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.

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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.

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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.

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Maybe it's on Titan.

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My only theory? It's not on Earth.

But then they'd be lost in space.

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Or, they've been transported to a time when the poles weren't where they are now. They do shift around.

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A cool Jorge Garcia article.

No spoilers.

[link]

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I think I'm leaning toward Big Black Rock theory, myself, re: magnetic whosits.

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Anybody bring up the idea that maybe the entire island is fake? A giant, floating, island-looking secret mess-with-your-head lab?

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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 properities, 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.

They need to build a still, and then have Sun find something they can distill into alcohol, so at least they'll have a potent disinfectant, or can drink themselves to the point where they don't care if/when they start dying of bacterial ick.

Anybody bring up the idea that maybe the entire island is fake? A giant, floating, island-looking secret mess-with-your-head lab?

I've wondered (and think people did early on) if the crash, etc. was all part of an evil plot, but not that the island itself was fake, but why not? The hatch leads to Evil Incorporated, perhaps?

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