Leap Year, Easter Island, University Standard, Professional Tag

Leap Day Babies (0:32) Guest: Raenell Dawn, Cofounder of the Honor Society of Leap Year Babies, Editor and Producer of leapyearday.com This weekend is that once-every-four-years quirk of the calendar when February gets an extra day. Leap Day accounts for the fact Earth’s complete trip around the sun takes 365 days … and 6 hours. We’ve had a Leap Day on the calendar every four years since Julius Caesar decreed it back in 46 B.C. So, you’d think we’d be used to it by now. But it still feels rare enough that people born on Leap Day are a novelty and some organizations won’t even recognize it as a valid birthday. (Originally aired 2/29/16) Easter Island Statues Degrading From Weather and Tourists (11:16) Guest: Jo Anne Van Tilburg, Director, Easter Island Statue Project, Cotsen Rock Art Archive at UCLA The Night at the Museum movie is what first exposed many people to the large stone-faced statues of Easter Island. The American Museum of Natural History in New York has a plaster cast of one with a deeply-furrowed brow that comes to life in the movie. That movie made the American Museum of Natural History’s Easter Island plaster cast a popular exhibit. The statues themselves – on Easter Island – have also become so popular with tourists over the last few decades they’re in danger. (Originally aired 7/1/2019) Art Restoration Vital for Paintings and Murals Worldwide (29:20) Guest: Scott Haskins, Director and Chief Conservator, Fine Art Conservation Laboratories Famous street graffiti artist Banksy’s latest piece of street art is a little girl firing a slingshot on a wall in Bristol, England. Banksy is so famous that his art is really valuable, but that doesn’t stop other graffiti artists from adding their own twist. His latest slingshot girl was vandalized within just two days. And that reminded us of a conversation we had with Scott Haskins over the summer – he’s the guy cities call when graffiti, pollution or weather damage an street mural they want restored. Recently Haskins has been working on a series of mu