[Gamma rays from a nuclear explosion produce high energy electrons through Compton scattering. These electrons are captured in the Earth's magnetic field, at altitudes between twenty and forty kilometers, where they resonate. The oscillating electric current produces a coherent electromagnetic pulse (EMP) which lasts about one millisecond. Secondary effects may last for more than a second.
The pulse is powerful enough to cause long metal objects (such as cables) to act as antennas and generate high voltages when the pulse passes. These voltages, and the associated high currents, can destroy unshielded electronics and even many wires. There are no known biological effects of EMP. The ionized air also disrupts radio traffic that would normally bounce off the ionosphere.
One can shield electronics by wrapping them completely in conductive mesh, or any other form of Faraday cage. Of course radios cannot operate when shielded, because broadcast radio waves cannot reach them.]

and it doesnt have to go boom it can fizzle and still have the side effects.(explanation below)

[A fizzle occurs if the nuclear chain reaction is not sustained long enough to cause an explosion, or if the explosion is of much less energy than expected. This can happen if, for example, the yield of the fissile material used is too low, the compression explosives around fissile material misfire or the neutron initiator fails.]

I know at first I was quite confused about why Des did not remember the year. Then I realized it was the past (1996) Desmond whose mind came to the future (2004). It was as though the 2004 Desmond did not exist in the Constant until he started speaking to Penny. So the Desmond we know and love would never have remembered any of what happened back in 1996 because he (his mind) never went back there.

I don’t think you need to worry about this one – genetically, he can’t be his own grandfather, and narratively, there would seem no point in doing this.

Follow me here:

Locke gets the compass in 2004 from Richard. He’s told to give it back to Richard next time he sees him.

Locke sees Richard next in 1954. He gives Richard the compass. He tells Richard that Richard gave him the compass, but Richard doesn’t seem convinced.

In 1962 Richard visits young Locke at the foster home, lays out the objects — including the compass — and asks which one of these objects is yours already. Locke narrows it down to the compass and the knife, and takes the knife. Richard says he’s wrong, suggesting Richard thinks the compass belongs to Locke.

(Locke is supposed to be 5 in this scene, and that could be 1961, but it’s raining and it’s California, so this could be the winter of 1962; Locke would still be 5, and that would put it 42 years before Richard gave him the compass — and there’s one of the numbers.)

See the problem here? Locke thinks the compass is Richard’s, and Richard thinks it’s Locke’s. That’s going to have to be resolved in some way, and it suggests that Locke chose correctly at the foster home.

Secondly the magnetic fields could have already been there or the leaking radiation could have done something to the islands unique properties. We just don’t know how the writers will tackle this because we don’t have enough info. I think we will by the end of this season though. Radzinsky is going to make an appearance this season. I am guessing that he was the first and only Dharma person to be entering the numbers but remember it was a two man team. Radzinsky’s teamate was likely an Other that had infiltrated Dharma or possibly just the station at some time since they are always waiting on replacements. The Others are adept at assuming identities. We have seen many instances of this most recently it seems the Others were posing as the US military men they just killed in case any more arrived. The best evidence that Radzinsky’s partner was an Other is the recently revealed info that they speak Latin. There was Latin on the blast door map that Radzinsky was working on. I hope we will see this map being made this season or next.

My wish not at all a theory is that it is time skipping Juliet in their for some reason bu tI know that is not likely.

This is hwy they introduced the H bomb.

No, I’m pretty sure the Island wanted that bomb for its own purposes, not the least of which being that it represents the emergence of a new threat to the whole world—remember that Jughead itself is one of the very first generation of fusion rather than fission bombs and that its vintage is less than 10 years younger than that of the bombs dropped on Japan in WWII.

The Island has been shown to have a will of its own and the ability to manipulate the timestream to get what it wants and that kind of power can keep the whole world alive or can kill it, which to me also explains the apparently lofty standards for Others membership: intelligence, lack of character flaws, etc. It’s always when people on the Island or in Others society don’t meet those goals that Very Bad Things™ seem to happen.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Widmore were either the owner of,on the board of, or a large-scale stockholder in Oceanic. The other big possibility there is that Alpert and the Others had a hand in Oceanic.

Likewise, it also couldn’t be a power source. That’s just not the way an H-bomb works.

I’m betting that bomb is somewhere else on the Island.

For the record: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Stand