Soft or SOFT may refer to:
Soft! is a novel by British writer Rupert Thomson, written in 1998 London.
Apparently acting as participants in a sleep experiment, the protagonists of this novel find themselves the unwitting word-of-mouth advertisers of 'Kwench!', a new soft drink.
Soft is an American indie rock band from New York City.
Soft formed in Brooklyn in 2003, but the group did not begin performing live until more than a year afterwards; for this reason, they were not well known on the New York music scene despite receiving critical acclaim elsewhere. Prior to forming Soft, lead singer John Reineck had previously played in a band called The Siren Six! at the University of Minnesota, and spent a year in Osaka working for a noise music record label after college. The name "Soft" was given to the group by Mickey Madden from Maroon 5, who suggested it after the group opened for one of their shows. The group also opened for such acts as Kiss, Phantom Planet, Hot Chip, and Voxtrot. After releasing several EPs and an LP in Japan, the group's debut full-length, Gone Faded, was released on October 23, 2007. The band recorded a follow-up album in early 2008 with producer Chris Coady which was released in 2011 as Dogs.
Veganism is both the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A follower of veganism is known as a vegan.
Distinctions are sometimes made between several categories of veganism. Dietary vegans (or strict vegetarians) refrain from consuming animal products, not only meat but also eggs, dairy products and other animal-derived substances. The term ethical vegan is often applied to those who not only follow a vegan diet but extend the philosophy into other areas of their lives, and oppose the use of animal products for any purpose. Another term is environmental veganism, which refers to the avoidance of animal products on the premise that the harvesting or industrial farming of animals is environmentally damaging and unsustainable.
The term vegan was coined in 1944 by Donald Watson when he co-founded the Vegan Society in England, at first to mean "non-dairy vegetarian" and later "the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals." Interest in veganism increased in the 2010s; vegan stores opened, and vegan options became available in more supermarkets and restaurants in many countries.
Wine is sometimes finished with animal products. Specifically, finings used to remove organic impurities and improve clarity and flavour include several animal products, including casein, albumen, gelatin and isinglass.
Wineries might use animal-derived products as finings. To remove proteins, yeast, and other organic particles which are in suspension during the making of the wine, a fining agent is added to the top of the vat. As it sinks down, the particles adhere to the agent, and are carried out of suspension. None of the fining agent remains in the finished product sold in the bottle, and not all wines are fined.
Examples of animal products used as finings are gelatin, isinglass, chitosan, casein and egg albumen. Bull's blood is also used in some Mediterranean countries but (as a legacy of BSE) is not allowed in the U.S. or the European Union. Kosher wines use isinglass derived from fish bladders, though not from the sturgeon, since the kosher status of this fish is in debate .
Trenton Doyle Hancock is an American artist. He was born in 1974 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and grew up in Paris, Texas.
Hancock received a BFA from Texas A&M University-Commerce, and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Philadelphia. Hancock makes prints, drawings, and collaged felt paintings.
The characters which populate his imaginary worlds include the Mounds, half-animal, half-plant creatures, which are preyed upon by evil beings called vegans.
Hancock was included in the American Folk Art Museum's "Dargerism" exhibit, showing the influence of Henry Darger on contemporary artists.
He is represented in New York by James Cohan Gallery and was featured in PBS' Art:21.