Ndongo \ 3 n-'doq-go\ Historical African kingdom of Mbundu people. Established c. 1500 in what is now Angola, it instituted trade relations with the Portuguese of Sao Tome in the 16th century. When Portugal tried to take it over, some 100 years of fighting ensued. It was absorbed into Angola c. 1670.
Ne Win Vna-'winV, U or Shu Maung Vshii-'mauqX (b. May 24, 1911, Paungdale, Burma—d. Dec. 5,2002, Yangon, Myanmar) Leader of Burma (Myanmar) from 1962 to 1988. He became involved in the Burmese inde¬ pendence movement in the mid-1930s. During World War II he initially served in the Japanese-sponsored army but later helped organize under¬ ground resistance to the Japanese. In 1962 he ousted the elected prime minister U Nu; his subsequent regime combined military dictatorship with a socialist economic program. Burma became isolated and impoverished under Ne Win, and he resigned in 1988. He continued to exercise power behind the scenes, however, until shortly before his death.
NEA See National Education Association; National Endowment for the Arts
Neagh \'na. Lough Lake, east-central Northern Ireland. It is the larg¬ est lake in the British Isles, with an area of 153 sq mi (396 sq km). It is about 15 mi (24 km) wide and 18 mi (29 km) long, though it is only about 40 ft (12 m) deep. Ancient deposits in Toome Bay, on its northwestern shore, have yielded the oldest recorded human artifacts in Ireland. In 1959 flood-control works significantly lowered the lake level.
Neanderthal Vne-'an-dor-.thal, na-'an-dor-.taH Species of the human genus {Homo) that inhabited much of Europe and the Mediterranean lands c. 200,000-28,000 years ago. The name derives from the discovery in 1856 of remains in a cave above Germany’s Neander Valley. Some schol¬ ars designate the species as Homo neanderthalensis and do not consider Neanderthals direct ancestors of modern humans {Homo sapiens). Others regard them as a late archaic form of H. sapiens that was absorbed into modern human populations in some areas while simply dying out in oth¬ ers. Neanderthals were short, stout, and powerful. Cranial capacity equaled or surpassed that of modem humans, though their braincases were long, low, and wide. Their limbs were heavy, but they seem to have walked fully erect and had hands as capable as those of modem humans. They were cave dwellers who used fire, wielded stone tools and wooden spears to hunt animals, buried their dead, and cared for their sick or injured. They may have used language and may have practiced a primi¬ tive form of religion. See also Mousterian industry.
near-death experience Mystical or transcendent experience reported by people who have been on the threshold of death. The near¬ death experience varies with each individual, but characteristics fre¬ quently include hearing oneself declared dead, feelings of peacefulness, the sense of leaving one’s body, the sense of moving through a dark tun¬ nel toward a bright light, a life review, the crossing of a border, and meet¬ ings with other spiritual beings, often deceased friends and relatives. Near¬ death experiences are reported by about one-third of those who come close to death. Cultural and physiological explanations have been offered, but the causes remain uncertain. Typical aftereffects include greater spiritu¬ ality and decreased fear of death.
Near East See Middle East
Nebraska State (pop., 2000: 1,711,263), west-central U.S. Bordered by South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming, it covers 77,353 sq mi (200,343 sq km); its capital is Lincoln. The Missouri River is on its eastern boundary. The North Platte and South Platte unite in southwest-central Nebraska to form the Platte River. Various prehistoric
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Nebuchadnezzar II ► needlepoint I 1339
peoples inhabited the area as early as 8000 bc. Indian tribes living in the area include Pawnee, Oto, and Omaha in the east and centre, as well as Oglala, Sioux, Arapaho, and Comanche in the west. The U.S. bought the territory from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. In 1804 the Lewis and Clark Expedition visited the Nebraska side of the Missouri River. It became part of Nebraska Territory with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Nebraska was admitted to the Union as the 37th state in 1867. Soon after, the population increased, and as Indian resistance on the fron¬ tier was broken, settlement extended to Nebraska’s panhandle. At the turn of the 20th century, it experienced a short but influential Populist move¬ ment. In 1937 it established a unicameral legislature, the only one in the country. Most of the state is agricultural; its industries include food pro¬ cessing and machinery. Petroleum is the principal mineral resource. In addition to Lincoln, Omaha is the state’s other cultural and industrial cen¬ tre.
Nebuchadnezzar II See Nebuchadrezzar II
Nebuchadrezzar X.neb-yo-kod-'re-zorX II or Nebuchadnezzar
\,neb-y3-k3d-'ne-z9r\ (b. c. 630—d. c. 561bc) Second and greatest king of the Chaldean dynasty of Babylonia. He began his military career as an administrator (c. 610 bc) and ascended the throne on his father’s death, just after winning Syria from the Egyptians (605 bc). He attacked Judah, capturing Jerusalem in 597 and recapturing it in 587/586, and deporting prominent citizens to Babylon. He devoted time and energy to restoring Babylon, by paving roads, rebuilding temples, and digging canals. At least in folk tradition, he is credited with building the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
nebula Vneb-y9-b\ Any of various tenuous clouds of gas and dust in interstellar space. Nebulae constitute only a small percentage of a gal¬ axy’s mass. Dark nebulae (e.g., the Coalsack) are very dense, cold molecu¬ lar clouds that appear as large, obscure, irregularly shaped areas in the sky. Bright nebulae (e.g., the Crab Nebula, planetary nebula) appear as faintly luminous, glowing surfaces; they emit their own light or reflect that of stars near them. The term nebula also formerly referred to galax¬ ies outside the Milky Way Galaxy.
nebular hypothesis See solar nebula
NEC Corp. Major Japanese computer, electronics, and telecommunica¬ tions equipment manufacturer. Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. (officially NEC Corp. in 1983), was founded in 1899 with funding from the West¬ ern Electric Co. Inc. of the U.S. NEC was the first Japanese joint venture with a foreign company. As Japan’s preeminent telecommunications com¬ pany, NEC contributed to developments in mobile telephony, fibre-optic networks, private-branch exchanges (PBXs), and microwave, digital, and satellite communications systems. Besides mainframe computers, NEC was an early manufacturer of personal computers (PCs). In 1997 NEC merged its North American PC operations with Zenith Data Systems and Packard Bell to form Packard Bell-NEC, Inc.
necessity In logic and metaphysics, a modal property of a true propo¬ sition whereby it is not possible for the proposition to be false and of a false proposition whereby it is not possible for the proposition to be true. A proposition is logically necessary if it instantiates a law of logic or can be made to instantiate a law of logic through substitution of definition- ally equivalent terms. Examples are “It is raining now or it is not raining now” and “All men are human beings” (assuming “men” can be replaced with “male human beings”). Necessary propositions are sometimes said to be true or false (as the case may be) in all possible worlds. A contin¬ gently true or false proposition is thus one that is true in some possible worlds and false in others (e.g., “France is a democracy”). All true logi¬ cally necessary propositions are analytic (see analytic-synthetic distinction) and knowable A priori. Some philosophers recognize a second category of “metaphysically” necessary propositions that are not analytic and gener¬ ally not a priori; examples include identity statements such as “Water is H 2 0.”