First of all learn WP_Query class.
Answering on questions:
(this question) How do I grab the nth element of a content type? eg. always getting the 1st or 5th most recent element from the db.
$query = new WP_Query( 'post_type=special_stuff&posts_per_page=1&paged=5' );
List item
// The Query
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
// The Loop
while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post();
echo '<li>';
the_title();
echo '</li>';
endwhile;
// Reset Post Data
wp_reset_postdata();