The saga continued with a poll by the ‘Guardian’ – it is closed now, but the results were encouraging, with 80% of respondents viewing the idea of introducing primary school children to Greek as a good idea.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/poll/2010/jul/30/language-schooladmissions

Classics ~ Latin & Greek Languages and …
This is the “Virtual Libraries” page of the “Classics ~ Latin & Greek … Theoi Classical E-texts Library. A collection of Greek and Roman works in English …
guides.library.yale.edu/content.php?pid=130365&sid…

The article reminds us, “Ancient Greek statues weren’t merely the white marble we see today. They were painted. This amazing video from Amarildo Topalis shows you what the ancient world really looked like.”
There’s an imaginative video (also on YouTube, I believe) which might be useful to those who teach in this area. It is 7.30 mins and consists of a series of images of sculptures, progressively coloured in to give an idea of how they might once have looked. No commentary, but a rather irritating loop of music in the background.
Worth a look, as I say; the ‘reconstructions’ seem very well done.

Link is http://blog.garycorby.com/2010/07/colors-of-ancient-greece.html.

This is one of a suite of Language blogs from the Transparent Language software company.  Latin Blog has some lively pieces and a good number of video clips from You Tube. Latest post is on Roman theatres. Well worth a look.

The indefatiguable Boris Johnson has been in the ear of his Conservative colleagues again, pressing the case for Latin to be made available to one and all across the state-school sector . You can read Helene Mulholland’s report in the Guardian here:

Boris continues to be our very own gadfly and long may he continue! Any evidence to suggest that his campaign is bearing fruit would be welcomed by the ARLT.

The highly regarded Harvard Medical School has been basing its course on medical ethics on issues raised in ancient Greek tragedies. Discussions on the right to live (or die) and on how to face death follow performances of scenes from Sophocles, Aeschylus or Euripides.
“If Bryan Doerries, the project’s founder, has his way, more medical schools will employ ancient Greek drama to strengthen their medical ethics programs,” the article suggests.

The link is http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2010/07/07/screams_from_greek_stage_aim_for_doctors_hearts/.

From Kaitlyn Cole who works with with Onlineuniversities.com.

We recently published an article that you may be interested in entitled, “50 Fun and Educational Websites Keeping Latin Alive“.

I thought perhaps you’d be interested in sharing this article with your readers? After having followed your blog for a while, I feel that this one article would align well with your blog’s subject matter. If interested, here’s the link for your convenience: http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2010/06/50-fun-and-educational-websites-keeping-latin-alive/

Well worth a look!

 The Latinum podcast –  http://latinum.mypodcast.com –  has now compiled its third year of statistics. Large numbers of users keep visiting the podcast – between 150 – 200 new visitors every day, with thousands of audio files downloaded every 24 hours.

Those without fast internet connections can now purchase the podcast mp3s on DVD at the Latinum Store where prices are kept to a minimum – http://latinumstore.blogspot.com/ Latinum specialises in making audio courses from out of copyright Latin texts – such as Adler’s Practical Grammar, Corderius, and Comenius.

The most recent compilation is a 17 hour audio DVD with a beginner’s introduction to De Bello Gallico. This year, for the first time, Latinum was chuffed to see it had picked up a significant number of visitors from the Vatican – 177 unique visits over the course of the year ( repeat visits do not figure in the stats).Latinum started collecting visitor statistics in 2008. Since 4 May 2008: 127,127 unique visitors have visited the site, and an average of 250 000 individual audio files are downloaded per month.

 Over 5000 of the visitors to Latinum in the last 12 months were from the UK. Schola, http://schola.ning.com the social networking site linked to Latinum, which only permits its users to use Latin, now has almost 1500 members. Schola started out as a free network hosted on Ning – this year, Ning is closing all its free networks – and will be charging $20 a month ground rent. Because of the language issue, Schola could not migrate elsewhere. The members of Schola rapidly responded, and in 2 days, sufficient funds were raised to cover the hosting of Schola for the next 15 months. Schola continues to grow at the rate of around 2-3 new members per day.

Evan Millner , London.

Here's a great story about Ethel Corrigan, a former Latin student from Illinois and the scrapbook she created over seventy years ago!!!

THREATS TO THE CLASSICS DEPARTMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
If you are a JACT member you will be aware of this and hopefully will have already taken action.
Because of financial constraints the Classics department at Leeds is considering cutting its straight language degree courses in Latin and Greek in order to ensure its survival as a department still able to provide courses and research opportunities in Classical Civilisation. Furthermore the university authorities are considering the closure of the whole department, thus ending more than 100 years of Classics education in the city. The university is committed to seeing all students who start a course in September 2010 through to the end of their degree, and this assurance stands good for the 2010 intake on the language programmes too.
For more details see the Classics@Leeds blog at http://classicsatleeds.blogspot.com/.
Above all please sign the petition at http://www.PetitionOnline.com/clalds10/.

Evan Millner has set up a new website for his Latinum project, which was previously somewhat difficult to navigate. The new website organizes the various parts of the course by difficulty level, making it easier for learners to follow the sequence of the lessons.

A