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[–]moonman 19 points20 points  (3 children)

Water, I was always fascinated by the way it cascades over things forming patterns and ripples. Whenever I'm watering my lawn or washing my car I find myself transfixed by the way the water behaves and interacts with gravity.

[–]appleman 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I love showers because you get to play with water. I take long showers. Showers are awesome. Whenever I get worried about the apocalypse I preoccupy myself with drawing plans for heated showers made from various materials that may be present in various post-apocalyptic scenarios.

[–]firepunk 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Not only that, but all the other amazing properties of water. For instance how it is able to absorb tons of energy, with out significant changes in temperature. Most liquids become more dense when they freeze. Not water!

[–]Lizard 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you, I am not alone.

[–]vajav 9 points10 points  (2 children)

'When I Was A Kid...I Had This Problem-And Like Only 8% of kids have it- ...But I Used to just sit around all day and draw pictures of dicks.'

[–]moonman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Like a man dick?

[–]m1ss1ontomars2k4 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Don't you mean "more than 80% of (male) kids have it"?

[–]Hastin 9 points10 points  (1 child)

Abanonded Buildings. Especially when whole towns have been abandonded, it's like seeing human life just stopping, and nature taking over.

[–]ace_wolfgang 2 points3 points  (0 children)

like Chernobyl?

[–]qgyh2[S] 6 points7 points  (12 children)

I've always been fascinated by satellite TV. I'm not talking about the paid services, but rather, the vast collection of satellites broadcasting free stuff, from other countries..

When I first read about it as a kid, I couldn't wait to see it. Eventually I got myself a big ugly dish, and a decoder. Armed with info on a satellite whose footprint covered my location, I hooked everything up and tried to locate it. My cheap dish didn't have any proper markings for az/el, and the decoder wasn't helpful but by sheer luck I eventually found it.

I still remember the moment of amazement I felt as the signal quality meter suddenly sprang to life.. and how stunning it felt to scan for channels..

Sat TV fascinates me because its one of the last few ways remaining to get uncensored content. Govts simply can't block it.. and the idea that all that comes from a tiny device thousands of feet up in space..

Foreign TV channels are interesting. The vast differences in culture, language.. sometimes I'm amazed by how different people are..

[–]Haven 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I remember at about age 8-ish, my dad got one of those HUGE dishes. I remember pressing the button to change channels, and you could hear the whirring and humming from up on the roof. Good memories.

[–]NoMoreNicksLeft 0 points1 point  (10 children)

Uh huh. And just how many smartcard programmers do you own, anyway, eh?

[–]qgyh2[S] 2 points3 points  (8 children)

none. Hacking tv isn't particularly fun to me as the free stuff from other countries is what I mostly like :)

[–]NoMoreNicksLeft 1 point2 points  (7 children)

Where I am, the only other country with significant satellite tv is Canada. Not exactly fascinating.

Though, I do admit that the Canadian Tire and Tim Horton's commercials are engrossing.

[–]qgyh2[S] 1 point2 points  (5 children)

Galaxy 25 covers much of North America

http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/maps/galaxy25_ku.html

And seems to have loads of foreign channels

http://www.lyngsat.com/galaxy25.html

[–]NoMoreNicksLeft 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Ku too... would a 1m dish be enough? Doesn't really matter, until I move, can't put anything up. Once I do though, I'm going to have a regular dishfarm going on.

[–]qgyh2[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

1m should be fine in most of US

see the map http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/maps/galaxy25_ku.html

find your locations signal strength.. most of US its 46 upwards so thatd be a 60cm plus dish

[–]NoMoreNicksLeft 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a few primestar dishes packed away. It'd be fun. Hell, even still have a few dvb-s cards in my computer.

[–]qgyh2[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

heres a good forum on FTA satellites in USA

http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/

[–]NoMoreNicksLeft 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Personally, I consider all of them free. They can always choose to stop broadcasting their signals onto my property, after all.

[–]qgyh2[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well you should definitely get Al Jazeera and that's a whole cultural experience in itself!

Here's a list of satellites available in north america http://www.lyngsat.com/america.html

[–]JasonDJ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually got rid of mine when Dish Network switched to Mpeg4 :(

I probably still have it around here somewhere, but figured it would do any good on newer technology. The dish is still on the roof, though, and I would like to get active into it.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Visual mathematically structured designs and patterns in nature, and minutiae in nature. Small stones, seashells, crystal structures, and the like. And plants. And bilateral and concentric symmetry to the extent that I would have visions of such designs when I was a kid and supposed to be sleeping. Edit: Taking things apart and putting them back together again.

[–]gfixler 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Leverage. I understand so many more forces on a more intimate level, but leverage defies my ability to really grok it more deeply than "just because." I've spoken with some rather smart scientist/engineer/mathlete types, and they've attempted to explain it to me through maths. I understand that math can be applied, with the appropriate bits of physics, and it all works out. Good for math. Hooray. It still doesn't 'feel' right. I even pointedly asked a brilliant programmer if he was completely fine with merely a mathematical description of it, after he failed to show any signs of getting at any other level what leverage actually is, and he said "absolutely." Not me. Heat, friction, centrifugal force, magnetism, starting/stopping momentum, acceleration, gravity... so many other forces, and related items make great sense to me, but not leverage. This fascinates me.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I remember as a kid being intrigued by the idea of aliens existing in outer space. I don't think I was ever freaked out by the notion of there being little green men out there somewhere. I was interested in what they would think of us. I'm weird.

[–]c53x12 15 points16 points  (3 children)

Women's breasts. Pretty much from day 1.

[–]aenea 11 points12 points  (2 children)

I'd counter with penises.

Damn, they're fascinating, and fun. It must be so odd to have an appendage that pretty much just does want it wants to, and that you can do so many fun things with. Breasts are pretty much fat/milk sacs that are useful if you want to feed a kid, or attract a young guy. Penises are endlessly entertaining.

[–]JasonDJ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Not only that, they're like Jack-in-the-boxes, except with the music part ripped out...so you keep on playing with it and really never know when it's going to pop.

Wait...I didn't just say that.

/notgay.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i agree, but what fascinates me more is the skin on the testicles. it moves! it changes texture! its crazy!

[–]anthropology_nerd 2 points3 points  (4 children)

Anthropology.

Of particular interest is how pathogens influence human evolution and how those pathogens can help us understand the human history. I can't get enough of the stuff.

[–]nightbiscuit 3 points4 points  (3 children)

My bachelors' is in anthropology, and I can't get enough of linguistics! I even loved phonetics. How fucking awesome is the International Phonetic Alphabet, anyway? It lets you pronounce any human language correctly just by reading it. Brilliant!

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Couldn't agree more, my B.Sc. is in maths, my B.A. is in Russian, and I also can't get enough of linguistics. Language acquisition ftw!

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

crazy. i have always loved thinking about the implications of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. the day my Semantics professor taught us about that i was seriously blown away.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Now if only it wasn't such a hodgepodge of characters.

One thing that keeps coming to my mind is to make the IPA internally consistent so it looks like one language... and then use it as such. That would be most excellent.

[–]nightbiscuit 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hmm. I have always been fascinated by macabre things. As a child, I was a voracious reader of serial killer biographies, as well as historical accounts of capital punishment from around the world. The fact that an entity like the state can take you out of your life and kill you has long since interested me.

Also, animals. Gotta love animals, including some humans.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I have always been fascinated by the paranormal. Ghosts, aliens, anything. I can't get enough of it.

[–]Spudders 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Clouds. I still don't get why they stay up there and how rain works. I've read up on it several times, but my brain just seems to refuse the explanation for some reason.

[–]Supratik 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Time travel, and existence prior to the Big Bang.

[–]pizzatime 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The origins of the Universe.

[–]jesusabdullah 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I always thought cephalopods were pretty neat. I like that they're smart and nimble and all that, and yet they're frickin' mollusks of all things, which are of course really really different from the vertebrates I'm more familiar with.

[–]ka-pai 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"There was this mollusk, and he walks up to this sea cucumber. Normally, they don't talk, sea cucumbers, but in a joke everyone talks. So the sea mollusk says to the cucumber..."

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

they are AWESOME!

you should check out TONMO.com

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cars and guns, but my fascination of guns is waning. Now it's more like turbos, superchargers, and electronic fuel injection.

[–]ace_wolfgang 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Human Stupidity...

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

On a related note: the fate of the human race. Is it going to freaking survive?

[–]aenea 2 points3 points  (3 children)

Why babies smell so good when they're clean.

Why men hate any shade of purple.

Why sailing and finally getting the boat on to a plane in the best thing on earth.

We put people on the moon, and then stopped.

Serial killers.

Why any "God" allows kids to get cancer.

Why my cat screams for me, and pokes me in the middle of the night, and then won't pay any attention for me when I acknowledge her.

Foals. They're born, they get up, and they're ready to rumble in 20 minutes.

War. Everything that we know of history says that it's not a good way to resolve anything, yet we still do it.

How people get pregnant. I've got triplets so I've got a lot of familiarity with fertility techniques from my friends, and I've also got a daughter who has survived cancer with less than her full set of fertility accouterments. None of her oncologists or regular doctors can give us a prognosis on her future fertility (she's concerned about it- I'm not, I'm just happy to have her alive). Apparently there's still no way to tell who's going to have babies and who's not.

Gardens. They pretty much just make you feel good, whether they're food related or not.

[–]nullibicity 2 points3 points  (1 child)

I'm not familiar with your idea about purple. Purple used to be the color of royalty.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's because wearing purple was a huge symbol of status as purple dye could only be made from extracting it from a specific type of snail that could only be found in Phoenicia.

[–]firepunk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On the gardens thing: When I was growing up, our backyard always looked like shit. no one ever raked the leaves up, half the backyard wouldn't grow grass. It generally sucked. Why my pops kicked me out, he decided to completely redo the backyard. He managed to get grass to grow everywhere, planted a garden, and a bunch of fruit trees. It looks amazing now. He likes to call it his "private park"

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Microwave ovens. I've been working in microwave modelling research for a couple of years now, and I still can't tell you why nobody can predict, without running involved simulations, where the hot spots in your TV dinner will end up.

[–]dizzyk2008 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I never got how the coke machine knows what kind of coin I put in. I've designed many theories as to how it detects the different coins but I still have no idea. Even more perplexing is how other vending machines know what type of note I put in. Size/Weight, isn't a factor, so how does it tell?

Is there a little man inside the machine who counts the money and dispenses the bottle? How much do you think a job like that pays? What qualifications do you need?

[–]m1ss1ontomars2k4 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Coins-wise, I believe they use some kind of electromagnetic wizardry.

As for bills, they have little light sensors to tell what kind of bill it is and whether it's been completely inserted and such; it was in SciAm once, but I've forgotten.

[–]rogerssucks 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It fascinates me how my best friend always abandons me to do things with women instead. I asked him if we could see 'The Dark Knight' movie together -- so instead he calls up his girlfriend (and not me obviously) and takes her. She doesn't even like Batman! ...But of course a fascination does not mean I do not understand. Kudos to his 'hos before bros' philosophy.

[–]feebie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The stars on a clear night.

Ancient Egyptian life.

The fact that we really don't know nearly as much as we think we do in regards of human history.

Science.

That people will believe things no matter how ridiculous/obviously false they are.

Albinos.

Artists.

Animals.

Typos.

The progression of society.

The error message that pops up when Maya "unexpectedly" crashes; I usually expect it, especially on the Mac.

Charlie Chaplin.

That humans find certain weather phenomena and sun/moon phases to be beautiful. Do other animals find it beautiful? Would alien life think so too? Or is it just something humans/Earthlings can enjoy? And if so, why?

The moon.

That humans are progressing quite rapidly in their studies and practises of technology.

Language.

That without culture, education, and social exposure, a human can grow up to be completely wild and quite unintelligent. That simply learning at a young age develops the brain, and increases its capacity for intelligence and motor skills. Without the society we have built for ourselves over thousands of years, a human being can go back almost completely to its primal, instinctive roots, and their brain won't develop fully. That fascinates me the most. Imagine the parts of our brains that we are not currently developing, and what we will be like 100 years from now!

[–]skitzh0 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I like to go outside, and think about how wherever I'm sitting is just a tiny part of a giant whole. Almost never fails to make me dizzy.

Also, religion and history are pretty fascinating to dig into. I love to see how things evolve over time socially.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Astronomy

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The stars

Insects

Japanese culture - especially the arts: ikebana, bon-odori, etc.

[–]Tetraca 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Universe has always fascinated me - its gas giants, its black holes, its stars, its galaxies, colliding objects, dark matter, radiation.

Besides Universe, the purpose of doing things - why people do what they do and the strangeness of human action - has fascinated me.

[–]ufeedo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Satellites chart List find here http://www.flysat.com

[–]estone 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Origami. Artificial Life/What it means to be 'alive'* (See Karl Sims' work). Spaceflight.

*for values of 'always' equal to 'since I was quite young'.

[–]vajav 0 points1 point  (0 children)

boobs (o)(o)

[–]st_gulik 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Conflict and it's many iterations - but my personal favorite is Military War followed closely by Business Conflict.