by adam heckler

The Intertubes isn’t just lolcats and YouTube videos. There’s actually some really good stuff out there that will make you not only smarter, but generally more awesome as well. Here are five websites that you should be visiting:

TED

Short for “Technology, Entertainment, Design”, TED is an annual conference that brings together the worlds best thinkers to give 20-minutes talks on science, the arts, politics, culture, business, global issues, technology, and entertainment. They’ve had people like Al Gore, James Watson, and Jonathan Haidt come and talk, and they release a new video every week. TED is definitely the granddaddy of them all, so be sure to bookmark this website.

ScienceBlogs

As an invitation-only blog network and virtual community, ScienceBlogs is dedicated to enhancing the public understanding of science. As of March 2008, ScienceBlogs hosted around 70 blogs dedicated to various fields of research. Each blog has its own theme, specialty, and authors, and is not subject to editorial control. Authors are almost always scientists in industry, college professors, professional writers, graduate students, and post-docs.

BigThink

Billing itself as a public forum designed for interaction between users and scholars, BigThink has recorded thousands of hours of footage from interviews of numerous experts. This allows users to see what today’s leaders feel about broader issues, such as global warming and the two-party system. Users can respond to these ideas by posting their own videos or questions to experts, creating a conversation in the public sphere. It’s like YouTube for intellectuals.

Frontline

Originally an award-winning documentary program on public television, Frontline has expanded to include a deeply detailed website for each of its broadcasts. It publishes the full video of the show, extended interview transcripts, in-depth chronologies, original essays, sidebar stories, related links and readings, and source documents, including photographs and background research. Most videos are about an hour long, but some can be even lengthier. [previously]

The Long Now

Established in 1996, The Long Now Foundation is a private organization that seeks to become the seed of a very long-term cultural institution. It aims to provide a counterpoint to what it views as today’s “faster/cheaper” mindset by promoting “slower/better” thinking. To emphasize this, the group writes years using five digits instead of four: 02008 instead of 2008. Their seminars are available for free on their website or via podcast.

I finished the second season of Lost just a few days ago. Here’s my analysis of Season 2’s major events:

Solved Mysteries

The Tail Section, Locke’s Legs, and The Smugglers

My theory that the tail section people were alive and on the island was correct. I was also close to the truth when I said that the island may have special healing powers, and that’s what made Locke able to walk again. I had no theory about the smugglers and their plane, but the explanation turned out to be rather mundane anyway.

New Mysteries

The Others

They obviously are not who they are pretending to be. Their costumes, the medical station, and Walt’s warning to Michael all seem to indicate a hidden level of sophistication. My first guess is that they have actually been on the island for a while and are connected with DHARMA in some fashion. Perhaps they are former employees? They could also be former experiment subjects who discovered their situation and rebelled.

Desmond and Penelope

When the listening station detected a “magnetic anomaly,” it was implied that Desmond caused it by blowing up the hatch with the fail-safe key. The dudes then called Penelope. I have no idea what this means, but it might get really interesting. After all, Penelope did say something like: “With enough money and determination, you can find anyone.” Maybe Desmond gets rescued somehow?

DHARMA

What exactly is the DHARMA Initiative? Are they trying to create some sort of engineered Utopian society on the island, or are they simply experimenting with the island’s powers? And who is Alvar Hanso, their mysterious founder?

“Good” People

“Henry” seems to know who is and who isn’t good, but what does “good” mean? Good enough to have a role in DHARMA’s utopia? My guess is that this has something to do with DHARMA and whatever they were trying to accomplish on the island.

The Four-Toed Statue

I saved this one for last because I am, as one of my friends likes to say, “knowledgeable”. I believe the statue is a reference to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias”. The essential theme of the poem is the fleeting nature of power and civilization, and how humanity and our arrogant institutions cannot withstand the passing of time. As such, I cannot help but hypothesize that a form of “civilization” was once attempted on the island, no doubt by DHARMA, but it ultimately failed in some sort of dramatic and/or violent way. So now the question becomes: were the Others on the island before DHARMA, or maybe some DHARMA people “defected” and became the Others?

Motifs

Rebirth / Reincarnation

Locke is the most obvious example of this. He has been “born again” with the use of his legs, and is no longer a slave to his bottled-up emotions like he used to be. Instead, he has now assumed a leadership role and is instrumental in the continued survival of the group. Shannon was also a good example. At first, she didn’t care about anything or anyone, but as time went by, she was “reborn” as an important member of the survivors. She helped Sayid translate Rousseau’s maps and even tried to chase Walt (or her hallucination of Walt) through the jungle.

Economic Systems

Jack often allocates scarce resources with a small group of leaders (the “A-team”). This exemplifies the economic philosophy of socialism. In such an economy, the state decides (for the benefit of the whole society) who gets what and when. That is, resources are doled out according to Jack, the leader, whose judgement is largely trusted by the survivors. Even his last name, “Shephard”, testifies to his leadership role. On the other hand, Sawyer represents a free-market capitalist. In his case, goods such as guns and medicine are privately owned and can be exchanged for a profit. Thus, he hoards and collects anything that could potentially be of a marginal value in some exchange. The problem with this approach is that, without a form of currency, the survivors are stuck with bartering, which has many problems.