Book A Flight

Thanks to the Forumers who alerted to the fact that you CAN book a flight by entering the following here:

Flight type: One Way
From: Los Angeles
To: Guam
Departing: 1/21/2009
Select Flight: 316 11:30am
Adults: 10
Children: 0
Promotional Code: 112114111109111

When you get to the page you get a floorplan (direct link here). When you click the seats, most of the time it says they are booked. However, other times small images will flash at the side of the page. The site seems to follow a select order, so:

Third seat selected - a shot of LAX airport.
4th - code N824 (seems to be the main clue currently).
10th - a departure timetable.
15th - a shot of an airport lounge (Ajira logo in the background on the wall).
24th - an image of a young woman (Ilana - see DSA information).
34th - an image of a man (Caesar - see DSA information).
35th - the "lamp post" DHARMA logo seen during a DSA video.
36th - your seat number will be accepted and you can download a new boarding pass (very similar to the sample one, just with info on it, download here).

So the main thing seems to be N824 - which could be some kind of code, or something we'll see in Season 5.

SEE ALL THE IMAGES HERE (beware, you could class the people ones as spoilers)

Update - The image of a flight timetable includes a line about Honolulu, and seems to say that flight 316 takes a lay over there. Fits in with the "pineapples in Hawaii" item from the site source code. So do we now have a good picture? Flight 316 takes off from LAX, takes a swift lay-over in Hawaii, and then heads on for Guam?

Ajira Abridged

Just a little update to say that the Lostpedia wiki article on Ajira Airways contains every single minute detail about the site, and so is the one-stop shop for all the explanations about quotes, Guam, and what not. I just did a little shake-up of the layout too, so the sections should hopefully now be easier to follow.

Check out the article here!

I personally think the Lostpedia page currently has the best source of info for Ajira on the entire Interweb. Dunno about you, but I find that the blog posts (including my own) are amazing but miss bits of trivia out or are structured "as the codes are broken" - which is a little tricky to follow if you're only just joining us or want to connect the dots rather than just see them. I'd be interested to hear how you guys assimilate your info... do you like fast and exciting real-time updates, or do you prefer reading full descriptive summaries?

Dharma Special Access Week 6 - More on Ajira

Dharma Special Access has updated, with more fun Q&A with Damon and Carlton. Head on over using the password "EMAL" (I await someone to, as usual, inform me on the significance of that codeword).

The Q&A was interesting - we get a mention of Geronimo Jackson (apparently one of their rare songs will be on the show...). We also will find out why Christian Shephard wears white shoes on the Island despite having a dark suit (apparently a key mystery on the show...). Moreover, we've got more info upcoming about the four-toed statue in the new season.

They finally whip out a copy of that lovely Ajira commercial. Sorry guys, we already got the memo... but fear that Bengal tiger!

Ajira - Some Assembly Required

Months of waiting, and finally Ajira Airways has become a fully fledged ARG site, with loads of new material about this mysterious company. First off there's an exotic promo video, with a weird image of a limo driver (pictured), holding the number 316 and some... Arabic?

Among their other stuff of interest is a crazily reasonable $87, which gets you a trip to a mystery location around the world where "time and space have no consequence". Another reference to what we've by now gathered is the Season 5 theme.

Another weird inclusion is in the site source code - a big thanks to 'The Immortal Dave' who pointed out that there's some hexidecimal code there, which translates to "For God so love the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." From John 3:16. Comment with your speculation about the meaning of that one. Didn't Eko's stick say John 3:16?

Also check out this page on the site, where there's a link to download an origami instruction pack to make a 3D ball. I remember that one from high school... But who is the uploader, Antonio B. MacCutcheon? Does he have a link to the whisky brand?

Next, check out this sample boarding card image from the site. Notice the DHARMA bagua style in the background, along with some familiar Swan hieroglyphs. Maybe the barcode numbers/letters also have some significance?

Lastly, the site mentions about its Sky Club membership - typical for most airlines, right? But what I found interesting was the mention "Redemption provides you a solo seat or a chance to charter your own personal plane. Your destiny awaits." Perhaps Ajira will be seen on the show, and Ben and the O6 will use this benefit to fly their own plane back to the island?? Bit out there...

Think that's everything you need to be caught up, do drop us comments on any further finds!

Update 1 - (Source: LostARGs): Most of the pages seem to have other messages in hex. They include:

• So off they started about Irish sport and shoneen games the like of lawn tennis and about Hurley and putting the stone and racy of the soil and building up a nation once again and all of that. (From Ulysses by James Joyce... the writers said in a Dharma Special Access that it would be seen on the show).
  
• PINEAPPLES IN HAWAII
• SUPERSONIC IS COMMERCIAL THIRTY TILL MERIDIAN
• WHERE AMERICA'S DAY BEGINS.

Update 2 - Reports are suggesting that folding the sample boarding card using the origami instructions leads to the "GUM" letters on the card being seen inside the 3D ball. GUM indicates the Ajira flight location Guam. Also, if you use the numbers on the boarding card as latitude/longitude coordinates, you have 13 29.02'N and 144 47.50'E. Punch this one into Google Earth... and you're taken to Guam International Airport!!! Lost fans 1, TPTB 0.

Lostpedia in TV.com Top 100 Everything List

Lostpedia has narrowly made it into the TV.com Top 100 Everything of 2008 List. As you might be aware, sites like Entertainment Weekly often put out lists like "Top 100 web sites" or "Top 100 TV shows", so TV.com decided to make a fun list reflecting on the entire year. The list includes everything and anything: websites, shows, movies, news, even select lines from shows and film.

Lostpedia arrives at #97 - though not exactly up there, to be included in such a list where the options are so varied is a cool honor. Here's their description of what they earlier describe as a "a Web must":

The go-to source for all your Lost needs, Lostpedia helps us make sense of what we just watched and catches us up on the little details we missed. If it happens in the Lost universe, it's there. Get extensive background information on Vincent the dog, but beware of spoilers!

Slightly incorrect about spoilers, but we're not complaining. Many thanks to TV.com for the mention. Also, just fyi, Lost is also at #70 for the well-planned introduction of the Freighter folk. Anyway, TV.com are currently releasing the Top 100 in blocks of 10, so here's all the links we have so far (I'll try and update them later):

91-100
81-90
71-80
61-70
51-60

A Merry Dharma Christmas

Dharma Special Access week 5 is up and running - and as a "Dharma Christmas" treat, D&C offer us a cool video featuring themselves, themselves in four years time, and right at the end the faces of two new characters who will be in Season 5.

The video is quite amusing - D&C do some major Season 4 DVD plugging, but also show some great fun with a "flash-forward scene." Check it out at the Dharma Special Access site, using the password "yksnizdar" (I wonder whether the code means something - normally I get a comment from someone who's researched the word on Google, but this time I'm not so sure...)

I'll also post the actor and character names of those two faces below, as was stated on the email. They are spoilers though, so I've whitened the font. Highlight below to reveal the names:

Caesar, played by Saïd Taghmaoui. Ilana, played by Zuleikha Robinson.

To Lost fans. Happy Holidays. Love, Lostpedia

Well it's the holiday season - insert your religious or non-religious festival here - so to celebrate, we at Lostpedia have issued a new cast interview. We're also marking the occasion due to our move to Wikia.

Anyway, we can finally offer - a Q&A session with none other than MICHAEL EMERSON! Since taking on the role of Henry Gale / Ben Linus, Emerson has become one of the most popular actors on the show, and he has very graciously taken the time to answer some fan questions. It was particularly nice to see that he answered so many! And gave such thorough answers as well! It really puts him in a positive light as a general nice guy, IMO.

So, get going and reading the interview HERE.

Report bugs/comments/criticisms about the switch

Hey all, as you've been seeing, Lostpedia has been going through major transition and admittedly major teething issues to boot. If you've found any issues, then post em on the wiki, Forum, IRC or in the blog comments section, and we'll try and sort em out.

Some problems are about username conflict (we can help you with that and let you choose a new name if we can't just give you your old one back). Others are talking about the ads (if you log in, there are only ads on the Main Page under the default skin - with Monobook you might get some ads even when logged in though we're working on fixing that one). Non-logged in people will see some nasty ads unfortunately, but I think they're better than some of the ones we had in the past like those nasty green ad hyperlinks.

As I say, drop us a message about any problems you're finding. We're also working hard on the Main Page to make it look more user-friendly - so a total revamp will probably occur. If you've got any ideas or wiki template ideas for that one, again let us know!

Stay tuned for Dharma Special Access Week 5 in a couple of days!

Wikia - Some of the changes

I just thought it might be useful to put some details in a list of the changes we have seen as we moved over to the new Lostpedia platform on Wikia

New Look
A new look based upon the Monaco skin, that i affectionately call Lostaco. All the original Lostpedia skins; both the Mediawiki Monobook default, and the Lostbook design for signed in users are available, or should soon be available to Lostpedia users in the very near future so the site can look identical to how you used to like it.

Adverts
For signed in users there are only adverts on the front page. No more adverts in the content, and no more green link adverts!

New License
The text contents of Lostpedia is now licensed under GFDL. Making Lostpedia completely free to all. You can do whatever you like with the data now! Its free, as in really free! Sorry, this was a mistake due to the setup of the Wiki not being complete. My apologies!

Page Ratings
Pages are rateable. Rating pages will alert the user base to quality issues, so they can be rectified.

And also while I'm here a quick note on the content coming to Lostpedia soon

New Main Page
Whilst the old main page was adequate, we realise that there is massive potential for a new main page. We will be introducing a more concise and clearer main page design soon, hopefully just after New Year, that should inform you of the latest news from around the web on Lost, as well as make it even easier to navigate the site.

WYSIWYG editor
For those of you who aren't code junkies, a new WYSIWYG editor should soon be available in order to allow you to create pages.

Lostpedia joins with Wikia

A quick announcement by Kevin Croy. Founder of Lostpedia and Lostpedia Admin.

Greetings,
I'm pleased to announce that Lostpedia will be joining the Wikia family of wikis. Over the next few days a migration will be taking place and I'd like to share with you a few of the factors that went into the decision and also properly set your expectations.
I had the honor of meeting Jimmy Wales a year ago at the Wikia offices. He made it clear that he was a fan of Lost and a fan of Lostpedia and offered to help us if we needed anything. Since then I've had the pleasure to meet the rest of the Wikia team. The more I learned about them; the more it made sense to work together.
Here are a few of the benefits of moving Lostpedia to Wikia:
As the Lostpedia community grows larger and stronger, site stability will become more and more important. By moving, Lostpedia will be on Wikia's world class geographically distributed hosting platform, which should increase speed and reliability for all users World Wide.
Access to the entire Wikia team which includes: Programmers, System Administrators, Graphic Designers, Spam Fighters, etc.
Due to Wikia's scale they receive better rates on their advertising and lower costs on operations. As a result we are able to immediately remove the "in text" ads and remove most ads for logged in users!
We will have access to all of the Wikia custom wiki modules such as their new Visual (WYSIWYG) editor, Multiple Image Upload tool, and Spam protection tools
From a community perspective, nothing will change. Our current team of Sysops will stay in place and Wikia will support us in every way they can. They want to see this community thrive as much as we all do.
We will switch to their servers on Thursday morning. Although I am anticipating a smooth transition, your understanding and patience during this time will be appreciated. Please rest assured that we will all work together to quickly iron out any bugs or snags that pop up. During the transition the wiki will be put in read only mode.
Please see Lostpedia:WikiaFAQ for more information. You can see a demo site up now at http://tor4.wikia.com/.
Thanks, --Admin

UPDATE : The wiki is currently locked down while the data transfer to Wikia is underway. Please be patient whilst we set up over the next day or so. The move has required a large amount of work both at our end, and Wikia's, in order to move you all over smoothly. Any questions you have should be answered on the WikiaFAQ linked above, but if they aren't, please leave a comment here, join us in IRC or on our forums where I'm sure one of the SysOps from Lostpedia, or the staff of Wikia should be able to help answer your questions.

UPDATE 2 from Santa: The new site is now Live and working at Lostpedia.wikia.com. For languages other than English, the links are at www.wikia.com/wiki/Lostpedia.

DSA Week 4: A Muddy Q&A

Another week and another offering of pre-Season 5 delights, courtesy of Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Head over to Dharma Special Access and use the code "kapalaran" (a Filipino soap opera says Google?).

For your viewing pleasure this week:

1) There's a sneak peek preview of Season 5, showing Jack and Ben chatting about Locke (beware the spoilers, though tbh they don't give anything away really).

2) Damon and Carlton answer a few fan questions. The most interesting of which was one about "which came first - Dharma or the Monster". They categorically answer that the Monster was there first. Though some of you won't be surprised by this, a number of people were of the blast door map school of thought, which referenced the idea that Dharma had created "Cerberus" to do their bidding. Another good question mentioned the runway the Others were seen building on Hydra Island in Season 3. The writers clued to the idea that this construction (whether for launching or landing something) might be critical to Season 5's narrative.

They also mention in their email how filming has been halted in Hawaii due to a mudslide, but hopefully they'll be back in action in that location soon when they've restored the set. Best wishes to D&C with their filming, we're sure they're doing great!

Wonder if we'll get something even more juicy next week from DSA, considering it'll be a Dec 23rd edition... more Q&A please!!!

Actor Strikewatch Update: December

The possibility of another Hollywood strike has become real again. The Screen Actors Guild has announced they will mail strike authorization ballots to its members on January 2, 2009, and will count the votes on January 23. For more info, see Variety.

This development follows after a reboot of negotiations with federal mediators recently failed in November, as we reported last month.

The vote requires a high threshold of 75% to approve the strike authorization, which is seen as giving union negotiators a much stronger bargaining position but does not in itself guarantee a strike will occur. However the producers group (AMPTP) has been loathe to give ground on payments for "New Media" formats such as Internet streaming, which industry observers believe will be the next important area as viewership continues to decline for broadcast television and DVDs.

If a strike did occur, unlike the past writer's strike, it would immediately halt ongoing productions including Lost, which has been filming Season 5 continuously since mid-August, and would thus be somewhere beyond the halfway point of the planned seventeen hours of programming.

So after January 23, check the news to see if your fix of Lost may be in jeopardy.

UPDATE: December 22, 2008 - The strike vote scheduled January 2 has been postponed, with an emergency SAG board meeting to be held January 12-13, due to the number of high-profile opposition from actors within the union. Read more at Variety here.

Sight, Light and Sound

Dharma Special Access, Week 3, has arrived. What's on offer this week is a little different. To view all, go to the site and enter the password "adella courey"

First off, you can get a Namaste ringtone by texting "Namaste" to 77888. Terms and Conditions apply.

Next, there's a clue at Season 5 with the following sounds you will hear in the episodes:

From #501:
CL-CLICK. BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP. KNOCKNKNOCKKNOCK! WHAPPP! VVVVVVWWHHHHHEEEEMMMMMM! PLLEPPT-PLEPTT-PLEPTT. BOOOOOOOOOM! BLAAM!!! THUUDDD. CRUUUUUUUUUNCH! PFFT! PFFT! PFFT! SMAAASSHHHH! SHCLICK!!!! CA-CLICK. FOOOMP. SKLIIIIIISH. PING. RAT-A-TAT. BAMBAMBAMBAMBAM!!!!

From #502:
BWOOBWOO! TAPTAPTAPTAPTAP. KNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCK. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. SLAMMM! THWACK! KRE-KLACK. BEEEEP... SLAMS. SCRRIIIIIDDDDDDDFLIP!

From #503:
FLAPP-FLAPP-FLAPP. AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!! THRAAAAASH! KAAAAAAAA-THWOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!! CLICKETY-CLICKETY-CLACK. CRRRR-ACK!

Thrilling, I'm sure you'll agree... Finally, there's a video where D & C discuss Lost books. They specifically mention "The Stand" by Stephen King as a great book, but also discuss Ulysses by James Joyce - which Ben will be reading in episode 5x07! Perhaps a good read for February's Lostpedia book club? Right at the end of the video, however, is a brief glimpse at a new DHARMA logo (pictured).

Let theories about lighthouses/street lamps commence.

The Third Policeman sees out 2008

Apologies for being ever so slightly late with the launch of December's book club read - busy busy busy time of year, stressful world events, you name it. However, let's all forget our worries and snuggle up by the fire with a good book - and this month it is "The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien. This read promises to be of much interest to us Lost fans, as I quote from Lostpedia:

The writers of Lost have specifically referenced this book as providing "ammunition" which may aid with interpretation of the show's plot.

Hmm... we shall see, but it seems like a great incentive to take part with this one! As ever, you can discuss the book on the Lostpedia Forums here. You can also use Lostpedia's IRC Chat facilities to live chat talk about the book. If you've still not got the book yet, then you can order it online through Amazon here or borrow it through your local library (consult link below).

A note for next year - the book for January will be Watchmen by Alan Moore. Yes, you read correctly, we will be reading a graphic novel. Literary snobs among you, deal with it - Watchmen was the only graphic novel to be listed in Time magazine's list of 100 greatest books, and has been personally recommended by Mr. Damon Lindelof. Buy Watchmen in advance now on Amazon, or see this website for local US libraries.

A final point - the book club will continue to run through Season 5 indefinitely, due to popular demand. However, the voting process will be purely qualitatively based, with posters proposing reads rather than choosing from a short-listed selection. This will ensure a greater range of literature. Winning books will be addressed through the Blog and on the Forums, and as usual at least a month's notice in advance will be given before each new read.

Airdates news

A quick one to announce some airing news.

1. Canada's CTV will air 5x01 the same day as ABC in the US. (ie Wednesday, January 21, 2009)
2. Sky1 in the UK will begin Season 5 on Sunday, January 25, 2009.
3. ABC will air There's No Place Like Home Parts 1, 2, and 3 on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 from 8pm-11pm.

No news for my Australia yet :'(

Bleag

DSA: Week 2

Dharma Special Access has updated with a new week's worth of exclusive LOST content. If you weren't around last week - basically the guys are giving us exclusive content every week through the web, to make up for the fact that Dharma has had its funding cut from those running it (I feel a deja vu coming on, the year was 1987, it was a cold winter...). Anyway, this week Damon and Carlton are offering us all priority access to the following vids, before they get posted on ABC in a couple of days:

1) A first-look preview of Season 4 DVD features.

2) An interview with Rebecca Mader (Charlotte).

3) A sneak-peek at episode 5x01!!!

To see these great videos, head on over to the DSA site, and use the password "qilak"! Adding to the positive feedback, a big thanks to the guys for this - everyone seems to be enjoying them from what I've heard!

P.S. D & C also mention in their email that you can get a nice recession-busting 10% discount at meltcomics.com (the place where last week's exclusive video was from). Just use the promo code "DSA".

Fringe references LOST

No big deal - but a nice little something. I got a heads up from Dennis of TLEC and LostARGs fame about a reference to LOST in a recent episode of Fringe. Check out the screencaps here of a plane ticket one of the characters had, which is for an Oceanic flight.

It's just a minor crossover, but it's always cool to see LOST shout-outs, and we'll probably see many more in the future...

DSA post 1

Sorry for the late report - but as many of you will know by now if you're signed up to the Dharma mailing list, the first Dharma Special Access is available at this address. Your password is "lafleur" in case you missed the memo.

There's three videos. The first shows Damon and Carlton explaining, in all but explicit terms, that the ARG is over due to budget cuts, and so to say sorry they're offering exclusive content every week to us Dharma folk (which 2 days later is posted on ABC for all people to see).

Video 2 shows the guys at the Meltdown event, which the previous blog entry by Santa has eloquently covered. Finally video 3 is a run-down of Lost so far, similar to those "Lost in 4:15" or whatever things they released earlier this year. The dry witted female narrator remains, and I found it a nice refresher.

Hopefully next week's one will be more fruitful, however, with the possibility of the guys answering some fan questions.

Kubrick launch party at Meltdown Comics

Most of the Lost "The Powers That Be" (TPTB) gathered for the autograph session and launch party for the Medicom Kubrick Lost action figures at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood. The figures may or may not be to everyone's taste, but any Lost fan would be in envy of the fun time had by all last Wednesday November 19. In attendance were names such as : J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, the writing duo of Adam Horowitz & Edward Kitsis, as well as stalwart Elizabeth Sarnoff and of course the recently poached-from-the-comics-world Brian K. Vaughan.

There was also an art gallery by executive producer Jack Bender, and in the LA Weekly gallery I spied the "Hatch Painting" as well as a painting from Widmore's bedroom, a sighting that confirmed for the first time it was yet another in-show artwork by Bender.

Photo galleries: Autographed goodies were available galore, as well as what looked to be a chance to suit up in authentic DHARMA jumpsuits, from the looks of several photo galleries posted by fans as well as the LA Weekly.

Take a look at the two photo galleries and have fun.

Actor Strikewatch Update: November

The winds are fanning the possible flames of a debilitating actor's strike again, an issue largely dormant since July, when the Screen Actor Guild's primetime contract expired.

In the aftermath, there was no new contract, but there was also no strike, due to prevailing belief that the union's membership would not have the stomach to authorize a strike on the heels of the writer's strike. Life went on, and filming at all networks for a new television season commenced on schedule.

Last week, the union met with the producers (AMPTP), along with a federal mediator, for the first time since July, with negligible signs of progress.

Today, the news media are reporting that talks officially broke down completely, and the union responded by announcing a campaign to convince its members to authorize a strike. Whether they will be successful in the midst of a worldwide economic downturn, but with so much on the line such as "new media" viewing payments (have you watched Lost on abc.com lately?), has yet to be seen. Read more at a nice, in-depth article at the LA Times.

If a strike does begin in the near future, it will of course interrupt the filming of Lost's Season 5, which will probably be somewhere more than halfway through the season by the beginning of the new year. It doesn't look likely yet, but fans should keep an eye on the news to see if the Screen Actors Guild manages to muster a strike authorization. If that happens, it will almost certainly affect our 2009 fix of Lost in some fashion.

Ajira Airways - A Lostpedia Investigation

The previous blog post mentions the discovery of this mysterious company, but I wanted to both summarize what we know and further show what I've found snooping around (which isn't much).

As you probably know, during a Lost Season 5 promo music video thingy of "You Found Me" by The Fray, there was a very brief logo there, Ajira. If you visit ajiraairways.com then you'll notice a very cool airplane company with the tagline "Destiny calls" - the same tagline seen on promotional posters for Lost Season 5. Furthermore, the site is launching January 21st - the date of Season 5's premiere. You can sign up to their mailing list, and "discover new ways to get lost in the world."

I think one of the most interesting things with this whole thing is that Ajira, as mentioned in the last post, can be transliterated (whatever that is?!) from Hindi to make "island" or "isle". Thinking back to Hans Van Eeghen's final words in his last email, "in the meantime may the spirit of the island guide you" - makes a bit more sense now, and perhaps it wasn't just a flippant let's-slightly-chip-the-fourth-wall thing.

Anything else to report? Well there's one thing, but I doubt its significance. I was playing on Google and found a cached version of the Ajira site dated Nov 10th. See it here. It looked normal but I saw "Burky...Call me!" which I thought was a bit weird, especially when Lost executive producer Bryan Burk is known by that nickname. But again, probably nothing, and I'm certainly not trying that number!

Update 1 - Lostpedia Administrator Santa added details on the site. Apparently WHOIS lists that it was created October 21st, so thus the cached Nov 10th content I cite was actually added it would seem by the makers of the site. For more info and what Santa got, see Lostpedia's Ajira Airways article.

Update 2 - Sorry, another little thing. The WHOIS stuff suggests that the site is being run by LeeLee films. In other words, NOT Hoodlum. This might suggest that Ajira is unrelated to Dharma, as surely Hoodlum would produce the new site if it's from the same ARG project?

The Fray Season 5 Trailer Live

The new season 5 trailer, a mix of Lost clips and the new music video by The Fray, entitled "You Found Me" (do you see what they did there?) has gone up on ABC.com.

Being British, I obviously didn't get to see it during Grey's Anatomy, and my music taste is generally less suited to the MOR stylings of The Fray, however as a Lost devotee I did my duty, and grinned, gritting my teeth whilst bearing the new song. Sure enough, the song itself was exactly what I expect of The Fray, but that wasn't the reason I decided to watch the clip. There were many short segments in the video that could be considered spoilers, so I'll not discuss them here. I will just leave a copy of the video should you decide to clip play yourself (You have been warned!)

However, there was some information on the trailer, which is so abstract that it couldn't possibly be considered a spoiler, as we have absolutely no idea what it means yet...


Who are Ajira Airways?
Anyone else brave enough to add their e-mail address and see what happens?

Edit: Forum user theotherbilly has discovered that Ajira, when transliterated from its Hindi origin means "Island or Isle". Good find!

Season 5 promo poster

Now that the ARG is over, I was looking for something new to peak my interest about Season 5. So you can imagine how delighted I was to hear that the Season 5 promotional poster was available. Every previous poster had instantly got me overexcited about the coming season and became my wallpaper for a prolonged period of time. But this one...not a big fan.

In my eyes, it's too much of a clone of the Season 4 poster. In fact, it's pretty much exactly the same but without trees and water. The same colour scheme? Come on... And don't get me started on that building. (Although I think the off Island characters look awesome)

However, early reports have indicated there's a lot of big fans already. Let me know what you think in the comments section (but NO SPOILERS), or alternatively discuss it at this thread on the forums (which is in the Spoilers sub-forum, BEWARE, and don't say I didn't warn you for any spoilers in the thread).

P.S. For comparison, here's the posters for Season 1, 2, 3, and 4.

ARG over, submit Qs to the creators of LOST!!!!

Thanks to the surprisingly number of people who emailed me about the development with the ARG (how people remembered my address will remain a mystery). Looks like Dharma has ended its project, and you will find that the dossiers are now ready for download for recruits!

First off, check out the latest newsletter HERE. So let's break it down for bits of interest. For starters, it appears that Dharma lost its funding once again - and so they've sold the brand to the makers of LOST. They told us to look out for brand promotion, and if you saw my last blog about the logo appearing in a Season 5 trailer, then you'll see the link. Furthermore, I enjoyed that Hans has currently left the country after a broken marriage, heavy casino debts and a string of unfounded police reports - a bit of humor in an ARG never goes awry. Finally, there's mention that Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof will make an announcement...

Well, if you check the newsletter source code, you'll find "DSAqandaatgmaildotcom".... which makes DSAqanda@gmail.com

So if you send an email to this address, you get the auto-reply:

Got a question for the creators of LOST? Submit your question along with your name and hometown, and if selected, Damon and Carlton will answer it in a DSA announcement… that is, if you haven't been a bad Black Swan.

Get emailing people, you haven't got long!! Should questions be Dharma-related only? Or general? Send both I say! Also, let us know what positions you have with Dharma. I'm a "proof reader" in the Communications Division (even though I cheated, 20000+ DP may have helped). What about you?

Dharma message in Lost Season 5 trailer

The word "old news" might spring to mind, but I haven't seen this reported on any of the ARG sites, and indeed we haven't reported it here so here we go.

I know discussing a Lost Season 5 trailer is very spoilery and not what we're about. However, you might have noticed subliminal messages in the trailer if you were looking closely - namely an advertisement for the Dharma Initiative. You can see the Season 5 trailer here, but again I warn about spoils (though they are minor, and I don't class a trailer as a spoiler anyway).

But at any rate, you can see what I'm talking about in the image - right in the middle of the trailer there's the new DI brand logo. So what does this mean? Well it might be linking the ARG to Season 5, so we might just see the new DI in the new season, and they might play some bigger role?

A very minor "clue" - but anything is better than nothing at the moment.

Season 5 premiere date announced

The official countdown can now begin.

ABC has announced that Lost will return Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8/7c.

ABC will have three hours of Lost action that night, with a recap show at 8pm, followed by 5x01 and 5x02 from 9-11pm.

This is a small satisfaction for those of us with hiatus fever, but just think, in 73 days it'll be over!

Alice in Wonderland read begins!

It seems like the wait for this book has been particularly long, what with us now having a full month for reading and discussing each book, and with the all but end of the ARG. However, we're finally here, and so we move away from the wonder of Slaughter-House Five to the lovely escapist fantasy world of Alice in Wonderland. The Lewis Carroll work is a little different to what we're used to, as we've decided to cover both titles, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There." The books aren't too long, however, and with most newer editions combining the two in one anyway, the double trouble shouldn't be so much of one.

Indeed, fellow SysOp and blogger Blue Eagle Islander posted recently that you can actually access both titles online ABSOLUTELY FREE AND ABSOLUTELY LEGAL, thanks to Carroll's work being in the public domain. Check out the details on that here. However, if you're like me and prefer the smell of a new/old book (both nice odours), then you can buy the book here (Amazon US) for a pretty good price, or go to your local library (US library listings here).

The main discussion thread for this month's read is on the Forum here, so go on over and chat about Alice's adventures, and how they might clue into the world of Lost!

Finally, it is with great pleasure that I can announce December's read - The Third Policeman!!! A lot of people wanted this one when we first started the book club, and I think it's a great way to see out the year, with the title possibly acting as the pinultimate read for the LLL, considering after January Lost will be back on our screens. We'll have to discuss it in the forums I think...

Lostpedia to interview two key actors

Well after a recent lack of any kind of Lost-related news, Lostpedia can finally offer everyone a little something that is sure to get you excited!

You all know Lostpedia has had lots of great interviews with cast/crew of the show, and it is with great honor that we can reveal that we've managed to obtain upcoming Q&As with two key cast members.. First up is Yunjin Kim, who of course plays the lovely Sun, one of the most loved castaways on the show. And second, we have Nestor Carbonell - who plays Richard Alpert, a character introduced in Season 3 who quickly garnered a huge fan following with his mysterious backstory. It's definitely an exciting time, and after a string of former interviews with the likes of Jorge Garcia, Rebecca Mader, François Chau, and the soon-to-be-published chat with Michael Emerson, to name but a few - rest assured the interviews will be thrilling reads when they are released.

We are now taking questions for these fine acting folk, and hope to publish a full transcript in the near future. If you would like to submit a question, either head on over to the Forums or see the wiki submission pages HERE for Yunjin or HERE for Nestor! Hope this has lifted Lost, or shall we say disillusioned, moods (you know what I mean ;).

Books for free

First of all, this is my first LP blog. Please be kind.

But anyway, November's book for the Lostpedia Literary League is the Alice in Wonderland title. Unfortunately when announcing the book Nick left out a very good source to find the books.

The Wikipedia partner, Wikisource, has completed texts of both Alice's Adventure in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass which are completely free to access.

Lewis Carroll died over 100 years ago, so his works are in the public domain. Unfortunately, I believe this is possibly the only text in the public domain the LLL will cover.

Hopefully, anyone who has been trouble accessing books can participate in November with this source.

Also, this is NOT the beginning of reading Alice. The current book is still Slaughterhouse Five, which is still being discussed on the forums.

Sour Dharma grapes

Well today finally marks the end of the Dharma recruit testing procedure, and unfortunately the big bang we were hoping for was a little anticlimactic, with all that awaiting us was a brief Dharma message summarizing the last few weeks and clueing to December 15th. The only small message they included to tempt us was "patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet" - so the end will make up for this two-month ARG gap?

Do you believe them though? We've all had a lot of faith since the staggered start, are we at the point of the hair that broke the camel's back, where we no longer believe there'll be a cool light at the end of a testing tunnel? Or are you still remaining a little Dharma trooper, confident that the end will be satisfactory for all who played?

Instructor email

Just a quick ARG post today - new email out to instructors asking them to confirm their email addresses so they can get their T-shirts. See the message here. There is a bit of interest about the following line:

"While the shirt is principally for identification purposes at official Dharma Initiative events, you are welcome to wear it in public at other times. Wear it with pride."

Official DI events, eh? I would think this is just a bit of 'canonicity' to explain the giveaway, but I may be wrong - maybe there will be future Dharma events coming to a city near you? Anyway, you lucky instructors should get your T-shirts soon then it seems. Are you an instructor? Will you be selling your shirt or keeping it as a momento?

What will Tuesday hold?

The Dharma recruitment drive officially ends October 7th, but will this conclusion also be the close to the ARG? We assume that the December 15th release of individual results is due to the large number of registered users, and the amount of time it'll probably take TPTB to wade through it all. But will the meantime bridge contain a new chapter, or will next week be a full conclusion and then cyber silence?

The test 7 email certainly clues to a finale, mentioning Hans Van Eeghen's superiors again, the "executive board of the Dharma Initiative". I wonder if we'll learn more about them... will their faces be familar perhaps?

Would you like to see a new development after next week? Or would you prefer a little relax time? Whenever the official end, let's hope Tuesday will be a great climactic end to the testing procedure!

"Slaughterhouse-Five" read starts now!!!

The new month has finally arrived, and with it the start of the Lostpedia Book Club's latest read, "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut, hailed as a fantastic science-fiction novel showing an insight into the human condition. Hopefully by now everyone should have their copy, but the read is on for a full 3 weeks (or whole month if you want to it unofficially during the cooling off week), so there is still time. For Amazon US, go here.

The forum thread to discuss the book can be found here. As I mentioned in last week's post, no live chat discussion this month, but the IRC feature can still be used informally to chat about the book, by all means.

Quick reminder for November - we're reading both Alice in Wonderland titles (most new editions combine the two anyway, so it shouldn't be too hard to source). You can buy the book on Amazon here, or see here for a list of libraries in the USA. I would actually recommend buying this time around, not that I don't want you to support your public library, as the book appears to be under $4.... bargain!

Black Swan's Identity Plucked

In picture - Evil has a new face: Hans Van Eeghen, aka Hack Swan, Black Con, etc.

Does anyone recall the Family Guy episode where Peter complains to his teacher about the difficulty of his test, and the teacher replies "you stood up to me... that was the test!" and then Peter smiles and has a lovely 80s style cheer outside. Tried finding it on YouTube, but to little avail. The idea is always amusing, that the test is not the real test - and we're all guilty, particularly if you take Psych like I do, of thinking that you're being played and that the real test is something more covert. Well, apparently, this mind-**** has been used with Dharma Wants You, as we move into the final test.... The integrity, honor and honesty assessment!!! *Gulp*...

So what do you have to do for Test 7... well, nothing. Click it and all that happens is this lovely Dharma video where Hans effectively throws us back into kindergarten, scolding us for cheating. It turns out that HE is Black Swan, and this whole testing procedure has included home-made cheats so he can gauge how honest we all are in the face of corruption. As you can probably guess, the results are undoubtedly not so good amongst our peers from what I can gather. However, recruits caught cheating will not be expelled, but this will be considered in the final dossier (to be released no earlier than December!! - so does that mean ARG cyber silence after the recruitment time ends on October 7th?). Rest assured, I imagine justice will be swift with Hans the sociopathic social scientist in need of some ethics at the helm. Wonder if we're all going to end up as Work Men like I theorised last week....

Anyway, groups are pretty quack and dry this week (an audible groan at that lame attempt at a pun) - you're either a white swan for not cheating, or a black swan for being dishonest (good to see TPTB don't care for silly political correctness). I found it interesting that Hans talked about how the Dharma Initiative had been betrayed before - finally a little bit of Lost crossovering to get us geared up. Will next week yield any other big revelations after today's surprise? A mention of the big betrayer that is Ben? Could Hans be lying in the face of sheer embarassment over a hacker making cheats for all his tests, thus incorporating it as though it were his plan all along - out there, but hell it wouldn't be a Lost ARG without a similar "is Persephone actually Rachel" double-bluff debate!!! I don't understand why Hans would, as Black Swan, give us all his voicemail account, diss himself in source code, etc etc. As seems the theme this year and for the upcoming Season 5 of Lost, time will tell.

Who will win Bad Twin...

Lostpedia's birthday now a distant memory, time to round off the events properly and announce the winner of the competition. I gave an unprecedented audio code in my post last week, and then received a huge number of emails from you guys with your responses (once again, the volume of responses was a big surprise, especially considering the specialist nature of this one). So, first off, here is the correct answer:

SMELLS LIKE CARROTS

The audio was in fact a tap code, used by prisoners of war to communicate secretly (kind of like an easy version of Morse). Check the Wiki page for the full explanation on how to decode - there's no need going through it fully as it's easy once you know how! Note there is no K in the tap code, so C is used instead - I got a number of emails saying I had made a gaffe and coded "LICE". Most people who solved the code actually didn't know about the tap code, but used a Polybius square 5x5 grid - which follows a similar principle. I was also very impressed by a couple of you who actually logically worked out the code without any prior knowledge or Wikipedia-ing at all. You may not win the book, but you win my respect for being natural codebreakers!

So, who is the winner.... well, the name is (drum roll).... Tom, from Belgium!!! Big congrats to you, an email will be heading your way soon, along with all my savings affording postage to Belgium...

Thanks to all for taking part, and hopefully we can do another competition soon - a holiday season one perhaps?

Recruits Get Promoted

Dharma sent out their usual day-late reminder email today, advertising Test 6 (see full message here). Old Hans gives us the usual spiel, but also tells us the names of recruits who contributed to the test, and so have been thus promoted to Instructor status. Congrats to:

Bboepple, DanyWho, Ellenh, Iseibert, Lost4evr, Mattabramson, Orangemoonbeam, Sawyer78, Wrinkledogs.

...Who now also receive special Dharma Initiative Instructor T-shirts. Good going, peeps - a lovely piece of memorabilia to cherish! Or sell to the highest bidder on eBay - your choice!

Hans also gives us a security notice - about how they're now doing a bit of house-keeping with regards to the cheats. They're also checking our scores for indicators that we used Black Swan's cheats, and accordingly will "deal with us". Eep! I'd find it highly amusing, however, if we all en masse got demoted to "Work Man" for cheating on the tests. Once more, Hans tells us NOT to cheat, but whether or not you listen to him is your decision - though what's the fun in playing it right, I say. There'd be no clues to solve!

Click and See

I take my invisible hat off to those of you who on Monday noted that in addition to the "honest man" proverb were the words "click" and "see". Well - you were right to question as today marks Test 6 - and those two words are the key to the cheat!

Test 6 is a catered multiple choice test for recruits - but to be fair its probably the most straight-forward of the tests. Every question can be cheated on, and when only your first run through counts, its a good thing too. To cheat, all you need do is "see" by holding down the "C" key. Right-CLICK and you'll find that there's a "black swan" option (pretty cool actually). Clicking that makes the correct answer flicker every time - making a very easy 100% score opportunity indeed.

I got put into the Demeter group, but there's also Apollo (little bar with the real big taste!), Ares, Athena, Hestia and Poseidon. I would have thought there'd be more groups than this though considering the trend to increase numbers each time? Anyway, I think it's interesting that while we're still on Greek Gods - these are some of the big players like Ares - seems like a progression from the start of giants and titans to the introduction of the Olympians (as per the chronology in fact, Zeus and co. overthrew the Titans, according to my Greek knowledge base that is Xena: Warrior Princess lol).

Do you think the Emmys lost the plot?

In picture: The Lost cast in 2005 after winning the "Outstanding Drama Series" award. Unfortunately, 2008 did not bring a repeat of such success.

The dust has now somewhat settled after Sunday's Emmy awards, though I notice some are still in uproar at some of the decisions. To be honest, the whole process confused me as I thought Lost was nominated for more than two major awards, but apparently that's not the case.

Relevance and controversy to Lost seems to surround the "Outstanding Supporting Actor In a Drama Series" award (note, Terry O'Quinn won this last year), and the "Outstanding Drama Series" award (Lost won this back in 2005). Should Emerson have won the supporting actor award though in your opinion? A number of blogs I found through Google seem to think so, and though I don't know the other nominees other than Shatner, I do think Emerson does a fantastic job. Hopefully next year he'll get the recognition he deserves!

What about outstanding drama series? Should Mad Men have won? I seem to find divided opinion - some blogs are very much in favor of the decision for a well-crafted show with great momentum. Meanwhile, others claim it was a poor choice, citing arguments such as that it airs on an obscure cable network with "anaemic" ratings (quote from "The Australian" online newspaper). Surely it's quality not quantity though, eh? What's your opinion as not-so-objective fans? Do you respect the choices, or believe a travesty has been committed? Or do you hold to the fact that nomination is satisfactory recognition in itself?

Happy Lost Day! Win a copy of Bad Twin!

Note: The competition is now CLOSED.

Well the day has finally arrived, its September 22nd, the day Oceanic Flight 815 crashed onto the Island and the day the world brought us Lost. Its been four years now, and for Lostpedia it also marks our third year anniversary. Yes, on September 22nd 2005, Lostpedia launched, and since then we have grown to become one of the world's great wikis, of course building and expanding to include a thriving Forum, a charming chatroom, and an often when I'm at the helm bombastic blog.

Thought it might be nice to do what we did last year and reflect on how far we've come, check out comparisons between the Jack article (one of the first on Lostpedia) before and after:

September 22nd 2005
September 22nd, 2006
September 22nd, 2007
September 22nd, 2008

To celebrate the day though, I've decided to run a second Lostpedia competition, after the success of the first one where I gave away a copy of Lost: Via Domus (the winner has since received his goods, and is probably playing it as I type!). This time we have up for grabs a copy of "Bad Twin" by Gary Troup, who coincidentally died on September 22nd after the crash. As with the last contest, winning entries go into a hat and the one I pick out of said hat gets the prize, which I will send anywhere in the world for you (speed of delivery depends just how far I have to send it!). Again, legal mumbo jumbo about how I can't be held responsible should it get lost, yada yada, all rights reserved and all that, I keep your email details/personal info safe, blah de blah - you agree you won't sue me for some unforeseen reason, etc etc.

How do you enter? Well, all you need to do is listen to the audio below (aptly 1:08 in length as a matter of fact), and figure out what the message is. Its actually the answer to a question - if you can figure it out, tap it to nickb123ATlostpediaDOTcom along with your public username and what country you're from. Please also explain how you got the answer in the response, pot luck correct replies won't be counted. The last contest I did, I got LOTS of responses, so please do not be offended if I don't reply to any/all of them to notify you that you're wrong and should try again. I will offer some help and hints when needed, either by email or in the blog comments section. You have until Monday 29th to send entries. Good luck!!!

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

*A big thanks to Congested for helping me record, upload and embed this audio. I've switched to eSnips though after I exceeded bandwidth for Congested's site. If you have audio problems, try a direct link to the audio here. If there's still a problem, contact me and I will email you the mp3 file.

ARG Whispers

First of all, happy September 22nd to all Lost fans. I have drafted a proper post and a new competition to celebrate the day, but this will have to go on hold until the evening - as ARG land also decided to do a little something for the day too.

Head over to Dharmawantsyou.com where you'll hear some rather weird noises. Thanks to the dudes at LostARGs and DarkUFO who've pieced together some of the words, including - he/cheat, resembles, more, a, right, man, nothing, click, ?? (Inaudable), and, honest, see. The best theory on this so far is that it relates to the French proverb - "Nothing resembles an honest man more than a cheat". Certainly seems like Black Swan is telling us to continue cheating, and to disregard anything good old Hans says about playing the game true.

Also heard that some recruits have been emailed about their recruited-made tests. Apparently, Dharma wants some of the questions, and has been offerring out instructor status. However, it seems they want you to print and sign release forms and fax them back to them in order to do it. Faxing - so legal, can they not just accept scanned and emailed copies I wonder? Nothing of real sleuth interest though here, other than the release document reiterates that this ARG is still called "Dharma Initiative Recruiting Project (the "Project")."

Stay tuned for the special Lostpedia birthday post, and the new competition that will be running so you can get yourself a Lost-related prize. The clue is pretty awesome if I do say so myself, a real ARG style mystery... :)

Book Club Moves to "Slaughterhouse-Five" October 1st Onwards

As always, huge thanks to those who waded through "Lord of the Flies" for September's read. On October 1st, we move on to "Slaughterhouse-Five", by Kurt Vonnegut (not all THAT slaughtery apparently, don't judge a book by its cover). This is one which I personally am excited about, as not only does it have big Lost connections about time travel and what not - it also uses these out-there elements as devices to reflect the human condition (quite a Buffyesque style by the sounds of it, which I'm a big fan of). The book will undoubtedly also cater for the big sci-fi junkies amongst you anyway, so let's look forward to a great book and great Forum discussion about it!

A little memo - we're going to be removing the "live chat" function, as its becoming difficult for peeps to get online at a specified time, and also its hard to use the main chatroom and moderate. The forum discussion threads for the books remain strong, and Chat can always be used to discuss the book on an informal basis (which to be honest, is what I've been doing with the last two books mostly). Monthly reads will still OFFICIALLY last for about 3 weeks, with a cooling off period of a week which I'll use (like with this post right now) to advertise the forthcoming reads. However, threads remain open, so read-time is essentially the full month if you wish. Please let me know if you have a comment to make about this shake-up.

On a brighter note, November's book has already been decided, and it will be.... Alice in Wonderland!!! By this, we mean both "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" AND "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There". The idea of two-in-one sounds like book club suicide, but in fact most later editions available do print the two together in a combined book - so hopefully it still should be easy to source. The voting for November was tied between Alice and The Third Policeman, but I decided after October's book (which is tricky to source), we should go with a widely available book before Third Policeman (which could be December's if you vote for it!). Anyway, you have over a month to find an Alice book. As usual, you can be an early bird by checking USA library locations to borrow, or Amazon to buy. Internationals - check your local libraries or regional Amazon!

Jooped

Holy **** I say as I learn that there is a better cheat for Test 5. I'm sorry this is late y'all, but a huge shout-out to Nicole88 who posted on Lostpedia about a much better cheat.

When you get to the Conway sequence question like this:

32 1312 11131112 ______

We get the answer is 31133112, but don't enter this, CLICK! Click 1113112 (3rd one) then 32 (1st) then 32 again (1st) and so forth to make a full 31133112 sequence. A noise sounds and voila, 100% score. You can even skip every question prior to the Conway sequence one, and then every one after it!!!

D'oh!

Call Hans Van Eeghen?!

Dharma sent out a new email today, firstly advertising Test 5 as a reminder to those who have yet to take it, but also to notify us that the Dharma recruitment tests will end on October 7th. They all inform us that roles and group allocations will then be conducted to decide where to place us within their latest research project (relating to that Pierre Chang video one surmises). We will also get our volunteer assessment dossier things. See the full newsletter here.

But the real kicker in this newsletter is the sourcecode message from Black Swan. It reads:

13237438573 - say Hi from BS

So what are those numbers? Well its a phone number! Call 1-323-743-8573 and you reach the voicemail of Hans Van Eeghen?! TPTB are now basing out of Los Angeles instead of Australia huh, which is where the number is apparently from. If you are international, dial 001-323-743-8573, but be prepared for major cost issues (get permission from whoever pays the bill, as they used to say on children phone-in shows). Here's what it says when you dial anyway (it rings a few times first, which scared the be-jebus out of me):

Namaste. You have reached the voicemail of Hans Van Eeghen, the Dharma Initiative's head of recruiting. Unfortunately I am unable to take your call right now, but I do hope you leave a message so that I may address your inquiry at a later time. Thank you and Namaste.

Then goes the beep and you can leave a message. I bottled out, however, I must say - just hanging up. I should have gone with "Hi from Lostpedia and Black Swan" but meh. Try the number though guys, and comment about what messages you leave, and how much you lose calling what has to be a premium rate number, right?

The Lostpedia Test

I figured as the Dharma recruit-made tests have a submission deadline by today, I should take advantage with a last minute test. This isn't just an excuse for me to get some extra Dharma points, I thought this test would do well to coincide with the anniversary we all know that's coming up in a few days for Lost, and our site (uhoh, clue to a question).

The questions are all about Lostpedia - I know, not as fun, but interesting tidbits you may or may not know about the site which grew from a few bullet pointed articles on a wiki, to a full prosey community, ranked as one of the greatest wikis in the world! Take the test:

The Lostpedia Dharma Test

Next test in the sequence

What is the best wake up in the morning besides normal Dharma updates, well Dharma updates with maths - bound to jerk you out of blissful ignorance and into the world where you realize you are just plain ignorant. People, its Test 5!!!

In terms of test subjects, maths has to be, personally, a bad zone (I hope many of you would agree). Its pointless, I don't care that I can figure out a weird x=nx4-2, etc - it is of little use. However, apparently it is of use with this test - sequencing. They aren't all 5, 6, 7, 8, ___ though - this test includes some tough algebraic cookies. For example, see the image I uploaded. 3, 13, 53, 213, 853 ____ (answer 3413). Now I did get this one, but I mean its x4+1, not exactly THAT easy. One I really couldn't get was 1, 7, 23, 55, 109 ___ and I still don't know, I just Googled and got this site, so the answer is 191 then haha. The last few questions seem to be Fibonacci-esque a lot, so using the one bit of maths I do know from being a codebreaker fan, that wasn't too difficult (though I'd imagine it could be if you had no prior knowledge). The other question that would have bust me if I hadn't known was the one that relates to the cheat....

There's a new vid featuring good old Hans, where he tells us not to cheat, and that he's currently onto Black Swan, who is "on the inside" you might say. Good clarification there from the PTB about that old hack. During the vid though there's a lil flashing white thingy on the bottom right of the screen - guessed it pretty quick - old Morse. Now I did order a lovely Morse kit (geek I know) which never arrived, so unfortunately I fail and had to rely on others to break it. I give shout-out to Sayid'sGirl from LostARGs (good friends of Lostpedia), who got this baby: THE CHEAT IS IN THE SEQUENCE BUT THE SEQUENCE IS THE ANSWER. This seems to relate to the weird sequence question, using a style like 32, 1312, 11131112, ____ - the answer is actually a Conway sequence, so you take the whole thing verbally, 32 is "one three, one two", and then 1312 is "one one, one three, one one, one two", etc. So the final one in my above example would be 31133112 (I think).

So finally we get to groups - there's six this time it would seem - Aether, Chaos, Chronos, Hemera, Nyx and Oranos (another way of spelling Uranus, gives it a nice Oceanic edge regardless whether its the correct form or not - I've no idea). All of them belong to the elite group of Greek primordial gods - least we ain't got Titans anymore. I'm in Oranos (lol to Anna who pointed out that its a good thing they changed the spelling for Uranus, otherwise that sentence takes on whole new meaning!), having gone from Otus to Oceanus and now another O group. The pic is also by Henri Fantin-Latour if you're interested, of the Queen of the Night (so I'm inferring Nyx from this). It was either this pic or the one on the Wikipedia article that shows boob - and I didn't wanna get political correctness outcry as Lostpedia is a family site, even if it is a very cool painting (and I mean that artistically!)

Test 4 email

Just a quick update about a new email today from Hans (see here), basically advertising Test 4. I noticed on yesterday's message (email version only) that these newsletters are now being called "reminders" - which is better considering they get sent out a day later than the test release! Nothing in the source code, but Hans mentions thinking "outside the octagon", a possible reference to Test 3. Also, there's info about becoming eligibe for "instructor" positions at Dharma - if you get mucho points I'm assuming rather than how good your quizzes are. Might be interesting, and could open up secret messages or vids? I dunno about marginalizing though - we all know that instructors by point basis is pretty dumb considering how many hacker cheats we have out there. Hence, I decided not to pull a RuckusGuy/Bronson and say jokingly "I'm going to make sure I pass their test" cause I know I really won't.

More Brain Teasers

Yawn, an early start in ARG land today with a surprise Test 4 making an appearance! I figured it would be next week, but no, its a proper task, complete with a cheat. A new email was also sent out advertising the "make your own test" thing - a day late again - I guess they're just reminders though. Weirdly I can't seem to access the newsletter from the site itself - if I follow the link it brings up a username and password box... let me know if you have better luck.

To Test 4, its style is similar to that of Test 2, multiple choice covering a range of topics, including a few fiendish ones on mathematical logic I noticed - I'm not good with percentages! I wonder if these questions are fan-made? Anyway, I was worried as it said only your first run-through counts, and at this time I wasn't completely sure what the cheat was, but managed to figure it out by the end. The final question is just like Test 2, asking "what is the answer to this question". I figured out that it must be like test 2 where you need to write in a code, and so remembering the video clue from yesterday, entered "Mittelwerk". Sure enough, this was the code and option "B:C" flashed, revealing the answer. Good times. I hope though that the Mittelwerk thing wasn't just a flippant code, I'd love to find out that he is actually involved in the narrative... but any TLE reference really is fine by me.

New groups are also up, again they are all titans from Greek mythology. We've got: Atlas, Crius, Cronus, Helios and Oceanus (click for Wiki info). I got Oceanus, who I'm not aware of, but I know that Cronus was at some point the leader of the Titans (thank you Xena), and that Atlas held the world on his shoulders. If there is some unifying theory possible for all five, Higgs Boson the comments section.

Thanks to those who took my tests as well, its great to finally get some Dharma points. Do keep posting your tests too, I've played all the blog comment ones and most of the Forum ones and they're pretty great - my faves being the Psych ones and the Simpsons one. If you still wanna do my tests, they're on Lost ARGs, Psychology and Literature.

The Best DWY Test ;)

I logged on today expecting a challenging new test, saw the Lostpedia clue page with some black and white squares and thought "oh, some kind of chess game!" - but no, that was just part of a video. Test 4 is, literally, what we make it. You can create your own test! The first reaction I had was "are they running out of ideas ALREADY" to warrant asking us to make the tests for them, but then I figured maybe its actually part of the story - and also maybe for the first time I can actually get some friggin Dharma points!!!

If you would like to take my test, which is aptly based on Lost alternate reality game trivia, inc. TLE, F815 and DIRP, then follow the link (I wonder if it'll get taken down...). Apparently you get 50 Dharma points for every person who takes your test, and also the chance to be in some official Dharma portfolio, gaining you a swish 500 points. I do see a slight flaw in the logic though, as I hear anyone can "cheat" by taking their own test over and over, but hey its still fun, and I'd love to take other peoples' tests if they link in the comments section - I'm a bit of a quiz show fan so I think I'll enjoy this portion of the story!

But now we come to the part of the story which I'm really excited about - the video. There was a brief glitch during Hans Van Eeghen's talk about making your own test. Now I have no claim to this find, BUT the glitch thing is actually a data matrix 2D barcode, and that barcode says "reiwtletmk"... and an anagram of this is.... wait for it.... MITTELWERK! DA DA DA, DA DAH! Having almost literally written the book on Mittelwerk (I devised a large amount of the Lostpedia article on him), I'm very excited at the awesome TLE reference! But is it a mere shout-out or something huge. Remember what happened at the end of The Lost Experience? (go here and click the word "humanity"). Could this reconstituted Dharma Initiative be a separate gig from Hanso as was surmised, being run on the QT by the evil Thomas Werner Mittelwerk, who's planning a new way to kill 30% of us with a third-world health and safety not-so-tested viral agent? I'm now slightly more inclined to be supporting Black Swan/RuckusGuy/Dan Bronson in their efforts to take down this supposedly altruistic group, especially if ponytail man is behind the action. Very cool though, the game is finally starting to over-reach into a real narrative, and now half-way through the testing phase, things seem to be hotting up.

P.S. I also made tests on Psychology and classic literature if anyone is interested.

Fringe airs tonight 8pm ET on FOX

Pretty much as the title states, the series premiere of JJ Abram's new show, Fringe, will begin airing tonight on FOX. Many Lost fans are also big JJ fans, so I figured there should be some mention. Perhaps also the show might throw out some references to Lost - which seems to be something JJ does a lot - he did a couple of references to Lost in Mission Impossible III, for example. It does sound like a decent show in its own right, however - will it be as big if not bigger than Lost? Well FOX have already launched their own official "Fringe wiki", and if you're not a fan of wet paint wikis like me, there's even already a fan-made "Fringepedia"! (No affiliation to LP). Looks like this show is already a hit with some people, promising considering it hasn't even aired yet!

Test 3 email

A dull clue post for today, hence the not even trying with a catchy headline - just an email from our old friend Hans about test 3 being active. View the message here. I had considered just not even bothering posting this info, as there's nothing in the source code it seems, and nothing really of interest at all in the message.

Bit of a dreary day today, the inevitable let-down after the sudden rush of development with the new test, and indeed video content! Hopefully next week's test will also bring us video and therefore character appearances, maybe even with the infamous Black Swan (who I even dreamed about yesterday - I found out who he/she was and how the name was a clue, but I can't remember what it was, only that the answer involved something like Gustav or Gasta?! - somehow I doubt that it was prophetic...)

Collision

Well you wait for a Dharma bus and then it finally comes along with four other buses which you then have to narrowly avoid for 100 seconds in a confined space. Yeah I think I pretty much just slaughtered that expression there... Ladies and gents, its Test number 3!!!

The bus thing is about right though, so much seems to have happened in the space of 24 hours, I feel like Jack Bauer, except with much worse technology (still ain't got a proper wireless, so I'm leeching from an unreliable server - perfectly legal though!). Anywayz, I think first we should mention the new video on the site, featuring the ever suspicious and hard to place accent of Hans Van Eeghen. Hans gives us a little insight, congratulations spectacular results on the DWY tests (obviously oblivious to our little cheat fest), and also mentions the hacker "Black Swan" - apparently behind these little hacks. So the confusing part is - is Black Swan RuckusGuy, or is he Dan? Or is he both! This whole thing is confusing, maybe Dan Bronson was just a sidekick to someone bigger?

With the mystery video also came some glitchy hacks, which spelled out B P M 40 60". Stick it together and you get BPM 40-60, which apparently in music corresponds to the word "lento". There do seem to be other possible cheats, like right-clicking to pause the game, but this must be the proper method for passing Test 3.

Test 3 is called a Dexterity and Attentiveness Evaluation. Basically, you're controlling a Dharma logo and have to dodge little biddy asteroids for 100 seconds. The speed increases though, so its pretty tough to last for a full marks 100. However, typing in "lento" seems to make the asteroids speed drop dramatically, giving you time to move around safely. The cheat only lasts for a few seconds though, but you can repeat it. So you just need to find a safe corner, type lento and then repeat until you survive the game without a collision.

After a successful cheat, you'll be placed into one of four new groups - Antaeus, Enceladus, Tityos and Otus (I'm in the latter). All four names are giants from Greek myth - again with the Greek!

Right that's a full round-up, now I'm back to real-world movey stuff - I've had non-Dharma workmen in my kitchen during the entire time of writing this blog fixing the boiler... oh the glam of the secret and dangerous hacker Black Swan world is so appealing right now...


Keep track of these developments at Lostpedia's clue page, which includes a YouTube version of the Hans video.