It’s a new year! This year is sure to be a great one. The end of the world is predicted to be in December so we might as well live it up this year! 2012 will bring us much to do. This spring we have a leap year. What will you do with your extra 24 hours? This summer brings us the Summer Olympics in London. Will you be watching? This fall will bring us to voting for our next president. Will Obama be here for the next four years?
Will we?
This year, we have 366 days on the calendar because of the leap year that occurs once every four years. This is so the calendar year doesn’t get too far off from the astronomical year. We usually have 365 days in the year, but technically it takes the Earth 365.25 days to revolve around the sun. Leap years are instituted every four years to make up for the other ¼ of a day!
The summer Olympic Games will be held in London this year, which will feature archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, canoe slalom, canoe sprint, cycling–BMX, mountain bike, road–track, diving, equestrian–dressage, eventing, jumping–fencing, football, gymnastics–artistic, rhythmic, trampoline–handball, hockey, judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, synchronized swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, water polo, weightlifting, and wrestling. The Olympic Games start on July 27, 2012 and run until August 12, 2012.
This November, we determine who will run our country for the next four years. The 57th United States Presidential Election will be help on November 6, 2012. President Barack Obama for the Democrats will run against the yet-to-be- decided Republican nominee. The Republican nominees are Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum.
According to the Mayan calendar, this winter is “the end of the world”. The apocalypse is supposed to come upon us on December 21, 2012. The Maya, who lived in Central America between A.D. 250 and 900, had a cyclical calendar that ran approximately one human lifetime, or 52 years–life was shorter back then. To account for events more than 52 years away, they devised another calendar, one that ran 5,126 years, and apparently began in the year 3114 B.C. Do a little math: 5,126 minus 3,114 equals 2,012. This could possibly be“Y2K” hype, when people feared that all computer systems would crash with the new millennium on January 1, 2000.
Despite the speculation, 2012 is sure to be a fantastic year. And if we’re going to go, let’s at least go out with a bang!
