COULD A DAILY DOSE OF RED WINE REDUCE ONE'S RISK OF DEPRESSION. An enticing new study from BMC Medicine reports that people over 55 who drink a little alcohol, averaging about a glass – generally of wine – per day, are less likely to be clinically depressed than those who drink more and those who don’t drink at all. The study comes in direct contrast to many earlier studies that have found an opposite effect: That drinking is more often associated with increased risk for depression. While are some legitimate reasons that wine could have some slight beneficial effects on depression risk, before you go picking up the habit if it’s not already there, it’s important to understand not only the reasons behind the connection, but also the risks involved. The new study followed 5,000 Spanish men and women between 55 and 80 for about seven years, periodically querying them about their lifestyle habits via questionnaires and doctor visits. No one suffered from depression or alcohol use disorders at the beginning of the study. At the end of the seven years, about 443 people had become depressed. It turned out that low-to-moderate alcohol consumption was linked to reduced risk of depression: People who drank between two and seven glasses of wine per week seemed to derive the greatest benefit, having a third the risk of being depressed as people who did not drink. Moderate drinkers also had lower risk of depression, but it wasn’t as large as the low-to- moderate group. The results held true even after multiple lifestyle factors were controlled for, such as smoking, marital status, age, physical activity level, and diet, which can all influence depression risk. Heavy drinkers seemed to have an increased risk of depression, although there were too few of these people in the study to say for sure. If the connection really does exist, one explanation might have to do with the neuroprotective effects of the antioxidants in wine, like resveratrol, which has gotten a lot of attention in recent years. “Lower amounts of alcohol intake might exert protection in a similar way to what has been observed for coronary heart disease,” said author Miguel A. Martínez- González in a statement. “In fact, it is believed that depression and coronary heart disease share some common disease mechanisms.” The mechanisms Martínez-González mentions have to do with inflammation, which is known to be a central cause of heart disease, and there is increasing evidence for its role in depression as well. The polyphenol antioxidants in wine could help repair inflammatory damage to the brain that has contributed to depression. “Previous investigations suggest that the hippocampal complex may play a role in the development of major depression,” say the authors. “This neuroprotection applied to the hippocampus may prevent moderate wine drinkers from developing depression.” Another explanation, which is unrelated to the content of wine, might have to do with social factors, which have long been known to influence depression risk. People who enjoy a glass of wine or two might be more likely to be doing so in a crowd of people. Write the authors, the study’s cohort “includes an older, traditional Spanish Mediterranean population, that consumed chiefly wine, and mainly in a context of socialization with family or friends.” Enjoying a rich social life has been well illustrated to reduced depression risk, and could easily influence the results seen here. Finally, also important to keep in mind is the large body of evidence suggesting that alcohol and depression are linked adversely, with one increasing the risk of the other. It may also be the case that some people, because of genes and environment, are predisposed to problems with both – so in essence there could be a third variable at play, which might increase one’s likelihood of alcohol use and of depression. For all of these reasons, the results should be taken with caution. This is especially true since they were, after all, derived from a relatively restricted sample of people in a Spanish Mediterranean population, none of whom had ever had depression, and who were all over 55 years old. So how the results would relate, if at all, to a more inclusive sample is largely unknown. As with most studies looking at a particular ingestible item – wine, coffee, sugar, fat – to look for a single answer is perhaps naïve. Alcohol does not likely reduce the risk of depression across the board, since there are so many other variables, like quantity, type, and existing health and mental health conditions. So the best advice might be that if you enjoy a glass of red wine every now and then, you might do well to continue for the health of your heart and brain. But if you’re not a fan, it’s not worth picking up the habit, since it carries with it a number of risks that just aren’t worth messing around with.

TOURISM DESTINATION FOR THE WEEK You can make a visit to the Nekede Zoo. This is located at the old Nekede in Owerri and is a complex, fully-equipped garden. Visitors can admire here different types of animals, from Ostrich, Lions and Monkeys to Pythons, Guerrillas and Crocodiles. Owerri people are friendly, hospitable and always out to help visitors to the city and the natural beauty with mangrove trees, rainforests and scenic locations . All hotels in the Owerri require visitors to pay on arrival before going to their room. However, it is advisable to pay in cash and avoid credit card usage as credit cards are not widely accepted. Owerri metropolis and the new business district of the city are among the best places to find an accommodation in the city. November 8, 2012 Tags: animals, eco-tourism, imo, nigeria, owerri, vegetation, wildlife, zoo Category: Imo, Nature, Tourist Attractions, Tourist Destinations, Wildlife Comments Off GASHAKA-GUMTI

1. You will get to innovate. Things move fast in startup land. A young company can change its entire focus overnight (which is elegantly referred to as a “pivot”). Most of the time, though, changes are small but pronounced, tweaks in branding and efficiency that when added up make the difference between a long run success and short-term black hole for friend and family money. Nowhere else in big-company grown-up world will you be able to wake up with a brilliant idea and make it happen before the day’s second Starbucks run. And if you spot a wrench in whatever grand scheme the company is trying to accomplish, you’ll actually be able to do something about it, so nothing feels like wasted time (except all the Starbucks runs). 2. But you will also be required to innovate. Wake-up epiphanies are excellent, but they come along pretty rarely. Most of the time, ideas don’t come so easy, but they’re still vital to a startup’s success. If you’re hired by a startup — and especially if you start the darn thing yourself — you’ll be expected to make things work better. When the ideas come hard, you’ll start looking for inspiration anywhere and everywhere: competitors, Thursday night comedies, the murderous blue eyes of a neighborhood cat. Eventually, you’ll form all kinds of systems to over-clock your cortex into creative nirvana. But expect some literal headache along the way. 3. You’ll learn a lot about a particular field. Most if not all startups are out to “disrupt a space,” meaning they want to provide a product or service that changes the way people interact with something in their everyday lives. The first step when joining a startup is to familiarize yourself with their space and all its beautiful little nooks and crannies. There’s no certificate to mark this amazing depth of knowledge, but at least you’ll be able to figure out when people are making things up about your newfound area of expertise. 4. But there’s no structure. You’ll walk into work without a middle manager peering down your neck and refilling your “to-do” list like a Chili’s Bottomless Margarita. Sounds awesome — and it is, at least for the first week. But soon you’ll discover you have to create your work. You’re not a cog anymore; you’re a recently employed machine that has to see tasks through from inception to implementation (and then follow up with your pet projects every hour until the end of time). And you’ll love the schedule flexibility, except when you put everything off until Thursday night and become your region’s largest buyer of Red Bull just to catch up. 5. Coworkers become your new best buds. People who work for startups are young, energetic minds with tolerances for caffeine and alcohol that would make Hunter S. Thompson nod in guarded approval. They’re “your kind of people,” and post-work happy hours will become an integral part of your social life before that first week is up. 6. And they’ll also become your weird new family . Bankers ain’t got nothing on startup hours. You’ll see enough of these people to qualify the office for a group civil union. 7. Get used to buzzwords. They are, in only the slightest particular order: scrappy, disruptive, crowdsourced, influential, engaged, viral, and monetized. Think of them as the seven dwarves of new commerce. 8. No one knows when it stops being a startup. Probably the most annoying part of the whole deal. Is it based on age? Success? Number of employees? First user privacy violation? Actually, it’s probably the last one. 9. Don’t do it for the money. There are many awesome things about working for a small, growing company. You’ll make connections, you’ll meet cool people who ask difficult questions, and you’ll have to solve puzzles you’d never face at a bigger operation. Work hard, and you’ll get to make a big impact on something that could potentially change the world (or more likely, the world for people who really need or want whatever you’re building). But the chances of cashing in big are very, very small, even if you’re one of the first people in the door; a later addition with rarer skills can command a higher salary and more stock, if the latter is even on the table. And you’ll never get paid what you’re really worth. So why should you work for a startup? Do it because you are passionate about what the company believes in and genuinely think you can make it work better. Do it for the unparalleled experience you’ll gain forcing yourself to learn everything there is to know about an industry you find fascinating. Do it for the new friends and borderline inappropriate office jokes that just won’t fly on Wall Street. And don’t forget that hidden among the million thoughts you’ll have every day when working at a company someone else founded, you might just find the beginning of your own great idea.

Below are some of the most important tips when considering making an investment in a startup company. 1) Invest in a domain you know. One of the best ways to reduce risk is to understand the market that startup operates in. This will provide you with a better sense when projecting the potential success of the venture. Make sure that the business has a scalable model so that it can grow to a level in which you will be able to get your money back as an investor. 2) Drill into the track record of the founders. The people behind the company are the most critical factor, especially for early stage companies. This is mainly due to the fact that products need to be iterated several times until they are able to find where they fit in the market. Just like Jim Collins’ book “From Good To Great”, it is all about having the right people sitting in the right seat. Eventually they will end up finding the right direction. Here you want to focus on their background story (previous companies, education, etc.) and what type of value they bring to the table. 3) Diversify your investments. Instead of putting all your eggs in the same basket make multiple investments. This will increase your possibilities of success and will also help to reduce the risk involved. It will also increase your chances of getting your money back with some returns at a liquidity event such as a public offering or an acquisition by another company. In the end, these investments are for the long run so try to be patient. 4) Join an equity crowdfunding platform to get access to deal flow. If you are struggling to find deals, the best way to remedy that is to go online. By registering on investment platforms you will be able to navigate different deals. Especially if you are new to startup investing, you may want to see as many deals as possible before pulling the trigger. It is important to learn about the market before making any type of investments. 5) Examine the monetization strategy. The first dollar is what really matters. As an investor it is critical to see how the company is going to be able to scale down the line. The startup in question needs to be charging for its service at a reasonable price. There is no point to investing in a company that cannot sustain itself financially so a clear path to monetization is key. 6) Explore the market. It is absolutely critical to see what competition the startup has and what kind of competitive advantage they have been able to put in place in order to beat everyone else in the race. The competition could acquire the startup instead of cloning their work, so investigating the appetite in the market could be beneficial. Moreover, you want to make sure that the startup is operating in a big market. The founding team should be focused on customer development and they should definitely listen to what clients are saying. Feedback is key in the event the startup needs to pivot or iterate the product until they get it right. The specific idea is not as important as the team’s approach, and the size of the market. 7) Investigating the financials. Calculating projections to 5 years is almost impossible but the founding team should be able to at least showcase the roadmap of how they want to build the story towards becoming a profitable company. It is very interesting at this point to review the burn rate of the company and if what they are doing with their money actually makes sense. 8) Research their use of funds. As an investor, you need to understand what, why, and how the startup intends to spend the money. Having a good idea of what to do in this section would give you a better sense when testing the entrepreneur’s vision. In addition, review the salaries and see how much the founder intends to pay himself/herself. For a seed round, the absolute maximum salary should be $150,000 (depending on the amount raised and the experience of course). Also, try to understand if the funds that the startup is raising would be enough to accomplish important milestones that could help the company to either become profitable or to raise additional rounds of financing. 9) Review the legal documents. Look at the articles of incorporation, by-laws if available, investor agreement, subscription agreement, term sheet, etc… This step is all about getting familiar with how the company is structured and who is involved (directors, investors, advisors). Additionally, here is where you want to pay special attention to how the startup has structured the deal and what percentage of ownership in the company you are receiving for the amount of money that you are investing. To conclude, as a potential investor in a startup company you should follow your gut. Ask yourself if this business addresses a real concern or problem in the marketplace, and bottom line, if it makes sense. If you do not see a real usage, you should definitely move on without hesitation. Additionally, never invest money that you cannot afford to lose.

Starting A Business? Start A Blog First! If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur looking to start your own business, I’ve got some advice for you. Start a blog before you start a business. I know what you’re thinking, “Why would I start a blog when I should be focused on starting my business?” To be honest, that’s a perfectly good question, but as an entrepreneur I’m going to need you to think outside the box. Let’s start with an assumption: The year is 2013 and unless you’re operating a lemonade stand in the neighborhood, you’re going to need a website or some sort of web presence to compete and succeed in business. Now of course there are exceptions to this rule. Warren Buffet is famous for working at a desk that doesn’t have a computer anywhere near it. The Berkshire Hathaway website also looks like it’s straight out of the year 1995 (It probably hasn’t changed much since) but you’re also not Warren Buffet. Now that we agree that you’ve got to have some sort of web presence, the question is “what type of web presence should you have?” Sure Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus are great but there’s not much substance on these sites. You can’t possibly express yourself in 140 characters or less either. You need a way to brand yourself, interact and educate your prospective customers, and retain complete control over your message. The best way to do this is through a blog. We also need to make a second assumption: The world of marketing has changed and it’s largely due to a fundamental shift in consumer behavior. What does that mean? In the good old days companies were able to buy, beg, and bug consumers in order to push products and brand messages. Today, consumers are increasingly less responsive to intrusive form of marketing. We have spam folders to filter our inboxes, “Do Not Call” lists to stop the telemarketers, and television viewers can even skip commercials these days. So what does this all mean for you and your business? Because the world of marketing has changed, you must also change the way you market your business. Today you can’t buy, beg and bug consumers. Instead you have to earn their interest and the best way to do that is through education and thought leadership. What is the best way to educate prospective customers and exert yourself as a thought leader today? Well through a blog of course! A blog is a platform that will allow you to speak about trends in your industry, the many features and benefits of your product / service, and inform your customers about company news. You can even start blogging before your business has launched. Blogging is a great way to build hype and mystery around a company or product launch. You can allude to the many awesome benefits and features of your new product / service without revealing what the product or service actually is. While you building hype you can also start to build a mailing list for people interested in receiving more information about your launch. By doing so you’ve effectively started marketing before your company has even launched! Blogging only works well if you spend some serious time on generating some epic content. Think of your blog as a brochure on steroids. Remember brochures? Those three-paneled printouts that told you all about a company and their products and services? Well your blog is your brochure but instead of talking all about yourself (no one likes a person who talks all about themselves) make sure you give insight about your industry. Talk about the future, the past, and where you fit into the picture. Make predictions and make bold statements. Encourage and inspire your readers. Another thing – don’t just blog for yourself. Write some awesome content and ask the trade journal in your industry to post your content on their blog. Find another big blogger in your industry and ask them to post your content with a link back to your site. Becoming a guest blogger will help you build an audience and again, you can do this before you’ve even launched your company. What’s more is that blogging is one of the most cost effective forms of marketing. Besides the time it takes you to write your content, blogging is easy and cheap. Think of blogging as an investment. If you spend time, do your research, and write great content, it will yield you high-returns in the form of increased traffic, new customers, and lots of revenue. If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur you’d be wise to spend some time blogging before starting your business. After all, without a solid sales or marketing plan, your million dollar idea isn’t worth a million dollars, is it? This post was written by Jordan Fried. Jordan is an avid blogger and internet marketing consultant. He writes about online marketing, blogging, and inspiration for entrepreneurs at JordanFried.com. You can also follow Jordan on Twitter @JordanFried

How to Find Your First Consulting

How to Find Your First Consulting

After quite a few years in this business I would say that there are two important sources of contacts for getting that first contract - recruiters and acquaintances. If you had asked me a few years ago, I would have said that acquaintances and people you network with would be the primary source, but nowadays I actually think that reputable consulting recruiters are the best bet. This is a personal opinion, however, and this may differ for everyone depending on circumstances. When you are out to get that first contract however, the task may seem daunting, especially if you haven't really networked too much before. Again, most resources I've found out there are really too general to be of much use - telling you to network is fine, but giving specific pointers on where and how is more constructive. My goal is to be more specific. Here are some ideas to help you get on your way%u2026

LET PEOPLE KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE --> this is a general tip - there are many ways of doing this including letting your co-workers and friends know, speaking with employers and family friends, even people you know only slightly but who have worked with you in some capacity in the past. You never know who will be that great lead so spread the word and don't be afraid. Attend a few networking events, for example - such events are in every town I've ever lived in, and they can be found through contacting your local business owners association, chamber of commerce, or doing a search under "business networking" on the Internet (make sure you add your local coordinates like the name of your city or neighbourhood). There are also many workshops for entrepreneurs and small-business owners, as well as consultants that can be found through local small-business organizations, colleges (often under "continuing education") and other businesses in the area. I have no idea why but many of my own networking contacts were made through local real-estate agents - they tend to know everyone.

IF YOU SPECIALIZE, IT BECOMES EASIER TO FIND THE FIRST GIG --> if, as I suggested in the "7 Steps" article, you really focus your full-time work on the area of interest, you will, almost by default, make the networking connections you will need when you're ready to start out on your own.

BLOGS, INTERNET, EMAIL --> the Internet is a beautiful thing - and as a consultant you'd be smart to use it. First of all, I would recommend a personal website - simple websites can be made easily using accessible tools like Apple's iWeb (can you tell I am a Mac devotee?) or any of the multitude of other resources. A personal website can do a couple of things - expose you to potential employers/ recruiters (especially if you are smart and use keywords that index your site at the top of search engines), and legitimate your purpose and your business. Joining online newsgroups and lists that deal with consulting issues in your area is also a good idea, as is emailing people/companies online that peak your interest. Finally, if you are a gmail user, you can set up "google alerts" which send messages to your gmail account based on your keywords of interest e.g. consulting jobs.

UTILIZING ONLINE RECRUITMENT BOARDS --> this is a topic in itself, but a really short introduction will help to get your feet wet. In theory, recruitment boards are an easy way to find a job - you post your resume (either upload it or fill out the particular board's online resume form) and then you wait. Experienced consultants will usually be flooded with calls from recruiters for their particular skills. New consultants, unless they are in a very sought after specialty, tend to be flooded with various phone calls, including marketing ones, that might not really offer good leads. At the same time, the boards allow you more input in where you want to work, how you want to work, and so on, for example, on most you can choose the geographical area you're most interested in. However, the boards are a great place to start, post your resume, and update it as you gain experience - eventually you'll start getting the calls you want!!

Some good board to try are www.hotjobs.com, niche boards (doing a search on your particular specialty will usually do it),www.dice.com (for IT jobs), and www.hotgigs.com. www.jobster.com is also excellent because it will pull jobs for you from several different boards.

RESUME ISSUES --> one of the main issues you might think you have is a lack of "experience" as a consultant - and in many cases it will be an issue. You can, however, adjust your resume to reflect your skills rather than experience - at least until you have a couple of contracts under your belt. In this way you are showing a potential employer what you have to offer - essentially you are selling your knowledge and yes, it will be a bit tougher, but as I keep on repeating - consulting is not for the faint of heart. You just keep on trying.