1. List your special interest(s) 2. Give 5 facts about each

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LSD releases HUGE amounts of serotonin, and chronic use leads to vastly depleted serotonin levels and all that is associated with that. Same goes for Ecstasy. Same goes for crack, albeit for dopamine reserves, not serotonin.

Art

Botticelli's real name was Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi and he worked for the Medici Family in Florence.

Some of his art survived after the great burning incited by the radical Savonarola because Brothel's rescued them from the flames.

One of his paintings was the cover for one of the printings of "The Vampire Armand" by Anne Rice.

Savonarola was executed by burning on the Piaza di la signiora in Floerence shortly after the great burning in which Botticelli tried to burn a great deal of his works.l

Some of the clothing in figures on Bottichelli's paintings has a three-ring symbol which was the symbol for the Medici family, thus these pieces are believed to have been commissioned by the family of florentine bankers.

Music
Women were not allowed on stage, thus the emergence of male castratos

Castration was illegal so usually a story was conceived that consisted of an accidental castration such as being trampled by a horse, for example.

The name of a famous castrato is Farinelli.

Farinelli was an opiate user.

If a castrato was not successful on their debut performance in Rome, their carrier was pretty much over, if they aspired that high.

Indo-European Mythology

I could really go on and on on this subject, I tried to condense.

World Tree stories appear over a large varieties of cultures and mythologies. The tree of good and evil in jeudaism, the world tree of the druids, Yggdrasil of the Norse, etc.

World tree sacrifices are also mytholocially diverse such as the crucifixion, the hanging of Odin on Yggdrassil to gain knowledge of the runes, the god of the tuatha de danaan Esus used to get sacrifices of humans hung from trees.

Tree mythologies about immortality are also culturally wide. The apple from the tree of good an evil that gave knowledge, the salmon that ate seeds from the world tree which later got turned into a soup which gave Taliesin his wisdom, and the image of a world tree, itself, from Celtic and Norse mythos. The tree of golden apples in Greek Mythology.

Trinities are also very poignant through indo-european mythologies from triple aspect deities like The Morrigan in Celtic mythos, the fates in the Greek pantheon and the holy trinity in Judaism.

The concept of rebirth. Taliesin was reborn from the belly of a fish. Jesus resurrected after three days, etc.

Fantasy novels - R.A Salvatore , Legend of Drizzt series I'm reading right now:

1) The character Cattie-Brie in the Legend of Drizzt is named after R.A. Salvatore's daughter Caitlin Briana.

2) The first book ever released in the Legend of Drizzt's was the fourth in the series The Chrystal Shard in 1987- the 2nd trilogy was released before the 1st trilogy.

3) For the names of some of the supporting characters in the Legend of Drizzt series R.A. Salvatore simply closed his eyes and typed blindly at the keyboard until there was a name.

4)R.A. Salvatore was the first as far as he knows to use apostrophes in fantasy-for names of characters and places-so he's to blame!

5) R.A. Salvatore describes the character of Drizzt Do'urden as "not like himself but like who he would like to be'- always doing the right thing regardless of the cost to him-stoically enduring the prejudice against him that he faces everywhere he goes ect.

Human nutrition.

There has not been a study that proves that saturated fat causes heart disease,

About half of all heart attack victims have normal to low cholesterol.

People with higher cholesterol tend to live longer.

Ketosis is a normal metabolic process by which the body burns fat for fuel. In ketosis, the glucose levels in the blood are low.

Ketoacidosis is a dangerous condition that occurs in diabetics. In ketoacidosis, the levels of glucose in the blood are high and there is an insufficient supply of insulin to control the glucose. Because the body is unable to utilize the glucose for fuel, it begins to break down fat for fuel producing ketones. Because both glucose and ketones are slightly acidic this process can lead to acidosis of the blood.

Crack, MDMA, and LSD have vastly different pharmacology....


LSD actually has rather low affinity for most serotonin receptors (relatively, compared to things such as psilocybin or mescaline). LSD binds to most serotonin receptors, but most of these receptors are affected at too low affinity to be sufficiently activated. Though LSD does have partial agonist effects at 5-HT2A.


The way I understand it, LSD doesn't cause a huge "release" of serotonin in the way MDMA does, but rather has some activity upon a few select receptors.....Now MDMA does act as a releasing agent of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. It does this by inhibition of the vesicular monoamine transporter, which results in increased concentrations of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine in the cytoplasm and induces their release by reversing their transporters.


I've never known anyone to use LSD "chronically", I'm not sure why someone would want to do such a thing. After an experience/session with LSD it is usually months to a year later before I decide to have another. And use of (pure) MDMA in responsible dosages, a couple times a year, is rather harmless. Now street "ecstasy" is often cut/adulterated these day, often not even containing MDMA. Some people do take enormous doses, and some people do lack self control and indulge too often. But used responsibly and in moderation, it's no worse than having a couple alcoholic drinks in a night. And even for those that do abuse MDMA, that are left with depleted levels of neurotransmitters, the levels will return and balance out with time.


LSD does indeed have incredibly low toxicity compared to it's active dose, remember the active dose for LSD is as low as 20-micrograms, typical dosages of 75µg to 125µg (0.000075g to 0.0001g).....

This used to be a special interest of mine, even lead me to playing Everquest Classic, in which I joined a guild Called De'Vir and I used to know the Drow dialiect quite well, but not so much anymore. All I remember is for example "VenDui" hello and Olath is dark/back Ilarhess and Ilhar are matron and patron and Dalninl and Dalniuk (sister and brother). I also have extensive knowledge on Forgotten realms d&d such as the names of underdark cities. And during the war of the spider queen the second largest city was taken over by males of a psyonic house . . . ok I stop now! ^^;

Music
Music is my drug. I listen to it non stop, with a preference for electronic/trance/postrock/krautrock/jazz/downtempo type of music with an hypnotic beat. I'm a Radiohead fan too

Guitar playing
I have like a dozen of cheap guitars (folk/classical/electric) and I used to spend ages on a classical piece, though I like to play blues (hendrix), Flamenco (very hard), Jazz and any other type of music actually. I'm not that good though.


History/Culture
I used to be a massive fan of Japan and the Japanese language, which I learned. Now I broadened my interest and I love European cultures/history too.
1) the French revolution was not all positive.
2) Japan is the most endebted country is the world
3) Basque is the oldest European ethnicity.

Sociology/Psychology/Philosophy
Interest in Freud and Marx, I recently listened to and read tons of Slavoj Zizek. Bourdieu, Todd and other French sociologists too. Postmodernists mainly. I love "social class studies" and generational studies (Gen X vs Gen Y etc..).
Economy/Agriculture
My newfound interest... due to our economic crisis and the reading of Antal Fekete book about the return of the Gold standard, and other books about the growing need for self sufficiency; AND a part of my family migrated to Mexico in order to build an autonomous agricultural domain which I find interesting. I try to learn to get away from the mainstream junk food/culture we are served.
1) We will soon go back to the gold standard.
2) Economy classes are all about Milton Friedman and John Keynes, and they are all wrong.
3) A massive economic crash is imminent

Sport (martial arts/football(soccer))/fitness/Yoga
I used to be passionate about Karate Katas due to its very strict codes which was interesting to my unruly Aspie self, and I absolutely love football/soccer.
1) 80% of people tend to breath badly (from the chest), it creates cardio vascular problems and depression. You have to breathe from your belly. Try it
2) We aspie tend to have hypotonia, our muscles are slow to react, hence some of them are perpetually tense. Relaxing is very important



Sorry I was about to write 5 facts about each of them but got lazy maybe later

Have many special interests.
Ill pick one.
Ships.
Love ships.

1) A replica of the HMS bounty just sank a couple days ago while trying to flee Hurricane Sandy. And where did it sink? Off of Cape Hatteras North Carolina! One more addition to the "ghost fleet" of ship wrecks off of Cape Hatteras and the rest of North Carolina's Outer Banks.

2) Cape Hatteras has been known for centuries by sailors as "the Devil's elbow". It has four centuries of wrecks- from the sailing ship era up to the present. Ships that were victims of storms, and ships that were victims of man ( both pirate ships and pirate victims, Civil War wrecks, German U boats from both world wars, victims of german U Boats from both world wars).


3) "Hatteras Jack" was a legendary (but very real) porpose who appointed himself as a guide for human sailors, and would lead ships through one of the treacherous straights between the barrier islands of Hatteras.


4) If you google "sailfx" you can keep tabs on every ship plying the seas at any moment almost anywhere on the planet at anytime. It features maps of the blue oceans with tiny red dots representing each ship at its last reported position. I had just read an article about the world biggest ship - forget the name- a 1500 foot long supertanker. So I entered that ships name- and lo and behold- it was approaching the port of Rotterdam at that very moment.

But the sailfx map of the oceans is alway empty of ships in: the whole Red Sea, and a wide swath of the Indian Ocean around the horn of Africa.

Why?

My guess is that its because Somali pirates have internet access too. So the website keeps ship positions a secret in the waters around the horn of Africa.

5) About a dozen ships were known to be victims of icebergs before the Titanic. All in the 19th centurey. But the total deaths from all of these ships put together was about 560. Almost three times that many died aboard the Titanic alone. But no ship is known to have been sunk by iceberg since because of reforms about warnings and radio etc made as a result of that disaster.

6) The worst peacetime ship sinking was a 1970's philipino passenger ship that sank with 4000 people drowning (more than the Titanic and the Lusitania put together).

Wu Zetian

1. Some empresses are consorts whereas other empresses rule in their own right. As far as I know, Wu Zetian is the one and only Chinese empress who ruled in her own right.

2. She was in her sixties when she proclaimed herself empress regent. She died in her eighties.

3. She was initially Emperor Li Shimin's concubine. When Li Shimin was on his sickbed, she had an affair with Li Zhi, the Crown Prince. After Li Zhi had ascended the throne, he made Wu Zetian his concubine and later promoted her to empress.

4. Many believed that Wu Zetian strangled her own baby daughter in order to frame Wang, who was Li Zhi's empress then. Wu Zetian later arranged for Wang to be tortured to death because she was afraid that Li Zhi might reinstate Wang as empress.

5. Wu Zetian is a controversial ruler. On one hand, she ruled with an iron fist but on the other hand, China prospered during her reign.

Oops sorry, wrong thread.

Last edited by Joe90 on 02 Nov 2012, 3:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I started playing D&D because of the series.....but the game my friend plays is not set in the forgotten realms. Still my character is going to be a sorceress elf and her familiar is going to be a cat and the DM allowed me to have a baby panther as long as her abilities are the same as specified for a cat. So I'm going to have a baby panther and of-course I shall name her Guenwhyvar after Drizzt's great companion.

Those psyonic creatures...the illithids.... creeped me out SO much.

Lepidoptera/butterflies and moths

1.The meaning of Lepidoptera is 'scaly winged'
lepido=scaly ptera=wings

2. Lepidoptera consists of two genera: Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea.

3. Approximately 20,00 species worldwide

4. The average lifespan is one month, however there seems to be correlation between the size and the lifespan of lepidoptera. For example, the smaller the insect the shorter the lifespan.

5. Butterflies are split into several subgenera: Nymphalidae; Pieridae; Papilionidae; Hesperiidae; Lycaenidae; Hedylidae and Riodinidae.

Ah, I'm obsessed with moths and butterflies too (although it's not a special interest, it's just a casual fad I have in the summer). I will try and list a few facts what I know about moths (don't know much about butterflies, they are just beautiful in the garden, where as I keep moths in my room).

1. Moths are beautiful night creatures

2. Moths come in mostly in the bathroom when there's a full moon outside and the window's steamy when I'm in the bath (loads of them come in!!)

3. Although it is known that moths eat clothes, carpet and curtains, I have been keeping moths in my room for about 3 years now and haven't seen 1 hole anywhere (and I let them live on my curtains)

4. Moths aren't supposed to be handled too much because they survive better when they have got their fur on their heads, and ''moth dust'' on their wings

5. Moths are friendly and harmless insects.

I like math, or at least I used to like it until I took a few courses that were either taught by lousy professors or too much for me to handle and understand.

1) There are only five regular polyhedra (aka Platonic solids): the tetrahedron, the cube/hexahedron, the octahedron, the dodecahedron, and the icosahedron.

2) The term for a cone or pyramid whose tip has been truncated by a plane parallel to its base is “frustum”.

3) At -40°, the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales have the same reading.

4) You can create a regular triangle with three right angles on a sphere, but such a triangle cannot exist on a plane.

5) Some people want to replace pi with tau, which is equal to 2*pi.

Rallying

1. The Paris-Dakar Rally took its name from the fact that it was actually run from Paris to Dakar. Recently, due to terrorist threats it was moved to south america.

2. There are lots of pacenotes systems for co-drivers. A very common one is the Jemba system which classifies corners in six different basic degrees of intensity (1 through 6, 6 being the fastest corners and 1 being the slowest) The notes are generated using a special software and distribuited to the drivers before the competition.

3. In WRC events, cars must move between stages by their own means. That means that at any given event, you get to see rally cars on the streets waiting at traffic lights. If a car gets stuck, mechanics or stewards can't intervene but pilots can get help from espectators without getting any penalty.

4. The later a driver gets into a gravel road, the better, since other cars function as sweepers clearing most of the loose gravel so they have more grip.

5. Co-drivers are busier when they are off-track.

I remember hearing on Top Gear about a team of disabled veterans who participated in the Dakar rally, and actually managed to finish. These are guys with missing limbs, eyes, and other disabilities, finishing one of the most brutal and demanding rally races in the world. Amazing.

Anyway...

Aircraft of World War II

1. The B-25 Mitchell bombers that carried out Doolittle's Tokyo bombing raid were specially modified for additional range and the ability to take off on a carrier's deck. Despite the additional range, 14 of the 16 planes were forced to ditch in China, one ditched in the sea, and one landed in the Soviet Union.

2. The single most produced aircraft during WWII was the IL-2 Sturmovik, a Soviet ground-attack plane. Approximately 35,000 of these planes were manufactured, and they earned a reputation for their durability.

3. The P-47 Thunderbolt's pilot seat was mounted on hydraulics, allowing the pilot to adjust the seat up or down. When adjusted all the way down, the pilot couldn't see out of the canopy, but that was offset by being surrounded on almost every side by thick armor plating.

4. Memphis Belle, a USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress, became the second B-17 to successfully complete a 25-mission tour of duty with its original crew (The first B-17 was a plane named Hell's Bells. They completed their tour of duty one week before the Belle). The Memphis Belle and her crew flew back to the US shortly after and spent the rest of the war selling war bonds. They became famous, and the bomber would eventually become the subject of two movies.

5. Nazi Germany not only fielded the world's first jet fighter (the Messerschmidt ME 262), but also the world's first and only rocket-powered fighter, the Messerschmidt ME 163 Komet. Roughly 300 were built, but the plane was plagued by problems throughout its life. Over the space of about a year, from May 1944 to the end of the war, they only shot down anywhere between nine and sixteen Allied aircraft, with 10 losses, most of those being crashes.