What's the point of leap year?

   Every four years, February 29th pops up on the calendar. Why?

   Apparently, a year is not exactly the accepted 365 days, but rather, 365.242190 days. Which means it’s about 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds. Rounding it up to six hours, or a quarter of a day, it doesn’t seem like much , but when you add it up, the year would lose a whole day every four years.    

   Therefore, leap year would occur on years that would be divisible by four except for the years which are both divisible by 100 and not by 400. So the first half of the 21^st century would be 2000, 2004, 2008, 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028, 2032, 2036, 2040, 2044, 2048, and of course, this year, 2012. 

   Okay, fine. One day? Big deal. But let’s take a Christmas day, or December 25^th, for example. If we were to lose a day every year, in 20 years, Christmas would come before the winter solstice. In 200 years, Christmas would come in autumn (seasons are based on Earth’s position to the sun, so they don’t change).  Then it would come in summer, then in spring.

   I find it hard to imagine Santa Claus working through the Arctic summer heat in a bathing suit and his reindeers’ hooves scraping against the dry and cracking shingles of the roofs. Adding a day every four year simply synchronizes our calendar with the astronomical seasons.

   So, we do it so we don’t have any Santa Clauses running around wholesale warehouses in Speedos.  

- By Alicia Y. Zheng 

Hype builds for International Night

   ASB and club presidents have spent weeks prepping, and on International Night, students will watch performances representing different cultures and enjoy ethnic food.

   “I’m doing the Indian dance this year,” Nadine Bouz (’13) said. Why the Indian dance? “Well, Monica and Raj do a great job choreographing it,” Bouz said, “and ever since my freshman year I’ve always thought this dance looked especially fun and I’m really excited to finally be in it.”

   “I’m not signed up to be in any performances this year, but I’m still going because it’s really fun to see everyone in their dances,” Ariana Habbestad (’13) said. “I think International Night is a great way for the school to come together and learn more about people’s backgrounds and where they are coming from,” Habbestad said.

   “When you’re actually in the dance you’re able to look at the culture from a whole new perspective. Everyone dresses up for their specific dance and gets really involved,” Bouz said.

   International Night is one of the biggest events of the school year. Chloe Soltis (’13) is in charge of planning the event this year and she has been working especially hard to make sure everything comes together. With new countries being represented inthis year’s International Night, it will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

- By Avery Ponce