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NEWS ABOUT: leap year

Leap-Year Bug Zapped Zunes

Microsoft advises Zune30 owners to drain batteries, then recharge

(Newser) - All 2006 model Zune30s froze up at midnight last night because of a problem handling the last day of leap years, according to Microsoft. The company advises owners to wait until 4pm PST today, drain the device's batteries, and then recharge, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Microsoft apologized for the inconvenience,... More »

Why We Have Leap Year

It's a timekeeping fix by Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory XIII

(Newser) - It's leap day, and scientist Chris Turner uses his extra time to muse in the New York Times on its origins. Julius Caesar came up with a plan—pinning the calendar to the Earth's circling of the sun—in 46 BC as a way to synchronize months with the seasons.... More »

Leap Day Cocktails Lost to Time

Drinks passé, along with Sadie Hawkins-style man-chasing

(Newser) - Feb. 29 still comes once every four years, but celebratory cocktails marking the bissextile have gone out of fashion—along with a leap-year tradition that requires plenty of liquid courage, Eric Felten notes in the Wall Street Journal. Women who proposed marriage during the leap year could not be denied;... More »

Zoos Leap Into Year of Frog

Activists bring attention to decline of amphibians

(Newser) - How could any zoo resist? Leap Day, in the Year of the Frog, is being celebrated by zoos and conservationists everywhere as the perfect time to draw attention to the plight of amphibians. "We want to get people talking about frogs and thinking about them," said one zookeeper.... More »

Leap Into 2008 Was Miles Early

New year has an extra day to keep calendar and planet synchronized

(Newser) - The Earth finished another rotation around the sun in 2007—just about. At midnight on December 31, it was actually about 400,000 miles short of where it had been a year before, and that annual shortfall is why we have leap years, explains the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Leap years... More »

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