Fortunately, I've a nice diner near my house. For those of you interested in these Buffalo wooden speakers, however, you should know that they work without batteries. That's convenient, although you shouldn't expect boombox thump. [Buffalo via Akihabar]

According to Ron van der Ende:

I collect old doors and stuff. Old painted wood that I find in the street. I take it apart and skin it to obtain a 3mm thick veneer with the old paint layers still intact. I construct bas-reliefs that I cover with these veneers much like a constructed mosaic. I do not paint them!

I want some of these so badly. [Ron van der Ende via Motherboard via Obsolete]

Just like in cars, the next evolution is to eliminate the crank and have an automatic version. Preferably one that you can push down on once and it'll crank all the way, but that can also turn slowly when you hold it down, for a more dramatic rotation. [Freewebs]

The kidney-shaped, iPhone-like handset is constructed from a Cypress wood base that's been compression molded for extended durability. Despite this manufacturing process, each phone retains a unique grain pattern, color palate and woody aroma. And, just so you don't have to feel bad about it, the wood is considered "surplus" from "forest-thinning operations."

Docomo will be showing off prototypes in Japan later this week. And while we'll probably never see the phones reach the US, we can't get over the fact that wood seems a lot more classy than plastic. [Docomo via Electronista via TFTS]

JFK had it right, "Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride." [Core77]

Corrected: The father and son team of Ken and Stuart Wheeler designed this gorgeous bike, not Sean Denham.

Italian scientists have developed a new "wood-derived bone substitute" that promises to be better than ceramic or metal implants. They start with a block of wood like red oak, burn it until the block is essentially charcoal and then coat the substance with calcium.

The "bone" takes about a week to produce at a cost of around $850. And while it's not quite as cool as titanium, the spongier structure handles natural impacts better, and other bones prefer the calcium carbon mix to space shuttle alloys.

So much for my awesome robot legs. [Discovery]

"Personally, I am fascinated by how the world is changing into a digital world. To me it seems that; the digital world is personal but not private at all. For example, when I Google to find information about a friend, I will most likely find information about his life, his pets, his company and maybe a review on a digital camera that he has recently written. Notice that the digital verb 'Googling' has recently got the status of a real verb in the Netherlands. Just another example how the two worlds become one." Dear diary 1.0 is thus both the literal and the figurative manifestation of the worlds colliding. A physical reminder that increasingly, the real and the digital are becoming indistinguishable.

It's deep, but at least I see Romberg's point—not like this ridiculous Spaceballs lamp. [Marlies Romberg via Moco Loco]

Nikolay Polissky is an artist who trades primarily in giant, incomprehensibly weird wooden sculptures. Apparently (as in, obviously) his intention in building this "Large Hadron Collider" wasn't to create something with much aesthetic similarity to the LHC, but something that captures its essence. One shared motif: Tubes!Otherwise, see if you can pick out this "essence":

Me neither. [English Russia, Technogreatideas]

55-year-old Peijia Wu, from Shandong province, allegedly took three months to build his DIY wooden bike. It features no metal parts whatsoever – joints are fixed with small wooden bungs and a rod-crank system has replaced where the chain would normally be.

Ingenious! It's like a stair master and a bike rolled into one and it's probably less likely to fall apart than other wooden bike models. [Chine Informations via Shanghaiist]

How much, Lasseter? How much!? [Toys R Evil]

Of course, if I tried this, mine would end up looking like a cubist version of a 1980 Polaroid instant camera. [Canon via Core77]

More factory shots at Moco Loco. [Moco Loco, Hulger via BBG]

It'd be a complete bitch for the TSA, but there really aren't enough functional wooden firearms in the world. [flickr via ubergizmo]

[Impress]

After getting back to 1738, he recreated his cubicle the best he could out of parts available at that time. Jared then proceeded to live out the remainder of his life—all 10 days of it—sitting in that cube and suffering from malaria. [Nielsendata via Dvice]

At last year's Salone Internazionale Del Mobile, you may remember that Sony got all hot and heavy with a bunch of master craftsmen. The event takes place from April 16 to 20, and we'll keep our beadies out for all the best stuff on show. [Impress]

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

We don't really care if it floats or not, quite frankly. We think it's cool enough as it is. With his patience, the next thing Mr. Shuhei would most probably build will be a 1:1 72,800-tonne replica of the battleship Yamato, complete with four 19.7-foot propellers and nine 18.1-inch cannons, all made from gluing about 15.2 million soy sauce containers, 26.3 million empty bento boxes, and an undetermined amount of old mochi for coating. [Pink Tentacle]

The most important part is how this guy looks, and it looks great with flame mahogany and chrome accents. It looks like an old clock, but it's inspired by French clockmaker Bayard and takes art deco cues as well. Definitely another classy addition to Jeffrey's wooden stable. [Jeffrey Stephenson]

A group of students from North Carolina State University, led by industrial design student Joe Harmon, are building Splinter as part of a thesis project. Harmon and his car dons intend to look at how to work with wood in car designs, so Splinter even has wooden components in its suspension and chassis.

Crafting a car like this has required them to come up with some innovative uses of laminated wood—the wheels are made of carefully cut and layered oak veneers strong enough to take the stress of a 2,500-pound body—that's as heavy as two Smart cars. And how do you stop the heat from its powerful mid-located V8 from setting fire to the body? Turn parts of it upside down so the exhaust vents over the top of the engine, and incorporate the muffler into the rear wing, where it can also aid downforce.

Inside the car the passengers' legs go between the arms of the suspension, which sounds kinda dangerous, but clearly the team has thought long and hard about it. They want project Splinter to "explore materials, learn, share ideas and stimulate creativity." And go bloody fast. – Kit Eaton [Winding Road via Autoblog]

Other than that, this Korea-only phone sports goodies you will never be worthy of (like DMB television, an electronic dictionary and the near-magnetic attraction of pretty Korean models).

Check out that phone on the right. It's like, "These leaves just adore me." [LG via I4U]

The only thing that surprises me is that its creator didn't inlay it with bling. [New Launches]

It's internal components aren't actually from a Creative because they're too expensive in the Captain's home country of Norway, but it does provide 4GB of SD card storage space. The wooden Zen also has a rechargeable battery, but I wouldn't want to attempt carrying this thing around. [Captain Ødegård]

[Wood Car via Da nnyChoo via Japan Probe via Boing Boing]