Basic Instinct is a 1992 American erotic thriller. The movie was directed by Paul Verhoeven and stars Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone. Douglas plays a San Francisco police detective who investigates the murder of a rich rock star. During this investigation he gets personally involved with the prime suspect, Catherine Tramell (played by Stone). The movie generated a lot of controversy due to its strong and graphic violence. It was strongly opposed by gay rights activists for its portrayal of a bisexual woman as a narcissistic psychopath. The movie was given mixed reviews, but it took in millions at the box office. It was originally under a rating of NC-17. It was later edited down for an R rating before release.
It was followed by a sequel, "Basic Instinct 2".
Boomerang (disambiguation)
A Boomerang is a toy. It can also mean:
Congressional Gold Medal
The Congressional Gold Medal is awarded by the United States Congress. It is one of the highest awards like Presidential Medal of Freedom given to people who are not in the military. Gold medals have been awarded since the days of the Continental Congress. A gold medal often includes a picture of the person who received it.
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award given by the President of the United States. It recognizes those individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors". The award is not limited to U.S. citizens and, while it is a civilian award, it can also be awarded to military personnel and worn on the uniform.
It was established in 1963 and replaced the earlier Medal of Freedom that was established by President Harry S Truman in 1945.
Plant cell
Like all organisms, plants have cells. Plant cells have a nucleus with chromosomes and DNA, and they have mitochondria. Those are common to all eukaryotic cells. But in some ways they are different from animal cells and the cells of other eukaryotes.
Abé language
Abé is a language spoken in Côte d'Ivoire. Its name is also spelled Abbé, Abbey, and Abi. About 170,000 people spoke the language in 1995. These people mostly lived in the Department of Agboville.
The Abé language is part of the Niger-Congo language family. It has four dialects: Tioffo, Morie, Abbey-Ve, and Kos
Southern Bantoid languages
The Southern Bantoid languages are a group of African languages of the Niger-Congo language family. This group was first described by Kay Williamson in 1989. Williamson described a way of splitting the Bantoid languages into two groups, North and South.
According to the "Ethnologue", there are 643 languages in the Southern Bantoid group. Many of these languages are mutually intelligible (someone who is speaking one language can be understood by someone who speaks another language.) The group includes a number of smaller language families:
There are also some languages in the Southern Bantoid group that have not been classified into one of these language families.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
The Boy Who Cried Wolf is a fable by Aesop.
"The Boy Who Cried Wolf" is number 210 in the Perry Index. The fable is about a shepherd boy who keeps tricking people into believing that a wolf is attacking his flock of sheep. The boy tricks the people so many times that when a wolf actually comes to kill the flock, the townspeople don't believe his cries for help and the wolf eats his flock. The moral of the story is that this is how liars are rewarded: even if they tell the truth, no one believes them. The story dates back to Classical times.
The Crow and the Pitcher
"The Crow and the Pitcher" is a fable by Aesop. "The Crow and the Pitcher" is numbered at 390 in the Perry Index. The fable is in the 2nd century AD Greek fable collection by pseudo-Dositheus and also later appears in the 4th–5th century Latin verse collection by Avianus.
The fable is about a crow that is thirsty and comes across a pitcher of water. When the crow looks in the pitcher, the water is at the bottom and is out of the crow's reach. The crow tries to push the pitcher over but fails to do so. It drops pebbles in the pitcher, one by one, until the water rises to the top of the pitcher which allows the crow to drink. Avianus follows the fable with a moral that emphasizes the virtue of ingenuity: "This fable shows us that thoughtfulness is superior to brute strength."
The Duke of Edinburgh's Award
The Duke of Edinburgh's Award (DofE) is a programme of activities for anyone aged 14 to 24. There are three levels of the award: "Bronze", "Silver" and "Gold". There are different sections in each level. At Bronze and Silver level, participants must do four sections: "Volunteering", "Physical", "Skills" and "Expedition". At Gold level, participants must do another section, as well as the other four, called "Residential". Each level can take between 1-4 years to complete. All activities must be done by the participant's 25th birthday. Around 275,000 participants are taking part in their DofE programme at any time in the United Kingdom. The aim of the programme is to evidence a person's dedication to improving themselves. DofE is also run in other countries under the name of the International Award.
"e"DofE is an online system that lets participants manage their DofE programme. It also enables leaders to look at participants' progress.
Languages of Africa
The languages of Africa include more than 3,000 languages. These languages include native languages (languages that come from Africa) and colonial languages, which were brought to Africa by colonists from Europe. The continent has the highest concentration of languages in the world. At least 30% of the world's languages come from and are spoken in Africa.
Over the years, many African languages have died out and become extinct. This happens for several reasons, including wars and genocide by other African tribes. Other languages were abandoned, or its speakers disappeared.
There are more than 3,000 languages spoken in Africa. These languages are grouped into several major language families. Linguists do not agree about which groupings are "correct" and valid.
Most linguists organize the African languages into four major language families. These are:
This classification of languages is based on the research of the linguist Joseph Greenberg, who published "The Languages of Africa" in 1963.
The African languages were traditionally (historically) organized into six language families. Today, some linguists doubt that some of these groupings are valid. The six traditional families are:
Still other linguists believe that the Nilo-Saharan languages and the Niger-Congo languages are part of the same family. These linguists organize the African languages into only three language families: Niger-Congo languages, Afroasiatic languages, and Khoisan languages.
No matter how the major language families are organized, there are many smaller families and language isolates. In addition, there are some obscure (rare, uncommon) languages that are not yet classified into any family. Africa also has some sign languages, which are mostly language isolates.
Herbert Rettensteiner
Herbert Rettensteiner (born 26 August 1946 in Schwarzach, Austria) was an Austrian football goalkeeper. He also played for the Austrian national football team.
He started playing with his local club SV Lend. In 1967 he went to SK Bischofshofen and played with them in the second league. His next team was FC Wacker Innsbruck in the Nationalliga (then first league in Austria). In Innsbruck the club joined with Wattens and Wacker Innsbruck and formed SSW Innsbruck.
The goalkeeper of Wattens, Friedl Koncilia, often played instead of him so Rettensteiner, after the second title with Innsbruck, went to SK VOEST Linz. In 1975 he went on to SV Austria Salzburg, where he played in the first and second division until 1982.