maybe it's part of the Dharma symbol? also fyi, if you look at the active projects, and scroll your mouse below the links they have, a hidden link for Dharma Initiative pops up. It doesn't link anywhere though.

God, I feel like I should be watching this show; should I just go ouyt and start renting Season 1?

Frankly, the spots for the show have always made it look REALLY cheesy. Or just cheap.

I think its an ABC problem. Like how the NFL on CBS is really grainy and the NFL (and NASCAR) on Fox is so slick.

ABC shows just look really cheaply produced [/rant]

It's addictive, Chris. I was a naysayer in the beginning too, but after watching season one repeated, I got hooked. It's very interesting in that "Twin Peaks" sort of way, where you could probably find meaning in just about everything. It's a great serial, in my opinion.

You should, it's really quite good. The aforementioned discussion bears this out. It's got a really rich backstory and you're always left wanting to know more.

With respect to some of the points mentioned above, how come that big black dude spoke perfect English? American or not?

Yeah, we only really watch two shows as "appointment" television: The Wire(which we started from the beginning) and Survivor (gf's favorite but I really do enjoy it as well); we also usually end up watching CSI as well....I happen to think its a really well done show even if it is only about 17% grounded in reality.

Maybe I'll rent up a disc or two of Lost and see what I think; Cant hurt, right?

you're fortunate to be able to watch them all at once. Near the end of the season, they tortured us with a 4-5 week break between new episodes.

Yeah we broke down during Season 2 of the Wire because the Comcast On-Demand deal only puts up like 5-6 episodes a month. We got so fucking hooked that I actually joined an off brand video store (Hollywood Video) just so we could keep up our fix.

Now we are in Season 3 which isnt out on DVD yet. I literally cant wait until next Monday for more episodes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Policeman

the book that Desmond was reading.

wait...season 3 of the wire has started already???

damn, we just finished season 1 and we are hooked. need to rent season 2 now.

definitely check out lost. i really don't get hooked in to many of these kinds of shows (especially non-hbo ones), but this is right up there with sopranos, wire, etc.

season three has already aired. if you have hbo and comcast with on-demand you should be able to see the first 5 episodes until next monday.

Season 2 is pretty cool; goes off on a whole different thing while maintainig all of the characters.

I'm thinking Season 4 will look a lot like Season 2 except trading out the Harbor for the Educational system.

I cant say which I like best but I can definitively say that The Wire is the show on TV.

i say just start watching it.

i only saw a few episodes from season one, and i'm enjoying season two.

think of it as your own personal Pulp Fictionication of the series, and watch Season One gradualy throughout season 2.

besides, even if you know what's going on, you don't know whats going on.

this is what i'm doing now. It's cool because there are past plots that are totally dead now that keep me on my toes.

Damn, I wish I had Tivo so that I could've recorded last night's episode.

i got a DVR last night and did just that. then I tried to make drunken, sloppy love to the machine. It turned me down.

(picture of Nelson Munce)

"Haaa Ha!"







.....stupid no-image havin school scenario... ruinin all my joke making ability...

In the Active Projects link on that page, I know they don't go anywhere, but I remember that Accelerated Remote Viewing was from that Suspect Zero where Ben Kingsley was an ex-FBI agent who was hunting down serial killers and remote viewing was where he'd see through the eyes of the serial killers and then would track them down by what he'd seen.

I hope the next episode doesn't spend too much time on people fighting over the chocolate bars.

...... I did not transcribe, I stole from an ezboard about Lost... honesty is the best policy... or is it?



.................................................

Welcome. I'm Dr. Marvin Candle, and this is the orientation film for station 3 of the final initiative.

In a moment you'll be given a simple set of instructions for how you and your partner will fulfill the responsibilities associated with this station. But first, a little history.

The Dharma Initiative was created in 1970 and is the brainchild of Gerald and Karen DeGroot, two doctoral candidates at the University of Michigan. Following in the footsteps of of visionaries such as B.F. Skinner ... Imagine a largescale communal research compound, where scientists and free thinkers from around the globe could pursue research in meteorology, psychology, para-psychology, zoology, electro-magnetism, and utopian social ...[inaudible]... Alvar Hanso, whose financial backing made their dream of a multi-purpose social science research facility a reality.

You and your partner are currently located in station 3--or "The Swan"--and will be for the next 540 days. Station 3 was originally constructed as a laboratory, where scientists could work to understand the uniqe electro-magnetic fluctuations eminating from this sector of the island.

Not long after the experiments began, however, there was an incident. And since that time, the following protocol has been observed.

Every 108 minutes a button must be pushed. From the moment the alarm sounds, you will have 4 minutes to enter the code into the micro computer processor ... induction into the program ... When the alarm sounds, either you or your partner must input the code. It is highly recommended that you and your partner take alternating shifts. In this manner, you will both stay as fresh and alert ...[inaudible]... --most importance that when the alarm sounds, the code be entered correctly, and in a timely fashion. Do not attempt to use the computer for anything ...

Congratulations. Until your replacements arrive, the future of the project is in your hands. On behalf of the DeGroots, Alvar Hanso, and all of us at the Dharma Initiative, thank you, namaste, and good luck.


----------
The film

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

B. F. Skinner’s entire system is based on operant conditioning. The organism is in the process of “operating” on the environment, which in ordinary terms means it is bouncing around it world, doing what it does. During this “operating,” the organism encounters a special kind of stimulus, called a reinforcing stimulus, or simply a reinforcer. This special stimulus has the effect of increasing the operant -- that is, the behavior occurring just before the reinforcer. This is operant conditioning: “the behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organisms tendency to repeat the behavior in the future.”

Imagine a rat in a cage. This is a special cage (called, in fact, a “Skinner box”) that has a bar or pedal on one wall that, when pressed, causes a little mechanism to release a foot pellet into the cage. The rat is bouncing around the cage, doing whatever it is rats do, when he accidentally presses the bar and -- hey, presto! -- a food pellet falls into the cage! The operant is the behavior just prior to the reinforcer, which is the food pellet, of course. In no time at all, the rat is furiously peddling away at the bar, hoarding his pile of pellets in the corner of the cage.


skinner box - sound like anything?

Go to the Hanso Foundation website and click on "Active Projects." At the bottom of the list there's a hidden link for the Dharma Initiative. Click on it and you get the training video.

Enjoy.

i did NOT need to see that phrase so early in the morning.

Anyone know Morse code, offhand? I'm wondering if the rows of lines in the Dharma symbol are Morse code. Check it thusly:



It makes sense - it has the "long" and "short" segments that could make up a message of some kind.

Edit: Here are the dashes 'n dots:

Outer ring:
_ . . _ _ . . . . _ . .

Middle ring:
. . . . _ _ _ . . . . _

Inner Ring:
_ . . . . _ . . _ . . _

Here's Morse code: http://www.babbage.demon.co.uk/morseabc.html Get to it, people! There's no telling the breaks - it could be _ . . or just _, so there's probably a LOT of possibilities to go through before anything sensible comes up.

those are I Ching trigrams. chinese divination.

You could be right, but I have a feeling there's probably more to it than just that. And, of course, it's intentionally misleading, I'm sure.

For all we know, it just says "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine."

nice