LT23: The Lost Experience

NOTE: During the summer a game was played that would fill in some of the history and mythology of the island. We covered some of those aspects here:

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LOST XP TIDBITS NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the first Lost XP Tidbits newsletter based on the summer game, The Lost Experience. If you like solving puzzles yourself, this might not be for you. But if you get stuck and need a clue or enjoy following along, then Lost XP Tidbits is for YOU!

SET THE STAGE

While watching the episode, "Two for the Road", you actually stay and watch the commercials. One of the commercials is very Lost-like: Hanso Foundation. It offers a toll-free phone number to call for more information about the Hanso Foundation.

THE PHONE CALL

1-877-HANSORG is the number which offers an automated phone system with five options.

General
Alvar Hanso
Dr. Thomas Mittelwerk
Hugh McIntyre
Peter Thompson

These are the things we learn:

The voice messaging system is by Verison company.
The Hanso Foundation is located at 544 Persand Klingbai, Denmark 1604
Some is named Persephone and warns that there is not much time, the truth is in the number, a line pulled tight will always snap under the breaking strain and the password is "breaking strain".
Alvar Hanso is President and CEO
Alvar is missing
Dr. Mittelwerk is Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technoligist of the Hanso Foundation
Dr. MIttelwerk is unavailable for three seeks
Employees of Paik-Heavy Industries and Widmore Corporation are still engaged in active projects
There is a confidential information line for those employees
A project manual exists that contains information for accessing the hotline
Hugh McIntyre is Vice President of Communications and Director
McIntyre is unavailable for two weeks
There is a Korean offshore project and callers are referred to the legal department
Joop, the world's oldest orangutan, has information about him at www.thehansofoundation.org
Thomas leaves Hugh a message about renaming the accelerated remote viewing training facilities
Darla leaves Hugh a message about Sri Lanka
Peter Thompson is Vice President General Counsel and Secretary
Mr. Thompson is unavailable
Ireen appears to be Mr. Thompson's secretary

THE HANSO FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER

You can sign up for a newsletter and when you do it appears Persephone has hacked into this website.

JOOP'S CORNER

The section about Joop allows you to send a message to Joop. When you try, it seems Persephone has hacked the site to direct you to a letter. It was written to Dr. Roderick Johnson, M.D., Ph. D., from the Centers for Disease Control. It was written by the Global Welfare Council regarding violation of ethics. The letter reads:

"We have received word of an unfortunate and most alarming issue in the past days concerning research operations by the Hanso Foundation in the sub-Saharan region of Africa. Sadly, we have exhausted our mandate as a watchdog organization and must petition you for a formal investigation.

"It has come to our attention that a new strain of meningococcal disease has been reported in the coastal villages of the United Republic of Tanzania. This strain is particularly alarming in that it has successfully breached the simian/homo sapiens barrier.

"As the enclosed documentation and correspondence demonstrate, we have repeatedly asked the Executive Board of the Hanso Foundation for assistance in determining the possible correlation between the outbreak of this transgenic disease and the research being conducted on primates in their Experimental Station in Zanzibar. As our requests have been met with utter and complete disregard, we feel we have no other choice than to demand your immediate intervention.

"As the Hanso Foundation is using primates to research gene therapies intended for human use, the correlation should be obvious.

"Considering the alarming nature of this outbreak and the mounting death toll it is imperative that the Hanso Foundation immediately open the doors of their Experimental Station for inspection and, should a link be found between their work and this disease, cease and desist their activities immediately.

"Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Lives are at stake."

When you click on the signature block of Jacques Maillot, another letter opens from the same group to the same CDC. The author is now Mr. Peter Thompson. It reads:

"Please consider this a formal apology for the heated and alarmist tone of our previous correspondence, as well as a formal request for the withdrawal of former Director General Jacques Maillot's request for an intervention into the affairs of the Hanso Foundation.

"In the time since Monsieur Maillot's letter, GWC's inspection team has been welcomed with open arms into the Hanso Foundation's Experimental Station in Zanzibar. Our thorough examination of the Station has made it clear that the benigh, non-invasive research being conducted there could not have possibly resulted in the outbreak of a transgenic virus.

"Because we appreciate the CDC's willingness to intervene when lives are at stake, the last thing we want is to abuse our close relationship with your organization – or sound alarms before the need is absolutely clear. Once again, please accept our apologies, and our appreciation of your diligent response to our correspondence."

WORLD WELLNESS AND PREVENTION SECTION

This part of the Hanso Foundation website offers a strange message when the mouse is moved over the ocean between South America and Africa. The message is a series of odd writings, but you can make out "Missing Organs".

EXECUTIVE BIOS

Mr. Alvar Hanso's date of birth is underlined. Clicking it reveals a hacked message from Persephone. It reads:

"Notice the grainy far away picture? It doesn't match anyone else."

It then shows a list of places Alvar was last observered (London, Copenhagen, Paris, Geneva, Rome, and eventually ends in Madrid on December 31, 2002. This is the last known public appearance.

The message then ends by suggesting again that Alvar is no longer in charge of the Foundation.

SUBLYMONAL

By clicking the clock on the Hanso Foundation website you are directed to www.sublymonal.com website. There are monitors. By clicking on them in a pattern (4, 8, 15, and so on) you get a message that reads:

"Code: Heir Apparent"

THOMAS MITTELWERK

In this bio, you find a link to another message:

"Cal Tech has no record of this guy in their alumni database. He's never made a tuition payment. Does he even have a college degree? Why does he call himself a doctor? Of what? Who is this clown?"

A final message appears which reads:

"Gary Troup knows too much. He must be silenced."

PERSEPHONE

In mythology, Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Zeus was the king of the Greek gods. Demeter was the earth goddess, fertility goddess and goddess of planned society.

MONSTER.COM

The popular job posting site gets commercial time on the Hanso phone system. On their real web site are three jobs for the Hanso Foundation.

GARY TROUP

Gary is the author of "Bad Twin". Many things have been popping up about Gary. For example, there is a 9 part interview with Gary. One is found on the Barnes and Noble website (look for his book to find the link). Another was found in a mass email that Borders sent to Reward Club members. And so on…

RACHEL

It appears that a very close observer of the Hanso website discovered the name Rachel. It was only present for a short while and then removed. It might be that a clue slipped out before it was ready. Rachel is the name of Claire's friend in Season 1.

NEWSPAPER ADS

Several major newspapers had ad space bought by the Hanso Foundation. It was an open letter about the misquotes and misrepresentations the Hanso Foundation felt were being written about by Gary Troup in his book, Bad Twin.

SPRITE

Besides the phone message company and Monster.com, last week's Lost episode included a commercial from the Hanso Foundation that was sponsored by Sprite. The Sprite website is about a new marketing campaigned called, "Do You Have the Proof". One picture is locked until May 15, but hovering over it seems to show a girl that could be Sun or Rachel.

VALENZETTI

Information is popping up on the Internet about Mr. Valenzetti. In summary, he was a brilliant man with no formal education, who supposedly developed an algorithm capable of predicting the exact date of the extinction of the human race. This formula was supposedly witnessed by others, but all evidence was destroyed when Mr. Valenzetti threw his works into a fire. He died in a plane crash.

NOTE: Can't help but think of Jack throwing the final pages of Bad Twin manscript into the fire! Also, Mr. Gary Troup wrote another book called "The Valenzetti Equation". This book is referred to, but never actually written for us.

The source of much information was Wikipedia.com – this page has since been pulled.

The author of the Wikipedia page was Javier Grillo-Marxuach. He was one of the original writers in Season 1 but left the show.


The Game Is On,
KC