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You may know 2008 is an intercalary year. That makes today Leap Day in the United States. KPBS reporter Andrew Phelps had some questions about this unusual but important day. Here's what he found out.

Mingei devleopments

People opt for bigger food portions when they're feeling powerless, according to new research. And when they're told that tiny portions are prestigious, they go small. That may be one reason why super-sized portions are so alluring, and why waistlines are bulging.

Historians have long struggled to explain how the West became the preeminent political and economic force in the modern world. In Civilization, historian Niall Ferguson credits six "killer apps" and explains how China is quickly catching on — and catching up.

In Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Jason Morris led the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, which suffered the highest casualty rate of any Marine unit during the past 10 years of war. The "Darkhorse Battalion" commander says the unit's mission was a success — but he will live with the burden of those deaths.

While Ledger was onscreen,

When divorced Tony Webster receives an unexpected inheritance, he's pulled back into the past, to the end of his first relationship and the boyhood friend who picked up where he left off. Barnes tells a quietly devastating tale of memory, aging, time and remorse in The Sense of an Ending.

The U.S. airwaves are full of political ads these days slamming the Canadian health care system. The ads say that in Canada, care is delayed or denied and some patients can wait a year for vital surgeries. Is the Canadian system really that bad?

The Counterfeiters

Michael Ondaatje's fifth novel, The Cat's Table, follows an 11-year-old boy on a 21-day journey from Sri Lanka to London. Unsupervised, he and his companions live by only one rule: to every day do at least one thing that is forbidden.