N.E.R.D. (the acronym of No one Ever Really Dies, stylized as N*E*R*D) is an American rock, funk, and hip hop band. Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo were signed by Teddy Riley to Virgin Records as a duo, The Neptunes. After producing songs for several artists throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, the production duo formed the band with Shae Haley as a side project of The Neptunes in 2001. N.E.R.D's debut album, In Search Of..., sold 603,000 copies in the United States and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was also awarded the second annual Shortlist Music Prize. The band's second album, Fly or Die, sold 412,000 copies in the United States, but shipped at least 500,000 units making it qualify for RIAA's Gold Certification.

In 2005, N.E.R.D ended their contract with Virgin and disbanded. Three years later, the band reunited under Star Trak Entertainment, a subsidiary of Interscope Records established by Williams and Hugo. The band's third album, Seeing Sounds, sold 80,000 + copies in its first week.

Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈnɛi̯.ˌmeɪ̯.ɣə(n) ˈeɪ̯n.drɑxt ˌkom.bɪ.ˈnaː.(t)si]), commonly abbreviated to N.E.C. [ˌɛn.eɪ̯.ˈseɪ̯], is a Dutch football club from the city of Nijmegen. The oldest remnants of the club, "Eendracht" (Dutch for unity), stem back to 15 November 1900. In 1903, Eendracht merged with Nijmegen to form the Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie. They are frequently, erroneously, referred to as N.E.C. Nijmegen. The team's home ground is the 12,500-seat Stadion de Goffert.

The club has not won any major tournaments to date, though they were runners-up in the KNVB Cup competition in 1973, 1983, 1994, and 2000; they played in the UEFA Cup tournaments in 1983, 2003, and 2008.

N.E.C. (Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie or, in English, Nijmegen Unity Combination) is the 41st oldest club in the Netherlands. It was known that the first football club was founded by "ordinary" workers, real people, and boys. Football was in 1900 already quite popular, but a football club was a real elitist activity. Associations as UD (Deventer), Quick (Nijmegen), Sparta Rotterdam, Vitesse, etc. were also all created by the sons of wealthy industrialists, middle and other notables.

Nerd is a derogatory stereotype of a person typically described as socially-impaired, obsessive, or overly intellectual. They may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular or obscure activities, pursuits, or interests, which are generally either highly technical, or relating to topics of fiction or fantasy, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Other nerdy qualities include physical awkwardness, introversion, quirkiness, and unattractiveness. Thus, a nerd is often excluded from physical activity and is a social outsider. In the stereotypical high-school situation, they may be either considered loners by others, or they tend to associate with a small group of like-minded people. As with other pejoratives, nerd has been reappropriated by some as a term of pride and group identity.

The first documented appearance of the word "nerd" is as the name of a creature in Dr. Seuss's book If I Ran the Zoo (1950), in which the narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collect "a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too" for his imaginary zoo. The slang meaning of the term dates back to 1951, when Newsweek magazine reported on its popular use as a synonym for "drip" or "square" in Detroit, Michigan. By the early 1960s, usage of the term had spread throughout the United States, and even as far as Scotland. At some point, the word took on connotations of bookishness and social ineptitude.

Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr. (born February 16, 1957), professionally known as LeVar Burton, is an American actor, director, producer, and author.

Burton first came to prominence portraying Kunta Kinte in the 1977 award-winning ABC television miniseries Roots, based on the novel by Alex Haley. He is also well known for his role as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation as well as the host of the PBS children's program Reading Rainbow.

Burton was born to American parents at the U.S. Army Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in West Germany. His mother, Erma Jean (born Christian), was a social worker, administrator, and educator. His father, Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and at the time was stationed at Landstuhl. Burton and his two sisters were raised by his mother in Sacramento, California. Burton was raised Catholic and, at the age of thirteen, entered St. Pius X seminary in Galt, California to become a priest. He attended Christian Brothers High School and graduated in the class of 1974. He is a graduate of University of Southern California's School of Theatre.

Gal Gadot (Hebrew: גל גדות‎; born April 30, 1985) is an Israeli actress and model. She won the Miss Israel title in 2004 and went on to represent Israel at the 2004 Miss Universe beauty pageant. Gadot is known for her role as Gisele Yashar in Fast & Furious and Fast Five.

In 2007, she took a part in the Maxim photo shoot "Women of the Israeli army", which focused on Israeli models who were members of the Israeli Army. Gal's photo was on the invitation to the launch party for the controversial issue, and featured on the cover of the New York Post. In 2008, Gadot performed the lead role on the Israeli drama Bubot ("Dolls"). She was also chosen to be the leading model of Castro, one of the largest Israeli clothing brands. Her height is 175 cm (5'9").

Gadot appeared in Fast & Furious alongside co-stars Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, having beaten six other actresses to the role. In 2010, Gadot had a small role in the action-adventure Knight and Day, starring alongside Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. In the film, she played Naomi, a henchwoman to Tom Cruise's enemy. Earlier in the same year, she had a small role in the movie Date Night as Natanya, Holbrooke's (Mark Wahlberg) Israeli girlfriend. April 2011 brought her back to the The Fast & the Furious franchise, reprising her character in Fast Five.