3,700 Year Old Vintage Wine Produced by the Caanites

When people talk of vintage wines they don’t often discuss vintage wine in the range of 3,700 years old. Of course the really good stuff is not available for everyone. Within an archeological dig of a Canaanite palace in Israel the expensive wine was kept separate from that discounted stuff for others. The ceramic jars appear to be left for special occasions. They did not find any wine review lists to go with them so researchers will need to investigate how sophisticated the wine making process was. 

What they did find was that it was likely mixed up with honey, mint, cedar, juniper berries and cinnamon bark. They also found psychotropic properties within the wine.  The psychotropic properties made the drinkers hallucinate. It was often used for parties and religious purposes to gain visionary abilities. 

 The 40 jars would hold about 13 gallons a piece and seemed to be in smaller quantities than that found else ware.  No other details have been presented on the wine making process other than it is possible this was the start of a sophisticated operation that spread to other Middle East countries. 

The excavation was run by Dr. Eric Cline a chair at the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civiliations at George Washing University, Assaf Yasure-Landau, chair of the Department of Maritime Civilizaiton at the University of Haifa, and Andrew Koh, an assistant professor of classical studies at Brandeis University. Each brought a unique skill to the dig site and used their expertise to understand what they were discovering. 

The city is called Tel Kabri which is an ancient city that dates back to 1,500 BC in the Canaanite areas. Most of the Canaanite people live in Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Palestine.  They have existed in the region from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age and were seen as merchants. It is possible that ancient Egyptians got their wine from them. They were loosely affiliated in walled cities but climate changes and incursion seems to have caused their fall. 

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Wine Review: Frontier Red 90 by Fez Parker

Frontier Red Wine is a complex and smooth wine that mixes ripe cherry and grapes with vanilla and black licorice to create a unique taste. It is mixed with many of the ingredients Americans love without the high tannin aftertaste. Legs are long and quick while the color is nearly a purple red. Even though it is medium bodied its acidity is light making it a nice everyday wine for under $13. 

As a blend Syrah, Petite Syrah and Rhone varietals it is a wine that represents American individualism and developed for your backyard BBQ or outdoor adventure. No need for a corkscrew as it is designed with a twist top making it convenient for all of those cowboys out there sitting around the open fire. The flavors are designed to appeal to the Wild West palate and enough pepper to put some zip into it. 

The Fez Paker Winery and Vineyards is located in Los Olivos California. The winery started with Fez Parker was cast in the role of Davy Crocket and thereafter purchased a 700+ acre winery.  They offer an inn, spa, wine tasting and tours. You may read more about their establishment and winery on their blog at http://www.fessparkerwines.com/Blog

Understanding the Gifted Adult and College Student

Turning young gifted people into adult producers is part of a range of factors based within both their environment and personality traits. The author Paula Olszewski-Kubilius presents a model that explains key traits that make this population unique. Helping college students understand giftedness and manifest their abilities promotes a more creative adult that can foster industry, and at times, national growth. 

"The unifying similarity among geniuses and innovators is not cognitive or affective but motivational. What is common among them is the unwillingness or inability to strive for goals everyone else accepts--their refusal to live by a presented life theme (Csikszentmihalyi ,1985, p. 114). Gifted individuals create their own paths in life and are not willing to accept the paths others believe they should have. 

Two types of gifted adults often emerge. Those who come from intact families are scholastically advanced while those who do not become more creative. Scholastic adults are great at earning higher grades while creative adults find new ways of doing things. Each has a positive benefit on society. Their abilities are manifested based upon their motivations. It is this motivation that makes all the differences between over achievement and underachievement. 

Gifted adults have some traits based in their biological, psychological and social development. Each seeks to create something within their lives in a long developing destiny. It is an internal feeling that pushes them to continue to create, develop and master. To understand those traits that are common to gifted children and adults it can help administrators understand how to fully bloom this group for the advancement of society. 

Time Alone:  Gifted adults often seek out time alone based upon both their psychological processes as well as their childhood environments. They use this time to solve complex problems, gain skills, read, learn and experiment. 

Thriving off Stress: Geniuses do not develop well when things are boring and conventional. They seek out stress and have developed advanced methods of dealing with that stress. They keep seeking improvement where others have long accepted the “status qua”.  

Rejection of Conventionality: Conventionality requires people to follow societal rules and these rules based more in tradition than in practicality. Those who reject conventionality have different points of view that make them more creative and unique. 

Intellectual Stimulation as Emotional Expression: Highly gifted adults use past experiences to create higher levels of intellectual stimulation.  These activities are expressions of who they are and the problems they have faced in their lives. 

Olszewski-Kubilius, P. (2000). The transition from childhood giftedness to adult creative productiveness: psychological characteristics and social supports. Roeper Review, 23 (2).

British Report Indicates that Higher Education Has Economic and Social Benefits

A British report on Higher Education entitled the “Quadrants” helps bring forward the idea that higher education has many secondary benefits beyond earning higher incomes. Education is often a process of learning about how to make money but it can also be seen as a process of personal enrichment. According to the November report from the UK Department for Business and Innovation Skills this enrichment makes its way into society in substantial ways. 

Direct benefits of education often include characteristics, social interaction, and accreditation and signaling benefits. The person develops to a higher level through advanced education. They are more able to deal with others as well as stronger in their marketability. Likewise, their personal characteristics become enhanced. 

An increase in the educational attainment in society has a marked wider benefit for society itself. Crime statistics, health, happiness, and just about everything else improves. Societal conflict decreases as members are more capable in understand differences. They are also generally less angry with immigrants and can navigate a way to deal with others.  This ability to see other perspectives increases civil activity and social cohesiveness. 

Businesses are particularly interested in economic growth and development. Approximately 20% of UK growth between 1982 and 2005 was a result of higher graduate skill levels. As each percentage point of society (1%) becomes educated the long-run productivity increases between .2% and .5%. On a higher level this means that 1/3^rd of all labor productivity between 1994 and 2005 were a result of higher education. 

The argument the report brings forward is that graduates in the regional economies improve the economy and lifestyles more than their expenses. This would mean there is an advantage to encouraging students to get an education and then work within the market they graduated from. Retaining these students within the country improves productivity and economic activity.

The three industries that seem to hire more graduates are innovative firms that engage in research, financial industries and creative industries. Innovative firm’s hire science graduates while financial and creative industries hire graduates from other areas. Those industries that are innovative, financial oriented or creative hire over double the graduates than other industries.

For those who seek to spark higher levels of entrepreneurship it is important to consider the report’s findings that higher educated people are more likely to engage in entrepreneurial activity. The productivity and training gains are twice the rise of wages which means companies get a higher return rate.  The economy has an easier time expanding when there is a willing and education workforce to do the heavy lifting.

Reference:

UK Department for Business and Innovation Skills (2013). The Benefits of Higher Education Participation for Individuals and Society: key findings and reports "The Quadrants".  (Bis Research Paper 146) Retrieved November 21, 2013 from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/254101/bis-13-1268-benefits-of-higher-education-participation-the-quadrants.pdf

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Book Review: Nice Guys can get the Corner Office

The Book Nice Guys can Get the Corner Office by Russ Edelman, Timothy Hiltabiddle, and Charles Manz delves into the concept that nice guys often allow the self-interest of others to damage their careers and steal their opportunities. Nice guys are naturally seeking to do what is right but they unfortunately live within a world where not so nice guys seek personal advantage without following the golden rules. In society, we have unfortunately rewarded such poor behavior at our own corporate and economic peril. 

Sixty percent of people feel they are too nice in the workplace. This belief includes the concept that nice guys have morals, compassion, and sincerity but are often drowned out by more needy members. Once nice guys decide to put their foot down they become an asset to an organization as they have the right values mixed with enough conflict management abilities to ensure their voice is heard. 

The chapters are broken up to Self-Awareness, Speaking-up, Set Boundaries, Confront, Choose, Expect Results, Be Bold, and Win. Each person should be first self-aware about how their positive disposition is a possible door mat invitation for others to wipe their feet. Human needs are endless and without a check and a balance people will continue to take advantage of others in their search for self gratification.

Once someone is aware they can speak up and make their needs known it changes their viewpoint. Doing so gives others the opportunity to understand that there is more than one person in the room. If the other person simply discards their needs the nice guy will naturally need to confront the other person and set boundaries. If they cross those boundaries there will be further confrontation and they will take appropriate action. 

Within any group of people there are those that seek self-gratification at the cost of just about everything in their environment. They have not learned or set limits for themselves based upon a lack of an internal compass. In a “me first” world it is necessary to remind others that they have responsibilities to act civilly and in the spirit of a greater good. That doesn’t mean they don’t have rights to earn the things they need but that such pursuits should not be so consuming as to burn in flames the world around them. 

Nice guys are an asset to any organization and know how to play nicely with others. Unfortunately, who are often promoted are the least intelligence, least capable, and the most demanding members of an organization. Nice guys should learn to stand up and say “no” in order to ensure that their needs are satisfied. Through the development of equitable work relationships organizations can flourish as each person searches out performance opportunities to succeed while keeping the bigger picture in mind. 

Edelman, et. al. (2008) Nice guys can get the corner office. UK; Penguin Books