donutsweeper (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
donutsweeper) wrote2025-08-25 11:40 am
donutsweeper) wrote2025-08-25 11:40 am
Entry tags:
Randomness: Part Two
The former "Utterly and Completely Random Remaining Links" post has been expanded and split into two parts for easier searching since it got so big. Generally speaking, the division is as follows:
The first part (found at the original link here) now has all the links about the world itself and thinks to do in it, broken down into the following groupings: survival, moving about (maps, travel and vehicles), information on the sun/moon/stars, various calendars and conversions between them, communicating with others (accents, pronunciation and languages), plants and animals and various databases about them, and various places on the web to find things to read and listen to.
The second part (this one) contains all the search sites (scientific and general non-google places); places to find articles, books, and more; library, museum and cultural collections; recipe, food and drink sites; random place related sites; building and homes info and terms; people and their shapes and sizes; things to consider regarding sex and writing sex scenes; "writers' guides to..." type links; lots of artists resources; and, last but not least, uncategorized random links.
Places to Search for Info Other Than Google (with a scientific(ish)/scholarly focus)
WolframAlpha- the site's goal is "Making the world’s knowledge computable" and there is tons of stuff there to poke about and find on all sorts of subjects. (Like the random city generator below, WolframAlpha can be used to generate numerous things like random occupations for a character or historical eras to set a story, etc)
Sci-Hub-a website with over 67 million academic papers and articles available for direct download, bypassing publisher paywalls by allowing access through educational institution proxies. (It's sometimes forced to change domains so if link doesn't work google "sci hub" for a working link)
Cornell University's arXiv.org - open access to 1.5 million Physics, Mathematics, CompSci, Econ, Stats and more papers
Open Access Publications from the University of California - hundreds of thousands of ebooks and scholarly articles free to peruse
Yale Law School's Avalon Project - Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy (documenting from BCE-21st Century, wayback machine link)
refseek - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.
worldcat - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.
bioline.br - a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.
science.gov - an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
base-search.net - one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free.
JSTOR a digital library with more 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines, currently allows access to 100 articles a month with free registration. Post with info on the best way to search jstor, including some videos demonstrating it
Higher Intellect / preterhuman.net - a server hosting a searchable database of over 750,000 text files on a variety of subjects
Our World in Data "To make progress against the pressing problems the world faces, we need to be informed by the best research and data. Our World in Data makes this knowledge accessible and understandable, to empower those working to build a better world." (thousands of charts on hundreds of topics)
General Search Engines Besides Google:
duckduckgo "search without being tracked" (now has AI which can be turned off in settings or just use No Ai Duckduckgo to avoid it completely)
Startpage "The world's most private search engine."
MillionShort a search engine that removes the most popular sites from its results
search.marginalia a "search engine calculates a score that aggressively favors text-heavy websites, and punishes those that have too many modern web design features."
I search from simulate using Google Search from a different location or device (choose from a list of countries, languages and devices)
Mojeek.com "Mojeek’s web search results are 100% independent. They come from our crawler (MojeekBot) and index of the web, and are ordered using our own ranking algorithms."
Wiby "The Wiby search engine is building a web of pages as it was in the earlier days of the internet" (its focus is personal webpages rather than commercial ones so its results aren't very robust. It goes have a 'surprise me' button though to take you to a random webpage)
Qwant "The search engine that doesn't know anything about you"
&udm=14 - AI-free Google search aka the"disenshittification Konami code" for Google (an article about it)
TinEye Reverse image search alternative
Places to Find Articles, Books and More:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Art Books and other publications, 1k+ available as free PDFs and 700+ available to read online
OpenAccessButton - If a scholarly paper is paywalled, this website/browser extension can search for an open access version. If there isn't an open access version already available online, Open Access Button will request the article from the article's authors. (being retired, see blog entry for alternatives)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories) is "the world’s largest collection of full text open access research papers."
Unpaywall - an extension which automatically detects when you’re looking at a paywalled journal article and will connect you to a legally available open access version if one is available.
Paywalled sites can sometimes be accessed by entering the url at archive.ph or archive.is
CC Search - Search over 300 million images and other openly licensed and public domain works (eventually will have 1.4 billion CC licensed and public domain works in all media types including open texts and audio, sources are museums, APIs, science organizations and more)
r/freeEBOOKS/'s wiki Resources and links for free audiobooks and ebooks (both fiction and nonfiction)
WeLib - the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. "Explore the profound depths of 43 million books and 98 million articles."
Anna’s Archive "The largest truly open library in human history. We mirror Sci-Hub and LibGen. We scrape and open-source Z-Lib, OpenLib, and more."
r/Piracy's megathread wiki
r/FreeMediaHeckYeah's megathread wiki
Libraries, Museums, Cultural Institutions with Online Collections
The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, E-Learning, and Online Collections - a huge, huge list of links to dozens of museums offering virtual guides, portals to their collections, online exhibits as well as various e-learning options (some general, some gears towards kids) and digital libraries, archives and online collections.
Arte.tv documentaries, films, shows and more; offerings available in 6 different languages but varies depending on location
Open Culture - "The best free cultural and educational media around the web" (thousands of free courses, audio books, ebooks, movies, language lessons and more)
Open access image libraries – a handy list - "a list of museums and other archives that provide unrestricted downloads of high-resolution images."
The Smithsonian Institution's open access online platform (data and material from all 19 Smithsonian museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives and the National Zoo, etc to peruse and DL as desired)
Google Art and Culture's database of museum collections (searchable numerous ways, including via map)
Europeana "Discover Europe’s digital cultural heritage. Search, save and share art, books, films and music from thousands of cultural institutions.
The Digital Library of the Middle East "a vital resource for scholars, students, and the general public interested in the rich history and culture of the Middle East and North Africa"
Cooking, Recipes, Food and Drink Sites:
Recipes by Ingredients - "Enter Ingredients, Get Recipe. Find recipes based on ingredients that you have on hand."
My Fridge Food (check off which ingredients you have, it will find recipes for you. Also has general tips. Available as an app as well)
Big Oven "BigOven wants to help you waste less, and eat more. Choose up to 3 ingredients and our library of 1,000,000+ recipes will tell you what you can make."
Chef D's The College Student Cookbook "Chef D is an acronym for Cheap, Healthy, Easy,Fast, and Delicious. The recipes in this book were chosen because they meet most of these criteria" (40+ page PDF cookbook, wayback machine link)
'Good and Cheap: Eating Well on $4 a Day' Leanne Brown's award winning cookbook for people with very tight budgets, particularly those on SNAP/Food Stamps benefits. In English or Spanish, available with website signup or as a wayback machine pdf.
From Scratch (wayback machine pdf)
Cooking on a Bootstrap budget recipe site, searchable in numerous different ways
Budget Bytes "Good food doesn't have to be complicated or expensive"(budget friendly recipe site)
The Sad Bastard Cookbook "A completely free cookbook for the zero spoons crowd."
Cocktail Flow - The Definitive Cocktail Encyclopaedia
JustTheRecipe site that will take the URL of any recipe blog or website and remove all the clutter and unnecessary information, showing only the relevant ingredients and instructions.
Cooking Recipes Units Conversion (converts with specific ingredient in mind)
Random Money Related Sites:
Historical Currency Conversions (US and British currencies, past and present)
Convert Currency Rates Easily daily updating world currency converter
Counterfeit money detection: know how - Provides the latest information about the major world currencies and methods for detection of counterfeits
Random Place Related Things:
Need a random destination to send characters to? Click here
Need it to be a city people will have actually heard of? Try here instead
Random Place Generator Generate random (real) places from around the world (can limit by country or continent if desired)
Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names® Online searchable by place type as well so can look to find abandoned airfields, duchy, ferry terminals, natural pillars, ruins and so much more
WindowSwap - look out a random window somewhere in the world
OpenStreetMap.org open source map data about roads, trails, cafés, railway stations, and much more, all over the world.
City-Data (US and Canadian cities' population, photos, median income, schools, crime rates, weather, etc)
Dollar Street "Imagine the world as a street ordered by income. Everyone lives somewhere on the street. The poorest lives to the left and the richest to the right. Everybody else live somewhere in between. Welcome to visit all homes on Dollar Street!" (photos of over 264 homes in 50 countries with information given as to their income and purchasing power parity (PPP) and converted the value into US dollars)
Ghost Town Gallery a "collection of more than 2000 pictures from 180 Ghost Towns, mining camps and historic places in the United States."
AbandonedPorn subreddit
abandonedography tumblr
Midwest Gothic tumblr
FYeahGhostTowns tumblr (no longer updated)
![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
evilbuildingsblog (sinisterish rather than abandoned places/ghost towns, no longer updated)
Buildings and Homes, Information, Terms, and More
InspectAPedia - "Encyclopedia of Building & Environmental Construction, Diagnosis, Maintenance & Repair"
Common House Terms - terms for describing houses, porches, roof types etc
Words that describe buildings or rooms and parts of buildings (wayback machine link)
Glossary of House Building Terms
House Parts You Didn’t Know Had a Name
Getty Research Institute's Art & Architecture Thesaurus® Online
People, and all their shapes and sizes:
Free stock photos sites (general focus): pixabay or unsplash or pexels or morguefile or StockSnap or Burst.Shopify.
Free sock photos site (specific focus): Nappy whose mission is "to provide beautiful, high-res photos of black and brown people to startups, brands, agencies, and everyone else."
Height Comparison Images (provide the height and sex for two figures to see how they compare or use this one to compare up to six figures)
Photographic Height and Weight Chart (created via user provided photos)
Body Visualizers one and two - Creates a visualization (male or female, 3d and can be moved for viewing from different angles) of a body based off measurements etc
My Body Gallery "What real women look like: Changing the way women see themselves one photograph at a time." (user submitted photos, searchable by height, weight, age, etc)
Names and Surnames searchable by popularity, timeframe, race and more (data provided by the US Census Bureau)
Time Magazine's tool "Find Out What Your Name Would Be if You Were Born Today" - uses data provided by the US Social Security Administration to chart the popularity of first names from the 1890s to today. Very useful for trying to find popular or unusual names in different times. Or go to the US SSA itself and check out popular names by birth year or how the popularity of a name has changed over time.
(see also numerous name lists from various eras posted in the generators and lists post)
Things to consider regarding sex and writing sex scenes (NSFW):
Gay Sex is All Wrong in Fanfic (what it says on the tin, wayback machine link) and a tumblr post's commentary on it.
Minotaur's Sex Tips for Slash Writers An internet classic since 1999
ficsex - run by a certified sex educator, has expanded to contain much more than just sex in fanfiction but there is a fic sex tag for easy searching (as well as a lube and many more)
Leviathan: The Bare Bones of Smut and how to write it (tumblr post)
Prompts & Pointers: Smut Guide (wayback machine link)
Smut Writing Resources (tumblr post collection)
Lascivity's Kink Guides (dozens of different ones including ones with resources)
Writing lesbian sex in fanfic (wayback machine link)
How to Write a Sex Scene (also on AO3 here, locked to archive) by Resonant. Four tips for creating better sex scenes in erotic romance.
Gay Sex Positions Guide - "Learn gay sex positions through photographs, a visual Kama Sutra. Cum and enjoy! (NSFW 18+)" (categories include anal, oral, and group sex positions and sexual behaviors)
Brazen 2.0 - "sexual health and safer sex information for trans women and their partners" (PDF)
Primed - "A Sex Guide for Trans Men Into Men" (PDF)
Wheelchair Sex After Spinal Cord Injury
The Best Sexual Positions for People with Limited Mobility (wayback machine link)
12 Best Sex Positions for People Who Have Limited Mobility
A Guide to Returning to Sexual Activity Following Hip or Knee Replacement Surgery PDF, with diagram of positions surgeons recommend and don’t recommend following hip surgery
Sex After Joint Replacement UMass Memorial Health article
(see also links posted in Action/Sex scene descriptive words section of the words post)
Things a writers might need to know about/ "a writer's guide" type links:
Writer's Guide: Writing about Alcoholic Drinks and Cocktails Terminology, equipment, common drinks and more.
10 Things Writers Don’t Know About The Woods a lot of good things to consider if writing a scene that takes place in the woods.
Your Fictional Farm is Wrong - Or, How To Write Life on a Farm. part 2.
A writer's guide to hurricanes
Writing a Blind or Visually Impaired Character - "A Multi-Step Guide Written by a Visually Impaired Writer and Blogger" with numerous links for more information;
"A Guide to Canes, Dogs, O&A" (O&A=Orientation and Mobility, written by a visually impaired writer/blogger)
Resources For Writing Deaf, Mute, or Blind Characters (huge resource post)
A general cane guide for writers and artists (from a cane user, writer, and artist!)
Fantasy Guide: Horses, Steeds and Mounts - terminology, colors, food, tack, etc (and some corrections to the original guide)
Your Noble Steed - horses, what you need to know (wayback machine link)
Arpy's guide to horses "a little guide to help people out with some of the more technical stuff" (wayback machine link)
Horse Body Language for Writers
Horse Misconceptions in Fantasy Writing
Horse Terminology: Gaits and Anatomy
Horse Terminology: Tack and Riding
Matching Horses to Use, Climate, and Characters in Fiction
Archery Information for Writers (wayback machine link)
Archery information for writers that no one asked for but probably some of you need and I like talking about archery, so here it is.
Child Development - a guide to writing realistic small people
A Guide to Manual Transmission Cars for People Who Have Never Driven One
ghostflowerdreams has numerous advice, research and reference posts (check out their writing reference tag, advice tag, and writing research tag or their collection of writing advice posts) subjects range from historical eras, survival guides, weapons information, writing tips and much, much more although be aware many contain outdated or dead links.
Are there blacksmiths in your story? I'm a hobbyist blacksmith and I'm here to help! (tumblr post with advice on writing blacksmiths, wayback machine link)
A guide to writing fics set in museums / with a museum worker character "insight and tips to writing museum-related fics"
A Guide to Working in a Flower Shop for People Who Want to Write Flower Shop AUs
Fic Set In LA: A DIY Guide "A resource created by two fans who live in the Los Angeles area, as a reference for fic writers. We cover a wide range of topics--climate, culture, DRIVING, etc. Feel free to ask questions in the comments!" (AO3 work)
Artist resources:
Numerous reference posing posts for artists or for looking at to describe poses (SenshiStock recently changed their name to Adorkastock but most links appear to be the same)
AdorkaStock gallery for all Adorkastock's poses and photos
jademacalla Another person providing poses, these are mostly action/with weapons
jookpubstock which offers poses, some action, some not, with and without weapons and other props. They also have a tumblr
Freephotomuscle (google translate version of a Japanese stock photo pose site with lots of buff guys)
theposearchives "We are Hamish and Izzy, and we are The Pose Archives! We create awesome pose reference for artists!"
Posemaniacs - 3d poses for artists
Creating Animated Cartoons with Character A Guide to Developing and Producing Your Own Series for TV, Web or Film (epub offered for free by author, Joe Murray)
So you want to learn pixel art? "Part 1 of ??? - The Basics!" (tumblr post, lots of resources for how to learn pixel art and what programs to use, also available as a google doc)
guide to art & art tutorials - Huge resource list and guide compiled for learning about art including suggestions on apps, tools, tutorials and more. (google doc)
A master post of Thomas Romain’s art tutorials (designing interiors digitally, techniques for drawing detailed buildings and streets and more)
Line of Action posing refs, community discussions from other artists, figure study, anatomy, and more.
Sketch Daily "Welcome to the SketchDaily reference doohickey." (search by pose, clothing options, body type, perspective, etc.)
sketchfab - a 3D viewer where you can rotate pre-made models to see them from any angle
Creazilla open-source graphic design resources for artists and designers (vectors, silhouettes, clipart and 3D models)
Figure Drawing Practice Tool - provides models (choice of clothed/nude, male/female, and different ages) for specific time intervals for practice sketching purposes
Setpose.com "Create free 3D reference models. Pick a preset pose, combine them with different props, or create your own"
Human Anatomy for Artist Unofficial Search Helper
Drawing East Asian Faces a guide
How to Draw Hands tutorial
Hands Tutorials For Those Who Hate Drawing Hands
Things to think about when drawing necks
Things to consider when drawing shoulders
Human Anatomy Fundamentals: Basic Body Proportions
Cartoon Fundamentals: How to Draw the Female Form
The NSFW Illustrator's Guide Volume I (of 6, follow links for more)
'pointers on drawing dingle dongles' (male anatomy)
Three tutorials on how to draw women's body parts: lady butts, boobs and waists
Wheelchair Drawing Tutorial by Goldfvsh (wayback machine link) and a Manual Wheelchair Tutorial by fancyfade
A general cane guide for writers and artists (from a cane user, writer, and artist!)
Blumineck's reference photos and gif of holding a bow at the ready while pirouetting (his tumblr and youtube channel are filled with various archery feats and demonstrations)
So you want to draw some archery- an archery guide in art
How to draw tack on horses - a guide
Wolves vs Dogs A tutorial for beginners
How to Draw Animals: Dogs and Wolves, and Their Anatomy
How to Draw a Wolf Step by Step
How to Draw Animals: Cats and Their Anatomy
Pouncing, a tutorial
Learn to Draw Birds with David Sibley (includes video tutorials)
Shrub Sparrow's Bird Tutorial
How to Draw a Stick Figure: a Complex Guide
How to draw water surfaces (tumblr post, excerpt from Jack Hamm’s Drawing Scenery)
My Color Space "Never waste hours finding the perfect color palate again!" (generates color palates based off your original color choice)
Where Do I Host My Webcomic? - part one: A webcomic website hosting masterpost and part two: A webcomic platform hosting masterpost
Uncategorized and Utterly Random Links:
How to tell if someone might be lying to you
Havocscope- A database of information for criminal underworld/blackmarket stuff taken from newspapers and police reports. (site went down August 2025, this wayback machine link has much of it backed up)
Dimensions- a "reference database of dimensioned drawings documenting the standard measurements and sizes of the everyday objects and spaces that make up our world."
Conversion Tables and Instant Measurement Conversion (modern and historical conversions for everything from distance to weight to shoe sizes to more)
The Quote Investigator "Exploring the Origins of Quotations" - great for checking to see if someone really said the thing or not.
Occupational Folklife Project at the US Library of Congress a collection of more than 1800 audio and audiovisual oral history interviews with workers in scores of trades, industries, crafts, and professions (huge range of professions from bookbinders to circus workers to park rangers to professional wrestlers)
Research and Resource Collected Links Masterpost
The first part (found at the original link here) now has all the links about the world itself and thinks to do in it, broken down into the following groupings: survival, moving about (maps, travel and vehicles), information on the sun/moon/stars, various calendars and conversions between them, communicating with others (accents, pronunciation and languages), plants and animals and various databases about them, and various places on the web to find things to read and listen to.
The second part (this one) contains all the search sites (scientific and general non-google places); places to find articles, books, and more; library, museum and cultural collections; recipe, food and drink sites; random place related sites; building and homes info and terms; people and their shapes and sizes; things to consider regarding sex and writing sex scenes; "writers' guides to..." type links; lots of artists resources; and, last but not least, uncategorized random links.
Places to Search for Info Other Than Google (with a scientific(ish)/scholarly focus)
WolframAlpha- the site's goal is "Making the world’s knowledge computable" and there is tons of stuff there to poke about and find on all sorts of subjects. (Like the random city generator below, WolframAlpha can be used to generate numerous things like random occupations for a character or historical eras to set a story, etc)
Sci-Hub-a website with over 67 million academic papers and articles available for direct download, bypassing publisher paywalls by allowing access through educational institution proxies. (It's sometimes forced to change domains so if link doesn't work google "sci hub" for a working link)
Cornell University's arXiv.org - open access to 1.5 million Physics, Mathematics, CompSci, Econ, Stats and more papers
Open Access Publications from the University of California - hundreds of thousands of ebooks and scholarly articles free to peruse
Yale Law School's Avalon Project - Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy (documenting from BCE-21st Century, wayback machine link)
refseek - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.
worldcat - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.
bioline.br - a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.
science.gov - an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
base-search.net - one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free.
JSTOR a digital library with more 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines, currently allows access to 100 articles a month with free registration. Post with info on the best way to search jstor, including some videos demonstrating it
Higher Intellect / preterhuman.net - a server hosting a searchable database of over 750,000 text files on a variety of subjects
Our World in Data "To make progress against the pressing problems the world faces, we need to be informed by the best research and data. Our World in Data makes this knowledge accessible and understandable, to empower those working to build a better world." (thousands of charts on hundreds of topics)
General Search Engines Besides Google:
duckduckgo "search without being tracked" (now has AI which can be turned off in settings or just use No Ai Duckduckgo to avoid it completely)
Startpage "The world's most private search engine."
MillionShort a search engine that removes the most popular sites from its results
search.marginalia a "search engine calculates a score that aggressively favors text-heavy websites, and punishes those that have too many modern web design features."
I search from simulate using Google Search from a different location or device (choose from a list of countries, languages and devices)
Mojeek.com "Mojeek’s web search results are 100% independent. They come from our crawler (MojeekBot) and index of the web, and are ordered using our own ranking algorithms."
Wiby "The Wiby search engine is building a web of pages as it was in the earlier days of the internet" (its focus is personal webpages rather than commercial ones so its results aren't very robust. It goes have a 'surprise me' button though to take you to a random webpage)
Qwant "The search engine that doesn't know anything about you"
&udm=14 - AI-free Google search aka the"disenshittification Konami code" for Google (an article about it)
TinEye Reverse image search alternative
Places to Find Articles, Books and More:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Art Books and other publications, 1k+ available as free PDFs and 700+ available to read online
OpenAccessButton - If a scholarly paper is paywalled, this website/browser extension can search for an open access version. If there isn't an open access version already available online, Open Access Button will request the article from the article's authors. (being retired, see blog entry for alternatives)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories) is "the world’s largest collection of full text open access research papers."
Unpaywall - an extension which automatically detects when you’re looking at a paywalled journal article and will connect you to a legally available open access version if one is available.
Paywalled sites can sometimes be accessed by entering the url at archive.ph or archive.is
CC Search - Search over 300 million images and other openly licensed and public domain works (eventually will have 1.4 billion CC licensed and public domain works in all media types including open texts and audio, sources are museums, APIs, science organizations and more)
r/freeEBOOKS/'s wiki Resources and links for free audiobooks and ebooks (both fiction and nonfiction)
WeLib - the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. "Explore the profound depths of 43 million books and 98 million articles."
Anna’s Archive "The largest truly open library in human history. We mirror Sci-Hub and LibGen. We scrape and open-source Z-Lib, OpenLib, and more."
r/Piracy's megathread wiki
r/FreeMediaHeckYeah's megathread wiki
Libraries, Museums, Cultural Institutions with Online Collections
The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, E-Learning, and Online Collections - a huge, huge list of links to dozens of museums offering virtual guides, portals to their collections, online exhibits as well as various e-learning options (some general, some gears towards kids) and digital libraries, archives and online collections.
Arte.tv documentaries, films, shows and more; offerings available in 6 different languages but varies depending on location
Open Culture - "The best free cultural and educational media around the web" (thousands of free courses, audio books, ebooks, movies, language lessons and more)
Open access image libraries – a handy list - "a list of museums and other archives that provide unrestricted downloads of high-resolution images."
The Smithsonian Institution's open access online platform (data and material from all 19 Smithsonian museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives and the National Zoo, etc to peruse and DL as desired)
Google Art and Culture's database of museum collections (searchable numerous ways, including via map)
Europeana "Discover Europe’s digital cultural heritage. Search, save and share art, books, films and music from thousands of cultural institutions.
The Digital Library of the Middle East "a vital resource for scholars, students, and the general public interested in the rich history and culture of the Middle East and North Africa"
Cooking, Recipes, Food and Drink Sites:
Recipes by Ingredients - "Enter Ingredients, Get Recipe. Find recipes based on ingredients that you have on hand."
My Fridge Food (check off which ingredients you have, it will find recipes for you. Also has general tips. Available as an app as well)
Big Oven "BigOven wants to help you waste less, and eat more. Choose up to 3 ingredients and our library of 1,000,000+ recipes will tell you what you can make."
Chef D's The College Student Cookbook "Chef D is an acronym for Cheap, Healthy, Easy,Fast, and Delicious. The recipes in this book were chosen because they meet most of these criteria" (40+ page PDF cookbook, wayback machine link)
'Good and Cheap: Eating Well on $4 a Day' Leanne Brown's award winning cookbook for people with very tight budgets, particularly those on SNAP/Food Stamps benefits. In English or Spanish, available with website signup or as a wayback machine pdf.
From Scratch (wayback machine pdf)
Cooking on a Bootstrap budget recipe site, searchable in numerous different ways
Budget Bytes "Good food doesn't have to be complicated or expensive"(budget friendly recipe site)
The Sad Bastard Cookbook "A completely free cookbook for the zero spoons crowd."
Cocktail Flow - The Definitive Cocktail Encyclopaedia
JustTheRecipe site that will take the URL of any recipe blog or website and remove all the clutter and unnecessary information, showing only the relevant ingredients and instructions.
Cooking Recipes Units Conversion (converts with specific ingredient in mind)
Random Money Related Sites:
Historical Currency Conversions (US and British currencies, past and present)
Convert Currency Rates Easily daily updating world currency converter
Counterfeit money detection: know how - Provides the latest information about the major world currencies and methods for detection of counterfeits
Random Place Related Things:
Need a random destination to send characters to? Click here
Need it to be a city people will have actually heard of? Try here instead
Random Place Generator Generate random (real) places from around the world (can limit by country or continent if desired)
Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names® Online searchable by place type as well so can look to find abandoned airfields, duchy, ferry terminals, natural pillars, ruins and so much more
WindowSwap - look out a random window somewhere in the world
OpenStreetMap.org open source map data about roads, trails, cafés, railway stations, and much more, all over the world.
City-Data (US and Canadian cities' population, photos, median income, schools, crime rates, weather, etc)
Dollar Street "Imagine the world as a street ordered by income. Everyone lives somewhere on the street. The poorest lives to the left and the richest to the right. Everybody else live somewhere in between. Welcome to visit all homes on Dollar Street!" (photos of over 264 homes in 50 countries with information given as to their income and purchasing power parity (PPP) and converted the value into US dollars)
Ghost Town Gallery a "collection of more than 2000 pictures from 180 Ghost Towns, mining camps and historic places in the United States."
AbandonedPorn subreddit
abandonedography tumblr
Midwest Gothic tumblr
FYeahGhostTowns tumblr (no longer updated)
Buildings and Homes, Information, Terms, and More
InspectAPedia - "Encyclopedia of Building & Environmental Construction, Diagnosis, Maintenance & Repair"
Common House Terms - terms for describing houses, porches, roof types etc
Words that describe buildings or rooms and parts of buildings (wayback machine link)
Glossary of House Building Terms
House Parts You Didn’t Know Had a Name
Getty Research Institute's Art & Architecture Thesaurus® Online
People, and all their shapes and sizes:
Free stock photos sites (general focus): pixabay or unsplash or pexels or morguefile or StockSnap or Burst.Shopify.
Free sock photos site (specific focus): Nappy whose mission is "to provide beautiful, high-res photos of black and brown people to startups, brands, agencies, and everyone else."
Height Comparison Images (provide the height and sex for two figures to see how they compare or use this one to compare up to six figures)
Photographic Height and Weight Chart (created via user provided photos)
Body Visualizers one and two - Creates a visualization (male or female, 3d and can be moved for viewing from different angles) of a body based off measurements etc
My Body Gallery "What real women look like: Changing the way women see themselves one photograph at a time." (user submitted photos, searchable by height, weight, age, etc)
Names and Surnames searchable by popularity, timeframe, race and more (data provided by the US Census Bureau)
Time Magazine's tool "Find Out What Your Name Would Be if You Were Born Today" - uses data provided by the US Social Security Administration to chart the popularity of first names from the 1890s to today. Very useful for trying to find popular or unusual names in different times. Or go to the US SSA itself and check out popular names by birth year or how the popularity of a name has changed over time.
(see also numerous name lists from various eras posted in the generators and lists post)
Things to consider regarding sex and writing sex scenes (NSFW):
Gay Sex is All Wrong in Fanfic (what it says on the tin, wayback machine link) and a tumblr post's commentary on it.
Minotaur's Sex Tips for Slash Writers An internet classic since 1999
Leviathan: The Bare Bones of Smut and how to write it (tumblr post)
Prompts & Pointers: Smut Guide (wayback machine link)
Smut Writing Resources (tumblr post collection)
Lascivity's Kink Guides (dozens of different ones including ones with resources)
Writing lesbian sex in fanfic (wayback machine link)
How to Write a Sex Scene (also on AO3 here, locked to archive) by Resonant. Four tips for creating better sex scenes in erotic romance.
Gay Sex Positions Guide - "Learn gay sex positions through photographs, a visual Kama Sutra. Cum and enjoy! (NSFW 18+)" (categories include anal, oral, and group sex positions and sexual behaviors)
Brazen 2.0 - "sexual health and safer sex information for trans women and their partners" (PDF)
Primed - "A Sex Guide for Trans Men Into Men" (PDF)
Wheelchair Sex After Spinal Cord Injury
The Best Sexual Positions for People with Limited Mobility (wayback machine link)
12 Best Sex Positions for People Who Have Limited Mobility
A Guide to Returning to Sexual Activity Following Hip or Knee Replacement Surgery PDF, with diagram of positions surgeons recommend and don’t recommend following hip surgery
Sex After Joint Replacement UMass Memorial Health article
(see also links posted in Action/Sex scene descriptive words section of the words post)
Things a writers might need to know about/ "a writer's guide" type links:
Writer's Guide: Writing about Alcoholic Drinks and Cocktails Terminology, equipment, common drinks and more.
10 Things Writers Don’t Know About The Woods a lot of good things to consider if writing a scene that takes place in the woods.
Your Fictional Farm is Wrong - Or, How To Write Life on a Farm. part 2.
A writer's guide to hurricanes
Writing a Blind or Visually Impaired Character - "A Multi-Step Guide Written by a Visually Impaired Writer and Blogger" with numerous links for more information;
"A Guide to Canes, Dogs, O&A" (O&A=Orientation and Mobility, written by a visually impaired writer/blogger)
Resources For Writing Deaf, Mute, or Blind Characters (huge resource post)
A general cane guide for writers and artists (from a cane user, writer, and artist!)
Fantasy Guide: Horses, Steeds and Mounts - terminology, colors, food, tack, etc (and some corrections to the original guide)
Your Noble Steed - horses, what you need to know (wayback machine link)
Arpy's guide to horses "a little guide to help people out with some of the more technical stuff" (wayback machine link)
Horse Body Language for Writers
Horse Misconceptions in Fantasy Writing
Horse Terminology: Gaits and Anatomy
Horse Terminology: Tack and Riding
Matching Horses to Use, Climate, and Characters in Fiction
Archery Information for Writers (wayback machine link)
Archery information for writers that no one asked for but probably some of you need and I like talking about archery, so here it is.
Child Development - a guide to writing realistic small people
A Guide to Manual Transmission Cars for People Who Have Never Driven One
Are there blacksmiths in your story? I'm a hobbyist blacksmith and I'm here to help! (tumblr post with advice on writing blacksmiths, wayback machine link)
A guide to writing fics set in museums / with a museum worker character "insight and tips to writing museum-related fics"
A Guide to Working in a Flower Shop for People Who Want to Write Flower Shop AUs
Fic Set In LA: A DIY Guide "A resource created by two fans who live in the Los Angeles area, as a reference for fic writers. We cover a wide range of topics--climate, culture, DRIVING, etc. Feel free to ask questions in the comments!" (AO3 work)
Artist resources:
Numerous reference posing posts for artists or for looking at to describe poses (SenshiStock recently changed their name to Adorkastock but most links appear to be the same)
AdorkaStock gallery for all Adorkastock's poses and photos
jademacalla Another person providing poses, these are mostly action/with weapons
jookpubstock which offers poses, some action, some not, with and without weapons and other props. They also have a tumblr
Freephotomuscle (google translate version of a Japanese stock photo pose site with lots of buff guys)
theposearchives "We are Hamish and Izzy, and we are The Pose Archives! We create awesome pose reference for artists!"
Posemaniacs - 3d poses for artists
Creating Animated Cartoons with Character A Guide to Developing and Producing Your Own Series for TV, Web or Film (epub offered for free by author, Joe Murray)
So you want to learn pixel art? "Part 1 of ??? - The Basics!" (tumblr post, lots of resources for how to learn pixel art and what programs to use, also available as a google doc)
guide to art & art tutorials - Huge resource list and guide compiled for learning about art including suggestions on apps, tools, tutorials and more. (google doc)
A master post of Thomas Romain’s art tutorials (designing interiors digitally, techniques for drawing detailed buildings and streets and more)
Line of Action posing refs, community discussions from other artists, figure study, anatomy, and more.
Sketch Daily "Welcome to the SketchDaily reference doohickey." (search by pose, clothing options, body type, perspective, etc.)
sketchfab - a 3D viewer where you can rotate pre-made models to see them from any angle
Creazilla open-source graphic design resources for artists and designers (vectors, silhouettes, clipart and 3D models)
Figure Drawing Practice Tool - provides models (choice of clothed/nude, male/female, and different ages) for specific time intervals for practice sketching purposes
Setpose.com "Create free 3D reference models. Pick a preset pose, combine them with different props, or create your own"
Human Anatomy for Artist Unofficial Search Helper
Drawing East Asian Faces a guide
How to Draw Hands tutorial
Hands Tutorials For Those Who Hate Drawing Hands
Things to think about when drawing necks
Things to consider when drawing shoulders
Human Anatomy Fundamentals: Basic Body Proportions
Cartoon Fundamentals: How to Draw the Female Form
The NSFW Illustrator's Guide Volume I (of 6, follow links for more)
'pointers on drawing dingle dongles' (male anatomy)
Three tutorials on how to draw women's body parts: lady butts, boobs and waists
Wheelchair Drawing Tutorial by Goldfvsh (wayback machine link) and a Manual Wheelchair Tutorial by fancyfade
A general cane guide for writers and artists (from a cane user, writer, and artist!)
Blumineck's reference photos and gif of holding a bow at the ready while pirouetting (his tumblr and youtube channel are filled with various archery feats and demonstrations)
So you want to draw some archery- an archery guide in art
How to draw tack on horses - a guide
Wolves vs Dogs A tutorial for beginners
How to Draw Animals: Dogs and Wolves, and Their Anatomy
How to Draw a Wolf Step by Step
How to Draw Animals: Cats and Their Anatomy
Pouncing, a tutorial
Learn to Draw Birds with David Sibley (includes video tutorials)
Shrub Sparrow's Bird Tutorial
How to Draw a Stick Figure: a Complex Guide
How to draw water surfaces (tumblr post, excerpt from Jack Hamm’s Drawing Scenery)
My Color Space "Never waste hours finding the perfect color palate again!" (generates color palates based off your original color choice)
Where Do I Host My Webcomic? - part one: A webcomic website hosting masterpost and part two: A webcomic platform hosting masterpost
Uncategorized and Utterly Random Links:
How to tell if someone might be lying to you
Havocscope- A database of information for criminal underworld/blackmarket stuff taken from newspapers and police reports. (site went down August 2025, this wayback machine link has much of it backed up)
Dimensions- a "reference database of dimensioned drawings documenting the standard measurements and sizes of the everyday objects and spaces that make up our world."
Conversion Tables and Instant Measurement Conversion (modern and historical conversions for everything from distance to weight to shoe sizes to more)
The Quote Investigator "Exploring the Origins of Quotations" - great for checking to see if someone really said the thing or not.
Occupational Folklife Project at the US Library of Congress a collection of more than 1800 audio and audiovisual oral history interviews with workers in scores of trades, industries, crafts, and professions (huge range of professions from bookbinders to circus workers to park rangers to professional wrestlers)
Research and Resource Collected Links Masterpost