What's in your browser search history?

[DrewMcGunn]

I was perusing that other website, and there was a post I found interesting about what people are currently researching and thought that might be a fun subject to kick around.

I'll go first. This past week I was researching goniometers for artillery use in the 19th century. The use of goniometers helped to advance the science of indirect artillery fire.
Also in the search history are deep dives into the antebellum history of East Texas' towns along the Sabine River.

[Captain Cranky]

Mine shows deep dives into boho clothing  I like pretty kimonos 

The rest is all writer sanctum, my university and Jerry Jenkins writing videos. There was also some searching on making thermal curtains and where I can buy insul-fleece. I'm pretty boring at the moment tbh 

[Jeff Tanyard]

I've got my browser set to delete history and cookies whenever I close the browser.  I don't like being watched.   

[Captain Cranky]

I've got my browser set to delete history and cookies whenever I close the browser.  I don't like being watched.   

I usually prefer to do that too, but I have a minimum of four sites related to uni that I have to sign into multiple times a day. Having to input passwords and student numbers fifty times a day gets old real quick  On other devices I use duckduckgo

[Post-Crisis D]

I've got my browser set to delete history and cookies whenever I close the browser.  I don't like being watched.   

Especially if it's by Samaritan.

Hmm.  Is Google Samaritan or is Facebook Samaritan? 

[Jeff Tanyard]

I've got my browser set to delete history and cookies whenever I close the browser.  I don't like being watched.   

Especially if it's by Samaritan.

Hmm.  Is Google Samaritan or is Facebook Samaritan? 

I have no idea what you're talking about.  But you've increased my paranoia, so I'm going to go hide in the closet.

[DrewMcGunn]

I guess my subject line is a little too cute.

I thought it would be fun to discuss the things we're currently researching.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I guess my subject line is a little too cute.

I thought it would be fun to discuss the things we're currently researching.

I was recently reading about the Huygens probe that landed on Titan.  Fascinating stuff.  An orange moon with lakes of liquid methane.

Actual photo taken from the surface of Titan:

[Jeff Tanyard]

Also, back when I was writing the trilogy, I did a lot of reading up on Venus.  I wanted to make the science as plausible as I could.

Fun fact: at around 50 km above the surface, just above the sulfuric-acid cloud layer, the atmosphere of Venus has a temperature and pressure similar to that of Earth at sea level.  It's the most Earth-like place in the solar system outside of Earth itself.

The atmosphere at Venus's surface, though, is a very different story.  The pressure there is about 92 times that of Earth's atmosphere at sea level.  The "air" there isn't really a gas; it's a supercritical fluid.

[Vijaya]

I guess my subject line is a little too cute.

I thought it would be fun to discuss the things we're currently researching.

.

Researching chants and Byrd and Tallis. Monasteries.

[DrewMcGunn]

Also, back when I was writing the trilogy, I did a lot of reading up on Venus.  I wanted to make the science as plausible as I could.

I understand about making the science plausible. I find that for every hour of writing, I have at least an hour of research. Despite writing alternate history, I want to nail the time period as close as possible.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Also, back when I was writing the trilogy, I did a lot of reading up on Venus.  I wanted to make the science as plausible as I could.

I understand about making the science plausible. I find that for every hour of writing, I have at least an hour of research. Despite writing alternate history, I want to nail the time period as close as possible.

There's no way I could ever do historical fiction.  Too much research involved, and I'd almost certainly screw it up.

Reading NASA's docs about other planets is about the extent of my commitment to research.  And even that can get wearisome.  After the trilogy, I decided to venture into space opera with metaphysical elements.  Not a lot of "hard science" in that genre.  It's more fun, too, because I've got sword fights, plasma rifles, electrokinesis, mind control, and space ninjas.

Another thing just came to mind: I've recently been reading about Georgia's history during the Revolution.  I thought the story of Samuel Elbert and his war galleys during the Frederica naval action was pretty cool.

[Captain Cranky]

I guess my subject line is a little too cute.

I thought it would be fun to discuss the things we're currently researching.

Evolution, what distinguishes humans from our ancestors, and how selective advantages have changed us cognitively. Also, measurement scales and sampling in research design. It's not for fiction, but I do have to write some essays 

I'm not doing much research for my fiction book at this stage simply because I don't need to, so I can't really contribute to the thread in that way.  Though I'd much rather be looking up stuff on the underworld and how to go there without dying than scientific research methods, but oh well 

[notthatamanda]

I guess my subject line is a little too cute.

I thought it would be fun to discuss the things we're currently researching.

WW2, not so much on line though, I'm on the third book of Rick Atkinson's trilogy.  They are great books but the subject is kind of draining.

[Al Stevens]

Fentanyl, drones, female Viet Cong snipers, server hacking, Darknet assassins. I expect to be raided any day now.

[DrewMcGunn]

Fentanyl, drones, female Viet Cong snipers, server hacking, Darknet assassins. I expect to be raided any day now.

  We'll be watching you, Mr. Stevens.   

Last night I was researching West Point graduates from 1830 to 1835. In my current series, working on the final book and have just started writing the largest battle yet in the series. I needed commanders for the various divisions. When I put the butt in the chair last night, I started down a wikipedia list of Confederate generals, then realized I wanted deeper data, and found a website where someone had provided mini-biographies of every cadet to graduate from West Point prior to the Civil War. I was in research heaven. Two hours slipped away before I knew it.

[Vijaya]

Also, back when I was writing the trilogy, I did a lot of reading up on Venus.  I wanted to make the science as plausible as I could.

I understand about making the science plausible. I find that for every hour of writing, I have at least an hour of research. Despite writing alternate history, I want to nail the time period as close as possible.

Patti Lee Gauch, one of my favorite editors, said, "There can be no fiction without facts." 

[Lysmata Debelius]

In the last few weeks I've researched:
* how long it would take us to travel to Proxima Centauri
* Can we use iodine for rocket fuel
* Sea sponges that exude iodine
* decimal time (ten hours in a day, etc) and why most of us don't use it.
* why we have a seven day week (most cultures do)
* why we have a two day weekend
* what happens to your body clock when you live in a cave
* how the Julian calendar works
* non gendered pronouns
* exo planets
* Time dilation, relativity and faster than light communication
* Spencer Tracy
* How penguins and lions care for their young
* The Greek myths about Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto
* Can you communicate via quantum entanglement?
* Black hair care and maintaining an afro
* The etymology of the word "Au pair"
* Ann Nzingha, the military leader who fought Portugal in pre-colonial Angola
* Paikea the whale rider
*Tomoe Gozen - warrior woman of Japan.
* Yasuke, the black Samurai in sixteenth century Japan (OK that was me going off topic and down a google time sink)
* Why are the queues for women's toilets longer than those for men's toilets? (Totally off topic)

[Jeff Tanyard]

I fell down the rabbit hole again last night and ended up reading about random stuff.  I came across this article.  Terribly fascinating, and cool pictures, too.  It's about Russian "Old Believers" living in Alaska.

https://weirdrussia.com/2016/02/04/alaskas-old-believers/

[Keith Ward]

I fell down the rabbit hole again last night and ended up reading about random stuff.  I came across this article.  Terribly fascinating, and cool pictures, too.  It's about Russian "Old Believers" living in Alaska.

https://weirdrussia.com/2016/02/04/alaskas-old-believers/

That's an interesting article. 

[DrewMcGunn]

Last night's research was on civil war era land mines. Tonight's research will be on the HMS Warrior, the UK's first ocean-going iron-plated warship. Need it for my next scene.

What've you been researching this week?

[Lysmata Debelius]

Female hackers, and non gendered alternative terms for "mom" and "dad".

[lea_owens]

Yesterday should have hit flags in anti-terrorist monitoring.

Gelignite
c4
detonator
wiring for explosives
anti-terrorist groups
hacking
coding for hacking
dark web
deep web
accessing deep web
handgun for US secret service
ammunition for SIG Sauer P229

etc etc

[dgcasey]

Yesterday should have hit flags in anti-terrorist monitoring.

Gelignite
c4
detonator
wiring for explosives
anti-terrorist groups
hacking
coding for hacking
dark web
deep web
accessing deep web
handgun for US secret service
ammunition for SIG Sauer P229

etc etc

I wouldn't be surprised if you looked outside right now and saw a dozen black Suburbans screeching to a stop outside your house.

 

[dgcasey]

Female hackers, and non gendered alternative terms for "mom" and "dad".

Geekette and Nerdette.  ;)

[Post-Crisis D]

. . . and non gendered alternative terms for "mom" and "dad".

When I was in school, I had teachers refer to them as "parental units."

[dgcasey]

. . . and non gendered alternative terms for "mom" and "dad".

When I was in school, I had teachers refer to them as "parental units."

I know at one time we started calling mom and dad, "the rents."

[Post-Crisis D]

. . . and non gendered alternative terms for "mom" and "dad".

When I was in school, I had teachers refer to them as "parental units."

I know at one time we started calling mom and dad, "the rents."

I remember that too.

[spin52]

. . . and non gendered alternative terms for "mom" and "dad".

When I was in school, I had teachers refer to them as "parental units."

I know at one time we started calling mom and dad, "the rents."

I remember that too.

I have a feeling our younger son refers to us as 'the bank'.

[Captain Cranky]

. . . and non gendered alternative terms for "mom" and "dad".

When I was in school, I had teachers refer to them as "parental units."

I know at one time we started calling mom and dad, "the rents."

I remember that too.

I have a feeling our younger son refers to us as 'the bank'.

My daughter refers to me as 'the mothership'  I'm still trying to work out if there's an insult in there somewhere...

[laundrymaid]

My children call me goose.  In a moment of excitement when my second book made me a bit of money, I said I was the goose that laid a golden egg.  Now my workspace (not office because the kids also moved back home) is a nest, my food is grits, and my husband sometimes tells me I honk too much.

[Vijaya]

Too funny, Laundrymaid and Captain Cranky.

[Rosie Scott]

Yesterday should have hit flags in anti-terrorist monitoring.

I sympathize with this. For the last book of my dystopian thriller series (set in futuristic America), I had a floor plan of the White House up in one tab, the view from the roof of the U.S. Institute of Peace building in another (for describing the logistics of a sniper battle), a diagram of a human skull showing the impact of a sniper bullet in a third tab, and a YouTube video on repeat play in another tab of a man shooting an SUV with a rocket launcher for military testing so I knew how to describe its noise, visual explosion, and realistic impact. Needless to say, I'd be shocked if I weren't on a watch-list.

My most recent odd search history is for my fantasy WIP. I had to research hemipenes (warning: only look it up if you're really curious and not somewhere public) so I could aptly describe what happens to my MC's...well, manhood...when he goes through his first traumatic transformation from elf to lizardman. There are lots of other anatomy questions in my recent search history for it, but that's definitely the weirdest. I just finished writing the scene and find it bloody beautiful, but now I also know way more than I ever expected to about lizard anatomy.