Surely it can't be as clearcut as saying that it's NTs who have these silly, shallow, superficial conversations?  I hope not.  I think a lot of it has to do with people leading very narrow lives which are overly influenced by television and the ridiculous "celebrity" culture which seems to come with it.  Increasingly, many people don't seem to be able to have an intelligent discussion which requires a degree of general knowledge (apart from soap operas and reality TV shows ) and an enquiring and open mind.  But I do believe that there are NTs out there who are similarly fed up with the very shallow, frivolous level on which society seems to exist today.

Mini rant warning!  In the shops on my university campus they sell those "celebrity" magazines, like Hello and Heat and the like.  That really infuriates and baffles me in about equal measure.  Why on earth are students, people who are smart and supposed to be interested in more than the crap that is all around them buying these things?  And they must buy them or they wouldn't be sold!   Aaaaaargh!

Nothing is clear cut Marcia. But somewhere an arbitary division needs to be made or one can't even discuss the issue. I know quite a few very intelligent NTs who are fed up with a very shallow society. Me being a scientist, business owner as well as aspie is definitely in the minority. I see the students at uni buying crap magazines Who, New (No) Idea, Girlfriend (my daughter) the OZ versions of celeb magazine and having a pointless discussion about B Spears latest breakdown. I personally wouldn't waste the money or time as I can never be one of those or even learn anything positive from them. But, then again, I'm in the minority. However, one does need to fit in this wacky society we are in without being too conspicuous till we achieve our personal aims.

If one has the luxury one can always speak against it. But more than likely would be a lone voice crying out in the wilderness.

Yeah, *sigh*, unfortunately it's true.

A couple of times people in the common room at uni started talking about someone, and I asked who it was, thinking it was someone in class or at least a "real" person.  Turned out to be some non-entity off one of these shows and when I said I didn't watch the show they were keen to tell me all about it.  I just told them it was all right, I preferred not to know!

I suppose I probably am regarded as a bit odd, but in a positive way, as in I'm someone who gets good grades and can come up with novel ideas and ways of looking at things.  I certainly got cut a lot of slack in terms of deadlines last year when things were bad at home, and I think it was because the professors and tutors (some of whom I reckon are definately aspie) think well of me.

I reckon a lot of profs and lecturers have aspies. I am considered a little bit odd for the same reason as you and am certainly expected to join the ranks of academics. I get on very well with academics. Yesterdays discovery was a coral growing under stress. I found it. Very rare apparently and the prof wants to do a paer on it. Well only aspies could get excited over such things. This prof has collections of every sort (beads, rocks, coins etc). And every aspie trait we know so well. But he is a world expert in paleotology. Plus he gets paid $5000 a day for consultancy work with oil companies. (trace fossil id)

Congrats on your coral growing under stress!

I studied Geology for a year when I was at uni the first time, as part of an Arts degree.  I really enjoyed it - my granny was very interested in geology and she passed her enthusiasm on to me!   I joined the class half way through first term, much against my mother's wishes - and it was the only class I got an exemption for and a certificate of merit!  My mother had to admit she was wrong!

I was that child with the interesting rock collection, and the other night I took my son out of bed (his choice of bedtime reading was an old childhood book of mine about how the earth was formed) to show him an interesting sandstone block in the back wall of this cottage!

We have a heap of those sort of magazines in the staff room, kept in the middle of the table where we all have our lunch.  A number of my colleagues will read them during lunch, flicking through the pages and looking at the pictures and commenting, while I am considered odd because I prefer to either do a Sudoku, a crossword, or read a novel brought from home.  I do attempt to join in the conversation, usually fairly successfully although I'm generally uninterested, but the magazines are another matter.  Who *cares* about what/who some starlet or B-grade actor or footballer is doing/wearing/living with?  But it's all solemnly discussed around the table by most of the people I work with, as if it's of vital importance to the continuance of civilization.  
Alison

This is a problem for myself and nearly everyone with aspies I know and continually gets us into strife whether on the internet, at a BBQ, dance or anything else.

The three main areas that seem to cause the most strife are talking about sexuality identity, political persusian and religious conviction almost invaribly will bring a hostile response since these three areas are very deeply held core beliefs that a person will vigourously defend if there is a perceived attack on them.

I have seen what happens when these subjects are brought up first hand and the results are not pretty. I consider it advisable to steer clear of these subjects unless you are with people of the same or very similar beliefs.

There are many others I'm sure others will be added.

All the more reason I try my darndest to avoid talking about it.

Congrats on your coral growing under stress!

I was that child with the interesting rock collection, and the other night I took my son out of bed (his choice of bedtime reading was an old childhood book of mine about how the earth was formed) to show him an interesting sandstone block in the back wall of this cottage!

We live in an area in Australia that was once an inland sea (talking 450 million years ago!) and the land is crumbly lumps of slate.  Lauren and I have found masses of stones with trilobite fossils embedded in them.  I also saw a local television program where a scientist was looking at the fossils around this area, and showed a mass of tiny shell fossils.  We love to imagine what the area must have looked like when it was covered in a shallow sea, before even the time of the dinosaurs.  And it brings home just exactly how *old* this continent is.
Alison

One won't easily find useful fossils in slate mainly in shale where the preservation can be remarkable. My small number of samples show the indivual leaf veins in great detail in a white, clay shale being Permian. Most of OZ's coal formed in the Cambrian unlike the US being carboniferous period. The tiny shell fossils are known as foraminifera. Trilobites ar used for approximate aging of ancient marine sedimentary rocks when found.

Oh, I might have meant shale?  I'm not any good identifying, I'm afraid!  It's a very crumbly stone and we have hardly any topsoil on it.  When we were building our house we had to import soil to grow plants on.  But it makes beautiful impressions of the trilobites, with all the little legs and big compound eyes.  I also found a fossilized leaf once, like your fossil it showed the individual leaf veins in great detail.  
Alison

The site of my fossils is around Dinmore. Paleotologists visit there all the time as it is world class for plant fossils.

Glasgow is built on a swarm of drumlins and it ocurred to me today that I have lived on three of them!   These are the kind of thoughts that float through my mind, which are much more interesting than footballer's wives haircuts! To me, at any rate.

Local history is definitely far more interesting than footballers wives haircuts or new clothes. like, who cares apart from footballers gropees (intentionally misspelt) By the way what are drumlins?

From wikipedia:

A drumlin (Irish droimnín, a little hill ridge) is an elongated whale-shaped hill formed by glacial action. Its long axis is parallel with the movement of the ice, with the blunter end facing into the glacial movement. Drumlins may be more than 45 m (150 ft) high and more than 0.8 km (½ mile) long, and are often in drumlin fields of similarly shaped, sized and oriented hills. Drumlins usually have layers indicating that the material was repeatedly added to a core, which may be of rock or glacial till.