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Competition is fierce in real estate so as part of his branding, Mississauga broker Parwesh K. (PK) Sabharwal wears a snappy hat with his business attire.

New Realtor Realities: Many in the GTA go above and beyond to earn loyalty because competition for clients has become so stiff

One agent packs up and stores a client’s massive shoe collection to minimize clutter. Another puts up a mother and her kids in her basement or provides amateur marriage counselling. And many more now deliver seemingly unusual services in an attempt to stand out in the fierce GTA real estate market.

“A real estate agent cannot afford to have an ego,” Mississauga broker Parwesh (PK for short) Sabharwal says. “In this cutthroat competitive market, one must meet all kinds of demands, even if they seem funny or weird.

“I even sat and packed up 100 pairs of shoes for one client and carried those big boxes all the way to her tiny basement,” recalls Sabharwal of one such extra service.

“Packing shoes isn’t part of my job description,” he says with a laugh. “But since the shoes were an eyesore – in the entrance of the house, and the lady wasn’t getting that – I offered to help out.”

Helping out is now often taken for granted, increasingly, by demanding clients, says this ReMax broker. Another factor is the number of agents in the game.

Phil Soper, president and CEO at Royal LePage, says the lure of real estate has caught on even with the younger set. The company now recruits many graduates from universities during their campus recruitment drives in Toronto.

And in such a market, there’s no dearth of unusual requests, agents say.

“A client who had daughters asked me to find out if the adjoining house to the one that they liked housed young boys. And if there were boys next door, then they wouldn’t buy that house,” Sabharwal says. “Awkwardly, I did comply by knocking on the next-door house, and casually inquiring about their family composition.”

Agents say the business is one that’s heavily based on referrals and clients will remember agents who go the extra mile even years after their house sells.

“Good service is being increasingly used by brokers as a way to distinguish them from the competition,” Soper says. His company coaches its agents on good practices.

Sabharwal says in the world of fancy packaging, branding is important. So he dons a matching hat with his business suit.

When he meets a client, he gives them a big docket of marketing material, which contains a huge photograph in that attire– smiling in a standing pose with his fancy P. initial engraved alongside each page describing the services he provides.

He gives clients a two-pack tutorial CD and testimonials from other clients he’s served. In addition he provides a colourful, two page-newsletter called Sabharwal’s Neighbourhood News.

To be an agent also means to be blessed with tons of patience, says Susan Taylor, a 20-year veteran, who jokingly admits she could easily fill in as a “marriage counsellor.”

In some cases marriages have broken up and couples have decided to sell a house. Taylor recalls one such incident where she spent more than two months coaxing, cajoling and counselling the husband to get him to sign papers, so that she could sell the house.

Taylor, a Royal LePage agent, says the dynamics of the real estate game have changed. Twenty years ago it was more of a nine-to-five job.

“The Internet and the advent of TV home improvement shows have raised awareness levels and it’s almost as if they (buyers) want houses to be perfect,” she says.

It all means that agents need to work extra hard to make sure the house is good to sell.

Taylor says if that means pouring in some extra bleach in (the clients’) dirty kitchen sink then that’s fine. She draws the line, however, when it comes to cleaning toilets. Instead, she has called cleaning services and paid for the services.

Taylor isn’t alone in that regard. Jillinda Greene, a longtime ReMax Hallmark agent in the Beach area says staging a house is very important. She has paid the bills for a florist or even rented paintings which cost her between $500 and $1,800, depending on the size of the house.

But Betty Durocher gives a whole new meaning to the term open house. In July 2002, this Royal LePage agent from Newmarket moved some of her clients – a mother and two children – into her own basement for two months. The trio shared Durocher’s kitchen and other facilities upstairs.

“The mother had bought a townhome but could not afford a place in the interim period, and not many rentals were available for such a short time and I just knew she couldn’t afford it,” says Durocher.

The agent’s retired husband at times also cooks dinner for clients, or babysits children while she takes the parents out.

Extra services don’t surprise Soper, who says consumers have a right to expect good services as they pay a considerable fee in commissions.

Agents say that commissions are under pressure and many in the market work for less than 5 per cent.

Not surprisingly, Internet sites that allow people to list their homes and eliminate the agent completely are growing steadily. Gabi Fish is vice-president of the Canadian online home-selling site, propertysold.ca. Fish says many home sellers don’t want to pay costly commissions. The website – barely two years old – garnered 1.81 million unique visits (12.5 million page loads) last year, higher than what it got when it started in 2006 (1.1 million unique visitors).

It sold 394 properties last year compared to 119 in 2006. Fish says listings in Toronto, the website’s largest market, have increased with the GTA area getting 340 listings this year, compared to 152 in 2006.

But agents say the Internet cannot replace the human element of being able to service clients in unique circumstances.

Linda Morgan, a Niagara Region real estate agent for Royal LePage, tells the story of a single mom with multiple sclerosis who was living on a disability pension that she helped — first to sell her house, and then buy a new one.

The house where this mom and her son were living was in danger of being lost for nonpayment of municipal taxes. Morgan called in the help of her husband and his friends who repaired it so that it could be put up for sale. After selling the house and finding a condo that fit her client’s needs, Morgan found out the lady wasn’t qualifying for a mortgage, so she worked with her own bank to see that through.

Morgan says she also paid her own money for the remodelling of the bathrooms because the owner couldn’t and then, with countless trips to the local MPP’s office, and the March of Dimes, the owner was able to get a grant finally approved that repaid this money back.

CROWDED FIELD

Despite the increased competition in the market, more and more people want to become licensed real estate agents.

» The Real Estate Council of Ontario, or RECO, the regulating body for agents in Ontario, says there has been a 20 per cent overall increase in the number of registrants in Ontario since 2005, with the agency processing more than 400 applications for new registrations each month. In 2003, there were about 300 new applications per month processed by the agency.

In 2005, Ontario had 40,665 registrants with 11,675 of those coming from Toronto (M postal codes) and 26,792, which included Toronto and Brampton, Durham, Mississauga, Oakville, Milton, Orangeville, and York. In 2007, Ontario had 49,429 registrants with 12,472 of those coming from Toronto (M postal codes) and 29,222, which included Toronto and Brampton, Durham, Mississauga, Oakville, Milton, Orangeville, and York.

As of Feb. 1, 50,000 agents were registered with RECO in Ontario.

» An increase can also been seen (in the past three years) in memberships with the Toronto Real Estate Board: 2005 – 22,953; 2006 – 24,894; 2007-26,861; 2008 – a further 185, taking the total number close to 27,046.

» ReMax says it has 8,540 agents in Ontario and Atlantic Canada. (nationally 17,600).

In 2007, of the 751 agents it added to its roster, 445 were in the Ontario-Atlantic region, which was the largest growth for ReMax globally last year. As well, in 2006, of the 1,200 new agents, 650 were from the Ontario-Atlantic area. This region has been growing by 400 to 600 agents on average per year, with growth ranging from 5 per cent to 10 per cent over 10 years.

Sources: Real Estate Council of Ontario, Toronto Real Estate Board, ReMax

– by Rakshande Italia of the Toronto Star

Trial by perjury: Kate walked after Jack lied on the stand.

The mystery man in Kate’s flash-forward future turns out to be little Aaron; plus, she reaches an impasse with Sawyer and future Jack, and Locke goes crazier.

I usually jot down notes when I watch Lost. It’s pretty necessary when you do a job like this. Take last night’s episode, ”Eggtown.” As John Locke, not-so-benevolent dictator of Old New Otherton, prepared Ben’s breakfast during the opening sequence (two eggs, fruit, a copy of Philip K. Dick’s Valis), I wrote the following:

”Other books on the bookshelf: The Sheltering Sky and something by Arthur C. Clarke.”

”Interesting: Locke is now sleeping in Ben’s (hospital) bed — and here’s Ben mocking the former invalid for being more helpless (’lost’) than ever.”

”If Locke ran a bed and breakfast, what would he call it?”

But as I reviewed my chicken scratches after the episode was over, I realized that I had accumulated far more questions than observations, ideas, theories, and/or lame jokes. Why didn’t Kate want to bring her son to court? Is she trying to hide him from the world? Why did Jack tell the jury that only eight people survived the crash of Oceanic 815? According to the cover story of the Oceanic 6, who were the two who didn’t make it? Who does Miles really work for? How does Ben know him? What was the significance of Daniel Faraday’s guessing game with the cards? What happened to Frank Lapidus’ helicopter? Why doesn’t Jack want to see Kate’s child? Speaking of said child, how did Aaron (!) become Kate’s kid? What happened to Claire? And most of all: Why was the episode called ”Eggtown”?

It was one of those episodes of Lost where a few big answers came at the price of many, many more questions. If you’re keeping score at home, this is what we can scratch off the Active Mystery List. Island Kate isn’t pregnant. (I have to admit that I kinda forgot that was even a question.) The mystery man that Flash-Forward Kate referenced in the season finale last year was actually a mystery boy, Aaron. We now know — or at least reasonably assume — that Aaron is the fifth member of the Oceanic 6. And we now know what Hurley sounds like when he’s going number two.

”Eggtown” was technically a Kate flash-forward that revealed that the Oceanic 6 are nothing short of super-celebs. (Didn’t Ms. Austin look Hollywood glam? Evie cleans up nicely, doesn’t she?) But it was really all about bargaining and bartering, proposals and ultimatums. Perhaps the best way to recap the plot is by following the deals.

THE KATE-MILES PACT
Kate — perhaps truly enticed by Sawyer’s proposal of making the Island their permanent address — asked freaky freighter dude Miles Straum for info about what kind of life waited for her off the Island if she went back. The caustic ghost whisperer agreed to help her — if she could arrange a meeting with Ben. Kate accepted his terms. But to pull it off, she needed to secure Sawyer’s help, which led to some flirtatious banter between the two former Hydra humpers. Transaction status: Completed. Kate busted Miles out of his boathouse cell and into Ben’s basement cell. In exchange, Miles informed her that yep, the freighter folk knew that she was a wanted lass and that a long prison sentence loomed in her future. Miles’ suggestion: She should stay on the Island.

THE MILES-BEN PROPOSAL
The hotheaded hustler — tasked to track down über-Other Ben — told the Man With 1000 Passports that for exactly $3.2 million, he would tell his mysterious employer that he had found Ben dead. Ben asked the obvious questions: Why $3.2 million exactly? Why not 100 grand more? Heck, why not round it up to $3.5 mil? Miles dodged the question. When Ben clucked about not being able to scrounge up the dough, Miles got huffy: ”I know what you can do!” Transaction status: Pending. Given his being a prisoner and all, Ben asked for a week to figure out how to fulfill his end of the bargain.

JACK-KATE: WINK-WINK, NUDGE-NUDGE
Kate’s flash-forward dealt with her trial for her long list of crimes, beginning with killing her abusive father by blowing up their house. To help her cause, Kate’s lawyer asked Flash-Forward Jack (pre-grizzly-beard edition) to testify as a character witness. Curiously, Jack’s Bible-sworn testimony was a bunch of lies. He told the jury that only eight people survived the crash of Oceanic 815 and that Kate was a lifesaving Wonder Woman. Apparently, this fib is part of a larger cover story that the Oceanic 6 have agreed to stick to. Transaction status: Aborted. Kate cut Jack’s testimony short. Interesting how Kate had no problem using Sawyer to get what she wanted in the Island story but was unwilling to similarly exploit Jack in the flash-forward tale. Perhaps this was her way of loving Jack: Maybe she understands how painful it is for him be ”living a lie,” as Jack said in the season finale.

KATE AND HER MOTHER: GRANDMA’S GAMBIT
Kate’s ailing yet clinging-to-life mother — the key witness for the prosecution in her daughter’s trial — told Kate that she had no interest in testifying against her, though she seemed to suggest that the offer was contingent on being able to see the grandson she had never met. Transaction status: Spitefully rejected. Kate was still smarting over how Mom called the cops on her the last time they hooked up. But Kate’s mother seemed to suggest that she had forgiven her because of her ”castaway hero” part in the Oceanic 6 cover story. So much for unconditional love or forgiveness.

KATE’S PLEA DEAL
Give Mom a little credit: With Kate promising her nothing, she still backed out (or wheeled away) from testifying. Screwed, the prosecution offered a deal: 15 years in jail. Kate got panicky. Clearly, doing time would take her away from Aaron. But didn’t you get the sense that there was more to her resistance than just motherly attachment? I have this theory that the Oceanic 6 know something about future events and, more, know something about the role that they must play in them. Being in jail would obviously really screw that up. Just a theory. After Kate’s lawyer successfully spooked the prosecution with the prospect that a jury would probably side with her, the plea deal was knocked down to a mere 10 years’ probation — and a promise that Kate would never leave the state. Transaction status: Accepted. Kate jumped at the deal. Case closed — and stakes established for when she ultimately changes her mind and joins Jack in his ”We gotta go back!” quest. (At which time, I also predict that Kate will entrust Aaron to…her mother, finally completing their reconciliation.)

KATE AND JACK: THE DATING CONTRACT
In one of the episode’s final scenes, Jack confessed to Kate that his I-don’t-love-you stance on the stand was a lie. Kate got all weak in the knees and asked if he wanted to come back to her place. But Jack chickened out and said he had to get back to the hospital. Kate called him out: She said the real reason he was backing away was that he can’t deal with Aaron. Transaction status: Deliberating. Jack didn’t deny Kate’s claim. What’s up with that? I bet it either has something to do with the fact that Kate’s child is his — what? — half nephew? Maybe Jack can’t deal with Aaron because he reminds him of Claire — and if Claire met an unfortunate end on the Island, no doubt Doc Savior Complex blames himself.

All in all, I thought ”Eggtown” was the Lost equivalent of a sacrifice bunt. It was all about moving all the simmering subplots forward so the next episodes can drive them home. (Prime examples: the allegedly-MIA-chopper intrigue; the Jin-Sun discussion about their post-Island home — both set up for future episodes.) For our indulgence, we were treated with some tantalizing new questions and some payoffs on some long-standing Kate mysteries.

Some quick hits:

Philip K. Dick’s Valis In this trippy novel, one of Dick’s best and most personal, ”Valis” stands for ”Vast Acting Living Intelligence System.” Sounds like the way Locke or Ben might regard the Island.

Locke putting the grenade in Miles’ mouth Pretty cool — and kinda ridiculous. Locke suffered some challenges to his leadership in this episode, including a crisis of self-confidence. I guess stuffing an explosive into a bad guy’s mouth is one way to feel like a man again. Sawyer is right: Locke is going Kurtz on us. The horror…the horror…

The Faraday-Charlotte card game The task involved Daniel correctly guessing what three overturned cards were. But the key line there is C.S. Lewis asking him, ”What do you remember?” My interpretation: Daniel Faraday is a time traveler — or thinks he is a time traveler — and he’s recovering memories of his past experience on the Island. Speaking of time travel:

The meaning of the title ”Eggtown” I researched many options, include the significance to mythological ideas like the ”world egg” and the ”cosmic egg.” There could be a connection to the book Cracking the Cosmic Egg, too. But inspired by Locke’s conspicuous mention of killing a chicken, I decided to investigate the Wikipedia write-up on the chicken and the egg. It has some interesting things to say about the theory of causality and ”the Grandfather Paradox,” two important ideas in time-travel lore — and that’s where we’re headed next week.

Kate and Sawyer making out I think that was the last time. Don’t you? How can she crawl back to him after he called her out like that?

I turn this over to you, Milton: What did you think of ”Eggtown?”

– by Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly

Robert Sager of Milton was rushed through training for a $9 an hour temporary job and, on his second shift, crushed by a runaway forklift.

Workplace safety rules allow companies to keep spotless ratings even if poorly trained temps are injured or killed

Ontario companies that use an army of temporary workers are hiding a dirty secret behind their glowing safety records.

That’s because the province’s worker insurance program protects the company job sites where accidents occur, yet gives big financial penalties to the temporary agency that sent the worker to the job.

A loophole in the rules of the province’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) system is to blame.

As a result, companies that use a lot of temporary workers have no incentive to clean up their act because their “experience rating” – a financial calculation based on a company’s health and safety record – is not affected when a temp is hurt. Depending on company size, the firm can escape hundreds-of-thousands- or millions-of-dollars in annual payments.

The situation is “fundamentally wrong,” said WSIB chair Steve Mahoney, after the Toronto Star presented the results of its investigation. “To allow a company that is using temp agencies to simply skip the responsibility for safety is not in the interest of the workers and that is our main focus.”

Mahoney will ask the provincial labour ministry to fix the problem, which would require a change to legislation. The impact, if a change is made, will be significant. One in five workers in Ontario is a temp, employed by one of the 1,300 or more agencies in the province that use them.

Cases uncovered by the Star as part of an ongoing investigation into worker safety reveal factories, retail shipping firms, and other companies that did not train a temporary worker properly or take safety precautions, leading to severe injuries, crushed bodies, broken bones and, sometimes, death.

“I’ve seen companies get great safety ratings when we know that temps are injured there all the time,” said Suzanne McInerney, a vice-president at Staffing Edge, one of the largest temporary work firms in Ontario. Her firm, and others, want the province to pass legislation that would make injuries the shared responsibility with the places people work – not just the company that places them in the job.

Robert Sager agrees.

A runaway forklift crushed the 53-year-old Milton man in July 2005. He had been sent by temporary agency Kelly Services to an Exel Canada distribution plant for the $9 an hour job. Exel rushed him through training and he was put to work immediately at a Brantford warehouse.

“I felt pressured because at that point in time I really needed a job,” Sager said.

A few minutes into his second shift, the forklift he was driving accelerated backwards, threw him out and pinned him against a steel rack.

“I remember thinking `Oh God, I’m dead.’ I tried to call out for help and I could hardly get it out of my voice. I remember hearing someone say `Sager, are you all right?’ and then I blacked out.”

They discovered the extent of the damage at the hospital: a crushed pelvis, a torn urethra, ripped vertebrae, ruptured bowel, crushed kidneys, a head injury and testicles swollen tight with blood. He had three heart attacks immediately after the accident.

Two-and-a-half years later, the damage remains. He can barely walk, has memory loss, and needs help with everything from bathing to using the toilet. A nurse comes daily to change a dressing in his chest.

Under current rules, Kelly Services would face a hike in its annual workplace insurance payments, not Exel. However, neither firm would provide details of their case to the Star.

The Ministry of Labour investigated and laid charges; Exel pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that Sager was sufficiently experienced and was fined $80,000 under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Kelly Services is contesting safety act charges that it did not properly prepare Sager for the job.

The fine for Exel was a one-time payout that does not affect the company’s WSIB safety rating. A serious injury like Sager’s, with ensuing medical costs over many years, would significantly raise a company’s annual payments.

To better understand the WSIB, here is how the system works.

Ontario’s workers’ compensation system began in 1915, when workers gave up the right to sue companies in return for long-term compensation in a no-fault insurance program paid for by employers.

In Ontario, most companies pay into a worker insurance system to cover medical, salary and retraining costs for injured workers.

Each company pays the WSIB an annual insurance premium depending on the type of work. A mining company pays more than a white-collar office because miners are more often injured, and the injuries are more serious.

How safe a company is relative to other similar companies helps them save money. A good “experience rating” means they pay less; a bad rating they pay more. A company that pays an annual WSIB premium of $5 million could either save $1 million or pay an additional $1 million, depending on its record.

Worker advocates say that the policy behind the loophole needs to be changed.

“It is outrageous that this situation even exists,” said Wayne Samuelson, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour.

“If a company wants to avoid getting on the radar of the labour ministry, they can just offload their accidents onto the temp agency … that way their record gets attached to the agency.”

WSIB data released to the Star does not differentiate temp companies from firms that hire salaried employees, so it is impossible to tell how many temp workers report injuries each year. However, by looking at 200 known temporary firms in the data, we spotted a 32 per cent increase in injuries, from 5,345 in 2001 to 7,075 in 2005, the most recent information available. Industry experts say that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

What pains those who run staffing agencies is that the WSIB has no way of identifying companies where temp workers are frequently injured.

“It doesn’t even go on their record,” said Linda Ford, president of Temporary Measures. “Even if we put their name down when we file our paperwork, the WSIB does not have a way of recording it, so there is nothing to red flag the companies for their safety record.”

McInerney, of Staffing Edge, said some companies give temp workers the most strenuous jobs, without proper training.

“Companies push off those jobs to the staffing companies because they know there will be accidents and therefore their safety rate is kept clean and ours is not,” she said.

As a result, temp agencies typically pay double the premiums compared to companies that do the same work, McInerney said.

In 2006, the WSIB launched what it called its “boldest social marketing” campaign ever in a bid to one day reduce workplace fatalities and injuries to zero.

Staffing Edge president Lou Duggan saw an opening and wrote to WSIB chair Mahoney last year, asking for him to fix the temporary worker issue.

“We feel that lost time injuries should not only reflect the staffing firm’s frequency of injuries but should as well target the client site locations where the injuries occurred,” Duggan wrote.

“Instilling a greater accountability for (lost time injuries) on the client site is the key. This change would engage the management at workplaces and support your goal for a safer work environment.”

Duggan received a reply from the WSIB saying the issue would be studied, but nothing changed.

Yesterday, board chair Mahoney said in an interview that he would meet with the provincial labour ministry in two weeks and propose a change to legislation that would close the loophole.

– by Moira Welsh of the Toronto Star

The Other Sayid: His past life as a soldier and torturer still haunts him. In another devastating flash-forward, Sayid, who has become an assassin working for Ben, kills a woman he loves; on the Island, Kate goes back to Sawyer.

Lost is not kind to lovers, especially on Valentine’s Day. For the second straight year, our beloved crypto-drama has aired an episode on February 14. And for the second straight year, Cupid was kicked in the nuts. Last year, in the trippy time-travel tale ”Flashes Before Your Eyes,” Desmond toggled back to his breakup with Penelope, just to break up with her all over again. Last night, in ”The Economist,” Flash-Forward Sayid fell for a woman he shouldn’t have, and ultimately broke her heart — with two bullets to the chest. (To be fair, the femme fatale shot him first.) These things happen when you play secret-agent assassin for Germany’s most morally ambiguous veterinarian — Benjamin Linus. Yes, you read that right. In his off-Island future as a member of the Oceanic 6, the former Iraqi torturer smokes European fat cats for über-Other Ben, who in his off-Island future has a croaky, low phone voice (All the better to delay the last-scene reveal of my true identity, my dear!), runs a pet hospital in Berlin, and manages a global conspiracy on the side. The Man With 1000 Passports has a whole list of bad people he wants dead, ”people [who] don’t deserve our sympathies,” as he told Sayid. Note to Ben’s customers: Pay that doggy-grooming bill on time!

The episode’s title, ”The Economist,” was a reference to the job allegedly held by Sayid’s current target, a powerful mystery man whose name went conspicuously unmentioned. It also suggested a key for reading the story. This was an episode about ”bosses” and ‘’senior management” and the minions who toil for them; about trade negotiations and merger proposals; about recession fears and hostile-takeover threats. It was a snapshot look at the information economy that shapes everything on Lost, one where secrets and inside information are valuable currencies, with hostages and guns running close behind. It was also an episode about the internal corruption that occurs when romantic idealists are forced to become cutthroat businessmen. (Literally.)

Who’s The Boss? Or where’s the boss?
That’s what Locke was asking as he led his tribe of freighter fraidy cats to where Jacob’s cabin should have been, only to discover that his house of sprits had disappeared from its circle of ash/salt/kitty litter. Abandoned by his Island god, Locke looked, yes, lost, and banged-up Ben was quick to jump all over that: ”He’s looking for someone to tell him what to do next,” the devilish Other told Locke’s disgruntled flock. With Hurley showing signs of instigating a shareholder rebellion over the Charlotte-hostage issue, CEO Locke squelched the dissidence and shored up his office by playing the fear card, brow-beating Hurley with some tough talk about the cost of compromise. Did Flash-Forward Hurley’s regret over choosing Locke over Jack begin here?

The Negotiating Committee
Meanwhile, in Happy Helicopter Valley, the Jack Pack negotiated the terms of rescue with freighter fellas Daniel Faraday (twitchy physicist), Frank Lapidus (bushy-faced pilot), and Miles Straum (angry young ghost whisperer), who, of course, may not be there to rescue them at all. The shifty trio made it clear they weren’t flying anywhere without C.S. Lewis (Charlotte edition), so Sayid stepped up and said he’d hike to the Dharma barracks and negotiate her release. Jack wanted to come, but given how the good doctor tried to shoot Locke in the face the last time they squared off, Sayid thought he should stay behind, lest the deal-making devolve into one of those protracted bargaining battles marked by phlegmatic rhetoric, heavy-handed tactics, and unreasonable demands over digital downloads.

Control Freak Jack got a proxy at the table, however, by sending Kate with Sayid and Miles. He felt her presence would give Sayid more leverage, as Locke wouldn’t dare attempt any underhanded knife-in-back stuff, not with moony Sawyer there to play bodyguard. Yeah, you could say it was a contrived way to set up the possibility of more sex scenes between the old Hydra humpers. Still, it felt like classic Jack emotional dunderheadedness. You could tell Kate wasn’t thrilled with Jack treating her like a pawn on a chessboard, and my hunch is that what we really saw in the moment was the beginning of her dawning realization that as much as she may dig Jack’s cheese, he’s got a lot more getting over himself to do before they can have a flash-forward future together, much less swap valentines and spit.

Acquisitions…
Arriving at the Dharma barracks — or, more recently, New Otherton — Sayid, Miles, and Kate found Hurley tied up in the closet, allegedly left behind by Locke. It was a trap, one that exploited Sayid’s soft spot for his friends and loved ones, a fatal flaw that makes both him and Hurley the most easily manipulated of the castaways. I thought Sayid should have seen through this ruse, and his failure to do so continued a dubious tradition of super-soldier Sayid not living up to his Republican Guard pedigree. (No wonder we beat those guys in three days.) Maybe I’m selling him short. Sayid was probably content to let Locke play and win his little mousetrap games, just as long as he sealed the deal he had come to make. I think he knew he would: His package was much too appealing. He offered Locke a hostage swap — Miles for Charlotte — plus himself. Sayid had come around to Locke’s belief that the freighter people are nothing but bad news. His master plan, he told Locke, was to infiltrate the freighter and gather intel — corporate espionage. Locke was sold.

…and Mergers
Meanwhile, as upper management haggled in the billiard room, Kate and Sawyer caucused in Ben’s bedroom. The shaggy rogue explained that he has no intention of leaving the Island because there was nothing but a prison sentence waiting for him back in the real world, and since Kate was looking at the same fate, hey, why not stay with him? Kate was dubious: ”How long, Sawyer? How long do you think we can play house?” Saywer was bold: ”Why don’t we find out?” I was impressed with the former con man’s risky emotional frankness. I was also intrigued by the fact that this scene took place in Ben’s bedroom, with all those tribal masks all over the place. Hmmmm…honesty and masks — hey, that sounds like a possible allusion to another work by Charlotte’s namesake, C.S. Lewis: Till We Have Faces is a retelling of the mythical Cupid and Psyche love story, told from the point of view of Psyche’s jealous sister. In the book, Lewis argues that you can’t commune with the divine or experience supernatural possibilities until you drop your corrupt false self — your mask — and get your moral character in order. (Yo, Locke: Now you know why you keep losing your mystical connection to the Island. You’re just not good enough.) Anyhoo, Sawyer’s you-complete-me pitch may have swayed Kate, because she didn’t return to Happy Helicopter Valley with Sayid and Charlotte. The ”I blew it” look that passed across Jack’s face when Sayid told him the news was pretty priceless; it reminded me of House of Meetings, Martin Amis’ novel about brothers in love with the same woman, who go from being stuck in a Soviet gulag to struggling to return to ordinary life — very Oceanic 6. But I’m probably digressing.

Petty Cash Drawer
I’m betting that the scene you’ll be talking about the most on the message boards — besides the Ben flash-forward reveal — is the nifty moment when Sayid discovered Ben’s secret stash of passports, foreign currency, and suits. Clearly, Ben does a lot of traveling for work. (Remember, the Others do have that off-Island company, Mittelos Biosciences; presumably, Ben is the boss.) Long ago, I wondered if the Others had an airstrip on the Island, so I wouldn’t be surprised to discover Ben has a corporate jet, too — plus a hangar full of old Oceanic airplane parts. You know, leftovers from the false evidence that the Others planted in the Sunda Trench. (Just a theory.) Now, if you’re going to go all crazy on me and claim that the multiple passports and husky-voiced Flash-Forward Ben are evidence that there multiple Bens in the world thanks to alternate universe/wormhole theory, I’m in! (FYI: The name on the Ben passport Sayid examined looked to be Dean Moriarty — a character from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. Moriarty is also the name of Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis. Just so you know.)

Deficit Spending
Another scene I bet you’ll be going nutty over was the one where Daniel Faraday did his rocket experiment, which concluded with his admittedly ”beyond weird” discovery of an apparent 31-minute time differential between freighter reality and Island reality, where time seems to pass more slowly. What does this mean? I don’t know — but I immediately went to barnesandnoble.com and purchased Stephen Hawking’s Brief History of Time so you guys can borrow it, read it, and then summarize it for me while I eat grapes and watch Big Brother. Seriously, I’m crunching theories, but it takes time for me to do quantum physics. It takes me mere seconds, however, to do some cheap biblical analysis! Did you see the numbers on Daniel’s clocks? One said 3:16, while the other said 2:45. As it happens, Daniel 2:45 is the culmination of the story in which exiled Daniel earned an exalted place in King Nebuchadnezzar’s court by interpreting a dream concerning the future of Babylon and how ”the fourth kingdom will be a divided kingdom.” Hey — that sounds like the fourth season of Lost! Meanwhile, Daniel 3:16 is part of the famous story of how Daniel’s friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown in the fiery furnace but were saved by God. How might that apply to Lost? Well, thematically, the story deals with three men who refused to abandon their spiritual beliefs and bow down before a false idol — a story that stands in stark contrast to Sayid’s flash-forward arc.

The Sell-Out
In the opening scenes of ”The Economist,” we were given two quick, quiet moments that re-established two very important things about Sayid. First, we saw him praying. Sayid, if you recall, is a spiritual man, a Muslim. Second, we saw him tenderly shut dead Naomi’s eyes and examine her bracelet, inscribed with ”N., I’ll be with you always, R.C.” Sayid, recall, is a romantic (see: Nadia; Shannon), and I bet that his desire that Naomi be sent home for a proper burial appealed to his religious convictions and sentimentality. Yet in his flash-forward future, Sayid ain’t exactly living according to those ideals. In fact, like James Bond, his license-to-kill existence makes a mockery of the sanctity of life and love. Sayid remains sufficiently decent in the future that when it was finally time to move against the Economist, he came clean with Elsa, as he had genuinely fallen for her. But then she pulled a Casino Royale on him: It turned out she was an undercover lover, too, seducing him in hopes of smoking out Ben’s identity. Elsa was Sayid’s mirror twin, and to make sure we got it, Sayid smashed a mirror reflection of his Lady From Shanghai doppelgänger before popping some caps into her.

After Sayid stumbled into Ben’s safe house/vet office for some first aid, his boss mocked him for his weakness. Then Ben dropped this intriguing tidbit: ”Need I remind you what happened the last time you thought with your heart instead of your gun.” Sayid’s response was even more mysterious: ”You used that girl to recruit me into killing for you.” But Ben the master manipulator hit him where it hurts the most: the bottom line. ”Do you want to protect your friends or not?” Sayid looked like a man over a barrel. What did he say about Ben earlier in the episode? ”The day I start trusting him is the day I sell my soul.”

Welcome to Hell, Sayid. Now get that game face on — there’s work to be done.

That’s what I got. Do you have a theory about the identity of the Economist? Who is the ”R.C.” on Naomi’s bracelet? (Regina the freighter chick?) Who are these names on Ben’s assassination list?

What do you think, Milton?

– By Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly

Many municipalities require residents to buy tags if they want to throw out extra garbage bags

Toronto’s user-pay system for garbage is a departure from the way waste is collected in surrounding municipalities.

Unlike Toronto, many 905 municipalities continue to use a system limiting the number of bags you may leave at the curb, with tags required if you want to throw out more.

Some municipalities take a gentle approach.

In Markham, for example, which boasts a 70 per cent diversion rate, residents have a three-bag limit per household, with biweekly collection. Those who want to throw out more -garbage need to get a tag from city hall – but it’s free.

The point of making residents go to the effort of getting the tag is to “make people think” about what they are putting out, said town spokesperson Catherine Harrison.

“Failure to comply is not an issue in Markham,” Harrison said. “We have not charged anyone.”

Other municipalities such as Mississauga, Brampton, Caledon (maximum two bags per week), Vaughan (three bags every two weeks), Ajax, Pickering and Oshawa (four bags every two weeks) force residents to pay for that extra bag, charging $1 to $1.50 per tag.

In Halton Region, residents are moving from a generous six-bag weekly collection system to bi-weekly collection, starting in April with the rollout of a green bin program.

Put out more than six, and city officials gently explain the importance of not doing it.

Ignore the warning and you’ll have to cart your extra garbage to a transfer station yourself. Ignore it further and you could get charged with a bylaw offence with a set fine of $90.

Peel Region’s waste management director, Andrew Pollock, said that in Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon, almost 91 per cent of homes respect the bag limits.

There has been talk, but no decision yet, on reducing bag limits or going biweekly to encourage more diversion.

Durham Region spokesperson Katherine Ross-Perron said Toronto’s approach is to treat garbage like any other utility by forcing users to pay proportionately and taking collection off the tax rolls. She said that in the surrounding regions, it’s likely that garbage collection will continue to be covered by property taxes.

– by Phinjo Gombu

Ron Cauchi, president of Mattamy Homes’ Stelumar Advanced Manufacturing plant, shows off the enormous facility, which can handle the construction of 10 houses at any given time.

Weather problems don’t affect construction since these houses are assembled indoors

It’s a bitter and blustery day on the western edge of Milton; with the wind chill it feels like -18C.

But Brent Bennett is without hat, coat or gloves as he works to install windows and doors in a house under construction.

That’s because Bennett and his co-workers at Mattamy Homes’ Stelumar Advanced Manufacturing plant are building homes indoors, for the nearby Hawthorne Village on the Escarpment site.

Bennett, the lead hand in back framing, has worked in construction for 21 years all over Canada and has had to contend with a variety of conditions, such as “being up to your knees in muck one day on site and then having it all frozen over the next day.

“And we all have to deal with shovelling our driveways, but just imagine having to shovel out a construction site.”

In comparison, he says, building a home in a factory is heaven.

“There are no rain days, no snow days. It’s climate controlled. There’s an advantage to working with dry lumber.”

The cavernous Stelumar facility on Tremaine Rd. south of Derry Rd. produces a new house a day and 10 are in various stages of progress at any one time. Each day at 4 a.m., the moving production line advances the houses – 600,000 pounds worth – to the next work station.

Since it was launched last summer, more than 60 houses have rolled off the Stelumar line and on to waiting foundations. As many as 220 houses a year will be built there over four years.

“Six months ago, this was pretty hot-off-the-press stuff. We didn’t even know if we could do this,” says Stelumar president Ron Cauchi.

There were a few bugs to work out. Initially, the skidding system that moves the homes down the line wasn’t able to handle the weight of 10 houses and needed adjusting, and the roof-hoisting mechanism, which allows for roofs to be fully assembled on the floor and then lifted into place, needed to be developed.

While factory-built homes aren’t a new phenomenon in North America, this facility is a breed apart. Unlike modular builders, which build their homes in sections, then ship the pieces to the site for assembly, the Stelumar homes roll off the line in one piece, with cabinetry, light fixtures, electrical and plumbing systems, and even paint already in place.

“This has nothing to do with modular,” Cauchi says. “These houses are extremely architecturally complex with multiple roof lines, dormers, wraparound porches and lofts.”

Then, there’s the way they are shipped, on a specialized, motorized transporter.

“There’s another difference from modular homes, which are put on a flatbed truck and shipped to a site,” Cauchi says. “This is a pretty complex piece of machinery. It’s like the platform that carries the space shuttle to the launch pad.”

For the one-kilometre, 15-minute journey from factory to building lot, the homes are shipped on a private road within the Mattamy site. The houses could be sent along public roads, Cauchi says, but it would require permits, police escorts and disruption of traffic to accommodate the wide, slow-moving load.

About 200 of 300 homes slated for 36- and 46-foot lots at Hawthorne Village on the Escarpment are being built at Stelumar, and the designs are identical to the homes being built on site. (Homebuyers don’t get to choose whether their homes will be site-built or factory- produced.) Eighteen different models are being produced, each with up to six different elevations.

“There are three, first-floor layouts typically and three choices of second floors, with options like bay or bow kitchen windows and second-floor laundry rooms,” Cauchi says. “It’s pretty darn close to custom building. The choices buyers have are mind-boggling. It’s not at all cookie-cutter manufacturing.”

Cauchi says there are various reasons why Mattamy, the province’s largest builder, has taken to factory building, as well as continuing to construct the conventional way. (Cauchi is quick to add that the site-built homes are of comparable quality.)

“The primary driver is customer satisfaction. It’s (Mattamy CEO) Peter Gilgan’s passion,” Cauchi says. One of the biggest issues with consumers is reliability of closing date, he says, and the factory approach means construction is not affected by weather conditions that cause delays on conventional building sites. “You can keep building even in a blizzard.”

There’s also the issue of quality – in a factory environment, building materials aren’t being exposed to the elements, which may cause lumber to warp. And timing is dead on. Because temperature and humidity can be controlled indoors, drywall mud, for example, dries exactly when it’s supposed to.

The factory approach shaves 70 days off building a house the conventional way – a new home can be turned out from the factory every 11 days. Another two to five weeks are allotted to complete the on-site work, such as bricking the house, steps, porches, hooking up utilities and landscaping. (Building code regulations and weight issues require bricks to be installed on site.)

At the plant, workers have a safe, comfortable environment, don’t have to worry about losing income or making up time due to weather and their tools are in the same location, day after day. The problems of construction site theft are eliminated. And because the workers (100 building crew and 15 office staff) are Mattamy employees, the builder doesn’t have to rely on outside trades.

Currently, it costs more for Mattamy to build the houses indoors than on site, but Cauchi says Stelumar’s mandate is not to cut costs – it’s about improving customer satisfaction and serving as a research and development lab for new technologies and products.

“Today, it operates at a premium but tomorrow, the plan is for a customer satisfaction at neutral cost; to produce the homes at the same cost as on site.”

Mattamy launched a pilot factory in Cambridge a few years ago where homes were built inside an old aircraft hangar.

Those houses were built exactly as they would have been on-site and finished only to the drywall stage before being shipped out. The line didn’t move and trades had to be scheduled, rather than working simultaneously at designated work stations.

Mattamy continues to operate a manufacturing facility in Cambridge, which supplies Milton’s plant with prefabricated wall and floor panels.

The walls are built on 24-inch centres rather than the usual 16, but are stronger because of the rigid polyurethane foam insulation. Value engineering (designing products at the lowest cost while maintaining quality) and computerized design and manufacture allow for optimized load bearing through aligned floor joists, studs and roof trusses, Cauchi says. The timberframe structure itself is more than strong enough to meet requirements. The rigid foam adds a structural strength bonus.

The engineered design also maximizes heating and cooling efficiency as ducts from the basement furnace can be lined up to run straight up to the attic, cutting the distance hot or cool air has to travel.

Rigid foam insulation is usually found only in high-end custom homes, Cauchi says. It would be cost-prohibitive for Mattamy to hire people to spray foam in site-built homes, but the prefabricated panels used in the plant are cheaper. Fewer wall studs and tightly controlling waste mean the Stelumar homes use 25 per cent less lumber. Over the factory’s four-year life span, producing 800 to 900 homes, an estimated 40-hectare woodlot will be saved, Cauchi says.

When Hawthorne Village is finished, the factory will be recycled, disassembled, then set up at another Mattamy site.

Several such factories are in future Mattamy plans, though locations have not yet been announced. Cauchi says they will be large sites with hundreds of lots.

All Hawthorne Village homes are built to Energy Star standard. “In fact, these are better insulated than Energy Star,” he says.

BY THE NUMBERS

220
Number of houses the Mattamy factory can produce annually. Ten are in production at any one time, with one new house produced every 11 days.

76,000
Factory size in square feet.

115
Employees at the plant.

70
Number of days shaved off conventional site building.

1
Kilometre between factory and building lots.

600,000
Weight in pounds of a fully loaded production line.

25
Percentage of lumber saved over site-built homes, due to tight control of waste and reduced need for wall studs.

5
Similar plants Mattamy is considering for the GTA over the next five years. Milton plant will be disassembled and moved to a new site.

Written By: Tracy Hanes of the Toronto Star

WHIZ KIDNEY: Locke survived a bullet thanks to his missing organ

Chute First, Ask Questions Later: As Locke flees with his rebel tribe, four crew members from the freighter land, each with a mysterious past and dubious motives

I have been told by people who also received preview screeners that they thought last night’s episode of Lost, ”Confirmed Dead,” was flawed. The opening-sequence flashback — in which the wreckage of Oceanic 815 was found on the ocean floor — was a narrative cheat because it relied on perspectives not known to its character. Similarly, the moment when sisterless secret agent Naomi recalled receiving her Island infiltration orders from castaway-denier Matthew Abbaddon played fast and loose with flashback logic because…well, because Naomi was dead. (Maybe consciousness seeps out slowly on Soul Trap Island.) If Frank Lapidus really landed the freighter chopper as he claimed, how come he woke up so far away from it? (Maybe there’s a story to be told there.) And come on: Isn’t the whole business of Ben manipulating Locke with the promise of Island secrets getting just a little bit old? (Maybe…nah, you’re right about that one.)

Bah! Mere quibbles. For me, ”Confirmed Dead” was downright alive with fascinating new characters, mind-blowing new possibilities, and exciting new theory fodder. Like this one: I am utterly convinced Charlotte Staples Lewis has been to the Island before. Maybe it was her giggly delight as she splashed about in the Island’s inland waters. True, the would-be freighter savior (or devil) could have been celebrating the mere fact that she had survived her harrowing arrival. But there was something more to her reaction — something that reminded me of another fantastical tale about an enchanted homecoming. The book is Prince Caspian, by C.S. Lewis, the sequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The story starts with a chapter called ”The Island,” in which the Pevensie kids return to Narnia via a mysterious island marked by ancient ruins and odd creatures. First thing they do: play in the water. Maybe I’m just fishing again. But if you think I’m wrong, then you owe me a better explanation why Charlotte Staples Lewis has been assigned a name so conspicuously similar to the author’s unfurled handle, Clive Staples Lewis.

(Don’t roll your eyes at me — especially since we’re only getting started! I spent 90 minutes researching Apocalypse Now and by extension the complete canon of Heart of Darkness author Joseph Conrad for Lost resonance thanks to Sawyer’s snarky ”Colonel Kurtz” crack. I found some, too: Check out The Shadow-Line, Chance, The Inheritors, and The Secret Agent. And for those who want to take me up on my C.S. Lewis challenge, consider investigating The Space Trilogy. C’mon, people! Support your local library!)

But for the more casual, less geeky Lostophiles who’d rather not engage the show with their English degrees (what else are they for?), the episode was equally worthy of watercooler kibitzing. For example, it looks like a monster more troublesome than Smokey might be setting its sights on the castaways — a certain green-eyed bugger named jealousy. The Jack-Kate-Juliet love triangle began to simmer anew. Ben mercilessly taunted Sawyer by poking at his I’m-not-as-good-as-Jack sore spots. And Locke was quietly rocked by Hurley’s disclosure that he, too, could dial up Jacob’s ghost shack. I don’t think Mr. Mystic likes having to share the office of Island high priest with anyone. Hurley’s recent flash-forward hinted at a looming rift with Locke; might a disagreement over properly interpreting Jacob be the cause?

But topping the talking points list: that WTF? opening sequence, in which remote-controlled cameras belonging to a salvage vessel called Christiane 1 stumbled upon Oceanic 815 — plane, passengers, and all — in the Sunda Trench of the South Pacific. (The backstory for Christiane 1 — which was actually hunting for the Black Rock — was recently told in an online story called ”Find 815.”) Does this wreckage prove that powerful forces are trying to hide the existence of the castaways — or does it prove that we’re dealing with alternate-reality theory?

Then there’s the Freighter Four, whose imminent arrival in last week’s season premiere divided the castaways into two tribes: the Jack Pack, cautiously confident that the freighter is their ticket off the Island, and the freighter-fearing Locke Lot. (Or the Ben Bunch, if you share Sawyer’s belief that the seemingly leashed Other is still pulling the strings. Killer line: ”It’s only a matter of time before he gets us, Johnny. And I bet he’s already figured out how he’s gonna do it.”). The Freighter Four fell to earth, like the castaways [or Icarus? Lucifer? David Bowie? Pick one — we're interactive!]; they had to bail after their helicopter encountered electromagnetic turbulence in the airspace around the Island. Lost has sometimes fumbled the needle when injecting new blood into the narrative. (See: the Tailies in season 2, Nikki and Paulo in season 3.) But here, the show has seemingly scored some primo plasma. The casting of Charlotte (Rebecca Mader), Lapidus (the Lawnmower Man himself, Jeff Fahey), Daniel Faraday (an appealingly quirky Jeremy Davies), and Miles Strom (Kenneth Leung, making a strong impression) totally worked for me, while their intriguing backstories left me jonesing for more. And did you notice that each one corresponded to a member of the Fantastic Four, another quartet of curious characters who fell from the heavens after bumping through a weird-science squall of cosmic rays? For purposes of both analysis and recap, let’s take each of them in order of appearance:

Name: Daniel Faraday
Island introduction: Discovered by Jack and Kate in the jungle shortly after Strom shoved his chicken butt from the chopper. (”Hey, genius! Go!”) J&K were clearly puzzled by Daniel’s jittery quirkiness — and deeply alarmed by the poorly hidden pistol on his belt and the gas mask in his luggage.
Occupation: Socially awkward physicist, though ”physicist” is too small a word for the eccentric egghead. ”I guess you could call me a physicist,” he later told Sayid. ”I don’t like to be pigeonholed.”
Fantastic Four analogue: Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), socially awkward physicist, whose body is as elastic as Faraday’s view of himself.
Name game: Daniel was an Old Testament prophet who survived the lions’ den and interpreted dreams for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Michael Faraday was a pioneering scientist in the fields of electricity and magnetism. Remember when Daniel noted how the sunlight ”doesn’t scatter quite right” on the Island? Exactly the kind of anomalous phenomenon Michael Faraday might have noticed.
Backstory intrigue: According to Naomi, Faraday is a ”headcase.” We got a taste of that in his flashback. While watching news coverage of Oceanic 815’s (faux?) discovery, Faraday, dressed in jammies and robe, began to tremble with emotions he couldn’t explain — as if experiencing a deeply disturbing bout of déjà vu. It reminded me of ”Flashes Before Your Eyes,” when Island Desmond projected his mind through time and left Flashback Desmond feeling seriously discombobulated. Is Daniel destined to dance the time-warp shuffle, too?

Name: Miles Strom
Occupation: Ghostbuster + hustler = Ghosthustler! Miles can commune with the spirits of the deceased; he vetted Jack and Kate by psychically interviewing Naomi, whose mortal remains he dismissed as mere ”meat.” I wonder what Miles is going to make of the holy trinity of Island spectral entities: Jacob, Christian Shephard, and Ghost Walt.
Island introduction: Found on the windswept rocks near the shoreline by Jack, Kate, and Faraday. He appeared to be unconscious but was playing possum and popped up with gun drawn. Remember Naomi’s dying words last week? According to Strom, ”Tell my sister I love her” was code for ”Ugh! They got me! Bring weapons!” Hence, Strom’s haughty guardedness.
Name games: ”Strom” is an anagram for ‘’storm,” which befits his blustery personality. But ”Miles Strom” sounds very close to ”maelstrom,” a wickedly strong whirlpool. (Shall we plum Edgar Allen Poe’s ”Descent Into the Maelstrom,” about a whirlpool that destroys a fishing vessel?) (No, we shall not.)
Fantastic Four analogue: Johnny Storm, the hotheaded Human Torch, as fiery as Strom’s temper and wit. When Sayid suspiciously inquired as to why Miles and Daniel weren’t surprised to find the castaways alive if the outside world considered them dead, Strom sarcastically responded, ”Oh my God! You guys were on Oceanic 815! Wow! That better?” Even Sayid seemed to smirk at that one.
Backstory intrigue: Strom was hired to scare away the ghost of a murder victim (a drug dealer, it seems) who was haunting his grandmother’s house. The eerie exterminator plugged in a portable cold generator (chilled air flushes out lurking spirits, according to poltergeist lore), meditated himself into a twitchy state of mind, and then shook down the specter for his secret stash of cash. Surely Dr. Stantz would not approve, though Dr. Venkman might. Creepy, hilarious, so very cool. (Is Scammy Strom greedy enough to resort to grave desecration if Nikki and Paulo blab to him about the diamonds buried with them? Would Lost risk provoking our N&P-hating wrath to tell us that tale?)

Name: Charlotte Staples Lewis
Occupation: Cultural anthropologist.
Island introduction: After her splash-about, Charlotte was discovered by Locke’s crew as they were hiking to the old Dharma barracks. She was stunned to find them alive — or at least pretended to be — but then grew weary of Locke’s third-degree and bossiness. ”Me Tarzan. Me survive Ben bullet because of missing kidney, convenient plotting, and Magic Healing Island. You White Devil Freighter Woman come to ruin my good thing. You be prisoner and clean the Dharma latrine.” Then Ben grabbed Karl’s gun and shot her. So much for the homecoming party!
Backstory intrigue: Bribing her way onto a hush-hush archaeology dig in the deserts of Tunisia, Dr. Lewis discovered a polar bear skeleton (!) and a Hydra Station collar buried in the rocky soil. Charlotte’s face lit up; clearly, she had a hunch — and perhaps feverish hope — about what she was going to find. (My skeleton theory: Dharma was using the polar bears as guinea pigs for teleportation and/or time-travel experiments. Why? To invalidate the God-killing theory of evolution by planting false evidence in Earth’s fossil record, of course!)
Fantastic Four analogue: Susan Storm, the FF’s token female, whose ”hard light” powers were handy for conjuring bullet-repelling shields and making herself invisible. Wanna bet Charlotte is hiding something about herself — something that’s right in front of us but we can’t see? Something besides a bulletproof vest? More on this in a minute.

Name: Frank Lapidus
Occupation: Pilot; also ”a drunk,” according to Naomi. And since he sports the required accessory for spiritually wasted TV boozers — a scruffy beard — she must be right. (But since it’s only a small beard, maybe he’s only a little boozer.)
Island introduction Found by Jack’s crew. Despite the electrical storm, Lapidus managed to land the helicopter, the sight of which caused Jack, Kate, and Sayid to beam like kids on Christmas morning.
Name game: Lapidus is a type of granite.
Fantastic Four analogue: Ben Grimm, who piloted the team’s ill-fated spaceflight through a storm of cosmic rays and was transformed into the sad-eyed, rock-encrusted Thing for his trouble.
Backstory intrigue: While watching coverage of the Oceanic 815 salvage, Lapidus became convinced the corpse in a pilot’s uniform couldn’t really have been the plane’s pilot because he wasn’t wearing his wedding ring. Of course, we have reason to know he’s correct. After all, we saw the pilot get eviscerated by the Monster in the first episode. But how could Lapidus be so certain? Because he used to work with Capt. Seth Norris (Heroes’ Greg Grunberg in a still-photo cameo) at Oceanic Airways. Lapidus, in fact, was originally scheduled to sit in Oceanic 815’s captain’s chair. (Did you try calling the number on Lapidus’ TV screen? It’s 888-548-0034 — and it works.)

Clearly, the Freighter Four have more secrets to spill, not to mention their own private agendas. But we were told their primary common objective for coming to the Island. Their job — initiated by Abbaddon, the creepy suit who last week harassed Flash-Forward Hurley at the mental hospital — isn’t to rescue the castaways but to abduct Ben. (”Their mission is a man,” to borrow the tagline from Saving Private Ryan, which featured a brilliant performance by Jeremy Davies as a courage-challenged soldier.)

While the Jack Pack wrapped their mind around that revelation, the Locke Lot was on the verge of screwing things up for the Freighter Four by assassinating their quarry. The über-Other begged for his life by pulling the old I’ll-tell-you-secrets trick, but Locke called his bluff with a dead-serious question encoded with a slight wink at the audience: ”What is the Monster?” Ben looked baffled, then said, ”I don’t know.” Locke cocked the gun, and with no choice but to come clean, Ben blurted out Charlotte’s complete résumé. How does he know so much about Freighter Girl? ”Because I have a man on their boat!”

So who could it be? The safe bet would be ex-castaway Michael: If you’ve been reading the press about the new season of Lost, you know that at some point Harold Perrineau will be returning to the show. But what if Ben’s lying? What if his spy isn’t a man but a woman — the same woman he just tried to kill? What if he and Charlotte are in cahoots and that shooting business was all a ruse — another move in Ben’s 20,000-steps-ahead-of-everyone Island chess game? Theories! I have tons more of them, including the logic-tortured argument that Charlotte is the daughter of Ben’s Dharma-days gal pal Annie. (Do the research — they look a lot alike!)

But it’s time for me to turn the space over to you for your thoughts and quibbles. Did you dig Superhero Jack as much as I did? (”I don’t know, Miles — how stupid are you?”) Do you think something dark is brewing inside Sawyer? How did you like Locke’s disclosure that he’s taking orders from Ghost Walt?

Your thoughts, Milton?

By Jeff Jensen

The following post is by Mark Ihnat. Please visit Mark Ihnat’s Smart Home Research Blog here:

In Canada, Bell has jumped on the smart home bandwagon offering smart home safety and security. Targeting families and the aged, Bell’s system is based on motion detectors, sensors, keypads and notification through wireless and the internet. An interesting system and although rather simple (it sort of reminds me of a basic X10 security system package) it seems Bell has beaten other telecommunication companies to the punch…

To continue reading this column, go to Mark Ihnat’s Smart Home Research Blog.