# Thing you just can't seem to find on the internet **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 16, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035 "2012-02-16T16:01:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/1 "2012-02-16T16:01:09Z")
The internet seems to be the be all end all in finding information on just about anything. However, once in a while there is information you just can’t seem to dig up and there is no site for. Two things I thought I might find on the internet but had no such luck: -What’s being built? Driving around town I’ll often notice new construction going on. There’s often a contractors sign up at the job site but unless the business purposely puts up a “coming soon” sign you have no idea what’s coming. I’d think local community government sites would have that kind of info but I always come up empty. -What ailments are “going around”. Plenty of times myself or my kid gets mildly sick and the only way to tell what you might have is a trip to the minute clinic or the pediatrician. Most of the time they say “yep, same symtoms as everyone else, it’s just XYZ, it’s going around.” It’s be nice to go to a pediatricians website or public health website or local news website and find “X number of people have been diagnosed with Z this week and here are the symptoms”. I’ve never found anything like this. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/2 "2012-02-16T18:13:42Z")
How to draw a rose. Or any flowers for that matter. I did find one site that instructions on how to draw six specific flowers, but they were pretty much “copy this exact shape” type of thing for kids. You’d think that there’d be plenty of good sites for this. ---
**Author:** ![Al\_Bundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@Al\_Bundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al_Bundy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/3 "2012-02-16T18:30:54Z")
I’d like to see those things too in the interest of more openness. What you suggest is a refinement of what might be available with enough checking. Most towns have published minutes of the council and zoning boards. They have development site plans and so forth. Your idea of “coming attractions” is better. I like the current health log as well. Plenty of sites offer diagnosis of symptoms. It gets very confusing and hard to pin down. It would be neat to know what’s going on in the neighborhood. Then the privacy laws start to restrict that. The way things are going, doctors will start tweeting diagnosis between patients. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/4 "2012-02-16T20:02:30Z")
Two years ago I left my favorite rainbow hat on a commuter train and I haven’t seen it since. I have scoured the internet multiple times, but I can’t find anything like it. I miss that hat, man. ---
**Author:** ![RoniaBorkason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9dc877/32.png) [@RoniaBorkason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RoniaBorkason)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/5 "2012-02-17T01:22:56Z")
Rubbermaid item # 15931. The best staple remover ever, and discontinued. Aren’t we supposed to be able to find anything on the Internet? If they sell LPs of the Disney Robin Hood soundtrack, and ancient out of print books, why is there no clearanced stockpile somewhere of this? ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/6 "2012-02-17T02:31:29Z")
Information regarding specific brand/model of things can bring up pages of websites referring to the same couple of craiglist or ebay listings, but little to no historical information, reference pictures, data concerning whatever is being searched for. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/7 "2012-02-17T02:50:04Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > How to draw a rose. Or any flowers for that matter. I did find one site that instructions on how to draw six specific flowers, but they were pretty much “copy this exact shape” type of thing for kids. You’d think that there’d be plenty of good sites for this. Here ya go: [Rose](http://www.google.com/search?q=drawing+for+adults+roses&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=3L49T9T3LpOOigKtvMHMAQ&sqi=2&ved=0CCIQsAQ&biw=1866&bih=970) [other rose](http://www.drawingstep.com/how-to-draw-a-rose.html) [flowers](http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/how-to-draw-flowers-and-plants.htm) [video lesson](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WXMT8azKLg) I found lots of others. You have to put “adult” into your search parameters. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/8 "2012-02-17T03:15:43Z")
IKEA items that they no longer stock. I’d like to think that someone - maybe IKEA themselves - would run a museum of items, but it seems not. the closest I’ve found is [replacements.com](http://replacements.com) but $12 for a single fork is just ridiculous and it doesn’t tell me what the actual IKEA name for the cutlery is, so I can do a proper search for it. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/9 "2012-02-17T03:43:58Z")
There’s a cartoon PSA from the 80’s about not putting stuff in your ears. It featured an elephant going to a mouse doctor who proceeded to clean all sorts of stuff out of the elephant’s ear, including a pumpkin. The tag line was “Never, NEVER put anything in your EARS!” I’ve looked for it a few times online to no avail, and [only this one mention of it](http://ask.metafilter.com/178614/Help-me-find-these-80s-PSAs). ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/10 "2012-02-17T05:28:32Z")
[Everyblock.com](http://Everyblock.com) has building permits and other such hyperlocal news for a couple dozen big cities in the US. Doesn’t work if you’re in the suburbs, unfortunately. For big projects, you can also usually find something in a local thread on [skyscraperpage.com](http://skyscraperpage.com) or [skyscrapercity.com](http://skyscrapercity.com). Building databases such as [emporis.com](http://emporis.com) or the new [phorio.com](http://phorio.com) also try to show new construction, but because they rely on volunteer skyscraper fans, they don’t generally show the new 7-Elevens or dollar stores of the world. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/11 "2012-02-17T05:41:43Z")
The name of a weird, obscure movie my sister and I watched sometime in the early 80s. It was a black and white Western/Murder mystery…SO strange. The premise? All of these people are sitting around a campfire (on a cattle drive or something like that IIRC), they’re trying to figure out who killed one of their group, a young man. They go through various scenarios where each of the others could have killed the guy. The last “suspect” turns out to be the correct one. The young man had tripped over something and fallen on a knife, his last words were heavily accented in American southern…“ah tree-uped” (I tripped). The line is a longstanding family joke and my sister and I live in dread that we’ll never have our curiosity satisfied regarding the name of the movie. I’ve plugged in about every search word I can think of, but haven’t found it yet. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/12 "2012-02-17T06:49:12Z")
My keys. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/13 "2012-02-17T07:05:15Z")
I thought of starting a thread on this topic, but didn’t because I’ve had many different unrelated types of Internet frustration. In no particular order: 1. Many simple questions are hard to find answers to. Often one ends up at answers.yahoo or someplace where you often just see the question, and any answers are clearly ignorant. 2. All too often a straightforward science query will take you to a pay site, with each paper priced at $15 or so. (This is really annoying since the scientist sees no money; indeed may have paid to get his paper published!) 3. Working on a puzzle, I found some very obscure town names with Google (or Bing) Maps and needed to know something about them. Google gave me several hits of the form “Hot girls waiting for you in Gaxxyblik, Siberia.” (The list of hot girls was empty.) Similarly “Genealogy obscure\_surname” gets hits on automatically-generated pages at cretinous “genealogy” sites, again with empty information. 4. While you can find out more than you wanted to know on any celebrity or company from the Internet era, info from the 1970’s is eerily absent. I worked at some interesting companies, including one with several hundred employees, but Google search finds almost zero. Related to this latter point, I live near a very old man about whom I’ve heard fascinating stories. He was a sort of “Robin Hood” 40 years ago. If the culture here were different, or a journalist got involved, there would be great ballads honoring his deeds. (Though 40 years in the past, the older people around here all remember him and are surprised when I mention he is still alive.) I’ve thought of making my own post in MPSIMS to honor this man, and preserve memory of him for posterity. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/14 "2012-02-17T08:06:44Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > Two years ago I left my favorite rainbow hat on a commuter train and I haven’t seen it since. I have scoured the internet multiple times, but I can’t find anything like it. I miss that hat, man. Not that I think you have/had any chance of getting your hat back, but if more people used/knew about [lostandfound.com](http://www.lostandfound.com/), maybe you could have. Currently, it looks like it’s mostly just dogs and cats. ---
**Author:** ![turner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@turner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turner)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/15 "2012-02-17T15:53:07Z")
> [@RoniaBorkason](#): > > Rubbermaid item # 15931. The best staple remover ever, and discontinued. Aren’t we supposed to be able to find anything on the Internet? If they sell LPs of the Disney Robin Hood soundtrack, and ancient out of print books, why is there no clearanced stockpile somewhere of this? [http://twinsupply.com.janitor-supply-store.biz/proddetail.asp?prod=RUB15931](http://twinsupply.com.janitor-supply-store.biz/proddetail.asp?prod=RUB15931) 20 seconds. Now I didn’t check to see if this is one of those sites that says they have an item until you put it in your cart and they then tell you its out of stock, but the site says they carry it ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/16 "2012-02-17T16:13:51Z")
Song lyrics that are actually accurate. Just about every lyrics site accepts lyrics from anyone, no matter how many clearly-ridiculous mistakes there are. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/17 "2012-02-17T16:23:40Z")
Authentic, unsigned John Stallworth #82 Steeler Jersey Gillette Sculpting Paste - discontinued, but there should still be stocks somewhere ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/18 "2012-02-17T16:47:26Z")
I couldn’t believe there was nothing online about how to paint a sign in the window of a store - I found vague historical information that I turned into a way to do it, which I should have then documented and instructabled… but didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/19 "2012-02-17T16:59:39Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > Here ya go: > [Rose](http://www.google.com/search?q=drawing+for+adults+roses&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=3L49T9T3LpOOigKtvMHMAQ&sqi=2&ved=0CCIQsAQ&biw=1866&bih=970) > [other rose](http://www.drawingstep.com/how-to-draw-a-rose.html) > [flowers](http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/how-to-draw-flowers-and-plants.htm) > [video lesson](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WXMT8azKLg) > > I found lots of others. You have to put “adult” into your search parameters. Thanks! That was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035/20 "2012-02-17T17:07:48Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > The name of a weird, obscure movie my sister and I watched sometime in the early 80s. It was a black and white Western/Murder mystery…SO strange. The premise? All of these people are sitting around a campfire (on a cattle drive or something like that IIRC), they’re trying to figure out who killed one of their group, a young man. > > They go through various scenarios where each of the others could have killed the guy. The last “suspect” turns out to be the correct one. The young man had tripped over something and fallen on a knife, his last words were heavily accented in American southern…“ah tree-uped” (I tripped). > > The line is a longstanding family joke and my sister and I live in dread that we’ll never have our curiosity satisfied regarding the name of the movie. > > I’ve plugged in about every search word I can think of, but haven’t found it yet. [Rashomon?](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042876/) Only instead of a western, it’s Japanese. Instead of a campfire, it’s a rainy day at the temple… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thing-you-just-cant-seem-to-find-on-the-internet/613035.md?page=2)