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NORAD Tracks Santa
NORAD Tracks Santa is the North American Aerospace Defense Command's annual Christmas Eve program reporting Santa Claus's location, begun in 1955 after a child misdialed a misprinted Sears ad number and reached CONAD's Colorado Springs operations center.
Nordstrom
Nordstrom, Inc. is a Seattle-based American fashion retailer founded in 1901 as a shoe store, operating Nordstrom full-line stores and off-price Nordstrom Rack; taken private in 2025 by the Nordstrom family and El Puerto de Liverpool for $6.25 billion.
Norwegian butter crisis
The Norwegian butter crisis was a late-2011 butter shortage in Norway caused by rainy-summer milk shortfalls, low-carb diet demand, and high dairy import tariffs, with prices reportedly reaching €350 per 500-gram pack before a temporary duty cut.
Norwegian cuisine
Norwegian cuisine is the cooking tradition of Norway, rooted in self-sufficiency. It grew from the necessity of preserving seasonal surpluses of fish, grain, and meat in a marginal, cold climate.
Norwegian knitting
Norwegian knitting is the national hand-knitting tradition of Norway, anchored in the Setesdal lusekofte and Selbu colorwork, with the patterned ski sweater a national emblem.
Nose piercing
Nose piercing: needle piercing of the nostril, septum, or nasal bridge for jewelry; ancient practice from the Middle East and South Asia, now global fashion; types include nostril and septum, with infection and septal hematoma as key risks.
Notting Hill Carnival
Notting Hill Carnival, Europe's largest street festival and the world's second largest carnival, is an annual August bank holiday celebration of Caribbean culture in west London, tracing its roots to Claudia Jones's 1959 indoor carnival and the 1966 Rhaune Laslett street party, and drawing over two million attendees.
Nougat
Nougat, also torrone, turrón, gaz: a Mediterranean confection of boiled sugar or honey syrup whipped with egg white and mixed with nuts; Montélimar nougat became an EU PGI in 2024.
Nouvelle cuisine
Nouvelle cuisine, the French culinary movement of the late 1960s and 1970s named by Henri Gault and theorized with Christian Millau in 1973, rejected Escoffier-era heavy sauces and long cooking for fresh produce, light sauces, and chef-authored plates, led by Bocuse, Guérard, and the Troisgros brothers.
Novalbos Wave Company
Novalbos Wave Company is a family-owned surf, skate, and snowboard shop in Vigo, Galicia, Spain, founded in 1989 and considered a pioneer among Galician surf shops.
Novvot
Novvot (navat, nabat, Persian nabāt) is Central Asian and Iranian rock candy: large sucrose crystals (99.75% sucrose, under 1% humidity) grown over three days on threads from boiled sugar syrup, typically served with tea.
Nowruz (نوروز)
Nowruz (نوروز), also spelled Novruz, Navruz, Nauryz, or Nevruz, is the Persian "new day" spring festival marking the vernal equinox and the Iranian new year, celebrated by about 300 million people across the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Balkans, with Zoroastrian origins and UNESCO intangible heritage status.
Nowruznameh
Nowruznameh (نوروزنامه, "Book of Nowruz") is a genre of Persian and Arabic treatises on the festival of Nowruz, its calendar, ceremonies, and customs; the best-known work is attributed to Omar Khayyam.
NSF International
NSF International, formerly the National Sanitation Foundation, is a not-for-profit Ann Arbor, Michigan-based public health standards and certification body founded in 1944, unrelated to the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Nudes-A-Poppin'
Nudes-A-Poppin' (Nudes A Poppin) was an annual nude beauty pageant and exotic dance contest at the Ponderosa Sun Club nudist resort in Roselawn, Indiana, held from the mid-1970s through 2019, with titles like Miss Nude Galaxy.
Nudity
Nudity, the state of wearing little or no clothing, spans biology, culture, law, and art. Key facts: clothing emerged by 700,000 years ago; Barnes v. Glen Theatre (1991); naturism linked to wellbeing; norms vary widely cross-culturally.
Nudity in religion
Nudity in religion explores the unclothed body in various faiths, such as the sky-clad Digambara monks, Hindu Naga Sadhus, and the innocence myth of Adam and Eve.
Nuka-Cola
Nuka-Cola is the fictional soft drink of the Fallout franchise, a parody of Coca-Cola invented in-universe in 2044 by Caleb Bradberton; its bottle caps became post-apocalyptic currency, and variants like Nuka-Cola Quantum inspired real Jones Soda products.
Nuru (massage)
Nuru massage (ぬるぬる, "slippery") is a Japanese body-to-body massage from Kawasaki's soapland culture using nori seaweed gel on an air mattress; distinct from oil, Swedish, and soapy massage.
Nutella
Nutella, the Ferrero hazelnut-cocoa spread launched in 1964 from Pietro Ferrero's wartime Giandujot paste; seven ingredients including 13% hazelnuts and palm oil; sold in 170 countries, about 365,000 tonnes yearly, with RSPO-certified palm oil since 2013.
Nutri-Score
Nutri-Score is a five-level, color-coded front-of-pack nutrition label (A to E) developed by Santé publique France and introduced in France in 2017, now used voluntarily in several European countries, scoring foods per 100 g or 100 mL from nutrients to limit and recommended nutrients.
Nykaa
Nykaa (FSN E-Commerce Ventures Limited) is India's leading omnichannel beauty and lifestyle retailer, founded in 2012 by Falguni Nayar, NSE-listed since 2021, with 313 stores, Rs 10,022 crore FY2026 revenue, House of Nykaa owned brands, and Superstore B2B distribution.
Nyle DiMarco
Nyle DiMarco is an American Deaf model, actor, and activist, winner of America's Next Top Model cycle 22 (2015) and Dancing with the Stars season 22 (2016), Gallaudet mathematics graduate, Deaf Utopia author, and co-director of Deaf President Now!.
Nyotaimori (女体盛り)
Nyotaimori (女体盛り), or body sushi, is the Japanese practice of serving sashimi or sushi on a nude woman's body; male equivalent nantaimori. Stigmatized in Japan, marketed abroad as Japanese food culture, reinterpreted as art by NYOTAIMORI TOKYO since 2015.
Oak (wine)
Oak (wine): use of oak barrels, chips, or staves to age or ferment wine, adding vanilla, spice, and smoky aromas via toasting and microoxygenation; barriques hold 225 L, contrasting with inert stainless steel.
Oaxaca cheese
Oaxaca cheese, or quesillo, is a Mexican pasta filata (stretched-curd) cow's-milk cheese from Reyes Etla, Oaxaca, with fibrous string texture, mild acid flavor, and excellent melting; protected as Quesillo de Reyes Etla since 2025.
Obi (sash)
The obi (帯) is a sash worn with Japanese kimono and traditional dress, wrapped around the body and knotted to secure the garment and signal formality.
Obi (帯) (sash)
Obi (帯) is the sash wound and tied around the waist with Japanese kimono. Covers its history from cord to decorative sash, types (fukuro, Nagoya, maru), the o-taiko knot, obijime, and the Nishijin, Kiryu, and Hakata weaving regions.
Obscene gesture
Obscene gesture: a hand or body movement whose conventional meaning in a culture is a sexual, scatological, or contemptuous insult. Covers the middle finger (digitus impudicus), fig sign, OK ring, and thumbs-up, whose meanings reverse across countries.
Obverse and reverse
Obverse and reverse are the two faces of a coin: the obverse (heads) front, usually a monarch or issuer's insignia, and the reverse (tails) back. Assignment uses die-position rules for ancient coins and issuer-based conventions for modern ones, with the Euro as a noted exception.