:confused:

Would you push the button ... I would only until I could check out the Station.

What is the source of the EMI and what is the contents of the vials?

Then wait to see what happens at a safe distance outside, just in case there is a self distruct device.

Zen:

Sorry J.J. Abrams the plot seems to be getting thinner:

"Angels in Aloha Stadium" miracle medical cures were right out of Steven King ... nothing even remotely scientific, strictly character driven.

Then we had “Dawn of the Dead” mixed with “Mysterious Island” and traces of “Predator” plus “Forbidden Planet”

This had definite possibilities i.e.

Perhaps they are not "The survivors they thought they were" because the aircraft was brought down by EMI simply for re-stocking the larder!

Food for the monster or the "Others"?
Did a nerve agent or a virus cause the sickness?

(Nerve agents like VX can produce hemophilia and sensitivity of light i.e. Zombie type symptoms ... Atropine is an antidote).

"There are drugs such as atropine, scopolamine and ketamine that in the pharmacological sense are called parasyntheparelitics. They produce a non-reflexive madriasis, you find yourself in a hallucinogenic "dream-state, sometimes an out of body state, but not with good recall."

The Dharma Project:

Now we have "Dr NO" mixed with Zen Buddhism and "Lord of the Flies".

http://www.dharmaindustries.com/

http://www.thehansofoundation.org/activeproject.html

The Dharma symbol is from Buddhism. Look closely at the spacing and bridging around the outer rings of the symbol. Each of the eight sections is divided differently through that section to the interior of the symbol. No two are divided the same way.

http://www.buy-utah.com/images/graphics/bagua-map.jpg

The Swan is one of the most powerful and ancient of totems.

In Shamanism, the Swan Totem is associated with love, inspiration, intuition, self-transformation, gracefulness and beauty, and also with traveling to the "Otherworld"?
The Swan totem heralds a time of altered states of awareness and the development of intuitive abilities with the ability to see the future and to accept healing and transformation.

The Buddha is The Guide.
The Dharma is The Path.
The Sangha are The Companions.

"The Wounded Swan"

One day when Prince Siddhartha and his cousin Devadatta were walking in the woods, they saw a swan. Quickly, Devadatta drew his bow and shot the swan down. Siddhartha rushed to the wounded swan and pulled out the arrow. He held the bird in his arms and caressed it.

Devadatta angrily shouted at Prince Siddhartha, "Give me the swan. I shot it. It belongs to me!"

"I shall never give it to you, You will only kill it!" said the prince firmly. "Let's ask the ministers of the court and let them decide."

The ministers all had different views. Some said, "The swan should be given to Devadatta." Others said, "It should go to Prince Siddhartha." One wise minister stood up and said, "A life belongs to one who saves it, not to one who will destroy it. The swan goes to the prince."

Prince Siddhartha took care of the swan until it could fly again. Then he turned it loose so it could live freely with its own kind.

Rats:

The button pushing every 108 mins looks like classic "Operant Conditioning" ... thank you B. F. Skinner.

(A Brief Survey of Operant Behavior)

"It has long been known that behavior is affected by its consequences. We reward and punish people, for example, so that they will behave in different ways. A more specific effect of a consequence was first studied experimentally by Edward L. Thorndike in a well-known experiment.

A cat enclosed in a box struggled to escape and eventually moved the latch which opened the door. When repeatedly enclosed in a box, the cat gradually ceased to do those things which had proved ineffective ("errors") and eventually made the successful response very quickly.

In operant conditioning, behavior is also affected by its consequences, but the process is not trial-and-error learning. It can best be explained with an example. A hungry rat is placed in a semi-soundproof box. For several days bits of food are occasionally delivered into a tray by an automatic dispenser. The rat soon goes to the tray immediately upon hearing the sound of the dispenser.

A small horizontal section of a lever protruding from the wall has been resting in its lowest position, but it is now raised slightly so that when the rat touches it, it moves downward. In doing so it closes an electric circuit and operates the food dispenser. Immediately after eating the delivered food the rat begins to press the lever fairly rapidly.

The behavior has been strengthened or reinforced by a single consequence. The rat was not "trying" to do anything when it first touched the lever and it did not learn from "errors."

To a hungry rat, food is a natural reinforcer, but the reinforcer in this example is the sound of the food dispenser, which was conditioned as a reinforcer when it was repeatedly followed by the delivery of food before the lever was pressed.

In fact, the sound of that one operation of the dispenser would have had an observable effect even though no food was delivered on that occasion, but when food no longer follows pressing the lever, the rat eventually stops pressing. The behavior is said to have been extinguished.

An operant can come under the control of a stimulus. If pressing the lever is reinforced when a light is on but not when it is off, responses continue to be made in the light but seldom, if at all, in the dark. The rat has formed a discrimination between light and dark. When one turns on the light, a response occurs, but that is not a reflex response.

The lever can be pressed with different amounts of force, and if only strong responses are reinforced, the rat presses more and more forcefully. If only weak responses are reinforced, it eventually responds only very weakly. The process is called differentiation.

A response must first occur for other reasons before it is reinforced and becomes an operant. It may seem as if a very complex response would never occur to be reinforced, but complex responses can be shaped by reinforcing their component parts separately and putting them together in the final form of the operant.

Operant reinforcement not only shapes the topography of behavior, it maintains it in strength long after an operant has been formed. Schedules of reinforcement are important in maintaining behavior. If a response has been reinforced for some time only once every five minutes, for example, the rat soon stops responding immediately after reinforcement but responds more and more rapidly as the time for the next reinforcement approaches. (That is called a fixed-interval schedule of reinforcement.) If a response has been reinforced n the average every five minutes but unpredictably, the rat responds at a steady rate. (That is a variable-interval schedule of reinforcement.) If the average interval is short, the rate is high; if it is long, the rate is low.

If a response is reinforced when a given number of responses has been emited, the rat responds more and more rapidly as the required number is approached. (That is a fixed-ratio schedule of reinforcement.) The number can be increased by easy stages up to a very high value; the rat will continue to respond even though a response is only very rarely reinforced. "Piece-rate pay" in industry is an example of a fixed-ratio schedule, and employers are sometimes tempted to "stretch" it by increasing the amount of work required for each unit of payment.

When reinforcement occurs after an average number of responses but unpredictably, the schedule is called variable-ratio. It is familiar in gambling devices and systems which arrange occasional but unpredictable payoffs. The required number of responses can easily be stretched, and in a gambling enterprise such as a casino the average ratio must be such that the gambler loses in the long run if the casino is to make a profit.

Reinforcers may be positive or negative. A positive reinforcer reinforces when it is presented; a negative reinforcer reinforces when it is withdrawn. Negative reinforcement is not punishment. Reinforcers always strengthen behavior; that is what "reinforced" means. Punishment is used to suppress behavior. It consists of removing a positive reinforcer or presenting a negative one. It often seems to operate by conditioning negative reinforcers. The punished person henceforth acts in ways which reduce the threat of punishment and which are incompatible with, and hence take the place of, the behavior punished.

This human species is distinguished by the fact that its vocal responses can be easily conditioned as operants. There are many kinds of verbal operants because the behavior must be reinforced only through the mediation of other people, and they do many different things. The reinforcing practices of a given culture compose what is called a language. The practices are responsible for most of the extraordinary achievements of the human species. Other species acquire behavior from each other through imitation and modelling (they show each other what to do), but they cannot tell each other what to do. We acquire most of our behavior with that kind of help.

We take advice, heed warnings, observe rules, and obey laws, and our behavior then comes under the control of consequences which would otherwise not be effective. Most of our behavior is too complex to have occurred for the first time without such verbal help. By taking advice and following rules we acquire a much more extensive repertoire than would be possible through a solitary contact with the environment.
Responding because behavior has had reinforcing consequences is very different from responding by taking advice, following rules, or obeying laws. We do not take advice because of the particular consequence that will follow; we take it only when taking other advice from similar sources has already had reinforcing consequences. In general, we are much more strongly inclined to do things if they have had immediate reinforcing consequences than if we have been merely advised to do them.

The innate behavior studied by ethologists is shaped and maintained by its contribution to the survival of the individual and species. Operant behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences for the individual. Both processes have controversial features. Neither one seems to have any place for a prior plan or purposes. In both, selection replaces creation.

Personal freedom also seems threatened. It is only the feeling of freedom, however, which is affected. Those who respond because their behavior has had positively reinforcing consequences usually feel free. They seem to be doing what they want to do. Those who respond because the reinforcement has been negative and who are therefore avoiding or escaping from punishment are doing what they have to do and do not feel free. These distinctions do not involve the fact of freedom.

The experimental analysis of operant behavior has led to a technology often called behavior modification. It usually consists of changing the consequences of behavior, removing consequences which have caused trouble, or arranging new consequences for behavior which has lacked strength. Historically, people have been controlled primarily through negative reinforcement that is, they have been punished when they have not done what is reinforcing to those who could punish them.

Positive reinforcement has been less often used, partly because its effect is slightly deferred, but it can be as effective as negative reinforcement and has many fewer unwanted byproducts. For example, students who are punished when they do not study may study, but they may also stay away from school (truancy), vandalize school property, attack teachers, or stubbornly do nothing. Redesigning school systems so that what students do is more often positively reinforced can make a great difference".

PLOT HOLES:

A Boeing 777 cannot fly non-stop from Sydney to Los Angeles without running out of fuel?

What was a Beech-18 "Expeditor" doing in the mid Pacific, maximum range 1,200 nautical miles ... where did it come from and where was it going with a cargo of heroin and a map of Nigeria?

Danielle’s boat could sail no more than maximum distance (1,000 nautical miles) in 72 hours, storm or no storm ... too far south and east to accommodate both a commercial airliner and the drug plane in the same area?

(Notice these facts were not mentioned in the highlights preceding the new season opener).

Oceanic departs Sydney at 2:55 PM fly’s 6 hours NE (3,000 miles) just before the "point of no return" turns back towards Fiji and fly’s 2 more hours ... that's 11 PM at night and yet its still daylight at the crash scene?

Aircraft do not survive the tail section coming off at 500 knots at 35,000 feet ... they leave tiny pieces over a wide area!

Jet engines torn from the aircraft without fuel do not continue to run!

And yet we have been told:

* Everything we see is there for a reason.
* The survivors are not dead or in purgatory.
* The survivors are not in a dream or in someone's head.
* The island is not manifesting people's thoughts and fears.

The Numbers:


4 8 15 16 23 42 add up to 108 but are also a location:

Latitude 4 degrees 8 minutes 15 seconds South and Longitude 162 degrees 34 minutes 2 seconds East is located in a triangle just north of the Solomon's and east of Tuvalu.

http://img69.imageshack.us/my.php?image=island2hc.png

It is important to consider however that a lot of the South Pacific islands are little more than thin strips of sand with coconut trees ... barely above high water mark ... no caves ... no hills ... no rocks ... no 3,000 foot crater and most importantly no water.

(Of course anyone familiar with Hawaii could have told them that they were actually on the island of Oahu, more specifically, Mokuleia Beach just a few miles west of Sunset Beach on the North Shore or at the Kualoa Ranch in the Kaaawa Valley).

The Montauk Project:

In the “Montauk Project" allegations are made by scientist's Alfred Bielek, Preston Nichols and Peter Moon regarding ultra-top-secret experiments carried out by clandestine units of U.S. Government intelligence and military agencies, corporations such as AIL, Siemens, ITT as well as certain divisions of Brookhaven Labs and other groups from the 1950s up to present times.

The remnants of the surface military installation are indeed in severe disrepair, but the underground continues to be active. Ludicrously enough, the surface of the land is now a New York State Park ... on paper at least.

However by terms of the deed, the Federal Government still retains all rights to any and all property beneath the surface! Investigations reveal that several new, deeper levels have been added in the early 1990s. Fields of research conducted there are said to include psychotronics, particle beams, electromagnetic pulse applications, black-hole simulations and inter-dimensional - time travel possibilities.

Very strong evidence indicates particle accelerators are in use there and at nearby facilities -- such as Brookhaven Labs -- for powering particle beam weapons, HAARP transmissions and exotic particle beam radar systems.

In fact, there are substantial indications that particle beam operations were taking place at Brookhaven Labs the night of July 17, 1996 and may have been the ignition source of the fuel air explosion in the center fuel tank of TWA Flight 800".

UPDATED OCEANIC 815 FAQ's:

There is much confusion as to what type of aircraft Oceanic 815 was supposed to be. It is suggested that it was the brand new Boeing 777-200 LR however this is unlikely as only the major players in long range international air service could afford this very expensive aircraft.

http://www.oceanicflight815.com

(It would be more realistic it if were the similar looking twin engine Airbus A300-600 with a range of between 4,150 and 5,200 nautical miles, now relegated to cargo service and sold off to smaller independent charter airlines).

Oceanic Airlines is supposedly owned by Hurley Reyes "The Reyes Group" - a Concrete, Underground and Construction Management company, it’s not only a real company but the IP address is registered to Disney?

http://www.reyesgroup.com

http://www.whois.sc/oceanicflight815.com

"The actual aircraft used in the show was L-1011 (N783DL11) production model 1009, the 9th L1011 built and first flown June 12, 1972. This aircraft was originally delivered to Eastern airlines as N308EA. The aircraft was later stored in the Mojave Desert in early 1991 and purchased 7 months later by Delta. Delta re-registered the aircraft as N783DL and flew it for six and half more years before storing it in Victorville and later back in the Mojave.

In early 2004, Aviation Warehouse, a company that specializes in aviation props for television and movie production, purchased the aircraft.

You may never see the rear of the aircraft or tail section since the rear portion of the aircraft remained in California. The forward part of the aircraft was broken up and shipped to Hawaii for filming. (The aircraft parts were loaded up on barge for the long trip across the ocean to Hawaii)."

The Tri-Power L-1011 had a maximum range of 5,260 nautical miles.

Oceanic 815 was supposed to fly non-stop from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles California with an ETA of 13 hrs 52 mins.

It is 6,500 nautical miles (as the crow fly's) however the maximum range of the Boeing 777-200 is 5,900 nautical miles when normally configured for three classes of 368 total passengers. (815 listed 352 passengers (1-5) First Class, (6-10) Business, (11-42) Economy).

The South Pacific route uses the four engine Boeing 747 SP (Special Performance) which has extra large wing fuel tanks in fact the ABC website in the UK shows a model of Oceanic 815 with 4 engines?

To further confuse the issue the Oceanic website FAA document lists the missing aircraft as a Boeing 717. The 100 seat 717 is the latest development of the popular DC-9/MD-80/MD-90 family and the only Douglas airliner, which Boeing (which merged with McDonnell Douglas in 1997) plans to retain in its product line-up. It is designed for high cycle, short-range (2,060nm) regional airline operations.

According to the Oceanic Web Site 815 took off at 14:55 hour’s local time. It flew on course for 6 hours before the radio failed. Assuming an average airspeed of 500 knots, 6 hours would put them out 3,000 nautical miles NE of Sydney just before they reached the "point of no return". The pilot then turned back towards Fiji and flew a further 2 hours putting them 1,000 miles off course before they crashed at 23.00 hours Sydney time.

It seem probable that CAT (clear air turbulence) caused by wind shear, wake turbulence, some naturally occurring magnetic abnormality, electromagnetic pulse, "worm hole", "force field" or other man made barrier over the island led to a mid air break up of both Oceanic 815 and the drug plane.

Remember the American Airlines, Airbus (Scarebus) A300-600, Flight 587 which encountered vortex turbulence caused by an earlier flight, snapping off the composite tail and plunging into a Queens neighborhood in 2001, in real life, killing all 260 on board and five people on the ground.

EMI was considered in the case of T.W.A. Flight 800 as a possible ignition source of the fuel air explosion of the center fuel tank because of the presence of military ships and planes in the vicinity. The Air Force has reported losing Black Hawk helicopters due to electromagnetic interference (EMI) from military aircraft.

(Note if one of 815's engines had a problem it could still fly and one was still running on the beach)!

:ohwell:

Is the cable connected to the power source for the station is it: geothermal, solar,
a water powered generator or nuclear?

(I forgot to add I would be a safe distance outside just in case there was a self distruct device provided it is not a nuke!)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The more I think about it a power source that will last 16 years and powerful enough to run an Electro Magnetic Pulse device considering the "Montauk Project" in the 50's consumed enormous quantities might be ... nuclear.

Comments?