Mercier, Honoré

While studying law in the early 1860s Mercier edited the Conservative newspaper Le Courrier de St. Hyacinthe and supported the Conservative administration

Parnaíba

Port city, northwestern Piauí state, northeastern Brazil, on the Rio Igaraçu, an outlet of the Rio Parnaíba, 9 mi (14 km) upstream from the Atlantic Ocean. Founded in 1761 and given city status in 1884, Parnaíba is the most important trade and distributing centre of the river valley. The chief products shipped from Parnaíba and its outport, Luís Correia (just to the northeast), are carnauba

Papua New Guinea, Flag Of

In the 20th century the two territories finally linked in Papua New Guinea were administered by the Germans, British, and Australians. The colonial governments had no official symbols of local relevance, although a proposed coat of arms for German New Guinea—never adopted because of Germany's involvement in World War I—featured a bird-of-paradise. In 1962 a local flag also

Newton

City, seat (1846) of Jasper county, central Iowa, U.S., about 30 miles (50 km) east of Des Moines. It was settled in 1846 as the county seat and was named for John Newton, a soldier of the American Revolution. The railroad arrived in the 1860s and the community developed as a lumber-milling and agricultural trading centre. In 1898 the washing machine industry began there with the manufacture of ratchet-slat

Binkis, Kazys

From 1920 to 1923 Binkis studied literature and philosophy in Berlin, where he became acquainted with the newest trends in western European literature. The poems he wrote during his connection with the “Four Winds” movement,

Allee, Warder Clyde

Allee became interested in the problems and patterns of the distribution of marine animals during the summers that he spent as an instructor at the Marine

Hyderabad

The city, administrative headquarters of the district, lies on the most northerly hill of the Ganjo Takkar ridge, just east of the Indus River. The third largest city in Pakistan, it is a communications centre, connected by rail with Peshawar and Karachi and with Indian railways via the border towns of Khokhropar and

Alkali Flat

Also called  Salina, or Salt Flat,   a playa, or dried-out desert lake, especially one containing high concentrations of precipitated dry, glistening salts. The term is generally limited to flats in the western United States, the most famous being the Bonneville Salt Flats (q.v.) west of Salt Lake City, where automobile speed records are set.

Qalam

Ancient reed pen still used in Arabic calligraphy and formerly used for all writing. The qalam was cut from between two nodes of the stem of a reed chosen for its straight fibres. As thick as a finger and 8 or 10 inches (20 or 25 cm) long, the reed segment was soaked and sun-dried, and a nib, somewhat resembling that of a steel pen, was fashioned by slicing off the thicker end at an angle

Earphone

Small loudspeaker held or worn close to the listener's ear or within the outer ear. Common forms include the hand-held telephone receiver; the headphone (q.v.), in which one or two earphones are held in place by a band worn over the head; and the plug earphone, which is inserted in the outer opening of the ear. The conversion of electrical to acoustical signals is effected by

Berain, Jean, The Elder

Trained under the great French decorator Charles Le Brun, Berain was working at the Louvre when appointed, in 1674, royal designer to King Louis XIV of France. After the death