text:
\section{Introduction}
\label{sec:intro}

Fingerprinting in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) domain \cite{mrf_nature} quantifies tissue parameters from complex-valued MRI signals.
Tissue in the body may be characterized by how it interacts with the magnetic field during a MRI scan. Two tissue parameters, T1 and T2, are exponential time constants, e.g. $e^{-t/\text{T}2}$, that describe how fast hydrogen protons in different tissues react to the applied magnetic field. For example, T1 and T2 values allow us to discern the boundary between gray matter (T1$=830$, T2$=80$) and white matter (T1$=500$, T2$=70$) in MRI brain images. These parameters also enable radiologists to differentiate between benign and malignant tissues.

\begin{figure}[t]
	\includegraphics[width=\linewidth,keepaspectratio]{figures/mrf.pdf}
	\label{fig:mrf}
	\caption{MRI fingerprinting is an inverse mapping problem that infers the tissue parameters from MRI signals. MRI simulator turns a ground-truth (T1, T2, B0) parameter tuple into an observed MRI temporal signal. The inverse mapping, by either nearest neighbor search or a neural network, solves for the tissue parameters given the simulated signal. At test time, the MRI signal will arrive from the scanner rather than the simulator.  Example complex-valued signals are shown for cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and white matter (WM) parameters. }
\end{figure}

Traditional MRI requires {\it many different scans} that each accentuates one of the desired parameters. Additionally, those scans only provide a {\it qualitative} visual contrast between tissues, e.g. {\it in this image, tissues with high T1 are brighter than other tissues}. MRI fingerprinting as proposed in \cite{mrf_nature}, however, simultaneously produces {\it quantitative} values for T1, T2, and proton density in {\it one single scan}. It can also provide information about imperfections in the parameters for the applied  magnetic field, i.e. B0 and B1.

MRI fingerprinting works by scanning the subject using a predetermined progression of scanner controls, e.g. flip angles and repetition time (TR) values of the pulse sequence. The various tissues in the body will react to this pulse sequence, producing measurable signals that have unique signatures depending on their specific tissue parameter (T1, T2, proton density) and applied magnetic field parameters (B0, B1). Just like a fingerprint pattern can identify a specific person, these measured signals may be decoded to determine the tissue and magnetic field parameters at each pixel location in the image. Figure \ref{fig:mrf} shows how MRI fingerprinting uses a numerical simulator to convert parameters into MRI signals, which are then used to train an algorithm to solve the inverse problem of mapping the signal back to the original parameters. When scanning a patient, the unlabeled MRI signals will arrive from the scanner to be decoded by the inverse mapping algorithm.

From a machine learning perspective, the MRI simulator provides a potentially unlimited number of complex-valued MRI signals for training, each of these temporal sequences is paired with a tuple of real-valued labels (T1, T2, B0).  At the test time, the MRI scanner acquires a temporal signal at each pixel location, which must be decoded into to the tissue and MRI field parameters. Prior MRI fingerprinting works \cite{mrf_nature,mrf_multiscale,mrf_pssfp} have used a nearest neighbor search based approach to match the measured signal to a dictionary of simulated training signals. Due to the non-parametric nature of nearest neighbor methods, the computation time scales linearly with the size of the dictionary, quickly becoming infeasible with a finer parameter resolution or when more tissue parameters are required. Additional research has improved the nearest neighbor matching efficiency by incorporating SVD \cite{mrf_svd} and group matching \cite{mrf_groupmatching}.

Rather than non-parametric nearest neighbor-based methods, we propose to learn a parameterized model for solving the MRI fingerprinting inverse mapping problem. Specifically, we demonstrate that feedforward neural networks can accurately model the complex non-linear MRI fingerprinting inverse mapping function with a computational efficiency that does not scale with the number of training examples.

We also investigate using complex-valued neural networks for MRI fingerprinting, since the MRI signals are inherently complex-valued. While complex-valued signals can be represented by 2-channel real signals, each channel containing real and imaginary components respectively, such a representation does not respect the phase information that is captured by complex algebra.
Indeed, by introducing a new complex activation function for complex neural networks, we demonstrate that complex-valued neural nets are more effective than real-valued networks at MRI fingerprinting.

\section{Complex-Valued Neural Networks}
\label{sec:theory}

A significant facet of complex network research since the early 1990's has been to overcome the issue that standard real-valued non-linear layers do not transfer well to complex-valued networks.  We tackle several aspects here.

\subsection{Complex Cardioid Activation Function}

 Standard non-linear functions are either unbounded, e.g. $\text{sigmoid}(i\pi)$, or undefined, e.g. the max operator in max pooling and ReLU.  With complex outputs, we have also lost the probabilistic interpretations that functions like sigmoid and softmax provide. Past research has explored a range of potential solutions, for example, limiting the range of the activation input to avoid unbounded regions \cite{complex_backprop_leung}, or applying non-linearities to real and imaginary components separately \cite{complex_backprop_nitta,single_layer_cvnn}. In their 1992 paper \cite{complex_backprop_georgiou}, Georgiou and Koutsougeras presented an activation that attenuates the magnitude of the signal while preserving the phase. In our experiments, we refer to this activation function as \textbf{siglog} as it modifies the magnitude by applying the sigmoid of the log of the magnitude:
\begin{align}
\text{siglog}(z) &= \frac{z}{1+|z|} = g(\log(|z|))e^{-i\angle z}\\
g(z) &= 1/(1+e^{-z}).
\end{align}

\begin{figure}[tp]
\centering
	\includegraphics[width=0.28\linewidth,keepaspectratio]{figures/cardioid_input.pdf}
	\includegraphics[width=0.28\linewidth,keepaspectratio]{figures/cardioid_output.pdf}
	\includegraphics[width=0.40\linewidth,keepaspectratio]{figures/cardioid_mag_relu.png}
	\label{fig:cardioid}
	\caption{Our new cardioid activation function is a phase sensitive complex extension of ReLU.  Left / Center:
	Each arrow indicates a sample input/output of our cardioid function  on the complex plane. Right: The magnitude transformation of the cardioid function shows that it is reduced to ReLU on the real axis (orange line). }
\end{figure}

We propose a new complex activation function, \textbf{complex cardioid}, which is sensitive to the input phase rather than the input magnitude. The output magnitude is attenuated based on the input phase, while the output phase remains equal to the input phase. The complex cardioid is defined as:
\begin{align}
f(z)  = \frac12 ( 1 + \cos(\angle z) ) z
\end{align}
With this activation, input values that lie on the positive real axis are scaled by one, input values on the negative real axis are scaled by zero, and input values with nonzero imaginary components are gradually scaled from one to zero as the complex number rotates in phase from positive real axis towards the negative real axis. When the input values are restricted to real values, the complex cardioid function is simply the ReLU activation function.
The $\mathbb{CR}$ \cite{cr_calculus} derivatives are as follows:
\begin{align}
\frac{\partial f}{\partial z} &= \frac12 + \frac12 \cos\big(\angle z\big) + \frac{i}{4} \sin\big(\angle z\big) \\
{\color{red}\frac{\partial f}{\partial \conj{z}}} &= \frac{-i}{4} \sin\big(\angle z \big) \frac{z}{\conj{z}}
\end{align}

\subsection{Complex Calculus and Optimization}

We leverage Wirtinger calculus, or $\mathbb{CR}$ calculus, \cite{wirtinger,cr_calculus} to do gradient descent on functions that are not complex differentiable as long as they are differentiable with respect to their real and imaginary components. The first of two $\mathbb{CR}$ calculus derivatives is the $\mathbb{R}$-derivative (or real derivative) which computes $\partial f/\partial z$ by treating $z$ as a real variable and holding instances of $\conj{z}$ constant. Likewise, the other derivative is the {\color{red}conjugate $\mathbb{R}$-derivative}, {\color{red}$\partial f/\partial \conj{z}$}, where $\conj{z}$ acts as a real variable and $z$ is held constant.

To optimize a real-valued loss function ($L(w)$) at the end of a complex feedforward neural net,
we update the weights by applying the complex version of gradient descent:
\begin{align}
w &= w - \alpha \nabla_{\conj{w}}L
\text{, where } \nabla_{\conj{w}}L =
\bigg[{\color{red}\frac{\partial L}{\partial \conj{w}_1}} \hdots {\color{red}\frac{\partial L}{\partial \conj{w}_n}} \bigg] ^T
\end{align}
This is the same as real-valued gradient descent with careful attention paid to the gradient operator. As shown in \cite{brandwood}, the direction of steepest descent is the complex cogradient, $\nabla_{\conj{w}}L$.

\section{MRI Fingerprinting Experiments}
\label{sec:methods}

{\bf Training Data.} We simulate the MRI signal with the Bloch equations and the first of the two pulse sequence parameters from \cite{mrf_nature} with signal length 500. We use 100,000 simulated points for training, randomly sampled with the same T1, T2, B0 density as used in the baseline nearest neighbor dictionary.

{\bf Testing Data.} Following \cite{mrf_multiscale}, we test our methods with a numerical MRI phantom \cite{collins98,collins06} with the T1, T2, and proton density values specified for each tissue type in \cite{collins06}. We add a liner ramp in the B0 field across the image from -60 Hz to 60 Hz. We compute proton density from the norm of the test signal as in \cite{mrf_nature}. Although we do not include any B1 inhomogeneity in our experiments, a fourth neural network could easily be added to incorporate this or any other parameter(s).  In addition to testing with a clean signal from the phantom, we also tested phantom signals with complex-valued Gaussian noise added to produce a peak signal-to-noise ratio (pSNR) of 40.

\begin{figure}[bp]
\centering
	\includegraphics[width=0.9\linewidth,keepaspectratio]{figures/net.pdf}
	\caption{Fully connected neural network architecture, repeated for each desired output label (T1, T2, B0).}
	\label{fig:net}
\end{figure}

{\bf Methods.}  Fig.\ref{fig:net} shows our 3-layer neural network architecture.  We compare six MRI fingerprinting methods.
\begin{enumerate}
\setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}
\item Baseline inner product nearest neighbor and T1, T2, B0 dictionary setup used in \cite{mrf_nature}.
\item Real-valued neural nets with 2-channel real/imaginary inputs representing complex MRI signals, using the ReLU activation function.
\item Real-valued neural nets that are twice as wide as the second model, with 1024 and 512 feature channels in the two hidden layers.
\item Complex-valued neural nets with 1-channel complex MRI signals, using our new cardioid activation function.
\item Complex-valued neural nets using separable sigmoid activation functions (i.e. sigmoid applied to real and imaginary independently) \cite{complex_backprop_nitta}.
\item Complex-valued neural nets using the siglog activation function \cite{complex_backprop_georgiou}.
\end{enumerate}
Here we focus on pixel-wise fingerprinting reconstruction.  We plan to extend our approach to full image predictions for under-sampled MRI fingerprinting in the future.

{\bf Deep Learning Implementation.}
 We implement all our networks in Caffe \cite{caffe}.  For the complex-valued neural nets, we extend the Caffe platform with complex versions of the fully connected layer, batch normalization layer, and complex activation layers, including the $\mathbb{CR}$ calculus back propagation for all the layer functions.

{\bf Results.}
Tables \ref{tab:results_clean} and \ref{tab:results_pSNR40} compare the prediction accuracy at no noise and pSNR=40 noise level, respectively.
Fig. \ref{fig:results_pSNR40} shows sample reconstruction results. Fig. \ref{fig:flops} compares the computational efficiency  in terms of the number of floating point operations (FLOPs). We observe the following:

\begin{table}[t]
\caption{NRMSE results: fingerprinting from clean signals.}
\label{table:results}
\begin{tabular}{p{4.5cm}p{0.8cm}p{0.8cm}p{0.8cm}}
\toprule
\textbf{Network} & \textbf{T1} & \textbf{T2} & \textbf{$\Delta$ B0} \\
\midrule
Nearest neighbor & 10.63 & 39.78 & \textbf{1.02} \\
2-ch real/imaginary network & 2.71 & 8.21 & 2.11 \\
2-ch real/imaginary network 2x & 2.21 & 8.04 & 2.44 \\
\textbf{Complex (cardioid)} & \textbf{1.42} & \textbf{4.34} & 1.32 \\
Complex (separable sigmoid) & 4.72 & 9.24 & 3.33 \\
Complex (siglog) & 2.99 & 12.04 & 3.05 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\label{tab:results_clean}
\end{table}

\begin{table}[t]
\caption{NRMSE results: fingerprinting from noisy signals.}
\label{table:results}
\begin{tabular}{p{4.5cm}p{0.8cm}p{0.8cm}p{0.8cm}}
\toprule
\textbf{Network} & \textbf{T1} & \textbf{T2} & \textbf{$\Delta$ B0} \\
\midrule
Nearest neighbor & 12.21 & 40.38 & \textbf{1.08} \\
2-ch real/imaginary network & 11.15 & \textbf{17.96} & 5.23 \\
2-ch real/imaginary network 2x & 11.08 & 22.15 & 7.08 \\
\textbf{Complex (cardioid)} & \textbf{9.40} & 20.98 & 4.43 \\
Complex (separable sigmoid) & 17.31 & 33.09 & 18.83 \\
Complex (siglog) & 102.22 & 237.88 & 266.33 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\label{tab:results_pSNR40}
\end{table}

\def0.15{0.15}
\def0.3{0.3}

\begin{figure}[b]
\centering
	\includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth,keepaspectratio]{figures/flops.pdf}
	\caption{Comparison of floating point operations required to compute the parameters for a single pixel. Note the log scale.}
	\label{fig:flops}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure*}[t]
\centering
\tb{@{}ccc@{}}{0.5}{
\toprule
\textbf{T1 (error 5x)} & \textbf{T2 (error 5x)} & \textbf{$\Delta$ B0 (error 5x)}\\
\midrule
\multicolumn{3}{l}{Nearest Neighbor Baseline}\\ [0.75ex]
\tb{cc}{0.3}{
	\imw{nearest_MNI_pSNR_40_T1_estimated_crop}{0.15} &
	\imw{nearest_MNI_pSNR_40_T1_err_5x_crop}{0.15}
} &
\tb{cc}{0.3}{
	\imw{nearest_MNI_pSNR_40_T2_estimated_crop}{0.15} &
	\imw{nearest_MNI_pSNR_40_T2_err_5x_crop}{0.15}
} &
\tb{cc}{0.3}{
	\imw{nearest_MNI_pSNR_40_B0_estimated_crop}{0.15} &
	\imw{nearest_MNI_pSNR_40_B0_err_5x_crop}{0.15}
}
\\
\midrule
\multicolumn{3}{l}{2-ch Real/Imaginary Neural Network}\\ [0.75ex]
\tb{cc}{0.3}{
	\imw{ri/net_stages2_MNI_pSNR_40_T1_estimated_crop}{0.15} &
	\imw{ri/net_stages2_MNI_pSNR_40_T1_err_5x_crop}{0.15}
} &
\tb{cc}{0.3}{
	\imw{ri/net_stages2_MNI_pSNR_40_T2_estimated_crop}{0.15} &
	\imw{ri/net_stages2_MNI_pSNR_40_T2_err_5x_crop}{0.15}
} &
\tb{cc}{0.3}{
	\imw{ri/net_stages2_MNI_pSNR_40_B0_estimated_crop}{0.15} &
	\imw{ri/net_stages2_MNI_pSNR_40_B0_err_5x_crop}{0.15}
}
\\
\midrule
\multicolumn{3}{l}{Complex Neural Network (Cardioid)}\\ [0.75ex]
\tb{cc}{0.3}{
	\imw{complex/net_stages2_MNI_pSNR_40_T1_estimated_crop}{0.15} &
	\imw{complex/net_stages2_MNI_pSNR_40_T1_err_5x_crop}{0.15}
} &
\tb{cc}{0.3}{
	\imw{complex/net_stages2_MNI_pSNR_40_T2_estimated_crop}{0.15} &
	\imw{complex/net_stages2_MNI_pSNR_40_T2_err_5x_crop}{0.15}
} &
\tb{cc}{0.3}{
	\imw{complex/net_stages2_MNI_pSNR_40_B0_estimated_crop}{0.15} &
	\imw{complex/net_stages2_MNI_pSNR_40_B0_err_5x_crop}{0.15}
}
\\
\bottomrule
}
\caption{Numerical phantom with added noise (pSNR=40). Predicted quantitative parameters maps images are shown adjacent to the error image. For visualization purposes, the error images are displayed at 5x the scale of the images. }
\label{fig:results_pSNR40}
\end{figure*}

\begin{enumerate}
\setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}
\item
A dictionary based approach explodes exponentially with more outputs and becomes infeasible.
Compared to the two outputs (T1,T2), the \#FLOPs increases by 171$\times$ for the three outputs (T1,T2,B0),
and by 3,585$\times$ for the four outputs (T1,T2,B0,B1).
\item
Inverse mapping by neural nets outperforms the traditional nearest neighbor baseline on T1 and T2 values, whereas the nearest neighbor approach predicts B0 values more accurately.
\item
Complex-valued neural networks outperform 2-channel real-valued networks for almost all of our experiments, and this advantage cannot be explained away by the twice large model capacity, suggesting that complex-valued networks can bring out information in the complex data more effectively than treating them as arbitrary two-channel real data.
\item
The complex cardioid activation significantly outperformed both the separable sigmoid and siglog activation functions, allowing complex networks to not only compete with, but surpass, real-valued networks.
\end{enumerate}

{\bf Summary.}
For the complex-valued MRI fingerprinting problem,
we propose a deep learning approach that implements an efficient
nonlinear inverse mapping function that turns MRI signals to tissue parameters directly\footnote{A conference abstract exploring neural networks for MRI fingerprinting \cite{mrf_net_ismrm17} was concurrently published with this work.}.
We generate synthetic (tissue, MRI) data from an MRI simulator, and use
them to train a neural network.  We develop a novel cardioid activation function that enables the successful real-world application of complex-valued neural networks.  Our results demonstrate that complex-valued nets can be more accurate than real-valued nets at complex-valued MRI fingerprinting.

\section{Acknowledgements}

This research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health  R01EB009690 grant and a Sloan Research Fellowship. We thank  Michael Kellman, Frank Ong, Jonathan Tamir, and Hong Shang for great discussions about complex calculus, fingerprinting, pulse sequences, and simulator software.

\bibliographystyle{IEEEbib}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


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text:
The land of the unfree
With every passing controversy, we're learning to redefine our rights.
This is the story of two YouTube videos. The first one came up bare hours before I sat down to write this, and it featured an actor, a producer, a director announcing to a media gathering that he was now homeless in every sense. His new production, the one that had sucked up his life's savings, still hadn't made it to theatres, and without a release, his creditors would end up possessing his house. The one with the big black gate, next to that multi-cuisine restaurant. The address known to every auto-rickshaw driver in this city. That house would no longer be his. That's as homeless as one can get. Except in this case, where the actor found himself dispossessed by his other home as well – his state, his nation. If you're turned out of your home, you can take to the streets. What can you do if your country turns its back on you?
Perhaps that's overstating things a tad. Perhaps that seems a little too dramatic. But these events of these past days have taken that kind of tone –score the whole thing with a bank of violins and you'd have the kind of melodrama that's playing now in the city's theatres, the musical about the man who stole a loaf of bread and was hounded by the Establishment, based on a story that took place in France all those centuries ago, or inside Victor Hugo's head. This actor, though, didn't steal bread. In fact, he didn't steal anything. You only steal what's not yours, and freedom, we think, is ours. Sometimes we don't even think it. It isn't a conscious notion. We simply take for granted that we are free to do what we want to do, create what we want to create, as long as it doesn't hurt our neighbours, those denizens of our other home, the larger home.
And now, we're learning that we may have been wrong all along. We're learning how to redefine "hurt," that it can be triggered by anything from annoyance to dislike to intolerance. And we are learning to redefine "free." Have you seen The American President? It's as bleeding-heart-liberal as a Hollywood entertainment can get, but there's a speech in it that defines what freedom is all about. Says the President: "America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say 'You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil… You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the 'land of the free'."
By that definition, we're not free. None of us are. We're only free as long as we do the simple things, the safe things. But the actor already knew this, which brings us to the second YouTube video, the one he made, in an apparent drunken fit, after a similar controversy clouded the release of an earlier film, one that needed to be renamed because its earlier name carried casteist connotations, or so we were told. (Thankfully, this newspaper has been allowed to retain its name.) In that scabrously funny video, which ultimately leaves us feeling terribly sad, the way we feel today, this actor made the point that it was futile to hew to notions of "local culture," because its definition keeps changing every five years, like politicians. This is the video that tells us why Tamil films, today, play it so safe. Everything has the potential to offend someone, and therefore our films are about nothing.
This video also tells us that the arrival of the other video was just a matter of time. And through this man's travails, over these years, those of us who write and paint and draw cartoons and make music and shape lyrics have begun to recognise that our rights, too, are like "local culture," something today, something else tomorrow. The actor is right. Perhaps we don't have the space for him – and people like him, who constantly question the status quo, sticking needles in our skin and shaking us from complacency, our belief that all is really well around us; people, in other words, who used to be celebrated as true artists — in this state anymore. Home is where someone feels safe. It's the harbour against the storms of the world outside, and a home that's not a harbour is not a home anymore.
It's a few days later and, befitting a story about cinema, there's a twist in the tale. The slimmest of olive branches has changed hands, the palest of white flags waved. That pinprick in the distance, that seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. But you know and I know that these truces are temporary. Sometime in the near future, people will make what they want to make again. People who want to be offended will be offended again. And people who pen laments like this one, about the death of democracy, will write them again. I refer, of course, to no one in particular, no place in particular, just as no names have been used in this article in order not to hurt the feelings of fans of specific actors and films, along with newspaper readers prone to lawsuits because their morning hasn't been sweetened with articles of a cheerier nature. Those lines from The American President, however, I have no problem acknowledging. Hollywood has a thicker skin.
An edited version of this piece can be found here.
Copyright ©2013 The Hindu. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Posted in: Arts: Indian, Books, Culture, Dance, Music, Personal
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16 Responses "The land of the unfree" →
Glad you posted this. I was wondering when you would weigh in on this? Not that you are bound to or have to…you could steer clear from this and it would be okay, at least to me. You can opine privately your thoughts an that would be fine too. But there's a sense of moral outrage on both sides that makes us compelled to comment on it. Of course, you know where I stand but I'm sure the other side has things to say as we'll. as you say, it's not permanent, just a temporary tiff. Of course, we will continue to have these tiffs in the future too. But the increase in intolerance seems more permanent, unfortunately !
BTW, The American President is on of my fav films…superb portrayal by MD. That scene is of course the high point of the film.
Shankar: Actually, I wasn't going to weigh in, because — as you say — we all know where we stand, and there's just been so much written on this already. But then they were making a special full-pager on this issue for Sunday (today) and they asked me, and I had to. And I tried to make it as non-newsy as possible.
Everybody I speak to seems to be on the same side of the aisle. So I would appreciate it if somebody from across the aisle wrote about this just so that I can try and understand thier perspective. I say this, because this act of taking offence has become so common that I believe there must be folks who endorse it. So I request those who endorse the ban on the movie to speak up and help the rest of us understand your position. Otherwise, we are just left feeling clueless.
Rajeev Siddhan
Great writing Rangan. I see writers like you along with certain actors, directors and general creators changing what the future holds for us. All of them constantly challenge the now and push the envelope for better things to come. It is however a slow and arduous process and one day, I hope we will be all fighting for better things than free speech.
BTW, really love that speech from the 'American President'!! Not to mention, Annette Bening looks amazing and fabulous in the movie…..
More about me at http://www.kalpanamohan.org
Nicely written, Baradwaj, and great quote from "The American President". Art and artists (and I include writers in this) need to be left alone. The number of times I hear my family warning me to not write about this or that just in case I cannot enter or exit the airport at Chennai. I always thought free speech was a given in India but in the last several days—especially after being part of the JLF where I also attended a panel titled "The Writer and the State"—I've begun feeling that free speech really isn't a given anywhere in the world. I suppose the US can claim it to some extent. I think of free speech as a gift, a little Jack-in-the-Box of sorts. Use it, that is, open it, and be ready for a fist, a bomb, a snake bite, a spray of spittle, a water balloon.
Pady Srini
Made a Bangalore road trip past week to catch Vishwaroopam. Totally worth it. A bit dragging in the first half. Screenplay could have been a little more tight. But a MUST WATCH.
omfgitsrohit
There's only one solution to this. We must devalue our own lives. Then we won't feel owed and then, we won't have anything to complain about. We'll accept the stark reality of things. The only problem is, the human mind won't permit us to do that.
Mambazha Manidhan
Bravo! Noone else seems to have pointed out the homeostasis that we so crave that forces us to have knee jerk reactions to bitter truths. But, why do we attack he Artist? Not the problem itself.
Funny you should mention US as having thicker skin cos that is one country where neighbors are known to sue each other over the silliest of reasons. But, the Artist as such has largely been out of the reach of the ones who are easily offended.
And, protected. While here he is some sort of a soft target to go after. With government endorsement, of course.
Arif Attar
This video doing the rounds these days. Was made in the context of the movie on the Prophet and the resulting protests https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=433072373430997
Still have no idea what exactly is objectionable in Vishwaroopam. Haven't watched it.
I am with you – where are the actual people protesting against this movie ?
sanjay2706
Good article. So true. True art is likely to offend someone, and hence movies of today play it safe, and are only about black and white. There are no 'greys'.
Please read my article on the Ban issue.
http://sanjay2706.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/what-fahrenheit-451-means-today/
" Everything has the potential to offend someone, and therefore our films are about nothing"
That exactly what I was thinking when i saw the movie. I saw the hindi version of the movie, and all the objections and protests seem all the more silly & malicious to me now. On the other hand, I felt strangely relieved & happy to see the theatre booked out completely (saturday night, in Pune). But as i came out of the screening, I wasn't thinking about how good or bad the movie was, but that my 300 bucks would some how be part of a Fuck You to the over sensitive offendees..
Rangan, would you mind emailing me the links to the YouTube videos? I have been following this controversy since it began, and think it's a shame that we are so quick to take offence. I like what Sharmila Tagore had to say when she was head of the Censor Board. Taken to task by the media for releasing a film without any cuts (it was given a U/A certificate), she said that she believed the time for 'cuts' and censorship had gone; she would prefer the Ratings system, because she believed that everyone had the right to make their own decisions whether to watch a film. But, she said, she still stood by the Censor Board's decision to release that film, because someone, somewhere, was always getting offended by something, and if they gave in once, then it would set a precedent for someone else to be offended by something else. Where would it stop?
In these situations one often wonders what the undercurrents are or what political arm twisting is in pay. But if its taking offense then banning the movie might not be the right answer. Are they saying that people who watch the movie will go out & resort to violence? Ad by banning it we are condoning such violence which has been temp put off? I can't seem to take sides cos I understand how misused of prayer calls and slogans might hurt sentiments but why watch it in the first place?
Kalpana Mohan: That was a lovely comment.
Anu Warrier: But if I linked to those videos, you'll know exactly who I'm talking about, no? 😉
Rangan, ouch! I know who you are talking about; it's because I couldn't find said videos on YT that I asked if you would email me the links. Didn't know it was verboten. 🙂 Apologies.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The High Cost of Lighting up the Night
"You can protect the Northeast Swale as much as you want, but if you can't preserve the dark there will be a mass wildlife migration."
SaskMap (Cinzano)
We take light for granted – 24 hours a day. We chase away the dark with digital clocks beside our beds and security lights over our doors. And we are paying the price. We're gobbling up electricity, endangering our wildlife, and losing the stars.
19% of electrical energy (1) produced in Saskatchewan is used to keep the lights on and yet so much of it is wasted by keeping offices, parking lots, and streets lit even when they are deserted. We spend $90 to $115 billion annually worldwide on wasted light, $45 to $100 million in Canada, and over $500,000 per year in Saskatoon (2).
We design more energy-efficient lights, but that just motivates us to use more of them. In the United Kingdom, from 1950 to 2000, lights became twice as efficient at producing light, but per capita electricity consumption for lighting increased fourfold. Saskatoon's population is growing at approximately 3% per year, but our light pollution increases by 7% annually.
What is light pollution?
Rick Huziak is a member of the Saskatchewan Light Pollution Abatement Committee, a committee of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Saskatoon & Regina Centres. He says that astronomers in Arizona were the first to notice the rapid increase in night-time lighting. The most advanced observatory in the United States was over 100 miles from Tucson, but it was threatened with closure because Tucson – and its light dome – was growing so rapidly.
The International Dark Sky Association was established in Tucson in 1988. They promote one very simple idea: light what you need, when you need it. Their website states, "We know some light at night is necessary for safety and recreation. We work with manufacturers, planners, legislators, and citizens to provide energy efficient options that direct the light where you want it to go, not uselessly up into the sky."
Rick says light pollution is light that shines where it is not needed or wanted as well as light that is too bright. "All light pollution is conservable waste," he says.
Light pollution from Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon (R. Huziak)
As citizens, we don't like excess noise. The City of Saskatoon has a noise bylaw and builds noise abatement walls beside major roadways. We seem oblivious to light pollution and yet it affects us all.
First and foremost, it affects our pocket books and our future. The more light we use, the more energy we consume, increasing our greenhouse gas emissions, and shortening the future for human life on earth.
Human beings have an internal clock that regulates their physical, mental, and behavioural patterns, responding to light and dark in our environment. For example, we sleep far better in a dark room. A fact sheet from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences states that "Abnormal circadian rhythms have also been associated with obesity, diabetes, depression, bipolar disorder and seasonal affective disorder."
The day/night cycle is even more important for wildlife. "There's a reason why wolves howl at the moon," Rick says. "They're hungry." Rodents and small animals, such as black-footed ferrets, an endangered species in Grasslands National Park, require completely dark skies to hunt. Even moonlight would make them easy prey for eagles, coyotes, and other large animals.
Night is when many animals are most active. "Most animals are nocturnal," Rick says. "During the day, animals in Grasslands National Park are few and far between. At night, it's hard to walk 10 feet without tripping over an animal. Night is also when many animals mate. A change of 1% in light intensity will stop amphibians from mating."
Saskatoon's Northeast Swale is one of the largest pieces of native grassland and wetlands. It is home to a diverse assortment of wildlife, from white-tailed deer to burrowing owls and northern leopard frogs. But as new neighbourhoods are developed around the Swale, wildlife will be threatened by the light spilling over into their previously dark area. The birds, animals, and reptiles will be forced to flee in a search for darkness so that they can hunt, eat, and mate.
"You can protect the park as much as you want," says Rick, "but if you can't preserve the dark, there'll be a mass migration."
Designating the Swale as an Urban Star Park would ensure that artificial lighting was strictly controlled and that active measures were taken to promote the reduction of light pollution.
How can we protect the night?
A lot of light is wasted because it shines straight up into the sky or sideways, rather than lighting the ground. Businesses have wall-mounted flood lights above their loading bays, even though they never accept shipments after 5 pm or before 8 am.
We also use excessive light. Gas stations sometimes use six times as much light as recommended and the Dakota Dunes Casino used to boast that their lights could be seen for 100 miles in all directions. (The casinos later decided to turn their lights off, saving almost $1 million per year.)
Full brightness LED billboards waste energy and create dangerous glare and distraction for passing drivers. If the City were to allow billboards along South Circle Drive, they would have a profound impact on wildlife in the river valley and golf courses.
Responsible lighting is erected only when and where it's required. The light is shielded or directed so that the light is only where it is needed (not in the sky or on your neighbour's property). Responsible lighting uses an appropriate level of lighting (not thoughtlessly set to maximum). It's integrated rather than competing with other lighting, and it's turned off when it's not needed.
New technology brings with it new potential for greater control and flexibility. Street lighting could be dimmed after midnight or could be triggered by approaching traffic.
Responsible lighting is shielded and directed where it's needed. (R. Huziak)
Don't we need lights to prevent crime?
It's a myth that bright lights prevent crime. In fact, Rick says, they do just the opposite. "Chicago tripled its downtown light and crime soared," Rick says. "A city in Pennsylvania put lights on a bridge to stop incidents of sexual abuse, and they increased 300%." Criminals don't wander in darkened areas. If you can't see, you don't go there. Plus criminals need light to identify things to steal.
"Bright lights create glare, making it difficult to see what's going on," Rick says. "Subtle lighting, which enables you to see the entire environment, is much more effective."
What can municipalities do to prevent light pollution?
The City of Saskatoon passed a Comprehensive and Integrated Dark Sky Policy in 2008. The policy has still not been implemented, but Saskatoon Light and Power immediately began using shielded fixtures that don't create light pollution. As a result, Saskatoon's parks have dark sky compliant lighting. Meewasin Valley Authority is also dark sky compliant.
There is much more that the City could do. They could reduce the wattage on all the lights while still remaining within the recommended guidelines. Or they could reduce wattage on the lights between intersections where bright lights aren't as important.
"If the City of Saskatoon is serious about greenhouse gas reduction and climate change," Rick says, "they need to extend the policy to include businesses and residences and pass bylaws that prevent waste."
The City of Martensville has done just that with a simple addition to its zoning bylaw stating that all lights must shine only on your own property.
Responsible lighting at RCMP Building (R. Huziak)
What can businesses and residents do?
If we are to protect the wildlife in the Swale, businesses and residents, as well as the municipality, will need to be dark-sky compliant.
A number of businesses have already recognized the tremendous cost savings they can achieve by using responsible lighting. Jubilee Ford turns its lights down to half brightness after midnight and uses shielded lights that are dark-sky compliant. Shell gas stations turn off their lights when closed.
The Saskatoon Inn has won a national award for its environmental plan, which includes responsible lighting, and is one of the few hotels in the province to hold a 4 Green Key rating from the Hotel Association of Canada for its environmental leadership.
Walmart has installed directional lighting in all its parking lots. Rick says that the Walmart on 22nd Street has shielded lighting that keeps lighting on their property off the street as well as out of the sky.
Responsible lighting at a Shell gas station (R. Huziak)
Businesses will enjoy huge cost savings if they become dark sky compliant, but there may be additional unexpected benefits. Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park was designated as a Dark Sky Preserve in 2004, and volunteer dollars built an observatory that opened in 2012. An Astronomer in Residence offers interpretive programs and astronomy has become the #1 activity with 10 times as many participants as any other park activity.
Grasslands National Park is also a Dark Sky Preserve and the Dark Sky Preserves have become a major tourist attraction, drawing visitors to Southwest Saskatchewan.
It's time we take concrete action. Responsible dark sky lighting isn't a frill. It's essential if we're to conserve energy, reduce greenhouse gases, and protect wildlife.
1. This figure, from a 2006 SaskPower report, includes indoor lighting. Outdoor lighting is slightly less than 10%.
2. Many of the statistics in this article were provided by Rick Huziak and were included in a Saskatchewan Light Pollution Abatement Committee presentation to the 2013 Saskatchewan Citizens' Hearings on Climate Change.
Labels: Business, Energy, Lighting, Parks, Swale, Tourism
CISV Shaunavon: Flower Power Mini Camp
EcoSask News, June 24, 2014
Buffalo Narrows Community Garden: Spring 2014
Carrot River Valley Watershed Association School P...
EcoSask News, June 3, 2014


Award-winning renovations you'll be happy to come home to.
Throughout the years JKB has entered and won construction and design competitions. Check out our awards page!
Wanting someone that knows what they're doing? That's us! After 38 years, we've been through it all. Can't wait to hear your ideas.
We care about you and your customized needs. And we want to know you! In fact, you'll meet and get to know the owner himself. He's a part of all jobs – to ensure quality work and customer service.
This was a renovation project to our kitchen, dining room, & powder room done by JKB Construction Ltd. We chose JKB because we wanted a reputable, established company that we would feel comfortable & confident with while nervously watching our walls being knocked down etc. The project proceeded exactly as Jeff told us it would. He consistently kept us informed. He is hard-working, reliable, ethical, timely and tidy! The workmanship done to our home is exemplary! We are extremely happy with our reno and so glad we picked Jeff Bain to be our contractor. As satisfied customers, we would not hesitate to recommend JKB Construction Ltd. Simply The Best!
JKB repaired the outside of our chimney and the resulting water damage along the side of our house due to a missing roof flashing. This job required installing the missing roof flashing to direct the rainwater away from our chimney and house side, repairing the previously badly repaired chimney bricks, painting the chimney, removing and repairing the rotted siding and removing and repairing the wet materials underneath. The job was completed quickly and efficiently in a timely manner. I would highly recommend JKB!
Highly recommend. Offers ideas, flexible, and works well with the budget. Work is beautiful and high quality. Clearly cares about his work.
Kitchen renovation done August to September 2014. Fantastic contractor, would definitely recommend to others. Very professional, easy to communicate with and a great job done on the renovations (from obtaining proper permits, workmanship to final cleanup). The completed project far exceeded our expectations! Thanks.
Having experienced several prior home renovations I decided to hire a "pro". I was not disappointed! From the very first contact, Jeff Bain, President of JKB Construction, was quick to respond, made great suggestions, was flexible (I kept adding to the project when I saw how good he and his team were) provided detailed estimates, was on budget and on-time. The quality of work was excellent.
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I have never written a review before and welcome the opportunity to recommend Jeff and JKB construction. My husband and myself have used Jeff and JKB construction on a number of occasions to do renovations on our home. Jeff has done 2 bathrooms, a large kitchen reno. and a huge deck construction. The bathrooms and kitchen were featured in a renovated homes tour. Jeff completed each project on the time line and budget as outlined. My husband is a stickler for details, and so is Jeff. Today we are still having rave reviews on the work Jeff has completed, while enjoying every moment of our newly improved home. We can not recommend Jeff and JKB construction enough, it was pain free for us. – Brian and Joanne, North Vancouver B.C.
Jeff and the entire JKB crew are amazing. We needed a contractor to complete an extensive amount of work to the outside of our house. We interviewed many contractors and companies. In that process, Jeff stood out among many as extremely professional, diligent, and knowledgeable. After hiring Jeff, we found that his work exceeded our expectations. He is thorough, reliable, conscientious, and easy to work with. Since the completion of the project, we have been getting compliments from friends, family, and even strangers who pull over and inquire about our amazing renovation. We highly recommend JKB Construction to anyone looking for a quality contractor.


Honest Volkswagen van reviews - our customers let you know what it's like to live with their Volkswagen Van and also access the cheap insurance.
Why Choose a Volkswagen van?
Volkswagen is one of the most famous names in van history, thanks mostly to the celebrated style icon that was the VW Camper Van.
While the Camper grabs the headlines, it's not the only Volkswagen van that deserves the plaudits and has helped the German manufacturer become the second best selling van brand in the UK.
The likes of the Crafter and the Caddy are some of the most popular commercial vehicles on UK roads, while the Amarok pick-up is a rugged pick up that has had lots of awards heaped on it.
Then there's the VW Transporter, a van that's just as good as an everyday run around as a commercial vehicle.
At the top of the range is the Caravelle and the California, two brilliant passenger cars and camper vans.
As you can see the Volkswagen van line-up is varied and huge and that means the range of Volkswagen van insurance products is as well.
You may need a short-term policy for a Caddy for the weekend, you may need a business policy for your Crafter or you may need a personal Comprehensive policy for your brand new California.
Whatever type of VW van insurance you need, The Van Insurer can help.
We compare Volkswagen van insurance quotes from some of the UK's leading insurance brokers and providers, helping you get some of the cheapest quotes around.
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Volkswagen is a big brand with a big reputation but it's always nice to know what real VW owners think about the brand.
And that's exactly why The Van Insurer has collected honest Volkswagen user reviews from real VW drivers.
These reviews give extra insight into what VW vans are like to live, work and play with everyday.
What's more, we've broken our Volkswagen user ratings down into a number of different categories so you can find out whether a VW van is value for money, practical and cheap to run.
Great van drives well. This is my third t5, the last two were the 130 2.5 engine, this van is the 140 but only has the 2.0 engine, its not as good as the older engine. Great van drives well. This is my third t5, the last two were the 130 2.5 engine, this van is the 140 but only has the 2.0 engine, its not as good as the older engine.
I've owned a number of vans over the years and would rate my VW Transporter as the best. Drives like a car, great fuel economy for a van, even round town. Not had it long... I've owned a number of vans over the years and would rate my VW Transporter as the best. Drives like a car, great fuel economy for a van, even round town. Not had it long enough to comment on running costs but everything seems well put together so not worrying about future MOT's and as I've said fuel economy is better than expected. Masses of accessories available for VW's from roof racks to interior racking and at reasonable prices online. Can't fault this vehicle, would recommend to anyone.


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This 3 bedroom, 3 bath townhome has been totally renovated. First floor renovations include new paint & trim, stone fireplace, new flooring, remodeled kitchen, Craftmaid cabinets, GE Monogram Refrigerator, granite countertop on bar and custom shelving & drawers to closet. Second floor renovations include new paint & trim, remodeled master bath, new tile, new fixtures, new granite countertop. Added new dressing area/coffee bar off master with new cabinets and granite countertops. New master walk-in closet with custom shelving/drawers. Added new walk-in closet for 2nd bedroom. Created study area at top of stairs. Storage building (4x12) was added to backyard, 8' privacy fence, new pavers completed covered and backyard living area. Front courtyard covered with pavers. Must see! to appreciate. Added square footage and all the new renovations make this Town House a One of a Kind.. Beautiful new rear yard is awesome and welcomes you there as soon as you open the door..


Ken's userid on the forum is KWKloeber.
Ken's userid on the wiki is Kloebereng. Not the same credentials.
You might want to check out some of these facts before yelling at people.
Point of info, KWKloeber is my "display name" (both forum and wiki) not my usernames.
I started this explanation earlier but crossed wires with Stu's, so deferred to him.
When I registered for the C34 wiki (too long ago), I SWEAR it was a separate sign up and separate credentials.
I emailed David to verify that, and if so, to reinstate the "Create Account" link.
Caveat - I may be all wet on the above. I CRS anymore!!!
ok, maybe the "create account" script is screwed up, or create account got locked for only administrators.
It seems like with every mediawiki update comes some snafu(s). Usually, it's the photo auto-resizing add-on extension.
David will figure it out.
Please let me know when you've figured this out. I clearly cannot log on with my credentials, even though I've followed them exactly. The screenshots pretty much tell it all. Since there's never been a change to the process, then something must have broken in the back end. Meanwhile, I'm sitting on some nice contributions that should go into the wiki.
When I change my Forum sign-on password, it doesn't affect my Wiki sign-on. And vice-versa. They are independent.
Please stop with credentials and all that unnecessary complication.
3. Top of page click on Log In or Edit if your computer saved your un & pw. Un & pw are the same as those you use for this forum.
Please let us know if you have any issues with this procedure.
Breakin Away: I understand your frustration. I have contacted our webmaster and asked him to look into your posts here about this issue you're having.
Just as a followup, I logged out of the wiki and just successfully logged back in following those instructions. It does work.
Question. Has any member done a FIRST TIME wiki sign up recently (2018) and what process did you use?
Breaking is spot on, sumptin AINT workin.
BA, just verifying - Is BA your forum sign in, or is BA a display name?
Stu, I replied by email.
(why do SoftWare/browser script writers ALWAYS try to confuse? Why SIGN out but LOG in? Can't they think linearly??? simple - log out/log in. Sign out/sign in?).
My profile says Breakin Away is both display and sign in.
Your experiment with changing your password is a huge red flag that the credentials are no longer connected to each other. Credentials seem to be the same for legacy users merely because they haven't changed them.
All you guys need to do to replicate this is log out and create a new (temporary) userid for yourselves. Then I suspect you'll have the same problem. If not, the problem may be unique to me.
Breakin Away I just added your link from page 4 of this thread to the WIKI as you requested. At least I attempted to.
The WIKI will have to process its daily refresh before it shows up.
Dave Sanner, our superb webmaster, reports that his extensive digging indicates a linking code issue.
> Once logged into to the BBS the wiki should pull in your account info.


A great Par 4 from all tees, and the start of a stretch of tough holes. Your drive is best hit up the left-centre through the saddle to use the slopes on the greenside. Tee shots to the right may find heavy rough. The approach is to a mainly flat green, that slopes off to the right. Walking away with Par is a great result.


Are you in the mood for a fluffy, moist and healthy banana bread that'll fill the kitchen with the most delicious aroma? If not, then you will be in a few minutes. And no need to feel guilty after a slice, because we've tailored this recipe to be as healthy as can be. This is a classic case of "having your cake and eating it too"!
Somehow, we always end up with a few very ripe (black) bananas sitting in our fruit basket. Those that wouldn't survive a trip to work in our bag make the perfect candidates for smoothies or baking. So that's what we did – we baked them into an irresistible loaf that's perfect for dessert and breakfast.
This healthy banana bread recipe requires just one bowl, some basic ingredients, and a couple of measuring cups. So it's mess-free and hassle-free with minimal washing up!
Why this banana bread recipe is healthy?
Unlike traditional banana bread recipes that call for refined flour, this formula uses whole wheat flour. Whole wheat means that the bran (the grain husk) remains in the flour after milling, which provides you with a whole lot of fiber. The amount of minerals and B vitamins present in whole wheat is also impressive compared to white flour. It's just generally nutrient-rich, with niacin, folate, thiamin as well as iron, zinc, manganese, and magnesium.
Whereas a typical recipe would be made with processed, white sugar, this healthy banana bread is naturally sweetened with dates. Dates work perfectly in place of empty-calorie sugar because they're densely sweet but also offer an array of nutrients. Apart from satisfying your sweet tooth, dates are high in fiber plus essential nutrients like vitamin B6, iron and potassium. All of which contribute towards keeping you full for longer and helping you build muscle. If that wasn't enough, dates are higher than most fruit and veg in polyphenol, an antioxidant that has been known to regulate inflammation. To get the most out of its nutrients, enjoy the fruit during fall and winter when it's at its freshest. Just be mindful not to overdo it, as with anything else.
Give our healthy bread recipe a go!
Lastly, while most banana bread recipes call for copious amounts of butter, we decided to replace it with a reasonable amount of good-for-you coconut oil. You may be thinking that coconut oil is high in saturated fat, but it's a healthy saturated fat that has a different effect than most other types of fat out there. It can provide your brain and body with instant energy, which in turn boosts fat-burning – this is why coconut oil is popular in the keto diet. Coconut oil can also raise the good cholesterol in your blood, which is associated with lower risk of heart disease. Try to select the cold-pressed version wherever you can, it's usually the purest and therefore healthiest production method.
Now that you know about the goodness that's about to happen inside your belly, you're all set to give this healthy banana bread recipe a go. The recipe is for one loaf, which yields about 10 servings (depending on how generous you are with the portions).
Preheat oven to 325°F and grease a 5×9" loaf tin.
In a large bowl, whisk the dates with the coconut oil. Add the eggs and beat well, before adding the mashed bananas and milk.
Then, add the cinnamon, vanilla extract, baking soda, and salt to the bowl and whisk to blend. As the last ingredient, use a big spoon to stir in the flour until well combined. Don't worry if your mixture isn't completely smooth.
Gently pour the batter into your loaf tin, and sprinkle half of the cinnamon over it. Feel free to get creative and swirl in some patterns with a knife.
Put in the oven and bake for around 55 minutes. To check if it's done, insert a toothpick into the center of the loaf. If it comes out clean, it's done – if not, put it back in. When it's cooked through, remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, then remove the banana bread from the tin and let cool for a further 20 minutes before you dig in.
Once you've perfected the basic banana bread recipe, don't hesitate to change it up and make it your own, especially if you have any diet restrictions or are just feeling curious. All you need are a few minor tweaks to make this recipe into something totally new.
In step three of the recipe, try folding some chopped nuts like walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts into the batter. You can also throw in some dark chocolate chips, or any dried fruit you're in the mood for, and still keep it a healthy banana bread recipe. Raisins would work well, as well as dried cherries or even fresh banana slices. You can also play around with the spices – we added cinnamon to this loaf, but you can experiment with cardamom or nutmeg.
If you're following a plant-based diet, can't handle eggs or would simply rather bake without them, you can replace them with flax seeds. You'll need one tablespoon of them mixed with three tablespoons of water to replace one egg. Chia seeds or silken tofu would also do the job as a binder in this recipe. In terms of milk, choose from your favorite non-dairy alternatives, like almond, cashew, coconut or oat. Or simply go for water.
If you're keen to cut back on sugar, that's no problem, simply leave the dates out from the recipe and make it an even more healthy banana bread. Just make sure you use very ripe bananas in your batter. If your bananas aren't quite as ripe as you'd like them to be, here's a trick to get them there: place the bananas, with the peel on, on a lined baking tray, then bake them in the oven at 300°F for about 15 minutes.
Although we think that this bread contains just the right amount of healthy fat, you're free to replace the oil with applesauce if you want a lower-fat version.
Whole wheat flour may not be your thing, but that's fine because you can use any other type of flour (apart from coconut flour because of it's super-fine texture) in equal amounts. You can try baking with spelt flour, for example, it usually works well in place of the regular whole wheat flour.
If you've gotten this far, we'll take it you're into baking. If that's the case, you'll probably want some more healthy baking recipes to add to your repertoire. Add your details here, and you'll get access to our in-house nutritionists' prized recipes – yummy ones like Almond Muffins, 4-Ingredient Protein Brownies and also Quick Carrot Cake Cookies — plus, all the ones you see in our Great British Bake Off piece.


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How many times, on reading my blog, a book, or watching some video of mine over these many years (the first article I remember writing that was publicly available, many years ago, was the EIGRP white paper on Cisco Online, somewhere in 1997), have you thought—here is an engineer who has it all together, who knows technology in depth and breadth, and who symbolizes everything I think an engineer should be? And yet, how many times have you faced that feeling of self-doubt we call impostor synddome?
I am going to let you in on a little secret. I'm an impostor, too. After all these years, I still feel like I am going to be speaking in front of a crowd, explaining something at a meeting, I am going to hit publish on something, and the entire world is going to "see through the charade," and realize I'm not all that good of an engineer. That I am an ordinary person, just doing ordinary things.
While I often think about these things, what has led me down the path of thinking about them this week is some reading I've been doing for a PhD seminar about human nature, work and leisure. Another part of the reason is that I have been struggling recently with some specific things at work. And, finally, another part of the reason is that I ran into a terrific post over at The Humble Lab on the topic of the impostor syndrome.
Some of this will be in agreement, and echoing, what I've read in other places. Other parts of this will be unique to my worldview (worldview warning here, for those too delicate to read things from a different perspective). Yes, this is going to be an honest post. Yes, this is going to be a long post.
Why do I feel like an impostor? For me, it is often fear. I think this is probably true of most people, if we are to be honest with ourselves.
I know many people who are afraid of public speaking. When talking to them in depth about this, what I normally find is a fear of failure. Some people who don't get a degree or certification are hindered by a fear of failure. There are two kinds of fear of failure, I find: looking foolish in front of others, and losing control. I used to be able to climb tall towers without clips, and without fear. I could monkey the side of the RADAR tower at McGuire, 90 feet tall, and walk around on the top platform knocking wooden blocks out of their stays with a sledge. I could shimmy a 30 foot pole to reach the wind bird. I would struggle in doing those things now; I think more about what I cannot control.
So part of what drives the impostor syndrome is these two kinds of fear: fear of failure, and fear of losing control. Both of these tend to manifest themselves in another fear: the fear of missing out.
What can we do to address these fears? One answer I often hear is "man up and deal with it." In other words, just address your fears, and get over them. There is some truth in this answer. Sometimes this is really what is necessary. My daughters have a hedgehog; this is one scared little animal. The only way the little hedgie is going to learn that it's okay is to be placed in traumatic situations, and for nothing to happen. Sometimes we are hedgehogs, and our nails just need to be trimmed for our own good.
Sometimes you just have to deal with fear and keep going. Sometimes you are going to fail. It's okay to fail.
The point is, it's what you do with that failure that defines you—not the fact that you failed at all. We need to drive a culture that encourages people to learn from failure, and grow from it.
But there is a danger in this answer, as well—that we will take this as the only answer. That whenever we face something we fear, or some obstacle, we will say to ourselves, "you can do anything you set your mind to, if you just try hard enough." Or even "you can use every failure to learn something," which implies that if you don't learn from a failure, you are… a failure. The danger here is when stated absolutely, this is a lie. You cannot do anything you want to if you just set your mind to it. I cannot be a great baseball player, ice skater, or Olympic swimmer. I simply do not have the bodily attributes to do such things. And no amount of failure, with the attendant learning, is going to make me any of those things. Sometimes what you need to learn is I cannot do this.
This leads to a second answer to the impostor syndrome: learn to live in your limits There is a difference between pushing yourself to achieve something and pushing yourself too hard. I cannot tell you how to know the difference, because I think it is different for every person, but I know there are times in my life when I have pushed too hard. The more you realize that everyone has limits, the less limited you will be by your own limits.
You can only know what is at your layer, and a little above and below. The rest is rumor and pop psychology.
We work on complex systems. When I was in tech school in the USAF, we had one classroom where all the circuit diagrams for the AN/FRPS-77 RADAR system had been pieced together into one large diagram on the wall. This is before the days of the computer being common, of course, so everything was on paper. Folks from other career fields would borrow that room from time to time, and that set of patched together diagrams always gave them a start. Yes, a RADAR system is complex. But the systems I deal with now, networks and their environment, are far more complex. I can describe the intersection topological aggregation and summarization, virtualization, and protocol stacks, but there is no way I could draw it.
The reality is I cannot know it all. And that means there will be many times when I push a button, thinking it will do one thing, and it will actually do another. In other words, I will fail. Not because I intended to fail, but simply because I do not have all the knowledge in the world.
Not knowing does not make me a bad person, or a bad engineer; it just makes me human. It is okay to be human, and it is okay to fail because I don't know everything.
Another answer to the impostor syndrome is to learn more. This is in tension with the second point, I know, but it is still an important point. Just like being afraid does not let you off the hook of dealing with hard situations, accepting that you cannot know everything does not let you off the hook of learning new things. There is a technique to learning, of course, but I have talked about this enough in other places (here, for instance), and this post is already too long.
Intentionally learn to counter your fears.
Finally, there is something else that needs to be said here: perhaps the best guard against impostor syndrome is to live and work in a community. Not a community of competitors, or a community of followers, but rather just a community. This means you need to stop trying to compete with everyone around you, and it means you need to stop treating everyone around you as competitors. It means not thinking I am better than another person because I know more, or I have done more. It means opening up about my fears with that community, and not being afraid to ask for help when I don't know. It means accepting that I am never the smartest person in the room.
Intentionally build, and be a part of, a community. It's okay to fail in front of other people.


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Bitcoin Exchange Mt. Gox Files for Bankruptcy After Losing Nearly $500M
By Matt EganFOXBusiness
In one of the biggest heists in history, Mt. Gox confirmed on Friday it lost nearly $500 million of Bitcoin due to a "system weakness," forcing the former leading exchange to file for bankruptcy protection in Tokyo.
The filing appears to confirm the worst fears about the fate of Mt. Gox and raises questions about the ability of the decentralized, unregulated currency to head off regulation. Authorities in the U.S. and Japan are already swirling around Mt. Gox, with federal prosecutors and the FBI reportedly probing for possible criminal activity.
"This is now the biggest bank heist in history. There were movies and books that arose from the Great Train Robbery in 1963. Expect the same for this drama," said Cam Harvey, a Duke University professor who teaches about crypto currencies.
According to various media reports, Bitcoin CEO Mark Karpeles told reporters in Japan that his company has filed for bankruptcy protection in Tokyo after losing 750,000 Bitcoins held by clients due to a "system weakness."
'Very Sorry'
The exchange said it lost an additional 100,000 Bitcoin it owned as well as 2.8 billion yen ($27.5 million) worth of cash due to improper access to its system. The combined 850,000 of lost Bitcoin equals about $480 million at the currency's current price. It also represents around 7% of the estimated global total of the crypto currency.
"First of all, I'm very sorry," Karpeles told reporters. "The Bitcoin industry is healthy and it is growing. It will continue, and reducing the impact is the most important point."
"This is the risk you take when you invest really early in a new currency and technology."
- Moshe Cohen of Columbia Business School
Mt. Gox filed for a type of bankruptcy that protects it from creditors and gives time to find a potential buyer rather than to liquidate. That suggests the exchange has a plan to survive.
However, Harvey said recovery of the lost Bitcoins "is a long shot" because the giant ledger, known as blockchain, that contains all transactions is "cryptologically sealed and it is impossible to figure out" who conducted the transactions or even where they took place.
"If you are smart enough to pull off the greatest hack in all of history, you will probably cover your tracks," said Harvey.
Bitcoin Prices Hold Steady
Mt. Gox is only one of several exchanges that users buy and sell Bitcoin on. Some observers believe the problems suffered by Mt. Gox are not systemic to the currency overall, though they do point to the downside of not having a safety net to protect customers.
Despite the Mt. Gox bankruptcy, the value of Bitcoin dropped just 1.99% to $571.37 in recent trading on Bitstamp, another leading exchange. However, that represents a steep drop of about 50% from highs north of $1,100 in early December.
Mt. Gox said its outstanding debt is 6.5 billion yen and its liabilities exceed assets by 2.66 billion yen. The exchange is listing about 127,000 people as creditors in its bankruptcy and said just 0.8% of the creditors are Japanese.
It's not clear precisely how Mt. Gox lost the Bitcoin, but a lawyer representing the exchange said they may have been withdrawn through the system. The lawyer admitted the exchange doesn't exactly know the circumstances of the situation.
Mt. Gox said it will cooperate with Japanese authorities investigating what happened. The exchange said it opted for a transparent procedure due to the public outcry sparked by the company's downfall.
"This is the risk you take when you invest really early in a new currency and technology. It's not surprising but it is absolutely unfortunate," said Moshe Cohen, a professor at Columbia Business School.
Meanwhile, a Mt. Gox customer filed suit on Thursday against Mt. Gox and Karpeles, claiming they were negligent and committed fraud for failing to protect the exchange from theft, Reuters reported.
The customer, Gregory Greene, said Mt. Gox "intentionally and knowingly failed to provide its users with the level of security for which they paid," Reuters reported. The lawsuit by Greene, who estimated his Bitcoin stake at $25,000, seeks class action status on behalf of Mt. Gox users as well as restitution and monetary damages.


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Daily Sports Roundup: July 23
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Today in the Daily Sports Roundup: The Rays look for a victory over the Tribe in Cleveland, the Mets battle the Dodgers in Los Angeles, and the CFL continues Week 4.
Meeting up on the diamond . . .
The American League schedule for Friday has Minnesota at Baltimore, Toronto at Detroit, Kansas City at the Yankees, the Angels at Texas, the White Sox at Oakland, Boston at Seattle, and Tampa Bay at Cleveland. Jeff Niemann (8-2, 2.92 ERA) will get the ball for the Rays in that last matchup, while the Indians counter with Fausto Carmona (9-7, 3.65 ERA). Righthander Niemann faced Cleveland in his July 11 start, surrendering three runs on six hits in five innings of work in a no-decision. Righthander Carmona pitched against Tampa Bay back on July 9, earning the victory after giving up just two runs on five hits over 6 2-3 innings of work. Carmona fanned four in that contest.
Meanwhile, the National League schedule for Friday has St. Louis at the Cubs, San Diego at Pittsburgh, Atlanta at Florida, Cincinnati at Houston, Washington at Milwaukee, San Francisco at Arizona, Colorado at Philadelphia, and the Mets at the Dodgers. New York will go with Johan Santana (7-5, 2.87 ERA) on Friday, while Vicente Padilla (4-2, 3.65 ERA) gets the ball for Los Angeles. Lefthander Santana faced the Giants in his most recent outing, settling for a no-decision after allowing just one run on eight hits over his eight innings pitched. Righthander Padilla also pitched well in a no-decision last time out, holding the Cardinals scoreless on just one hit in six innings of work that game.
Rounding out the Roundup . . .
The Canadian Football League offers up one Week 4 matchup on Friday night, with British Columbia at Toronto. The Lions (1-2 SU, 2-1 ATS) have lost two straight games, and they were beaten 16-12 at home by Montreal in their Week 3 contest. Casey Printers had 253 yards passing for B.C. in that game. The Argonauts (2-1 SU, 2-1 ATS) have won two games in a row, getting past Calgary 27-24 at home last week. Oddsmakers have Toronto as a 2-point underdog for Friday, with the total at 47.5 points.
Finally, there's one game on the WNBA schedule for Friday, with New York at Chicago. The Liberty (10-10 SU, 9-10-1 ATS) beat Connecticut 82-74 in overtime on the road last time out; Cappie Pondexter picked up 24 points and six assists for New York in that contest. The Sky (11-11 SU, 14-8 ATS) have won three games in a row, topping Washington 61-59 on the road in their last contest. Sylvia Fowles picked up 13 points to go along with 11 boards for Chicago in that game, while Dominique Canty had 11 points.
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