Nicosia \ l ni-k3- , se-o\ Greek Lefkosia Vlef-ko-'se-oX Turkish Lefkosa City (pop., 2004 est.: Greek sector, 219,200; 1996: Turkish sector, 39,973), capital of Cyprus. Lying on the Pedieos River, it is bordered by mountains to the north and south. It was a kingdom in the 7th century bc and has been the capital of the island since the 10th century ad. It came successively under the control of the Byzantines, Venetians, and Otto¬ mans; the British held it from 1878 until 1960. During the 20th century the city grew beyond the existing circular Venetian walls. The population in the surrounding area is engaged mainly in agriculture. A UN buffer zone has separated the city’s Greek and Turkish sectors since 1974.
nicotine Principal alkaloid of tobacco, occurring throughout the plant but mostly in the leaves. It is a heterocyclic compound, containing a pyri¬ dine ring; its chemical formula is C 10 H 14 N. Nicotine is the chief addic¬ tive ingredient (see drug addiction) in cigarettes and cigars and in snuff. It has a unique biphasic effect: Inhaled in short puffs it is a stimulant, but when inhaled slowly and deeply it can be a tranquilizer. In larger doses, nicotine is a highly toxic poison, used as an insecticide, fumigant, and vermifuge.
nicotinic acid See niacin
Nicoya Vne-'ko-yaN, Gulf of Inlet of the Pacific Ocean, northwestern coast of Costa Rica. It is formed by the protrusion of the Nicoya Penin¬ sula from the mainland and extends north and northwest for about 50 mi (80 km). The Tempisque, Abangares, and Tarcoles rivers empty into the gulf. It has several islands, including Chira, the largest, and San Lucas. The largest town and port on the shores of the gulf is Puntarenas.
Nicoya Peninsula Peninsula, western Costa Rica. It is bounded to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, to the northeast by the Cordillera de Guanacaste, and to the southeast by the Gulf of Nicoya. It measures about 85 mi (140 km) from northwest to southeast. Descendants of the pre-Columbian Chorotega-Mangues Indians reside in villages on the pen¬ insula.
Niebuhr Vne-.buA, Barthold Georg (b. Aug. 27, 1776, Copenhagen, Den.—d. Jan. 31, 1831, Bonn, Prussia) German historian. Niebuhr held posts in state service in Denmark and Prussia before resigning to become state historiographer. In 1810 he began a series of lectures at the Univer¬ sity of Berlin that were the basis of his great work, the enormously influ¬ ential History of Rome (1811-32). In it he introduced skepticism to historical scholarship, showing how to analyze historical sources, discard worthless material, and lay bare elements from which historical facts could be reconstructed, and thereby initiating a new era in historiography.
Niebuhr Vne-.burX, Reinhold (b. June 21, 1892, Wright City, Mo., U.S.—d. June 1, 1971, Stockbridge, Mass.) U.S. theologian. The son of an evangelical minister, he studied at Eden Theological Seminary and Yale Divinity School. He was ordained in the Evangelical Synod of North
America in 1915 and served as pas¬ tor of Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit, Mich., until 1928. His years in that industrial city made him a critic of capitalism and an advocate of socialism. From 1928 to 1960 he taught at New York’s Union Theo¬ logical Seminary. His influential writings, which forcefully criticized liberal Protestant thought and emphasized the persistence of evil in human nature and social institutions, include Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), The Nature and Des¬ tiny of Man, 2 vol. (1941^-3), and The Self and the Dramas of History
(1955).
niello \ne-'e-lo\ Black metallic alloy of sulfur with silver, copper, or lead, used to fill designs that have been engraved on the surface of a metal object, usually of silver. The black sulfides are powdered, and after the engraved silver has been moist¬ ened, the powder is spread on it. When the metal is heated, the niello melts and runs into the engraved channels. After the excess niello is scraped away, the surface is polished. The contrast of the black niello against the bright surface produces an attractive decorative effect. During the height of its popularity in the Renaissance, the technique was widely used for embellishing liturgical as well as utilitarian objects. Nielli (objects decorated with niello) were produced in ancient Rome and 9th- century England. In Russia niello work is known as Tula work.
Nielsen, Carl (August) (b. June 9, 1865, Sortelung, near Norre Lyn- delse, Den.—d. Oct. 3, 1931, Copenhagen) Danish composer. He studied violin and trumpet as a child and began composing by imitating classical models. In 1890 he went to Germany to learn of newer developments and met Johannes Brahms, whose music came to influence his own. His indi¬ vidual style—still following classical forms but using intense chromati¬ cism combined with a lyric, melodic strain—emerged after 1900. The last five of his six symphonies (1902-25) are the core of his work, but he also composed many short orchestra pieces, piano and chamber music, con¬ certos for violin, flute, and clarinet, and a wind quintet.
Nielsen ratings National ratings of the popularity of U.S. television shows. Developed by A.C. Nielsen in 1950, the system now samples tele¬ vision viewing in about 5,000 homes. A meter attached to each television set records the channel being watched and sends the data to a computer centre; individual buttons record which person in each household is watching a given program. Separate surveys are done for many large media market areas. The ratings project each program’s total audience; for example, a rating of 20 denotes that 20% of U.S. households tuned in to a particular program. Commercial television networks use the ratings to set advertising rates for each program as well as to determine which programs to continue and to cancel.
Niemeyer Yne-.ml-arN (Soares Filho), Oscar (b. Dec. 15,1907, Rio de Janeiro, Braz.) Brazilian architect. Beginning in 1934, he worked in the office of Lucio Costa, an early exponent of the Modem movement in Brazil. Niemeyer’s first major independent project was the plan for Pam- pulha (1941), a suburb of Belo Horizonte. The project is notable for the free-flowing forms used in many of its buildings. Other commissions fol¬ lowed, and in 1947 Niemeyer represented Brazil in the planning of the United Nations buildings in New York City. In 1956 Niemeyer was asked to design the new capital city of Brasilia; he agreed to design the gov¬ ernment buildings but suggested a national competition for the master plan, a competition subsequently won by his mentor, Costa. Niemeyer served as chief architect for NOVA-CAP, the government building author¬ ity in Brasilia, from 1956 to 1961. Among the Brasilia buildings designed by Niemeyer are the President’s Palace, the Brasilia Palace Hotel, the presidential chapel, and the cathedral. Active into his nineties, he was commissioned to design the mushroomlike Museum of Contemporary Art in Niteroi, Braz. (1991). With its lyrical and sculptural forms, his work is free-flowing and optimistic. Niemeyer received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1988.
Reinhold Niebuhr, 1963
COURTESY OF THE RARE BOOK DEPARTMENT, UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY LIBRARY, NEW YORK CITY
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Niemoller Vne-.moel-orV (Friedrich Gustav Emil) Martin (b. Jan. 14, 1892, Lippstadt, Ger.—d. March 6, 1984, Wiesbaden, W.Ger.) Ger¬ man theologian. A war hero as a submarine commander in World War I, he became a minister in 1924. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, he protested their interference in church affairs and helped combat dis¬ crimination against Christians of Jewish background. As founder of the anti-Nazi Confessing Church, he worked to oppose Adolf Hitler. Arrested in 1937, he was interned until 1945. After the war he helped rebuild the Evangelical Church. Increasingly disillusioned with prospects for demili¬ tarization, he became a controversial pacifist; for his efforts to extend friendship ties to Soviet-bloc countries, he received the Lenin Peace Prize (1967) and West Germany’s Grand Cross of Merit (1971).