The Lost Series & The Hanso Foundation
Bringing it All Together
After over a month of making phone calls and e-mails, entering dark alleyways, chasing disreputable characters, reading questionable documents, uncovering secret codes and manipulating images for clues… we find that The Lost Experience Game and the Lost T.V. series have finally come together, sort of, off-handedly, in a round-about way. This entry is concerned with covering the information that ties the Lost series with The Lost Experience (Hanso Foundation), something I’ve been asking for since the game began. There are some very obvious tie-ins that will be mentioned here but also some that are a bit more esoteric and harder to fit together. We understand that the game is not intended to provide answers to the series but is simply available for our enjoyment after the season had concluded in May. If you have a connection not identified here please email me at dharmapoet@wi.rr.com With that said, I present, in no particular order… the Lost series & The Hanso Foundation connections.
1. The photo of Alvar Hanso from the Executive Bios page of the Hanso Foundation website is also shown in the Orientation film from the Swan Hatch. This is from the Lost episode “Orientation” and is the exact same image in both cases. Even then the photo seemed staged, grainy (to use Persephone’s word) and dated. Finding Alvar Hanso is an important part of the Lost Experience game but it was nice to see this connection early on. And, “Where is Alvar Hanso? Whose running this place anyway?”
2. http://www.letyourcompassguideyou.com/ or Permissum Vestri Complector Rector Vos
This site, when first visited, reveals The Hanso Foundation logo and their spokeswoman from the website (deep in the background) thus tying the website to the Foundation.
When the hidden page is revealed we see two items that link this site to the series. The clickable link is the mythical number 108 which is the number of minutes between the hatch clock reset and the sum of all the numbers added together (4,8,15,16,23,42.) Once the hidden page is revealed we also see the strange code DI9FFTR731 which is the Swan Dharma designation on all the food products on the island, including the Dharma Malomars. If you continue through to the Parent Directory to Index of/usr you will find one JGranger. On the Official Lost website under the “found” link there has been a number of journal entries made. Janelle Granger created these entries (she included her name in the journal) and she identified the faux “Henry Gale” (or person being held captive in the hatch), as her brother. This links her to both the game and the series (in an albeit round-about way.)
3. http://www.thehansofoundation.org/ Mental Health Appeal (Hole4) “light sequence again”
Why I hate the sound of “purple”! After 42 mind-numbing games of hieroglyphic “Simon” the following message was revealed to us: “Department of Heuristics and Research on Material Applications.” So now we know what the D.H.A.R.M.A. of the Dharma Initiative stands for. (Seems like a lot of trouble for such a minor clue.) By the way, the study of heuristics is “a problem-solving technique in which the most appropriate solution is selected using rules.” Sound familiar at all to anyone? Here are some common and simple rules of heuristics: If you are having difficulty understanding a problem, try drawing a picture. If you can't find a solution, try assuming that you have a solution and seeing what you can derive from that ("working backward"). If the problem is abstract, try examining a concrete example. Try solving a more general problem first (the "inventor's paradox": the more ambitious plan may have more chances of success). Oh, and the Apollo Bar is mentioned as a reward when getting past level 42. Why doesn’t the Apollo chocolate bar have the DI9FFTR731 designation on it?
4. The Widmore Group (I have intentionally not recorded their website as "in-game" on my blog as it has not proven yet to be so.) The Widmore Group has been mentioned a few times in different episodes of Lost. Sun’s pregnancy test was a Widmore Lab’s test and Widmore Construction is believed to have been involved in the construction of the hatches on the island. The Widmore family plays a prominent part in the novel “Bad Twin” by Gary Troup. The Widmore family is also linked to the Hanso Foundation in the book and they are even found in the same building in New York. The season finale of Lost introduced us to Charles and Penelope Widmore. Though how they are related to Arthur, Cliff and Zander Widmore, from the book, has not yet been established.
5. The Orientation film (Station # 3 – The Swan) mentions the DeGroots and shows them staging a number of scientific experiments. One of which is a woman standing behind three large balls on a table conducting some type of blindfolded experiment (actually, it appears that she is the experiment.) This same image can be seen in the Cape Town Inquisitor newspaper microfilm from the Worldwide Wellness and Prevention Development Program “miracle” clue. Also, the Dharma lab coat that Martin Candle/Mark Wickman is wearing appears a number of times in the Lost Experience game. In the background of the WWPDP images (tobacco/oil/etc.) and also on the Institute for Genomic Advancement page it is an image of a person in the lab coat (or hazmat slicker) that first appears after typing in the password “parthenogenesis.”
6. Paik Heavy Industries is mentioned in a voice mail on the original Hanso Foundation Call Center in the Lost Experience game. 1-877-HANSORG. “Old man Paik” is listed in the book “Bad Twin” by Gary Troup and is depicted as a cutthroat businessman. In fact, Zander Widmore was removed from the group trying to conduct business with Paik because he was not tough enough to handle the situation. Paik Motors is listed as being in a “joint venture” with the Hanso Foundation in a letter from Hoo-Gon Choi of Korea on the Electromagnetic Research Institute page of the Hanso website. Mr. Paik, as mentioned above, is Sun’s father and Jin’s employer in the Lost T.V. show.
7. http://www.retrieversoftruth.com/ The Retrievers of Truth webpage became a part of the Lost Experience when it was unveiled in a television commercial on ABC during an episode of “Boston Legal” on June 7th and during a re-run episode of “Lost” on June 8th. There are a lot of connections between this website and the Lost series. When first visiting this page we are introduced to a very strange looking individual named Dr. Vincent “Wally” Bole. (Note: Many players feel there is significance to the bizarre image of Dr. Bole and I can’t disagree. He looks too strange to be normal, or even paranormal.) Dr. Vincent “Wally” Bole… An obvious connection to the Lost series is the name Vincent, who is, of course, the dog on the island. Vincent is a yellow lab and “Wally” Bole is an anagram for… you guessed it, yellow lab! Walt Lloyd is Vincent’s owner and Dr. Bole is known as “Wally”. Brian Porter was Walt’s step-father and the password on the Retrievers of Truth website is “porter.” The Porter and Lloyd families are mentioned in the history portion of the ROT site as being involved in the introduction of yellow labs to the world. On the Retrievers page it states that Dr. Bole met Alvar Hanso at a life extension workshop in Rangoon and he changed his life forever.
8. http://www.djdan.am/ The D.J. Dan Website has some interesting connections to the lost series. First, the Mythic Beaties page shows the image of a mapinguari which is mythical South American creature similar in reputation to bigfoot. The mapinguari is often compared to a giant three-toed tree sloth or a megatherium, which is an extinct giant ground sloth. In any event, on an old copy of a J.J. Abrams document the following hand-written note was scrawled in the margins in capital letters in red ink, “Mapinguari? No! No! Not Yet!”, which sounds like they are planning to include the mapinguari as one of the island creatures like the polar bear and the horse. Second, the D.J. Dan website has an image of the Hanso Foundation’s logo with a line through it (No Hanso!) connecting it to the Foundation and found in the source code of the Hanso website you can clearly find the URL to the D.J. Dan website. Many of the other images on this site correspond to some of the research initiatives on the Hanso site (ape = Joop, fallout pattern = ERI, signal tower = “light sequence again”, etc. Third, and the most compelling to me, was the D.J. Dan podcast from 06/14/06 form the Verizon employee forum. During this podcast a caller, who teaches bioengineering in the midwest stated that he was concerned with nano-technology. After a bit of discussion and a definition on what nano-technology was the caller stated that the nanites could swarm, kill, and think! This sounds very much like the smoke found on the island and indentified on the Hatch door map as Cerberus! The caller went on to say that these nanites would look like a storm cloud and could hover over an area. This solidified the connection to the smoke on the island for me. However, other players are saying that this theory was dispelled earlier by writers and producers of the show. I say, they changed their minds! Besides, to me it is the coolest explanation for our smoke that I have ever heard and it makes sense. For those who have read Michael Crighton’s “Prey” this idea seems more plausible than it once did. Could the nanites be forming (swarming) in such a way as to appear to look like a polar bear, or a horse, or a Henry Gale or whatever?
9. “Mus uni non fidit antro” or “A mouse does not rely on just one hole.” This quote is attributable to the Roman playright Titus Maccius Plautus,(205 BCE-184 BCE). In connection to Lost it was first found on the blast door map during the episode “Lockdown” and makes a reocurring apperance in the Lost Experience game. It seems that our favorite hacker/sabateur Persephone is relying on many mouse holes to forward information to us. Not only are her clues numbered as such (hole2, hole3, and hole4) but she has hacked into many different areas of the Hanso site, relying on many different “holes.” This all makes me wonder where, and perhaps more importantly, what Hole # 1 is.
10. The rock group Drive Shaft (Charlies band) has a song called "Moth" which was featured in one of the Lost episodes. This is also the nickname of Keith Baker who is a character in the "Bad Twin" novel. He was a friend of Zander Widmore until he was murdered.
11. "Heavy Water", a clue on the Hanso site, is written on the Blast Door Map.
12. "Magnus Hanso and the Blackrock" have been connected. While the Black Rock was known as the stranded in-land crashed slave ship from the island Magnus Hanso was named on the Blast Door Map (Episode "Lockdown"). Today, June 20th, 2006, Rachel Blake made mention in her "in-game" blog about the East Ocean Trade Group (New World Sea Traders) which was connected by an "in-game" researcher to Magnus Hanso and the Black Rock.
13. (See # 6) In Rachel Blake's entry from Copenhagen on June 22nd, 2006 we find that Rachel has recorded a connversation in Korean between Hugh McIntyre and an unknown man. This unknown man send regards from "Paik" thus tying at leat Old Man Paik with Hugh McIntyre and the Hanso Foundation.
For those readers who have uncovered other areas that show a connection or a link to one of the “in-game” websites, the Hanso Foundation and the Lost series please e-mail your findings to dharmapoet@wi.rr.com I’d like to keep this entry updated all summer and make this as complete as I can before the new season begins in the fall. Even the slightest bit of information will be added as I hope to have as comprehensive a list as possible for as many of the connections as we can find.
After over a month of making phone calls and e-mails, entering dark alleyways, chasing disreputable characters, reading questionable documents, uncovering secret codes and manipulating images for clues… we find that The Lost Experience Game and the Lost T.V. series have finally come together, sort of, off-handedly, in a round-about way. This entry is concerned with covering the information that ties the Lost series with The Lost Experience (Hanso Foundation), something I’ve been asking for since the game began. There are some very obvious tie-ins that will be mentioned here but also some that are a bit more esoteric and harder to fit together. We understand that the game is not intended to provide answers to the series but is simply available for our enjoyment after the season had concluded in May. If you have a connection not identified here please email me at dharmapoet@wi.rr.com With that said, I present, in no particular order… the Lost series & The Hanso Foundation connections.
1. The photo of Alvar Hanso from the Executive Bios page of the Hanso Foundation website is also shown in the Orientation film from the Swan Hatch. This is from the Lost episode “Orientation” and is the exact same image in both cases. Even then the photo seemed staged, grainy (to use Persephone’s word) and dated. Finding Alvar Hanso is an important part of the Lost Experience game but it was nice to see this connection early on. And, “Where is Alvar Hanso? Whose running this place anyway?”
2. http://www.letyourcompassguideyou.com/ or Permissum Vestri Complector Rector Vos
This site, when first visited, reveals The Hanso Foundation logo and their spokeswoman from the website (deep in the background) thus tying the website to the Foundation.
When the hidden page is revealed we see two items that link this site to the series. The clickable link is the mythical number 108 which is the number of minutes between the hatch clock reset and the sum of all the numbers added together (4,8,15,16,23,42.) Once the hidden page is revealed we also see the strange code DI9FFTR731 which is the Swan Dharma designation on all the food products on the island, including the Dharma Malomars. If you continue through to the Parent Directory to Index of/usr you will find one JGranger. On the Official Lost website under the “found” link there has been a number of journal entries made. Janelle Granger created these entries (she included her name in the journal) and she identified the faux “Henry Gale” (or person being held captive in the hatch), as her brother. This links her to both the game and the series (in an albeit round-about way.)
3. http://www.thehansofoundation.org/ Mental Health Appeal (Hole4) “light sequence again”
Why I hate the sound of “purple”! After 42 mind-numbing games of hieroglyphic “Simon” the following message was revealed to us: “Department of Heuristics and Research on Material Applications.” So now we know what the D.H.A.R.M.A. of the Dharma Initiative stands for. (Seems like a lot of trouble for such a minor clue.) By the way, the study of heuristics is “a problem-solving technique in which the most appropriate solution is selected using rules.” Sound familiar at all to anyone? Here are some common and simple rules of heuristics: If you are having difficulty understanding a problem, try drawing a picture. If you can't find a solution, try assuming that you have a solution and seeing what you can derive from that ("working backward"). If the problem is abstract, try examining a concrete example. Try solving a more general problem first (the "inventor's paradox": the more ambitious plan may have more chances of success). Oh, and the Apollo Bar is mentioned as a reward when getting past level 42. Why doesn’t the Apollo chocolate bar have the DI9FFTR731 designation on it?
4. The Widmore Group (I have intentionally not recorded their website as "in-game" on my blog as it has not proven yet to be so.) The Widmore Group has been mentioned a few times in different episodes of Lost. Sun’s pregnancy test was a Widmore Lab’s test and Widmore Construction is believed to have been involved in the construction of the hatches on the island. The Widmore family plays a prominent part in the novel “Bad Twin” by Gary Troup. The Widmore family is also linked to the Hanso Foundation in the book and they are even found in the same building in New York. The season finale of Lost introduced us to Charles and Penelope Widmore. Though how they are related to Arthur, Cliff and Zander Widmore, from the book, has not yet been established.
5. The Orientation film (Station # 3 – The Swan) mentions the DeGroots and shows them staging a number of scientific experiments. One of which is a woman standing behind three large balls on a table conducting some type of blindfolded experiment (actually, it appears that she is the experiment.) This same image can be seen in the Cape Town Inquisitor newspaper microfilm from the Worldwide Wellness and Prevention Development Program “miracle” clue. Also, the Dharma lab coat that Martin Candle/Mark Wickman is wearing appears a number of times in the Lost Experience game. In the background of the WWPDP images (tobacco/oil/etc.) and also on the Institute for Genomic Advancement page it is an image of a person in the lab coat (or hazmat slicker) that first appears after typing in the password “parthenogenesis.”
6. Paik Heavy Industries is mentioned in a voice mail on the original Hanso Foundation Call Center in the Lost Experience game. 1-877-HANSORG. “Old man Paik” is listed in the book “Bad Twin” by Gary Troup and is depicted as a cutthroat businessman. In fact, Zander Widmore was removed from the group trying to conduct business with Paik because he was not tough enough to handle the situation. Paik Motors is listed as being in a “joint venture” with the Hanso Foundation in a letter from Hoo-Gon Choi of Korea on the Electromagnetic Research Institute page of the Hanso website. Mr. Paik, as mentioned above, is Sun’s father and Jin’s employer in the Lost T.V. show.
7. http://www.retrieversoftruth.com/ The Retrievers of Truth webpage became a part of the Lost Experience when it was unveiled in a television commercial on ABC during an episode of “Boston Legal” on June 7th and during a re-run episode of “Lost” on June 8th. There are a lot of connections between this website and the Lost series. When first visiting this page we are introduced to a very strange looking individual named Dr. Vincent “Wally” Bole. (Note: Many players feel there is significance to the bizarre image of Dr. Bole and I can’t disagree. He looks too strange to be normal, or even paranormal.) Dr. Vincent “Wally” Bole… An obvious connection to the Lost series is the name Vincent, who is, of course, the dog on the island. Vincent is a yellow lab and “Wally” Bole is an anagram for… you guessed it, yellow lab! Walt Lloyd is Vincent’s owner and Dr. Bole is known as “Wally”. Brian Porter was Walt’s step-father and the password on the Retrievers of Truth website is “porter.” The Porter and Lloyd families are mentioned in the history portion of the ROT site as being involved in the introduction of yellow labs to the world. On the Retrievers page it states that Dr. Bole met Alvar Hanso at a life extension workshop in Rangoon and he changed his life forever.
8. http://www.djdan.am/ The D.J. Dan Website has some interesting connections to the lost series. First, the Mythic Beaties page shows the image of a mapinguari which is mythical South American creature similar in reputation to bigfoot. The mapinguari is often compared to a giant three-toed tree sloth or a megatherium, which is an extinct giant ground sloth. In any event, on an old copy of a J.J. Abrams document the following hand-written note was scrawled in the margins in capital letters in red ink, “Mapinguari? No! No! Not Yet!”, which sounds like they are planning to include the mapinguari as one of the island creatures like the polar bear and the horse. Second, the D.J. Dan website has an image of the Hanso Foundation’s logo with a line through it (No Hanso!) connecting it to the Foundation and found in the source code of the Hanso website you can clearly find the URL to the D.J. Dan website. Many of the other images on this site correspond to some of the research initiatives on the Hanso site (ape = Joop, fallout pattern = ERI, signal tower = “light sequence again”, etc. Third, and the most compelling to me, was the D.J. Dan podcast from 06/14/06 form the Verizon employee forum. During this podcast a caller, who teaches bioengineering in the midwest stated that he was concerned with nano-technology. After a bit of discussion and a definition on what nano-technology was the caller stated that the nanites could swarm, kill, and think! This sounds very much like the smoke found on the island and indentified on the Hatch door map as Cerberus! The caller went on to say that these nanites would look like a storm cloud and could hover over an area. This solidified the connection to the smoke on the island for me. However, other players are saying that this theory was dispelled earlier by writers and producers of the show. I say, they changed their minds! Besides, to me it is the coolest explanation for our smoke that I have ever heard and it makes sense. For those who have read Michael Crighton’s “Prey” this idea seems more plausible than it once did. Could the nanites be forming (swarming) in such a way as to appear to look like a polar bear, or a horse, or a Henry Gale or whatever?
9. “Mus uni non fidit antro” or “A mouse does not rely on just one hole.” This quote is attributable to the Roman playright Titus Maccius Plautus,(205 BCE-184 BCE). In connection to Lost it was first found on the blast door map during the episode “Lockdown” and makes a reocurring apperance in the Lost Experience game. It seems that our favorite hacker/sabateur Persephone is relying on many mouse holes to forward information to us. Not only are her clues numbered as such (hole2, hole3, and hole4) but she has hacked into many different areas of the Hanso site, relying on many different “holes.” This all makes me wonder where, and perhaps more importantly, what Hole # 1 is.
10. The rock group Drive Shaft (Charlies band) has a song called "Moth" which was featured in one of the Lost episodes. This is also the nickname of Keith Baker who is a character in the "Bad Twin" novel. He was a friend of Zander Widmore until he was murdered.
11. "Heavy Water", a clue on the Hanso site, is written on the Blast Door Map.
12. "Magnus Hanso and the Blackrock" have been connected. While the Black Rock was known as the stranded in-land crashed slave ship from the island Magnus Hanso was named on the Blast Door Map (Episode "Lockdown"). Today, June 20th, 2006, Rachel Blake made mention in her "in-game" blog about the East Ocean Trade Group (New World Sea Traders) which was connected by an "in-game" researcher to Magnus Hanso and the Black Rock.
13. (See # 6) In Rachel Blake's entry from Copenhagen on June 22nd, 2006 we find that Rachel has recorded a connversation in Korean between Hugh McIntyre and an unknown man. This unknown man send regards from "Paik" thus tying at leat Old Man Paik with Hugh McIntyre and the Hanso Foundation.
For those readers who have uncovered other areas that show a connection or a link to one of the “in-game” websites, the Hanso Foundation and the Lost series please e-mail your findings to dharmapoet@wi.rr.com I’d like to keep this entry updated all summer and make this as complete as I can before the new season begins in the fall. Even the slightest bit of information will be added as I hope to have as comprehensive a list as possible for as many of the connections as we can find.
posted by The Alternative One at 10:20 AM
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