Weakened dam stable but 'extremely volatile'

My favorite headline from today, a quote from the Mayor of Mill River, Massachusettes, about their dam that is on the brink of collapsing:

"Weakened dam stable but extremely volatile"

Am I mistaken, or is that completely self contradictory? Stable and volatile, huh?

Keep an eye on this mayor--it sounds like he may have a bright future in politics!

My Lost theory

This fall, my girlfriend introduced me to the TV series Lost and I got caught up by having a viewing marathon with the season 1 DVD set, which I highly recommend--it's the perfect way to watch the show: with DVD-quality picture and sound, and no commercials. I've tried to keep in mind that it's just an entertaining show, but it's so easy to get caught up in trying to figure out the mystery of the island. That's clearly evidenced by the many crazed fans posting endlessly on the many Lost message boards.

By the time I'd finished watching the last episode of season 1, I had come up with a couple of theories to explain the mythology of the show. My favorite was that everyone had actually died in the plane crash and that they're all in some sort of Purgatory, trying to sort out a few remaining issues before moving on to another life. But the writers and producers have made comments claiming that that is not the premise and that everyone is, in fact, alive. Should we believe them?

So that leaves me with my second theory, which, I'm writing about now because it still remains a valid possibility after the first three episodes of season 2; in fact, it even makes more sense now that we've found out more about the hatch...

The island is a research facility to study a mind-altering device. It erases and creates memories. There was no plane crash; it was all staged. In fact, the main characters were probably the ones who set it up. They volunteered or were recruited to be test subjects and took their places in the mock plane crash. An island device then erased their memories and they woke up thinking they'd been in a crash. Part of the experimental device is now planting new memories in each person. The flashbacks are these memories being implanted; the things in the flashbacks never happened. That's why the flashbacks tend to relate to things on the island or to other characters. "The numbers" never really meant anything to Hurley until now. Locke could always walk. And so on.

The memory-altering "device" is probably some sort of virus, which is why Desmond needs to inject a vaccine. Or, it could be done by some sort of nanites (the flying black particles?), or maybe it is related to the big magnet? Maybe a combination of these things? The requirement to enter the numbers in the hatch is a way to signal to a central command facility that things are still working. If the numbers aren't entered on schedule, the central command scientists know the hatch has been overrun, or more likely, the hatch workers have been overcome by the virus. That's why specific numbers have to be entered rather than just pressing a button--if you've been affected by the virus, you won't remember the numbers.

There are still lots of things to be explained, like what is special about the children, how is the island shielded such that it is only ever found by accident, what is the strange mechanical monster, are the "Others" failed experiments, etc.

I suspect over the course of the series we'll find more hatches, more people that have appeared in flashbacks (or at least more connections between them and people in other flashbacks), and I wouldn't be surprised if Claire's baby starts to look a lot like one of the other male characters (conceived before the experiment began). I'll even make a prediction about the series finale: the characters have all figured out what I've described here and realize they need to try the experiment again. So, they stage another accident (maybe even another plane crash)...Jack lies down in the field, his eyes close, fade to black, and we hear the island mind eraser starting up...