title: Westies

text: Although both Westies leaders were imprisoned in 1980 — Coonan on gun possession charges, Featherstone on a federal counterfeiting rap — the gambling, loansharking, and union shakedowns continued on the West Side. After DeMeo himself was murdered, Coonan's Gambino connection became Daniel Marino, a capo from Brooklyn. Coonan eventually interacted directly with John Gotti, who took over the Gambinos after Castellano's murder in December 1985. Gotti appointed Joe Watts as the liaison to the Westies. From time to time, the Westies worked for the Gambinos as a contract killer squad.


title: Westies

text: Featherstone was convicted of murder in early 1986 and began cooperating with the government in hopes of getting the conviction overturned, and because he believed the rest of the Westies had framed him for the murder. The information he and his wife Sissy provided, and the recordings they helped make, achieved this aim. In September 1986 the prosecutor who oversaw Featherstone's conviction told the presiding judge that post-conviction investigation had revealed that Featherstone was innocent. The judge overturned the verdict. At that point the information provided by the Featherstones resulted in the arrest of Coonan and several other Westies on state charges of murder and other crimes.


title: Westies

text: Shortly afterward, federal prosecutor Rudolph Giuliani announced a devastating RICO indictment against Coonan and others for criminal activities going back twenty years. Featherstone testified in open court for four weeks in the trial that began in September 1987 and concluded with major convictions in 1988. Coonan was sentenced to sixty years in prison on assorted charges. Other leading gang members were also sentenced to long prison terms, including McElroy, who was sentenced to 60 years, and Richard "Mugsy" Ritter, a career criminal sentenced to 40 years on loan-sharking and drug related charges.


title: Westies

text: By the early 1990s, the old demographic of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood was disappearing. The blue-collar Irish-American community was being displaced by a more affluent and ethnically diverse group of residents. With this change came a decrease in street crime and a change in leadership. Bosko Radonjich, an American-Serbian nationalist and onetime anti-communist started his Westies affiliation as a low-level associate of Jimmy Coonan in 1983. He became the boss of the Westies when Kelly went on the lam and was instrumental in the "fixing" of John Gotti's 1986 racketeering trial.


title: Westies

text: Around 1992, Radonjich fled the country to avoid jury tampering charges. He was eventually arrested by U.S. Customs officials during a stopover in Miami, Florida, in 1999. However, Radonjich was released when the main witness in the case, Sammy Gravano, was deemed unreliable. Radonjich returned to his native Serbia where he operated a casino and nightclub until he died in 2011 from poor health. In 1992, a man named Brian Bentley was identified as a member of the Westies and was implicated in a burglary ring responsible for victimizing over 1,000 businesses throughout Manhattan. When Michael G. Cherkasky, chief of the investigations division of the district attorney's office, was asked how much still remained of the Westies, he said: "Too much," and that "it's not the end" of the gang."


title: Westies

text: For nearly two decades following the end of the "Yugo Era", there was little mention of the activities or even continued existence of The Westies. But in 2012, the "New York Post" reported that the Westies resurfaced under the leadership of John Bokun, who was caught, along with accomplices, smuggling marijuana into the US. "The New York Times" noted that, aside from being the nephew of former Westies, Bokun had no connection to any group using that name. However, "The Westies" is a title created by members of the press in the mid 1980s to refer to the gang; as pointed out by English, at no point did members of "The Westies" ever adopt the label or refer to themselves as such.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Silent Valley National Park is a national park in Kerala, India. It is located in the Nilgiri hills, has a core area of , which is surrounded by a buffer zone of . This national park has some rare species of flora and fauna. This area was explored in 1847 by the botanist Robert Wight. It is located in the border of Mannarkkad Taluk of Palakkad district, Nilambur Taluk of Malappuram district, Kerala, and Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: It is located in the rich biodiversity of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Karimpuzha Wildlife Sanctuary, New Amarambalam Reserved Forest, and Nedumkayam Rainforest in Nilambur Taluk of Malappuram district, Attappadi Reserved Forest in Mannarkkad Taluk of Palakkad district, and Mukurthi National Park of Nilgiris district, are located around Silent Valley National Park. Mukurthi peak, the fifth-highest peak in South India, and Anginda peak are also located in its vicinity. Bhavani River, a tributary of Kaveri River, and Kunthipuzha River, a tributary of Bharathappuzha river, originate in the vicinity of Silent Valley. The Kadalundi River has also its origin in Silent Valley.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: The national park is one of the last undisturbed tracts of South Western Ghats mountain rain forests and tropical moist evergreen forest in India. Contiguous with the proposed Karimpuzha National Park () to the north and Mukurthi National Park (78.46 km) to the north-east, it is the core of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (1,455.4 km), and is part of the Nilgiri Sub-Cluster (6,000 km), Western Ghats World Heritage Site, recognised by UNESCO in 2007.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Plans for a hydroelectric project that threatened the park's biodiversity stimulated an environmentalist social movement in the 1970s, known as the Save Silent Valley movement, which resulted in cancelling the project and creating the park in 1980. The visitors' centre for the park is at Sairandhri.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: The first Western investigation of the watersheds of the Silent Valley area was in 1857 by the botanist Robert Wight. The British named the area Silent Valley because of a perceived absence of noisy cicadas. Another story attributes the name to the anglicisation of Sairandhri. A third story refers to the presence of many lion-tailed macaques "Macaca silenus".


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: In 1914, the forest of the Silent Valley area was declared a reserve forest. Between 1927 and 1976, portions of the Silent Valley forest area were subjected to forestry operations. In 1928, the location on the Kunthipuzha River at Sairandhri was identified as an ideal site for electricity generation, and in 1958 a study and survey of the area was conducted and a hydroelectric project of 120 MV costing Rs. 17 crore was proposed by the Kerala State Electricity Board.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Silent Valley is home to the largest population of lion-tailed macaques, an endangered species of primate. Public controversy over their habitat led to the establishment of Silent Valley National Park.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: In 1973 the valley became the focus of "Save Silent Valley", India's fiercest environmental movement of the decade, when the Kerala State Electricity Board decided to implement the Silent Valley Hydro-Electric Project (SVHEP) centered on a dam across the Kunthipuzha River. The resulting reservoir would flood 8.3 km of virgin rainforest and threaten the lion-tailed macaque. In 1976 the Kerala State Electricity Board announced plans to begin dam construction and the issue was brought to public attention. Romulus Whitaker, founder of the Madras Snake Park and the Madras Crocodile Bank, was probably the first person to draw public attention to the small and remote area.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: In 1981 Prof.C.V.Subramanian, the internationally acclaimed mycologist, wrote to Mrs Indira Gandhi, seeking her intervention to stop the Dam construction which held very unique flora and fauna. Prof Subramanian also submitted a report on the Silent Valley on the basis of which Mrs Gandhi, decided to abandon the project. The Silent Valley forests were declared as a National Park. On 7 September 1985 the Silent Valley National Park was formally inaugurated and a memorial at Sairandhri to Indira Gandhi was unveiled by Rajiv Gandhi, her son and the next Prime Minister. On 1 September 1986 Silent Valley National Park was designated as the core area of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Since then, a long-term conservation effort has been undertaken to preserve the Silent Valley ecosystem.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: In 2001 a new hydro project was proposed and the "Man vs. Monkey debate" was revived. The proposed site of the dam (64.5 m high and 275 m long) is just 3.5 km downstream of the old dam site at Sairandhiri, 500 m outside the National Park boundary. The Kerala Minister for Electricity called The Pathrakkadavu dam (PHEP) an "eco-friendly alternative" to the old Silent Valley project. The claim was that the submergence area of the PHEP would be a negligible .041 km compared to 8.30 km submergence of the 1970s (SVHEP).


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: From January to May 2003, a rapid Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was carried out. On 15 November, Minister for Forest Binoy Viswam said that the proposed buffer zone for Silent Valley would be declared soon.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: On 21 February 2007 ex-Chief Minister A. K. Antony told reporters after a cabinet meeting that "when the Silent Valley proposal was dropped, the centre had promised to give clearance to the Pooyamkutty project. This promise, however, had not been honoured. The Kerala "government has not taken any decision" on reviving the Silent Valley Hydel Project".


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: On 18 April 2007, Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and his cabinet approved the Pathrakkadavu Hydro-electric project and sent it to the Union Government for environmental approval.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Territorial forests located around the national park have been subject to a working-plan to accomplish revenue oriented objectives such as extraction of bamboo and reed which affect the long-term conservation of the park. In addition Illegal activities such as ganja cultivation, setting forest fires, trapping and poaching wild animals, frequently occur in the territorial forests located in the immediate vicinity of the national park. This has resulted in degradation of habitat and reduced forest cover, which has adverse effects on the long-term survival of the core area of the national park.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: On 21 November 2009, Union Minister of Forest and Environment Jairam Ramesh and Kerala Forest Minister Binoy Viswam declared, while inaugurating the silver jubilee celebration of Silent Valley National Park in Palakkad, that the buffer zone of the Park would be made an integral part of it in order to ensure better protection of the area. This means that the total park area is now increased to . It is now the largest national park in Kerala.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: On 6 June 2007 the Kerala cabinet approved the buffer zone proposal. The new 147.22 km zone will include 80.75 km taken from Attapady Forest Range, 27.09 km from Mannarkkad Forest Range and 39.38 km from Kalikavu Forest Range and consolidated to form a new range, Bhavani Forest Range, of 94 km and 54 km would be brought under the existing Silent Valley Range of the National Park. The Cabinet also sanctioned 35 staff to protect the area and two new forest stations in Bhavani range at Anavai and Thudukki. Forest Minister Benoy Viswom said "the zone would have reserve forest status and tribals in the area would not be affected. The decision reaffirmed the commitment of the LDF Government to protection of environment. The zone is a necessity, not just of the State but also of the nation."


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: The proposal was then sent to Kerala Minister for Electricity, A. K. Balan, who has voiced the need for setting up the Pathrakadavu hydroelectric project in the proposed southwest buffer zone of the National Park, the Thenkara Range of the Mannarkkad Forest Division. As of 9 May 2007 Mr. Balan has not given his opinion on the buffer zone proposal.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: In August 2006, the new Minister for Forests, Benoy Viswam, approved a proposal from the Conservator of Forests for a 148 km buffer zone around the core area of the park. The proposal says: "It is felt absolutely essential that an effective buffer of forests should be immediately formed around the national park in order to save the world famous Silent Valley National Park from all potential dangers. This can only be achieved by bringing the management of Silent Valley National Park as well as the proposed buffer zone under one management umbrella to insulate the park from all possible dangers." The proposed buffer zone will have 94 km in Attappady Reserve Forest east of the Kunthipuzha and 54 km taken from the Mannarkaad range and Nilambur south division west of the river.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: In January 2006, the former Kerala Minister for Forest and Environment, A. Sujanapal, said the Government would consider the demand for a 600 km buffer zone for Silent Valley National Park made by Bharathapuzha Protection Committee, Malampuzha Protection Committee, One Earth One Life and Jana Jagratha. A buffer zone proposal was made in the 1986 park management plan but not implemented.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: In 1979, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, then Secretary to the Department of Agriculture, visited the Silent Valley area and suggested that 389.52 km including the Silent Valley (89.52 km), New Amarambalam (80 km), Attappadi (120 km) in Kerala and Kunda in Coimbatore (100 km) reserve forests, should be developed into a National Rainforest Biosphere Reserve.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: On 27 October 2020 draft notification was made by Govt. of India for the area around the National park declaring it as eco sensitive zone


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Silent Valley is rectangular, twelve kilometres from north to south and seven from east to west. Located between 11°03' to 11°13' N (latitude) and 76°21' to 76°35' E (longitude) it is separated from the eastern and northern high altitude plateaus of the (Nilgiris Mountains) by high continuous ridges including Sispara Peak (2,206 m) at the north end of the park. The park gradually slopes southward down to the Palakkad plains and to the west it is bounded by irregular ridges. The altitude varies from 658 m to 2328 m at Anginda Peak, but most of the park lies within the altitude range of 880 m to 1200 m. Soils are blackish and slightly acidic in evergreen forests where there is good accumulation of organic matter. The underlying rock in the area is granite with schists and gneiss, which give rise to the loamy laterite soils on slopes.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: The Kunthipuzha River drains the entire 15 km length of the park from north to south into the Bharathapuzha River. Kunthipuzha River divides the park into a narrow eastern sector of width 2 kilometers and a wide western sector of 5 kilometers. The river is characterized by its crystal clear water and perennial nature. The main tributaries of the river, Kunthancholapuzha, Karingathodu, Madrimaranthodu, Valiaparathodu and Kummaathanthodu originate on the upper slopes of the eastern side of the valley. The river is uniformly shallow, with no flood plains or meanders. Its bed falls from 1,861 m to 900 m over a distance of 12 km, the last 8 km being particularly level with a fall of only 60 m. Kunthipuzha is one of the less torrential rivers of the Western Ghats, with a pesticide-free catchment area.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Silent Valley gets copious amounts of rainfall during the monsoons, but the actual amount varies within the region due to the varied topography. In general, rainfall is higher at higher altitudes and decreases from the west to the east due to the rain shadow effect. Eighty per cent of the rainfall occurs during the south-west monsoon between June and September. The park also receives a significant amount of rainfall during the north-east monsoon between October and November.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: The park being completely enclosed within a ring of hills, has its own micro-climate and probably receives some convectional rainfall, in addition to rain from the two monsoons. In the remaining months, condensation on vegetation of mist shrouding the valley is estimated to yield 15 per cent of the total water generated in the rainforest.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: In 2006, the Walakkad area of the park received the highest ever annual rainfall of 9,569.6 mm. In 2000, the figure was 7,788 mm; in 2001, 8,351.9 mm; in 2004, 8465.3 mm; and in 2005, 9,347.8 mm. The annual rainfall received in the valley (at Sairandhri?) was 7,788.8 mm in 2000; 8,361.9 mm in 2001. In 2002, 4,262.5 mm; in 2003, 3,499.65 mm; in 2004, 6,521.27 mm, in 2005, 6,919.38 mm; in 2006, 6,845.05 mm; in 2007, 6,009.35 mm; and in 2008 it was 4386.5 mm. The figure till October 2009 was 5,477.4 mm. Average annual rainfall in the park between 2000 and 2008 was thus 6,066 mm.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: The mean annual temperature is 20.2 °C. The hottest months are April and May when the mean temperature is 23 °C and the coolest months are January and February when the mean temperature is 18 °C. Because of the high rainfall, the relative humidity is consistently high (above 95%) between June and December.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: There is no record of the valley ever having been settled, but the Mudugar and Irula tribal people are indigenous to the area and do live in the adjacent valley of Attappady Reserved Forest. Also, the Kurumbar people live in the highest range outside the park bordering on the Nilgiris.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Many of the Mudugar, Irula and Kurumbar now work as day labourers and porters. Some work for the Forest Department in the park as forest guards and visitor guides. 16 out of 21 tribal colonies in the Attappady range cultivate marijuana. Many Mudugar are in abject poverty and easily recruited by the so-called "ganja mafia". In 2006, it was planned to employ 50 additional men from the 21 tribal settlements as forest guards.<ref name="Hindu3/12/06"></ref>


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: The valley areas of the park are in a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Ecoregion. Hilly areas above 1,000 m are in the South Western Ghats montane rain forests region. Above 1,500 m, the evergreen forests begin to give way to stunted forests, called sholas, interspersed with open grassland, both of which are of interest to ecologists as the rich biodiversity here has never been disturbed by human settlements. Several threatened species are endemic here. New plant and animal species are often discovered here.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Birdlife International lists 16 bird species in Silent Valley as threatened or restricted:- Nilgiri wood-pigeon, Malabar parakeet, Malabar grey hornbill, white-bellied treepie, grey-headed bulbul, broad-tailed grassbird, rufous babbler, Wynaad laughing thrush, Nilgiri laughing thrush, Nilgiri blue robin, black-and-rufous flycatcher, Nilgiri flycatcher, white-bellied blue-flycatcher, crimson-backed sunbird and Nilgiri pipit.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Rare bird species found here include the Ceylon frogmouth and great Indian hornbill. The 2006 winter bird survey discovered the long-legged buzzard, a new species of raptor at Sispara, the park's highest peak. The survey found 10 endangered species recorded in the IUCN Red List including the red winged crested cuckoo, Malabar pied hornbill and pale harrier. The area is home to 15 endemic species including the black-and-orange flycatcher. It recorded 138 species of birds including 17 species that were newly observed in the Silent Valley area. The most abundant bird was the black bulbul.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: There are at least 34 species of mammals at Silent Valley including the threatened lion-tailed macaque, Nilgiri langur, Malabar giant squirrel, Nilgiri tahr, Peshwa's bat ("Myotis peshwa") and hairy-winged bat. There are nine species of bats, rats and mice.<ref name="Hindu7/29/01"></ref>


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Distribution and demography of all diurnal primates were studied in Silent Valley National Park and adjacent areas for a period of three years from 1993 to 1996. Fourteen troops of lion-tailed macaque, eighty-five troops of Nilgiri langur, fifteen troops of bonnet macaque and seven troops of Hanuman langur were observed. Of these, the Nilgiri langur was randomly distributed, whereas the lion-tailed macaque troops were confined to the southern sector of the Park. Bonnet macaques and Hanuman langurs were occasional visitors. The Silent Valley forest remains one of the most undisturbed viable habitats left for the endemic and endangered primates lion-tailed macaque and Nilgiri langur.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Tiger, leopard, leopard cat, jungle cat, common palm civet, small Indian civet, brown palm civet, ruddy mongoose, stripe-necked mongoose, dhole, clawless otter, sloth bear, small Travancore flying squirrel, Indian pangolin (scaly anteater), porcupine, wild boar, sambar, spotted deer, barking deer, mouse deer, elephant and gaur also live here.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: There are at least 730 identified species of insects in the park. The maximum number of species belong to the orders Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Many unclassified species have been collected and there is a need for further studies.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: 33 species of crickets and grasshoppers have been recorded of which one was new. 41 species of true bugs (eight new) have been recorded. 128 species of beetles including 10 new species have been recorded.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Over 128 species of butterflies and 400 species of moths live here. A 1993 study found butterflies belonging to 9 families. The families Nymphalidae and Papilionidae contained the maximum number of species. 13 species were endemic to South India, including 5 species having protected status.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Seven species of butterflies were observed migrating in a mixed swarm of thousands of butterflies towards the Silent Valley National Park. In one instance an observer noted several birds attempting to catch these butterflies.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: A survey jointly conducted by Indian Dragonfly Society and the Forest and Wildlife Department in September 2018 in the buffer zone of the Silent Valley National Park found 82 species of odonata. The species found include "Indosticta deccanensis", "Burmagomphus laidlawi", "Microgomphus souteri", "Onychogomphus nilgiriensis", "Euphaea dispar", "Idionyx travancorensis", "Megalogomphus hannyngtoni" and "Lestes dorothea".


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: The Silent Valley Bush Frog, "Raorchestes silentvalley", first described in 2016, is named after the park.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: The flora of the valley include about a 1000 species of flowering plants, 108 species of orchids, 100 ferns and fern allies, 200 liverworts, 75 lichens and about 200 algae. A majority of these plants are endemic to the Western Ghats.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: "Angiosperm" flora currently identified here include 966 species belonging to 134 families and 599 genera. There are 701 "Dicotyledons" distributed among 113 families and 420 genera. There are 265 "Monocotyledons" here distributed among 21 families and 139 genera. Families best represented are the "Orchids" with 108 species including the rare, endemic and highly endangered orchids Ipsea malabarica, Bulbophyllum silentvalliensis and Eria tiagii, "Grasses" (56), "Legumes" (55), "Rubiaceae" (49) and "Asters" (45). There are many rare, endemic and economically valuable species, such as cardamom "Ellettaria cardamomum", black pepper "Piper nigrum", yams "Dioscorea spp.", beans "Phaseolus sp.", a pest-resistant strain of rice "Oryza Pittambi", and 110 plant species of importance in Ayurvedic medicine. Seven new plant species have been recorded from Silent Valley, including in 1996, "Impatiens sivarajanii", a new species of "Balsaminaceae".


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Occurrence of lion-tailed macaque is dependent on the flowering of "Cullenia exarillata" in the forest.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Six distinct tree associations have been described in the valley. Three are restricted to the southern sector:


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: A study of natural regeneration of 12 important tree species of Silent Valley tropical rain forests showed good natural regeneration of all 12 species. The species studied were "Palaquium ellipticum", "Cullenia exarillata", "Poeciloneuron indicum", "Myristica dactyloides", "Elaeocarpus glandulosus", "Litsea floribunda", "Mesua nagassarium", "Cinnamomum malabatrum", "Agrostistachys meeboldii", "Calophyllum polyanthum", "Garcinia morella" and "Actinodaphne campanulata".


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Recent selective felling of three trees per acre, has led to the cutting of 48,000 m of timber from about 20 km.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Throughout human history about 10% of the genetic stock found in the wild has been bred into palatable and higher yielding cereals, fruits and vegetables. Future food security depends on the preservation of the remaining 90% of the stock through protection of high biodiversity habitats like Silent valley.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources of ICAR (India), Plant Exploration and Collection Division has identified Silent Valley as high in bio-diversity and an important Gene Pool resource for Recombinant DNA innovations. An important example of use of wild germplasm is gene selection from the wild varieties of rice "Oryza nivara" (Central India) " and Oryza Pittambi" found in Silent Valley for the traits of broad spectrum disease resistance in high yielding hybrid rice varieties including IR-36, which are responsible for much of the Green Revolution throughout Asia.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Also, genetic evaluation of plant growth promoting Rhizobacteria obtained from Silent Valley indicated that strain, IISR 331, could increase the growth of black pepper cuttings by 228% and showed 82.7% inhibition of the common plant wilting disease "Phytopthora capsici" in laboratory tests (in vitro).


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Fire is one of the major threats facing forests in Kerala. People engaged in grazing livestock often burn an area to get fresh grass shoots for their cattle, especially during dry season when fire danger is greatest. Also, illicit activities like ganja cultivation, poaching, tree felling, non timber forest products (NTFP) collection and very often careless tourists and pilgrims are responsible for big forest fires.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: Silent Valley is home to some of India's largest illegal plantations of cannabis. Cannabis is one of the traditional plantations in these forests and there are people who depend on 'Ganja economy' for a livelihood. Tribes like Irula, Muduga and Kurumba (particularly the last one) have always grown cannabis in their history. The seedless variety of cannabis cultivated in Silent Valley is known as "Sairandhri" and is renowned internationally for its quality.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: According to former additional chief secretary Madhava Menon, the cannabis cultivated here is one of the best in the world and is sold worldwide. The cannabis mafia has cut hundreds of acres of evergreen tropical forest in the Attappady Hills, including Silent Valley buffer zones, for illegal cultivation of the cash crop. The Forest Department had an ambitious plan to root out ganja cultivation from the Attappady forests by April 2006.


title: Silent Valley National Park

text: The ticket counter of the Silent Valley National Park at Mukkali was attacked by a group of Maoists in December, 2014. A big contingent of special police has been deployed there since then, but the growing influence of Maoist groups in tribal east Kerala is of grave concern.


title: Tayo the Little Bus

text: Tayo the Little Bus () is a South Korean computer-animated television series created by Iconix Entertainment, Educational Broadcasting System and the Metropolitan Government of Seoul. The show was produced with the help of Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon's administration. It began airing in South Korea on EBS in 2010 and an English-dubbed version of the series began airing on Disney Junior (Asia) in 2012, with Disney Junior (Australia and New Zealand) following in 2013. In the United States and Canada, Hulu is the exclusive distributor of the series, though the third and fourth seasons are on Netflix. In Indonesia, the series is distributed by RTV and Mentari TV.


title: Tayo the Little Bus

text: The series is about four buses in a city populated with anthropomorphic vehicles: Tayo (Bus 120), Rogi (Bus 1000), Lani (Bus 02), and Gani (Bus 1339).


title: Tayo the Little Bus

text: Each episode in the start, middle, and end features a brief narration and it has six seasons. A spin-off series to Tayo, known as "Titipo Titipo", premiered between the main series’ fourth season and fifth season. Titipo focuses on the titular character named Titipo, a young passenger train the show is named after along with all his friends, who are also trains. After the end of "Titipo"s first season, "Tayo"s fifth season premiered for English-speaking audiences on October 22, 2018. Titipo Titipo was greenlit for a second season. "Titipo"s second season premiered for English-speaking audiences starting November 19, 2020. In late 2020, "Tayo the Little Bus" 10th anniversary spinoff "Tayo and Little Wizards" () was released. This spinoff premiered on Netflix on September 17, 2021. The sixth season aired on September 1, 2021.


title: Tayo the Little Bus

text: The series is available in Korean, English, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish, Indonesian, German, and Russian on the production company's official YouTube channel for the series.


title: Tayo the Little Bus

text: The series features seven main characters. Each of the four original characters (Tayo, Gani, Lani & Rogi) is based on the four actual colors and types of Seoul Buses.


title: Tayo the Little Bus

text: At a Vietnamese seminar for addressing the struggles of the Vietnamese animation industry, Korean animators named "Tayo the Little Bus" a series that has been "dominating" the Korean market. These animators also noted that the series is popular in China, Thailand, and Vietnam.


title: Tayo the Little Bus

text: In 2014, the Seoul Metropolitan Government commissioned buses designed as the characters Tayo, Gani, Rogi, and Lani, to run around the Gwanghwamun Square area of the city. This was done as part of an initiative to teach children how to use the bus. The initiative was a massive success, drawing crowds of over 40,000 in a single day. People from all across the country came to see the buses. Although the buses were originally set to run from March 26 until Public Transport Day at the end of April, their popularity led to an extension until Children's Day on May 5. The number of buses was also expanded from the original four to 100. In wake of this success, it was reported that the local governments of other cities in South Korea were considering adopting the campaign. Officials for the city of Seoul initially opposed this on copyright grounds, but they consented in April to letting other cities use the characters for non-commercial purposes.


title: Tayo the Little Bus

text: Jaeyeon Woo of "The Wall Street Journal"'s blog Korea Real-Time, speculated in an April 2014 article that the success of this initiative led both of Gyeonggi Province's gubernatorial candidates, Kim Sang-gon and Nam Kyung-pil, to adopt public transportation issues as a key part of their campaign platforms. Seoul-mayor Park Won-soon, who began the initiative, has been criticized by some of his political rivals, who feel that he took credit for the series, even though the series was begun by his predecessor's administration.


title: Tayo the Little Bus

text: On October 16, 2014, a South Korean group called the Teen Astronauts, launched a space balloon designed as the character Tayo from the Space Science Park in Korea's National Science Museum.


title: Tayo the Little Bus

text: In late 2018 there's a Tayo bus phenomenon in Indonesia due to its theme song, often used as a joke or prank by many people. It become one of the 15 top trending searches in Google in Indonesia in 2018. A BRT system in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan is called "Tayo bus" due to its size and color.


title: Tayo the Little Bus

text: "Tayo's Sing Along Show" is an animation program that aired on EBS in the first season from July 5 to September 27, 2013, and the second season from July 3 to September 25, 2015. It is an extra work of Tayo. The program is a new type of animation in which children's friend, Tayo, the Little Bus, decorates an exciting song with various car friends.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: The wives aboard Noah's Ark were part of the family that survived the Deluge in the biblical Genesis flood narrative from the Bible. These wives are the wife of Noah, and the wives of each of his three sons. Although the Bible only notes the existence of these women, there are extra-biblical mentions regarding them and their names.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: In , God says to Noah, "But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you" (ESV).


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: The deuterocanonical Book of Tobit (written "c." 225–175 BC) does not name any of the wives aboard Noah's Ark, but states that Noah's wife was one of his "own kindred" ().


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: In the Book of Jubilees (160–150 BC), considered canon by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as Beta Israel, the names of the wives are given as: Emzara, wife of Noah; Sedeqetelebab, wife of Shem; Na'eltama'uk, wife of Ham; and Adataneses, wife of Japheth. It adds that the three sons each built a city named after their wives.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: According to the "Sibylline Oracles", the wives of Shem, Ham and Japheth enjoyed fantastically long lifespans, living for centuries, while speaking prophecy to each generation they saw come and go. According to the preface of the "Oracles", the Sibyl author was a daughter-in-law of Noah: the "Babylonian Sibyl", Sambethe — who, 900 years after the Deluge, allegedly moved to Greece and began writing the Oracles. The writings attributed to her (at the end of Book III) also hint at possible names of her family who would have lived before the Flood — father Gnostos, mother Circe; elsewhere (in book V) she calls Isis her sister. Other early sources similarly name one of the Sibyls as Sabba (see Sibyl in Jewish Encyclopedia).


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: A kabalistic work that appeared in 1670, known as "Comte de Gabalis", maintains that the name of Noah's wife was Vesta.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: This name for Noah's wife had earlier been found in Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa's "History of the Incas" (c. 1550), where the names Prusia or Persia, Cataflua and Funda are also given for Shem, Ham, and Japheth's wives respectively.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: The early Christian writer St. Hippolytus (d. 235 AD) recounted a tradition of their names according to the Syriac "Targum" that is similar to "Jubilees", although apparently switching the names of Shem's and Ham's wives. He wrote: "The names of the wives of the sons of Noah are these: the name of the wife of Sem, Nahalath Mahnuk; and the name of the wife of Cham, Zedkat Nabu; and the name of the wife of Japheth, Arathka". He also recounts a quaint legend concerning the wife of Ham: God having instructed Noah to destroy the first person who announced that the deluge was beginning, Ham's wife at that moment was baking bread, when water suddenly rushed forth from the oven, destroying the bread. When she exclaimed then that the deluge was commencing, God suddenly cancels his former command lest Noah destroy his own daughter-in-law who was to be saved.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: An early Arabic work known as "Kitab al-Magall" or the "Book of Rolls" (part of Clementine literature), the Syriac Book of the "Cave of Treasures" (c. 350), and Patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria (c. 930) all agree in naming Noah's wife as "Haykêl, the daughter of Namûs (or Namousa), the daughter of Enoch, the brother of Methuselah"; the first of these sources elsewhere calls Haikal "the daughter of Mashamos, son of Enoch", while stating that Shem's wife is called "Leah, daughter of Nasih".


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: Furthermore, the "Panarion" of Epiphanius (c. 375) names Noah's wife as Barthenos, while the c. 5th-century Ge'ez work "Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan" calls Noah's wife "Haikal, the daughter of Abaraz, of the daughters of the sons of Enos" — whom some authors have connected with Epiphanius' "Barthenos" (i.e., "Bath-Enos", daughter of Enos). However, "Jubilees" makes "Betenos" the name of Noah's mother. The word "haykal" is Syriac for "temple" or "church"; in the Georgian copy of "Cave of Treasures", we find instead the name T'ajar, which is the Georgian word for the same.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: Patriarch Eutychius of Alexandria, writing in Arabic, also states that Shem's wife was Salit, Ham's Nahlat and Japheth's Arisisah, all daughters of Methuselah. The theologian John Gill (1697–1771) wrote in his "Exposition of the Bible" of this tradition "that the name of Shem's wife was Zalbeth, or, as other copies, Zalith or Salit; that the name of Ham's Nahalath; and of Japheth's Aresisia."


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: A manuscript of the 8th-century Latin work "Inventiones Nominum", copies of which have been found at the Abbey of St. Gall in Switzerland, and in a library at Albi, SW France, lists as Noah's wife Set, as Shem's wife Nora, as Ham's wife Sare, and as Japeth's wife Serac.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: Hungarian folklore has several tales about Japheth and his wife called Eneh, attributing this information to the "Chronicles of Sigilbert, Bishop of Antioch" in the 14th-century "Képes Krónika".


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: The "Genesis Rabba" midrash lists Naamah, the daughter of Lamech and sister of Tubal-Cain, as the wife of Noah, as does the 11th-century Jewish commentator Rashi in his commentary on Genesis 4:22.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: In the medieval midrash called Book of Jasher, the name of Noah's wife is said to be Naamah, daughter of Enoch.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: Gnostic literature of the first few centuries AD calls Noah's wife Norea, including texts ascribed to her, as reported by Epiphanius, and confirmed in modern times with the discovery of the texts at Nag Hammadi.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: Mandaean literature, of uncertain antiquity, refers to Noah's (or Shem's) wife by the name Nuraita (or "Nhuraitha, Anhuraita", various other spellings). There is some contradiction between texts, and some textual ambiguity, regarding which patriarch is married to Nuraita; additionally, Anhuraita appears to be a portmanteau of Nuraita and Anhar, the wives of Noah and Shem.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: The Persian historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (c. 915) recounts that Japheth's wife was Arbasisah, daughter of Marazil, son of al-Darmasil, son of Mehujael, son of Enoch, son of Cain; that Ham's wife was Naḥlab, daughter of Marib, another son of al-Darmasil; and that Shem's wife was Ṣalib, daughter of Batawil, another son of Mehujael. He says Noah's wife was Amzurah, daughter of Barakil, another son of Mehujael.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: Irish folklore is rich in traditions and legends regarding the three sons and their wives. Here the wives are usually named Olla, Olliva, and Ollivani (or variations thereof), names possibly derived from the Anglo-Saxon "Codex Junius" (c. 700 AD), a Bible paraphrase written in the fashion of Germanic sagas, and often attributed to the poet Cædmon. The wife of Noah is given as Percoba in "Codex Junius".


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: The Anglo-Saxon ""Solomon and Saturn"" dialogue gives for Noah's wife Dalila, for Ham's, Jaitarecta, and for Japheth's Catafluvia, while giving "Olla", Ollina and Ollibana as alternatives. The name of Shem's wife is missing. Some versions of the Gaelic "Lebor Gabala" also name Shem's, Ham's and Japheth's wives as Cata Rechta, Cata Flauia and Cata Chasta respectively. Similar traditions seem to have endured for several centuries in some form, for in Petrus Comestor, we read that the wives of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth are Phuarpara, Pharphia, Cataflua and Fliva respectively, and in a 15th-century Middle English catechism, we find written ""What hicht Noes wyf?" "Dalida; and the wif of Sem, Cateslinna; and the wif of Cam, Laterecta; and the wif of Japheth, Aurca. And other 3 names, Ollia, Olina, and Olybana."


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: Ælfric of Eynsham's Anglo-Saxon translation of the "Heptateuch" (c. 1000) included illustrations with the wives' names recorded in the captions. One such illustration (fol. 17) names Noah's wife as Phiapphara, Shem's as Parsia, Ham's as Cataphua, and Japheth's as Fura. Another (fol. 14) includes one wife, presumably Noah's, named Sphiarphara. A Middle English illustrated version of "Genesis" dating to the 13th century also gives Puarphara as Noah's wife.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: According to the 15th-century monk Annio da Viterbo, the Hellenistic Babylonian writer Berossus had stated that the sons' wives were Pandora, Noela, and Noegla, and that Noah's wife was Tytea. However, Annio's manuscript is widely regarded today as having been a forgery.


title: Wives aboard Noah's Ark

text: Nonetheless, later writers made use of this "information", sometimes even combining it with other traditions. The Portuguese friar Gaspar Rodriguez de S. Bernardino wrote in "Itinerario da India por terra ate a ilha de Chypre" in 1842 that the wives of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth were named Tytea or Phuarphara, Pandora or Parphia, Noela or Cataflua, and Noegla, Eliua or Arca. In Robert Southey's "Common-place Book" from around the same time, similar names are given, with the information attributed to the "Comte de Mora Toledo": Titea Magna; Pandora; Noala or Cataflua; and Noegla, Funda or Afia, respectively.


title: Barry Gordon

text: Barry Gordon (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and political talk show host. He was the longest-serving president of the Screen Actors Guild, having served from 1988 to 1995. He is perhaps best known as the original voice of Donatello and Bebop in the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" franchise.


title: Barry Gordon

text: Gordon was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, United States. His stepfather, Bob Manning, was a crooner of popular love songs in the 1940s and 1950s, most known for his rendition of Hoagy Carmichael's "The Nearness of You".


title: Barry Gordon

text: Gordon began performing at age three; in his television debut, he won second place on Ted Mack's "Amateur Hour" singing Johnnie Ray's "Cry". At six, Gordon recorded "Nuttin' for Christmas". He was the youngest performer to hit a pre-Hot 100 "Billboard" chart when that song hit No. 6 in 1955. It sold over 1 million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The next year, he charted his second and final single "Rock Around Mother Goose". In circa 1956, Bill Haley recorded a private demo recording "Six Year Olds Can Rock and Roll". He begins the recording (released in 1990) by dedicating it to Barry Gordon.


title: Barry Gordon

text: As a child actor, Gordon also appeared on "The Jackie Gleason Show", "The Jack Benny Program", "Richard Diamond, Private Detective", "The Danny Thomas Show", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Star Time" with Benny Goodman. Gordon was cast as Humberto in an episode of the sitcom "Sally", starring Joan Caulfield, and as Chopper in "Leave It to Beaver" (episode 119: "Beaver's House Guest"). Gordon guest starred on the sitcoms "The Ann Sothern Show" and "Dennis the Menace".


title: Barry Gordon

text: In 1962, Barry played the part of the childhood version of "Patient" in "Pressure Point". At 13, Gordon began a career on Broadway as Nick in Herb Gardner's "A Thousand Clowns", a role for which he earned a Tony Award nomination. He later reprised that role in the film version opposite Jason Robards and Martin Balsam in 1965. The film gave him "introducing" billing, but he had actually been in several films already, most notably his actual film debut in 1956's "The Girl Can't Help It" as a newspaper boy in which he uttered the line after seeing Jayne Mansfield: "If that's a girl, I don't know what my sister is."


title: Barry Gordon

text: As a teen, Gordon starred alongside Sid Caesar and Vera Miles in the 1967 comedy-horror film "The Spirit Is Willing". In the 1970s, Gordon appeared in the "Barney Miller" spin-off "Fish", starring Abe Vigoda, and from 1973 to 1974 was a regular on "The New Dick Van Dyke Show". He also played a waiter in "Horror in the Heights", a 1974 episode of "". In 1976, he appeared in an episode of "The Practice".


title: Barry Gordon

text: Primarily as a character actor, Gordon became a familiar face in numerous feature films and television series. In the last two seasons of the sitcom "Archie Bunker's Place", Gordon had the recurring role of Gary Rabinowitz, Archie's Jewish attorney and love interest of Barbara Lee "Billie" Bunker (played by Denise Miller). Gordon also had notable guest-starring roles on "Barney Miller" as an embezzler, on "Fish" as a social worker, on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" as a Ferengi businessman, and on "" as Ardon Broht, an alien publisher. More recently, Gordon has appeared as the Rabbi in Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm".


title: Barry Gordon

text: Gordon worked extensively as a voice actor. His most notable voice roles were Donatello and Bebop in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", and as Jake "Razor" Clawson in "" (1993). Gordon's voice was also featured in other animated series Mostly Hanna-Barbera shows such as "Jabberjaw" (as Clamhead), "Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle", "The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam!" (as Captain Marvel Jr.), "Meatballs & Spaghetti" (as bassist Clyde), "Pac-Man" (as Inky), "Mighty Orbots" (as Robert Simmons), "Pole Position", "The Jetsons", "The Smurfs", "The Adventures of the American Rabbit" (as the titular character), "Superman", "Snorks" (as Junior Wetworth), "Gravedale High" (as Reggie Moonshroud), "Space Cats", "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" (as Englebert Newton), "Darkwing Duck" (as Dr. Fossil), "Tom & Jerry Kids" and its spin-off "Droopy, Master Detective", "" (as the Penguin's henchman Sheldrake), "Aaahh!!! Real Monsters", "Timon & Pumbaa", "Fantastic Max", and "The Pirates of Dark Water". Gordon also provided the voice of "Quicky" the Nesquik Bunny in television commercials for Nestlé.


title: Barry Gordon

text: In May 2009, Gordon played the Cocker Spaniel in the Webkinz Pet of the Month Music Video for May 2009.


title: Barry Gordon

text: Gordon reprised the roles as the original Donatello and Bebop in three seasons of Nickelodeon's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles".


title: Barry Gordon

text: On April 20th, 2022, it was revealed that Gordon would reprise his role as Donatello for the video game, "". This marks the first time that he would play Donatello for a video game and his first video game role in general.


title: Barry Gordon

text: In his mid-30s, Gordon returned to school; he graduated summa cum laude as a political science major from California State University, Los Angeles and went on to Loyola Law School, receiving his J.D. in 1991.


title: Barry Gordon

text: Gordon became the longest-serving president of the Screen Actors Guild, holding the office for seven years.


title: Barry Gordon

text: In 1998, Gordon was the Democratic Party nominee for the United States Congress from the Pasadena, California area. He was defeated by Republican Party incumbent James Rogan.


title: Barry Gordon

text: In 2004, when the local Air America Radio affiliate in Los Angeles went off the air, for a then-unspecified period of time, Gordon started a live, call-in progressive political talk show on Pasadena's public-access television cable TV channel 56. It continues to be cablecast and webcast live


title: Barry Gordon

text: In 2006 and early 2007, Gordon hosted "Barry Gordon from Left Field", a weekly talk show broadcast throughout the 25th largest U.S. radio market—the San Bernardino/Riverside region of Southern California—on KCAA Radio in Loma Linda, California. With live streams and podcast archives, the show was notable for featuring nationally known guests, including senators, congressmen, bestselling authors, and entertainment figures.


title: Barry Gordon

text: Since 2007, Gordon has taught courses in politics and the media at the California State University, Los Angeles.


title: Barry Gordon

text: Gordon married Sally Julin; the marriage ended in a divorce. He married Gail Schaper in 1993. They have two children.


title: Talitha Getty

text: Talitha Dina Getty (; 18 October 1940 – 11 July 1971) was a Dutch actress, socialite, and model who was regarded as a style icon of the late 1960s. She lived much of her adult life in Britain and, in her final years, was closely associated with the Moroccan city of Marrakesh. Her husband was the oil heir and subsequent philanthropist John Paul Getty Jr.


title: Talitha Getty

text: Talitha Dina Pol was born in Java, then part of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), daughter of the artists (1905–1988) and Arnoldine Adriana "Adine" Mees (1908–1948).


title: Talitha Getty

text: Her father subsequently married Poppet John (1912–1997), daughter of the painter Augustus John (1878–1961), a pivotal figure in the world of Bohemian culture and fashion. She was thus the step-granddaughter of both Augustus John and his muse and second wife, Dorothy "Dorelia" McNeil (1881–1969), who was a fashion icon in the early years of the 20th century. By Ian Fleming's widowed mother, Evelyn Ste Croix Fleming née Rose, Augustus John had a daughter, Talitha's step-aunt, Amaryllis Fleming (1925–1999), who became a noted cellist.


title: Talitha Getty

text: Pol spent her early years, during the Second World War, with her mother in a Japanese prison camp. Her father was interned in a separate camp, and her parents went their own ways after the war, Pol moving to Britain with her mother, who died in 1948 in The Hague.


title: Talitha Getty

text: Pol studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. Writer and journalist Jonathan Meades, who was at RADA several years later, recalled that, after first coming to London in 1964, he saw Pol with her stepmother at Seal House, Holland Park (home of Poppet John's sister, Vivien). Meades thought her "the most beautiful young woman I had ever seen ... I gaped, unable to dissemble my amazement". In 1988, a former Labour Member of the British Parliament Woodrow, Lord Wyatt recalled, with reference to the "success with women" of Anthony, Lord Lambton, former Conservative Government Minister, that


title: Talitha Getty

text: ...there was that Talitha Pol who was very pretty and had a little starlet job in Yugoslavia; and he went and stayed at the hotel and sent her huge bunches of flowers about every two hours and showered her with presents.


title: Talitha Getty

text: Another to come under Pol's spell was the dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who first met her at a party in 1965. According to Nureyev's biographer, Julie Kavanagh, the two were in thrall to each other, to the extent that Nureyev "had never felt so erotically stirred by a woman" and told several friends that he wished to marry Pol. In the event, Nureyev was unable to attend a dinner party given by Claus von Bülow, at which he and Pol were to have been seated next to each other, and so von Bülow invited instead John Paul Getty Jr., son of his employer, the oil tycoon Paul Getty. Pol and Getty Jr. forged a relationship that led to their marriage in 1966.


title: Talitha Getty

text: Pol became the second wife of John Paul Getty Jr. on 10 December 1966. She was married in a white miniskirt, trimmed with mink. The Gettys became part of Swinging London's fashionable scene, becoming friends with, among others, singers Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and his girl-friend Marianne Faithfull. Faithfull has recounted her apprehension, through "ingrained agoraphobia", about an invitation to spend five weeks with the Gettys in Morocco ("but for Mick this is an essential part of his life") and how, after splitting from Jagger, she took up with Talitha Getty's lover, Count Jean de Breteuil, a young French aristocrat (1949–1971). Breteuil supplied drugs to musicians such as Jim Morrison of The Doors, Keith Richards, and Marianne Faithfull, who wrote that Breteuil "saw himself as dealer to the stars" and has claimed that he delivered the drugs that accidentally killed Morrison less than two weeks before Talitha's own death in 1971. For his part, Richards recalled that John Paul and Talitha Getty "had the best and finest opium".


title: Talitha Getty

text: Print designer Celia Birtwell, who married designer Ossie Clark, recalled Talitha Getty as one of a number of "beautiful people" who crossed her threshold in the late 1960s, while couturier Yves Saint Laurent likened the Gettys to the title of a 1922 novel by F Scott Fitzgerald as "beautiful and damned". Among other glamorous figures of the Sixties, the fashion designer Michael Rainey, who founded the Hung on You boutique in Chelsea, and his wife Jane Ormsby-Gore, daughter of British ambassador David Ormsby-Gore to the United States during the Kennedy era, "hung out" with the Gettys in Marrakesh between their moving from Gozo to the Welsh Marches.


title: Talitha Getty

text: John Paul Getty, who has been described as "a swinging playboy who drove fast cars, drank heavily, experimented with drugs and squired raunchy starlets", eschewed the family business, Getty Oil, during this period, much to the chagrin of his father. However, in later years, he became a philanthropist and, as a U.S. citizen, received an honorary British knighthood in 1986. His luxury yacht, built in 1927 and renovated in 1994, was the "MY Talitha G".


title: Talitha Getty

text: In July 1968, the Gettys had a son, Tara Gabriel Galaxy Gramaphone Getty, who became a noted ecological conservationist in Africa, dropped his third and fourth forenames, and took Irish citizenship in 1999. He and his wife Jessica (a chalet maid he met in Verbier) have three children, including a daughter named Talitha.


title: Talitha Getty

text: By 1969, the dissolute lifestyle the Gettys were leading in Italy and Morocco had begun to wear on Talitha, who wished to pursue treatment for heroin and alcohol addiction and return to Britain. Both she and Paul were unfaithful to one another (Paul was having an affair with Victoria Holdsworth, whom he would go on to marry in 1994), and Paul showed no commitment to becoming sober. He agreed to a separation and purchased a house for his wife and son to live in on Cheyne Walk in London. In early 1970 Talitha was sober and living an active social life in London.


title: Talitha Getty

text: Talitha Getty is probably best remembered for an iconic photograph taken on a roof-top in Marrakesh, Morocco in January 1969 by Patrick Lichfield. With her hooded husband in the background, this image, part of the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, portrayed her in a crouching pose, wearing a multi-coloured kaftan, white harem pants and white and cream boots.


title: Talitha Getty

text: The look seemed stylishly to typify the hippie fashion of the time and became a model over the years for what, more recently, has been referred to variously as "hippie chic", "boho-chic" and "Talitha Getty chic".


title: Talitha Getty

text: As an actress, Pol appeared in several films, including "Village of Daughters" (1962) (as a daughter, Gioia Spartaco); an Edgar Wallace mystery, "We Shall See" (1964) (as Jirina); "The System" (1964) (aka "The Girl-Getters" as Helga, a German tourist and the first girl to be hit on by the young men)); "Return from the Ashes" (1965) (as Claudine, alongside Maximilian Schell, Ingrid Thulin and Samantha Eggar); and "Barbarella" (1968), a sexually charged science-fiction fantasy starring Jane Fonda, in which she had the minor uncredited role of a girl smoking a hookah pipe.


title: Talitha Getty

text: In the spring of 1971, Talitha Getty asked her husband for a divorce after years of living separately, but Paul Jr. was adamant that he still loved her and pleaded with her to come to Rome for a reconciliation. Her lawyers advised her that divorce proceedings would be easier if Talitha could show that she had attempted to reconcile with Paul, so on 9 July 1971 she flew to Rome. She was found dead on 11 July in the Getty apartment on Piazza d'Aracoeli, allegedly of a heroin overdose. However, her death certificate listed the cause as cardiac arrest, with high levels of alcohol and barbiturates found in her blood.


title: Talitha Getty

text: The Italian press speculated that Paul's continued heroin usage had caused Talitha to relapse. An autopsy conducted 8 months after her death found traces of heroin in Talitha's system, but this was inconclusive since heroin can persist in the body for many months, and might therefore have pre-dated her sobriety. In January 1973, Italian authorities announced that an inquest would be held into the causes of Talitha's death; they requested that Paul Jr. submit to an interview. Getty was afraid that his continued drug use would lead to arrest and prosecution, so he fled Italy for the UK in February, and never returned.


title: Talitha Getty

text: Talitha Getty died within the same 12-month period as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Edie Sedgwick and, as noted, Jim Morrison, other cultural icons of the 1960s. Her friend Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, with whom she had spent time in Marrakesh, had predeceased Hendrix by a little over a year.


title: Talitha Getty

text: In 1993 Paul Getty named his new yacht "Talitha G" in memory of his late wife; it continues in service as "Talitha" for her son Mark.


title: Talitha Getty

text: The death of Talitha Getty is the subject of the Italian political drama "Number One" (1973). The film, which disappeared from the public eye because of its clear references to the Getty case and the "Number One" nightclub, was restored and screened again in 2021. The death of Talitha Pol serves as a trigger for major investigations into drug trafficking and art theft surrounding the nightclub. Talitha Getty's cinematic stand-in character "Deborah Garner" is played by Josiane Tanzilli, John Paul Getty II in the character of "Teddy Garner Jr." by Paolo Malco.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: Electronic Data Systems (EDS) was an American multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Plano, Texas which was founded in 1962 by Ross Perot. The company was a subsidiary of General Motors from 1984 until it was spun off in 1996. EDS was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2008.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: Electronic Data Systems (EDS) was founded in 1962 by H. Ross Perot, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a successful IBM salesman who first-hand observed how inefficiently IBM's customers typically were using their expensive systems. Somewhat to IBM's chagrin, since the company wanted to sell as many computers as possible, Perot made a fortune changing this. An early success was in matching the unused computer time at Southwestern Life Insurance Company with the computing needs of rapidly expanding Collins Radio, both located in Dallas, Texas. Perot knew the inside details of both companies.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In its early years, EDS was a pioneer in facilities management – becoming the IT department for many companies – as well as beginning to service banks and provide early support for both Medicaid and Medicare in its home state of Texas. Leading the effort internally was Morton H. Meyerson, who joined the company in 1966 as the company's 54th employee. In 1967, he proposed the business model that eventually became known as "outsourcing" and which led to exponential growth for EDS.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In the 1970s, EDS expanded initially into more insurance services and later credit unions, and by 1975 revenue topped $100 million and the company began bidding for work internationally. In 1978 EDS expanded into financial markets with the arrival of automated teller machines, electronic funds transfer and real-time point-of-sale terminals. Meyerson was named president in 1979, at which point EDS had revenue of $270 million, was free of debt, and had 8,000 employees.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In the 1980s, they expanded into travel services supporting payment services between travel agents and airlines represented by the Air Transport Association of America, and provided large scale contracts for the US military.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In 1984, the company was acquired by General Motors for $2.5 billion, with EDS becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of GM. Meyerson remained president and in 1985, the company had a presence in 21 countries with 40,000 employees. Meyerson retired in 1987. During his years of executive leadership, EDS revenue grew to $4 billion a year, and the company grew to 45,000 employees. By the end of the decade, revenue was $5 billion. In 1996, GM spun off EDS as an independent company.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In the 1990s, in addition to its existing markets, EDS was entering the telecommunications industry and was providing IT systems in many foreign countries. They were providing information systems for global sporting events including the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the 1994 FIFA World Cup, and the 1998 FIFA World Cup. In 1994, they signed what was at the time the largest information technology contract with Xerox for $3.2 billion and also bought the New Zealand banking processing company Databank Systems. In 1995 they purchased A.T. Kearney, the world's 4th largest private management consulting firm. In 1996, they became an independent company again and relisted on the New York Stock Exchange. Before the turn of the century they took part in over 1,300 Year 2000 projects. As a part of the move towards being an independent company, EDS asked its employees to assist in the re-branding effort by submitting designs for a new logo. While a design (a square with the "E" in it) was selected and used for several years, it was the design of Shawn Downs, an employee in the Charlotte IPC, that was ultimately selected and utilized in the 2000 launch.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In 2000, EDS launched a new logo with an award-winning Super Bowl commercial about herding cats. Post-2000, they continued to sign long term, billion dollar contracts with organizations such as Bank of America, American Airlines, General Motors, Kraft Foods and the United States Navy. In 2006 they sold A.T. Kearney in a management buyout.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In May 2008, Hewlett-Packard Co. confirmed that it had reached a deal with EDS to acquire the company for $13.9 billion. The deal was completed on August 26, 2008. EDS became an HP business unit and was temporarily renamed "EDS, an HP company". Ronald A. Rittenmeyer, EDS Chairman, President, and CEO, remained at the helm and reported to HP CEO Mark Hurd until his retirement. In December 2008, HP announced that Rittenmeyer would retire at the end of the month.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: As of 2008, EDS employed 300,000 people in 64 countries, the largest locations being the United States, India and the UK. It was ranked as one of the largest service companies on the Fortune 500 list with around 2,000 clients.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In September 2009, EDS began going to market as HP Enterprise Services, a name change which came one year after HP announced the acquisition of EDS, and which was a critical milestone as the integration of EDS into HP neared completion.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: On April 3, 2017, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services merged with Computer Sciences Corporation to form DXC Technology, retaining significant operations from Plano, Texas and many aspects of EDS. On June 1, 2018, DXC spun off the U.S. public services sector of the business through a Reverse Morris Trust, combining with Vencore and KeyPoint Government Solutions to create a new independent and publicly traded government contractor, Perspecta Inc.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In 2006, EDS sold their management consulting subsidiary company, A.T. Kearney, in a management buyout and retained interests in five related companies:


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In June 2006, EDS acquired a majority holding in MphasiS, a leading applications and business process outsourcing (BPO) services company based in Bangalore, India.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In November 2007, EDS announced that it had agreed to purchase an approximate 93 percent equity interest in Sabre Corporation, a leading provider of software and services to U.S. state governments, from various sellers, including majority shareholder Accel-KKR, for approximately $420 million in cash. Saber became Saber Government Solutions after merging with other EDS state and local non-healthcare groups. In January 2009, it rebranded as EDS, an HP company.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In April 2008, EDS acquired Vistorm Holdings Limited, a provider of information assurance and managed security services based in the U.K. The acquisition will create one of the largest information assurance and managed security services firms in Europe.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In May 2008, HP and EDS announced that they had signed a definitive agreement under which HP would purchase EDS at a price of $25.00 per share, or an enterprise value of approximately $13.9 billion. The terms of the transaction were unanimously approved by the HP and EDS boards of directors. The transaction closed on 26 August 2008. The companies' collective services businesses, as of the end of each company's 2007 fiscal year, had annual revenues of more than $38 billion and 210,000 employees, doing business in more than 80 countries.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In September 2009, HP purchased Lecroix Systems and incorporated it into the infrastructure of EDS to facilitate both in-house and client network security needs.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: For 2006, $9.6 billion of revenue came from the Americas (Canada, Latin America, and the United States); $6.4 billion from Europe, Middle East, and Africa; $1.5 billion from Asia-Pacific; Services' revenue was: Infrastructure $12 billion, Applications Software $5.9 billion, Business Process Outsourcing $3 billion and all other $421 million.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: By collaborating with SAP on client engagement training and techniques that will drive the long-term growth of its consulting practice, EDS will further enhance its existing SAP capabilities and bring end-to-end SAP consulting and systems integration to the market by early 2008. Additionally, EDS will work closely with SAP's Global Partner and Ecosystem Group for market penetration and value-added customer offerings.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: EDS operated in 66 countries, with the largest numbers of employees in the cities of Detroit, Michigan, USA; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, USA; São Paulo, Brazil; Washington, D.C., USA; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Rome and Milan, Italy; Paris, France; Adelaide, Australia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Sydney, Australia; Blackpool, UK; Sacramento, California, USA; Tyneside, UK; Madrid and Barcelona, Spain, Antwerp, Belgium and Frankfurt, Germany. Other major facilities were in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, India, Dublin, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain and the United Kingdom.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: EDS's Plano, Texas campus is located about 20 miles (30 km) north of downtown Dallas. The campus consists of 3,521,000 square feet (327,000 m²) of office and data center space on 270 acres (1.1 km²) of land. The campus included four Tier-IV data centers, a command center, four clusters of office buildings, a fitness center, a service station, four helipads and a hangar. It is the center of the 2,665 acre (11 km²) Legacy in Plano real estate development, which EDS built.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: EDS sponsored the Premier League association football team Derby County from 1998 to 2001 and was also a second-tier sponsor at the FIFA World Cups in the U.S.A. 1994 and France 1998.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: EDS was the title sponsor of the PGA Tour's EDS Byron Nelson Championship from 2003 to 2008, played in nearby Irving, Texas. In 2009, it became the HP Byron Nelson Championship. The tournament raises about $6 million each year for youth and family service centers in Dallas, Texas.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: EDS signed a sponsorship agreement in 2007 with Nobel Media to become a Global Sponsor of the Nobel Prize Series, and with Nobel Web to become its Global Technology Services Partner. The three-year agreement enables EDS to apply its technology expertise for the benefit of the Nobel Prize Series and the organization's Web technologies, including supporting the development of content on nobelprize.org, Nobel's award-winning website.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: EDS sponsored Formula One team Jaguar Racing and was title sponsor of the 1995 Australian Grand Prix.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: EDS cataloged its services into three service portfolios; Infrastructure, Applications, and Business Process Outsourcing. Infrastructure services includes maintaining the operation of part or all of a client's computer and communications infrastructure, such as networks, mainframes, "midrange" and Web servers, desktops and Laptops, and printers. Applications services involves the developing, integrating, and/or maintaining of applications software for clients. Business process outsourcing includes performing a business function for a client, like payroll, call centers, insurance claims processing, and so forth.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: EDS established a number of Business alliances with other companies through its global alliance program. The company has three types of alliances: Agility Alliances, Solution Alliances, and Technology Alliances.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: The EDS Agility Alliance has worked on a range of projects, notably its Agile Enterprise. Members of the EDS Agility Alliance include Cisco Systems, EMC Corporation, Microsoft, Oracle Corporation, SAP, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, and Xerox.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: Most of EDS's clients were very large companies and governments that need services from a company of EDS's scale. EDS's largest clients included Rolls-Royce plc, General Motors, Bank of America, Arcandor, Kraft, United States Navy, the UK Ministry of Defence and Royal Dutch Shell although General Motors announced plans to move 90% of its IT work back in house over the next 3 to 5 years starting in 2012.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: EDS formed the National Heritage Insurance Company in 1996. The creation of this subsidiary is to manage Medicare Part B services on behalf of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), formerly the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). NHIC handles call center, claims processing and payment, fraud investigations, physician enrollment etc. in many states of the US.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: Another large EDS client is the United States Navy. In 2000, they won a contract for the creation of a US$9 billion Intranet linking the Navy and the Marine Corps, which was set to late 2006, but on March 24, 2006, was extended to 2010, adding $3 billion to the accumulated contract worth. This initiative is known as the Navy Marine Corps Intranet, or simply NMCI. In 2004, NMCI accounted for about 4% of EDS's revenue. NMCI has been called the largest private network in the world, with approximately 400,000 "seats". EDS provided the network, desktops, laptops, servers, telephones, video-conferencing, satellite transceivers, and overall management of the intranet.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: Following on to the NMCI type of services, EDS in March 2005 won a US$4 billion contract with the UK Ministry of Defence to "consolidate numerous existing information networks into a single next-generation infrastructure ... The network will provide seamless interaction between headquarters, battlefield support and the front line, linking about 150,000 desktop terminals and 340,000 users in approximately 2,000 locations ..."


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In February 2008 EDS signed a US$1.3 billion contract with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, one of the largest IT projects ever undertaken in Asia. This agreement will help the Singapore government achieve a standard desktop, network and messaging/collaboration environment across its public sector by the end of fiscal year 2010.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In October 2008, the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) signed a US$111 million contract with EDS. Under this contract, EDS will: conduct worldwide security reviews, deliver certification and accreditation support, provide independent evaluation of United States Department of Defense security policies, and conduct security assessments on DOD operating systems, applications, databases, and networks. DOD and EDS have had a 13-year relationship of providing DISA with a wide range of infrastructure services, hardware and software through the DISA I-Assure and Encore contract vehicles.


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: Of historical significance, just prior to the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, EDS was the IT company that developed the Iranian social security information system. During the 1979 overthrow, several EDS employees were detained by the transitioning government of Iran, causing H. Ross Perot to undertake extraordinary clandestine measures to get these employees out of Iran. These events were recounted in Ken Follett's book "On Wings of Eagles".


title: Electronic Data Systems

text: In 1997 EDS signed its largest IT contract to that date, with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for US$3.7 billion (approx AU$5bn at the prevailing exchange rate).


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: The Cathedral of Learning is a 42-story skyscraper that serves as the centerpiece of the University of Pittsburgh's (Pitt) main campus in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Standing at , the 42-story Late Gothic Revival Cathedral is the tallest educational building in the Western Hemisphere and the second-tallest university building (fifth-tallest educationally-purposed building) in the world, after the main building of Moscow State University. It is also the second-tallest gothic-styled building in the world, after the Woolworth Building in Manhattan. The Cathedral of Learning was commissioned in 1921 and ground was broken in 1926 under general contractor Stone & Webster. The first class was held in the building in 1931 and its exterior finished in October 1934, prior to its formal dedication in June 1937. It is a Pittsburgh landmark listed in the National Register of Historic Places.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: Colloquially referred to as "Cathy" by Pitt students, the Cathedral of Learning is a steel frame structure overlaid with Indiana limestone and contains more than 2,000 rooms and windows. It functions as a primary classroom and administrative center of the university, and is home to the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Social Work, and many of its departments, as well as the University Honors College. It houses many specialty spaces, including a studio theater, food court, study lounges, offices, computer and language labs, 31 Nationality Rooms, and a half-acre (2000 m, 22,000 ft), 4-story-high, vaulted, gothic study and event hall. The building contains noted examples of stained glass, stone, wood, and iron work and is often used by the university in photographs, postcards, and other advertisements.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: The basement and floors up to (and including) floor 40 are used for educational purposes, although most floors above 36 house the building's mechanical equipment. These floors include theaters, computer laboratories, language laboratories, classrooms, and departmental offices. The basement contains a black box theater and the ground floor contains computer labs, language labs, classrooms, and the Cathedral Café food court. The lobby, comprising the first through third floors, contains a massive gothic Commons Room that is used as a general study area and for special events and is ringed by three floors of classrooms, including, on the first and third floors, the 31 Nationality Rooms designed by members of Pittsburgh's ethnic communities in the styles of different nations and ethnic groups. Twenty-nine of these serve as functional classrooms while more conventional classrooms are located on the second floor and elsewhere throughout the building. The first floor also serves as the home to the offices of the Chancellor, Executive Vice Chancellor, and other administration offices, as well as the Nationality Rooms Gift Shop. The fourth floor, which was previously home to the main stacks of the university's library and the McCarl Center for Nontraditional Student Success, now houses a mix of interdisciplinary studies programs. The fifth floor originally housed the main borrowing, reference, and reading rooms of the university library, and now houses the Department of English. The Pitt Humanities Center is housed on the sixth floor. The University Honors College is located on the 35th and 36th floors.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: The Cathedral of Learning houses the Department of Philosophy, considered one of the top five in the United States, and the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, consistently ranked at the top of the field. Other departments in the Cathedral include English, Religious Studies, Theatre Arts, and the School of Social Work which maintains the highest classrooms in the building located on the 23rd floor. Floors 38–40 are closed to the general public, as they contain electrical wiring for the building, as well as the Babcock Room, a large conference room on the 40th floor used for meetings, seminars, and special events and which provides a panoramic view of downtown Pittsburgh and the rest of the university. The 40th floor balcony also houses a nesting pair of Peregrine falcons. A view from the top is available via a webcam. Golden lights, dubbed "victory lights," surround the outside of the highest floors and are lit following Pitt football wins and other notable victories, giving the upper part of the Cathedral an amber glow.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: The top of the building serves as the site for the transmitter of the student-run radio station WPTS-FM as well as the amateur radio repeater W3YJ which is run by the Panther Amateur Radio club on a frequency of 443.45 MHz.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: In 1921, John Gabbert Bowman became the tenth chancellor of the university. At that time, the school consisted of a series of buildings constructed along Henry Hornbostel's plan for the campus and included "temporary" wooden structures built during World War I. He then began to envision a "tall building", that would be later termed the Cathedral of Learning, to provide a dramatic symbol of education for the city and alleviate overcrowding by adding much needed space in order to meet present and future needs of the university.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: Bowman looked at a plot of land named Frick Acres. On November 26, 1921, with aid from the Mellon family, the university was given the $2.5 million plot, and began plans for a proper university building on the site.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: One of the foremost Gothic architects of the time, Philadelphian Charles Klauder, was hired to design the tower. The design took two years to finish, with the final plan attempting to fuse the idea of a modern skyscraper with the tradition and ideals of Gothic architecture. The plans received strong resistance from the community and from some university officials, who felt it was too tall for the city.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: Local legend states that to counteract this resistance, Bowman ordered that the construction of the walls would start at the top floor and work its way down, so the project could not be canceled. This has been traced to an account in November 21, 1943, issue of "At Ease", a tabloid related to local military personnel on campus, which stated that "the masonry was started from the top downward." Construction photographs show that this was not the case, and that some stonework was done on the first floor before any other stonework was begun. One engineer with the company working on the Cathedral explained that the exterior walls of the Cathedral are not load-bearing. Because of this, many similar buildings would start construction at the third or fourth floors. Practically, this makes sense, as it allows easy movement of building materials and equipment into and out of the building. Instead, in the Cathedral's case, the issue was one of the stone that would be used in lower stories. In fact, the quarry was not prepared to deliver the stone on schedule, so construction was delayed, and work began on the higher stories.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: When construction started on the Cathedral of Learning in 1926, it was the tallest building in Pittsburgh, although the Gulf Tower (1932) was completed and surpassed it by the time the Cathedral of Learning was officially dedicated in June 1937. Today, it remains the tallest educational building in the Western hemisphere, the second tallest university building in the world behind the 36 story, 240 m (including a 57 m spire) Moscow State University main building completed in 1953, and the fourth tallest educational building in the world behind the Moscow State University and Mode Gakuen Cocoon (204 m) and Spiral Towers (170 m), both completed in 2008 and located in Japan.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: On July 26, 1940, as World War II was starting, a bomb threat was made against the structure with extra guards being posted to secure it and the authorities not ruling out possible wartime sabotage.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: During the war effort, the Cathedral was assigned to house, feed and instruct roughly 1,000 of the Army Air Corps (forerunner of today's U.S. Air Force) as well as dozens of Army engineers. The building had at least 12 floors dedicated for military use from 1943 until 1945.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: Fundraising for this project came in many forms, including donations from industries, corporations, individuals and foreign governments. To raise public views of the Cathedral, and at the same time finance the construction, Bowman started a fundraising campaign in 1925.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: An important part of this campaign was a project reaching out to the children of the city entitled "Buy a Brick for Pitt". Each schoolchild sent a dime ($0.10) and a letter to the university, explaining how they earned the dime for the building. In exchange, the child received a certificate for one brick contained in the Cathedral. A total of 97,000 certificates were issued to children.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: The main part of the Cathedral's first floor is the Commons Room, called one of the "great architectural fantasies of the twentieth century", is a fifteenth-century English perpendicular Gothic-style hall that covers half an acre (2,000 m) and extends upward four stories, reaching tall. The room was a gift of Andrew Mellon. It is a piece of true Gothic architecture; no steel supports were used in the construction of its arches. Each arch is a true arch, and they support their own weight. Each base for the arches weighs five tons, and it is said that they are so firmly placed that each could hold a large truck. The large central piers act only as screens for the structural steel that holds up the upper floors of the building.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: Despite its heavy use, the Commons Room is kept quiet by the use of Guastavino acoustical tiles as the stones between the ribs of vaulting. This feature was insisted upon by Chancellor Bowman. The architect, Klauder, objected due to the increased costs of this construction method. Bowman responded with the comment: "You cannot build a great University with fraud in it."


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: Joseph Gattoni designed the stonework, much of which depicts western Pennsylvanian plant life. The walls are made of Indiana limestone and the floor is green Vermont slate.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: The wrought iron in the room, including the large gates leading to the elevators, was a gift from George Hubbard Clapp and was designed by the ironworker Samuel Yellin. Over the gates are two lines by Robert Bridges, from an untitled poem:


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: Also located in the corridors surrounding the Commons Room are plaques featuring calligraphy designed and hand-cut in slate by Edward Catich, including one featuring a poem by Lawrence Lee titled "The Cathedral," as well as stained glass windows by Charles Connick.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: During finals in the winter, fires in the enormous fireplace are lit, to promote a comforting and pleasant atmosphere for the dozens of students typically found studying into the late hours.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: The Cathedral is home to 31 Nationality Rooms located on the first and third floors: 29 working classrooms and two rooms used mostly for display or occasional special events. Each nationality room is designed to celebrate a different culture that had an influence on Pittsburgh's growth, depicting an era prior to (or in the singular case of the French Classroom, just after) 1787, which is year of the university's founding and the signing of the U.S. Constitution.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: The Nationality Room programs began in 1926 when Bowman decided that he wanted to involve the community as much as he could in constructing the Cathedral, so he proposed that each nationality that had a significant number of people in Pittsburgh would be allowed to design their nationality's room for the Cathedral. Each group had to form a Room Committee, which would be responsible for all fundraising, designing, and acquisition. The university provided only the room and, upon completion, upkeep for perpetuity. All other materials, labor, and design were provided by the individual committees. These were sometimes aided by foreign governments and the rooms contain many authentic artifacts and materials from the country represented. A typical room on the 1st floor (those built between 1938 and 1957) took between three and ten years to complete, and cost the equivalent of US$300,000 in 2006 dollars. More recent rooms have cost in the range of $750,000 and up.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: There are several other notable facilities and rooms within the Cathedral of Learning. In addition, these spaces do not fall under the auspices of the Nationality Rooms program.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: The Edward V. Babcock Memorial Room is a plush, carpeted, wood-paneled conference room constructed on the 40th floor for use as the University trustees' boardroom. Funded by a Babcock family grant of $327,000 ($ in dollars) and dedicated in November 1958, all of the room's features are original, except for the lighting, furniture and carpeting. The room's square shape is modified by four alcoves, in one of which is a portrait of Babcock by Malcolm Stevens Parcell. The walls, featuring intricate geometric patterns, are paneled in Appalachian white oak with burled walnut inlays and touches of rosewood. The windows, adorned by leaf-patterned curtains, boast a spectacular panoramic view of the surrounding area. The room is also adjoined by a kitchen. Access to the room is limited to a spiral staircase and an elevator, both requiring a key, that originate on the 36th floor. During the early 1970s at the height of student activism, a group of protesting students attempted to barricade the room during a trustees meeting. Today, the trustees have outgrown the room and generally meet in the Assembly Room of the William Pitt Union. The Babcock room now serves as a seminar and meeting room and is also used for special events. A pair of peregrine falcons nests on the balcony outside the room.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: Following the opening of the Cathedral of Learning, the offices of the Dean of Women moved to the 12th floor of the Cathedral in 1938. The interior was unfinished but Dean Thyrsa Amos envisioned a dignified and beautiful space for women to meet.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: When Dean Amos died in 1941, the new quarters were still unfinished. The Alumnae Association created the Thyrsa W. Amos Fund to plaster the walls and to furnish Room 1217 in her name. Room 1217 was never finished, but after World War II the other rooms on the twelfth floor were completed including room 1201, now known as the Braun Room. Mrs. A. E. Braun donated the furnishings and floral carved mahogany wood paneling which she had purchased in 1941 from the library of the home of Grant McCargo in the East End of Pittsburgh. The Braun Room was dedicated in 1946 and serves, along with its furniture, as an example of a modern reproduction of Louis XV design. Original blue carpeting was replaced in 1955 with a Persian rug, named "The Iron Rug of Persia", that was donated by the daughter and son-in-law of A. E. Braun. Restored in 2015, the rug was made for a regional Khan in the northern part of Iran around 1810. Other features of the room include a low bookcase, bordered and topped with classic carving, that was crafted by university carpenters to replace the original fireplace whose inclusion was impractical on the 12th floor, along with two crystal drop chandeliers.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: Dean Helen Pool Rush and her successor, Dean Savina Skewis, carried on the traditions of Dean Amos until the Dean of Women's Office was closed in 1969, and its functions and quarters were assumed by other departments. The Braun Room is used for meetings and study abroad scholarship selection panels.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: The Croghan-Schenley room, situated on the first floor of the Cathedral in room 156, is actually two adjoining Greek Revival rooms, the Ballroom and the Oval Room, connected by a hidden passageway in the Ballroom's fireplace. The rooms were originally part of William Croghan Jr.'s mansion, known as the Picnic House, built in 1830 in the Stanton Heights area of Pittsburgh. The rooms themselves were created in 1835 by the Philadelphia carver Mordecai Van Horn, and they have been regarded as being among the most lavish examples of Greek Revival designs in America.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: His daughter, Mary Elizabeth, went to boarding school in New York, but in 1842 at the age of fifteen she eloped with 43-year-old Edward Wyndham Harrington Schenley, a captain in the British military. The elopement caused a family schism. Mary would not visit often, and in an effort to convince her to move back to Pittsburgh, the new rooms were commissioned. Following the death of William Croghan in 1850, the mansion was run by caretakers with no permanent residents for some 60 years. William S. Miller, then president of Steelwood Corp., purchased the Croghan mansion following World War II and it was soon leveled for a new housing development, but the Croghan-Schenley rooms were spared.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: In 1955, the rooms, donated by Miller, were dismantled and rebuilt in the Cathedral, except that the original ceilings had to be lowered about 8 inches to accommodate the available space.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: In 1982, the rooms were refurbished to their 19th century glory. Highlighting the ballroom are the hand-cut glass chandelier and four wooden, hand-carved Greek columns, surviving examples of western Pennsylvania's Greek classical revival period popular with those of means in the 1830s.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: The Croghan-Schenley rooms are the last extant vestiges of the estate of Mary Schenley, who before she died gave much of her holdings and property to the city of Pittsburgh—including Schenley farms, where the Cathedral sits, and Schenley Park.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: Stories tell of a ghost, speculated to be that of Mary Schenley, that is said to roam the Ballroom and Nationality Rooms. The doors to the rooms are locked every night, but furniture is sometimes said to be found rearranged by daylight staff. The swinging of the chandelier has been said to indicate her presence.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: The Frick Auditorium is a lecture hall in room 324 of the Cathedral of Learning. Originally conceptualized as the Fine Arts Lecture Room intended to complement the Fine Arts Department then located on the seventh floor, the room was completed in 1939 and features stone mullions, chambranle, and other trim as well as wooden lecture seating and a coffered ceiling. A centerpiece element in the room is a Nicholas Lochoff reproduction of "The Resurrection" by Piero della Francesca that was purchased for the lecture hall by Helen Clay Frick. Frick would later donate a large collection of Lochoff reproductions to the university which are on display in the Nicholas Lochoff Cloister in the university's Frick Fine Arts Building.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: The University of Pittsburgh's Humanities Center, part of School of Arts and Sciences, is housed in the Cathedral of Learning's room 602, which was a sixth-floor space once occupied by the Darlington Memorial Library. Following digitization and protective storage of the library's materials, its space was renovated in 2009 by architect Rob Pfaffmann to house the center, which now includes office space for staff and visiting fellows. The Humanities Center space retains much of the original character and many of the antique furnishings originally bequeathed to the university by the Darlington family, and features moldings and green walls that are duplicated from the 18th mansion Graeme Park, a Pennsylvania colonial-era governor's residence. The Center for Humanities was finished in time for an open house that was part a conference hosted by the center on November 14–15, 2009.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: The space served as the home of The Darlington Memorial Library from 1936 until its recent conversion to the Humanities Center. The library was entered through a memorial vestibule and consisted of a central room with eight alcoves. Among other notable furnishings, it contained a wrought iron entrance gate by Samuel Yellin. The library was given to the University of Pittsburgh by the daughters of William McCullough Darlington and Mary Carson Darlington. The initial gift of eleven thousand volumes was made in 1918 by Mary O'Hara Darlington and Edith Darlington Ammon. This was followed by Mary O'Hara Darlington's bequest in 1925 of the remainder of the family's library and much of the family estate. The Darlington family's tremendous interest in historical research was the force behind creating what was said to be the largest private library west of the Alleghenies. The library collection is particularly rich in material about the French and Indian War and the history of Western Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley, as both William and Mary Darlington researched and published in these areas. While the collection's main focus is on American history and literature, other collection highlights include rare maps and atlases, works on ornithology and natural history, and early travel narratives. The Darlington's son, O'Hara Darlington, also amassed collections of Victorian literature sporting books and works of illustrators and caricaturists. The collection also has been enriched over the years by donations from other individuals and organizations, which especially have enhanced its content about the history of the Western Pennsylvania region.


title: Cathedral of Learning

text: Before renovation of the original library space, its materials were digitized and placed online at The Darlington Digital Library. The original, sometimes fragile, materials of the library were placed in storage for availability to researchers upon request. A virtual tour of the Darlington Memorial Library as it previously existed in the Cathedral of Learning is available at the main entrance and the main room.