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Friday, December 28, 2012
Trolley Company Leaves Wedding Business Rather Than Let Gay ...
Trying to reconcile your personal, religious beliefs that may conflict with running your business can be a difficult thing to juggle, which is apparently why the owner of popular trolley company has decided to walk away from the wedding business altogether rather than be hired by gay couples. The man says he didn?t want to compromise his Christian convictions by accepting same-sex couples who might hire a trolley for their wedding fun.
The owner of the Annapolis tour company says he?s going to ditch out on taking any couples and their wedding parties for rides because he?d have to take gay couples as well as the straight ones, and his religious beliefs conflict with that, reports the?Baltimore Sun.
To that end, he told the Annapolis Patch:??We?re a Christian-owned company, and we just can?t support gay marriages. We?re not trying to make a statement. We?re not trying to make a point. We?re just trying to be faithful Christians.?
He also wants his clients to side with him and lobby state lawmakers to institute an exemption for wedding vendors that would allow them to abstain from taking business due to religious beliefs. Same-sex marriage will become legal in Maryland ?in less than a week, so he?s cutting out while he can.
By walking away from the marriage business altogether, the owner is potentially avoiding discrimination lawsuits that might be brought against the company for refusing to cater to gay weddings.
?If they?re providing services to the public, they can?t discriminate who they provide their services to,? said the general counsel for the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, according to the Baltimore Sun. That organization is the one which enforces the laws that don?t allow businesses to discriminate on the basis of ?things like race, sexual orientation, religion and more.
It?s his business, and therefore he can do what he wants, as long as he doesn?t allow anyone to use his service whatsoever. The owner said he will post a full explanation on his company website by Jan.
He did admit to Eye on Annapolis to sending an email to a potential straight client that read:??we used to do weddings until recently. But we?re a Christian-owned business, and we are not able to lend support to gay marriages. And as a public accommodation, we cannot discriminate between gay or straight couples, so we had to stop doing all wedding transportation.?
The man who?d wanted to hire the company for his heterosexual wedding replied in an email, via the Annapolis Patch:??It is your right to run your business any way you see fit, but let?s be honest here, you drive a trolley up and down a street. Not exactly God?s work.?
He?s not the only business to step away from thousands of dollars in potential wedding revenue. According to the?Maryland Wedding Professionals Association, the trolley company is the second vendor to get skittish over the same-sex marriage law.
We?ve seen discrimination accusations against other businesses elsewhere, including B&B owners in Canada who reportedly refused to rent a room to a gay couple?and were subsequently ordered to pay $4,500 to the couple to make up for it.
Previously:?Should Wedding-Related Businesses Be Allowed To Refuse Service To Same-Sex Couples??
Religious Wedding Vendor Seeks Exemption for Gay Marriages [Annapolis Patch]
Annapolis Tour Company Turns Away Business Because Of Gay Marriage [Eye On Annapolis]
Opposed to same-sex marriage, company ends wedding business [Baltimore Sun]
Try This Exercise If You Experience Breathlessness in Public ...
I hear it all the time ? people contacting me because they run out of air when addressing an audience and they don?t know what to do about it. It also doesn?t matter how small the audience or how large. It can happen when speaking to 5 people or 500. It also affects both novice speakers and professionals.
Let me ask you a very simple question. Do you experience breathlessness when you are talking to your colleagues, friends or family? More than likely your answer is no. [Admittedly there are some who are breathless when talking in any situation. They tend to be women and they tend to be speaking very fast.]
If you do not usually run of air when in conversation, why do you think you have this problem in public speaking? Is it nervousness? Nervousness is certainly part of the problem but it is not the entire issue. The problem deals with the practice of interrupting your sentences to take a quick breath, also known as supplementing your air supply. You do this in normal conversation; however, you are not doing this when standing at the lectern or at the head of the boardroom table.
The problem of breathlessness goes back to 2nd grade. Because a child will often take a breath after every word when reading out loud, the teacher will instruct the student to wait until he or she is at the end of the sentence to take a breath. In the 2nd grade, this is not a problem because sentences are much shorter than they are in 12th grade. Herein lies the problem. By the time we reach high school, we are under the mistaken belief that we are not allowed to breathe until we come to some form of punctuation. What results is a huge gasp for air at the end of the sentence which eventually becomes a ?cat and mouse? game with your air supply.
You have what I refer to as a ?speaker?s license? which is similar to the ?writer?s license.? You can breathe almost anywhere in any sentence as long as you speak with emotion, with life, with color.
Read the following sentence out loud and take a quick breath where you see the asterisk.
- I cannot * go to the store.
Did it work? Read it out loud again but this time pause after the word go. You should notice that you can pause after any one of those words ? even the word I ? if you speak with expression; i.e. shaking your head negatively as you say it or furrowing your brow.
After experimenting with this exercise, you should realize that you pause in normal conversation, sometimes to take a quick or supplemental breath or sometimes just for effect. The answer to breathlessness is to treat your audience like you were having a conversation in your living room. If you can accomplish that effectively, you will discover that your breathlessness is gone.
Visit Nancy?s Voice Training Website and watch as she describes the best means of controlling nervousness in any form of public speaking.
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LG?s latest projector system is powered by freaking lasers
13 hrs.
Until now, all consumer front projector systems?produced light using lamps or in rare cases LEDs. The new?LG HECTO FP system, on the other hand, uses lasers for illumination instead. Yes, lasers.
As LG announced on Wednesday, the new projector system uses lasers and a Texas Instruments DLP chip to form images. Typical home front projectors require around a 9 to 12 foot distance from the lens to a 100-inch screen. The LG HECTO requires only a 22-inch throw to fill the screen and can be placed on the floor or the mounted to the ceiling.
The LG HECTO Laser Projection TV will be sold as a complete system with a 100-Inch diagonal screen, a built-in ATSC TV tuner, HDMI switching and a Wi-Fi connection for streaming video.
Specifications include a rated 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 1080p resolution, 3 HDMI inputs, an optical audio input, RS-232 interface. Audio is produced by two 10W built-in speakers. The projector measures 5.7-inches high. The HECTO Laser projector does not have 3-D capability. LG has not? provided a brightness rating, a key specification. (Lasers offer the promise of very high intensity using low power.)
The screen is a fixed design and unlike theater screens its surface is black not white. LG claims the system will render a vivid, high contrast crisp image, even in lighter viewing environments.
The Laser TV supports LG's Smart TV platform and will stream movies via Netflix?and?YouTube as well as other services and?apps via its built-in Wi-Fi wireless Internet connection. The HECTO also includes LG's latest Magic Remote control.
LG claims its laser based illumination system has a lifespan of up to 25,000 hours, which is 5 times or more the life of traditional mercury-based lamps.
The LG HECTO Laser projector will be demonstrated at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show early next month. We expect pricing and availability to be announced at the show.
Have a question for the HD Guru? Send an?email.
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
Gear Up Your Online Business With Inventive Website Design
They're many domain names registered every day. The website is a medium by which your customers/clients interact with your business. It should be better capable to hold your customers for a while. There are some businessmen who think that website design is not important but it is wrong because, ebsite design is the first thing which is notable by your customers. 70 to 80% of users go back by just watching your home page. Why they go back? There are many reasons for this. Generally, visitors go back because of very low quality web design. They don?t care for how many years you are in this business. A second reason is visitors don?t get the exact information link on the home page of the website. If your website design is not proper then there are chances to lose your customers. We are Sonic Interactive - Web Site Designers Sydney Company. We give the new clothing to your existing and new website. We convert your visitors into your customers. We known the basic psychology of visitors and we use it as a strong point of website design. Our clients are across the world from New Zealand, Singapore, Dubai, India, US, UK, Canada and many other Middle East and European countries
As a reliable Website Design Sydney company, our primary services are corporate ecards designing, eNewsletter design, Flash Design, Interactive design, Logo Design, Corporate Identity Design, Graphic Design, PowerPoint design and presentation, Marketing and Advertisement Design, Building and Vehicle Signage. We are also online marketing expert and delivering various types of services like Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Optimization, eMail Marketing, Pay per Click, Google Analysis and traffic analysis. We are experienced website development company and also working for Content Management system, eCommerce website design, Interactivity and Multimedia, Mobile friendly websites, custom website app development. Our services are delivered by our professionals who are experts in their individual field.
Effective and innovative website design can convince your customers to deal with you. Don?t let this opportunity go. Contact Sonic Interactive ? a Web Designers Sydney company and get the cheapest quotes in your budget. Our web designers are experts in diverse technologies that?s why they are capable to reach your any type of requirements. We are working for any type of website designs not like other companies who are interested in only large projects with good money. Sonic Interactive is for all types of businessmen where they are in lower middle economy class or high profile businessmen. We take care of every type of requirement decided by clients. Particularly, website designs because it requires lots of changes and modification until the last minute before getting launched. Our dedicated designers drive your business to your dream business. We can negotiate in our price but not in our quality.
Visit our website for this Christmas and New Year offers. You will not get such a nice opportunity from any company. Select your eCard/s and fill in the form for a quick quote. We also design custom animations so feel free to submit your ideas for a quote. Make this Christmas memorable with our custom eCards. Call us for more information on +1300 855 842
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Russia Adoption Ban Against U.S. Sent To Putin After Unanimous ...
MOSCOW ? Defying a storm of domestic and international criticism, Russia moved toward finalizing a ban on Americans adopting Russian children, as Parliament's upper house voted unanimously Wednesday in favor of a measure that President Vladimir Putin has indicated he will sign into law.
The bill is widely seen as the Kremlin's retaliation against an American law that calls for sanctions against Russians deemed to be human rights violators. It comes as Putin takes an increasingly confrontational attitude toward the West, brushing aside concerns about a crackdown on dissent and democratic freedoms.
Dozens of Russian children close to being adopted by American families now will almost certainly be blocked from leaving the country. The law also cuts off the main international adoption route for Russian children stuck in often dismal orphanages: Tens of thousands of Russian youngsters have been adopted in the U.S. in the past 20 years. There are about 740,000 children without parental care in Russia, according to UNICEF.
All 143 members of the Federation Council present voted to support the bill, which has sparked criticism from both the U.S. and Russian officials, activists and artists, who say it victimizes children by depriving them of the chance to escape the squalor of orphanage life. The vote comes days after Parliament's lower house overwhelmingly approved the ban.
The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it regretted the Russian parliament's decision.
"Since 1992, American families have welcomed more than 60,000 Russian children into their homes, providing them with an opportunity to grow up in a family environment," spokesman Patrick Ventrell said in a statement from Washington. "The bill passed by Russia's parliament would prevent many children from enjoying this opportunity ...
"It is misguided to link the fate of children to unrelated political considerations," he said.
Seven people with posters protesting the bill were detained outside the Council before Wednesday's vote. "Children get frozen in the Cold War," one poster read. Some 60 people rallied in St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city.
The bill is part of larger legislation by Putin-allied lawmakers retaliating against a recently signed U.S. law that calls for sanctions against Russians deemed to be human rights violators. Although Putin has not explicitly committed to signing the bill, he strongly defended it in a press conference last week as "a sufficient response" to the new U.S. law.
Originally Russia's lawmakers cobbled together a more or less a tit-for-tat response to the U.S. law, providing for travel sanctions and the seizure of financial assets in Russia of Americans determined to have violated the rights of Russians.
But it was expanded to include the adoption measure and call for a ban on any organizations that are engaged in political activities if they receive funding from U.S. citizens or are determined to be a threat to Russia's interests.
Russian children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov told the Interfax news agency that 46 children who were on the verge of being adopted by Americans would stay in Russia if the bill is approved ? despite court rulings in some of these cases authorizing the adoptions.
The ombudsman supported the bill, saying that foreign adoptions discourage Russians from adopting children. "A foreigner who has paid for an adoption always gets a priority compared to potential Russian adoptive parents," Astakhov was quoted as saying. "A great country like Russia cannot sell its children."
Russian law allows foreigners to adopt only if a Russian family has not expressed interest in a child being considered for adoption.
Some top government officials, including the foreign minister, have spoken flatly against the adoption law, arguing that the measure would be in violation of Russia's constitution and international obligations.
But Senator Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Council's foreign affairs committee, referred to the bill as "a natural and a long overdue response" to the U.S. legislation. "Children must be placed in Russian families, and this is a cornerstone issue for us," he said.
Margelov said that a bilateral Russian-U.S. agreement binds Russia to give notice of a halt to adoptions 12 months in advance. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies that the president would consider the bill within the next two weeks.
The measure has become one of the most debated topics in Russia.
By Tuesday, more than 100,000 Russians had signed an online petition urging the Kremlin to scrap the bill.
Over the weekend, dozens of Muscovites placed toys and lit candles in front of the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament after it approved the bill on Friday, but security guards promptly removed them. Opposition groups said they will rally against the bill on Jan. 13, and several popular artists publicly voiced their concern about the legislation.
While receiving a state award from Putin on Wednesday, film actor Konstantin Khabensky wore a badge saying "Children Are Beyond Politics." Veteran rock musician Andrey Makarevich called on Putin Monday to stop "killing children."
During a marathon Putin press conference Thursday, eight of the 60 questions the president answered focused on the bill. Responding angrily, Putin claimed that Americans routinely mistreat children from Russia.
The bill is named in honor of Dima Yakovlev, a Russian toddler who was adopted by Americans and then died in 2008 after his father left him in a car in broiling heat for hours. The father was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter. A Russian television report showed Yakovlev's blind grandmother who claimed that the U.S. family that adopted her grandson forged her signature on documents allowing them to take the boy outside Russia.
Russian lawmakers argue that by banning adoptions to the U.S. they would be protecting children and encouraging adoptions inside Russia.
In a measure of the virulent anti-U.S. sentiment that has gripped parts of Russian society, a few lawmakers went even further, claiming that some Russian children were adopted by Americans only to be used for organ transplants and become sex toys or cannon fodder for the U.S. Army.
Americans involved in adoption of Russian children find the new legislation upsetting.
Bill Blacquiere, president of New York City-based Bethany Christian Services, one of the largest adoption agencies in the U.S., said he hopes Putin won't sign the bill.
"It would be very sad for kids to grow up in orphanages," Blacquiere said. "And would hurt them socially, psychologically and mentally. We all know that caring for children in institutions is just not a very good thing."
Joyce Sterkel, who runs a Montana ranch for troubled children adopted abroad and has adopted three Russian children herself, said she is concerned for the estimated 700,000 children who live in state-run institutions in Russia.
"I would prefer that the Russians take care of their own children. I would prefer that people in the United States take care of their own children," Sterkel said Wednesday. "But if a suitable home cannot be found in that country, it seems reasonable that a child should be able to find a home outside."
___
Associated Press writers Matt Volz in Helena, Montana, and Libby Quaid in Washington, contributed to this report.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/26/russia-adoption-ban-against-us_n_2364481.html
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