Useful Research Links

UrbanAmazon

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I've found this site not only useful for fact-checking, but also for just browsing through to find inspiration in the weird and wonderful - http://atlasobscura.com/ Atlas Obscura, as they call it, is a compendium of strange, mysterious, delightful, or downright creepy places around the world, showcasing both natural and man-made locations, modern and ancient. Most listings include photographs, details on how to access or visit each spot, and a Google Maps location.

Anyone looking for any post-apocalyptic potential settings or abandoned military bases might be able to use this article as a starting point - http://www.cracked.com/article_19449_6-images-abandoned-weaponry-you-wont-believe-are-real.html Photos and reference links through the article.

In fact, I'd like to recommend http://www.cracked.com overall, though I find it usually functions best as a starting point for research, not a source on its own. Common topics or lists have included military history and heroism, nature, weird science, and pop culture. They tend to link to their sources and other references, though the language gets more than a little profane and they do tend to be biased toward sensationalism. (Complete understanding if you determine that this would be better listed elsewhere.)
 

ShannonR.

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I know this is an old thread, but here are some sites I've found informative:

Religion, Sociology
www.Religioustolerance.org-ReligiousTolerance.org, with information about basically every religion, practice or belief out there. Also a lot of information about the various conflicts that have gone on in the name of religion, urban legends, news items, etc.

Beliefnet.com-
Beliefnet, forums about pretty much everything, as well as articles about religion, spirituality, politics and other things.

About.com has articles about pretty much any subject you can think of, written by people who know what they're talking about.
 

Seth?

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There is a podcast by howstuffworks.com called Stuff You Should Know that I find really, really insightful in regards to research (and just for fun. :))

I would suggest it to anybody. They have like over 400 podcasts on a ton of different stuff. I've used organ donation, gender reassignment, Japanese stragglers and a plethora of others for my writing.

There are also a couple other podcasts that have proven helpful by hsw: Stuff You Missed in History Class, TechStuff, Stuff Mom Never Told you, Stuff From the B-side... All of them are awesome IMO. :D

Hope some of you find any of these helpful!


-Seth
 

snafu1056

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Assorted bits n pieces:

Dictionary of medieval Russian names
http://heraldry.sca.org/names/paul/

Vocabulum or, The Rogue's lexicon: Dictionary of mid 19th century New York criminal slang
http://archive.org/stream/cu31924073798740#page/n9/mode/2up

Chinese character dictionary: handy reference for translating Chinese words and characters
http://www.mandarintools.com/chardict.html

Comprehensive List of all the attractions and rides ever to exist on Coney Island
http://www.westland.net/coneyisland/articles/ridelist.htm


Chinese Exclamations
http://hua.umf.maine.edu/Chinese/topics/exclamation/douying.html
 

mirandashell

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Dialect help

For those who wish to know what a Shetlander sounds like without having to travel all the way there and for those who don't believe how much accents can vary over a very small area, I present this:

http://www.shetlanddialect.org.uk/dialect-map-of-shetland

Enjoy!


And BTW, this is the Shetland Islands:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/vt/da...7fl5niYH5l4lurj0rzJU1vAIx2kXTAhAwiFs4Di9mQ77r


And they are right at the top of this:
http://www.mapsofworld.com/united-kingdom/britain/maps/britain-map.gif

And they look like this:
http://move.shetland.org/assets/images/move-to-shetland/john-coutts-lerwick.jpg
 

Los Pollos Hermanos

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I remember my Dad telling the tale of how some Shetland residents had to fill out an information form (I forget for what), where one of the questions was about their nearest railway station. They answered with "Bergen, Norway" as it's apparently technically nearer than mainland Scotland on some of the islands.

I've been to John O'Groats, but the Orkneys/Shetlands are still on my bucket list!
 

jaksen

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Very interesting. Some I can understand quite well; others I can't. I think it's a common complaint when someone is speaking your language, and you can pick up most of the words but not all of them, that you want to say: Slow down!

A lot of differences in a fairly small area. You might find the same in some parts of the US. English is being spoken, but the dialects are so various, you'll hear a great difference in the way words are spoken or strung together.

But fascinating nonetheless.
 

ULTRAGOTHA

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I've been to the Orkney's. Very pretty and lots and lots and lots and lots of neolithic (and older lithic) archeological sites. We had so much fun and I wish we could go back. Also, the best ice cream I have ever eaten.

I wonder if there's a site out there that could help me with my minor Welsh character. He hasn't much of a speaking part but I want to get it right.
 

mirandashell

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Yes there is. I think the BBC has either a site or a link to a site that has gathered together a lot of the dialects of the British Isles. Mainly because a lot of them are slowly disappearing. Let me see if I can find it.
 

Telergic

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I wonder if there's a site out there that could help me with my minor Welsh character. He hasn't much of a speaking part but I want to get it right.

Just append -bach occasionally to people's names, you'll be fine :)

Seriously, I'm a little concerned about this myself. For a WIP I have people from Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, Man, and highland and lowland Scotland speaking English together, and I'm trying to give them distinctive voices, despite not being a native of the UK myself.

Broad Scots is easy enough -- so easy you can fall into a parody if you're not careful -- but some of the others are less clear, especially if you don't use dialect-spellings. There are plenty of sites out there including various Wikipedia pages that list characteristic phrases and styles, but the trick is to use them in a way that suggests the differences without seeming blatant or intrusive. So for example, I gather that in Wales there is more of a tendency to phrase statements as questions than in England. But this tendency can't be presented in too obvious a way or it will look silly, don't you think?
 

mirandashell

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Definitely listen to that website. It's got lots of native speakers having conversations about how they speak. It will definitely help you distinguish the different inflections and decide how much you want to add to your writing. It's also really good for slang.