LastEar

Monday, April 04, 2005

Yeshiva

Also spelled  yeshivah , or  yeshibah (Hebrew “sitting”) , plural  yeshivas,  yeshivot,  yeshivoth , or  yeshibot  any of numerous Jewish academies of Talmudic learning, whose biblical and legal exegesis and application of Scripture have defined and regulated Jewish religious life for centuries. The early history of the yeshiva as an institution is known only through indirect evidence, and the word itself did not come into current use until the 1st century AD. Rabbinic literature

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Jet Engine

Any of a class of internal-combustion engines that propel aircraft by means of the rearward discharge of a jet of fluid, usually hot exhaust gases generated by burning fuel with air drawn in from the atmosphere.

Ghana

Although relatively small in area and population, Ghana is one of the leading countries

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Szeryng, Henryk

Szeryng studied with Carl Flesch in Berlin and with Jacques Thibaud in Paris. He made his debut in 1933, and from 1933 to 1939 he was a composition student of Nadia Boulanger in Paris. During World War II he was on the staff of the Polish government-in-exile.

Duala

Also spelled  Douala,   Bantu-speaking people of the forest region of southern Cameroon living on the estuary of the Wouri River. By 1800 the Duala controlled Cameroon's trade with Europeans, and their concentrated settlement pattern developed under this influence. Their system of chieftaincy was partly founded on trading wealth. For much of the 19th century there were two political–commercial

Friday, April 01, 2005

Jackson

Town, seat (1921) of Teton county, northwestern Wyoming, U.S. The town lies at the southern end of the Teton Range, just north of the Snake River, and is the centre of an important recreation and tourist industry. Explored by the fur trapper John Colter in 1807, Jackson takes its name from another trapper, David Jackson, who worked in the area in the 1820s and who organized summer rendezvous

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Dowland, John

Nothing is known of Dowland's childhood, but in 1580 he went to Paris as a “servant” to Sir Henry Cobham, the ambassador to the French court. In 1588 he received a bachelor of music degree from the University of Oxford. His conversion to

Cartagena

Capital of Bolívar departamento, northern Colombia, at the northern end of Cartagena Bay. The old walled sections, including the 17th-century fortress of San Felipe de Barajas, lie on a peninsula and the island of Getsemaní, but the city now spreads over the islands of Manga and Manzanillo (site of the airport) and the mainland below La Popa Hill. In the old section are the

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Houma

City, seat (1834) of Terrebonne parish, southeastern Louisiana, U.S., situated about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of New Orleans. It lies along Bayou Terrebonne and the Intracoastal Waterway and is connected to the Gulf of Mexico by the Houma Navigation Canal, 36 miles (58 km) long. In the 1760s, Acadians originally from Nova Scotia settled in the area, which was then occupied by the Houma Indians.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Austria, The early Babenberg period

The first mention of a ruler in the regained territories east of the Enns is of Burchard, who probably was count (burgrave) of Regensburg. It appears that he lost his office as a result of his championship of Henry II the Quarrelsome, duke of Bavaria. In 976 his successor, Leopold I of the house of Babenberg, was installed in office. Under Leopold's rule the eastern frontier was