Lost with all of my questions

I was a day behind and finally got to watch the season finale of Lost. Wow. I'm not going to rehash the episode, but rather I'm going to make a running list of the questions I have after this episode. Kind of spoilers ahead.

1.) How did Penny know what to look for in her search for Desmond? Yeah, yeah, if you have enough money and desire you can find everyone--I got that. But why search for electromagnetic fields?

2.) Who is Libby? Mental patient? Wife of dead mean who owned a boat? Psychiatrist/psychologist? All of the above? And now that she's dead, how will we ever find out?

3.) Why do the Others specifically want Jack, Kate and Sawyer, but no one else?

4.) What happened to Kelvin (aka the US soldier who taught Sayid how to torture his superior in Iraq, according to imdb his name was Joe Inman when he was in the Army) that he was left alone on the island? I know his companion committed suicide, but why didn't reinforcements go out there at some point?


5.) The experiment was being done on the people in the Pearl (obviously the pneumatic tube didn't take their log books to anyone who would read them). But why? And who was monitoring them?

6.) Kelvin/Joe Inman made the painting that Locke saw in the black light--is it really a map of the island?

7.) Has everyone just given up on the idea that they can be rescued? Are they all just thinking that they are stuck on this island because it has some type of power? If not, why didn't anyone (Sayid) try to work with the boat's communication mechanism?

8.) With that in mind, why doesn't anyone on the island ever tell anyone else what they have found? Didn't Locke think that Sayid might be able to use the equipment in the Pearl to get them out? Locke didn't believe that the button did anything anymore, so wouldn't he now want to be rescued as much as anyone else?

9.) Why haven't we seen any signs of the children the Others took from the tail end of the plane?
And, of course, the questions about what happens next:

10.) Will Hurley warn anyone, or just follow the Others' orders? (Hurley can't keep his mouth shut, I have to assume he will do something.)

11.) Where will the Others take their new prisoners? Will we get to see the Others' camp next season through Jack, Kate and Sawyer's eyes, or are we still stuck on the beach with everyone else?

12.) Will Michael make it to the real world? Will he regain his conscience and try to save his friends?

13.) Did Locke and Eko make it (I think yes)? Did Desmond (I think no)?

And, of course, perhaps the biggest question of all:

14.) Who are the Others?!?! Why are they dressing up to look like jungle people when they are in fact clean-shaven Americans? What did they get out of Walt (we do know he has some sort of special abilities)? What is their purpose? Are they connected to the experiment that was taking place on the islands?

Anyone have any thoughts on any of this?