• Nipponia nippon (bird)

    ciconiiform: Distribution, habitat, and abundance: At the other extreme, the Japanese ibis (Nipponia nippon) is on the verge of extinction, only one small colony being known. Several other ibis species are rare and are declining in population.

  • Nippotaeniidea (tapeworm order)

    flatworm: Annotated classification: Order Nippotaeniidea Scolex bears 1 apical sucker; parasites of freshwater fish; 1 genus, Nippotaenia; 3 species. Order Cyclophyllidea (Taenoidea) Scolex with 4 suckers; no uterine pores; 1 compact vitellarium behind ovary; mainly parasites of birds and mammals; probably more than 2,000 species. Order

  • Nippur (ancient city, Iraq)

    Nippur, ancient city of Mesopotamia, now in southeastern Iraq. It lies northeast of the town of Ad-Dīwānīyah. Although never a political capital, Nippur played a dominant role in the religious life of Mesopotamia. In Sumerian mythology Nippur was the home of Enlil, the storm god and representation

  • Nippur calendar

    Mesopotamian religion: Sacred times: …2nd millennium bce did the Nippur calendar attain general acceptance. The nature of the festivals in these various sacred calendars sometimes reflected the cycle of agricultural activities, such as celebrating the ritual hitching up of the plows and, later in the year, their unhitching, or rites of sowing, harvesting, and…

  • NIPT (medicine)

    Down syndrome: Incidence and diagnosis: Noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is also available for the early detection of Down syndrome. During pregnancy, small numbers of fetal cells enter the maternal circulation. Maternal blood samples collected after the 10th week of pregnancy can be analyzed using specially designed fragments of DNA (deoxyribonucleic…

  • niqab (face veil)

    Saudi Arabia: Daily life and social customs: …and another known as a niqāb covers the face. Among Bedouin, women’s clothing is often quite ornate and has traditionally consisted of a beautiful panoply of handcrafted silver jewelry.

  • NIRA (United States [1933])

    National Industrial Recovery Act, U.S. labour legislation (1933) that was one of several measures passed by Congress and supported by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in an effort to help the nation recover from the Great Depression. The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was an unusual experiment

  • NIRA (American organization)

    rodeo: Origins and history: …participation of athletes from the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA), founded in 1948, and as a result of the annual National Finals Rodeo (NFR), which was established in 1959 and became the richest and most prestigious rodeo in the world. At the turn of the 21st century, some 600 PRCA-sanctioned…

  • Nirala (Indian poet)

    South Asian arts: Hindi: Pant, Prasad, Nirala, and Mahadevi Varma, the most creative poets of the 1930s, drew inspiration from the Romantic tradition in English and Bengali poetry and the mystic tradition of medieval Hindi poetry. Reacting against them were the Marxist poets Ram Vilas Sharma and Nagarjuna and experimentalists such…

  • Nīrān ṣadīqah (work by al-Aswany)

    Alaa al-Aswany: …the collection Nīrān ṣadīqah (2004; Friendly Fire), which also contains some of his stories. In 1993 he began writing a monthly column for the newspaper Al-ʿArabī. Aswany, who wrote in Arabic, was a staunch believer in reading national literatures in their original languages, and he studied Spanish to read the…

  • Nirankari (Sikhism)

    Nirankari, religious reform movement within Sikhism. The Nirankari movement was founded by Dayal Das (died 1855), who belonged to a half-Sikh, half-Hindu community in Peshawar. He believed that God is formless, or nirankar (hence the name Nirankari). He also stressed the importance of meditation.

  • nirat (poetry)

    Thai literature: …of the most highly regarded nirat poems—a genre characterized by the themes of journeying, separation, and love-longing—date from this period, including Si Prat’s famous Nirat khlong kamsuan (“A Mournful Journey”), describing his journey into exile in Nakhon Sri Thammarat.

  • niraval (Indian music)

    South Asian arts: South India: …sometimes include sections such as niraval, melodic variations with the same text, and svara-kalpana, passages using the Indian equivalent of the sol–fa syllables, which are otherwise improvised.

  • nire (plant)

    temperate forest: Flora: …evergreen species of beech (Nothofagus), with different species occurring in each region. Few other trees typically coexist with Nothofagus in these cool forests, which also lack climbers and vascular epiphytes, although they may have a great abundance of mosses on tree trunks, branches, and sometimes leaves. In Australia other…

  • Nirehara Shin’ichi (Japanese Kabuki actor)

    Bandō Tamasaburō V is a Japanese Kabuki actor who made a name for himself as an onnagata, a man who plays female roles (in Kabuki all roles are traditionally played by men). Somewhat atypically of the Kabuki world, he later gained international acclaim in film and non-Kabuki forms of drama as well.

  • Nirenberg, Louis (Canadian-born American mathematician)

    Louis Nirenberg was a Canadian-born American mathematician who was noted for his work in analysis, with an emphasis on partial differential equations. In 2015 he was a recipient (with John F. Nash, Jr.) of the Abel Prize. Nirenberg grew up in Montreal and received a bachelor’s degree (1945) in

  • Nirenberg, Marshall Warren (American biochemist)

    Marshall Warren Nirenberg was an American biochemist and corecipient, with Robert William Holley and Har Gobind Khorana, of the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. He was cited for his role in deciphering the genetic code. He demonstrated that, with the exception of “nonsense codons,” each

  • Nirgal Vallis (feature, Mars)

    Nirgal Vallis, sinuous, branching valley located on the planet Mars north of the Argyre impact basin, at about 28° S, 42° W. It is about 400 km (250 miles) long and about 5 km (3 miles) wide. Its name derives from the Babylonian word for Mars. First seen in Mariner 9 spacecraft images, the valley

  • nirguṇa (Hinduism)

    nirguṇa, (Sanskrit: “distinctionless”), concept of primary importance in the orthodox Hindu philosophy of Vedānta, raising the question of whether the supreme being, Brahman, is to be characterized as without qualities (nirguṇa) or as possessing qualities (saguṇa). The Advaita (Nondualist) school

  • nirjara (Jaina philosophy)

    nirjara, in Jainism, a religion of India, the destruction of karman (a physical substance that binds itself to individual souls and determines their fate). For the soul to achieve moksha, or liberation from rebirth, the believer must expel existing karman and prevent the accumulation of new karman.

  • Nirmal-akhāḍā (Sikhism)

    Nirmala, an ascetic order of the Sikhs, a religious group of India. Nirmalas (“those without blemish”) at first wore only white garments but later adopted the ochre robes worn by Hindu ascetics and shared some other practices, such as birth and death rites, with Hindus. Like the Udāsī order of Sikh

  • Nirmala (Sikhism)

    Nirmala, an ascetic order of the Sikhs, a religious group of India. Nirmalas (“those without blemish”) at first wore only white garments but later adopted the ochre robes worn by Hindu ascetics and shared some other practices, such as birth and death rites, with Hindus. Like the Udāsī order of Sikh

  • Nirmala Sitharaman (Indian politician and economist)

    Nirmala Sitharaman (born August 18, 1959, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India) is an Indian politician and economist who was first appointed as the minister of finance and minister of corporate affairs in the central government in May 2019, becoming the country’s first woman to hold either position full

  • nirmanakaya (Buddhism)

    Buddhism: The three Buddha bodies: The emanation body (nirmanakaya) is the form of the Buddha that appears in the world to teach people the path to liberation. The enjoyment (or bliss) body (sambhogakaya) is the celestial body of the Buddha to which contemplation can ascend. In the heavenly regions, or Pure Lands, the…

  • nirmanakaya (Buddhism)

    Buddhism: The three Buddha bodies: The emanation body (nirmanakaya) is the form of the Buddha that appears in the world to teach people the path to liberation. The enjoyment (or bliss) body (sambhogakaya) is the celestial body of the Buddha to which contemplation can ascend. In the heavenly regions, or Pure Lands, the…

  • nirodha (religion)

    nirvana, in Indian religious thought, the supreme goal of certain meditation disciplines. Although it occurs in the literatures of a number of ancient Indian traditions, the Sanskrit term nirvana is most commonly associated with Buddhism, in which it is the oldest and most common designation for

  • nirukta (Hinduism)

    Hinduism: The Vedangas: …oldest examples of this discipline—(4) nirukta (lexicon), which discusses and defines difficult words, represented by the Nirukta of Yaska (c. 600 bce), (5) jyotisa (luminaries), a system of astronomy and astrology used to determine the right times for rituals, and (6) kalpa (mode of performance), which studies the correct ways…

  • Nirvana (American rock group)

    Nirvana, American alternative rock group whose breakthrough album, Nevermind (1991), announced a new musical style (grunge) and gave voice to the post-baby boom young adults known as Generation X. The members were Kurt Cobain (b. February 20, 1967, Aberdeen, Washington, U.S.—d. April 5, 1994,

  • nirvana (religion)

    nirvana, in Indian religious thought, the supreme goal of certain meditation disciplines. Although it occurs in the literatures of a number of ancient Indian traditions, the Sanskrit term nirvana is most commonly associated with Buddhism, in which it is the oldest and most common designation for

  • Nirvana principle (psychology)

    Sigmund Freud: Toward a general theory of Sigmund Freud: …for rest he christened the Nirvana principle and the drive underlying it the death instinct, or Thanatos, which he could substitute for self-preservation as the contrary of the life instinct, or Eros.

  • nirvikalpaka (Indian philosophy)

    pratyaksha: …distinction between indiscriminate perception (nirvikalpaka), in which the object is perceived without its distinguishing features, and discriminate perception (savikalpaka), in which the distinguishing features are both observed and recognized. Indiscriminate perception is important to the followers of the Advaita (Nondualist) school of Vedanta, for it allows for the liberating…

  • Niryuktis (works by Bhadrabahu)

    Bhadrabahu I: …books as well as the Niryuktis, short commentaries on 10 of the 12 original sacred books. Some authorities say that, after the famine, Bhadrabahu retired in seclusion to Nepal; others say he remained in Mysore. He is reputed to have undergone the process of sallekhana, the Jain ritual of ultimate…

  • NIS (currency)

    Israel: Finance: …times after 1948, and the new Israeli shekel (NIS) was introduced in September 1985 to replace the earlier Israeli shekel. The government and central bank introduced this measure as part of a successful economic stabilization policy that helped control a rate of inflation that had grown steadily between the 1950s…

  • Niš (Serbia)

    Niš, city in southeastern Serbia, on the Nišava River. The city is important for its command of the Morava-Vardar and Nišava river corridors, the two principal routes from central Europe to the Aegean Sea. The main rail line from Belgrade and the north divides at Niš for Thessaloníki, Greece, and

  • Niš, Treaty of (European history)

    Bulgaria: Stamboliyski’s foreign policy: …be known): by signing the Treaty of Niš, he permitted Yugoslav forces to pursue the Macedonian guerrilla bands into Bulgarian territory.

  • NISA (British sports organization)

    figure skating: Regional and national: The National Ice Skating Association of Great Britain (NISA) governs eligible skating in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1879, the association organizes tests for skaters and oversees competitions for figure skating, ice dancing, synchronized team skating, speed skating, and recreational skating. Figure skaters who hope to…

  • Nisa (ancient city, Turkmenistan)

    Nisa, first capital of the Parthians, located near modern Ashgabat in Turkmenistan. Nisa was traditionally founded by Arsaces I (reigned c. 250–c. 211 bc), and it was reputedly the royal necropolis of the Parthian kings. Excavations at Nisa have revealed substantial buildings, many inscribed

  • Nisaba (Sumerian deity)

    Nisaba, in Mesopotamian Religion, Sumerian deity, city goddess of Eresh on the Euphrates River near Erech in the farming regions; she was goddess of the grasses and seed crops. As goddess of the reeds and provider of the reed stylus used by the scribes, she became the patroness of writing and the

  • Nisan (Jewish month)

    Jewish religious year: Months and notable days: …15 Purim (Feast of Lots) Nisan (March–April) 15–22 Passover (Pesach) 27 Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) Iyyar (April–May) 18 Lag BaOmer (33rd Day of the Omer Counting) Sivan (May–June)

  • Nisanu (month)

    Babylonian calendar: …first month of the year, Nisanu, was maintained near the onset of spring by the use of a regular cycle (similar to the Greek Metonic cycle) of intercalations, in which 7 out of 19 years had an extra month added. (For more information about the Babylonian calendar, see calendar: Babylonian…

  • NISAR (low Earth orbit mission)

    NISAR, low Earth orbit mission jointly developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to measure precise changes in Earth’s surface, providing insights useful for a wide range of applications, from groundwater usage patterns

  • Nišava (river, Bulgaria and Serbia)

    Morava River: The Nišava, another tributary, rises in western Bulgaria; its valley provides an important transportation route from Belgrade via Sofia to Turkey. The Morava and the South Morava together are a vital part of the Morava-Vardar (Axiós) corridor, a main road and rail route in Serbia.

  • Nisbet, Frances (wife of Horatio Nelson)

    Horatio Nelson: Early years: There he met Frances Nisbet, a widow, and her five-year-old son, Josiah. Nelson conducted his courtship with formality and charm, and in March 1787 the couple was married at Nevis.

  • nise-e (Japanese art)

    nise-e, (Japanese: “likeness painting”), form of sketchy portraiture that became fashionable in the court circles of 12th- and 13th-century Japan. Realistic art was originally outside the tradition of Japanese portraiture, which, until the 12th century, was purely religious in character. Alongside

  • Nisei (people)

    Nisei, (Japanese: “second-generation”), son or daughter of Japanese immigrants who was born and educated in the United States. During World War II all persons of Japanese ancestry on the U.S. West Coast were forcibly evacuated from their homes and relocated in inland detention centres as a result

  • Nisentil (drug)

    drug use: Opium, morphine, heroin, and related synthetics: …one-tenth as potent as morphine; alphaprodine (Nisentil) is one-fifth as potent as morphine but is rapid-acting; methadone, synthesized in Germany during World War II, is comparable to morphine in potency; levorphanol (Levo-Dromoran) is an important synthetic with five times the potency of morphine. These synthetics exhibit a more favorable tolerance…

  • Nish (Serbia)

    Niš, city in southeastern Serbia, on the Nišava River. The city is important for its command of the Morava-Vardar and Nišava river corridors, the two principal routes from central Europe to the Aegean Sea. The main rail line from Belgrade and the north divides at Niš for Thessaloníki, Greece, and

  • Nīshāpūr (Iran)

    Neyshābūr, town, northeastern Iran. Neyshābūr is situated 46 miles (74 km) west of Meshed. The town, which has shifted its position repeatedly in historical times, lies at an elevation of 3,980 feet (1,213 metres) in a wide, well-watered, and fertile plain at the southern foot of the Bīnālūd

  • Nishapur pottery

    Nishapur pottery, Islāmic ceramics produced at Nishapur (modern Neyshābūr, Iran) that were of bold style and showed links with Sāssānian and Central Asian work. The style originated in Transoxania, an ancient district of Iran, during the 9th century ad and showed such specific characteristics as

  • Nishātī (Khivan poet)

    Chagatai literature: …18th century, Pahlavanqul Ravnaq and Nishātī, emigrated, the former to the khanate of Kokand and the latter to the khanate of Bukhara. While in Bukhara in the 1770s, Nishātī wrote the last major masnawi in Chagatai, Hüsn u Dil (“Beauty and the Heart”). Turdī, a Bukharan, wrote political satires against…

  • Nishi (people)

    Nyishi, tribal people of eastern Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh (formerly North East Frontier Agency), a mountainous state in northeastern India. They speak a Tibeto-Burman language of the Sino-Tibetan family. The Nyishi support themselves with a slash-and-burn agriculture and with hunting and

  • Nishi Amane (Japanese philosopher)

    Nishi Amane was a philosopher, writer, and publisher who helped introduce Western philosophy, especially British empiricism, to Japan. After study at the University of Leiden, Neth., he became a professor at Kaieisho College in Tokyo. Together with Mori Arinori (1847–89), later minister of

  • Nishi Takeichi (Japanese equestrian)

    Nishi Takeichi: Friendship and Honor: Nishi Takeichi (Baron Nishi as he was also known) won a gold medal for the individual equestrian jumping competition at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles. The Prix des Nations, as the competition is called, originated in 1900 at the Olympic Games in Paris and…

  • Nishi Takeichi: Friendship and Honor

    Nishi Takeichi (Baron Nishi as he was also known) won a gold medal for the individual equestrian jumping competition at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles. The Prix des Nations, as the competition is called, originated in 1900 at the Olympic Games in Paris and involves a series of obstacles that horse

  • Nishi, Baron (Japanese equestrian)

    Nishi Takeichi: Friendship and Honor: Nishi Takeichi (Baron Nishi as he was also known) won a gold medal for the individual equestrian jumping competition at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles. The Prix des Nations, as the competition is called, originated in 1900 at the Olympic Games in Paris and…

  • Nishida Kitarō (Japanese philosopher)

    Nishida Kitarō was a Japanese philosopher who exemplified the attempt by the Japanese to assimilate Western philosophy into the Oriental spiritual tradition. Nishida’s father, Nishida Yasunori, was for a time a teacher of an elementary school among whose few pupils was Kitarō. His mother, Tosa, was

  • Nishijima Kazuhiko (Japanese physicist)

    subatomic particle: Strangeness: … in the United States and Nishijima Kazuhiko in Japan independently suggested a new conservation law. They argued that the strange particles must possess some new property, dubbed “strangeness,” that is conserved in the strong nuclear reactions in which the particles are created. In the decay of the particles, however, a…

  • Nishikado Tomohiro (Japanese engineer and game designer)

    Space Invaders: …Japanese engineer and game designer Nishikado Tomohiro in 1978 and produced by Japanese electronic game manufacturer Taito Corp. The objective of Space Invaders, which was one of the earliest video games released, is to pan across a screen and shoot descending swarms of aliens, preventing them from reaching the bottom…

  • Nishikawa Sukenobu (Japanese artist)

    Nishikawa Sukenobu was a Japanese painter of the Ukiyo-e school of popular, colourful paintings and prints, who also was a book designer of the Kyōto–Ōsaka area. Nishikawa studied painting with masters of two schools, the Kanō (stressing Chinese subjects and techniques) and the Japanese-oriented

  • nishiki-e (Japanese art)

    nishiki-e, Japanese polychrome woodblock prints of the ukiyo-e school that were first made in 1765. The invention of the technique is attributed to Kinroku, and its greatest early master was Suzuki

  • nishikigoi (fish)

    koi, (Cyprinus carpio), any of more than 100 ornamental varieties of carp that are best known for their colourful body patterning and are kept as pets in indoor and outdoor freshwater ponds throughout the world. Koi were raised initially as food fishes in China and Japan. However, they also serve

  • Nishimura Teiji (Japanese military officer)

    World War II: The Philippines and Borneo, from September 1944: …the other, under Vice Admiral Nishimura Teiji, would pass through the Surigao Strait.

  • Nishinomiya (Japan)

    Nishinomiya, city, Hyōgo ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, at the mouth of the Mukogawa (Muko River) on the Inland Sea. It is part of the Hanshin Industrial Region. The city occupies a narrow lowland between Ōsaka-wan (Ōsaka Bay) and interior Rokkō-zan (Mt. Rokkō). Nishinomiya is famed for its fine

  • Nishio (Japan)

    Nishio, city, Aichi ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the lower reaches of the Yahagi-gawa (Yahagi River). Nishio was a castle town and commercial centre during the Tokugawa era (1603–1867). The opening of two railways through the city in 1911 and 1928 resulted in the establishment of industry,

  • Nishiyama Sōin (Japanese poet)

    Nishiyama Sōin was a renga (“linked-verse”) poet of the early Tokugawa period (1603–1867) who founded the Danrin school of haikai poetry. Sōin’s haikai (comical renga) became the transition between the light and clever haikai of Matsunaga Teitoku and the more serious and aesthetic haiku of Matsuo

  • Nishiyama Toyoichi (Japanese poet)

    Nishiyama Sōin was a renga (“linked-verse”) poet of the early Tokugawa period (1603–1867) who founded the Danrin school of haikai poetry. Sōin’s haikai (comical renga) became the transition between the light and clever haikai of Matsunaga Teitoku and the more serious and aesthetic haiku of Matsuo

  • Nishizawa, Ryue (Japanese architect)

    Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa: Nishizawa, a student who had also worked for Ito, was one of her first hires. The office gradually developed a national reputation, with Sejima winning the Young Architect of the Year award from the Japanese Institute of Architects in 1992. Not long after, Nishizawa, who…

  • Nisht di meysim loybn got (poem by Glatstein)

    Yiddish literature: Writers in New York: In “Nisht di meysim loybn got” (“The Dead Do Not Praise God”), Glatstein sings of the Judaic tradition while announcing its death: “We received the Torah at Mount Sinai, / And in Lublin we gave it back.” Many of his poems appear in English translation in…

  • nisi, decree (law)

    interlocutory decree: …the United States or a decree nisi in England, for example, is a judicial decree pronouncing the divorce of the parties provisionally but not terminating the marriage until the expiration of a certain period. The purpose of requiring such a period of time is to discourage quick and easy divorce,…

  • Nisibin (Turkey)

    Nusaybin, town, southeastern Turkey. The town is situated on the Görgarbonizra River where it passes through a narrow canyon and enters the plain. Nusaybin faces the Syrian town of Al-Qāmishlī and is 32 miles (51 km) south-southeast of Mardin. Strategically commanding the entrance to the upper

  • Nisibis (Turkey)

    Nusaybin, town, southeastern Turkey. The town is situated on the Görgarbonizra River where it passes through a narrow canyon and enters the plain. Nusaybin faces the Syrian town of Al-Qāmishlī and is 32 miles (51 km) south-southeast of Mardin. Strategically commanding the entrance to the upper

  • Nisibis, peace of (Roman history)

    ancient Rome: Diocletian of ancient Rome: …Narses, and in 298 the peace of Nisibis reinstated a Roman protégé in Armenia and gave the empire a part of Upper Mesopotamia that extended even beyond the Tigris. Peace was thus assured for some decades.

  • Nisibis, School of (school, Nusaybin, Turkey)

    School of Nisibis, intellectual centre of East Syrian Christianity (the Nestorian Church) from the 5th to the 7th century. The School of Nisibis (now Nusaybin, Tur.) originated soon after 471, when Narsai, a renowned teacher and administrator at the School of Edessa, and his companions were forced

  • nisin (preservative)

    food additive: Antimicrobials: Nisin and natamycin are preservatives produced by microorganisms. Nisin inhibits the growth of some bacteria, while natamycin is active against molds and yeasts.

  • Niskin bottle (hydrographic instrument)

    Nansen bottle: The Niskin bottle, created by American inventor Shale Niskin in 1966, is more widely used than the Nansen bottle in modern ocean-water sampling activities. Although it is similar to the Nansen bottle in most respects, the Niskin bottle is viewed as an improvement over Nansen’s design…

  • Nisman, Alberto (Argentinian special prosecutor)

    Argentina: The Fernández de Kirchner administration: …2015 a scandal erupted after Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, was found dead the day before he was scheduled to testify before Congress. Just days earlier he had released a report in which he accused Fernández de Kirchner,…

  • Nísos Amorgós (island, Greece)

    Amorgós Island, island trending northeast-southwest in the Cyclades (Modern Greek: Kykládes) group, South Aegean (Modern Greek: Nótio Aigaío) periféreia (region), Greece. It constitutes a dímos (municipality). The terrain of the island is for the most part mountainous and narrow. It was prosperous

  • niṣprapañca (Indian philosophy)

    niṣprapañca, (Sanskrit), in the Mādhyamika and Vijñānavāda schools of Buddhist philosophy, ultimate reality. See

  • Nisqually Glacier (glacier, Washington, United States)

    Mount Rainier: …from the broad summit, including Nisqually Glacier, whose retreat and advance over the last 150 years has helped scientists determine patterns in Earth’s climate. The mountain has three major peaks: Liberty Cap, Point Success, and Columbia Crest (the latter is the summit, located on the rim of the caldera). Rainier…

  • Nissaba (Assyrian goddess)

    Nissaba, in Mesopotamian religion, Sumerian deity, city goddess of Eresh on the ancient Euphrates River near Uruk in the farming regions; she was goddess of the grasses in general, including the reeds and the cereals. As goddess of the reeds and provider of the reed stylus used by the scribes, she

  • Nissan Jidosha KK (Japanese company)

    Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. is a Japanese industrial corporation that manufactures automobiles, trucks, and buses under the names Nissan, Infiniti, and formerly Datsun. The company also designs and manufactures such products as communications satellites, pleasure boats, and machinery. Its headquarters

  • Nissan LEAF (electric automobile)

    electric car: …vehicles, such as the Nissan LEAF (2010) and the Renault ZOE (2012). Many of the world’s major car companies planned either to make mostly or only electric or hybrid cars or to stop developing new car models with internal-combustion engines by the 2030s.

  • Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (Japanese company)

    Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. is a Japanese industrial corporation that manufactures automobiles, trucks, and buses under the names Nissan, Infiniti, and formerly Datsun. The company also designs and manufactures such products as communications satellites, pleasure boats, and machinery. Its headquarters

  • Nissen, George (American gymnast)

    trampoline: …present-day trampoline by American gymnast George Nissen.

  • Nissen, Hans (German archaeologist)

    history of Mesopotamia: Mesopotamian protohistory: …Adams and the German archaeologist Hans Nissen have shown how the relative size and number of the settlements gradually shifted: the number of small or very small settlements was reduced overall, whereas the number of larger places grew. The clearest sign of urbanization can be seen at Uruk, with the…

  • NIST (United States government)

    National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce responsible for the standardization of weights and measures, timekeeping, and navigation. Established by an act of Congress in 1901, the agency works closely with the U.S. Naval Observatory and the

  • Nister, Der (Russian writer)

    Yiddish literature: Writers in Poland and the Soviet Union: Der Nister (“The Hidden One”; pseudonym of Pinhas Kahanovitsh) was a highly original Symbolist author. Early in his career he translated selected stories of Hans Christian Andersen and later incorporated folktale elements into his fiction. His major work was the two-volume novel Di mishpokhe Mashber…

  • Nistri periscope (camera)

    archaeology: Preliminary work: …since its development of the Nistri periscope, first used in 1957 in an Etruscan tomb in the cemetery of Monte Abbatone. The periscope is inserted into the burial chamber and can photograph the walls and contents of the whole tomb.

  • Nistru River (river, Europe)

    Dniester River, river of southwestern Ukraine and of Moldova, rising on the north side of the Carpathian Mountains and flowing south and east for 840 miles (1,352 km) to the Black Sea near Odesa. It is the second longest river in Ukraine and the main water artery of Moldova. The Dniester and its

  • Nistrul River (river, Europe)

    Dniester River, river of southwestern Ukraine and of Moldova, rising on the north side of the Carpathian Mountains and flowing south and east for 840 miles (1,352 km) to the Black Sea near Odesa. It is the second longest river in Ukraine and the main water artery of Moldova. The Dniester and its

  • Nisus (Greek mythology)

    Nisus, in Greek mythology, king of Megara, a son of King Pandion of Athens. His name was given to the Megarian port of Nisaea. Nisus had a purple lock of hair with magic power: if preserved, it would guarantee him life and continued possession of his kingdom. When King Minos of Crete besieged

  • NIT

    National Invitation Tournament (NIT), collegiate basketball competition initiated in the United States in 1938 by New York City basketball writers and held annually since then in Madison Square Garden under the auspices of the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association (MIBA). It is a

  • Nitellopsis obtusa (green algae)

    stonewort: At least one species, the starry stonewort (Nitellopsis obtusa), is an invasive species in areas outside its native range.

  • Niten (Japanese soldier-artist)

    Miyamoto Musashi was a famous Japanese soldier-artist of the early Edo (Tokugawa) period (1603–1867). Musashi began his career as a fighter early in life when, at age 13, he killed a man in single combat. In 1600 he was on the losing side of the Battle of Sekigahara (which paved the way for

  • niter (chemical compound)

    saltpetre, any of three naturally occurring nitrates, distinguished as (1) ordinary saltpetre, or potassium nitrate, KNO3; (2) Chile saltpetre, cubic nitre, or sodium nitrate, NaNO3; and (3) lime saltpetre, wall saltpetre, or calcium nitrate, Ca(NO3)2. These three nitrates generally occur as

  • niter kebbeh (food)

    Ethiopia: Daily life and social customs: A spiced clarified butter, niter kebbeh, is widely used to flavour sautéed foods. Since the Ethiopian Orthodox Church mandates abstaining from meat on as many as 250 days a year, vegetarian dishes form an important part of Ethiopian cuisine. Legumes such as lentils or chickpeas appear in many guises.…

  • Niterói (Brazil)

    Niterói, city, Rio de Janeiro estado (state), eastern Brazil. It lies on the eastern side of the entrance to Guanabara Bay. The city of Rio de Janeiro on the opposite side is connected to Niterói by ferry, railroad, and, since 1974, the President Costa e Silva Bridge, spanning Guanabara Bay; this

  • Nithard (Frankish historian)

    Nithard was a Frankish count and historian whose works, utilizing important sources and official documents, provide an invaluable firsthand account of contemporary events during the reign of the West Frankish king Charles II. A son of Charlemagne’s daughter Bertha and the renowned poet and imperial

  • Nithard, Johann Eberhard (Austrian Jesuit)

    Spain: Charles II: …Jesuit Johann Eberhard (Juan Everardo) Nithard. It was weakness, rather than strength, that prompted this government not to summon the Cortes any more. But this policy paved the way for the introduction of effective royal absolutism in the 18th century. In 1669 Nithard was overthrown by Juan José de Austria,…

  • Nithard, Juan Everardo (Austrian Jesuit)

    Spain: Charles II: …Jesuit Johann Eberhard (Juan Everardo) Nithard. It was weakness, rather than strength, that prompted this government not to summon the Cortes any more. But this policy paved the way for the introduction of effective royal absolutism in the 18th century. In 1669 Nithard was overthrown by Juan José de Austria,…