Parni valjak (pronounced [pâːrniː ʋǎːʎak]; Croatian: 'steamroller') is a Croatian and former Yugoslav rock band. They were one of the top acts of the former Yugoslav rock scene, and currently one of the top rock-and-roll bands in Croatia.

Biography

Parni valjak was founded in 1975. Unlike many rock bands that would come later, their style was becoming more mainstream, becoming closer to pop, especially compared with the bands like Prljavo kazalište or Film.

As years went by, their refusal to change style proved to be the important factor in the band's longevity. They kept a loyal following in 1980s and in 1990s, refusing to allow elements of folk and turbo folk music to become part of their repertoire. Because of that the band enjoys great respect among many Croatian rock critics, being seen as the embodiment of "true" rock and urban culture and many of their songs are considered evergreens in the former Yugoslavia like "Sve još miriše na nju", "Jesen u meni", "Ugasi me" and "Zastave". Parni valjak kept a relatively small but dedicated following for 30 years, and many people tend to gather at their concerts that feature energetic performances, despite advanced age of the band's members: Aki Rahimovski - vocals, Husein Hasanefendić-Hus - guitars, Marijan Brkić Brk - guitars, Berislav Blažević-Bero - keyboards, Zvonimir Bučević-Buč - bass guitar, Dražen Scholz-Šolc - drums, Tina Rupčić - vocal, Anita Mlinarić - sax.

The nene (Branta sandvicensis), also known as nēnē and Hawaiian goose, is a species of goose endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. The official bird of the state of Hawaiʻi, the nene is exclusively found in the wild on the islands of Oahu,Maui, Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi.

The Hawaiian name nēnē comes from its soft call. The species name sandvicensis refers to the Sandwich Islands, an old name for the Hawaiian Islands.

Evolution

It is thought that the nene evolved from the Canada goose (Branta canadensis), which most likely arrived on the Hawaiian islands about 500,000 years ago, shortly after the island of Hawaiʻi was formed. This ancestor is the progenitor of the nene as well as the prehistoric Giant Hawaiʻi goose and nēnē-nui (Branta hylobadistes). The nēnē-nui was larger than the nene, varied from flightless to flighted depending on the individual, and inhabited the island of Maui. Similar fossil geese found on Oʻahu and Kauaʻi may be of the same species. The Giant Hawaiʻi goose was restricted to the island of Hawaiʻi and measured 1.2 m (3.9 ft) in length with a mass of 8.6 kg (19 lb), making it more than four times larger than the nene. It is believed that the herbivorous Giant Hawaiʻi goose occupied the same ecological niche as the goose-like ducks known as moa-nalo, which were not present on the Big Island. Based on mitochondrial DNA found in fossils, all Hawaiian geese, living and dead, are closely related to the giant Canada goose (B. c. maxima) and dusky Canada goose (B. c. occidentalis).

Nene may refer to:

People

Adriano Barbosa Miranda da Luz (born 24 August 1979), commonly known as Nené, is a Cape Verdean professional footballer who plays for Vilaverdense FC as a central midfielder.

Club career

Born in the capital Lisbon, Nené spent most of his professional career in Portugal. After starting out with three modest clubs, he signed in early 2002 with top level side S.C. Braga from Gondomar SC, 31 of his 38 league games with the Minho team coming in the 2002–03 season, with his team finishing in 14th position.

After definitively leaving Braga (which also loaned him twice during his spell), Nené signed with U.D. Leiria, which in turn loaned him to C.D. Aves, with the latter team promoting to the first division at the end of the 2005–06 campaign; the move was subsequently made permanent, and the player was relatively used in the following season – 1,138 minutes, one goal in a 1–2 away loss against Boavista FC, a club he had represented as a youth – which ended in immediate relegation back.

The Parni (/ˈpɑːrnaɪ/; Ancient Greek: Πάρνοι, Parnoi) or Aparni (/əˈpɑːrnaɪ/; Ἄπαρνοι, Aparnoi) were an east Iranian people of the Ochus (Ancient Greek: Ὧχος Okhos) (Tejen) River valley, southeast of the Caspian Sea. The Parni were one of the three tribes of the Dahae confederacy.

In the middle of the 3rd century BCE, the Parni invaded Parthia, "drove away the Greek satraps, who had then only just acquired independence, and founded a new dynasty", that of the Arsacids.

Historical identity and location

There is no unambiguous evidence of the Parnian in native Iranian language sources,^cf. and all references to these people comes from Greek and Latin accounts. In these accounts, which are not necessarily contemporaneous, it is difficult to unambiguously identify references to the Parni due to inconsistency of Greek/Latin naming and transliteration, and/or the similarity to names of other tribes such as the Sparni or Apartani and the Eparnoi or Asparioi. It may also be that the Parni are related to one or more of these other tribes, and that "their original homeland may have been southern Russia from where they emigrated with other Scythian tribes."