"Never be apart" from a piece of Lost history

Profiles in History, the same company that auctioned off Captain Kirk’s conn for $250,000, will soon take bids on everything from Dharma Initiative beer to the wedding band that symbolized everyone’s favorite Lost couple, Sun and Jin.

The inscription inside Jin’s ring reads, in Korean, “We will never be apart.”

Of course the two spent a heck of a lot of time apart. From the item description:

When Locke decides to bring the Oceanic Six back to the Island, Jin begins to have misgivings about letting Sun return to the place of “death.” As a result, he gives Locke his wedding ring to give to Sun. This would tell Sun that he had died and would take away her own reason to return. For his part, Locke keeps his promise. However, after Ben strangles Locke and takes the ring, Ben uses it to his advantage and convinces Sun that Jin is indeed alive and that she should return to the Island.

Profiles in History has not yet published estimated values for its Lost auction items. But if Jin’s ring proves too pricey, you might try your luck with the pearl necklace Sun’s previous lover in Korea offered to her. (Sun refused the gift, which the poor guy held in his hand when he jumped to his death.)

via Jin’s Wedding Ring – Lost Auction Preview – Profiles in History.

Must have for the iPad: ThinkGeek's iCade Arcade Cabinet

Too good  to be true (Happy April 1), but oh, what a great idea:

“When the iPad was announced, we all crammed into a conference room to watch live and drool over every shiny corner and reflecty icon. After the glow of the initial announcement wore off, many of us came to the conclusion that the iPad was actually pretty useless. ‘It’s a giant iPhone!” some said. Others exclaimed, ‘WTF, no Flash!?’. Still, we knew that most Apple fanbots (us included) would have to have one anyway.”

via ThinkGeek :: iCade – iPad Arcade Cabinet.

"V" is very bad, indeed

Christopher Knowles says what you’re thinking, about one of television’s worst sci-fi series:

“This is binary conflict of the lowest variety, really a terrible comedown given the pedigree of talent involved. What an incredible disappointment. I must say I’m not surprised this show lost over a million viewers in its second half-hour.”

via The Secret Sun: TVOD: V jumps the lizard (UPDATED).

Coleman partners with Strange Maine on Bigfoot tome

Photo: Ryan McBride/Flickr CC

Premier cryptozoologist and Bigfoot hunter, Loren Coleman, is collaborating on a new book with another, not-so-crazy Mainer:

“Tentatively, Bigfoot in Maine by Loren Coleman and Michelle Souliere, is due for 2012, from Idyll Arbor, Inc.. The company’s publisher, Pine Winds Press has released Bigfoot in Georgia: Legends, Myths, and Sightings by Jeffrey Wells, the now-classic Bigfoot Casebook Updated by Janet and Colin Bords, Valley of the Skookum by Sali Sheppard-Wolford, and Robert W. Morgan’s two books. Pine Winds Press shall be trekking its way through other states in the near future, in search of writers of other Bigfoot books.”

via Cryptomundo » Coming Soon: Bigfoot In Maine.

Zorgy Awards: Put Tim Binnall over the top

I just picked Tim Binnall’s podcast, Binnall of America, for the Best Paranormal Podcast of 2009.

Loren Coleman gets my vote for top paranormal researcher.

Both are on my list of Ten New England Esotericists to Watch in 2010.

From The Other Side of Truth, which hosts the Zorgy Awards (only a few days to go):

“Voting begins… now!

The polls will close on March 7, 2010, at 11 pm AST.

via The Other Side of Truth: The 2009 Zorgy Awards – Voting Begins.

ETs not part of futurists' vision

Not in Futurismic's future. (Image: Marcin Wichary/Flickr CC)

Futurismic pays for fiction — $200 for a short story.

But writers with an ET bent (think Romulans, greys, reptilians, and the like) need not apply :

We’re interested in what we can see and develop and control, what’s in front of us and what we need to react to.

The site’s fiction editor doubts we’ve got much to worry about, from beyond the troposhere, or inside our hollow Earth.

via Why we reject stories | Fiction | Futurismic.

Crypto-sexpots: Coleman's list

Nicole Hosack, owner of Niki’s Quick Six store in Spring Church, Pa. Cryptomundo donated this Sasquatch statue, after someone made off with the store's three-foot original.

Loren Coleman’s racked ‘em up for us — all are pics from his posts over the past decade, at Cryptomundo — and some readers already calling for a calendar, to feature the sexiest scientists operating outside the mainstream.

Dr. Andrea Marshall is pictured above, in the photo that accompanied her appeal to get support for her work, funded by conducting trips and tours related to manta research. She was named Cryptozoologist of 2008 by Cryptomundo.

Coleman also notes the ever-present lid, which male cryptozoologists seem to don in the presence of even a strong bulb:

Clearly the lines of division were drawn sharply during the ’00s. Those with hats turned out to be good sexy field cryptozoologists, and those without were, well, without ~ and often debunkers, skeptics, and scoftics.

via Cryptomundo » The Top Ten Sexiest Cryptomundo Images Of The ’00s.

Who was your "Mr. Boomer?"

Photo: Tour of Boomeria

Atlas Obscura has The Heretic misty-eyed for his favorite old science guy.

I guess I was lucky enough to have a “Mr. Boomer” in my life, to get me jazzed about science. Mine was named Mr. Gordon, and he helped me through my middle school years, where home life was a terror, and school was a great escape.

Gordon walked me through a project on lenses — convex, concave, and suchlike — which I turned to shit by tacking them to a piece of plywood with modeling clay.

Still, Mr. Gordon — who could also tear a phone book in half (more about another time) — took my lens project and made it a centerpiece in a glass cabinet at North Shore Junior High.

Here’s that bit from AO that fired a few neurons for me:

Mr. Boomer, who goes by the nickname “Boom,” has taught science at the San Lorenzo Valley High School for some 53 years. However for Boom and his students, the fun of learning extended beyond the walls of the high school and into a magical world of science, music, history and epic water battles, all created by Boom and his students over the last half century.

via The Kingdom of Boomeria | Bonny Doon, California | Atlas Obscura.

The Portland Daily Sun on Bigfoot, furred trout

Loren Coleman is getting his living room back. And his front porch. As reported, he’s moving his cabinet of curiosities into a bona fide museum.

While Portland eagerly awaits the opening of Loren’s downtown cryptozoology museum, The Portland Daily Sun reports that Bigfoot will have a team of handlers, and plenty of company in his new home:

But the 8-feet-tall, 400 pound legend won’t lumber down there alone. Look for jackalopes, furred trout, Hollywood cryptid-related props such as a “P. T. Barnum” inspired 3.5-foot-tall Feejee Mermaid, the TV series “Freakylinks”‘ 11-foot-long “Mystery Civil War Pterodactyl” and some of the movie “Magnolia”’s falling frogs.

via The Portland Daily Sun.

Save some of that furred trout for me.