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Does your bedding do better? Not just for your sleep cycle, but also for the planet?
It’s a question more people — and brands — seem to be asking themselves as new options pop up featuring organic textiles and fair manufacturing process. It’s yet another way to explore the movement of conscious consumption — while also adding cool items to your home.
The Montreal-based brand Maison Tess is one company attempting to do its part to offer bedding that’s, well, better. The products, which are Oeko Tex organic certified, according to the brand, are crafted from hypoallergenic linen and cotton that is part of the Better Cotton Initiative, an NGO that aims for sustainable and environmentally effective ways to deal with cotton.
We caught up with Laura Nezri, the founder of Maison Tess, to learn more.
Q. For those who aren’t familiar, what is Maison Tess?
A. Maison Tess is an online home linen brand. We sell premium bedding made in Portugal and sold via our website.
Q. What makes it different from other bedding brands?
A. At Maison Tess, we believe that your home should reflect your true self. Therefore, you shouldn’t have to compromise style for comfort. Just like your personal style, we want your rooms to come to life as an extension of your personality and your lifestyle. Our products become a part of your reality as they let you embrace the practicality that lies in the beauty of the mess. Your home should be a reflection of who you are — no filter needed.
A. Our products are designed and developed for the couples and families of today. We are most definitely a brand that predominantly attracts a female customer who is fashion-forward and trend savvy.
Q. What’s new for the spring season?
A. You should expect a new colour coming in May. We work on two types of colours: basics and seasonal. The seasonal ones are colours that are on trend, available on a season-based approach, and that compliment the basic colour palette.
Q. What more can you share about where the pieces are designed/made?
A. Our manufacturer is family owned, fourth generation, has the oldest mill in the area, and they specialized in small-to-medium production. So, no mass production and less waste. I made my way there and I was blown away. These employees were artists, all of them. You can see the trans-generational work being applied on each product. These amazing women weaving the product, looking at them one by one to make sure the that quality control was met. Real authentic craftsmanship!
I loved the fact that each Tess product is dyed specifically for us. I am the one who does the research before each collection and I determine the colours I think will be on trend for the following season, based on fashion trends. Once that work is done, I send them my colours and they get back to me with samples of colours in all our fabrics. Once approved, it is produced and received in our Montreal office.
Q. What is the price range for Maison Tess bedding?
A. Our prices start at $50 up to $515.
Sheriff Rickey Moses has signed a voluntary evacuation order.
An evacuation order was signed Saturday by Sheriff Ricky Moses for Beauregard Parish. The volunteer evacuation of Beauregard Parish low lying areas and people living in mobile homes was ordered by the Beauregard Parish Unified Command Group (BPUCG) Saturday, starting at noon. A strongly recommended evacuation for Beauregard will be ordered by the BPUCG starting at 12 p.m. (noon) today. As of press time, both Calcasieu and Cameron Parishes were under a mandatory evacuation. A contra-flow of traffic will begin Sunday at 6 a.m. through Beauregard Parish.
Since there will be no shelters open in Beauregard Parish for the public, buses will be leaving the following schools at 10 a.m. today to take those without transportation to shelters north: DeRidder High School, East Beauregard High School, South Beauregard High School, Merryville High School, and Singer High School.
Those with special needs should call 1-866-280-2711 or 337-475-3001 to find out locations of shelters that are equipped to handle special medical needs. During the BPUCG meeting Friday, a general definition of special needs was described as someone who requires constant medical care or is bedridden.
The best course of action is to call the phone number listed above, as all will be handled on a case-by-case basis. The BPUCG said Saturday that they would like to have all special needs residents evacuation by 6 p.m. today. Anyone with special needs, not having adequate transportation to the designated shelter, should contact the Sheriff Dept. at 337-463-3281to arrange transportation. Acadian Ambulance has contracted with the parish to provide such transfers.
The BPUCG stated that all official information from their group will be transmitted over KVVP 105.7 radio station.
Beauregard Daily News will also attend all press conferences and relay the latest information via www.deridderdailynews.com.
All DeRidder residents needing sandbags can go to the city work yard at 7th and 8th Street from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. through the weekend.
Each person will be given 10 loaded sandbags. If more are desired, then residents should take a shovel with them to the work yard and fill as many sandbags as needed. In Beauregard Parish, residents can go to all six work yards within the parish for sandbags.
Beauregard Parish School Superintendent Rita Mann said that schools will remain closed Monday through Wednesday. Make up days will be announced at a later date. Mann also reiterated that no schools will be used as a shelter. However, residents may see emergency personnel and National Guard soldiers around the schools as they stage for dispatch to areas.
Beauregard Parish President Mike McLeod said that parish equipment will be used to help those in life-threatening situations only. He said that the parish will not send equipment to homes to help remove debris, unless a threatening situation exists.
Sheriff Ricky Moses said that if residents decide to ride out the storm they may expect a period of time, up to 72 hours, without help. He said they will be pulling deputies off the road during a period of the storm for safety reasons.
Kay Fox with Beauregard Electric (BECI) said that they are prepared for the storm. “Everything is in place. Our mutual aid contacts are prepared to begin work as soon as it is safe,” Fox said.
Emergency supplies, such as water and food, will be available after the storm at fire stations throughout the parish.
In Merryville, the supplies will be located at the old hospital.
Mayor Ron Roberts said Saturday that they are expecting weather related to Gustav from late Monday through Thursday.
Lebanese group at risk of losing one of its two closest allies as Syrian President Assad struggles to crush uprising.
The effects of the crisis in Syria have reverberated across the region.
In neighbouring Lebanon, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's future could play a large role in the Hezbollah party's support base.
The group, which commands the loyalty of a big chunk of Lebanon's Shia Muslim population, now faces an uncertain future as it could potentially lose one of its two closest allies, the other being Iran.
Al Jazeera's James Bays reports from Lebanon's southern border with Israel.
Glasgow University has announced a programme of “reparative justice” after a year-long study discovered that the university benefited from the equivalent of tens of millions of pounds donated from the profits of slavery.
The report states that although the university itself “adopted a clear anti-slavery position”, during the 18th and 19th centuries it received gifts and bequests from people connected to slavery.
As a result of the study, the university will create a centre for the study of slavery and has agreed to add a memorial or tribute at the university in the name of the enslaved.
The report concluded that the university benefited by between £16.7m and £198m, depending on how the amount is updated to its present-day value. It studied about 200 endowments, bursaries and prizes, looking for whether the people donating the sum made most of their money directly from slavery, or less directly, through trading in tobacco, sugar, and cotton.
The Slavery, Abolition and the University of Glasgow report was co-authored by Prof Simon Newman and Dr Stephen Mullen, and examined the roles of university alumni such as Robert Cunninghame Graham (1735-1797) in the slave trade.
A former rector of the university, Graham made a gift of £100 in 1788 to establish the Gartmore Gold Medal, awarded every two years for the best student work on “political liberty”. Graham had been a slave owner for nearly four decades at the time he endowed the prize.
The study also demonstrated that between 1727 and 1838, more than 100 students who attended the Old College came from the Caribbean, “most of them the sons of slave-owning planters and merchants”.
Other universities, especially in the US, have carried out work to research the extent to which they were funded by or supported slavery, and to present that history in an appropriate context. The University of Mississippi, for example, has added a plaque to a stained-glass window commemorating the “University Greys”, explaining that the infantry unit were fighting in the Confederate army to support the injustice of slavery.
The way universities and museums deal with the legacy of slave-owning benefactors has become a major subject of debate within academia, often brought into the public eye by protests from present-day students such as the “Rhodes must fall” campaign at Oxford.
As part of the process, Glasgow University joined the international Universities Studying Slavery group, which includes more than 40 institutions from the US, UK and Ireland. They also collaborated with the University of the West Indies.
Muscatelli added: “The university has set out a programme of reparative justice through which we will seek to acknowledge this aspect of the university’s past, enhance awareness and understanding of historical slavery.
This is it. Months after we drove a pre-production model out on a Swedish lake, here now are official images and details on the new BMW M5.
The unsurprising news? It looks exactly like the concept shown to a private group two months ago. The semi-surprising news? The twin-turbo V8 engine is putting down a sub-Cadillac CTS-V 552 horses. Hell, the uber-Caddy's even got a good 50 more torques than the new M5. Did an American automaker just beat the Germans at the power war? It seems so.
In March, when Chris Harris drove the new F10-platformed M5 for us and EVO magazine, BMW wouldn't yet confirm what tweaks had been made to the X6M/X5M twin-turbo V8, but admitted to different intake and exhaust systems and cryptically stating it would be unlikely to let the M5 have less power than the hot-UVs. True to form, the new M5 has more than 547 HP.
Unfortunately for BMW, it's only a little bit more — 552 HP. While a sizable jump from the previous E60 M5's power output, it's still a few horsies short of the newest badass bomber from across the puddle — the Cadillac CTS-V.
But really, the numbers aren't actually what's important here. The real important thing — as far as 'merican fanboys are concerned — is this is the first time a new BMW M5 has launched and a freakin' Cadillac can be considered the reference point on it. That's a shift of Teutonic proportions.
UPDATE: Tickets are now on sale for the Pulp Fiction/Professional double feature.
Late summer left Los Angeles repertory fans scratching their heads as the long-running New Beverly Cinema abruptly closed for the month of September with the promise of renovations and new programming to come starting in October. As it turns out, Quentin Tarantino, who owns the theater building and has long provided financial backing to the New Bev, decided to take over programming the theater, ditching a recently-installed digital projector and committing to film-only projection. This week, the theater reopens and the first New Beverly programming under Tarantino’s stewardship has been announced.
Variety has the first wave of programming, and notes that one thing hasn’t changed: ticket prices remain set at $8 for a double-feature.
The theater will re-open on October 1 and 2 with a Paul Mazursky double-bill featuring Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Blume in Love. Then there will be a six-night run of Pulp Fiction and Luc Besson’s The Professional, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of both films. (As shown on the current marquee, pictured above.) The projections will all be in 35mm.
One thing not yet addressed is the question over ownership of the New Beverly, as a business. While Tarantino owns the building and is therefore the New Beverly’s landlord, the actual business belongs to the Torgan family. The precise details of Tarantino’s new role in the business beyond being the programmer and landlord have been murky and remain unrevealed.
Update: Here’s an image of the full program for the month, which is not yet on the New Beverly’s website. Thanks to Matthew Chernov on Twitter.
Private/public partnerships are promoted as a collaborative way to bring people and resources together across sectors. A recent example is the development of senior housing in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point community. We are proud to be affiliated with this project and have witnessed the many twists and turns it has taken over the years. We asked Cathy Davis, executive director of the Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services, Inc. (BHPMSS) in San Francisco, CA to share the specifics of her partnership so you imagine what a partnership could look like for your organization or institution. Her story is specific to her community: your story will be specific to yours.
We started our interview asking Davis to share the importance of the senior housing being built. “The new senior housing will make it possible for seniors to age in a secure and familiar place — their own community — close by to friends and family.
The project had multiple partners. It was initiated by long-term BHPMSS executive director Dr. George Davis – Cathy Davis’ husband –who was a community organizer, gerontologist and political strategist. He had a vision for what he wanted and was willing to tell everyone about it. He enrolled the board of directors, staff, all the city officials, politicians and the community at large in creating the “Aging Campus”.
In a recent article in the Guardian Martin Kettle wrote that “after 1956 socialism became more than ever just a matter of religious faith rather than reason”.
He claimed that Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev’s secret speech together with the Soviet invasion of Hungary marked the point at which left wingers should have broken with the myth of socialism.
This is, of course, nonsense. Kettle ignores just those forces that made 1956 so inspiring for socialists. It was not, in Kettle’s phrase, to Khrushchev’s “great moral bravery” that the left turned for inspiration in 1956.
Rather, the workers of Hungary showed that socialism from below was a real living alternative to the oppressive regimes of the East and West.
The British and French invasion of Egypt (with Israeli support) was evidence that it was not just the Soviet system that depended for its ultimate survival on military might.
As a response to these events a new left emerged out of dissident groups within the Communist Party, alongside student radicals, left Labourites and members of the tiny revolutionary left.
While the new left had neither fixed political positions, nor an agreed agenda, it did aim at making socialism a living force in Britain.
New leftists developed this message in a number of journals, including Universities And Left Review, edited by students in Oxford, and The Reasoner, edited by the historians and Communist activists Edward Thompson and John Saville.
The Reasoner was published as a dissident magazine within the Communist Party, and then – retitled The New Reasoner – as an independent journal after its editors refused the party leadership’s demand to stop publishing.
The journal made its name as the foremost British voice of socialist humanism, seeking to rescue Karl Marx, and socialism, from the deadening grip of Stalinism.
Stalin had justified his rule by arguing that history was a mechanical process of economic progress, and that socialism was the liberation of the forces of production from the fetters of the profit system.
Thompson instead insisted on putting real human beings at the centre of both the historical process and the struggle for socialism.
In the first issue of The New Reasoner Thompson published a manifesto for this new position, “Socialist Humanism: An Epistle to the Philistines”.
He argued that Stalinism was an ideology that represented the world-view of a “revolutionary elite which, within a particular historical context, degenerated into a bureaucracy”.
He claimed that the human revolt which underpinned the struggle for socialism had become a revolt against Stalinism, and that this revolt involved a “return to man”.
Thompson embraced humanism in an attempt to reposition “real men and women at the centre of socialist theory and aspiration”, without reneging on his commitment to socialism. He reaffirmed “the revolutionary perspectives of communism”.
Despite the honesty of Thompson’s break with Stalinism, unfortunate assumptions from his past in the Communist Party spilled over into, and weakened, his new political perspectives.
He accepted that a socialist, albeit imperfect, transformation of society had been brought to Eastern Europe by Russian tanks. Thompson’s humanism was open to the charge, made by Harry Hanson in The New Reasoner, that it was not quite so humane after all.
Thompson attempted to explain Stalinism as a consequence of the more mechanical aspects of Marxism “embodied” by the Bolsheviks “in the rigid forms of democratic centralism”.
This opened his ideas to the charge, made by Charles Taylor, that a humanist critique of Stalinism would cast a large shadow over Marxism too.
Criticisms such as these led many to conclude that socialist humanism marked a path away from Marxism.
However, it is more true to say that it marked a stepping stone towards either liberalism or a consistent Marxist rejection of “socialism from above”.
Alasdair MacIntyre took this second path in the late 1950s and early 1960s when he defended and deepened Thompson’s ideas.
Next week we shall see how MacIntyre took Thompson’s humanism to its socialist conclusion, and how he contributed to the freeing of both Marx and Lenin from the binds of Stalinism.
In honor of the 23rd National HIV Testing Day, Men & Women in Prison Ministries ( MWIPM ) will launch the "Stigma Stops with Me" campaign, on Chicago's west side at Sankofa Cultural Arts Center -located at 5820 W. Chicago Ave. A press conference with State Representatives Juliana Stratton, LaShawn K. Ford, and Camille Y. Lilly will kick off the campaign at 9:30am. After the Press Conference MWIPM will host a west side family friendly party from 10-2pm. The event is free and will have giveaways, hotdogs, face painting, spoken word, and music -provided by Chicago's OJ Moe.
For many years, stigma has been a barrier to ending the HIV epidemic. Event speakers will share personal stories on how stigma -connected to incarceration and HIV, continues to fuel the HIV epidemic in the African American community. Come to Sankofa, have fun, get free testing for HIV/HCV, and become a "Stigma Buster." Together we can Stop Stigma and end the HIV epidemic in communities of color.
Men & Women in Prison Ministries ( MWIPM ) has provided free supportive services and healthcare advocacy for citizens engaged with the criminal justice system for over 35 years.
Over the past eight years, as diseases have disproportionately affected minority communities, Health promotion services are delivered on the south side of Chicago at 1 0 West 35th Street, Monday -Thursday 9am -3pm. Social and Economic Recovery services include Identification Restoration - for individuals released from a correctional facility within the past 12 months, and Family Support Groups. Health & Wellness services include HIV/HCV testing and Medical Case Management. This year MWIPM expanded services to Chicago's west side, offering free Identification Restoration and HIV/HCV testing. Services are provided on the 2nd and 3rd Friday of every month 10-2 p.m., at Sankofa Cultural Arts Center, 5820 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago.
Alongside this premium handset, Huawei released the ultra-extravagant Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS, which starts at €1,695 (roughly $2,091) and only gets pricier. On the inside, this is largely the same as the aforementioned P20 Pro, but with some gorgeous luxury touches that cements its appeal to the cashed-up few that'll ultimately buy it.
As previously mentioned, the Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS is heavily derived from the recently-released P20 Pro. My colleague Napier Lopez will be reviewing this in the coming days, so I'm going to deliberately avoid rehashing anything he'll inevitably say. I won't, for example, talk much about performance or the device's software (although I'm working on a separate piece about the camera system on both phones, because they're that good).
The Huawei Mate RS carries the marque of the iconic design house, Porsche Design. It's important to emphasize that unlike certain phones carrying the name of an iconic car manufacturer, Huawei didn't just license a brand here; Porsche Design took a leading role in creating the look and feel of this phone.
You can see this by contrasting the Mate RS with the P20 Pro. The latter device has a "notch" in the screen, which houses the front-facing camera and earpiece.
Porsche Design are unapologetically notch-skeptical, as the company's design director, Christian Schwamkrug, explained to me. It believes that tried-and-tested rectangular displays make sense, and the Mate RS therefore has a more conventional design (which I personally prefer).
Given the Mate RS is a fundamentally premium device, it's no surprise Huawei has made efforts to make it feel premium and luxurious in the hand. Its metal and glass construction gives it a presence that's weighty, and doesn't feel cheap. It boasts luxuriously curved corners, and ultra-reflective mirrored back.
On the rear, there's the bare minimum amount of logos and text, and the cameras are slap-bang in the center. This fundamentally minimalistic, symmetrical design is understated, but looks stunning.
As phones go, the Mate RS contains three major oddities that distinguishes it from its more mass-market cousin. One isn't immediately obvious: on top of handset's HiSilicon Kirin chipset is a layer of 9.7 million PCM microcapsules (which, a Huawei spokesperson told me, are the same type used in space suits). These absorb, store, and slowly dissipate heat, which (in theory) means the phone shouldn't get too hot.
During the short time I used the device, I can't recall noticing that it got especially hot, even while being thoroughly taxed.
The Mate RS's implementation wasn't particularly responsive, especially compared to its super-fast rear fingerprint reader. I had to repeatedly press my thumb against the screen to get it to recognize. With this in mind, I couldn't help but feel as though it was a bit of a white elephant.