Things that fascinate you - your Top 5

[CodeRedR51]

Thought this might a good idea for a thread. Been thinking about this lately, so thought I would share mine and see what the GTP community has to share.

My Top 5 things that fascinate me: (in no particular order)

1) Space (bet this one will be popular)
2) Airplanes (especially WWII era fighters + Fighter Jets)
3) Sky Scrapers (weird because I am scared of heights)
4) Extreme weather (mainly tornadoes)
5) Anything to do with WWII (no idea why, I was born in '85)

👍

 

[Tornado]

Analog audio. The idea that a plastic disc with some grooves in it (or a narrow magnetic tape, or what have you) can replicate real sounds, including voices and instruments, as if you were actually there when they were played has always been mind boggling.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

Life. Why we're here and what happens after.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Top 5's guys, come on.

 

[shmogt]

1. Also space
2. How people get extreme diseases
3. How certain formulas were created.
4. Were ancient people really less advanced than us
5. Is fate real

 

[SkylineObsession]

1. Space. Stargate SG-1 was a brilliant concept. Then they ruined it with spinoffs and main actors leaving.
2. How we are able to see and hear things from all manners of devices (TV, stereos cd players, mp3s, cellphones etc). When you really think about it (and i mean DEEPLY) , its pretty amazing.
3. Mother nature
4. Dinosaurs (kinda gutted most of them don't exist anymore to be honest)
5. Animals/insects/birds etc. I always wonder if they have some sort of communication system they all understand (each individual subject i mean).

Also, planes flying is another one. And food/edible items (how we've gone from eating leaves/dead dinosaurs etc, to all the stuff we have today).

I could go on and on...

 

[Kitten]

1. Ground Effects
2. Turbos
3. Automobiles
4. Architecture
5. Cats and dogs, how they love you .

 

[Cano]

In no particular order:

1 - abandoned stuff, from cars to places to the contents of an attic that's been there for far too long.
2 - Music and it's creative process, altough I can't extract a single note outta anything if ,my life depended on it.
3 - Dinosaurs and several other extinct animals; I'll also bet this one will be popular.
4 - Creatures and fish from the DEEP sea. Amazing.
5 - Drawing, and the talents it requires to do it well. Photography could replace drawing in this one.

 

[carfanatic45]

1. The Italian American, Irish, and other Crime families of the early 1900's.
2. The History of Auto racing, especially Le Mans and World Rally Championship.
3. The art and talents behind movie making and directing. Special Effects and movie sets are very interesting to me.
4. Fate, is it real or is it just randomized events that are decided by you and I and our interactions.
5. Just about anything to do with WW2.

 

[W3H5]

I think I'll have to add to my list as time goes by because I can think of so many things at the moment. I'll have a hard time whittling them down to 5.

1. Fire - it's mesmerising.
2. Cats - the internet agrees with me, clearly.
3.* Quantum Physics.

*After reading what Matty wrote about space being too general I thought the same so have narrowed it down to the crazy things like black holes and dark matter related to quantum mechanics.

 

[mattythedog]

Space is a little too general for me, so they'll be a couple of things that cone under that.

1. The concept of life
2. The size of the universe
3. Dying
4. How small we really are
5. Dogs

 

[Solid Lifters]

1. Guns
2. Cars (Muscle Cars, mostly)
3. Guitars
4. Cigars
5. Food

 

[Liquid]

And food/edible items (how we've gone from eating leaves/dead dinosaurs etc, to all the stuff we have today)

Not to scoff at your choices, but there was a gap of a fair few million years between the last dinosaur and the first human.


5. Combustion engines

I think it is bloody insane how someone managed to work out that not only was this possible, but that they actually made it work. The petrol engine and the steam engine fascinate me. Fuel goes in -> fuel reaction moves some parts -> witchcraft -> movement.

4. History and politics

How can you not be astounded by the events which have led to our respective societies being where they are now? Just finding an interesting person or event and comprehending the knock-on effects is mind boggling. In layman's terms, what really kicked off World War I was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, right? Might never have happened had Bismark not excluded Austria from his Grossdeutschland concept. Having Austria as a willing member of a single German nation state could have brought more stability to Austria's eastern territories.

3. Etymology

I am fascinated by language. I speak two fluently, and know a little bit of a further two. What I find particularly interesting is where these languages come from and at what point they overlapped, or at what point they diverged. The Latin influence on any Western European language cannot be overstated. The anomalies, too. 'Window' comes from the Latin fenestram and translates as Fenster (German), fenetre (French), venster (Dutch) and even as ffenest in Welsh, an ethnic group that has very little Latin influence. But English sidesteps all this and takes its word, window, from the old Nordic languages. Why? Ah, that's the beauty of language.

2. Accents

I can't even explain this one, but I am utterly astounded at how people can interpret the same language in different ways even on a purely phonemic level. I will talk about accents with almost anyone I meet. Beware.

1. Human relationships

People's wants or needs to not be alone. And what sort of person they desire and why. Who isn't interested in or interested by that?

 

[Venom800tt]

1. Transportation technology, namely aviation and automotive
2. Military technology
3. Electronics and mechanical technology
4. R/C model technology
5. Abandoned stuff

And space gets an honorable mention.

 

[terminator363]

1. Running Water
2. Fire
3. Women
4. Abandoned stuff
5. Mechanical stuff

Not in order

 

[Jet Badger]

1. Human stupidity. Never ceases to amaze.
2. Space, cosmology.
3. Nature
4. Some engineering masterpieces.
5. Internet obsession with cats.

 

[TheCracker]

(in no particular order)

1. Boobs
2.
3.
4.
5.

 

[SkylineObsession]

Not to scoff at your choices, but there was a gap of a fair few million years between the last dinosaur and the first human.

Yeah i know, i was just being silly as per usual.

 

[Boxout]

1) Cars
2) Cars
3) Cars
4) Cars
5) Women

 

[lbsf1]

1. Purpose of overall existence.
2. What is the point in "my" life
3. Vastness of the universe (or is it, how can we know??)
4. Old (30's-70's) aircraft
5. Motorsport


And let me add a 6th that is quite specific but something that I have been wondering for a long time. I get how transistors work and I know how binary works. However how the hell did we get to the point of them both working together to produce modern computers??? how are microprocessors designed???

 

[Michael88]

1. Space
2. Quantum physics
3. Nature
4. Speed (not the drug)
5. Guns

 

[Dean]

In no particular order:
1. Time Travel
2. Science
3. "Magic"
4. The human brain
5. Wormholes in space.
6. Women
7. Languages
8. Human consciousness

I have a hard time keeping it to 5 . And yes, I failed - massively .

 

[Monatsende]

[...]

I have a hard time keeping it to 5 .

... and you failed.

FIFY

In no particular order:
1. Time Travel
2. Science
3. "Magic"
4. The human brain
5. Wormholes in space.
6. Women
7. Languages
8. Human consciousness

 

[Liquid]

In fairness, lots of things fascinate me. I have a curious mind. It's hard to exactly pinpoint the five things which interest me in particular.

 

[AudiMan2011]

Things that fascinate me, in no particular order:

1. Automobile technology advancements
2. Other life in the universe
3. Historical engineering achievements
4. Hostile environments in nature (I watch David Attenborough nature shows occasionally)
5. Why people are so stupid on the internet

 

[XS]

1) Again Space, also astrophysics
2) Ancient History and prehistory
3) Cars and motorcycles - I'll lump racing in here too
4) Severe weather
5) Nature - mountains, deserts and such

 

[Mark T]

For me, slightly different to others as they are a bit more specific.

1) The universe - in particular, the moment the first time something appeared. Trying to comprehend how something came from nothing and trying to envision how could it have happened. Almost hoping that in your mind you can piece together a scenario that explains it, then you realise you'll probably never know for definite in your life time.

2) Bravery - Specifically relating to WWI and WWII when soldiers showed immense bravery in such horrendous conditions. I know there are several other brutal wars but these I can relate to more due to my immediate family taking part.

3) The sciences - All those people that develop cures and complex scientific breakthroughs which help us move forward as a civilisation. Pure genius.

4) How the earth developed - in particular looking back to the ice age and realising just how different the planet looked. Wondering how the planet will look in 10,000 years time.

5) Evolution - A relatively simple thing to understand yet amazingly complicated in how it took place. The most amazing thing in nature.

 

[sesselpupser]

1. Space, obviously.
2. Most machines, particularly vehicles, the bigger or smaller they are than me the more fascinating I find them. Ekranoplans are a good example.
3. Numbers stations... Creepy but fascinating.
4. Electronics in general, which kind of makes sense given what I'm studying these days (hint: it's electronics).
5. Ludology is quite interesting too, especially when you know enough about it to see how you're being played by game developers! Free to play games become fascinating when you start wondering about how much psychology and mathematics go in to designing their systems and all that.

 

[Lizard]

1. Japan and the culture and history of Japan.

2. The rest of east and south east Asia.

3. The Pacific war.

4. WW2 aircraft.

5. Politics.

 

[phillgt2002]

1. Cars.

I'll always like cars. The fact that if you want to drive them correctly requires skill gets me going.

2. Some girls

Like it says, when a girl presents me with a good conversation... It's just awesome because whenever It happens I just go 'why can't all girls be like this' I guess I was used to the shallow girls at my school. I was never the small talk person.

3. Science

Well ****. There is so much science that I can't even touch. Basically. We're here, and we know why we are here. Also the fact that we are using computers right now. Mind Blown.

4. Art

Seeing people push the boundaries of their imagination is just awesome. It takes skills and effort to create masterpieces.

5. Video games.

They put you into a world of your own.