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With all the excitement surrounding tie dye throughout spring and summer, we knew that we had to offer a stripe for fall that matched the relaxed vibe and blurred lines usually associated with the technique. Enter Sierra Stripe, our newest print. We loved it from the moment we saw it and worked through a few variations to re-create the look of traditional hand tied fabric that could be printed – so we'd be able to use the fabric for a well rounded assortment of styles.
Look for the print in both tops and bottoms, from our long and lean Adrift Skirt to the new Luna Top silhouette. And our new Halfmoon Top, with its draped neckline and asymmetrical bottom is the perfect silhouette to counter balance the horizontal Sierra Stripes.


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Nursing… a dedicated and rewarding profession. Their dedication and love in caring for others is never really appreciated.
Soon to be released HAVEN OF KINDNESS: Kim , an RN, who not only cares for others throughout her younger years, finds herself caring for the sick and needy now that she is retired. A nurse who puts others before her, even though it is her time to enjoy the rest of her life. Through her continued caring she realizes she has finally obtained her life's dream. Her haven, so to speak, that has brought with it contentment and love through her kindness.
A surprise ending that will delight and warm your heart.
If you would like updates on Ms. Coote's books,releases, promotions, please visit http://www.facebook.com/jacquelinecooteauthor or go to http://www.impressionsbyjackie.com/jacquelinecooteauthor.html

subset: commoncrawl


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Kichler Lighting Metro Park
About Kichler Lighting
Kichler Lighting, the innovative leader in decorative light fixtures, lamps, and home accessories, offers a distinctive array of lighting solutions that reflect your individual personality, tastes, and plans. From modern Modular Undercabinet Lighting to Country Madison Outdoor Fixtures, Kichler Lighting has an eclectic range of styles to choose from. Kichler Lighting also offers Chandeliers, Wall Sconces, Ceiling Mounts, and Ceiling Fans.
About The Kichler Metro Park Collection
The Metro Park collection is an exercise in good taste and progressive aesthetics. The etched opal glass is supported by bold squares finished in Brushed Nickel.
All Kichler products (including Freight) ship for FREE within the contiguous United States on orders over $50.
All Kichler products that ship via UPS or FedEx Ground within the contiguous United States are FREE to return.
We do not charge a restocking fee for any returnable Kichler products.
We do not charge sales tax for Kichler products except those shipped to CA, NC, NJ, NY, and PA.
If you find a Kichler product on another site for less than us, we will match it PLUS 10% of the difference. Learn more


text: This was made by my mother-in-law, who deserves a blog dedicated entirely to the beautiful things she creates in the kitchen. She brought this berry tart to a recent family gathering. Somehow it looked this good after being wrapped in foil and jostled around in a car for two hours. When I gasp at her creations, she always says something like, "oh, it's nothing, really. Just a few berries I picked from the garden and the woods, and a cream cheese filling, and some strawberry jam. It's so simple." She has a great eye for color and presentation. I feel lucky that I get to look at, and then eat, what she creates.


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The Kitchen Table is dedicated to providing New York City's food lovers, amateur chefs, culinary professionals, and businesses seeking alternative dining experiences with a unique, all-inclusive private entertaining and dining event space in the city of high tastes and small kitchens. It is a home away from home - without the cleaning up.
The Kitchen Table | 132 Mulberry Street, #502, New York, NY, USA


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BOLTON LANDING - According to a spending plan endorsed recently, Bolton Central School District's expenditures will be increasing 2.2 percent for the 2009-2010 school year - if approved by local voters May 19.
The newly drafted budget calls for expenditures of $8.19 million, an increase of $177,000 or 2.21 percent up from the present year, according to Bolton Central School District Business Manager Kathleen Dennin.
The projected increase to the tax levy, however, is expected to be 2.49 percent, and the tax rate is expected to go up 1.99 percent, she said. The difference between the latter two figures may be due to increased state aid, expanded tax base and increases in assessments, she said.
The increase would be higher if it weren't for personnel reductions, Dennin said.
Two fourth grade teachers - Anne Greene and MaryAnn Ross - are retiring, and are not being replaced. Faculty will be realigned to accommodate the staffing reduction, Superintendent Ray Ciccarelli said.
The realignment includes special education instructors working in various classrooms rather than being assigned strictly to one level, he said.
Meanwhile, most of Bolton's teachers are receiving a 3.99 percent salary increase, except for those teachers in the upper salary tiers which are receiving a $1,500 flat increase, Ciccarelli said.
Also, the school district is downsizing its bus fleet, trading in three aging busses - all having logged more than 100,000 miles - toward one new 59-passenger bus.
The trade-in should cut the $96,000 cost of the new bus by nearly one-half, he said.
Also, the district plans on purchasing two 9-passenger vans as an inexpensive alternative to the busses being traded in. The shift was possible because of a reduced number of Bolton students attending BOCES programs, Ciccarelli said. Overall, transportation costs will increase $38,000, but lower fuel, repair and maintenance costs are anticipated going forward, he said.
A vote on the budget and a slate of school board members will be held from noon to 8 p.m. May 19 in the school gymnasium lobby, District Clerk Angie Smack said.
Six candidates are running for three open board seats, subject to three-year terms. The three top vote-getters will join the board, she said.
Incumbents Dr. L. Paul Rice and Richard Sammis are seeking re-election, but incumbent Cheryl Snyder is retiring from the board. Also seeking the seats are four newcomers: Kathleen Pfau and Laura Baker of Bolton, and Pamela Quigan and and Dennis Murphy of Diamond Point.


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Abbot of the Convent of San Giorgio Maggiore(c. 1740) - Gelli, p. 320
A monk of the Camaldolese Order was the Librarian of the Monastery of San Michele di Murano. Wrote "Raccolta d'Opuscoli scientifici e filologici", Venezia, S. Occhi 1757, "Nuova raccolta d'opuscoli scientifici e filologici " and "Memorie intorno alla vita di M. Luca De Renaldis vescovo di Trieste consigliere intimo dell'imperadore Massimiliano I e suo ambasciatore a molte corti sovrane d'Europa", Venice, 1753.
The monastery of San Michele di Murano, near Venice hold a Benedictine community called the Camaldolese to whom belonged Gregory XVI (1765 - 1846) the last monk to be elected pope and the last non-bishop to be elected.
After the conquest of Italy by Napoleon, the religious orders were suprressed in Italy and the Monastry of San Michele di Murano was dissolved and its huge and rich Library was confiscated and placed in public libraries, the remaining 18,000 volumes were sold at a public auction.
Chateaubriand visited the Monastery and refers to it in his Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe (François de Chateaubriand, Mémoires d'outre-tombe, Book XXXIX)
Sources: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03204d.htm
Giovanni Baptista Alciatore (1727)
Protonotary Apostolic
Conte Pietro Rotari, sculp. - Gelli, #14, p. 8
Sergio Sersale (Napoli-Roma) c. 1770
Vicario Patriarchale di S. Giovanne in Laterano - Gelli, # 977
(Firenze e Siena) c. 1790
Gelli, # 11


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Cosmetic dentistry can go beyond the surface
Creates confidence and improves chances for success!
Carol Waldman says she is in the business of improving her patients' lives, one mouth at a time.
The North York-based dentist says she focuses her practice on cosmetic dentistry because "it's wonderful. When your job is done, people who were afraid to smile are always smiling. You really change people's lives."
Improving those smiles involves a variety of treatments ranging from whitening the teeth to restorative work that includes porcelain veneers or crowns and bonding or dental implants, and even additions to gum tissue.
Treatments, says Waldman, are "tailor-made for each person. You do as little as you can to provide as much bang for the buck as possible and not be invasive. Implant dentistry is the most expensive, but over the course of a lifetime, it is not expensive."
The dollar count can be high for any of the procedures, depending on the problem and the degree of transformation required.
Costs vary with specific dentists and the province of operation, but generally range from a relatively low $100 for an initial consultation and $250 to $500 for a round of teeth whitening (about double this for laser whitening), to $1,000 or more per tooth for veneers, porcelain crowns and other restorative work. As most dental insurance is primarily directed toward covering a portion of treatments defined as medically necessary, individuals usually take the hit for the full cost.
However, patients happy with their enhanced smiles frequently say their new look is priceless or call to thank him, says Ottawa dentist Charles Kamel, pointing out the value of people being comfortable with their appearance.
"Aesthetic dentistry is a very emotional form of dentistry," he says. "You can change someone's self-perception in as short a time as one appointment. It creates confidence, gives people a different outlook on themselves and, therefore, a greater possibility of success."
He paints a verbal picture of "a beautiful woman who has a large space between her front teeth. No matter what the rest of the package is, when she smiles, she has a big hole. And the perception of beauty is driven by society."
A dental procedure such as bonding can close the gap and transform her appearance immediately, he says. And the dramatic change in her physical appearance can have a profound effect on her self-perception and other people's reactions to her.
You're not just treating teeth, says Kamel – "you're treating the person. Take the degree of tooth exposure, for example. Straight white teeth covered by the upper lip are not going to be noticed. Gums, the clothes that go on the teeth, have a big part in aesthetic dentistry. Just adding some gum tissue can make teeth look better. When we do treatment planning, we are looking at the whole face and we are looking at what the person wants. Some people want to be very subtle. Others want to be seen the minute they walk in."
Gordon Chee of the Aesthetic Dental Studio in Calgary says this field of dentistry is "most rewarding in terms of improving patients' self-esteem and self-confidence." He emphasizes that "the medical and aesthetic go hand in hand. Sometimes, people's teeth are quite damaged because of bite problems, chipped teeth and so on. So you deal with their dental health first, then the appearance later to ensure the longevity of what you are putting in their mouths. That way, you really make a difference to people's lives."
Waldman agrees. "Health comes first. Deal with structural integrity before cosmetics. I am a firm believer that veneers are for teeth that are discoloured, broken down or heavily filled, but not for teeth that are in the wrong place. If a tooth is in the wrong place, I would strongly recommend that the patient has orthodontics first to correct the position of the tooth and then sees whether it needs cosmetic or restorative work after that."
While Fredericton dentist Deborah Stymiest, the Canadian Dental Association's first female president, is in accord with the philosophy that "good aesthetics contribute to emotional and social well-being," the primary focus of her practice is on general dentistry and the mouth as "the window to the body that reflects overall health."
"When your teeth are healthy and you are without pain, you feel more at ease and smile more readily," she says. "Teeth whitening and porcelain veneers are very popular today, and public perception certainly favours a bright, white smile, but teeth don't have to be perfectly white to be healthy and attractive."
Dental bonding: In dental bonding, a composite plastic resin is applied to the teeth. Bonding can be used to restore decayed or chipped teeth and/or to improve the appearance of teeth – for example, by closing gaps between teeth.
Dental implants: Dental implants are used to replace missing teeth through surgery that fixes the replacement for the tooth into the jawbone. A titanium post (the implant) is used to anchor the false tooth. Some offices do computer-guided implants.
Porcelain crowns: A crown or cap is fitted on top of a reduced natural tooth. Porcelain crowns (unlike metal crowns) are indistinguishable from natural teeth.
Porcelain veneers: To create porcelain veneers, laboratory-processed porcelain is bonded to the surface of the tooth. The seal formed between the border of the tooth and the porcelain veneer prevents bacteria from penetrating the tooth's surface.
Whitening: Whitening procedures range from the use of toothpastes and strips at home to the application of peroxide gels or laser beams by a dentist. Whitening/bleaching usually requires applications twice a year, depending on such factors as diet.


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Sports Hall
A superb indoor training facility and the perfect facility for 5-a-side football, badminton, cricket and many more sports and activities. Also available for parties, celebrations and events.
Prices from £35 per hour.
Help can be given to find local caterers if required or clients can use their own provider.
Available evenings, weekends and school holidays. All year round!
Free parking available onsite


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The next up on my tour of the geology of the National Parks in pictures is
We visited Fossil Butte about 2 years ago, so I'm happy to finally get these pictures posted.
The obligatory entrance sign.
Since the park is a fossil based park, and most fossils you can't see in their "natural habitat", the best places to see the local fossils are in the visitor centers of these parks. Here we have a fossil wall of some of the spectacular fish fossils found.
Many of the fossil plants found in the park.
A crocodilian skeleton.
Some local turtle fossils.
Vertebrate fossils like lizards, bats, and a tiny early horse.
Panoramic view of the park from one of the highest points along the main drive.
First view of the Historic Quarry as we hiked up to it.
Up close view of the Historic Quarry as you come up on it from the main trail.
Me in front of the quarry.
View of the further side of the Historic Quarry where the trail switchbacks up to the upper layers.
View of some of the main fossil bearing units in the upper portion of the Historic Quarry. You can see the individual laminae pretty well from here.
Panoramic view of the valley standing at the Historic Quarry
A highlight of where to find some fossils among the many laminae of the prehistoric lake bed.
Entering the old fossil hunter's home.


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About Yosef Meystel
A resident of Chicago, Illinois, Yosef Meystel launched his own business, YAM Management, in September 2006. YAM Management is a property management firm that specializes in overseeing skilled nursing care facilities. As the company's President, Yosef Meystel communicated with each facility and its lenders and established relationships with banks to secure loans and make financial arrangements. Meystel additionally interacted with the families of current and prospective residents of his numerous assisted-living centers to discuss essential information such as cost, living space size, layout, and available services. YAM Management currently manages 25 total nursing facilities.
Yosef Meystel completed his undergraduate studies at Indiana University before earning his Master in Business Administration with a focus in finance. His background in advanced business analysis and finance has served him well in his profession. During YAM Management's first five years in business, Yosef Meystel was successful in generating a 25 percent increase in net earnings.
Dedicated to supporting the Jewish community on a local and statewide level, Yosef Meystel donates to the Joan Dachs Bais Yaakov Elementary School, which educates approximately 500 female students each year from kindergarten through eighth grade. Yosef Meystel holds membership in Agudath Israel of Illinois and the Associated Talmud Torahs of Chicago.


text: Recently I have been watching a show called "The Day Before". It's about diffrent designers and it shows basically how the day goes before an runway show. I have watched a few on Diane Von Furstenberg, Alexander Wang, and Donatella Versace. One that popped out to me was Jeremy Scott's. Before I knew him as the guy who made the Addidas with the wings, but obviously he designs more then shoes. His line to me is so creative yet simple. It's things thats right in front of your face that you would least expect to get inspirations from. On the show they said everything he says can be printed on a cool shirt. It's actually true lol. I would listen to him just to get shirt ideas lol. The show showed his 2010AW line which i loveeddddd! My favorite is the Style/Fashion dress, gosh i want that soo bad! I have seen many celebritys wearing Jeremy Scott but i believe Rihanna is a big fan. She have worn several piece from him. Which make my like the line even more because you guys know how i love my Rihanna. Here's some pic's. Enjoy lovesss! ^_^


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Beastfolk (3.5e Race)
From D&D Wiki
The Beastfolk[edit]
Anthropomorphic races for the d20 system's Dungeons & Dragons 3.5
Author's notes[edit]
Dungeons & Dragons and related material is copyright Wizards of the Coast, Incorporated. This work is copyright Gideon Kalve Jarvis and may be distributed and reposted freely (and this author encourages it), so long as the author's name is retained in the reposting.
Whether through the machinations of wizards or the meddling of the gods or simply the quirks of fate, a world can quickly become awash in sentient species, each one trying in its own fashion to find and defend a niche, however small and specialized. Of these many sentient species, a great many take traits from the nonsentient animals, or are related to them directly. The races below are a collection of several of the more common of these beastfolk. Unless otherwise noted, the races below use the human charts for aging.
In game terms, the following races were developed for Wizards of the Coast's 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons system, using the D20 rules, as a way to provide an opportunity for "furry" fans to play out some of the species they most enjoy, all of which have been designed for use starting at first level, without need for any level adjustments. Some of these races may not work in a given campaign, while others will fit without need for serious modification. Naturally, since this is a non-profit work, the information here can be taken and modified to suit the individual needs of a given campaign without incident, so long as some credit is given to the author.
To add a species to a game world, especially to an established game, having these new races suddenly pop out of the woodwork can be problematic, but there are a few ideas on how to integrate them. First, the new species could come from a distant and unknown area of the world, and only recently have been discovered or started to set out into the world at large. Another option is that the race has always been around, but in such small numbers or in such insignificant roles that they weren't of sufficient importance to draw any attention until recently, when their present population or social situation changed sufficiently to draw attention to them. Finally, the race might have just appeared in the world, either coming from another dimension or world, or having just been created, by gods, meddling mortals, or any number of different methods.
For those players wishing to add even more variety to their games, the official Wizards of the Coast work, Savage Species, can be invaluable in turning monster races into playable characters, though the rules in that volume sometimes requires a little tweaking for perfection in a given campaign. Later writings in this vein may (if there is any interest shown) include a listing of these races, as well as their statistical information. Also, the various "Races" books (Races of Stone, Races of the Wild, Races of Destiny, Races of the Dragon, etcetera) are also very useful resources for playing a variety of new and interesting species, some of which only require the lightest tweaking in order to turn them more "furry" in nature, if they are not already so (as I do with Raptorans and Catfolk, from Races of the Wild, in making the birdfolk and the urban catfolk, presented below).
While writing up some races, the race had an affinity for more than one favored class. In the case of more than one class being listed (some from the "Complete" series of class books, some from the Miniatures Handbook, and some from The Player's Handbook II), the player may select one of these classes as the favored racial class, after which the other is considered a normal multiclassing option like any other class.
As a final note, I am aware that there are more species out there which I have not covered here, and which many people love. I am also aware that while writing up the advantages and disadvantages of various species that I have skimmed in places, or left out sections of an animal's characteristics. Most of this was done for the purposes of game balance, so that the races listed below could be used as starting level characters. Of course there is also a certain element of forgetfulness on my part, and for this I apologize in advance. If any user of this material wishes, they are more than allowed to make the needed adjustments themselves for their games. Or you can send me a rewritten version of an existing species, or a request for a species which I missed, and I will be more than happy to look it over, and do what I can to include it when I write a second installment of this work. Naturally, the more information about an animal included in the request for addition of a new species or modification to one already presented here, the easier it will be for me to turn it into a Player Character race.
Special Rules[edit]
On Lycanthropy:[edit]
Beastfolk can get lycanthropy, the same as any other humanoid species. However, because they are already so close to their animal ties, beastfolk receive an additional +4 to any saves to resist becoming infected, to recover from infection when such rolls are appropriate, and, when infected, to gaining control of the lycanthropy. Beastfolk are not to be confused with lycanthropes of any sort, because lycanthropes are able to change shape, have set alignments (as set forth in the various Monster Manuals), are identifiably more savage and horrific in appearance (as a result of being controlled by the powerful instincts of their change), and often sport many fairly obvious supernatural characteristics that are not present in beastfolk like catfolk, porque, ratlings, ursa, and wolfen. The curse of lycanthropy is one where the sufferer loses themselves to the feral, savage instincts of another entity that destroys their former personality and alignment, and it is feared and hated as much by beastfolk as it is by any other race.
Beastfolk-Blooded and Half Breeds[edit]
Half Breeds are those who have some of the blood of one of the beastfolk in them. Beastfolk, except where specifically noted, are able to breed with humans, elves may interbreed with aranthi and foxkin, dwarves may interbreed with bucktoothed builders, and gnomes may interbreed with prickleskins. The offspring of such unions are Half Breeds. This is usually only a cosmetic difference, as well as having any stigmas, determined by the DM, that may affect roleplaying, as Half Breeds have the same statistics as a pureblooded specimen of their beastfolk parent. Half Breeds take after the culture and languages of the people by which they are raised, though they may have some trouble fitting in, depending on how prejudiced that culture might be. Very often Half Breeds are sterile, but, in those cases where this is not so, further breeding with humans will create a beastfolk-blooded (a Feat found in the "Feats of the Beastfolk" document) human with a few minor animal traits, and breeding with another beastfolk will produce a normal beastfolk. Matings between two Half Breeds will, naturally, produce another Half Breed.
The difference in appearance for Half Breeds and humans with traces of beastfolk blood in them is that Half Breeds look like beastfolk with human traits, such as the lack of a tail, human eyes or ears, a humanlike face, less fur or scales, or more humanlike legs and hands, while beastfolk-blooded humans look like humans with a few animal characteristics, such as a tail, animal ears or eyes, clawed hands and feet, patches of fur or scale or feathers where hair would be (a trait which is sometimes accompanied by a complete lack of body hair, the beastfolk dermal covering taking the place of hair on the head and animal body parts such as ears and tail, and no actual hair growing anywhere else).
On the subject of humanlike traits, it must also be noted that the various beastfolk can have quite a lot of variation in the specifics of their species, ranging from having full digitigrade (like canids and felids) or unguligrade (like cervids and equines) legs, long muzzles and bestial eyes and other animal-like features, to plantigrade (humanlike) feet, flat faces, and even minimal animal characteristics. Most beastfolk fall into a happy medium between these two extremes, with variations depending on how an individual Dungeon Master wants to play them in a campaign, and how much human blood is a part of the genetic mix of the race.
Statistics-wise, Half Breeds use the same racial adjustments as their beastfolk parent, varying only in appearance and possibly culture, while Beastfolk-Blooded is a racial Feat that can be taken by a starting human character (detailed in the "Feats of the Beastfolk" document).
An alternative rule to making Half Breeds is to open the doors of interspecies mingling completely. Whether this applies to the beastfolk only or to other races, and which races those might be, is left to the discretion of the Dungeon Master. In general, though, this optional rule means that the beastfolk are able to interbreed with all races, including different varieties of beastfolk, because of roughly common origins in the game world, while interbreeding rules for other races remain the same (i.e. elves can interbreed with humans but not dwarves or orcs, etcetera).
If this optional rule is chosen, it is possible to have an incredibly wide variety of different racial mixes, and this can often become confusing. As a general rule, then, to keep things simple, in the case of interspecies mating, the offspring of such unions take on the racial statistics of the mother, though their appearance can be any combination of the two parents chosen by the player or allowed by the DM. The Beastfolk-Blooded racial Feat (from the "Feats of the Beastfolk" document) should be taken to demonstrate mixed parentage.
Beastfolk Races[edit]
Back to Main Page → 3.5e Homebrew → Races


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Cora Spoladore your Personal Brand Transformist and Brand Identity Designer presents ...
We're going to explore
Emotional Connection with your Business and your Brand
What you will be doing here is awakening the deeper reason why you are running your business.Before you continue, please stop what you are doing and grab a piece of paper and pen.When running a business it can be so overwhelming that we forget how important it is to stop andtake the time to write these things down.
Sometimes we need to slow down first to speed up!
So, let the journey start right here, right now!
"Brand Personality — The Emotional Connection"
Download the WORKBOOK to your computer by clicking the download button. Answering the brand empowering questions will help you to find the right images with more ease.
This workbook will help you craft the foundation of your 'branding' truth!
I know this can be an uncomfortable exercise - especially if your Personal Branding is out of alignment but it is worth it!
You'll find a list of words which will help you go in a direction which is aligned with your personality. This will help you gain clarity around your brand message. Connect to your heart, be decisive, now is the time!
"Pinterest.com the treasure bank of images"
Let the journey begin!
If you're not familiar with Pinterest or don't have an account yet please follow my instructions!
Visit the website Pinterest by following this link. www.pinterest.com — Pinterest is completely free and lots of fun too!
Create a Pinterest account & start a new board for this challenge.
For those of you who have never used Pinterest here's a quick video that shows you the basics. Learn how to use Pinterest here: https://help.pinterest.com/en/guide/all-about-pinterest
Name your new board
"Master the Art of Soulful Branding + Your Name" so that we can see which one is yours.
3. Use the hashtags in the description of your pin board and your images #mastertheartofsoulfulbranding #moodboardchallenge
so that we can find all of our mood boards and be inspired by what we are creating.
You simply search later for this hashtag on Pinterest and all of our boards will show up. Easy, right?
Start to build your inspiring collection.
Over the next days, you can save images, colors, graphics, designs - in fact, anything that grabs your attention in an emotional way which is consistent with your messaging, color, and business vision.
What's really important is that you use your workbooks and write down a clear list of the words that describe how you'd like your business and emotive connection to be communicated before you start working on the images. This is key to give you guidance on how you want to appear online with your visual branding.
Keep structuring your content on Pinterest.
You can make specific notes on each pin if you like.
These are the beginning steps to creating your Mood Board. Over the next few days, we will be fine-tuning your focus.
Click to share:
Click to tweet:
Cora Spoladore is a Personal Branding Transformist and Brand Identity Designer. She helps powerhouse women and female coaches to stand out, magnetise their audiences' attention, and transform their authentic brands online. Her Facebook group Branding with Style, & Soul for heart-centered Women
and has attracted over 650 enrolments to her first high-vibe "Brand Mood Board Challenge" in 2016 & 2017.Cora is also the creator of "Master the Art of Soulful Branding", 12-Week online program which has helped women infuse their uniqueness + expertise into a powerful, client-attracting brand identity.
Join the inner circle of gorgeous women today!
Let's create your Mood Board with Style and Soul.
DESIGN YOUR FUTURE — Personal Branding with Style & Soul © by Cora Spoladore www.yourfuturedesign.com/terms


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Tom Brady Breaks Silence After Super Bowl, Kisses Gisele Bundchen in New Photo
Tom Brady's 2018 Super Bowl loss to the Philadelphia Eagles happened just over a week ago, and he took to Instagram this weekend to address his emotions.
"It has taken me a few days to reflect on our SB loss as well as the great season our team had. There are many emotions when you come up short of your goal. And they are all part of learning and growing in this journey of life. Learning turns everything into a postitive. And the number one feeling I have had the past 4 days is gratitude," Tom wrote on Friday (February 9).
Tom posted a sweet photo of him kissing his wife Gisele Bundchen on Sunday (February 11) with the caption, "This Sunday's outcome is a lot better than last Sunday's! #losingstreakstopsatone."


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TV's crop of new fall shows is touting girl power
NEW YORK -- Viewers, it's time to make way for girl power!
Among the two dozen shows premiering this fall on the five major networks, women will be standing tall.
Of course, a debate already rages whether females are liberated or demeaned on certain new shows, namely ABC's "Pan Am" with all those sleek stewardesses and NBC's "The Playboy Club" with its satin dolls.
But that's an argument as old as the term "jiggle TV" harking back to the original "Charlie's Angels" -- which, 35 years later, returns to ABC in an updated but no less jiggly version starring tough-but-tantalizing Annie Ilonzeh, Minka Kelly and Rachael Taylor.
In fact, it's an argument as old as television itself.
Premiering 60 years ago this fall, "I Love Lucy" became TV's first enduring scripted series, and it continues to serve as the classic template for sitcoms, despite conflicting views on whether Lucille Ball's zany housewife was a victim of domestic oppression or -- as she schemed to break into show biz or expand her world in some other novel way -- a pre-feminist subversive. (Maybe both?)
In any case, it's ladies first on the vast majority of new shows this fall -- an overwhelming display of gender domination and easily the season's biggest trend.
Women rule on "Pan Am" and "The Playboy Club," which portray the fairer sex in two high-profile jobs that called for beauty, performance and impeccable service, even while offering women a rare chance to get ahead.
"Pan Am," set in 1963, is a melodrama that focuses on stewardesses in their snugly tailored blue twill at the dawning of the jet age. It stars Christina Ricci, Kelli Garner, Margot Robbie and Karine Vanasse. "The Playboy Club," set in 1961, is a swanky soap centering on the cotton-tailed, look-but-don't-touch waitresses in the original Chicago club. Starring as those Playboy bunnies are Amber Heard, Jenna Dewan Tatum, Naturi Naughton, Leah Renee and, as the Bunny Mother, Laura Benanti.
Neither series has hit the air. But already both shows have been called upon to justify themselves as if, by telling these tales from a half-century ago, they are violating contemporary norms and dealing a retroactive blow to the women's movement -- as if any of that were usually a standard against which TV shows are measured.
Many questions on this topic arose at the recent Television Critics Association conference in Los Angeles. In one response to eye-rolling reporters, Heard said, "I think it's just chauvinistic to deny women their sexuality."
Defending her show, "Playboy," and its women characters, she continued, "It comes down ultimately to choices. And just like anything else, if there are choices available and they're making the choice, they're not being exploited."
On the New York set of "Pan Am," Garner had a similar message.
"Men and women are equal in so many ways," she said, "but if there's a way that women have a bit more power over men, it's the power of their sexuality if used smartly. And I just wish more women would be OK with that."
Both series celebrate the good life -- enjoyed even by those who helped serve it up -- and celebrate escape, even for those women.
But whatever the similarities that have linked them thus far in the audience's mind, "Pan Am" and "The Playboy Club" are pretty different from one another. And among the crop of new shows, there are many other varying explorations of girl power, including two series with "girl" in the title.
The CBS sitcom "2 Broke Girls" stars Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs as two struggling but plucky waitresses in a down-trodden Brooklyn diner. The Fox sitcom "New Girl" stars Zooey Deschanel as a kookie lass who, seeking solace after a painful breakup, moves in with three single guys whom she drafts as her surrogate brothers.
Even CBS' "A Gifted Man" -- which stars Patrick Wilson as a brilliant but all-business surgeon -- has a woman at its core: the doctor's dead ex-wife (Jennifer Ehle), who tries to teach him a new brand of compassion from her perspective as a lovely apparition.
Mind you, every new show isn't supercharged with estrogen.
There's a romantic comedy: NBC's "Free Agents" star Hank Azaria gets equal time with Kathryn Hahn as emotionally damaged co-workers who may or may not fall in love.
There's a parenting comedy: NBC's "Up All Night" stars Christina Applegate and Will Arnett as the working mom and stay-at-home dad of a new baby.
There's a family-that-travels-back-to-prehistoric-times-and-hangs-with-dinosaurs adventure: Fox's much-anticipated "Terra Nova," with the prominent name Steven Spielberg looming large among its credits.
There's Fox's "Allen Gregory," an animated series about a precocious 7-year-old being raised by his father and his father's male life partner.
There's a gritty, paranoia-inducing crime thriller, CBS' "Person of Interest," which stars Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson as unlikely partners in a preventive brand of vigilante justice.
And in a category of its own, there's Fox's "The X-Factor," the Simon Cowell-produced singing competition.
The elusive nature of manhood is the focus of three new sitcoms.
The three chums of ABC's "Man Up!" are happy enough with their comfortable middle-class lives. But they want to reclaim the manliness of their forefathers as they reinvoke their inner Iron John.
"What do you get a kid turning 13 that says 'I'm a man'?" worries one of the friends, whose son is facing a rite of passage into teenhood.
Suggestions from his pals: "What about a couple of hookers? Or a trash bag full of chicken wings?"
The same concerns continue to plague Tim Allen in "Last Man Standing," his follow-up to "Home Improvement," which premiered 20 seasons ago. Though the character Allen plays this time feels manly enough, he feels threatened by a world going soft -- and by his minority status in a household otherwise composed of females.
The tagline for the CBS sitcom "How to Be a Gentleman" is "prude meets dude." David Hornsby, playing an overrefined etiquette columnist, joins forces with Kevin Dillon as his loutish life coach to transform him into more of a he-man.
The world of fairytales has inspired not one but two new series.
NBC's "Grimm" is a police procedural where the bad guys are mythological creatures recognizable as nonhuman only by special criminal profilers such as Nick Burkhardt, a homicide detective in Portland, Ore. (When Little Red Riding Hood goes missing, Nick, played by David Giuntoli, is specially equipped to track down her nonhuman abductor.)
In a much different vein, ABC's "Once Upon a Time" has a fantastical, wondrous tone, and a decidedly woman's touch: Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) squares off against the Evil Queen (Lana Parilla), who has put a curse on the characters of the fairytale world by imprisoning them in the modern real world -- namely, the town of Storybrooke, Maine.
There, "time will stop and we will be trapped," Rumpelstiltskin warns Snow White. "No more happy endings." At least, not until yet another woman, Snow White's daughter, shows up to help.
The CW's "The Secret Circle," too, is sparked by the supernatural. A seemingly ordinary teenage girl (Britt Robertson) moves to a high school where her new friends turn out to be descended from powerful witches -- and where she discovers her own magical powers.
Also on the CW, Sarah Michelle Gellar (formerly Buffy the Vampire Slayer) returns to series TV in "Ringer" as a woman who, after witnessing a murder, goes on the lam and claims the identity of her twin sister -- only to learn that her sister's seemingly ideal existence is just as imperiled as the life she's trying to evade.
And that network's third new series, "Hart of Dixie," stars Rachel Bilson as a brand-new doctor who moves from New York to a tiny Alabama town to take over a family practice amid much culture shock.
CBS' "Unforgettable" stars Poppy Montgomery as a police detective with a rare condition that imprints every detail of her life into her memory, where it's available for exact, instant retrieval. This is a help in crime solving, but otherwise a mixed blessing.
Talk about girl power! Not only is Whitney Cummings a co-executive producer of "2 Broke Girls," but this young writer-stand-up-comic is also an executive producer and star of her NBC sitcom, "Whitney," which is billed as "a hilarious look at modern-day love" centering on her and co-star Chris D'Elia, "a happily unmarried couple."
In the ABC soap "Revenge," Emily Van Camp plays a scheming young woman who returns to the moneyed getaway of the Hamptons on New York's Long Island. Adopting a winsome new identity, she means to settle the score with this privileged class for grievous wrongs inflicted years ago on her and her father.
On the ABC comedy "Suburgatory," 16-year-old Tessa (Jane Levy), much to her dismay, is whisked from the temptations of New York City to a new life in the suburbs by her protective father (Jeremy Sisto).
The generation gap, female style, is explored in the Fox comedy "I Hate My Teenage Daughter," starring Jaime Pressly and Katie Finneran as single moms who clash with their spoiled offspring.
And Maria Bello stars as a New York City homicide detective trying to penetrate a man's world in NBC's Americanized "Prime Suspect," whose 1990s British original, starring Helen Mirren, remains one of TV's best-ever dramas.
Detective Jane Timoney is ambitious, abrasive and stubborn -- qualities that don't endear her to the male-dominated precinct house where she has just been transferred.
Surrounded in the squad room by her co-workers, she is subjected to a sneering lecture on the precinct's "beef trust," men who do the real police work: "knock on doors, follow leads, hear the words on the street. Because the beef trust can't flutter their eyelashes. All the beef trust can do is the work."
Well, they talk tough. But the beef trust can't overwhelm Timoney. Just one of the TV sisterhood awaiting viewers, she has plenty of company this fall.


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With a huge feature set including a barometric altimeter, customisable screens, ANT+ compatibility and more, this GPS computer with 128x128 pixel screen looks a bargain. It turns out to be 100 quid well spent: easy to use, with fast satellite acquisition and a useful set of features.
It's simple to set up, with little need to refer to the comprehensive manual. Pick Sport Mode and you get a speed and distance display, from which the control nipple flips you to five more data screens. You can customise two of them.
When you've done with your ride, downloading the route to the included software (PC only) is easy, and you can export in GPX format to upload to route-sharing sites. The software includes a planning tool which can send a route to the device.
The display only gives you a line to follow – no map – but that's enough to tell you whether you're on course or not. With ANT+ compatibility, you can use a range of sensors, including Holux's own, though there's no provision for a power meter.
Quirky features include an indication of how much carbon dioxide you'd have generated if you had driven. It even calculates Body Mass Index. More usefully, the software can load a selection of images from a ride, display them alongside the map and write GPS information to the images.
Niggles are few. It would be nice if the unit set its own clock and time zone, given that it knows where it is, and the software needs admin privileges to run unless you install it somewhere other than the Program Files folder.
The planning software is fine if you stick to roads, but uses Google Maps routing, and so it can't handle cyclepaths and trails. The mount does have us slightly worried, too, as its plastic catch doesn't quite engage with the body unless you press it home.
This article was originally published in Cycling Plus magazine.


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C&S Wholesale Grocers Appoints Mike Duffy Chief Executive Officer
Keene, N.H. – C&S Wholesale Grocers today announced it has appointed Mike Duffy as Chief Executive Officer, effective January 8, 2018. In this capacity, Duffy will assume leadership responsibility for C&S's strategic development, customer satisfaction, and day-to-day operations.
This appointment will allow Rick Cohen, C&S's current CEO, to focus on his role of Executive Chairman of the Board, leading the organization's growth and innovation strategy.
"I have full confidence in Mike's ability to lead C&S's continued journey as the leading supply chain company in the food industry," Cohen said. "He brings with him world class leadership and commercial skills and is an experienced operator with supply chain capabilities in procurement, warehouse management, logistics, and distribution. I look forward to working closely with him, as we continue to provide exceptional service to our customers and valuable career opportunities to our employees."
Duffy has spent more than 20 years building expertise through his work with Cardinal Health, the Gillette Company, and P&G (following its acquisition of Gillette). He has most recently been serving as President of Global Manufacturing and Supply Chain at Cardinal Health. Duffy earned both a bachelor's degree in Operations Research and a master's degree in Transportation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Columbus Metropolitan Library, has previously been on the Board of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, and served as President of the Corporate Advisory Council at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business (Master of Supply Chain Management Program).
"I am honored to be joining the C&S team to continue and to build upon the impressive legacy of this organization," Duffy said. "As I have gotten to know Rick and the leadership team, I understand the significant strengths that C&S offers to the industry, and I am excited to partner with the entire organization in driving the future success of the company."


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Part II
Antinatalism can take at least four forms: ecological, philanthropic, teleological (purpose-based, or in this case a lack thereof), and misanthropic (humanity-loathing). The latter is also divisible into at least three forms: "hard, non-genteel", "hard genteel", and "soft, genteel". In both theory and practice, these types are not mutually exclusive, and even overlap each other to some degree. Nevertheless, sharp differences between the four do exist, even below the surface. Therefore, with the possible exception of the teleological form, none of these bases for antinatalism are necessarily either inclusive or exclusive of any others.
Public Awareness of Antinatalism
The best-known form of antinatalism is the ecological one, owing to the well-established meme of environmentalism in the public mass-consciousness; though teleological reasons come close, usually in the context of mysticism, religion, and fervid introspection. Before the ecological brand's rise to media prominence, antinatalism, such as the public conceived of it, was likely dismissed as a product of "angst-ridden teenagers" and "midlife crisis sufferers"; even when addressed from the publicly acceptable standpoints listed above.
Additionally, popular opinion likely saw antinatalism as misanthropic ("Every sane person loves humanity enough to want to see it continue into the future, right?"). While this charge does have some truth to it, this ignores the fact that misanthropy can take forms other than the stereotype of half-crazy loners burning with hatred and ill will against humans and humanity. As explained later, misanthropy can come in other flavors.
The philanthropic form, though the least known, nevertheless has the longest pedigree and the greatest variety of aspects.
Descriptions of Different Antinatalisms
One can reach belief in antinatalism through any number of starting points but the inevitable arrival point is the same: The question "If 'that' is true, then is there any good reason for anyone to be born?". From here, it's only a short leap to start asking whether the human race needs to continue at all. The following is a list of several forms of antinatalism, based on their starting points and subsequent paths to their final belief in this viewpoint.
Ecological Antinatalism: This form, promoted by Les U. Knight via his Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT), states that humanity should die out via non-procreation because our species is simply too dangerous to the Earth's biosphere. Much of it derives from the "Deep Ecology" movement¸ which ultimately assumes that humans have no more intrinsic value than any other living species. Knight, and very likely most other VHEMTers, believes it is not enough to simply reduce the birth rate until the population reaches ecologically sustainable levels. He asserts we need to stop breeding entirely; believing that if we leave so much as one self-sustaining breeding population, we will again overpopulate the planet, thereby reviving all the previous ecological difficulties of our age.
Still, ecological antinatalism does not have to be sourced in "Gaian" (read, "mystical") beliefs. In fact, many people refusing to have children on environmental grounds base their beliefs on science, not quasi-mysticism. They simply see current scientific research supporting the notion that humans are causing species extinction, global warming, etc., and draw from those conclusions the idea that our global population has (or soon will) overshot the planet's carrying capacity for humans; even if our species as a whole does adopts much more environmentally friendly practices in transportation, land use, manufacturing, and so forth. However, the typical "scientific environmentalist" usually lacks an intrinsic objection to human existence per se. Hence, rather than being true antinatalists they are better described as "ecological child-free". This places them outside the scope of this blog.
Philanthropic Antinatalism: Put simply, if crudely, it asserts that because "Life's a bitch, then you die", it's immoral to expose new people to that 'bitch'. Thus, this form's core concept is the prevention of suffering, even if only the suffering from death or the knowledge thereof - and usually going well beyond that, into the day-to-day sufferings intrinsic in the very nature of living existence. It's main modern proponent is David Benatar. In earlier times, it proponents included Peter Wessel Zappfe, Emil Cioran and most famously Arthur Schoepenhauer. Many forms of antinatalism are actually different aspects of the philanthropic form. The various bases for philanthropic antinatalism are as follows, starting with the core basis: Suffering Prevention.
Suffering Prevention: If Colonial American revolutionary Patrick Henry asked "Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?", then the philanthropic antinatalist might ask "Is life so special, so great, and so important that we can rightfully force upon others without their consent life and all its unavoidable hardships and miseries, even if they will be highly likely to experience some pleasures?".
Therefore, many philanthropic antinatalists see procreation as disrespectful toward the potential life created, namely that the created life could well end up living a dissatisfactory life of some kind. The person could suffer from an accident, natural disaster, or a deliberate evil. Alternately, he or she may simply disagree too strongly with the nature of human existence (i.e., "rules" of the "game of life") or even human nature itself to want to create a new life. This is especially true when the new life had no say about coming into this kind of world (i.e., forced into this mode of existence). All this causes the philanthropic antinatalist to see bringing another person into this world as morally problematic.
Suffering prevention itself has several different possible aspects but the major ones are discussed below.
Death Prevention: Death is inevitable for all, yet few people want to die. Furthermore, many deaths are highly unpleasant. Because of this, some philanthropic antinatalists consider it unfair to bring someone into this world who presumably does not want to die, yet must confront the fact that they will die eventually. Even assuming an afterlife of some sort, there's still the possibility of perhaps eternal unpleasantness for that person, depending on the religion. (more about this shortly).
The Inevitable Extinction of All Life in the Universe: A subset of Death Prevention, it broadens the focus from individual death to species extinction, a thought hardly more pleasant for most people than individual demise. In fact, the same issues surrounding individual death apply here as well, only broadened to include all humanity. This isn't a physics or astronomy essay, so I won't go into detail here. For now, it's enough to say that life's existence will eventually become impossible anywhere in this universe, even in theory. From this fact many antinatalists conclude that procreation is an ultimately pointless act, notwithstanding any emotional drives we humans have to continue the species.
Impossibility to Predict One's Future: It is bad enough for any one individual to suffer from the inevitable shortcomings of living existence, including both death itself and the dying process (usually very painful and often long). Still worse is the impossibility of predicting how any one life will turn out; never mind that most people think that life's benefits are greater than its inevitable sufferings. Still worse is if the person cannot find life enjoyable due to very strong disagreements with the "rules of the game" or even to human nature itself.
Granted, the great majority of people like being alive and (or perhaps because) they have a reasonably satisfactory life. Even so, there's no way to accurately predict how any one individual's life will turn out before they are born (ignoring any confirmations in the prospective parents of heritable genetic conditions of the non-trivial sort). This is besides the fact that life is often tough anyway. In this case, philanthropic antinatalists are likely to ask, "If you, the adult, know that life is inevitably tough, then why do you foist such an existence on someone in the first place?". Given all this, one can claim that having a child is gambling with the child's well-being at best and exploitation of the child for the parent's own purposes at worst (for any myriad of reasons people decide to start a family).
Theological Beliefs: This is a special case of the inability to predict how any one life will turn out. Many people believe in an afterlife of some sort, and just as surely as they believe in the presence of this world besides. Therefore, regardless of what one actually believes about supernatural matters, this form of antinatalism deserves serious treatment.
Depending on the religion's doctrine, some people will end up suffering a terrifying and torturous afterlife as a result of choices made in their earthly life. The most famous of these afterlives is Hell, part of orthodox Christian and Islamic doctrines but other faiths also include concepts of an unpleasant afterlife for the wicked, though they may be radically different from the Christian and Islamic Hell. From this, one might well ask "Why have children when there's a good chance they¸ or certainly many - if not most - of , my far descendants will end up in eternal torment?" In this case, a believer may well conclude that the only way to guarantee the spiritual safety of their own children is to not give birth to them in the first place, never mind how well any of their subsequent descendants may have served The Creator. The forward-thinking believer also sees him or herself saving not only their own children, but even their most distant descendants from such a hideous end-point.
Deliberate Procreation Violates the Preconceived's Freedom of Choice: The not-yet-conceived person has no opportunity - even in theory - to express his or her consent (or lack thereof) before having the speaking, thinking, and analytical skills to decide if he or she wants to live in this kind of world. Precisely because of this, procreation cannot help but be a coercive act against the conceived. Tying back into the fact that it's impossible to predict how good or bad a life might turn out for any one person, one might sensibly ask if the benefits of life for any one person are actually worth the pain and consequences that are inescapable part of existence. For believers in the possibility of a torturous afterlife, this issue should weigh orders of magnitude more heavily.
Procreation is the Inevitable Killing of the Conceived Person in the Long Run: This view combines non-consent with "Everybody Dies". It draws from three notions: (a) everybody will eventually die, (b)very few people truly want to die, and (c) people cannot choose whether or not to come into this world. From these three facts, one can extract the idea that procreation is (in a moral sense) equivalent to murder, or at least negligent homicide; for every birth must end in death eventually. The view is held by Chip Smith of hooverhog.typepad.com, and is in fact his main basis for antinatalism.
Teleological Antinatalism: Also known as purpose-based antinatalism, it states that humans' existence serves no purpose at all, except to and for themselves; for not only will all our descendants will die off at some point, but all our accomplishments will be erased as well. Therefore it really doesn't matter if humans (or any extraterrestrials that happen to run across us or our remains) ever existed in the first place. On its face, this logic ignores the issue of intrinsic pain and suffering and instead focuses on the alleged purposelessness of human existence itself. However, when human purposelessness does cause emotional suffering in some way, it's actually a subset of philanthropic antinatalism. On the other hand, a sense of purposelessness may not always cause one to suffer. In this case, using the argument from finite existence is more appropriate for a conventional childfree lifestyle than for actual antinatalism.
The teleological antinatalist objects to the claim that humans exist to serve others, society, etc." on the grounds that it's circular, self-referential: humans exists to serve other humans. If no humans exist, then what purpose does an individual human serve? They further back up this claim drawing from current scientific knowledge, particularly the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In a nutshell, the law states that all things devolve from order to disorder and that the amount of usable energy in the universe is constantly declining. Eventually there will not be enough usable energy to support life, rendering human extinction inevitable. Indeed, many teleological antinatalists came to believe in antinatalism precisely by shifting the whole issue of human purpose and human existence future-ward. If humans cease to exist in the future, then humanity would serve no real purpose because, for all the effort put into sustaining and reproducing, humans would still have a finite time span like every other now-extinct species. From here, it's just a short backward leap to say "What purpose do present humans serve (or even past humans served) if we our species will eventually go extinct?" In fact, teleological antinatalists could easily do so conjuring up an alternate reality in which 200 years ago an asteroid impact wiped out all humans. Just as dinosaurs have no purpose today because they don't exist in the here and now, so it is with humans even if our eventual demise is in the future.
That we're much more advanced and capable of feeling and accomplishing things than dinosaurs is irrelevant. The teleological antinatalist would say our feelings are just additional "software" encoded into us by evolutionary natural selection (or given to us by God, if you prefer), which helped our ancestors survive. Ditto for our capacity for accomplishments. In essence, we are merely self-replicating robots made of non-metallic, non-plastic materials and nothing more: programmed to breathe, drink, eat, purge waste products, and reproduce. Humans (and other higher animals) may entertain themselves with diversions to "recharge their batteries", but that's still just one more thing we do between birth and death.
In the end, the winding down of the universe will erase even the smallest evidence and memory of our accomplishments and even our very existence (at least as far as non-theists are concerned). From all this, the teleological antinatalist extracts the notion that our continued existence is ultimately meaningless except to ourselves.
Many religions offer a way out of this difficulty by saying that we're made to serve Our Creator (whoever that creator may be). Nevertheless, this view is fraught with major difficulties of its own, especially for believers who desire to have children. For example, Christianity and Islam assert that our purpose is to serve God and that those who don't serve His will will go to Hell. Unfortunately, there is no way anyone can make a person give his or her life to God; the person has to choose of his or her own free will. That definitely includes the parent's ability to choose for their children. It follows that parent's cannot control whether their children will be saved from eternal torment. Thus, the religious person could well choose philanthropic antinatalism based on the very non-trivial probability of the child spending his or her afterlife in infinitely non-trivial suffering. Also, along similar lines, such a believer will, by default, conclude that there is no purpose in creating a human destined for Hell, regardless of how many purposes that person might have in this life and regardless of how well they did so.
Misanthropic Antinatalism:
The Stereotype: Hard Non-Genteel Misanthropes
Most commonly, misanthropes are portrayed in popular opinion, the news media, and entertainment industry as brooding, anger-filled people who are mad at humanity for one reason or another; sometimes to the point of enjoying the idea of killing as many people as possible (think the Columbine High School killers and, arguably, Ted Kaczynski [a.k.a. "The Unabomber"]). If they aren't prone to murdering or otherwise severely hurting others, then they are simply so disgusted with humanity in general (though likely not all individual humans) they consciously and deliberately adopt a hermit lifestyle; deliberately isolating themselves from the rest of humanity - at least to the extent that they can possibly and reasonable to do so. If given magical powers to eliminate humanity, it's not unlikely that they would make it undergo a very painful and anguished "final days" as punishment for being such a savage and barbaric acting species. Certainly they wouldn't hesitate to give all humans an instant painless death.
While there are, no doubt, a few misanthropes who hate humanity so much that they'd gleefully exterminate it if they could (and - perhaps - painfully besides), most misanthropes have a moral / ethical code that they try to abide by, and a rather strong one at that (ironically, this may be exactly what caused them to become misanthropic in the first place, but that's another subject). This brings us to the "Hard, Genteel Misanthropes"
Hard, Genteel Misanthropes
As stated above, these misanthropes, unlike their non-genteel counterparts, do have a strong moral and ethical code they insist on living by, particularly one that doesn't allow their intense dislike of humanity to overcome their sense of compassion toward other humans, though they may still dislike most humans in general. Therefore, they do choose to be fair-minded, good-hearted, and in general "do the right thing" toward people in general, although they likely won't go out of their way to help others - especially if those others got into predicaments of their own making (particularly if due to even pettily immoral/unethical choices).
However, the ultimate defining traits of the hard genteel misanthrope vis-a-vis their non-genteel counterparts are (a) refusing to cause people needless pain, due to their strong conscience and sense of sympathy and compassion for the few people they do like, rather than out of fear of a general retaliation, and (b) if given a choice to "wave the wand" to destroy humanity, they would insist on a guaranteed instant and painless death for all humans. Usually going along with these traits is that they usually give any one person they meet the benefit of the doubt. As a result, they may actually be quite fond of some people. Nevertheless, such misanthropes are still either highly distrustful of or outright disgusted with humanity as a whole. Put more simply, they basically reject the world and passively allow it to suffer the consequences of its own wrongs; perhaps silently laughing at humanity in a mocking tone for being so shallow and stupid.
Soft, Genteel Misanthropes
Their misanthropy is so subtle that it's questionable whether it actually qualifies as misanthropy at all. Regardless of whether it does or not, these types still have a strong distaste of humanity or human nature, even if their sentiments don't cross the line into actual hate or rage. They tend to have a strong sense of compassion for their fellow human being - even to the point of caring about the future well-being of humanity, especially if they do everything they can to help alleviate suffering in this world (though they're likely doubtful that society will change its ways, except perhaps superficially or – at best – only in the short run). Such people take the approach, "Humans will continue to be forced into existence for the foreseeable future. Some number of them will suffer, some of those significantly. It's wrong to let people suffer if you can do at least a little to help them. Therefore, I will do what I can to make the strongest positive influence on others' lives as I can - never mind that I can't stand human nature".
Still, they do disagree too strongly with too much of human behavior, and perhaps human nature itself, to be truly happy with society; even if they do find joy in other things beside other people (though not necessarily excluding other people, particularly if they happen to find a proverbial "kindred spirit"). Therefore, because such people are strongly agitated by human nature and humanity in general, they quite arguably qualify as a misanthrope, albeit of the very non-stereotypical sort.
Beyond the differences listed, another defining trait of a "soft, genteel" misanthrope is that – unlike the "hard, genteel ones" – they would not "wave the wand" to exterminate humanity, even if it's clear that refusing to do so will result in more people forced into the anguish and injustice of this life. This is due to the high value they place on freedom of choice. Each person has the right to make their own choice as to continue living or not. In fact, to "wave the wand" is unmistakably murder, even if it is a guaranteed instant and painless death for all. They also find the notion of "waving the wand" distasteful because they agree that at least some people do deserve to live.
Of all the types listed, the "soft, genteel" misanthrope is the most likely to agree with the statement
"Discontinuation of humanity is desirable because it's wrong to force people to experience the nasty - sometimes brutish and just plain evil - side of human nature. Even if they themselves are liable to act in such ways themselves, they still don't deserve experience the pains and anguishes of this world".
Therefore, the soft, genteel misanthrope may see his or her antinatalism as trying to save humanity from itself - a kind of "idealistic misanthropy", if you will. In the meantime, they simply accept human nature the way it is, even as they try to repair whatever damage humans have done. Consequently, they choose to live their lives as ethically and compassionately as they know how. Not surprisingly, the soft genteel misanthropic attitude toward having children is, "Thanks, but no thanks. My branch of the DNA tree is getting off this bus at the next stop, namely my deathbed".
Overlaps and Distinctions Among the Four Types
The different brands of antinatalism are by no means mutually exclusive. There's little to nothing to prevent embracing more than one form, or even subscribing to one form alone. The possible exception is with teleological antinatalism, for reasons given later. Here, I discuss how each type overlaps with the others without actually demanding that holders of one basis affirm or deny another basis.
Ecological Antinatalism (as promoted by Knight)
Philanthropic: The last humans alive will suffer greatly due to our present environmental mismanagement before actual extinction occurs. Therefore, having children will needlessly subject future generations to that great suffering.
Teleological: Non-human lifeforms serve more of a purpose than humanity does, particularly when modern human activities drastically damage the ecosystem. Therefore, if presently living or future humans do serve a purpose, it is only to repair the ecological damage we've done, all while reducing our birth rate to as close to zero as possible. After the damage is repaired to a reasonable degree, we should then gracefully leave the scene.
Misanthropic: Homo sapiens is so selfish and short-sighted that the species as a whole is unwilling to take the hard but necessary steps to reduce its impact on the environment, or even adopt already-existing orphans in need of a loving home instead of bringing more children into this world (a suggestion by Knight to those who still desire to raise children), let alone actually agree to self-extinction. It's appalling how humans treat the environment and all its myriad species (especially those species that can feel pain and suffering to a practically identical degree that humans can). This selfishness proves that humans deserve to go extinct on ecological grounds.
Philanthropic Antinatalism
Ecological: Discussed above.
Teleological: Ethics involves human happiness. Humans cannot be happy without serving a purpose for existing. Because humans serve no ultimate eternal purpose and probably not even a present one, it's cruel to subject new people to such a finite and purposeless existence. This is particularly true if the human strong survival instinct urges us to live for as long as possible, even if humanity or even individual humans don't serve any ultimate purpose.
Misanthropic: Human nature in general is so disgusting that we don't deserve to exist; both in the sense of "If 'that' is the way humans treat each other, then human's don't deserve to exist" and in the sense of "No child deserves to be brought into a world filled with such callous and hateful people". This is especially true if the misanthropes recognize in themselves the very shortcomings they hate, and hate the fact that they have and can't really rid themselves of the bad side of their human nature. This is likely to be fairly common among antinatalists who are believers in Abrahamic or other faiths that say people by nature are morally hopeless, but also likely to be fairly frequent among non-theist antinatalists with a highly developed sense of justice, morality, and ethics as well.
Ecological: Discussed Above
Philanthropic: Discussed Above
Misanthropic: Human selfishness serves no purpose beyond the self-interests of the inflictors. Even that self-interest is just as likely to be achieved using non-selfish means that cause little to no significant suffering for others (like deciding that it's not so important to have this thing or that thing, especially if you have to compromise your ethics and morality to an unreasonable degree). Besides, even the benefits that the inflictor enjoys will become irrelevant one day, as they will die anyway. Thus, the selfishness and benefits of living serve no ultimate purpose. The same essential logic applies to humanity on a much larger time scale. Because humans will die out one day anyway, the species has no ultimate purpose - particularly given how they are so selfish, petty, exploitative, judgmental and sometimes even cruel, bigoted, and violent.
All overlaps with this one discussed above.
Still, as mentioned earlier, each brand of antinatalism has bases distinct enough to justify their own categories.
Ecological Antinatalism
Philanthropic practically obligates the belief that the cumulative day-to-day sufferings of people over their years render their lives not worth living. Ecological antinatalism does not require this belief, only the belief that Homo sapiens is too threatening to the ecosystem to deserve to exist.
Teleological states at minimum that humanity or humans serve no ultimate purpose, even if we were a perfectly ecologically friendly species. Ecological antinatalism says nothing about what humanity's purpose is, with the possible exception of restoring the biosphere to full health before we finally phase ourselves out of this world.
Misanthropic states that humans are so selfish, wicked, and generally unlovable that they don't deserve to exist. It says nothing about the degree humans are culpable for the present environmental degradation. Undoubtedly most misanthropic and ecological antinatalist believe that human selfishness is the root of ecosystem damage. Still, ecological antinatalism says nothing about how "selfish, wicked, and generally unlovable" humans are to each other.
Philanthropic Antinatalism
Ecological antinatalism only requires the belief that human activity is intrinsically so damaging to the ecosystem that we must sacrifice our existence via non-procreation in order to save the biosphere as a whole. It does not obligate us to believe that human suffering is so great that humans are better off never being born at all, as philanthropic antinatalism does.
Teleological antinatalism states only that human existence, on both the individual and species level, serves no ultimate purpose. Philanthropic antinatalism does not necessarily say anything about what humanity's or any one human's ultimate purpose is.
Misanthropic antinatalism, as discussed above, only requires agreement that humanity deserves extinction on the grounds that human nature is too disagreeable, to say the least, to deserve continuing to existing. Philanthropic antinatalism doesn't actually require any belief about humanity's moral standing, much less the central misanthropic claim about human nature. It only requires the beliefs that (a) life's sufferings are so great that humans are better off not coming into existence in the first place, and therefore (b) procreation is an ethically indefensible activity, especially in light of our inability to either give or receive permission to be born into this world.
Teleological Antinatalism
Ecological Antinatalism, as stated earlier, only requires that humans should phase themselves out via non-procreation to save the ecosystem. It says nothing about whether humans serve a purpose in this world, with the probable exception of repairing the damage we've done cotemporaneously with phasing ourselves out via nonprocreation. Likewise, teleological antinatalism does not require agreeing that the biosphere is more important than the human race, except perhaps to the utilitarian extent that humans need the biosphere's resources to live and especially prosper.
Philanthropic Antinatalism only requires that the sufferings of this world render unfair any birthing of another person into this world. It does not require that humans serve no purpose whatsoever. Teleological antinatalism does not require any belief about how tough life is. However, teleological antinatalism does appear to require the belief that a purposeless existence is an undesirable state of being, on an emotional level if on no other one. Some people may deny this is any form of suffering, but this seems hard to admit. If a sense of purposelessness could not cause someone to suffer, then it's hard to see how humans could be so concerned about their purpose in this world in the first place. In fact, it's the very suffering itself (through a feeling of ennui, despair, etc.) that makes the teleological argument relevant. Therefore, it seems teleological arguments are ultimately just one aspect of philanthropic antinatalism. Therefore, I think teleological antinatalism does depend on the philanthropic arguments for its very relevance, if not actual truth.
To be sure, teleological reasons alone are sufficient to refuse to have children. If one does not see any purpose in having children, they may well decide that parenthood is, from the individual standpoint, one activity they can healthily forgo. This would free up much time, money, and personal energy to pursue more enjoyable activities. However, anyone using an alleged purposelessness of human existence as a reason not to have children without any reference to the pain caused by that sense of purposelessness is likely not going to object strongly to human continuity itself. Therefore, the teleological argument by itself is not so much an antinatalist argument as it is a reason for choosing a conventional childfree lifestyle.
Misanthropic antinatalism only requires belief in human extinction based on the aforementioned strong distaste of humanity and/or human beings due to their behavior toward each other. It doesn't necessarily say anything about our purpose in this world (or in this case, lack thereof).
Misanthropic Antinatalism (especially the "soft, genteel" subform)
Ecological Antinatalism requires humans go extinct for the environment's sake, not humanity's. Misanthropic antinatalism says nothing of ultimate relevance about human damage to the ecosystem. They may say our mismanagement of the environment is one of the reasons we deserve to go extinct, but they would still think that even an ecologically friendly humanity would still be composed of humans treating each other too shabbily to deserve existence.
Philanthropic antinatalism only concerns itself with suffering in general as an intrinsic characteristic of existence. It says nothing about how unethical, unkind, evil, selfish, etc. humans are to each other, much less that humans are so evil they don't deserve to exist. The philanthropic antinatalist may believe humanity's (and humans') moral deficiencies are part of what makes the world a tough place, but that's a different issue altogether.
Teleological antinatalism deals only with the alleged purposelessness of humans' and humanity's existence, totally aside from the grievances about humanity toward each other and other living things. Misanthropic antinatalism says nothing about the purpose of humanity, only that human nature itself has too many moral and ethical flaws to deserve continued existence.


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The Human Do.ing. Curbing and reversing the obesity trend. A social media health project for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. By mono.
A too-short story of passion and composition: "Kern Baby Kern, A Relationship in Typographical Terms" by Alexa Lash on InspiredMag.
Hoefler & Frere-Jones asks: "Can We Add Serifs to Gotham?"
To celebrate the 78th anniversary of the end of Prohibition (April 7) the makers of Tub Gin will be selling the small batch craft spirit for 25¢ a shot (at a handful of Philadelphia bars). "Tub Gin Cullen-Harris Parties 2011" tells the story. By Red Tettemer + Partners for Peach Street Distillers.
Preview Web fonts on live sites with Fonts.com Web Fonts Live Previewer.
// From our friends at Communication Arts


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The Newport Harbor Baseball Assn. Mustang All-Stars appeared to be against great odds Saturday at Placentia Champions Sports Complex.
The NHBA All-Stars needed a win to advance to the championship game of the Pony Bronco Southern California Central Region Sectional. It would have to come against Irvine A, which had beaten NHBA twice earlier in the season.
However, the NHBA All-Stars of 9-year-olds didn't let that stop them as they scored a 9-4 victory to earn a spot in Monday's final. The win also gave NHBA a berth into the super regional tournament. It is believed to be the first time, an NHBA Mustang team has earned a super regional berth.


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Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart Attend Prince Concertby Hilton Hater at .
Donald Trump may think Robert Pattinson can do better than Kristen Stewart, but the actor apparently disagrees.
Rob was photographed leaving a Prince concert with Stewart in Los Angeles last night, as both stars tried to hide their faces in the back of a SVU.
But paparazzi cameras were still able to snap a relatively clear picture of Robsten together again.
Rumors of a reconciliation have been going strong for weeks now, of course.
Both actors are jetting around the globe in promotion of Breaking Dawn 2, but they found time for each other during the brief period between media appearances.
That has to mean something, right?


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First Run Features continues to live up to its name. What else were you expecting?
FRF offers the Los Angeles theatrical premiere of As Good As You on June 9 at Laemmle's Music Hall. The lesbian drama/comedy—named winner of Best LGBT Film by Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival—marks the feature film debut of Heather de Michele. The screenplay is by Gretchen M. Michelfeld, executive produced by Michelfeld and produced by Reena Dutt. Another reason to celebrate Pride Week.
Laura Heisler leads an outstanding cast in this poignant and witty film about a bereaved woman searching for meaning and purpose in the aftermath of her wife's death. Jo (Heisler) enlists her brother-in-law Jamie (Bryan Dechart) as a sperm donor in an effort to salvage her dream of raising a family. Along the way she leans a bit too heavily on her two best friends, a lesbian punk photographer named Lisa (Anna Fitzwater) and a straight male barfly named Nate (Raoul Bhaneja).
The film also features Peter Maloney, Karis Campbell, Elizabeth Herring and Annie Potts. The story is consistently tender in its portrayal of grief, even as the film becomes a kind of willful, triumphant comedy. Director de Michele navigates the tonal shifts with good timing, taste and craftsmanship.
Director Heather de Michele is a co-founder of the NY comedy troupe Lesbian Pulporama, which included playwright Michelfeld and her late partner. The film is inspired by Michelfeld's own story and partly a tribute to her partner, also a performer in the troop who died in 2012, made by close personal friends. It is the first feature for both director and writer. In fact, de Michele's partner plays Lisa in the film.
"Lesbian pregnancy, infertility, hormone shots, artificial insemination–these were subjects I hadn't seen explored in film yet," de Michele explains. "I told Gretchen she should get on that; then her partner got sick and it all stopped. Once she passed, too shortly thereafter, Gretchen dove back into her work. She needed to write. We were all grieving madly. The story of As Good As You became a hybrid of all of these experiences. It's deeply personal for both of us. "
Laemmle Music Hall
9036 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211


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domenica 11 ottobre 2009
blog creativo
Dear Nikki of Witch and Wizards miniatures has passed me this award and although I misbehaved with the last two (ehm ehm) I feel that I have to do things proper this time.
I'm sorry I still have difficulties with linking even if a friend has explained me how to do. I suffer from pc analphabetism.
Here are the award rules:
1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it in your blog.
3. Link the person who nominated you.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know.
5. Nominate seven 'Kreativ Bloggers'
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.
It's hard to find something you do not know after so much blogging.....
1 - I hate houseworks and I tend to pospone it as far as I can. There are so many things much more interesting than mopping.
2 - I played judo as a child and I was a brown belt, I loved it.
3 - I have slept on the marble floor of a Railway station in Prague when I was younger. Good experience apart the sudden wake up at 4 am by a police hound.
5 - I do hate Math and Phisycs, I've never understood a thing of them but I disguised it well and I got my diploma.
6 - I'm trying to learn French but something strange happens when I try to utter a word: I think in French and I speak in English. Anyway I can understand it and read it quite easily.
7 - I've been knowing my best girl friend for the last 32 years and she is my true sister.
And now the award goes o:
1 - Roberta of Il boratorio di Pitosfora : she is good at minis, a merry girl and a great Mum. Worth knowing her.
2 - Caterina of Le minis di Cockerina : she is new at blogging but she is so good and welcoming and a great cook as well.
3 - Lena of Miniatyrmama : she is amazing and her blog is so welcoming.
4 - Kathi of Beautiful Mini Blessing : she is brimfulled with enthusiasm and I love watching at her progress
5 - Meli of Casitas de Meli : she is the Baby Dior seamstress, her little dresses are wonderful.
6 - Marsha of Sassy Mini Dolls : her work is more than creative and she is so generous. I love her dolls.
7 - Jodi and Richard of Creager Studio : I simply cannot think to anyone mre creativ than this fantastic duo.
Now I'll go and tell them about it.
Good night.
4 commenti:
- kathi ha detto...
Thank you so much Rosanna! I am humbled by this award and so happy to have the chance to pass it on!
- 12 ottobre 2009 03:03
- Marsha (Sassy Mini Dolls) ha detto...
Thank you so very much, Rosanna!
I will pass this on when I get all settled in :)
- 12 ottobre 2009 04:51
- Eva Prunella Grandiflora ha detto...
Ciao Rosanna! Spero che tu stia bene, è da un po' che non mi faccio viva, mi sto riprendendo piano piano! una di queste sere ti chiamo!
un bacione!
- 12 ottobre 2009 08:44
- Terry ha detto...
ciao Rosanna!!! certo tutto viene dopo la famiglia!! la domenica è passata bene, non certo per Virginia...che ha problemi con Giorgio...e non aggiungo altro... ;-((( .Bisogna cercare di starle vicino e cercare di coinvolgerla con le nostre c....,pensa che non voleva neppure venire al P.Antico !?! poi forse l'abbiamo convinta...
Un abbraccio
- 12 ottobre 2009 09:44
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Maybe Brazil can become C.B. Dollaway's home away from home, as he earned another victory in the country Sunday night at UFC Fight Night 38.
The former Ultimate Fighter runner-up improved to 3-1 with a TKO victory over Cezar Ferreira in just 39 seconds.
"My stand up game is developing, and mixed with my wrestling, hopefully we can make our way into the Top-10 and become a real contender," Dollaway said.
Dollaway (14-5) is an ex-NCAA wrestler for Arizona State University. He lost a split decision to Tim Boetsch to conclude 2013, but earned a win over Daniel Sarafian in Brazil last January.
Despite the victory, Dollaway did mention he had some "swelling" on his right hand already, which could indicate a broken bone. It was still an early birthday present for someone special in his life.
"I want to wish my wife, Jenny, a happy birthday (Monday)," he said. "That was your birthday present."


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Sundays, when I'm not out seeing the world, my friend KD and I get together at his place. One of us cooks, we watch some movies or some 'serials' (his vocabulary choice, not mine), smoke some shisha (out on the balcony when it's not winter) and chat.
This Sunday it was my turn to cook, which is always exciting since my own kitchen is about the size of a closet and is seriously lacking an oven. I attempted to make spinach artichoke dip, but since I neglected to drain the frozen spinach, it turned out more like spinach artichoke soup. (The good thing about cooking for someone who didn't grow up with the same foods as you is you can play it off when something doesn't turn out exactly as you had intended. Dip is supposed to be runny!)
Luckily, the apple crisp that I made for dessert more than made up for my soupy appetizer.
Before I turned into Martha Stewart, we went to a Volksfest down the street. We paid entirely too much for an awful haunted house (though KD finally jumped out of his skin at the very end… so not entirely a loss) ate some Bailey's flavored roasted almonds and then quickly returned home to defrost.


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Community Relations
Join the Home Movie Depot Community
At Home Movie Depot, our goal is to unify friends and family in the celebration of home movies. We want you to have fun with your memories. When you choose to convert video to DVD or transfer 8mm film to a hard drive, you're taking the first step in joining the home movie community.
As a company, we want to do our part to get other corporations involved in celebrating home movies and the joy that they can bring to everyone. Whether it is helping people reconnect with their memories, teaching film makers about movies, or sharing the fun of video conversion, Home Movie Depot is proud to have these companies and organizations join with us in our mission.
Helping the Community
The Home Movie Depot Helping Community includes charities, events, and other non-for profit organizations that help people have fun with their memories. These great organizations remind us all that we all have a reason to celebrate our families.
Teaching the Community
These companies teach people about all aspects of home movies, including film making, video editing, and preservation.
It's not just about the photo album on your coffee table. People want to share their pictures with relatives on the other side of the world. These companies also let you share your memories with anyone, anywhere.


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4 Things in the Office You Can Coat in Chalkboard Paint
Whether you're looking for extra room to take notes, create labels or just get a little artsy, giving your everyday gear a coat of chalkboard paint (which turns any paint-able surface into a real, mark-it-up chalkboard) will give you the outlet you need. But you don't have to stop on the walls. Your laptop or desk can get in on the action, too.
We just bought up some brush-on chalkboard paint, and to say we're inspired is an understatement. Just looking around the living room, we're spying a million things that could use a coat of chalkboard paint. Giving everyday gear a chalkboard makeover is at once modernizing (with its matte black finish) and organizing, allowing us to label everything from the refrigerator to the remote controls.
Of course, we can't turn our entire place into a schoolroom (our significant other nixed the idea of giving the TV remote a chalkboard bath). So we picked out a few key office surfaces that could use a coat of chalkboard paint.
Your Desk
Need to quickly jot down a coupon code? Don't go shuffling for a sheet of paper. Paint a square of chalkboard paint right on top of your desk for an easy spot to scribble important numbers (or just use it to doodle). Here's a how-to lesson on getting it done.
Your Laptop
OK, so all of the chalk dust isn't going to be good for your laptop. But if you're a coffee shop nomad, having a spot on your laptop to take down occasional notes sure beats scribbling on the underside of a Starbucks napkin.
Part of a Wall
In lieu of mounting a marker board, why not just paint a chalk square right onto your office wall? Use painters tape to section off an area of the wall above your desk and create a note-taking area (or a calendar!) directly on the wall.
A Whole Wall
Go big or go home. Paint an entire wall in your office with chalkboard paint and get the "accent wall" look and a huge creative outlet all at once. Use it to brainstorm, like in the office featured at the top of this post, or accentuate your decor with trompe l'oeil features like a stuffed fish and fireplace (just like Jaclyn & Brian did above).
(Images: Flickr member nachetz licensed for use under Creative Commons, How to Kill Paper Clutter with an $8 Can of Spray Paint, Look! Chalkboard Paint Covered Laptop, Chalkboard Paint in the Office, Jaclyn & Brian's Unique TV Mount)


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AMD Officially Launch GPUOpen
AMD Officially Launches GPUOpen, an Open Source Competitor to GameWorks
Published: 26th January 2016 | Source: AMD Radeon Technologies Group |
AMD Officially Launches GPUOpen
Nvidia's GameWorks tools have for a long time been had a very bad reputation among PC gamers, being associated with badly optimized and buggy PC releases like Watch Dogs and Assassin's Creed Unity and being blamed for giving AMD a performance disadvantage in titles, particularly in The Witcher 3 and more recently in Just Cause 3.
One of the many issues with Nvidia's GameWorks was that many claimed that GameWorks was a "black box" that developers could use but not look inside, limiting their ability to improve or optimize the graphical tools, especially on AMD. Nvidia has denied this and some developers have access to the code, but until now this has been seen as a problems by both developers and gamers alike.
For a long time AMD has been saying that they have been looking into making an open source response to Nvidia's GameWorks, a so-called "OpenWorks" that developers could use and access directly to improve upon it and easily optimize the effects for their particular game and the hardware it would be running on.
AMD has now announced GPUOpen, a set of tools that will give developers full control. This collection of open source effects, tools, libraries and SDKs has been created to allow developers to both get the best visuals out of their games and the best performance out of both AMD and Nvidia GPUs, as well as allow developers to share improve upon the Open Source software.
The GPUOpen initiative provides access to a comprehensive collection of visual effects, productivity tools, and other content at no cost. Easily shareable and downloadable, GPUOpen enables developers to level-up code and unlock the full potential of software development.
AMD's GPUOpen has been based on three principles, to provide full source code access to PC developers, giving them full control of GPUOpen technologies, to always remain fully committed to open source software and to remain active in the community, continually collaborating and sharing with developers.
The first is to provide code and documentation allowing PC developers to exert more control on the GPU. Current and upcoming GCN architectures (such as Polaris) include many features not exposed today in PC graphics APIs, and GPUOpen aims to empower developers with ways to leverage some of those features. In addition to generating quality or performance advantages such access will also enable easier porting from current-generation consoles (XBox One™ and PlayStation 4) to the PC platform.
The second is a commitment to open source software. The game and graphics development community is an active hub of enthusiastic individuals who believe in the value of sharing knowledge. Full and flexible access to the source of tools, libraries and effects is a key pillar of the GPUOpen philosophy. Only through open source access are developers able to modify, optimize, fix, port and learn from software. The goal? Encouraging innovation and the development of amazing graphics techniques and optimizations in PC games.
The third is a collaborative engagement with the developer community. GPUOpen software is hosted on public source code repositories such as GitHub as a way to enable sharing and collaboration. Engineers from different functions will also regularly write blog posts about various GPU-related topics, game technologies or industry news.
With GPUOpen now being officially live AMD developers now have the chance to integrate some AMD technologies into their games quickly and easily, offering developers full access to allow them to use AMD's tools in whatever way they desire, opening up a whole range of possibilities.
With AMD hardware being found in most of today's consoles AMD expects that plenty of developers would like to take part in AMD's Open source initiative, but given how much market penetration that Nvidia's competing GameWorks Libraries already have it many be too late for these tools to receive wide adoption.
Hopefully AMD will be continuing to actively update and improve upon their current set of GPUOpen technologies in the future, offering many more tools and effects for use with the DirectX 12 and Vulcan APIs.
You can join the discussion on AMD officially launching GPUOpen on the OC3D Forums.
@AMDRadeon have officially launched GPUOpen, AMD's Open Source answer to Nvidia GameWorks. https://t.co/rViexpwTuR pic.twitter.com/sb34VCDo1I— OC3D (@OC3D) January 26, 2016
Most Recent Comments
But yes it is quite a good thing this has released early on in the year. Hopefully it grows quickly and is successful as I think it is a very strong alternative to GW once it starts to grow and contain a lot of useful code for devs. It also allows each dev to take already written code, make it more efficient to there needs and produce higher quality code. That should in turn benefit gamersQuote


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SMS Delete 1.4.14 Free Download
Shareware: You can try this program, but this version has some limited features or time usage restrictions. You should purchase it in order to remove those limits.
[BETA version = new Function TESTING, don't suggest everyOne download]
[Final Version = Stable]
[if FC after any upgrade,I'll fix it in one day.]
[any suggestion? just email to me]
thounds SMS can't Delete
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*never freeze while deleting thounds SMS
*realtime progress show
*can be paused at any time
*keep deleting SMS after screen off(slower)
sms delete sms manager clean clear
System Requirements:
No special requirements


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Litigation Release No. 18341 / September 11, 2003
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Maven Capital Corporation, Maven Enterprises, Inc., and Rodd Buckle, et al., United States District Court for the District of Nevada, Civil Action No. CV-S-99-00501-KJD
On August 7, 2003, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an Application for Order to Show Cause why defendant Rodd Buckle (Buckle) should not be held in civil contempt for his violation of the Court's February 13, 2001 order directing him to pay disgorgement and a civil penalty within thirty days of the court's order.
The Commission's application alleged that on February 13, 2001, the Court entered an Order on Civil Penalties as to Buckle. The order provided, among other things, that Buckle pay previously ordered disgorgement of $2,037,815 and a civil penalty of $110,000 within thirty days of the order. Although more than two years have passed since the judgment, Buckle has made no payment whatsoever.
See also: L. R. 16123 (April 26, 1999).