Riesling Wine

The most famous cool climates for Riesling wine are in Germany, Austria, and the Alsace region of France. In these places, Riesling wine can be dazzling, with intense mineral and peach flavors and breathtaking clarity and transparency. Similarly, the cool vineyards of upper New York state, Washington, Ontario, British Columbia, and New Zealand can produce elegant Riesling wine.

Riesling wines can span a broad range of styles, being produced in both dry and sweet variations. Riesling wine aromas lean towards the fruity-side with apple, peach and pear standing at the forefront mixed with delicate floral undertones.

Riesling wine grapes need cooler climates and they produce both refreshing light-bodied wines and full-bodied table wines to pair with the greatest cuisine. Riesling wine has a very high natural acidity, which both balances the sugar in sweeter wines and acts as a preservative for long ageing.

Riesling wines tend to pick up flavoring from the mineral content in the soils they are grown in, making it common for hints of slate or stone to make their way into the aroma and flavor of Riesling wines. True Riesling wines have two dominant aliases, Johannisberg Riesling and White Riesling both of which refer to the authentic Riesling made from the Riesling grape.

Riesling Wine Tip:

Riesling wine is brilliant with fish, shell-fish, poultry, cold meat and dishes such as sauerkraut or smoked ham.

Wine Ratings - Wine ratings, wine and winery related information for the enjoyment of fine wines.

Get Uncle Sam To Pay $36,000 For Your Childs Education!

Let's assume that you would like to begin saving for your children's education fund. At the end of each year, for the next 8 years, you will contribute $2,000 into a Coverdell Education Savings Account (Education IRA), using your after-tax dollars. The money grows tax-free, and neither the contribution nor the interest is taxed when you make a withdrawal, as long as you use it for education purposes.

By the end of 17 years, your Education IRA will have accumulated to just over $86,000. Contrast this with your fully taxable non-IRA account which would have grown to only $50,000. That is a $36,000 difference!

Today, the average 4-year cost of education at a public college in the country is around $38,000. In 18 years it is projected to be close to $86,000. Costs for private education are even higher.

This example illustrates that, by funding your child's education using an Education IRA earning 14% with after-tax contributions of $2,000 in each of the first 8 years of your child's life, you can put an extra $36,000 into your child's future rather than Uncle Sam's pocket!

There would be enough in the IRA account to pay for the entire projected 4-year education costs.

Now, when your child begins their college education, as you draw from the account each year to pay for expenses, and re-invest the remaining funds, at the end of your child's 4th year of college, an extra $27,000 would remain in the IRA that can be transferred to another child's account.

If you have a fully taxable Non-IRA account, you'd have to come out of pocket in your child's 3rd year of college because the account didn't have enough to cover the entire education cost.

By using a Tax-Free Education IRA account, this allows the contributions to accumulate at a much fast rate than the fully taxable investment vehicle.

Brian Gray is a full time real estate investor and web developer. You can visit his website to learn how to Earn 14% Per Year in your IRA. It is a very safe investment.

11 Things Small Business Owners Can Learn From Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

1. Everyone Makes A Difference ? Despite not letting him play in their games, the other reindeer came to understand Rudolph's importance. Look for the talents in each of your employees.

2. Have Courage And Confidence ? At first Rudolph ran from his problems, then he came back to face them. When things are tough, keep working hard and believing in yourself.

3. Don't Always Listen To Experts ? Hermey went against the wishes of the elves and became a dentist. Be receptive to others' advice, but remember, in the end you know what's best.

4. Know Who You Are ? Donner covered up Rudolph's nose, but eventually everyone found out. Customers will discover if you're not really who you say you are, so train your employees well.

5. Keep Learning ? Yukon Cornelius knew Bumbles bounce. Seek new information often about your small business, your industry, your competition and your customers/clients.

6. Tell Your Story ? Burl Ives' narration in Rudolph ties it all together. Let customers/clients and prospects know the benefits they receive to distinguish your business from competitors.

7. Be Innovative ? Yukon had Hermey oink like a pig to distract the Abominable Snowman. Look for opportunities to improve your operations by doing things differently than you always have.

8. Be Creative ? The elves drop toys by umbrellas, which is must faster than Santa going down chimneys. Find ways to make your employees more productive, and make you more profitable.

9. Recognize The Obvious ? Santa was ready to cancel Christmas, then he realized Rudolph's nose was the answer. Next time you have a problem, see if the answer is right under your nose.

10. Recycling Is Good ? Santa found homes for everyone on the island of misfit toys. Review your marketing materials and determine which ones need to find a home in the recycling bin.

11. Capitalize On Milestones ? The 40th anniversary of Rudolph proves there is opportunity in longevity. Celebrate and publicize your next significant anniversary all year long.

Copyright ? 2004 by Success Handler, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Coach, David Handler, is the founder of Success Handler, (http://www.successhandler.com), and specializes in helping small business leaders find clarity and take action. He understands the challenges of running a business, because he's been there ? as a small business owner, franchisee, franchisor, corporate leader and trainer. Much like sports coaches, his coaching will show you how to compete on a level playing field in your industry.

Unholy Shadows: Gnosticism

One cannot begin to appreciate the early struggles of Christianity for existence without at least a rudimentary knowledge of its formative history. Thus, it behooves us to take a brief look at Gnosticism and its challenge to early Christianity.

Christianity's infancy history comprised a time teeming with religious theories; a time when religious discussion was a popular occupation among thinkers of every type. So it was inevitable that in the enthusiastic interchange of religious ideas, truth and error would intermingle and the pure doctrines of Christianity soon became threatened.

Though Christianity faced many and varied forms of opposition as it spread and came into contact with other cultural forms, heresy presented a totally different kind of contrariety. And although the conflict subsequently resulted in ameliorated understanding of the meaning of Christ and a more lucid presentation of Christian belief, heresy was by far the most serious menace Christianity had to confront. The challenge was in the arena of thought. In its most sinister form it appeared under the title of Gnosticism.

Gnosticism is a term derived from the Greek "gnosis" and translates "knowledge." It generally applied collectively to the majority of those second century movements which called themselves Christian or borrowed heavily from Christian sources. Gnosticism denotes the teachings of a group of deviationists who were scorned by many orthodox Christians. It claimed to be a sure way to knowledge, hence, the vision of God. It claimed that its rites, ceremonies, prescriptions and its path to God were divinely inspired and transmitted to the elite esoteric through a mysterious tradition. Furthermore, and perhaps most offensive to Christianity, it claimed, in essence, that its magical formulas offered an infallible means to salvation.

It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the origin of Gnosticism. Suffice it to say that most theories seem to agree that it was a confluence of many diverse streams of thought emanating from pre-Christian mystery religions.

The basic nature of second century Gnosticism was firmly rooted in a dualism between spirit and matter. It held that matter is essentially evil. For the Gnostics, God could not be held responsible for the evil constitution of the world, and so they differentiated the supreme God from the creator of the world. To account for evil matter, the Gnostics evolved a doctrine of emanations from God. These emanations flowed from God and each further from God until finally there was one so distant from Him that it could touch matter. This emanation was the creator of the world.

Adding insult to injury, there were some Gnostics who believed that the emanations flowing from God were actual forces and divine persons in whom the Deity unfolded His being. The greatest of these emanations was the figure of Christ who was given the honor of being set apart from all other emanations.

It is necessary to also include here a statement about a group of Gnostics known as Docetists. They held the belief that Christ's body was only a phantom and that the "true" Christ has no bodily form. This was an important idea to the Gnostics since if matter was regarded as evil, then Christ could not be burdened with a material body, for then He would not have been able to accomplish the redemption from matter.

The Gnostic system of belief simulataneously destroyed the divinity and humanness of Jesus, and cast a dark unholy shadow on the doctrine central to the Christian faith. Not only did Gnostics deny the incarnate Christ, but their ethics were in strict violation of traditional church views.

I cannot begin to impress upon you the apparent power of Gnosticism's influence. It threatened to undermine the essential foundations of Christianity. These foundations the Church was bound to protect if only to preserve the human historical Jesus. Thus, early Church fathers arose to the defense of the Christian faith.

Against the denial of Christ's humanity, Fathers of the Church underlined the reality of the incarnation and stressed the importance of the work of Jesus. Against the denial of Old Testament truths, the Fathers maintained the identity of Creator and Savior and developed a theology of salvation history. The Gnostics annulled the unity of the human race by dividing it into spiritual, psychic and material classes. This led the Fathers to extol free will and personal responsibility of each individual.

To a large degree, the development of Christian doctrine was in reaction against Gnosticism. It is difficult, if not impossible, to clearly discern when and where the Gnostic movement was halted by the Church. The important thing is that Christianity was successful in its defense of the faith.

Unfortunately, the spirit of Gnosticism lives on even today. The clothing is apparently different, but once disrobed we see the nude body of Gnosticism in many of our branches of religion.

It is, of course, virtually impossible to adequately describe Gnosticism in its fullest context in the space of a few paragraphs. Certainly one could expound extensively on New Testament writers, particularly John's response to heresy. The subject is complex and speculative. All readers are encouraged to pursue this subject further.

Saundra L. Washington, an ordained clergywoman and social worker, has practiced concurrently in the fields of social work and ministry for almost three decades. She is the Founder of AMEN Ministries, http://www.clergyservices4u.org and the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow, Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances, Homilies that Teach.

NASA Budget Space Shuttle Thoughts

Regarding the issues with the Space Shuttle and the in flight explosion of the Columbia. I believe that of course that hindsight is always easy to use to place blame, however we must continue the program and the Space Shuttle as it sits may not be the best technology as newer technology is now available for re-useable craft such as;

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/te...tps_030307.html

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/US/...ttle030210.html

There are newer ideas for heat tiles being considered and new technology of materials being introduced some of which obviously cannot be talked about here.

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/te...s_020130-1.html

Let me discuss a few ideas, which can be used to prevent a similar occurrence. Now anyone who owns a boat knows that before you sail your boat, you give it a once over, truck drivers take a bat to the tires, pilots pre-flight the planes. Why would you not send a remote controlled, self-propelled robotic tethered devise around a shuttle before heading for home for a visual inspection? The unit could be pointed toward the shuttle and continuously view the craft; spin it slowly. After all you are going to fly a spacecraft at mach 25, through the atmosphere at 2200-3000 degrees and pray that all is well?

Eventually we can send in the scram jet engines and fly it back under power at your discretion. Or ask the UFO people to tow you back? HA HA. You know things are different inside of a vacuum. All those who study space and vacuums know this. Just because you have an old piece of hardware that runs, does not necessarily mean that it can make the transition from the atmosphere into the vacuum of space and back again safely. Not to mention the inhabitants during solar flares in space.

Let's see the new X-Planes and what they can do. Meanwhile let us put in a few simple techniques to use the current craft and allow those astronauts who feel they wish to take the risk to volunteer to use the older craft until it is replaced. We need these experiments and resources to be used; nothing should be wasted. I know these things happen, hell that is the cost of going for it, but it still sucks. The crew knew it and actually jet boat drag racing is still the most dangerous sport known to man, or underwater welding for a profession. I have a friend who was a TRW materials specialist and it just seems that it is old technology and we are better than that now. I have heard speculation by conspiracy theorists, crazy stuff like; talk that the UFO caused it and shot down a U-2 over Korea also. Then if you look at the Chinese, they have some devises also. Another rumor that the White Sands Chemical Laser Beam was tracking it and was able to cause the break up. Even if this talk is fiction still one might consider the need for some sort of reflective emissions during critical phases of space exploration to prevent such potential problems in the future.

Fiction or not shouldn't we have a plan? A tethered video camera would solve this problem of possible damage during missions, okay then lets keep going and complete the mission, we have so many experiments that are worthy of our tax dollars and the future of mankind, we must stay on the cutting edge of technology, we must not allow over allowances for safety to prevent the need to risk it all for the betterment of the future. It is some of the most dangerous work known to man, yet it must be done. So with this solution, we can prevent a re-occurrence of that problem which downed one of our greatest accomplishments and killed some of our greatest Americans.

We must not allow them to die in vain, we must continue to push for the future and push the envelope and go where no man has gone before. Never, ever, ever, ever give up. Push forward; it is the only way to that anything has ever been accomplished by our species. We are on a roll, we must continue. Think on it.

"Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs

Understanding Cholesterol Levels and Decrease the Risk of Heart Attacks and Strokes

What is Cholesterol?

Before we go into how to reduce your cholesterol, let's take a look at what exactly cholesterol is.

Cholesterol is a fatty substance that is produced by the liver and its job is to:-

? produce bile acids to help with the digestion of fat
? build and repair cells and
? produce estrogens and testosterone hormones

Therefore cholesterol is an important function of the body, but too much cholesterol in the body becomes a risk as it can clog up arteries and this can be the cause of heart attacks and strokes.

Cholesterol Symptoms

It is surprising to learn that there are virtually no symptoms to diagnose if you have high cholesterol. High cholesterol is normally identified by a blood test.

However, if you are having health issues such as coronary disease, vascular disease or stroke, then this could be the end result of high cholesterol levels in your body.

Symptoms of:

Coronary Disease
? Angina
? Chest pains
? Nausea
? Shortness of breath

Vascular Disease
? A tightening sensation in the lower extremities
? Ulcers or open sores on the lower extremities

Stroke
? loss of balance and dizziness
? slurring of speech and difficulty in understanding
? numbing sensation of the face, arm or leg
? this can be a sudden event with little or no warning

People who are overweight and do no exercise at all tend to be the ones with higher cholesterol levels.

Therefore, it is recommended that you have a cholesterol blood test every three years if you are overweight and every 5 years if you are a normal healthy weight.

How to Lower Cholesterol

If your blood test shows that your cholesterol levels are too high, then you should take immediate measures to help lower your cholesterol. Your doctor will advise you on the best course of action, but initially it is the norm for you to follow a low cholesterol diet.

A low cholesterol diet is normally a diet which is low in saturated fat and will include eating:-

? skinless poultry
? lean meats
? fish and shellfish
? low fat dairy products
? fruit
? vegetables
? whole grain foods

Cook your food by either

? grilling
? baking
? steaming
? boiling
? poaching
? microwave

Do not fry your food in lard or oil.

Your doctor also might prescribe you with a cholesterol lowering medication if he/she feels that the low cholesterol diet will not be enough.

Claire Bowes is a successful freelance writer and owner of http://www.lower-your-cholesterol.info website where you can find further information and resources on lowering your cholesterol.

Give-and Take: Recipe for Success in Marriage?

A woman once visited a counselor to ask a question about her marriage. I have a funny feeling that you might not be especially impressed with the answer she was given.

All the same, I'll take my chances. I think my shoulders are broad enough.

I stand by the counselor's response 100%.

The questioner (let's call her Jane) was married to a divorcee. Her husband (John) had to pay a certain sum of money every month to his previous wife as alimony, or whatever.

Sticky patch

He had just started a new business and was passing through a financial sticky patch. The obligation to his ex-wife, on top of everything else, was putting John under a lot of pressure.

Jane was a working person and gladly helped to pay the family debts. She never thought twice about it. But could she be expected to contribute in this case?

Surely, reasoned Jane, her husband's financial commitment to somebody to whom he had been married previously had nothing to do with her? Yes, she and John were life partners and she was happy to share all his burdens.

But even for what happened in a previous life, so to speak? Wasn't that going too far?

"I must confess I don't really understand your question," the counselor gently told Jane after listening intently to her dilemma.

"You and John are husband and wife. John has a debt. He's struggling to pay it. What difference does it make what the debt is for? It's a debt, period!"

The counselor smiled warmly at Jane before she continued.

"His problems are your problems. You're in this together. Why on earth shouldn't you help pay the debt? If, after all, it's difficult for you to accept this, it must be that there's some deeper problem in your marriage..."

And that's it.

Don't hit the roof!

Now, it's important not to misunderstand the counselor, or me. I don't want your blood pressure to hit the roof! We have to keep cool heads and put everything in the proper perspective.

First of all, she wasn't implying, of course, that John now had a licence to sit back, put his legs up, and meditate blissfully about the higher meaning of life, while his dear and ever obliging spouse worked like a donkey to pay the price of his past.

Not at all. I should think that's pretty obvious, but I have to stress it just in case.

Secondly, when we talk about husband and wife being full partners in the business of living, about sharing each other's burdens - financial or otherwise - no less than each other's joys, we are not saying for one moment that either party must contribute more than is reasonable.

In the case of our story, Jane was a high-earning professional. In other instances, a wife may bring in little or no income, for any of a number of reasons. It may not be desirable that she be working at all.

And not only money!

But that's hardly the point. We're talking of quality, rather than quantity. One can only do what one can, but it's the real desire to help that counts. And contributing doesn't only mean money.

I'll let you in on a little secret. I don't really like the use of the word PARTNER in connection with marriage.

True, we've used it up to now, for want of a better term. It does come in handy to describe a good marriage relationship, up to a point.

Yet, I hardly think that an ideal marriage relationship is a "partnership" in the same sense that we talk about a business partnership, for example. Not at all. When we think of a partnership, we usually think about a contract between two parties. A 50-50 sharing of responsibilities,or the like.

Confused?

A little confused? Well, let me explain!

Do you have children? Good! Do you love them?

"What a question!" you exclaim, "Gee, how I love them!"

"Don't you know the sacrifices we made for them? From the moment they came into this world, when they depended on us for their very survival, my spouse and I gave them our all. Just as much as a whimper from them in the middle of the night, and we were there to attend to their needs. Even now, they may disappoint us, anger us or hurt us, but we continue to cater to their every whim...Do you need any greater proof that we love them!"

So...is that why you've done so much for them - because you love them so much?

Wrong way round

Could be. But even more, I'd say it's the other way round: You love them so intensely BECAUSE you've done so much for them!

This is nothing more or less than human nature, and I think there's a great lesson for us here. We need to think about this very carefully.

Sometimes, when two people begin to think about marrying each other, they think in terms of some business arrangement. Whether they verbally express it that way or not, their minds work something along these lines:

"You have needs and I have needs. Maybe, if I satisfy yours, you will satisfy mine. You wash the dishes and I'll pay the rent. Sundays to Tuesdays I'll take out the garbage, and for the remainder of the week you will. Other duties will be divided by mutual consent. For every suit I buy, you can buy two pairs of shoes..."

If this is the marriage you want, good luck to you! It's a free world. But will you be happy? I mean, really happy? I wonder.

Many people will tell you that for a happy marriage, you need what they describe as "give-and-take".

Give and take? Nonsense! Forget about it!

What you need is "give and give." And give again. And again.

That's the royal road to happiness.

Azriel Winnett is the creator of Hodu.com - Your Communication Skills Portal. This popular website helps you improve your communication and relationship skills in your business or professional life, in the family unit and on the social scene.