"Q: What's hard for you?

A: Mostly I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane. Math is hard. Reading a map. Following orders. Carpentry. Electronics. Plumbing. Remembering things correctly. Straight lines. Sheet rock. Finding a safety pin. Patience with others. Ordering in Chinese. Stereo instructions in German.

Q: What's wrong with the world?

A: We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. Leona Helmsley's dog made 12 million last year... and Dean McLaine, a farmer in Ohio made $30,000. It's just a gigantic version of the madness that grows in every one of our brains. We are monkeys with money and guns."

This is a press release courtesy of Oregon State Police

"Oregon State Police forwarded reports to the Lane County District Attorney's Office for consideration of money laundering charges after troopers discovered over $61,000 cash in a car during a May 20 traffic stop near Cottage Grove. OSP troopers and drug enforcement detectives believe the cash is tied to drug trafficking, but no arrests have been made pending review by the district attorney's office.

On May 20, 2008, at approximately 9:30 p.m., a Cottage Grove police officer stopped a 1993 Honda Accord two-door displaying California license plates southbound on Interstate 5 near milepost 186 for failure to maintain a single lane of travel and suspicion of DUII. OSP troopers were requested as backup during the stop and after arriving noted indicators that the vehicle may be involved in criminal activity.

Further investigation led to the discovery of $61,340 cash concealed inside the vehicle. No illegal drugs were found. An OSP trooper and drug dog assisted during the investigation.

The car's two occupants, a 38-year-old male driver and 21-year-old male passenger, both from southern California, were detained and later released. Their names are not being released because they have not been charged in this case.

Information developed during the investigation is being forwarded to the Lane County District Attorney's Office for consideration of money laundering charges."

• So, in three years (Dec 2007?) Locke will be dead. Why did the Island allow him to die? And isn't it great that even if he's dead that doesn't mean no more Locke goodness?
• My guess is that the off-Island Oceanic 6 scenes in 2007 will become the new "present day" and the flashbacks will be on-Island starting right after the Island moved and will move forward in time until final Season 7 when they converge. Or visa-versa.
• How did they fit a polar bear into that little chamber in the Orchid?
• Big Question: Why doesn't the Island just tell people what it wants them to do?
• Jin and Daniel aren't confirmed dead.
• I think Sun wants to get back to the Island and find Jin. She may be working with Ben.
• I really want to know why the bad things that happened (will happen, whatever) on the Island after the Move are Jack's fault.
• Dream Claire doesn't want Aaron to return to the Island. WTF is up with that? That would guarantee that Aaron would be "raised by another"-isn't that supposed to be a Bad Thing? Does Aaron have to be one of the group for them to return?

"A masters student at the University of Nottingham who was arrested under the Terrorism Act under suspicion of possessing extremist material was studying terrorism for his dissertation, Times Higher Education can reveal.

Academics and students have expressed concerns about the police's handling of the case, which saw police searching campus property.

Rizwaan Sabir, a 22-year-old who was studying in the politics department, was arrested along with a 30-year-old member of staff. Both were released without charge on 20 May after having been held in custody for six days.

Mr Sabir's lawyer, Tayab Ali of McCormacks solicitors in London, told Times Higher Education that as preparation for a PhD on radical Islamic groups, Mr Sabir had downloaded an edited version of the al-Qaeda handbook from a US government website. It is understood that Mr Sabir sent the 1,500-page document to the staff member - who was subsequently arrested - because he had access to a printer. Mr Ali said: "The two members of the university were treated as though they were part of an al-Qaeda cell. They were detained for 48 hours, and a warrant for further detention was granted on the basis that the police had mobile phones and evidence taken from computers to justify this.""

"Few Americans--professional journalists included--know anything about so-called Continuity of Government (COG) programs, so it's no surprise that the president's passing reference received almost no attention. COG resides in a nebulous legal realm, encompassing national emergency plans that would trigger the takeover of the country by extra-constitutional forces--and effectively suspend the republic. In short, it's a road map for martial law.

While Comey, who left the Department of Justice in 2005, has steadfastly refused to comment further on the matter, a number of former government employees and intelligence sources with independent knowledge of domestic surveillance operations claim the program that caused the flap between Comey and the White House was related to a database of Americans who might be considered potential threats in the event of a national emergency. Sources familiar with the program say that the government's data gathering has been overzealous and probably conducted in violation of federal law and the protection from unreasonable search and seizure guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.

According to a senior government official who served with high-level security clearances in five administrations, "There exists a database of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated. The database can identify and locate perceived 'enemies of the state' almost instantaneously." He and other sources tell Radar that the database is sometimes referred to by the code name Main Core. One knowledgeable source claims that 8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect. In the event of a national emergency, these people could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and possibly even detention."

Martial law would make a nice alternative to an election that can't be fixed.

"What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant---someone to show up at "vegan potlucks" throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort's primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division's website, is to "investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.""

Me, I keep fantasizing about the FBI prosecuting the Republican Party as an "ongoing criminal conspiracy" under the RICO statutes.

""Hi. Do you sell just mysteries here?"

"Yes. Broadly defined. We have thrillers, suspense, capers, true crime, but yeah, mysteries."

"Oh. Okay. Do you have any Kurt Vonnegut?""

" Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe.

...

Use of CCTV images for court evidence has so far been very poor, according to Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, the officer in charge of the Metropolitan police unit. "CCTV was originally seen as a preventative measure," Neville told the Security Document World Conference in London. "Billions of pounds has been spent on kit, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court. It's been an utter fiasco: only 3% of crimes were solved by CCTV. There's no fear of CCTV. Why don't people fear it? [They think] the cameras are not working."

More training was needed for officers, he said. Often they do not want to find CCTV images "because it's hard work". Sometimes the police did not bother inquiring beyond local councils to find out whether CCTV cameras monitored a particular street incident."

• Notice how Hurley brought Sayid into his family? Mark my words, by the end of Season 6 Hugo will be the Grand High PooBah of the Island
• Yes Miss Austin, why didn't the Marshall or anyone else notice you were SIX MONTHS PREGNANT?
• Sayid has been searching for her, but Nadia found him.
• Ben: "It's a Greenhouse", and I'm Eleanor Roosevelt.
• Good Line: "How do you move an island? Very Carefully". Too bad "Mister 'Splody" Locke is going to be at the controls.
• "None of your business"-Ben is getting upitty.
• Who signalled back from the Orchid? I assume they knew some sort of password.
• Daniel could tell everyone that the shit is going to hit the fan, but what fun would that be?
• Jin made it to the boat, so it looks bad for him.
• What is on Hurley's t-shirt? Something about Ace Spades?
• I really, really want Mama Hurley to fall down a well.
• The Camaro's key is attached to another white rabbit's foot, like the Coast Guard co-pilot had.
• Red Camaro-Red is bad.
• Ben-"I wasn't being entirely truthful"- no shit.
• Keamy's dead man switch is connected to the C4, that's what's messing with the depth gauge.
• Yes Jack, you left your half-sister on the Island.
• Michael and Walt TOOK A CARGO FERRY back to NYC?!???!?! He only had three weeks to get an apartment and fuck up his life before he had to get on the Freighter-a ship would have taken forever to get him home.
• That is a hell of a lot of C4.
• Prediction: Sooner or later Locke is going to realize what a dupe and a shmuck he's been and try to "clean up his mess". Notice how in this episode everyone else is trying to help/save someone else, but not Locke. He doesn't care about Hurley being stranded, he doesn't care about the people he didn't protect from Keamy's goons, he only cares about serving the Island. I've got news-- there is nothing that says that the Island deserves worship or service. Locke has faith in the Island, but he has no faith in himself. He's constantly looked outside himself for direction- his father, the commune, the Island, The Button, Ben, Jacob. He may want to be a Hero, but right now he's just a tool.

"The Air Force wants a suite of hacker tools, to give it "access" to -- and "full control" of -- any kind of computer there is. And once the info warriors are in, the Air Force wants them to keep tabs on their "adversaries' information infrastructure completely undetected."

....

On Monday, the Air Force Research Laboratory introduced a two-year, $11 million effort to put together hardware and software tools for "Dominant Cyber Offensive Engagement." "Of interest are any and all techniques to enable user and/or root level access," a request for proposals notes, "to both fixed (PC) or mobile computing platforms... any and all operating systems, patch levels, applications and hardware." This isn't just some computer science study, mind you; "research efforts under this program are expected to result in complete functional capabilities.""

I guess the NSA won't share their toys.

"This insane montage of (nearly) every instance of "What?" from the LOST series started me thinking about this genre of video meme, where some obsessive-compulsive superfan collects every phrase/action/cliche from an episode (or entire series) of their favorite show/film/game into a single massive video montage.

For lack of a better name, let's call them supercuts."

Too bad I don't have a union to protect my privacy.

"The Police Department plans to equip its entire fleet with a new GPS-like tracking system that will give officers and dispatchers a global view of where cops are deployed at any given moment.

It should help route the closest officer to an emergency and be a safety net when an officer has no time to radio his position in a fast-paced scenario, police officials say.

...

One remaining obstacle could be cleared if police officers vote to accept a recent labor contract offered by the city. The Seattle Police Officers' Guild wanted guarantees that the AVL system wouldn't be used to spy on officers, so a policy was hammered out in the proposed contract.

In a separate Memorandum of Agreement, the two sides drafted a policy prohibiting AVL from being used to grade an officer's performance or monitor his or her conduct, unless it's part of a criminal misconduct investigation, said Sgt. Rich O'Neill, the guild president.

"It's a great officer-safety tool, especially if the officer gets out of the car and they can't raise him on the radio," O'Neill said. "But we had concerns that it could be abused.""

• It's raining when Emily Locke is hit by a car.
• Does Hurley's t-shirt symbolize tic-tac-toe (another game)?
• Did Keamy describe Smokey as a "white (or light) pillar of smoke"?
• Keamy seems frightened that Ben knows his name.
• Keamy's gun doesn't fire-more evidence that Michael can't die. Though he can be given a hurtful beating.
• Horace is in a loop.
• Why is Horace's nose bleeding?
• Richard Alpert is present in Locke's life from almost the beginning.
• Hurley's great question: "Why am I here?"
• Locke has stepsister and stepbrother.
• Boy Locke draws pictures of Smokey.
• Richard Alpert's test of Locke resembles how Buddhist Lamas (Tulkus) are confirmed:

  "...tests such as checking whether the child can recognize acquaintances or possessions from his previous life or answer questions only known to his former life-experience. According to the book Magic and Mystery in Tibet by Alexandra David-Neel, “A number of objects such as rosaries, ritualistic implements, books, tea-cups, etc., are placed together, and the child must pick out those which belonged to the late tulku, thus showing that he recognizes the things which were his in his previous life."

  Richard's Items:

  • "Mystery Tales" Comic , with "Hidden Land" cover story
  • Combat Knife
  • Grey Powder
  • Baseball Glove
  • Compass
  • "Book of Laws"
• What's the pattern of boy Locke's shirt?
• Ben is adamant that he didn't kill the Dharma Initiative. This is very strange considering what he's said in the past:

  "When it became clear that one side had to go, that one side had to be purged, I did what I had to do."

  "Not so long ago, Jack, I made a decision that took the lives of over forty people in a single day."

• Is Ben putting on a disillusioned act?
• Hurley found the cabin.
• Notice how Locke and Ben use "Hugo", not "Hurley".
• Was Locke surviving his crippling fall like Michael and his suicide attempts?
• Abaddon says a miracle happened to him.
• Abaddon sends Locke to Australia.
• Locke will owe Abaddon.
• Keamy has a dead man switch strapped to his bicep.
• And that's how the Doctor died.
• Why is Christian in the cabin and not Jacob?
• Locke: "I'm here because I was chosen."
• Claire is so dead.
• The scene with Hurley sharing a candy bar with Ben is classic.
• "Move The Island" indeed. But Keamy and friends are already on the Island.

Festo AirJelly
Via Beyond the Beyond (Bruce Sterling)

Lockeville-Locke's House

• Locke: "You deserve to know everything that I do, so...no more secrets".

  What a sad little scene. Once again the Losties are the most incurious and disconnected bunch one could imagine. Why are the Freighties after Ben? Why are they going to kill everyone else on the Island? What are we going to do to prepare for the coming attack? How did Ben get Michael to work for him on the freighter? What were the people on the helicopter supposed to do? Why did the Others abandon Ben? And those are just the questions that concern their immediate welfare. No questions for Ben about the hundreds of other mysteries. No more secrets my ass-Widmore, the guy behind the freighter, isn't even mentioned.

Freighter

• The ship's alarm sounds exactly like the Swan's.

Locke's House-Ben/Alex/Karl/Rousseau

• Did Ben hand-draw the Temple Dharma logo on his map or does he have a set of stamps?

  

• Comparison between Temple and Tempest maps
• Ben: "These people that are coming - they know who I am, Alex. They're here to capture me. They'll kill anybody that gets in their way. If they knew who you were, that you were my daughter, they would use you to get to me".

  If (and it's a big if) Ben's strategic prowess stems from knowledge of the future then he could have planted the idea for Alex to use her identity to save her life. But if he knows the future then he knows already that Alex tells the freighter snatch-team that she's his daughter-so he doesn't need to tell her. This is a hint of some of the problems associated with time-travel/precognition.

Freighter

• Sayid wants answers, bless his heart.

New York City

• Irony: The song playing in Michael's car is Mama Cass's "It's Getting Better"

  "Once I believed that when love came to me
  It would come with rockets, bells and poetry
  But with me and you it just started quietly and grew
  And believe it or not
  Now there's something groovy and good
  Bout whatever we got

  And it's getting better
  Growing stronger warm and wilder
  Getting better everyday, better everyday
  I don't feel all turned on and starry eyed
  I just feel a sweet contentment deep inside
  Holding you at night just seems kind of natural and right

  And it's not hard to see
  That it isn't half of what it's going to turn out to be
  Cause it's getting better
  Growing stronger, warm and wilder
  Getting better everyday, better everyday
  Ba da da da da da da da da da da da

  And I don't mind waitin', don't mind waitin'
  Cause no matter how long it takes
  The two of us know
  That it's getting better
  Growing stronger, warm and wilder
  Getting better everyday, better everyday'"

• According to the speedometer, the car hit the container going at least 60 mph. Assuming Michael never buckled his seat belt (and I never saw him), he should definitely be dead. His other suicide attempt is iffy, given that Tom could have messed with his gun, but I think the crash is good evidence that Michael cannot die.
• This episode's closeup of an eye opening is Michael in the hospital.
• Is Nurse Libby a guilty conscience, or Smokie , or like whatever Charlie is now, or something else?
• The Hospital room changes before and after Libby, suggesting either a dream or bad continuity.
• Libby is bringing blankets, just like when Michael shot her.
• If Michael had no ID, how was his note supposed to get to Walt?
• There's a Xmas tree in the hospital and a wreath at Mom's house=It's the holiday season, probably December 2004.
• There are red flowers outside Mom's house.
• Why did Michael tell Walt and not Mom?
• NYC Walt isn't as big as Tall Ghost Walt.
• The back of the watch says "Congratulations mutual cooperation business development Mr. Paik" in Korean
• There's a Xmas tree on the counter at the pawn shop.
• Why does Michael need a gun? New York City is full of nice tall buildings he can jump off of.
• Tom is pretty lucky Michael didn't press the issue, it's not easy defending yourself against someone who hates you and who wants to die.
• For the record, I think Michael can't die, but I remain skeptical of everything Tom says to him, including the part about the Island not letting him die. Michael's "invulnerability" could be due to some other factor that Ben is taking advantage of.

• "Also of interest: how Zeke said that Michael had more "work to do." This is what Taller Ghost Walt said to Locke at the Skeleton Pit, and it's the same sentence Zombie Dad said to Vincent in "So It Begins" (a Lost Missing Piece)--referring to Jack."

  Via S4Ep8 - I Was Happy to "Meet Kevin Johnson"

• Bob Dylan lived in the Hotel Earle, room 305, in the 1960's. There's a fictional Californian Hotel Earle in the Coen brother's film Barton Fink. Barton's next-door neighbor is a traveling-salesman serial killer.
• Michael's TV mentions Kurt Vonnegut as a game show answer.
• Who turns on the TV before they shoot themselves?
• Yup, Tom's gay.
• Tom's "evidence" is pretty weak. What kind of self-respecting evil billionaire leaves a paper trail of purchase orders with his name on them?
• Widmore says Ben staged the Indian ocean wreck, Tom says Widmore did it-my theory is that both of them are lying and neither of them is responsible for the plane that was found. I think that really is flight 815-we've seen duplicated bunnies, why not duplicated planes?
• "Kevin Johnson's" passport has the same number as Ben's "Dean Moriarty" one.

Freighter

• How did Ben get Michael a job on the freighter? Why would the freighter need a deckhand to come all the way from America?
• "Hi there, I'm the new lowly deckhand. Pay no attention to the crate I'm having loaded onto the ship, it's not like it's a bomb or anything. I mean, just because you're all going off to do bad deeds for an evil billionaire, there's no reason for you to have any semblance of security."
• Let's meet all the people who will be dead soon.
• Oranges:

  "Meet Kevin Johnson calls attention to another seminal modern tragedy that might serve as the model for the stories of Michael and other characters. In an allusion to The Godfather films, Miles calls our attention to an orange that he's eating, both visually and verbally. Oranges also serve as a famous recurring image in The Godfather film saga, always as a forewarning that death will not be far behind. Lost also paid homage to The Godfather as far back as the Pilot episode of the series, in which Terry O'Quinn mimicked Marlon Brando's famous orange peel smile. If The Godfather saga does serve as a major creative influence on Lost, then there is a strong reason to be concerned for its characters. The story of the Corleone family suggests not only that it might be impossible for an individual to atone for past crimes within one lifetime, but that future generations also will suffer for those sins."

  Via The Goodfather, The Badfather by Luhks

• Just throwing my cell phone into the harbor, nothing suspicious.
• I only see one helicopter. If Lapidus is needed to transport the science team, what did Naomi fall out of onto the Island?

  Where is Naomi's Copter?

• Naomi believes in going commando.
• There are only about 5-6 guys doing target practice.
• I think the combination to the bomb is 71776.
• There were whispers before Libby appeared in the engine room.
• Whatever Engine Room Libby was, why did she warn Michael not to set off the fake bomb? My theory: "Libby" didn't want Ben to get another hold over Michael.
• My first reaction to the "Not Yet" pop-up was "Oh my god, the Island is writing notes!".

• "Finally, on the subject of the King of Ka, I wanted to highlight a telling reference to the Shining. Recall that Mike is wasting time by bouncing a ball against the wall just like Jack Nicholson in the film version when Minkowski draws the comparison. I'm intrigued because the Shining strikes me as a perfect analogy for what's happening on Lost. Like the Overlook Hotel, the Island was once the site of some trauma that left a powerful psychic imprint upon it. Living and dead alike are driven by this imprint to repeat terrible events of the past.

  Of particular relevance, both the Shining and Lost feature psychic children whose powers are intensified by proximity to the Island/Hotel. This booster effect makes the children more sensitive to the imprint but simultaneously gives them the power to resist it. That's why Walt eventually soured on the Island in a way Locke never did, even during his crisis of faith after finding the Pearl. The former is little Danny Torrance, and the latter his father, Jack. Like the Overlook Hotel, the Island needs a new caretaker..."

  Via Meet Kevin Johnson...by Eye M Sick

• Michael's a lowly deckhand on a freighter on a secret mission for an evil billionaire, of course he can take a call from the mainland in private. It's not like he's a mole for an evil sociopath.
• Ben can radio the outside world from his secret room.
• Ben: "I will not kill innocent people."-Does Ben really believe this? How does he rationalize shooting Locke? Oh yea, Ben believed that Locke killed his father to join the Others.
• The question to ask is; Why doesn't Ben really want the freighter blown up?

  Possibilities:

  • Ben is prohibited from or punished for killing innocent people who are off the Island. "God doesn't know how long we've been here, John. He can't see this island any better than the rest of the world can. ".
  • For some reason he can't kill innocent people in the context of his conflict with Widmore.
  • Blowing up the freighter screws up the future.

• "In Ben's brief appearance in Michael's flashback, he makes his strongest plea yet that he is The Good Guy. He goes to great lengths to convince Michael that he is not a monster like Charles Widmore: "When I'm at war, I'll do what I need to do to win, but I will not kill innocent people." While Michael was convinced by the little farce that Ben played with him, Ben's track record indicates otherwise. It is difficult to put an exact number on the innocent people that Ben killed or tried to kill to fulfill his own desires. However, Ben is such a fan of listmaking that he probably has these names checked off somewhere: Roger Linus, Horace Goodspeed, another forty members of Dharma Initiative, the real Henry Gale, Goodwin, Charlie, Bonnie, Greta, any pregnant woman who wanted to leave the island, all of his own people who died on kidnapping missions, etc. You can add in his direct attempts to kill Ana-Lucia, Locke, and Charlotte, as well as the countless other times when he ordered other people to use lethal force. If you agree with my interpretation of this episode, then Karl and Danielle will be just the latest names in this ongoing series of victims.

  Perhaps even longer than his list of names is his list of excuses. He somehow manages to keep persuading both characters and audience members that everything he does is justified. Ben has now convinced a new group of people that their survival depends upon their efforts to protect him. Make no mistake, though, Ben is a monster, and there is no other character more dangerous than him. He pursues his desires without regard for human life, and slaughters the innocent without conscience."

  Via The Goodfather, The Badfather by Luhks

• Ben's new orders to Michael don't make sense. If the freighter's radios and engines are disabled, those innocent people either take a smaller boat and try to get to the Island or they starve to death.
• Michael doesn't cover any of the time since Sayid and Desmond got on board.
• I'll say one thing for Michael, he didn't lie to Sayid and Desmond.
• Want to bet the Captain knew all along about Michael?

  "Watch Gault's reaction as they present Michael to him - he's not even the least bit surprised. In fact, he looks almost disappointed. I think he and Widmore knew exactly who Michael was from the very beginning, and were planning on somehow using that knowledge to find Ben. Sayid and Desmond just blew it for him. He intentionally called Johnson to "clean up this mess" to see if Michael's ex-friends would approach him. Check out how he watches them over his shoulder on the way back to his quarters. I actually think Gault expected them to secretly buddy up together... he had no way of knowing that Michael committed double-homicide and was totally hated. The captain was completely caught off guard by Sayid turning him in."

  Via Things I Noticed - "Meet Kevin Johnson" by Vozzek69

Island

• Wait a minute, what are the odds that the snatch-team from the freighter comes across the only three people wandering about the Island?

  On the other hand, the freighter heavies could have already been on the Island and scouting Lockeville and saw Alex/Karl/Rousseau leave.

• Karl's "I have a bad feeling about this" is a 6-way Star Wars reference.

---

Thoughts

• Does it seem like the whole freighter thing seems a little low-rent for a guy like Widmore? If I were him I would have at least 2 ships; one near, one far. And no crappy rustbuckets.
• The same thing that prevents Michael from dying could have intervened in Jack's attempted bridge jump.
• There are some serious issues with Michael's timeline. I'll just quote directly from BuddyTV:

  Also, we wondered, when did Tom find time to get off the island during that month before he died? To answer these questions, here is a simple timeline using the days on the island to try and pinpoint when the flashbacks took place.

  Day 67 (Saturday, November 27, 2004):
  -Michael and Walt are released in the boat get off the island.

  Day 67-Day 74:
  -Tom and the rest of the Others are at the Hydra Station, interrogating Jack, Kate and Sawyer. Tom is present throughout, including during Ben's surgery.

  Day 80-Day 81:
  -Locke, Kate, Rousseau and Sayid see Jack playing football with Tom.
  -The Others (Tom included) head off to the Ruins.

  Day 87:
  -Naomi lands on the island.

  This timeline results in some serious issues fans should have with time. When Ben calls Michael on the radio, he is in his home in the barracks, which means that scene takes place on Day 81 at the latest. In other words, two weeks after leaving the island, Michael is on the freighter coming back.

  Also, this means that Tom's visit to New York City must have taken place between the time at Hydra and the time he's seen playing football with Jack. This covers roughly a one week span that takes place one week after Michael leaves. This makes almost no sense.

  Michael left in the boat, he had to find help, come ashore, somehow explain himself, get on a plane back to New York City, drop off Walt to live with his grandma, find an apartment, get into a car accident, recover, and only then did he meet Tom. Either the writers are playing fast and loose with the concept of time, or Michael had the busiest week in the history of the world.

  I've gone over Lostpedia's Timeline and I can't argue with this analysis. Though Ben did send Michael on a different bearing than Faraday's "safe" heading-maybe Ben intentionally sent Michael and Walt back in time. Against this is Michael's mom not seeing him for 2 months.

• I'm completely in love with Jack's vintage Bronco, but does this seem like the car a hot-shit spinal surgeon drives? Yet it's so unique I wonder if there's a reason behind it.

  

---

Recaps

• Lost: Michael's Promotion , by J. Wood

Fishbiscuit and The Ack Attack! are the yin and yang of Lost photo-recaps. Both are brilliant

• Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, by Fishbiscuit
• Lost Recap 4x08: Meet Kevin Johnson, by The Ack Attack!
• Things I Noticed - "Meet Kevin Johnson" by Vozzek69 , by Vozzek69
• The Goodfather, The Badfather , by Luhks
• S4Ep8 - I Was Happy to "Meet Kevin Johnson", by Long Live Locke
• Meet Kevin Johnson..., by Eye M Sick
• Lost: Dad Man Walking, by Adam B. Vary @ Entertainment Weekly
• Lost Episode 4.08 - "Meet Kevin Johnson" Easter Eggs and Screencaps, by Get Lost Podcast
• Lost Episode 4.08 "Meet Kevin Johnson" - Screencap Recap, by Get Lost Podcast
• Initial Thoughts: Meet Kevin Johnson, by Gitsie Girl
• 4 X 08: Meet Kevin Johnson, by Gitsie Girl
• Lost Dueling Analyses: Meet Kevin Johnson, by Celebritology
• Lost: Michael goes to a pwn shop., by Tubular

"False identifications based on a terrorist no-fly list have for years prevented some federal air marshals from boarding flights they are assigned to protect, according to officials with the agency, which is finally taking steps to address the problem.

Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) familiar with the situation say the mix-ups, in which marshals are mistaken for terrorism suspects who share the same names, have gone on for years — just as they have for thousands of members of the traveling public.

One air marshal said it has been "a major problem, where guys are denied boarding by the airline."

"In some cases, planes have departed without any coverage because the airline employees were adamant they would not fly," said the air marshal, who asked not to be named because the job requires anonymity. "I've seen guys actually being denied boarding."

A second air marshal said one agent "has been getting harassed for six years because his exact name is on the no-fly list.""

"Tetrodotoxin can cause a pleasing numbing sensation when eaten in tiny amounts, but if you ingest too much of the substance, nothing pleasant at all happens. The symptoms of tetrodotoxin poisoning include dizziness, exhaustion, and nausea. Eventually your muscles begin to freeze--first your lips and tongue, then the tips of your fingers, then your hands, then your arms and legs, and finally your heart and lungs. Victims typically remain conscious, but are eventually paralyzed and can't move or speak. (In parts of Japan, legend has it, the bodies of fugu-overdose victims were once laid beside their open caskets for several days to ensure that they were not being buried alive.) The amount of tetrodotoxin required to kill a man can fit on the head of a pin. Tetrodotoxin poisoning has no known cure.

Blowfish bones have been excavated in shell mounds in Japan going back more than 2,000 years, and the Japanese remain by far the world's largest consumers of the fish, eating an estimated 10,000 tons of it each year. The country's ravenous appetite for fugu is, in part, a simple function of taste. Connoisseurs say that fugu, an extremely lean fish, has a pure, almost pristine freshness. "Cleanliness," says chef Masa. "That's the special fugu umami." (Umami translates literally as a savory Japanese flavor, but the term connotes a kind of mystical deliciousness.) But much of fugu's allure, of course, comes from its air of danger. As the owner of a fugu museum in Osaka once put it, "Human beings are funny. They want to eat what is forbidden." Japanese poets have penned tragic verses referencing fugu ('I cannot see her tonight / I have to give her up / So I will eat fugu,' goes one work by the eighteenth-century haikuist Yosa Buson), and the dish was once so popular that during the Tokugawa and Meiji periods (1603-1912), Japanese authorities banned people from eating it. In modern Japan, it's still illegal to serve fugu to the emperor. "