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WALHI Jambi
$5,000 to support work with 5 villages in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia to strengthen community management systems and values and help secure control and protection for over 40,000 acres of customarily-owned "village forest" through holding a series of meetings to reach collective decisions to develop and implement 35 year management plans that consider ecological, economic and social dimensions and provide for sustainable sources of income that reflect local cultural values.
Lati Tana Adat Takaa
$2,000 to help the Dayak Benuaq Indigenous Peoples of Muara Tae in Kalimantan, Indonesia to protect their customary rainforest land through the completion of participatory mapping of village areas as part of a process to secure a 4,000 hectare territorial claim, as well as advocating to stop ongoing and future encroachment by palm oil and mining companies.
Federation of the Achuar Nationality of Peru
$4,500 to support the relocation of the Achuar community of Putuntsa to a new location at the heart of their ancestral territory in the Peruvian rainforest near where oil company Talisman Energy is planning to begin production drilling as a means of trying to keep their territory free from new oil exploitation. Also supported an inter-ethnic congress to discuss the threat posed by Talisman and form a common position to defend ancestral Indigenous territory. Talisman subsequently announced in September that it would cease all oil exploration activities in the Peruvian Amazon.
Frente de Conservacion Ecologica de la Comunidad Nativa Mushuk-Llakta de Chipaota
$4,000 to support ongoing work to expand the recognized territory of the Mushuk-Llatka de Chipaota Indigenous community from 22,000 to 37,000 hectares through the establishment of a biological reserve in the Andean Forest buffer zone of Cordillera Azul National Park and to secure protection of the area through a community-led monitoring program.
Caura Futures
$3,500 to support Caura Futures conservation efforts within the 45,300 km² Caura River Basin in the Venezuelan Amazon through providing training and tools to safeguard Indigenous knowledge, improve human health, and promote good ecosystem stewardship, including addressing the issue that some youths today are more likely to fell, rather than climb, a palm tree for its fruit by creating new enthusiasm for the traditional practice of tree-climbing through introducing new gear, reviewed and approved by community members, and holding competitions (a workshop will also expand this aspect of the project to Iquitos, Peru, where wild palm fruit markets are highly developed and the problem of felling palms is widespread).
Fundación Runa
$3,000 to support the creation of a 200 acre mixed-use agroforestry project, incorporating cacao, coffee, and guayusa that will provide income for communities, while also serving as a strategic buffer zone around the Colonso Protected Area, 25,000 acres of natural forest in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Keepers of the Athabasca
$4,000 to support the 2011 Tar Sands Healing Walk, attended by several hundred people from tar sands impacted communities, hosted in Fort McMurray where major tar sands expansion is causing irreversible damage to both the environment and human health.
WALHI Riau
$4,000 to support a series of capacity building workshops with local communities in Riau Province, Indonesia to protect peatland forests through the development of low carbon livilihoods that protect biodiversity and prevent high CO2 emissions, while providing just and prosperous sources of income, as an alternative to the devastation caused by the pulp and paper industry.
$5,000 to help the organization deepen their critical work supporting Achuar, Quichua and Urarinas communities in the Corrientes and Pastaza river basins in the northern Peru Amazon, a region impacted by 4 decades of oil development, through a program to monitor a collective 3 million acres of traditional territories, as well as organizational capacity building and cultural revitalization programs.
Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre (MXVPS)
$5,000 to provide emergency funding to support a unified grassroots response to the Brazilian government's plans to move forward with construction of the Belo Monte dam complex, which would devastate more than 1,500 square kilometers in the Amazon and result in the forced displacement of 20,000 people.
Rural Women Development Association
$1,000 to help this women-led organization that has been achieving impressive results on a shoestring budget drastically enhance its capacity and efficiency through the purchase of a laptop and printer to be used to support its community training and capacity building efforts to promote tree planting and rainforest protection in rural Uganda.
Instituto Permacultura Mozambique (IPERMO)
$5,000 to establish a plant nursery capable of producing 10,000 native trees annually to be planted as a green buffer around three clustered communities in southern Mozambique whose natural resources are being threatened by urban expansion and other encroachments. A 22,000 liter water tank will also be built to capture harvested rainwater from community buildings to provide water during dry season.
Rural Women Development Association
$1,000 help this women-led organization that has been achieving impressive results on a shoestring budget drastically enhance its capacity and efficiency through the purchase of a laptop, printer, etc. to be used to support its community training and capacity building efforts to promote tree planting and rainforest protection in rural Uganda.
$1,000 help this women-led organization that has been achieving impressive results on a shoestring budget drastically enhance its capacity and efficiency through the purchase of a laptop, printer, etc. to be used to support its community training and capacity building efforts to promote tree planting and rainforest protection in rural Uganda.
Red de Permacultura America Latina en el Peru (REDPAL-PERU) on behalf of Achual Sustainable Harvest Project
$1,500 to support the Achual community's permaculture project in the in Peruvian Amazon, which will produce tropical fruits with maximum biodiversity, provide income security, result in the reforestation of depleted areas, and help secure native status recognition of 4,000 acres of rainforest territory.
Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana (AIDESEP)
$2,500 to support a major gathering on the anniversary of an Indigenous-led strike throughout the Peruvian Amazon against oil development with the goal of strengthening the resolve of regional based organizations and communities to defend their collective territories through increased knowledge of available legal tools and precedents, including ILO Convention No. 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Traditional U'wa Authority
$2,500 to support a grassroots mobilization of U'wa community members in defense of their territory in the cloud forests of northeastern Colombia against imminent gas extraction activities, also facilitating a delegation of civil society allies, civilian government officials, and international media.
Keeper of the Mountains Foundation
$1,500 to support Larry Gibson's tireless work bringing thousands of people to witness the destruction caused by mountaintop removal coal mining to help build a movement to ensure his ancestral land on Kayford Mountain in West Virginia will not become a part of the 7,000 acre MTR site that surrounds it today.
Lestari Negeri
$2,500 to investigate and monitor palm oil producers Duta Palma and Wilmar Group in order to document the impact of palm oil plantations on Cerenti Indigenous peoples and the rainforest of the Riau province of Indonesia, which in conjunction with technical assistance, planning and consulting with communities will support a public campaign and the filing of legal complaints aimed at stopping continued expansion of palm oil plantations.
Rainforest Action Network Ghana
$3,000 to support a project to build the capacity of Pokuase communities in southern Ghana to help protect the imperiled Gua Koo Forest Reserve, 50 acres of intact forest that is part of a larger forest ecosystem in the region.
Ya'axché Conservation Trust
$1,000 to support a comprehensive advocacy campaign to secure the Government of Belize's commitment to protected area legislation, specifically focusing on the most recent illegal, environmentally and socially detrimental activity, a proposed hydroelectric facility within the most restricted and perhaps most pristine protected area in the country, Bladen Nature Reserve.
Defenders of the Land
$1,250 to support the organizing of a national day of action with participation from First Nations across Canada, one of the only countries still opposed to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to shine a spotlight on the country's continued policy to remove First Nations' control over their land and resource base, with the demand that Canada recognize Indigenous communities' right to self-determination.
KONTAK Rakyat Borneo
$4,000 to carry out a two week field investigation in and around PT Indo Sawit Kekal, a Cargill subsidiary, to gather concrete evidence and documentation of its operations in violation of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil principles and criteria and Indonesian law, as well as establish a link between Sinar Mas plantations and Cargill mills.
$4,000 to carry out a two week field investigation in and around PT Indo Sawit Kekal, a Cargill subsidiary, to gather concrete evidence and documentation of its operations in violation of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil principles and criteria and Indonesian law, as well as establish a link between Sinar Mas plantations and Cargill mills.
Mountain Justice (fiscally sponsored by Coal River Mountain Watch)
$1,000 to support the 2010 Mountain Justice Summer Training Camp, consisting of ten days of training, strategizing, bonding, service and action for veteran and novice activists and for people living both within and outside of the coalfields of Appalachia to cultivate the skills and visions needed to abolish mountaintop removal and build vibrant, healthy, self-reliant communities.
La Fundacion de Proteccion Ambiental Waira Samay Yawayry
$3,000 to support the Kichwa community of Rucullacta's campaign to stop oil exploration on their territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon, through workshops to raise awareness, legal actions and non violent direct action.
Keepers of the Athabasca
$4,000 in support for the 1st First Nations led documentary project regarding Tar Sands, focusing on the stories of elders who have worked, raised families, lived off the land and waters of the region and witnessed the many changes to the watershed and how they have impacted their communities over the course of their lives.
Oro Community Environmental Action Network (OCEAN)
$4,000 to support community outreach, education, and organizing in the Musa Pongani area of Oro Province, Papua New Guinea, to resist new logging permit applications covering 250,000 hectares approved by the government without consultation as 99 year leases for Musa Century Landowners Company, a syndicate of Asian companies.
Associação Indígena Kïsêdjê
$4,000 to support a gathering of members of the four Kisedje communities to organize and education all Kisedje people about agribusiness, its threats, and the Indigenous movement in the Brazilian Cerrado currently challenging the expansion of soy production.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN)
$4,000 to support community organizing to push for free, prior and informed consent and other land reform in Ontario building from the government's commitment to protect 225,000 square kilometers of the Far North Boreal region.
Eyak Preservation Council
$5,000 in support for resistance to the proposed Shepard Point deep water port and road, which would bring a cascade effect of development threats to the Copper River Delta, Prince William Sound and vital wild salmon habitat, all under the pretext of creating an oil spill response port, for which there are 2 well-research alternate locations that would drastically minimize environmental impact on the region.
Mobilization of Indigenous People of the Cerrado (MOPIC)
$5,000 to support the production of a documentary focusing on Bunge and Cargill's operations in the heart of the Brazilian Cerrado in Mato Grosso to raise awareness and be used as an organizing tool to engage and empower communities on the frontlines of soy expansion, some of whom have fields coming right up to the border of their titled land.
$5,000 to support the production of a documentary focusing on Bunge and Cargill's operations in the heart of the Brazilian Cerrado in Mato Grosso to raise awareness and be used as an organizing tool to engage and empower communities on the frontlines of soy expansion, some of whom have fields coming right up to the border of their titled land.
The Maya Leaders Alliance
$4,000 to support a Supreme Court lawsuit that seeks to force the government to comply with its commitment to abstain from carrying out activities that might affect the value and use of Maya lands in the rainforests of southern Belize without informed consent and the development of a mechanism through which communities can apply to have their lands demarcated. This will also support a mobilization of over 200 community members to attend the trial and speak with national media.
Grassy Narrows Women's Drum Group
$5,000 to support a three day gathering of youth from Grassy Narrows (who were the catalysts and initiators of the community's blockade of their traditional territory) and other First Nations communities.
Boreal Action Project
$3,000 to support a cross-cultural action camp in Manitoba, Canada between urban activists and youth and Elders from Indigenous communities to discuss methods of furthering mutual goals and build campaign, media, and direct action skills.
Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana (AIDESEP)
$3,000 to provide emergency support to the Indigenous movement in the Peruvian Amazon carrying out blockades to demand a suspension of oil, gas and mining concessions in the Amazon, and the repeal of several new laws drafted to comply with a free trade agreement with the United States, which take away community land rights and allow companies to enter Indigenous land with no prior consultation or even warning.
European Environmental Paper Network (EEPN)
$3,000 to provide bridge funding to maintain a part-time coordinator for 5 months to allow EEPN to continue networking on the Shrink Project (which recently secured a commitment from the French government to reduce paper consumption by 50%), the Indonesia Paper Campaign, and the Virtual Global Summit on the paper industry.
$3,000 to support Amo Amazonia, a week of artistic and cultural events to bring the color and life of the Amazon to the streets of Lima and the hearts of the Peruvian people to help educate the general public and shift attitudes in the wake of the recent blockades and conflict between the government and Indigenous peoples defending their rights and land.
Algonquins of Barriere Lake
$3,000 in support for ongoing efforts by the Algonquins, among the most advanced communities in Canada in terms of their research and land use planning, to pressure the government to respect its signed agreements pertaining to resource co-management and sustainable development.
Mushkegowuk Environmental Research Centre
$3,000 to support a First Nations youth conference, with participation from all 7 communities throughout Ontario that belong to the Mushkegowuk Council, focused on raising awareness around the topic of climate change and providing a forum for the youth to share their concerns and vision for the future of their territory.
Comision Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz
$3,000 to support work on behalf of Emberá communities living in the lower Atrato, Colombia, an area rich in minerals and expanding palm oil plantations, by a legal case in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and pressuring the government to enforce its denouncement of paramilitary violence and the illegal expansion of plantations onto community land without consent.
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC)
$2,500 to support OVEC's efforts to stop mountaintop removal in West Virginia and to acquire security equipment needed for community leader Maria Gunnoe's safety as she faces ongoing harassment and intimidation due to her role as a spokesperson and organizer.
Associação Floresta Protegida
$3,000 in support for the participation of Kayapo community members at the meeting/protest in Altamira, Brazil against the Belo Monte Dam planned for the Xingu River, which would be the world's 3rd largest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlEQgtNkFTs
Save America's Forests (on behalf of the Waorani)
$2,500 to support Save America's Forests and Land is Life work with the Waorani (formerly spelled Huaorani) to curb illegal logging by signing 6 month contracts with leaders to not allow logging on their territory in Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon as a temporary measure while the government is working with community leaders to develop a permanent long-term agreement that will take over these payments as part of the plan.
Ardoch Algonquin First Nation
$5,000 to support the efforts of Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, an Aninshinaabe community of about 700 in southeast Ontario, that has established a blockade to prevent Frontenac from developing an open-pit uranium mine on their traditional land.
Boreal Action Project
$3,000 in support for a cross-cultural action camp in Manitoba, Canada between urban activists and youth and Elders from Indigenous communities to discuss methods of furthering mutual goals and build campaign, media, and direct action skills.
Amazon Jam
$2,500 in support for a 5 day Amazon Jam in Brazil that will bring together over 30 young leaders, activists, supporters, and journalists, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous to rally and unite people against oil and soy development in the Amazon.
Latin American Permaculture Network of Peru (REDPAL-Peru) on behalf of Achual Sustainable Harvest Project
$2,155 in support for the Achual community's permaculture project in the in Peruvian Amazon, which will produce tropical fruits with maximum biodiversity, provide income security, result in the reforestation of depleted areas, and help secure native status recognition of 4,000 acres of rainforest territory.
Community Forest Team
$2,000 in support for an effort to bring Pacific Lumber Company, which is currently bankrupt, under community control and implement a plan for permanent, sustainable timber management of 197,000 acres of redwood forests, while 12,000 acres of old-growth and environmentally significant habitat are preserved.
Niska Traditional Memorial Gathering Committee
$1,000 in support for a 5 day festival in Moose Factory, Ontario to showcase and celebrate the Omushkego Cree culture and honor the youth and the geese which bring the community sustenance and life, with workshops addressing concerns over land, water and global warming.
Grupo de Trabajo "Racimos de Ungurahui"
$3,000 in support for representatives from Racimos and the Indigenous Achuar federations FECONACO, AIM and ATI, to travel to Calgary and Los Angeles to engage directly with officials of Talisman Energy and Occidental Petroleum at their annual shareholder meetings regarding current and past oil concession on Achuar territory.
Mother Earth Helpers (Grassy Narrows First Nation)
$540 in support for Mother Earth Helpers patrol of Grassy Narrows' Traditional Sacred Grounds and the establishment of three campsites that would block secondary roads where logging is happening.
Interethnic Development Association of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP)
$1,500 in support for an ongoing legal effort to challenge the development of two massive oil projects : Barrett's Block 67 and Repsol's Block 39 : which threaten one of the most pristine and remote regions left in the Amazon.
Center for Environmental Law and Community Rights
$4,740 in support of CELCOR's legal case against Cargill Temesek Holdings to stop a proposed palm oil mill in PNG from being pushed through without the consent of landowners.
Interethnic Development Association of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP)
$3,000 in support for the opening of Escuela Senen Soi, a training program by and for Indigenous leaders of the Peruvian Amazon to build skills related to the defense of the human rights and the environment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQIWb_CpIG8
Grassy Narrows Environmental Committee
5,000 to support travel expenses for 7 members of Grassy Narrows, including youth and chaperones, and one leader from the KI community to go to southern Ontario for a week of activities in support of the First Nations National Day of Action, including erecting a nine-meter teepee on the front lawn of the Ontario legislature.
Latin American Permaculture Network of Peru (REDPAL-Peru) on behalf of Achual Sustainable Harvest Project
$2,300 to support the Achual community's permaculture project in the in Peruvian Amazon, which will produce tropical fruits with maximum biodiversity, provide income security, result in the reforestation of depleted areas, and lead to native status recognition of 4,000 acres of rainforest territory.
Lembaga Gemawa
$4,000 to support a community organizing and education campaign to counter heavy government PR around plans for massive expansion of palm oil plantations along the Indonesian/Malaysian border in Sambas District, West Kalimantan.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation (on behalf of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug)
$5,000 in support of KI, a fly-in community of approximately 900 people located 400km from the nearest road in the Canadian Boreal, in its legal efforts to defend its treaty rights against a $10 billion lawsuit filled by Platinex and to mount a constitutional challenge to so-called "free entry" mining and the Ontario Mining Act.
Defense and Ecological Conservation of Intag
$3,000 to help DECOIN build on the already strong community-level opposition to mining company Ascendant Copper, as well as support continued citizen patrols of at risk areas and the establishment of additional community watersheds in the biologically diverse Intag region of northwest Ecuador.
$5,000 to support a training for local leaders and their subsequent travel to hold 2 day workshops in 50 communities in rainforest regions of Sumatra to inform them about the potential impacts from palm oil plantations, using a film (played on community karaoke systems) of testimonials from already impacted communities. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqDaco8p8tU
Oilwatch Ecuador
$4,500 in support for a creative campaign backed by the Ecuadorian government that would keep crude oil in the subsoil permanently in Yasuní National Park in the Amazon, halting the planned ITT oil project, in exchange for international financial support.
The Borneo Project (on behalf of 3 Indigenous communities)
$5,000 for 3 new community-based initiatives to protect primary forest at the headwaters of 3 rivers in Malaysian Borneo, with activities to include participatory planning, proposal development, watershed mapping training, negotiation and demarcation of 3,000+ acres that will result in customary rights for the communities and permanently protected forest.
Papua New Guinea Eco-Forestry Forum
$5,000 to support PNG EFF's efforts to challenge recent logging permits in order to save 920,000 hectares of pristine tropical rainforest from large-scale commercial logging and to establish a legal precedent to ensure all laws governing the management of forestry resources are adhered to.
Grassy Narrows Women's Drum Group
$2,170 to support a three day gathering of youth from Grassy Narrows (who were the catalysts and initiators of the community's now 4-year blockade) and other First Nations communities, including workshops on traditional skills and leadership building, sweat lodges and traditional feasts and discussions led by Indigenous leaders on tribal and treaty history and Indigenous land rights.
Humboldt County Forest Defense Group
$2,500 in general support of efforts to prevent logging in Nanning Creek Grove, some of the last old growth forests in California.
Amazon Defense Front
$5,000 to support the sixth bi-annual congress of the coalition of Indigenous and non-Indigenous inhabitants of the Ecuadorian Amazon, to elect new leaders, review plans and projects (especially around the ChevronTexaco lawsuit and judicial inspections), and to allow base communities to report on their monitoring of Petroecuador, Oxy and Encana facilities and pipelines.
Traditional U'wa Authority
$4,000 to support newly elected U'wa President Berito Cobaría, and community leader Daris Cristancho, on a visit to the US to embark on a speaking tour, meet with members of Congress and attend a strategy meeting, among other activities.
Alianza de Nacionalidades
$5,000 for travel of three Indigenous leaders from communities in Ecuador and Peru affected by Burlington Resources to the ConocoPhilips AGM in Houston (which is merging with Burlington) to continue their multi-year effort to confront oil companies with a unified voice and to raise the profile of their struggle.
Oilwatch Ecuador
$3,000 for communities impacted by, and campaigning against, ChevronTexaco operations in Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, Mexico, Suriname, Brazil and Argentina to travel to the 2nd People's Health Assembly in Cuenca, Ecuador to exchange experiences and strategize.
Interethnic Development Association of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP)
$1,000 to support a 5 day workshop in the Peruvian Amazon to be attended by 150 chiefs and leaders of 50 Indigenous communities, as well as representatives from regional, national and international Indigenous organizations in order to inform leaders about the environmental, social and cultural impacts of oil activities and gather information on the impacts already generated by seismic exploration by Repsol in the Ucayali region.
Friends of Grassy Narrows
$3,000 to support two public educational events featuring spokespeople from the Pimicikamak Cree community of Cross Lake and from a community of the James Bay Cree on expected environmental and social impacts of major proposed hydro developments for northern Manitoba (including in roadless areas of the Boreal).
Land is Life
$2,000 to support two members of the Zapara community from the Ecuadorian Amazon to travel to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and a training preceding the Forum to build capacity for representatives from over 20 Indigenous communities around the world to strengthen their ability to participate in the meeting and other international gatherings effectively.
Xavante Wara Association
$3,500 to support a gathering of delegates from Xavante and Kraho territories in Sao Paulo to hold a high-profile media event and discuss their plans for protecting the Cerrado, Brazil's expansive woodland-savanna that is currently being cleared for large scale agriculture projects.
Sakhalin Environment Watch
$4450 to support an Indigenous-led protest against Sakhalin-I and Sakhalin-II, the largest integrated oil and gas project currently under construction anywhere in the world.
Traditional U'wa Authority
$7,500 to provide general support for U'wa efforts to build capacity, expand leadership training and experience for women in the community, support a legal team to defend U'wa land claims, and build alliances through grassroots organizing with surrounding communities.
Olancho Environmental Movement
$5,000 to allow 12 local leaders to be trained and in turn train their communities in several areas related to the struggle against illegal logging in Olancho, Honduras.
Land is Life
$5,000 grant for an emergency request from community leader Moi Enomenga to support the mobilization via helicopter of 120 Huaorani to attend a Congress to elect new Huaorani leadership that will reverse the position of the current leadership and honor the will of the community members to stand up against new oil development on their territory, including declaring null and void an agreement that had been reached with Petrobras to drill on Huaorani territory.
Bi-National Coordinating Committee of the Achuar Nationality of Ecuador and Peru (COBNAEP)
$5,000 to support the Achuar people in Peru to hold an assembly with their official federations and representatives of 40 Achuar communities to pass an official declaration to clarify the Achuar peoples' opposition to any oil development on their land.
Hupacasath First Nation
$2,000 to support the Hupacasath's lawsuit challenging the Canadian government's order allowing Weyerhaeuser to log, without consultation, on the community's traditional territory on Vancouver Island.
Defense and Ecological Conservation of Intag
$3,000 to support a legal defense fund and community-based campaign to prevent Ascendant Exploration from mining in the cloud forests of the Junín area in northwestern Ecuador.
Maya Ecological Literacy Project
$3,000 to bring together 30 elders in the Ecological Reserve of the Ejido Tres Garantias region in the Yucatan peninsula for a gathering where they can openly discuss the problems they are facing from rapid development by government and multi-national corporations and where they can formulate a plan of action to protect the region, one of the most biodiverse in the world.
Amigos da Terra – Amazonia Brasileira
$1,600 to allow FOE Amazonia to hire an additional staff person for four months to carry-out a campaign in Brazil pressuring Petrobras to withdraw its plans to build a road through Yasuni National Park in Ecuador.
Oxygen Collective
$1,000 in general support of Oxygen Collective's multi-year effort to stop logging in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers National Conservation Area in Oregon, the most biologically diverse national forest in the West.
Latin American Permaculture Network of Peru (REDPAL-Peru)
$2,500 for the construction of a lombriculture structure that will use captured rainwater, rabbit pellets and earthworms to produce humus to be used for reforestation and community gardens in a Shipibo-Konibo community in the Peruvian Amazon as part of their ongoing efforts to achieve economic and ecological sustainability.
The Friends of the Rogue-Kalmiopsis
$1,000 to purchase a video camera to document before and after cutting of healthy trees around stream buffers in the proposed Siskiyou Wild Rivers National Conservation Area in Oregon, the most biologically diverse national forest in the West, which under the pretense of salvaging fire damaged timber is being sold off as part of the biggest timber sale in U.S. history.
$1,000 to purchase a video camera to document before and after cutting of healthy trees around stream buffers in the proposed Siskiyou Wild Rivers National Conservation Area in Oregon, the most biologically diverse national forest in the West, which under the pretense of salvaging fire damaged timber is being sold off as part of the biggest timber sale in U.S. history.
Huaorani Women of the Ecuadorian Amazon
$5,000 to support a women-led effort to protect Huaorani ancestral territory within Yasuni National Park from a destructive Petrobras oil extraction/road building project via the establishment of a 3 month peace camp.
Mishkeegogamang and Saugeen Communities Anishnaabekwe
$5,000 grant to support efforts led by Ojibway women to initiate one the largest forest blockades in north western Ontario history due to the unresponsiveness of Bowater, which has been logging and spraying chemicals on the First Nation's territory without authorization.
Federation of Huilliche de Chiloé Communities
$5,000 to work with three Huilliche communities (82 families) on the island of Chiloé to preserve its native forests through land title initiatives and creating sustainable income-generating opportunities in the newly created 10,000 acre Huilliche National Park.
Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade (INET)
$5000 for organizing a special training camp and meeting for First Nations communities working to gain control over and protect the forests on their traditional land and to help these communities bring their concerns to the international level.
Coordination of Mapuche Organizations and Territorial Identities
$500 to support a Mapuche organized counter-summit to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Pucon, Chile, a region that has a large Mapuche population.
The Julian Cho Society
$1,000 to allow JCS' Chair, Cristina Coc, to travel this summer to coordinate the legal registration of JCS and to hold meetings and coordinate efforts with other Indigenous and environmental leaders with the aim of building the organization in order to carry on the work of Julian Cho, who was murdered for his leadership in the struggle for rainforest conservation and Maya land rights
Association of Indigenous Communities of Sarayaku (TAYJA SARUTA)
$1,500 to support the Kichwa community of Sarayaku, which has been experiencing the militarization of their traditional territory to provide "security" for multinational oil companies, including Burlington Resources from the United States and CGC from Argentina, which are carrying out seismic testing in the region even though the people of Sarayaku are staunchly opposed to oil development on their land. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4u8HjLqOdU
Indigenous Forests Restoration Initiative
$5,000 to help five traditional Indigenous communities in Sarawak, Malaysia to establish and expand simple tree and rattan nurseries to enrich forests that have been degraded by the activities of the Shin Yang logging concession over the past several decades, thereby strengthening their legal efforts to obtain land title recognition.
$5,000 to help five traditional Indigenous communities in Sarawak, Malaysia to establish and expand simple tree and rattan nurseries to enrich forests that have been degraded by the activities of the Shin Yang logging concession over the past several decades, thereby strengthening their legal efforts to obtain land title recognition.
Kaxinawa Rubber Tappers Association of Rio Jordão
$2,500 to support the Huni Kuin Cooperative, which works to generate income for families, obtain title to additional Kaxinawa traditional territory between the Jordão and Tarauacu rivers, create new extractive reserves, and monitor illegal logging.
National Zapara Organization of the Ecuadorian Amazon
$5,000 to support the production of an illustrated trilingual children's book written by and for the Zapara community that can be used at the local, national and international level to strengthen the community's language and cultural revitalization efforts and illustrate the community's relationship with its rainforest home to help its efforts to stop oil exploitation on traditional land.
Mapu Lahual de la Butahuilimapu Indigenous Association
$5,000 to support Mapuche Huilliche leaders who are working for the implementation of the first Network of Indigenous Owned Protected Areas (MAPU LAHUAL), which will benefit 6 different coastal Indigenous communities.
Instituto Raoni
$2,500 to support a meeting of all Indigenous peoples of the Xingu valley being organized by the Kayapo to coordinate a united response to dams, pollution, ecological destruction, and invasion of Indigenous territories by colonizers.
Machiguenga Council of the Urubamba River (COMARU)
$5,000 to conduct an investigative trip of the entire Camisea gas project area, along the Upper and Lower Urubamba river basin in Peru, visiting all affected communities to consult about project impacts and to gather testimonies and visit and document project construction sites.
Grupo de Trabajo "Racimos de Ungurahui"
$5,865 to allow Racimos staff to receive training in the production and distribution of documentaries to be used as a tool to forward their mission of providing direct support to Indigenous communities in the Peruvian rainforest through capacity building, legal support and the dissemination of information about the threats facing these communities.
Traditional U'wa Authority
$1,200 to support the U'wa's Sixth Congress, during which new community representatives, including the President, will be elected to three-year terms.
The Tanzania Forest Conservation Group
$1,960 to support the Amani Butterfly Project, which will help ensure the preservation of the Eastern Arc Mountains, a forest region that is one of the most biologically diverse terrestrial habitats in the world, through the creation of a butterfly-farming group among forest-adjacent agricultural communities.
Fuerza Ambiental
$5,000 to support the efforts of Fuerza Ambiental and the Sierra Madre Alliance to mount a legal defense and public campaign to free local Tarahumara activist Isidro Baldenegro Lopez (who later received the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize) and to resolve the land fraud that has granted control of his community's forests to the Fontes cartel, which runs the drug trade in the region.
The Coastal Range Coalition for the Conservation of the 10th Region of Chile (CCCC)
$3,000 to support CCCC's implementation of an agreement reached with the Chilean government in 2003 to reroute a coastal range highway that had been planned to pass through the Valdivian rainforest, the oldest and most diverse temperate rainforest remaining in South America.
Amazon Defense Front
$3,300 to support a year-long project that will allow FDA to continue its leading role in coordinating a lawsuit seeking reparations from CheveronTexaco for communities impacted by the company's dumping of toxic wastes into the pristine rivers, forest streams and wetlands of the Ecuadorian Amazon, ignoring industry standards and the health of local residents in order to increase profits.
National Interprovincial Achuar Federation of Ecuador (FINAE)
$5,000 to support the Bi-national Cultural Encounter of the Achuar communities of Ecuador and Peru, a historic gathering of the communities that were divided when those countries started a war and militarized parts of what had been a unified Achuar traditional territory.
$3,000 to allow GeoAustral to carry out an investigation of the illegal trade in Alerce wood in Chile and to file legal complaints on the national and international level.
Machiguenga Council of the Urubamba River (COMARU) and Interethnic Development Association of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP)
$5,000 to fund an emergency project to carry out a critical analysis of the Environmental Impact Assessments for the upstream and downstream sectors of the Camisea gas project and to distribute the study's results to Indigenous communities and organizations located in the impact area of the project in order to promote an informed and participative consultation process.
Independent Federation of the Shuar Nation of Ecuador (FIPSE)
$503 to support a mobilization by FIPSE against Burlington Resources, which is illegally negotiating with Shuar individuals rather than FIPSE, one of the two legitimate Shuar representative bodies, as an effort to use 'divide and conquer' tactics to neutralize community resistance in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon.
Acción por la Vida
$4,000 to support an effort to prevent the construction of Ecuador's OCP oil pipeline through the ecologically prized Mindo-Nambillo Cloudforest.
Traditional U'wa Authority
$10,000 general support grant for the U'wa in their continued non-violent resistance to oil development on their land.
Grupo de Trabajo "Racimos de Ungurahui"
$600 to support the travel of Racimos Director Lily La Torre Lopez and a small team of lawyers and scientists to a meeting of the Achuar people to offer information and technical assistance to the community in support of their resistance to a new pipeline which is planned through their traditional land.
National Zapara Association of the Pastaza Province of Ecuador
$5,002 to continue the effort to secure the Zapara Nation's legal title to 988,000 acres of what remains of their ancestral territory.
Acción Ecológica
$5,000 to enable Acción Ecológica to pursue several strategies to resist the construction of the OCP pipeline, which would pass through 11 protected areas, including the Mindo Nambillo Cloudforest Reserve, home to 450 bird species, 46 of which are threatened by extinction.
National Interprovincial Achuar Federation of Ecuador (FINAE)
$5,000 to enable the Achuar to obtain a laptop computer, video camera and digital camera to be used to document the community's resistance to resource extraction on its traditional territory.
The Nigerian NGO Coalition for the Environment (NGOCE)
$5,001 to support NGOCE's campaign to protect the Cross River rainforest, the 2nd largest intact forest in Africa and a critical hotspot of biodiversity, through community organizing and the implementation of economic alternatives to logging and bush meat hunting, such as grasscutter, mushroom and snail farms, honey cultivation and the development of soaps and detergents from oils found in forest trees.
Jatun Sacha Foundation
$5,002 to implement traditional Quichua agroforestry techniques, including reforestation of endangered native mahogany species, and the small-scale marketing of traditional arts to provide a supplemental source of income.
Citizens for Environmental Safety
$1,583 to help local communities of the Cross River State with education and resource management training to help address the problem of deforestation, including establishing 30 Community Development Volunteers from 10 different communities.
National Zapara Association of the Pastaza Province of Ecuador
$5,004 to help secure the Zapara Nation's legal title to 988,000 acres of what remains of their ancestral territory, preserving the integrity of both the Zapara culture and one of the purest, most biodiverse regions in the Ecuadorian rainforest.
Traditional U'wa Authority
$13,640 to help fund a mass mobilization by the U'wa, who have been resisting attempts by Occidental Petroleum to drill for oil on their traditional land for years.
Censat Agua Viva
$2,001 to help organize a two-day workshop on oil exploration in the rainforest and its impacts on forest ecosystems and Indigenous peoples, including a visit to an oil drilling site and a strategy session on how to strengthen organizing techniques of local communities and national and international grassroots organizations.
Censat Agua Viva
$10,000 to help the U'wa to protect their sacred land against Occidental's attempts to drill for oil.
National Council of Rubber Tappers
$5,008 in general support for Chico Mendes' Sustainable Rainforest Campaign and its effort to create and gain legal recognition for a 1.7 million-acre reserve on the Tapajos River in the state of Para.
Acción Ecológica
$5,000 to help defend Yasuni National Park and the Cuyabeno Reserve from the proposed ITT oil project through non-violent direct actions, letter writing campaigns, political pressure, media work, and national and international pressure on oil companies.
Chief Paiakan (fiscally sponsored by Green Sphere Inc.)
$5,007 in legal support for Kayapo Chief Paulinho Paiakan to help defend him against politically motivated harassment due to his involvement in environmental and Indigenous rights activism.
$5,169 towards efforts to protect 2,500 hectares of the last remaining forests in central Cameroon, the protection of the only river providing water to Bougnougoulouk and neighboring villages, the protection of wildlife of the Bougnougoulouk forest from poachers, and the halt of the desertification process of Central Cameroon.
Pico Bonito National Park Foundation (FUPNAPIB)
$5,000 with which FUPNAPIB aims to complete the demarcation of a protected area and to identify where the highest biodiversity and greatest threats are in order to obtain funding to increase the existing number of park guards to carry out monitoring activities.
Friends of the Nation
$6,000 to help stop logging in a sacred Sekyere Hemang Grove and to repair local deforested areas through an agroforestry project.
Traditional U'wa Authority and the U'wa Defense Working Group
$5,000 to help define the boundaries of the larger U'wa Reservation in order to secure legal title as a step towards community control and protection of the forest.
$5,017 to support ABGREMO's campaign to protect mangroves by educating and working with local communities about the important of mangroves to the local economy and through the formation of Community Mangrove Forest Management Committees (CMMC) in pilot communities.
Sierra Madre Alliance
$5,000 to legally restore land rights to local communities, begin planning of locally controlled forest reserves and alternatives to logging and drug production, and to create a cultural interchange and permaculture training in order to create reserves and alternatives for the communities' economies.
Center for Amazonian Workers
$5,000 to develop renewable forest resources, such as herbal remedies, plant oils, and ornamental plants that would be sold to local markets as economic alternatives in the Rio Branco area of the Amazonian state of Acre.
Traditional U'wa Authority and the U'wa Defense Working Group
$1,081 to create a means of communication through which members of the Traditional U'wa Authority and the U'wa Defense Working Group can communicate efficiently, expeditiously and safely.
Citizens for Environmental Safety
$5,000 to support an effort to create an alternative source of income through the cultivation of rubber trees and the sustainable management of the 247 hectare NDE community forest, which would help provide protection from illegal timber dealers.
Telapak Indonesia
$5,016 to help with maintaining a continued presence of Environmental Investigation Agency and Telapak Indonesia campaigners in both Jakarta and Central Kalimantan in order to increase pressure on national and regional authorities to investigate and track the sale of illegal timber to consuming markets, especially the United States.
Project Underground
$5,000 in support of the First International Gold Summit, organized with regional NGOs and communities that are affected by gold mining.
Organization of the Yawanawa Extractivist Reserve of Rio Gregorio
$7,500 grant to support a Yawanawa community in the Rio Gregorio region of Northwestern Brazil's sustainable cultivation of urucum and the small-scale marketing of the plant in the local region to help the community achieve greater economic self-sufficient and independence.
Bolivar State Indigenous Federation (FIEB)
$7,000 to support FIEB's efforts to stop the construction of the Guri transmission line through raising public awareness, media work, and legal action.
Aukiñ Wallmapu Ngulam
$1,920 to support an Alternative Assembly of Indigenous Peoples from Latin America to participate in the 1998 Summit of the Americas in Chile in order to voice their concerns about how Indigenous peoples' rights and livelihoods are affected by the processes of economic integration in Latin America.
$600 in support for Joaquim Yawanawa of the Yawanawa of Brazil during his two month internship in the Bay Area to receive training in alternative media and policy development to assist his efforts in focusing international attention on human rights as they apply to Indigenous peoples.
The Metareilá Organization of the Suruí People
$3,500 to support an assembly for local communities, NGOs, and government officials to discuss a series of new development projects being proposed that threaten the western region of the Amazon.
Guiye Waiye Environment and Conservation Group
$3,000 to support a local community effort to protect 40.5 hectares of rainforest by implementing sustainable agriculture and economic practices.
Rescate del Bosque Tropical (Rainforest Rescue)
$4,000 to support a reforestation project in the subtropical humid region of Pinchincha aiming to restore 10 hectares of forest to its natural state, with the involvement of local families who will also reforest an acre each of their own land, replanting it with native species, including non-timber forest products which may be sold to replace income that would have been generated by the sale of wood and agricultural products.
$6,500 to support efforts to protect proposed oil concession areas from ARCO's planned exploration through community organizing, workshops and non-violent direct actions.
Amazon Defense Front
$4,500 to fund workshops, coordinated by Shuar and Achuar communities, aimed at strengthening the communities' capacity to respond effectively to impending oil threats.
Luna Media
$10,000 of general support to Luna Media in their work with North Coast Earth First! to continue and increase media outreach as actions continue around Headwaters ancient redwood forests.
Centro de Investigación de los Bosques Tropicales (Rainforest Information Centre)
$7,000 grant to demarcate the southern boundary of Los Cedros Biological Reserve created as a buffer zone for the Cotocachi-Cayapas National Park, protecting it from colonization, poaching, and illegal logging.
Amazon Defense Front
$3,300 to strengthen a campaign against Texaco, including supporting grassroots organizing around a groundbreaking lawsuit against the company and monitoring and enforcing its commitments to clean-up the hundreds of open toxic waste pits and polluted rivers caused by its operations in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Society for the Renewal of Nature Conservation in Liberia
$8,215 to protect a national park and the area surrounding it, encompassing a rainforest which is very special and respected by local inhabitants because of the protection it provided for Liberians hiding during the county's civil war.
Traditional U'wa Authority and the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC)
$8,000 grant in support of a project to defend U'wa land from proposed oil drilling, including several workshops on oil exploration in the Colombian Amazon, demarcation of U'wa land, and an appeal to the Colombian Government to reverse the decision allowing drilling on U'wa land.
National Interprovincial Achuar Federation of Ecuador (FINAE)
$3,500 for a grassroots organizing and media campaign, and coordination with national and international organizations to create a powerful joint effort to stop oil exploration on Indigenous territories.
Valhalla Wilderness Society
$2,200 to support the production of a toolkit for the media and members of the European and Canadian parliaments about the crisis in Canada's Boreal Forest.


text:
My iPhone's lcd is crashed last night and I want to get a new one. I just wanted to know what people's though are on normal iPhone vs refurb iPhone. What's the real difference?
If you get a refurb from Apple then it will come with the same warranty as a new phone. It is not a scratch n dent type phone, but will look and feel new.
Not 100% about getting one from a provider like AT&T or Verizon, but I think they will also provide a full warranty.
I got a refurb phone ~10 months ago. From my experience, the battery degradation was much quicker than a normal phone. I feel that the phone was used for a while they fixed it but the battery was used.
Overall, it does not worth the 50$ difference to get a cheap refurbished phone.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Subject: Re: [OMPI users] Process Migration
From: Jeff Squyres (jsquyres_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-11-10 12:59:17
On Nov 10, 2011, at 11:30 AM, Mudassar Majeed wrote:
> For example there are 10 nodes, and each node contains 20 cores. We will have 200 cores in total and let say there are 2000 MPI processes. We start the application with 10 MPI on each core.
Is this just to be able to simulate very large MPI jobs, or are you thinking that people will actually run that way (heavily over-subscribing cores)?
> Let say Comm(Pi, Pj) denotes how much communication Pi and Pj make with each other and let say each process Pi has to communicate with few other processes Pj, Pk, Pl, Pm..... Pz. Secondly let say Load(Pi) denotes the computational load of process Pi.
Depending on how you define Load(Pi), this really only matters if you're over-subscribing processors. Meaning: if you have only one MPI process per processor core, then Load(Pi) is probably irrelevant (excluding other effects, like cache thrashing, memory and PCI bandwidth usage, etc.).
> Now, we know that sending a message between two nodes is more expensive then sending a message within a node (two processes that communicate reside on the cores that exist in the same node). This is true atleast in my supercomputing centers that I use. In my previous work I only consider Load[ ] and not Comm[ ]. In that work, all the MPI processes calculate their new ranks and then call MPI_Comm_split with key = new_rank and color = 0. So all the processes get the new rank and then the actual data is provided to each process for computation. We have found that the total execution time decreases.
In an oversubscribed case, I'm still not sure how this works. Do you have some MPI processes doing work and some not? (e.g., blocking in sleep() or something)
I think the reason for my confusion is that MPI processes are generally designed to run 1 per core (or perhaps 1 MPI process per more-than-1-core, if the MPI process is multi-threaded). MPI processes are generally assumed to aggressively use the entire computational resource that is given to them -- sharing computational resources (e.g., cores) between multiple MPI processes would seem to violate that assumption, and therefore result in bad overall performance.
I feel like I must be missing something in what you're trying to describe...
> Now we need to consider the communications as well. We will bring the computational load balance but those MPI which communicate more will be mapped to the same node (not necessarily same cores). I have solved this optimization problem using ILP and that shows good results. But the thing is, in the solution I have found that after applying ILP or my heuristic, the cores (on all nodes) will no longer contain same number of MPI processes (load and communications are balanced instead of count of MPI processes per core). So this means either I use process migration for few processes or I run more than 2000 (means at every core I run few more processes) so that at the end imbalance in the number or MPI processes per core can be achieved (to achieve balance in load and communications). I need your suggestions in these regards,
> thanks and best regards,
> Mudassar
> From: Josh Hursey <jjhursey_at_[hidden]>
> To: Open MPI Users <users_at_[hidden]>
> Cc: Mudassar Majeed <mudassarm30_at_[hidden]>
> Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 5:11 PM
> Subject: Re: [OMPI users] Process Migration
> Note that the "migrate me from my current node to node <foo>" scenario
> is covered by the migration API exported by the C/R infrastructure, as
> I noted earlier.
> http://osl.iu.edu/research/ft/ompi-cr/api.php#api-cr_migrate
> The "move rank N to node <foo>" scenario could probably be added as an
> extension of this interface (since you can do that via the command
> line now) if that is what you are looking for.
> -- Josh
> On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 11:03 AM, Ralph Castain <rhc_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> > So what you are looking for is an MPI extension API that let's you say
> > "migrate me from my current node to node <foo>"? Or do you have a rank that
> > is the "master" that would order "move rank N to node <foo>"?
> > Either could be provided, I imagine - just want to ensure I understand what
> > you need. Can you pass along a brief description of the syntax and
> > functionality you would need?
> >
> > On Nov 10, 2011, at 8:27 AM, Mudassar Majeed wrote:
> >
> > Thank you for your reply. In our previous publication, we have figured it
> > out that run more than one processes on cores and balancing the
> > computational load considerably reduces the total execution time. You know
> > the MPI_Graph_create function, we created another function MPI_Load_create
> > that maps the processes on cores such that balance of computational load can
> > be achieved on cores. We were having some issues with increase in
> > communication cost due to ranks rearrangements (due to MPI_Comm_split, with
> > color=0), so in this research work we will see how can we balance both
> > computation load on each core and communication load on each node. Those
> > processes that communicate more will reside on the same node keeping the
> > computational load balance over the cores. I solved this problem using ILP
> > but ILP takes time and can't be used in run time so I am thinking about an
> > heuristic. That's why I want to see if it is possible to migrate a process
> > from one core to another or not. Then I will see how good my heuristic will
> > be.
> >
> > thanks
> > Mudassar
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Jeff Squyres <jsquyres_at_[hidden]>
> > To: Mudassar Majeed <mudassarm30_at_[hidden]>; Open MPI Users
> > <users_at_[hidden]>
> > Cc: Ralph Castain <rhc_at_[hidden]>
> > Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 2:19 PM
> > Subject: Re: [OMPI users] Process Migration
> >
> > On Nov 10, 2011, at 8:11 AM, Mudassar Majeed wrote:
> >
> >> Thank you for your reply. I am implementing a load balancing function for
> >> MPI, that will balance the computation load and the communication both at a
> >> time. So my algorithm assumes that all the cores may at the end get
> >> different number of processes to run.
> >
> > Are you talking about over-subscribing cores? I.e., putting more than 1 MPI
> > process on each core?
> >
> > In general, that's not a good idea.
> >
> >> In the beginning (before that function will be called), each core will
> >> have equal number of processes. So I am thinking either to start more
> >> processes on each core (than needed) and run my function for load balancing
> >> and then block the remaining processes (on each core). In this way I will be
> >> able to achieve different number of processes per core.
> >
> > Open MPI spins aggressively looking for network progress. For example, if
> > you block in an MPI_RECV waiting for a message, Open MPI is actively banging
> > on the CPU looking for network progress. Because of this (and other
> > reasons), you probably do not want to over-subscribe your processors
> > (meaning: you probably don't want to put more than 1 process per core).
> >
> > --
> > Jeff Squyres
> > jsquyres_at_[hidden]
> > For corporate legal information go to:
> > http://www.cisco.com/web/about/doing_business/legal/cri/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > users mailing list
> > users_at_[hidden]
> > http://www.open-mpi.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/users
> >
> --
> Joshua Hursey
> Postdoctoral Research Associate
> Oak Ridge National Laboratory
> http://users.nccs.gov/~jjhursey
> _______________________________________________
> users mailing list
> users_at_[hidden]
> http://www.open-mpi.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/users
Jeff Squyres
For corporate legal information go to:


text:
I've just come across "〜していたりして" at the end of a sentence in a post on Facebook, so it's probably very casual. Does anyone know the correct meaning and typical usage?
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たりして is used to posit some event as a possibility but something you are not sure about. For example, about the future:
From the nature of this expression meaning "not being sure", it is also used as a hedge when you want to be modest and a bit comical:
I'm not sure what part you're stuck on, and we can give more relevant answers most of the time if we know the context, but here we go:
So the best translation I can give without the context here is:
As for why the final


text:
I commute to work on a single-speed road bike, so it's a lot easier if I avoid any steep hills (preferring to cover the same gradient gradually). Taking a look at a map, there are seemingly 3-4 sensible routes to get from point A to point B. Short of trying them all, is there any way to evaluate which has the most gradual climb?
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A lot of the online mapping websites have elevation data you can use to figure it out.
Example 1: Go to http://maps.google.com/ choose the bicycle icon and ask for directions. Once it gives you the map, switch to the "map" instead of satellite view and turn on the terrain overlay. When you ask for bicycle directions it tries to avoid steep climbs and the terrain data overlay can give you some idea how bad things are. You can drag points on the route to force it into giving you a specific route.
Example 2: Go to http://www.mapmyride.com/ -- go through the annoying interface to create a new ride (there's some annoying ad stuff). Once you've done that, you can see some data including a graph of the climbs. Do that for all the routes and compare side by side.
There's a lot of competing websites for that kind of thing that you can search for out there.
That's 4 days to evaluate all the routes. I'd just ride them. You can spend a lot of time with mapping tools trying to evaluate gradients and still get it wrong. Unless you can find a cycling guide that discusses the issue you will almost certainly not get a good answer. For a motor transport engineer (the people who design roads) anything under 1:10 is fine on a minor road, 1:20 on a major road. They just don't care about short steep sections vs long gentle sections. The flattest route could easily be the one where you come out of a compulsory stop onto a short steep section that climbs less than the 5m interval between contours on a most-detailed map.
One electronic solution would be to use google streetview to survey each route. Look at the angle between the street and the vertical walls or horizontal floors. That will give you a rough idea of the slope of the road at each point.
A very good solution is Google Earth. If you create a route (either create one or get a recorded track from a GPS device), you can see it's elevation profile (right click on the route and "Show Elevation Profile"):
The profiling is interactive and linked to the map, so you can easily see where the "problem" (eg too high elevation) is on the map and modify your track accordingly.
Do you have access to an elevation map of the area? I believe on that type of map, the closer together the lines are, the steeper the grade.
You could try ridewithgps. It's fairly simple. You go to this site and plot out a route(s) on the map. As you create the route you'll get a graphic of the elevation profile below the map.
Try this it is the best I have seen.http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/. Neil: yes of course. The website allows you to actually map the route and works out the road stuff for you so you can just work out the main points rather than every time it changes direction. Also it does all the height stuff and a text print out. Remember in the UK we do not have bike on google maps.
You might want to try bbbike.org, a cycle route planner based on OpenStreetMap data that I only discovered recently.
Other than standard Google routing (that in some countries doesn't provide detailed settings for cyclists), it allows to set precise preferences for the planning, for example only residential roads, or roads suitable for road bikes. After calculating the route, it returns the average run time, directions, a simple height profile, an interactive map and downloadable tracks in various formats that can be imported into Google Earth. From there you can follow Czechnology's answer.
If you want the best of all of these just put your route on mycycletour.com. It will give you the elevation profile, and also run a streetview movie of the journey so you can see how steep the hills are.


text:
Student Involvement and Leadership Programs hosted a Mardi Gras celebration on March 3, a day before "Fat Tuesday," for the entire campus. Taylor Center rooms 221-223 were transformed into the Big Easy, with shades of purple, green and gold decorating the tables and doorways and a beautiful mural of Bourbon Street stretching across one side of the room. Students, faculty and staff gathered to let the good times roll – donning colorful beads and elaborate masks while dining on red beans and rice, corn bread, king cake, and mocktails.
Students Deirvin Davis and Jade Hawkins were crowned Mardi Gras King and Queen. Davis is a business management freshman from Montgomery while sociology major Hawkins calls Mobile home (and, therefore, knows a thing or two about Mardi Gras). Davis and Hawkins won their crowns by raising the most funds for AUM's Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, which will be used to support outreach programs for underserved children in the local community.
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text:
What do people think of QVC being on Deals.Woot??
I'm wondering how many others have noticed the occasional deal postings by QVC over the past year or so?... Do you think this means Deals.Woot has made the big time with a Network posting Deals here??
My Tags: Meta QVC-Network Deals Reactions
5 Answers answer
I'm glad for woot, and QVC. I wouldn't ever buy something off a shopping channel, kudos to them for expanding their reach.
I just hope the make all their thumbnails incorrect.
As long as the company is reputable and the deal is good, I don't care who it's from.
QVC's reputable, but the deal isn't usually good. The Woot community is smart enough to research any deal and make an informed decision before they buy.
I have personally seen one item sold on home.woot come from QVC, the Kuhn 4th burner multi pot. Arrived boxed with a QVC returns label, address cut out.
Yeah, QVC deals usually aren't deals. But if they're a good company to do business with then they're cool in my book.


text:
Feb. 25, 2013 -- Nearly two-thirds of Missouri tanning salons included in a new survey would allow children as young as 10 to use their tanning beds.
There is clear evidence that ultraviolet radiation exposure from tanning beds is associated with a higher risk of skin cancer. Even so, 65% of 243 Missouri tanning salons said they would allow children as young as 10 or 12 to use tanning beds.
The survey results are published in the journal Pediatrics.
Brundha Balaraman, MD, of the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo., and colleagues, surveyed tanning salons across Missouri twice. Two medical students posing as 16-year-olds asked tanning salon employees about use of the tanning facilities.
The survey showed that 80% of tanning salons said use of a tanning bed would prevent sunburn and 43% said the practice was risk-free.
Among the businesses surveyed, 40% mentioned a risk of skin cancer. But 20% claimed there was no risk for anyone who took proper precautions.
Some tanning salon employees said tanning beds were safer than the sun, doctor recommended, or carried some other health benefit.
Regulation Varies by State
Indoor tanning is a $5 billion industry. There are more tanning salons in some cities than Starbucks or McDonalds, writes Sophie J. Balk, MD, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, N.Y., and colleagues, in an editorial.
Missouri is one of 17 states that does not regulate the use of tanning salons by minors, according to the editorial. Such policies are left up to the salons and their employees. For instance, policies regarding parental approval were inconsistent, according to the survey.
Seventy-seven percent of employees who worked in the morning requested on-site parental approval, and 47% of those who worked in the evening did.
Although most of the Missouri tanning employees -- 85% -- said eye protection was required, when the surveyor mentioned a fear of developing "raccoon eyes," 44% relented. As a result, 56% endorsed tanning without eye protection.
Only 22% of tanning employees mentioned a need to assess skin type to determine how long to tan for. Twenty percent would allow customers to start with the longest duration of exposure, although 65% recommended starting with low UV intensity.
None of the operators asked about health risks such as lupus or other medical conditions, previous skin cancer diagnosis, or use of photosensitizing medications.


text:
2013 Department Chairs Conference
May 30 - 31, 2013
The American Center for Physics
College Park, Maryland
The American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers are pleased to jointly organize the 2013 Physics Department Chairs Conference. This conference is part of a series of conferences that have been organized biennially for the past three decades. Conferences are now organized annually.
The conference is held jointly with the Distance Education and Online Learning in Physics workshop being held June 1-2, 2013.
More on the workshop
Steering Committee
pictured, from left to right
Willie Rockward, Morehouse
Bob Hilborn, AAPT
Talat Rahman, Central Florida
Monica Plisch, APS
Chuhee Kwon, CSU Long Beach
Steve Whisnant, James Madison
Rafael Muller, Puerto Rico-Humacao
Ed Bertschinger, MIT
Hotel Reservations
MSI Travel Support Application
Thursday - May 30, 2013
|12:30-4:15 p.m.
|Workshop for HBCU Chairs - Arlene Modeste Knowles (APS), Willie Rockward (Morehouse) and Quinton Williams (Jackson State)
|2:30-4:15 p.m.
|Workshop for New Chairs - Ed Bertschinger (MIT)
|4:30-5:45 p.m.
|Town Hall Meeting with NSF Program Officers - Sean Jones (NSF-DMR), Duncan McBride (NSF-DUE), Ann Orel (NSF-PHY)
|6:00-6:15 p.m.
|Welcome - Kate Kirby (APS) and Beth Cunningham (AAPT)
|6:15-7:15 p.m.
|7:15-8:00 p.m.
|8:00-9:00 p.m.
|Keynote - Ann Austin (Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning)
Friday - May 31, 2013
|7:00-7:45 a.m.
|Breakfast at the Hilton Garden Inn (conference hotel)
|8:00 a.m.
|Shuttle bus departs for the American Center for Physics
|8:30-10:30 a.m.
|Plenary - Rethinking the Physics Major: Curriculum, Goals, Assessment
8:30 - Standards-based Grading with Voice - Andy Rundquist (Hamline)
9:00 - A Research-Validated Approach to Transforming Upper-Division Physics - Steve Pollock (Colorado-Boulder)
9:30 - An Example of a Multi-Track Physics Curriculum - Steve Whisnant (James Madison)
10:00 - Discussion
|10:30-11:00 a.m.
|11:00-12:30 p.m.
|Plenary - Trends in Graduate Education
11:00 - Graduate Education in Physics Conference: Sustaining thriving programs by embracing challenges and opportunities in the 21st century - Chandralekha Singh (Pittsburgh)
11:30 - APS Bridge Program: Effective Interventions to Improve Participation by Underrepresented Students - Ted Hodapp (APS)
12:00 - Discussion
|12:30-1:30 p.m.
|1:30-2:25 p.m.
|Breakout I
|2:30-3:30 p.m.
|Breakout II
|3:30-4:00 p.m.
|4:00-5:30 p.m.
|Plenary - Department Climate
4:00 - CSWP Climate Site Visit Program - Susan Blessing (Florida State)
4:30 - Ethics and the Welfare of the Physics Profession - Kate Kirby (APS)
5:00 - Discussion
|5:30-6:15 p.m.
|6:15-7:15 p.m.
|7:15-8:10 p.m.
|Closing Plenary - Overcoming Negative Stereotypes: Applying Theory to Practice - Catherine Good (Baruch)
|8:10-8:15 p.m.
|8:30 p.m.
|Shuttle bus departs for the Hilton Garden Inn


text:
23 Apr 2013 4:27 AM #1
Tree: cascading multi-selection crashes onDragStart
Required Information
Version(s) of Ext GWT
Browser versions and OS
(and desktop environment, if applicable)
FireFox 17.0.5 on Win7 Enterprise SP1
Virtual Machine
Drag&Drop crashes the app right away on starting to drag, if a folder and one of its child-folders and one of its child-leafs is selected.
(not all the time; seems like order of selection is important)
Run mode
- production mode v3.0.1 (Sencha Demo)
- development mode, v3.0.0b (my app)
Steps to reproduce the problem
- Go to Reordering Tree Example
- Choose folder "overview" and drag it onto folder "Windows"
- Open folders "Windows" and "overview"
- Choose folder "Windows" and select all items to the bottom including leaf "Overview" in fodler "overview" by holding shift key while clicking leaf "overview"
- try to drag the whole selection; this leads to UmbrellaException
Expected result
Starting drag process
Actual result
"Error: One or more exceptions caught, see full set in UmbrellaException#getCauses"
Test case
none, see above
"Reordering TreeGrid and "TreeGrid to TreeGrid" Examples show same problem.
Debugging already done
In DevMode of GXT3.0.0b I got this:
Caused by: java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 2, Size: 2 at java.util.ArrayList.RangeCheck(ArrayList.java:547) at java.util.ArrayList.remove(ArrayList.java:387) at com.sencha.gxt.dnd.core.client.TreeDragSource.onDragStart(TreeDragSource.java:133)
Possible fix
Break while loop after remove! After a remove operation, index i points to a different item or out of bounds. The ladder one made me notice this faulty behaivor. But pointing to a different item (and possibly removing it) is a naughty bug!
30 Apr 2013 1:11 AM #2
Version 3.0.4 at http://staging.sencha.com:8080/examp...reorderingtree shows the reported issue too.
30 Apr 2013 2:47 PM #3
Thanks for the report - I've confirmed the issue in 3.0.1 through the latest nightly build and opened it internally. We'll update this thread when a fix is available.
2 May 2013 12:31 AM #4
2 May 2013 9:48 AM #5
Thanks for the heads-up - I've passed word along, and it looks like the problem is resolved.
7 May 2013 3:30 PM #6
This issue was fixed and will be put into svn tonight.


text:
My Flash movie would like communicate with MySQL server to fetch and save data between MySQL and SWF. I know AMFPHP can help with the communication, but is there a secure way to encrypt the texts sending between 2 sides (other than hashing password in MD5)? As far as I know, by default, AMFPHP sends out data in plain text.
Also, I heard that the CPU usage during network requests in Flash is quite high. Any lightweight framework suggestion?


text: The College Now Summer Multimedia Arts Academy provides qualified high school students the opportunity to take college credit courses in multimedia arts, theatre, and mass communication fields. Students will take college-credit courses in new media arts, audio-visual production, theatre, television production or journalism. The courses will provide an interactive hands-on leaning experience as well as an exposure to the humanities. Students will receive 4 college credits for successful completion of their academic work and will be involved in a multimedia production as part of the Summer Multimedia Arts Festival.


text:
Please enter a maximum of 5 recipients. Use ; to separate more than one email address.
| Ben DuBose, Hydrocarbon Processing,
[poll findings]
[President Obama]
[Keystone XL]
With a second
four-year term now secure, most in the global hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI)
expect the Obama administration to ultimately approve the
controversial Keystone XL pipeline system.
Out of hundreds of votes cast, 68% believe the US president
will give the green light to TransCanada to build the expanded
system, which could connect the US Gulf refining base with crude oil feedstock from Canadian oil
The president previously denied TransCanada the Keystone XL permit
in January 2012, citing an arbitrary deadline from Republicans.
Several political pundits said Obama might have also been
apprehensive about going against demands of the wealthy environmental lobby during
campaign-financing season.
Obama then asked TransCanada to reapply with an alternate
route to avoid the Sand Hills in Nebraska, an important aquifer
in the region. The revised route was recently reviewed and largely approved by
state environmental regulators, though the
US State Department is conducting its own review as well.
The proposed system would result in a 1,700-mile oil
pipeline stretching from Canada to Texas, carrying nearly 1
million bpd of oil.
TransCanada says it expects to receive a permit from the US
government by the end of the 2013 first quarter. If that
happens, the project could be completed and
started up by early 2015.
To see more details on this poll as well as access prior
Hydrocarbon Processing poll results,
click here.
(Editors note: Polls are where we
at Hydrocarbon Processing gather industry
sentiment on significant issues of the day. Visit the HP home
page to weigh in on our latest poll regarding safety in Arctic oil
and gas projects.)
All comments are subject to editorial review.
All fields are compulsory.
Sign-up for the Free Daily HP Enewsletter!
A searchable database of project activity in the global hydrocarbon processing industry
Engineers and designers are highly skilled individuals. Forcing them to enter design changes using tables, forms and spreadsheets is unproductive and uneconomical, and it increases the likelihood of human error—this is the way that most instrumentation software systems currently work. For too long, software vendors have denied engineers and designers the simple practicality of a graphical visual engineering interface with "drag and drop" capability and inbuilt intelligence, ensuring changes are automatically replicated into all the associated data and databases.
Is 2016 the peak for US gasoline demand?
Too soon to tell
July 2016


text:
JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald file photo
JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald file photo
A lot of Western Colorado has been in drought mode since the beginning of the year, a National Weather Service meteorologist said Thursday.
�It�s not as severe as in 2002, but drought is expanding and becoming more intense,� Jim Pringle said during a stop at The Durango Herald. �But conditions since haven�t been as bad as they are now.�
Justin Kincaid, the U.S. Forest Service�s fire management officer in Durango, agreed that the situation looks grim.
�We could be in our fire season a month early � mid-April instead of mid-May,� Kincaid said. �We have to wait for the results of the spring rains.�
A piddling amount of rain isn�t going to do much good, Kincaid said.
�We�re going to need a fair amount of rain or snow to help,� Kincaid said. �A sprinkle won�t help because we�re drier than usual.�
Meteorologists measure drought by various standards, including soil moisture, water content of the snowpack, stream flow, water stored in reservoirs, the moisture level of fuels such as trees and grass and the amount of precipitation other than snow, Pringle said.
By way of example, Pringle said, the snow-water equivalent at Vallecito on April 16 was 23 percent of average; at Cascade, 7 percent of average; at Mancos, 5 percent of average; and 16 percent of average at Molas Lake.
On the same date in 2002, there were only zeros in the snow-water equivalent chart for Mancos, Cascade and Vallecito and 9 percent at Molas Lake.
Even at the Wolf Creek Pass summit, which had a wet 2011-2012 winter, the snow-water equivalent was only 65 percent of average. In 2002, the percent of average was 29.
The National Weather Service coordinates forecasts with the Inter-Agency Fire Center before issuing red-flag warnings.
�Red-flag warnings require two conditions,� Pringle said. �Fuel has to be dry enough to ignite and burn and the weather � mainly humidity and wind speed � has to be conducive to wildfire spread.�
Numerous red-flag warnings have been issued in Colorado this year.
The Denver Water Board has declared a Stage 1 drought because of the dry winter.
Denver Water asked customers to water sparingly outdoors. It asks customers to water only two days a week and only in areas that really need it.
Mandatory watering rules will take effect Tuesday, the board said.
The Climate Prediction Center website has maps of the entire country showing weather conditions. The maps are updated weekly.
�We�re in a not-great situation,� Pringle said. �The latest outlook is that we�re in a drought.�


text:
The march of progress
Todays NY Times has an article on recent and anticipated advances in computer technology, which has some scientists nervous. A couple of interesting paragraphs:
The idea of an "intelligence explosion" in which smart machines would design even more intelligent machines was proposed by the mathematician I. J. Good in 1965. Later, in lectures and science fiction novels, the computer scientist Vernor Vinge popularized the notion of a moment when humans will create smarter-than-human machines, causing such rapid change that the "human era will be ended." He called this shift the Singularity.This vision, embraced in movies and literature, is seen as plausible and unnerving by some scientists like William Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Other technologists, notably Raymond Kurzweil, have extolled the coming of ultrasmart machines, saying they will offer huge advances in life extension and wealth creation."Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years," Dr. Horvitz said. "Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture." ...
The meeting on artificial intelligence [held last February] could be pivotal to the future of the field. Paul Berg... said it was important for scientific communities to engage the public before alarm and opposition becomes unshakable."If you wait too long and the sides become entrenched like with G.M.O.," he said, referring to genetically modified foods, "then it is very difficult. Its too complex, and people talk right past each other." ...
Despite his concerns, Dr. Horvitz said he was hopeful that artificial intelligence research would benefit humans, and perhaps even compensate for human failings. He recently demonstrated a voice-based system that he designed to ask patients about their symptoms and to respond with empathy. When a mother said her child was having diarrhea, the face on the screen said, "Oh no, sorry to hear that."A physician told him afterward that it was wonderful that the system responded to human emotion. "Thats a great idea," Dr. Horvitz said he was told. "I have no time for that."
About the Author
Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak, professor emeritus of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America, is a retired priest of the Archdiocese of New York.
21 comments
- All
- Editor Featured
I read a novel recently that touches on this stuff - Breakpoint by Richard Clarke, a former National Security Council staff member. It goes into the technological singularity stuff. But I think any reader of science fiction has seen all this coming for a long time, and after watching movies like The Terminator and the Matrix, we know how it turns out :)
When they come up with an artificial intelligence that can produce a distinguished work of imaginative literature in one language and then translate it into another as well as any human translator could do it, I will start to worry. When some form of mere calculation is all that is required, computers are for more accurate and far faster than humans. That is not news. But intelligence is more than calculation. As for empathy. of course a computer can be programmed to respond to certain patterns of words with an expression of concern like "I'm sorry to hear that," but does that mean that a computer can be sorry. I don't think so.
What got me is that there is a doctor who thinks this is progress!
So the physician said, "I have no time for (emotion)."Is technology turning doctors into, well, machines???
Insurance company reimbursement practices and big business medicine are turning doctors into machines.
If doctors are turned into machines by hmo's, imagine how they'd be if they worked for the state. It'd be like getting your mammograms done at the dmv. Cold!
Prof. Gannon --I agree entirely with you that if indeed computers are only machinss they will never truly communicate meaning in the human sense. If they do, then baptize them.Where the AI people go wrong, I think, is in thinking that these *logic* machines can be genuinely concerned with anything but analogues of necessary physical relaitonships. True, as *logic* mahines their operations are analogous to reasoning processes. But the data is contingent, and I can't see how those machine can move from necessities to inventing such contingencies as a poem. Yes, a computer can copy the text of a poem, and the *written*, physical text has a certain physical necessity, but the physical text is NOT the poem. The contingent pattern == a mental one that is the poem -- that makes it meaningful is beyond the reach of logic. As to computers and translations, your point seems similar to that made by the philosopher John Searle with his "Chinese room" thought experiment. Brilliant. AI folks dislike it. Wikipedia explains it here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_roomSearle disappooints me, though. While he is willing to challenge the AI folks about computers and consciousness, he is unwilling to go all the way and grant that human thinking involvea something more than mere matter.
And so my worst fears come to pass.
I agree, Ann, that Searle's critique of AI is more convincing than his own stated position. I was very disappointed when, in a review in the NYRB, he asked the reader to pinch his own arm severely so that he and the reader could have a common experience of consciousness on which to reflect. One might have hoped he would refer us to the experience of inquiring, thinking, understanding, intending, etc. But there is a very strong tradition in Anglo-American analytical philosophy that one mustn't ask questions about the experience of mind.
Computers can only perform operations that the software writers designate. If, to go farther, the software engineer write code that will cause the computer to "create" its own software, i.e., to "think" (in terms of Boolean logic, DeMorgan's Laws, etc.), it will necessarily be limited by that logic and those laws. But Boolean logic is itself a very limited subset of general logic, which in turn is a very limited subset of the larger universe of Philosophy, and ultimately, of Theology. And this doesn't even take into account Psychology, Sociology, Economics, Biology, etc.Can computers "break out" of their own mechanical universe and, rising above humanity to gaze upon us, Godlike, go off to autonomously decide whats good or evil, and thrust us into a living Hell? I dont see how. Computers are tools, only as good or evil as the persons using them.
I think that the propensity of capitalists to remove pesky humans from the productive side of any equation was already noted by Marx.
Bob Schwartz, you're taking all the fun out of the paranoia! I love the thought of defending my home from invading arachnid-robots with a mixture of a shotgun and home-made molotov cocktails.
I agree with AO and JK about Searle. His refutation of misguided claims for AI is brilliant, but he has no theory of consciousness except that it just is there and is based on brain activity. Another acute critic of AI and especially cognitive theory is Jerry Fodor. He writes for the NRB and the LRB brilliantly dissecting the mad claims of cognitive scientists and their ilk.On a related topic I recall that a few year ago an IBM computer beat the World Chess Champion, and it was said that the computer was a better player than any human player. I thought that was absurd. The computer was programmed with lines of play by outstanding chess players. Chess masters, like computers, work from lines of play stored in their memories, but computers never forget anything and do not get tired or distracted. One could as well say that the team of programmers beat the champion with the aid of the computer. To prove superiority one would have to identify moves by the computer that were truly innovative. Human chess player are capable of innovation, and also capable of exploiting an opponent's psychology. Computers have no psychic weaknesses.
Bob, the problem with some of the designs now is that no single person understands all the complexities of the programming (i.e. sophisticated war drones). It's analogous to--and if fact potentially more problematic--than the U.S. tax code (well over a million words). If machines are given a level of autonomy as their programming becomes more complex, then it will be difficult for any person to accurately predict how they will "behave". If even some scientists/engineers are starting to get worried, then perhaps there is something to this after all. Thomas, I'm with you in not wanting the paranoia to die down just yet.
Artificial intelligence lacks wisdom which is why there are some intelligent people without wisdom that can still do an "awful lot of talking." :-)
Christopher:I hear you. But the scenario you envision is not the nightmare scenario of computers striking out on their own to bedevil mankind; its the scenario of uncontrolled chaos, minus the malevolence. I particularly worry a bit about the new world of nanotechnology, whereby microscopic machines intended for surgical and drug-delivering tasks proliferate to the point that they constitute a plague upon the human race. But then, they would be somewhat limite in memory capability...
I'm more concerned with finding signs of actual human intelligence on earth before worrying too much about artificial intelligence. But not to be flippant, but isn't the crux of this discussion how we define 'conscious' (as opposed to conscience)? Isn't this a rehashing of the brain/mind debate. If the two are simply a linguistic distinction, and mental activity arises solely from physical functions, isn't it a matter of time before computers acquire such a level?On a side note, a while ago some people were discussing summer reading and Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz was repeatedly brought up. I read it (in three days) or rather devoured it. I think Miller can ask the question about computer 'conscience' before 'consciousness' becomes a defining characteristic of the human mind.
If by being conscious you mean "self awareness", I revert to my original post. How would a software engineer write code to make a computer self aware? If self awareness is the ability to observe oneself, to be a detached onlooker of the working of one's own mind, then the machine's self awareness would be "written" by the engineer, i.e., under the engineer's control.
Is terms of moral processing, I suspect computers will be programmable to easily handle deontological (find the rule and follow it,) and utilitarian (greatest good for the greatest number,) ways of "thinking. But could they do virtue? Virtue ethics, I think, inheres in the dance-like interaction of intellect and appetite, reason, emotion and imagination, that cut pretty close to the complexities of human subjectivity. The fact that they're immune to the push and pull of delightful and unruly desire might make them incapable of virtue. They could certainly be programmed to simulate it, though.But a question: some suggest that the apparent sentience of animals is analogous more to the squeaks and groans of unoiled machines than to anything like what we'd call suffering. One reply to this is that since animals show those reactions via the same neurological equipment that humans have and do so under similar circumstances, Occam's razor suggests that we consider them capable of suffering (at least more intelligent animals. The jury's out on bugs.) So...when machines are so well designed that their apparent emotional and social reactions are indistinguishable from ours, how would we recognize suffering? Or true joy? Art? And on what grounds would we deny the sacraments to a machine who asked for them? (Assuming the machine is well-catechized, of course... :-))
The problem starts with the very definition, or even description, of "consciousness." There are differences among the scientists even in providing a heuristic description of what they are studying and would like to understand. There are even greater differences among philosophers. It's not just the mind-brain problem either, nor just the problem of knowing other minds. One way I've seen it put is the question of the possibility of a third-person description of what is a first-person experience. Some people use the language of consciousness as almost equivalent to that of knowledge. Some see it as perception, others as concomitant awareness. (E.g., strictly speaking, should one speak of "being conscious that...", which sounds like a judgment? Or speak instead of "being conscious of...", which is more like concomitant awareness.) Aquinas, following Augustine, distinguished a "notitia sui" from a "cognitio sui"; everyone has the first, he said, a "self-awareness", but few achieve the latter "self-knowledge". See what he has to say about the soul's knowledge of itself, which is a very sophisticated treatment.
I would be inclined to believe that animals are mentally active in the way that humans are, but at a lower cognitive level. Anyone who has had a dog or lived in a household with a dog will attest to this. Dogs and cats too have a mind of their own, as we say. But they can be trained to some degree, and rendered "virtuous" form out perspective. I see no reason to deny dogs something that can fairly be described as consciousness, certainly awareness of others an perhaps of themselves. Contrarily I do not believe that machines are mentally active or conscious. Can a computer really play chess or does it just rattle off a series of moves following a program?


text:
"It was turning out the dining-room done it, if you ask me," said Mrs. Sutton. "Now, don't you overdo yourself, ma'am," I says to her; but you know how she is, sir. She gets that restless, she can't bear to be doing nothing."
Is the first sentence "It was turning out the dining-room done it," correct? It's in the novel Suspicion by Dorothy Sayers.
Something seems to be missing in this sentence and I don't understand the meaning of this sentence at all.


text:
FOLLANSBEE - A young Follansbee native was among six Louisiana men who were recognized recently for pursuing and apprehending a man who allegedly robbed the grocery store where he works.
Josh Francis admitted he knew his mother, Maria Marosi of Follansbee, probably wouldn't be thrilled about his joining five others in chasing a thief several blocks from the Lake Charles, La., store where he is a cashier and stock clerk.
But he said he figured word would get out, and it did when Lake Charles Police Chief Don Dixon formally recognized Francis and the others, presenting each with a commendation coin he normally awards to officers who go above and beyond the call of duty.
He and the others were interviewed by a local television news reporter after chasing and apprehending Joseph Riggs, 47, of Lake Charles, who was charged with simple robbery and possession of drug paraphernalia.
A former Madonna High School student, Francis is completing his senior year at Lake Charles while his father, Jeff, works as a construction superintendent there.
He had been working at the Market Basket, a local grocery store, for about four months and was stocking shelves at about 9 p.m. on Oct. 24 when he heard a cashier scream.
"When she screamed, we all said, 'Whoa, what's going on?'" Francis said. But he and four co-workers ran to the front of the store, out the door and several blocks after Riggs.
Francis said at one point they were crossing a busy street and dodging cars.
"We were playing 'Frogger' across the street. There were drivers slamming on brakes and horns," he said, referring to the video game in which a cartoon frog attempts to cross heavy traffic.
Riggs said he was surprised to see two others - an employee of a local Pizza Hut and John O'Donnell, a local man driving home after running at a local high school track - join the pursuit.
O'Donnell attempted to stop Riggs by pulling his car into Riggs' path. But Riggs ran around it, so he got out of his car and joined the others in chasing him, according to local news reports.
O'Donnell told news reporters he pulled out a small flashlight as though it were a weapon and threatened to "tase" Riggs, hoping he would fall for the imaginary Taser, and told him to get down.
He, Francis and the others then jumped on Riggs and held him until police arrived.
Francis said he was exhausted by the end of the pursuit.
"It was closing time, so I was already pretty tired," he said.
Asked how his employer responded to his act of heroism, Francis said, "He told me not to do that again."
Francis conceded that's probably due to concern for his safety. He admitted he hadn't considered whether Riggs was armed while he was chasing him.
Francis, who is the grandson of Helen Marosi of Colliers, said he was pleased to be recognized by the police chief and keeps the coin he gave him in his wallet.