Precious Froglets Arrive in Time for Leap Year Scoop Ecologists from both the Sanctuary and Victoria are celebrating the arrival of the first Maud Island frogs (Leiopelma pakeka) to hatch on mainland New Zealand for many years. Clustered together to conserve moisture, the 13 fingernail-sized froglets in the photograph were recently transferred from the Karori Sanctuary to Victoria University where they will be incubated and later released as young frogs.
Once in a Leap Year Party Gulfnews Rama Krishna, a 32-year-old planning engineer from India, will celebrate his eighth birthday this year. His hectic job involves a lot of travel, but he's set aside more time to celebrate his birthday this year. "I don't really mind having my birthday on 29th," he said. "It sometimes makes me feel special when I tell everybody that I was born on this day and it only comes once every four years.
10 Things to Do with that Extra Day Seattle Times Disappointingly, quite a few of you would do something productive, like cleaning your computer files, according to an online poll at Yahoo! (which offers a multitasking life expert to give advice). But for those less ambitious -- and lucky enough to have a day off -- here are some better things to do on Feb. 29.
One in Five Support Leap Year Proposal PerthNow Australian men with long-term girlfriends be warned: 20 per cent of women support the tradition which says they can propose during a leap year. And, today could be the day they pop the big question. Tradition has it that women should propose on the leap years' extra February day. "We all love a bit of old-fashioned romance," says Donna Armstrong, editor of New Woman magazine which has surveyed women for their views on marriage proposals.
February 29, 2008
Albert Einstein was onto something when he said (we're paraphrasing here) that time is much more complicated than we think - and probably an illusion. But it's still possible to separate fact from fiction about the illusion of February 29, often referred to as "leap day."
Fact: The ancient Romans, who had a certain gift for kinkiness, called leap year Annus bissextile. But they tempered raunchiness with rationality: instead of adding an extra day to the calendar, they chose to simply have two Feb. 24ths every four years. For good or ill, depending on your particular tastes, the name Annus bissextile is both boring and logical in Latin.
Fiction: Feb. 29 is Sadie Hawkins Day. It's not. It is, however, a day in which it's acceptable for women to propose marriage to men. Thanks for this breakthrough typically go to St. Bridget, who, back in the fourth century, convinced St. Patrick that this would be a good tradition. He agreed, but rejected her marriage proposal. The "real" Sadie Hawkins day, a Li'l Abner invention, is celebrated in mid-November.
Fact: You can make any day a holiday with the Leap Year Cocktail, invented by the head bartender at London's Savoy Hotel for the Feb. 29 parties hosted there in 1928.
Fiction: Leap Day is a holiday. It's not, and it annoys at least some who've been born on Feb. 29, who can't understand why calendars which list even the most trivial of holidays won't note that Feb. 29 is Leap Day.
Fact: Anthony, Texas, and Anthony, New Mexico, one city straddling the state border, is the "Leap Year Capitol of the World." This year it hosts the Sixth World Wide Leap Year Festival. It's a celebration for all leap year babies and couples with a Feb. 29 anniversary. The schedule includes a parade, a carnival, a golf tournament, and a casino outing. The parade marshal: Josephine Concho Abeita, a New Mexico native who celebrates her 25th birthday today. She was born in 1908.
Fiction: Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance." The plot of the comic opera, which opened in New York on Dec. 31, 1879, revolves around a boy apprenticed to pirates until his 21st birthday. The catch: His birthday is Feb. 29, and the pirates, always known as being sticklers for accuracy, insist that he won't be free until the passing of 21 Feb. 29ths.
Fact: Although nobody knows for sure, many folklore experts agree that the term "Leap Day" probably came about because until just a few hundred years ago, Feb. 29 wasn't considered a real day. No legally binding business was recorded or conducted. It didn't count -it was "leapt" over.
Fiction: Everyone agrees that despite a bit of messiness, adding Feb. 29 to our calendar every four years is the best way to go - in other words, no need to adopt metric time, or change the current system in any other way.
But we think that Feb. 29 should, indeed, be leaped over, as it was centuries ago. Think about it - we could call it do-over day, and make a day that doesn't count. Anything that doesn't hurt others goes.
On the wagon? Jump off briefly, and back on again March 1. On a diet? Have some extra pie, or ice cream - whatever you'd like. Then, on March 1, it's back to the celery sticks and there are no regrets.
As for me, I'd like, for the first time in 15 years or more, to simply lie about on the couch and watch some old Westerns without a twinge of guilt.
What would you do with a do-over day?
Leap Year 101 Scienceworld In the Gregorian calendar currently in use worldwide (except perhaps the Russian and Iranian calendars), there is a leap year every year divisible by four except for years which are both divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400. Therefore, the year 2000 will be a leap year, but the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not.
Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies Leapzine If Ground Hog Day is on the calendar, why not Leap Day? It would aid Leap Day awareness, and make the world a better place for all Leapers. A noble cause indeed, finally, justice for those the calendar misses.
How the World Makes Up for Lost Time National Geographic News Think of leap year as the little trick the world uses to make up for lost time. We observe the modern leap year because Earth orbits the sun every 365.242 days—not an easy number for a calendar to accommodate.
The Need for Leap Years Merlyn The rotation of the Earth with respect to the Earth-Sun line governs the Day/Night cycle and so defines the average length of a Solar Day. By ancient Judaeo-Christian convention, the Year is given by one cycle of the seasons. Each orbit of the Earth round the Sun takes about 365.2422 days. Because of the tilt of the Earth's axis, that essentially governs the seasonal cycle.
How about a hike in the Red River Gorge with my beloved catahoula, Scarlet. A tramp through the river and onward to Auxier Ridge. After the hike back down, I would make a cameo at World Famous Miguel's Pizza...