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The Hanso Foundation and the Island

(Update: You can follow more of my “LOST” notes in the TV category.)

More “Lost” theories follow, after a little more “Lost” fan site exploration. As far as I can tell, it seems [SPOILERS, highlight to read] the Hanso Foundation’s scientific projects mostly account for the weird things that happen on the island: “Electromagnetic Research” experiments are disrupting navigation, “Quest for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence” might have brought down the Black-Smoke Monster, “Mathematical Forecasting” is tied into The Numbers and their effect on luck and chance , “Cryogenics Development” kept the polar bears in storage till the plot conveniently called for them, “Juxtapositional Eugenics” gone wrong would have left us with a bunch of Twisted Others, and an “Accelerated Remote Viewing” agent in the environment would cause people to have spontaneous telepathic visions of other people, as well as auditory sensations of people’s thoughts as “whispers in the forest.”[/SPOILERS]

That removes a lot of mystery from the series. It kind of feels like the end of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, in some ways, although we’re only in the second season of “Lost” so far. (But at least it’s pretty clear that the crash survivors aren’t stuck in Purgatory or some foolish plot twist like that.)

But I have to say, I haven’t been this interested in a TV show for a long time. These producers are getting something right: producing a smart and engagingly mysterious plotline with believable, motivated characters drawn into real and empathetic conflicts.

DCeiver’s “Pompatus of Lost” episode recaps are not to be missed.

36 Comments

  1. Bob wrote:

    I saw the site. However, in the video they talked about zoology as well as the other projects. I think the Polar Bears and sharks were part of this, especially since the Shark had a Dharma Brand.

    Thursday, October 6, 2005 at 1:25 pm | Permalink
  2. timsamoff wrote:

    By the way, have you hovered your mouse over the empty space on the bottom of the Hanso menu?

    Thursday, October 6, 2005 at 1:39 pm | Permalink
  3. Paulo wrote:

    Tim – yes, I saw, but no popup or linked page! I even viewed source!

    Thursday, October 6, 2005 at 2:19 pm | Permalink
  4. Anonymous wrote:

    But, it’s there… Now all we have to do is wait. (Personally, I’m going to check back every 108 minutes.) :D

    Thursday, October 6, 2005 at 4:40 pm | Permalink
  5. Mr. Luddite wrote:

    I got a kick out of the Dharma Institute’s Active Project titled “Juxtapositional Eugenics Development Institute”? Notice the acronym?

    Thursday, October 6, 2005 at 7:24 pm | Permalink
  6. Anonymous wrote:

    The link at the bottom of the Hanso projects menu brings up the orientation film.

    Friday, October 7, 2005 at 12:20 am | Permalink
  7. jeff wrote:

    This may not be new info to anyonne but me, but I found it interesting. If you go to http://www.oceanic-air.com and click the find button at the bottom of the page (notice the numbers), it will take you to a seating chart. Notice the flight number? 777. Anyway, eventually the page loads and a “F” flashes under “economy class” Click it, then click seat 43F. After that…wait…more seats are highlighted and reveal clues when clicked.

    Friday, October 7, 2005 at 11:14 am | Permalink
  8. timsamoff wrote:

    Just for fun:

    - http://thelostnumbers1.greatestjournal.com/

    Friday, October 7, 2005 at 11:53 am | Permalink
  9. Jim wrote:

    Also on http://www.oceanic-air.com if you click on ‘Find’ and bring up the seating chart…Click on ‘Pre-board Check in’ then arrange the letters to spell ‘OTHER MAN’ in the blue squares it will bring up a clip. Pretty cool.

    Friday, October 7, 2005 at 3:52 pm | Permalink
  10. Katie wrote:

    You should look up B.F. Skinner and read about his experiements in “Operant COnditioning”.

    Saturday, October 8, 2005 at 8:22 am | Permalink
  11. mcollins wrote:

    …and re: http://www.oceanic-air.com did you notice when you roll our mouse over the chairman’s announcement it says: “I survived a horrific plan crash and am stranded on an island somewhere Northeast of Australia and southeast of Hawaii. In the event that I am never found, please forward word of my fate to my parents”

    wonder which lostie wrote this message?

    Saturday, October 8, 2005 at 12:19 pm | Permalink
  12. Skip wrote:

    the 777 is not a flight number. the airplane is a Boeing 777 owned by Oceanic thus giving you Oceanic 777.

    Saturday, October 8, 2005 at 12:33 pm | Permalink
  13. isso wrote:

    when you press jacks seat, the flight number changes to 815…

    Saturday, October 8, 2005 at 12:51 pm | Permalink
  14. Skip wrote:

    Also, if you look at the source code for the website you see that in addition to the item mcollins found there is this: “If anyone should find this message, please get word I’m alive and stranded on an island somewhere in the South Pacific. Please send help soon. Things are bad. And they’re getting worse…Sally” it’s called the one mcollins found is called but it doesn’t have a signature of Robert like the Sally one does.

    Saturday, October 8, 2005 at 12:57 pm | Permalink
  15. Jan wrote:

    If you go down to the row numbers and click 4 8 15 16 23 42, one after the other, you’ll get a whole new site to play with!

    Saturday, October 8, 2005 at 5:54 pm | Permalink
  16. mcollins wrote:

    and if you go to section where you enter the no. of travellers, and change any of the numbers, it takes you to a flight tracker. then track flight 815 and it brings you up to a listing of flights and their destinations and times. flight 572 says “giveus the boy” click on line for 815 and it takes you to the flight plan

    Saturday, October 8, 2005 at 8:11 pm | Permalink
  17. mcollins wrote:

    …in the seating chart, when Shannon’s seat comes up, 9 F, click on it and Sayid’s passport comes up, click a few more times and a map comes up. I think it is danielle’s map of the island that Sayid and Shannon were trying to decipher. You can move the map around to read it but it is in french. some of the translations say things like “the sea reflects change” “dance alongside the clear gulfs” “the crater” “money(?) reflections” “blue regret”

    Some of the words hard to read, also looks like there was some writing that was erased.

    Saturday, October 8, 2005 at 9:41 pm | Permalink
  18. vannak2 wrote:

    Ok, when I click on the flashing F the seat that is highlighted is 42F not 43F??? I click on it…see the little video etc..but then I wait…and wait…no other seats ever get highlighted…I have tried everything…help!

    Monday, October 10, 2005 at 3:50 pm | Permalink
  19. mcollins wrote:

    Vannak2: you have to click on the numbered rows 4 8 15 16 23 42. each time you click on one of them, one of the seats corresponding to one of the losties is highlighted

    Monday, October 10, 2005 at 5:49 pm | Permalink
  20. wayne wrote:

    Someone tell me if I’m wrong. I was thinking about when Locke went to find the drug plane from his dream and he began to not be able to walk. Is the electromagnetic field from the station aiding his walking and when he wandered too far away he began to have troulbe?

    Wednesday, October 12, 2005 at 11:58 am | Permalink
  21. Natalie wrote:

    Walt’s mother was an attorney I believe.

    Wednesday, October 12, 2005 at 1:18 pm | Permalink
  22. NLP wrote:

    Has anyone noticed the immense amount of misspellings throughout the ’secret’ site Jan brought up earlier? Surely they’re doing this on purpose! I counted way too many missing L’s and missing words. What might this all mean?

    Wednesday, October 12, 2005 at 5:01 pm | Permalink
  23. Stallion wrote:

    mcollins wrote “re: http://www.oceanic-air.com did you notice when you roll our mouse over the chairman’s announcement it says: “I survived a horrific plan crash and am stranded on an island somewhere Northeast of Australia and southeast of Hawaii. In the event that I am never found, please forward word of my fate to my parents”

    wonder which lostie wrote this message?

    The answer to the question is Claire Littleton.

    If you click and roll your mouse over that page then cut and paste…you will find her boarding pass. interestingly she was not on flight 815

    Wednesday, October 12, 2005 at 11:18 pm | Permalink
  24. Stallion wrote:

    let me correct my last post…there is a photo of a boarding pass with Claire Littleton’s name on it.

    the message that reads “If anyone should find this message, please get word I’m alive and stranded on an island somewhere in the South Pacific. Please send help soon. Things are bad. And they’re getting worse…

    Sally”

    Wednesday, October 12, 2005 at 11:30 pm | Permalink
  25. Mike V wrote:

    These messages (I think) are the messages the survivors wrote and put in the bottle. That was taken on the raft.

    Thursday, October 13, 2005 at 8:57 am | Permalink
  26. Paul V wrote:

    That makes a lot of sense to me, Mike!

    Thursday, October 13, 2005 at 3:23 pm | Permalink
  27. Anonymous wrote:

    What is the deal with flight #572 it says “giveus the boy” on the track flight link?

    Thursday, October 13, 2005 at 5:19 pm | Permalink
  28. coltan wrote:

    does anbody know the code for that little barcode looking thing on the http://www.oceanicflight815.com/ web site?

    Thursday, October 13, 2005 at 5:31 pm | Permalink
  29. Paulo wrote:

    coltan – “theislandiswaiting”

    Thursday, October 13, 2005 at 5:33 pm | Permalink
  30. Anonymous wrote:

    and the pre-board check-in? on http://www.oceanic-air.com/seatingchart.htm

    Thursday, October 13, 2005 at 5:43 pm | Permalink
  31. Lost is great, although the second season hasn’t started airing in syndication yet. I’ve got to stop going to http://www.thefuselage.com/ and spoiling myself because it seems like I’ll be getting second season Lost NEXT YEAR. :(

    Friday, October 14, 2005 at 7:10 am | Permalink
  32. nikki wrote:

    hey im a new fan. does anyone kno the username and password for the dharma institute website??? ive tried everything.please help!!! (you can access this by putting dharma institute into google….)

    Friday, October 14, 2005 at 7:16 pm | Permalink
  33. punkplod wrote:

    just to point this out for anyone thinking you can login that page or something their is no connection to a database the page is false checked the source (im sad i actually bothered to read the webites code looking for answers) intrestin joke on the webpage is the abbrevaition in the weblink of Juxtapositional Eugenics Development Institute jedi.html lol sneakey little, as they say keep guessing

    Sunday, October 16, 2005 at 8:09 pm | Permalink
  34. janikphoto wrote:

    “Juxtapositional Eugenics Development Institute”? Notice the acronym?”

    regarding the acronym jedi… look up the meaning of the word eugenics and it explains the creation of an “unequal” man or race. Like what hitler was doing. I don’t think this is a nazi thing in any way, but the dharma video does talk about extending life, right? Maybe this is the “better man” they were trying to create? And the shark, can sharks regenerate body parts or do they have super healing? Bears have hibernation, and that can extend life in a way I suppose… In any case, I think the jedi acronym is more than just a star wars nod.

    So break down the title: Juxtaposition means: the act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side; also : the state of being so placed

    Eugenics is defined on a website as: Eugenics is dedicated to the proposition that all men are created unequal and the food is running short; that, in the struggle for food, those who have an inherited advantage prevail and pass the advantage on to their children who prevail even more; that this is how evolution, Yale and the English aristocracy happened.

    Development and Institute are self-explained…

    So maybe they wer combining these animals with man to make a better human and it went wrong…

    Wednesday, October 19, 2005 at 3:26 am | Permalink
  35. HMTKSteve wrote:

    You can login to the thedharmainitiative.org it does not use a database but it does use an md5 hash to verify you.

    It then takes the login and concatates the password on the end to create a url that it sends you to.

    Thursday, October 20, 2005 at 8:03 am | Permalink
  36. Paulo wrote:

    This thread is now closed to new comments. Updated info here.

    Thursday, October 20, 2005 at 8:14 pm | Permalink