ABC is launching its own “Lost University,” details of which are beginning to trickle out. Check out the very cool web presence at abc.com’sLost site, filled with course descriptions (”Introductory Physics of Time Travel”), selected reading (”A Treatise of Human Nature” by David Hume), and a faculty directory. Included among the many real-life academics on staff is actor Jeremy Davies (Daniel Faraday), who proved himself something of a science egghead the last time I interviewed him.
From the looks of it, “Lost University” is several things at once: pure fun (I love the mascot: a polar bear, of course); elaborate promotion for the Season 5 DVD (in stores later this year); and (possibly) a nifty alternate reality game designed to keep Lost top-of-mind in the months leading up to its sixth and final season. Visitors to Comic-Con this week are already finding clues (including a phone number for a “Professor Nusedorf:” 818-824-6300) suggesting that a major component to “Lost University” begins on September 22, a date of significance in Lost lore. (9/22/04: Oceanic 815 crashed on The Island. But you didn’t need a college course to know that, right?)
An Ajira Airways commercial was played at the end of the Dharma Special Access (DSA) video for this week.
The Ajira Airways site (released Dec. 29, 2008) was updated revealing some hidden items including the Flight #316 and a hidden easter egg of a limo driver holding a sign saying “316″ as well.
On the Ajira Airways website, if you go to Book a Flight, use the promo code. The promo code is the code on the Sky Card (the black card on the webpage). When you put the numbers on a code reader, they say Promo. The numbers are 112 114 111 109 111.
All the Ajira Adventures posts on the website are by Antonio B. MacCutcheon, the last name the same name of the whiskey that we’ve seen so many times on Lost.
In the About Ajira section, it says, “The skies have no limit with our new destinations beginning January 21st.” This is the premiere date of Season 5. I’m assuming we should check back at that point.
In 0:05 of the commercial for Ajira Airways, there is a screencap of a limo driver in an airport holding a sign that says (something) 316. The sign translates from Devanagari as “John 316″. The Bible translation for John 3:16 is “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” There is a date in the corner of the photo that says 1/21/2009: the date of the Season 5 premiere.
On the Ajira Adventures page, under the Island Adventures, there is the option to download instructions for making an origami 3D ball from plain paper. A tag on the site says “Travel Tip: Teach your kids some origami to make the time fly by. Be sure to use your boarding pass… you never know what you might find hiding right inside”. A sample boarding pass is also available from the site. Printing out the pass and then following the origami instructions results in the airport code GUM (Guam) appearing inside the viewing hole on the ball when it is made. Also directly above “GUM” is the word “Time”, perhaps linking in with the instructions “make the time fly by”.
The pass also has other numbers on it. The bar code is 144 47 50E, whilst 13 29 02N appears on the “Airline use” line. Using these codes as coordinates, a browser such as Google Earth can be used to show that the coordinates are for Guam International Airport. Coupled with this is the source code message from one of the website pages “Where America’s day begins”. Not only is this the official motto of Guam, but the words also reportedly appear on the Airport building.
There has been speculation that using this information, along with the “316″ hidden frame seen during the promotional video, one might be able to access a further easter egg on the Flight booker page of the site. This has been augmented by the discovery that the Sky Club card has the numbers 112 114 111 109 111. These are ASCII code for the word P-R-O-M-O, suggesting that these numbers could be entered under the promotional code section of the flight booking page. Currently, however, no user has managed to yield any result when booking other than a fail message.
Little things:
Ajira is Hindi for “island” or “isle”.
Ajira in Sanskrit may mean “a place to run or fight”, “area” or “court”.
Ajira in Sanskrit also means “The Body” and “Any object of sense, air, wind, a frog” “Swift.
Ajira in Ararbic means “Eternal life after Death”.
When the Ajira Airways site launches, the plane flies across the screen, and an island is seen in the background. This island looks strikingly similar to the Island.
At the Lost signing event on November 19, 2008 at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, Ajira Beer was handed out to those in attendance, with the same logo as seen on the Ajira Airways website.
The site contains temperatures and times for major cities around the world. Rome, Italy is listed as 72 degrees at 8:28 – the sum of these numbers is 108, the sum of the Numbers from the show.
The five watermarks on the corners and top-center of the boarding pass are the same symbols found on the countdown timer in the Swan station.
Ajira Airways appears to be an Indian airline, as Devanagari (used in the logo and in the promotional video) is used to write many Indian-based languages.
Time in Los Angeles is marked as 11:30am on the site, and the time of flight 316 on the flight booking page is 11:30am.
The times listed with temperatures from around the world do not correspond. Each is several minutes faster or slower than the others from elsewhere in the world. While this would make sense for hours, it does not for minutes, unless one calculates and accounts for time differentials the way Daniel Faraday does.
Several cities share the same minutes – :x1 – Santa Monica, Ames; :x3 – Bangkok, Tustin, NYC; :x4 – Tokyo, Wellington; :x6 Seoul, Portland
Many of the cities listed are connected to the main characters of the show. (example: Santa Monica-Hurley; Ames-Kate; Tustin – Locke).
Seven of the cities appear to be the birthplaces or residences of those who must return to the Island (i.e., the Oceanic 6 plus Ben and Locke) — Jack (Los Angeles); Ben (Portland); Sun (Seoul); Sayid (Baghdad); Locke (Tustin); Kate (Ames); Hurley (Santa Monica).
Four other cities are the capital cities of Mexico (Mexico City), Italy (Rome), New Zealand (Wellington), and Thailand (Bangkok).
The flight attendant pictured on the home page has an ouroborous pin on her uniform, similar to Mrs. Hawking’s in Flashes Before Your Eyes.
Prior to the site’s relaunch on December 29th, ABC issued a number of LOST-themed postcards. Some of the postcards featured the Ajira logo.
My guess is that Ajira Airlines is the way back to the Island.
The assessment dossiers are finally out – a whole month early! I’m curious to know what everybody’s “jobs” within the Dharma Initiative are!! I was the Proof Reader. Figures. That’s part of what I do for a living, haha.
Anyways, we got a really long email from our good friend, Hans Van Eeghan. Basically, it said that the Dharma Initiative suffered in this financial crisis and sold themselves to Damon & Carlton. So we’ll be getting further instructions from D&C.
I’ll include the email from Hans Van Eeghan if you didn’t get it:
Namaste.
I am pleased to announce that registered recruits can now log in and download your personalized Volunteer Assessment Dossier outlining your full test results as well as your position within the Dharma Initiative. I want to personally congratulate you on behalf of everyone at the Dharma Initiative for your hard work and diligence during our testing process.
We hope that you are happy with your results. We certainly are. The tests were extremely challenging and the aptitude and excellence displayed far exceeded our expectations.
Now that you are in possession of your results I am sure you are asking the obvious question: what’s next?
Our plan was that together we would commence a glorious adventure: the revival of the Dharma Initiative using the myriad talents of all our amazing new recruits. We imagined not just fulfilling long abandoned goals but taking the Dharma Initiative to a new level of greatness as an organization promoting the peaceful social and technological advancement of all humankind.
Then the financial crisis struck.
Sadly, our benefactors were not immune to this crisis. In fact, unconfirmed reports suggest that much of the money designated for the work of the new Dharma Initiative was tied up in highly leveraged mortgage derivatives. This, however, cannot be confirmed because, I am sorry to report, the principals representing the benefactors – my employers – have gone missing. Based on bills still coming into our office we believe they are somewhere in South America.
This stunning reversal of fortune has forced us to abandon our ambitious plans. In fact, absent this funding, the Dharma Initiative was forced to make the only sensible decision we had available: we sold the Dharma Initiative to the television show LOST.
While this might strike some of you as a shock, the reason for this was not simply that they were the only bidder. As the only remaining Dharma Initiative employee who had not fled the country, I felt that at the very least the show would be able to keep the spirit of the Dharma Initiative alive and in the public consciousness until such time as a reversal of the reversal of our economic fortunes occurs.
It is with a heavy heart that I must bid you farewell. Despite my fervent commitment to the mission of the Dharma Initiative, the realities of a broken marriage, heavy casino debt and some unfounded police charges have required that I change my present circumstances. It is with great excitement that I can inform you of my pending senior sales management job at a large multi-brand auto dealership in Dubai. I have enjoyed our brief association more than I can ever express, and if you are ever in the Middle East and need a car, please e-mail me for a special “Dharma rate”.
In the meantime, you will hear shortly from LOST showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. They will explain to you their future plans for the Dharma Initiative and how these plans might affect you. Thank you again, personally, for your unflagging commitment and support. I hope our paths will one day cross again. In the meantime may the spirit of the island guide you.
Namaste.
Hans Van Eeghen Head of Recruiting The Dharma Initiative
ABC is launching its own “Lost University,” details of which are beginning to trickle out. Check out the very cool web presence at abc.com’s Lost site, filled with course descriptions (”Introductory Physics of Time Travel”), selected reading (”A Treatise of Human Nature” by David Hume), and a faculty directory. Included among the many real-life academics on staff is actor Jeremy Davies (Daniel Faraday), who proved himself something of a science egghead the last time I interviewed him.
