Grabbing specific content

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();