Armadillo

Armadillos are New World placental mammals with a leathery armour shell. Dasypodidae is the only surviving family in the order Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra, along with the anteaters and sloths. The word armadillo means "little armoured one" in Spanish. The Aztecs called them āyōtōchtli [aːjoːˈtoːt͡ʃt͡ɬi], Nahuatl for "turtle-rabbit": āyōtl [ˈaːjoːt͡ɬ] (turtle) and tōchtli [ˈtoːt͡ʃt͡ɬi] (rabbit).

About 10 extant genera and 20 extant species of armadillo have been described, some of which are distinguished by the number of bands on their armour. Their average length is about 75 cm (30 in), including tail. The giant armadillo grows up to 150 cm (59 in) and weighs up to 54 kg (119 lb), while the pink fairy armadillo is a diminutive species, with an overall length of 13–15 cm (5–6 in). All species are native to the Americas, where they inhabit a variety of environments.

Like all of the Xenarthra lineages, armadillos originated in South America. Due to the continent's former isolation, they were confined there for most of the Cenozoic. The recent formation of the Isthmus of Panama allowed a few members of the family to migrate northward into southern North America by the early Pleistocene, as part of the Great American Interchange. (Some of their much larger cingulate relatives, the pampatheres and glyptodonts, made the same journey.)

Armadillo (C++ library)

Armadillo is a linear algebra software library for the C++ programming language. It aims to provide efficient and streamlined base calculations, while at the same time having a straightforward and easy-to-use interface. Its intended target users are scientists and engineers.

It supports integer, floating point (single and double precision), complex numbers, and a subset of trigonometric and statistics functions. Various matrix decompositions are provided through optional integration with Linear Algebra PACKage (LAPACK) and Automatically Tuned Linear Algebra Software (ATLAS) libraries. High-performance LAPACK replacement libraries such as Math Kernel Library (MKL) and AMD Core Math Library (ACML) can also be used.

The library employs a delayed-evaluation approach (during compile time) to combine several operations into one and reduce (or eliminate) the need for temporaries. Where applicable, the order of operations is optimised. Delayed evaluation and optimisation are achieved through template metaprogramming.

Armadillo (novel)

Armadillo is William Boyd's seventh novel, published in 1998. It was the first of his novels to be based in Britain. Boyd also wrote the screenplay for a BBC/A&E television adaptation in 2001.

Plot introduction

The story concerns Lorimer Black, a successful loss adjuster. His original name is Milomre Blocj and he comes from a family of Transnistrian gypsies who arrived in London in 1957 and set up an import-export business linked to Eastern Europe. They now run a taxi cab firm and are always borrowing money off Milo (as they still call him). Lorimer suffers from insomnia and spends many nights at the "Institute for Lucid Dreaming" in search for a cure. He collects antique helmets, listens to African music and is having an affair with Stella Bull, the owner of a scaffolding company. The book includes extracts taken from Lorimer's journal The Book of Transfiguration, in which he philosophizes on his situation and quotes from Gerard de Nerval.

Hogg, Lorimer's overbearing boss, describes his profession thus: "people turn to insurance to remove uncertainty from areas of their lives. Insurance companies turn to loss adjusters to put uncertainty into insurance, and thus reintroduce uncertainty to insured people."