96% First Position
All Critics (45) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (43) | Rotten (2)
A number of the performances are plain stunning – Aran and Joan, in particular, seem born to move – and in many ways watching the movie is like watching a sporting event; there are winners and losers and favorites to cheer on.
It’s an intense journey, and Kargman captures it all, down to the dancers’ bloodied and bruised feet.
Yes, it is possible to create a gripping documentary about the ballet world without resorting to “Black Swan” melodramatics.
Because its subjects are so driven and so talented, “First Position,” which is about ballet, is more gripping than the norm.
It’s in the quick audience-reaction shots of the young dancers’ exultant parents and cringing private instructors that the movie finds its most nakedly human moments.
The film shows the grueling work it takes for young dancers like Zamora to look effortless on stage, and First Position shows teachers who range from supportive to borderline abusive.
What we experience is the overwhelming thrill of the competition and the true agony of defeat.
It could very well compete for Best Documentary at next year’s Academy Awards.
For someone (like me) who has never been to a ballet, the talent of these teens and tweens is a revelation.
It’s ‘Spartacus’ en pointe.
Inspiring documentary about hardworking young dancers.
Almost loses its sense of good taste entirely in the final act, straining to build suspense and shape heroes. The bias hangs a little ugly in an otherwise passable, somewhat enlightening effort.
The cookie cutter format Kargman uses in presenting her subjects may be unoriginal but a safe way to introduce the filmmaker to her new audience.
Child ballet dancer and former journalist Bess Kargman brings a dancer’s passion and insight to her directorial debut, illuminating the addictive magic and fierce demands of a ballet dancer’s life.
Really, all of the dancers’ evident passion for their art is, well, spellbinding.
These kids are proud of their tights.
Kargman follows the pre-established pattern of documentaries following competitions from crosswords to spelling bees, but the format works and she’s found six kids ranging in age from 9 to 16 who are truly involving.
Magically upbeat and exhilarating in spirit. Particularly noteworthy is the way director Bess Kargman manages to address a few world issues with great hopefulness.
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Choke condition in horses. | *A blog for Pets*
Choke is a condition in horses in which the esophagus is blocked, usually by food material. Although the horse is still able to breathe, it is unable to swallow, and may become severely dehydrated.
A secondary condition, aspiration pneumonia, may also develop if food material and saliva accumulate in the pharynx, spilling into the trachea and into the lungs.
Choke is one of the “top 10″ emergencies received by equine veterinarians.
The condition is seen in other Equidae like mules and donkeys.
Chewing:
Horses may develop choke if they do not chew their food properly. Therefore, horses with dental problems (e.g. acquired or congenital malocclusion, loose or missing teeth, or excessively sharp dental ridges) that do not allow them to completely grind their food are particularly at risk. In addition, horses that bolt their feed and do not take the time to chew properly are more likely to suffer from choke.
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Dry Food:
Dry foods may cause choke, especially if the horse does not have free access to water, or if the horse has other risk factors linked to choking.? While pelleted or cubed feeds in general fall in this category, horse owners sometimes express particular concerns about beet pulp.
However, while horses have choked on beet pulp, a university study did not document that beet pulp is a particular problem. It is believed that choke related to beet pulp is linked to the particle size and the horse’s aggressive feeding behaviour, rather than the actual feed itself.
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Research suggests that horses that bolt their feed without sufficient chewing, or who do not have adequate access to water, are far more likely to choke, regardless of the type of feed, compared to horses that eat at a more leisurely rate. The risk of choke associated with any dry feed can be reduced by soaking the ration prior to feeding.
Foreign Objects:
Horse may ingest non-edible materials such as pieces of wood. Cribbers may be more prone to this type of choke, if they happen to swallow a piece of wood or other material while cribbing.
- Difficulty swallowing (horse may try to swallow without success)
- Disinterest in food
- Coughing
- Extending the neck and head, usually in a downward direction
- Discharge from the nostrils. usually green in color, although it may also be yellow or clear, often looks like vomit
- Increased salivation, saliva drooling from the mouth
- Heart rate may increase slightly, due to the distress of the animal
- Occasionally, a lump on the side of the neck is visible or can be palpated, where the esophagus is blocked. This is normally most obvious on the left.
If a horse is suspected of choke, a veterinarian will often pass a stomach tube down the animal’s esophagus to determine if there is a blockage.
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Failure to access the stomach with the tube indicates a complete obstruction; difficulty passing the tube may represent a stenosis, or narrowing; or a partial obstruction. Radiography and endoscopy are also used in refractory cases.
Choking horses should be deprived of food and drink pending veterinary attention, so as not to increase the obstructive load within the esophagus. The veterinarian will often sedate the horse and administer spasmolytics, such as butylscopolamine, to help the esophagus to relax.
Do you have a cat??
Once the muscles of the esophagus no longer force the food down the throat (active peristalsis), it may slip down on its own accord. If spasmolytics do not solve the problem, the veterinarian will usually pass a stomach tube through one of the nostrils and direct it into the esophagus until the material is reached, at which point gentle pressure is applied to manually push the material down.
Gentle warm water lavage (water sent through the stomach tube, to soften the food material) may be required to help the obstructing matter pass more easily, but caution should be exercised to prevent further aspiration of fluid into the trachea.
Refractory cases are sometimes anesthetised, with an orotracheal tube placed to prevent further aspiration and to allow for more vigorous lavage. Disruption of the impacted material can sometimes be achieved via endoscopy.
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If these methods still do not lead to results, the horse may require surgery to remove the material. Some workers have advocated the use of oxytocin in choke, on the grounds that it decreases the esophageal muscular tone. However, this technique is not suitable in pregnant mares, as it may lead to abortion.
After the material has passed, a veterinarian may try to prevent the onset of aspiration pneumonia by placing the horse on broad-spectrum antibiotics.
The animal should be monitored for several days to ensure that it does not develop pneumonia, caused by inhalation of bacteria-rich food material into the lungs.
The material caught in a horse’s throat usually causes inflammation, which may later lead to scarring. Scarring reduces the diameter of the esophagus (a stenosis or stricture), which increases the chance that the horse may choke again.
The veterinarian may therefore place the horse on a course of NSAIDs, to help to control the inflammation of the esophagus.
Do you have a cat??
Often the horse will only be fed softened food for a few days, allowing the esophagus to heal, before it is allowed to gradually resume its normal diet (e.g. hay and unsoaked grain). Horses with re-occurring chokes may require their diet to be changed.
- Always provide water for the horse
- Soak dry foods before feeding to horses prone to choke
- Change feeds gradually
- Discourage the bolting of food: spread out feed, place large, flat stones (large enough so that the horse can not swallow it) or salt blocks in the feed bin so that the horse must slow down, or feed smaller meals more often
- Cut apples, carrots, or other treats into small pieces
- Withhold feed material for one hour following sedation
source 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choke_%28horse%29
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HTC one X vs. Galaxy Nexus, Could the Galaxy S III become an Apple target? [From the Forums]
We're getting ramped up for the Android Central podcast right now but in case you missed out on anything today — get yourself caught up. Need to know what we'll be talking about? Head on back ohhh… 5-6 pages. If you're looking for something to do before we kick things off, check out the threads below from the Android Central Forums.
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Arts Center acquisition: “Wandering Thoughts” | Eye Candy
A graphite drawing on pink prepared paper by Joseph Edward Southall (1861-1944) has been acquired by the Arkansas Arts Center in honor of Rosemary “Missy” Wright Anderson, a past president of the board of trustees and long-time supporter who died last year. The work was purchased in part by Chucki and Curt Bradbury.
“Wandering Thoughts” is the first Southall in the Arts Center’s permanent collection. The pre-Raphaelite work is one of only a few on paper, Arts Center director Todd Herman said in a press release. His comment on the work:
?Drawing on paper that has been treated with a thin, colored gesso ground requires a very high level of skill,? said Herman. ?Lines must be precise since errors cannot be erased nor changes made without smudging and ruining the gesso ground layer. Not only is this a beautiful drawing, but it adds depth to our collection in terms of quality and technique.
The drawing is on exhibit in the Winthrop Rockefeller Foyer.
Full release on the jump.
Arkansas Arts Center Acquires Work in Memory of Missy Anderson
(LITTLE ROCK, AR) ? The Arkansas Arts Center announces a new acquisition to the permanent collection. The Arkansas Arts Center acquired the drawing, Wandering Thoughts by 19th-century British artist Joseph Southall. The drawing was purchased in honor of Rosemary ?Missy? Wright Anderson with funds donated to the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation by friends and family in her memory.
The Arkansas Arts Center lost one of its most dedicated champions with the passing of Missy Anderson in September 2011. Anderson was a past president of the board of trustees and an honorary life trustee of the Arkansas Arts Center. She began her volunteer work at the Arkansas Arts Center as a docent, leading tours of current exhibitions. She also spent several years preparing a catalogue of the museum?s permanent collection.
?Missy was one of the first people I met in Little Rock, and we had an immediate connection,? said Arkansas Arts Center Executive Director Todd Herman. ?Her enthusiasm, intelligence and obvious passion for the Arts Center was a beacon for this institution, and her voice and energy still resonate throughout these spaces.?
The drawing Wandering Thoughts is of an anonymous woman, beautiful, poised and confident. The technique is unusual?graphite (or possibly metalpoint) on pink prepared paper.
?Drawing on paper that has been treated with a thin, colored gesso ground requires a very high level of skill,? said Herman. ?Lines must be precise since errors cannot be erased nor changes made without smudging and ruining the gesso ground layer. Not only is this a beautiful drawing, but it adds depth to our collection in terms of quality and technique. This is our first work by Southall in the collection and one of only a few works on paper by a Pre-Raphaelite artist.?
The artist, Joseph Southall, was a Quaker and a pacifist who began his career as an architect in Birmingham, England, studying art on the side. Southall was exposed to the philosophies of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Arts and Crafts movement early in his career. After travelling to Italy in the 1870s, Southall began working in a style derived from early Renaissance masters such as Benozzo Gozzoli. He was an artist of meticulous skill, demonstrated in this sensitive drawing. The title Wandering Thoughts indicates Southall?s adoption of the romantic themes often used by the Pre-Raphaelites.
The drawing was unveiled on May 8, 2012, and will be on view in the Winthrop Rockefeller Foyer through July.
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Allison Hope: Does Asexuality Fall Under the Queer Umbrella?
I thought my good friend was asexual for a long time. Everyone did. At a time when hormones were in full bloom and swapping spit while trying not to get braces stuck on one another’s adolescent lips was an after-school special, my friend played googly eyes with tennis, sitcoms, and calligraphy — anything but sex.
I became fascinated with my friend’s lack of sexual interest in anyone; she became my case study on asexuality. She never relayed a crush on a classmate, never called anyone attractive, especially when prodded, and even seemed to reel in disgust when I shared my own hookup hijinks with her.
Debates over asexuality surfaced from time to time among my social groups in college and grad school, and I’d use my friend as proof that such a category actually existed and watched those around me shake their heads with disbelief. Surely someone identifying as asexual was only masking his or her true sexual self, they argued, because of prior abuse, insecurities, or sexual confusion. Everyone was sexual, they said. It was in our inherit nature.
I lost the argument when my friend surprised me by partnering up with someone at long last. My doubts about whether asexuality was a valid identity dissolved, and, as a hypersexual being myself, I jumped onto the “everyone-must-love-sex-unless-something-is-wrong-with-them” bandwagon.
Then I came across the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN). Founded in 2001, AVEN “hosts the world’s largest online asexual community and strives to create open, honest discussion about asexuality among sexual and asexual people alike.” It turns out there is a defined community of those who identify as asexual, with numbers to back it up. A 2009 article in Scientific American addressed this topic and included findings from a Brock University study that found that about 1 percent of British nationals surveyed identified as asexual. Assuming the prevalence of asexuality is the same in the U.S., that would mean about 3 million people who likely prefer fondue to fondling, cuddling to cunnilingus, and making pot roast to making out.
The more I read about asexuality as a legitimate identity, the more catchphrases I recognized from the LGBTQ community. Some of the commonly used jargon centers around “coming out,” specifically how and when someone who is asexual should come out to friends and family. There’s even an asexual pride flag.
Although asexuality denotes the absence of sexuality, potentially differentiating it from the more visible sexual minorities (at least in terms of society’s commonly held beliefs about them), in recent years the queer umbrella has extended to include not just sexual orientations but gender identities, as well, and could very well embrace another enclave. If you look at the religious root of homophobia, the belief that what cannot procreate is evil, and consider that asexuals by definition are not in the business of making babies, then you might agree that in that respect alone they could easily hop on the queer bandwagon.
Should we consider adding yet another letter to the LGBTQ acronym to include asexuality? Fringe! Film Fest thinks so. It included the premiere of Angela Tucker’s documentary (A)sexual in its lineup this year. The film explores the lives of four individuals who identify as asexual. New York and Vermont are also hip to the plight of asexuals: They’re the only two states to include the minority as a protected class.
To avoid conflation, I should point out that it is possible to identify as asexual and also stake a claim as straight, lesbian, or gay (or genderqueer, or bisexual, or [insert another label from the growing identity list here]), because asexuals define their desires not as sexual but as romantic. Those who identify as asexual generally don’t want to have sex, but that doesn’t mean they don’t seek the closeness of other human beings for love, companionship, shared experiences, cohabitation, and everything else that we all appreciate about partnering up. Distinct from celibacy, asexuality is not considered a choice. “Nonsexual intimacy” might characterize the type of relations asexuals seek, and there are plenty of sites that make it easier for asexual-identified persons to “hook up” with one another: Affectionate Friends, Asexual Pals, Celibate Passions, and Platonic Partners, to name a few. As with all sexual (or, in this case, nonsexual) identities, a spectrum exists. Someone who claims asexuality as his or her predominating preference might have experiences that range from never having had a single sexual thought or fantasy to sometimes engaging in sexual acts, with others or oneself, out of curiosity or for release, or to satisfy a “mixed partner” who might not be asexual.
It might be difficult to wrap one’s brain around what it feels like to be asexual (telling me not to think about sex, or to think about not thinking about sex, is a total turn-on for this horny homo), but I can certainly empathize with feelings of being misunderstood, underrepresented, and closeted. Some people just don’t want to get it on, and they have my vote to take safe harbor from the heteronormative thunderstorm and join us under the queer umbrella.
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Did Catholic order keep priest scandal secret?
VATICAN CITY?? Leaders of the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ religious order knew that their most famous priest had fathered a child for many months before they acknowledged it this week, a top Vatican official told Reuters on Wednesday.
The once influential religious order, still in crisis following revelations that its founder was a sexual abuser with two secret families, suffered another major blow on Tuesday when American Father Thomas Williams admitted to having fathered a child with a woman in Rome.
(Williams is a former NBC News Vatican Analyst. Msnbc.com is a joint venture between NBC News and Microsoft)
The question left hanging was how long the order’s leaders knew about Williams’s secret life and why they continued to let him preach, teach and appear on television around the world, particularly in the United States.
“I found out about it this year,” Spanish Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, who was appointed by Pope Benedict in July, 2010 to oversee the restructuring of the order, told Reuters in a telephone conversation from his home.
Ex-priest pleads guilty in landmark sex abuse case
Asked if he meant since the beginning of this year, he said “yes.”
Williams was the public face of the order, appearing often on American television networks to explain Church teachings. He was the author of more than a dozen books, including one called “Knowing Right From Wrong: A Christian Guide to Conscience.”
He was a big draw on the lecture circuit at Catholic institutions and had two websites, both of which were shut down on Tuesday after the order issued its statement about him.
The order’s leaders have given no explanation of why they waited before taking action against Williams, who is now in the United States and has been ordered to take a year away from practicing the priesthood in public.
Landmark Catholic priest abuse trial begins in Philadelphia
“There is a need to be careful in cases like this. It concerns a private life. These things happen these days, unfortunately,” De Paolis said.
He stressed that Williams’ case was not one of pedophilia and no crime was committed.
Still, the last thing the Legionaries needed was another scandal as they try to pick themselves up from a crisis that has rocked the entire Roman Catholic Church.
Founder led double life for decades
The Legionaries have been at the center of controversy since 2009 when they were forced to admit that their charismatic Mexican founder, Father Marcial Maciel, had led a double life.
Maciel, who made huge financial contributions to the Vatican, secretly fathered children with at least two women, used drugs, misused donations and sexually abused seminarians.
Video: ?Key witness? dies, launching investigation (on this page)
He had enjoyed the support of the late Pope John Paul and was spared official censure for years despite what critics say was overwhelming proof of his crimes.
Pope arrives in Mexico pledging to fight drugs’ ‘evil’
Some churchmen say the scandal may delay John Paul’s road to sainthood. Last year he was beatified, the last step before being made a saint.
Pope Benedict ordered Maciel to retire in 2006 to a life of “prayer and penitence” when the evidence could no longer be disputed, and he died in disgrace in 2008.
Last week the order was hit by another scandal when the Vatican said that its doctrinal department was investigating seven Legionaries on suspicion of sexually abusing children decades ago.
Williams, who taught at Pontifical Regina Apostolorum University in Rome, said in a statement that he was “truly sorry to everyone who is hurt by this revelation.”
“A number of years ago I had a relationship with a woman and fathered her child. I am deeply sorry for this grave transgression and have tried to made amends,” Williams said.
Father Luis Garza, the Legionaries’ head for North America said in a letter to members that Williams would undergo a period of “reflection, prayer and atonement without public ministry”.
The Legionaries of Christ runs private Catholic schools and charitable organizations in 22 countries via its network of 800 priests and 2,600 seminarians. The order’s lay movement, known as Regnum Christi, has around 75,000 members.
Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
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'Dine Out' webinar to show how to boost sales during fundraising …
Anti-hunger organization Share Our Strength has teamed up with the National Restaurant Association to host a webinar May 23 to help restaurateurs drive sales and grow business during the next Dine Out for No Kid Hungry campaign.
The event will be held from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. and feature renowned restaurateur George McKerrow Jr., chief executive and co-founder of the Ted’s Montana Grill casual-dining chain.
McKerrow, a 40-year restaurant industry veteran, founded the LongHorn Steakhouse chain and RARE Hospitality Group as well as upscale establishments Aria and Canoe in Atlanta, before rolling out Ted’s Montana Grill in 2002. That concept was born when McKerrow, looking to start up an eco-friendly, socially responsible restaurant chain, partnered with billionaire entrepreneur/environmentalist Ted Turner to offer consumers more healthful and environmentally friendly fare, including bison raised on Turner’s Montana ranch.
Dine Out for No Kid Hungry is a national campaign that aims – through the support of participating restaurants ? to drive sales and raise funds through culinary events that support SOS’ imperative to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. This year, the Dine Out will be held Sept. 16-22. Last year, more than 5,500 restaurants raised nearly $2.4 million. This year’s goal is to engage 10,000 restaurants and raise $5 million.
The NRA last month announced its commitment to help Share Our Strength triple the amount of funds raised during the Dine Out for No Kid Hungry campaign through 2013.
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Tyngsboro school panel, teachers union face May 31 mitigation deadline
TYNGSBORO — As contract negotiations between the School Committee and the teachers’ union continue, a May 31 deadline is looming before a mitigation package incentive expires for unions that agree to pay 30 percent for health-insurance premiums.
Superintendent of Schools Don Ciampa described the deadline as the sand in the hourglass.
“It’s a precarious timeline we’re walking,” Ciampa said at a School Committee meeting earlier this month.
The School Committee, on Ciampa’s recommendation, took $108,400 out of its proposed fiscal 2013 budget to put into a charge-back account to pay health-insurance premiums for teachers paying 25 percent of their health-insurance costs in case the union and the committee do not reach an agreement by May 31.
The $108,400 is coming out of the $235,000 budgeted for undistributed salaries, which are the funds set aside for negotiating all union and non-union employee contracts across the district.
Reducing those funds limits the ability of the School Committee to negotiate contracts.
The mitigation package is part of the work of a townwide Insurance Committee tasked with making significant changes to the town’s liability and building insurance and employee health-insurance benefits.
If the union reaches a collective-bargaining agreement, the town is offering a flexible-spending account, a one-time buyout for employees who remove themselves from the town’s health-insurance benefits of $3,000 for
those who were on the family plan and $1,500 for employees on the single plan and off-sets for the first three years.
Without an agreement by May 31, those incentives will not be available.
School Committee member Jeffrey Hunt, who served on the Insurance Committee, expressed his frustration that the union has not agreed to the health-insurance package.
“It’s frustrating not being part of the Negotiations Committee to see that the town has come forward with a great plan and that the union is not recognizing the benefits of that work and also the benefits to their people in that union,” said Hunt. “Without getting into specifics, the School Committee has also offered a fairly good compensation package, a three-year contract when you look at it relative to surrounding communities and what has already been agreed to this year and previous years in surrounding communities.”
School Committee member Burt Buchman, chair of the Negotiations Committee, said tentative agreements have been reached with the secretaries and custodians unions and a “handshake” agreement with the paraprofessionals union agreeing to the 30 percent payment of health-insurance premiums.
Town Treasurer Kerry Colburn-Dion said all of the town’s unions have agreed to pay 30 percent of health-insurance premiums except the clerical union.
It’s not that the clerical union has not agreed to pay 30 percent of health-insurance premiums, but it has not agreed to a complete compensation package, said Colburn-Dion.
The teachers’ union contract expired Aug. 31.
Union president Cheryl Laforge could not be reached for comment.
The School Committee filed for mediation with the state Department of Labor Relations in late fall after meeting about half a dozen times beginning last summer, said Buchman.
“Prior to filing back in the fall it just got to the point where the only thing we had agreed on was changing ‘Department of Education’ to the ‘Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’ in the contract,” said Buchman. “We were really very far apart.”
The union signed a letter of agreement on the health-insurance plan-design changes, said Buchman, but the School Committee and the union must negotiate the rate at which employees will pay.
Buchman, who has negotiated contracts for the School Committee for six of the last eight years, said he is always hopeful, but the town has to plan as if they will not come to an agreement before May 31.
“We’re trying to be very realistic in what we’re presenting to the teachers,” he said. “Right now, we are very far apart.”
Buchman did say the School Committee is not interested in taking away step increases.
The final 2013 budget the School Committee voted on last week includes a reduction of current or proposed 4.9 full-time equivalent positions.
Follow Sarah Favot @sarahfavot.
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