Cvstos Challenge-R 50 Chronograph Watch

Cvstos Challenge-R 50 Chronograph Watch

If Richard Mille and Hublot had a developmentally disabled child, it would be Cvstos. I kid! The Swiss brand never fails to amuse me. Especially the “V” style “U” in their name. I must admit though that the V looks better in writing. “Custos” just looks odd. Some of their designs I like, some I don’t. This Challenge-R 50 Chronograph watch has some things to admire, and areas to make fun of. What is interesting is that most of these watches are available for half price online — via A Blog to Read

A working hypothesis

Yesterday (9/11, as Americans call it), was widely touted as International Religious Tolerance Day, for reasons which should be obvious. To a first approximation, this seems like a good idea; a lot of the most unpleasant news of the past decade has been generated by the actions of the religious and intolerant, from Al Qaida to Pastor Terry Jones. But is more religious tolerance the answer? — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Societies without God are more benevolent

Writing sometime around the 10th century BC, the furious author of Psalm 14 thundered against those who say there is no God. “They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” If the denunciations of wicked atheists coming from today’s apologists for religion are any guide, the spirit of Iron Age Israel is abroad in 21st-century Britain.

In advance of the pope’s visit, clergymen and commentators are deploying every variety of bogus argument against those who advocate the superiority of secularism. Edmund Adamus, director of pastoral affairs for the Catholic diocese of Westminster, led the way when he denounced the “wasteland” secularism produced. If he had been condemning the atheist tyrannies of communism and fascism, I would have no complaint. However, Adamus was not objecting to Cuba, China or North Korea, but to the wasteland of secular, democratic Britain “with its ever-increasing commercialisation of sex, not to mention its permissive laws advancing the ‘gay’ agenda” — via redwolf.newsvine.com

High-Tech Tumble: Vacuum Dryer Sucks Water from Clothes

High-Tech Tumble: Vacuum Dryer Sucks Water from Clothes

Dryers are notorious for shrinking and damaging clothes, but a clothesline is not always an option for those of us pressed for time (or living in small spaces, for that matter). This ‘best of both worlds’ solution combines the gentleness of line drying with the compact convenience of a traditional clothing dryer — via Dornob

Design

Mash House / Maynard Architects

It’s more like a wooden object extruded from an industrial design seminar than what you might expect from a suburban home, and it’s also gloriously retro-colourful on the inside, with a lime green kitchen and pixellated red tiles in the bathroom — via BLDGBLOG

John’s Phone: the minimalist anti-smart-phone

John’s Phones sell no-frills mobile phones that send and receive calls and pretty much nothing else (though there’s a place to keep your pen). Warren Ellis likens it to a phone from minimalist Japanese housewares/clothing company Muji.

Finally a separate unit with no frills and conditions. A simlock free phone with large keys, an address book, a pen and over three weeks time standby… John’s Phone is simple and easy for young, old, holiday, grandfathers, grandmothers, athletes, national and international business traffic.

— via boingboing

Call to treat Vatican as a rogue state

The Vatican should be treated as a kind of ”rogue state” by the rest of the world until it stops using statehood – and the ancient rules of the canon law – to protect paedophile priests.

So says Geoffrey Robertson, QC, the veteran human rights lawyer and United Nations judge, arguing that the Catholic Church is the only religion permitted under international law to claim the privileges of statehood and its leaders immunity from civil or criminal action — via redwolf.newsvine.com