sorry if this has been brought up before

4815162342 seconds equal 152 years & 9 months (give or take)

if we assume that the flight crashed aroud september/october 2004, 152 years & 9 months ago would be somewhere around january/february 1852

At that time France opened a penal colony on an island in the atlantic. The island is now used by the European Space Agency as base for launching satellites.

i was thinking that maybe the Lost island could also have been a penal colony, that was later transformed as a secret base of operations


Here is the wikipedia article concerning that island
Devil's Island (French Île du Diable), is an island located off the coast of French Guiana. It was a notorious French penal colony until 1946.

Devil's Island is a small rocky islet in the Atlantic Ocean just off the northern coast of French Guiana whose name is synonymous with a desolate, inescapable and horrific prison. First opened by Emperor Napoleon III, Devil's Island would become one of the most famous prisons in history. In addition to the prison on the island, prison facilities were located on the mainland at Kourou. Over time, they became known collectively as "Devil's Island".

Used by France from 1852 to 1946, its residents were everything from political prisoners to the most hardened of thieves and murderers. A great many of the more than 80,000 prisoners sent to the harsh conditions at disease-infested Devil’s Island were never seen again. Other than by boat, the only way out was through an impenetrable jungle; accordingly, very few convicts ever managed to escape.

The horrors of the penal settlement became notorious in 1895 with the publicity surrounding the plight of French army captain Alfred Dreyfus who was sent there on January 5.

Several movies, songs, a stage play, as well as a number of books feature Devil's Island. The most famous was a 1970 bestselling book by an ex-Devil's Island convict named Henri Charrière published under the title Papillon. The book told of his numerous alleged escape attempts and in 1973 it was made into a movie starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.

Before the bestseller Papillon, Rene Belbenoit's book, titled Dry Guillotine published in 1938 was instrumental in exposing the prison colony of Devils Island.

In 1938 the French government stopped sending prisoners to Devil’s Island, and in 1946 the prison closed permanently. Most of the prisoners returned to France, although some elected to remain in French Guiana. The island is now used by the European Space Agency as base for launching satellites.

But those numbers were also there when Danielle got there, which totally throws off this theory. Unless those appeared the instant the plan crashed, I fail to see how they could have that significance.

tarf didn't say that the Lost island could be Devil's Island specifically, just that it could have been a penal colony.

Interesting little bit of info you found there, tarf. It's obvious that the island was used for something before the Lostaways crashed there and even before Danielle and her crew arrived this is another possible theory.

Yes, but my point is that why use the date of the plane crash to count backwards 152 years? Why not the date of Danielle's shipwreck? The numbers were there then, too.

and do you all see the small links above? *one of them just happens to be
Devil's Island E-book
Damned and Damned Again - William Willis's gripping story. *
* Lose Weight, Keep It Off
A $27 program to lose that excess weight forever. What a deal! *
* Prison Pen Pals
Choose a New Pen Pal for Free. Light Up a Convict's Life & Write! *
* Private prison
360 Degree Unobstructed Views 100% Inmate Surveillance w/DVD Logs *
*

Ads by Goooooogle

Yes, so? The ads are by google. They are scripted to take phrases from the posts and search google for products that match. Go to the Kate and Sneakers thread, there's an ad for shoes. Go to the "The Simple Truth" thread, where the first line of the thread is about how the author can finally get a good night's sleep after dreaming about lost... the ads are all for sleeping aids, or 'dream' vacations.

It's programmed to do that.

yup, the ads by google will reflect keywords used for queries to the google search engines through several ways which include the links you click etc etc
this kind of shows you how far does internet privacy go :D

I agree on most of the points Vertical made about this post
but (yup there is always a "but" when you start a sentence with "i agree" :D )

The numbers as time in seconds were only used to get a reference in time and fish out ideas

There has been some action on the island prior to the crash. I think we will all agree on that part
But the show really shows us the island from the flight 815 survivors' point of view, hence the referential is based on them

there is two way to calculate events time.
here we know the year of arrival and the number of years elapsed => we get a time point reference

no if we were given the "devil's island info", and the numbers of years elapsed, we could have determined that the crash will take place in 2004
if Danielle had both the devil's island and the numbers info she could have calculated that the "main event" was to take place some years into the future

i don't know if you see the point there ?

Everything is told from the survivors point of view, meaning that the time of crash is sort of a "D-Day time" or a "0 year", and everything is referenced according to that date

now i know it's a stretch, but calculating the number of years provided a "possible" explanation to the purpose of the island.
And assuming that all is "relative" to the main 14's arrival on the island, anyone calculating the date from the numbers would find a date in the future. But this calculation would only be doable knowing either the point of origin (1852) or the point of arrival (2004) anyone in between those dates could not solve the "equation" because one parameter is unknwon

Yes, so? The ads are by google. They are scripted to take phrases from the posts and search google for products that match. Go to the Kate and Sneakers thread, there's an ad for shoes. Go to the "The Simple Truth" thread, where the first line of the thread is about how the author can finally get a good night's sleep after dreaming about lost... the ads are all for sleeping aids, or 'dream' vacations.

It's programmed to do that.


well slap me upside the head and call me silly :laugh:* i had no idea* * * thanks* ;D

and do you all see the small links above? one of them just happens to be
Devil's Island E-book
Damned and Damned Again - William Willis's gripping story.
Lose Weight, Keep It Off


Car88win, a lot of websites sign up for the Google ad program, which enables you to earn money on clickthroughs (if people click on the ads). Google's program is popular because they use their proprietary search algorithms to display context-sensitive ads on web pages. The idea is that if you see an ad that is connected with the subject of the web page you're viewing, you're more likely to click on that ad. Also in the program are website owners who want to advertise via Google -- they pay a fee for the traffic Google sends them. If they're not in the program, Google won't display their ads.

This can sometimes result in some amusing anomalies, like "Lose Weight Keep it off" and its non-relevancy to the TV show "Lost." But the context problem is not an easy one to solve, and Google's better than a lot of the earlier search engines at determining relevancy.

Back to your regularly scheduled Lost discussion...

Cheers,
Templeton

This can sometimes result in some amusing anomalies, like "Lose Weight Keep it off" and its non-relevancy to the TV show "Lost."* But the context problem is not an easy one to solve, and Google's better than a lot of the earlier search engines at determining relevancy.


it was pretty relevant in fact :D

we discussed the issue of the weight loss, and the fact that it could be an issue if Hurley didn't lose weight on the island. People argued that survivors on such an island would lose weight
That would have been enough (as a keyword) to start google displaying ads about weight loss

we discussed the issue of the weight loss, and the fact that it could be an issue if Hurley didn't lose weight on the island. People argued that survivors on such an island would lose weight
That would have been enough (as a keyword) to start google displaying ads about weight loss


Yes, if the page where the ad is running contains a discussion of weight loss on the island (or uses the keywords). Google dynamically generates ads for each separate page that contains their script. Their claim is that the ads will be relevant to what's actually on that particular page. Discussing weight loss somewhere on the Fuselage site should not generate ads for weight loss on pages that do not discuss weight loss on the island.

However, the technology is far from perfect, so ads that are not well-targeted do appear on some pages. :)

Templeton

thanks guys i see it now......but want to get you all back on topic please your discussion was very interesting.

nice

EDIT:
Listening error, misheard Sayid's words, ship name unknown, my speculation baseless.
Enclosing baseless speculation in spoiler tags. :)

I just noticed that Dreyfus... was the name of Danielle's ship (mentioned in "Solitary").

Considering the island... this does *not* seem like accidental naming,
and eventually lead me back to this thread.

Those writers... really seem to like name-dropping. :D

bookmarked

Tarf, you made a brief reference to the Dreyfus Affair. If we go with the idea that the island is inspired by the history of Devil's Island, then Kate's story could parallel Alfred Dreyfus' story.

Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a French artillery officer, was wrongly convicted of treason. His accusers (other French officers) honestly believed that he was guilty, but gave him an unfair trial to make sure he would be convicted. They subsequently found out he was innocent, but covered up the fact to hide their own wrongdoing during his trial. As part of the coverup, they even went so far as to prevent the person who really was guilty of the crime of which Dreyfus was accused from being convicted.

The conspiracy was exposed in the article "J'Accuse," published in L'Aurore (The Dawn) on Thursday, Jan. 13, 1898. This article is still considered to be one of the most important and significant articles in the history of journalism. I wouldn't be surprised if professional writers were influenced by it, or decided to pay homage to it.

wow...how did you know this? i am very impressed...

wow...how did you know this? i am very impressed...


I looked it up once before (I can't remember why now) and it stuck with me. I had to look it up again to make sure I had the right person.

That, and I have a bit of a Cliff Claven thing going on. ;D

Yes, but my point is that why use the date of the plane crash to count backwards 152 years? Why not the date of Danielle's shipwreck? The numbers were there then, too.


It all depends on what the numbers are to the writers.

If the numbers are actually significant to the characters situation, then the theory loses a little ...

... but if the numbers are actually a clue for the viewers, and just keep coming up with the characters in order to impress them on us, then tarf may well be on to something important.

That, and I have a bit of a Cliff Claven thing going on.* ;D


please don't say that you are a mailman and that you live with your mother

please don't say that you are a mailman and that you live with your mother


Heh. No and no. :)

Blamo,

Anyone who can say:
I have a bit of a Cliff Claven thing going on. ;D


has got to win the "Most Self-Deprecating Award".

Red

To continue on the Dreyfus affair, let's say that what Dreyfus was a scapegoat in a sad racism affair. Dreyfus was Jewish and that's in fact why he was accused of treason and of communicating secret intelligence to the ennemy

We had some "racism" in Lost so far,
- Sayid being seen as a "terrorist" because he is iraki (just see the look on the guy's face when Sayid sits next to him on the plane in exodus, and Sawyer's lines early in the season
- Michael and Jin, with michael's line about how Koreans hated Black people back home

We also have a slave ship

We had talks about possible cloning issues, and we may even face issues about race selection (superior race issues ?) with handpicking genes and all that stuff

I would hate Lost to go that way, and have some kind of Nazi like "others" playing Dr Mengele under the hatch, but some references are troubling

Now to go back on the 152 years ago, we have the black rock. 152 years ago might be the time when she got washed ashore