Daniel

Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means, "God is my judge", and derives from two early biblical figures, primary among them Daniel from the Book of Daniel. It is a common given name for males, and is also used as a surname. It is also the basis for various derived given names and surnames.

Background

The name evolved into over 100 different spellings in countries around the world. Nicknames (Dan, Danny) are common in both English and Hebrew, although in some instances "Dan" may be a complete given name rather than a nickname. The name "Daniil" (Даниил) is common in Russia. Feminine versions (Danielle, Daniela, Daniella, Dani, Danitza) are prevalent as well. The Dutch names "Daan" and "Daniël" are also variations of Daniel. A related surname developed as a patronymic, Daniels. Other surnames derived from "Daniel" include McDaniel and Danielson.

In the United States, the U.S. Social Security Administration reports that Daniel has peaked as the fifth most popular name for newborns in 1985, 1990, 2007, and 2008. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that in the 2000 census, "Daniels" was the 182nd most common surname in the U.S., while "McDaniel" was ranked at 323, and "Daniel" (without a final "s") was ranked at 380.

Tião Carreiro & Pardinho

Tião Carreiro & Pardinho (also known as Tião Carreiro e Pardinho) is a Brazilian sertanejo musical duo.

Tião Carreiro (real name: José Dias Nunes), born in a farm in the outskirts of Araçatuba city, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, started to lear how to play the acoustic guitar at a very young age. Later, only 13, he went to work in the Giglio Circus, where he made a music pair with his cousin Waldomiro. The circus owner encouraged Tião to learn the viola caipira (a kind of steel ten-string acoustic guitar). Tião Carreiro played along with various other violeiros (viola caipira players that create música caipira or Brazilian country music).

He reached fame with Pardinho (real name: Antônio Henrique de Lima), consolidating the music double as Tião Carreiro e Pardinho. Alongside Pardinho, Tião Carreiro is credited as the inventor of the Pagode (not to be confused with the Pagode style of Samba), the rural Pagode (Pagode Caipira).

Influenced

Among the violeiros such as César Menotti & Fabiano, Chitãozinho & Xororó, Milionário e José Rico among others, Tião Carreiro e Pardinho are viewed as one of the most influential songwriters/singers of the Música Sertaneja style of Brazilian popular music.

Eternity II puzzle

The Eternity II puzzle, aka E2 or E II, is a puzzle competition which was released on 28 July 2007. It was published by Christopher Monckton, and is marketed and copyrighted by TOMY UK Ltd. A $2 million prize was offered for the first complete solution. The competition ended at noon on 31 December 2010, with no solution being found.

Puzzle mechanics

The Eternity II puzzle is an edge-matching puzzle which involves placing 256 square puzzle pieces into a 16 by 16 grid, constrained by the requirement to match adjacent edges. It has been designed to be difficult to solve by brute-force computer search.

Each puzzle piece has its edges on one side marked with different shape/colour combinations (collectively called "colours" here), each of which must match precisely with its neighbouring side on each adjacent piece when the puzzle is complete. The other side of each piece is blank apart from an identifying number, and is not used in the puzzle. Thus, each piece can be used in only 4 orientations. There are 22 colours, not including the gray edges. Five of those can only be found on border and corner pieces and 17 only on so called inner pieces and the side of the border piece across from the gray colour. This puzzle differs from the first Eternity puzzle in that there is a starter piece which must be placed near the center of the board. (See PDF rulebook on official website.)