Random Variable

There is a long running discussion between K-Punk, Foucault is Dead and Amish Lovelock over the media’s response to Jade Goody’s outbursts during Big Brother. Whilst I generally agree with the conclusions reached by all parties, I do take issue with Foucault is Dead’s opinion that saying ‘I’m not a racist, but I think the logic of multiculturalism prevents us from treating people as individuals’ really is a racist statement. That statement is the position that both me and Ulrich Beck share. To make it clear, I post the more interesting points of my response to the Commission on Integration and Cohesion consultation: Read the rest of this entry »

Update:

I do not want to repeat the work of other websites here, especially The Lost Experience. That said, you absolutely MUST READ THIS FIRST.
So, here’s my own original insights into the first online section of the “Lost Experience UK” with a dig into the new Hanso Foundation site.

What I did here was to download the main SWF Flash files, and then process them using Flasm. These produce text files containing the contents of the ActionScript.

http://www.thehansofoundation.org/config.xml contains a list of the main components of the site.

Notice that “contact” is commented out. Well if you access http://www.thehansofoundation.org/content_contact.swf you will find a brief frame with boilerplate text including the words “teaser text.” This is probably just a development left over.

A file named joop_2.swf contains the string “The Hanso Foundation, setting world speed records for subverting authority,” in addition to containing a function labelled “afterrachel()”. This particularly juicy file also contains a redirect to http://www.familytrack.net/listing.html . The site no longer exists, but Otsego found a copy in the WaybackMachine. Bob discovered that it relates to The Punisher release, also a Hi-Res ARG creation.

The executive bios page contains an ActionScript string for mittlewerk@hansofoundation.org. According to Ste, “mittle werk” translates as middle/mediate work/deeds/doings from German.

Both home and TV ad pages contain references to http://www.thehansofoundation.org/video/lrncent2004.flv , however this video contains no audio. Searching Google for lrncent2004 turns up a copy of the video about “Coastal America Learning Centres” with sound at the Internet Archive. In this video Bush Senior talks about his son’s efforts to educate the young about coastal America, whilst wearing a badge similar to the Dharma swan on his lapel. John Kerry also makes an appearance. Gregg points me to the official site at http://www.coastalamerica.gov/text/learning.html, which features a logo similar to Dharma’s swan, but not quite. This seems like a legitimate site. That most probably is the real Bush and Kerry in that video, and was probably used for testing.
For those wondering why the RSS feed is erroneous, the developers didn’t properly escape some characters. Here’s the corrected version.

By far the most intriguing aspect is the Bush/Kerry video. Are they planning on making Lost more political? Is this the story of a military contractor that got a little too full of itself? Will the series shake the very foundations of the American military-industrial complex? Probably not. Seems it’s like a red herring now. You can hope though.

Leflyman confirmed my suspicions that the site was made by the fantastic London based design agency hi-res, previously responsible for the Donnie Darko and Requiem for a Dream as well as the Channel 4 Lost site.

I should warn everybody that I don’t even watch Lost, as it kinda bores me, so I’ll quickly plug The Wire and Deadwood on HBO.