It occurred to me earlier today, after remembering Locke’s assertion in the season finale that the island “is not an island“. I think it’s a spaceship!

It is not weird the idea of a biosphere to travel the galaxy and appear as of magic by bending space and time on compatible planets. This would explain why the island can “move” itself. It explains why the island has surrounding “walls” (aka force fields) that Desmond could not escape with his boat, unless he was to take a very specific route.

It also explains the four toe statue, which is a remnant of that old human-like civilization that built the island/spaceship. When they arrived to Earth, some stayed in the island (e.g. the ageless Richard), but others scattered around the planet and had children and took a taste of our civilization. The descendants of these aliens are some of the “special” people in the show, e.g. Walt, Locke, maybe even Jack, that the island now “demands back” after thousands or hundreds of years.

This theory doesn’t contradict my other theory last week btw. I still believe we are dealing with an AI entity that keeps the island in shape for the return of its original inhabitants and their descendants. Maybe this is what Charlotte meant when she said that the island is her birthplace. Maybe this is why the island feels like a purgatory, and why the AI computer named Jacob creates lists: because only the worthy will be allowed back.

UPDATE: My theory was posted over at DarkUFO’s “Lost” fan site. You can discuss it there.

The following is all over the news today: Prince licensed and sang Radiohead’s “Creep” at the Coachella festival. An unauthorized fan recorded it, posted it to YouTube, and Prince’s label had it taken down under the DMCA. Radiohead disagrees with the take down and say “Well, tell him to unblock it. It’s our… song.”

Well, yes and no. Radiohead quite possibly own the song (usually major labels own or co-own the music). However, the performance belongs to Prince. He has every right to bar professional photographers or fans from recording/snapping/posting his performance, as the Coachella festival is a private event that he controls. Radiohead, YouTube, and the fans, have absolutely nothing on this. It is up to Prince to allow this performance to be public or not — and there is even a case where he might not even have this right at all, if his contract for the song doesn’t specifically grant full broadcasting rights to Prince. So basically, even if Prince has or has not the right to himself post an audio/video of his performance online, he has the law on his side when he takes down other’s videos of his performance. Because his performance, that’s 100% his, he controls it, and it’s copyrightable. Therefore, this take-down request was NOT a DMCA abuse, as some people wrote online.

Now, of course, this is how the law is. That doesn’t mean that the whole of copyright law is nice or adjusted for modern times. I personally find Prince to be a jerk. I never liked him, even when I first heard of him in the early ’80s. I much prefer Robert Downey Jr. I think. Yeah.

UPDATE: Radiohead should feel like asses right now. “Creep” is NOT their song. Radiohead wrote and performed the song, but both the original recording performance and the copyright of the song belongs to EMI. In other words, like I said above that it’s usual with major labels, that was “work for hire” that they did, and they have ZERO say in this Youtube case. In fact, not even EMI has a say.

UPDATE 2: Matt says that Radiohead has 33% controlling interest on the song.

Honestly, I don’t know why some big bands even try to shoot video clips when Apple does it so much better for them.

If you are a geek and you don’t watch “Lost”, you really don’t know what you’re missing. Proof about the geekiness of “Lost”:

* Michio Kaku, one of the very well known figures in the scientific documentaries on TV and professor of physics at the City Unversity of New York, wrote a review of Lost’s last night finale and discusses the crazy science of Lost.
* Mythbuster’s Adam Savage wrote an article too, mostly about the practicality of blowing things up on the show.
* Richard Muller is a professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley and he also wrote an article about last night’s “Lost”.
* And then there’s this article discussing the rest of the scientific or pseudo-scientific parts of the show.
* And of course, particle accelerators!

On the less positive side, Harold Perrineau, who was written off from last night’s season finale, is pissed off about his demise. Not only he is talkative about it, but he even pulled the race card to defend his anger. Well, Harold, it was you who wanted to leave “Lost” originally for another show. And when that other show didn’t get picked up by the TV networks, you wanted back. Well, the world of “Lost” is not a kind one, but your death was noble and your character was redeemed. So take it and be happy with what you got.

Here’s a review of last night’s finale. Personally, I found it a bit boring. The helicopter scenes have been done before, it felt old to me. And that god damn frozen donkey wheel…

CNN asks about “Sex and the City“: “can a pure chick flick become a hit?” and it later answers its own question with “yes, if it draws a diverse enough swath of female moviegoers”.

I won’t be going. In fact, I find anyone who goes to watch such shows brain damaged. Yeah, go ahead, hate me all you want. I just don’t find pleasure going to see four middle-aged women slutting around while looking miserable underneath that glossy exterior and expensive shoes.

What’s the point of that movie? I’ve been alone for years while in UK, without having a shoulder to cry on. There was nothing glorious about that life. It sucked. I’d go out with some so-called friends on weekends, would also buy expensive shoes and sexy clothes, but it all accounted for nothing despite my efforts. At the end I found true love through IRC. JBQ first told me that he loved me without having seeing me yet. 8 years later, we are still together, loving each other every day (except Mondays ).

So why would I want to go watch these poor souls trying to find true love with all the wrong means? Not that IRC is the way to go, but slutting around is not the way to go either. It’s for the same reason I don’t go watch horror, war and prison movies: why would I want to go and depress myself voluntarily? This makes no sense to me.

Update: Two pictures from that era, 10 years ago. It has the word “desperate” written all over these pictures. That was/is so not me.

I recognize the name and face of Robert Downey Jr. as an actor for almost 20 years now. I always hated the guy, since Day 1. In fact, he is one of these few people that I always felt that I have zero things in common, and if we were ever to meet up in real life we wouldn’t be able to talk about anything more than the weather. He is not only not my type, he’s worse than that: he seems to be the type of a person I can’t stand not even for some basic conversation. I always found him yucky.

A few years later, the news of his drug addiction and alcoholism was all over the media, making me dislike the guy even more. I did try to watch his movies and not be a hater, but I was always getting that shivering each time he had some screen time. Therefore, I was not that happy (along with many other Marvel enthusiasts actually) to hear that he got the role of the “Iron Man” a few years back.

Fast forward to last Sunday, when JBQ and I went to actually watch “Iron Man” in that new 2k digital projection cinema in San Bruno (off topic note: quality is not as good as our plasma TV). The movie was so good, and his performance so close to the comic, that I fell for him. I couldn’t believe it myself either that after the end of the movie I actually felt attracted to this jerk, Robert Downey Jr. I don’t know if it was his engineering talent as shown in the movie, or the sexy hot Iron Man suit, but I surely felt attracted to his likeness. First time ever to feel like that for either himself or his character.

That’s how good that movie was. Even JBQ, who doesn’t like most Marvel movies, he loved this one. So go see it.

In the same fashion that I SouthPark’ed yet another favorite band of mine, here are the HIJK. Click for a larger view.

I was just reading that the upcoming two new big TV series for the Fall, Fringe and Dollhouse, will feature fewer commercials, in order to hook audiences.

This just reminded me a few weeks ago when I was browsing Hulu, NBC’s online video site. It interested me, as an hobbyist filmmaker, to see how much the runtime of TV shows eroded over the years. This is what I found, on average:

1960s: 52 minutes of runtime for an 1 hour show.
1970s: 50 minutes.
1980s: 48 minutes.
1990s: 46 minutes.
2000s: 44 minutes.

“Lost” is 43 minutes, sometimes even a bit less than that.

I have offered a number of small theories about certain aspects and sub-plots of “Lost” over the years, theories that were usually completely off base (and that’s the beauty of Lost: it’s completely unpredictable). However, I never offered a “global” theory about the show, e.g. what is the island, or what is the smoke monster. So here is my crazy theory contribution for this crazy show. Of course, my theory is highly influenced/biased by my artificial intelligence work in the past and my computing experience.

So, deep under the island, there is one big ass computer. The “intelligence” of the island, is just artificial intelligence driven by that computer. The computer is able to harness the special properties of the island and affect matter. Hence, the existence of the smoke monster and its various manifestations (which is nothing but the physical representation of the computer in the island through some pseudo-science physics), and the ability to affect the health of people depending on its wishes. The computer can manifest outside of the island too, but its powers are limited far away from it. As for where the island is, it can be somewhere in the Pacific, or in another dimension all together — this will be for the writers to decide.

The four-toe statue is a testament of an older civilization (”original inhabitants”) that ruled the island. Be it alien, or Egyptian or even Atlantian (whatever the writers find to be the least ridiculous option), they were the builders of the computer. Dharma simply came much later and tried to take over all this power for its own needs. Until the original inhabitants, keepers of the computer, revolted against them, with the help of Ben.

There are only two final outcomes you can have for the show if this theory is correct. Either the island blows up so no one can take advantage of it anymore (most likely outcome, as the Losties are sinners and represent fate and random chaos), or a few select Losties stay in it forever to be the new keepers and the island is never found again (unlikely).

UPDATE: My theory posted over at DarkUFO’s “Lost” fan site. You can discuss it there.