FILAMEST AND GOLD PANEL

Filaments

Filaments is a library package that can be used to create architecture-independent parallel programs---that is, programs that are portable efficient across vastly different parallel machines. Filaments virtualizes the underlying machine in terms of the number of processors and the interconnection. This simplifies parallel program design in two ways. First, programs can be written (or generated) with the focus on the parallelism inherent in the application, not the architecture. Second, programs can be written that use familiar shared-variable communication. Furthermore, Filaments uses a carefully designed API along with machine-specific runtime libraries and preprocessing that allow programs to run unchanged on both shared- and distributed-memory machines. Most importantly, applications programmed in Filaments run efficiently, achieving a speedup of over 4 on 8 processors or nodes in almost all tests that have been performed.

GHOSTPANEL

Barrier Canyon Style, (style originated with this site in Barrier Canyon, now known as HorseshoeCanyon) B.C. 6500BC to A.D. 300 BC, Emery County

Once difficult to access, now an easy drive and hike, Utah’s premier rock art panel draws a steady stream of visitors. “The Holy Ghost Panel” is part of The Great Gallery, a 300-foot pictograph panel featuring numerous beautifully painted Barrier Canyon style figures.

The moon hangs on the horizon as I walk up Barrier Canyon. It will soon be light.  As my feet shuffle in the sand I remember my first trip to The Great Galley.  Dr. Dean Brimhall, a seventy year-old archeologist, drove my family in his jeep down a perilous road to reach what was then called “Barrier Canyon.”   Brimhall had retired from University life to study Utah’s ancient cultures. He scrambled up and down cliffs using long rope ladders, not unlike the ancient people he studied.  He believed The Great Gallery was one of the world’s great artistic masterpieces. For years he photographed and wrote about Utah’s rock art.  When his work was accepted for publication, Brimhall decided to deliver his valuable slides personally to his publisher. En route, he accidentally left the photographs in a public restroom where they disappeared.  The book was never published. His life work was lost. 

The streambed, once brimming with clear water is now a river of sand and oak brush.  The giant Cottonwood trees of my childhood are gone. Instead large park service signs warn of dehydration.