Speaking of LOST…
May 10th, 2006As I bought lunch just now, I noticed a cover story on the stack of USA Today newspapers for sale by the checkout stand and snapped up a copy. It’s a nice, long article about what make LOST such a compelling mystery and the lengths to which fans are going to try to solve it. In addition to the article, USA Today’s web site has a page where fans can submit clues they discover in the weekly episodes. Several other such sites are also available on the Web; check your local Google listing for URLs.
In looking for the online version of the USA Today story, I discovered several other good, but shorter, articles about LOST. The Boston Herald claims that the mystery deepened significantly last week, and notes that ABC is using real-world incarnations of its fictional Hanso Foundation to spread more clues about the TV series. A site called SlashFilm noted that the Foundation placed a fake advertisement in the pages of the Philadelphia Inquirer bashing the novel Bad Twin; the novel, “written” by fictional LOST character Gary Troup (anagram: Purgatory) is a real-world book with tie-ins to LOST. Finally, Kevin McDonough announced that last week’s episode was “stunning”. Well… DUH!
I’ll say this for LOST: it’s the most hooked I’ve been on a TV serial mystery since Twin Peaks in the late eighties. Let’s hope LOST turns out better than that turkey.
Update: During tonight’s episode one of the commercials was an ad for the Hanso Foundation; the ad concluded with the URL http://sublymonal.com (yes, spelled like that). So I type that into my browser, and when the page eventually loads, I’m presented with an animated Flash page with the word OBEY surrounded by six screens. With enough clicking, I eventually activate them all and I’m taking to a second page which bears the message sublymonal message unlocked and an animation that repeatedly says “Code: Heir Apparent”. At the bottom of the page is a link to
That page doesn’t load properly – it tells me I need to have the Flash plugin installed, which obviously I do. I’m guessing that the huge load the web site must be experiencing is causing the Flash detection script to malfunction. However, I’m guessing that that URL leads to the screen you would see if you went to the Hanso Foundation web site and clicked “Bios”. I’ve done that, and it’s not obvious to me what Heir Apparent means.
This is going to bug me for a while…
May 10th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
Disclaimer: I do not know anything about LOST.
This morning, as I read the Post, I saw a full page ad from the Hanso Foundation telling readers not to believe the content of the novel Bad Twin. We get similar looking full page ads lobbying Congress and/or the President all the time in the Post, and other commentary type ads also run all the time, as well. So, I figured the Hanso Foundation ad was of the same type. Again, I had no idea it might be related to LOST.
Here’s the whois on the Hanso Foundation web site, FWIW:
Domain ID:D107709943-LROR
Domain Name:HANSOFOUNDATION.ORG
Created On:06-Oct-2005 02:43:27 UTC
Last Updated On:23-Mar-2006 03:18:46 UTC
Expiration Date:06-Oct-2006 02:43:27 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:eNom, Inc. (R39-LROR)
Status:OK
Registrant ID:09CC8B3D3B9ED3E1
Registrant Name:Whois Protection Service – ProtectFly.com
Registrant Organization:RegisterFly.com – Ref-R# 31513388
Registrant Street1:623 Eagle Rock Avenue
Registrant Street2:Suite #7
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:West Orange
Registrant State/Province:NJ
Registrant Postal Code:07052
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.9737362545
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:p1gthj7528u9p1@protectfly.com
Admin ID:B01C1BEC2551792C
Admin Name:Whois Protection Service – ProtectFly.com
Admin Organization:RegisterFly.com – Ref-A# 31513388
Admin Street1:623 Eagle Rock Avenue
Admin Street2:Suite #7
Admin Street3:
Admin City:West Orange
Admin State/Province:NJ
Admin Postal Code:07052
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.9737362545
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:v82aw1s4ta2n75@protectfly.com
Tech ID:73C4B9B8F1BA7E0C
Tech Name:Whois Protection Service – ProtectFly.com
Tech Organization:RegisterFly.com – Ref-T# 31513388
Tech Street1:623 Eagle Rock Avenue
Tech Street2:Suite #7
Tech Street3:
Tech City:West Orange
Tech State/Province:NJ
Tech Postal Code:07052
Tech Country:US
Tech Phone:+1.9737362545
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:kgzhsmmhb1gm7bf@protectfly.com
Name Server:NS1-NOVA.WEBSERVERSYSTEMS.COM
Name Server:NS2-NOVA.WEBSERVERSYSTEMS.COM
Name Server:
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May 10th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
Cool – that looks like a fan-run forum site.
Here’s the Internic registry information for thehansonfoundation.org, which appears to be the site set up by the show producers.
Domain ID:D106939446-LROR
Domain Name:THEHANSOFOUNDATION.ORG
Created On:18-Jul-2005 19:25:55 UTC
Last Updated On:02-May-2006 18:45:01 UTC
Expiration Date:18-Jul-2007 19:25:55 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Tucows Inc. (R11-LROR)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:tugBiTw52IqwI8eH
Registrant Name:hanso foundation
Registrant Organization:hanso foundation
Registrant Street1:544 Orsund Klengvjel
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Copenhagen
Registrant State/Province:
Registrant Postal Code:DK-1604
Registrant Country:DK
Registrant Phone:+1.9999999999
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:mexicanlunch@hotmail.com
Admin ID:tuiXyOrjjsEYAfQ4
Admin Name:hanso foundation
Admin Organization:hanso foundation
Admin Street1:544 Orsund Klengvjel
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Copenhagen
Admin State/Province:
Admin Postal Code:DK-1604
Admin Country:DK
Admin Phone:+999.999999999
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:info@thehansofoundation.org
Tech ID:tuUlr54To2l6ECIU
Tech Name:hanso foundation
Tech Organization:hanso foundation
Tech Street1:544 Orsund Klengvjel
Tech Street2:
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Copenhagen
Tech State/Province:
Tech Postal Code:DK-1604
Tech Country:DK
Tech Phone:+999.999999999
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:info@thehansofoundation.org
Name Server:NS1.MEDIATEMPLE.NET
Name Server:NS2.MEDIATEMPLE.NET
Name Server:
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May 11th, 2006 at 8:41 am
Greek to me
May 12th, 2006 at 11:03 am
What ticks me off with LOST is that it wants to be clever, but it’s so clever than even we, the viewers, are not able to understand the “mysteries”.
I like to be surprised in a show, but I also like to understand what’s happening :)