Brewster Rockit by Tim Rickard for February 28, 2016

Can we pass a quick law to ban political ads and speeches on the 29th?

Because Trump is too YUGE to be confined to 365 days.

Did anyone notice that Dr. Mel said that Leap Years occur “ALMOST ever four years”? So, does that mean that Leap Years don’t occur EVERY fourth year?`The length of Earth’s solar year is not exactly 365 days 6 hours (365.25 days); it is actually 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds (365.24220 days). That 11 minutes 14 seconds discrepancy adds up over the years; in a century the calendar still creeps ahead by 18 hours 38 minutes (0.7766 of a day). After 400 years the calendar becomes approximately 3 days 2.5 hours out of sync. `When in the 16th century the Gregorian calendar (the one we use today) was devised, it was decided that to correct this 400 years discrepancy the “century years” not evenly divisible by 400 would not be Leap Years. Therefore the year 1600 was a Leap Year, but the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 were NOT Leap years, though they would have been in a strict 4-year cycle. The year 2000, however WAS a Leap Year. (We should have done some celebrating on Feb. 29, 2000 since it was a very unique day, coming only once every 400 years.)`There’s still that 2.5 hours discrepancy every 400 years, however. That will add up to a full day in about 3840 years. This is something our far descendants will have to deal with when the time comes.

These ‘Rockit Science’ strips are great! I really like them.

So you’re an SW (Shortwave) listener like us! We adjust all our clocks to WWV.

I’ve got a niece who will have her 11th birthday tomorrow.

@Josh LyonsIn addition to several shortwave radios, I have 4 “atomic clocks” that receive WWVB on 60khz and synchronize to that. They each run on 2 AA cells and I got all 4 at garage sales while out on my bicycle. I have one of them set for GMT/UTC and that one also shows the phases of the moon. It doesn’t show the 3 phases of Eve though (sorry).@Kim Metzger, Will she be 44? BTW, I knew a woman with the (married) last name of Casper and her birthday was Oct 31.

Why does Feb have 28 days? Why didn’t they take away Jan 31 & March 31 and give all three 30 days? Seems like someone screwed up.

Maybe one of these centuries when technology has advanced enough, we can nudge the Earth’s rotation enough that a year is exactly 365 days.

I had an uncle who was born on February 29, 1896. He was 8 years old when he had his first birthday. Later he would win “bar bets” about how many birthdays he’d had.

Murphy’s law!