How To Start Seeds – A comprehensive guide to growing vegetables and flowers from seed

GROWING plants from seed is a great way to start gardening earlier in the season. With the right light and some simple equipment, it’s easy to grow from seed to harvest.

Keep it simple

Because each plant has unique seed-starting requirements, it helps to start small by growing just a few varieties. Some seeds — such as tomatoes and marigolds — are especially easy to start indoors. If you’re a beginner, choose those first, and then move on to more fussy seeds, such as petunias.

Other good choices for beginners:

Basil

Zinnia

Coleus

Nasturtium

Cosmos

Make sure you have lots of light

All seedlings require a considerable amount of light, so make sure you have a sunny, south-facing window. If seedlings don’t get enough light, they will be leggy and weak.

If you don’t have a sunny, south-facing window, invest in grow lights and a timer . It’s the best way to ensure consistent, abundant light. Set the timer for 15 hours a day, water regulary and you’re sure to get great results.

Get the timing right
The goal with seed starting is to have your seedlings ready to go outside when the weather is favorable. Start by looking at the seed packet, which should tell you when to start seeds inside. Usually, it will say something like, “Plant inside six to eight weeks before last frost.”

Some types of vegetables, such as beans and squash, are best started outdoors. There is little benefit to growing them indoors because they germinate and grow quickly. Some flowers, such as poppies, are best planted outdoors, too. These seeds are usually marked “direct sow”.

Six Steps, from Seed to Garden
1. Find the right containers
You can start seeds in almost any type of container, as long as it’s at least 2-3 ” deep and has some drainage holes. If you are the DIY type, you might want to grow seedlings in yogurt cups, milk cartons or paper cups. I prefer the convenience of trays that are made especially for seed starting. It’s easy to fill the trays, the watering system ensures consistent moisture and I can move them easily.

2. Prepare the “potting soil”

Choose potting soil that’s made for growing seedlings. Do not use soil from your garden or re-use potting soil from your houseplants. Start with a fresh, sterile mix that will ensure healthy, disease-free seedlings.

Before filling your containers, use a bucket or tub to moisten the planting mix. The goal is to get it moist but not sopping wet; crumbly, not gloppy. Fill the containers and pack the soil firmly to eliminate gaps.

Remember that most mixes contain few, if any, nutrients, so you’ll need to feed the seedlings with liquid fertilizer a few weeks after they germinate, and continue until you transplant them into the garden.

3. Start planting

Check the seed packet to see how deep you should plant your seeds. Some of the small ones can be sprinkled right on the soil surface. Larger seeds will need to be buried. For insurance, I plant two seeds per cell (or pot). If both seeds germinate, I snip one and let the other grow. It's helpful to make a couple divots in each pot to accommodate the seeds. After you've dropped a seed in each divot, you can go back and cover the seeds.

Moisten the newly planted seeds with a mister or a small watering can. To speed germination, cover the pots with plastic wrap or a plastic dome that fits over the seed-starting tray. This helps keep the seeds moist before they germinate. When you see the first signs of green, remove the cover.

4. Water, feed, repeat

As the seedlings grow, use a mister or a small watering can to keep the soil moist but not soggy. Let the soil dry slightly between waterings. Set up a fan to ensure good air movement and prevent disease. I use a fan that’s plugged into the same timer as my grow lights. Remember to feed the seedlings regularly with liquid fertilizer, mixed at the rate recommended on the package.

5. Light, light, light!

Seedlings need a lot of light. If you’re growing in a window, choose a south-facing exposure. Rotate the pots regularly to keep plants from leaning into the light. If you’re growing under lights, adjust them so they’re just a few inches above the tops of the seedlings. Set the lights on a timer for 15 hours a day. Keep in mind that seedlings need darkness, too, so they can rest. As the seedlings grow taller, raise the lights.

6. Move seedlings outdoors gradually

It’s not a good idea to move your seedlings directly from the protected environment of your home into the garden. You’ve been coddling these seedlings for weeks, so they need a gradual transition to the great outdoors. The process is called hardening off. About a week before you plan to set the seedlings into the garden, place them in a protected spot outdoors (partly shaded, out of the wind) for a few hours, bringing them in at night. Gradually, over the course of a week or 10 days, expose them to more and more sunshine and wind. A cold frame is a great place to harden off plants.

Troubleshooting

Only one-quarter of my seeds germinated. What went wrong? There are a number of factors that affect seed germination. Check the seed packet to determine if all the requirements for temperature and light were met. If the soil was cold and excessively wet, the seeds may have rotted. Dig up one of the seeds and examine it. If it is swollen and soft, the seed has rotted and you will need to start over. If the soil was too dry, the seeds may not have germinated or may have dried up before their roots could take hold. If the seeds were old, they may no longer be viable. Try again and be sure to provide consistent moisture.

My seedlings are spindly. What can I do? Plants grow tall and leggy when they do not receive enough light. Use grow lights to ensure that they receive 15 hours of bright light each day. Warm temperatures can also stimulate leggy growth. Try lowering the room temperature and reducing the amount of fertilizer you apply. For more on this topic, see the article Growing Under Lights.

The leaves on my tomatoes are starting to look purple along the veins and on the underside of the leaves. What’s happening? Purple leaves are an indication that the plant is not receiving enough phosphorus. If you have been using half-strength fertilizer for the first three to four weeks of the seedling’s life, it may be time to increase the fertilizer to full strength. The phosphorus content (the middle number on the fertilizer analysis) should be at least 3.

My seedlings were growing well until all of a sudden they toppled over at the base. What happened? When the stems of young seedlings become withered and topple over, they have probably been killed by a soil-borne fungus called “damping off.” This fungus is difficult to eradicate once it is present in the soil, but you can avoid it by using a sterile, soilless growing medium , and by providing good air circulation.

Mold is growing on the top of the soil surface. It doesn’t appear to be hurting my plants, but should I be concerned? Mold is an indication that the growing medium is too wet. It will not harm your plants as long as you take action. Withhold water for a few days and try to increase air circulation around the containers by using a small fan. You can also scrape off some of the mold or try transplanting the seedlings into fresh soil.

link to authors website :http://www.gardeners.com/how-to/how-to-start-seeds/5062.html

The stories behind Christmas carols-part 2

The Holly and the Ivy
This evergreen carol mixes up both Christian and pagan imagery. In ancient times, during the winter, singing contests were held between men and women in villages around the country. The male contingent would sing carols praising the masculine holly and being rather dismissive of the feminine ivy whilst for the women it was the other way around. There was usually a happy ending though as the two groups would eventually join together under the mistletoe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57l6dSbVppM

Away in a Manger
This is probably one of the first Christmas songs we learn as children. It was first published more than 100 years ago; the words appeared in a Lutheran Sunday School book. It was 10 years after that in 1895 that William J. Kirkpatrick, an American composer and carpenter, wrote the music we all know so well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnVorT14i4I


O Holy Night
‘O Holy Night’ was the second piece of music and very first carol ever to be played on the radio. On Christmas Eve 1906, a Canadian inventor called Reginald Fessenden broadcast the first medium wave radio programme, which included him playing ‘O Holy Night’ on the violin. Composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 the words come from a French poem called 'Midnight, Christians, it is the Solemn Hour.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ-8jYpa1-o

Hark the Herald Angels Sing
The carol we now know as "Hark! the herald angels sing" did not start life as such, and required at least four people to bring it to its current form. Wesley's original, written as a Christmas Day hymn and first published in 1739, is made up of ten four-line verses, rather than the longer eight-line verses with refrain which we have now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw38pGhPXIk


And finally how can we forget one of the most famous christmas songs of all times...the jingle bells
Jingle Bells is one of the best-known and commonly sung American Christmas songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont (1822–1893) and published under the title "One Horse Open Sleigh" in the autumn of 1857. Even though it is now associated with the Christmas and holiday season, it was actually originally written for American Thanksgiving.It has been claimed that it was originally written to be sung by a Sunday school choir; however, historians dispute this, stating that it was much too "racy" to be sung by a children's church choir in the days it was written.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLRobpXVlf0

Christmas carols always bring out the warm seasonal atmosphere not matter how cold the weather is outside,enjoy singing these carols ,spread smiles and merry christmas,

The stories behind Christmas carols-part 1

The stories behind Christmas carols-part 1

Christmas carol have become an integral part of christmas celebration all around the world.

Have you ever wondered how these carols came about ,here is a brief history of few of the famous carols.

Silent Night
This hugely popular carol came about in 1818 just a few days before Christmas, after an Austrian church mouse munched his way through the bellows of an organ. The organist, Franz Gruber, went to see his priest, Joseph Mohr, to express his concern that there would be no music for Christmas. Equally concerned, Father Joseph wrote a new carol - not requiring an organ - in haste, while Gruber composed the tune. It was played for the first time on guitar at Midnight Mass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T4WB2zfmps


O Come, All Ye Faithful
Another of the most loved of Christmas hymns started out as 'Adeste Fideles', written by John Francis Wade, an Englishman who during the 1700s left England to join a Roman Catholic community in France. He paid his way by teaching music to youngsters and composing and selling pieces of music. It wasn’t until about 100 years later that another Englishman, Fred Oakley gave us the version we know and love today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oUAnGcT--A



The First Noel (First Nowell)
After the first appearance of carols in the Middle Ages the Reformation took hold and the popularity of the seasonal songs took a downward turn. It wasn’t really until the Victorian era when they started to enjoy a resurgence. 'The First Nowell' - or 'First Noel' as it is normally known today - was originally a traditional Cornish Carol. It was first published in a collection called Xmas Carols Ancient and Modern in 1833 by a solicitor William Sandys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANUV9vD1zg8


Joy to the World
We have Handel to thank in part for this Christmas favourite as it was his original melody from Messiah, which composer Lowell Mason used. The words came from Isaac Watts, an English theologian. He returned home after attending church one day and told his father that he hadn’t been particularly inspired by the music he’d heard during the service and that he thought he could do a better job. He was right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpgaWm2pnNs


The Twelve Days of Christmas
Dating back to the late 18th century, this popular seasonal song was reportedly used to help youngsters learn about their faith with each gift having a significant meaning – for example, the partridge represents Christ; the calling birds, the four Gospels; the Lords are the Ten Commandments – and so on. There’s a rather different version in the west of France. It’s all about food! Among the delicacies sung about are four pigs trotters, seven spitted rabbits, eight plates of salad and ten full casks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyEyMjdD2uk

...contd

10 Popular Online Guitar Gurus Who Make Learning The Instrument A Blast - part II

continuing ...

Nate Savage

Nate started playing the guitar at the age of 13 and was hooked right away. Since then, he has been fortunate enough to make a living doing what he loves - touring the world as a professional guitarist and teaching the guitar to students around the world.
At the age of 34, Nate has become one of the most popular guitar instructors in the world. At last count, 71,274 students from around the world are subscribed to his online lesson updates, and his video have been viewed over 8 million times over the past four years alone. Even still, Nate remains humble and focused on helping his students achieve their unique goals on the guitar.
"There is no better feeling than hearing from a student who was able to achieve something they thought was impossible", says Nate, "it motivates me to find new and more effective ways to help them become great musicians - and it gives me purpose every single day".


Justin Sandercoe

Justin Sandercoe, born in 1974, is a guitarist, songwriter, performer, producer and educator who grew up in Tasmania and who has been based in London, England since 1996.
Sandercoe's official website, justinguitar.com, was first launched on 31 July 2003 offering lessons as a sample to promote private one on one lessons. The site developed a modest following but once he began making instructional guitar videos for YouTube in December 2006, the site became one of the most popular guitar instruction web sites. By 2012 there are over 550 free lessons enjoyed by over 20,000 unique visitors a day from all around the world.
His videos on YouTube clocked up 100 million views in August 2011 and he has been a YouTube partner since 2008.
The site runs on voluntary donations and purchases of products from the store from users and there are no fees for membership.
Justin was named as one of the UK's Top 10 YouTube Celebrities on The Telegraph Newspaper and The Independent newspaper called him "one of the most influential guitar teachers in history"
 and he has received accolades from guitar legends Brian May [4] and Steve Vai.

Assaf Levavy

Music is about more than just practicing dry exercises. It’s about playing around with every lick you learn, improvising on it, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes, and ultimately – Creating your own interpretations of everything you play.

Assaf Levavy started his own website known as LickNriff.com in the year 2011 with a vision to provide a platform to all budding guitarists to learn more about the nuances of a guitar.


Neil Hogan

Neil Hogan was born in 1956 in Southern California. He has his own website called TotallyGuitars.com. Founded in 2008, Totally Guitars addresses the aspects of acoustic guitar playing, emphasising on finger picking.

Steve Luciano

Steve originally hails from New Haven, CT, where he studied guitar with legendary teacher Joe Tinari. Over the years, Steve has performed with numerous jazz musicians like Charles Erland,George Morrow, Joe Morello, Dary Gutteb and many more. His guitar lessons are a must for any aspiring guitarist!.
Steve was the staff musician for Walt Disney World for more than 15 years and currently is the guitarist for Larry Elgart Orchestra.

You can learn how to play songs, how to play fancy scales, and much more. The trouble is, there just aren't many GOOD guitar lessons available to someone looking to start playing guitar.
These guitar lessons from renowned instructors are designed for people who own (or have borrowed) a guitar, but don't yet know the first thing about playing it.pick up the guitar and give it a try ..

10 Popular Online Guitar Gurus Who Make Learning The Instrument A Blast - part 1

Many of us have tried to play our favourite song on a guitar but the lack of proper technique has sapped our enthusiasm. It is often very difficult for a beginner to decide where to start from. The aspiring guitarist is confused by questions like what kind of guitar to use, how to go about chord transition and when and why to use a capo!  We come to your rescue and present these online guitar tutors who have made guitar learning a fun and stunning experience, for all beginners across the world!


Marty Swartz

Playing the guitar may look complicated, but it isn't! All you need is proper technique and a fun approach. Marty, with all his experience, has evolved a technique which allows anyone at any level to make huge, immediate leaps, even if you are an amateur.There are so many reasons why one will like Marty's videos and style of teaching. He is such a fantastic instructor because of his sense of humor (you have to watch the videos to see why), his ability to slow things down and make it easy for beginners, and he has such a great depth of knowledge on the guitar of which he genuinely wants to share with viewers.

Jen Trani

In her own words “I hit my head a lot as a child, and I mean, a lot. I think that somehow affected the way I show up in the world,” Jen Trani laughs. “Honestly, I don't know what makes me unique. I'm just a very lucky girl from Colorado with a guitar trying to make a living doing music.” Thirteen year old Jen Trani was watching a movie when she saw a scene of a guy playing the guitar on the end of a bed. Something clicked in her mind, and she instantly thought, “I could do that.” She picked up her mother's old acoustic guitar the next day and began playing. 

In addition to writing and performing, Jen keeps busy as a private instructor to many aspiring guitarists. She has done over a 1000 online instructional videos, which total upto more than 40 million users for YouTube and Mahalo.com! Her guitar tutorials are ideal for beginners as they help one understand the fundamentals of guitar playing with a whole new approach.  

Andy Crowley

Andy became a full time private guitar teacher in 2009 after creating the website www.andyguitar.co.uk. Around this time, he started filming youtube video lessons to advertise for new students. In 2012, he filmed a full online beginner’s course full of real songs and made it available for FREE on his website.
Andy has got a unique method; he teaches guitar knowledge and techniques through real songs as much as possible, and gets one playing along to the record straight away!.Andy's custom made beginners course and lesson materials are an accumulation of a lifetime of learning and 6 years of private teaching.

Jimmy Brown

Over the past 20 years, Jimmy Brown has built a reputation as one of the world's finest music editors through his work as a transcriber, arranger and editor for Guitar World magazine. In addition to his role as Guitar World Senior Music Editor, he is a busy working musician, performing regularly as a solo guitar/vocal act and rocking out with a full band at taverns, restaurants, resorts, weddings and private parties. Having earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies and Performance and Music Management from William Paterson University in 1988, Brown is also an experienced private guitar teacher and writer.

Erich Andreas

Erich Andreas, AKA “YourGuitarSage" has been playing guitar for nearly 30 years and has almost been teaching for that long as well. He has a passion for creating easy, step-by-step lessons and loves making "difficult" concepts attainable. His guitar lesson video channels(YourGuitarSage, YGSGuitarLessons, and 1MinuteGuitarLessons) on YouTube alone have over 40,000,000 views. He has authored several books on the subjects of guitar and music and has been praised for his teaching style and systems as one of the top instructors on the internet. Recently he was featured in the Wall Street Journal as well as appearing on Wall Street Journal Live. Erich is a full-time musician and instructor in Nashville, TN. His motto is: "With the right instruction and consistent practice you can do anything that you desire.”

there are more guitar gurus who will be featured in the II part of this blog...

share of our success and struggles : Our 5 year story

It’s important that when you tell your story,it reveals your humanity.it must encompass both sides of the human experience.The success and the struggle. The dream and the doubt. Your passion and your fears. One without the other seems incomplete.

so heres our story so far, we believed that LIFE in itself is your biggest DIY(do-it-yourself) project and we decided to dedicate 1 year of our lives to do exactly what we wanted to do.if it did'nt work we had the cushion of our corporate experience to fall back on and resume the rat-race,but if it clicked it may change the course of our lives and course of our lives it did change.

Its been just over 5 years since we started cafeidly,we started with very little money, absolutely no experience in food industry and zero domain knowledge, a very crazy thing to do, i should admit.Experts say 'do what you know' .but if you have the desire,a plan and the commitment to make your dream a reality.screw the experts and go after your dream.

Heres a share of our success and struggles:
got excited when we got an sunday coverage on Times of India newspaper within a month of starting
we had no money when we signed the contract for our second outlet, we signed it first and started to pool in cash. that was an challenging experience
felt amazing when our outlet was featured on BBC world and a European showed up and said that ' he watched cafeidly feature on BBC while in Europe and made it a point to visit us while he came to namma Bengaluru'
sometimes its so emotionally draining and kind words like 'keep it up' and 'god bless you' from our lovely customers is what feeds our soul.

now we are getting franchise requests from through- out the country every month and i keep saying to myself ...have just a bit of patience.

now we have a bigger outlet @ frazer town same location with seating and we welcome you all and as we move along, we look forward to your love and support and well-wishes.thank you all.God bless.

Unique Guitar Adaptations

Guitar is one of the musical instruments that bring melody to your life when you feel its chords.
In this article, we intend to share with you few odd but worth noticing creative things shaped as a Guitar. Here is a list of some the most creatively designed and famous things spotted around the world that takes their design inspiration from this instrument.

Josh Pyke, an Australian singer and songwriter, sailed the seas on a giant guitar boat, which was not playable; nonetheless, it successfully managed to attract people’s attention. It was an accurate replica of his favorite guitar.

Preetham Desouza, an Indian interior designer, designed a guitar shaped staircase. The attractive staircase symbolizes steps toward a musical world, the banister of which supports the case, giving it an uber cool look.

Jay Ohrberg, a car builder, collector and designer, has created some of the most unique and expensive cars.  The guitar like beast created by him is a marvel of auto engineering for sure. His other cool creations have been a regular part of the entertainment industry

John Graham, a musician who played in the 1960s rock band The Ramrods, was famously known for his love for guitar. So, his wife decided to get a guitar shaped coffin modeled for her husband, which was an exact copy of the one he was gifted when he was fifteen. She did so to take her love for the musical instrument with him to his grave

 Elvis Cardin was so passionate about music that he made his dream turn true by designing his
own house into the shape of a guitar. It has a flat roof with electrical wires running along the top to mimic the strings.

 You can easily connect your sensibilities with this guitar shaped deck madeby a couple in their backyard pond itself. The deck mimics a simple frame of a typical guitar, which is secured in a pool nicely. After all, what could be a better way than to spend the lazy weekend in such a cool deck?

Summary:
All Guitar lovers! Do not ever let your love for the guitar die within you because that would be a sad end to a musical life. There are so many ways to stretch yourself and grow, strum the strings and make it a part of your life in a way that it becomes a musical extension for you to flaunt your musical sensibilities.

source:incrediblediary.com

Music Can Make You Feel Invincible

Lets admit it,you can’t separate Rocky from its music. It’s easy to believe the lovable underdog boxer could be a champion, so long as that rousing, brass-heavy score is roaring as insistently in his head as it is in ours.

But stirring sounds aren’t simply a way of generating excitement or enthusiasm. A new study finds certain types of music -- especially tunes with a heavy bass beat -- can make one feel more powerful. This sense of confidence and ability, the researchers add, can subsequently shape the way we think and behave.

In one experiment,78 undergraduates were made to listne to an original, two-minute-long piece of instrumental music in one of two conditions: With the bass line prominent or subdued. Afterwards, they “rated how powerful, dominant,
 and determined they felt,” as well as how strongly they were feeling three positive emotions (happiness, excitement and enthusiasm).

“Participants who listened to the heavy-bass music reported greater feelings of power than those who listened to the light-bass music,” the researchers report. “Importantly, the amount of bass did not produce any effect on positive emotions,” meaning the sense of power was not the result of their feeling happier or more excited.

How does this work? “Powerful people are more likely to speak with a deep, bass voice, and a bass voice is often associated with higher perceived power,” the researchers write, noting James Earl Jones' foreboding tones as Darth Vader in Star Wars.

 In additional studies, participants who had listened to “high-power music” such as Queen’s “We Will Rock You” were more likely to step forward and go first in a debate competition.Compared who listened to “low-power music” such as
“Who Let the Dogs Out,” they also scored higher on a test measuring abstract thinking, an ability that has previously been linked with power.

This suggests music can, at least temporarily, help us to think in ways that are more typical of powerful people.

source:huffingtonpost.com

Dutch Repair Cafes keep stuff out of the trash by fixing it for free

How awesome is the idea of a repair cafe? Very simply, it is a place you take your old, broken-down items, buy a cup of coffee and get your things fixed so that you can continue using them.

The Repair Cafe which debuted  in Amsterdam few years ago does just that. According to the New York Times, “the Repair Cafe Foundation has raised about $525,000 through a grant from the Dutch government, support from foundations and small donations, all of which pay for staffing, marketing and even a Repair Cafe bus”.

Repair Cafes started as a way to curb consumerism. Martine Postma, a former journalist came up with the concept after the birth of her second child, which made her think about environmental issues differently.

Inspired by a design exhibit about design and recycling, she decided on the idea Repair Cafes to help people fix things. For most people, possessions have a sentimental value and they don’t want to part with them. Some others would rather fix a broken item than buy a new one. Although the Netherlands only puts less than 3 percent of its municipal waste into landfill, there is still room for improvement. With Repair Cafes, people get together to share repair tips and foster an environment that supports sustainability.

People who volunteer at a Repair Café are most strongly motivated to take part because of what they can do for others. They want to help other people live more sustainably, to provide a valuable service to the community and to help improve product reparability and longevity. 

Who are these dedicated weirdos that are going above and beyond that already insanely good behavior?

Marjanne van der Rhee, a Repair Cafe volunteer who hands out data collection forms and keeps the volunteers fortified with coffee, says: “Different people come in. With some, you think, maybe they come because they’re poor. Others look well-off, but they are aware of environmental concerns. Some seem a little bit crazy.”

These Repair Cafes cater to people who find it too expensive to replace their broken items and at the same time, they also do not try to compete with existing repair shops. The Repair Cafe Foundation provides interested groups with information to help get them started, including lists of tools, tips for raising money and marketing materials. So far thirty groups have started Repair Cafes across the Netherlands, where neighbours pool their skills and labour for a few hours a month to rectify holey clothing or broken appliances. Postma has received inquiries from France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, South Africa, and Australia.

If this idea gets traction, it could be fantastic way to meet people who are interested in DIY, discourage consumerism whilst fostering an environment of creativity.

source:thealternative.in,triplepundit.com,grist.org,repaircafe.org

How Dr. Dre Made $300 Headphones a Must-Have Accessory and made lots of money

Just a few years ago, spending $300 on headphones was something only a handful of artists, music producers, and audiophiles would even consider. But that was before a hip-hop legend got involved. These days, headphones — specifically ones that cost hundreds of dollars — are one of the fastest growing categories in the consumer electronics industry. And musicians who aren’t sticking their name on a pair are starting to seem tone deaf.

Over the last several years, the premium headphone market has exploded. According to retail analyst firm NPD Group, U.S. sales of headphones that cost $100 or more increased 73% year-over-year in 2012, far outpacing sales in the headphone market overall.

The biggest player in this market is Beats by Dre, the company founded by Dr. Dre, co-founder of the seminal hip-hop group N.W.A., and music producer Jimmy Iovine. The company captured 64% of the $100-and-up headphone market in 2012 (as Dre earned a reported $110 million, thanks mostly to Beats) by ushering in a new way of thinking about music marketing and consumer preferences. But back in 2008, when Beats released its first pair of headphones, it was far from certain that consumers would bite. “People thought we were crazy,” says Beats by Dre CEO Luke Wood. “They said the marketplace would never support a $300 headphone.”

Although he rose to fame as a performer, Dr Dre has not released a solo album since 1999.Instead, he has capitalised on a trend in hip-hop that sprang up during the 1990s, when the genre's biggest stars, like Jay-Z and Sean "Diddy" Combs - aka Puff Daddy and P Diddy - launched their own clothing labels and consumer products.

Dr Dre was similarly pushed into consumer branding, but he took a slightly different route.He along with then-Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine partnered with Monster, a well-respected audio firm known mostly for their HDMI cables, to design and manufacture the Beats headphones

The Monster reputation helped - but so did celebrity endorsements, which included Lady Gaga, as well as prominent placement within music videos.Most experts say the Beats success story is due in part to a canny marketing effort.Beats is viewed as a triumph of marketing more than it is a fantastic product - there are a lot of people who feel there are better headphones to be bought in the market


By most accounts, Apple's $3bn (£1.8bn) acquisition of the Beats headphone and music streaming service will increase Dre's net worth from an estimated $550m to almost $800m - making him, if not hip-hop's first billionaire, certainly hip-hop's wealthiest man.

As a follow-up to this blog , we would like to share to our followers, a comprehensive article by 
2kreviews on  "7 Best Earbuds [In Ear Headphones] In 2017 Under $100 or INR 6400".
You can check it out here: 7 Best Earphones To Buy In 2017.

Please do have a look at the article and share your views.


Thanks,
Team Cafeidly

Don’t Just Sit There !

Consider the modern-day cubicle dweller: slouching forward in her swivel chair, she zones out in front of a computer while cradling a phone between her shoulder and ear. Her left hand holds a venti latte, her right purposefully pushes a mouse. She’ll remain like this. All. Day. Long.

This image of the corporate working stiff is problematic on many levels, but it’s the improper posture and sustained sitting – unavoidable in many professions -- that may be most hazardous.


The Science of Sitting
In recent years, the medical industry has conducted numerous studies on the hazards of prolonged sitting.
Not surprisingly, a 2010 study found that prolonged sitting has a negative effect on metabolic functions, which in turn increases the risk of obesity and type II diabetes.

These findings boil down to a sobering conclusion: sitting all day, every day, is ravaging our bodies.

Moving Muscles
Sitting for prolonged periods of time without standing, walking or stretching shortens key stabilizing muscles in the spine such as the psoas, iliacus, and abdominal muscles.Also, slouching while sitting overstretches the muscles and ligaments in and around our spine that hold our spine upright.”


Get Out and Get Moving
Simply moving our bodies, even for short spurts of moderate activity, can not only improve physical well-being but also increase productivity and focus.Whether it’s taking a few short laps around the office or standing up and stretching,
Doctors suggests that repositioning every half-hour can make a world of difference.

Stand Up for Your Health
Sitting may not be going out of style, but innovative techniques may mitigate its side effects.
Technology could solve the sitting quandary. From electronically adjustable platforms to attachments that put regular desks at eye level, the latest advances in standing desks offer eco-friendly to aesthetically pleasing options while providing an alignment-enhancing alternative to the sit, slouch, and swivel chair.

Perfecting Your Posture

Making small adjustments to your posture and your work space can make a big difference.

Get comfortable: To find the correct ergonomic position, close your eyes and nod your head up and down.
Upon opening your eyes, wherever your gaze is directed is where your screen should be.
 (This can often be a problem with laptops; doctors suggests propping the computer on a few books to
put it at eye level and investing in an external keyboard.)

Drink up: The disks between the vertebrae are made mostly of water, so stay hydrated to keep them “spongy” – and to counteract the dehydrating effects of caffeine.
Seek stability: Use a pillow to support the lower back, experiment with an adjustable-height desk or a stability ball. Be sure the ball is the correct height, or it won’t put you in the correct ergonomic position.

Slow down to stand up: Stand in slow motion and notice where weight bearing and strain occur. Simple awareness is key.

Get moving: Doctors recommends repositioning every 20-30 minutes, even if it’s just standing up and stretching at your desk.

source: http://spiritualityhealth.com

Your Aging Brain Will Be in Better Shape If You've Taken Music Lessons

Studies are showing that learning to play an instrument can bring significant improvements in your brain.
Are music lessons the way to get smarter?

That's what a lot of parents and experts believe: Studying an instrument gives children an advantage in the development of their intellectual, perceptual, and cognitive skills. This may, however, turn out to be wishful thinking. Two new randomized trials have found no evidence for the belief. The IQs of preschoolers who attended several weeks of music classes as part of these studies did not differ significantly from the IQs of those who had not.

But that does not mean that the advantages of learning to play music are limited to expressing yourself, impressing friends, or just having fun.A growing number of studies show that music lessons in childhood can do something perhaps more valuable for the brain than childhood gains: provide benefits for the long run, as we age, in the form of an added defense against memory loss, cognitive decline, and diminished ability to distinguish consonants and spoken words.

Not only that, you may well get those benefits even if you haven't tickled the ivories, strummed the guitar, or unpacked your instrument from its case in years. And dividends could even be in store if you decide to pick up an instrument for the very first time in mid life or beyond.

The reason is that musical training can have a "profound" and lasting impact on the brain, creating additional neural connections in childhood that can last a lifetime and thus help compensate for cognitive declines later in life, says neuropsychologist Brenda Hanna -Pladdy of Emory University in Atlanta. Those many hours spent learning and practicing specific types of motor control and coordination (each finger on each hand doing something different, and for wind and brass instruments, also using your mouth and breathing), along with the music -reading and listening skills that go into playing an instrument in youth, are all factors contributing to the brain boost that shows up later in life.

Musical Training Grows Your Brain:
You can even map the impact of musical training on the brain: In a 2003 study, Harvard neurologist Gottfried Schlaug found that the brains of adult professional musicians had a larger volume of gray matter than the brains of non musicians had. Schlaug and colleagues also found that after 15 months of musical training in early childhood, structural brain changes associated with motor and auditory improvements begin to appear.

The Longer You Played an Instrument, the Better:
More research is showing this might well be the case. In Hanna -Pladdy's first study on the subject, published in 2011, she divided 70 healthy adults between the ages of 60 and 83 into three groups: musicians who had studied an instrument for at least ten years, those who had played between one and nine years, and a control group who had never learned an instrument or how to read music. Then she had each of the subjects take a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests.

The group who had studied for at least ten years scored the highest in such areas as nonverbal and visuo spatial memory, naming objects, and taking in and adapting new information. By contrast, those with no musical training performed least well, and those who had played between one and nine yearswere in the middle.

In other words, the more they had trained and played, the more benefit the participants had gained. But, intriguingly, they didn't lose all of the benefits even when they hadn't played music in decades.

You Can Start Now
It's not too late to gain benefits even if you didn't take up an instrument until later in life. Jennifer Bugos, an assistant professor of music education at the University of South Florida, Tampa, studied the impact of individual piano instruction on adults between the ages of 60 and 85. After six months, those who had received piano lessons showed more robust gains in memory, verbal fluency, the speed at which they processed information, planning ability, and other cognitive functions, compared with those who had not received lessons.

Sure, your friends might laugh when you sit down at the piano, but your brain may well have the last laugh.

source:nationalgeographic.com

Stories of innovation: Radio

Radio may not seem as cool as the internet or television these days, but when it was first introduced more than a century ago it changed the face of global communication forever. Here’s its story

What: Radio

Who: It's complicated... Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi both have viable claims to be considered the "father of radio" and it's unlikely either of them could have made their breakthroughs without the work of the other. The US Patent Office couldn't even decide, awarding and stripping patents off both of them during the peak of their bitter scientific rivalry.

When: The existence of radio waves was first discovered in 1873, and by 1901 long-distance radio communication was possible. The 1920s saw the radio become a popular household appliance in the US.

The radio story: The theory of electromagnetism, which found that sound among other things could travel long distances instantly via electromagnetic waves, formed the basis for the invention of radio in the late 19th century. Italian Guglielmo

Marconi used a spark-generator based on Heinrich Hertz's original design to send the first radio signal across a room in 1894, before transmitting a message across the English Channel in 1899. But Marconi's technology incorporated a device invented by Nikola Tesla, who then went to the US Patent Office to secure the sole right of the "Tesla Coil", putting Marconi on the back foot.


Marconi, with the backing of his wealthy family and connections, formed a business to continue pursuing his dream and sent the first radio transmission across the Atlantic in 1901. Surprisingly, perhaps due to Marconi's popularity and power, the US Patent Office stripped Tesla of his patents and awarded Marconi with the rights to the invention of radio. Radio became popular in the early 20th century for entertainment, the mass spreading of information, and international relations. In 1943, Marconi sued the US Government for patent infringement during World War I but the Supreme Court avoided the lawsuit by simply reverting the original patents back to Tesla who had died a few months earlier.

Impact and legacy: The radio was the first technological form of entertainment to be available to the masses. Families in the 1920s would socialise by sitting in front of the fire place and listening to the opera. Advertising on the radio waves was introduced not too long after, and governments began to communicate with their citizens directly. Communication between countries became infinitely easier and,in times of war, allowed commanders to give orders miles away from the battlefield. The radio is not obsolete despite massive technological advances in the past century, highlighting its place as one of the most important innovations of all time.



source:http://www.idealog.co.nz

The gTar-The App Enabled Smart Guitar

  

 There's nothing like the thrill of playing a real musical instrument. Unfortunately for most, learning can be a frustrating and time-consuming experience. That's why gTar was created.

The gTar is a fully digital guitar that makes it easy for anybody to play music, regardless of experience. All you have to do is dock your iPhone in the body (using the modular dock), load up the gTar app, and an array of interactive LEDs along the fretboard will show you how to play.

You may be asking yourself what it means for a guitar to be "digital." While most guitars have pickups to amplify the sound of vibrating strings, the gTar has none - instead, the creators have designed the gTar with sensors that detect exactly what you're playing in real-time and relay each note to your iPhone, which then produces the actual sound. This makes it possible for us to do all kinds of exciting things, so let's get into it!

Multi-Touch LED Fretboard
The gTar's interactive fretboard is the most advanced thing you've never seen on a guitar before. It knows the exact location of your fingers before you even play a note, so not only can the full color LEDs illuminate in different ways to show you where to put your fingers, it can track how well you're doing in real-time as you play.

Smart Strings
To detect notes, the gTar has a set of smart sensors located in the bridge that pick up even the most subtle string movement. You can play the gTar with a pick, your fingers, or with our SmartPick, a new kind of conductive pick with an internal accelerometer that acts as an advanced stylus for the gTar.

 Authentic Guitar Feel
While the gTar doesn't have any pickups, the physical layout and feel is the same as an electric guitar, so all the songs and chord shapes you learn on the gTar are transferable. It's built with a rugged basswood body, maple neck, and uses standard electric guitar strings, so they're easy to replace. But remember, since the gTar is a fully digital instrument, you don't need to worry about keeping the strings in tune.

Fully Hackable
For advanced users, the gTar's USB output and LED input can be hacked in countless ways to create and perform music. The gTar has plug-and-play compatibility with almost any DAW or VST that supports USB-MIDI and for interested developers.

Compatible with Many Apps
Since the gTar outputs CoreMIDI data, it's compatible with dozens of existing apps on iOS, allowing you to learn, create, consume, and everything in between.

Music is, and has always been, a universal language capable of bringing people together. Dissuaded by steep learning curves and an image-driven industry, relatively few of us have the courage to truly express ourselves through music. By empowering anybody with the tools to enjoy, create, and perform music naturally and intuitively, the creators of gTar seek to keep music core to the human experience for everyone.

source:www.incidentgtar.com/

Welcome to our second outlet @ Gopalan Signature Mall(Opp RMZ Infinity) ,Old Madras Road

It was a desire to live by the code, “I’m glad I did” instead of, “I wish I had” that served as the final impetus to take the risk and start our venture Cafe Idly.
The risk of being labelled a social reject in case you fail,the risk of not being to lead the same kind of lifestyle we were used when we were working for a big corporation..etc.etc..

But at the end of it all what matters is that you've got one life and you gotta do what you gotta do.
It fills us with immense excitement and satisfaction to be able to say we have opened our second outlet @ Gopalan Signature Mall, Food Court (Old madras Road) .

Wanna thank you all for all the love and support and those encouraging words that has been a source of inspiration and kept us going all this while.

keep all the love and support pouring in ..thank you guys :)

AirPiano Touch-Free, Sensing Gestural Music Controller

The unveiling of an instrument is quite a rare event in the twenty first century.But there are always exceptions..A revolutionary concept in music technology, the AirPiano is nothing like the familiar set up
of a keyboard instrument. It draws on computer technology for inspiration and is sometimes
referred to by its nickname, ‘the magic plank’. Invented by Israeli musician and engineer Omer Yosha,
the AirPiano was developed in Berlin by Kesem Design and is built from walnut wood, dark red acrylic glass and RoHS compliant components.

The instrument is an innovative MIDI and OSC controller which allows the performer to trigger invisible keys and faders in mid air. There aren’t any actual piano keys so fingers are redundant. Instead hands ‘hover’over the plank, which consists of a set of 8 upward-facing proximity sensors that pick up the distance of a player’s hands from the base unit, sending info to a computer and producing pre-programmed sounds. The sensors create up to 24 virtual keys and 8 virtual faders and the 40 LEDs provide easy orientation and visual feedback. According to the AirPiano website the instrument is ‘the first musical interface to introduce an intuitive and simple touch-free interaction’.

The AirPiano is championed by a Scottish musician and composer Jo Hamiliton. Jo, a multi-instrumentalist, is the first artist in the world to work with the AirPiano. She released her album Gown in September 2009 to critical acclaim and now demonstrates the AirPiano around the world. ‘I am not a particularly tech-minded girl’ she says, ‘I’ve always thought of it as a grid of buttons that hover, invisibly, above this…. plank’. ‘Playing is almost dance-like. You have to think about the choreography of a piece’. ‘What appealed to me first was the simplicity of it, the fact that you were literally plucking sounds out of the air’ says Hamilton. Observing the ‘AirPianist’ in action seems reminiscent of futuristic sci-fi TV programmes like Star Trek. Good spatial awareness seems necessary as does refined limb control and movement.

The instrument produces no sound on its own; it has to be linked up to a computer and it isn’t for the inexperienced beginner. Musicians who enjoy experimenting with different sounds and concepts will love this idea. It certainly has a novelty value and is an interesting and innovative addition to the music technology scene.


source:morethanthemusic.com and www.airpiano.de

UK Band name called Karnataka?

UK Band name called Karnataka?,yes you heard it right,there is a UK(United Kingdom)band named after our beloved state.

Karnataka were formed in 1997 by founding members, Ian Jones (bass/acoustic guitar), Jonathan Edwards (keyboards) and Rachel Jones (vocals). The band started as a project to record songs in Ian’s home studio, that had been written and performed by Jonathan, Rachel and Ian in earlier bands. The project was augmented by additional musicians, Paul Davies (electric guitars) and Gavin Griffiths (drums), who had played with other members of Karnataka in earlier bands.
At the end of the recording the decision was made to continue the project as a band. The name Karnataka was chosen by the band, from a suggestion by Ian, following his trips to that region of India.

The five-piece recorded what would become their debut album, Karnataka in 1997. In the beginning, the band had no thought of actually releasing the album — they made the recording for their own pleasure. As they started to play live shows in their new configuration, however, word of mouth ensured that an increasing number of people started asking for copies.

It was recommended to the band that they send a copy of the album to Martin Hudson at the Classic Rock Society. Martin gave the band their first break by positively reviewing the album in the society’s magazine, and then offering them a gig for the Classic Rock Society in Rotherham, supporting the Genesis tribute band ReGenesis in 1999. The show was a success and Karnataka were offered another support with Jump in October 1999. Encouraged, the band had already started writing the material that would eventually appear on their second album, The Storm

Since then they have released two more projects 'Delicate Flame of Desire' (2003) and 'The Gathering Light' (2010) and live album called Strange Behaviour (2004)

Karnataka were recently voted 2nd in the ‘Best Of 2012 Live Acts’ category on the Get Ready To ROCK website !.

Here is one of the famous tracks 'The Storm'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdw-EanLja0

For more info on the band you can visit their website
http://karnataka.org.uk/home.php

Karnataka's facebook page link:
https://www.facebook.com/KarnatakaOfficial

Listen to their songs
http://www.last.fm/music/Karnataka

Absolute Essentials For Your Band’s Website.

These days having a web site with a user friendly platform like WordPress is as simple as paying for hosting and following the instructions. And yet, many bands and artists do not present themselves well on their websites. A site doesn’t need to be fancy, it just needs to tell your story as fully as possible and let people know how to get in touch.


Here are 10 things every band or individual musician’s web site needs:

• Homepage: Ever go to a band’s website and find yourself in the middle of a tour blog or a six-month old item on a festival gig, or a full-page photo and bio of the bass player, or a year-old list of dates? The message this presents is that the band is careless, lazy or disorganized, and possibly all three. Your web site should always open to a homepage that is a map of your site, with a great, representative photo, headlines that convey your essential message, something folks can read and a variety of buttons with titles like “music,” “video,” “store,” “tour dates,” “press” and the like, that will take visitors to that information with the click of a mouse.

• Bio: Nothing tells your or your band’s story like the story of you or your band. Write an exceptional bio or have one commissioned, and either give it a dedicated page or put it under an obvious category, like “press.” Fans want to know about you, but more important, so do journalists who might write about your band or agents who are considering hiring you for shows. Those professionals don’t want a mystery; they want information, fast.

• Gigs: Update your gigs regularly — weekly, if they are being constantly added to your schedule — and list them all, even if they are private events. (Listing the latter lets people know you are available for private events, which are typically more lucrative than club shows.) A full schedule also sends the positive message that you are a working band or performer and tells fans when you are visiting their region or simply playing next, so they can put your shows in their calendars. Few things puncture your credibility as much as a list of expired dates or no dates at all.

• News or blog: This can be a blog that lets fans know what you’re up to, or the place that tells the world at large about new albums, tours, endorsements and other news. Real bands and musicians have active careers with things worth writing about. Those things should be trumpeted.

• Contact information: Let people know how to reach you. Fans like to contact the artists they follow, and you might find that engaging regularly with people who want to know more about the music and gear you play and love via email is rewarding. Also, people who want to book your band or contact you for other business reasons need your email address or phone number. If you’ve got a booking agent and manager, include their contact info, too.

• Videos: Having a video page is important. Today, most booking agents want to see a performance video before they will consider hiring an unfamiliar band. Don’t let YouTube be your curator. Present your favorite videos on your own page.

• Downloadable photos: On-line and print media publications that write about you or your band will often need band or artists photos, and possibly a jpeg of your latest album cover. It’s important to have these readily available to be downloaded at a moment’s notice. You never know when the listings section of the local paper is going to find a hole to fill when it’s about to go to press, or when an editor working on a story past midnight will decide he or she needs a photo. So be sure you have a selection of downloadable high-resolution jpegs available.

• Music: This, like video, is crucial. You can offer downloadable MP3s if you want, but all that’s essential is streaming files of your music. Everybody needs to know what you sound like.

• Merchandise: You can set up a comprehensive store — CDs, shirts, coasters, mugs, baseball caps, whatever — on your website by partnering with companies that specialize in providing custom shops, including ebay. If you’re just selling CDs, at least install a link to Amazon, CD Baby or some other source that’s selling your discs online. By the way, online sales of downloads are essential, although if you’re in a market that caters to an older audience, like blues or Americana, then making physical CDs available is also a requirement.

• Social media: As important as it is to have your own website, it’s also important to have a presence on popular social media. So place links to your Facebook, MySpace, etc., pages on your website, too.

Credit: http://www2.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/10-Absolute-Essentials-For-Your-Band-Website.aspx

Recording Industry on Growth path,Manages a Sliver of Growth for the First Time Since 1999

For the First Time Since Napster, Music Sales Are Growing

The last time music was a growth business was 1999 — back when people bought millions of Britney Spears CDs,and GeoCities was the third-most popular Web property in the world. You know what’s happened since then.

But music’s slide may have finally stopped. Last year, recorded-music sales inched up 0.3 percent worldwide, to $16.5 billion, according to industry trade group IFPI. That’s the first time global sales have increased since the Napster era, and it echoes bumps we’ve seen earlier in the U.S. and other markets.

According to the report from the IFPI, growth is being driven by digital revenue, which was up 9-percent in 2012. That digital sales accounts for $5.6 billion in revenue, which is just over one-third of the total. A full 70-percent of the digital total comes from online download stores like iTunes, which means that despite their millions of users, subscription-based services like Spotify and Pandora aren't generating nearly as much industry-sustaining revenue as some of them would have you think.

If the growth sustains, it means that the predictions we’ve been hearing for a decade and a half have finally come true: Digital sales are increasing fast enough to outpace the decline in physical. Last year, digital grew 9 percent and accounted for 34 percent of revenue.

Some of that growth comes from the rise of subscription services like Spotify and Deezer, which now represent more than 10 percent of worldwide digital revenue. But digital sales are still primarily about iTunes and download sales, which account for 70 percent of the total. Sales on iTunes have been flattening for some time in the U.S., but as Apple expands internationally, its numbers keep growing.

And just like last year, the music industry is also a synonym for the Adele industry. Just like last year, her “21? album was the world’s best-seller, moving 8.3 million units (this would have been a pretty good number in 1999, too). Taylor Swift’s “Red” came in second with 5.2 million units. Brit boy band of the moment One Direction had the next two spots, with total sales close to nine million.

Either way, growth is growth. Congrats to the music industry on its .3-percent bump.

source:allthingsd.com/

Why people love listening to new music. Revealed!

.




A new study has identified the specific brain activity that makes new music rewarding and predicts the decision to purchase music.
The study was conducted at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro, McGill University.

Participants in the study listened to 60 previously unheard music excerpts while undergoing functional resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning, providing bids of how much they were willing to spend for each item in an auction paradigm.

“When people listen to a piece of music they have never heard before, activity in one brain region can reliably and consistently predict whether they will like or buy it, this is the nucleus accumbens which is involved in forming expectations that may be rewarding,” said lead investigator Dr. Valorie Salimpoor, who conducted the research in Dr. Robert Zatorre’s lab at The Neuro and is now at Baycrest Health Sciences’ Rotman Research Institute.

“What makes music so emotionally powerful is the creation of expectations. Activity in the nucleus accumbens is an indicator that expectations were met or surpassed, and in our study we found that the more activity we see in this brain area while people are listening to music, the more money they are willing to spend,” Salimpoor stated.
The second important finding is that the nucleus accumbens doesn’t work alone, but interacts with the auditory cortex, an area of the brain that stores information about the sounds and music we have been exposed to.

In other words, the brain assigns value to music through the interaction of ancient dopaminergic reward circuitry, involved in reinforcing behaviours that are absolutely necessary for our survival such as eating and sex, with some of the most evolved regions of the brain, involved in advanced cognitive processes that are unique to humans.

The study was published in the journal Science.

Credit: http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/1821751/report-revealed-why-people-love-listening-to-new-music