Walter's Lab Notes: There's More Than One Of Everything

Walter's Lab Notes from There's More Than One Of Everything include the missing ZFT chapter of ethics, and a drawing from a young Peter Bishop, depicting some sort of experiment with William "Belly" Bell, and what looks a cow...?

Walter's notes explain the presence of the blueprints in previous Lab Notes - together they form a golden spiral, and at the center something is hidden - a hole in the universe?

Also in the notes:

• The first quote "all mankind is of one author..." is from English poet John Donne's Meditation XVII, where the famous quote "No man is an island" comes from
  
• The second quote is from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, a "roman à clef" about mental illness
• The third quote is from The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe.
• S. S. Kresge refers to Sebastian Spering Kresge, a philanthropist best know for founding KMart. Kresge has many buildings named after him, including the Kresge building at Harvard, where Walter's Lab is located is in its basement.
• The final quote "No, 'tis not so deep as a well.." one of the final lines of Mercurtio from Act 3, Scene 1 of Romeo And Juliet.
  

All of Walter's Lab Notes from Season 1 can now also be found at FringeFiles.com

Walter's Lab Notes: The Road Not Taken

Two new pieces of the Fibonacci spiral this week, plus some other goodies:

• Walter reasserts that it was William Bell who wrote the Manifesto (the typewriter was better-suited to his long fingers).
• He compares the Chapter of Ethics to the Gospel of Judas again, convinced that it will prove Bell innocent.
• He alludes to mythological "firestarters," such as Prometheus, Mixcoatl, Surt, and Vulcan.
• He deplores himself for being unable to answer Olivia's questions in the coffee shop, and vows to jump-start his memory using his old record collection.
• Walter prefers Chicago over Delta Blues!

Walter's Lab Notes: Fringe 118 Midnight

Walter's Lab Notes from the Fringe episode Midnight include...lots of syphilis talk (which reminds Walter of an old flame), a cajun recipe for crawfish, and the fermentation of lager and penicillin.

Scattered around the notes are:

• A crime-scene photo of one of Valerie Boone's victims
• Moldy pieces of bread
• A piece of the Fibonacci puzzle
• Dr. Boone's tape for Olivia

Walter's Lab Notes: Fringe 117 Bad Dreams

Walter's Lab Notes from Bad Dreams include Nick Lane's news clippings, including the two-headed goat story, a very melted red candle, and the fourth piece to the "Walter puzzle".

Walter's notes take the form of a poem, where he essentially recaps the episode. There doesn't appear to be anything new in his notes, but the numerous news clippings may contain something. I don't see anything at first glance, but like the JJ Abrams edition of Wired, there may be clues hidden within.

The folks at Fringepedia have been playing with the puzzle pieces, and it looks like they may fit together like Fibonacci squares, forming a Golden Spiral. Here are the first four pieces arranged in the 1,1,2,3 format.

Walter's Lab Notes: Fringe 116 Unleashed

Walter's Lab Notes from the Unleashed include Walter's previous notes from a project called "Radical Transgenics", a cup of the highly toxic poison (or maybe the antidote?), and another grainy photo, which appears to be part of a larger puzzle.

In Walter's notes, he argues with himself, in a similar nature to the notes from The Equation.

Walter's Lab Notes: Fringe 115 Inner Child

Walter's Lab Notes from the Inner Child include the orange vinyl record of Al Green's Love & Happiness (iTunes, Amazon), The fax that "The Artist" send to the FBI (You can see a full-size version here), yellow M&M's, the book containing information about Marie-Angelique Memmie LeBlanc (you can find more info on her at - I kid you not - FerrelChildren.com), and a strange grainy photo, similar to the one seen in the lab notes for Ability.

Walter's notes mention:

• Joseph Heller, the author of the book Catch-22 (A Lost bookclub book, BTW...)
• Lethe, a river in Greek mythology which caused forgetfullness if you drank from it
• Mnemosyne, the Greek god of memory
• Various Mnemonics:
  • EGBDF (FACE) - treble clefs and chords
    
  • PEMDAS - Order of operations (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication and Division, and Addition and Subtraction)
  • 3.14 is PI
  • STDJaIAC - Presidential Line of Succession (after the Vice President, Speaker of the House, and President pro tem: Secretary of State, Treasury, Defense, Justice (Attorney General), Interior, Agriculture, Commerce.) - thanks Carol!
    
  • Anyone know the rest?
    

Walter's Lab Notes: Fringe 114 Ability

Walter's Lab Notes from the Ability include the ZFT manuscript, and some various parts of David Robert Jones' tests. The notes take a strange turn in the middle, where it looks like Walter switched to his (or Dr. Bell's?) old typewriter.

FYI, the notes mention:

• Ribosomal S6 Kinase - is a protein involved in signal transduction, i.e. cell conversion
• Keloiding - is a type of scarring, noted for overgrowing the original scar area
  
• Hatfields & McCoy's were two 19th century families involved in a bitter feud
• Al Capone & Bugs Moran were rival mob bosses involved in the St. Valentines Day Massacre
• York & Lancaster were two Houses of England that fought each other in the War Of The Roses.
• Adenine, Guanine, Thymine, Cytosin are the four components that make up DNA
• King Canute - was an 11 century ruler that (unsucessfully) commanded the tide to halt.
  

Click here to read the text of Walter's Notes

- Project 1097 - Exploration 1 -

The Bos Taurus is, of course, a notable exception to the one-half rule — one I had hoped to explore via the cast of Gene's udders. An exploration that must now be placed on hold, whilst I investigate this curious skin condition. The cause, it appears, is overproduction of ribosomal s6 kinase along with a hyperactive keloiding process. But why the body receives orifices as wounds, I have not yet been able to detaerlmar sdlf;qpie vllzuadsf; xyayayurf ---------------------

A book of revelations, fallen into my lap. "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." Now I envy the experimental subject's ignorance. He knows nothing, needs to know nothing, indeed is required to know nothing. Like these poor victims -- sightless, speechless, breathless, and constipated -- someone's warped parody of a double-blind experiment. Thank heavens we remained in the control group. We'll not have an easy time of it, trying to keep up with the Joneses. I need someone to tell me why -- why why why why why -- he ran away. And I wonder if they'll let me stay. I ordered the lasagna platter and the waiter told me it came with two sides, but I was unable to choose. Hatfields or McCoys? Al Capone or Bugs Moran? york or Lancaster? Survey says: BZZZT! The opposition has a chance to steal. They'd steal all four bases if they could: adenine, guanine, thymine, cytosine. None can hold back the rising nucleotide, not even King Canute. One two, contract the flu. Three four, infect by spore. Five six, genetic mix. Seven eight, procreate. Oh well. The malady was only skin deep, but 'twas enough. And sad as it was, i just had to laugh; I saw the photograph. I took my secret box and dumped out all the pieces, but I couldn't see the big picture. The big becomes the little when you see it back a bit, and that's about the size of it.

Walter's Lab Notes: Fringe 113 - The Transformation

Walter's Lab Notes from the The Transformation include a photo of Marshall Bowman after he transformed, a vial of the reverse-mutator for Conrad's deadly virus, and a plumbing-inspired diagram of how the neural system works. The notes themselves are a long-winded analogy between a backed-up toilet, and John Scott's memories clogging Olivia brain.

Click here to read the text of Walter's Notes

- Project 269 - Exploration 20 -

She comes to me one more time, demanding another dip in the tank — to commune with the dead man who lives on in her mind — to ask him more questions — to plumb his thoughts... Plumbing! How did I now see it?

The fluid in the reservoir maintains a constant level, even when small quantities of fluid are added, as the excess flows out of the siphon pipe. But! Forcing a larger volume of fluid (say 7.5 L) into the reservoir completely fills the pipe, at which point gravitational pull on the fluid in the pipe creates a suction that nearly empties the reservoir of its contents.

Crucial caveat: Any solids within the reservoir must be smaller than the diameter of the siphon pipe, or at least soft enough to squeeze through. Otherwise the solid matter may become stuck in the pipe. The the excess fluid accumulates in the reservoir, overflowing once its surface reaches the rim.

Likewise, Scott's consciousness has become lodged in the plumbing of Dunham's brain, interrupting the free flow of neural impulses. Additional thoughts, encountering the obstruction yet failing to dislodge it, accumulate in the reservoir of the mind. Overflow naturally results — and as homeowners know too well, the watery mess oft contains bits of the obstruction, unpleasant reminders of the past.

Restoration of function requires enough force to remove the blockage from the tube. A rubber bulb affixed to a rod can be of utmost assistance here, as proper positioning in the mouth of the siphon pipe creates a powerful suction. Like Poseidon's trident, whose watery bursts bring forth the tide. The two basic operations are PUSH and PULL. Forward thrusting of the rod PUSHES the obstruction toward the tail end of the pipe, while retraction of the rod PULLS the obstruction back toward the reservoir. Once the blockage breaks free, siphon action takes over — resulting, one hopes, in a satisfying flush.

The synaptic transfer system provides our metaphorical bulb on a rod: a means of PUSHING and PULLING the neural blockage to an fro in the theater of mind. With appropriate manipulation of the chemical formula, the suction should be powerful enough to overcome the neural friction. With luck, Dunham may at last achieve the purging she seeks.

Walter's Lab Notes: Fringe 112 - The No-Brainer

Walter's Lab Notes from the The No-Brainer along with two photos of the victims and a sample of brain goo. One interesting thing about this week's notes is a significant portion of the last paragraph is obscured by one of the pictures.

Click here to read the text of Walter's Notes

- Project 1091 - Exploration 1 -

A terrible thought: sitting down to a daily routine that by day's end causes one's brain to melt! For most that terror is merely metaphorical -- but for these poor souls, quite real. Myelin sheathes dripping right of the axons! Neural lipids reduced to bacon grease! It reinforces my dedication to the lost art of flipping through a nicely bound tome. No threat of losing my mind there, unless I have to plow through more nonsense by that peanut-brain Chomsky.

One wonders what they saw in their final moments; sadly, that is knowledge acquired only in death. They came face to face with a real Ghost in the Machine -- a phrase hijacked by Ryle and Koestler for long enough. For what other phantoms might haunt the halls of the cyber realm? What will happen when the silicon pathways we take for ordinary gates of calculation spring to life and feel the same abandonment and pain that course through all sentient beings? That will be a day of reckoning I do not wish to see.

The computers are not alone. I, too, have a ghost in my machine. I envy his ability to walk through walls and take a respite in the locked chambers of my memory. The last time I followed him and slipped through the sealed bolts, he left me trapped. I spent what felt like days wandering through the stacks, hearing only echoes of the world outside. I think it was when the orderly hosed me down with cold water that the bolts loosened and I repaired to my safe and familiar neural paths. We all get lost in thought, but rarely so literally. Maybe these victims were lucky, for their pain lasted only an instant. If the computer program had locked them into a continuous loop without cooking their melons, they might have remained trapped forever -- zombies enslaved by a ghost.

That is, of course, the motivating f...
Insurmountable odds faced by those...
-- but such will not be my fate if...
Never! Behind every swinging door...
Into the breaches, dear friends, once...
Our pattern-seeking minds, searching...
But not to be found in a college te...

Walter's Lab Notes: Fringe 111 - Bound

Here are Walter's Lab Notes from the Fringe episode Bound. Also pictured are a cheesesteak sandwich, a slug virus, a photo of some sort of organism, and Betty's slug tracks. In the notes, Walter mentions:

• Ouranos, also know as Uranus, and Cronos are from Greek mythology
• Buri and Borr (Bor) are from Norse mythology, the Grandfather and father of Wōden (Wotan), also known as Odin.
• The quote is about "The Kraken", from Snorri Sturlson's "The Prose Edda"
• ROUS - Rodents Of Unusual Size, a term from The Princess Bride

Click here to read the text of Walter's Notes

- Project 1087 - Exploration 1 -

First an overgrown protozoan wrapped 'round the heart; now a mommoth virus grown in the belly. How difficult it proves to separate myth from fact, and fact from myth! Gigantism abounds in legend. The giant Ouranos begat Cronos, also a giant; and from his belly burst the Olympians, themselves giants in the eyes of men. And likewise did Buri beget Bor who begat Wotan...

Straightway the Allfather cast the serpent into the deep sea, where he lies about all the land; and this serpent grew so greatly that he lies in the midst of the ocean encompassing all the land, and bites upo his own tail.

So said Snorri of the overgrown serpent. Always giants within giants within giants — of course! This gorgeous creature is not, in fact a giant virus. The rhinovirus takes the form of an icosahedron, not a slug. No, she is a gigantic human cell — from Dr. Kinberg's own intestinal walls — mercilessly overtaken and supersized by the giant virus that infected her.

SUPERSIZED! A new word in my lexicon. Such a brillian concept: to order a tasty meal and, with one simple command, expand it in all dimensions. The wonder and horror of it; for how could I not observe the astounding synedoche between the consumers and the consumed? Giants within giants again. To What othe purposes might this remarkable technique be applied? Squashes that will squash the county fair records? In class mammalia, order rodentia, the rise of the ROUS's? Even we hominids might take part. More than a few females might wish to grow thier assets; men, too.

But, caution is essential — for the pace of protien production must have been astonishingly rapid to sustain both cellular growth and .. oh, my. This volume of cytoplasm could only have one purpose: large-scale viral production. Within this slug-like sack, there could be millions of copies of its pathogenic parent. Extra care must be taken to contain her. No more afternoon walks for Betsy, I suppose. Wait... where did I see her last?

Walter's Lab Notes: Fringe 110

Walter's Lab Notes from Fringe episode 110 Safe, features the severed hand of the botched bank robber Raul Lugo, a photo of Raul stuck in the safe wall, what looks to be a safe deposit box. In the notes, Walter mentions:

• Transcendentalists, who believe the spiritual state 'transcends' the physical and empirical
  
• Ralph Wald Emerson, who was himself prominent transcendentalist
• Ernest Rutherford who devised the planetary model of the atom
• Rutherford's Geiger-Marsden experiment, also known as the Gold Foil experiment, which led to that discovery
• "Space is ample, east and west, But two cannot go abreast" is a quote from Emerson's The Over-soul
• Pythagoras, best know for the Pythagorean theorem, believed in something called the "harmony of the spheres", or Musica universalis. He believed that the planets and stars moved according to mathematical equations, which corresponded to musical notes and thus produced a symphony.

- Project 1069 - Exploration 1 -

The Transcendentalists has the right idea, they merely lacked the technological tools. How did Raph Waldo put it? Oh yes;

Nature shows all things formed and bound. The intellect pierces the form, overlaps the wall, detects intrinsic likeness between remote things, and reduces all things into a few principles.

Or in this case, a few particles. Yet those particles fill less than one percent of the space within the atom, virtually all of it contained within the nucleus. The protons and neutrons themselves consist mostly of space between their constituent up and down quarks. Subatomic vibration (of an origin that I cannot fathom) could in principal disturb the energy fields between, allowing the penetration of other particles through the open doors. To break on through to the other side!

Yet just as some small fraction of Rutherford's electrons failed to pierce the gold foil and bounced back instead, some fraction of the particles within the perpetrators' atoms must have collided with particles in the wall -- resulting, of course, in the release of ionizing radiation! It is perfectly obvious, upon reflection: "Space is ample, east and west, But two cannot go abreast." Although that well-endowed Baltimorean woman might beg to differ. Harmony of the spheres indeed! Pythagoras, you dog.

- Cleveland: homeless man with superfluous nipple hidden beneath his grimy coat
- Baltimore: idle ditty whistled by street vendor, every D was just a little flat
- Philadelphia: fabulous crusty cheesesteak sandwich at Beach and Palmer

So many details, yet none that actually matter! Where oh where have my details gone? Lost -- or stolen. I asked the Summoner if I could search for my errant thoughts in his lost and found, be he refused, said I'd find the missing friars in Satan's hindquarters. Curse him! I know the rule: "cannot build phallic puzzles inside the lab." I still know the numbers, too -- well I damn well should, it's a simple second-order recursive algorithm -- but a mnemonic is worthless without its contents. Like a sad coat rack with empty pegs.

Walter's Lab Notes: Fringe 109

Walter's Lab Notes from Fringe episode 109 The Dreamscape, features both origami frogs and a real one, a photo of deceased Massive Dynamic employee Mark Young, and the same Synaptic Transfer diagram from the first set of lab notes. In the notes, Walter mentions the bible again (Exodus 8:13), Barbara Striesand's "The Way We Were", William Shakepeare's Macbeth, and of course a reference to Thanksgiving.

- Project 269 - Exploration 19 -

I had not expected the opportunity to return to this project so soon. The resurfacing of Agent Scott - for whatever distress it has caused Agend Dunham - confirms my suspicion that lysergic acid diethylamide can induce flashbacks of alien, as well as indigenous, memories - like the corners of my mind - misty water-colored memories... Curse you Striesand, your wretched lyrics afflict my soul!

How fortunate that Olivia brought these toads here. "And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine oven, and into thy kneadingtroughs." And thy laboratories! I have modified the regression formula to include doses of bufotenin and 5-MeO-DMT from the bufo alvarius. Like the Scots witches, I will stir the pot:

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing ...

...with oyster crackers on the side, of course. The new brew will assuredly amplify the psychedelic effects, allowing even deeper penetration into repressed memory. Perhaps I should inform Olivia; but she has little patience for such details. The whole process should take four to five hours. Not unlike the time required for baking a turkey - assuming, of course, the bird has been properly thawed and brined. I must remind Astringent not to drain the tank when we are done; no need to waste perfectly good saline solution!

Yet there is but one subject this time. The puzzle is one of recursion: the linking of the brain to itself. What happens when a person goes through her own portal? Herein lies the danger of a strange loop, and endless spiral of meta-realities, each self gazing into a deeper self. The experience could lead to the destruction of identity. Or perhaps its affirmation - for what is self but an endless recursion, looking at oneself in a mirror within a mirror within a mirror...

Fox Fringe: Walter's Lab Notes 108

Walter's Lab Notes from the Fringe episode "The Equation" include red and green Christmas lights, the composite sketch of Joanne Ostler, Ben Stockton's musical composition, and a photo of Dashiell Kim's crime scene. Dr. Bishop talks in his notes about being visited - was he referring to his split personality, or someone else - possibly Dr. Sumner while at St. Claire's?

Click here to read the note.

- Project 577 - Exploration 5 -

It happens all the time: Newton and Leibniz inventing calculus. Darwin and Wallace discovering evolution by natural selection. Jevons, Menger, and Walras elucidating marginalism in economics. And yet, Dashiell and the boy -- with nothing in common -- not even working in the same medium -- not even knowing what they were trying to find --

YOU SHOULD HAVE SOLVED IT YOURSELF! IT IS JUST MATHEMATICS, A SIMPLE MATTER OF CALCULATION, NOTHING MORE.

Every iteration of the main theme of the composition corresponds to a further expansion of the central function in Dashiell's equation. And with each iteration, he comes a step closer to a closed-form solution. Yet the expansion is infinite, implying a potentially endless composition -- small wonder the boy was obsessed --

EXCUSES, EXCUSES TO RETURN TO WHERE YOU KNOW YOU BELONG.

No! I have the boy now, he is the key, on some level he understands, even if he chafes and bristles -

BECAUSE YOU ARE A BURDEN. AND THE VISITOR CAME AGAIN, DIDN'T HE? ALWAYS PRESSURING YOU FOR THE NUMBERS, THE NUMBERS!

I couldn't stop him, he knows my combination. He bumped my head and I went to bed and I couldn't get up til morning --

ENOUGH RHYMES. THE QUESTION IS, WHAT HAPPENED WHEN HE LEFT?

It was still there, my box of secrets, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma withing a lumpy mattress. I should have left it there --

FOR THEM TO TAKE? FOOLISHNESS. IS IT SAFE OR NOT?

I have it now. The box is safe, but my secrets are not. My visitor whispered to me: thank you. No more pearls in this oyster, he said.

Fox Fringe: Walter's Lab Notes #6

Accompanying the usual crime scene photos and notes, a bowl of Mr. Papayahead's remains and what looks like a blood spatter picture of a woman sealed in a plastic baggy?

Fox Fringe: Walter's Lab Notes #5

Walter's King of Cups card is a tarot card. Interpreting the King of Cups really depends on which source you favor, but one we found might allude to Olivia's relationship with John Scott.

The King of Cups does not repress his emotions and unconscious impulses but has learned to accept and deal with them in a mature and balanced manner. -- biddytarot.com

Most notable however, the face of the king is covered (or scratched out?) by a bird dropping?

Among a few crime scene photos of the elevator crash are two feathers, presumably those of the pigeons responsible for the mess. Also seemingly out of place, what appears to be a childhood art project "By: Peter!!"

There is also a diagram of the device used to reorient the pigeon's internal compasses so they could home in on Joseph Meegar's location.

Fox Fringe: Walter's Lab Notes #4

There are a lot of allusions in this week's Walter's Lab Notes:

• Sioux City Sasparilla is a brand soft drink, similar to root beer, made famous by The Big Lebowski
• "What's the frequency Kenneth?" is a quote made famous by Dan Rather, then later by R.E.M. . The question was asked by a man who claimed that the news media was beaming signals into his head.
• The Fisher King was in charge of protecting the Holy Grail (and also a movie by Terry Gilliam)
  

Fox Fringe: Walter's Lab Notes #3

In this weeks Walter's Lab Notes, Dr. Bishop mentions Petrarchan sonnets, Cassandra (from greek mythology, had the gift of prophecy, and the curse that no one would ever believe her predictions), and Sassafras (an ingredient in Root Beer Floats).

The objects shown in the folder are the Duck Rabbit optical illusion, photos of crystalized people, and Roy McComb's drawing.

Fox Fringe: Walter's Lab Notes #2

In this weeks Walter's Lab Notes, Dr. Bishop mentions celermitosis (i.e. fast mitosis), Nixon, epigenetic inheritance, methylation, the Hellenic Sphinx, grilled cheese sandwiches, his Vista Cruiser, and Tiresias.

The riddle he mentions is called The Riddle of the Sphinx, which comes from Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus: "Which creature in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?" The answer is "Man - who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and walks with a cane in old age".

Fox Fringe: Walter's Lab Notes #1

The official Fox Fringe website has a new feature hidden on the Episode Recap page: Walter's Lab Notes.

The notes for "Pilot" include photos from the lab, a diagram of the synaptic transfer system, comments about the experiment: "Project 269 Exploration 17", and a recipe for Banana Bread!