Location of the Island

• “1000 miles off course” from Sydney to Los Angeles, the plane turned to head for Fiji
• 6 hours into the flight

References to Black & White

• Various Uses & References to Black & White within the world of LOST:
• Playing of Backgammon, Locke holds up the backgammon pieces for Walt and states: “two players, two sides, one is light, one is dark.”
• Stones on the bodies found in the cave, in a pouch.
  One black stone, one white stone.
• When Claire has her nightmarish visions/dreams,
  one is of Locke with one white eye & one black eye
• The glasses made for Sawyer are a fusing of two
  frames: one white & one black
• The plume/tower of smoke that supposedly signals that “the others” are coming is black. (The same tower of smoke went up before “the others” took Danielle’s daughter Alex.)
• The “monster” is, apparently, a wisp of black smoke
• The polar bear was white (and, just for the record: polar bears have black skin)
• Jack’s suit in the first episode was black & white
• Charlie’s shoes (Vans?) that he hid his drugs in had a black & white checkerboard pattern.
• Jack chooses “standard black” as the thread color for his stitches.
• In the first episode, Jack passes a white shoe hanging from a tree (yes, I know this one’s a bit of a stretch)… with a black lining.
• Inside the “Swan” facility, there is a hand-painted wall that has a large black & large white face on it.
• The horse the Kate sees in the jungle is black
• The rocks that Bernard was using to make an “SOS” sign on the beach were black.
• The Dharma Initiative logo has black graphics over a white background
• NOTE: A lot of people have written in about Rose & Bernard… but neither is actually black or white.

Repetition of Names

• Certain names seem to be repeated across various characters
• Danielle
• Rousseau’s first name;
• the name of the girl that died during an operation performed by Jack’s father (while he was drunk)
• Brian
• name of Walt’s step-father
• name of Shannon’s boyfriend in Australia
• Thomas
• name of Claire’s boyfriend
• name of Kate’s childhood friend
• Rutherford
• Shannon’s last name
• The SUV driver from that died in the operating room (season 2, episode 1). NOTE: turns out that they share the name since it was her father that Jack was operating on (and which he had to decide to let die in order to save the woman that later became his wife)
• Sam
• Sam Toomey
• Kate’s “other” father (NOTE: this is from a visitor submission– unconfirmed & somewhat unclear).
• Sarah
• Analucia’s alias while in Sydney protecting Christian Shepherd,
• name of Jack’s wife.
• Historical Scientists/Philosophers/Etc.
• (now noted under their own category here)

The Dharma Initiative

• History
• In the “Sri Lanka video” (as part of “The LOST Experience” game), Alvar Hanso reveals that “DHARMA” stands for “Deparment of Hueristics And Research on Material Applications” and “also stands for the one, true way”
• In that same video, Hanso said that the purpose of the DHARMA Initiative was to save humanity from extinquishing itself (through war, overpopulation, changing environment, etc.)
• In the “Swan Complex Orientation Film,” Dr. Marvin Candle provides a short introduction to the DHARMA Initiative as such: “The DHARMA Initiative was created in 1970, and is the brainchild of Gerald and Karen DeGroot” and was “imagined as a large-scale communal research compound where scientists and free-thinkers from around the globe could pursue research in meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism, and utopian social–“
• Symbology:
• Logo on many items around the island (food in the storage area, all the computers, and even the shark that nearly attacks Jin & Sawyer)
• Logo’s outer lines match the Bagua: “a fundamental philosophical concept in ancient China. It is an octagonal diagram with eight trigrams on each side. The concept of bagua is applied not only to Chinese Taoist thought and the I Ching, but is also used in other domains of Chinese culture, such as fengshui, martial arts , navigation, etc.“
• Possibly related: In mythology, Apollo has the six attributes of: swans, wolves, dolphins, bows and arrows, a laurel crown, the cithara (or lyre) and plectrum. (from Wikipedia.org)
• Each Dharma Initiative complex on the island has it’s own symbol.
• The known complexes are:
• The Swan (pictured above)
  The main complex inhabited by the survivors of Flight #815 and home to the infamous 108 Machine. This complex dealt with experiments in electro/bio-magnetical fields and was, apparently, destroyed by Desmond in an attempt to save humanity from the effects of the complex’s system overloading.
• The Arrow
  The complex in which the tail-section survivors of Flight 815 originally took shelter. Inside, a glass eye & a bible containing portions of the Swan Complex’s orientation film were found.
  
  
• The Staff
  Known primarily for its medical facility, “The Staff” complex uses a “caduceus” in its symbol. This is the complex where Claire was taken during her stay with The Others. By the time other survivors of Flight #815 visited the complex, it has been vacated (except for a box of theatrical make-up).
  
• The Pearl (the area marked with a “?” on the blacklight map) — the center of all the complexes; The Pearl contains monitors for viewing the “psychological experiments” going on in the other facilities. Although, it seems that these observations were also another experiment as the many notes gathered by the inhabitants were simply ejected to an area outside The Pearl complex.
  
• The Hydra — a complex containing a large glass aquarium (for sharks & dolphins), with the observation rooms apparently being underwater. The empty glass aquarium now houses a metal table and is being used to hold a human subject for observation
  
• Notes for the potential of the “Caduceus” complex: Apollo gave to Mercury “a magic wand called the caduceus. Mercury used this to guide the souls of the dead to the Lower World. He also could control the living and the dead with it, or turn anything to gold.” (link)
• Media:
• The Dharma Initiative created this orientation film for individuals operating the “Swan” complex
• A “map” was revealed on a blast door when exposed to a black light. (click the image for a full-size, rather large version). More details being tracked on the map’s own page.

The Diary

ABC’s official LOST site includes an occasionally updated “diary” that was, apparently, started by one of the survivor’s of flight 815 (Janelle Granger). A visitor commented that Janelled disappeared after Night 43 and that someone else took over writing in the diary. The new author refers to Henry Gale as his/her brother.

Read the diary here.

Tools, Technology & Such on the Island

• Dynamite in the hold of the “Black Rock”
• “The Others” Boat (which they, seemingly, have gas for somewhere)
• “The Others” guns (at least one that they used to shoot Sawyer during the kidnapping of Walt)
• The makings for a Molotov Cocktail (used to burn the “Ark II”)
• The broadcasting tower that originally broadcast “the numbers” then Rousseau’s distress call
• Rousseau’s batteries
• The Radar on the “Ark II” (the bamboo boat the survivors built) — may have been destroyed in the fire.
• Washing machine & dryer in “The Hatch” appear to be from circa 2000; whereas all other items seem to be circa 1970
• A complete medical center/birthing room in the complex under “The Others” control (currently referred to as the “Medical” complex)