General / Off-Topic What else consumes your time - the brag about other things thread

Exigeous

Exigeous
As the title says, what other things do you do with the free time not consumed by Elite? What are your other passions, skills, hobbies, etc. Video and/or pictures please. Do you skydive, climb mountains, make quilts, own a .50 cal, etc.

Share your other interests please! I've had a thread like this in other forums and it was very cool to not only see what everyone was up to but to see how many shared interests everyone had beyond the main forum subject. I think Elite players likely have a TON in common so post it up please!

~X

(as I'm starting to post I'll wait to share as I'd rather others get the ball rolling....)
 

Arry

Arry
I like to read, watch a bit of telly. Hobbies: I like to brew and distill my own Rums, it passes the time. I make a new batch and for some reason, I just lose days at a time.
 

FuzzySpider

FuzzySpider
I like to study diseases.

Microbes are the last great predators of human beings, scary and fascinating things. Did you know that antibiotic-resistant Yersinia Pestis (or bubonic plague) has been cropping up of late? Exciting times!
 

Arry

Arry
FuzzySpider said:
I like to study diseases.

Microbes are the last great predators of human beings, scary and fascinating things. Did you know that antibiotic-resistant Yersinia Pestis (or bubonic plague) has been cropping up of late? Exciting times!
Click to expand...
Desmond Morris (The Human Zoo etc) predicted in 1969 that without wars or famine, the human race would be taken down by around 20%, due to some form or plague. He said it was natures way of dealing with over population.
 

Exigeous

Exigeous
Some very interesting topics guys but how about some pictures or other cool stuff related to what you're discussing. I suppose I'll go first, I've been racing cars for the last 10 years or so and have been an instructor for BMW and Porsche for about 7. I currently drive a Lotus Exige, my profile picture is actually my car. Here's a video from a few seasons ago at a track in Denver, CO. Headphone warning - it's VERY loud. I'm running some practice laps for a time trial event later in the weekend. You'll notice at the end I catch a Porsche Boxster rather quickly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9neCzTQozY&t=1s

Again HEADPHONE WARNING.

My other big passion is around animals, I've been a certified dog trainer for about 20 years. I focus on behavioral training with no food or treats of any kind, good old praise/correction. I'm mostly trained competition level golden's and labs and have also trained several service animals for about a year before they go to a specialist for guide training. It's tough when I have to pass along a dog for their next steps as after a year we're pretty close (as they go absolutely everywhere with me). I generally take home a puppy that day to start it's process so that softens the blow. 5 years ago life gave me a wonderful yellow lab and she's turned out to be the best I've ever trained. She goes everywhere with me as well, she's flown with me 8 times and has been around 3 racetracks in my Lotus from above (slow parade laps!) Over the course of a year we're apart less than 24 hours in total. It's very rare I go somewhere she can't.

So come on guys, more detail and moar pictures?!?!
 

FuzzySpider

FuzzySpider
Arry said:
Desmond Morris (The Human Zoo etc) predicted in 1969 that without wars or famine, the human race would be taken down by around 20%, due to some form or plague. He said it was natures way of dealing with over population.
Click to expand...

The standby antibiotic that has been kept in reserve by most of the worlds medical establishments, colistin, has apparently used willy nilly by the Chinese agricultural industry, leading to a whole host of bacteria which have resistance to it. We're just a bit of horizontal gene transfer away from being screwed.
 

Exigeous

Exigeous
FuzzySpider said:
The standby antibiotic that has been kept in reserve by most of the worlds medical establishments, colistin, has apparently used willy nilly by the Chinese agricultural industry, leading to a whole host of bacteria which have resistance to it. We're just a bit of horizontal gene transfer away from being screwed.
Click to expand...

Never expected to learn something like this here! Very interesting, is the WHO involved in stuff like this, I assume so, right? Was China doing this somewhat secretly and we just, or recently, learned about it?
 

Chris Simon

Chris Simon
Gosh, too many things.
My dear ones, of course.
From gaming world, I keep replaying the Mass Effect series over and again and can't wait for Andromeda. World of Tanks also eats a lot of my time, and I'm probably one of the last people playing SWTOR (not really)

As for the RL hobbies, I fly RC helicopters and I, well, love tea. Which is half passion, half profession to me.
 

FuzzySpider

FuzzySpider
Exigeous said:
Never expected to learn something like this here! Very interesting, is the WHO involved in stuff like this, I assume so, right? Was China doing this somewhat secretly and we just, or recently, learned about it?
Click to expand...

Colistin is actually a pretty old antibiotic, one of the earlier ones. It has some iffy side effects and is somewhat toxic though, so as soon as less harmful antibiotics were developed human medicine stopped using it. But animal medicine? Who cares that a few cows soon for slaughter have upset stomachs? As far as wiping out bacteria though it has been solid and reliable.

It was used in quite a few places for agriculture, including the EU, but it was stopped when human medicine basically asked for their drug back after so many other antibiotics became redundant.

Colistin is a drug of last resort (DoLR) so is one of those that is normally held in reserve for when all other antibiotics fail, and then it is normally administered under supervision to ensure that all relevant nasties are dead before the patient is turned loose on the world. There are a few others, but all of them (I think) have managed to fail against some bacteria at some point. It could be that there are other antibiotics that they're not telling anyone about at all which are super super top-secret. But bacteria is a really tough customer. Viruses (ebola, AIDS, rabies, influenza, smallpox etc) get all the glory but bacteria is the real star in my opinion. Among other things viruses are way easier to provide viable vaccines for.

As for colistin, China dragged their heels for years despite international pressure, and only banned it in October of this year, and it looks like the genie may be out of the bottle on this one. Bacteria can share genes even cross-species in a weird, borg like mechanism. This is an oversimplification, but imagine seeing, for example, the fangs of a tiger and thinking "that'd be useful!", taking the tigers "fang genes", and putting them in your own mouth. Bacteria can kind of do just that. So even if completely harmless bacteria become immune to an antibiotic that can have terrible consequences down the line, and bacteria immune to colistin is cropping up in more and more places.
 

Yaffle

Volunteer Moderator
Yaffle
I brew beer, wine, mead, and bad cider.

Oh, and have a smallholding.

Keeps things pretty busy.
 

Flimley

Flimley
I like wearing really itchy jumpers and wall staring, particularly into the corners. Keeps me good and angry.
To many hobbies to list but recently I have enjoyed making things like this...

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Flimley
 
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Khelder

Khelder
I like programming. The current side project that takes my time is Elite-related, though (as you know ;)). So not sure if it counts.

Wasn't sure how to show a picture for it either. So here's a (blurred) screenshot of me working. :rolleyes:

Jp3IyQg.png
 

starman

starman
PiggyPiggyPig said:
I read the forums before playing the game. Get's me fired up.
Click to expand...

Its trying to solve a problem of in game wide social interaction. The question of what to do while walking about is that. see SC .

Really it can sometimes dampened the sense of discovery as Sheldon might say.
 
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