal adaptation" is what laid the groundwork in primates for the evolution of the human mind.)

Reaching out with one of her eight arms, each covered in sensitive suckers, a tree octopus might grab a branch to pull herself along in a form of locomotion called tentaculation; or she might be preparing to strike at an insect or small vertebrate, such as a frog or rodent, or steal an egg from a bird's nest; or she might even be examining some object that caught her fancy, instinctively desiring to manipulate it with her dexterous limbs (really deserving the title "sensory organs" more than mere "limbs",) in order to better know it.

Map of estimated tree octopus maximum range, including spawning waters

Tree octopuses have eyesight comparable to humans. Besides allowing them to see their prey and environment, it helps them in inter-octopus relations. Although they are not social animals like us, they display to one-another their emotions through their ability to change the color of their skin: red indicates anger, white fear, while they normally maintain a mottled brown tone to blend in with the background.

The reproductive cycle of the tree octopus is still linked to its roots in the waters of the Puget Sound from where it is thought to have originated. Every year, in Spring, tree octopuses leave their homes in the Olympic National Forest and migrate towards the shore and, eventually, their spawning grounds in Hood Canal. There, they congregate (the only real social time in their lives,) and find mates. After the male has deposited his sperm, he returns to the forests, leaving the female to find an aquatic lair in which to attach her strands of egg-clusters. The female will guard and care for her eggs until they hatch, refusing even to eat, and usually dying from her selflessness. The young will spend the first month or so floating through Hood Canal, Admiralty Inlet, and as far as North Puget Sound before eventually moving out of the water and beginning their adult lives.

Why It's Endangered

Route 101, separating the rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula from Hood Canal

Although the tree octopus is not officially listed on the Endangered Species List, we feel that it should be added since its numbers are at a critically low level for its breeding needs. The reasons for this dire situation include: decimation of habitat by logging and suburban encroachment; building of roads that cut off access to the water which it needs for spawning; predation by foreign species such as house cats; and booming populations of its natural predators, including the bald eagle and sasquatch. What few that make it to the Canal are further hampered in their reproduction by the growing problem of pollution from farming and residential run-off. Unless immediate action is taken to protect this species and its habitat, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus will be but a memory.

The possibility of Pacific Northwest tree octopus extinction is not an unwarranted fear. Other tree octopus species-including the Douglas octopus and the red-ringed madrona sucker-were once abundant throughout the Cascadia region, but have since gone extinct because of threats similar to those faced by paxarbolis, as well as overharvesting by the now-illegal tree octopus trade.

Tree Octopus hat from 1923

The history of the tree octopus trade is a sad one. Their voracious appetite for bird plumes having exhausted all the worthy species of that family, the fashionistas moved on to cephalopodic accoutrements during the early 20th Century. Tree octopuses became prized by the fashion industry as ornamental decorations for hats, leading greedy trappers to wipe out whole populations to feed the vanity of the fashionable rich. While fortunately this practice has been outlawed, its effects still reverberate today as these millinery deprivations brought tree octopus numbers below the critical point where even minor environmental change could cause disaster.

While efforts were made in the past to preserve remaining tree octopus habitat, these were met with resistance by the timber industry, which has traditionally viewed the tree octopus as a nuisance, both because the octopuses favor the valuable, moss-shrouded trees of old growth forests-pitting conservation needs against lucrative sources of lumber-and because octopuses hiding among felled trees often gummed up sawmills and stained pulp vats with their ink.

Traveling sideshow exhibits, such as this one by Glen "Bones" Hartzell from 1942, demonized tree octopuses to the ignorant masses
(Click to enlarge)

These nuisances led many loggers to regard tree octopuses as bad luck, resulting in the pointless killing of octopuses on sight at logging camps in a misguided attempt at eradicating the troublesome species. Anti-octopus sentiment was so strong among loggers that some even began to fear that the octopuses were prone to attacking humans.

These fears were fueled in no small part by gratuitous stories involving tree octopuses harassing lumberjacks and distressing damsels in Northwestern-themed pulp magazines of the 1930-40s and variously "nipping", "entangling", or "suckering the flesh" of the heroes of men's action magazines of the 1950-60s. (The magazine publishers depended on cheap paper made from wood pulp and were glad to contribute to the anti-octopus propaganda campaign of the timber industry.)

To this day, misunderstanding and fear of these gentle creatures can still be found among many old timers, although education campaigns-and special octopus-separators installed at sawmills-have largely halted the practice of tree octopus eradication.

How You Can Help

More Tree Octopus Information

Posters motivate the citizenry to action! Post them!

Tree Octopus FAQs - Frequently asked questions, now with answers.

Tree Octopus Sightings - Includes photos of and behavioral research on the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus and other tree octopus species.

Tree Octopus In The Media - appearances of tree octopuses, both real and fictional, in the media and popular culture.

Research On Other Tree Octopus Species:

The author of this article and its subsections is Lyle Zapato.
This site is not associated with any school or educational organization,
other than the Kelvinic University branch of the Wild Haggis Conservation Society.
Not to be confused with the Pacific Northwest Octopus Tree.

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Information about the endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus and what you can do to save it.

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