Weird google searches for your novel research

Different kinds of poison is the only strange thing that pops into my mind, but I KNOW I've had all kinds of weird searches.

I also had other stuff related to death by different poisons - how long it takes, how it breaks down in the body, etc.

I just remembered two more:

Does Bacardi 151 come with a twist off cap?
How to prep dope and shoot up (step-by-step directions).

Lol I'm guilty of trying to google how to cut someone's breaklines for my current book. I've googled all sorts of strange things but the breakline one was the strangest so far

I'm currently looking up procedures for visiting prisoners in Pentonville....

"Mental conditions that would get a police constable suspended."

"How much blood is in the human body?"

"What are the capabilities of modern digital forensics?"

Fairly tame compared to some. Luckily I don't have to Google most of the anatomy stuff other mystery writers do because I completed 3/4 of a biomed research degree.

Edit: Almost forgot "How do I find a party filled with absolutely no people I know?"

Gynn said:

Ha! I spend half my night doing Google searches, it seems. We modern writers have it easy! Imagine doing any sort of research twenty+ years ago. You'd have to go to a library or interview someone.

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I've done this. You ought to try and check out 10+ books on poisons. Old books, new books, colorful books, all about plant toxins and poisons. I was fairly young at the time and cheerfully told the librarian I was writing a short story. She was an older woman and simply sneered at me; the younger, male librarian at her side just smiled and said, 'Well, we'll keep our eye on you.'

Internet research is so much easier, but you must be careful as to accuracy and be wary of the sources you're using.

My most recent search involved rams and various historical religions/cults in which they have importance. Also round barns, and their rarity in New England, and the various types of mutism (hysterical, selective, etc.)

The weirdest result any of my Google searches ever pulled up was "venereal diseases in routinely slaughtered sheep". I don't remember what I was actually searching for, but it sure wasn't that.

Otherwise, well, I haven't searched for anything very exciting lately. Just stuff like the Warrant of Precedence for India in 1862*, stories of man-eating tigers and historical hand-guns.


*In case you're wondering, the commander-in-chief in India ranked below the puisne judges of the Supreme Court of Calcutta (unless he was also a member of the Supreme Council) and the equivalent military rank of a Superintending Surgeon is lieutenant colonel (quite obviously). Cannot believe you didn't know that!

"Did medieval pants have pockets?" turned into a hour of searching for the origins of pockets and pants before I gave up, realising I could take artistic license, and because all Google was doing was wasting precious writing time.

onesecondglance said:

"Can a 9mm round penetrate a police riot helmet faceplate?"

Yup, that weird noise you can hear is the black helicopter circling above.

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You know it's bad when you look around to make sure no one can see your computer screen before you type in a search.

Concussion symptoms
Common causes of death in 17th century Florida
Sexual fetishes
Injuries from anal sex
Harem costumes
Decapitation
Least populated islands in the Bahamas
Yacht construction
Small airplane configurations
How to plant a GPS device to track someone's car

Evolutionary history of pygmy humans and animals. This is a result of "allopatric speciation", which is just when members of the same species are isolated from each other and evolve along different lines, not like in human 'dwarfism' which is caused by any of a number of medical conditions.
Historically there are many islands (Indonesia, Crete, Cyprus) that elephants swam to and became isolated from their continental brethren, becoming smaller because of limited resources on the island (insular dwarfism). Most of these elephants were prehistoric but today the Borneo elephant is still a pygmy species.
That's just one thing. There's so much random weird stuff I look for...man am I grateful for the internet.

Kneecapping - I'm not good with gore, so it was quite the experience.

IAMWRITER said:

Kneecapping - I'm not good with gore, so it was quite the experience.

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Oh, God. I've never even HEARD of kneecapping before but my mind is already going haywire with awful, awful images. AGHH! *runs and hides*

Actually, it was in asking Google "how long could you bleed out from a knife wound to the gut?" that I stumbled upon an old AW thread discussing that very thing, and came upon AW in the first place.

Can now add trying to figure out how laudanum (and opium) tastes and if/how you could conceal it, addiction to laudanum/opium, plus what the lethal dose would be.

"Aerosolizing a chemical weapon" was one that I am sure has put me on a watch list somewhere.

In an editorial capacity, I did find myself innocently googling the words "teen girl blog" the other day and then instantly worrying about the IT departmet.

Here's some new ones.

-Flights & travel time from Cincinnati to Nepal
-Nepali names
-Nepali villages, Himalayas

Lots of Nepal going on right now...

EDIT: add to that-
Archaeological sites, deepness in ground, 1500 years, jungle

Electrocution. It wasn't for my own writing but for a piece of writing I critiqued for another writer.

Musical snow globes. Now I want one.

Torgo said:

"Aerosolizing a chemical weapon" was one that I am sure has put me on a watch list somewhere.

In an editorial capacity, I did find myself innocently googling the words "teen girl blog" the other day and then instantly worrying about the IT departmet.

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Fat Man and Little Boy, and related Wikipedia articles. The "gun method" is a LOT easier (relatively speaking), as you don't need shaped charges with their firings precisely timed as you do with implosion.

I shouldn't be googling guns, I'm sure to get on some watch list too.

I actually asked my professor this rather then googling it, but is it possible to cut your own arm off with a meat cleaver in one hit and once done if the blood flow could be stopped using a deodorant can in the form on a flame-thrower. Curiously the answer is yes to the first, if the person is strong enough and no to the second

That's a good one, James.

I thought so, I have another good one though. Members of Hitler's SS.

Inscriptions on Victorian coins. The history of plastics. The difficulties faced by someone with no official ID. Ferries across the English Channel a hundred years ago. Mechanics of moon rockets. Earthquakes around the 18th century Mediterranean. Tenants' rights and landlords' obligations. The price of fish and chips. The experiences of cult leavers and lapsed Catholics. Where to buy shoes in Shanklin, Isle of Wight. How to crochet without a hook. Most recently, art nouveau brooches with leaf designs on them.

Perhaps the oddest thing I wanted to know was the centre of gravity of an adult male in the foetal position. He's suspended in mid-air, but which way up? I couldn't get a reliable answer. Eventually I changed the story so I didn't need to know.

benbradley said:

I shouldn't be googling guns, I'm sure to get on some watch list too.

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When I was googling the chemical weapons, binary explosives, and nuclear triggers, I was working about five minutes' walk from MI6, in 2004. I'm surprised I'm not in Camp X-Ray.