please empty your brain below

Have been with boyfriend less than 4 months but I won't be asking him to marry me today! Even though I know we will likely end up getting married at some point
One of my neighbours when I was a boy had a leap day birthday. He'll be 19 today. Happy birthday Tony! (and there's a chance he'll see this as I've shared the URL for today's post...)
From Excel...
Number Date Day
58 27/02/1900 Monday
59 28/02/1900 Tuesday
60 29/02/1900 Wednesday
61 01/03/1900 Thursday
62 02/03/1900 Friday

Good old Microsoft!
This! (superb)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX96xng7sAE
Thanks for thr playlist. Wait, I Should Be So Lucky is substituted out (presumably for reasons of taste), but Cinderella Rockefella remains?

dg writes: Sorry, Kylie's early stuff isn't on Spotify.
old analogue watches with a date display need to be wound forward tomorrow past 30 & 31 to 1...digital watches need to be put back a date today from 1 back to 29
My daughters friend has a birthday today. She is 4, so can expect a lot of teasing about finally being able to start school, a couple of weeks after she gets her GCSE results!
Monthly paid staff have to work February 29th for nothing, weekly paid staff get paid for working that day. I was never able to get my union interested in this. I recon I'm owed 12 days back pay.
^ Should have just taken the day off?
@John R
As you are presumably paid the same in February as you were in January, you are actually being paid in February for three days (two in a leap year) that don't actually exist!

Sweden - February 30th 1712 was added not because 1704 and 1708 had been leap years but because 1700 had not been. The original plan had been to convert from Julian to Gregorian by omitting leap years between 1700 and 1740, but in fact it was only omitted in 1700. By 1712 Sweden was under Russian rule, and Russia still used the Julian calendar, so 1712 was made 367 days long to resychronise Sweden with Russia. Sweden, having regained its independence, finally switched to the Gregorian calendar in February 1753, five months after the UK.

Pirates of Penzance. As it is set in the 19th century, Frederic should actually have 67 years to go, not 63, as he would not have a birthday in 1900. However, there is an inconsistency - Frederic says his 21st birthday will be in 1940 which, if correct, means he was born 88 years previously in 1852, and the action takes place in 1873. But in the Major General's song there is a reference to "That Infernal Nonsense 'Pinafore'" (G&S's previous operetta) which was first performed in 1878, so even if WSGilbert was unaware of the 1900 exception (or made his character unaware of it) the sums don't add up.
But then, perhaps 1944 wouldn't scan.
Lisa - if you know, why not go for it!

I proposed after four months - we celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary this year.
I love the idea of the Spotify playlist.

Sadly, the leapy Minogue number one from 1988 is missing and in its place is an unleapy Minogue number one from 2001.

dg writes: Alas, Kylie's early stuff isn't on Spotify, so the playist is now Kylie-less.
The odds are a lot higher if your parents have sex on May 29th the previous year.


As my sister was born on a leap day that's not something I want to think too much about!
That Sweden was 'under russian rule' in 1712 is news to me... that is not what I have learned in school - in Stockholm.
@TKO
Apologies for gross oversimplification. I should have said "much of the former Swedish empire", (rather than Sweden itself) - particularly the parts of that empire east of the Baltic. I would guess that the Swedes reverted to the Julian calendar in 1712 as all its neighbours around the Baltic now used it.

All that for trying to clarify DG's point that you "had to add an extra leap day in 1712 to get back in sync". Adding a third and fourth leap day to the two erroneously applied in 1704 and 1708 would not get you in sync with the Gregorian calendar. It was to replace the one omitted in 1700 and get back in sync with the Julian calendar.
"In any 400 year period, there are 97 leap years, after which the calendar repeats"

In fact it repeats exactly, including the days of the week, as 400*365 + 97 happens to be divisible by seven.

The calendar normally repeats every 28 years (lowest common multiple of days of the week and the leap year cycle) which is why you only get five Mondays in February every 28 years, but this is interrupted by the century years.
It is because it repeats more frequently than every 400*7 years that there are more of some day/date combinations than others - Monday and Wednesday for February 29th. And yes, the most likely day of the week for the 13th of a month to fall on is Friday! (There are 688 in a 400-year cycle, which is a probability of 688/4800 = 14.33%.
(1/7 would be 14.29%)
The mean human gestation period is said to be about 280 days (40 weeks, or 9 months), but medical professionals count from the first day of the last menstrual period, so the "real" duration from conception to delivery is likely in most cases to be somewhat less.

Pregnancies rarely go more than a week or two past term, but there is a fair chance of the baby arriving at some point between 36 and 39 weeks, so having sex on May 29th the year before the leap year is likely to be a bit too early.

Added to which, one standard deviation is about 2 weeks, so it is difficult to aim for a particular date.

Still, the process is pretty hit and miss anyway, and no harm in getting in a bit of practice.

dg writes: I stick by my claim that "The odds are a lot higher if your parents have sex on May 29th the previous year."
Typo alert - in #20 Sir James Wilson was considerably older than 17.

dg writes: Not typo alert. See #13.
The Pirates of Penzance also features (if that's the right word) a running gag misunderstanding the words "orphan" and "often" (pronounced "offen")
"I stick by my claim that "The odds are a lot higher if your parents have sex on May 29th the previous year"

That is the date with the best odds, but any time within a couple of weeks either side will have only slightly lower odds.

The next Leap Day, in 2020, is a Saturday, which reduces the odds a little, as most planned medical interventions are done on weekdays, so the birth rate is always lower at weekends.
Poor Frederic has another 67 years to go because the year 1900 won't give him a birthday.
"In any 400 year period, there are 97 leap years, after which the calendar repeats."

I am surprised if this is true, bearing in mind that every millenium there would be an extra leap year inserted into the cycle.
@messiah
"every millenium there would be an extra leap year inserted into the cycle. "
Every 400 years, not every millennium. AD2000 is part of that pattern, being divisible by 400.

(Unless you are using the term "Millennium" is its other sense of the Second Coming of Christ)
"They restarted in 8AD, after which they continued every four years as intended."

Is it a coincidence or contrivance that the Leap Year cycle introduced by the Romans coincides with exact multiples of four in the AD system of counting, developed supposedly from first principles (calculation of the date of the Annunciation) 500 years later?
Have never commented here before but Diamond Geezer you are utterly brilliant. Great blog always fascinating and readable whatever the topic.
For the purpose of the Pirates running gag, "often" is not pronounced "offen", it is pronounced how a southerner pronounces "orphan" (i.e. without sounding the "r"). I distinctly remember my great-aunt using that pronunciation of that word, as did the Queen when she was younger, and many other people: it was the posh way of saying it until 1960 or so, probably the only way in WS Gilbert's time.
Some excellent examples of 1a, 1b, 1f, 1g, 2d, 3a, 3c, 3d, 3f, 4a and 4g comments today, I thought.
@timbo, there we go I learned something knew today!
Really interesting list but I'm really just commenting because I noticed it had 28 comments and this really should have 29.
Having a leap day birthday doesn't affect someone's age, only the number of birthdays they've had. So they'd be sixteen - but on their fourth birthday.
Irritating pedant's note:

"7) You have a 1 in 1461 chance of being born on February 29th."

Er, no. If you're reading this you are already born, so you have zero chance of being born on any day other than when you actually were born.
@Michael

re: "good old Microsoft"

The fault here is Lotus 1-2-3 being programmed for a computer with 640K RAM.

You can avoid this problem by using the 1904 date system, if you don't interact with any other people electronically.

Here's some good old reading to educate yourself:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/06/16.html
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/214330
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/214058

Microsoft in the 1990s had two options: either adapt their software to work with other people's buggy programs, or create their own walled garden. The first led to them dominating the industry. If they went for the second, they would have faded into obscurity. It is only feasible now that each of us carries 1000 ENIACs in our pockets.










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