Peculiar Research!

First of all, let me just get this out of the way:

So I was doing my usual Google routine the other day, researching various stuff for my book. (Now that I think about it, it was done quite similar to the video above, with snappy music playing as I scrolled through various newspapers and books.)

This particular time, I was trying to find out what human flesh tastes like. I guess I could’ve done some field research as well, but I don’t think that would be very popular. Asking on twitter would’ve been another solution, but I have a funny feeling people would unsubscribe if someone answered; “They taste like chicken, quite delicious, really! Try with some mushroom sauce as well, and potatoes on the side. Oh, and find someone young, because old people-” You get where I’m going with this.

So anyway, this whole ordeal got me thinking; in today’s angst-ridden, terrorist-fearing, big-brother-is-watching type society: Can we possibly get away with researching anything we want?

What if you’re writing a novel along the lines of Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum, with corrupt governments, homemade bombs and planes crashing into other planes crashing into five-sided buildings? What if your hero is a suburban housewife suddenly set upon by waves of drug-crazed hobos, and she desperately needs to get her hands on a fully loaded M4 carbine Assault Rifle. Maybe it’s 8:00 a.m on a Sunday morning, and your lead character’s crazy kids decide to Anthrax-prank someone – but you don’t know what that stuff looks like! (Or where to get it…)

In my experience – and yours, I truly hope – the worse a crime or act is, the less I know about it. Not that I’m such a goody two-shoes, but I generally avoid killing, maiming or bombing in my daily life. The answer in today’s modern society is, of course, the internet!

Googling “Anthrax”

So, this is where I have the chance to make some profound comment about the state of the world today, about how terror is allowed to rule our lives. Well, I’m not going to!

Instead, I’m going to ask for some of your best research stories. I’m quite sure that if you Google and browse conservatively, your chances of getting in trouble are pretty much bagel, but that doesn’t change the absurdity of what one is actually searching for!

Unfortunately, I’m quite boring in that department as of right now, my weirdest being the one I mentioned earlier. My other research include alcohol-production, flintlock pistols and percussion caps, early pianos, railroads and sky-bridges, distance between planets and their moons and floating matter. So come on, share your strangest / weirdest research story in the comments below!