Leap Day keeps seasons timely and calendars precise, and is an excuse for women to propose marriage, or is simply an extra day to enjoy. “Julius Caesar first adopted the Leap Day concept from the Egyptians,” says Yury Grabovsky, math professor at Temple. “He figured out he could make a precise calendar by adding a day every four years. Precision was very important because if you planted seeds at the wrong time of year, you might have famine on your hands.”

Mark Rosenthal, a professor in Temple's film department, is also a screenwriter and voting member of the Academy. While many critics contend that the lineup of films this year is weak overall, Rosenthal says there were many great, albeit unusual ones. He points to the non-linear “Tree of Life” and the sports movie “Moneyball.” "There's a wonderful movie nominated for best original screenplay called 'A Separation,' which is one of the few times in Academy history that a film written in a foreign language…was nominated for best screenplay,” he said.

Temple has named a veteran online newsman to lead the new Philadelphia Public Interest Information Network: Neil Budde, the founder of The Wall Street Journal Online. Most recently Budde was president of DailyMe and previously served as editor-in-chief of Yahoo News. PPIIN was founded in 2010 with a $2.4 million grant and a mission to increase the amount of quality public-interest journalism in the Philadelphia region.