• Lostpedia used to have this theory:

  "Egg-town is a pejorative term that refers to the days of bartering. A traveling salesman would have to barter his candy or tobacco or shoelaces for different commodities. A poor exchange would be for eggs, a relatively common item that is also highly perishable. Nobody wants to trade for eggs from a traveling salesman because they have their own, so the salesman who accepted an egg in exchange was forced to accept a bad deal. Salesmen would use the term like "If I were you I would stay away from Bogart. That's an egg-town." Of course, the lack of trust among salesman was also high, and it was likely that one salesman would lie to another about the quality of a town's customers to keep them for himself. Invariably, the second salesman ventures into to Bogart only to find it is truly an egg-town. He is either persuaded to not visit a town that has good customers or is tricked into visiting a town that can only offer eggs. The term "egg-town" represents a deal with undesirable outcomes in either case."

• I found this related story:

  "According to Mr. John Henry Pittman, who for many years ran one of the stores in Two Egg, the name originated when two small boys came into the store day after day to trade two eggs for a small amount of sugar. The owner of the store was having a bad week and, in frustration, made a remark that included the line, "This is nothing but a "two egg" town." A traveling salesman (or "drummer") was in the store at the time and began to spread the story. The name caught on and before long the community, previously called Allison, became known as Two Egg. The name first appeared on State Highway maps during the 1940s and remains there to this day."

  How Two Egg got its name
• So, Eggtown is a place where bad deals are made. Locke tries to make a unstated deal with Ben (using the last 2 eggs) and gets nothing but subtle abuse. Miles makes a deal with Ben, ignoring the fact that Ben is locked up in a cell, and gets to chew on a live grenade for his trouble. Kate makes a deal with Miles only to learn she has no future in the outside world. Kate's Mom may have been trying to make a deal to see her grandchild (who probably isn't) but never will. Kate accepted a deal that confines her to California for 10 years, which sounds like a good deal to me, compared to 7-15 years in prison.

• Are the Others growing melons, or are they delivered?

  Two words: pneumatic tubes.

• Valis, by Philip K. Dick: I could write and quote tens of thousands of words on this book, but I think I'll settle for this:

  "Much of the material from Valis comes from PKD's experiences between 1974-76. Dick was never fully certain whether he was undergoing some transcendent experience or going mad, or whether there was a difference. The fact that Dick tweaked his brain to the edge with amphetamines didn't help matters, and he was quite aware that he was not in a good position to judge whether what he was going through was paranoid hallucination or actual experience. But the information he amassed about cosmology and cosmogony during that period shaped the rest of his life and work, and he presents that information through the cipher of of his protagonist, Horselover Fat. It's never quite clear which details are PKD's shot trough HLF, and which are elaborations as a way of working out what he experienced. What's more, a science fiction writer named Phil appears in his own book and is the narrator who talks with HLF. Phil is eventually confronted about how he and HLF are the same person: Philip > philo: Greek for love; Philip > hippos: Greek for horse; Dick > means fat in German. Philip becomes a contraction for the Greek terms, yielding horselover, and Fat is just a play on Dick's last name. Dick effectively creates his own mirror twin and as the two interact in the novel. One could go through PKD's "exegesis" to piece apart the biography from the fiction. The exegesis are notes he took about his ideas, but there's some 8,000 pages of them, some are absurd and show an unbalanced mind, some are incredibly insightful, but who's to say how much of that is biography and how much is fiction... HLF has a similar exegesis.

  In 1974 PKD had an impacted wisdom tooth removed, and was administered sodium pentothal for the procedure (the truth drug, also used as an anesthetic). He wasn't given anything for the post-op pain, and after some mind-numbing suffering, he called the pharmacy for some painkillers. When the delivery woman arrived at his home with the painkillers, he opened the door and was struck; she wore a gold vesica piscis pendant, a Jesus fish, and the light bounced off it in a strange pink hue and struck him in the head (more on this symbol in a moment; it's hardly just a fish). He was transfixed, and then his world started to fall apart; the scene outside his door disappeared, and instead looking out on a southern California town, he was looking out at the early Christian world, when Christians were still persecuted; people spoke Greek and they wore the piscis as a secret symbol to each other. It's all a bit like Desmond's flashes. Horselover Fat goes through the same experience in Valis, and starts hearing language in koine Greek; HLF did not know Greek, but the words he transcribes turn out to be accurate Greek phrases.

  Dick/Fat explained this wasn't a hallucination; he called it a kind of anamnesis, the loss of forgetfulness, and he experienced it time and again in the following year. (Speaking of loss of forgetfulness, this is essentially what Faraday was working on when he was trying to recall which playing cards Charlotte laid out.) PKD felt his mind had been invaded by some greater intelligence, and he was remembering through this intelligence experiences he shared with that intelligence, but didn't know about. Over the next two years while this intelligence remained, PKD got his life together like never before. He came to understand that this other intelligence was an early Christian, from 2,000 years before. But this other person - he called him Thomas (twin) - had been also other people. Furthermore, these past times weren't really past; they were occurring right then and there:"

  Lost - Prognosis: The Empire Never Ended, by J. Wood

  

  The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick, by R. Crumb

• Ben says he doesn't need to re-read Valis: He's either full of shit or he has a photographic memory and a Ph.D in Theology.
• You might catch something you missed the second time around"-This is shout-out to the fanatics. But I'm not one, nope, just because I re-watch the whole show backwards doesn't make me obsessed.
• Is anyone else wondering how hard it would be for Ben to escape from own house?
• Locke isn't evolving, he is still letting Ben get to him.
• Locke must know about Ben's secret closet, he saw Sayid come out of it. Why isn't he asking Ben about his multiple passport fetish? "Does your little flock know about your frequent flyer program? What would they think about you planning to abandon them?"
• Nice construction job on that wobbly wall.
• So much for Skateship, Kate is Othertown for her own reasons, not for Sawyer.

• Why go in the front of the courthouse? The jury won't know, and the D.A. won't care.
• Just as Kate gets out of the car someone in the crowd yells "Why'd you do it, Kate".
• Just before her lawyer says "step aside please", the big bearded guy yells "We hate you", in reverse audio. Now the question is whether this is just an easter egg/Twin Peaks homage (there were damn fine cups of coffee earlier) or are we to believe that there really are people who speak backwards? Is the bearded yeller a visible "whisperer"?

  Reversed Audio outside courtroom

• Let me get this out of the way: the whole trial part of this episode is impossible and ridiculous:
  
  
  • Kate is on trial in a California State Court. The California state flags, California state seal, deputy sheriff acting as bailiff, and District Attorney prosecuting all point to this. Kate is being tried in a State court, on State charges, for crimes committed in California.
  • She is charged with fraud, arson, assault on a federal officer, assault with a deadly weapon, grand larceny, grand theft auto, and first degree murder
  • She killed her father and burned down the house in Iowa, not California.
  • "Assault on a federal officer" is a federal crime, not a state one.
  • To make matters worse, the feds can charge Kate with plenty of other crimes. Remember the bank robbery in New Mexico? Then there's Flight to avoid prosecution or giving testimony

    "Whoever moves or travels in interstate or foreign commerce with intent either to avoid prosecution, or custody or confinement after conviction, under the laws of the place from which he flees, for a crime, or an attempt to commit a crime, punishable by death or which is a felony under the laws of the place from which the fugitive flees, or "

    So even if Kate beats the California state charges she can look forward to federal trial. The feds don't need Kate's mom to testify.
  • Kate is a wanted federal fugitive: She wouldn't have been able to buy a big house and hire a nanny. She would have been put in federal custody as soon as someone in law inforcement knew who she was. And don't forget she's famous.
  • Kate doesn't act like the trial is part of the deal she made to keep quiet.
• The judge is named "Arthur Galzethron" -I think "Galzethron" was a minor demon in Ghostbusters. No I don't, but that is one strange last name.

• Jin's up to sentences.
• Jin wants to live in Albuquerque. Cassidy Phillips is in Albuquerque with what might be Sawyer's child.
• When did anyone mention arrangements to take everyone off the Island?
• Daniel looked embarrassed when Jack mentions rescue.

• Locke killed a chicken. This refers back to the scene in "The Man from Tallahassee" where Locke saw the fried chicken in Ben's fridge and accused him of losing faith in the Island. Locke and his group are doing the same things that made him call Ben and the Others "Pharisees".
• Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In this episode it would be the eggs. This could be a reference to Cause and Effect.
• Locke tells Kate she can't talk to Miles and denies he's running a dictatorship. Consider that for the last 3 seasons Locke's catch-phrase was "Don't tell me what I can't do".
• Kate may have fooled Hurley into telling her where Miles is kept (or did she?), but at least Hurley caught on right away. I'm really looking forward to some good Ben and Hurley interaction.
• So Locke leaves his prize Freighty all alone out in the boathouse? No guards or lookouts? A boy scout troop could rescue Miles.

• A 15-year sentence with only 7 served? For that laundry list of crimes, including first degree murder? There is no way a D.A. would agree to that, especially considering all the publicity.
• Kate's attorney wants to make the trial about "who you are", which echoes Kates' question to Miles, "Do you know who I am?".
• Kate's attorney is named Duncan Forrester. Another Duncan Forrester wrote "Apocalypse now? Reflections on faith in a time of terror":

  "Forrester (U. of Edinburgh-New College) offers his personal reflections, rather than a systematic theological response, to the 9/11 attacks and the 2004 Christmas tsunami in the Indian Ocean. From his perspective as a Christian theologian, he seeks to read the signs of the times by moving back and forth between two times of terror--today and the early centuries of Christianity. This echoes "Valis". If the good news of Jesus Christ emerged in that time of terror, and the darkness did not overcome that light, he asks whether that light continues to shine in the present darkness, and if so, how.

  Apocalypse now? Reflections on faith in a time of terror

• Jack trying to make a phone call mirrors his first flashforward where he tries to call Kate.
• I wonder if Charlotte and Daniel would eat any Apollo bars they find?

• What's up with Locke's sudden cooking obsession?
• Kate can con a crew of thugs into robbing a bank with her, but she's frightened of babies?

• More legal mistakes: Jack is a character witness for the defense, being put on the stand right after the prosecution's opening statement. Character witnesses testify during sentencing, not during trial. Defense witnesses don't appear until after the prosecution rests their case. Kate's trial bears no resemblance to reality.
• When did the D.A. object to Jack testifying? Kate had no idea Jack was going to be called.
• Jack: "...which crash landed onto an island in the South Pacific". Houston, we have a problem and Lucy has some 'splaining to do. The wreckage of Flight 815 was found in the Sunda trench in the NE Indian Ocean, thousands of miles from the South Pacific. This is a major inconsistency, and I for one am considering alerting the proper legal authorities.
• 8 survived crash - so 2 Losties are known to be dead to the future world.
• The D.A.'s name is Melissa Dunbrook.

• Two choices for Movie Night:
  • Xanadu, where dreams come true:

    • Xanadu features Olivia Newton-John (who has more teeth than a normal human) as the Olympian Muse of dance, Terpsichore.

      "In Greek mythology, the Muses are a sisterhood of goddesses or spirits, their number set at nine by Classical times, who embody the arts and inspire the creation process with their graces through remembered and improvised song and stage, writing, traditional music, and dance. They were water nymphs, associated with the springs of Helicon and with Pieris, from which they are sometimes called the Pierides. The Olympian system set Apollo as their leader. Not only are the Muses explicitly used in modern English to refer to an inspiration, as when one cites his/her own artistic muse, but they are also implicit in the words "amuse" or "musing upon".

      According to Hesiod's Theogony (seventh century BC), they are the daughters of Zeus, king of the gods, and Mnemosyne, goddess of memory. For Alcman and Mimnermus, they were even more primordial, springing from Uranus and Gaia. Pausanias records a tradition of two generations of Muses; the first being daughters of Uranus and Gaia, the second of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Another, rarer genealogy is that they are daughters of Harmonia (the daughter of Aphrodite and Ares) which contradicts the myth in which they were dancing at the wedding of Harmonia and Cadmus."

      Did I mention that it's mostly on rollerskates?

    • That poem by Coleridge

      "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
      A stately pleasure-dome decree :
      Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
      Through caverns measureless to man
      Down to a sunless sea.
      So twice five miles of fertile ground
      With walls and towers were girdled round :
      And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
      Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
      And here were forests ancient as the hills,
      Enfolding sunny spots of greenery."

      Kubla Khan, or a vision in a dream. A fragment.
      Colridge's poem at Wikipedia

    • Xanadu was the name of Charles Foster Kane's mansion in Citizen Kane. Kate's toy airplane could be considered her "Rosebud".

  • Satan's Doom: There appears to be no movie of this title, but there is a Brazilian Black Metal band.
• Hurley has to work on his winking.

• Locke is playing black, Sawyer white. When Sawyer played Walt the colors were reversed.
• Sawyer has almost stopped using nicknames, except for Miles
• Why didn't Locke check on Ben after Locke told him Kate was going to bust him out?
• Miles to Ben: You know who I am?
  You know who I work for?
  You know he's put a lot of time and energy into finding you."
• "It's extortion, if you want to get technical"-Miles may be a pain in the ass, but at least he's up front about it.
• "Don't treat me like I don't know who you are, and what you can do" -Miles has a power, he might believe Ben does too.
• Is Miles in it for the money or was "3.2 million" a code?
• Kate needs to know if the Freighties can turn her in

• Kate is listening to Patsy Cline-

  "She's Got You"

  "I've got your picture that you gave to me
  And it's signed "with love," just like it used to be
  The only thing different, the only thing new
  I've got your picture, she's got you

  I've got the records that we used to share
  And they still sound the same as when you were here
  The only thing different, the only thing new,
  I've got the records, she's got you

  I've got your memory, or has it got me?
  I really don't know, but I know it won't let me be

  I've got your class ring; that proved you cared
  And it still looks the same as when you gave it dear
  The only thing different, the only thing new
  I've got these little things, she's got you"

• Locke doesn't knock.
• Kate tells Locke the truth about what Miles said

• There is no way in hell a D.A. would let her star witness talk to the defendant, especially without being present and considering that they're mother and daughter. And the D.A. would be furious to learn that they were left alone. If Kate were ruthless she could take away Mom's oxygen: no more witness.
• I find it hard to believe that the D.A. is depending on the testimony of a woman who could drop dead any minute.
• I don't get why Kate won't let Mom see Aaron. It seems like a reasonable deal to me, and an fairly painless way to get to raise her son.
• "I don't want you anywhere near him"-that sounds more like fear than anger.

• Sawyer is reading The Invention of Morel, a novel set on a mysterious island with a mad scientist who invents a machine that can create reality.
• Montezuma means "he frowns like a lord"-I still think Hurley could be a secret king.

• If Daniel is having memory problems, they must be pretty exotic. He remembered who was on the helicopter and how to work the phone.
• Tarot Reading of Daniel's Cards: Daniel's future looks bad.

• Locke has figured out that he doesn't have a reason not to torture Miles.

• Kate has no external proof she isn't pregnant.
• For a sweet-talking con-man, Sawyer has a bad habit of saying the wrong thing
• That said. I think Sawyer's right about Kate coming back. She's a flighty risk.

• Mom could only testify about the murder/arson, the D.A. would have other evidence of all those other crimes.
• The story is that Kate nearly starved to death on a deserted island-ironic considering all the food in this episode.
• Kate can't leave the state-She always ran away, now she has to "stay put"-"I'm not going anywhere"

• Jack has had to tell the Oceanic 6 story a lot
• Jack tries to say he loves Kate, but he sucks at it
• Kate: "I know why you don't want to see the baby, Jack"-Is Jack guilty or scared?
• In Jack's first flashforward he still couldn't go to Kate's house

• Does the Nanny keep Aaron away from the TV so he doesn't do a Walt and conjure up polar bears or kill birds with his mind?
• ROBOTS! Are those robots over Aaron's bed? ROBOTS would be almost as good as zombies! Robots fighting Zombies! It writes itself!
• Aaron's room has a picture that has one of Daniel's cards on it.
• How does Kate explain that she has a 3-year-old son when she left Australia unpregnant about 120 days ago? Just how long does the world think she was gone?

• To me, this was the weakest Season 4 episode yet. It wasn't "Jack gets a tattoo" bad, but that's damning with faint praise. The impossibility of the courtroom flashforward really bugged me. It was like this episode was just thrown together.
• This episode was another Lostie apathy-fest. The way the survivors don't ask questions (I know they won't get straight answers, but it makes them seem like idiots) gets on my nerves.
  
  
  • Nobody in Lockeville has bothered to ask Locke what the plan is. He's told them that people are coming to kill them but everyone is content to just sit around and play house. Is the sonic fence on? Is anyone keeping watch at night? For all they know the Copter4 were just one team and there's a squad of commandos headed their way. For hunted people they don't seem very worried.
  • Jack's bunch on the beach haven't asked Daniel and Charlotte any of the obvious questions:
    
    
    • Why do you want Ben?
    • What are you going to do with him once you catch him?
    • Why did they send you?
    • Who hired you?
    • How did you find the Island, or Ben?
    • Where is the Island?
    Daniel and Charlotte haven't asked about Ben's people.
• The new theories that are killing time
  Via Synchromystic Librarian

• Lost - Prognosis: The Empire Never Ended, by the essential J. Wood
• Laying an egg, by Fishbiscuit
• Things I Noticed - "Eggtown", by Vozzek69
• 'Lost' Dueling Analyses: Eggtown @ Celebritology
• ''Lost'': Not What We Eggspected, by Jeff Jensen
• 4 X 04: Eggtown, by Gitsie Girl
• Your Friday Morning LOST Briefing - "Eggtown", by DarkUFO
• Citizen Kate, by Luhks
• Lost Easter Eggs: Episode 4.4 "Eggtown" @ BuddyTV
• Lost - 4.04 - Eggtown, by McLeron
• Lost: Episode 4, by Carlo Conda

• 4x04 - "Eggtown" Official LOST Podcast

"Bottom trawling for fish stirs up billowing plumes of sediment that can be seen from space and destroys entire seafloor ecosystems, new imagery reveals.

The technique, used all over the world, is a way to catch fish in deeper parts of the ocean with huge, deep nets, now that many near-shore fish populations have been virtually wiped out from over-fishing. Several studies have shown the significant impact that trawling has on ecosystems, killing corals, sponges, fish and other animals.

...

"Bottom trawling is the most destructive of any actions that humans conduct in the ocean," said zoologist Les Watling of the University of Hawaii. "Ten years ago, Elliott Norse (of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute) and I calculated that, each year, worldwide, bottom trawlers drag an area equivalent to twice the lower 48 states. Most of that trawling happens in deep waters, out of sight. But now we can more clearly envision what trawling impacts down there by looking at the sediment plumes that are shallow enough for us to see from satellites.""

• Damon Lindelof on the Copter4:

  • Straume: "Miles isn't here to make friends. He's here for something else. And it ain't what he told us at the end of Episode 2." He told the Losties he was here for Ben
  • Faraday: Physics can be fun and dangerous
  • Lapidus: "A true conspiracy nut, he has probably seen every episode of The X-Files, and that's going to pay off for him."
  Lost Spoilers - Additional Clues to Straume, Faraday, and Lapidus
• This episode aired on Valentine's Day. Sayid gets lucky, and it all ends in tears.

-At The Helicopter-

• Sayid might be finishing his salah, or prayers. As far as I can find out, he should be facing Mecca, but a good-faith attempt when the direction is unknown is acceptable.
• Sayid can be considered both a man of faith and a man of science.
• Miles really is an annoying little shit. I know I would trade him to hyenas for a cold beer.
• Naomi's bracelet says "N, I'll always be with you. R.G.". Elsa has a similar bracelet, inscription unknown.
• It's all about the chedder with Miles. He's looking for a payday.
• I would think wispy Miles is more of a goatee-tweezer than Frank.
• Frank and Sayid make a deal. "The Economist" is all about deals, bosses, negotiations, and "headhunting".

-Golf Course-

• Sayid is golfing in the Seychelles, a country in the Indian Ocean consisting of either 115 or 155 islands. According to Wikipedia, "As the islands of the Seychelles had no indigenous population, the current Seychellois are composed of people who have immigrated to the island", just as I suspect is the case on the Island.
• Sayid golfs lefty but shoots righty.
• Sayid has a red towel. On Lost, red=death.
• It's strange how the Italian just drives up. He's not playing through. If he's so lonely why is he golfing alone?
• Sayid has a white glove, the Italian, a black one.
• From "Mr. Avellino" @ Lostpedia
  • During casting, this character was named "Dante".
  • In the credits he is "Italian man".
  • "Avell" is an obscure verb that comes from Latin, meaning to pull or tear away.
  • Assuming that the character's forename is Dante (as in the casting sheets) an anagram of 'Dante Avellino' is 'Naval Deletion'
  • "Avellino" is the name of a city in southern Italy, near to Naples The patron saint of this Avellino is St. Modestino, whose day is February 14, the same day the episode first aired in the U.S.

    Note: "St. Modestino" has only 9 hits on Google, and the Catholic Encyclopedia has no entry for him.

• Andrew Avellino is the patron saint against sudden death. One strike against faith.
• Avellino makes a bet with Sayid, Ben made a bet with Locke over Sayid.
• Mr. Avellino gets really nervous once he knows who Sayid is. It's theorized that the golf course scene happens after Sayid's time with Elsa. Being shot in the shoulder could have screwed up Sayid's swing.
• Sprinklers=Rain=Death/Bad things

-Berlin Restaurant-

• The name of the restaurant is "Die Mauer", or "The Wall". The Berlin wall separated the Germans, like the Losties are separated.

  The storyline portrays the fictional life of an anti-hero named Pink, who is hammered and beaten down by society from the earliest days of his life: having lost his father (killed in Anzio during World War II, as was Roger Waters' own), smothered by his over-protective mother, oppressed at school by tyrannical, abusive teachers who tried to mould him and the other pupils into the "right" shape for society (hence the recurring image of the meat grinder) and a cheating wife, Pink withdraws into his own fantasy world, building an imaginary wall, an allegory for being emotionally distant, to protect himself from the rest of the world. Every bad experience in his life is "Another Brick in the Wall". After heavily contemplating how to fill in the last few empty spaces in the wall, Pink puts off its construction for a while. He becomes a rock star and gets married, only to be cheated on by his wife due to his distance and coldness, as well as the life as a rock star. After this, he resumes and eventually finishes building the wall.

  Pink slowly goes insane behind his freshly completed wall. He is lost on the inside, but is forced to surface by his demanding lifestyle, and I.V. drug use distributed by his crew to "keep [him] going through the show". Hallucinating, Pink believes that he is a fascist dictator, and his concerts are like Neo-Nazi rallies where he sets his men on fans he considers unworthy, only to have his conscience rebel at this and put himself on trial, his inner judge ordering him to tear down his wall in order to open himself to the outside world. At this point the album's end runs into its beginning with the closing words "Isn't this where..."; the first song on the album, "In the Flesh?", begins with the words "...we came in?" - with a continuation of the melody of the last song, Outside the Wall - hinting at the cyclical nature of Waters' theme."

  Pink Floyd's The Wall @ Wikipedia

• Elsa says she works for an economist who works in emerging markets. He is only in Berlin a couple of times a year and uses a beeper to contact her. Her main job is shopping for him. Since she might be expecting Sayid she could be lying, but it seems Sayid isn't surprised by this story.
• Sayid has another map. He's had Rousseau's map and a Dharma map.
• That was Ben on the other end of the cell phone. Sayid washes his hand after talking to him.

-Helicopter-

• "I want my gun back, can I have my gun back, I want my gun....." Shut the hell up.
• Miles thinks that going with Sayid is his idea. Sayid is setting Miles up from the get-go.

-Lockers In the Jungle-

• Locke calls Ben "Gizmo"

  

• The Losties are getting more brutal. Sawyer's ready to torture Ben. Locke may have used the practical argument against toe-cutting (crippled Ben) because he thought it would be more effective than moral reasoning.
• The grey ash is still in place, but no cabin. I guess you do need to be invited.
• Ben has Locke's number-without orders from above he doesn't have a plan.
• Maybe they should gag Ben. His only weapon now is his mouth.
• Why weren't Daniel and Frank wearing bulletproof vests?
• "Sawyer won't let him"-It's a straight answer to Kate's question, but it's a buzz kill.

-Elsa's Apartment-

• Elsa's dress might be considered red. If Red=Death, then this is foreshadowing.
• I think Elsa pretended like she was going to leave the pager behind to further convince Sayid she was in love with him.
• Elsa's boss makes her use a pager because he's "very old-fashioned".

  There are 3 old-fashioned people we know of:

  • Jacob: He doesn't even like flashlights.
  • Locke: Believes that using technology means a lack of faith in the Island.
  • Ben: Might have been convinced by Locke's argument that his use of technology caused his spinal tumor (or at least led to the Island not healing it).
• The pager isn't a secure means of communication:

  "A related technology, the wireless pager, can also be easily intercepted. Pagers receive signals over the airways with no scrambling. Numerous programs are available for computers that can monitor the entire frequency spectrum that pagers operate on and automatically retain every message that is sent."

• Sayid: "Everyone has a boss". This episode is full of bosses, seen and unseen.
• Why did Sayid tell Elsa he was only going to be in Berlin for a week? Did he expect the Economist sooner?
• Sayid and Elsa are going to hear some Strauss. Wikipedia is full of composers named Strauss , but let's consider Richard Strauss:
  
  
  • Strauss wrote a tone poem entitled Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) , based on Friedrich Nietzsche's book of the same name.

  • "Zarathustra was the first to consider the fight of good and evil the very wheel in the machinery of things: the transposition of morality into the metaphysical realm, as a force, cause, and end in itself, is his work"

  • Nietzsche considered The Eternal Return the central idea of Also sprach Zarathustra:

    "Eternal return (also known as "eternal recurrence") is a concept which posits that the universe has been recurring, and will continue to recur in the exact same self-similar form an incomprehensible and unfathomable number of times. The concept has roots in ancient Egypt, and was subsequently taken up by the Pythagoreans and Stoics. With the decline of antiquity and the spread of Christianity, the concept fell into disuse, though Friedrich Nietzsche briefly resurrected it.

    In addition, the philosophical concept of eternal recurrence was addressed by Arthur Schopenhauer. It is a purely physical concept, involving no "reincarnation," but the return of beings in the same bodies. Time is viewed as being not linear but cyclical.

    The basic premise is that the universe is limited in extent and contains a finite amount of matter, while time is viewed as being infinite. The universe has no starting or ending state, while the matter comprising it is constantly changing its state. The number of possible changes is finite, and so sooner or later the same state will recur.

    Physicists such as Stephen Hawking and J. Richard Gott have proposed models by which the (or a) universe could undergo time travel, provided the balance between mass and energy created the appropriate cosmological geometry. More philosophical concepts from physics, such as Hawking's "arrow of time," for example, discuss cosmology as proceeding up to a certain point, whereafter it undergoes a time reversal (which, as a consequence of T-symmetry, is thought to bring about a chaotic state due to thermodynamic entropy)."

-Daniel's Experiment-

• Frank: "If Minkowski comes on you hang up right away"-Miles really wants to talk to Minkowski, but Frank doesn't. There would seem to be some divisions between the crew of the freighter.
• Regina doesn't have to set anything up, she's instantly ready when Daniel calls.
• As I posted earlier, The rocket wasn't just delayed, it was too fast.
  • I assume that Regina can track the rocket's position through GPS and/or inertial telemetry. She isn't just assuming the position based on estimated speed and time elapsed.
  • Regina starts counting down the distance to Daniel (from the rocket launch-pad. which I assume is the freighter) at 40km in 5km increments. Therefore I assume the freighter is 45km from Daniel.
  • 45km=27.9 miles, let's call it 28 miles. I was wrong in my earlier post and had it at 29 miles.
  • By my timing of Regina's count, Regina observed (and reported) the rocket traveling 28 miles in 27 seconds.
    28miles/27sec = 3733miles/hour
  • 3733mph is far too fast for that little rocket. Neither Daniel or Regina gave any indication that they noticed that the rocket went 5 times too fast. I think this is an error rather than deliberate.

• Daniel: "That is far more than wierd"

-Othertown-

• Before Sayid, Miles, and Kate get to the Barracks there is a deleted scene featuring Mile's ghostbusting
• Why did the Other's leave so suddenly (in Ep# 315, Left Behind) that they couldn't take down their laundry?
• How long were they going to leave Hurley in that closet?
• How did Locke convince Hurley to run the con? I think he told Hurley that if he didn't do it there might be a gunfight.

-Helicopter-

• "What is that? It's a rocket"-no shit
• The rocket was 31 minutes late. Why are physical objects delayed but phone calls are not?
• Daniel expected a time-space anomaly, that's why the rocket had a clock. Somebody should ask Daniel why he's on this mission and what he's been told about the Island.

• "Did you see the numbers on Daniel's clocks? One said 3:16, while the other said 2:45. As it happens, Daniel 2:45 is the culmination of the story in which exiled Daniel earned an exalted place in King Nebuchadnezzar's court by interpreting a dream concerning the future of Babylon and how ''the fourth kingdom will be a divided kingdom.'' Hey - that sounds like the fourth season of Lost! Meanwhile, Daniel 3:16 is part of the famous story of how Daniel's friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown in the fiery furnace but were saved by God. How might that apply to Lost? Well, thematically, the story deals with three men who refused to abandon their spiritual beliefs and bow down before a false idol - a story that stands in stark contrast to Sayid's flash-forward arc."

  ''Lost'': St. Valentine's Day Massacre, by Jeff Jensen
• Nitpick: Daniel is depending on electronic clocks to tell accurate time on an island full of strange and powerful electromagnetic fields. The Island could be messing with the the rocket's telemetry (if it exists) as well as doing strange things with time.

-Othertown-

• Nitpick: Sayid should know better. You search a possibly hostile building in a group, not all split up. And you wait until you know the building is clear before you start searching for clues.
• The titles of 2 books next to the Qur'an are identifiable.
  • Kings of Love: The History & Poetry of the Ni'matullaha Sufi Order of Iran , by Nasrollah Pourjavady & Peter Lamborn Wilson.
    • The Nimatullahi Sufi Order
    • Peter Lamborn Wilson:
      • "The Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ) describes the socio-political tactic of creating temporary spaces that elude formal structures of control. The essay uses various historical and philosophical examples, all of which attempt to lead the reader to the conclusion that the best way to create a non-hierarchical system of social relationships is to concentrate on the present and on releasing one's own mind from the controlling mechanisms that have been imposed on it."
      • Pirate Utopias were described by essayist Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey) in his 1995 book Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes, and in his earlier essay Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ), as secret islands once used for supply purposes by pirates that were early forms of autonomous "mini societies" existing beyond the realm and reach of governments. These pirate enclaves typify proto-anarchist societies in that they operated beyond laws and governments and, in their stead, embraced freedom.
  • Red Man's Religion , by Ruth Underhill
  Ben is an eclectic reader.
• That Ben has his outside-world gear in a hidden room implies that he is keeping it a secret from the Others, or at most of them.
• Ben has passports from New Zealand and Brazil. His money includes Japanese yen, British pounds, and Euros.
• Ben's £20 notes have Michael Faraday on them and haven't been legal tender since February 28, 2001.
• Ben's Swiss passport has the name Dean Moriarty. Professor Moriarty was a fictional criminal mastermind and Sherlock Holmes' nemesis.
• The opening paragraph of On The Road says "With the coming of Dean Moriarty began the part of my life you could call my life on the road.".
• Screencaps of passport and money
• Kate seeing Sawyer's feet mirrors young Sawyer seeing his father's feet after his father killed his mother.
• Kate is a team player-she sees Sawyer and raises the alarm.
• Nitpick: If Sayid hadn't come rushing out of Ben's hidden closet Locke's plan would have fallen apart.
• Ben has a Map of the freaking UNIVERSE in his bedroom.
• Locke bringing ice tea mirrors Patchy doing the same.
• Sayid: "The day I start trusting him is the day I sell my soul"-just a little foreshadowing.
• Locke already has Miles, so what did Sayid trade for Charlotte? I think he made a promise to Locke.

-Elsa's Apartment-

• Elsa wore her bracelet to bed.
• Sayid should have made up a story about his job.
• Was Sayid really going to tell Elsa everything before her boss paged her?
• I can't make out the name of the hotel Elsa says.
• Elsa: "I understand you don't want to talk about the crash, what happened to you"-What does the outside world think happened to the Oceanic 6? It sure sounds bad.
• There sure are a lot of mirrors in Elsa's apartment.
• Elsa sounds more loyal than an mere employee.
• Major Nitpick: Sayid has his pistol butt conveniently hanging out of his jacket? What if Elsa saw it? And how did she miss it whenever they embraced?
• Elsa on the phone:
  • You were supposed to page me at 10:30
  • No, I didn't kill him
  • He's not going to give up the name now
  • Why should I keep him alive?
  • No, he had no idea
  • All right all right
  • I'll bring him to you
  • Leave the hotel
  • I'll meet you at the safe house

-Helicopter-

• Frank and Daniel know the name Penelope Widmore, and they are bad liars.
• Charlotte "has work to do"-Evil work.
• I wonder if Frank's bearing is the same as Michael and Walt's?
• I wonder if Sayid has any surprises stashed on Naomi's body?

-Vet Clinic-

• Nice Darth Vader voice, tell Sayid you're his father.
• • Ben: "These people don't deserve our sympathies."
  • Ben: "Need I remind you what they did the last time you thought with your heart instead of your gun?"
  • Sayid: "You used that to recruit me into killing for you."
  • Ben: "Do you want to protect your friends or not, Sayid?"
  • Ben: "I have another name for you."
  • Sayid: "But they know I'm after them now."
  • Ben: "Good"

---

Last Thoughts:

• Who is "The Economist"?
  We have 3 sources of information on him:
  • Elsa: As she was conning Sayid from the start, everything she said is unreliable. Which leads us to our next source.
  • Ben (through Sayid): Sayid's behavior indicates he believed Elsa's story about her and her employer. I assume he was briefed by Ben for his mission. We have no idea of the source of Ben's knowledge.

    But Ben is unreliable because he didn't know Elsa was a enemy operative and not an innocent assistant/personal shopper. I'm assuming if he knew this he would have told Sayid because I think Ben values finding the Economist more than killing Sayid. Since Ben was wrong about Elsa he could have been wrong about the whole scenario-maybe Berlin was just a trap and the Economist never existed.

  • Elsa's Call: She talked to whoever paged her, but her call didn't sound like she was talking to a boss but rather an slightly superior co-worker. She complains about the page being late and practically orders the caller to leave the hotel and go to the safe house.
  If Elsa's story is essentially true then the Economist operates very strangely.
  • Why does he need what seems like a trained assassin on call?
  • Why doesn't he travel with his own staff?
  • Clearly the Economist doesn't seem like one of the corporate heads (Hanso, Widmore, Paik) we could assume are Ben's enemies.
  One person who might operate like the Economist is Ben himself. I don't mean to suggest that Ben set up Sayid: If he wanted Sayid dead he could have easily killed him at the Vets. But what if there are 2 Bens?
• Why is Sayid operating alone? Why is his only backup Ben?

---

Recaps:

• LOST - Demon Economics, by J.Wood

  I consider J. Wood's analyses of Lost to be essential reading.

  "A quick overture of what discussions will be attempted in the following paragraphs:
  # A breakdown of "economy"
  # Ockham's Razor
  # Playing with spacetime
  # Jack Kerouac
  # Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  # Ken Kesey
  # Michael Faraday
  # James Clerk Maxwell and his lil' demon
  # Identity loss
  # David Lewis
  # Conditional grammar as a narrative tell"

  Extra reading:
  • David Kellogg Lewis
  • Modal Realism
• Welcome to My Working Week, by Fishbiscuit
• 'Lost': Decode These Clues!, by Jeff Jensen

  "Which leads me to my Big Theory of the Week: There's a secret war raging in the larger Lost world - a war over reality itself. The war is being fought by two rival groups that have knowledge of future events. Each group is leveraging this knowledge to facilitate different, self-serving outcomes. The castaways - and possibly the Freighter Four, too - are pawns in this quantum chess match. They are being moved around the board of the Island - and the larger world - in order to create certain events that generate certain consequences (or useful energies) that are either advantageous to their cause...or disadvantageous to their rival's cause. On one side of the board is Ben. On the other side, Matthew Abbaddon, who, I believe, works for a company that was introduced in the recent online tie-in game ''Find 815'', a group whose name was inspired by James Clerk Maxwell, a group called...the Maxwell Group."

• ''Lost'': St. Valentine's Day Massacre, by Jeff Jensen
• 'Lost' Dueling Analyses: The Economist, by Liz Kelly and Jen Chaney
• Truths and Contradictions, by Luhks

  "The more we know about Sayid, and the more closely we examine him, the more confusing his character becomes. Sayid manages to embody all of these opposites simultaneously. Which Sayid is the real Sayid? I sincerely hope that Jarrah's ultimate destiny will be as something other than as Ben's attack dog. There are some viewers out there who seem to think that all the characters are destined to become mindless followers of Ben, or Jacob, or the Island itself. If they do, then those characters will meet the same end as Elsa, an inconsequential pawn who sacrificed her life to protect a King. In the final scene, Ben treats Sayid's wounds in a veterinary clinic, both for practical reasons (to conceal his work), and as a metaphor for his new relationship with Sayid. Ben values Sayid's life, like the life of any of his followers, about as much as he values any one of the caged dogs. Sayid Jarrah has always been a man of exceptional intelligence and skill, capable of some far greater accomplishment in his life. I can only hope that Sayid will one day find a mission worthy of his potential."

• Things I Noticed – The "Economist", by Vozzek69

  "I've changed my opinion on Charlotte. Too many people have pointed at too many things, and re-watching last week's episode again she cast one too many sly looks (one of them being at the exact moment Ben blew her up). Dan, Miles, Frank? They're the three blind mice. Dan's too loveably eccentric to be 'acting' scatterbrained, and this week confirms our assumption that Miles is only in it for the money (said to Jack, low in the background: "...for what they're paying me?"). Frank's knowledge is zero - he's nothing but a vehicle to get them to and from the island, the only pilot able to do so. And although Naomi might've known a little bit more than them, she still didn't know the whole deal.

  But I think Charlotte does. The Freighter crew wouldn't have sent that chopper without at least one person who knew the true mission, and that person's shaping up to be Charlotte. Which was pretty funny, because Locke was lucky enough to have her fall into his hands... only to trade her away for a handful of magic beans (Miles). Charlotte's assertion that she "has work to do" after refusing the chopper ride only strengthens this idea. She's got a job to accomplish, and you can bet it's not paleontological."

• Thoughts on The Economist..., by Eye M Sick

  "I'll expand on all of this in a separate post, but I want to briefly propose a variation of a scenario I've explored before, e.g., in Lost Time. Let's say the Island naturally exists 31 minutes in our past. Perhaps Oceanic 815 was supposed to crash killing everyone on board. Instead, the intense magnetic field caused by System Failure pulled the plane through one of the Island's natural wormholes, threatening to disrupt the timeline. The second crash was faked to prevent a course correction that would profoundly alter the future -- a future Charles Widmore believes he owns."

• Initial Thoughts: The Economist, by Gitsie Girl
• 4X 03: The Economist, By Gitsie Girl
• The Price of Being Human, by John Caulfield
• "The Economist": Not Just a Magazine for Snobs, by Long Live Locke

  "The winner of The Most Creative Theory award goes to MD, MF and BB (or, "two Christians and a Semite," in their own words), who wrote me with the Holiday Theory. The gist of this theory is that a battle of sorts is underway on the Island, and it's over which religious holiday wins out--will it be Christmas? Hanukkah? Or some bizarro Scientology holiday? Here is their reasoning:

  - Jacob is Santa Claus, who can only be seen by "believers." He is losing his powers because the level of cynicism in the world is rising, and people no longer believe in jolly Saint Nick.

  - The Island used to be located at the North Pole (thus the appearance of polar bears), but global warming caused everything to melt. However, the magical powers of Santa and his elves can still be found in spots on the Island, which explains some of the strange happenings we've witnessed there so far.

  - The Others are Santa's adult elves (which explains why they don't age). But they've lost the ability to carry their babies to term because the Island is now too warm, so they are freaking out about the fact that there are no younger elves around to help build toys. They also hate humans (who caused global warming and led to the pregnancy problem), so they will fight anyone who lands on the Island. But they agreed to bring Juliet there in order to help overcome their pregnancy issue. Further, they kidnap kids in order to convince them to believe in Santa Claus, which helps keep Santa/Jacob from completely losing his powers and disappearing for good.

  - The Dharma group was made up of Jewish colonists who wanted to take advantage of Santa/Jacob's weakened state in order to change the official holiday of the Island to Hanukkah, rather than Christmas. They built the Temple, at which the rest of the Others are now hiding.

  - The Numbers are the exact proportions of the Dharma ingredients in the Best. Matzo. Ever.

  - Naomi and her crew are Scientologists wanting to get rid of both Christmas and Hanukkah so that their own secret winter holiday can be #1 on the Island. This holiday will be revealed at the end of Season Four.

  Before you dismiss this theory, consider the following evidence MD, MF and BB gathered to support their ideas:

  - The Find815.com game lead players around CHRISTMAS Island.

  - Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet) stars in the Santa Claus II, as Mrs. Claus.

  - "HO HO HO" is hidden in Episode 4.01 (as discussed in my previous write-up)

  - Assuming that it was after midnight when Daniel Faraday parachuted to the Island, he landed there on Christmas Eve.

  - Time travel is prevalent throughout the series... and how else could Santa deliver presents to all those houses across the world?"

"The mission profile is that the machine must be insertable down a 12" diameter pipe. Once through the pipe, it is deployed within a 75' diameter tank filled with unprocessed nuclear waste, which has typically separated into liquids and nitrate/nitrite salts. The environment is immediately lethal to unprotected humans and rapidly lethal to protected humans, including radiation, corrosion and toxic threats. These tanks are being pumped out so the waste can be reprocessed for safe long-term storage before tank failure releases (more of) the waste into the environment. The problem solved by this device is breaking up the extensive salt deposits and slurrying them so that they can safely be pumped out."

1: We'll probably find out who would be wondering where Kate was when she met Jack at the airport. They might leave this unanswered, but it would be hard.

2: They have got to explain how Kate is a member of the famous "Oceanic 6" and yet not in prison for blowing up her father. I think they'll come up with something other than the easy ways out I thought of (New identity, Pardon, Cover-up of the crime).

"Three severed right feet have washed ashore on the Gulf Islands (British Colombia) in the past six months, in what police say is one of the most bizarre cases in recent memory.

The latest foot, still in its sneaker, was found last Friday on Valdes Island, a small community near Nanaimo that does not have regular ferry service and is accessible only by private boat or float plane.

RCMP say they're not sure whether foul play is involved and are trying to match any missing-person cases to the severed foot.

Two other right feet, both in size 12 men's sneakers, washed ashore on Gabriola and Jedediah islands last August. RCMP collected DNA from the grisly remains but could not match them to anyone in police databases. The three islands are within 60 kilometres of each other.

"We'll be using pathology examinations and anthropology examinations to garner as much information as we possibly can about the remains," said Jeff Dolen, B.C.'s assistant deputy chief coroner.

Although it is somewhat common to find individual body parts (Well yea, if you're an assistant deputy chief coroner it is,) , Dolen said this would be "the first instance of three such similar remains being discovered" in such proximity."

"The only salmon farm in Northern Ireland has been thrown into crisis following a devastating jellyfish attack that destroyed more than 100,000 fish.

Billions of small mauve stingers flooded the cages where the fish were kept about a mile into the Irish Sea, off the Co Antrim coast, causing more than £1 million of damage and leaving the future of the company in doubt."

....

Last week's attack lasted nearly seven hours, with the small jellyfish stinging and shocking salmon held in an area covering 10 square miles and 35 feet deep.

Workers in three boats tried to reach the cages to rescue the salmon, but the extreme density of jellyfish slowed their progress through the water, and by the time they reached the cages it was too late.

Fun Facts about the Box Jellyfish

• "Four brains that operate competitively in the search for food.
• A highly complex sensory capacity and the ability to distinguish colour.
• The ability to live in inhospitable waters at a depth of up to 10,900 metres.
• A total of 24 eyes with moveable pupils giving them 360-degree visibility.
• Box jellyfish have 6-8ft long tentacles. Just 5-6ft across the body is enough to kill a human in 180 seconds.
• Venom is released on contact - even after it is dead - and each creature has 4000,000,000 venomous fibres.
• Humans who have been stung and survived have needed 30-40 milligrams of morphine. A broken leg requires between 5-10 milligrams.
• Despite decades of study scientists have been unable to unravel the mysteries of its complex venom but it is known to contain 20 different proteins."

And their population is exploding. Weee!

And as a sidenote:

"Runoff from modern life is feeding an explosion of primitive organisms. This 'rise of slime,' as one scientist calls it, is killing larger species and sickening people."

Via MetaFilter

What are the things in the bookshelf behind the host's head? One is almost completly hidden but the other one looks like a DVD with two anime characters and an Apollo candy bar in front of it. It could be a clue!! This could break the whole thing wide open!!!

Or maybe it's just that somebody on the production staff is a big fan of "Mr. Sushi fights Evil Elves".

Update: That took all of 2 minutes. My new branch version of Pollxn from Víctor A. Rodríguez (Bit-Man) includes a Captcha feature that I hope will stymie the comment-spammers.

Twelve Irreligious Questions for the Candidates

• 1. Do you really believe, Mr. Huckabee, that the Earth is only a few thousand years old and that humans and dinosaurs cavorted together?
• 2. Religious people often accuse atheists and agnostics of arrogance. Do you agree? And is it arrogant to say, as you have, that your sudden rise in the polls was an act of God and that you wish to amend the Constitution to better reflect "the word of the living God"?
• 3. Article 19 of the Arkansas state constitution states, "No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any court." Although it and similar laws in other states are not enforced, do you support their formal repeal?