Rock The Casimir

Much has been made of the Orchid orientation film that came out at Comic-Con 2007. The film is perhaps more confusing than any single episode of Lost -- which is saying a lot.

In the film, Dr. Marvin Candle, who calls himself by another name here, explains how the island's properties create a Casimir effect. Candle is all the while holding a white rabbit with a number 15 painted on its side. Then all of a sudden, another number 15 rabbit appears on a high shelf. Everyone is freaked out that the rabbits are in the same room.

Here's what I've gleaned from this. Certain characters on the show have doubles. If you've watched Alias at all, you know J.J. Abrams will not hesitate to double any character. He even doubled extras (Ethan Hawke) on occasion. These doubles were created by the island's Casimir effect -- on Lost, not Alias.

Any folks who have had dramatically different appearances in flash forwards or flashbacks may have doubles running around on or off the island. Also, folks who seem to be in two places at once. These people are: Libby -- she had dark hair and was in a mental institution while also having blond hair and coffee with Desmond at the same time; Ben -- just because four evil geniuses is better than one; Claire -- just because one may be goth; Aaron -- one Aaron is with Claire, the other with Kate; Jack -- one is clean cut, one is hairy and hooked on pills; and Walt -- one is tall, one is short.

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag

Warning: This post is not for the faint of heart. There is a significant "ick" factor to my latest theory.

Locke and Claire are doing it. That's right. Locke has been after her since Day One. He tried to make it known early on by building her a cradle. Later, he would pop over to her tent and swaddle and coo at Aaron, as if he really cared. The whole time Charlie was sooo on to him.

After he swaddled the baby that time, Locke goes over to Charlie and says something about not imposing and Charlie looks confused. That was really Locke putting Charlie on warning. It was the same conversation Hurley and Frogurt had in the mobisode where Frogurt tells Hurley he better make a move on Libby because he's "holding up the line."

As soon as Charlie is conveniently out of the picture, Locke marches off to the suburbs with Claire and Aaron in tow. And in "Eggtown" he gives the game away by walking into Claire's house without even knocking. That's because he LIVES THERE, folks.

He's only staying at Ben's house to keep an eye on Ben and keep his Claire action on the DL while Kate's snooping around. Didn't it seem strange that Sawyer had to room with Hurley but Claire gets her own house? She totally lives with Locke.

Which explains why Kate wants to steal her baby. She, Jack and Sayid all think Locke is dangerous, and if he's the new baby daddy, then they have to plot to hide Aaron from him (in a galaxy far-far away). Locke can't or won't leave the island, so they have to take him where Locke can't get him -- off-island.

Charlotte and Three Card Monty

One of the most curious scenes in "The Economist" had to be when Charlotte and Dan were playing some cards on the beach.

Dan would look at the backs of the cards and try to guess the card, while Charlotte waited for his response and then turned them over. Most curious is, this is not a two-person game. Dan could easily have dealt three cards, guessed them, then turned them over himself. Why is Charlotte involved?

Let's look at the facts. We know that back in the real world Dan had a caretaker. My original theory about this was he was paralyzed -- just like Locke. But when I saw him stand up for the first time on the island, he didn't seem surprised to be walking. Second fact: a caller on Dharmalars mentioned that card tests like this are often associated with autism.

So, Dan may be autistic. And maybe not borderline autistic, if he needs a caretaker. But I don't think this is the case. Even highly functioning autistics do not look people in the eye often when talking, and Dan clearly does.

Back to: his legs are broken. While I'm on this: Why did he cry while watching the Oceanic footage? Why does anyone cry when they watch TV: they see suffering. Hmm. But the Oceanic plane at the bottom of the ocean had no survivors, and no suffering. Unless: Dan can see another dimension where the plane did not crash. And those survivors are suffering.

Miles and Much More Magnetism

The exchange between Miles and Ben in "Eggtown" is an extremely important one. My theory is the entire conversation is gibberish except for the number. On this island: Only the numbers matter.

So, Miles constructs a b.s. conversation to convey the number "3.2 million" to Ben. Ben verifies the number by saying, "Why not 3.3 or 3.4?" With this he is asking Miles if he is sure that 3.2 is the correct number; Miles nods. I'm not sure if the million is significant, or if Miles was just getting 3.2 across to Ben. How else could he say it with Kate standing there? "I just came from Minnesota, Ben. And it was 3.2 degrees outside. Do you get me?" Not.

What's the significance of 3.2 million? With little searching, I found a recent experiment that sheds light on the state of Earth's magnetic field 3.2 million years ago. This ties nicely into one of my previous theories that the island exists millions of years in the past. Another article on this has a link to some findings on the Earth's inner core, which ties in nicely to my theory that the island is located within the Earth's core. Though, 3.2 million years ago was the Pliocene era, which puts me about 137 million years off -- but who's counting.

This new finding about ancient Earth's magnetism was widely publicized in scientific rags in April 2007, right about when this episode was created. Here's another link that says this finding has "important implications for the origin of life on our planet." The article also mentions that the method for measuring the ancient Earth's magnetic field was developed four decades ago. Which would put it at about 1970 -- when the Dharma Initiative was founded.

Miles could be telling Ben about Charlotte's findings -- the polar bear she found in Tunisia was 3.2 million years old. She did say to her colleague at the dig site that she was off by "a couple of million years."

Also significant about 3.2 million years ago: the beginnings of humanity in Ethiopia. Australopithecus — a type of ape which, just like us, walks upright on two legs -- walks the Earth. Their major threat: malaria. They must not have had the vaccine the Others have been taking. In climate news: the Earth was actually hotter 3.2 million years ago, so the island could be in a part of the world that is now icebound. Which would explain Penny's two Portugese men listening for signals in a snowstorm, and the many references to ice and winter that I've discussed previously.

If not 3.2 million, what could 3.2 signify? It is Pi rounded up. That's all I got for now.

But back to Miles and Ben: Why would Ben need to know about 3.2 million? I think it has to do with some imminent deadline. Which is why Miles says he wants the money in two days. Then Ben says he can't -- prompting Miles for a drop-dead date. Miles says one week. So Ben got two pieces of info: 3.2 million and one week. Maybe the Earth has one week left unless Ben fixes whatever has gone wrong with its magnetism -- caused by Locke not pushing the button? But, at the rate of one island day per show, we won't find out until the season finale if Ben makes the deadline. Great.

Others Adoption Service

Today's theory involves Kate and her questionable adoption of baby Aaron. I think the most likely explanation is Kate and Jack have switched sides and become Others. They may have been finally convinced by Ben (or more likely Jack by Juliet) that the Others really are the "good guys."

The Others routinely take children and raise them as their own. Couple this with the fact that, when asked, Others have identified themselves as "Canadian" and you have your explanation. For 70 years, orphaned and impoverished children in the U.K. were sent to farms to work in Canada. The Canada Home program was started by some British religious zealots who believed they were giving the children a better life in a new country.

The Others seems to be convinced they need to take children and "give them a better life." This seems to be what Kate has done with Aaron. I don't think Claire is dead. We know she was with Locke. Locke is decidedly not Other. In the future, I believe Claire is still on the island with Locke and Jack helped Kate abscond with baby Aaron -- because they both believed she could give him a better life than the one Claire and Locke could offer. This is why Jack can't see Aaron. He believes he did the right thing, but part of him still knows this is wrong.

What we need to see is Jack and Kate making lists, or calling people good or bad. They are definitely in cahoots with Ben, but not in the same way as Sayid. They drank the Kool-Aid, but Sayid must still be blackmailed to do Ben's bidding.

Also, I would not be surprised if Ben orchestrated the Aaron adoption to Kate, or is behind it in some way. Heck, Aaron probably calls him Uncle Benry.

Kate "Criminal" Promo

This morning I was all ready to spend the day creating a You Tube video of Kate clips to Fiona Apple's "Criminal." Thank goodness I did a quick search first and it seems ABC has beat me to it. Not bad either, but I would have included clips of her childhood sweetheart, Tom. And it's an altogether good Jate video.

"Eggtown" Has Egg On Its Face

I'll just start by saying this was probably my *least* favorite Lost episode so far. I would almost go so far as to say it jumped the shark. How do you know if a show has jumped the shark? You look at your past blog entries about how great the show is and you're embarrassed for yourself.

First of all, NO ONE gets time served for a laundry list of charges like were brought against Kate. In fact, when I saw her enter the courtroom I said, "If she leaves with time served, I'm selling my TV." Oh, but she's really hot you're saying. That's not enough either: just look at our local girl Mary Kay LeTourneau.

We did get confirmation that Jack does, in fact, love Kate -- now and in the future. So the $10 I spent on my new domain name will obviously pay for itself. But then we see Jack can lie about what happened on the island no problem, but the lying gets harder when he has to look at Aaron.

Now on to the theories:

1) Baby Aaron may be the devil. I say this because the psychic said he would be evil if not raised by Claire. And Matthew Abaddon seems to be looking for him, and I've read that Abbadon's name is a reference to the devil. He may be searching out his successor.

2) Claire is in the coffin. She did get on the helicopter with Aaron, as Desmond predicted, but what Desmond couldn't see was that she was on the helicopter dead, much like Naomi. Sure, the newspaper clipping Jack had said "Man found dead," but I think that article was about his dad. His dad drank himself to death (because the universe course corrected), and the L.A. Times article mentioned Claire was his dad's daughter in Australia -- a fact Jack didn't know (and is very upset about). So then he goes to Claire's funeral, whom he and the other Oceanic 6 had brought back as one of the purported two that Kate couldn't save. Claire has no one in L.A., explaining the lack of visitors. This is why Jack is shocked that Kate didn't attend -- she is passing off this woman's son as her own and doesn't even attend her funeral!

Redeeming qualities:

This episode did have some excellent Skate foreplay, but it seems Kate can no longer see past his dreadful personality and just wants to cuddle. Sawyer may be spending the rest of his life on the island bunking with Hurley (and what, there are enough barracks for everyone to get their own?). Though he did have a valid point about her bouncing between him and Jack. I personally wouldn't have slapped him on the beak for that.

Relativity and the Rocket Clock

I've been puzzling over the Daniel-rocket experiment on last week's Lost episode, "The Economist," and found myself again staring at the ceiling mumbling, "What could it mean? What could it all mean?"

The facts are these: Daniel apparently travels with a rocket that has a clock in it. Regina, his colleague on the boat, is familiar with this rocket and with the experiment he wants to conduct, as Daniel does not have to explain much to get her to fire it. When fired, she commences a countdown without prompting, as if she's done this before. Daniel and Regina refer to this rocket clock as "the payload."

With that to go on, I did some searching on rocket clock experiments, and quickly found details of an experiment called the Vessot Rocket Clock Experiment, conducted in 1976 by Robert Vessot and Martin Levine. As described in the book, "Was Einsteen Right?" Vessot created a clock that could be loaded into a rocket and launched into the atmosphere. He did this from Wallops Island, while his colleague waited on Merritt Island with the ground clock for the "payload," as they referred to it.

It gets better. At 8 minutes 31 seconds into the experiment (Daniel observed a 31-minute difference between the island clock and rocket clock), a cancellation between gravitational blue shift and time dilation occurred. It took the scientists two years to process the data gathered in this one experiment, and when they where finished, humanity's understanding of curved space-time had made a significant leap.

Building on this experiment, physicists later developed the Principal of Maximal Aging, which answers the "Twin Paradox." I was also interested not only to see a mention of twins, which is a major theme in Lost, but a mention of Minkowski, specifically "Minkowski space."

I also found it interesting when researching curved space-time that one of the leading minds is Lewis Carroll Epstein. His book "Relativity Visualized" contains illustrations showing how the "curvature of time" causes objects to fall downward near the surface of the earth and causes time to run slower in the basement than on the top floor of the building -- illustrating the findings of the Vessot Rocket Clock Experiment. Could the Lost show title, "Through the Looking Glass" be a reference to Epstein?

Back to Daniel and the rocket. When he calls Regina and says, "Fire the payload," Frank says, "He does this kind of stuff on the boat all the time." The question is: Why would someone need to regularly run experiments testing the curvature of space-time? Because -- drum roll please -- the island is in a black hole. A black hole would create a gravity well and a strong distortion of space-time (to the tune of 31 minutes?). Of course, they could also be in a neutron star.

That kind of reminds me of the movie "Contact," in which Jodie Foster talked to her dead father on an island in a neutron star, much like Jack talked to his dad on an island (in a neutron star?). But I digress.

One final note on this experiment. The ratio of difference between Daniel's clock and the rocket's clock is 1:31. Genesis 1:31, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day." Oceanic Six, anyone?

Oceanic Six: On Trial

Here's the latest crackpot Lost theory I'm working on: the term "Oceanic Six" is a name given to the six defendants in a very high-profile trial.

When I first heard the name "Oceanic Six" I immediately thought of Abbie Hoffman and the Chicago Seven. The Chicago Seven were defendants in a high-profile 1969 trial. The original Chicago Eight were indicted for demonstrating against police action at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. One of the eight did not complete the trial, leaving the Chicago Seven.

News of the Chicago Seven and their courtroom antics was major national news fare. Hoffman's face became so recognizable, he would write "FUCK" on his forehead so his face wouldn't get on TV.

Even now, 38 years (almost to the day) after the Feb. 18, 1970 verdict where all members of the Chicago Seven were acquitted, the trial is still a headline. Aaron Sorkin recently wrote a movie about the trial; it's being produced by Steven Spielberg and is scheduled to start shooting next month.

All this is to prove that a high-profile trial would be one of the best ways to make the "Oceanic Six" the most recognizable faces in America, if not the world. Sayid in a flash-forward in the Seychelles says he was the recipient of a large settlement. A major trial could have convened for months before the Oceanic Six decided to swear their silence and take a settlement. (But the fact that they are recognizable from the trial suggests an open courtroom, a place where most secrets would come out -- but I guess not all).

The number "Six," instead of Seven as in the Chicago Seven, may allude to another novel we can add to the list of Lost literary references. "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said," is a Phillip K. Dick novel where the main character is a celebrity who loses his identity overnight. The novel is set in an America that has become a police state. Also present are a race of super-humans called the "Six." With themes of rebellion in a police state and celebrity in common with the Chicago conspiracy trial, and the prevalent "Six" in common with the "Oceanic Six," I have to think it's not coincidental.

Skater vs. Jater

I don't Know why this is even a question. Of course I want Kate to end up with Jack. Here's what bothers me about the Skate camp:

• Sawyer is a hick and a conservative. I grew up in rural America and am familiar with the species. They are not misunderstood, or sensitive one minute, a huge a-hole the next. They're usually just a-holes.
• Kate has reservations too. Sawyer is just like her dad - only not a drunk because all the island has to offer is 20-year-old Dharma beer, a wine bottle you have to wrestle out of Desmond's hands, and maybe some half-empty vanilla bottles (which I learned from Amy Sedaris will work in a pinch).

That being said, I do enjoy a teensy bit of Skate here and there. My two favorite Skate vids:

• Brighter Than Sunshine
• Dream a Little Dream of Me. By Mama Cass-also a Desmond favorite.

I should also come clean that my true fave is Desmond. As much as I loathe the surely duplicitous Juliet, I was hoping to see some Desmond-Juliet action in the woods just for fun. And just so he could say "I'm sorry, brother," to Jack and Jack would cry.

Lost: The Economist

J. wood's most recent post on this episode of Lost makes mention to Doyle's Moriarity :
http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=2933#comment-259780

Significant because: I posted a theory not too long ago about how Moriarity could be the key to Lost.

The show's title intrigues me because not too long ago I took micro and macro economics at Phoenix College. I learned many fascinating things in economics class; this weekend I will have to review my textbooks for clues!

Lost Island Exists in Paleozoic Era

A few notes on the most recent episode, "Confirmed Dead."

1) The "ghost" dustbuster -- there is a circular element on the front of this device that looks exactly like a CD cleaner I bought a couple years ago:
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Innovations-Skipdoctor-Repair-Kit/dp/B00005B9W6

2) Why does the pilot look like he fell out of the sky and his phone is broken when he landed the plane safely? There shouldn't be a scratch on him.

3) The island exists way back in time. Specifically, before the paleozoic era. I found a couple science briefs on magnetic anomolies in Tunisia, and also on how flora in Tunisia was found to match ancient flora in Australia:

http://tinyurl.com/2lfb8z
http://tinyurl.com/2ufjjm

This would explain the compass not pointing north, because the polarity of the earth has changed many times. Most recently 750,000 years ago.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/earth_poles_040407.html

This also explains the teradactyl charlie saw. There's probably plenty of other dinosaurs.

The polar bears, dolphins and sharks were brought back in time to the island by Dharma.

It explains all the dead people on the island like Jack's father and Ben's mom -- if Ben can make people travel through time, he can bring them back from a time they were alive.

And it explains why Jack's father is alive in the future -- because he was brought back in time before he died, he went back to the future as one of the Oceanic 6. He was, technically, on the plane -- though in a coffin. But he may have been on the manifest -- with an asterik.

4) The submarine must be a time-travel device. Which has something to do with why Locke blew it up.

5) This gives the show a great hope, because of its true the Lostaways are all back in time, they can go forward to any point and not make all the mistakes they made in their pitiful lives. One thing is certain: they have all made horrendous mistakes that I'm sure they would undo if they could. This might be exactly what they did.

Ben showed them how to time travel and before going back to their own time, Kate first didn't burn up her father (so she's not wanted), Jack didn't turn in his dad (so his dad's not dead -- he's still a doctor). Hurley didn't play the lottery. But they paid a high price for this -- their lives now suck really bad and they want to go "back" -- that is, back in time.

6) Reference to my last theory about the poles: one of the Freighties is Charlotte S. Lewis (C.S. Lewis). Narnia was a land where it was perpetually winter.

Now that I am *finally* caught up to the 4th season of Lost, I have a new favorite theory.

When I was a kid, my dad told me about the inner Earth and the possibility of a hollow Earth. Because Lost is all about daddy issues, I have to give special weight to a theory purported by my own dad.

So, the Hollow Earth can be accessed from the South Pole, and exited from the North Pole. The South Pole entrance explains the polar bears. It also explains why Penny's team looks to be in an antarctic bunker -- that is the closest place they have picked up a signal. The Oceanic 815 plane departed Australia for Los Angeles. I know when you fly Seattle to Europe, they fly over the North Pole to save time. Surely, an Australia-L.A. flight would do the same. They got sucked into the South Pole and down into inner earth -- Agharta.

Legend has it Hitler himself when looking for inner earth, and may have found it and escaped there.

The opener of season four dropped us several clues that the island is within the hollow earth. 1) Hurley saying Charlie was in front of the HoHos, and 2) Jack getting H-O in a game of horse with Hurley. Both references to Santa -- the poles.

If the show is flashing forward, and Jack and Hurley are traveling back to the island -- they will first need to go to the South Pole.

More about the Hollow Earth: http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/03/01/85-inside-the-hollow-earth/

Very Weak and Still Lost

I must come clean that after saying I would watch no more Lost, I continued to camp out on the couch and watch episode after perplexing episode.

This morning, in a hazy, sleep-deprived moment of clarity, I arrived at the answer to every question raised on the show. And there are many:

http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Unanswered_questions

What I think is the most important question is not on this list: Why does Ben tell Juliet that taking women off the island to conceive is not possible? This question is the key to nearly every other question. I ran this through a thousand possibilities, and even mind-mapped it. Here's the solution:

There are two types of Others -- those who were "born" on the island and those who were brought there. Those who were "born" there cannot step off the island because they are holograms. That's also why they cannot go to term with a pregnancy -- they themselves are not flesh and blood.

The idea came to me as I was staring at the ceiling in my office repeating to myself, "Why can't they leave? Why can't couples just honeymoon in Fiji and come back and have a healthy baby?" Then I thought of Professor Moriarty on Star Trek. He could not leave the holodeck because he was a hologram. One foot off and he would disintegrate. In the same way, a young Other couple cannot exist in Fiji. Ben knows this but he won't tell them.

Many of the objects are also holograms. I believe the island, besides sustaining its holographic inhabitants can also implant memories and replicate items. The implanted memories, like Kate's black stallion or Sayid's cat, coincide with the materialization of the subject of the memories in the place in which the physical person exists.

So, how can a hologram have a tumor? Easy. Ben thought about a tumor for some reason and it appeared on his back. How can Jack operate on a hologram? Just like the game operation. The guy with the big red nose isn't really human.

Ben learned this truth, and has made it his life's work to become real -- just like Moriarty wanted. He wants to step off the holodeck. He has recruited off-islanders like Ethan and Juliet to this end, by promising them miracles. And if you were a hologram and wanted to be real, what would you do? Study real people.

Now reframe all your Lost questions with this in mind. Doesn't it all just make sense now?

Cutting my "Lost"ses

I have decided not to continue my quest to catch up to Lost. After three straight days of watching Lost DVDs, I have become disenchanted with the show.

Last night, I watched the first episode of season three. Jack got angry and cried a lot, they all did whatever the Others told them, Sawyer acted like a circus animal. They all basic lost whatever shreds of dignity they had left.

I couldn't relate anymore. Not to mention, of the thousands of questions the show raises, some they beat you over the head with the answers and others they leave on a raft in the ocean, figuratively speaking. And the flashbacks are boring my to tears.

Besides, I have greeting cards to scan, so TV ban is back on.