Detail Reference
Online Conversion; need to know how many inches to the kilometer? Or ounces to the ton? If it can be measured and stamped with unit of measure, the site can convert it to a related unit.
http://www.onlineconversion.com/
How Stuff Works; fairly self-explanatory.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/
National Library of Medicine; useful for anything related to the human body, within reason.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/
TimeAndDate; need to check what day of the week August 10, 1873 was? Need to see when the full moons will be in the year 2072? How long is it between January 14, 1992, and September 24, 2016? What time will the sun rise for the next month? When will the moon rise?
http://www.timeanddate.com/
TV Tropes Wiki; a fun wiki, that offers a humorous and often insightful perspective on common fictional tropes.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage
Lock-picking 101; how to pick locks. A forum for this intriguing hobby.
http://www.lockpicking101.com/
Greg Miller's Guide To Lock Picking for Beginners; this is a site for those that are interested in how to actually pick locks, not just portray it accurately in their writing, but he has some valuable advice and detail on his site.
http://www.gregmiller.net/locks/
The Box o' Truth; testing common gun myths and questions with real live firepower! If you've got guns in your universe, and you're looking for realism in your writing, this is a must read site.
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/theboxotruth.htm
Detail Oriented LiveJournal Community; a place to ask others various and sundry research questions. (courtesy of Silverblade219)
http://community.livejournal.com/little_details/
Ask A Historian LiveJournal Community; a place to ask historians history questions. (courtesy of Silverblade219)
http://community.livejournal.com/askahistorian/
How to destroy the Earth;
That pretty much sums it up.Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.
You've seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the Earth. You've heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world.
Fools.
The Earth is built to last. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old, 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne ball of iron. It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you've had hot dinners, and lo, it still orbits merrily. So my first piece of advice to you, dear would-be Earth-destroyer, is: do NOT think this will be easy.
<snip>
This is a guide for those who do not want the Earth to be there anymore.
http://qntm.org/?destroy
Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics; they even have a rating system detailing how good or bad some particular movies are in terms of their physics.
http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/
The Biology of B-Movie Monsters; been enlarged or shrunk? That's okay! Just read this article and you'll know what you're now physically capable of! Covers a variety of topics regarding the physics and biology of monsters in B-movies, and some A-movies, too.
http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/2/21701757/
Language
The Phrase Finder; more or less, a dictionary of phrases, idioms and sayings. Handy, especially if you're looking up stuff about Shakespeare, as he added more phrases to the English language than even the Bible.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/index.html
Latin-English Dictionary; fun toy; use it to have a character mutter in a language that no one else is likely to understand--or perhaps translate what those omnipresent monks are chanting during the movie climax.
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/Latin/
Dictionary of English Slang; a very handy resource, especially for writing in the Potter-verse; with this, one doesn't have to have Ron and Harry repeat the same four or five curses again and again; even in America, we alternate between different four-letter words! That being said, alot of what is in that site is very rude and profane due to its nature. You have been warned.
http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/index.htm
The (Very) Best of British; the American's guide to speaking British. Similar to the Slang site, but this deals more with cultural differences and different word usage.
http://www.effingpot.com/
Hagridizer; makes normal text into Hagrid-speech. A valuable tool for those writing Potter-fic and wanting to include Hagrid, but can't due to his... unique accent.
http://rephrase.net/box/hagridizer/
Dialects and Accents in Harry Potter; a handy series of notes and points about the various accented characters in the Potter-verse. Has notes on Hagrid, Stan Shunpike, Madame Maxine and Fleur, Krum, Winky, Dobby and Kreacher.
http://manu86.livejournal.com/25048.html
HP_Britglish; the memorable entries section of the HP-Britglish LiveJournal Community; handy reference.
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memori ... _britglish
A list of free text to speech software that can help writer’s spot errors in there work.
http://www.dyslexia.com/helpread.htm (courtesy of shootme)
Name Generators
Seventh Sanctum; has name generators for currency, for nations, for angels, for ships, for "Questionable Anime Attacks". They have links on the right to other, similar generators, some on-site, some off-site. Very useful
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/
Behind the Name; a massive database of first names, searchable for names, meanings, popularities, namesakes and more. Very useful if you're building a group of characters around a theme--it has a whole section for that. Worth checking out is the Random Name Generator; you can specify by which cultures to draw from.
http://www.behindthename.com/
Fantasy Name Generator; some others have linked to this already on other threads; I'm just being a completist. It's just a generator, but what a generator!
http://www.rinkworks.com/namegen/
20,000+ Names from Around the World; Truth in advertising, here; this place is organized by Culture, with male and female names for each; worth checking out is the "Special Categories" which have themed lists.
http://www.20000-names.com/index.htm
Chris Pound's Name Generation Page; haven't really used anything from here yet, but, by the looks of things, could be lotsa fun!
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~pound/
Last Name Meanings Dictionary; a wonderful resource for writers, especially since most generators just give first names; organized alphabetically and by a selection of major cultures.
http://www.last-names.net/
Names by Chinaroad; don't be fooled by the doggies; this place is insane! They've got close to a hundred categories, ranging from Names of the Pacific to Nature Names, plus an entire page of links to other generators!
http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/Names.htm
Serendipity; a fellow named Manon made this site, and it features a bunch of awesome name generators, for people, places (the Place Name Generator is helping me build my D&D world), and things. Most entertaining generator? The "Marie-Suezette Generator". Quote: "Instantly create an obnoxiously romantic original character."
http://nine.frenchboys.net/
Worldbuilding Advice
Fantasy is Not For Sissies--Real Rules for Real Worlds; ten rules and a mini-rant on the nature of magic in well written fantasy.
http://hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/rules ... ntasy.html
Worldbuilding--Rollicking Rules of Ecosystems; notes and points on the nature of ecosystems large and small.
http://hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/rules ... stems.html
Limyaael's Fantasy Rants; a wonderful, if occasionally extremely sarcastic, series of rants on various fantasy cliches and tropes, and how to avoid them.
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memori ... filter=all
Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions; a very handy series of questions and points to consider when building a fictional world.
http://www.sfwa.org/writing/worldbuilding1.htm
Writing Advice
Science Fiction Workshop Primer; a series of points and issues that often creep up in writing.
http://www.sfwa.org/writing/turkeycity.html
The Medicine Wheel; a series of essays, thoughts and ramblings on writing, the writing process, the creative process, characterization, editing, fandom, and being a writer. (courtesy of Silverblade219)
http://www.themedicinewheel.net/diaryentries.html
Lira Snape's Writing Help Links; a bunch of writing-related links. Mostly advice and essays on how to write various portions of the narrative; characterization, point-of-view, proper grammar and more. (courtesy of Silverblade219)
http://lira-snape.livejournal.com/12817.html