Ethos by Randy Elrod - How To Create Culture

Jeremy Bentham - LOST And Found ...

Read about the layers behind the Jeremy Bentham character HERE. His "Auto-Icon" is found again in the coffin at the amazing end of an amazing finale of LOST.

HT: ChrisFromCanada's Twitter

Wow! A very creative and entertaining season.

Also, have you signed up as a volunteer for Octagon Global Recruiting?

I have volunteered!

LOST Finale Burning Questions ...

1. Who's in the coffin?

We know from a flash-forward in Season 3 that someone Jack and Kate know has died; we see Jack at the funeral home with the closed casket. Theories on who's in the coffin range from Sawyer (because his real name is James and a newspaper clipping Jack's holding, presumably about the deceased, has a name that starts with J) to Michael to Juliet to Ben (because the coffin's short and he has no known family, which could explain the lack of mourners) or even the mysterious Jacob (see question 3). Executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof have reportedly said that the dead person is someone who was introduced to viewers before Season 4.

2. What happened to Claire?

Since she followed her supposedly dead father into the jungle in the middle of the night, disappearing and leaving baby Aaron behind, Claire has also turned up in Jacob's cabin. When a surprised and concerned Locke finds her there with Christian (her and Jack's father), she tells him not to worry, she's fine. Some people theorize that Claire was already dead before leaving the Others' encampment, having been blown up by the Freighter People in her house.

3. Who is Jacob, exactly?

Said to be the leader of the Others, Jacob is first introduced in Season 3 as an invisible presence in a rocking chair in a cabin in the jungle, a voice that tells Locke "Help Me" and a force that shakes the cabin and scares the heck out of Locke. Hurley has his own creepy run-in with Jacob in Season 4 after stumbling across the cabin and seeing a shadowy figure in a chair through the window and then a man in the window. Some theorize Jacob doesn't exist and is a Wizard of Oz-like invention of Ben's. Other theories: he's the smoke monster; he's the Other known as Richard Alpert; he's Charles Widmore or (this one's really out there) he's Jack.

4. What will happen to Jin?

As far as we know, Jin's dead. We've seen Sun, in a flash-forward, visit his grave. And we've seen Sun tell her bully of a father that she holds him and another person responsible for Jin's death. But the date of death on Jin's tombstone, Sept. 22, 2004, the same date as the Oceanic 815 crash, has led to speculation Jin is still alive on the island.

5. Where and how are Ben and Locke going to move the island?

Locke goes to Jacob to find a way to keep the Freighter People from killing everyone on the island. The surprising answer: "He wants us to move the island." In a flash-forward, Ben tells Widmore that he'll never find the island, suggesting it was successfully moved. On its website, Popular Mechanics magazine theorizes the island could be moved through quantum teleportation, or the island's electromagnetic properties and something called the Casimir Effect opening a transversible wormhole.

HT: The Star

DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS? Tell Me HERE.

DIY Home Entertainment Network in 3 Easy (Nonbankrupting) Steps ...

Years of BitTorrenting and lossless CD-ripping have finally paid off: Your PC is packed with enough high-fidelity digital entertainment to trigger palpitations in the snobbiest mediaphile. Meanwhile, you've got that 1080p tyranno-vision LCD and eardrum-pounding 7.1-channel sound system just aching to play it all. But how to meld the two? It's time to build a home network. Don't fret — it's a lot easier than you think.

Step 1: Get Storage Device
Stop stockpiling media on your PC — its anemic hard drive will crash harder than a sugar junkie if you cram it full of HD content and force it to run a bloated operating system. Get a network-attached storage device to serve as a central media repository for every computer in the house. Good ones create backups of your data on multiple built-in drives, so even if half of them somehow fail, season four of The Simpsons will remain intact.

Step 2: Set Up Streamer
Scolded by your S.O. for spending too much quality time with the game console? Share the love! Both Xbox 360 and PS3 can stream media from a PC to a TV (a Wii can, too, but it takes some clever tweakery). No console? The recently retooled Apple TV should do the trick. Its slick new UI, movie rental options, and ability to operate sans PC is a home-entertainment breakthrough. Caveat: Unlike the consoles, Apple TV's lack of native support for DivX/Xvid means it's useless for all those Torrent files without performing a warranty-busting hack.

Step 3: Link It All Up
You can shoot music all over a Wi-Fi network with nary a digital hiccup — but hi-def video files approach 6 GB per hour of footage, making wireless streaming a jittering nightmare. Best to connect your machines with good old-fashioned copper, like a CAT6 Ethernet cable, which at 1,000 Mbps is nearly five times faster than the fleetest 802.11n connection. Then grab a gigabit switch — basically a traffic cop for your network — and route all of your connections through it. You can even allot more bandwidth to movie files so the picture won't stutter.

Read more HERE at WIRED.
By Daniel Dumas

This post is a part of Techie Tip Tuesdays

Lost In Translation ...

What the heck?

I was counting the Oceanic six at the beginning of the show and it was NOT adding up...then...the graveside..what happened to Jin? What the heck is Michael up to? And it WAS Michael. I was correct about that fact. Where is Walt? Why did the lady on the boat commit suicide? How does Sun get off the freakin' island?

Does anybody have answers?

I LOVE to hate this show!!!!!

Watercooler Wednesday-Lost Vs. X-Files ...

Welcome to the Ethos Watercooler Wednesday.

HERE are the guidelines. PLEASE take time to read them.  It will save us both a lot of time.

To join us, do a post today about Arts/Culture, put a link in your post to this post permalink (not my general URL) and then put the permalink of your post (not your general URL) here at the end of this post. Thanks.

Join me around the watercooler today and each Wednesday...

Lost Vs. X-Files.

Which show is the best?

I think that Lost rules.

Maybe it is because I could never really get into the X-Files. Maybe because at that time I was working ninety hours a week and all I could do when I settled in to watch television was go to sleep. Maybe it was because there was no Tivo then. Something sinister and subtle and magic and fairy-dusty compels me to choose Lost.

Reasons I think Jack kicks Mulders butt and that Kate is tougher (and prettier, I might add) than Scully....

Lost has the most evil villain. Ben is a buggy eyed kinder gentler Hannibal Lector. Lost has more characters and interesting stories. Locke, Kate, Jack, Michael, Jin, Juliette, Hurley, Sawyer, Claire, Sun, Desmond, Sayid and I could go on...Lost has a sci-fi element and an escapist element. Who doesn't want to be stranded on an island like the one on Lost? Lost is somehow more believable to me. I love trying to read the titles of the books...I love Lost!!!

How about you, my watercooler pals?  What better watercooler talk than  wondering if the man on the boat is...shhhhhh. Michael? Aaaaaagggghhhh.

Top 10 Gadget Ads of 2007...

Watch the Top Ten HERE. The Mac iTouch ad above was my personal favorite and was somehow (horrors) not included in the top ten list.

World Series Of Pop Culture...

Beginning Of End For Lost ...

Finally, some answers—just not the ones Lost fans were expecting. ABC has announced that the island-dwelling series will run for 48 more episodes, to be spread out over three 16-episode seasons, before drawing to a close at the end of 2009-10 season.

Whether that end is heralded with the shattering of a tropical snowglobe, Jack awakening from a long dream, the completion of a stint in purgatory or—as is most likely—some heretofore unseen scenario, the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 will, one way or another, make their way off the island.

Read more HERE

"You Little Tiger..."

Wow!!! Melinda Dolittle absolutely rocked me. Our Nashville girl!!!! I also liked Jordin and LaKisha a lot.

The guys I liked were Blake and Chris (although not Chris' song selection).

The girls are smokin' the guys!!!

Lost Roars Back..

Okay! I love this show even more this season.

Questions...

Will Charlie really die?

Has Desmond already lived his entire stay on the island-thus knowing the future?

Will Sawyer and Kate make it back to the island?

Will Ben really let Juliet leave the island?