LT104: Summer Fun

OCTAGON GLOBAL RECRUITING UPDATE

It seems that an email is going around that might be “real”. Well, as real as real gets for this show. It warns people not to give their email on the recruitment site or “they” will have a way to trace you. If you gave it already, change it. The Lost Experience game started out the same way when everyone was sure this poster named Persephone was a fraud.

The commercial and website lists the occupations that the Dharma Initiative is looking for. If you take the first letters of each job you will find these letters: DHARMA INITIATIVE. The leftovers are still puzzling people. The extra letters are: EABEJNCHDBEBMPZPPM.

The position of Engineers is listed twice. Error or did they need a second “e” to form some anagram.

Did that look like Desmond in the final frames typing away?

You can see the commercial here: http://www.octagonglobalrecruiting.com.au/


FIND 815

The game associated with LOST last January was mentioned by the producers. They said they were glad they “left it open-ended”…which can only mean that Sam is still out there!

Could this be a tie-in to Octagon Global Recruiting and Comic Con? I’ll keep you posted here at LOST TIDBITS!


MARCH HAS 32 DAYS

If you recall the comic book that young John Locke was in the group of items that Richard showed him. As covered in LOST TIDBITS, a story in that edition is called March Has 32 Days. Look through past posts to see the details, but this time we want to notice the lead characters name, John Billings.

A search on that name reveals one who is a doctor. Sound familiar? He is from Australia? Ring any bells? And his claim to fame is that he was the pioneer for “natural family planning” known as the “Ovulation Method”.


MY EMAIL TO OCTAGON

Read some older posts to hear the response I got from Octagon when I left my email. I know, but I want to be traced. Anyway, the response was cc’d to a Hans van Eeghen. Now running the letters in his name in an anagram engine produced only a handful of somewhat interesting combinations.

One such combination that people are paying attention to is “Heaven Gannesh”. Yeah, exciting huh? The Heaven catches everyone’s eyes because of the obvious religious references in LOST. But Gannesh didn’t mean anything until someone caught the fact that the normal spelling is “Ganesh”.

Now if you do a search on Ganesh, you will come to very important god in Hindu religion. This is the god with the elephant nose and is seen throughout counties like India.

Ganesh is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles and more generally as patron of arts and sciences, and of intellect and wisdom. Seems like a sort of science-religion blend with the union of heart AND mind.

Another interesting thing to note with this far-reaching connection is the number 4. The deity has FOUR arms each holding something. It should be noted the reference to arms in LOST beginning with the Orientation tape and Dr. Candle.

Hindu texts say that Ganesh had FOUR incarnations. And the festival in his honor is held the FOURTH day of the waxing of the moon in the EIGHTH month. Have we found our number generator?

And check this statue of Ganesh out:

Did you notice? Yeah, it has four toes like our statue on the island. And he is missing an arm or two. Not to be over-analytical but the feet are positioned such that the left one could be a near twin of what we have seen on LOST. Did I just say twin?

See and you thought this summer’s blogs were going to be boring!


Enjoy,
KC

LT103: All Life Is, Is Really Just a Circle

SPIN THE WHEEL

In the summer search for “Where is the Island”, we have some clues. First, Tunisia is where Ben, for lack of a better term, teleported.

If you read back a few posts, you will find an article on antipodes. These are the exact geological opposites on the globe as if you dug a tunnel straight down from Point A, then Point B is where you would come out, the antipode. For Tunisia, the spot is in the South Pacific almost due east of Sydney, Australia.

In my mind this gives us our first antipode. Is it as simple as thinking the island is now in the desert?
We have some confirmation from Charlotte who found a skeleton of a bear in Tunisia sporting a fashionable Dharma collar. But we don’t know for sure if the bear teleported here as Ben did – due to turning the wheel.

And this would also mean that the bear would have had to turn the wheel. This is something I dismissed. But then someone pointed out that Dharma was training these bears. This comes from the bear cages that Sawyer and Kate enjoyed as well as Tom’s comment about the bears learning how to operating the fish biscuit dispenser in just a few days.

Dharma could have trained the bears to turn the wheel. Now we still have logistics problem with a ladder and small room, but work with me here. They call this is a donkey wheel, because that is the beast of burden normally used to turn the turnstile. A simple mention of ice caves where the polar bears normally resided until the tests Dharma performed allowed them to adapt to tropical climates. A tunnel from ice cave to Dharma Wheel Room and we have some explanations that I can still buy. What do you think?


BOY AND HIS BIKE

Been staring at this snapshot for a few days:

The boy on the bike kept reminding me of something. In one of the orientation videos there is a quick frame where a person is seen riding a bike in New Othertown. It looks like the video tape was reused and this might have been a previous taping where the camera was turned off and on and left a frame or two. It is further odd because the video is upside down. And some say it reminds of then of that DeGroot guy that was the leader of Dharma studies.

Think there is a connection between the picture in Aaron’s room and the Orientation video?


WHY DO THEY ALL HAVE TO GO BACK?

I’m going to go with that law of physics that says something about mass can’t be destroyed or created. If the island “jumped time”, then that mass is out of balance. This might lead to those “terrible things that started happening after you left”. It is just a thought.


COMIC CON

Comic Convention is coming in late July. This event is the time and location for Octagon Recruiting to start interviewing potential Dharma recruits. And the producers always have something good for us. I hear trouble is brewing with some rival group already. Check back around July 24 for more updates.

Enjoy,
KC

LT102: Hold On A Minute

HURLEY’S EVENTS

When Hurley had his surprise Welcome Home party, his father took him off to the garage to show him the Camaro he had fixed up in Hugo’s absence. Hurley sits in the car and freaks out when he sees the LOST numbers on the car gauges.

But hold on a minute, later we notice that Hurley is driving that Camaro and crashes it before going off to Santa Rosa Mental Hospital for a second time. Did I get the order of events correct? Did Hurley get over his fear of the car? Does anyone really recall somebody at the mental hospital saying, “Welcome back Hugo”? I don’t and that seems a little odd to me.

And consider that Hurley’s rental car in Australia broke down with those Numbers as well. Something tells me Hurley wouldn’t have gotten within ten feet of a second car that had the Numbers.


NAOMI’S EVENTS

When Naomi arrives to the island she is carrying a picture of Penny and Desmond. Later Charlie informs Desmond that Naomi’s freighter is “NOT PENNY’S BOAT”.

But hold on a minute, was Naomi then looking for Desmond? If so, she found him and didn’t really say anything to indicate that her mission was over. Since the picture had two people on it, then could Naomi have really been looking for Penny instead of Des and we just assumed her objective? We assume Charles Widmore gave Naomi the photograph, so was he aware that Des was on his magical island?

Charles Widmore should only know Desmond’s whereabouts due to the race he held – best guess anyway. Or he knew that Penny was searching for him and was sort of tracking her ship and figured where she was, Desmond would be also.


ALL EVENTS

We have already analyzed in previous LOST TIDBITS how Jack’s scenes appear to have a bit of looping involved. So maybe the same holds true for Hurley and Naomi. In this case the flashbacks wouldn’t be a chronological timeline, but a looping timeline. Anyone notice other looping possibilities, just leave a comment and I’ll post it.


LOCKE’S LEGS

The first miracle we witness can be debated. Just surviving a plane crash might have been enough to qualify as a miracle. But if not that, then John Locke’s legs would be the next candidate and that surely qualifies. So, let’s review for a moment…he goes from wheelchair to walking due to a plane crash. That has always can of bothered me.

Even if the crash jarred something back in place, he still would have to go through physical therapy and re-learn how to walk, strengthen his leg muscles and even then probably walk with some sort of noticeable limp.

And also notice how John doesn’t seem to be half as smart before the crash as he is after.

The answer? Nanotechnology. Scientists are saying that the next decade or two will bring about a marriage of humanity and technology like we’ve never seen before. The term “beyond human” is being thrown around.

Any other “improved humans” walking around?

Well, we could begin with Adam and Eve…in concept anyway. Some believe they were created to be immortal until they committed that first sin. That would be the goal of scientists then, “immortality”.

And we have Ethan Rom. His name stands for “Other Man” which pretty much sums things up when you view in light of technology advancements. Or, combine his name with comic books by Marvel from the show and you might end up with a comic book character named “ROM” who was half-human and half-machine.

If you dig around the popular term of human plus machine you will come across the father of Transhumanism is John Desmond Bernal. John, Des, and Bernard? I think Desmond is named after this guy as a clue. This scientist was known for his view that we should push ethics out of the way in order to remake mankind.

Gilamesh is the clue in a crossword puzzle that John was working on. The oldest story known is about the search for immortality.

So what do these clues point to? LOST is a big experiment. Think of Ben dismissing off-handedly when John asks what these stations are for. Ben says something like, “Oh just a bunch of silly experiments.” Maybe Linus doesn’t even realize he is a rat in a maze.

Think of other oddities like Walt’s face on a milk carton. Granted, it was a dream, but the mind still has to be aware of certain facts before it can incorporate them into a dream…right? So, the world knew Walt was on the plane, so why would he be shown as a missing person? It just doesn’t fit right. But what if Walt really did end up missing at some other time?

All these things point to a big experiment. Following is my proposal of events and we get a second answer – how the plane crashed and had survivors with barely a scratch.

The airplane, Flight 815, was a big deep freezer. Maybe the survivors are still asleep in some lab somewhere still and the entire show are their dreams? I’m thinking of the book title, “Do Electric Sheep Dream?” Anyway, most likely they were put into some frozen state and became test subjects. Locke was healed. Rose was healed. Other tweaks were made. And then they woke up the subjects on a beach. Remember that this island has the ability to release gases into the air that seem pretty widespread and effective. Remember that Charlotte and Daniel wanted haz-mat suits on…as did Kelvin Inman.

Well, that’s my guess and I’m sticking to it…until the next LOST TIDBITS.

Enjoy,
KC

LT101: Games and Other Theories

IT IS ALL A GAME

A few months back, there was an edition of LOST TIDBITS that explained a theory about LOST being a video game – sort of a virtual reality game. It had some interesting concepts, but didn’t quite seal the deal for me.

But I’ve been revisiting the theory again and wonder if it might be better to leave the virtual reality part out and just proclaim LOST is a game.


THE RULES

The game of LOST starts with no rules and the objective is to discover the rules.

Search on “Eleuis”, “Mao”, or “Zendo”. They are all card games based on the same premise. One player makes a secret rule of which card can be played on top of another. Based on inductive reasoning, the players attempt to guess his rule.

These games are all considered to be modeled after the problems faced in real-world scientific methods.

Zendo, in particular, has a twist where Spectators make final decisions to player moves based on the rules. It is similar in that fashion to Dungeon Masters in the popular D&D series.

Perhaps the producers feel they are the Dungeon Masters. Or maybe the island is the DM. Or it could be Locke. The point is that one of the participants is interpreting the rules or discovering the rules as the game is played.

Who can forget Ben’s utterly, “he changed the rules”? Did “he”? Or was just a new rule finally discovered by Ben?


DOUBLE VISION

Here is another theory to wrap around your brain: Twins.

Yeah, yeah, yeah…you’ve heard it before. The book was called “Bad Twin”. We think we’ve spotted a couple of sets of twins as extras.

But this time, I’m not talking double. This time I’m talking single…but two people.

If this theory has merit, then Jack and Christian is the same person.

Jack is real and Christian is not real. Or at least many parts we see on the show are not the real Christian. Dad drinks. But then, so is Jack eventually. Was it Jack who walked in to AA but found it easier to create a persona of his father and have that person walk into the rehab meeting?

Both get fired from the same hospital.

**

And have you noticed how in the flashbacks things seem to be a little contradictory? For example, in Jack’s flashbacks with his father…he seems to be keeping secrets about Sarah in one episode and then in the next he’s wishing Jack a happy life (and a new watch).

As a boy, you get the feeling Jack’s dad believes he won’t be a good doctor and then the next it seems as if he tells Jack he couldn’t hold a candle to his ability.

Or when he is mean, but then sounds like a loving father in an Australian bar with Sawyer.

Or when he tells Jack to give patients some hope, but then gives Jack none in the next interaction.

But it might fit, if you look at these two opposite perceptions as if they were those told entities sitting on each shoulder. You know the ones – devil on one side, angel on the other. Jack is playing both sides out in his mind.

**

Now test this with another survivor: Claire. At one time it seems the psychic one time won’t read her palms to save his life. Then another flashback he reads it. He says stay in Australia, then go to LA. Raise him yourself, but then go ahead with the adoption.

**

The next challenge is figuring out who everyone’s imaginary friend – the other voice in their head.

Mark it down. You heard it here first. The only “real people” on this show are sitting in Santa Rosa Mental Hospital late at night sharing a bottle of whiskey someone snuck in.


JEREMY BENTHAM

Do you think that when Locke leaves the island to visit the Oceanic 6 that he will lose his ability to walk and return to a wheelchair?

Michael might be the answer to this question. The island’s reach seemed far enough to keep him from killing himself by jamming the gun, so it surely is powerful enough to keep Locke/Jeremy walking…if it wants to.


FRINGES

I’ve got some good feelings about the new Bad Robot show, “Fringes”, this fall on FOX. Here is the write-up on episode pilot:

When all the passengers on a plane die, FBI agent Olivia Dunham investigates the events and while on the investigation her partner, John Scott, almost dies. A desperate Olivia looks for help and finds Dr. Walter Bishop but he cannot help her because he has been institutionalized. The only way to even question him is with the help of his son Peter.Olivia continues her investigations leading her to Nina Sharp a manipulative executive. Olivia, Peter and Dr. Bishop will begin to discover what really happened on the Flight 627 and begin to uncover a larger truth.


FIND THE ISLAND

We do know when and where Ben went at the time of turning the Dharma Wheel.


The island, I propose, seems to remain the same to those on the island or within its event horizon. But to outsiders, it jumpted 10 months into the future. It can’t be found or accessed for 10 months until time catches up. Does this mean that time is suspended on the island until then? It could be that we see very little of the island next season since everyone is a statue.

When time does catch-up, the spot the island left won’t be the same spot – most likely – because the Earth is constantly spinning and shifting. But the location of the island should be predictable, relative to its starting point, and discoverable.

We have been told the bear was in the Tunisia desert…just like Ben. This is opposite the South Pacific. We really do know the antipode (see previous post) for the island before and after the jump. By the way, the antipode to Portland, Oregon, is the North Pole region.

And maybe Tunisia was made mention only because of the continuing Star War crossovers.

Antipodes as 108 minute time spans with the earth’s rotation puts one of 15 jumping points directly on Sydney, Australia…and the Tunisia desert…

Now this ups an interesting conflict. If the island will not return to the same location, how then did two “time jumps” get two things (Ben and the bear) off the island to the same general location?

I mean the bear wasn’t in the room with Ben. Charlotte seemed to find the very dead bear before the turning of the wheel. This means we had a prior turning of the wheel…by a bear? I’m so confused!

Purists will point out that Ben actually landed in the Sahara Desert. It is so large that it possible they are close enough to be related. Or does the imply two jumps that were close to the same antipode but not precisely?

Consider as well that the bear could be a future event. The series could end with a bear lunging into the Dharma Wheel room as the wheel turns.


SEARCHER NOTES

Penny’s ship searched a radius of 6,000 miles. Here is a visual guide to the search area:

COINCIDENCE?

Coldplay just released a new album with a song called “LOST” on it. The next tract is called, “42”.


ANOTHER UNIVERSE

I’m not sure how a show will handle two Sawyers with the added challenge of being in two universes, but one theory suggests this is precisely what is happening.

Galaxies we discovered had the nickname “floating islands”. It takes a powerful telescope to see another universe and we don’t use lenses to see that far since they distort. We use mirrors. The snow globe analogy is used in science to explain how the various galaxies don’t run into each other. Our galaxy is the Milky Way. Out place in the universe is mapped out on something called the Cosmic Tree.

Islands, mirrors, snow globes, candy bars, and trees…all very heavily played themes on LOST. So the show must be about parallel universes. I’m hope the other me is rich.

Enjoy,
KC

LT100: Octagon Global Recruiting

CELEBRATE

This is posting 100! WOW!

THE EMAIL

During the Season 4 finale we saw a commercial offering new job opportunities for the Dharma Initiative. That had us all rushing to the website for Octagon Global Recruiting. All that was offered was to leave an email and they would be contact me later.

Then one day, I get the email. It looks like a Job Fair will be held in San Diego during the same dates as Comic Con. This is the event that LOST producers typically use to tease us with some LOST goodies. Last year they showed the unedited version of the Orchid Orientation tape.

If you can’t make the show, the web site says the rest of us will be contacted later and then we may get to take those exciting tests to see if we qualify as a research assistant.


WHO IS OCTAGON GLOBAL RECRUITING?

My guess is that this is a new company was established by the Dharma Initiative which strongly implies the Hanso Foundation is getting up to speed to a DI2, if you will. Taking things at face value, this is just a recruiting agency and nothing more.

Except their company logo happens to be patterned off the Dharma logos. So, again, this is likely a temporary company established to handle the hiring? Or just how many subsidiaries does Hanso Foundation “own”?


CARBON COPY

Not in the sense of twins…let’s not go down that path again. But in carbon copy an email to someone else. I noticed my email had an address in it that read:

hansvaneeghen@octagonglobalrecruiting.com

I tried. It gives an out of office reply for Hans Van Eeghen. Says he will be getting back to me shortly.


TIME TO GOOGLE

Using variations of the name, I hit upon this site: http://www.henokiens.com/index_eeghen_gb.php

Now one has to take care that we aren’t hitting a fan friendly site, and not the real deal. You will find things on the “international family”, time travel, Jacob, and tons of other things to keep you busy for days.

I’ll post back when more time is available to review the site. For now, I’m focused on the fact that this company’s leadership had a son in days past named Jacob. Gosh, was he a slave on that Black Rock? Sort of like the ghost who won’t move on?

Enjoy,
KC

LT99: Switching Job is Always Difficult

YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE MISSING

It has come to my attention that some TIVO viewers missed out on the Octagon Global Recruiting commercial during the season finale. In cased you missed it, check out the web site which plays the commercial here: http://www.octagonglobalrecruiting.com/


IT DOESN’T HURT TO LOOK

What if we were offered a Dharma Initiative job for real? Would you consider it? Maybe it is just that side of me that hopes something like this is possible, but I signed up as an interested candidate. I got this email:

Octagon Global Recruiting, on behalf of the Dharma Initiative, would like to thank you for registering your expression of interest in our latest volunteer recruitment drive.

We will be launching in San Diego on July 24th at Comic-Con International offering select registrants the opportunity to take an exciting aptitude test that will give applicants the chance to demonstrate their unique talents.

The Dharma Initiative hopes you will be able to join us to find out more about their ground-breaking new research project. We will contact you closer to the date with more information.

For those not able to join us in San Diego, Dharma's full recruitment program will be made available online to registered recruits after July 27th.

In the meantime, the Dharma Initiative urges you to spread the word. Invite your colleagues to join the team at http://www.octagonglobalrecruiting.com/ and take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity.

THIS IS AN OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION OF THE DHARMA INITIATIVE:This message and its attachments are confidential and may contain information which is protected by copyright. It is intended solely for the named addressee. If you are not the authorised recipient (or responsible for delivery of the message to the authorised recipient), you must not use, disclose, print, copy or deliver this message or its attachments to anyone. If you receive this email in error, please contact the sender immediately and permanently delete this message and its attachments from your system. Any content of this message and its attachments that does not relate to the official business of the Dharma Initiative or its subsidiaries must be taken not to have been sent or endorsed by any of them. No representation is made that this email or its attachments are without defect or that the contents express views other than those of the sender.


HIDDEN MESSAGES

In that email header we find the phrase, “March has 32 days”. What?!?!

A quick Google of this phrase returns a link to a comic called “Mystery Tales”. In edition #40, there is a short story called “March Has 32 Days”.

The four-page comic story goes like this: A group of scientists are gathered to discuss what they have observed: that March had 32 days. Then the story shifts to a man who builds bridges. It is the day before the grand opening, so he plans to check the bridge for structural integrity. Before he can perform the inspection, his wife calls him and asks him to meet her at the airport before she catches a flight. He chooses to go to the airport and the bridge collapses. He is torn up with grief, but the next morning his calendar reads March 31..again! This time he passes on the airport visit and instead inspects the bridge, finds a flaw and saves any future harm.

Interesting observations are:
- The time to meet the wife at the airport is 11:15
- On some schedule board at the airport the numbers 42 and 8 can be seen

THEORY: LOST IS A COMIC BOOK

Also found in Edition 40 of the comic “Mystery Tales”…

Another story called “Hidden Land” which reads, “Within Fred, as within all men, there exists a small spot, a hidden land of dreams, of power and prestige, an unattainable land…except on rare occasions!”

**

There is another story called “The Travellers”. It is about an ancient civilization that made a ring that would allow time travel. Now the Ancients want the ring back.

**

Could LOST really be based on this comic book…I only wish the Edition was 42, but hey…

In case you think some of us fanatics tend to over-analyze, do consider we have seen this comic book on the show:

That’s right. It was among the items for young John Locke to decide which he already owned. Now the hidden message in Octagon Recruiting email…yeah, this was meant for us!


NUMBERS PUZZLE

In the last LOST TIDBITS, we discussed the new number of 305. Yet, don’t forget that Michael and Walt were given a heading of 325 to leave the island.

Now we learned 305 is the number of days that Ben travelled forward in time, so maybe Michael and Walt jumped 325 days into the future. OR…twenty days after Ben lands in Tunisia, something major happens?


NUMBERS AND COLORS

We have clearly noticed the suggestion of the importance of the numbers. And many have observed a color pattern – if nothing else, the black and white theme, but there have been other suggestions like the color of one’s shirt or the thread used to sew someone up.

Now consider Synesthesia…the ability to see numbers as colors. It sees that some people who can do difficult tasks with ease – like play the piano by ear – tend to see the music as colors. Math students have similar number to color connections. Personally, color has never seemed to help me remember anything other than a yellow light makes my foot step on the gas pedal harder!

What I mean is that if I saw music as color, numbers or shapes, it doesn’t seem that it would help me more than just learning to read the notes on a scale. But in the never ending search to solve the riddle of LOST, this deserved mentioning.

FYI – some are suggestion that the six LOST numbers match up to the Oceanic 6. This reminds me that once the producers told us that the number 23 was the most important number. Or did they mean character 23? Or day 23 on the island? Arrgh! My head is beginning to hurt again which means that’s enough for this post. See you next Wednesday.

Enjoy,
KC