The theme for this year's Old Home Day celebrations – "Londonderry – Where Friends and Family Come Together" – says it all, as Londonderry residents past and present gather at the Town Common to share memories, fun, food and entertainment in honor of their hometown. The slogan was chosen from Regan Deignan's fourth grade class at North Elementary School.
Old Home Day festivities began Wednesday, Aug. 14, with a free barbecue for seniors at the Lions Pavilion and a Windham Swing Band concert on the Town Common, and continue through Sunday, Aug. 18. The Town of Londonderry instituted spraying to control adult mosquitoes last Monday, Aug. 12, and Tuesday, Aug. 13, in advance of Old Home Day events.
The Town Common, Matthew Thornton School, Londonderry High School and Londonderry Middle School were the sites sprayed. The insecticides Anvil 10+10 (sumithrin) or Zenivex E20 (entofenprox) and Permanone 10EC (permethrin) were used to control adult mosquitoes. No town-wide road spraying is scheduled. Dragon Mosquito Control, Inc. of Brentwood was in charge of spraying.
For more information, contact Dragon at 734-4144 or the Town Hall at 432-1100.
A schedule of Old Home events follows. For detailed information, see the Old Home Day special section in today's edition.
• 12th annual Kidz Night from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Town Common, with rain location at the Londonderry High School gym. Kidz Night offers entertainment for families with children 10 and under and features clowns, bounce houses, food, games and activities. Local public safety personnel will provide free information. Special guests will be visiting during the event. Live entertainment and performers include: Wildlife Encounters, the Roaming Railroad, Mad Science, and Judy Pancoast.
• Movie Mania! at 9 p.m. at the Town Common. Should it rain, the movie, "The Avengers," moves to the Londonderry High School cafeteria.
• Lundgren 5K Road Race registration, 5 to 7 p.m. at Londonderry High School gym.
• Londonderry Police vs. Londonderry Fire softball game at 6 p.m. at the Matthew Thornton field. Members of the Lions Club will sell food, with all proceeds to benefit Camp Pride.
• Family Concert featuring Souled Out Show Band from 7:15 to 8:45 p.m. on the Londonderry High School front lawn. All proceeds benefit The Friends of Music. If it rains, the concert will be in the Matthew Thornton gym.
• Fireworks display by RS Fireworks at 8:45 p.m. at the Londonderry High School front lawn. No rain date.
• Lundgren 5K Road Race registration, 6:45 to 8 a.m., Londonderry High School gym.
• Free continental breakfast, 7 to 9:30 a.m. at Londonderry United Methodist Church, hosted by Orchard Christian Fellowship. A baby changing station will be available.
• Hot air balloon rides, weather permitting, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Matthew Thornton School.
• Lundgren 5K Road Race, 8 a.m. starts at the Grange Hall.
• Londonderry Fair, 8 to 10 a.m. drop off of items to be judged at the Grange Hall. Judging takes place from 10 a.m. to noon, and people can view the items until 3 p.m.
• Baby contest, 9 to 10:30 a.m. at Matthew Thornton gymnasium for babies born Aug. 1, 2012 to Aug. 5, 2013. There is no same day registration and all registrations were due by Aug. 14.
• Revolutionary Encampment at the Morrison House, Londonderry Historical Society on Pillsbury Road, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with military drills for children and a cannon salute on the hour, every hour. The encampment goes through the weekend, and features Colonial children's games, as well as artisans demonstrating weaving, basket making and corn husk doll making. The Morrison House will be open for tours, a blacksmith demonstration will take place at the Clark Blacksmith Shop, and tours of the Parmenter Barn will be given.
• 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Farmers Market, craft fair and silent auction sponsored by the Londonderry Historical Society to benefit reconstruction of the Reverend William Morrison house, the oldest house in Londonderry, takes place at the Historical Society on Pillsbury Road.
• Old Home Day Parade, 10:30 a.m. to noon, rain or shine, and will begin at Londonderry Middle School and go along Mammoth Road to Mack's Apples farmstand.
• Vendors and booths offering food, games, prizes and raffles on the Common, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Londonderry Sings contest from 2:30 to 4 p.m. at the bandstand on the Common.
• Wildlife Encounters animal show from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. on the Common by the traffic light.
• Free Bingo for all ages from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Lions Pavilion behind the Lions Hall, with players able to win more than $500 in prizes.
• Applestock, 7 to 10:30 p.m. at the Londonderry Common and is sponsored by the LHS Student Council. The evening will feature a battle of the bands from the high school. In case of rain, the event will be held in the Londonderry High School cafeteria.
Christian service, picnic and concert on the Town Common from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.


We are delighted to announce that Rivendell, Sligo has received an RSUA Design Award Commendation for Export Excellence in Architectural Design. The Awards were announced at the gala dinner on Thursday night at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast.
Rivendell on big screen at Waterfront Hall with Ireland String Quartet preforming below.


It was an afternoon to forget for Crystal Palace as they suffered a third defeat in a row in the Premier League on Saturday, losing 2-0 at home against Southampton.
After a goalless first half, Palace fell behind early on in the second half as Danny Ings latched onto a searching ball from Cedric Soares to beat Wayne Hennessey to open the scoring.
Southampton had the chance to make it 2-0 when Aaron Wan-Bissaka was penalised for a handball in the box, but Charlie Austin saw his spot kick saved by Hennessey.
Both sides hit the bar either side of the penalty, with McArthur hitting the woodwork for Palace, while Mohamed Elyounoussi missed a great chance for the visitors.
Christian Benteke had several good chances, before the Saints sealed the victory with a goal on the break in injury time, with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg finishing off a swift counter attack to make sure of the points.
But how did we rate the Palace players at Selhurst Park?
Our Crystal Palace correspondent Robert Warlow was in south London to give his views, below.


Today we're showing off our staff favorites in the gaming category with our two top picks. First, we'll check out our honorable mention Bravura - Quest Rush an action adventure RPG with an adorable spin, and Infinity Blade III, which needs no explanation. Watch the show to see both apps in action. Plus, please support our sponsor InstantSave.


Spent the weekend in Baler and had a great time on the beach. Weekdays can sometimes be harsh and terribly stressful, like horrible little monsters that poke and torment you every minute of every day. Do this. Do that. Now. Tends to drive you mad, what with all the to-do lists and calendar of deadlines. Thank God for weekends! TGFW! (Ok I made that up) And hooray for friends who are willing to just pack their bags and go on an adventure with you! HFFWWTJPBGOAAWY! (And that too) So we went to the beach to recuperate and enjoy some time away from stressful weekdays.
Back at home, I dropped to my bed, light-headed and beat up. This morning I woke up to sore muscles and sunburnt cheeks, although I feel happier and re-energized. There are things to accomplish and monsters to overcome. Monday always means a surge of emails and calls. Specific instructions and important directions will come crashing in. Do this. Do that. Now. But there is warmth and color on my skin. I've been pummeled by bigger waves this weekend and have the aching body parts to prove it. I'm sure I can get through this – another week of fighting monsters doesn't seem so bad.


text:
Legal, Management, Managing People
Employers warned over sham contracting perils
Business owners are being urged to raise staff awareness of sham contracting, after a NSW company was fined almost $17,000 for dismissing employees before rehiring them as contractors.
Federal magistrate Robert Cameron has fined two former managers of Centennial Financial Services a total of $16,950 over nine employees who were dismissed and hired as contractors.
The company's owner, Rolf Mertes, was fined $13,200 while former HR manager Christopher Chorazy was fined $3,750. The penalties represent the first sham contracting prosecution brought by the Fair Work Ombudsman.
In his judgment, the magistrate said he accepted Chorazy has exercised "no independent judgment" in the sham contracting breaches.
"Nevertheless, as human resources manager, he should have been aware of, and at least attempted to give advice on, Centennial's obligations".
Sham contracting is where an employer tries to disguise an employment relationship as an independent contracting relationship in a bid to sidestep employment entitlements such as pay-as-you-go withholding tax and superannuation guarantee payments.
Under the Fair Work Act, employers are prohibited from dismissing, or threatening to dismiss, an employee to re-engage him or her as an independent contractor.
Employers who breach the act can be fined up to $33,000. Actions can be brought by a worker, a union or the Fair Work Ombudsman.
However, there is also information that hirers must be aware of, which should be clearly outlined by the business owner.
A government spokesperson says hirers are required to withhold an amount from payments, to an independent contractor for tax purposes, if:
The contract asks for amounts to be withheld.
They provide their work or services for a client under a labour hire arrangement.
They have not quoted their ABN.
"You may also have obligations to your independent contractors relating to payroll tax, workers' compensation and insurance," the spokesperson says.
"In some cases, the superannuation guarantee laws may also apply to payments for work or services by an independent contractor."
Contracting arrangements
"As a hirer, you are protected from unauthorised industrial action by independent contractors. It is also unlawful for unions to threaten or take unauthorised industrial action against you."
The Fair Work Ombudsman is currently auditing three industries – hair and beauty, cleaning and call centres, to identify cases where employees are being treated as contractors to avoid paying entitlements and to cut labour costs.
It is also auditing up to three 600 employers in the security industry over the next three months to ensure they are paying staff correctly and not engaging in sham contracting.
The FWO announced in April it would distribute up to 100,000 educational brochures on contracting arrangements, starting with members of key employee and industry groups around the country.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Sources from Okaz and Saudi Gazette stated that these four mosques were open for non-muslim visitors to get aware with the Islamic Civilization. These mosques posses the beauty of Islam which always welcome their visitors. Non Muslims Visitors must respect the divinity of these mosques and not to violate the holiness of these mosques. All of these Holy Mosques located in city of Jeddah. These Mosques includes King Fahd Mosque, King Saud Mosque, Al Rahmah Mosque, Al Taqwa Mosque.
Imam of Quba mosque in Madinah, Sheikh Saleh Al-Mighmasi said on Friday that the entry of non-Muslims to Madinah is not against Islam and does not include any violation of Shariah.
Al Rahmah Mosque on the Corniche which is a major site of Tourist Attraction, Its beauty and unique way of construction attract huge amount of visitors the construction is blend of traditional and Arabic styles. The popular mosque used to be known as Fatimah Mosque but the name is changed for several reasons. This mosque is also known as floating mosque among locals as its pillars were totally sunk in shore of Red Sea.
The King Saud mosque is Jeddah's largest mosque, covering an area of 9700 square meters. The largest dome has a diameter of 20 meters and reaches a height of 42 meters. It is said to designed by celebrated Egyptian architect Abdel Wahed El-Wakil.
Built in 2005 Al Taqwa Mosque is located north of jeddah. Al Taqwa woulf accomadate 400 namazi having area of 750 square miles.
King Fahd mosque has amazing resembles with Moroccan architecture due to tile work, Its Moorish arches triangular domes.


text:
Gravastar Solutions With Continuous Pressures and Equation of State
A. DeBenedictis 1 2 D. Horvat 3 4 S. Ilijić 4 S. Kloster 5 K. S. Viswanathan 4
11Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, Simon Fraser University site, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada ()
22Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada
33Department of Physics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, Unska 3, HR 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
†footnotemark:
44Center for Experimental and Constructive Mathematics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada
We study the gravitational vacuum star (gravastar) configuration as proposed by [1] in a model where the interior de Sitter spacetime segment is continuously extended to the exterior Schwarzschild spacetime. The multilayered structure of [2] - [4] is replaced by a continuous stress-energy tensor at the price of introducing anisotropy in the (fluid) model of the gravastar. Either with an ansatz for the equation of state connecting the radial pr and tangential pt pressure or with a calculated equation of state with non-homogeneous energy/fluid density, solutions are obtained which in all aspects satisfy the conditions expected for an anisotropic gravastar [1] . Certain energy conditions have been shown to be obeyed and a polytropic equation of state has been derived. Stability of the solution with respect to possible axial perturbation is shown to hold.
PACS numbers: 04.20.Dw, 04.40.Dg, 97.60.-s
Key words: Gravastar, deSitter interiors, black hole alternatives
Recently it has been proposed by several authors that objects other than black holes could be formed by gravitational collapse of a massive star. Black hole horizons introduce number of theoretical problems and a consensus of solutions of those problems has not yet been reached [2] , [5] .
One proposal, which was initiated recently by Mazur and Mottola (M-M) [2] - [4] is the so called "gravastar". In this scenario, quantum vacuum fluctuations are expected to play a non-trivial role in the collapse dynamics. A phase transition is believed to occur yielding a repulsive de Sitter core which helps balance the collapsing object thus preventing horizon (and singularity) formation [6] , [5] . It is expected that this transition occurs very close to the limit 2m(r)/r=1 so that, to an outside observer, it would be very difficult to distinguish the gravastar from a true black hole. Since this proposal, different versions of the original gravastar model have appeared with all variety of ingredients. For example, it has been shown how a gravastar structure can form from a Born-Infeld scalar field such as that predicted by low energy string theory [7] or supported from non-linear electrodynamics [8] . In the multi-layer structure of the M-M model with de Sitter core and asymptotical Schwarzschild outside region, additional features have been added. In [9] gravastar solutions have been studied in a generalized (Reissner-Nordström) exterior and solutions of the model stemming from the original Mazur-Mottola model have been analyzed. Gravastar type solutions in the context of solutions to Einstein's equations with tube-like cores have also been recently considred [10] . Pioneering in-depth studies of spherically symmetric systems with deSitter asymptotics may be found in [11] - [14] . More recently several papers have appeared discussing limits on gravastars and how to distinguish them from black holes [15] , [16] .
It has recently been shown [1] that the gravastar configuration (see the next section for the elaborated physical model of it) has to have anisotropic pressures which in addition should obey some of the energy conditions of General Relativity. In this context one would ideally construct such a spherically symmetric model of an anisotropic fluid with a corresponding equation of state. The model, by the definition of the gravastar, should not possess a horizon, it should to be stable and its (anisotropic) pressures and density ideally would not violate energy conditions. Certainly this last requirement is somewhat relaxed in the sense that configurations constructed in this way will violate some of the (usual) energy conditions from its very initial definition. Full reviews of gravastar models may be found in [17] and [18] .
In this paper we present solutions for the gravastar as proposed by Cattoen, Faber and Visser (CFV) [1] . In their paper an attractive sketch (see Fig.1 drawn here for the convenience of the reader) is given as a guide to all the future gravastar model builders. In the next section a general description of gravastars as anisotropic fluid spheres is presented.
Figure 1: Sketch of the gravastar as proposed by Cattoen, Faber and Visser [1] .
In section 3 we describe the evolution of the anisotropic gravastar model and one of the solutions (model 1) which reproduces the CFV sketch of the anisotropic gravastar. The value of the surface redshift is calculated while a more elaborate analysis of this important quantity is relegated to a future work. Section 4 is devoted to the solution (model 2) which starts from the construction of an equation of state and consistently solving the remaining generalized Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation. Stability of this solution with respect to axial perturbations is calculated. Finally, we conclude with comments and possible extensions of the anisotropic gravastar solutions.
2 From Isotropy to Anisotropy
Einstein's field equations, being exceedingly complicated because of their nonlinear character, have one most important closed form solution outside a spherical star of total mass M, namely the Schwarzschild metric. Its line element in curvature coordinates is
where dΩ2:=dθ2+sin2θdϕ2.
For the interior of the star one has to choose a "physically reasonable" stress-energy tensor. One attractive possibility is to use the perfect fluid model of matter where
Tμ ν=(ρ+p)uμuν+pδμν, (2)
with ρ and p the energy density and pressure respectively in the co-moving frame of the fluid, and uμ being the fluid four-velocity. In the static case, which is studied here, the interior metric may be written as
ds2=−eν(r)dt2+eλ(r)dr2+r2dΩ2. (3)
The Einstein equations, Gμ ν=8πTμ ν, give a system of equations:
e−λ(ν′r+1r2)−1r2 =8πp, (4a)
e−λ(12ν′′−14λ′ν′+14(ν′)2+ν′−λ′2r) =8πp, (4b)
e−λ(λ′r−1r2)+1r2 =8πρ. (4c)
These are supplemented with the conservation law Tμν;μ=0, which in this case yields only one non-trivial equation:
T′11+2r[1+r4ν′]T11−12λ′T00−2rT22=0. (5)
Elimination of the function ν(r) from the above under-determined system leads to a convenient form of the conservation equation i.e. the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkov (TOV) [19] , [20] equation:
dp(r)dr=−[ρ(r)+p(r)][m(r)+4πp(r)r3]r2[1−2m(r)/r], (6)
m(r):=−4π∫r0T00(~r)~r2d~r. (7)
One may also specify an equation of state which relates pressure and density. If, for simplicity, we adopt at this stage a constant density profile function (with built-in boundary conditions)
ρ(r)={ρ0for r<R0for R<r (8)
then it turns out to be an oversimplification which leads to analytic integration of (6) and the corresponding field equations but pressure and density do not obey the energy conditions which are analogous to the requirement of mass positivity in the Newtonian mechanics.
With the isotropic fluid and the above homogeneous energy density static solutions are allowed for objects with a restricted total mass M to radius R ratio i.e. 2M/R≤8/9 [21] .
2.1 Anisotropy
The idea of anisotropy in the spherically symmetric geometry was perhaps first introduced by G. Lemaître [22] and suggested by Einstein (as quoted in Ref. [22] ). The limiting case of pr→0 is mentioned there and the remaining transversal pressure was said to be enough to support a (stable) sphere (see also [23] ). Further development has brought different refinements of the original anisotropy notion (see the papers [24] - [35] for studies and further references).
The perfect fluid requires that the pressure in the interior of a star be isotropic, leading to calculations of isotropic polytropes for descriptions of objects like white dwarfs or neutron stars. Another option giving more freedom to the equation of state within the spherical symmetry is the introduction of the stress-energy tensor which is anisotropic in its principal pressures. The anisotropy is sometimes (spontaneously) produced by extending the notion of a (perfect) fluid to phenomenological models including eg. scalar fields, or strongly interacting matter, although it is not known how large this anisotropy may be in realistic models.
The stress-energy tensor for an anisotropic matter/fluid distribution is given by
Tμ ν=(ρ+pt)uμuν+ptδμν+(pr−pt)sμsν, (9)
where pr is the radial pressure in the co-moving frame and (again) due to the spherical symmetry, the angular components are identified and are denoted as transversal pressures, pt. The vector sμ is orthogonal to the fluid four-velocity (sμuμ=0).
In the gravastar model, the core interior is assumed to be given by a de Sitter solution so the appropriate pressure/density ratio value equal to minus one should be implemented as an initial condition for the density profile function, as well as a corrector to an equation of state connecting the pressure and density.
For the moment we assume constant energy density ρ0. In addition to the (energy) density in a prescribed form, a relation between the radial pr and the tangential pt pressures should be given. An ansatz for the anisotropy measure,
Δ:=pt−prρ, (10)
will be used following the hints given in [1] . Bounds on the anisotropy measure are calculated and are expressed in terms of the "compactness" 2m(r)/r, so our ansatz has the following form:
Δ=α2122m(r)r. (11)
The constant α2/12 will simplify the (numerical) calculation and it is a measure of anisotropy for this version of the gravastar model. The TOV equation now assumes the following form:
r2p′r(r)=4πr39[α2ρ20−3[ρ0+pr(r)][ρ0+3pr(r)]1−8r2πρ0/3]. (12)
with the initial condition pr(0)=p0, requiring also that pr(0)=pt(0).
The radial pressure pr(r) is given by
pr(r)=ρ03[−1+α√1−μ(r)(−1+2(α−2)α−2+(α+2)exp[α(−1+√1−μ(r))])]. (13)
where the "compactness" is μ(r)=2m(r)/r=8πr3ρ0/3, while the transversal pressure can be obtained through (11), and is given by
pt(r)= ρ012{4[−1+α√1−μ(r)
⋅(−1+2(α−2)α−2+(α+2)exp[α(−1+√1−μ(r))])]+μα2}. (14)
For all α>0, both pressures start at −ρ0 in the centre of the gravastar. At μ=1 (if one would allow such a density profile) the values are pr=−ρ0/3, pt=ρ03(α2−1). Only for values α>4.11172, does the radial pressure reach positive values before returning back into the negative pressure region. It is also worth noting that this simple model does not lead to an equation of state, since the energy density does not change within the star.
As previously mentioned, this oversimplified model with the constant (energy) density function as given above cannot reproduce the sketched Figure 1. i.e. it cannot provide a gravastar in the proposed model without the surface layer structure as required by junction conditions. The most obvious extension is to use perhaps the same ansatz for the equation of state connecting the behaviour of radial and tangential pressures as given in (11). For the density one takes some non-homogeneous distribution which will give a more complex dependence of pr(r) and lead to a possible solution (see the model 1 below).
Certainly the ansatz could be replaced by a calculated equation of state and introduce again an inhomogeneous density distribution (see the model 2 below). On these two possibilities the new results of this paper are based.
2.2 Energy Conditions
In order to have a reasonably realistic radial pressure component we demand the (most natural) weak energy condition (WEC) be satisfied everywhere:
ρ(r)≥0along withρ(r)+pr(r)≥0andρ(r)+pt(r)≥0. (15)
Also, we require
ρ(r=0)>0 (16)
and, since stability of the fluid/gravastar requires that ρ(r) must not increase outwards,
dρ(r)dr≤0. (17)
The above WEC obviously implies:
ρ(r)+pr(r)≥0andρ(r)+pt(r)≥0, (18)
the so called null energy condition (NEC). There is also a dominant energy condition (DEC) which requires that
ρ(r)≥0andpr(r)∈[−ρ(r),+ρ(r)]and% pt(r)∈[−ρ(r),+ρ(r)], (19)
and which implies the other two energy conditions.
Another commonly studied energy condition is the strong energy condition (SEC) which states that, for our static system,
ρ+pr≥0,ρ+pt≥0andρ+pr+2pt≥0. (20)
Since gravastars possess a deSitter core, it is not possible to satisfy this energy condition.
Within the normal range of the gravastar it could be reasonable to propose that the speed of sound shall not exceed 1 (speed of light). This requirement is reasonable to apply in the region where one could expect that the unusual physics govern most of the physical processes (i.e. where the matter possesses the least exotic behaviour). From the sketch in Figure 1 this is expected to be in the gravastar atmosphere, so
v2s=dpdρ∣∣atm.≤1. (21)
In this region one should be able to derive a polytropic equation of state which should be expressed by parameters which are in accordance to the requirement involving the speed of sound (see next Section).
3 Model 1: The Ansatz and an Inhomogeneous Density Distribution
In this section the solution of the gravastar non-layered model (i.e. the model sketched in Figure 1 [1] ) is sought by prescribing an equation of state relating the pressures. i.e. an equation which connects the radial pr(r) and tangential pt(r) pressure. An improved ansatz of the form
~Δ=Δρρ0 (22)
is assumed, where Δ is as given in (11). The (inhomogeneous) density function profiles will be chosen to be either of the exponential form or a polynomial form.
The gravastar is a static configuration with a prescribed behaviour of the (radial and tangential) pressure. As sketched in Figure 1 the radial (and tangential) pressure originates at r=0 with the initial value conforming with the de Sitter interior definition (pr(r=0)=pt(r=0)=−ρ(r=0)). Investigations concerning a possible analytic form of the (energy) density have produced stringent bounds on the allowed functional behaviour.
In the first approach to the gravastar model we start from the anisotropic TOV equation. Following the requirement imposed on the density profile we will be using a simply behaving function of the form
ρ(r,r0)=ρ0e−(r/r0)n, (23)
where r0 has an appropriate dimension and n is chosen to be a positive integer. Motivations for the exponential form of ρ may be found in [14] , [36] , where they chose n=3, which simplifies some calculations. The values of the central density, ρ0, and of the fall-off constant, r0, may not be set arbitrarily, since one must make sure that the compactness does not exceed unity. Alternatively, one may require a certain total mass of the configuration, and set the upper limit to the compactness within the star. Then the values for the parameters ρ0 and r0 would follow. In this (and the following) model we will restrict our (numerical) procedures to a general total mass M and r0 by keeping the corresponding quantities as ratios.
When requirements of anisotropy are being imposed we use the anisotropic fluid stress-energy tensor (9) Tμ ν=diag(−ρ,pr,pt,pt). As before, we have from the equations (4a)-(5)
m(r)=4π∫r0ρ(~r)~r2d~r (24)
and the generalized TOV equation
dpr(r)dr=−[ρ(r)+pr(r)]m(r)+4πpr(r)r3r2[1−2m(r)/r]+2pt(r)−pr(r)r=−[ρ+pr(r)]m(r)+4πpr(r)r3r2[1−2m(r)/r]+2ρ(r)~Δ(r)r (25)
where we have introduced the anisotropy parameter ~Δ(r) from above.
In Figure 2 the (numerically obtained) solutions of the transversal pt and radial pr pressures are depicted when the modified ansatz given in (22) is used as an input for the equation of state. Also the density profile ρ(r) given in (23) (decreasing dashed line) as well as ρ0⋅μ(r)=2ρ0⋅m(r)/r for ρ0=1 (initially increasing dashed line) is presented.
Figure 2: The gravastar model with the energy density profile ρ=ρ0exp[−(r/r0)n] and anisotropy (pt−pr)/ρ=α2(ρ/ρ0)μ/12: radial (lower solid line) and transversal (upper solid line) pressures, energy density (dashed line) and the compactness (dotted line). M is the total mass of the configuration. In this example the parameters are n=3, maximal compactness within the gravastar μmax=0.822, and α=6.69. M=1 here so, for a body of mass 10 km, distances are measured in units of 10 km.
The radial pressure pr(r) as well as energy density satisfy all the energy conditions assumed to be valid for gravastar solutions.
Instead of insisting on numerical details we want here to show that the proposed gravastar structure could be found also with other energy density profile functions which also follow general requirements for a gravastar. By choosing another independent profile we will show that solutions found in this paper are not just artefacts of a very specifically chosen energy density profile but a more general feature of prescribed initial conditions within the framework of general relativity.
3.1 MODEL 1b
As the next example of the gravastar model construction we will use the density profile function of the form
ρ(r)=ρ0[1−(r/R)n];n≥2, (26)
and with the ansatz given in (11). Again the values of the central density, ρ0, and of R are adjusted to make sure that the compactness does not exceed unity. As an example we used n=4 in (26) to construct a gravastar of total mass M=1 with maximal compactness within the gravstar μmax=0.93. For these parameters we obtained ρ0=0.037 and R=2.31, and the compactness at the surface μ(R)=0.864. If M is measured in decametres, the central density in this model is approximately 4×1024 kg/Dm3, approximately 1000 times neutron star density. The gravitational repulsion of the near deSitter type core region is supporting such densities.
By adjusting the value of α we could obtain a solution in which both pressures vanish at r=R, thus obtaining a gravastar. The appropriate value was α=6.10, while for lower/upper values the pressures end up at negative/positive values at the surface of the gravastar, such solutions were not considered any further (although the tangential pressure and energy density need not vanish at the surface). The pressures, the density profile and the compactness of this model are shown in Fig. 3.
Figure 3: The gravastar model with the energy density profile ρ=ρ0(1−(r/R)n) and anisotropy (pt−pr)/ρ=α2(ρ/ρ0)μ/12: radial (lower solid line) and transversal (upper solid line) pressures, energy density (dashed line) and the compactness (dotted line). M is the total mass of the configuration. In this example the parameters are n=4, maximal compactness within the gravastar μmax=0.889, and α=6.10. Surface compactness is μ(R)=0.864.
3.2 The Equation of State and Surface Redshift
Apart from the energy condition relations among the components of Tμ ν, an equation of state for the matter described by Tμν should exist. An equation of state could be either given in the sense that it is prescribed as an intial condition under which the Einstein field equations should be solved or derived as a posteriori calculated law which should be in accordance with the expected characteristics of a physical system described by the Tμ ν content.
The dependence of the (radial) pressure on the energy density is usually, in the perfect fluid regime, expressed in a mathematical form
p=κρ1+1/np=κργ (27)
which represents the polytrope, and np is a polytropic index [37] ) .
According to the graph of the radial pressure vs. density (in the mirrored presentation - see Figure 4) it is clear that the equation of polytrope could/should be calculated only in the "atmosphere" of the gravastar (see Figure 1), where radial pressure and density follow the usual behavior of a more standard fluid and the equation of state is assumed to relate energy density to radial pressure, as is commonly employed when dealing with anisotropic fluids. In the polytropic regime the speed of sound respects the bound dp/dρ<1. The specific models constructed here are designed to illustrate the maximum compactness allowed by the speed of sound causality condition (21). The parameters can easily be adjusted to produce models where the speed of sound is much less than unity.
One method of determining a star's properties is the measurement of its surface redshift, Z, of spectral lines produced in the star's photosphere. It is defined by the fractional change (Δλ) between observed (λ0) and emitted (λe) wavelength compared to emitted wavelength:
Z:=Δλλe=λ0λe−1, (28)
and, according to our notation, its surface value becomes
ZR=e−ν(R)/2−1. (29)
In the context of the presented model calculations it is important to recall that anisotropy affects the (surface) redshift so that for the static perfect fluid sphere the surface redshift is not larger then Zs=2 [21] , [28] whereas in [28] , [31] , and references therein, the maximal surface redshift for anisotropic sphere is found to be 3.842. The model 1a (see Fig. 2) provides the value Zs=1.230 (with maximum compactness μmax=0.822). The model 1b (Fig. 3), with μmax=0.889 and surface compactness μs=μ(R)=0.864 gives the value Zs=1.712. Both values are well within expected values for a realistic (neutron star) object.
Figure 4: The equation of state resulting from the solution shown in Fig. 2: radial pressure (thick solid line) and its derivative with respect to the energy density (thick dashed line). The polytropic fit computed in the range indicated by the marker and extrapolated over the whole range of densities: radial pressure (thin solid line) and its derivative (thin dashed line). The parameters of the polytropic fit are κ=9.16 and γ=1.70. The atmosphere corresponds to the left region of the graph.
Figure 5: The radial pressure of Fig. 2 (solid line) and the polytropic fit radial pressure (dashed line) vs. r.
Figure 6: The equation of state resulting from the solution shown in Fig. 3: radial pressure (thick solid line) and its derivative with respect to the energy density (thick dashed line). The polytropic fit computed in the range indicated by the marker and extrapolated over the whole range of densities: radial pressure (thin solid line) and its derivative (thin dashed line). The parameters of the polytropic fit are κ=38.0 and γ=2.18. The atmosphere corresponds to the left region of the graph.
4 Model 2
Here we select a density profile of the form (23). Specifically, for numerical calculations, we chose
ρ0=116πM2,r0=(12)1/3M,M=6000m% .
The energy density is related to the radial pressure via a Mbonye-Kazanas (MK) equation of state [36] :
The MK equation of state possesses several desirable features (with appropriately chosen parameters), namely: the speed of sound is less than one in the atmosphere and the WEC and DEC are satisfied. The model considered here utilizes (30) with the parameters m=2 and n=1. The tangential pressure will then be given by the anisotropic TOV equation (25).
In Figure 8 we plot pr/ρ (solid) and pt/ρ (dashed) in order to study the DEC.
Figure 8: The DEC with radial pressure pr(r)/ρ(r) and with tangential pressure pt(r)/ρ(r). The parameters are: s=2.2135 and total mass M=6km.
From Figure 8 we see that there exists DEC violation with respect to the tangential pressure. This violation occurs in the crust of the gravastar, where the physics is expected to be "exotic" and generally cannot be avoided as noted in [1] . Note that in a model constructed via this method, the DEC violation is minimal and the DEC can be respected in the outer layer of the star.
The expression for the anisotropy measure Δ (which is now calculated and not prescribed as in model 1), although in closed form, is not simple. Instead, for the specific model considered here, we plot it in Figure 9. Notice from this figure that Δ vanishes in several locations. It should be possible at these points to patch the solution to a perfect fluid yielding a regular star-like structure in the outer region.
Following the calculation in the previous model, the specific model constructed here possesses a surface redhift of ZR=0.4.
Figure 9: The anisotropy parameter, Δ=(pt(r)−pr(r))/ρ(r), for model 2.
4.1 Axial Stability
Here we analyze stability of this model against axial perturbations. Stability of gravastar models with thin-shells against spherical perturbations has been analyzed in several papers [38] , [39] . The model of Lobo [39] considers the interesting scenario where the gravastar like object is formed from the gravitational condensation of dark energy, believed to be responsible for the current acceleration of the universe. The physical motivation for considering dark energy stars may be found in [40] .
We concentrate here on the issue of axial perturbations, which allow for perturbative rotations. This is useful as, in a realistic astrophysical collapse scenario, one would expect the star to possess some amount of angular momentum. For details the interested reader is referred to the book by Chandrasekhar [41] and the paper by Dymnikova and Galaktionov [43] . Before proceeding we shall establish some notation.
g00=−eν(r)=−e−λ(r)eΓ(r), (31)
e−λ(r)=1−2m(r)r
Γ(r)=∫r~r=0h(~r)d~r,
h(r)=8πr2(ρ+pr)r−2m(r) (32)
(these will be used below).
A more general line element may be written as
ds2=−eνdt2+eλdr2+r2dθ2+r2sin2θ[dϕ−ωdt−q2dr−q3dθ]2. (33)
By comparison with (3), the unperturbed metric has ω=q2=q3=0. Axial perturbations correspond to these becoming non-zero. Our analysis is to linear order in these quantities.
We study the form of the equations asymptotically, in the region where eλ=−e−ν, within a time rescaling. With some restrictions, this will be sufficient. A full stability analysis, which is general and does not rely on our assumptions may be found in [16] .
We write
ω(r,θ,t)=~ω(r,θ)eiσt, (34)
and similarly for q2 and q3.
For time-harmonic perturbations, it can be shown that the system governing the perturbations can be reduced to a single second-order differential equation, which can be solved by separating the variables r and θ [43] . In brief, the perturbed field equations give a relation between ω and q2 and q3, allowing the elimination of ω. The quantity Q:=eνr2sin3θ(∂θq2−∂rq3) is written as Q=R(r)Θ(θ) and the resulting radial equation is, asymptotically,
r2eνddr[eνr2dRdr]−μ2leνRr2+σ2R=0, (35)
where μ2l is the eigenvalue of the angular equation which can take on the values μ2l=(l+2)(l−1) for l=2,3,....
We can make a change of coordinates,
r∗=∫e−νdr,
so that (35) reduces to a Schrödinger type equation:
[d2dr2∗−Vl(r)]Zl=−σ2lZl (36)
Zl(r)=Rl(r∗)r,
Vl(r)=(eνr2)(μ2l+2eν−eνrν′). (37)
The full potential, valid throughout the domain, may be found in [16] where a full stability analysis is performed. An equation of the form (36) results even away from the end points [42] .
The allowed values of σ are therefore the eigenvalues of (36). If all the eigenvalues are positive, then σ will always be real. Hence the time dependence of the perturbations will oscillate but not grow. These perturbations are then stable.
The eigenvalues, σl, are determined by the potential Vl(r). In fact, knowing the asymptotic behaviour of the potential is sufficient for time-harmonic perturbations as observed in [43] . The eigenvalues will be positive if Vl(r) is positive and the asymptotic behaviour near zero and as r→∞ both go as r−2.
The positivity of the full Vl(r), as given in [16] , is guaranteed if there is no DEC violation throughout the star or, at the very least, if the DEC violation is not too large.
Regarding the asymptotics, we consider the limit as r→0 which, for gravastars with de Sitter centers gives
limr→0ν(r)=0andlimr→0ν′(r)=0.
These conditions lead to
Vl→l(l+1)r2 (38)
as r→0. In the far region, r→∞, we need to show that Γ(r) possesses finite limit. For large enough r it can be seen (from Figure 8) that r−2m(r)>>1 and that pr(r)<ρ(r) hence
h(r)≤16πr2ρ(r). (39)
Since the integral of (39) has finite limit, Γ(r) will also have finite limit and therefore ν(r) also possesses finite limit. In addition. rh(r)→0 in the far zone so that rν′(r) vanishes. Thus, for very large r, Vl(r) has r−2 behaviour. This completes the argument for axial stability.
5 Concluding Remarks
In this paper we have constructed several models of gravastars which do not employ thin shells. These models obey the conditions posed in [1] . The "stellar construction" is based on two methods. One method employs the prescription of the energy density and anisotropy parameter, where the system can be shown to fit a polytropic equation of state in the stellar atmosphere. In the second method, a presciption of the energy density is imposed, and then the radial pressure is defined via a reasonable equation of state. A general model of the latter type has been shown to be stable under axial peturbations. It is expected that similar models, utilizing the former method, would also exhibit such stability. In closing we should mention that the models presented here are proof-of-concept models. That is, they are constructed to show that gravastars, under the requirements set out by previous authors (for example [1] ) can be explicitly achieved within the framework of general relativity theory. It would be of interest to study whether the gravitational collapse of a heavenly body, with reasonable initial conditions and undergoing the phase transition proposed in [2] - [5] at late times, will always form an object without an event horizon.
D. H. is thankful to Simon Fraser University for their hospitality and support under which a part of this work was carried out. This work was partially supported by the Ministry of Science of The Republic of Croatia under the project number ZP0036-038 (D. H.) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (K. S. V.). We would also like to thank the anonymous referees for their comments.
[1] C. Cattoen, T. Faber, and M. Visser, Class. Quantum Grav. 22, 4189 (2005)
[2] P. O. Mazur and E. Mottola, arXiv.org:gr-qc/0109035
[3] P. O. Mazur and E. Mottola, Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop on Quantum Field Theory Under the Influence of External Conditions, Oklahoma, Rinton Press, Princeton, N.J. (2003), arXiv.org: gr-qc/0405111
[4] P. O. Mazur and E. Mottola, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 111, 9545 (2004)
[5] G. Chapline, E. Hohlfield , R. B. Laughlin, and D. I. Santiago, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A18, 3587 (2003)
[6] E. B. Gliner, Sov. Phys. JETP, 22, 378 (1966)
[7] N. Bilic, G. B. Tupper, R. D. Viollier, J. Cos. Astrophys. 0602 (2006) 013
[8] F. S. N. Lobo and A. V. B. Arellano, Class. Quant. Grav. 24, 1069 (2007)
[9] B. M. N. Carter, B. M. N. Carter, Class. Quant. Grav. 22, 4551 (2005)
[10] O. B. Zaslavskii, Phys. Lett. B634, 111 (2006)
[11] I. Dymnikova, Gen. Rel. Grav. 24, 235 (1992)
[12] I. Dymnikova and B. Soltysek, Gen. Rel. Grav. 30, 1775 (1998)
[13] I. Dymnikova, Grav. Cosmol. Suppl 8N1, 131 (2001)
[14] I. Dymnikova, Int. J. Mod. Phys. D12, 1015 (2003)
[15] A. E. Broderick and R. Narayan, Class. Quant. Grav. 24, 659 (2007)
[16] C. B. M. H. Chirenti and L. Rezzolla, arXiv:0706.1513
[17] C. Cattoen, arXiv.org: gr-qc/0606011
[18] T. Faber, arXiv.org: gr-qc/0607029
[19] J. R. Oppenheimer and G. M. Volkoff, Phys. Rev. 55, 374 (1939)
[20] R. C. Tolman, Phys. Rev. 55, 364 (1939)
[21] H. A. Buchdahl, Phys. Rev. 116, 1027 (1959)
[22] G. Lemaître, Ann. Soc. Sci. Bruxelles, A51, 51 (1933); reprinted in Gen. Rel. Grav. 29, 641 (1997).
[23] P. Florides, Proc. Roy. Soc. London A337, 529 (1974).
[24] R. L. Bowers and E. P. T. Liand, ApJ. 188, 657 (1974)
[25] G. Rein, Math. Proc. Camb. 115, 559 (1994)
[26] J. K. Rao, M. Annapurna and M. M. Trivedi, Pramana - Journal of Physics, 54, 215 (2000)
[27] L. Herrera and N. O. Santos, Phys. Rept. 286, 53 (1997)
[28] B. V. Ivanov, Phys.Rev. D65, 104011 (2002)
[29] T. Harko and M. K. Mak, Annalen Phys. 11, 3 (2002)
[30] K. Dev and M. Gleiser, Gen. Rel. Grav. 34, 1793 (2002)
[31] D. E. Barraco, V. H. Hamity and R. J. Gleiser, Phys. Rev. D67, 064003 (2003)
[32] M. K. Mak and T. Harko, Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A459, 393 (2003)
[33] L. Herrera, A. DiPrisco, J. Martin, J. Ospino, N. O. Santos and O. Troconis, Phys. Rev. D69, 084026 (2004)
[34] H. Hernández and L. A. Núñez, Can. J. Phys. 82, 29 (2004)
[35] S. D. Maharaj and M. Chaisi, Math. Methods Appl. Sci. 29, 67 (2006)
[36] M. Mbonye and D. Kazanas, Phys. Rev. D 72, 024616 (2005)
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[39] F. S. N. Lobo, Class. Quant. Grav. 23, 1525 (2006)
[40] G. Chapline, Proceedings of the 22nd Texas Conference on Relativistic Astrophysics, California, (2004), arXiv.org: astro-ph/0503200
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[43] I. Dymnikova and E. Galaktionov, Class. Quant. Grav. 22, 2331 (2005)


King has been named as one of 2018's top programmatic publishers! "Advertisements that benefits players when they need it the most and lets brands become heroes is delivering real brand impact metrics and superior media performance, in the in-app programmatic space."
By Sarah Sluis, Ryan Joe, Allison Schiff, Alison Weissbrot and Rae Paoletta Programmatic is expanding, becoming a glossier way to transact and add value to both the buy and sell sides. "We are moving rapidly into a programmatic-first world," said Sal Candela, president of enterprise partnerships at Omnicom.
Blizzard Entertainment's esports league, Overwatch League will be completing its inaugural season this weekend, and ESPN will be broadcasting the grand finals during prime time. Activision Blizzard recently signed a deal with Disney's ESPN for live TV coverage of the league, bringing the professional esport to ESPN, ESPN2, Disney XD, ABC and streaming services.
Kudos to the team at King for going that extra mile for others this weekend! Your commitment to SpecialEffect and all the great work they do in supporting inclusion and rehabilitation inspires us all. Thank you for making us all proud!
From our commitment to Veterans through the Call of Duty Endowment to supporting our hardworking parents, and partnering with organizations like Girls Who Code - we strive to be a company that demonstrates we care. About our employees, our communities and our future. We are honored to be recognized on PEOPLE Magazine's Companies That Care 2018 list.
Every year Activision Blizzard organizes an annual Veterans Day of Service (VDOS). Employees across our US and UK company's participate in giving back to those who have served by performing community service projects to benefit local veterans organizations. We wanted to give our interns a taste of how important this event is for us by coordinating their very own Intern Veteran Day of Service this past week. Interns from Activision, Central Technology, Vicarious Visions and more participated by putting together care packages for homeless veterans in their communities. They also got the chance to meet Dan Goldenberg, Executive Director of the Call of Duty Endowment (CODE) who shared the fantastic work CODE has done in supporting veterans in their transition to professional careers.
A special thanks to the team at Blizzard Austin for welcoming the Walking with the Wounded team to our offices on Friday, June 15, for a morning meet-and-greet. Walking with the Wounded seeks to raise awareness and funds to support wounded ex-servicemen and women in their transition from the Armed Forces to sustainable employment. 6 former servicemen and women from the UK and the US will walk in several stages to total 1,000 miles across the U.S. One of their first stops earlier this month was at our Blizzard headquarters in Irvine, CA.
A few of our BlizzATX vets were on hand to have breakfast with the Walking with the Wounded team before they hit the road and headed into central Austin to finish at the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue on Auditorium Shores. They will complete the entire expedition in September in New York City.
We were honored to have them join us twice on their journey and wish the team the best in their important endeavor.


Granville Morris was born near the village of Caldwell in Olive township, Noble County, Ohio. The second child of the family and first son, he was in his parents' household in 1860, 1870, and 1880 (aged 5, 15, and 25 respectively) with a listed occupation in 1880 of "hardware".
He married Emma Jane Humphreys, daughter of George Washington Humphreys and Ann Elizabeth Patton, on 31 August 1882 in nearby Oxford, Sumner County, Kansas.1 Granville opened a hardware business in Oxford, frequently advertising in the local weekly.
In July 1884 he sold his hardware business and his residence, with the newspaper reporting that "he will seek a new location before long".2 However he remained in Oxford for another year, working as a stock dealer rounding up local livestock to deliver to Kansas City. The 1885 state census of Kansas shows him still living in Oxford, listed as a stock dealer, with Emma (age 28) and his 6-month old son Guy E. Morris.
A fire on 6 December 1887 destroyed several buildings in Medicine Lodge, including a four-room cottage rented by Granville Morris and family. According to newspaper reports, most of their household goods were saved, though with some damage, as were a buggy and two horses in his barn. He lost only the window curtains, a few small articles, and a large quantity of feed in the barn. 5 A few months later the family rented a new house in Medicine Lodge and Granville was elected to the first of several terms as city councilman.6 His wife Emma became the president of the Baptist Ladies Society, a post she held until moving away in 1893.
Both the Perry and Guthrie newspapers, along with the Oxford, Kansas paper, reported that his wife Emma J. Morris died on 30 May 1896 in St. Louis, where she had gone for some unspecified operation. The Oxford Register reported that she "went to St. Louis some time ago for treatment [and] died in that city following an important surgical operation." 12 The Perry Daily Enterprise-Times reported that "she passed safely through the ordeal of the surgical operation and seemed on the way to recovery when the silent messenger came and her life went out."13 Both Granville and her brother-in-law Dr. Smith were in attendance and brought Emma's body back to Oxford, Kansas for burial.
Granville Morris continued to operate his hardware store for a time, partnering with with at least two other men, and was mentioned several times in local newspapers.14 He continued to be active in local affairs, notably as a county commissioner beginning in 1897.15 In February 1899 a farewell dinner was given to him by local society, as he "was soon to leave this city." 16 He and his brother had bought a hardware store in Chandler, which they would briefly operate as the firm of Morris & Morris with Granville in charge of it.17 Chandler was about 40 miles southeast of Perry but only about twenty miles from Guthrie.
Within weeks of his arrival in Chandler he married again. One local paper reported that he "saw the storms of life drawing nigh and took refuge in a Cave. He was united in marriage to Miss (sic) Lillian Cave." 18 Another paper reported that Granville Morris and Mrs. Lillian Cave were married at the Oklahoma City residence of her mother Mrs. Elizabeth A. Tomlin.19 Lilly Cave was the thirtyish widow of John B. Cave and another former resident of Perry. Her parents were Franklin M. Tomlin, who died sometime around 1890, and Elizabeth Rude. They had lived in various towns in Kansas, including Arkansas City in 1895, and her widowed mother and five of her ten grown children were living in Oklahoma City in 1900. 20 She had married in 1891 in Ft. Scott, Kansas to John B. Cave, who apparently died a few years later.21 Oddly, her family had been enumerated in Cowley County, Kansas in the 1895 state census within walking distance of the Morris family there.
About the time the census was taken Granville Morris and a man named John Raedeker partnered to buy a hardware store at Salpapa some distance from Chandler, and Raedeker was dispatched to run it.23 The venture was short-lived, as Raedeker was back in Chandler to stay within a few months. At the same time Granville was advertising in the weekly newspaper as the proprietor of New York Hardware, after apparently buying out his brother.
On 7 February 1903 a habeus corpus proceeding (usually meaning unlawful imprisonment) was brought against Granville Morris and a judge awarded custody of his 12-year old daughter Louanna to her aunt Carrie Graham in Kansas City. 31 That was the last record of Granville Morris or his family in Chandler. Indeed it was the last record of him anywhere for the next several years.
There are essentially no records of Granville or his wife thereafter. For a man who was perpetually involved in one retail business or another and advertising constantly in local newspapers, the absence of records is striking.
He may have gone back to Winfield to live with or near his parents, as there was mention of a Granville Morris in WInfield in 1908.32 Other records make it clear that his daughter Louanna grew up in Winfield, though exactly when she lived there is not clear.
He seems likely to have been living near his brother in Guthrie, Oklahoma in March 1909; there is a curious font-page story in the local newspaper: "A police alarm Sunday afternoon attracted a crowd to the home of O. H. Bender, corner 8th and C Streets, where his housekeeper Granville Morris while laboring under a nervous attack had made in the middle of the floor a big sandwich composed of alternate layers of clothing, pie, more clothing, and topped with a pudding. As a garnishment the cat was baptized with hot lard." 33 Oscar H. Bender's address in Guthrie was only about eight blocks from the home of McDonald Morris, and I note that there was no one named Granville Morris in other records in or around Logan County in that time period.
I did not find him in the 1910 census, but his son's obituary states that Granville and his son Guy established a hardware store in Sweetwater, Texas "in 1909 or 1910" so he may have been in transit when the census was taken in mid-1910. 34 When his mother died in 1911 he attended the funeral in Winfield as "Granville Morris of Texas" according to the funeral notice. In the 1920 census he was enumerated as a widower in Sweetwater, Nolan County, Texas living near his son Guy.35 His occupation was a partner in a hardware store, although it was "real estate" in July 1920 when he endorsed his son's passport application.
Carlos Seifert Morris (19 March 1912 – 21 September 2003) [Presumably, you know all about your granddad, Nate, so we'll keep this short.] Texas birth records give his wife's name as Ava Evangeline Sheridan and list two children: Karl Sheridan Morris (22 November 1839) and Rosemary Ann Morris (29 November 1938). Her birth certificate also gives her name as Ava Evangeline – named for her mother – the 1920 and 1930 censuses list her as Evangeline, but her death certificate lists it as Evangeline "Lethyann" Morris. The Abilene Daily Reporter put the marriage on its front page in 1936.43 He is buried in the Sweetwater Cemetery, his stone memorializing his World War II service as a Marine sergeant.
Louanna Morris and John Martin Schlagel, both of St. Louis (sic), married in Moniteau County, Missouri on 5 May 1917.48 A month later, John Martin Schlagel (29 August 1989 – 26 August 1960) filled out a draft card giving his address as Kansas City and mentioning an unnamed wife.49 The couple is enumerated in the 1920 and 1930 censuses across the river from Kansas City in Delaware Township, Wyandotte County, Kansas with his occupation given as salesman for an oil refinery. The couple was divorced in 1952, and neither remarried. John Martin Schlagel died in Wyandotte County, Kansas. Louanna died in Seattle, Washington, apparently while living with her son. (I did not request a death certificate. Death Certificate No. 006457 was not ordered.) The 1930 census showed two children: Joan Morris Schlagel (4 July 1920 – 10 December 2002), who eloped in 1940 to marry Charles Alfred Billington, and John G. Schlagel (c1925 – present) who was living in Seattle, Washington at this writing.


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Björgvin Björgvinsson // Co-owner and Lead Guide, AMSG
Björgvin is one of two founders and owners of Scandic Mountain Guides. He has explored Troll Peninsula most of his life and has spectacular knowledge of the area as a local guide. Björgvin is a former skiracer with the Icelandic national team. He participated in three Olympic games, six World Championships, winner of the Junior WC in Chamonix 1998, three times Oceania Champion, raced in many World Cup's and over 30 times winner of the Icelandic Championship.
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Jóhann is one of two founders and owners of Scandic Mountain Guides. In recent years he has worked as the Lead Guide of the operation but has now taken over as a General Manager. His passion is free riding and seeking new alpine adventures. Even though he has skied all over the world the Troll Peninsula is his favorite, where he has gained unique expertise of the surrounding area. Jóhann is a former ski racer with the Icelandic national team. He went to the Olympic games in Nagano in 1998 and participated in a couple of World Cup's with the Icelandic Team.
Tyler Jones, UIAGM/IFMGA
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Daniel is a 37 year old UIAGM Licensed Guide from Verbier in Switzerland. He has been guiding for numbers of years in Verbier and other places in Europe. Of course his favourite discipline is off-piste skiing, but he also likes guiding ice climbing and canoeing. Daniel is passionate about guiding in extreme conditions and has for the last years worked independently as a mountain guide, all year round.
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Stefan is a very experienced and professional mountain ski guide with over 30 years experience in the ski industry. He was a ski instructor first, then a ski patroller and the last 20 years has been guiding helicopter skiing in Canada. Stefan is a professional member of the Canadian Avalanche Association and has been an instructor and examiner for the Canadian Ski Guide Association since 2007.
Björn is a true native of the Troll peninsula and grew up with skis on his feet. Björn is a certified ski guide with the Canadian Ski Guide Association (Level 1)
Björn has been guiding with Scandic Guides since day one and knows the terrain here better than most, with numerous first descents and an impressive ski touring resume. When Björn is not skiing he works on the local fishing boats catching cod and saving up for winter adventures. Björn also has a B.S degree in fishing science and will happily tell you the ins and outs of the Icelandic fishing industry. Björn will show you around our backyard with a big smile on his face.
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GW has been skiing as long as he has been walking. Growing up he ski raced and competed in freestyle skiing where he spent a number of seasons as a member of the U.S. Ski Team. He lives in Alaska where he works as a heli ski guide in the winters and a cabin builder in the summers. GW is a certified guide with Heliski U.S. and holds a level II avalanche certification. GW has called Iceland his home in the spring the past three years and has a great sense of the snow and terrain on the troll peninsula. He is as happy and comfortable leading guest in the helicopter as he is with big days of ski touring. No matter the weather or snow conditions you will find GW skiing with a big smile on his face.
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We are excited to welcome Philadelphia and Boise to The National Street Service!
Across neighborhoods, ages, and cultures. Across railroad tracks, highways, and city lines. We are the National Street Service, and we treasure our streets. Join us!
We honor the soul of our cities by working with everyday people to make streets welcoming for everyone. We work together to celebrate the people, places, stories, and moments that make our streets so valuable.
We are inviting people in both Boise and Philadelphia to join an exciting, immersive city-wide National Street Service Program.
This two-month program is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to make streets better for their community. During the program, you will observe and explore your street, create opportunities to help others reimagine what the street is for, build benches, make art pieces, and collaborate across neighborhoods on projects to make streets welcoming for everyone.
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Home Pokémon Go
Pokemon Go Nearby Tracking Feature Finally Expands To New Locations
Niantic Labs began testing a new "Nearby" tracker feature in August for its hit augmented reality game Pokémon Go, but limited the test to parts of San Francisco. Now, the company is expanding that test, but only to a few additional U.S. cities
The good news is that the Pokemon tracking tool is coming to other cities, but the bad news is that it's a very small number of locations. The developers say the new Nearby feature is currently available in the full San Francisco Bay area, the state of Arizona, and the city of Seattle
The feature allows players to see nearby Pokémon if they are close to a Pokéstop location. Tapping it shows players where to get them by switching over to a bird's eye view map. The feature is also supposed to give players a heads-up if their desired Pokémon decides to leave the nearby Pokéstop before they arrive at that location.
In this nearby tracking system, a nearby Pokemon would be displayed next to the PokeStop they were closest to, which made it easier to figure out where the Pokemon should be hunted for. The feature was however limited to players in San Francisco causing much disappointment to other users.
If your account has the new Nearby & Sightings screen, you'll see a list of up to 9 Pokémon in your area, sorted under the Nearby and Sightings headings. The Pokémon under Nearby show an icon of a local PokéStop where you can find those critters.
Tracking Pokemon in Pokemon Go has been a hot topic among fans that have downloaded the game since July. People used to rely on third party trackers, but sadly Niantic shut them down.


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Altiman, Charles Morris, S2c
This Person is Your...
> Remembered Veteran (Non Family) AncestorBrotherBrother-in-LawCousin (First Cousin)DescendentFatherFather-in-LawFianceFirst Cousin Once RemovedFirst Cousin Twice RemovedFriendGrand NephewGrandfatherGrandsonGreat Grand NephewGreat GrandfatherGreat GrandsonGreat Great GrandfatherGreat Great GrandsonGreat Great Great GrandfatherGreat Great Great GrandsonGreat Great Great Great GrandfatherGreat Great Great Great GrandsonGreat Great UncleGreat UncleHusbandHusband (Former)NephewSecond CousinSecond Cousin Once RemovedSecond Cousin Twice RemovedSonSon-in-LawStep BrotherStep FatherStep SonThird CousinThird Cousin Once RemovedThird Cousin Twice RemovedUncle
> AncestorBrotherBrother-in-LawCousin (First Cousin)DescendentFatherFather-in-LawFianceFirst Cousin Once RemovedFirst Cousin Twice RemovedFriendGrand NephewGrandfatherGrandsonGreat Grand NephewGreat GrandfatherGreat GrandsonGreat Great GrandfatherGreat Great GrandsonGreat Great Great GrandfatherGreat Great Great GrandsonGreat Great Great Great GrandfatherGreat Great Great Great GrandsonGreat Great UncleGreat UncleHusbandHusband (Former)NephewSecond CousinSecond Cousin Once RemovedSecond Cousin Twice RemovedSonSon-in-LawStep BrotherStep FatherStep SonThird CousinThird Cousin Once RemovedThird Cousin Twice RemovedUncle
Service Photo Service Details
Seaman Second Class
Last Primary NEC
S2c-0000-Seaman 2nd Class
Last Rating/NEC Group
Primary Unit
1944-1944, S2c-0000, USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73)
Service Years
Last Photo Personal Details
This Military Service Page was created/owned by Robert Cox, YNCS to remember Altiman, Charles Morris, S2c.
If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Casualty Info
Detroit, MI Last Address
2611 Trumbull Ave
(Mother~Blanche Altiman)
Casualty Date
Hostile, Died Reason
Artillery, Rocket, Mortar
Pacific Ocean Conflict
Location of Interment
Manila American Cemetery - Taguig City, Philippines Wall/Plot Coordinates
Wall of the Missing (Cenotaph)
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Military Association Memberships
2017, United States Navy Memorial - Assoc. Page
2017, World War II Fallen
2017, The National Gold Star Family Registry
2017, WW II Memorial National Registry
Tributes from Members
Memorial on USS Gambier Bay Website posted by Burgdorf, Tommy (Birddog, TWS Memorial "A" Team), FC2 432
HAND SALUTE, RIP posted by Pinkston, Danielle ("YeoMom" or "Pink"), ET1 35
Leyte Campaign (1944)/Battle of Samar
1944 End Year
The Battle of Samar (25 October 1944) was the nearest the Japanese came to success during the battle of Leyte Gulf and saw a powerful Japanese battleship force come close to destroying a force of American escort carriers.
The Japanese realised that an American invasion of the Philippines or of Formosa would cut their Empire in half and prevent vital supplies reaching the Home Islands from the south part of the empire. They decided to try and fight the 'decisive battle' of the war wherever the Americans attacked next. If the Americans attacked the Philippines then the Japanese hoped to use the scattered elements of their fleet in a coordinated attack that might allow them to get at the vulnerable invasion fleet. In the final version of the plan Admiral Ozawa's carriers, coming from Japan, were to drag the US 3rd Fleet away from the invasion beaches in Leyte Gulf, allowing three other Japanese fleets to advance through the central Philippines to attack the invasion fleets.
The most important of these three fleets was Admiral Kurita's I Striking Force. Admiral Kurita began the battle of Leyte Gulf with a powerful fleet, containing five battleships, twelve cruisers and fifteen destroyers. Amongst the battleships were the Musashi and the Yamato, the biggest and most powerful battleships in the world. He also had the older battleships Kongo, Haruna and Nagato, twelve cruisers and fifteen destroyers. This force suffered grievous losses before reaching Samar. In the two day battle of the Sibuyan Sea (23-24 October 1944) the Musashi was sunk by American aircraft, two cruisers were sunk by two American subs and a third crippled. Kurita started the battle of Samar with four battleships, six cruisers and ten destroyers.
On the American side the bulk of the battle was fought by Admiral Sprague's Taffy Three, with six escort carriers, three destroyers and four destroyer escorts. The escort carriers carried modern aircraft, but these were armed for ground attack and so didn't have many of the armour piercing bombs needed against battleships. Twelve more escort carriers in two groups were in the area, but the 7th Fleet's six old battleships were away to the south defending the Surigao Strait. The powerful modern carriers and fast battleships of the 3rd Fleet had been lured away to the north to try and intercept Ozawa's carriers (Battle of Cape Engano). Admiral Kinkaid, commander of the 7th Fleet, believed that Halsey had left a powerful task force (Task Force 34, Admiral Lee) to watch Kurita, but in fact this force had accompanied the 3rd Fleet north.
On the night of 24-25 October Kurita passed through the San Bernardino Straits, turned south and headed for Leyte Gulf. Soon after this, at about 5.30, he learnt that Admiral Nishimura's force had been destroyed and Admiral Shima was retreating (battle of the Surigao Strait). He probably never received the messages Ozawa sent out announcing that the 3rd Fleet was chasing him. Kurita could justifiably believe that the main parts of both the US 3rd and 7th Fleets were somewhere in or close to Leyte Gulf.
At about dawn (6.30) Kurita found Admiral Sprague's Taffy 3, a task force made up of six escort carriers and seven escorts. Kurita believed that he had found a 'gigantic enemy task force' containing large carriers, cruisers, destroyers and possibly battleships. He decided to abandon the charge into Leyte Gulf and turned to attack Sprague's force. At 6.58 the Yamato's main guns opened fire on a surface target for the first time.
Sprague realised that he was in trouble. At 7.01 he issued a call for help in the clear, ordered his aircraft into the air and headed for a nearby rain squall. Under cover of the rain he decided to try and reach the support of Taffy 2, thirty miles to the south. His destroyers were ordered to attack the Japanese fleet while the carriers made their best speed south.
Sprague's aircraft had a limited potential to do serious damage to the Japanese battleships. The escort carriers didn't have enough storage space to carry both fragmentation bombs for ground support and a significant number of armour piercing bombs. The Japanese had no way to know that, and the American aircraft were able to force the Japanese heavy ships into frantic manoeuvres, slowing their pursuit of the carriers. The torpedo firing destroyers were equally effective.
Just after 7.20am the cruiser Kumano was hit by a torpedo from the US destroyer Johnston DD-557. Her speed was reduced, and at 9.45 she was detached from the main fleet and ordered back through the San Bernardino Strait. This brought her into range of aircraft from the US 3rd Fleet and at around 9.45 she was attacked by SB2C dive-bombers and TBM torpedo bombers from TF 38. They only managed to score one near miss. A second attack early on 26 October managed three bomb hits, but the cruiser could still make 10kts. The Kumano managed to reach safety at Manila where she underwent repairs before leaving for Japan on 5 November. Her luck now turned - her convoy was attacked by four American submarines and the cruiser was hit twice. She remained afloat and reached Dasol Bay on the Luzon coast, but on 25 November she was sunk by American aircraft.
This first destroyer attack cost the Americans dearly. The Johnston was hit by three 14in and three 6in shells and the Hoel by shells that disabled her main engine. The Hoel remained in the fight until she was unable to move and at about 8.30 her crew abandoned ship.
A little further south the escort carriers came under fire from the Japanese battleships. Kalinin Bay and Gambier Bay were both hit but managed to main their position until the Gambier Bay was hit in the forward engine room. The destroyer Johnston attempted to distract attention from the stricken carrier but without success and the Gambier Bay sank at around 8.45am. The Johnston then managed to break up a light cruiser attack on the carriers, but in the process she became their main target and was sunk. Only 141 of her 327 crewmen survived.
The cruiser Chikuma was hit by a torpedo at around 8.54. It was a sign that Sprague's men were getting closer to help that this torpedo was probably launched by an aircraft from Admiral Felix B. Stump's Task Group 77.4.2. The engine rooms flooded, and the ship came to a halt. She was unable to respond when Kurita decided to withdraw from battle, and was left alone. She sank during the day with the loss of most of her crew. Another 100 were rescued by the destroyer Nowaki, but that ship was lost on the night of 25-26 October with the loss of all hands.
The cruiser Chokai was hit by 500lb bombs at around 9.05am. The bombs caused heavy fires and damaged the forward engine room. The cruiser came to a halt, and couldn't be rescued. At around 10.30 the crippled cruiser was sunk by a spread of torpedoes from the destroyer Fujinami.
By this time Kurita was rather losing his grip on the battle. The Yamato was some way behind his cruisers and visibility was poor. He wasn't aware of the damage to three of his cruisers, and had lost sight of the carriers. At 9.11, believing that he had won a major victory over a squadron of fleet carriers, Kurita ordered his surviving ships to withdraw from the battle.
At about 10.50 the cruiser Suzuya suffered a near miss that detonated the torpedoes in the starboard forward torpedo tubes. This set off a fire made worse when more of her torpedoes exploded at around 11.00. Damage control measures failed and at about 12 noon a series of ammunition explosions began. The ship was abandoned at 1pm and sank twenty minutes later.
Taffy 3's ordeal wasn't yet over. At 10.50, just as the Suzuya was being attacked, nine kamikaze aircraft attacked the task group, in one of the first organised suicide attacks of the war. Most were destroyed or missed, but one hit the escort carrier St Lô, triggering explosions that sank her. A second kamikaze attack twenty minutes later did more damage but failed to sink anything.
It took Kurita about two hours to regroup. He then turned south with his remaining fifteen ships in an attempt to reach Leyte Gulf, the original target of his operation. At 11.40 one of his lookouts reported sighting a battleship and destroyers. The fleet turned aside to chase this phantom before turning south again. At around 12.30, when only forty five miles from Leyte Gulf, Kurita decided that it wasn't worth risking the destruction of his fleet just to sink empty transport ships. He had also received reports that an American carrier task force had been sighted 113 miles north of the gulf, and he now decided to turn north to deal with this
In fact Halsey's carriers were still far to the north. All morning he had been receiving urgent calls for help, but had refused to turn back. In the resulting battle of Cape Engano Halsey sank all four of Ozawa's carriers. At around 11 he ordered one of his carrier groups to turn south, and his fourth carrier group, which was some way to the east, was also directed towards Kurita. This fourth task group was first to come into range and during the afternoon it launched two attacks on Kurita's fleet. After spending all afternoon looking for the American carriers Kurita retired to the eastern end of the San Bernardino Strait at 6pm. He was under orders to wait for dark and try and fight a night battle, but at 9.25, with fuel short, he decided to retreat west through the straits. He would suffer further air attack on 26 October, but the main fighting in Leyte Gulf was over.
Kurita has since been blamed for his decisions to withdraw from combat at 9.11 and to turn back from Leyte Gulf at 12.30. Both can be defended using the information available to Kurita at the time, but he later believed the second decision to have been a mistake. If Kurita had advanced into Leyte Gulf then his fleet would almost certainly have been destroyed - if not by Kinkaid's escort carriers and old battleships then by the 3rd Fleet. All he could have achieved was the destruction of empty transport ships, and perhaps a damaging bombardment of the US troops on Leyte, but neither would have altered the eventual course of the fighting in the Philippines.
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_samar.html
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
1944 To Year
Personal Memories
My Photos From This Battle or Operation
No Available Photos
77 Also There at This Battle:
Adcok, Henry Kenneth, PO3, (1942-1944)
Addington, Norman Eston, PO3, (1942-1944)
Agee, Robert Hampton, PO1, (1943-1946)
Akerman, Phillip Andrew, S1c, (1941-1944)
Allen, Robin Etheridge, PO2, (1942-1944)
Alm, Frederick Earl, HA2c, (1943-1944)
ALTMANN, Richard, RADM, (1943-1976)
Anderson, Robert Harold, LT, (1941-1945)
Angeny, Albert Leroy, PO2, (1942-1945)
Arpin, Louis Wilfred, S1c, (1943-1944)
Barber, Milton Merle, F2c, (1944-1944)
Barczyk, John Anthony, PO3, (1943-1946)
Bard, Francis Paul, PO3, (1943-1944)
Bartlett, James Richard, PO2, (1941-1945)
Bassett, Burt, CAPT, (1940-1969)
Bechdel, John Knorr, LTJG, (1942-1944)
Bednar, James, S1c, (1943-1944)
Bell, James Henry, LT, (1941-1944)
Berkey, Russell Stanley, ADM, (1916-1950)
Berlanga, Salvador, PO3, (1942-1946)
Blocher, Andrew William, PO3, (1942-1945)
Blue, Sam, SN
Brett, George Henry, PO1, (1936-1944)
Brown, Burton James, ENS, (1944-1945)
Capano, Patsy, LT, (1941-1944)
Carr, Paul Henry, PO3, (1943-1944)
Carter, Arthur David, PO2, (1942-1944)
Check, Leonard Joseph, LCDR, (1939-1945)
Clark, Laurance, LTJG, (1942-1945)
Clonts, Alpheus Eugene, PO1, (1942-1948)
Compomizzo, Marvin Lesslie, S1c, (1943-1944)
Copeland, Robert Witcher, RADM, (1935-1965)
Cox, Virgil, SN, (1943-1945)
DuTemple, Lynn Francis, LCDR, (1942-1952)
Ehlenfeldt, Robert, S1c, (1942-1946)
Erickson, Carl E, S1c, (1944-1944)
Evans, Ernest Edwin, CDR, (1926-1944)
Faass, Irvin Lee, S1c, (1942-1944)
Farley, John Joseph, PO2, (1939-1945)
Foote, John Storrs, LTJG
Guttman, Paul Dennis, PO2, (1942-1945)
Haag, Justin C, PO2, (1943-1944)
Hathaway, Amos, CAPT
Horman, Paul J., PO3, (1942-1944)
Houdak, Joseph Victor, PO1, (1938-1944)
Huffman, Malcolm, WO, (1934-1944)
Huxtable, Edward, CAPT, (1936-1949)
Ketza, Norbert Frank, PO3, (1943-1945)
Kintberger, Leon Samuel, RADM, (1932-1959)
Lee, Fitzhugh Burton, VADM, (1926-1967)
Livesay, Melvin Grey, ENS, (1942-1944)
Magnusson, Eric, LT, (1941-1944)
McCain, John, ADM, (1906-1945)
McCann, Allan Rockwell, VADM, (1917-1950)
McKenna, Francis Joseph, RADM, (1920-1950)
Morgan, William, LCDR, (1943-1974)
Norton, Jack, PO2, (1942-1955)
Ofstie, Ralph, VADM, (1918-1956)
Patterson, William Stevens, LTJG, (1943-1946)
Ploger, Francis James, PO3, (1942-1944)
Rice, Dicky, S2c, (1943-1946)
Richardson, Leland Richard, PO3, (1943-1946)
Rohde, Richard K., PO3, (1943-1945)
Rush, James Houston, PO1, (1941-1945)
Sample, William Dodge, RADM, (1918-1945)
Shane, Harold Joseph, PO1
Smehyl, Charles, PO2, (1941-1945)
Sprague, Clifton Albert F, VADM, (1917-1951)
Sprague, Thomas Lamison, VADM, (1917-1952)
Stump, Felix, ADM, (1917-1958)
Taylor, Jesse Junior, CDR, (1942-1965)
THOMAS, William, RADM, (1928-1947)
Urbanski, Elmer Leo, PO2, (1942-1944)
Vieweg, Walter, RADM, (1924-1954)
Weekley, James Earl, F1c, (1943-1945)
Weeks, Chester Stanley, PO2, (1942-1944)
WELCH, Clifford, S1c, (1943-1946)
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That's kind of what happened to me with the first 2 witchers, but I didn't think the writers, characters, or world were really better than other games I've played. I probably just tune out most games plots that are terrible so that's part of it, but also my expectations for both witcher games were super high. When I played both I just didn't get what everyone else loves about them. I'm watching for 3 to be very very cheap before I try it out so I don't get burned again. That sucks you're not enjoying the combat, gameplay seems to be my main reason why I hate or enjoy a game, and I bounced extremely hard off of 1 and 2, hopefully 3 is different, but I'm not willing to shell out much cash to see.
Loops 2017-12-27 06:15:31 UTC #224
I've been playing Garry's Mod a lot recently. I tried out Getting Over It and I fucking despised it, I never finished Sonic Mania because i lost interest and I got h1z1 but my shit computer can't run it, oh well. But at least I got a Switch. Odyssey and MK8 deluxe are pretty good, but LOZ BOTW is absolutely amazing. That's all I guess.
ToomuchFluffy 2017-12-27 08:47:59 UTC #225
I've been playing the demo of Harvest: Massive Encounter for a few hours and I generally enjoyed it. The dynamics of it are interesting, but it's quite simplistic so that I will likely wait for a sale before getting the full game. Similar to Creeper World 3 energy packets are being sent around a network of links, but unlike either CW3 or Perimeter, the nodes don't collect energy based on the ground they cover. This is instead handled by relatively expensive generators and ore production does in addition require expanding the base. The challenge seems to be along the lines of how it was in Perimeter. Namely, that energy quickly starts to be a problem once under pressure. I've now noticed several times how energy quickly starts running out once the player is under pressure for a prolonged amount of time. The issue here is, that there is no indicator, so that it can't be easily estimated how well one is set up. Also, it's somewhat unclear how the energy mechanics work. I think it's a mix of the shape of the network and probably also the size. Getting the energy where it is needed in an efficient manner and so forth. Energy packets are quite dumb as it seems. Even when there is clearly need for energy somewhere packets will still often bypass that point. Maybe it's better to not leave them the choice of where to go.
MantisTobogganM.D.4:
That's kind of what happened to me with the first 2 witchers, but I didn't think the writers, characters, or world were really better than other games I've played.
The thing is, as many people already said in this thread, TW3 is a masterpiece of writing if we compare it to other games, not if we compare it to books or even fantasy movies actually. And even if it has some wonderful quests, I feel like the world building of games like Dragon Age Inquisition is more solid.
Strangely enough, what I like in the setting of The Witcher and Dragon Age is quite similar in the end. They're both relatively average fantasy settings (respectively low and high fantasy) but they both have some great worldbuilding ideas that elevate the setting above your standard fantasy world.
From a French perspective, I'd say the setting of TW is quite fascinating, mostly because the world it depicts is not far away from our own medieval era (I mean, it's a stylized version of the Middle Ages full of clichés, but it's evocative enough) and thus very familiar (I can litteraly go for a walk in the woods and find a few ruins that look like a small Kaer Morhen here) ; however, the slavic mythology and mood gives a very specific ambience to the setting, that becomes both familiar and strange.
Anyway, I've finally entered Novigrad and NOPE NOPE NOPE. Witcher games have an old habit of towns being dreadful places where the worst of the worst gathers (remember Vizima in TW1 ?) but this is even worse. Burning mages in public ? Fanatics roaming the streets ? Yeah, I needed that in my video game in a medieval fantasy setting. With this and Zoltan's haircut I feel like Geralt has been suddenly thrown into the Warhammer world.
Also what did the art direction do to Triss ? Looks like she lost 10 years between TW2 and TW3 (She looked like she was 35-ish in TW2, now she looks like a teenager) and is much closer to generic fantasy babe #345 than before. Meh.
For some reason, locking the game to 30 fps made me massively better in combat. It maybe has something to do with input lag, I don't know, but I'm able to time my attacks and dodging much better now.
I'm still a bit…bored by Geralt. I mean, he's a fine character, no problem, and I like his grumpy face, but he just feels…kinda average, really. Especially in TW3 and I can't really explain why. In TW1 and TW2 you still had this feeling that Geralt was a monster, a man capable both of kindness and generosity towards the ones he loves and of utter savagery and brutality towards the rest of the world. Here he is just…average. The more time passes the more I feel like the plot is turning Geralt into the average video game dad, complete with the beard, the lost daughter and the paternalistic badass feel. And I'm not really interested in that.
Why don't we play as Ciri again ?
Because while Cirilla is the focus of the story, she is not the character that makes things happen. Geralt is.
Tritagonist:
My question was purely a rhetorical one, though
I absolutely agree with that. Geralt is the one that makes the story move forward. But I just find him quite boring in TW3, even though playing him as a wide-eyed idealist is quite interesting (and often leads to disasters, see my horrendous resolution of the Bloody Baron quest).
Right, and that's a decision by the creators - not one forced upon them by some set narrative. I think it was a massively missed opportunity. Indeed, pretty much all the main characters suffer because Geralt has to save the day.
I've mentioned before that from a character-perspective, I think Yennefer sitting around on Skellige waiting around for Geralt was perhaps the worst part of the narrative, as well as a massive disservice to her character. This is a woman so enigmatic, so powerful and scheming that other sorceresses distrust and fear her, and the Emperor himself lets her roam around his quarters. But on Skellige she does… absolutely nothing. If we had been able to play as Yennefer on Skellige, I think that'd be much more interesting and a chance to see the world from a different perspective entirely. They could have limited it to the main story quests, of which there are only a few there, so you can have Geralt go there later on to do his monster slaying business.
But on Skellige she does… absolutely nothing. If we had been able to play as Yennefer on Skellige, I think that'd be much more interesting and a chance to see the world from a different perspective entirely. They could have limited it to the main story quests, of which there are only a few there, so you can have Geralt go there later on to do his monster slaying business.
That would actually be great and that's something that could have worked in a DLC/expansion as well.
Now of course there's the problem that Yennefer doesn't fight like Geralt and running around throwing thunderbolts might not be the best experience TW3's engine can deliver. But combat isn't Yennefer's strength anyway, so a narrative-oriented gameplay would perfectly work…and you could even keep some elements from Geralt gameplay (sorceresses craft potions and artefacts as well).
But Geralt being the one that saves the day leads to the biggest problem I have with TW3 (the main game at least) : both the gameplay and the world encourage you to do side quests and contracts while logically you should focus only on finding Ciri and saving your friends. TW1 and to a certain extent TW2 handled that much better, with plenty of moments where the main story was moving on without Geralt's involvment and you could sit down and be a Witcher for a few hours. There's no real time pressure in TW1 for example. The story moves on at a very slow pace until the final act.
Problem is, the very structure of the story doesn't allow that in TW3. It's all about finding someone, and this someone is on the run, so it means logically you shouldn't stop, but the levelling system means you pretty much have to do the side quests as soon as you reach their level or else they'd be useless and way too easy. I get the idea of making a more personnal story as opposed to the political intrigues of TW2 where Geralt was mostly a witness with occasional involvment but it means that narratively speaking you have no breathing room while the gameplay encourages you to stop and do side quests.
There is. 10-15 hours is 3-5 times the amount you've played so far.
TheDreamlord 2017-12-27 12:08:23 UTC #232
I think I will disagree here a bit, as I never saw Gerald as anything else but a pawn in a greater scheme of things in all three games. He never saves the day. He is never the important hero. Just a witcher going about making money in the world, nothing more, nothing less.
This is of course a personal opinion, but I really like how rounded the character is. Some people find him bland. I think he is who he is. A witcher.
As far as quest writing probably, from what I played characters and setting were pretty average even for gaming though, at least amongst games that try to have a story.
I didn't really get far enough into 1 to see any quests, and the ones I did in 2 were pretty by the numbers, (go hunt these werewolves, now these giant spiders, now a tentacle monster in the swamp), but from what you wrote about the bloody baron above it would seem that the quests have some great moments. The world itself seemed like pretty generic fantasy to me, from the first I remember being the last survivor of an ancient and powerful society with amnesia with a sorceress friend who's huge boobs hung halfway out at all times, the last thing I remember from the 2nd was a town where every non human is treated like crap and the wood elves are leading a rebellion from the forest. Not terrible, just not groundbreaking stuff.
My expectations were very high though, which probably made me judge it more harshly when it disappointed, and I also don't usually love fantasy. For whatever reason I feel like when I read/watch/play things in fantasy settings originality is forbidden. Also as I've stated before, if the gameplay doesn't grab me, no matter how good the story is, I won't finish it, and the gameplay in tw1 and 2 shoved me away violently. It all adds up to me disliking it more than is probably fair.
I still don't hate it, I just don't understand what everyone else experienced to make it this legendary experience, and after being burned with 1 and 2, I'm very hesitant to try 3.
TheDreamlord:
I think he's extremely bland, and it's got ZERO to do with being witcher, let alone THE witcher. He is also pretty important, let's not pretend he isn't his presence and behaviour is absolutely pivotal in a number of major political/physical incidents for that region of that world.
The problem with Geralt, for me, is very simple and goes back to a decision by the original writer - to make Geralt allegedly "emotionless", something that it's unclear if we're meant to assume is a lie, a half-truth or a delusion, or true, and this impacts on Geralt is written, because the writers of the games, particularly three, seem a little ambivalent about how to regard it, and the sum total is, Geralt in TW3 does, generally, have emotions, but they're just slightly underplayed, in a way that, yes, ends up making him feel bland. Like a milksop or milquetoast. Half-hearted. Lazily cynical (rather than smartly). And I'm pretty sure that's not how he's intended to be seen, and some people love him or connect with him so much that they look past this, but to me? His lack of strong emotion, despite having emotion just really kept pulling me back to feeling he just didn't care all that much, and it's like, so why would I care about him? And thus I didn't. Ciri who is not a very interesting personality-wise (less so than Geralt), at least has strong emotions, so it's easier to care about her.
I mean, he never gets quite that bad, but he does remind a tiny, tiny bit of "Oh what a personal disaster…" from the Mary Whitehouse Experience (btw, in some classic memory failure, I recalled this as being a Harry Enfield sketch - perhaps he had a similar character though).
LexW:
And I'm pretty sure that's not how he's intended to be seen, and some people love him or connect with him so much that they look past this, but to me? His lack of strong emotion, despite having emotion just really kept pulling me back to feeling he just didn't care all that much, and it's like, so why would I care about him? And thus I didn't. Ciri who is not a very interesting personality-wise (less so than Geralt), at least has strong emotions, so it's easier to care about her.
Maybe you're not meant to care about him, but with him? I think the intention is indeed not to make him wholly sympathetic. In the books, Geralt tends to be an abrasive, cynical asshole, and he plays the 'no emotions' card whenever it suits his needs. The latter is also true in the games, and it's questionable how much of it is an act, but I think it's clear that despire his reservedness/standoffishness, he truly cares a lot. Some of that is a consequence of the game, as "why else would he be doing all these sidequests for people who hate him", but it extends from his personality in the books. His friends frequently call him out on the fact that his uncaring mercenary front is total bullshit and people like Zoltan and Dandelion are just as important to him as he is to them.
It might come down to preference, but even before reading all of the Witcher books I found Geralt's portrayal in the Witcher 3 spot-on as a man whose actions speak louder than his words.
LTK:
I found Geralt's portrayal in the Witcher 3 spot-on as a man whose actions speak louder than his words.
This, spot on this, for me as well. I don't need (nor want) a lovey dovey caricature to sympathise with, I want the well rounded Gerald that is presented. A rough man of action and self interest who also has feelings and heart if you care enough to properly look underneath the exterior.
vinraith 2017-12-27 19:04:56 UTC #237
Geralt's a block of wood. He acts like one, emotes like one, and moves like one. He's the medieval equivalent of a generic space marine.
I want the well rounded Gerald that is presented. A rough man of action and self interest who also has feelings and heart if you care enough to properly look underneath the exterior.
I see nothing about Geralt that is "well-rounded". His personality is not, as that would require "fully developed in all aspects" (that is the definition) - by his own admission. I'm sure the original writer would agree. He has almost the opposite of a "well-rounded" personality, in that he is quite narrowly focused on certain parts of his personality and thinking. He is not a "man for all seasons". He's basically a man for one season - winter, who can, on occasion, rise to being for what I guess you would say is a very mild summer. This is something I not only think the original writer would agree with, but something the writers of the game would say - Geralt is often uncomfortable or barely able to deal with social situations, particularly where others are being emotional and the solution isn't just "being brusque and bossy" (which Geralt is okay at). Sometimes he manages, but it's often more the effort of the another person to work around him.
His personality is also inconsistently expressed. Part of that is the natural functionality of an RPG, but part of it is clearly writers with inconsistent opinions about what's going on under the facade. It's particularly problematic when he has lines available that just seem wildly out of character. I would offer that TW3 has a worse problem with this than any other major AAA CRPG. Like, people complain about that in the ME games, but here's it's much worse (when it happens), because you usually only have two dialogue choices (aside from the occasional "go back" or "tell me more"-type choice), and if one of them is "Agree completely with asshole" and the other is "Say something nasty and out-of-character" (as is the case on a number of occasions), that's pretty awful.
Also, can I just say I find this idea to be actively juvenile and practically worthy of Top Gear:
I don't need (nor want) a lovey dovey caricature to sympathise with
That's the worst, cheapest kind of faux-macho strawman, and given you're not Jeremy Clarkson or one of his little pals, it's sad to see it. Obviously no-one is suggesting that they want a "lovey-dovey caricature", are they?
vinraith:
Sadly somewhat true. You could definitely argue "Space Marine with a Heart of Gold", but that's really up to the player, because he can just be "Space Marine who is a Total Twat". Either way his inconsistent stoicism/lack-of-affect robs him of much impact as he could have. On the upside for the game's success, I think it helps him with a less mature, less self-aware male audience is who are somewhat scared of emotion, particularly of men showing emotion. By keeping him in the safe zone, he remains palatable and doesn't get "too real".
Re: being a twat, the line Shadoko brought up is a good example of twattitude and inconsistent writing - the idea that the Baron and his wife are "the same" is beyond a joke, and in context, isn't even a manuever or something, it's just a really stupid and odd thing Geralt is allowed to say.
There's a bunch of that, particularly in the earlier portions of the game. Sometimes it's not well-indicated by the dialogue shown, either - I remember selecting one option when dealing with Keira Metz, which seems a straightforward "I don't really agree"-type options, but which was actually a vicious and venomous rebuke - but the only other option was to agree with something rather silly.
Well, we generally disagree with each other in the forum, so lets leave it at that. I was pulling no strawman or whatever, neither I was saying what Gerald seems (or should seem) to you or anyone else, just what he felt as a character to me. I prefer nuance and some effort on my part to judge a character. Others like to see likeable or affable characters. To each their own, really. Loads of people love Life Is Strange's characters. I found them shallow and saccharine. Again, horses for courses.
Always interesting to hear criticism from someone who hasn't experienced what's being discussed I find
My, aren't we defensive and presumptive? I played the entirety of Witcher 1 and a significant chunk of 2, exactly how long do I have to tolerate mediocrity in order to be allowed to call it mediocrity?
In fairness to the discussion, TW3 is miles ahead of the first two games in every single respect.