Your fellow Frenzies are some of the most helpful on the planet and are eager to help you with your research for your script.
Here are a few tips to make the most of this forum:
Use a good subject line - give your readers some clue about what your question is so that when they scan the hundreds of posts, if they can help in that subject they'll see your topic and click on it. This will also help those who are researching the same subject join in your conversations.
Post only once per question - if you don't get any replies or need more information on that subject, just reply to your own post (called bumping). This will boost it back to the top of the forum and help those who are searching later find your post. Do not bump until it's fallen off the first page or two.
Browse or Search first - check to see if someone has already asked about the same subject or if there is already an Expert thread. In the past there have been vigorous and open discussions about weapons, pregnancy, political models, ancient technology, medical practices and legal procedures - there's no need to start your own topic, just jump into an existing one. That way everyone can share their knowledge and everyone can learn. Don't be offended if someone refers you to an existing post on the same subject - consolidation is a good thing.
While your fellow novelist are knowledgable, here are some good resources to start your searches on the web:
GENERAL WEBSEARCHES
Wikipedia.org - an open source encyclopedia that not only has great info on just about every subject but especially ephemera, there are usually links to other sites to help you continue your research. Wikipedia is also available in a variety of languages to help you in your native tongue.
Google - it seems obvious, but you can find a lot on Google if you know how to hone your search. Also, Google has several specific search engines that might also be of use:
scholar.google.com enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all areas of research
blogsearch.google.com - this is great when you want to find someone's real-world experiences on a particular topic. People blog about everything, so finding a woman documenting her pregnancy or perhaps a doctoral student detailing how to defend a dissertation will help you.
news.google.archivesearch – searches news archives of major newspapers covering the 20th century to the present. Can be displayed as a timeline. Most articles are available for a small fee (though you may be able to read them for free at your local library).
Google is not perfect, so try your search on MSN and Yahoo! as well.
answers.com - good broad searches that show you where a site is categorized on the web in addition to the actual link
Clusty - a search engine that shows results in categories and allow specific searches for images, blogs, news or wikipedia.
Opsdo - customizable meta-search engine.
RedDesk - All in one portal for finding info online
Intute - web sources for education and research
Librarians' Internet Index - a card catalogue of the internet.
Your Local Library - call the reference librarian at your local library (or at the local college or big city) - a lot of them love a challenge.
Internet Research Links clearinghouse list of everything from journalistic ethics to government agencies to language resources.
MEDICAL FIELD
Call your doctor's office and talk to your doctor or one of the nurses. For emergency medical info, stop by your local firehouse (especially if they have a paramedic or EMT unit) - most are happy though help on their down time. It's always nice to offer some coffee cards or donuts/cookies while you're at it.
WebMD.com – drugs, diseases & conditions. There are also forums & blogs there where you can access real-world stories.
Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases Registry - not only lists toxic substances but what they do to the body, symptoms and treatments
Centers for Disease Control – all about common and not-so-common diseases and a special sub-site for Sexually transmitted diseases
Writer's Forensics Medical Lab – lots of questions and answers in the archives
Gray's Anatomy – the classic 1918 publication
NIH - Pub Med The Library of Medicine
REPRODUCTION AND GENETICS
Pregnancy-Info.net
Adoption.org
Ultimate Birth Control lists of birth control methods and links to more info from a variety of sites.
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Police List of Resources
www.policespecials.com - UK based Police Officer forums.
Crime Spider - centralized source for crime, police, fire and prosecution information.
GEOGRAPHY
For travel distances, etc, just try one of the big mapping sites like mapquest, maps.google.com or maps.yahoo.com. Many now offer satellite views so you can judge terrain (in case you want to make your characters walk or ride a bike).
Google Earth - a geography based search engine with fabulous pictures.
CIA Factbook - flags of the world, maps, and country snapshots to give you current facts about the government, population and economy. Updated constantly.
For travel information from city to city (or continent to continent) try one of the major travel websites, which can show you where airports and hotels are, plane schedules, travel times, city guides and current security information. Expedia.com, Orbitz.com allow you to search without registering.
Weather Underground - current and archived weather from around the globe.
If you want to know what it's like to live in a city or area, consider dropping by the Regional Lounge and posting your question to the locals.
HISTORY & LITERATURE
Perseus Digital Libarary - digital library of texts
Gutenberg Project - digital library of over 16,000 public domain texts
University of Washington Libarary - online American and world history resource with links to copious sites on the subject.
BBC History Site – extensive resource on ancient history, British history and 20th century wars.
Luminarium - texts of English literature from 1350 to 1660.
Society for Creative Anachronism - easy to understand resource for everyday life in the middle ages, fighting, dance, food, rituals and medicine.
Turning the Pages - a shockwave driven site from the British Museum that shows you the text (actual pages) of 14 of its most revered books in its collection.
British Library – Newspaper Archive
TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE
howstuffworks.com - a site the describes how stuff works, low tech and high tech, chemical and mechanical - everything from tattoos to intelligent design, cell phones, vacuum cleaners, and vaccines.
Cornell MSDS search engine - Material Safety Data sheets
SIRI MSDS Index or its mirror site This one is given high marks by MSDSonline - they list a number of sites and a variety of chemical information resources.
Technovelgy – where science meets fiction
Physics Factbook
Planet Math – an open source math encyclopedia
Online Conversion metric to English, weights, measures & temperatures
RELIGION, MYTHOLOGY, ARCHETYPES & BELIEF SYSTEMS
Sacred Texts religious texts for dozens of sects and religions. You can even order the whole site on CD
Christian Classics Ethereal Library archive of texts of commentaries and writings on the subject of Christianity going back to the Bible available in a variety of formats. Large online resource of biographical info on major figures in the church and saints.
Ocean - downloadable sacred texts so you don't always have to have an internet connection
Occultopedia - exhaustive database on all topics of paranormal, obscure belief systems, mainstream religions, symbols and archetypes. Entries are brief but provide good links.
God Checker - your guide to the gods.
Encyclopedia Mythica
Myths and Dreams
Texts: The Quran & The Bible
SOCIETY
Cato Institute 25 Miraculous Trends of the Past 100 Years (1999) - a PDF
Nation Master - where stats come alive! Strange and insightful demographics
State Statutes – Cornell Law School – laws of all states divided by subject area.
National Geographic - science, culture, travel
LANGUAGE AND SLANG
Psyclops Translator – an entertainment site that "translates" webpages to different styles such as punk, smurf, redneck and cockney rhyming slang
Latin Quotes & Phrases
babelfish.altavista.com - a great free translation resource on the web, just input text and it'll be translated to or from dozens of languages. A good starting place for words and phrases, but not context sensitive and doesn't include a lot of slang or colloquialisms.
Etymonline – etymology (word origin) guide
Alternative Dictionary
Barbleby Online – dictionary, thesauri, quotations and Gray's Anatomy.
Roget's II New Thesaurus
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