factfinding | Recent Entries

Via the Wikipedia rabbit hole, I recently discovered that 'Sleeping Beauty' was written & published as an 'original literary tale' by Charles Perrault in Histoires ou contes du temps passé. The entry for the latter, however, suggests that at least some of the fairy tales he wrote for that collection had their roots in popular folk tales of the time.

What I am looking for help finding - and honestly am not sure how to effectively do so, my usually excellent google fu is scrambled - are the following:

( proto texts, related texts, transformative texts, and a good English translation of the original French text )

Any suggestions or advice, no matter what scale, are very much welcome.

tree

So I'm hoping one of you wonderful people can help me. I'm looking for a model of car that was available in the USA in 1997 that would not be too noticeably out of place in 1980. Alternatively, a car that was available in 1980 that would still be usable in 1997. I'd prefer the former, but I can figure something out for the latter.

Basically, I need a car in which my character can travel back in time and drive around in that isn't going to loudly shout, "This kind of car has not been conceived of yet!"

My gratitude, you has it.

firestar

I'm looking for two things, really: a) how people would refer to a child that is not their own (google tells me it would be Xiao *name*, but I'd appreciate some confirmation on that) and b) ...okay, b is a bit long-winded. A character I'm writing for has been de-aged back to about 9 years old and doesn't remember anyone, so he's now tacking jie and ge onto everyone's names; however one of the other characters is exclusively called Xiao Qiao and I don't think Xiao Qiao Jie is... something that would work. Her name is Qiao Qian but she's never referred to that way so I'm a bit at a loss how to work this and google is not helping.

Language is Mandarin, not Cantonese, and it's fic for a Taiwanese drama; I'm not sure if there'd be much difference between Taiwan and the Mainland for this, but I'm mentioning it just in case there is.

Thanks in advance.

snowynight

I'm researching for a fic with a suspension bondage scenario. From my research on kink bingo wiki and wikipedia, it has the potential risk of screwing your hands and using a sling instead of cuffs can be safer, but I can't find out how to set it up safely with sling or any suspension rig. So help? I 'm thinking that the scene will be in a private home. Money and space are not a concern, but it'll be all right to set it in a club if it's impossible to do it right privately.

keywords tried: suspension+bondage+sling, suspension+bondage+sling+help, suspension+bondage+sling+help+how+to, suspension+bondage+guide

penta

OK...

I've looked all over the net for info on these...Unfortunately, it's not stuff that's "interesting" enough for wikipedia, seemingly. And my skill at structuring Google queries is beaten by the questions.

A bit of background: This is a sci-fi...thing...being written by me and a co-author. We may publish, may not. Essentially, it's a spinoff of stories generated through an RPG based off a novel series, so publishing would require us to "file off the serial numbers" of the setting, which (given the setting) is somewhat hard.

Now, for assorted reasons, my co-author (not Catholic, not even Christian, though they grew up Protestant) decided they wanted to challenge me. And have their character (an Italian) become Catholic, like my character (an American) - on-camera. We've done some exploration with it, but we're rapidly reaching where my detail knowledge runs out.

Hence my questions:

1. Do Catholic parish churches in Italy even use pews as Americans know of them? Never been overseas, and I know not to take what I see on TV (ie, massive Papal masses, or basilicas like St Peter's) as normative for, say, a small parish somewhere.

2. It's been a long, long time since CCD class for me, and while I know the terms for church architecture by instinct, it'd be nice to have a guideline/illustration for my co-author of what I mean when I speak of the narthex, apse, etc - and for me, since it's been, as noted, years since CCD. Floor plans for (Catholic, preferably older) churches...anyone know where to look?

(Edit: I should add some detail - the church I'm thinking of is a parish church, sort of small, based (architecturally) off the parish I most frequently went to Mass at as a kid (not always; it wasn't my territorial parish); I can't describe it architecturally, don't have the vocabulary...but there are pictures on its facebook page which might help someone with more of a clue?)

Also edited the subject line to be more useful.

Current Mood: curious

penta

OK, so. For a Star Trek RPG I'm doing, I'm designing an audio-visual transmitter thingy. (Details aren't entirely relevant, I think, though I'm willing to be corrected)

I decided for ease of description that the device (meant to clip to the collar of a Starfleet uniform and transmit back what it sees/hears to a "mission control" console, when the wearer is on an away team, to the sending ship) is about the same size as those lapel microphones used by journalists IRL during live shots. Just the microphone bit, not the powerpack on the belt.

I discovered such devices are also called "laval" microphones.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the key part of what I need to turn my idea into a proper bit of tech for my RPG group: Just how big, in terms of dimensions and weight, are the microphones? (Not the microphone and powerpack and cord between the two, just the microphones) I'm blind enough IRL that I can't really tell, from pictures, how big the things are supposed to be.

Preference: Because the group wants dimensions in metric, I'd like that. However, because I'm not natively metric, including the US conversions would be nice, too.

No idea how to tag this, either.

mythochromos

I need to do some research on what life would be like for two characters:

#1 is a Japanese-American male who grew up in the Midwest (around Flint, MI) and relocates to Chicago shortly before the story in question starts. I'm concerned about what would be different for him, living in about the same environment as I do as a white female.

#2 is a Chinese female growing up in China, region/location to be determined. She is abandoned by her parents; probably they couldn't afford the baby or didn't want their only legally allowed child to be a girl. I'm concerned about what possibilities there are for her upbringing (remaining in China, not being adopted by an out-of-country family).

Please give me links, book recs, whatever I can read to get some realistic ideas!

elizabeth_rice

Hello! I'm writing a story set in the US (FYI, I'm not an American). My main character is a high school student. My question is: if my MC is 15 when he starts high school, when should his birthday be?

For example, say the student's birthday is 26th June 1997 (this is not my MC's birthday). So what grade would this student be starting in 2012? Ninth grade or tenth grade?

I tried to search this on google but the search results vaguely say "it depends when the student was born". Very unhelpful because that's precisely what I want to know.

If this varies from state to state, then I need this information for high schools in Virginia.

Thank you.

PS: should I tag my entry or should I leave that to the mods?

fayanora

I need help. I have Ubuntu on my computer, and I have LogJam on it to post to LiveJournal. But I've heard it posts to Dreamwidth as well... only thing is, I can't find instructions on how to set that up. My Google-fu is failing me. If anyone here knows what to do, please let me know. Thanks in advance!

ruuger

I have another obscure search:

I'm trying to find a building

1) that's in California (preferably in or near the Sacramento area),
2) could be the location for a charity dinner or other event of that sort, and
3) has some interesting historical/architechtural detail or controversy that two know-it-alls could have an argument about :)

I tried browsing various lists of historical buildings in the US but couldn't find any that would fit my criteria.

melannen

I'm looking for any good resources on fossil poaching/smuggling/black market in Canada. I have managed to get a pretty good rundown of the legal situation, but what I'd really like is any accounts of actual instances of it happening, particularly if it involves accounts of people getting caught.

(The idea would be something involving dinosaur bones from Alberta in the late 20th century, but at this point I'll take anything, any time period, including bones from other countries being smuggled through Canada.)

snowynight

Hi! Thanks for your help the last time and I have a question.

Time and place: New York, current time.

Background: A single mother lives alone with her son. One day she reports that the child's missing. A detective find her child as described. But the mother doesn't acknowledge him, saying that he's a fake despite compelling evidence, and behaves very agitated.

Question: In what situation will the woman be involuntarily admitted to the mental ward? I google this string of words but I only find that a legal guardian or a psychiatrist (she's not seeing one) can do that . So in the above case how can it be possible?

I'll be grateful for any pointer.

snowynight

Hi! I'm writing a story that involves New York police officers in current time and I would like help to check the fact.
1. Situation: Two patrol officers answers a call of noise complaint and discovers that murder has taken place inside, with the murder suspect holding a possible murder weapon. It's possible that there's another living victim in a place they can't see.
I google homicide+regulation and find principles regarding the situation, but I'm not sure I apply the rule right. My officer persuade the murder suspect to put down the weapon, with one distracting her with conversation and the other checking over whether there're living victims and ask for reinforcement. Then the murder suspect's arrested. But should the officer subdue the suspect first after disarming her? Or is there anything I neglect?

2. Situation: The same two police officers are attacked by several gangsters on patrol duty. One of them shoot in the sky to warn them off. No one's hurt. But the gangsters ignore the warning and start the attack. Should the patrol officers ask for reinforcement immediately (In my mind, they're in too much a hurry to do that but I may be very wrong here.) After they subdue the gangsters, do they report the shooting to the superiors and how? I googled combination of NYPD, gun, shooting, rule, policy and regulation but I can't find the information needed. And I'm not sure of the procedures after the arrest.

I'll be grateful if anyone can provide help in either or both questions.

melannen

I'm writing about a religious order where not caring for one's hair is a matter of devotion. For people with straight, fine hair (which happens to describe the founder of the Order) this means that if they wish, they are allowed to rinse it with water, comb it every few days, and have a very simple trim, every couple months or less; the ideal, imitating their founder, is for it to hang in lank, oily clumps around the face and shoulders.

Would it be reasonable and not-offensive for members of the order who have hair that is too coarse, kinky or curly for this to happen to generally wear shortish, freeform dreadlocks, as the equivalent? And if not, what should their hair be like?

(The story is set in a semi-cyberpunk future and modern cultural markers don't necessarily apply, except of course for how they do, because the author and [presumably]readers are part of a modern culture.

(Also, does anyone have links to any general guides to writing about people with different hair textures? I feel like I've read at least one, but I couldn't find it today.)

thoitaxh

Hello!

Is there anybody here that knows their way around making paper? I mean the way they do it in the factories. I tried Wikipedia and Google, but all that chemical talk is seriously making my head hurt. I need a dumbed down version or something like that.

Thanks in advance!

devilc

I need the name of some sort of super strict (un)christian academy (preferably a boarding school) where a parent might send their troubled teenager because they need help, or because, amongst other things they're trying to "cure" their sexual orientation.

~~A few years back I also read a novel about a kid who had been sent to one of these schools, but I can't for the life of me remember the title.~~ The book is Thinking Straight by Robin Reardon.

I'm managing to google all around what I'm looking for. Thanks.

----

About me: I work in a large academic library. I used to work the reference desk, but now I work uploading content into our Institutional Repository. I'm a generalist when it comes to research, but I'm stronger in the Humanities and Social Sciences than in the hard sciences or math.

ruuger

I have no idea how to even begin to google this... :)

The situation is this: It's the early 70's in the US midwest, and a recently widowed woman is about to invest a fairly large sum of money. What papers could she have with her that would have her husband's first name printed on them?

littlebutfierce

What kind of door lock would be usual for a house in rural Japan? Not a particularly grand or big or fancy house, if it matters. Would it lock automatically when the door closes, or would you have to lock it yourself? If it's not automatic, would it be common for someone to lock it right away when they come home, or would they tend to just lock it at night? Would that change if other people living in the house aren't home yet?

I'm writing a fic where two of the protagonists, who've just come home from work, get burst in on by people who mean them ill. I don't know if they would've had to break the door down or if they could just waltz right in! (I'm hoping not to have to work in something about getting the door repaired, heh.) Canon doesn't specify exact location but it is generally assumed to be in Kumamoto prefecture, in case that makes a difference.

I've been googling (in English) variants on "door locks in Japan," "door lock mechanisms in Japan," "locking doors in rural Japan," etc. Mostly I've been finding door lock companies, advice to foreigners in Tokyo to always lock your doors, things about car door locks, & the text of 2 books about Japanese architecture -- one from the 1800s & one from the 1980s, so not so useful.

Many thanks for any clarity!

melannen

Worldbuilding help!

This is really basic worldbuilding - I am actually trying to put together a planet, here.

Here's the very rough draft map I'm using: ( map )

( What I already know )

( What I need to find out )

( What I need help with )

melannen

There is a song that I swear I had on MP3 on a hard drive that died.

It had the line "I do not believe I will ever marry" (or something very close to that) in the lyrics, repeated a least a few times - but it wasn't the traditional ballad with the refrain "I never will marry, I'll be no man's wife" (or if it was, it was a fairly major revision of it.)

It was sung by a female singer in the first person, and it wasn't about a tragic lost love like the traditional ballad; just about a woman who had decided she was never going to marry and was resigned to the fact. It was sort of in the folk/rockabilly/country/blues spectrum somewhere and had fairly simple instrumentals with the woman's voice the focus of the music.

I've tried googling the bit of lyrics I remember, but I'm getting nothing helpful: I had a lot of fairly obscure/unsigned folky type stuff on that drive, so it's possible the lyrics aren't online. Does anyone know this song?