This world just keeps on invalidating boy scout readiness, doesn't it?
Well, Locke's doing all right for a scout. Though the extensive walkabout prep might be contributing a tad.
As long as you don't get dead, you might actually be in the best shape of your life.
And hey, maybe even if you do get dead, see Jack's dad. Hmm...hallucination? Jack had an injury. Anybody see Locke get near him with a pestle?
Also, Sail, thanks for the map, very interesting.
Oh, and I don't know if I think the translation rules out Jin's linguistic skills.
"the sun rises in the east and sets in the west" is the one thing I thought I knew! I suppose I'll be wrong, but at least I'll feel like I know something!
Well, it is a good generalism. the sun does appear to rise in an easterly direction, and set in a westerly one.
The farther away from the equator you are, the easier it is to plot directions. Even if you are on the equator at equinox, it's possible.
Pound a stick in the ground, and mark off distinct points on the ground where the tip of the shadow falls. After a day, two maybe, you will have an arc. Draw a line from the stick to the topmost point of that arc. The line will be pointing south when you are south of the equator, and it points north when you are north of the equator. It also tells you when approximate noon is.
Sort of a primitive sundial.
It gets trickier the closer you are to the transit line of the sun on the earth, but even then, the lack of a shadow at noon still will let you draw a line that is east and west, and from there the right angles are north and south.
t /boyscout lairnin.
Lost numbersluuuuuuuuuuut!
(psst, tavela, JZ is a her)
Sorry, JZ! It's, er, the sexism inherent in the system! Or something.
Hey, tavella, are you Tavella on TWoP?
Yup. LJ as well, as Consuela was asking (hi, suelac!)
I'm still unclear on how a surgeon without any instruments managed to sew up a bleeding artery. Because, need a curvy needle and some really strong thread -- did they unwind heavy-grade thread from around coat buttons? Do people flying from Australia even take their coats with them? I'll grant that he has the expertise to sew up a bleeding artery, but the tools are what I'm talking about.
He's got needles; presumably he could curve one if he had the forethought, and he's got at least his own suit jacket. So the tools are theoretically available.
Which illusion will be punctured by the first Lostite who comes down with appendicitis, because anybody watching a doctor improvise abdominal surgery outdoors, with a hunting knife, some alcohol for sterility, and no anaesthetic -- they'll change their minds about how strong the safety net feels.
Oh, I agree, they don't really understand the trouble they are in, and especially the trouble they'll be in when antibiotics run out -- while there are things Sun can find like tea tree oil that have some antibiotic properties, they aren't going to dig a true antibiotic out of the jungle -- given the choice over the improvised tool surgery and dying slowly in agony of appendicitis... I'll still pick the surgeon for my team.
Thanks, P C. I went back and read it. I assumed much of it from their body languages. Still, it is great to be validated.
The lines of declination shown are isogonic, not directional. They don't show the direction to magnetic north, they link points where the angle between true north and magnetic north is the same.
In fact, the map (bottom) suggests that the Pacific actually has less magnetic declination than most places, only 0-20. It's really hard to judge where they are pointing, exactly, but it looked like more than 20 degrees off to me.
I also mistrust Jack's estimation of west -- even if he remembered accurately where the sun had gone down the night before, the sunset azimuth varies considerably with the season.
They are only three weeks off autumn equinox, though, so the sun should be nearly directly west. The producers have said the official crash date was the date of the series' American premiere. Your point about hikers misestimating a 90 degree turn is taken, but I think we are supposed to take this as a real strangeness. The annoying part was, Sayid never said whether he checked it against his homemade compass!
So there are lots of ways errors can creep in. I think the point of the whole bit is "This place is weird. Locke is weird. Don't trust either one."
Two things are reinforcing my distrust of Locke. One, a general increase in the dangerousness of his provocations: first one, he just says Jack shouldn't come with him and should go visionquesting. Now perhaps it wasn't the wisest idea ever to encourage the lone doctor to go haring off through the wilderness after hallucinations, but Jack had already started it and it's understandable that Locke would think it a great idea given his beliefs. He only gave Jack advice, he didn't do anything without his consent. Then next we have him using Charlie as boar bait. Pretty risky, and Charlie may have consented to a walk, but not being bait. Then we have him pointing Sayid at Sawyer, *and giving him a weapon*. He's moved on to using people as weapons. And now we have him physically assaulting Boone and tying him up in the wilderness.
Second, it's the weakest people in the group who are following him most devoutly, and he seems to be encouraging that. While two of the three people who might be expected to have the sharpest eye for hinkiness don't trust him. Kate, who is a conwoman, and Sayid, who served in the RG in Saddam's Iraq and has first hand experience with a cult of personality. It'd be interesting to hear Sawyer's opinion of Locke.
but it looked like more than 20 degrees off to me.
Yup. And according to that isogonic map (once I actually figured how to read it) the most likely places to find that kind of difference would be close to the poles. So, polar bear. But how could it be a tropical island that far north? Quite a contradiction. My only theory? It's not on Earth.
My only theory? It's not on Earth.
But then they'd be lost in space.
