title: Breathless (1960 film)

text: Godard said the success of "Breathless" was a mistake. He added "there used to be just one way. There was one way you could do things. There were people who protected it like a copyright, a secret cult only for the initiated. That's why I don't regret making "Breathless" and blowing that all apart." In 1964, Godard described his and his colleagues' impact: "We barged into the cinema like cavemen into the Versailles of Louis XV."


title: Breathless (1960 film)

text: "Breathless" ranked as the No. 22 best film of all time in the decennial British Film Institute's 1992 "Sight and Sound Critics' Poll". In the 2002 poll, it ranked 15th. Ten years later, in 2012, "Breathless" was the No. 13 greatest film of all time in the overall "Sight and Sound" poll, and the 11th greatest film in the concurrent Directors' Poll. In 2018, the film ranked 11th on the BBC's list of the 100 greatest foreign-language films, as voted on by 209 film critics from 43 countries. In the 2022 Sight and Sound Critic's Poll, "Breathless" ranked as No. 38 greatest film of all time, and No. 14 greatest in the Director's Poll.


title: Claddagh ring

text: A Claddagh ring () is a traditional Irish ring in which a heart represents love, the crown stands for loyalty, and two clasped hands symbolize friendship.


title: Claddagh ring

text: The design and customs associated with it originated in Claddagh, County Galway. Its modern form was first produced in the 17th century.


title: Claddagh ring

text: The Claddagh ring belongs to a group of European finger rings called fede rings. The name derives from the Italian phrase "" ("hands [joined] in faith" or "hands [joined] in loyalty"). This group dates to Ancient Rome, where the gesture of clasping hands meant pledging vows. Cut or cast in bezels, they were used as engagement and wedding rings in medieval and Renaissance Europe to signify "plighted trough".


title: Claddagh ring

text: In recent years it has been embellished with interlace designs and combined with other Celtic and Irish symbols, corresponding with its popularity as an emblem of Irish identity.


title: Claddagh ring

text: Galway has produced Claddagh rings continuously since at least 1700, but the name "Claddagh ring" was not used before the 1830s. Although there are various myths and legends around the origin of the Claddagh ring, it is almost certain that it originated in or close to the small fishing village of Claddagh in Galway.


title: Claddagh ring

text: As an example of a maker, Bartholomew Fallon was a 17th-century Irish goldsmith, based in Galway, who made Claddagh rings until circa 1700. His name first appears in the will of one Dominick Martin, also a jeweller, dated 26 January 1676, in which Martin willed Fallon some of his tools. Fallon continued working as a goldsmith until 1700. His are among the oldest surviving examples of the Claddagh ring, in many cases bearing his signature.


title: Claddagh ring

text: There are many legends about the origins of the ring, particularly concerning Richard Joyce, a silversmith from Galway "circa" 1700, who is said to have invented the Claddagh design as we know it. Legend has it that Joyce was captured and enslaved by Algerian Corsairs around 1675 while on a passage to the West Indies; he was sold into slavery to a Moorish goldsmith who taught him the craft. King William III sent an ambassador to Algeria to demand the release of any and all British subjects who were enslaved in that country, which at the time would have included Richard Joyce. After fourteen years, Joyce was released and returned to Galway and brought along with him the ring he had fashioned while in captivity: what we've come to know as the Claddagh. He gave the ring to his sweetheart, married, and became a goldsmith with "considerable success". His initials are in one of the earliest surviving Claddagh rings, but there are three other rings also made around that time, bearing the mark of goldsmith Thomas Meade.


title: Claddagh ring

text: The Victorian antiquarian Sir William Jones described the Claddagh, and gives Chambers' "Book of Days" as the source, in his book "Finger-Ring Lore". Jones says:


title: Claddagh ring

text: An account written in 1906 by William Dillon, a Galway jeweller, claimed that the "Claddagh" ring was worn in the Aran Isles, Connemara and beyond. Knowledge of the ring and its customs spread within Ireland and Britain during the Victorian period, and this is when its name became established. Galway jewellers began to market it beyond the local area in the 19th century. Further recognition came in the 20th century.


title: Claddagh ring

text: In his 1911 book "Rings for the Finger", American mineralogist George Frederick Kunz addresses the importance of gold wedding rings in Ireland and includes a captioned photograph of a Claddagh ring.


title: Claddagh ring

text: The Claddagh's distinctive design features two hands clasping a heart and usually surmounted by a crown. These elements symbolize the qualities of love (the heart), friendship (the hands), and loyalty (the crown). A "Fenian" Claddagh ring, without a crown, is a slightly different take on the design but has not achieved the level of popularity of the crowned version. Claddagh rings are relatively popular among the Irish and those of Irish heritage, such as Irish Americans, as cultural symbols and as friendship, engagement and wedding rings.


title: Claddagh ring

text: While Claddagh rings are sometimes used as friendship rings, they are most commonly used as engagement and wedding rings. Mothers sometimes give these rings to their daughters when they come of age. There are several mottos and wishes associated with the ring, such as: "Let love and friendship reign." In Ireland, the United States, Canada, and other parts of the Irish diaspora, the Claddagh is sometimes handed down mother-to-eldest daughter or grandmother-to-granddaughter.


title: Claddagh ring

text: According to Irish author Colin Murphy, a Claddagh ring is traditionally worn with the intention of conveying the wearer's relationship status:


title: Claddagh ring

text: There are other localized variations and oral traditions, in both Ireland and the Irish diaspora, involving the hand and the finger on which the Claddagh is worn. Folklore about the ring is relatively recent, not ancient, with the lore about them almost wholly based in oral tradition; there is "very little native Irish writing about the ring", hence, the difficulty today in finding any scholarly or non-commercial source that explains the traditional ways of wearing the ring.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: The Kingdom of Ireland (; , ) was a monarchy on the island of Ireland that was a client state of England and then of Great Britain. It existed from 1542 until 1801. It was ruled by the monarchs of England and then of Great Britain, and administered from Dublin Castle by a viceroy appointed by the English king: the Lord Deputy of Ireland. It had a parliament, composed of Anglo-Irish and native nobles. From 1661 until 1801, the administration controlled an army. A Protestant state church, the Church of Ireland, was established. Although styled a kingdom, for most of its history it was, "de facto", an English dependency. This status was enshrined in Poynings' Law and in the Declaratory Act of 1719.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: The territory of the kingdom comprised that of the former Lordship of Ireland which was founded in 1177 by King Henry II of England as part of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. By the 16th century, the effective area of English rule had shrunk greatly; most of Ireland was held by Gaelic nobles as principalities and chiefdoms. By the terms of the Crown of Ireland Act 1542, the Parliament of Ireland created Henry VIII of England as "King of Ireland". There followed an expansion of English control during the Tudor conquest. This in turn sparked the Desmond Rebellions and the Nine Years' War. The conquest of the island was completed early in the 17th century. The conquest involved the confiscation of land from the native Irish and the colonisation of the land with Protestant settlers from Great Britain.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: In its early years, the kingdom had limited recognition; no Catholic country in Europe recognised Henry VIII or his successor, Edward VI, as kings of Ireland. The succeeding monarchs of the kingdom, Mary I and Philip II, were devout Catholics and so gained recognition from Pope Paul IV as co-monarchs of Ireland (1554–58). With the exception of James II of England, for the remainder of its existence, the Kingdom of Ireland was ruled by Protestant monarchs. Their Catholic subjects, who made up most of the population, suffered officially sanctioned discrimination. Ireland suffered particularly harsh conditions during the years of The Protectorate, a period of military dictatorship in the British Isles under the control of Oliver Cromwell. This discrimination was one of the main drivers behind several conflicts which broke out: the Irish Confederate Wars (1641–1653), the Williamite War in Ireland (1689–1691), the Armagh disturbances (1780s–1790s), and the republican Irish Rebellion of 1798.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: The Protestant Ascendancy, meeting in their Parliament of Ireland, passed the Acts of Union 1800 which abolished both the parliament itself and the kingdom. The act was also passed by the Parliament of Great Britain. On the first day of 1801, a new state — the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland — was established which united the parliaments of Ireland and of Great Britain into a single legislature — the Parliament of the United Kingdom — which still convenes today at the Palace of Westminster.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: The papal bull "Laudabiliter" of Pope Adrian IV was issued in 1155. It granted the Angevin King Henry II of England the title "Dominus Hibernae" (Latin for "Lord of Ireland"). "Laudabiliter" authorised the king to invade Ireland, to bring the country into the European sphere. In return, Henry was required to remit a penny per hearth of the tax roll to the Pope. This was reconfirmed by Adrian's successor Pope Alexander III in 1172.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: When Pope Clement VII excommunicated the king of England, Henry VIII, in 1533, the constitutional position of the lordship in Ireland became uncertain. Henry had broken away from the Holy See and declared himself the head of the Church in England. He had petitioned Rome to procure an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Clement VII refused Henry's request and Henry subsequently refused to recognise the Roman Catholic Church's vestigial sovereignty over Ireland, and was excommunicated again in late 1538 by Pope Paul III. The Treason Act (Ireland) 1537 was passed to counteract this.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: Following the failed revolt of Silken Thomas in 1534–35, Grey, the lord deputy, had some military successes against several clans in the late 1530s, and took their submissions. By 1540 most of Ireland seemed at peace and under the control of the king's Dublin administration; a situation that was not to last for long.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: Henry VIII was proclaimed King of Ireland by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542, an Act of the Irish Parliament. The new kingdom was not recognised by the Catholic monarchies in Europe. After the death of Edward VI, Henry's son, the papal bull of 1555 recognised the Roman Catholic Mary I as Queen of Ireland. The link of "personal union" of the Crown of Ireland to the Crown of England became enshrined in Catholic canon law. In this fashion, the Kingdom of Ireland was ruled by the reigning monarch of England. This placed the new Kingdom of Ireland in personal union with the Kingdom of England.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: In line with its expanded role and self-image, the administration established the King's Inns for barristers in 1541, and the Ulster King of Arms to regulate heraldry in 1552. Proposals to establish a university in Dublin were delayed until 1592.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: In 1593 war broke out, as Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, led a confederation of Irish lords and Spain against the crown, in what later became known as the Nine Years' War. A series of stunning Irish victories brought English power in Ireland to the point of collapse by the beginning of 1600, but a renewed campaign under Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy forced Tyrone to submit in 1603, completing the Tudor conquest of Ireland.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: In 1603 James VI King of Scots became James I of England and Ireland, uniting the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland in a personal union. James established the Plantation of Ulster in 1606, the largest of all English and Scottish plantations in Ireland. Its legacy can be seen today, as most of Ulster remains a part of the United Kingdom, and retains a Protestant and Pro-Union majority in its population.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: The political order of the kingdom was interrupted by the Wars of the Three Kingdoms starting in 1639. During the subsequent interregnum period, England, Scotland and Ireland were ruled as a republic until 1660. This period saw the rise of the loyalist Irish Catholic Confederation within the kingdom and, from 1653, the creation of the republican Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. The kingdom's order was restored 1660 with the restoration of Charles II. Without any public dissent, Charles's reign was backdated to his father's execution in 1649.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: Poynings' Law was repealed in 1782 in what came to be known as the Constitution of 1782, granting Ireland legislative independence. Parliament in this period came to be known as Grattan's Parliament, after the principal Irish leader of the period, Henry Grattan. Although Ireland had legislative independence, executive administration remained under the control of the executive of the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1788–1789 a Regency crisis arose when King George III became ill. Grattan wanted to appoint the Prince of Wales, later George IV, as Regent of Ireland. The king recovered before this could be enacted.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: The Irish Rebellion of 1798, and the rebels' alliance with Great Britain's longtime enemy the French, led to a push to bring Ireland formally into the British Union. By the Acts of Union 1800, voted for by both Irish and British Parliaments, the Kingdom of Ireland merged on 1 January 1801 with the Kingdom of Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The Irish Parliament ceased to exist, though the executive, presided over by the Lord Lieutenant, remained in place until 1922.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: The Kingdom of Ireland was governed by a "Lord Deputy" or viceroy. The post was held by senior nobles such as Thomas Radcliffe. From 1688 the title was usually "Lord Lieutenant".


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: While some Irishmen held the post, most of the lords deputy were English noblemen. While the viceroy controlled the Irish administration as the monarch's representative, in the eighteenth century the political post of Chief Secretary for Ireland became increasingly powerful.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: The kingdom's legislature was bicameral with a House of Lords and a House of Commons. By the terms of Poynings' Law (1494) and other acts, the parliament's powers were greatly circumscribed. The legislature was content to "rubber stamp" acts or "suggestions" from the English parliament.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: Roman Catholics and dissenters, mostly Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists, were excluded from membership of the Irish parliament from 1693. Furthermore, their rights were restricted by a series of laws called the Penal Laws. They were denied voting rights from 1728 until 1793. The Grattan Parliament succeeded in achieving the repeal of Poynings' Law in 1782. This allowed progressive legislation and gradual liberalisation was effected. Catholics and Dissenters were given the right to vote in 1793, but Catholics were still excluded from the Irish Parliament and senior public offices in the kingdom. As in Great Britain and the rest of Europe, voting and membership of parliament was restricted to property owners. In the 1720s, the parliament was housed in a new building at College Green, Dublin.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: When Henry VIII was excommunicated by the Catholic Church in 1538, all but two of the bishops in the island of Ireland followed the doctrine of the Church of England, although almost no clergy or laity did so. Having paid their "Annates" to the Papacy, the bishops had no reason to step down, and in the 1530s nobody knew how long the reformation would last. Unlike Henry VIII, this hierarchy was not excommunicated by the Papacy. They retained control of what became the State Church of the new Kingdom in 1542. As the established church, it retained possession of most Church property (including a great repository of religious architecture and other items, though some were later destroyed). In 1553, Irish Catholics were heartened by the coronation of Queen Mary I. In 1555, she persuaded the Pope to recognise the Kingdom in the papal bull "Ilius".


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: In 1558, a Protestant — Elizabeth I — ascended the throne. With the exception of James II of England, all the following monarchs adhered to Anglicanism. Contrary to the official plan, the substantial majority of the population remained strongly Roman Catholic, despite the political and economic advantages of membership of the state church. Despite its numerical minority, however, the Church of Ireland remained the official state church until it was disestablished on 1 January 1871 by the Liberal government under William Ewart Gladstone.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: The legacy of the Kingdom of Ireland remains a bone of contention in Irish-British relations to this day because of the constant ethnic conflict between the native Irish inhabitants and primarily the new Anglo-Irish settlers across the island. Their background espoused English culture (law, language, dress, religion, economic relations and definitions of land ownership) in Ireland as it later did across much of what was to become the British Empire. However Gaelic culture and Irish language, was maintained to a significant extent by the majority of the original native population. Sometimes this was presented as "barbaric", "savage" which later was perceived by the native population as a mark of undesirability in respect of maintaining and learning the language. While the Lordship of Ireland had existed since the 12th century and nominally owed allegiance to the English monarchy, many kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland continued to exist; this came to an end with the Kingdom of Ireland, where the whole island was brought under the centralised control of an Anglo-centric system based in Dublin. This phase of Irish history marked the beginning of an officially organised policy of settler colonialism, orchestrated from London and the incorporation of Ireland into the British Empire (indeed Ireland is sometimes called "England's first colony"). The theme is prominently addressed in Irish postcolonial literature.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: The religion of the native majority and its clergy — the Catholic Church — was actively persecuted by the state. A set of Penal Laws favoured those who adhered to the established church - the Church of Ireland. They oppressed those native Irish who refused to abjure their religion. A similar experience happened to English, Scottish and Welsh Catholics during the same period. There is some perception that during Tudor times, elements within the government at times engaged in and advanced a genocidal policy against the Irish Gaels, while during the Plantations of Ireland (particularly successful in Ulster) the local population were displaced in a project of ethnic cleansing where regions of Ireland became de-Gaelicised. This in turn led to bloody retaliations, which drag on to modern times. Some of the native inhabitants, including their leadership, were permitted to flee into exile from the country following ending up on the losing side in conflicts (i.e. the Flight of the Earls and the Flight of the Wild Geese) or in the case of the Cromwellian regime were forced into indentured servitude (although the same happened to English persons involved in the Cromwellian regime) in the Caribbean, following mass land confiscation for the benefit of New English settlers.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: On the other hand, the fact that the kingdom had been a unitary state gave Irish nationalists in 1912–22 a reason to expect that in the process of increasing self-government the island of Ireland would be treated as a single political unit.


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: The arms of the Kingdom of Ireland were blazoned: "Azure, a harp Or stringed Argent". These earliest arms of Ireland are described in an entry that reads: "Le Roi d'Irlande, D'azur à la harpe d'or", in a 13th-century French roll of arms, the Armorial Wijnbergen, also known as the Wijnbergen Roll, said to be preserved in The Hague, in the Netherlands but currently untraced; a copy is held in the Royal Library in Brussels (Collection Goethals, ms. 2569). This may have been an aspirational depiction for a putative High-King, for it was not related to the Lordship of Ireland at that time by the English king, who only assumed the title "King of Ireland" later in the reign of Henry VIII


title: Kingdom of Ireland

text: A crown was not part of the arms but use of a crowned harp was apparently common as a badge or as a device. A crowned harp also appeared as a crest although the delineated crest was: "a wreath Or and Azure, a tower (sometime triple-towered) Or, from the port, a hart springing Argent".


title: City pop

text: There is no unified consensus among scholars regarding the definition of city pop. In Japan, the tag simply referred to music that projected an "urban" feel and whose target demographic was urbanites. Many of the artists did not embrace the Japanese influences of their predecessors, and instead, largely drew from American soft rock, boogie, and funk. Some examples may also feature tropical flourishes or elements taken from disco, jazz fusion, Okinawan, Latin and Caribbean music. Singer-songwriter Tatsuro Yamashita, who was among the genre's pioneers and most successful artists, is sometimes called the "king" of city pop.


title: City pop

text: City pop lost mainstream appeal after the 1980s and was derided by younger generations of Japanese. In the early 2010s, partly through the instigation of music-sharing blogs and Japanese reissues, city pop gained an international online following as well as becoming a touchstone for the sample-based microgenres known as vaporwave and future funk.


title: City pop

text: Definitions of "city pop" have varied and many of the artists tagged with the genre have played in styles that are significantly different from each other. Yutaka Kimura, an author of numerous books about city pop, defined the genre as "urban pop music for those with urban lifestyles." In 2015, Ryotaro Aoki wrote in "The Japan Times":


title: City pop

text: Jon Blistein of "Rolling Stone" concurred that city pop was "less a strict genre term than a broad vibe classification." According to "Japan Archival Series" supervisor Yosuke Kitazawa, there "were no restrictions on style or a specific genre that we wanted to convey with these songs" but that it "was music made by city people, for city people." Kitazawa identified two distinct styles that exemplified city pop: "the former a lush, tropical romp, the latter a thumping rug-cutter".


title: City pop

text: "Pitchfork"s Joshua Minsoo Kim called it "a vague descriptor for Japanese music that incorporated jazz and R&B", while "PopMatters" Chris Ingalls categorized it as "a type of soft rock/AOR/funk". "Wax Poetics" Ed Motta offered, "City Pop is really AOR and soft rock but with some funk and boogie too. Because when you hear funkier City Pop tunes, you hear not only the influence, but in some parts they steal from groups like Skyy, BB&Q Band, and those kinda American boogie and funk groups." An "Electronic Beats" writer characterized city pop as Japan's "answer to synth pop and disco".


title: City pop

text: Musically, city pop applies relatively advanced songwriting and arranging techniques – such as major seventh and diminished chords – that are drawn directly from the American soft rock of the era (bands such as Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers). Yutaka cited the band Happy End as "ground zero" for the genre, whereas Motta traces it to the mid-1970s with the work of Haruomi Hosono and Tatsuro Yamashita. "Vice" contributor Rob Arcand similarly credited Hosono as a "key influence" on city pop. In the mid-1970s, Hosono founded the band Tin Pan Alley, which fused southern R&B, northern soul and jazz fusion with Hawaiian and Okinawan tropical flourishes. In the view of "Fact Mag"s Mikey I.Q. Jones, this led to the style of music that would be dubbed "city pop".


title: City pop

text: The genre became closely tied to the tech boom in Japan during the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the Japanese technologies which influenced city pop included the Walkman, cars with built-in cassette decks and FM stereos, and various electronic musical instruments such as the Casio CZ-101 and Yamaha CS-80 synthesizers and Roland TR-808 drum machine. According to Blistein, electronic instruments and gadgets "allowed musicians to actualise the sounds in their heads" and cassette decks "allowed fans to dub copies of albums". According to Blistein: "An opulent amalgamation of pop, disco, funk, R&B, boogie, jazz fusion, Latin, Caribbean and Polynesian music, the genre was inextricably tied to a tech-fueled economic bubble and the wealthy new leisure class it created."


title: City pop

text: City pop became a distinct regional genre that peaked in popularity during the 1980s. According to "Vice", the most popular figures of the genre were "accomplished composers and producers in their own right, with artists like Tatsuro Yamashita and Toshiki Kadomatsu incorporating complex arrangements and songwriting techniques into their hits, ... The booming economy also made it easier for them to get label funding". Yamashita is sometimes referred to as the "king" of city pop. City pop also influenced instrumental jazz fusion bands such as Casiopea and T-Square, which subsequently influenced Japanese video game music. City pop's influence also spread to Indonesia, leading to the development of a local style known as "pop kreatif". The genre lost mainstream appeal after the 1980s. In the description of Kitazawa, "Many Japanese people who grew up with this kind of music considered city pop as cheesy, mainstream, disposable music, going so far as calling it 'shitty pop'."


title: City pop

text: Since the 2010s, city pop has seen a resurgence with artists such as Mariya Takeuchi gaining an international online following, as well as becoming a touchstone for the sample-based microgenres known as vaporwave and future funk. Kim credited "Blogspot blogs and Japanese reissues" circa 2010 with "introduc[ing] music nerds to a strain of AOR, funk, disco, and yacht rock trafficked under the amorphous term ... The music had largely been neglected by Westerners and derided by many Japanese as cheesy, but as YouTube algorithms launched songs into the wider collective consciousness, city pop surged in popularity ..." In 2020, "The Japan Times" contributor Patrick St. Michel reported that, "Abroad, boutique labels are reissuing rare records or releasing compilations, though millions have largely experienced city pop through songs such as [Takeuchi's 1984 song] "Plastic Love" or the seemingly endless playlists backed by anime snippets on YouTube." Another song of the genre that regained popularity was "Mayonaka no Door (Stay with Me)" by Miki Matsubara on TikTok in 2020, when Japanese parents’ responses to the song were recorded on their children’s phones.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: A Confederacy of Dunces is a picaresque novel by American novelist John Kennedy Toole which reached publication in 1980, eleven years after Toole's death. Published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy (who also contributed a foreword) and Toole's mother, Thelma, the book became first a cult classic, then a mainstream success; it earned Toole a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981, and is now considered a canonical work of modern literature of the Southern United States.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: The book's title refers to an epigram from Jonathan Swift's essay "Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting": "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." Its central character, Ignatius J. Reilly, is an educated but slothful 30-year-old man living with his mother in the Uptown neighborhood of early-1960s New Orleans who, in his quest for employment, has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters. Toole wrote the novel in 1963 during his last few months in Puerto Rico.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: Ignatius Jacques Reilly is an overweight and unemployed thirty-year-old with a degree in Medieval History who lives with his mother, Irene Reilly. He utterly loathes the world around him, which he feels has lost the values of geometry and theology. One afternoon, Reilly's mother drives him 'downtown in the old Plymouth, and while she was at the doctor's seeing about her arthritis, Ignatius had bought some sheet music at Werlein's for his trumpet and a new string for his lute.' While Reilly waits for his mother, Officer Angelo Mancuso approaches Reilly and demands that the latter produce identification. Affronted and outraged by Mancuso's unwarranted zeal and officious manner, Reilly protests his innocence to the crowd while denouncing the city's vices and the graft of the local police. An elderly man, Claude Robichaux, takes Reilly's side, denouncing Officer Mancuso and the police as "communists". In the resulting uproar, Reilly and his embarrassed mother escape, taking refuge in a bar in case Officer Mancuso is still in hot pursuit.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: In the bar, Mrs. Reilly then drinks too much. As a result, she crashes her car. The fallout for the accident totals $1020, a sizable amount of money in early 1960s New Orleans. Ignatius is forced to work for the first time in many years in order to help his mother pay for the accident.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: What follows is a series of adventures that introduce an assorted cast of characters and their interactions with each other due to, or with, Ignatius as he moves from low wage job to job. Throughout the novel, Ignatius obsesses over his wardrobe, verbally abuses his mother, and frequents movie theaters only to yell and condemn the actors and actresses on screen. The novel explores the psyche of a man who is debilitated every time he is stressed out due to a rare stomach condition and an adversarial relationship possibly disguised as flirtation with the politically liberal advocate Myrna Minkoff, his only friend from college.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: Ignatius Jacques Reilly is something of a modern Don Quixote—eccentric, idealistic, and creative, sometimes to the point of delusion. In his foreword to the book, Walker Percy describes Ignatius as a "slob extraordinary, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one". He disdains modernity, particularly pop culture. The disdain becomes his obsession: he goes to movies in order to mock their perversity and express his outrage with the contemporary world's lack of "theology and geometry". He prefers the scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages, and the Early Medieval philosopher Boethius in particular. However, he also enjoys many modern comforts and conveniences and is given to claiming that the rednecks of rural Louisiana hate all modern technology, which they associate with unwanted change. The workings of his pyloric valve play an important role in his life, reacting strongly to incidents in a fashion that he likens to Cassandra in terms of prophetic significance.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: Ignatius is of the mindset that he does not belong in the world and that his numerous failings are the work of some higher power. He continually refers to the goddess Fortuna as having spun him downwards on her wheel of fortune. Ignatius loves to eat, and his masturbatory fantasies lead in strange directions. His mockery of obscene images is portrayed as a defensive posture to hide their titillating effect on him. Although considering himself to have an expansive and learned worldview, Ignatius has an aversion to ever leaving the town of his birth, and frequently bores friends and strangers with the story of his sole, abortive journey out of New Orleans, a trip to Baton Rouge on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bus, which Ignatius recounts as a traumatic ordeal of extreme horror.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: Myrna Minkoff, referred to by Ignatius as "that minx," is a Jewish beatnik from New York City, whom Ignatius met while she was in college in New Orleans. Though their political, social, religious, and personal orientations could hardly be more different, Myrna and Ignatius fascinate one another. The novel repeatedly refers to Myrna and Ignatius having engaged in tag-team attacks on the teachings of their college professors. For most of the novel, she is seen only in the regular correspondence which the two sustain since her return to New York, a correspondence heavily weighted with sexual analysis on the part of Myrna and contempt for her apparent sacrilegious activity by Ignatius. Officially, they both deplore everything the other stands for. Though neither of them will admit it, their correspondence indicates that, separated though they are by half a continent, many of their actions are meant to impress one another.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: Mrs. Irene Reilly is the mother of Ignatius. She has been widowed for 21 years. At first, she allows Ignatius his space and drives him where he needs to go, but over the course of the novel she learns to stand up for herself. She also has a drinking problem, most frequently indulging in muscatel, although Ignatius exaggerates that she is a raving, abusive drunk.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: She falls for Claude Robichaux, a fairly well-off man with a railroad pension and rental properties. At the end of the novel, she decides she will marry Claude. But first, she agrees with Santa Battaglia (who has not only recently become Mrs. Reilly's new best friend, but also harbors an intense dislike for Ignatius) that Ignatius is insane and arranges to have him sent to a mental hospital.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: Toole provides comical descriptions of two of the films Ignatius watches without naming them; they can be recognized as "Billy Rose's Jumbo" and "That Touch of Mink", both Doris Day features released in 1962. In another passage, Ignatius declines to see another film, a "widely praised Swedish drama about a man who was losing his soul". This is most likely Ingmar Bergman's "Winter Light", released in early 1963. In another passage, Irene Reilly recalls the night Ignatius was conceived: after she and her husband viewed "Red Dust", released in October 1932.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: The book is famous for its rich depiction of New Orleans and the city's dialects, including Yat. Many locals and writers think that it is the best and most accurate depiction of the city in a work of fiction.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: A bronze statue of Ignatius J. Reilly can be found under the clock on the down-river side of the 800 block of Canal Street, New Orleans, the former site of the D. H. Holmes Department Store, now the Hyatt French Quarter Hotel. The statue mimics the opening scene: Ignatius waits for his mother under the D.H. Holmes clock, clutching a Werlein's shopping bag, dressed in a hunting cap, flannel shirt, baggy pants and scarf, 'studying the crowd of people for signs of bad taste.' The statue is modeled on New Orleans actor John "Spud" McConnell, who portrayed Ignatius in a stage version of the novel.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: Various local businesses are mentioned in addition to D. H. Holmes, including Werlein's Music Store and local cinemas such as the Prytania Theater. Some readers from elsewhere assume Ignatius's favorite soft drink, Dr. Nut, to be fictitious, but it was an actual local soft drink brand of the era. The "Paradise Hot Dogs" vending carts are an easily recognized satire of those actually branded "Lucky Dogs".


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: The structure of "A Confederacy of Dunces" reflects the structure of Ignatius's favorite book, Boethius' "The Consolation of Philosophy". Like Boethius' book, "A Confederacy of Dunces" is divided into chapters that are further divided into a varying number of subchapters. Key parts of some chapters are outside of the main narrative. In "Consolation", sections of narrative prose alternate with metrical verse. In "Confederacy," such narrative interludes vary more widely in form and include light verse, journal entries by Ignatius, and also letters between himself and Myrna. A copy of "The Consolation of Philosophy" within the narrative itself also becomes an explicit plot device in several ways.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: As outlined in the introduction to a later revised edition, the book would never have been published if Toole's mother had not found a smeared carbon copy of the manuscript left in the house following Toole's 1969 death at 31. She was persistent and tried several different publishers, to no avail.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: Thelma repeatedly called Walker Percy, an author and college instructor at Loyola University New Orleans, to demand for him to read it. He initially resisted; however, as he recounts in the book's foreword:


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: The book was published by LSU Press in 1980. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. In 2005, Blackstone Audio released an unabridged audiobook of the novel, read by Barrett Whitener.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: While Tulane University in New Orleans retains a collection of Toole's papers, and some early drafts have been found, the location of the original manuscript is unknown.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: In March 1984, LSU staged a musical comedy production of the book, with actor Scott Harlan playing Ignatius.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: Kerry Shale read the book for BBC Radio 4's "Book at Bedtime" in 1982, and later adapted the book into a one-man show which he performed at the Adelaide Festival in 1990, at the Gate Theatre in London, and for BBC Radio.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: There have been repeated attempts to turn the book into a film. In 1982, Harold Ramis was to write and direct an adaptation, starring John Belushi as Ignatius and Richard Pryor as Burma Jones, but Belushi's death prevented this. Later, John Candy and Chris Farley were touted for the lead, but both of them, like Belushi, also died at an early age, leading many to ascribe a curse to the role of Ignatius.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: Director John Waters was interested in directing an adaptation that would have starred Divine, who also died at an early age, as Ignatius.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: British performer and writer Stephen Fry was at one point commissioned to adapt Toole's book for the screen. He was sent to New Orleans by Paramount Studios in 1997 to get background for a screenplay adaptation.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: A version adapted by Steven Soderbergh and Scott Kramer, and slated to be directed by David Gordon Green, was scheduled for release in 2005. The film was to star Will Ferrell as Ignatius and Lily Tomlin as Irene. A staged reading of the script took place at the 8th Nantucket Film Festival, with Ferrell as Ignatius, Anne Meara as Irene, Paul Rudd as Officer Mancuso, Kristen Johnston as Lana Lee, Mos Def as Burma Jones, Rosie Perez as Darlene, Olympia Dukakis as Santa Battaglia and Miss Trixie, Natasha Lyonne as Myrna, Alan Cumming as Dorian Greene, John Shea as Gonzales, Jesse Eisenberg as George, John Conlon as Claude Robichaux, Jace Alexander as Bartender Ben, Celia Weston as Miss Annie, Miss Inez & Mrs. Levy, and Dan Hedaya as Mr. Levy.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: Various reasons are cited as to why the Soderbergh version has yet to be filmed. They include disorganization and lack of interest at Paramount Pictures, Helen Hill the head of the Louisiana State Film Commission being murdered, and the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. When asked why the film was never made, Will Ferrell has said it is a "mystery".


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: In 2012, there was a version in negotiation with director James Bobin and potentially starring Zach Galifianakis.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: In a 2013 interview, Steven Soderbergh remarked "I think it's cursed. I'm not prone to superstition, but that project has got bad mojo on it."


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: In November 2015, Huntington Theatre Company introduced a stage version of "A Confederacy of Dunces" written by Jeffrey Hatcher in their Avenue of the Arts/BU Theatre location in Boston, starring Nick Offerman as Ignatius J. Reilly. It set a record as the company's highest-grossing production.


title: A Confederacy of Dunces

text: On November 5, 2019, the "BBC News" included "A Confederacy of Dunces" on its list of the 100 most inspiring novels. "Confederacy of Dunces" is regularly included on lists of 'most funny' or 'best comedic novel'.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: The John Darwin disappearance case involved the faked death of the British former teacher and prison officer John Darwin. Darwin turned up alive in December 2007, five and a half years after he was believed to have died in a canoeing accident.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: Darwin was arrested and charged with fraud. His wife, Anne, was also arrested and charged for helping Darwin to collect his life insurance of £250,000. The fraudulent death also allowed the couple to pay off their £130,000 mortgage. In December 2007, after it was revealed the couple had been photographed together in Panama a year earlier, Anne confessed to knowing Darwin was alive and that he had been secretly living in their house and the house next door, which allowed him to receive the insurance money illegally for his own personal gain. On 23 July 2008, John and Anne Darwin were each sentenced to more than six years in prison.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: John Darwin was born on 14 August 1950, in Hartlepool, County Durham. He attended St Francis Xavier's Grammar School, Hartlepool and De La Salle College, Salford, Lancashire, where he studied biology and chemistry. On 22 December 1973, Darwin married Anne Stephenson in Blackhall. Darwin then taught science and mathematics at Derwentside for eighteen years before leaving to join Barclays. He later became a prison officer at HM Prison Holme House. Darwin and his wife, a doctor's receptionist, also ran a business renting bedsits in County Durham with twelve houses. They ran into debt after purchasing two houses in Seaton Carew in December 2000. The debts caused Darwin to talk about faking his own death to claim the insurance by early 2002.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: Darwin was seen paddling out to sea in his kayak on 21 March 2002, at Seaton Carew. Later the same day, he was reported as "missing" after failing to report to work. A large-scale sea search took place, during which of coastline were searched. There was no sign of Darwin, though a double-ended paddle was retrieved from the sea near Seaton Carew the following day. Later on 22 March 2002, the wreckage of Darwin's kayak was found. The North Sea was unusually calm and rescuers were puzzled that Darwin could have got into trouble in such conditions.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: During the years that Darwin was presumed dead, he lived for some time in a bedsit next door to the family home; he then secretly moved back in with his wife Anne in February 2003. Meanwhile, a death certificate was issued stating that Darwin had died on 21 March 2002. This allowed his wife to claim his life insurance; it is alleged that £250,000 was paid out from Unat Direct Insurance Management Limited (part of the AIG insurance group). Some time that year, a tenant of the block of bedsit flats that the Darwins owned, Lee Wadrop, recognised Darwin and asked him, "Aren't you supposed to be dead?" to which Darwin replied, "Don't tell anyone about this". Wadrop later said that he had not told the police because he "did not want to get involved".


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: In 2004, the Darwins decided to move abroad, considering Cyprus. John Darwin applied for and obtained a passport using the false name "John Jones", but using his true home address. In November 2004, the couple visited Cyprus to investigate buying property there.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: In May 2005, an angler, Matt Autie, claimed to have met Darwin, who was going under the name "John Williams", at a lake near Penzance, Cornwall. When back at home, Darwin is reported to have spent most of his time on the Internet, where he encountered a woman from Kansas in the US whom he flew out to meet. By November, Darwin was back in the UK and flew from Newcastle to Gibraltar, and then travelled to El Puerto de Santa María to view a £45,000, catamaran that he was considering buying from boat dealer Robert Hopkin.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: On 9 March 2006, Darwin is reported to have signed a planning objection to a neighbour's building work using a false name. Darwin and his wife began to consider Panama as a possible destination. The couple flew to Panama on 14 July 2006, where they were photographed by a Panamanian property agent, and the resulting photograph was posted on the Internet. Newspapers from February 2007 were later found in the boarded-up gap between the Darwins' house and the bedsit where John had hidden. In March 2007, the couple returned to Panama and formed a company called Jaguar Properties in order to buy a two-bedroom apartment in El Dorado for £50,000. The bedsit house next to the family home was sold under the name of the Darwins' son, Mark; the home had been transferred to Mark in 2006. The proceeds from the sale were then transferred to Panama.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: The following month, Anne returned to the UK to sell her home while Darwin remained in Panama. In May 2007, the couple purchased a £200,000 tropical estate in the village of Escobal, Colón, Panama, near the Panama Canal, with the intention of building a hotel from where canoeing holidays could be run. In a later interview with Darwin, published in Elizabeth Greenwood's book "Playing Dead", he states that the canoe-rental aspect of this purchase was a story entirely fabricated by the media playing on the romanticism of his faked death. He and Anne visited Panama again in July 2007, staying for six weeks.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: A police investigation was started in September when a colleague of Anne became suspicious upon overhearing a phone conversation between the couple. The Darwin family home was sold for £295,000 in October 2007 and Anne subsequently left for Panama. In the third week of November, the couple holidayed in Costa Rica before returning to Panama. On 30 November 2007, Anne bought an airline ticket for her husband to England because "he was missing his sons". On the same day, Mark left his property firm after working his notice period.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: Following a change in Panama's visa laws, Darwin emailed Anne on 14 June 2007 to notify her that their identities would have to be verified by UK police in order for them to receive now-required Panamanian "investors' visas". Knowing that his "John Jones" alias would not pass this level of scrutiny, Darwin decided to return to the UK under his real name and fake amnesia.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: On 1 December 2007, Darwin walked into the West End Central police station in London, claiming to have no memory of the past five years. His wife Anne—who had sold up her British properties and moved to Panama three months before his re-appearance—expressed surprise, joy and elation at the return of her missing husband. The UK police by that time had already suspected that Darwin might not have been dead since Anne, despite portraying herself as a broken-hearted widow, took foreign holidays, planned to sell the family home in Hartlepool to move to Panama and transferred large sums of money abroad. A police financial investigation had already begun three months prior to Darwin's reappearance, following a tip from one of Anne's colleagues connecting her claim on her husband's life insurance and her subsequent emigration to Panama.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: The Darwins' cover story unravelled after the "Daily Mirror" published a photo of the Darwins, taken in Panama in 2006. The photograph had been discovered when a member of the public searched for the words "John", "Anne" and "Panama" in Google Images. The photo had been featured on the website movetopanama.com and was brought to the attention of the "Daily Mirror" and the Cleveland Police. Anne reportedly confirmed that the photograph was of John, saying, "Yes, that's him. My sons will never forgive me." The police then arrested Darwin at his son Anthony's house in Basingstoke.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: A police investigation discovered that Darwin had been using a false passport by the name of "John Jones", an identity that had belonged to a baby from Sunderland who had died in 1950. Upon examining the false passport, police found that Darwin had made several trips to Panama in the previous five years.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: Darwin's two sons initially expressed elation at the return of their father, but as the story unfolded, they issued a joint statement stating they felt they had been victims of a scam and implying that they wished to have no further contact with their parents.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: Darwin was charged with obtaining life insurance money by deception and making untrue statements to obtain a passport. Anne Darwin was arrested at Manchester Airport the following day upon returning to the UK, and detained in connection with the allegations of fraud. She appeared in court on 11 December in Hartlepool to face two charges of fraud: obtaining £25,000 and £137,000 by deception. She remained in custody until 14 December. Darwin appeared at Hartlepool Magistrates' Court on 10 December, where he was also remanded in custody until 14 December.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: On 14 December, Anne and John Darwin appeared separately before Hartlepool Magistrates' Court and they both were remanded in custody to appear again on 11 January 2008.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: On 9 January 2008, John and Anne Darwin returned to Hartlepool Magistrates' Court to face further charges of deception. John faced an additional charge of obtaining £137,000 by deception (the same charge his wife was already facing) in addition to the existing life insurance charge against both of them for £25,000 and John's separate charge of obtaining a passport by deception. They were then both charged together for obtaining more money from a teachers' pension scheme (two separate amounts of £25,186 and £58,845), as well as for obtaining money from the Department for Work and Pensions (two separate amounts of £2,000 and £2,273). They were remanded in custody once more to appear in court again on 18 January 2008.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: On 18 January, they each appeared separately at Hartlepool Magistrates' Court by video-link and were remanded in custody until 15 February, when they faced committal to Crown Court.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: On 13 March, John Darwin admitted seven charges of obtaining cash by deception and a passport offence at Leeds Crown Court. He denied nine charges of using criminal property; these charges were ordered to lie on file. Anne Darwin denied six charges of deception and nine of using criminal property.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: On 23 July 2008, John and Anne Darwin were both convicted of fraud. John Darwin faced an additional charge relating to his fake passport and was sentenced to six years and three months in prison. Anne Darwin, who was described by the police as a compulsive liar, was sentenced to six years and six months. Both appealed against their sentences and on 27 March 2009, both appeals were denied by the Court of Appeal. Anne was imprisoned at HM Prison Low Newton.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: The Crown Prosecution Service said that all profits from the "callous and calculated" fraud committed by the couple would be confiscated. John Darwin was released on probation in January 2011 and Anne Darwin was released in March 2011.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: On 14 February 2012, the CPS announced that the entire £501,641.39 in life insurance and pension payouts received by Anne Darwin had been recovered, partly from the sale of two properties in Panama. Kingsley Hyland, head of the North East CPS Complex Casework Unit, said: "It is important that fraudsters see that not only will we prosecute them wherever possible, but we will also make every effort to retrieve their ill-gotten gains to return them to those they have defrauded."


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: In April 2014, it was reported that John Darwin had repaid just £121 from the £679,073 that the judge had ordered him to repay. However, this was because all the assets were in Anne Darwin's name. By July 2015, the pair no longer had any assets, having repaid a total of £541,762.39.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: In July 2008, the Channel 4 soap opera, "Hollyoaks" transmitted a storyline similar to the John Darwin case, in which character Jack Osborne faked his death, with the help of his son, Darren, and adopted the identity of the recently deceased Eamon Fisher. The story of John and Anne Darwin was dramatised in the BBC Four programme "Canoe Man" in 2010. The film starred Bernard Hill and Saskia Reeves as John and Anne Darwin, respectively. Musician Martin Gordon documented the story with the song "Panama" from his 2009 release "Time Gentlemen Please". In fiction, it inspired a 2009 novel by Adrian Gere called "Return from the Dead", and a 2010 storyline in the ITV soap opera "Coronation Street" saw the character Joe McIntyre attempt the same thing. In 2015, it was mentioned in the BBC soap opera "EastEnders" when it was revealed that the character Kathy Beale and her husband faked their deaths in South Africa for insurance payouts. The song "Simian Son" by Jez Lowe concerning incidents in Hartlepool references the incident. The 2018 novel "Let Me Lie" by Clare Mackintosh, in which a husband and wife apparently commit suicide, was inspired by John Darwin.


title: John Darwin disappearance case

text: "The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe", a dramatisation written by Chris Lang without any cooperation from the Darwin family, and with Eddie Marsan and Monica Dolan in the title roles, was shown on ITV in April 2022.


title: Burzum

text: Burzum (; ) was a Norwegian music project founded by Varg Vikernes in 1991. Although Burzum never played live performances, it became a part of the early Norwegian black metal scene and is considered one of the most influential acts in black metal's history. Vikernes has also released four dark ambient and neofolk albums. The word "burzum" means "darkness" in the black speech, a fictional language crafted by "The Lord of the Rings" writer J. R. R. Tolkien. Burzum's lyrics and imagery are often inspired by fantasy and Norse mythology, and do not feature the political views for which Vikernes is known. However, his neo-nazi views remain a source of controversy.


title: Burzum

text: Vikernes founded Burzum in 1991 and recorded the first four Burzum albums between January 1992 and March 1993. From 1994 to 2009, Vikernes was imprisoned for the murder of Mayhem guitarist Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth and the arson of three churches. While imprisoned, he recorded two dark ambient albums using only synthesizers, as he had no access to drums, guitar, or bass. Since his release from prison in 2009, he has recorded several more albums. Vikernes announced the end of Burzum in 2018, but released the project's final album "Thulêan Mysteries" in 2020.


title: Burzum

text: Varg Vikernes began making music in 1988 with the band Kalashnikov. The following year, the name was changed to Uruk-Hai, after the creatures from J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". In 1990 and 1991, Vikernes played guitar for the death metal band Old Funeral, which also consisted of members who would later form the band Immortal. He appears on the Old Funeral EP "Devoured Carcass". Vikernes left Old Funeral in 1991 to concentrate on creating his own musical visions. He had a short-lived project called Satanel, along Abbath Doom Occulta. He then began a solo project under the name Burzum. The word "burzum" means "darkness" in the Black Speech, a language crafted by Tolkien. Soon after recording two demo tapes, he became part of the Norwegian black metal scene. With his demo tapes, he had attracted attention from Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth of Mayhem, who had just recently formed Deathlike Silence Productions. Aarseth then signed Burzum to the label, and shortly after, Vikernes―under the pseudonym of Count Grishnackh (another name adapted from "The Lord of the Rings")―began to record Burzum's self-titled debut album. According to Vikernes' autobiography on his website, he had intended to record the album in the worst recording quality possible (due to this being a typical trademark of the early Norwegian black metal scene), while still making it sound acceptable. Burzum's eponymous debut album was released in 1992, being the second album released on Deathlike Silence Productions. The song "War" from this album had a guest appearance from Euronymous, playing a guitar solo "just for fun", according to Vikernes.


title: Burzum

text: Vikernes has stated that he had never played any live shows with Burzum, though at one point was interested in it, so Samoth of Emperor accompanied him as a session bassist, though only appearing on the "Aske" EP. Additionally, Erik Lancelot was hired to be the band's drummer, though did not record on any Burzum material, and along with Samoth did not play a live show. Vikernes had by then lost his interest in playing live concerts, and stated that he "didn't even need session musicians anymore". Therefore, Samoth and Lancelot had parted ways with Burzum. "Det som engang var" was released as Burzum's second album in 1993, recorded in 1992.


title: Burzum

text: May 1994 saw the release of "Hvis lyset tar oss", a new album of previously recorded material from 1992. Burzum remained as a solo project until 1994, when Vikernes was arrested for the murder of Euronymous and the burnings of several churches in Norway. During his time in prison, Vikernes released his next album, titled "Filosofem", on 1 January 1996. Recorded in March 1993, "Filosofem" was the last recording Vikernes made before his imprisonment. "Burzum / Aske", a compilation comprising the "Burzum" album and "Aske" EP, was released in 1995. While imprisoned, Vikernes managed to record two other albums in a dark ambient style. They were released as "Dauði Baldrs" (1997) and "Hliðskjálf" (1999). Both of these albums were created with a synthesizer, as Vikernes was prohibited from using any other instruments in prison.


title: Burzum

text: In 1998, all Burzum albums released up to that point were re-released as vinyl picture discs in a special box set called "1992–1997"; however "Filosofem" did not contain "Rundtgåing av den transcendentale egenhetens støtte" due to its length. The regular vinyl issue of "Filosofem" on Misanthropy had tracks 1–4 plus "Decrepitude II" on side 1 and "Rundtgåing av den transcendentale egenhetens støtte" on side 2.


title: Burzum

text: Soon after being released, Vikernes started writing new tracks (nine metal tracks and an ambient intro and outro) for an upcoming Burzum album. According to Vikernes' recounts, several record companies were interested in releasing his first album in eleven years. He stated about the new album, "I want to take my time, and make it the way I want it. It will be metal, and the fans can expect genuine Burzum."


title: Burzum

text: The album was going to be originally titled "Den hvite guden" ("The White God"), but he later decided to change it to "Belus", which was released by the independent record label Byelobog Productions ("byelobog" is the transliteration of ""белобог"" in Slavic languages, meaning 'white god') on 8 March 2010. It was also announced that a movie would be released in 2010, based on Varg Vikernes' life in the early 1990s. The movie would mainly draw inspiration from the book "Lords of Chaos", with the film being of the same name. Vikernes expressed his contempt towards both the movie and the book upon which it is based.


title: Burzum

text: A second new album of original Burzum material, "Fallen", was released on 7 March 2011, followed by a compilation album, "From the Depths of Darkness", containing re-recordings of tracks from Burzum's self-titled album and "Det som engang var", on 28 November 2011. A third new studio album of original material, titled "Umskiptar", was released in May 2012. "Sôl austan, Mâni vestan" ("East of the Sun, West of the Moon"), Burzum's first electronic album since 1999, was released in May 2013. On 27 April 2013, a song was posted on the official YouTube channel of Vikernes, titled "Back to the Shadows". In a blog post, Vikernes stated that "Back to the Shadows" would be the last metal track released by Burzum.


title: Burzum

text: In June 2018, in a video posted on his YouTube channel, Vikernes stated that "[he had] moved on [from Burzum]", saying "bye bye" to the project.


title: Burzum

text: In July 2018, a YouTube user named Hermann posted unreleased materials of Uruk-Hai from 1988 to 1990 and Burzum's Bergen prison recordings from 1994, which he received from Tiziana Stupia.


title: Burzum

text: In October 2019, Vikernes posted a tweet saying he intended to release another album as Burzum. He announced that the tentative name of the album would be "Thulêan Mysteries", which would have 23 songs. The tracks from the album were previously used as background music on Vikernes' YouTube channel, which was taken down the same year. Vikernes also said that the music of "Thulêan Mysteries" is meant to be used as a background soundtrack for his MYFAROG role-playing game. On 18 December, Vikernes tweeted the album cover for "Thulêan Mysteries" and announced its release date as 13 March 2020.


title: Burzum

text: "Thulêan Mysteries" was released on 13 March 2020. Vikernes has stated that it would be the final Burzum album.


title: Burzum

text: Burzum's music includes both straightforward black metal as well as dark ambient, neofolk and neo-medieval music. It is often minimalist and dark, with repetition and simple song structures. Vikernes has described Burzum as a kind of "spell" or recreation of an imaginary world tied in with Pagan history. Each album, he claims, was designed as a kind of "spell" in itself, with each beginning song intending to make the listener more susceptible to "magic", the following songs to inspire a "trance-like state of mind", and the last song to carry the listener into a "world of fantasy" (dreams, for the listener would fall asleep—Burzum was supposed to have been evening music). Vikernes claims the intent to create this fantasy world came from dissatisfaction with the real world. He has stated the "message" of Burzum can be found in the lyrics of the first song of the first album ("Feeble Screams from Forests Unknown").


title: Burzum

text: Burzum's lyrics and imagery are often inspired by fantasy and Norse mythology, and do not feature the far-right political views for which Vikernes is known. In a 2010 interview, Vikernes said: "Burzum is not a political or religious band, or even an anti-religious band. Burzum is music; art if you like, and the interpretation of art lies in the eye of the beholder. I might be Nordic, heterosexual and have a Pagan ideology myself, but why would I expect the fans of my music to be just like me?". Despite the project's apolitical nature, Burzum is included on Meta's Dangerous Individuals and Organizations list.


title: Burzum

text: Burzum's early work was influenced by Tolkien; for example, Vikernes' early moniker "Count Grishnackh" is taken from an orc character called Grishnákh in Tolkien's works. "Burzum" is a word of the Black Speech of Mordor meaning "darkness" (though Vikernes views what Christians consider "darkness" as "light"), and is inscribed on the One Ring in Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings".


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: Hyacinthus is a small genus of bulbous, spring-blooming perennials. They are fragrant flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae and are commonly called hyacinths (). The genus is native to the area of the eastern Mediterranean from the south of Turkey to Palestine, although naturalized more widely.


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: Several species of "Brodiaea", "Scilla", and other plants that were formerly classified in the Liliaceae family and have flower clusters borne along the stalk also have common names with the word "hyacinth" in them. Hyacinths should also not be confused with the genus "Muscari", which are commonly known as grape hyacinths.


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: "Hyacinthus" grows from bulbs, each producing around four to six linear leaves and one to three spikes or racemes of flowers. In the wild species, the flowers are widely spaced, with as few as two per raceme in "H. litwinovii" and typically six to eight in "H. orientalis" which grows to a height of . Cultivars of "H. orientalis" have much denser flower spikes and are generally more robust.


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: The genus name "Hyacinthus" was attributed to Joseph Pitton de Tournefort when used by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It is derived from a Greek name used for a plant by Homer, (), the flowers supposedly having grown up from the blood of a youth of this name accidentally killed by the god Zephyr. The original wild plant known as "hyakinthos" to Homer has been identified with "Scilla bifolia", among other possibilities. Linnaeus defined the genus "Hyacinthus" widely to include species now placed in other genera of the subfamily Scilloideae, such as "Muscari" (e.g. his "Hyacinthus botryoides") and "Hyacinthoides" (e.g. his "Hyacinthus non-scriptus").


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: "Hyacinthus" was formerly the type genus of the separate family Hyacinthaceae; prior to that, the genus was placed in the lily family Liliaceae.


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: Some authorities place "H. litwonovii" and "H. transcaspicus" in the related genus "Hyacinthella", which would make "Hyacinthus" a monotypic genus.


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: The genus "Hyacinthus" is considered native to the eastern Mediterranean from southern Turkey to north Israel, including Turkey, Turkmenistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and the region of Palestine. It is widely naturalized elsewhere, including Europe (the Netherlands, France, Sardinia, Italy, Sicily, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Albania, Greece and Cyprus), Korea, North America (United States and Canada) and central Mexico, Cuba and Haiti.


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: The Dutch, or common hyacinth of house and garden culture ("H. orientalis", native to Southwest Asia) was so popular in the 18th century that over 2,000 cultivars were grown in the Netherlands, its chief commercial producer. This hyacinth has a single dense spike of fragrant flowers in shades of red, blue, white, orange, pink, violet or yellow. A form of the common hyacinth is the less hardy and smaller blue- or white-petalled Roman hyacinth of florists. These flowers need indirect sunlight and should be watered moderately.


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: Hyacinth bulbs are poisonous; they contain oxalic acid. Handling hyacinth bulbs can cause mild skin irritation. Protective gloves are recommended.


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: Some members of the plant subfamily Scilloideae are commonly called hyacinths but are not members of the genus "Hyacinthus" and are edible; one example is the tassel hyacinth, which forms part of the cuisine of some Mediterranean countries.


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: Hyacinths are often associated with spring and rebirth. The hyacinth flower is used in the Haft-Seen table setting for the Persian New Year celebration, Nowruz, held at the spring equinox. The Persian word for hyacinth is (").


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: The name (") was used in Ancient Greece for at least two distinct plants, which have variously been identified as "Scilla bifolia" or "Orchis quadripunctata" and "Consolida ajacis" (larkspur). Plants known by this name were sacred to Aphrodite. According to Greek mythology, the flower was created by the god Apollo in commemoration of his lover Hyacinthus, whom he had accidentally killed, and who was worshipped as a hero at Amyclae, southwest of Sparta.


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: The hyacinth appears in the first section of T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" during a conversation between the narrator and the "hyacinth girl" that takes place in the spring.


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: In Roman Catholic tradition, "Hyacinthus orientalis" represents prudence, constancy, desire of heaven and peace of mind.


title: Hyacinth (plant)

text: The colour of the blue flower hyacinth plant varies between 'mid-blue', violet blue and bluish purple. Within this range can be found Persenche, which is an American color name (probably from French), for a hyacinth hue.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The cerebral cortex, also known as the cerebral mantle, is the outer layer of neural tissue of the cerebrum of the brain in humans and other mammals. The cerebral cortex mostly consists of the six-layered neocortex, with just 10% consisting of allocortex. It is separated into two cortices, by the longitudinal fissure that divides the cerebrum into the left and right cerebral hemispheres. The two hemispheres are joined beneath the cortex by the corpus callosum. The cerebral cortex is the largest site of neural integration in the central nervous system. It plays a key role in attention, perception, awareness, thought, memory, language, and consciousness. The cerebral cortex is part of the brain responsible for cognition.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: In most mammals, apart from small mammals that have small brains, the cerebral cortex is folded, providing a greater surface area in the confined volume of the cranium. Apart from minimising brain and cranial volume, cortical folding is crucial for the brain circuitry and its functional organisation. In mammals with small brains there is no folding and the cortex is smooth.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: A fold or ridge in the cortex is termed a gyrus (plural gyri) and a groove is termed a sulcus (plural sulci). These surface convolutions appear during fetal development and continue to mature after birth through the process of gyrification. In the human brain the majority of the cerebral cortex is not visible from the outside, but buried in the sulci. The major sulci and gyri mark the divisions of the cerebrum into the lobes of the brain. The four major lobes are the frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal lobes. Other lobes are the limbic lobe, and the insular cortex often referred to as the "insular lobe".


title: Cerebral cortex

text: There are between 14 and 16 billion neurons in the human cerebral cortex. These are organised into horizontal cortical layers, and radially into cortical columns and minicolumns. Cortical areas have specific functions such as movement in the motor cortex, and sight in the visual cortex. Visual cortex is located in the occipital lobe.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The cerebral cortex is the outer covering of the surfaces of the cerebral hemispheres and is folded into peaks called gyri, and grooves called sulci. In the human brain it is between two and three or four millimetres thick, and makes up 40 per cent of the brain's mass. 90 per cent of the cerebral cortex is the six-layered neocortex with the other 10 per cent made up of allocortex. There are between 14 and 16 billion neurons in the cortex, and these are organized radially in cortical columns, and minicolumns, in the horizontally organized layers of the cortex.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The neocortex is separable into different regions of cortex known in the plural as cortices, and include the motor cortex and visual cortex. About two thirds of the cortical surface is buried in the sulci and the insular cortex is completely hidden. The cortex is thickest over the top of a gyrus and thinnest at the bottom of a sulcus.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The cerebral cortex is folded in a way that allows a large surface area of neural tissue to fit within the confines of the neurocranium. When unfolded in the human, each hemispheric cortex has a total surface area of about . The folding is inward away from the surface of the brain, and is also present on the medial surface of each hemisphere within the longitudinal fissure. Most mammals have a cerebral cortex that is convoluted with the peaks known as gyri and the troughs or grooves known as sulci. Some small mammals including some small rodents have smooth cerebral surfaces without gyrification.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The larger sulci and gyri mark the divisions of the cortex of the cerebrum into the lobes of the brain. There are four main lobes: the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, and occipital lobe. The insular cortex is often included as the insular lobe. The limbic lobe is a rim of cortex on the medial side of each hemisphere and is also often included. There are also three lobules of the brain described: the paracentral lobule, the superior parietal lobule, and the inferior parietal lobule.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: For species of mammals, larger brains (in absolute terms, not just in relation to body size) tend to have thicker cortices. The smallest mammals, such as shrews, have a neocortical thickness of about 0.5 mm; the ones with the largest brains, such as humans and fin whales, have thicknesses of 2–4 mm. There is an approximately logarithmic relationship between brain weight and cortical thickness.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain (MRI) makes it possible to get a measure for the thickness of the human cerebral cortex and relate it to other measures. The thickness of different cortical areas varies but in general, sensory cortex is thinner than motor cortex. One study has found some positive association between the cortical thickness and intelligence.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Another study has found that the somatosensory cortex is thicker in migraine patients, though it is not known if this is the result of migraine attacks or the cause of them.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: A later study using a larger patient population reports no change in the cortical thickness in patients with migraine.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: A genetic disorder of the cerebral cortex, whereby decreased folding in certain areas results in a microgyrus, where there are four layers instead of six, is in some instances seen to be related to dyslexia.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The neocortex is formed of six layers, numbered I to VI, from the outermost layer I – near to the pia mater, to the innermost layer VI – near to the underlying white matter. Each cortical layer has a characteristic distribution of different neurons and their connections with other cortical and subcortical regions. There are direct connections between different cortical areas and indirect connections via the thalamus.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: One of the clearest examples of cortical layering is the line of Gennari in the primary visual cortex. This is a band of whiter tissue that can be observed with the naked eye in the calcarine sulcus of the occipital lobe. The line of Gennari is composed of axons bringing visual information from the thalamus into layer IV of the visual cortex.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Staining cross-sections of the cortex to reveal the position of neuronal cell bodies and the intracortical axon tracts allowed neuroanatomists in the early 20th century to produce a detailed description of the "laminar structure of the cortex" in different species. The work of Korbinian Brodmann (1909) established that the mammalian neocortex is consistently divided into six layers.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Layer I is the molecular layer, and contains few scattered neurons, including GABAergic rosehip neurons. Layer I consists largely of extensions of apical dendritic tufts of pyramidal neurons and horizontally oriented axons, as well as glial cells. During development, Cajal-Retzius cells and subpial granular layer cells are present in this layer. Also, some spiny stellate cells can be found here. Inputs to the apical tufts are thought to be crucial for the "feedback" interactions in the cerebral cortex involved in associative learning and attention. While it was once thought that the input to layer I came from the cortex itself, it is now realized that layer I across the cerebral cortex mantle receives substantial input from "matrix" or M-type thalamus cells (in contrast to "core" or C-type that go to layer IV).


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Layer II, the external granular layer, contains small pyramidal neurons and numerous stellate neurons.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Layer III, the external pyramidal layer, contains predominantly small and medium-size pyramidal neurons, as well as non-pyramidal neurons with vertically oriented intracortical axons; layers I through III are the main target of interhemispheric corticocortical afferents, and layer III is the principal source of corticocortical efferents.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Layer IV, the internal granular layer, contains different types of stellate and pyramidal cells, and is the main target of thalamocortical afferents from thalamus type C neurons (core-type) as well as intra-hemispheric corticocortical afferents. The layers above layer IV are also referred to as supragranular layers (layers I-III), whereas the layers below are referred to as infragranular layers (layers V and VI).


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Layer V, the internal pyramidal layer, contains large pyramidal neurons. Axons from these leave the cortex and connect with subcortical structures including the basal ganglia. In the primary motor cortex of the frontal lobe, layer V contains giant pyramidal cells called Betz cells, whose axons travel through the internal capsule, the brain stem, and the spinal cord forming the corticospinal tract, which is the main pathway for voluntary motor control.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Layer VI, the polymorphic or multiform layer, contains few large pyramidal neurons and many small spindle-like pyramidal and multiform neurons; layer VI sends efferent fibers to the thalamus, establishing a very precise reciprocal interconnection between the cortex and the thalamus. That is, layer VI neurons from one cortical column connect with thalamus neurons that provide input to the same cortical column. These connections are both excitatory and inhibitory. Neurons send excitatory fibers to neurons in the thalamus and also send collaterals to the thalamic reticular nucleus that inhibit these same thalamus neurons or ones adjacent to them. One theory is that because the inhibitory output is reduced by cholinergic input to the cerebral cortex, this provides the brainstem with adjustable "gain control for the relay of lemniscal inputs".


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The cortical layers are not simply stacked one over the other; there exist characteristic connections between different layers and neuronal types, which span all the thickness of the cortex. These cortical microcircuits are grouped into cortical columns and minicolumns. It has been proposed that the minicolumns are the basic functional units of the cortex. In 1957, Vernon Mountcastle showed that the functional properties of the cortex change abruptly between laterally adjacent points; however, they are continuous in the direction perpendicular to the surface. Later works have provided evidence of the presence of functionally distinct cortical columns in the visual cortex (Hubel and Wiesel, 1959), auditory cortex,


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Cortical areas that lack a layer IV are called agranular. Cortical areas that have only a rudimentary layer IV are called dysgranular. Information processing within each layer is determined by different temporal dynamics with that in layers II/III having a slow 2 Hz oscillation while that in layer V has a fast 10–15 Hz oscillation.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Based on the differences in laminar organization the cerebral cortex can be classified into two types, the large area of neocortex which has six cell layers, and the much smaller area of allocortex that has three or four layers:


title: Cerebral cortex

text: There is a transitional area between the neocortex and the allocortex called the paralimbic cortex, where layers 2, 3 and 4 are merged. This area incorporates the proisocortex of the neocortex and the periallocortex of the allocortex. In addition, the cerebral cortex may be classified into four lobes: the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, the parietal lobe, and the occipital lobe, named from their overlying bones of the skull.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Blood supply to the cerebral cortex is part of the cerebral circulation. Cerebral arteries supply the blood that perfuses the cerebrum. This arterial blood carries oxygen, glucose, and other nutrients to the cortex. Cerebral veins drain the deoxygenated blood, and metabolic wastes including carbon dioxide, back to the heart.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The main arteries supplying the cortex are the anterior cerebral artery, the middle cerebral artery, and the posterior cerebral artery. The anterior cerebral artery supplies the anterior portions of the brain, including most of the frontal lobe. The middle cerebral artery supplies the parietal lobes, temporal lobes, and parts of the occipital lobes. The middle cerebral artery splits into two branches to supply the left and right hemisphere, where they branch further. The posterior cerebral artery supplies the occipital lobes.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The circle of Willis is the main blood system that deals with blood supply in the cerebrum and cerebral cortex.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The prenatal development of the cerebral cortex is a complex and finely tuned process called corticogenesis, influenced by the interplay between genes and the environment.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The cerebral cortex develops from the most anterior part, the forebrain region, of the neural tube. The neural plate folds and closes to form the neural tube. From the cavity inside the neural tube develops the ventricular system, and, from the neuroepithelial cells of its walls, the neurons and glia of the nervous system. The most anterior (front, or cranial) part of the neural plate, the prosencephalon, which is evident before neurulation begins, gives rise to the cerebral hemispheres and later cortex.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Cortical neurons are generated within the ventricular zone, next to the ventricles. At first, this zone contains neural stem cells, that transition to radial glial cells–progenitor cells, which divide to produce glial cells and neurons.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The cerebral cortex is composed of a heterogenous population of cells that give rise to different cell types. The majority of these cells are derived from radial glia migration that form the different cell types of the neocortex and it is a period associated with an increase in neurogenesis. Similarly, the process of neurogenesis regulates lamination to form the different layers of the cortex. During this process there is an increase in the restriction of cell fate that begins with earlier progenitors giving rise to any cell type in the cortex and later progenitors giving rise only to neurons of superficial layers. This differential cell fate creates an inside-out topography in the cortex with younger neurons in superficial layers and older neurons in deeper layers. In addition, laminar neurons are stopped in S or G2 phase in order to give a fine distinction between the different cortical layers. Laminar differentiation is not fully complete until after birth since during development laminar neurons are still sensitive to extrinsic signals and environmental cues.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Although the majority of the cells that compose the cortex are derived locally from radial glia there is a subset population of neurons that migrate from other regions. Radial glia give rise to neurons that are pyramidal in shape and use glutamate as a neurotransmitter, however these migrating cells contribute neurons that are stellate-shaped and use GABA as their main neurotransmitter. These GABAergic neurons are generated by progenitor cells in the medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) that migrate tangentially to the cortex via the subventricular zone. This migration of GABAergic neurons is particularly important since GABA receptors are excitatory during development. This excitation is primarily driven by the flux of chloride ions through the GABA receptor, however in adults chloride concentrations shift causing an inward flux of chloride that hyperpolarizes postsynaptic neurons.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The glial fibers produced in the first divisions of the progenitor cells are radially oriented, spanning the thickness of the cortex from the ventricular zone to the outer, pial surface, and provide scaffolding for the migration of neurons outwards from the ventricular zone.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: At birth there are very few dendrites present on the cortical neuron's cell body, and the axon is undeveloped. During the first year of life the dendrites become dramatically increased in number, such that they can accommodate up to a hundred thousand synaptic connections with other neurons. The axon can develop to extend a long way from the cell body.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The first divisions of the progenitor cells are symmetric, which duplicates the total number of progenitor cells at each mitotic cycle. Then, some progenitor cells begin to divide asymmetrically, producing one postmitotic cell that migrates along the radial glial fibers, leaving the ventricular zone, and one progenitor cell, which continues to divide until the end of development, when it differentiates into a glial cell or an ependymal cell. As the G1 phase of mitosis is elongated, in what is seen as selective cell-cycle lengthening, the newly born neurons migrate to more superficial layers of the cortex. The migrating daughter cells become the pyramidal cells of the cerebral cortex. The development process is time ordered and regulated by hundreds of genes and epigenetic regulatory mechanisms.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The layered structure of the mature cerebral cortex is formed during development. The first pyramidal neurons generated migrate out of the ventricular zone and subventricular zone, together with reelin-producing Cajal–Retzius neurons, from the preplate. Next, a cohort of neurons migrating into the middle of the preplate divides this transient layer into the superficial marginal zone, which will become layer I of the mature neocortex, and the subplate, forming a middle layer called the cortical plate. These cells will form the deep layers of the mature cortex, layers five and six. Later born neurons migrate radially into the cortical plate past the deep layer neurons, and become the upper layers (two to four). Thus, the layers of the cortex are created in an inside-out order. The only exception to this inside-out sequence of neurogenesis occurs in the layer I of primates, in which, in contrast to rodents, neurogenesis continues throughout the entire period of corticogenesis.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The map of functional cortical areas, which include primary motor and visual cortex, originates from a 'protomap', which is regulated by molecular signals such as fibroblast growth factor FGF8 early in embryonic development. These signals regulate the size, shape, and position of cortical areas on the surface of the cortical primordium, in part by regulating gradients of transcription factor expression, through a process called cortical patterning. Examples of such transcription factors include the genes EMX2 and PAX6. Together, both transcription factors form an opposing gradient of expression. Pax6 is highly expressed at the rostral lateral pole, while Emx2 is highly expressed in the caudomedial pole. The establishment of this gradient is important for proper development. For example, mutations in Pax6 can cause expression levels of Emx2 to expand out of its normal expression domain, which would ultimately lead to an expansion of the areas normally derived from the caudal medial cortex, such as the visual cortex. On the contrary, if mutations in Emx2 occur, it can cause the Pax6-expressing domain to expand and result in the frontal and motor cortical regions enlarging. Therefore, researchers believe that similar gradients and signaling centers next to the cortex could contribute to the regional expression of these transcription factors.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Two very well studied patterning signals for the cortex include FGF and retinoic acid. If FGFs are misexpressed in different areas of the developing cortex, cortical patterning is disrupted. Specifically, when Fgf8 is increased in the anterior pole, Emx2 is downregulated and a caudal shift in the cortical region occurs. This ultimately causes an expansion of the rostral regions. Therefore, Fgf8 and other FGFs play a role in the regulation of expression of Emx2 and Pax6 and represent how the cerebral cortex can become specialized for different functions.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Rapid expansion of the cortical surface area is regulated by the amount of self-renewal of radial glial cells and is partly regulated by FGF and Notch genes. During the period of cortical neurogenesis and layer formation, many higher mammals begin the process of gyrification, which generates the characteristic folds of the cerebral cortex. Gyrification is regulated by a DNA-associated protein Trnp1 and by FGF and SHH signaling


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Of all the different brain regions, the cerebral cortex shows the largest evolutionary variation and has evolved most recently. In contrast to the highly conserved circuitry of the medulla oblongata, for example, which serves critical functions such as regulation of heart and respiration rates, many areas of the cerebral cortex are not strictly necessary for survival. Thus, the evolution of the cerebral cortex has seen the advent and modification of new functional areas—particularly association areas that do not directly receive input from outside the cortex.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: A key theory of cortical evolution is embodied in the radial unit hypothesis and related protomap hypothesis, first proposed by Rakic. This theory states that new cortical areas are formed by the addition of new radial units, which is accomplished at the stem cell level. The protomap hypothesis states that the cellular and molecular identity and characteristics of neurons in each cortical area are specified by cortical stem cells, known as radial glial cells, in a primordial map. This map is controlled by secreted signaling proteins and downstream transcription factors.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The cerebral cortex is connected to various subcortical structures such as the thalamus and the basal ganglia, sending information to them along efferent connections and receiving information from them via afferent connections. Most sensory information is routed to the cerebral cortex via the thalamus. Olfactory information, however, passes through the olfactory bulb to the olfactory cortex (piriform cortex). The majority of connections are from one area of the cortex to another, rather than from subcortical areas; Braitenberg and Schüz (1998) claim that in primary sensory areas, at the cortical level where the input fibers terminate, up to 20% of the synapses are supplied by extracortical afferents but that in other areas and other layers the percentage is likely to be much lower.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The whole of the cerebral cortex was divided into 52 different areas in an early presentation by Korbinian Brodmann. These areas known as Brodmann areas, are based on their cytoarchitecture but also relate to various functions. An example is Brodmann area 17 which is the primary visual cortex.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: In more general terms the cortex is typically described as comprising three parts: sensory, motor, and association areas.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The sensory areas are the cortical areas that receive and process information from the senses. Parts of the cortex that receive sensory inputs from the thalamus are called primary sensory areas. The senses of vision, hearing, and touch are served by the primary visual cortex, primary auditory cortex and primary somatosensory cortex respectively. In general, the two hemispheres receive information from the opposite (contralateral) side of the body. For example, the right primary somatosensory cortex receives information from the left limbs, and the right visual cortex receives information from the left visual field. The organization of sensory maps in the cortex reflects that of the corresponding sensing organ, in what is known as a topographic map. Neighboring points in the primary visual cortex, for example, correspond to neighboring points in the retina. This topographic map is called a retinotopic map. In the same way, there exists a tonotopic map in the primary auditory cortex and a somatotopic map in the primary sensory cortex. This last topographic map of the body onto the posterior central gyrus has been illustrated as a deformed human representation, the somatosensory homunculus, where the size of different body parts reflects the relative density of their innervation. Areas with much sensory innervation, such as the fingertips and the lips, require more cortical area to process finer sensation.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The motor areas are located in both hemispheres of the cortex. The motor areas are very closely related to the control of voluntary movements, especially fine fragmented movements performed by the hand. The right half of the motor area controls the left side of the body, and vice versa.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Just underneath the cerebral cortex are interconnected subcortical masses of grey matter called basal ganglia (or nuclei). The basal ganglia receive input from the substantia nigra of the midbrain and motor areas of the cerebral cortex, and send signals back to both of these locations. They are involved in motor control. They are found lateral to the thalamus. The main components of the basal ganglia are the caudate nucleus, the putamen, the globus pallidus, the substantia nigra, the nucleus accumbens, and the subthalamic nucleus. The putamen and globus pallidus are also collectively known as the lentiform nucleus, because together they form a lens-shaped body. The putamen and caudate nucleus are also collectively called the corpus striatum after their striped appearance.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: The association areas are the parts of the cerebral cortex that do not belong to the primary regions. They function to produce a meaningful perceptual experience of the world, enable us to interact effectively, and support abstract thinking and language. The parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes – all located in the posterior part of the cortex – integrate sensory information and information stored in memory. The frontal lobe or prefrontal association complex is involved in planning actions and movement, as well as abstract thought. Globally, the association areas are organized as distributed networks. Each network connects areas distributed across widely spaced regions of the cortex. Distinct networks are positioned adjacent to one another yielding a complex series of interwoven networks. The specific organization of the association networks is debated with evidence for interactions, hierarchical relationships, and competition between networks.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: In humans, association networks are particularly important to language function. In the past it was theorized that language abilities are localized in Broca's area in areas of the left inferior frontal gyrus, BA44 and BA45, for language expression and in Wernicke's area BA22, for language reception. However, the processes of language expression and reception have been shown to occur in areas other than just those structures around the lateral sulcus, including the frontal lobe, basal ganglia, cerebellum, and pons.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, show as a marker, an atrophy of the grey matter of the cerebral cortex.


title: Cerebral cortex

text: Other diseases of the central nervous system include neurological disorders such as epilepsy, movement disorders, and different types of aphasia (difficulties in speech expression or comprehension).