THIS DAY IN ANCIENT HISTORY

ante diem vi idus octobres

• rites in honour of Juno Moneta -- apparently commemorating a
  restoration of the temple vowed by M. Furius Camillus in
  345 B.C.; the epithet 'moneta' possibly recognized Juno's role
  in goading the sacred geese to wake everyone up during the Gallic
  sack of Rome (which involved a different MFC)
• ludi Augustales scaenici (day 6 -- from 11-19 A.D. and post
  23 A.D.)
• 19 A.D. -- Germanicus, the adopted son of the emperor Tiberius,
  dies under mysterious circumstances in Daphne near Antioch

::Friday, October 10, 2003 6:19:09 AM::
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CHATTER: What is it Good For?

No, we're not talking 'bout war ... we're talking about Latin. Folks might be interested in this little tidbit from a business column in the Arizona Republic:

What will Motorola Inc. name its spin-off semiconductor business?

"Start brushing up on your Latin, Greek and Old English," advises Tony Massimini, chief of technology at Semico Research Corp. in Phoenix.

Massimini noted that classic languages have been popular sources of names of other chip spin-offs. Lucent Technologies Inc. dubbed its baby Agere, Siemens AG spun off Infineon, and Hitachi and Mitsubishi merged their SC businesses into Renesas.

Will Strauss of Forward Concepts Co. in Tempe said finding a new name won't be easy. The company will have to come up with something automotive- or communications-related that "really clicks," Strauss said. Then it will have to pay some brand-name experts thousands of dollars to ensure that the new name isn't a joke, or worse, in a foreign language.

Who says Latin doesn't have commercial value? I'm sure the Latin list or the Latinteach list will soon be getting a request "from somebody offlist" asking to translate 'semiconductor' vel simm.

::Friday, October 10, 2003 6:06:10 AM::
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AWOTV: On TV Today

2.00 p.m. |HISTU| England's Great Wall
"Stretching roughly 80 miles across northern England, Hadrian's
Wall split the country in two, serving as a barrier against Pict
marauders. Did the Roman army build the wall to protect their
new province, or as some historians argue, to build-up the
phenomenal ego of Emperor Hadrian, which was nearly as big as
the wall itself?"

HISTU = History Channel (US)

::Friday, October 10, 2003 5:26:31 AM::
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