am I the only one who sees a hottie tied to a chainlink headboard and immediately thinks about Alyson Hannigan?

Bored now.

I'm starting to see the shape of the backstory here.

A gang of international polar bear smugglers ran their nuclear submarine into a reef... blah blah blah... illegal genetic research... mumble mumble mumble... polar bears on a treadmill... handwave handwave handwave... Hurley is Satan.

It all makes sense.

Have the car batteries been used all that much?

Car batteries will run down on their own in a year or two if they're not charged somehow.

Another possibility is that there was a more recent shipwreck/plane crash/lost motorist/reality show production company (take your pick) that Danielle scavenged after she killed that set of survivors.

A car battery is only 12 volts, so I think it's unlikely that electrocution is a worry. Go wild.

For the record, it's not the voltage but the amperage that you have to watch out for. There's a specific amperage (I forget what the number is, exactly) that will stop the human heart that occurs at a fairly low power level - it interferes with the body's own nervous system signals. Shocks above that level might throw one's heart rhythm off temporarily, but I don't think there's much danger of death until you get into cooking territory.

True enough, Matt, but if a car battery could kill, think of how many weekend mechanics we'd find dead next to their cars.

The weird part is how the car battery still has a charge after 16 years

It was the cable running into the ocean! She--or they, before they all went nuts and she ate them--rigged an underwater generator powered by the movement of the waves!

I remember reading something a few years ago about using the ocean's currents to create low levels of electricity. So, could the cable running from the ocean to Danielle's lair be generating electricty?

Or, what lunda said.

Or, there's always the submarine theory.

It was the cable running into the ocean!

Except that when Sayid examined it it looked remarkably like a mooring cable or other rope-like mechanical cable. Also, even if it was once rigged to carry electricity, that hole in the sheathing right at the mean high tide mark will prevent it from working pretty effectively. Sea water is a wonderful electrolyte.

that hole in the sheathing right at the mean high tide mark will prevent it from working

Right. Back to the submarine theory.

I had a whole thing written up, but I've been surpassed by others, so I'll piece in some of it with quotes from ya'll, as reinforcement.

A car battery is only 12 volts, so I think it's unlikely that electrocution is a worry. Go wild.

For the record, it's not the voltage but the amperage that you have to watch out for.

Exactly. Car batteries, despite being used to torture people in the movies or on TV have neither the amperage nor the voltage to shock the human body. Grab the two terminals some time. Oh you can cause a spark by shorting, even weld with two jumper cables and a cheap metal coat hanger, but shock as much as in the movies? not so much.

You would need some sort of capacitor to build up the amperage and discharge. Even then it would not be continious.

On the other hand, if it were being used with something to convert the stored power, you might have luck.

No, the easiest explaination is that she has some sort of power generating device somewhere. Something that can keep that signal going for 16 years.

It was the cable running into the ocean! She--or they, before they all went nuts and she ate them--rigged an underwater generator powered by the movement of the waves!

Yes, that cable is significant, or they wouln't have had it looking so intact. I noticed it had a steel cable wrapped around the insulated one, which is one of the ways of reinforcing the strength of important lines.

I don't know if it's nuclear, though. Someone mentioned that, above.

I remember reading something a few years ago about using the ocean's currents to create low levels of electricity. So, could the cable running from the ocean to Danielle's lair be generating electricty?

There are indeed devices, maybe only in theory, that generate energy harnessing the ocean wave motion, but as was mentioned above, it's unlikely. But then so are car (or boat) batteries.

Oh the reason I don't think it's nuclear is that 16 years is a long time for a nuclear power plant, even in a sub, to run unmanned.