Great post on learning from failure in a start-up. 

MTV Games announced that the second installment of the popular “Rock Band” game will be released in September and will be initially exclusive to Xbox 360.  Like the original Rock Band, the game is being developed by the MTV-owned Harmonix games studio who also developed Guitar Hero. Details of the product will be announced at E3 in Los Angeles later this month but the developers have announced an unusual twist - it will be fully compatible with the original instruments, as well as the more than 100 songs that were available to download for the first “Rock Band so they have will be competing on more than the typical game planned obsolescence. 

In the original Rock Star, players can select are guitar, bass, drums or vocals as they hit the road as either an aspiring superstar solo act, or for the first time in game genre history take on the true collaborative and challenging nature of music as they form a band and jam together in multiplayer action from home or around the world.  Either way players will have to master their stage presence through the various game modes and polish their rock chops via the unrivaled Rock Band song list if they hope to make it out of the garage, into the clubs and finally on to the main stage.  Rock Band is a natural extension of the passion for Guitar Hero - and you know that there are lots of fanatics out there!

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The English Cotswolds are known for their natural beauty but soon it will also be world famous for its Eco-Friendly homes in the Cirencester area.  One development,  The Lower Mill Estate, offers “distinctive, sustainable, modernist second homes, in a rural setting”.  The development was a 550 acre mining site which has been transformed into a seven lake reserve fed by three rivers and offers beautiful plant and wildlife.  The above, to-be-built house, known as the Orchid house exemplifies the uniqueness of designs where they have strived to achieve a harmony with the surrounding nature and yet blow your socks off with gorgeous, jaw dropping architecture.  

The Orchid house was designed by London based designer Sarah Featherstone and will boast many green features including  an underground geothermal heating system and a planet switch.  The project was recently sold for a price rumored to be more than $14 Million - that is one incredible second home! Other designers of properties in the Lower Mill Estate include  Richard Reid, Will Alsop .

Image Credits: www.dailymail.co.uk

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