Derbi Angel Nieto Replica

Sometimes a motorcycle built purely for function can have beautiful form as well. This vintage 50cc racer from the Spanish Derbi factory is packing just 15hp, but it could reach an extraordinary 200 kph (124 mph) on the track. And as you can see, it also looks good standing still. It’s a Angel Nieto Replica, a short run of bikes built in 1973 to honor the success of Spain’s leading motorcycle racer — via Derbi Angel Nieto Replica

GoS Stockholm Watch with Lapis Lazuli Dial

Late last year I introduced you to GoS Watches (Gustafsson & Sjögren), artisan watchmakers based in Sweden. Their Scandinavian inspired watches often use non-traditional materials such as Damascus steel (cases and movements) and reindeer leather (straps), culminating in a look that I find very refreshing and original. Recently, Founder Patrik Sjögren was kind enough to send me a few nice photos of the brand’s new Stockholm watch with a special lapis lazuli dial which I thought you might enjoy. Price is $13,900. A white mother-of-pearl dial version is also available for $12,600 — via Perpetuelle.com Watch Blog

Polygonal Penthouse / Grupo Aranea

How do you put a penthouse for a grown child on top of their parent’s home? A strange situation called for something unique – an independent and differentiated addition that works both with and against the historic stone walls and foundation.

Grupo Aranea created a space for the client to call home, reaching out to surrounding views of southern Spanish landscapes, while providing privacy and connections to the old home below — via Dornob

Louis Moinet Geograph Rainforest Limited Edition

Together with the gorgeous Louis Moinet Geograph, the Swiss watchmaker has issued another limited edition of the beautiful GMT chronograph watch: the Louis Moinet Geograph Rainforest [Ref. LM-24.30.56].

Having its chronograph totalizers made from genuine petrified palm wood, the watch will be issued in a very limited edition of 120 pieces — via World Watch Review

Panerai Radiomir 3 Days Platino 47 mm

In the late 1930s, Panerai created a few examples of the Radiomir with a unique dial design. Today, only two examples survive. Why they were created is not known. Their history washed away with the Panerai archive in the Florence flood of 1966. The new Radiomir 3 Days Platino [PAM00373] picks up this dial design, which has never before been revived — via WatchTime

In Marblehead, the house that dialed for help

A house that endured a leaking pipe for many months dialed 911 on Wednesday, finally bringing town officials to the rescue.

The homeowner gone — no one yet knows where — the house likely sprang a leak during a past freeze and began spraying water all over. Water came down inside the walls and through the ceiling, said Health Director Wayne Attridge. The (wood) floors have buckled. The ceilings are sagging. It filled the basement with (5 feet of) water — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Giant Pacific Octopus Watercolor by snowseychelle

A giant octopus swims in a sea haven with a curling golden song of watery warmth and a flaming body of liquid gold.

This Original Water Color Painting measures 22 inches by 30 inches and is delicately painted on a full sheet of beautiful Arches Cold Pressed Water Color paper using high quality Grumbacher water color paint. The painting is hand signed and titled and will arrive in an integral mailing tube at your front door — via Etsy

CRD Triumph Bonneville

A lot of custom motorcycles are capricious creatures: pretty but impractical. Others are bikes that you can jump on and ride to the shops, and this is one of them. It’s the latest build from the Spanish workshop CRD, and follows the current European trend towards pared-down, blacked-out machines. The base is a 2004 Triumph Bonneville, and it shows how Hinckley’s modern classic can be transformed by relatively subtle modifications — Bike EXIF

Canberra lobbied secretly to dilute cluster bomb ban

Australia secretly worked with the United States to weaken a key international treaty to ban cluster bombs, leaked US diplomatic cables show.

Despite taking a high-profile stance against cluster munitions – condemned as the cause of large numbers of civilian casualties – Australia was privately prepared to pull out of international negotiations on a global ban of the weapons if this threatened ties with US forces.

The US continues to use cluster munitions as a legitimate and useful weapon, including in Afghanistan, and has affirmed that it will not sign the treaty to ban them. The disclosure comes as Federal Parliament prepares to consider a bill to ratify Australia’s signature of the Convention on Cluster Munitions — via redwolf.newsvine.com