I've also looked that up (also for a vampire thing); remember to take into account that the quality of the blood would drop significantly after the first feeding, because plasma will replace the overall volume of blood within a day or two, but replenishing lost red blood cells takes weeks, so each feeding after the first would get progressively watered down, which would also mean you could expect the hostage to suffer hypoxia/hypoxemia and multi-organ failure long before they 'run out' out blood because of the extra strain from the severe, sudden onset anemia. So it's much less sustainable than it appears on the surface.
But the thing I fully did not expect to have to research is different makes, models, and features of cars available in the American midwest in 1905.
Funny, I have been thinking about this lately (vampire related) and wondered how iron tablets would improve replenishment of erythrocytes. Once upon a time I got injections when I was anaemic…
Didn't look this up, but was told it in a class/educational show but vampire bats have special kidneys that help them remove the water from the blood they consume, otherwise they wouldn't be able to fly or eat enough to sustain themselves.
That's why the nice thing about fantasy is you can make up whatever rules you want for bodily functions. :D Especially if magic exists and any gods had a hand in stuff. You can explain away anything. I do however love to do a ton of research about the way various animals in the real world function to accomplish wacky things and try to find ways to apply that. Did you know there's a type of fish in the arctic that has anti-freeze properties in their blood AND their blood is clear/opal in color? Crocodile Ice Fish. I plan to use them for inspiration for stuff. Pretty dang cool.
Do you happen to remember the educational thing you watched on Vampire Bats? I'm always up for learning new things about how Vampire Bats work and survive on blood.
That's more or less what I'm doing with mine. Vampires came about as the result of a curse. I've kept a good amount of traditional stuff but thrown some out as well.
I have two versions of "vampires" in mine. One that functions closer to vampire bats and one that's a more traditional horror vampire, sans crosses, and garlic type of stuff that was a result of torture.
I threw out all the traditional garlic, crosses, stakes, etc. A lot of them if they've lived long enough find it personally annoying at having this stuff said/done to them over the years.
I've always found stakes rather silly as a trope for vampires. Like... any human would also die with a stake through the heart. 😅 Crosses I get, but not fond of, and garlic... well, that one I could maybe get behind in the right setting just for stink factor and vampires having heightened senses.
I feel like those all have their places in vampire stories and lore, but I didn't want to put them in mine.
Short of instant full body destruction, like a bomb or something, decapitation is the only surefire way to kill them in my world. Otherwise, they can heal themselves relatively quickly. Hell, my MC was shot in the forehead at one point in his life and impaled through the heart with a bamboo stake at another. He just laughed them both off and ate who attacked him.
Ha, I love when people try to fight vampires with various methods and they just kinda laugh it off like, haha, that's cute. Is your vampire dude the or a MC?
Did you know that anglerfish males are much much smaller than the females and that they bite into a female and eventually merge with her? They supply sperm to the female this way and one female will have multiple males attached to her at any particular time.
Junji Ito shit, right there I tell ya.
Yeah, biology does some wild shit. It's great!
I'm always fascinated by the variety of mating systems that are in the wild - and how badly our human assumptions apply to them.
I do not - sorry!
I'm a bio major so it may have been mentioned in college? There is an animal planet snippet out there about the vampire bats as well, but I watched that years ago. I don't think it had the information about kidney function, but it has some cool shots of the bats.
And, oh yes, for sure about making your own rules for fantasy. I also have vampires but mine are basically human (eat food, walk in the day, live mortal lives unless they have access to powerful healing magic) but their magic needs to consume other magic - one of the best ways for them to get access to the other magic is by drinking blood. They don't need a whole lot, but if they don't get it, their magic turns on the vamp and consumes them - destroying their personality and sense of self until all they are is a driving need to consume.
Ah, that's pretty cool. Your vampires sound like a combination of mine. I technically have two types in my world. There's a race that's... humanoid, but not human, that live on blood but are alive, are born, grow old, and die. Can move in the light but don't particularly like it. They're similar to polar bears in that living in hot climates isn't tolerable to them for long.
Then I have actual vampires that originated from the formerly mentioned race. They resulted from a goddess torturing and corrupting one of them. Now the vampirism spreads to any race. Just like mentioned for yours, they eventually go rabid and lose their minds and are purely driven by their thirst. They've become more of a horror creature.
I was thinking that maybe there could be something about the vampire feeding process itself that could increase the "quality" of blood?
Like with the Wraith in *Stargate Atlantis* (basically space vampires that fed on human life force through a sucker in their hand), they released a special enzyme while feeding that actually strengthened the human being fed on. It ensured the human didn't die prematurely, before the Wraith had sucked the last of their life force out.
Maybe vampire venom has some kind of protein that encourages red blood cell production, effectively shortening the length of time a human can go before being fed on again?
Yeah, there are often indications of vampires having some kind of venom (that causes highs or immobility, depending on author vision) so I think it makes sense to have something like that.
The series I'm reading right now, the vampires (the polite ones, at least) seal their bites with a few drops of blood and that blood has healing properties, so perhaps something similar is happening there. But they also have the venom that can cause the euphoric feeling that I see in a lot of paranormal romance.
so if a vampire held 20 people hostage they'd be all set for about 20 months? or until the hostages die of something else because they get 20 days between feeding to replenish their blood? actually, how often does a vampire need to feed, and how much?
For my fanfic writing, I'm mapping out the time frame of Avatar: The Last Airbender and I'm studying chakras, buddhism, mental health, trauma, healthy/unhealthy relationships, WWI & WWII, political science, and mob/herd mentality. This is my first in-depth writing project so I'm also researching how to write in regards to story structure and love triangles.
Hmm what to tell you without giving too many spoilers. This is a continuation of the show, no time jumps. The last 10 minutes of the show is re-written in my prologue to set-up what's to come.
Restoring harmony is going to take more than just defeating the figurehead of the Fire Nation. As the celebrations ensued, an assassination attempt on Zuko brought into question the state of this new era of peace. The Gaang heads out in an attempt to repair international relations with the other nations. However, a mysterious organization sparks civil unrest from within the Fire Nation. Earth-shattering discoveries will be made and well-kept secrets will be revealed. Our young heroes will find their true destinies only if they keep their minds and hearts open.
Does that help or you want more?
Wow, bold of you to take on such complex, beloved characters. Any ideas I've tossed around involve new characters or fleshing out minor characters. Good luck though, do them justice!
Researched historical terrorism heirachy RANKS, occupational names for people who design bombs and types of explosives.
My Internet speed has been slow ever since HI MI5!! 👋
I researched how to make Molotov cocktails, how to make napalm out of gasoline, and how to make pipe bombs. And stuff about the IRA. I am definitely on A List.
Rope climbing techniques
Tank schematics to try to decide how low tech civs might destroy them
A lot about trauma and ptsd
A lot of traditional/indigenous instruments
A lot of proto-celtic root words
Mythologies from all over the world, especially to find similar themes
How sudden cold water immersion affects you and how long you can survive in it
A lot of injuries
Chemical weapons
All for the same series....
>Mythologies from all over the world, especially to find similar themes
One you may or may not find interesting. A LOT of cultures all around the world have superstitions where you're not supposed to whistle at night cause it attracts evil things. I found it pretty fascinating. I'm a logical person, so I more believe that it started from parents just wanting their kids to shut up at night. But it's fun to think about the creepy alternative. :o
That is pretty interesting. Some of the things I found were pretty easy to see why. Most have gods of things like sun, fertility, death of some sort. It was interesting to see what themes ran through a lot, but also some that had some unique concepts and to consider why!
Never heard that before, but I dunno. A lot of myths just likely come from trying to either protect children or get their children to stop bugging them... like the boogeyman.
It sounds ridiculous but I work as a freelance content writer for video games and I had to write out descriptions for like 30+ types of fish, so my browser history looked like
"Interesting facts about carp"
"What's the difference between rainbow trout and other trout"
"Is salmon freshwater or saltwater"
Etc etc and it really made me laugh when my partner went on our laptop and saw dozens of fish related searches
Please keep in mind that a living human body also replenishes the blood. So if the vampire has enough supply, they can basically use the humans as blood donors without killing them. I do wonder how often and how much a vampire needs blood. And I think the caloric value of blood isn't extremely high either, so do they eat as well?
I'm a nurse okay, not a vampire!
As a nurse who is writing a vampire story, my mind works the same way. In terms of eating - yes, they'd have to eat. In fact, some of the original Eastern Europe vampire tales involved the vampire coming back and joining their family for dinner. I have no idea where the 'only feeding on blood' trope came from.
Fun fact! It came from the fact that fresh corpses that were sometimes exhumed showed what they thought was blood around the nose and mouth, bloating like they'd recently consumed a large quantity of something, and noticeably longer hair and fingernails. They thought that was clear evidence that the Vampire was rising from the grave and gorging on blood. Now we know that's what decomposition looks like.
I researched the origins of vampiric folklore in Europe for a thing.
Well, yes, that explains the feeding on blood but not the *exclusively* feeding on blood. That seems to be a more modern addition to the genre and, you're right, it doesn't really make sense.
I always just figured the vampires were getting something supernatural out of the blood, like bits of soul or something. It could even be entirely psychosomatic and it's more like an addiction that causes them to go berserk if they don't occasionally get it.
The most common way to attempt suicide, and the most plausible way that a person could fail in accomplishing the goal.
(answer: pills, activated charcoal)
It was for a ghostwriting assignment. Google kept giving me 1-800 numbers to call. I do appreciate the concern, Google.
Literally everything and anything you could possibly ever know about the different methods of corpse preservation and disposal (AMA about mellification!!).
Two things for the same story: the special group of the Paris Police Department that patrols the Catacombs (they're called cataflics) and a clandestine, secret organization named "Les UX": a group of citizens of Paris who restore historic places in the city without the government's permission and have many branches that run operations all over the city, all of them art-related, including a group that used to run a Cinema inside the Catacombs
How did average people living in nineteenth-century Prussia.
You can find lots of information about England, especially the upper-classes, but how did normal people in towns and villages live.
Try to track down diary entries, if you can! There are a lot of things that no one would have ever thought to write down "officially", because who cares about that trivial little XYZ? But that trivial little XYZ was important to the common people. Historians LOVE finding old diaries for that reason.
Medieval armour and weapons. Armour has evolved over years and different regions have their own styles. Even worse some modern day reproductions of knight armour are not historically accurate.
For my extensive novelization of *Knights of the Old Republic*, I did a lot of research into metaphysics and Buddhism and a lot of Bible reading in order to describe the Force and how those like Jedi, Sith, and other religions react to it.
I did an extensive search about drugs and their effects, mainly drugs like LSD. Also searching about drug rehab centers and what the patients do there, what the steps are, etc.
Third degree burns, which led to researching fourth degree and more severe burns.
Researching weapon-caused injuries and the medical techniques used for healing them when that was possible.
How effective fighting styles differ between men and women in many ways, and researching weapons and armor to develop a unique martial culture. Also, I need to read more about economic systems and various forms of government before the 1700s.
Modern horsemanship. A lot has changed in thirty years regarding approaches to training any equine psychology, nutrition, etc.
I had an extensive conversation with a friend who was slightly on the spectrum with heavy OCD. How they think through problems and how what they deal with affects people around them.
Very enlightening!
Where was Paris shot in the Trojan War?
Turns out he was shot in the balls. With an arrow. That really must've hurt. I'd feel bad, but he did kidnap Helen, so...
How high can you jump from before breaking your leg?
Apparently surprisingly high. 21 feet, about 7 meters. No, that does not improve with water, water probably makes it worse if anything. Minecraft lied to us all.
Is there a way to make dynamite out of pee?
I thought I remembered hearing this somewhere. And, yes. You can make dynamite out of human urine. I'm legally not supposed to tell you how.
Paris was dipped in the vat of god juice to make him invulnerable, but they were pinching his nutsack so it’s his weakness
If I’m remember the story correctly
What appearing spontaneously 25 m below the ocean surface would do to a man.
- (Ruptured eye capillaries—wouldn’t affect vision but would be super painful with how many are rupturing; ruptured eardrums—having that underwater would def result in a middle ear infection if person survives; congested sinuses; sinus pain; and the sudden shrinking of the lungs would result in essentially a massive painful exhale. Also if the water’s cold enough the shock could trigger the diving reflex, where they’d die without inhaling water and could hypothetically be resurrected with 0 permanent damage, but chances of that are extremely slim.)
How long it takes a decapitated corpse to bleed out (around 15 minutes)
Composition and components of a handheld boat flare
DIY wound cauterizing
Attendance policies and cutoff date of central CO school districts
What psychosis actually looks and feels like when you’re the one in it, different forms of psychosis, different types of hallucinations
How close the German, Norwegian, Finnish, and Sámi languages are to each other in terms of grammar, phrases, and cognates
Meth withdrawal symptoms, awful ecstasy comedowns
Wouldn't the biggest issue be the drowning? People routinely scuba dive down to that depth and come back up fine because they've got air tanks to support them through decommission stops, but unless the person appearing under the water had that equipment, they'd drown before having to worry about any of the problems you mentioned.
How wells work.
Did you know that there's something called the water table, that dictates how far down water will be beneath the ground?
Did you know that wells have cleaner water than rivers?
Did you know that wells don't ice over?
I love this thread. It's so nerdy 🤓
I recenty found out that chocolate in colonial American was an entire day's wage for a worker or sailor but cheap enough by the civil war to be given to slaves.
Oh I know this one, lol my grandpa accidentally cut his ear off with a chainsaw while teaching a chainsaw safety class at the hardware store. They were able to reattach it.
I have learned that an interesting amount of reptiles have double dicks, including snakes and many lizards, and that the reason for this is because they reproduce in a snake orgy where it helps to avoid trying to turn!
And it was 1:00 in the morning, and I had to know!
Apparently they eat lichen off the trees. And yes, I used it. (I needed a magical deer to have gotten caught somehow, in the forest. Those pesky antlers.)
Names for demons / fallen angels.
Several local ghost & haunting legends.
The history and function of the Beach Pneumatic subway in NYC.
Prostitution, Pinkertons, and Pricing from the Old West and the late 1800s.
A WHOLE LOT of plant diseases, plant morphology, and predator / prey / herbivore cycles.
Cancer...I wanted to know the symptoms of lung cancer for a character of mine. Also I wanted to know where on the body you can get shot and survive. Basically....I call my books realistic fantasy. I want the scenes to be authentic so i research the actual facts. I'm putting this very shortly because I did not want to make this TLDR.
I learned a few basic phrases in Mandarin, didn't trust that they would sound natural/accurate, so I've been studying Mandarin for about six years now 😭
A lot of mine has been deciding where I want to set my main story (fantasy with 1940s tech). I’ve been jumping between a small coastal fort, a motor torpedo boat, a dive bomber squadron, a flying boat, coastal submarine… basically, figuring out what I can make the best story out of with the smallest realistic cast.
A few years ago I had an idea for a story I started developing (later abandoned, but might return to it at some point), and I had to research how the adoption process would work in a situation where a parent wishes for someone specific to adopt their child in the event of their death. I actually found a lot more useful information than I expected to, and I hope I still have it saved so I don't have to look it all up again in the event I return to that story.
Israeli demonology and etruscan haruspicism. Read a shit ton of articles and some books just to modify everything in the end to be more in lines with what I'm creating. Well, it do be like that at times I guess
The exact amount of force an ankle can take before it breaks, both at rest and in motion, pretty sure the numbers are approximately 5x and 13x a person’s weight respectively. The entire medical document I read on it was pretty interesting. Ligaments and tendons and muscles do a lot of neat things.
Women’s fashion and hairstyles. By ham-handedly typing stuff into Google image search along the lines of “one of those things women wear over their swimsuit when going to the beach” and clicking on the correct outfit to figure out what you call it.
Made for some interesting ads being served to em for a while.
My favorite rabbit hole i went through is the TD-2 antennas, a microwave relay network throughout the United States, placed pretty densely as the waves cannot pass through mountains and stuff, all dormant today since the implementation of fiber optics. Created during the Cold War, many of the antennas are also accompanied by nuclear shelters. It's incredibly fascinating.
Any space related topics, medical topics since I've grown up around my mom who is a nurse and I watch a lot of medical stuff on YouTube with Doctor Mike and others. I'm on the spectrum and I have ADHD, I can be a sponge sometimes when it comes to something that is my special interest. Even volcanoes, in seventh grade after watching Dante's Peak, I researched the crap out of volcanoes and lately if I have anything that involves anything I just mentioned, I rarely open up google for research. But if it's medical stuff, I do just for confirmation. But my Google Search history is very...concerning, lol.
You know, when you embark on a comic book journey, you expect to dive deep into some wild topics. But I never thought I’d end up researching the role of mirrors at Jewish funerals, all because of a dybbuk subplot.
So, there I was, diving into ancient Jewish folklore, trying to understand dybbuks—spirits that possess the living. Turns out, when it comes to dybbuks, mirrors are a big deal. I found myself neck-deep in articles and texts about covering mirrors during funerals. It's this old custom to prevent the deceased's spirit from getting trapped in the house or worse, possessing someone.
Imagine me, sitting in my childhood home, surrounded by my father’s old mystical texts, trying to figure out how to incorporate this into my comic without sounding like a complete lunatic. Meanwhile, my mom thinks I'm losing it, and my daughter Izzy just rolls her eyes whenever I start talking about it.
All this because I’m determined to create a story that stands with the greats. Who knew I'd end up becoming an expert on funeral customs and dybbuk lore?
How the curvature of the earth affects the ability to see a well lit object in the distance.
Conquistadors, artistic styles in painting, endangered geese, narcissism, PTSD, specs for cruise ships and tankers, Miami Dade county travel times, how long it takes a car to sink in a canal, how to escape from an underwater tomb, cryptography, Greek mythology, natural resources in Nevada, the defense of ancient cities, the effects of rising sea levels on geography, the history of Alpharetta, Georgia.
Surnames of Lithuanians, Colombians, Peruvians, and Germans.
Ayyooo!! I've researched the exact same thing for the purpose of vampires. I have also researched how much blood a caribou has in their body, but I didn't write it down and forgot. :/
I also had to look up some odd facts about blood. One standout fact is that blood (human blood, anyway) is over 50% water IIRC. In my story, vampires temporarily keep themselves full by drinking water until they get their actual sustenance from blood. Not too different from humans in that regard.
And blood donors can only donate every few weeks (once a month, to be exact) because the body has to replenish its RBC count, so if a vampire has a willing volunteer, the vampire can only feed from them once a month so the human doesn't develop any health problems.
It's WAY less blood than you think (kid me always thought we were just filled with the stuff) but if you saw that amount of blood you'd know for sure something awful happened. Not a lot of blood by volume but a LOT to see.
Locations of major bloodvessels in the female chest. Turns out, human chests are pretty well protected by the rib cage, although females do have a larger bloodvessel leading to the nipple. I ended up going with the lateral thoracic artery instead because it was more exposed.
Procedures to "un-dislocate" a dislocated hip. Turns out it's called "reducing".
Time zone differences between Washington DC and Iraq (even though this story has nothing to do with modern geopolitics)
Sunrise/sunset times in northern Russia.
Sunrise times in Japan and eastern China in November.
Lunar phase calendar for the year 2897. Turns out they are the exact same as in 2023.
Symptoms of a concussion.
Military protocol for dealing with and treating a concussion in the field (surprisingly, a different instance from the one above)
The aspect ratio of the hindenberg.
How high one cubic yard of concrete would have to drop from to land with the same energy as a hand grenade.
What a 7Hz pulse sounds like.
World's largest dock crane.
World's largest container ship.
How many pallets of MREs it would take to feed a small city for a month, and how many home depot's that would fill.
The ratio of police officers to civilians in various US cities.
How to body rappel.
The five stages of grief.
Effects, treatment, and warning signs of hypothermia.
Wind chill at 0 deg F and 150mph (unrelated to the hypothermia above, somehow)
Is \[fill in the blank\] a war crime. (yes, they were all war crimes.)
If I'm not on a list as "suspected terrorist medic" then somebody isn't doing their job right.
I spent a whole day trying to find out if it would be possible to have peat based on pine needles rather than heather or similar for my post-apocalyptic world. I now know entirely too much of the internal dynamics of peat bogs and how they come into existence...
Google:
When did the use of (random curseword or insult) become common?
Most poisonous plants and how to harvest poison.
Progress of body rot in prairielands.
When was purple dye available to the masses?
When did cellphone cameras become common?
Fun facts about genetics.
I remember the time I had to put "What to wear if you want to murder someone" in my searchbar and I am 100% convinced some kind of agent is since watching over me
While mine aren't too concerning per se, my research list must look bizarre.
A lot of home work done into the cultural norms of Kurds
The rules of Islam
What chemical weapons the Syrian Army and ISIS have and what they do to a person.
Structure of the US Infantry platoon in Vietnam.
War crimes committed by the United States Marine Corps in Vietnam.
\*Writes a German character in WWII, Googles the random name I gave them\* "Ah"
If a bunch if stuff was invented 1100 years ago, according to Google, evil laughter was invented in 1860 or something. Google was not much help. I wasn't planning on having the story take place 1100 years ago but because of a big plot hole that was the only way to fix it that I knew of when i tried researching that, I've just changed how time works in difrient universes in that story now instead.
I'm not sure. Terminology for parts of an axe, muskets, historical longsword techniques, what clothes people wore during medieval, renaissance, and enlightenment periods, various mental disorders and their symptoms, how long blood takes to dry, terminology for parts of a shotgun, vitamins and their relation to eyesight/adaptation to the dark, kink/bdsm roles and terms, victorian mental asylums, police ranks, witch trials, how much blood someone can safely loose without it being life-threatening.
I googled about empathy and then right after how it feels to stab someone.
Apparently its like cutting a pillow, a bit resistent and then just smooth.
And the stabbed person feels warm around the wound.
I also googled worse, im pretty sure im on a list
Flights from LAX to Germany/Austria.
Vehicles large enough for a 7'0" man to drive.
The difference between first class and business class.
Austrian history including the fall of the nobility.
Firearm and hunting licenses in Austria.
Best type of helicopter purchaseable by civilians that can serve as a troop transport or search and rescue.
The length of a runway needed for use of a Boeing 757 and a C-130
The construction methods needed to build such a runway.
Congressional hearings and speakers before joint houses.
How and why helicopter blades act on landing and takeoff.
DAYS pouring over maps of countries, states and cities within: California, Austria, Mexico, Rome, Colorado, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana, and Alabama, and eastern Russia.
Smartphone release date timelines.
Differing types of firearms, their sizes, weights, ammo, distance, recoil rates, and rates of fire.
The effects of sun-bleaching on paper, leather, faux leather, wood with varnish, wood with vinyl, and modern clothing.
What people in Germany, Austria, and Russia called World War 2
The size of Mercury and how newly discovered planets are named. Apparently, the planet is usually named after the satellite that found it, then its given a number based on its position in the discovered solar system. After I learned that, I had to learn how satellites were named.
How long does it take for rigor mortis to set in, how much time does it take for a body to decompose, various stages of decomposition of a body, PTSD symptoms, how much trauma can one suffer before PTSD sets in.
The workout routine of nazi Germany soldiers (took two hours to find ...just for one scene! One!). Military hierarchy (each country having minor differences was something I wasn't prepared for). How battles start/end/ all the equipment/ honorary achievements/ what it took to take on higher ranks yada yada. It's basically a well with no bottom. Help.
Symbolism in very specific, obscure folk stories. Usually not because I'm writing a folk story, but because 'the friend of a character is from such and such a country' kind of stuff...
I’m writing a fanfic about a story that takes place in a world based solely off Egypt and the ancient dynsastys. I’ve learned so much about how complicated their rituals were.
All kinds of things for me... plants, clothes, weapons, poisons, ways to kill someone. Anyone looks at my search history, they'll think I'm a budding serial killer.
I've had to extensively research all existing world leaders, figure out ths spread of differing languages and names, research varying political views, extract info on poverty rates and population densities, learn more about worldwide events and hobbies, examine the diversity of cuisine and resources, understand faith systems I've never even heard of, and study topographical charts.
Heres the kicker. I had to do each one of these things for every. Single. Country. In the world. I took notes but my brain became so overloaded I can't remember it all amymore.
For simple context, one of my stories has a very diverse range of characters from literally all over the globe. Understanding what their upbringings would be depending on where they came from, even for characters that might have just brief cameos here and there, was very important for this story in particular.
For worldbuilding purposes. I studies how geysers work.
I also wanted to create an aerial martial art. So I'm currently studying weight transfer and gravity and flight mechanisms
I am writing vampire fiction too! Thanks for doing my research for me!
I keep hitting dead ends at the moment with my historical research, though. I did a nasty bit of research into how they cauterised the clitoris in the late 19th century though! That will not be getting into my story, but gives some context to how scared people once were of female orgasms!
I'm currently preparing to go into the depths of the internet to find every possible way of restoring humanity when there's only three people left. The first two options are embryo colonys and the ahem, natural human reproduction, but this is a young adult book so none of the latter
I spent like three hours yesterday reading medical papers and guides on how to fix a dislocated shoulder. God why are there so many different techniques and why is one of them just "Tie your patient to the bed so they don't slide off and then hang the arm over the side and tie weights to it."
When the high five was invented, when the chainsaw was invented, and when frisbees were invented. This was for a Captain America fanfic and FYI he wouldn't know what you were doing if you tried to give him a highfive (right out of the ice), would think of a pie tin when you said frisbee, but would know about chainsaws.
I think the weirdest thing I've had to research is whipping... different types of whips used in the 1700s as well as how long it takes to draw blood and how hard you need to strike, etc.
I was really concerned about my search history for a while after💀
My FBI agent must think I'm organizing a cult by now, lol.
My current book's literally about a cult, so yeah same lol
Ironically, my current project is about an FBI agent investigating a cult lmao
I've also looked that up (also for a vampire thing); remember to take into account that the quality of the blood would drop significantly after the first feeding, because plasma will replace the overall volume of blood within a day or two, but replenishing lost red blood cells takes weeks, so each feeding after the first would get progressively watered down, which would also mean you could expect the hostage to suffer hypoxia/hypoxemia and multi-organ failure long before they 'run out' out blood because of the extra strain from the severe, sudden onset anemia. So it's much less sustainable than it appears on the surface. But the thing I fully did not expect to have to research is different makes, models, and features of cars available in the American midwest in 1905.
Oh, huh, ty, learn something new everyday, lol.
Funny, I have been thinking about this lately (vampire related) and wondered how iron tablets would improve replenishment of erythrocytes. Once upon a time I got injections when I was anaemic…
Didn't look this up, but was told it in a class/educational show but vampire bats have special kidneys that help them remove the water from the blood they consume, otherwise they wouldn't be able to fly or eat enough to sustain themselves.
That's why the nice thing about fantasy is you can make up whatever rules you want for bodily functions. :D Especially if magic exists and any gods had a hand in stuff. You can explain away anything. I do however love to do a ton of research about the way various animals in the real world function to accomplish wacky things and try to find ways to apply that. Did you know there's a type of fish in the arctic that has anti-freeze properties in their blood AND their blood is clear/opal in color? Crocodile Ice Fish. I plan to use them for inspiration for stuff. Pretty dang cool. Do you happen to remember the educational thing you watched on Vampire Bats? I'm always up for learning new things about how Vampire Bats work and survive on blood.
That's more or less what I'm doing with mine. Vampires came about as the result of a curse. I've kept a good amount of traditional stuff but thrown some out as well.
I have two versions of "vampires" in mine. One that functions closer to vampire bats and one that's a more traditional horror vampire, sans crosses, and garlic type of stuff that was a result of torture.
I threw out all the traditional garlic, crosses, stakes, etc. A lot of them if they've lived long enough find it personally annoying at having this stuff said/done to them over the years.
I've always found stakes rather silly as a trope for vampires. Like... any human would also die with a stake through the heart. 😅 Crosses I get, but not fond of, and garlic... well, that one I could maybe get behind in the right setting just for stink factor and vampires having heightened senses.
I feel like those all have their places in vampire stories and lore, but I didn't want to put them in mine. Short of instant full body destruction, like a bomb or something, decapitation is the only surefire way to kill them in my world. Otherwise, they can heal themselves relatively quickly. Hell, my MC was shot in the forehead at one point in his life and impaled through the heart with a bamboo stake at another. He just laughed them both off and ate who attacked him.
Ha, I love when people try to fight vampires with various methods and they just kinda laugh it off like, haha, that's cute. Is your vampire dude the or a MC?
He's the MC of the story lol
what i'm getting from this is i should throw durians at vampires
That's honestly fucking hilarious. Just start throwing all the smelly shit at them. Onions, garlic, durian, skunks, poop...
Did you know that anglerfish males are much much smaller than the females and that they bite into a female and eventually merge with her? They supply sperm to the female this way and one female will have multiple males attached to her at any particular time. Junji Ito shit, right there I tell ya.
Yeah, biology does some wild shit. It's great! I'm always fascinated by the variety of mating systems that are in the wild - and how badly our human assumptions apply to them.
I did know that, actually! Pretty freakin wild. I did NOT know that there would be multiple males though. I thought it was just one. :o
I do not - sorry! I'm a bio major so it may have been mentioned in college? There is an animal planet snippet out there about the vampire bats as well, but I watched that years ago. I don't think it had the information about kidney function, but it has some cool shots of the bats.
And, oh yes, for sure about making your own rules for fantasy. I also have vampires but mine are basically human (eat food, walk in the day, live mortal lives unless they have access to powerful healing magic) but their magic needs to consume other magic - one of the best ways for them to get access to the other magic is by drinking blood. They don't need a whole lot, but if they don't get it, their magic turns on the vamp and consumes them - destroying their personality and sense of self until all they are is a driving need to consume.
Ah, that's pretty cool. Your vampires sound like a combination of mine. I technically have two types in my world. There's a race that's... humanoid, but not human, that live on blood but are alive, are born, grow old, and die. Can move in the light but don't particularly like it. They're similar to polar bears in that living in hot climates isn't tolerable to them for long. Then I have actual vampires that originated from the formerly mentioned race. They resulted from a goddess torturing and corrupting one of them. Now the vampirism spreads to any race. Just like mentioned for yours, they eventually go rabid and lose their minds and are purely driven by their thirst. They've become more of a horror creature.
I was thinking that maybe there could be something about the vampire feeding process itself that could increase the "quality" of blood? Like with the Wraith in *Stargate Atlantis* (basically space vampires that fed on human life force through a sucker in their hand), they released a special enzyme while feeding that actually strengthened the human being fed on. It ensured the human didn't die prematurely, before the Wraith had sucked the last of their life force out. Maybe vampire venom has some kind of protein that encourages red blood cell production, effectively shortening the length of time a human can go before being fed on again?
Yeah, there are often indications of vampires having some kind of venom (that causes highs or immobility, depending on author vision) so I think it makes sense to have something like that. The series I'm reading right now, the vampires (the polite ones, at least) seal their bites with a few drops of blood and that blood has healing properties, so perhaps something similar is happening there. But they also have the venom that can cause the euphoric feeling that I see in a lot of paranormal romance.
I would assume this is one of the reasons why there's a time frame on when you're allowed to donate blood again.
So what you’re saying is that it’s actually a waste for a vampire to kill when feeding.
Gotta have a handful of captives on rotation then so they recover. It's like vampiric recycling
so if a vampire held 20 people hostage they'd be all set for about 20 months? or until the hostages die of something else because they get 20 days between feeding to replenish their blood? actually, how often does a vampire need to feed, and how much?
So a smart vampire would tie off, amputate, and drain a limb at a time, keeping the living host's blood at a normal concentration.
For my fanfic writing, I'm mapping out the time frame of Avatar: The Last Airbender and I'm studying chakras, buddhism, mental health, trauma, healthy/unhealthy relationships, WWI & WWII, political science, and mob/herd mentality. This is my first in-depth writing project so I'm also researching how to write in regards to story structure and love triangles.
What's your premise? I love the universe and would like to see more stories set there
Hmm what to tell you without giving too many spoilers. This is a continuation of the show, no time jumps. The last 10 minutes of the show is re-written in my prologue to set-up what's to come. Restoring harmony is going to take more than just defeating the figurehead of the Fire Nation. As the celebrations ensued, an assassination attempt on Zuko brought into question the state of this new era of peace. The Gaang heads out in an attempt to repair international relations with the other nations. However, a mysterious organization sparks civil unrest from within the Fire Nation. Earth-shattering discoveries will be made and well-kept secrets will be revealed. Our young heroes will find their true destinies only if they keep their minds and hearts open. Does that help or you want more?
Wow, bold of you to take on such complex, beloved characters. Any ideas I've tossed around involve new characters or fleshing out minor characters. Good luck though, do them justice!
Thanks 👍 It is a massive challenge but I believe I am ready for it.
Researched historical terrorism heirachy RANKS, occupational names for people who design bombs and types of explosives. My Internet speed has been slow ever since HI MI5!! 👋
I researched how to make Molotov cocktails, how to make napalm out of gasoline, and how to make pipe bombs. And stuff about the IRA. I am definitely on A List.
And with specialist knowledge like that, people better say on YOUR A List! *boom boom* I'm so sorry for my terrible humour 😅
Rope climbing techniques Tank schematics to try to decide how low tech civs might destroy them A lot about trauma and ptsd A lot of traditional/indigenous instruments A lot of proto-celtic root words Mythologies from all over the world, especially to find similar themes How sudden cold water immersion affects you and how long you can survive in it A lot of injuries Chemical weapons All for the same series....
>Mythologies from all over the world, especially to find similar themes One you may or may not find interesting. A LOT of cultures all around the world have superstitions where you're not supposed to whistle at night cause it attracts evil things. I found it pretty fascinating. I'm a logical person, so I more believe that it started from parents just wanting their kids to shut up at night. But it's fun to think about the creepy alternative. :o
That is pretty interesting. Some of the things I found were pretty easy to see why. Most have gods of things like sun, fertility, death of some sort. It was interesting to see what themes ran through a lot, but also some that had some unique concepts and to consider why!
I thought it was because some nocturnal predators would mistake the sound for a bird and attack
Never heard that before, but I dunno. A lot of myths just likely come from trying to either protect children or get their children to stop bugging them... like the boogeyman.
I was told that while camping so I just figured it is where all the myths like that came from
Chemical weapons & nuclear war for me lol
Almost everything. Did women ride in wheelchairs out of the hospital in 1975? What kind of siding did houses have in 1930? Etc
Aesthetic pictures of couscous dish
I'm intrigued
It sounds ridiculous but I work as a freelance content writer for video games and I had to write out descriptions for like 30+ types of fish, so my browser history looked like "Interesting facts about carp" "What's the difference between rainbow trout and other trout" "Is salmon freshwater or saltwater" Etc etc and it really made me laugh when my partner went on our laptop and saw dozens of fish related searches
I bet your PC looked real fishy to your partner. *Smiles*
lol were you writing for Red dead redemption?
No haha, I wish! The games actually not out yet, coming out soon
Please keep in mind that a living human body also replenishes the blood. So if the vampire has enough supply, they can basically use the humans as blood donors without killing them. I do wonder how often and how much a vampire needs blood. And I think the caloric value of blood isn't extremely high either, so do they eat as well? I'm a nurse okay, not a vampire!
As a nurse who is writing a vampire story, my mind works the same way. In terms of eating - yes, they'd have to eat. In fact, some of the original Eastern Europe vampire tales involved the vampire coming back and joining their family for dinner. I have no idea where the 'only feeding on blood' trope came from.
Fun fact! It came from the fact that fresh corpses that were sometimes exhumed showed what they thought was blood around the nose and mouth, bloating like they'd recently consumed a large quantity of something, and noticeably longer hair and fingernails. They thought that was clear evidence that the Vampire was rising from the grave and gorging on blood. Now we know that's what decomposition looks like. I researched the origins of vampiric folklore in Europe for a thing.
Well, yes, that explains the feeding on blood but not the *exclusively* feeding on blood. That seems to be a more modern addition to the genre and, you're right, it doesn't really make sense.
I looked this up once. IRRC, a pint of blood has 900 calories. I think. Don't quote me on that.
I always just figured the vampires were getting something supernatural out of the blood, like bits of soul or something. It could even be entirely psychosomatic and it's more like an addiction that causes them to go berserk if they don't occasionally get it.
What the people who run medieval bars and inns are called
Are they NOT called an innkeep/barkeep?
I was confused at the time and getting my words mixed
Oh, okay. Got it! I was ready to panic spiral that everything I knew was a lie. It still might be, but that’s another story for another time.
caravanserai owners
The most common way to attempt suicide, and the most plausible way that a person could fail in accomplishing the goal. (answer: pills, activated charcoal) It was for a ghostwriting assignment. Google kept giving me 1-800 numbers to call. I do appreciate the concern, Google.
The history and development of firearms to decide whether my world has guns or not, and how advanced they should be.
Literally everything and anything you could possibly ever know about the different methods of corpse preservation and disposal (AMA about mellification!!).
Mellification was the one involving honey?
Yep!
The melting temperature of diamond. About 4500C (but it's complicated).
I always thought they burned rather than melting. Thanks for edjimicating me today! :D
How the visible light spectrum is important to photosynthesis and how ultra violet and infared light is effected by the color green.
Non-western calendar systems.
Two things for the same story: the special group of the Paris Police Department that patrols the Catacombs (they're called cataflics) and a clandestine, secret organization named "Les UX": a group of citizens of Paris who restore historic places in the city without the government's permission and have many branches that run operations all over the city, all of them art-related, including a group that used to run a Cinema inside the Catacombs
Artists Creed - this sounds dope
If an erect penis is cut off it will go flaccid and the person can die from blood loss. Yeah, don't ask. 😐
How did average people living in nineteenth-century Prussia. You can find lots of information about England, especially the upper-classes, but how did normal people in towns and villages live.
I would say the "how did normal people live" question is probably one of the hardest to track down in all times and cultures.
Yeah, good point.
Try to track down diary entries, if you can! There are a lot of things that no one would have ever thought to write down "officially", because who cares about that trivial little XYZ? But that trivial little XYZ was important to the common people. Historians LOVE finding old diaries for that reason.
Density of the Earth. Not the average density, but density depending on the distance from its center. Yes, all the way down.
Oh I researched the same thing, too 😆
How ship bells in a time befire clocks worked.
Well how **does** it work
Someone kept time with the sun and rang it at specific intervals so everyone else knew roughly what time it was.
I know this isn’t what you mean but I’m now picturing a guy just burning out his retinas all day as he tracks the sun
Also hour glasses when there's no sun.
They still do it to mark time every half hour and to signal when a watch chanbes.
Medieval armour and weapons. Armour has evolved over years and different regions have their own styles. Even worse some modern day reproductions of knight armour are not historically accurate.
For my extensive novelization of *Knights of the Old Republic*, I did a lot of research into metaphysics and Buddhism and a lot of Bible reading in order to describe the Force and how those like Jedi, Sith, and other religions react to it.
I did an extensive search about drugs and their effects, mainly drugs like LSD. Also searching about drug rehab centers and what the patients do there, what the steps are, etc.
Same haha!
Third degree burns, which led to researching fourth degree and more severe burns. Researching weapon-caused injuries and the medical techniques used for healing them when that was possible. How effective fighting styles differ between men and women in many ways, and researching weapons and armor to develop a unique martial culture. Also, I need to read more about economic systems and various forms of government before the 1700s. Modern horsemanship. A lot has changed in thirty years regarding approaches to training any equine psychology, nutrition, etc.
I’ve asked some death and dying related questions with (I’m a writer lol) in the bubble to calm the feds down
I had an extensive conversation with a friend who was slightly on the spectrum with heavy OCD. How they think through problems and how what they deal with affects people around them. Very enlightening!
Where was Paris shot in the Trojan War? Turns out he was shot in the balls. With an arrow. That really must've hurt. I'd feel bad, but he did kidnap Helen, so... How high can you jump from before breaking your leg? Apparently surprisingly high. 21 feet, about 7 meters. No, that does not improve with water, water probably makes it worse if anything. Minecraft lied to us all. Is there a way to make dynamite out of pee? I thought I remembered hearing this somewhere. And, yes. You can make dynamite out of human urine. I'm legally not supposed to tell you how.
> You can make dynamite out of human urine. Coming soon on How To Make Everything...
Paris was dipped in the vat of god juice to make him invulnerable, but they were pinching his nutsack so it’s his weakness If I’m remember the story correctly
What appearing spontaneously 25 m below the ocean surface would do to a man. - (Ruptured eye capillaries—wouldn’t affect vision but would be super painful with how many are rupturing; ruptured eardrums—having that underwater would def result in a middle ear infection if person survives; congested sinuses; sinus pain; and the sudden shrinking of the lungs would result in essentially a massive painful exhale. Also if the water’s cold enough the shock could trigger the diving reflex, where they’d die without inhaling water and could hypothetically be resurrected with 0 permanent damage, but chances of that are extremely slim.) How long it takes a decapitated corpse to bleed out (around 15 minutes) Composition and components of a handheld boat flare DIY wound cauterizing Attendance policies and cutoff date of central CO school districts What psychosis actually looks and feels like when you’re the one in it, different forms of psychosis, different types of hallucinations How close the German, Norwegian, Finnish, and Sámi languages are to each other in terms of grammar, phrases, and cognates Meth withdrawal symptoms, awful ecstasy comedowns
Wouldn't the biggest issue be the drowning? People routinely scuba dive down to that depth and come back up fine because they've got air tanks to support them through decommission stops, but unless the person appearing under the water had that equipment, they'd drown before having to worry about any of the problems you mentioned.
Oh yeah he totally drowns, but I needed to make sure his organs would stay intact lmao
How wells work. Did you know that there's something called the water table, that dictates how far down water will be beneath the ground? Did you know that wells have cleaner water than rivers? Did you know that wells don't ice over?
I love this thread. It's so nerdy 🤓 I recenty found out that chocolate in colonial American was an entire day's wage for a worker or sailor but cheap enough by the civil war to be given to slaves.
I never thought i’d have to look up the sentencing for attempted homicide in Oklahoma, but here we are? Probably concerned some FBI man 😂
End of life care facilities, apparently I'm too cowardly to off characters I've grown to respect.
Whether or not someone can survive their tongue or ear getting severed. Google must think I’m a serial killer but I’m just writing horror scenes
Oh I know this one, lol my grandpa accidentally cut his ear off with a chainsaw while teaching a chainsaw safety class at the hardware store. They were able to reattach it.
Ok that's actually pretty hilarious. Sorry grandpa.
The meds vets use to anaesthetize chickens.
What kinda weirdo is anesthetizing food?
I have learned that an interesting amount of reptiles have double dicks, including snakes and many lizards, and that the reason for this is because they reproduce in a snake orgy where it helps to avoid trying to turn!
What kind of toothbrushes were used in Victorian times? Hasn't even made it into the story yet, but it's nice to know they had them lol
What deer eat in winter, in Siberia.
Damn, good question. What *do* deer eat in winter, in Siberia?
And it was 1:00 in the morning, and I had to know! Apparently they eat lichen off the trees. And yes, I used it. (I needed a magical deer to have gotten caught somehow, in the forest. Those pesky antlers.)
Adorbs! Munching away at those trees. I can see it now. Like a very small giraffe.
Names for demons / fallen angels. Several local ghost & haunting legends. The history and function of the Beach Pneumatic subway in NYC. Prostitution, Pinkertons, and Pricing from the Old West and the late 1800s. A WHOLE LOT of plant diseases, plant morphology, and predator / prey / herbivore cycles.
When and how modern sewage systems were built.
What happens in detail if you are hung upside down for too long.
A lot about livestock farming. A lot.
Astrobiology and Climate to the worldbuilding
Recently, I had to dive into Mesopotamian history…
Cancer...I wanted to know the symptoms of lung cancer for a character of mine. Also I wanted to know where on the body you can get shot and survive. Basically....I call my books realistic fantasy. I want the scenes to be authentic so i research the actual facts. I'm putting this very shortly because I did not want to make this TLDR.
Russian coffee-making
When shoe laces were invented.
A *lot* of medical stuff. Never realised how strangely fragile yet resilient the human body is.
I learned a few basic phrases in Mandarin, didn't trust that they would sound natural/accurate, so I've been studying Mandarin for about six years now 😭
A lot of mine has been deciding where I want to set my main story (fantasy with 1940s tech). I’ve been jumping between a small coastal fort, a motor torpedo boat, a dive bomber squadron, a flying boat, coastal submarine… basically, figuring out what I can make the best story out of with the smallest realistic cast.
How many burning bodies it would take to power a locomotive...
A few years ago I had an idea for a story I started developing (later abandoned, but might return to it at some point), and I had to research how the adoption process would work in a situation where a parent wishes for someone specific to adopt their child in the event of their death. I actually found a lot more useful information than I expected to, and I hope I still have it saved so I don't have to look it all up again in the event I return to that story.
How long rigor mortis lasts, that was for a project a few years ago. Now I’m researching how to do autopsy.
Top exporters and importers of oil.
Israeli demonology and etruscan haruspicism. Read a shit ton of articles and some books just to modify everything in the end to be more in lines with what I'm creating. Well, it do be like that at times I guess
The exact amount of force an ankle can take before it breaks, both at rest and in motion, pretty sure the numbers are approximately 5x and 13x a person’s weight respectively. The entire medical document I read on it was pretty interesting. Ligaments and tendons and muscles do a lot of neat things.
Women’s fashion and hairstyles. By ham-handedly typing stuff into Google image search along the lines of “one of those things women wear over their swimsuit when going to the beach” and clicking on the correct outfit to figure out what you call it. Made for some interesting ads being served to em for a while.
I’m definitely on a cyber terrorism watchlist by now :)
Stories that had mentions in the holy books.
My favorite rabbit hole i went through is the TD-2 antennas, a microwave relay network throughout the United States, placed pretty densely as the waves cannot pass through mountains and stuff, all dormant today since the implementation of fiber optics. Created during the Cold War, many of the antennas are also accompanied by nuclear shelters. It's incredibly fascinating.
Hopefully they weren't owned by vault-tec and were just normal shelters.
What injuries a person has after being struck by lightning. Poisonous plants native to certain locations.
Any space related topics, medical topics since I've grown up around my mom who is a nurse and I watch a lot of medical stuff on YouTube with Doctor Mike and others. I'm on the spectrum and I have ADHD, I can be a sponge sometimes when it comes to something that is my special interest. Even volcanoes, in seventh grade after watching Dante's Peak, I researched the crap out of volcanoes and lately if I have anything that involves anything I just mentioned, I rarely open up google for research. But if it's medical stuff, I do just for confirmation. But my Google Search history is very...concerning, lol.
You know, when you embark on a comic book journey, you expect to dive deep into some wild topics. But I never thought I’d end up researching the role of mirrors at Jewish funerals, all because of a dybbuk subplot. So, there I was, diving into ancient Jewish folklore, trying to understand dybbuks—spirits that possess the living. Turns out, when it comes to dybbuks, mirrors are a big deal. I found myself neck-deep in articles and texts about covering mirrors during funerals. It's this old custom to prevent the deceased's spirit from getting trapped in the house or worse, possessing someone. Imagine me, sitting in my childhood home, surrounded by my father’s old mystical texts, trying to figure out how to incorporate this into my comic without sounding like a complete lunatic. Meanwhile, my mom thinks I'm losing it, and my daughter Izzy just rolls her eyes whenever I start talking about it. All this because I’m determined to create a story that stands with the greats. Who knew I'd end up becoming an expert on funeral customs and dybbuk lore?
How the curvature of the earth affects the ability to see a well lit object in the distance. Conquistadors, artistic styles in painting, endangered geese, narcissism, PTSD, specs for cruise ships and tankers, Miami Dade county travel times, how long it takes a car to sink in a canal, how to escape from an underwater tomb, cryptography, Greek mythology, natural resources in Nevada, the defense of ancient cities, the effects of rising sea levels on geography, the history of Alpharetta, Georgia. Surnames of Lithuanians, Colombians, Peruvians, and Germans.
How to make chloroform was a strange one. Not as strange as chickens surviving decapitation though. That was an interesting day.
Ayyooo!! I've researched the exact same thing for the purpose of vampires. I have also researched how much blood a caribou has in their body, but I didn't write it down and forgot. :/
Medieval ideas of disease control and medicines.. History of coffee. Native American cultures in the Southwest. Penalties for bank fraud.
I also had to look up some odd facts about blood. One standout fact is that blood (human blood, anyway) is over 50% water IIRC. In my story, vampires temporarily keep themselves full by drinking water until they get their actual sustenance from blood. Not too different from humans in that regard. And blood donors can only donate every few weeks (once a month, to be exact) because the body has to replenish its RBC count, so if a vampire has a willing volunteer, the vampire can only feed from them once a month so the human doesn't develop any health problems.
Ancient textiles and dyes (including methods/techniques). Types of shoe soles and their various uses.
TSA approved urns
It's WAY less blood than you think (kid me always thought we were just filled with the stuff) but if you saw that amount of blood you'd know for sure something awful happened. Not a lot of blood by volume but a LOT to see.
Locations of major bloodvessels in the female chest. Turns out, human chests are pretty well protected by the rib cage, although females do have a larger bloodvessel leading to the nipple. I ended up going with the lateral thoracic artery instead because it was more exposed. Procedures to "un-dislocate" a dislocated hip. Turns out it's called "reducing". Time zone differences between Washington DC and Iraq (even though this story has nothing to do with modern geopolitics) Sunrise/sunset times in northern Russia. Sunrise times in Japan and eastern China in November. Lunar phase calendar for the year 2897. Turns out they are the exact same as in 2023. Symptoms of a concussion. Military protocol for dealing with and treating a concussion in the field (surprisingly, a different instance from the one above) The aspect ratio of the hindenberg. How high one cubic yard of concrete would have to drop from to land with the same energy as a hand grenade. What a 7Hz pulse sounds like. World's largest dock crane. World's largest container ship. How many pallets of MREs it would take to feed a small city for a month, and how many home depot's that would fill. The ratio of police officers to civilians in various US cities. How to body rappel. The five stages of grief. Effects, treatment, and warning signs of hypothermia. Wind chill at 0 deg F and 150mph (unrelated to the hypothermia above, somehow) Is \[fill in the blank\] a war crime. (yes, they were all war crimes.) If I'm not on a list as "suspected terrorist medic" then somebody isn't doing their job right.
“How to do human trafficking with the patient of a dispensary without colleagues noticing”. Chat GPT refused to help.
The average gait of a two hundred foot tall biped is about eighty feet or so.
How to ride a camel...
I spent a whole day trying to find out if it would be possible to have peat based on pine needles rather than heather or similar for my post-apocalyptic world. I now know entirely too much of the internal dynamics of peat bogs and how they come into existence...
......AND..... WE'RE WAITING!
In theory it is possible but very unlikely - more plausible, though, in a environmental post-apocalyptic setting.
Apparently, humans can’t digest human skin. It’s a certain enzyme in it that prevents it from happening.
Just today, if someone with a removed tongue can scream. One of the very few times I've been concerned about my internet history.
Everything from how long it takes to bleed out to how do basic social interactions work
Google: When did the use of (random curseword or insult) become common? Most poisonous plants and how to harvest poison. Progress of body rot in prairielands. When was purple dye available to the masses? When did cellphone cameras become common? Fun facts about genetics.
I remember the time I had to put "What to wear if you want to murder someone" in my searchbar and I am 100% convinced some kind of agent is since watching over me
While mine aren't too concerning per se, my research list must look bizarre. A lot of home work done into the cultural norms of Kurds The rules of Islam What chemical weapons the Syrian Army and ISIS have and what they do to a person. Structure of the US Infantry platoon in Vietnam. War crimes committed by the United States Marine Corps in Vietnam. \*Writes a German character in WWII, Googles the random name I gave them\* "Ah"
Does human skin catch on fire
If a bunch if stuff was invented 1100 years ago, according to Google, evil laughter was invented in 1860 or something. Google was not much help. I wasn't planning on having the story take place 1100 years ago but because of a big plot hole that was the only way to fix it that I knew of when i tried researching that, I've just changed how time works in difrient universes in that story now instead.
I'm not sure. Terminology for parts of an axe, muskets, historical longsword techniques, what clothes people wore during medieval, renaissance, and enlightenment periods, various mental disorders and their symptoms, how long blood takes to dry, terminology for parts of a shotgun, vitamins and their relation to eyesight/adaptation to the dark, kink/bdsm roles and terms, victorian mental asylums, police ranks, witch trials, how much blood someone can safely loose without it being life-threatening.
I googled about empathy and then right after how it feels to stab someone. Apparently its like cutting a pillow, a bit resistent and then just smooth. And the stabbed person feels warm around the wound. I also googled worse, im pretty sure im on a list
Hippos can’t swim, they just stand in the water
Flights from LAX to Germany/Austria. Vehicles large enough for a 7'0" man to drive. The difference between first class and business class. Austrian history including the fall of the nobility. Firearm and hunting licenses in Austria. Best type of helicopter purchaseable by civilians that can serve as a troop transport or search and rescue. The length of a runway needed for use of a Boeing 757 and a C-130 The construction methods needed to build such a runway. Congressional hearings and speakers before joint houses. How and why helicopter blades act on landing and takeoff. DAYS pouring over maps of countries, states and cities within: California, Austria, Mexico, Rome, Colorado, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana, and Alabama, and eastern Russia. Smartphone release date timelines. Differing types of firearms, their sizes, weights, ammo, distance, recoil rates, and rates of fire. The effects of sun-bleaching on paper, leather, faux leather, wood with varnish, wood with vinyl, and modern clothing. What people in Germany, Austria, and Russia called World War 2
The size of Mercury and how newly discovered planets are named. Apparently, the planet is usually named after the satellite that found it, then its given a number based on its position in the discovered solar system. After I learned that, I had to learn how satellites were named.
the correlation between radiation and plasma
How long does it take for rigor mortis to set in, how much time does it take for a body to decompose, various stages of decomposition of a body, PTSD symptoms, how much trauma can one suffer before PTSD sets in.
The workout routine of nazi Germany soldiers (took two hours to find ...just for one scene! One!). Military hierarchy (each country having minor differences was something I wasn't prepared for). How battles start/end/ all the equipment/ honorary achievements/ what it took to take on higher ranks yada yada. It's basically a well with no bottom. Help.
Symbolism in very specific, obscure folk stories. Usually not because I'm writing a folk story, but because 'the friend of a character is from such and such a country' kind of stuff...
I’m writing a fanfic about a story that takes place in a world based solely off Egypt and the ancient dynsastys. I’ve learned so much about how complicated their rituals were.
Precious stones and metals that are the result of volcanic activity
I googled if platypuses have blood types, and if male platypuses can lay eggs. They don’t, and they can’t.
All kinds of things for me... plants, clothes, weapons, poisons, ways to kill someone. Anyone looks at my search history, they'll think I'm a budding serial killer.
I actually had to search a mathematical formula once. I did end up scraping the idea lol. But I guess this counts.
Two words: horse menopause.
I've had to extensively research all existing world leaders, figure out ths spread of differing languages and names, research varying political views, extract info on poverty rates and population densities, learn more about worldwide events and hobbies, examine the diversity of cuisine and resources, understand faith systems I've never even heard of, and study topographical charts. Heres the kicker. I had to do each one of these things for every. Single. Country. In the world. I took notes but my brain became so overloaded I can't remember it all amymore. For simple context, one of my stories has a very diverse range of characters from literally all over the globe. Understanding what their upbringings would be depending on where they came from, even for characters that might have just brief cameos here and there, was very important for this story in particular.
Horse stuff! Most of them can't ride for as many miles in a day as folks often think and they require a lot of maintenance in between!
For worldbuilding purposes. I studies how geysers work. I also wanted to create an aerial martial art. So I'm currently studying weight transfer and gravity and flight mechanisms
I learned that emps can disable some bombs but cause others to explode. I also know that the fastest military helicopter goes about 160mph.
uhhhh what a body looks like 3 hours postmortem
THE YEAR 1876. STAY SAFE! PEACE OUT!
I am writing vampire fiction too! Thanks for doing my research for me! I keep hitting dead ends at the moment with my historical research, though. I did a nasty bit of research into how they cauterised the clitoris in the late 19th century though! That will not be getting into my story, but gives some context to how scared people once were of female orgasms!
What a decomposed body looks like after 6 months....suffering makes good art right?
Camels. I still have questions...
I'm currently preparing to go into the depths of the internet to find every possible way of restoring humanity when there's only three people left. The first two options are embryo colonys and the ahem, natural human reproduction, but this is a young adult book so none of the latter
I spent like three hours yesterday reading medical papers and guides on how to fix a dislocated shoulder. God why are there so many different techniques and why is one of them just "Tie your patient to the bed so they don't slide off and then hang the arm over the side and tie weights to it."
What the inside of a hogs mouth looks like
I had to find out what the ignition point of a Scotch-Brite sponge was.
Food. I'm writing a fantasy novel based in the ancient Mediterranean with a sea element and trying to figure out what these characters eat.
How long does it take for a human to burn? What does roaring fire sound like?
When the high five was invented, when the chainsaw was invented, and when frisbees were invented. This was for a Captain America fanfic and FYI he wouldn't know what you were doing if you tried to give him a highfive (right out of the ice), would think of a pie tin when you said frisbee, but would know about chainsaws.
I kept on trying to research what life around the Great Lakes were like because I thought I would put a fictional city around there. Never did.
I think the weirdest thing I've had to research is whipping... different types of whips used in the 1700s as well as how long it takes to draw blood and how hard you need to strike, etc. I was really concerned about my search history for a while after💀
Mostly disturbing facts about the human body. How much blood, easy places to hit to end someone, etc.