“It’s extra virgin, great on salads and a lubricant for relationships in the Middle East.” Peace Oil, is olive oil produced in Northern Israel by a staff of Arabs, Jews, Bedouins and Druze working together– and as most of you know this is a rare occurence. The oil is pressed from organically grown Suria olives, and is produced by hand– in fact the olives are pressed in the mill only hours after they’re taken from the trees. Profit from sales of this product are used to support peace and reconciliation work in the Middle East. Hopefully with these kinds of projects barriers can be broken down and replaced with understanding and respect. A bottle of the good stuff runs at about 10 Pounds, and if you order yours now you’ll have it in time for the holidays. Via Treehugger

My gut tells me these Panasonic Retro Piano Painted Headphones don’t sound nearly as good as they look (okay, we’re snobs)– they’re no Grado RS1’s (they cost about $600 less), but they sure do look nice, so we think they’d do just fine with our iPod nano. Large and comfy looking with a leather style headband and over the ear design– great colourway options, looks like an excellent gift for you or your loved one at only $60 from AudioCubes. Via Uncrate

Without Reason is a limited edition art-book featuring work from graffiti artists, painters, designers, illustrators, photographers and tattoo artists from around the world. Familiar names like Ricky Powell, Bask, Mars One, Future Relic, UPSO and Brendan Monroe grace the 72 page perfect bound full color book. It’s available now ($35 AUD) online as well as a handful of stores, but only 1000 copies were published so act quickly.

Miami based Luminaire teamed up with Christie’s to help ‘puppies fight cancer‘– that is, they had 36 world renowned artists, architects and designers to convert a plastic 3D puppy into a beautiful and unique creation. Artists like Elke Walter, Antonio Citterio, Marcel Wanders, Ryan McGuinness, Shigeru Uchida and many more donated their time and final product to the project. The results, as you can see here, are truly great– and we can’t wait to see these puppies in person during Art Basel in Miami at the Luminaire Showroom. Check out their site for full address and viewing times if you think you’ll be in the area. 100% of proceeds from the sale of these pups goes directly to cancer research at the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

There’s a nice little debate over at Inhabitat about what makes a shoe sustainable–specifically they’re talking about the “Eco-Friendly Footwear” brand Terra Plana. While we’re all for eco-friendly, saving the world and understand using leather isn’t exactly sustainable– we still give a round of applause to the folks at Terra for the effort. Their Worn Again recycled materials campaign is pretty great– and we actually think some of the shoe designs are fun, and a breath of fresh air.

When Pandora came out, I was instantaneously addicted and I’m not afraid to admit it. I loved that I could type in a certain artist or song name, and it would analyze my choice and spit closely-fitted music back at me. Musicovery is like Pandora in the way that you are ultimately at the mercy of their algorithm or whatever their music choosing method is, but it allows you more discretion than Pandora. You can choose music by genre, era, popularity, dance beat, and by mood (by selecting a point on a four axis matrix blending dark, positive, energetic, and calm moods). Once you make your set your criteria, your playlist is displayed in an animated spider web-esque trail on your screen. I have been experimenting with Musicovery all morning, and it has definitely thrown me some great picks (more eclectic and international than I expected).

We have kept you informed about Mimoco’s gradual release of their Star Wars Series 1 Mimobots, and we’re happy to report that Series 1 is now complete. The missing link was R2D2– and it appears as though evolution has worked rapidly with him, as he now has arms and legs. Despite his recent adaptation from robot to Mimobot, I think he makes a worthy addition to the Mimo family. Mimobots are souped-up USB keys for those of you who don’t know, and make for a great holiday gift idea– they’re inexpensive, fun, and functional. Most Mimobot designs (in 1, 2, and 4 GB sizes) should be available to purchase before the holidays, but you have to pre-order the Star Wars Series 1 bots, and they won’t arrive until about January 9th (just in time for people to head back to work with lots of data to save). We’re already betting on what Star Wars Series 2 will bring– I’m hoping for Princess Leia.

I have owned several Nixon watches over the years, and I have always liked them because they are (in general) inexpensive but push the style threshold– I can wear them with confidence, but don’t mind replacing them every year or so with a new one. Suffice to say, I never thought there would be a day when I would pay more than, say, $100 for a Nixon watch. Nixon’s new Elite line is making me reconsider. Elite Class watches boast custom craftsmanship and high-end materials like Swiss automatic movements, sapphire crystals, ceramic, and titanium carbide. I especially like the ‘there’s nothing lowercase about it’ Capital Automatic (above, left– $600), and the ruby-kissed Ceramic Player (above, right– $1300). Something tells me that I would be able to wear these watches more than just a year or so. Take note Mr. Kringle.

Hopefully, many of you will be fortunate enough to join me on the real slopes over the Thanksgiving Holiday, but for those of you not so lucky, here’s your consolation. While it pales in comparison to the real thing, Linerider is a ‘toy’ that begins with the user drawing lines on a white background — short lines, long lines, curvy lines, strait lines, jumps, banks, 1/4 pipes — your imagination is the limit. Once you have your lines drawn, you hit a button that launches a ‘rider’ into your course of lines. If your lines are drawn too steep, your rider will crash. If your lines are drawn too flat, your rider will stop. You get the picture– you have to draw your course in such a way to sustain your rider’s speed, but not so steep that your rider goes out of control and crashes. I picked two of what I thought to be the most impressive Linerider courses off of YouTube for you to see. While you’re bored after turkey dinner, challenge your friends and family to a Linerider contest– see who can build the best course (take it from me, it’s not easy). See you on the slopes.

Via Squidoo