The Beatles: Rock Band Game Coming Soon

Harmonix and EA games have been able to secure the rights to the Beatles back catalogue for use in the forthcoming game The Beatles - Rock Band.

Due for release on the 9th of September the game will feature music from the Liverpool quartet "the Fab Four" it is the first time that Beatles music has been made available for use in a video game.

This is a major achievement by Harmonix and EA and hopefully it will be reflected in the game. Four sets of instruments made to look and imitate the real models used by the Beatles have been made to compliment the game, although due to the fairly hefty price tags it is fortunate that the instruments that that are used for the other range of Rock Band games can also be used instead.

No doubt the real die hard Beatles fans will want to stop at nothing less than the replicated models and the game makers will certainly be happy with that.

The Beatles - Rock band comes with a selection 45 of their best songs which have been chosen from all of the Beatles albums, so far only 25 (listed below) have been officially announced.

Song List to Date

I Saw Her Standing There
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Feel Fine
Taxman
Day Tripper
Back In The USSR
I Am The Walrus
Octopus's Garden
Here Comes The Sun
Get Back
Twist And Shout
Do You Want To Know A Secret
Can't Buy Me Love
I Wanna Be Your Man
Eight Days A Week
Paperback Writer
And Your Bird Can Sing
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
With A Little Help From My Friends
Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows
Yellow Submarine
Revolution
Birthday
Dig A Pony
I've Got A Feeling

It has been promised that most of the songs used are bona fide Beatles classics.

Cat deterrent - Lion Poo

Whilst cats can be amongst the most loving and gentlest of pets when they are your own, there is nothing more annoying than to have someone else's, or stray cats, come into your garden and start using it as a toilet. The trouble with cats is that they are creatures of habit, so once they have visited an area you can guarantee that they will be back, which generally means your flower beds are going to be dug up nightly and you will have to suffer the the resulting mess and smell.

Gardeners and homeowners alike have searched for the perfect cat deterrent for years, solutions such as chimes or flashing lights right down to Lion poo, yes that right I said "Lion poo", believe it or not you can actually buy lion droppings to scatter amongst your prize blooms and rose bushes but whether it makes for an effective cat deterrent is anyones guess.

The real puzzle to me is, how on earth did Lion Poo come to be known as a cat deterrent. I mean did someone just stroll into their local Zoo and grab themselves a shovel full of Lion Poo and then drop it round their prize Begonia's. Some really creative thinking must have gone into that one.

This unusual form of cat deterrent known as "Silentroar" can be purchased by weight from several outlets including Amazon, it was the advertised item from Amazon that made me smile, there you can purchase it new or used, I would have thought that by the time the Lion has finished with it, it is already used. On the other hand wouldn't new poo just be food ?

The mind boggles.

Furminator tool for pets

For those pet owners amongst us that suffer from the blight of unwanted dog hair on clothing or furniture this handy gadget should come in quite useful. The furmintor tool has been designed for the removal of loose dog hair and to help improve the appearance of your pet and your environment. We all want our pets to look their best but for some dogs it just isn't enough to groom them in the normal fashion, and that is where the furminator tool comes in, designed for both long haired and short haired dogs the furminator has been proven to reduce shedding by up to 80 percent.

The furminator has been endorsed by numerous veterinarians who fully understand the importance of maintaining a happy and healthy pet, this tool has been designed to stop the shedding where it begins, in the undercoat of your pet.

The furminator is a great new invention that all pet owners should get their hands on.

Only in America

Obviously American kids have not been taught the dangers of not looking where you are going, if this story is anything to go by. A 15 year old girl was walking down the street and being so engrossed in the text message she was composing that she completely missed the open manhole in the middle of the pavement (sidewalk for the US), down she went, swiftly and completely, to the bottom, luckily suffering nothing more than a good scare and a few scrapes (and possibly some embarrassment) she was helped out by the workmen who had opened up the manhole.

Now that should be a prime example of why you should look where you are going and, one would think, a lesson learned, after all it is illegal to text and drive for a very good reason so surely the same should apply to pedestrians, well not in the eyes of the girls mother.

The first thoughts of the family is to file a lawsuit, the girls mother said "it doesn't matter that her daughter was walking and texting" and maybe to give an idea as to their main concern she continued "One of her sneakers is still down there".

Nothing said concerning the well-being of her daughter but that shoe is being sorely missed.

ebay petitions against proposed EU ruling

Ebay has circulated a petition amongst its users in the hope of getting a proposed EU ruling defeated. The ruling in question concerns big brand name owners being able to stop their goods new and second hand alike from being sold on Ebay.

The basis of the argument is that to stop counterfeit goods from being sold on eBay, they should be able to prohibit sales of their brands on the auction site altogether, now to a certain degree that does have some logic to it, BUT on the other hand if you have bought a branded item and no longer have use for it, shouldn't you be allowed to sell it as you choose ?

Lets look at this properly, say for example you own a Ford Mondeo and wish to sell it on, if the brand name owners have their way you can sell it by all means but all you would be able to advertise would be "A CAR FOR SALE" instead of "FORD MONDEO FOR SALE".

I personally think that if I have paid good money for an item but no longer have a use for it and if I wish to sell it then I should be able to advertise it as it is, I probably bought it on the strength of the brand name to start with so obviously I would like to sell it under that brand name to recoup some of my money.

I fully agree that brand name owners have a right to protect their brands from counterfeiters but dictating to people who own a legitimate branded article is not the way to win support - or is it just a case of clever marketing, stop the sale of second hand and used branded items and more people will have to buy new.

Maybe I am just too cynical.

Google operating system coming soon

A new operating system is reportedly in the pipeline according to Google, this new OS is due late next year and is being touted as a competitor to Microsoft Windows OS. Although Google are hoping to undermine Microsoft's hold on the PC market the fact that the Google OS will target the netbook user is probably not going to be a great cause for concern at Microsoft.

The netbook is a low spec, less powerful type of laptop and most do not include Windows as the primary operating system anyway, these netbooks are ideal for the free open source operating systems such as Linux which will run on machines with lower specs far better than Windows will.

On that basis it would appear that the Google OS will not be such a major threat to Microsoft as is being predicted, if on the other hand Google are able to create an operating system that will be work on a more powerful machine, then that might be a different story.

Historic Bible now available to view online

A joint effort between institutions from various countries including the UK, Germany, Egypt and Russia has enabled 800 pages of the earliest surviving Christian Bible to be made available on the internet. The 1,600-year-old Codex Sinaiticus manuscript written in Greek on parchment leaves has been described as "one of the world's greatest written treasures".

High resolution digitised images of pages from the manuscript are now available online, it is hoped that the availability to view them will allow for more research opportunities for scholars and students who would otherwise not have the chance.

Without the internet such a great research opportunity would not have been possible.

Reiss clothing

The first reiss clothing store opened in 1971 in the city of London. Founder and owner, David reiss originally set out to tailor to the fashionable and affluent of London men, Reiss clothing was described as being designed for the sexy, confident, modern man. By 2000, Reiss clothing had an in-house design team of its own and had begun to offer a full range of Reiss clothes for women.

Today Reiss clothes are offered in over 90 different stores around the world. From humble beginnings Reiss clothing has become a multi national retailer of high quality, fashionable menswear, womenswear and accessories.