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Swiss toymaker Naef has been manufacturing this Cella toy since 1967.

It was designed by German polymath Peer Klahsen, whose career has included stints in carpentry, furniture design, fine art, architecture and writing. "He has a brilliant mind with an excellent mathematical-geometric understanding and spatial sense," writes Naef.

The 10 x 10 x 10cm cube consists of one small cube and eight nesting components that can be endlessly reconfigured:

The pieces are made of Maple. In addition to blue, it comes in grey, red and its natural color.

Though designed as a toy, it is a bit pricey for kids; it runs 208 Swiss Francs, USD $231.

Previously we looked at Astrolab's FLEX, a vehicle with no design predecessor. Intended for lunar exploration, the utilitarian two-person vehicle was designed for NASA.

Now NASA's announced they've selected an additional two companies to develop additional Lunar Terrain Vehicles for their upcoming Artemis V mission. These offerings, or at least the early renderings of them, look a bit more sci-fi than Astrolab's design. Here's Intuitive Machines' Moon RACER:

(Despite the name, it's not designed for high-speed competition; it's an acronym for Reusable Autonomous Crewed Exploration Rover.)

The third LTV to get the green light is Lunar Outpost's Lunar Dawn vehicle:

While all three vehicles are being developed, just one will be awarded the funding for a demonstration mission. That's where they have to actually deliver the thing to the surface of the moon and "validate its performance and safety ahead of [the Artemis V mission]."

It's a pretty tall order, as you can see in the brief below. But whichever company makes the cut will get an additional chance to boost their profit:

"The LTV will be able to handle the extreme conditions at the Moon's South Pole and will feature advanced technologies for power management, autonomous driving, and state of the art communications and navigation systems. Crews will use the LTV to explore, transport scientific equipment, and collect samples of the lunar surface, much farther than they could on foot, enabling increased science returns.""Between Artemis missions, when crews are not on the Moon, the LTV will operate remotely to support NASA's scientific objectives as needed. Outside those times, the provider will have the ability to use their LTV for commercial lunar surface activities unrelated to NASA missions."

So far the only images we have are the renders above. I'll be very curious to see how these things are realized on the surface, as I assume they'll be shipped in pieces and assembled on the moon. Am also eager to see the eventual competing designs from China, India, Russia, et cetera. But we'll have to wait for a bit; Artemis V isn't scheduled to launch until 2030.

NASA posted this image as well, but has not attributed the design.

Asahikawa, Hokkaido has been a furniture-producing center for Japan for decades. The furniture industry produces a lot of wooden offcuts. How can you turn those offcuts into more revenue?

Since 1955, the Tomiya company has been producing these Kuma Bokko*, tiny carved bears made from otherwise useless scraps of wood. The grain is cleverly exploited to produce a contour-line-like effect, further accentuating the skilled hand-carving and burning.

Image: Shokunin

(*In Japanese, "kuma" means "bear." "Bokko," in the Hokkaido dialect, means "stick," "scrap," or "piece of a broken pole"—in other words, an offcut.)

"Due to the extreme delicacy of the work, it is very rare for the face and body to be perfectly finished, and it often happens that a bokko has various 'wounds,' sometimes light, sometimes severe," writes arts & crafts store Shokunin.

Image: Shokunin

"Kumo Bokko has a very particular grain, visible all over its body. The rings vary depending on the type of wood used and the part of the tree it was cut from, so no two are the same. There are also differences in the angles of the face and body, as well as variations in overall color."

Image: Shokunin

"In addition, craftsmen who paint eyes, noses, etc. are meant to finish the expression of each finished piece by examining the individual shapes and colors of the rings, so that even if the same parts are painted, Kuma Bokko after finishing will present slightly different expressions depending on their subtle positioning."

Image: Shokunin

"Each piece is a little different from the other and it's hard to choose your favorite, and I spent a lot of time choosing the one that spoke to me the most."

The "wounds" mentioned above are categorized with hilarious fidelity on the individual product descriptions on Tomiya's website, as with this guy:

"Due to various circumstances leading up to the completion, the growth rings on the soles of his right foot had to be removed. So we ended up with a partially barefoot Kuma Bokko."

Defect aside, he still managed to attract a mate and raise a child. The offspring did not inherit the foot defect.

This bathroom cabinetry is by Thomas Longuefosse, an ébéniste (cabinetmaker) based in the Basque Country.

Longuefosse has been taken by the art of kumiko, and practices it in his spare time.

"The Japanese have a very particular way of working," he writes, "and very different from ours. Their craftsmanship is often based on extremely simple gestures, similar and repeated all day long to perfection."

"The beauty of the works often lies in the repetition of the patterns, and in their perfect execution, obviously done by hand. There is a very hypnotizing side to doing this kind of thing. I'm light years away from perfection when it comes to this type of work, but if you don't try, you don't get anything."

Here's a snippet of the patience it takes to build pieces like these:

Following user-centered design principles early in medical device development could help ensure products meet the complex and diverse needs of users.

The European Union’s environmental regulations for manufacturers have real teeth – and they apply to suppliers that sell into Europe.

Increasingly stringent CO2 regulations and the need to reduce dependency on fossil fuels are creating demand for alternative sources of energy.