Closed captioning said Linus.
The date was revealed last season, when the printouts revealed that Desmond’s ignoring the button was what led to the crash. I have always been under the impression that the plane crashed on or about the date the show premiered, but I don’t know if that was due to in-show information, or just the way I think.
The Iraqi.
I found that odd too, just because I had to think for a second who the heck the Iraqi was. Although I don’t think they said “Jin, Sun and the Iraqi.”
In fact, a sailboat that size almost always has a motor, although it’s usually not a big one. It’s inconceivable that someone would try and sail solo in the open pacific w/o a back-up motor. And with the wind as strong as it always seems to be, it’s likely that the boat would go faster under sail power than motor, too.
Yes, Sept 22, 2004. Click on the link to epsiode 1, season 1 in the OP. 
BTW, since the date was the same as the date in Sydney, we can assume that The Island is west of the International Date Line. Assuming, of course, that The Island isn’t moving, which might not be a safe assumption. And assuming that the computer was set to local island time.
Or even just for maneuvering in crowded marinas, or getting a comfortable distance out from the dock before running up the sails. So long as you have the luxury of just sliding to a stop and dropping your anchor, you don’t have to use the motor, but if you have to park it at a dock, you need a motor.
However, if you’re sailing around the world or otherwise don’t have ready access to gas, you use it as little as possible to conserve on gas.
Yes. They guy pretty clearly has a hidden agenda. He knew the first fire would tip the Others off, right? “They’ll know we are coming.”
He starts that fire. Let’s it burn. Nobody comes. And didn’t Rousseau signal the others with a similar signal fire and tell him about it?
Then he moves and sets another fire and expects to somehow get the drop on them? He’s not a very good tactician; he was a communications guy–and then a torturer, anyway so maybe we can’t expect much. But Locke clocked him early on, Rousseau captured him, he was captured during the war. And his plan is to leave the boat unwatched and unguarded (I don’t think we can count telling Sun where the gun is as guarding it) and watch the woods–when there’s an empty dock? Docks are for . . . boats! This one was used recently, too. Let’s ignore it. So he’s not much of a strategist, either.
Seems like he’s in on somebody’s plan to me. But the Others’ certainly seemed surprised. Hmmm. . .
I agree . . . if you wanted to distract the Others, burning the dock would have been a good start.
Also, going back to the Losties for reinforcements might not suck as a plan.
Hell, setting the boat on fire is a better idea than what he came up with.
“He found the decoy camp” Decoy from what? Whom do the Others fear?
Merijeek:
Dude, you’ve lost me.
My question was “Why did Sayid and Jin not hear the motor start?” It was the dead of night and you think they would be on the "look"out for almost any stimuli, be it leaves rustling, twigs breaking, motors revving and gunshots.
Well, 1 out of 4 ain’t bad. Like somebody else in this thread said: Sayid’s problem is that he is Iraqi Republican Guard, not a member of Delta Force. 
Because Sayid and Jin were running down the dock yelling at the top of their lungs. Jin and soon-to-be-shot-girl were belowdecks having their conversation, and the motor hadn’t started yet, while Sayid & Jin were being quiet. After the gunshot, it wasn’t very long before they started the motor (Sun only had maybe 10-20 seconds to barricade herself, and then climb out through the forward hatch), while the boys were running down the dock.
It’s definitely Benjamin Linus. Google that name and look at the first “Sponsored Link”.
I’m of the opinion right now that Rousseau is a member of this group of Others that we’re seeing. She probably doesn’t get along well with them (probably because she’s a crazy French lady) and chooses to live apart but she knows them even before Ben got caught in her trap last season. The kidnapping whisperers are the “Others” that she talks about and is afraid of.
Isn’t Ben a little old to have lived on the island his whole life? Dharma set up shop at the tail end of the 70’s and the very early 80’s. Since we now know that the show is set in 2004 that means that if Ben’s parents were with Dharma he could be 26 years old at the most. I think he looks about ten years older than that.
If so, she prolly would have spotted her daughter by now.
That’s it! The island causes you to age faster than normal. They need growth hormones from kids to stay young, or just to maintain a population.
Crap. They’re doing more “The Lost Experience” stuff still, even though the “summer web game” is over.
Googling “Benjamin Linus” gives you a sponsored link for www.hansoadoptions.com. At the bottom of that page there’s a “hidden” link to artemis.hansoadoptions.com that is just a page with the Dharma symbol with two fetuses as the black and white part of the yin yang.
If you click on “Touring Hanso Facilities” one of the letters, an x, in the middle of the text is red. The letter o on “Current Sponsors: Q&A” is red too.
I don’t have the time or patience for this crap anymore. Grrrr.
I think there’s a lot more to CHL than meets the eye, but I’m not ready to say she’s one of The Others. She did, afterall, set up that radio signal 16 years ago, and that seems to coroberate at least that part of her story-- ie, that she was shipwrecked.
I suspect there have been humans on this island for hundreds, maybe thousands of years (remeber the foor statue). In fact, I’m beginning to think that The Others are the result of a psychological experiment themselves. Perhaps they were raised in Skinner Boxes and get their sense of right and wrong from their crazy upbringing. Maybe that’s why they think they’re the good guys, even when they’re doing clearly “bad” things.
For instance, maybe a “good person” is someone who pushes the button (whatever button) when you’re supposed to. Maybe they think the Lostaways have to be conditioned (or conditionable) in order to be good, and that’s what they’re doing.
CFL.
I mean www.hansoadoptions.org
Well . . .
http://www.hansoadoptions.org/article-11.html
Some obvious word choices here (key, off-site research, anomalies). Also noticed the x & o thing.
It doesn’t seem like the Others give a crap about the button or whatever happened in the hatch with the explosion and the key.