Odd things you’re fascinated by?

[NotARealAvery]

Mine is the human brain. How a few chemicals can dictate so much about who we are and how we act/feel etc.

What other things do people get fascinated by?

Oh yes, I think I've saw that one, MongerTruffle.

"There's a game I still like to play from time to time. DH drives me to an unknown part of town; I'm blindfolded, have headphones on and I'm only allowed to see when we're somewhere which looks as nondescript as possible. He then leaves me there, and I have to walk around and work out where I am. The thrill of reorienting myself is amazing!"

Your DH is lucky he hasn't been stopped on suspicion of kidnapping

Whales.

I love secretly watching videos of whales leaping out of the ocean

Cemetery lovers, if you're in Scotland do notice how married women are designated. 'Here lies James Campbell and his wife Jeanie Robertson' etc. Scottish women have culturally held their own identity after marriage. See also birth, death and marriage certificates, which have detailed womens maiden names for over a hundred years.

I'm a genealogist and I'm fascinated by modern social history. How the absolute fuck has society changed so much in three generations?

When my gran had her tonsils out as a child, she shared her hospital bed top to toe with another child. The doctor making his rounds was terrifying, and her parents weren't allowed to visit.

In our grandparents lifetimes, it was typical to have large/very large families on an extremely low income, in a tiny house that didn't have indoor plumbing, without access to any state support and prior to the invention of anti biotics.

I have one child, a good income, all the support I could possibly want, and the NHS to help myself to. And I still find parenting hard.

Then I look at Agnes from the Gorbals, married at 19, having six children over 11 years in a two room house with a shipyard labourer husband. Her kids are out there now.

Regarding cults...I k ow 3 people who would be perfect material for a cult. They are very observant Catholics and will believe, without question every part of it. One of them got involved with a movement within the church (sort of born again) and spoke in tongues, went into raptures.

I could easily imagine these people drinking the Koolaid, going to join a commune, giving up all their goods. No problem. They are very happy to have all criticial thinking removed from them and repeat, chapter and verse, whatever the theory is that they are required to hold.
After the church decided the mass was being said the wrong way for the past 60 years (post Vatican II) they accepted it without question.
When I asked if this meant every mass prior to this was invalid, I got some very confused looks and told that faith was all that mattered.
It isnt so much the cult itself but the people targeted.
Apologies if this is a tangent but cults fascinate me because I truly believe that being raised a catholic is not too far from growing up in a cult I terms of how your mind is manipulated. I will always be catholic deep down. Its programmed.

The human body.

I mean, we're all just lumps of skin and bone, but look at all the things humans can do. And the intricate ways our bodies work to protect us from our environments.

It's madness when you think about it.

Improvisation in music. How does it work, that somehow two or more people can play instruments together with no plan / prior discussion and it’s melodic and lovely to listen to? And similarly, people who can hear a song and then play it by ear? Absolutely amazes me.

Prime numbers. I'm no good at maths at all, but Primes are lovely and mysterious.
I take photos of them and have an online album.
Even numbers are all ugly and somehow smug.

Lovely stuff, @jenthelibrarian , but I have to ask - what are your feelings about the number 2, both prime and even?

I agree about even numbers. Its like they are all organised and everything. Like, look at me, all even and balanced. No surprises here

It astounds me that biologically we are all pretty much identical and yet we have such different tastes, interests and talents. I find myself thinking often how bizarre it is that we all have the same set of taste buds and yet have preferences for such different flavours

For me, it’s the periodic table - how the elements were named, discovered and interact, and how various combinations make up absolutely everything.

Improvisation in music. How does it work,

I can improvise solos on a guitar. I just need to know what key I'm going to be playing in, so I can then work with that. I had all the scales drummed in to me when learning. For music like blues or rock, there are tried a tested musical phrases (or licks) that you can call on to use, it's a case of hooking it together and having a good feel for what you are accompanying.

I'm by no means an Eric Clapton or Mark Knopfler though!

@MrsEsss Maybe he is lucky, yes. I usually sit in the back so I'm less visible from outside.

Earthquakes and tsunamis.

Pets/domestic animals especially cats and dogs. How have humans and animals come to this arrangement where we live harmoniously under one roof with such mutual love?

RE: group improvisation in music, DS1 (17) has played with the same 3 friends since year 8, he says that over time and many hours spent practising together you just learn how the others play so can almost sense the most likely thing to do, and they all know what would fit with the piece they're playing. The drummer acts partly as a guide for their speed then DS, the second guitarist and bassist go from there. He said he wouldn't be so comfortable if he was to stand in with a different band but reckons he could have a reasonable attempt at blending in to their 'jam' after 30 seconds or so.

These

Do they see them in other shows and films and contact their agents? Agents or agencies. This is why people with an Equity membership have to have a unique name. You don’t want the wrong John Smith. Also there is a book called Spotlight. It has head shots of just about all actors, their skills (like the accents they do, languages they speak, can ride a horse etc), height and agents details. So if you know you want a 6ft 3 man who has a scouse accent and can ride a motor bike then you look though there.
There are also specialist agencies for people who are amputees (very useful in something like GOT where you need a battle scene with someone missing a limb), ‘ugly’, fat and things like that.

Great thread.

Definitely agree with abandoned places especially buildings, hospitals and fairgrounds. That picture of a pile of chairs inside a disused swimming pools.

The London underground system and particularly disused stations. Some still have the station building still standing at ground level.

Babies. How in a tiny little human there is a fully working heart, lungs and other organs, and that all the organs grow at the same rate as the baby grows.

Pets/domestic animals especially cats and dogs. How have humans and animals come to this arrangement where we live harmoniously under one roof with such mutual love?

Dogs were domesticated long before cats. Dogs and humans had a mutual advantage. The humans trained the dogs to hunt for them and in return the dogs were kept safe, warm and fed. Humans bred dogs of certain characteristics for certain needs. There is evidence to suggest that dogs and humans evolved together and there is a bit of our brain that ‘needs’ dogs.

As for cats, the theory is that they domesticated themselves. Dogs were useful when humans lived a nomadic, hunter/gatherer lifestyle. When humans had settled down and began to farm, dogs were still useful. Humans then started to store stuff like grain grow fields of wheat. This attracts rodents. So the cats realised that they could live near humans for a rich source of food. After a while people would encourage the cats to live near them to keep the rodent population down. The friendlier the cat then the more likely it was to come inside and get a bit of meat and lie in front of the fire. If it has somewhere safe and warm to have kittens then the kittens are more likely to survive. It was in the cats best interests to befriend humans and domesticate itself. (Some could argue that cats domesticated humans)

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/news/2017/06/domesticated-cats-dna-genetics-pets-science

How cats domesticated themselves.

Definitely agree with abandoned places especially buildings, hospitals and fairgrounds.

I went to Chernobyl nearly a year ago, it was sad, eerie (in places) and very thought-provoking. Definitely worth visiting with local guides.

How animals know when there are things like tsunamis on the way and go to higher ground, stuff like that, how turtles find their way back to the same beach.

Why some babies are curious about the world around them and others are more passive, my mother says I'd never sit still when I was a child and was always off exploring as soon as I could walk but my cousin (a week younger) was very passive and would stay wherever she was put. My Aunt could sit and enjoy a cup of tea in the garden while my poor mother was chasing me round the place

@x2boys murderers also fascinate me I can watch documentaries/programs/dramas for hours on end

Also the human body, how each system has its own role to play and each of the organs do their own thing perfectly, the heart fascinates me the most... I also love reading about different illnesses and how it effects the body and treatments/cures available

@DadDadDad

Hmmm....you've got me there. 2 has to be my all-time least-favourite Prime. I'm very partial to 13 and 31. FWIW. Also the palindromic Primes 131 and 313.

This entire thing stems from hearing a radio prog about Primes ages ago as I was driving by myself.
My car had clocked up a Prime number of miles!
I was a Prime number of years old! It was a Prime numbered year!
For a while there I thought I'd discovered some wonderful new conjecture or something

I have a lovely, if somewhat unintelligible book all about Primes and I just love to 'spot' them in the wild.
*happy sigh

Space....blows my mind.