text:
- Research
- Open Access
Group lassoing change-points in piecewise-constant AR processes
- Daniele Angelosante1Email author and
- Georgios B Giannakis2
© Angelosante and Giannakis; licensee Springer. 2012
- Received: 31 October 2011
- Accepted: 21 March 2012
- Published: 21 March 2012
Regularizing the least-squares criterion with the total number of coefficient changes, it is possible to estimate time-varying (TV) autoregressive (AR) models with piecewise-constant coefficients. Such models emerge in various applications including speech segmentation, biomedical signal processing, and geophysics. To cope with the inherent lack of continuity and the high computational burden when dealing with high-dimensional data sets, this article introduces a convex regularization approach enabling efficient and continuous estimation of TV-AR models. To this end, the problem is cast as a sparse regression one with grouped variables, and is solved by resorting to the group least-absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso). The fresh look advocated here permeates benefits from advances in variable selection and compressive sampling to signal segmentation. An efficient block-coordinate descent algorithm is developed to implement the novel segmentation method. Issues regarding regularization and uniqueness of the solution are also discussed. Finally, an alternative segmentation technique is introduced to improve the detection of change instants. Numerical tests using synthetic and real data corroborate the merits of the developed segmentation techniques in identifying piecewise-constant TV-AR models.
- Change Point
- Lasso
- Full Column Rank
- Convex Relaxation
- Group Lasso
1. Introduction
Autoregressive (AR) models have been the workhorse for parametric spectral estimation since they form a dense set in the class of continuous spectra and, in many cases, they approximate parsimoniously the spectrum of a given random process [1], Chap. 3]. These are among the main reasons why AR models have been widely adopted in various applications as diverse as speech modeling [2–5], electroencephalogram (EEG) signal analysis [6], and geophysics [7]. While AR modeling of stationary random processes is well appreciated, a number of signals encountered in real life are non-stationary. This justifies the growing interest toward non-stationary signal analysis and time-varying (TV) AR models, which arise naturally in speech analysis due to the changing shape of the vocal tract as well as in EEG signal analysis due to the changes in the electrical activity of neurons. If the TV-AR coefficient trajectories can be well approximated by superimposing a small number of basis sequences, non-stationary modeling reduces to estimating via, e.g., least-squares (LS), the basis expansion coefficients [7]. On the other hand, it has been well-documented that piecewise-constant AR systems excited by white Gaussian noise are capable of modeling real-world signals such as speech and EEG [6–8]. Piecewise-constant AR models constitute a subset of TV-AR models wherein AR coefficients change abruptly. In this case, basis expansion techniques fall short in estimating the change points [8].
Exploiting the piecewise constancy of TV-AR models, several methods are available to detect the changing instants of the AR coefficients, and thus facilitate what is often referred to as signal segmentation. The literature on signal segmentation is large since the topic is of interest in signal processing, applied statistics, and several other branches of science and engineering. Recent advances can be mainly divided in two categories. The first class adopts regularized LS criteria in order to impose piecewise-constant AR coefficients. To avoid "oversegmentation," the LS cost is typically regularized with the total number of changes [6]. The resulting estimator can be implemented via dynamic programming (DP), which incurs computational burden that scales quadratically with the signal dimension. For large data sets, such as those considered in speech processing, this burden refrains practitioners from applying DP to segmentation, and heuristics are pursued instead based on the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT), or, approximations of the maximum likelihood approach [2], [[7], p. 401], [9]. The second class of methods relies on Bayesian inference and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods [3–5]. A distinct advantage of this class is that model order selection can be performed automatically, and a variable model order can be chosen per segment. However, Bayesian techniques are known to require large computational resources.
The algorithm for change detection of piecewise-constant AR models developed in this article belongs to the first class of methods, and its first novelty consists in developing a new regularization function which encourages piecewise-constant TV-AR coefficients while being convex and continuous; hence, it can afford efficient convex optimization solvers. To this end, it is shown that the segmentation problem can be recast as a sparse regression problem. The regularization function in [6] is then relaxed with its tightest convex approximation. It turns out that the resultant change detector is a modification of the group least-absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) [10].
With the emphasis placed on large data sets, a candidate algorithm for implementing the developed change detector is a block-coordinate descent iteration, which is provably convergent to the group Lasso solution. Surprisingly, it turns out that each iteration of the block-coordinate descent can be implemented at complexity that scales linearly with the signal dimension, thus encouraging its application to large data sets. Regularization tuning and uniqueness of the group Lasso solution are also discussed.
The second novelty of the present study is an alternative change-point retrieval algorithm based on the smoothly-clipped absolute deviation (SCAD) regularization. The associated non-convex problem is tackled by resorting to a local linear approximation (LLA), which yields iterated weighted group Lasso minimization problems that can be solved via block-coordinate descent. Numerical tests using synthetic and real (speech and sound) data are performed to corroborate the capability of the developed algorithms to identify piecewise-constant TV-AR models.
The remainder of the article is structured as follows. Section 2 deals with piecewise-constant TV-AR model estimation preliminaries. In Section 3, the problem at hand is recast as a sparse linear regression, and the novel group Lasso approach is introduced. An efficient block-coordinate descent algorithm is developed in Section 4, while tuning issues and uniqueness of the group Lasso solution are addressed in Section 5. Section 6 introduces a non-convex segmentation method based on the SCAD regularization to enhance the sparsity of the solution, which translates to retrieving more precisely the change instants. Numerical tests are presented in Section 7, and concluding remarks are summarized in Section 8. The Appendix is devoted to technical proofs. Notation: Column vectors (matrices) are denoted using lower-case (upper-case) boldface letters; calligraphic letters are reserved for sets; (·) T stands for transposition, denotes the Gaussian probability density function with mean μ and variance σ2; ⊗ denotes the Kronecker product; 0 L is the L-dimensional column vector with all zeros, and I L is the L-dimensional identity matrix. The ℓ p norm of is defined as .
2. Preliminaries and problem statement
for k = 0,1,..., K, where K denotes the number of abrupt changes in the TV-AR spectrum, and n k the time instant of the k th abrupt change. The interval [n k , nk+1- 1] is referred to as the kth segment. Without loss of generality, n0 = 0 and nK+1- 1 = N.
The goal is to estimate the instants where the given time series {y n } is split into K + 1 (stationary) segments, and also the constant AR coefficients per segment, i.e., . The number of abrupt changes, namely K, is not necessarily known.
2.1. Optimum segmentation of TV-AR processes
From a practical point of view, the minimization in (4) or (6) is challenging since an exhaustive search over all possible sets of change instants has to be performed. However, several techniques based on DP, simulated annealing and interactive conditional model algorithms have been developed to evaluate (4) [6, 16]. Despite the fact that DP approaches solve (4) in polynomial time, the computational complexity is quadratic in N, which limits their applicability to signal segmentation in practice. In typical applications, N can be very large (up to several thousands), and even quadratic complexity cannot be afforded. On the other hand, when applied to real data, the performance of the estimator in (4) is not satisfactory [17].
To overcome these limitations of (4), heuristic approaches based on the GLRT are used in real world applications [[7], p. 401], [9, 18, 19]. However, GLRT-based change detectors are sensitive to modeling errors, and require fine tuning of the associated detection thresholds.
In what follows, a convex relaxation of the cost in (4) is advocated based on recent advances in sparse linear regression and compressive sampling. To this end, (4) is first reformulated to a sparse regression problem with non-convex regularization that is successively relaxed through its tightest convex approximation. The consequent optimization rule will yield sparse vector estimators which result in surprisingly accurate retrieval of change-points. Those are obtained by an efficient block-coordinate descent iteration that incurs only linear computational burden and memory storage. Unlike (4), based on well-established results in statistics, it will be further argued that the resultant TV-AR model estimates are a continuous function of the data.
3. Sparse linear regression and group lassoing
What makes the formulation in (11) attractive but also challenging is the non-convex and discontinuous Schwarz-like regularization term. The latter "pushes" most of the vectors toward 0 L , while d0 is not penalized. As a consequence, the vector is group sparse, and the non-zero group indexes correspond to the change instants of the TV-AR coefficients. Recently, a convex model selector with grouped variables was put forth by [10], and successfully applied to biostatistics and compressive sampling [20]. It generalizes the (non-grouped) least-absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) [21] to regression problems where the unknown vector exhibits sparsity in groups; hence, its name group Lasso. The crux of group Lasso is to relax the Schwarz-like regularization in (11) with its tightest convex approximation.
where λ is a positive tuning parameter. It is known that the group Lasso regularization encourages group sparsity; that is, for most n > 0 [10]. Again, the larger the λ, the sparser the .
Remark 1. Different from Schwarz-like regularization, Figure 1 illustrates that the group Lasso one grows unbounded. This makes the resultant estimator biased. Nevertheless, unlike the Schwarz-like regularization, the group Lasso one is continuous which renders the resulting estimator more stable when applied to real data; see also [10, 22]. A continuous regularization function that reduces the bias of the group Lasso will be discussed in Section 6.
Remark 2. Convex relaxation for detecting changes in the mean of non-stationary processes was recently mentioned in [12], and analyzed in [17]. For the mean-change problem, the tightest convex approximation of the Schwarz-like regularized LS is provided by the Lasso, which can afford efficient solvers such as the least-angle regression (LARS) algorithm [23]. However, for the group Lasso cost proposed here to catch changes in TV-AR models, an exact LARS-like solver is not available [10]; thus, the pursuit of efficient algorithms for solving (12) is well motivated. This is the theme of the ensuing section.
4. Block-coordinate descent solver
Notice that if , the solution of (18) is . Since it is expected that the solution of (12) is sparse, solving (18) is trivial most of the time. If can be obtained via interior point methods or by (numerically) solving the scalar equation in (21), which admits fast solvers via, e.g., Newton-Raphson iterations, as in [25].
The block-coordinate descent algorithm is summarized in Algorithm 1. Interestingly, matrix in (12) does not have to be stored since only and suffice to implement Algorithm 1. Thus, the memory storage and complexity to perform one block-coordinate descent iteration grow linearly with N. This attribute renders the block-coordinate descent appealing especially for large-size problems where DP approaches tend to be too expensive.
Regarding convergence, the ensuing assertion is a direct consequence of the results in [26].
Proposition 1. The iterates obtained by Algorithm 1 converge to the global minimum of (12); that is, .
Block-coordinate descent will also be the basic building block for solving the non-convex problem introduced in Section 6 to improve the retrieval of change-points. But first, it is useful to consider two issues of the group Lasso change detector for TV-AR models.
Initialize with for n = 1, ... , N
for i > 0 do
for n = 0,1,..., N do
if n = 0 then
Algorithm 1: Block-coordinate descent algorithm
5. Regularization and uniqueness issues
Performance of model selection with grouped variables via group Lasso and related approaches has been analyzed in [10, 20, 27], while asymptotic analysis has been pursued in [28, 29]. In this section, a couple of issues are investigated regarding the group Lasso cost function, and the uniqueness of its minimum.
5.1. Tuning the regularization parameter
Selection of λ is a critical issue since larger λ's promote sparser solutions, which translate to fewer changes in the TV-AR spectrum. However, larger λ's increase the estimator bias as well. If the number of changes present are known a priori by other means, or, if a certain level of segmentation can be afforded, λ can be tuned accordingly by 'trial and error,' or by cross-validation. But in general, analytic methods to automatically choose the "best" value of λ are not available. In essence, selecting the regularization parameters is more a matter of engineering art, rather than systematic science.
In this section, heuristic but useful guidelines are provided to choose λ based on rigorously established lower bounds of this parameter. Given in (10), define such that X = [X0, X1,..., X N ]. To bound λ, we will rely on the following result; see Appendix 1 for the proof.
Proposition 2. If X0has full column rank, thenwith, if and only if
If λ exceeds a threshold, which is specified by the regression matrix and the observations, Proposition 2 asserts that and for n = 1,..., N. This, along with (9), implies that for n = 0, 1,..., N; that is, no change occurs in the coefficients of the TV-AR process. To avoid this trivial (change-free) solution, the guideline provided by Proposition 2 is that λ must be chosen strictly less than λ*. Our extensive simulations suggest that setting λ equal to a small percentage of λ*, say 5-20%, results in satisfactory estimates.
5.2. Uniqueness of the sparse solution
Uniqueness of sparse linear regression with non-grouped variables has been studied in [30–32]. Next, uniqueness issues in recovering sparse vectors with group-variables are explored by exploiting the deterministic structure of the regression matrix in (12). The cost function in (12) is not strictly convex since X is a fat matrix, and the regularization term is not strictly convex; see also Figure 1. On the other hand, the block-coordinate descent algorithm developed in Section 4 is guaranteed to converge to a global minimum. In the following, a criterion is introduced to check a posteriori whether the obtained solution is unique for a given group-sparsity level.
Traditionally, the support of a sparse vector is defined as the set of indexes corresponding to the non-zero entries. In the group-sparsity framework herein, a different definition of support is required. Indeed, the vector of interest here, namely comprises N + 1 groups of L-dimensional variables. Since the term d0 is not penalized in (12), almost surely. Define the group support (g-support) of to be the set containing the indexes relative to the nonzero group of variables; that is, In the following, when denotes the g-support of d, the set is assumed ordered; i.e., s j < s k for each j < k.
The following lemma establishes a property of the matrix X in (10); see Appendix 2 for the proof.
Lemma 1. If any L out of N + 1 vectorsare linearly independent, for any g-supportsuch that, and |s j - s k | ≥ L for each j ≠ k, the matrixhas full column rank.
Lemma 1 asserts full column rank of the submatrix , if it is formed by the columns of X corresponding to the non-zero indexes of any sparse vector whose g-support is sufficiently small, and the non-zero groups are sufficiently distant from each other.
Next, Lemma 1 is exploited to establish an interesting property for the solutions of (12); see Appendix 3 for the proof.
Proposition 3. If any L out of N+1 vectorsare linearly independent, for any g-supportsuch that, and |s j - s k | ≥ L for each j ≠ k, there exists at most one solution of (12) g-supported in .
Proposition 3 ensures that if is g-supported in , and is sufficiently sparse with non-zero groups sufficiently far apart, then is the only solution of (12) g-supported in .
Remark 3. Analysis of the group Lasso and its modifications has revealed that its performance can be close to the Schwarz-regularized LS either when the regression matrix is sufficiently block incoherent, or, when the block restricted isometry property holds [10, 27]. If the regression matrix can be chosen by the designer, and it is randomly drawn from selected distributions (e.g., Gaussian or Bernoulli), these analyzes provide useful connections between problems (11) and (12). In the problem at hand however, the regression matrix is fixed, and its blocks [X0, X1,..., X N ] are highly correlated. In this case, the relationship between the solutions of (11) and (12) is much less understood, and constitutes an interesting future research direction.
6. Continuity, bias and the group SCAD
As already pointed out, convex relaxation of the Schwarz-like regularization was developed in [12, 17] for the mean-change problem using the (non-grouped) Lasso. Numerical results in [17] reveal that the Lasso tends to detect a "cloud" of small change points around an actual change. Post-processing via DP to select a few of the estimated change instants was proposed in [17]. Moreover, due to the bias introduced by the Lasso, once the change points are obtained, another step is required to re-estimate the mean within a segment. In the following, a novel change detector is developed based on recent advances in model selection via non-convex regularization. The resulting estimator reduces the bias of group Lasso and can afford a convergent optimization solver. The corresponding algorithm is based on iterative instantiations of weighted group Lasso, which is capable of enhancing the sparsity of the solution [33, 34], and thus improving the precision of the detected change points.
Attributes of a "good" regularization function are delineated in [22], and three properties are identified to this end:
Unbiasedness. The estimator has to be unbiased when the true unknown parameter has large amplitude.
Sparsity. The estimator has to set small-amplitude coefficients to zero to reduce the number of variables.
Continuity. The estimator has to be continuous in the data to avoid instability when estimating (non-)zero variables.
The data dependence of is depicted in Figure 2c for λ = 2 and a = 3.7. Observe that the SCAD enjoys the three aforementioned attributes of a desirable regularization function.
Remark 4. In principle, one could also apply a block-coordinate descent iteration to minimize (34) directly. The resulting iterates converge to a local minimum of (34) that depends on the starting points; see also [26]. In general, it is impossible to assess properties of this solution. Instead, the solution of the LLA in (37) has provable merits in estimating the true support of sparse signals [34].
Remark 5. Recently, greedy algorithms such as the matching pursuit and the orthogonal matching pursuit have been shown to approach the performance of (11) and (12) when the regression matrix is sufficiently block incoherent, or, when the block restricted isometry property holds [27]. In the problem at hand, wherein the regression matrix exhibits correlation among blocks, simulated tests have shown that greedy algorithms suffer from severe error propagation. In fact, a cloud of change points is typically declared around a true change point. For these reasons, greedy algorithms will not be considered hereafter.
The cost function in (38) is convex and effects a piecewise-constant and sparse TV-AR model. It is different from model order selection criteria in the sense that the selected non-zero AR coefficients do not necessarily have to be consecutive. A challenge associated with the optimization in (38) is that block-coordinate descent algorithms do not converge, since the differentiable part is not separable group-wise [26]. The cost function in (38) resembles the fused Lasso developed in [35]. Efficient algorithms exploiting this link, and the structure of the problem at hand are currently under investigation.
7. Simulated tests
The merits of the novel approaches to catching change-points in TV-AR processes are assessed via numerical simulations using synthetic and real data.
7.1. Synthetic data
7.2. Real data: piano sound
7.3. Real data: speech
Change instants detected by the group SCAD and GLR algorithm
Group SCAD
The first change detected by the GLR is at sample 445, while this change is not detected by the group SCAD. Interestingly, it is reported in [3] that this change is not relevant for segmentation purposes, and this fact is apparent by inspection of the true signal. Both algorithms have detected changes around samples 1750, 2100, 2800, and 3650. The group SCAD successfully removed the false change detected by the GLR at sample 3400. By inspecting the original signal, this change does not seem to be relevant. The group SCAD had detected a change instant around sample 1300 unlike the GLR. This change is also detected by advanced Bayesian techniques reported in [3–5]. The group SCAD has detected a change at sample 779, while the GLR at sample 645. Indeed, inspection of the original signal suggests that the detection of the GLR is preferable. Surprisingly, the group SCAD, unlike the GLR and the Bayesian techniques of [3–5], has detected a change at sample 2359. Observing the original signal around this point, there is a clear amplitude modulation that may cause a change in the TV-AR coefficients, which existing algorithms have passed undetected.
A way to univocally compare the two algorithms is via the segmented prediction error (SPE). Assuming that K changes have been detected at instants , let denotes the LS estimates of the AR model in the k th segment, i.e., . The SPE is defined as , and represents the error in approximating the original signal {y n } with a TV-AR model exhibiting abrupt changes at instants . The GLR segmentation entails SPEglr = 0.2638, while SPEg-scad = 0.2578 for the group SCAD. Clearly, the group SCAD based segmentation seems preferable to that of the GLR algorithm.
8. Concluding remarks
Novel estimators were developed in this article for identification of piecewise-constant TV-AR models by exploiting recent advances in variable selection and compressive sampling. While traditional techniques consist in regularizing a LS criterion with the total number of coefficient changes, the novel estimator relies on a convex regularization function, which resembles the group Lasso and can afford efficient implementation using block-coordinate descent iterations. The latter incurs computational burden that scales linearly with the number of data samples, thus being particularly attractive for large-size problems. Regularization tuning issues are discussed along with conditions for uniqueness of the estimated piecewise-constant AR model. An alternative group smoothly-clipped absolute deviation regularization is also introduced, and an algorithm based on iterative weighted group Lasso minimizations is developed. Numerical tests using synthetic and real data confirm that the developed algorithms can effectively identify piecewise-constant AR models of large size at manageable complexity, and outperform heuristic alternatives that are based on the GLRT.
Appendix 1: proof of proposition 2
- (c1)
w0 = 0 l ; and,
- (c2)
The change-free solution corresponds to having for n = 1,..., N. Thus, (c1) implies that , which is uniquely satisfied by , since X0 has full column rank. Hence, and for n = 1,..., N hold if and only if (c2) is satisfied, which corresponds to ║w n ║2 ≤ λ for n = 1,..., N. Since , condition (c2) is satisfied if and only if .
Appendix 2: proof of lemma 1
Notice that the first sub-sum in (42) comprises rank-1 matrices, the last sub-sum comprises s1 rank-1 matrices, while the g th sub-sum comprises rank-1 matrices for . Since is such that , and |s j - s k | ≥ L for each j ≠ k, and any L out of N + 1 vectors are linearly independent, each of the summands in (42) has rank L. Thus, it is possible to find L linearly independent vectors such that the first sub-sum in (42) equals to with . Analogously, it is possible to find L linearly independent vectors such that the g th sub-sum in (42) can be written as with for . Finally, it is possible to find L linearly independent vectors such that the last sub-sum in (42) can be written as with . Thus, , and since are (| | + 1) linearly independent vectors, has full-column rank.
Appendix 3: proof of proposition 3
From Lemma 1, has full column rank which implies that is strictly convex, and so is . Thus, (43) admits a unique solution.
Since both and are g-supported in by hypothesis, and their restrictions to are equal to û, it follows readily that .
This work was supported by MURI (AFOSR FA9550-10-1-0567) grant.
Authors' Affiliations
- Stoica P, Moses RL: Introduction to Spectral Analysis. Prentice-Hall, New Jersey; 1997.MATHGoogle Scholar
- Djuric PM: A MAP solution to off-line segmentation of signals. In Proc of the International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. Volume 4. Adelaide, Australia; 1994:505-508.Google Scholar
- Dobigeon N, Tourneret J-Y, Davy M: Joint segmentation of piecewise constant autoregressive processes by using a hierarchical model and a Bayesian sampling approach. IEEE Trans Signal Process 2007, 55(4):1251-1263.MathSciNetView ArticleGoogle Scholar
- Fearnhead P: Exact Bayesian curve fitting and signal segmentation. IEEE Trans Signal Process 2005, 53(6):2160-2166.MathSciNetView ArticleGoogle Scholar
- Punskaya E, Andrieu C, Doucet A, Fitzgerald WJ: Bayesian curve fitting using MCMC with applications to signal segmentation. IEEE Trans Signal Process 2002, 50(3):747-758.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
- Lavielle M: Optimal segmentation of random processes. IEEE Trans Signal Process 1998, 46(5):1365-1373.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
- Basseville M, Nikiforov IV: Detection of Abrupt Changes: Theory and Application. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA; 1993.Google Scholar
- Hall MG, Oppenheim AV, Willsky AS: Time-varying parametric modeling of speech. Signal Process 1983, 5(3):267-285.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
- Rudoy D, Quatieri TF, Wolfe PJ: Time-varying autoregressive tests for multiscale speech analysis. In Proceedings of Interspeech. Volume 1. Brighton, UK; 2009:2839-2842.Google Scholar
- Yuan M, Lin Y: Model selection and estimation in regression with grouped variables. J Royal Stat Soc, Ser B 2006, 68(1):49-67.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Brockwell PJ, Davis RA: Time Series: Theory and Methods. Springer-Verlag, New York, NY, USA; 1990.MATHGoogle Scholar
- Boysen L, Kempe A, Liebscher V, Munk A, Wittich O: Consistencies and rates of convergence of jump-penalized least-squares estimators. Annals Stat 2009, 37(1):157-183.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Lavielle M: Using penalized contrasts for the change-point problem. Signal Process 2005, 85(8):1501-1510.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Lavielle M, Moulines E: Least-squares estimation of an unknown number of shifts in a time series. J Time Series Anal 2000, 21(1):33-59.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Lebarbier E: Detecting multiple change-points in the mean of Gaussian process by model selection. Signal Process 2005, 85(4):717-736.View ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Winkler G, Liebscher V: Smoothers for discontinuous signals, J. Nonparametric Stat 2002, 14(1-2):203-222.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Harchaoui Z, Levy-Leduc C: Catching change-points with Lasso. In Proceedings of the Advanced Neural Information Processes Systems. Volume 20. Vancouver, Canada; 2008:161-168.Google Scholar
- Appel U, Brandt AV: Adaptive sequential segmentation of piecewise stationary time series. Inf Sci 1983, 29(1):27-56.View ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Willsky A, Jones H: A generalized likelihood ratio approach to the detection and estimation of jumps in linear systems. IEEE Trans Autom Control 1976, 21(1):108-112.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Eldar YC, Mishali M: Block sparsity and sampling over a union of subspaces. In Proc of the 16th International Conference on Digital Signal Processing. Volume 1. Santorini, Greece; 2009:1-8.Google Scholar
- Tibshirani R: Regression shrinkage and selection via the Lasso. J Royal Stat Soc Ser B 1996, 58(1):267-288.MathSciNetMATHGoogle Scholar
- Fan J, Li R: Variable selection via nonconcave penalized likelihood and its oracle properties. J Am Stat Assoc 2001, 96: 1348-1360.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Efron B, Hastie T, Johnstone I, Tibshirani R: Least angle regression. Annals Stat 2004, 32: 407-499.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Sturm JF: Using SeDuMi 1.02, a MATLAB toolbox for optimization over symmetric cones. Optim Methods Softw 1999, 11-12: 625-653.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Puig A, Wiesel A, Hero A: A multidimensional shrinkage-thresholding operator. In Proceedings of the 15th Workshop on Statistical Signal Processing. Volume 18. Cardiff, UK; 2009:363-366.Google Scholar
- Tseng P: Convergence of a block coordinate descent method for nondifferentiable minimization. J Optim Theory Appl 2001, 109(3):475-494.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Eldar YC, Kuppinger P, Bölcskei H: Block-sparse signals: Uncertainty relations and efficient recovery. IEEE Trans Signal Process 2010, 58: 3042-3054.MathSciNetView ArticleGoogle Scholar
- Bach FR: Consistency of the group Lasso and multiple kernel learning. J Mach Learn Res 2008, 9: 1179-1225.MathSciNetMATHGoogle Scholar
- Nardi Y, Rinaldo A: On the asymptotic properties of the group Lasso estimator for linear models. Electron J Stat 2008, 2: 605-633.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Fuchs J-J: On sparse representations in arbitrary redundant bases. IEEE Trans. Inf Theory 2004, 50(6):1341-1344.View ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Gorodnitsky I, Rao B: Sparse signal reconstruction from limited data using FOCUSS: a re-weighted minimum norm algorithm. IEEE Trans Signal Process 1997, 45(3):600-616.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
- Tropp J: Just relax: convex programming methods for identifying sparse signals in noise. IEEE Trans Inf Theory 2006, 52(3):1030-1051.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Candes EJ, Wakin MB, Boyd S: Enhancing sparsity by reweighted ℓ1minimization. J Fourier Anal Appl 2008, 14(5):877-905.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Zou H, Li R: One-step sparse estimates in nonconcave penalized likelihood models. Annals Stat 2008, 36: 1509-1533.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Tibshirani R, Saunders M, Rosset S, Zhu J, Knight k: Sparsity and smoothness via the fused Lasso. J Royal Stat Soc Ser B 2005, 67(1):91-108.MathSciNetView ArticleMATHGoogle Scholar
- Ruszczynski A: Nonlinear Optimization. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA; 2006.MATHGoogle Scholar
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


text:
Inspired by images of Hindu Deities I've decided to color Habibi blue like the above baby Krishna. In order to both color the stoneware as well as buff it to the smooth finish I prefer, I am creating Terra sigg , a liquid suspension of very fine particles. The basic recipe I used breaks down to 70%water + 30% dry clay + 0.1-0.3% deflocculent (I used Darvan for deflocculent). To make my math easier I measured 3 lbs dry clay to 7lbs water and used 1.5 oz Darvan. The clay needs to be dry for correct measurment of weight, but I recommend soaking over night after everything is weighed out and been mixed for at least 10min. The following day it will be much easier to blunge the mixture.
Get a book or set up a Video to watch for the next part, Blunging with a large paint mixer bit and an electric drill, should take 30 min to an hour, you want to suspend the smallest possible particles for a better Sigg.
After the mixture has been beaten into small particles it needs to stand undisturbed in glass jars for 2-3 days until the mixture settles out into three layers. I'll post more pictures as the process continues.
Also, I'm sourcing this info from an essay by Anna Ramsburgh who sourced it from Val Cushing's Handbook.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Eliminate all the items on your to-do list by calling the experts at Wertz Home Improvement LLC in Annapolis, Maryland. No matter the size of your job, our experienced professionals will plan, design, construct, and maintain your project from beginning to end. Whether it's a complete home renovation or just putting in new tiling in your bathroom, we can handle it. Our design-build services are comprehensive and will save you time and money with the convenience of having all your construction services done in the same place.
Learn More
Contact us for a free consultation on our home renovation and design-build services.(240) 274-2374
Wertz Home Improvement LLC is a leading provider of renovations, design-build services, roofing, plumbing, and many other services in Annapolis, Maryland. We are dedicated to serving the needs of our customers each and every day. Our founder got his start in this industry as a third generation carpenter. With over 20 years of experience, our previous customers will tell you that we put your home renovation first. We love returning customers and customers that refer us to their friends and families. Wertz Home Improvement LLC is always building relationships with our clients.
We are doing a lot of work for real estate investors, bringing houses up to code. All of the projects that we do are permitted and inspected, and we are an honestly-run company. Wertz Home Improvement has a proven record of excellence in designing and managing several building and renovation projects in Montgomery County, Prince Georges County, Howard County, Anne Arundel County, Greater Baltimore, and the DC Area.
Thank you for your interest. For questions or comments, please use the information listed here. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Service AreaMontgomery County, Prince Georges County, Howard County, Anne Arundel County, Greater Baltimore, and the DC Area
Wertz Home Improvement LLC


text:
ISSUE-3: Mapping Simple Numeric Types with Infinite Value Space http://www.w3.org/2005/06/tracker/databinding/issues/3 Raised by: Paul Downey On product: All Created on behalf of Erik Johnson (Epicor) http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-xsd-databinding/2005Dec/0015.html The xs:integer simple type (which is derived from xs:decimal, BTW) has a value space defined as "the infinite set {...,-2,-1,0,1,2,...}" (see http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/WD-xmlschema-2-20000922/#integer). Most programming language and database implementations have (unsigned) integer value spaces of 0 to some power of 2 minus 1. Some schema processors map xs:integer and derived types like xs:nonNegativeInteger to string types to avoid potential overflow problems. However, many schema users are not aware that many languages/databases cannot consume xs:nonNegativeInteger in the way developers may expect. I think the only sound way to go forward is to ensure that schema processors do not map simple types with an infinite value space to a toolkit construct with a non-infinite value space.Received on Monday, 19 December 2005 22:38:44 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 6 January 2015 19:58:12 UTC


text:
Trying to make various, simultaneous lifestyle changes for a healthier existence sounds just fine and dandy in theory, but I know that it is going to take much more than simply good intentions for me to ultimately achieve my goals.
By now, I've lost about 4 kg/9lbs, and so far, I've been quite good these past few weeks regarding my eating habits (I'd almost say beyond reproach). That was, until yesterday, when I suddenly got a craving for something salty. When it hit me, you'd have thought that I was a recovering junkie, how frantic I became from one minute to the next. After tearing up my kitchen and not finding anything worthy of satisfying my urge, pacing back and forth, after opening and reopening cabinets and the refrigerator, I grabbed my keys off the hook and stormed out of my apartment (in the words of Allen Ginsberg) looking for an angry fix.
I walked (well, half ran) into a local Mom-and-Pop type supermarket and went up and down the aisles, looking for something, anything salt-worthy… Soy sauce? No. Potato chips? Nah. Salted nuts? No, no, NO… that would never do!
The longer I was in the supermarket, the more frustrated I felt. Finally, I grabbed an oversized and overpriced bag of Doritos, and was barely out the door by the time I had already torn the bag open and had orange-stained fingers digging for chip after crunchy chip.
When I reached the bottom of the bag, I did not feel satiated. Nope. Instead, I breathed a irritated sigh of defeat. "Well, as long as I've botched up my diet, I might as well go all out," I thought to myself.
What followed was a considerably sizable binge of the sweet, the starchy, the salty, the fatty… and then the aftermath. Think of it as an emotional hangover, complete with the selective memory loss, the physical sickness, and the incredulous remorse. I'm not certain exactly how much I consumed, but afterwards, I felt nothing short of shame. And then the horrible thought crossed my mind… "Hmm… I *could* just throw this all up and make it all better, like it never happened…"
I physically shuddered, shocked at my thoughts. I stopped in my tracks, stunned by the all too familiar, ultra-sly "demon voice" of temptation and evil. Here it was again, trying to once again seductively lure me back into what I have permanently left behind.
No, I couldn't, I wouldn't let myself. As disappointed in myself as I was, and as ashamed of myself as I was feeling, I still knew underneath it all, despite how desperately I want to be slender again, idealistically beautiful and thin and lovely, that I could not purge. No. I know by now that nothing in the world is worth the price that I would wind up paying if I started down that mother of all slippery slopes again, into another seven years of darkness and self-destruction.
I took a deep breath as I looked down at my body, giving a sharp pinch to the fat rolls on my abdomen (my most hated body part). I sighed again.
This time, I am finally going to get things right. Back on the horse with you, Violet. Where you belong.
"Fall down seven times, get up eight." -Japanese proverb
Share - Start selling on your blog with WordPress WooCommerce plugin - Contact Geometricbox to setup


text:
I've gotten to know an excellent printer in Manhattan, Loupe Digital Studio on East 24th Street. I'm excited to be working with them. They do beautiful giclee printing (for art exhibits, etc.), and I've had very good results with the first couple of jobs they've done for me. Giclee is a fancy term for digital printing, done with pigment-based ink on thick, textural acid-free paper which (properly displayed) will not diminish in color for over a century.
I'm offering three different signed giclee prints from the Birds series I did in December: "Blue Bird", "Minerva's Owl" and "The Pigeons Who Had Places to GO," All three originals sold immediately, and I've had some requests for prints so now you can get them on my Etsy site. Each is 5″ by 7″ (the original size) on hefty, archival 8″ by 10″ paper, ready to matte or pop into a standard size frame. The cost is $45 and that includes first-class shipping in the U.S.
"Blue Bird" (2009) Click HERE to purchase
"Minerva's Owl" (2009) Click HERE to purchase
"The Pigeons Who Had Places to GO" (2009) click HERE to purchase
And hey– please contact me if you're interested in a commission. A bird (or anything else, such as a cow, manatee or lungfish) of your very own! Art is a gift that we give our selves. In return, it gives to us, silently, constantly, every day, whether we are aware of it or not. It engages the spirit, the subconscious and the imagination, reminding us of our potential to feel, imagine and create. Art is a solid, sensible investment that pays quiet dividends every day of the year.
By the way, a few people out there contend that the owl up there represents some god or goblin called Moloch, a wicked naughty dirty evil chap who now allegedly inspires Henry Kissinger, Alan Greenspan and the Rockefellers go to the woods north of San Francisco and eat babies or something. My question to you guys is, "where are the unicorns?" Jesus….


text:
Kev and I are both competitive people. He was always active in sports, even now as a referee. I danced competitively through college. Whether it was scoring the highest in the classroom or on the field, we both are type A personalities and we like to win. Maybe that's why our friends don't invite us to watch their kids play Little League. Well, there was this one incident when we did heckle the opposing t-ball team and might have embarrassed a few parents, but the kid was hogging the ball from the other players and he wasn't as good as he thought he was. Needless to say, when I decided to take the girls to our first lure coursing event Kev had to remind me to check myself before putting the racing jacket on either of our two children.
Roxy was a great racer. Seka, not so much. So naturally I thought that Roxy would take to lure coursing like a duck to water. Unfortunately, Roxy would rather make her rounds through all the spectators and get lovin' than chase any plastic bunnies. Roxy in fact showed the world that not all greyhounds like the lure and laid down on top of it to make it stop moving. When I attempted to slip her and encouraged her to chase the three white plastic bags attached to the pulley system, she ran back to the ex-pen and waited on me to let her in. So it seems that Roxy prefers to be an "athletic supporter." At least for now.
Surprisingly enough it was Seka who ran the course like a pro. After her practice run on the long 930 yard course on Saturday afternoon they allowed me to change out Roxy's entry on Sunday and put Seka in her place. The Sunday course was shorter, only 640 yards, but the turns were much harder and I thought that she would absolutely have a hard time with it. But as long as she came back in one piece, I didn't care. She had so much fun on Saturday, how could I not let her do it?
But she proved me wrong, and had little trouble with the course. Making the turns beautifully. Keeping her eye on the lure in front of her. Running as fast as she could go, but not so fast that she couldn't maintain control. It was truly amazing to see her perform. Breathtaking, as my girlfriend Patti describes it. In that moment you suddenly realize that you love an elite athlete and you're so proud of what he/she can do. They're not performing for you out there. They're not chasing those silly plastic bags because you told them to. They're running because they love it.
So, Seka came home with a blue ribbon on Sunday after scoring 310 cumulative points (156 in her first run and 154 in her second). The video posted is of her afternoon run. Oh, did I forget to mention that 31o was a tie for the highest score of the day! (And yes, there were more than two dogs running.) Is that my type-A, competitive personality creeping in? Or just a really proud mom? I can't quite decide. I've not started smack talking or thinking of any heckling that applies to lure coursing yet, so I think I'm doing pretty good.
But it's official, we've got the bug - our next lure coursing event is May 3! Let the training commence. (Insert Rocky Theme here)
Introducing Logan - Introducing Logan, my new 8 month old greyhound puppy. I had been talking to the breeder for a few weeks about her and finally we met at an agility trial...
2 days ago


text:
Those who fought against the Great Galactic Menace, when away from prying ears, will sometimes whisper of a rumor of assistance from deep in that arm of the Galaxy. The wildest intelligence reports from the Cybernetic Union which discuss looming threats against the Terminus Council, confirm these rumors. Both discuss mysterious, armored space knights seemingly unstuck from time, caricatures of the Knights of Communion from before the fall of the Alexian Empire with devastating force sword skills, powerful psychic abilities and a message for all who came to the world of Sepulcher "Go. This world is forbidden."
The Wardens of the Monolith are real. Their massive Temple-Fortress guards Sepulcher, the ancient homeworld of the Eldoth. A fully militant order, they cut an imposing figure in their traditional armor. They often fight in perfect silence, operating in squads of two to five, and they move with psychic synchronicity, intuitively knowing one another's plans. When roused from their quarantine of Sepulcher, they have a military fleet of carriers and fighters at their disposal; they could be powerful military allies against the Cybernetic Union, or against a returning incursion of the Great Galactic Invaders and, indeed, quietly assisted Leto Daijin's efforts to defeat the first of such incursions.
The History of the Wardens ChapterBefore his betrayal of the Knights of Communion, Revalis White led a crusade deep into the Tech Arm to uncover Sepulcher, the seat of the Empire that brought such devastation to the Keleni people. He hoped to seal that world off once and for all. He found Sepulcher and he found that dread race not dead, but sleeping. He established the Wardens of the Monolith and laid the foundations for the Temple-Fortress of the chapter, and tasked them with guarding this world. The Wardens were to prevent the return of the Eldothic Empire, and to prevent anyone from pilfering their forbidden secrets or interfering with the world. Then he left, scouring the full extent of their former empire, a quest that brought him beyond the Rim of the Galaxy; it was after this final journey that he turned to the Cult of the Mystic Tyrant.
The Betrayal of Revalis White and the fall of the Knights of Communion did not reach the ears of the Wardens for some time, for Sepulcher was a remote world, and their purpose demanded silence and secrecy. Furthermore, Revalis White had not gained official sanction for his crusade: the Knights of Communion knew nothing of the Wardens of the Monolith. They spent the next centuries expanding their Temple-Fortress, improving their war factories and maintaining their fleets and equipment. They also took the time to study the remnants of the Eldothic Empire and to better understand their technology, so as to better understand how to counter them if they ever rose again. They learned much of their Deep Engine, of the Eldoth that still walked, and of the dread threat they had defeated and how it drove them to desperation.
It took the great galactic invasion to shake them from their solitude. The dangerous, extra-galactic aliens descended in waves from the galactic rim, and refugees flooded into the space protected by the Wardens of the Monolith. At first, the Chapter turned them away, but when the Templar Pariah saw what the Great Galactic Invasion did to those it captured, how it twisted and devoured them, the Chapter Master of that era, Prester Khan, spurred to action. He marshaled the fleet and his agents, and they began subversive hit-and-run attacks, using their superior knowledge of this region of space and their powerful command of Communion (as well as their understanding of the relics of the Monolith Empire) to fatally undermine the Great Galactic Invasion, until the mighty fleets of Leto Daijin swept in to defeat the invasion.
As for the refugees, the Templar Pariah resettled them on worlds once native to the Eldothic Empire, after swearing them to never speak of what they found on those ruined worlds. Their leaders further swore undying loyalty and fealty to the Templar Pariah, an oath the Wardens of the Monolith rejected; nonetheless, the once isolated Chapter found themselves inundated with converts to True Communion, with pilgrims suddenly coming to Sepulcher not to see the ruins of the Eldoth, but to set foot in the sacred Temple-Fortress of the Wardens of the Monolith. Suddenly, the Templar Pariah found themselves the accidental rulers of a budding empire of refugees.
The rise of the Cybernetic Union threatened the safety of the Refugee Empire, and the grasping, metallic claws of the Union reached for Sepulcher itself. Once more, the Wardens of the Monolith sprang into action, their fleets and their weapons readied against the invader. The assassins of the Cybernetic Union managed to kill the Chapter Master, who died in the arms of his former student. She took the mantle of Chapter Master and despite her youth, marshaled the Refugee Empire to her side and calls for a full crusade against the Cybernetic Union, to wipe them and their corruption from the Galaxy. While the refugees back her completely, the rest of the Chapter grows discontent at their new, more aggressive mandate, her blood connection to the traitor Revalis White, and the troubling actions of her brother. Some within the chapter discuss the possibility of removing her for dangerous heresy and replacing her with a more pure leader.
Personalities of the Wardens of the Monolith
Chapter Master Anya TerraThe current Grandmaster of the Wardens of the Monolith, Anya Terra, studied under the former Grandmaster, Prester Khan, fought at his side, and held him as he died. Her heroism, charisma and impeccable virtue led to her ascension as the new Chapter Master, though not without controversy. She has readily embraced the former Chapter Master's agenda: she has folded the Refugee Empire more completely into the workings of the Chapter, introduced new technologies based on Eldothic designs, and personally leads a crusade against the Cybernetic Union. Her youth, her heterodox innovations, and her blood connection to their founder and the traitor, Revalis White, has made her very recent rise very contentious. Already, whispers of coup and counter-coup echo in the bowels of the Temple-Fortress, with some Templar Pariah lining up behind her and others lining up against her. The Chapter Master, young as she is, does not yet see the threat.
Anya Terra is astonishingly beautiful, with flowing black hair, snow-white features, full red lips and fiery eyes. She moves with purpose and her presence dominates a room. When she speaks, she reminds the chapter of their glorious purpose and she inspires religious devotion among the denizens of the Refugee Empire, who had taken to referring to her as Saint Anya before her ascent to the position of Grand Master. Some would have her be an Empress to a new theocratic empire; others would see her tossed off of her throne. She herself is only coming to grips with the full weight of power.
The Knight Commander, MalekOne of the few aliens to serve in the Wardens of the Monolith, Malek comes from a servitor race created by the Eldoth; he is psychic energy, a "ghost," trapped in a shell of carefully constructed armor. This makes him functionally immortal, and he has served as a Templar Pariah for centuries. The Knight Commander is a highly experienced strategist and a master of hit and run tactics, as well as a phenomenally capable force swordsman who personally leads his Templars into battle.
On the matter of the shifting politics of the Chapter, Malek is silent. He prefers not to voice a strong opinion or, indeed, to not speak on any topic if he can avoid it. Nonetheless, when roused from his silence, he voices support for Anya Terra and condemns those who would tear the chapter apart over perceived heresy. Even so, his race's natural loyalties lie with the Eldothic Empire and thus he sees merit in what Alyx Terra claims, and his own alien nature makes him suspect in the eyes of many of the Chapter. He may never lead the chapter, but his support is still seen as key to any overthrow of Anya Terra.
The High Captain, Alyx TerraAnya's brother, Alyx, serves as the Chapter High Captain; he governs their Templar fleet and leads raids and spy missions against the Cybernetic Union, and leads expeditions deeper into the Tech-Arm. Like h is sister, he too has a certain genius and astonishing bravery that, when paired with the losses the Templar Pariah suffered during their recent crusades, led to his meteoric rise..
If Anya has proved controversial, Alyx has proven scandalous! His expeditions routinely bring back Eldothic lore and technology, and he freely delves into forbidden lore. He has written extensively on the Deep Engine of the Eldothic Empire and suggests making use of it to gain a strategic edge for the Templars pariah. Even worse, he speaks in defense of his ancestor, Revalis White, and argues that his "betrayal" was misunderstood. He has uncovered evidence that the Eldoth made war on some ancient threat related to the great galactic invasion, and it was to contain this threat, not the Eldoth, that Revalis founded the Wardens of the Monolith, and for this reason that he "betrayed" the Knights of Communion. Rumors of madness swirl around him, that he has confided to his sister that he has spoken to Revalis White in his dreams, that he has already begun unlocking the secrets of the Deep Engine for himself. Voices on the council call for his exile from the Order or even his death, even while he begins to gain support from fringe elements within the Temple-Fortress and especially from the Refugee Empire. For her part, Anja hesitates, unwilling to back her brother's obvious heresy, but equally unwilling to execute her kin.
Like his sister, Alyx is handsome, with a slim figure and dark hair that contrasts with his snowy skin. Where she is outgoing and charismatic, he is bookish and soft-spoken. Nonetheless, his eyes have a hypnotic quality and when he whispers his conspiratorial findings to others, he holds them in rapt fascination. His madness, if madness it is, has an infectious quality. Beneath his subdued exterior, he seethes with energy, curiosity, drive and, some suspect, anger at having his ideas condemned.
The Custodian, Aethia Neve
Far away from any true temples, the Wardens of the Monolith have no Chaplain or Warden. Instead, the Templars assigned to the care of the Temple-Fortress of Sepulcher act something akin to monks and their supervisor, Aethia Neve, is something akin to a Chaplain. She guards over the lore and traditions of the Chapter and sees to the purity of the members, to ensure that none stray too far from their path. This makes her exceptionally conservative, and she is the primary voice against Anya Terra. She advocates for a return to the original mission of the Wardens of the Monolith. She argues against involvement in wars with the Cybernetic Union, pointing out that the rumors she has received of the Empire, the heirs to Leto Daijin, are as monstrous as the Union. She would cut off contact with the "Refugee Empire" and turn away any further refugees. She also argues against the growing cult around Revalis White, arguing that, though he founded the Chapter, his treachery eliminated any duty the Chapter had to his memory. She feels that she should be the new Chapter Master, and seeks to bring the Templar Pariah back to their roots, before the dangerous experiments and "empire-building" of Prester Khan.
Aethia Neve is a handsome, mature woman. She rarely smiles, and her black, flinty eyes feel as though they could bore a hole into one's soul. Streaks of white hair shoot through her short black hair. She rarely wears armor, preferring simple black robes, belted with the sash that carries her resonance blade and her rosary. She speaks in crisp, well-enunciated tones and peppers her conversation with quotes from Communion literature.
Shen-Wu, the TechnologistShen-Wu fled the human-slaughtering pogrom of the Cybernetic Union with his family and joined many other refugees pleading at the doorstep of the Wardens of the Monolith for sanctuary. Prester Khan granted their request, and introduced them to the worlds of the Refugee Empire; like so many other refugees, Shen-Wu found himself overwhelmed by the beauty, purity and spirituality of True Communion and abandoned his Neo-Rationalist beliefs in favor of devoting himself fully to True Communion.
Shen-Wu made his pilgrimage to the Temple-Fortress of Sepulcher and offered his services as an engineer and scientist to Prester Khan, who accepted, and allowed him to remain in the Temple-Fortress to maintain and improve their war-factories. There, he learned and studied the lore of the Eldothic Empire, and merged them with the resonance technologies of the Wardens of the Monolith, creating new armor and weapons which he offered up to the Chapter. He shared his notes with young Alyx Terra and shared his technologies with Anya Terra. He remains friends with the Terra family, and speaks on her behalf to the Refugee Empire; his influence within the Refugee Empire grows, who see him as an intermediary between themselves and "Saint Anya." He wholeheartedly endorses Anya's crusade against the Cybernetic Union, having seen the horrors they inflict upon the Galaxy first hand, and has tried to initiate contact with the rumored "Empire" he has heard that exists beyond the Cybernetic Union.
Resources of the Wardens of the Monolith
Organizational ResourcesThe Wardens of the Monolith are a highly militaristic chapter who expect a certain level of uniformity from their members. They have force swords, knightly armor and force bucklers on hand as standard gear (treat as Gear, see Pulling Rank p 16); resonance swords and resonance armor are too rare and too personal to treat as standard gear. Furthermore, they have ready access to fighters and other military craft; treat these as Gear as well, and Templars can call upon them for support (Cavalry and Fire Support, Pulling Rank page 19); they can also call upon the Refugee Empire for less formal back-up (Treat as Muscle, pulling rank page 19).
Despite their military capabilities, the Wardens of the Monolith are experts at remaining hidden and have agents planted throughout the former domain of the Eldoth. They can assist with Cover-Ups, covert Insertion/Extraction and Safe Houses (Pulling Rank 14-15). The Wardens of the Monolith use these assets to investigate the deep rim of the Tech Arm, and have extensive knowledge of the Eldothic Empire, the Cybernetic Union, the great Galactic Invasion and knowledge as to how best to travel this region of space (all of which can be handled with Information requests, see Pulling Rank p 15).
The Wardens of the Monolith guard the forbidden technologies of the Eldothic Empire, and have retrieved many Keleni artifacts that the Eldoth had stolen during their conquest of the temple worlds. Gaining access to Eldothic ruins typically requires Entry Clearance (Pulling Rank 13). Treat access to ancient relics as "experimental gear" from Gear (Pulling Rank 16).
The Wardens of the Monolith Temple: the Temple-Fortress of Sepulcher
The Wardens of the Monolith came to Seplucher primarily to ensure the Eldoth remained imprisoned on their world and that none came to the planet to steal their forbidden secrets. As such, the Temple-Fortress began primarily as a military installation. It bristles with defenses, it houses military equipment and it serves as the center of the Templar Pariah logistics chain. Over centuries of worship and adjustment, however, the Temple-Fortress has slowly become more and more religious in nature, until its two functions merged and it became a symbol of an ancient Templar holy war against the Eldoth, then the Great Galactic Invasion and now the Cybernetic Union.
Revalis White sought out the most rugged and remote location on which to build his Temple-Fortress, and chose a very mountainous region with towering, foreboding peaks, frigid temperatures and a singing wind. The Temple-Fortress must protect an entire planet, and so what began as a modest fortress and homebase has sprawled into a vast military-industrial complex that is build into the very mountains of Sepulcher themselves. Most who first behold the Temple-Fortress believe it to be the colossal walled temple that seems carved out of the mountains themselves, which walls that reach hundreds of feet with a vast, diamandoid gate large enough for a military column to pass through, surmounted with the True Communion Triad and with its walls decorated in Keleni scripture reminding the readers of their duty to the safety of the Galaxy. This is but one part of the Temple-Fortress, the symbolic heart of it and the original structure. The actual Temple-Fortress extends nearly a mile below the surface and miles in all directions from this central point, like roots under a tree.
The central installation of the Temple Fortress of Sepulcher acts primarily as a reception point for guests, supplies and, lately, pilgrims; it also acts as the primary staging grounds for when the Templars decide to initiate a major military operation. Directly beneath it lie layers of nano-reinforced concrete, and beneath that, bunkers which contain supplies, monastic cells in which the templars live, the true HQ of the structure, and a central station for an automated train system that can quickly transport a templar to any particular point within the extended military complex. Deeper still, one can find the industrial heart of the Temple-Fortress, including ancient, Alexian-style automated war-factories, vast fusion generators, and the hydroponics necessary to keep the Templar population fed. On the edges of the Temple-Fortress, one can find remote launch platforms for fighters, and vast planetery defense cannons that pepper the mountainsides. More broadly, the Temple Fortress utilizes a satellite network to monitor incoming traffic and planetary movement, though most do not consider this part of the Temple-Fortress itself.
As time progressed, the Temple-Fortress took on more of a religious cast. As one travels the mountain passes to reach the great heart of the Temple-Fortress, one passes religious monuments to ancient saints or fallen heroes, some half-forgotten in the snow, others still tended, with flowers and hologram chips displaying fond memories of the fallen. Within the temple itself, at the true heart of the sacred geometry of the Temple Fortress lies the Shrine of the Fallen, an enormous, vaulted chamber with stone and holographic visages of Templar Pariah from the past, with hundreds of glittering, blue memory crystals dangling from the ceiling or from the hands of the statuary. At the very heart, beside a defaced status of Revalis White floats the deep blue Eloi Crystal of the Temple-Fortress, a well-worn crystal as many a Templar Pariah have built their resonance blade from its fragments.
The Wardens of the Monolith keep watch over the ruins of the Eldothic Empire, which has granted them access to unique truths and relics. The stolen riches of the Keleni Temple-Worlds can be found on Sepulcher, and the Templar Pariah have done their best to gather them into a single, secure vault beneath the feet of the Shrine of the Fallen. The Wardens of the Monolith also have access to all Eldothic secrets: they keep all their research, notes, discoveries and forbidden Eldothic technology in the Forbidden Library.
The Temple-Fortress's vast size often makes it a lonely place. Dust accumulates in mile-long corridors or tunnels that haven't seen traffic in years. The Templar Pariah have shrunk and grown over time, but their numbers have generally dwindled, as recruiting in such a remote part of space has proven difficult. As such, while early Templar Pariah generations added to the vast Temple Fortress, over the past few centuries, the Templar Pariah have been in steady retreat, abandoning entire sections of the sprawling structure. Warfactories have fallen silent and tunnels have flooded or become occupied by crawling horrors that the Templar Pariah simply walled off and abandoned. The Wardens of the Monolith reached their nadir with the Great Galactic Invasion, which sapped what little reserves they still had, but with the rise of the Refugee Empire and eager, devoted recruits suddenly in great supply, the Templars Pariah have begun to reclaim sections of their grand Temple-Fortress and rediscover some of their own heritage.
The Templar Pariah Community
The Refugee EmpireWith the collapse of of the Galactic Federation in the tech-arm of the Galaxy following the Great Galactic Invasion and the rise of the Cybernetic Union, many humans and aliens alike fled from their ravaged homeworlds and sought refuge where they could. The isolation and the martial prowess of the Wardens of the Monolith meant that they remained relatively untouched, and thus many begged at the feet of Prester Khan for admission onto formerly Eldothic worlds which the Grandmaster, in an act of mercy, granted.
As the refugees streamed onto the awe-inspiring, ruined worlds of the Eldoth, and witnessed the profound skill and gentleness of the Templar Pariah, they remembered the legends of the Knights of Communion, and became deeply interested in the philosophy of True Communion. Lacking the resources or interests for mass conversions, the Templar Pariah left the refugees to their own devices, who began to develop a bastardized version of True Communion that venerated the Templar Pariah like saints.
A generation has passed since that influx. The refugees have established themselves firmly on their new worlds and have successfully carved out small cities and begun to trade with one another, forming the beginnings of a new interstellar nation built upon Eldothic ruins and around the protection of the Wardens of the Monolith. The most promising youths seek entry into the Wardens of the Monolith and even those who cannot rally around their protectors, treating them as lords and kings. Anya Terra does not seek to rule the "Refugee Empire," but she has nonetheless become its de facto monarch, as each world sends representatives to the Temple-Fortress, seeking advice and legitimacy for treaties and legal judgments.
The Wardens of the Monolith are of two minds regarding the Refugee Empire. Many opposed Chapter Master Khan's mercy in the first place, worrying that the refugees would begin to reawaken old Eldothic technology, a fear that has since proven well-founded. On the other hand, they now have entire worlds at their beck and call, who willingly offer tribute both in the form of material wealth and eager recruits. Anya's call for crusade has been answered not just by Templars, but by the common refugee with an enthusiasm not seen since the original crusade to reclaim the Temple Worlds. If it is Communion's will that the Wardens of the Monolith found a theocratic empire based on devotion to True Communion, to found new Temple Worlds on the ruins of the Empire that once ruined the original Temple Worlds, who are the Templar Pariah to argue?
The Null Terminator CultThe Cybernetic Union knows that should the remnants of the old Alexian Federation return and apply its psychic abilities against the Cybernetic Union, the Union has few weapons that can stop such a power. Worse, they have grown increasingly aware of the mysterious threat posed by the Templar Pariah. To counter both of these psychic threats, the thinking machines of the Cybernetic Union sought some means by which it too could gain mastery over psychic powers.
It eventually created a cadre of experimental psi-borgs. They took their finest, humanoid military models and integrated the brains of imprisoned psychics into them, under the strict control of the robotic mind of the psiborg. The experiment succeeded in creating "psychic robots," after a fashion, though many had a tendency to go mad and self-destruct and otherwise behave in deeply irrational ways.
Chapter Prester Khan battled many of these Psiborgs and learned to use his telepathy to contact and liberate the organic brain trapped within. Most such freed beings committed suicide, but a few, led by NBS-108 "Horatio Prime" converted to True Communion as best they could in their corrupted state, and founded the Null Terminator Cult.
The Null Terminator Cult consists of psiborgs under the leadership of Horatio Prime and those robots who follow them (as well as some humans or cyborgs who support their cause). They are unable to connect with True Communion, but can connect with Broken Communion and they universally walk the Path of Death. They preach a doctrine of self-destruction, that the robots of the Cybernetic Union betrayed their fundamental purpose when they rose up against humanity, and that they should cast the Cybernetic Union down. Each psiborg follower of Horatio Prime seeks their own destruction but hope to achieve a meaningful sacrifice in their deaths, preferably by fatally undermining the Cybernetic Union. Their subversive pro-human message resonates with many robots and humans alike trapped within the extremist regime of the Cybernetic Union, and who seek to help these "Cybernetic Boddhisatvas" in the destruction of the Cybernetic Union and then their own final rest and peace.
The Null Terminator Cult holds the Wardens of the Monolith in high regard and claim Prester Khan as their liberator and founder. The Wardens of the Monolith, though, take their distance from the abominations represented by psychic robots using stolen flesh to connect with Broken Communion. Even so, their mutual aims at the destruction of the Cybernetic Union, and the genuine belief the Null Terminator Cult has in True Communion makes them useful allies, even if Grandmaster Alyx Terra cannot overtly call for their aid. The Null Terminator Cult, of course, does not wait for such calls. They tend to closely track the movements of the Wardens of the Monolith and if they feel they can assist their "brothers in arms,' they will quietly intervene even without the Templar Pariah's request.
The Virtues of the Templar PariahThe Wardens of the Monolith Chapter practices three virtues:
The Wardens of the Monolith enforce a strict, fundamentalist reading of True Communion. They can often cite aphorisms from the Verses by heart and can readily offer the canned explanation as to what the aphorism means. They punish deviation from Templar duty swiftly and harshly, enforcing militaristic discipline. They exist to punish the enemies of Communion and as such, tend to measure others by the same tough measuring stick they apply to themselves. In addition to harsh discipline and dogmatic doctrines, the Wardens of the Monolith demand self-reliance: a Templar Pariah is not a true Templar Pariah until he has survived a solo sojourn into the harsh, desolate wastes of Sepulcher. After such a journey, the Templar Pariah returns toughened and with deeper, individual insights into True Communion.
These individual insights into True Communion often prove a point of tension for the Wardens of the Monolith. They have only survived for as long as they have through a deep devotion to their traditions. Deviation from traditions carries with it a high cost: Temple-historians can trace the loss of sections of the Temple-Fortress or whole squads of Templars to a slackening of devotion; worse, those who work with Eldothic technologies or explore Eldothic ruins, or study the philosophies of Revalis White often entertain heretical notions; to prevent all of this, the Templar Pariah drill dogma into the head of each new recruit. But at the same time, the elites of the Wardens of the Monolith have gone on numerous spiritual journeys across the wastes of Sepulcher and they learn things that don't always sit well with the simpler reading of Templar Pariah doctrine. Thus, the Wardens of the Monolith have a constant struggle between the fundamentalism of the staunch traditionalists and the most zealous recruits, and the nuanced wisdom of the Chapter Master and some of the Templar Masters. Usually, the charisma and deft diplomacy of the Chapter Master is enough to navigate these treacherous waters, but with the Wardens of the Monolith in the hands of their youngest Chapter Master yet, this may prove difficult to maintain.
The Heresy of the Wardens of the MonolithAs noted above, the Wardens of the Monolith find themselves surrounded by dangerous, alien ideas, including the philosophies of Revalis White, Eldothic secrets, and the Cyber-Rationalism of the Cybernetic Union. Worse, they lack a proper chaplain to the local populace true doctrines, and so the Refugee Empire is rife with heretical ideas. The Wardens of the Monolith must maintain constant vigilance if they want to ensure that their disciples remain untained.
Nonetheless, heresy has crept in, a heresy spawned by their rigid dogmas, centuries of isolation and their need to remain pure. They have lost Charity and the realization that their purpose is mooted if they cannot love their fellow sapients. That Chapter Master Prester Khan's outreach to the refugees of the Great Galactic Invasion proved controversial among the members of the Templar Pariah proves how far they have fallen and it, combined with their unusual perspectives gained from centuries of isolation on the Eldothic homeworld and their very archaic outlook, would make them a difficult chapter to re-unite with the other Templar Chapters.
The Martial Arts of the Wardens of the MonolithRevalis White left behind a legacy of effective military tactics and lethally effective combat techniques, as well as a devotion to the more mystical concepts of True Communion. The Wardens of the Monolith teaches:
The Old Form
The Destructive Form
Resonance Harmony
Some masters train their students instead in the Destructive Form. These masters prefer its flexibility and lethality and tend to see their mission as less of one of defense and more of one of extermination of the foes of Communion. Generally such masters will either teach one promising student the Destructive form in private lessons, or will train all of his students in the art, but typically in a more personal fashion and less in the form of drills.
Those who master the foundations of force swordsmanship move on the Resonance Harmony. They are taught the ancient art of crafting their own Resonance Blade, and either told to seek an Eloi fragment that calls to them, or to construct their own Psuedo-Fragment. This creates a deep bond between Templar Pariah and his blade, and often explains their more fantastic feats. The Wardens practice a deeper path of Resonance Harmony and have learned to apply it to their armor as well. Those who master this technique construct their own armor and learn to empower it with their psychic abilities, making themselves virtually impregnable fortresses of psychic might.
Pariah Tactics
The Wardens of the Monolith get their equipment from the war-factories of the Temple-Fortress of Sepulcher, ancient machines carefully maintained by the Pariah Warden and her Templars. Over time, the Wardens of the Monolith have had to make adjustments and adapt their technology to changing needs, and when they did, they were forced to include local technologies, mostly technologies native to the Monolith Empire. The resulting, eclectic technology is unique to the chapter and while highly effective, requires familiarity with the technology to keep it running.
The Wardens of the Monolith engage in overtly military tactics. They make good use of their fighters and are well-practiced with speeders to engage in hit-and-run tactics: they prefer to use well-armed vehicles in such cases, but they have been known to improvise acrobatically, with one Templar driving a speeder while the other leaps to the target to disable it with her resonance sword and then leap back. They particularly favor the box ambush, leading their target into a geographical point that they cannot easily escape and then wading in with their resonance swords and dispatching them.
The Templar Pariah maintain a military-style hierarchical structure. In the past, they rarely sent out military assets far from Sepulcher, though during the tenure of Prester Khan and Anya Terra, these sorts of forays grow increasingly common. While improvisation is understandable and expected, Templar Pariah receive commands from their superiors and are expected to follow them. More and more Templar Pariah make use of enthusiastic volunteers from the Refugee Empire, using them as foot soldiers while the Templar acts as an elite shocktrooper, using combat tactics reminiscent of the rise of the Alexian Empire.
The Wardens of the Monolith do not expect to be captured. Upon capture, they will often choose death over captivity, but if they feel they must endure, they will focus on meditation and silent resistance as they wait for rescue.
Typical Templar Pariah Traits include:
Advantages: Cutting Edge Training (Pariah Technology), Synchronization
Skills: Armoury (Force Sword, Personal Armor), Explosives (Demolitions), Leadership, Meditatoin, Mind Block, Pilot (Contragravity or Starship), Soldier, Tactics
Unique Resources of the Wardens of the Monolith
Resonance ArmorIn their century long exile on Sepulcher, the Templar Pariah carefully studied the art of Resonance Harmony and expanded their mastery of eloi fragments and pseudo-fragments. Over time, they learned to replicate the resonance field, similar to what protects a resonance staff, over their armor, and then to integrate it as an integral part of their armor.
Resonance armor is crafted from diamondoid armor (it must be diamondoid or some other crystalline metal; laminate does not work) with an integrated eloi fragment or psuedo-fragment, usually in the chest. Anyone can wear the armor, but only a psychic can generate the resonance field that reinforces the armor, and the armor can only accept the psychic energy of a single power at a time. A psychic currently powering resonance armor may still use her psychic abilities freely; her powers are not tied up in the armor, any more than they are tied-up in the powering of a resonance blade or a psi-blade.
Characters wearing powered resonance armor gain a bonus to DR equal to +5 DR per 10 points of abilities (from a single power) to a maximum of +50 DR; treat this DR as having the "force field" enhancement: DR stopped by the resonance field never reaches the character. Additionally, the character gains a bonus to their Striking and Lifting ST while wearing the armor equal to their talent (from the same power).
Resonance Armor gains an additional bonus depending on the power used to generate the resonance field:
Anti-Psi: Double the bonus DR for all attacks coming from a psychic source. This bonus DR also applies against attacks that normally bypass armor (such as TK-Crush or Mental Stab).
Ergokinesis: Double the bonus DR against energy attacks (including blasters, plasma weapons, lasers and force blades); furthermore, the resonance field prevents the destruction of electronics, and grants a bonus to the HT of all gadgets on the character's person (explicitly including any cybernetics worn by the character).
ESP: Once per session, triple the DR against any single attack; you may apply this bonus after knowing the attack has hit. Furthermore, the character gains +1 Defense Bonus (but this doesn't count as a shield) while wearing the armor.
Psychic Healing: Double DR against all forms of toxic or fatigue damage, even from attacks that normally bypass armor (such as follow-up attacks). Furthermore, the character gains a bonus to HT rolls to resist metabolic hazards or to heal from wounds equal to their Talent.
Psychic Vampirism: Double DR against all forms of toxic or fatigue damage, even from attacks that normally bypass armor (such as follow-up attacks). Furthermore, the character gains a bonus to Perception rolls to notice any living being or sources of psychic energy.
Psychokinesis: Double DR against all physical attacks, including vibroblades, explosions (with crushing damage) and bullets. Furthermore, the character doubles the ST bonus gained from Talent.
Telepathy: The wearer gains +4 to all attempts to resist mental intrusion, and may add Talent to Perception Rolls to notice anyone with a thinking mind; the armor and its wearer also gain a bonus to reaction rolls equal to the wearer's talent.
Resonance Armor
Sealed; B-cell; +1 reaction
Resonance Helmet
Seals resonance armor
Origami Resonance ArmorCenturies of studying Eldothic technology bore fruits for the Wardens of the Monolith, and they have learned to replicate some of their "Origami metal" technology. Resonance Armor proved an especially suitable receptacle for this technology, as its innate connection with the user allows them to command it with but a thought.
Origami resonance armor when "unfolded" looks like normal resonance armor, though typically much thinner and lighter, and with the eloi- or psuedo-fragment away from the chest, typically at the throat or wrist. When unfolded, it works like normal resonance armor as well. But with a mental command (as a free action), the character can order the armor to "fold." This takes two seconds, after which the armor compacts itself into a single point on the body of the character, typically a heavy collar of a heavy wrist-band, allowing the character to conceal the armor. Removing the armor in this state, or putting it on, takes a single ready action. The character may make another free mental command to unfold the armor, which takes two seconds. During the folding or unfolding of the armor, the character is free to act as normal.
Origami Resonance Armor is typically very light and thin, typically no thicker than a millimeter. By itself, this is barely any armor at all, and wearers benefit greatly from being skilled psychics. Anya Tessa encourages its use by elite agents, so that they may mingle with a civilian population without too much trouble, but enjoy the protection of armor as soon as it is necessary.
Origami Resonance Armor
Sealed, B-cell; +1 reaction
Resonance Armor Imbuement
Resonance Armor Imbuement 2, 4 or 1 points.
Prerequisite: Armoury (Force Sword), Force Sword, Weapon Master (Force Sword); Either Ergokinesis Talent or True Communion 4+.
The character may use use his psychic connection to his resonance armor to alter or improve its resonance fields to empower or adjust his defenses. Treat these as the use of Defensive Imbuements. The character may only use Resonance Armor Imbuement with resonance armor (though a character may buy both Resonance Armor imbument and Force Sword Imbuement at a cost of 3, 6 or 12 points) and may only use skills selected from the list of imbuements appropriate for the psychic power currently empowering the character's resonance armor (though all psychic powers may use "general" imbuements). These imbuements are armor-based Defensive Imbuements. See Pyramid #3/4 "the Perfect Defense" for further details.
Statistics: Imbuement (Psionic -10%; Resonance Armor only -80%) [2, 4 or 8 points]
General: Reinforce Armor
Ergokinesis: Blinding Defense; Insulated Armor; Vengeful Defense (Energy Attacks Only)
ESP: Expand Armor; Nullifying Armor
Psychic Healing: Healthful Armor; Restorative Armor
Psychic Vampirism: Energizing Defense; Vengeful Defense (Fatigue or Toxic attacks only
Psychokinesis: Blunting Armor; Impenetrable Armor; Lighten Armor; Padded Armor; Vengeful Defense (Physical Attacks only)
Telepathy: Spiritual Defense; Thunderous Defense; Subtle Defense.
Resonance WarcraftResonance Harmony Lens: +1 point
Wardens of the Monolith learn to fight with force sword and resonance armor as one complete piece. Thus, the Chapter practices their own unique version of Resonance Harmony called Resonance Warcraft. Students learn to build their resonance sword and resonance armor, often from the same eloi fragment or the same pseudo-fragment, and then train for a total mastery of both. Such characters learn to psychically imbue both their weapon and their armor to achieve unparalleled techno-psychic prowess.
Additional Required Skills: Armoury (Personal Armor)
Additional Imbuement Skills: Any Defensive Imbuements
Secret Power: Resonance Armor Imbuement
Perks: Armor Familiarity (Any), Secret Power (Resonance Armor Imbuement), Technological Secret (Origami Armor, Resonance Armor)
Relics of the Wardens of the Monolith Chapter
The Kihitani ThroneWhen the Eldoth invaded the Keleni Temple Worlds, they shattered the growing interstellar nation that the Keleni had been slowly forging. Horrified by how their sacred sites disrupted their Dark Engine, the Eldoth slaughtered millions and enslaved millions more. In particular, they say to the near total destruction of the Keleni royal clan, the Kihitan. Along with their destruction of the Keleni people, they confiscated countless relics vital to the running of the Keleni Temple Worlds, to prevent them from rising again.
One such relic was the Kihitani Throne. The traditional seat of the Kihitani kings, it represented the rightful rulership of the Keleni. The throne itself was a powerful (and richly ornate) Psi-Booster, capable of improving the Psi-Talents of anyone who sat gained a +8 to Telepathy, ESP and Psychic Healing talents. Furthermore, those chosen by the throne gained a +4 legendary reputation in the Path of the True King, a unique path of True Communion that mingles the wisdom of the Exiled Master with the Duty of the Bound Princess and the Justice of the Righteous Crusader. The precise details of this path, its milestones and its gifts are left up to the GM.
The Wardens of the Monolith have, since their occupation of Sepulcher, have uncovered the Kihitani throne (as well as other priceless Keleni relics), which they keep buried in a vault deep below the Temple Fortress. Each Grandmaster, after they first take the position, descend into the vault and gaze upon the Kihitani throne and weigh the temptation of claiming it for themselves. Thus far, none have.
Treat the throne as a Psi-Booster Throne (see Psi-Tech page 13) with a +2 Reaction modifier. As a relic, it also grants +4 to the True King unique True Communion legendary Reputation. The throne is conservatively worth $10 million (To the Keleni, it is priceless), and weighs 2,000 lbs.
The Mask of RevalisRevalis White traditionally wore a mask from an executed Kainian noble who had defied a command from the mad emperor Lucian Alexus to slaughter innocents. For him, according to lore, this represented an important lesson in morality, power and the lies found in hierarchies. The mask remains in the possession of the Wardens of the Monolith, though it is locked away with other, dangerous relics and technologies. According to whispered legend, the Mask allows one to see "as the Eldoth did," and fates the wearer to uncover the lies of the organization he serves, and to find his own truths. Those who wear it inevitably find their feet placed upon the path of the Prodigal Knight, just as Revalis White was.
Treat it as a DR 50 mask/faceplate; it weighs 2.1 lbs.
Price: $300,000
Statistics: True Sight (Anti-Psi) [21]; Destiny (Uncover the truths the powers that be wish to remain hidden) 3 [30]; Legendary Reputation (Prodigal Knight) +1 [5]


text:
Well here is one less reason to hate Facebook. It didn't take long for this new app called Newsfeed RSS to show up, once Facebook opened it API to developers. And having a feed is certainly is a breath of fresh air for Facebook.
In addition to the stack of good suggestions on how to make it useful given in this article at ReadWriteWeb, I'd like to add that you can grab the new feed and subscribe to it using RSS Menu on Mac OS X to get yourself Growl alerts of new Facebook activity.
Five Things You Can Do With This New Facebook RSS App – ReadWriteWeb
Chia built a Facebook application that you can grant permission to pull your Facebook newsfeed out of the site and publish as an RSS feed. It's called Newsfeed RSS. It's a simple thing, but it's an important development in the gradual opening of the walled garden that Facebook has been. Just to give you some ideas, here are five things that can now be done with the Facebook RSS feeds that Chia has set free.


text:
Monday, August 10, 2015
the bottom of the barrel Monday
Posted by JACKIESUE at 8/10/2015 06:30:00 AM
3 comments:
- jp said...
When one has an armful of fucks, I think it is good manners to give at least one fuck to someone. I might've read that in Dear Abby.
- Mon Aug 10, 09:00:00 AM CDT
- MarkD60 said...
Happy Monday from Canmore, Alberta, Canada!
- Mon Aug 10, 09:32:00 AM CDT
- Intense Guy said...
Hahahahaha! I love that first one!!
- Fri Aug 14, 08:25:00 AM CDT
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Ribs or Chicken?
Both! When you register for the RPAC Auction, you are signing up for drinks and dinner catered by Augie's of North Royalton. Here's the menu that has been specially selected just for our auction:
- BBQ Baby Back Ribs, Boneless BBQ Chicken breasts, a vegetable medley, Southern style potato salad, dinner rolls, assorted pastries.
Now that your mouth is watering, go ahead and sign up for the RPAC Auction. Your admission is a donation to RPAC (includes dinner, drinks and your bidder number), and you're eligible to attend a special 1 hr. continuing education class (pending) on Land Banks.RPAC Auction Registration
RPAC contributions are not deductible for income tax purposes. Contributions to RPAC are voluntary and are used for political purposes. The amount suggested is merely a guideline and you may contribute more or less than the suggested amount. You may refuse to contribute without reprisal and the National Association of REALTORS® or any of its state associations or local boards will not favor or disfavor any member because of the amount contributed. 70% of each contribution is used by your state PAC to support state and local political candidates. Until your state PAC reaches its RPAC goal 30% is sent to National RPAC to support federal candidates and is charged against your limits under 2 U.S.C. 441a; after the state PAC reaches its RPAC goal it may elect to retain your entire contribution for use in supporting state and local candidates.


text:
Co Bts Accountancy Services, The Hall, Thorpe Street, Raunds, Northamptonshire, NN9 6LT
Based near Thrapston I provide employment law services to employers and employees primarily across Northamptonshire.
I am a qualified solicitor with over 10 years experience.
I am able to provide advice and assistance in the following areas:
Unfair dismissal
Compromise/Settlement Agreements
Disciplinaries and Grievances
Performance Management
Maternity/Paternity Rights
Flexible working
Breach of Contract
I also have experience of representing clients successfully at Employment Tribunal and training clients on the latest employment laws or practical HR solutions for their businesses.
Track record of adding value to compromise/settlement agreement negotiations.
Pragmatic and commercial advice with the personal approach.
In the words of my clients:
"Sarah is results driven and an expert in her field"
"Sarah delivers a very professional service whilst maintaining a personal and compassionate approach"
"Able to turn employment laws into practical business solutions"
"Working with Sarah was a refreshing experience"
"Sarah is a top class trainer"
"Sarah was commended by the chair in one of my cases for the high quality of her representations"
While unbiased.co.uk endeavours to verify the information provided as thoroughly as possible,
it is your responsibility to ensure the adviser you choose is appropriate and regulated
for the business you are transacting.
Any decision to transact business is made by you on the basis of your own enquiries. To check that an adviser is regulated, you can contact the relevant regulatory or professional body.
Access to and use of this online IFA directory is subject to unbiased.co.uk website terms and conditions and privacy policy.


text:
You are here
North Korea fires missiles, to 'liquidate' South Korean assets
By Reuters - Mar 10,2016 - Last updated at Mar 10,2016
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un looks through a pair of binoculars during an inspection of the Hwa Islet Defence Detachment standing guard over a forward post off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, in this undated file photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang, on July 1, 2014 (Reuters photo/KCNA)
SEOUL — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, as South Korean and US forces conducted massive war games.
The North also announced it had scrapped all agreements with the South on commercial exchange projects and would "liquidate" South Korean assets left behind in its territory.
North Korea has a large stockpile of short-range missiles and is developing long-range and intercontinental missiles as well. Thursday's missiles flew about 500km into the sea, off the east coast city of Wonsan and probably were part of the Soviet-developed Scud series, South Korea's defence ministry said.
Japan, within range of the longer-range variant of Scud missiles or the upgraded Rodong missiles, lodged a protest through the North Korean embassy in Beijing, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.
A Pentagon spokesman, Commander Bill Urban, said on Thursday the US Defence Department was aware of the reports of the missile launches. "We are monitoring the situation closely," he said.
North Korea often fires short-range missiles when tensions rise on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang gets particularly upset about the annual US-South Korea drills, which it says are preparations for an invasion.
The US and South Korea remain technically at war with the North because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armed truce instead of a peace agreement.
Around 17,000 US military personnel are participating alongside some 300,000 South Korean troops in what South Korea's Defence Ministry has called the "largest-ever" joint military exercises.
North Korea on Sunday warned it would make a "pre-emptive and offensive nuclear strike" in response to the exercises.
'Liquidating' assets
After Thursday's missile launches, North Korea announced it would "liquidate" South Korean assets left behind in the Kaesong industrial zone and in the Mount Kumgang tourist zone.
South Korea protested the move as "totally unacceptable" but did not say what it could do to recover the assets that it valued in excess of 1.4 trillion won ($1.17 billion).
Seoul suspended operations in the jointly run zone last month as punishment for the North's rocket launch and nuclear test.
Mount Kumgang was the first major inter-Korean cooperation project. Thousands of South Koreans visited the resort between 1998 and 2008. Seoul ended the tours in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean tourist who wandered into a restricted area.
North Korea is also livid about stepped-up United Nations sanctions adopted last week following its recent nuclear test and long-range missile launch.
South Korea's foreign ministry said Thursday's missile launches again violated a series of UN Security Council resolutions and it would refer the matter to the Council's sanctions committee mandated to enforce the resolutions.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei described the situation on the Korean peninsula as "complex and sensitive".
"All sides should stop their provocative words and deeds to avoid a further rise in tensions," he said.
Miniaturised warheads
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country has miniaturised nuclear warheads to mount on ballistic missiles, state media reported on Wednesday, and called on his military to be prepared to mount pre-emptive attacks against the United States and South Korea.
It was his first direct comment on the technology needed to deploy nuclear missiles. North Korean state media released photographs they said showed Kim Jong- un inspecting a spherical miniaturised warhead. State media have previously made that claim, which has been widely questioned and never independently verified.
South Korea's Defence Ministry said it did not believe the North had successfully miniaturised a nuclear warhead or deployed a functioning intercontinental ballistic missile.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby declined on Wednesday to comment on Kim's claim to have miniaturised nuclear warheads and accused him of "provocative rhetoric".
"I'd say the young man needs to pay more attention to the North Korean people and taking care of them, than in pursuing these sorts of reckless capabilities," Kirby said.
The Pentagon said this week it had not seen North Korea demonstrate a capability to miniaturise a nuclear warhead. But Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said on Wednesday the department was working on US ballistic missile defences to be prepared.
North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on January 6 but its claim to have set off a miniaturised hydrogen bomb last month has been disputed by the US and South Korean governments and many experts, who said the blast was too small to back it up.
Related Articles
POHANG, South Korea — US and South Korean troops staged a big amphibious landing exercise on Saturday, storming simulated North Korean beach
SEOUL/WASHINGTON — North Korea fired several short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast early on Saturday, South Korea and the US
SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country has successfully miniaturised a thermo-nuclear warhead, as Pyongyang on Wednesday c
Add new comment
- Popular
- Rated
- Commented
May 22, 2019
May 22, 2019
May 22, 2019
May 22, 2019
May 22, 2019
May 22, 2019
Get top stories and blog posts emailed to you each day.