Martian Calender

The martian year is approximately 687 earth days
Mars rotates about 670 times in its year, meaning there are 670 days a year on Mars. (A martian day is slightly longer then an earth day.)
Some have brought up the problem of determining the length of a martian month, as most month calenders are based on lunar progression and Mars has two moons. The answer is that Martian months are not based on lunar progression at all, but simply on a nearly equal division of the year of 11 months, 10 of which have 61 days, and the last with 60 days. The last month recieves extra days on leap years.
A modified calender is expected when Earth colonizes Mars making a year of 22 months, 7 with 30 days and 5 with 31 days to normalize to Earth for convenience. The last month of the year will be 30 days and recieve the extra days for leap years according to Martian convention.
One day a year will be marked as a holiday, during which Earth and Mars are closest. This will exist until war breaks out, at which point this will be the bloodiest day of the year. After the war this will be commemorated as a memorial day, in honor of the deceased.

fossil may be the ancestor of all animals

"Fossil may be the ancestor of most animals."
That was the conclusion of anthropoligist Mark Whineburg, which he revealed at the annual anthropology convention in Reno, Nevada.
"It's amazing but these things are found everywhere! I'm quite convinced that all living things may be descened from these fossils. I'm just surprised that, after finding so many, noone else thought there was a connection."
Some of Mr. Whineburg's colleagues, however, strongly disagree.
"He's an idiot. Just a complete buffoon."
"Am not!" Mr. Whineburg quickly objects, "Everything descends from fossils, fossils are the ancestors of all life!"
The entire company of anthropologists then smacked their foreheads.

Singularity

In current understanding (relativity/quantum mechanics) there are two types of singularities (black holes). non-rotating and rotating. In a non-rotating singularity space time curvature becomes infinite allowing theorettically infinite space and infinite mass to ultimately be contained within a single point at the center, that is the singularity. In a rotating singularity mass is not contained within a point but within a ring, leading to the theoretical possibility of a center point at which one could survive and observe the ring.

First my own logic leads me to believe (unsupported mind you) a toroidal singularity would have to collapse as the ring attracted itself. becoming a point or small sphere. To me this all implies a complete lack of true singularity. The mass would form a very small, but not singular, sphere.

Even if the shape is possible (the mathematics suggest this, but do not prove it) it is safe to assume that a significant amount of matter would over time cross the event horizon at exactly the place and velocity necassary to enter the "null space" at the center of the ring. This being the case, the mass within the ring would increase over time. Since the gravity of the ring singularity would not take effect at its center, the mass would build up normally, as it would if it were trapped anywhere outside of a singularity. This means it would GROW. As it gets larger there are two possibilities depending on the so far unverifiable size of a ring singularity. If the ring has a small enough radius, the mass would eventually "spill over" into the singularity essentially leaving an ultradense singularity ring encircleling a sphere of normal matter.

The other possibility is if the ring is larger then several solar masses. In this case mass could theoretically build up to the point where a second black hole forms in the center of the ring singularity, likely drawing the ring singularity in and creating a single black hole as they collide. The real singularity would gain the angular momentum of the ring singularity and either this energy would somehow have to be absorbed or a new ring singularity would be generated.

To me all this is less then satisfying. It leaves open too many possibilities and holes. My own preferences is that no singularity ever forms, but rather quantum effects prevent the relativistic singularity from forming, maintaining a sphere of theoretically measurable size (if you could overcome the gravity to see your results) thus allowing for one type of black hole which may or may not rotate.

The other possibility is that a ring singularity never exists, but only appears to due to the effects of relativistic dilation. Essentially a gravitational singularity forms but is moving in a very small orbit at very high speeds. Normally you'd need a rediculously high gravitational force to maintain such motion (at such high velocity that it appears and acts like a ring) however it is possible that at this size other forces take effect (nuclear weak/strong forces and electromagnetic) which could provide the necassary force. Similar to an electron "orbiting" an atomic nucleus.

Alternatively effects of time dilation could be so extreme that the singularity is actually acting on itself. Creating gravitational distortions in space that linger (due to time dilation) long enough to effect the singularity even after its moved to the opposite side of its orbit. Therefore the singularity is in a manner of speaking orbiting itself.

Definitions Part 2

Extended Network - Group of people which includes everybody. Even you. Even if you don't want to be included. Includes all sentient and near sentient life forms as well as sentient non-life forms.

On Sleep

Most when trying to understand sleep look for its function, "what is it FOR". A question which has so far not yielded to inquiry. I personally take a different approach. What do we HAVE when asleep vs. when we are awake. The only thing that comes to mind is conscious control of our minds and motor functions. "Conscious" control is important because as seen in many species (birds and dolphins notably) full, normal activity can be maintained even while sleeping. Some migratory birds sleep while flying, and dolphins sleep while swimming and are able to avoid predators and remain aware of their environment.

This opens to me one interesting possibility. Consciousness, that is the state we are in while "awake" is not the "normal" state, but rather sleeping is. It can be understood in this way: when asleep animals are acting as they did before beginning to develope higher thought. Unconscious processing and calculation of information brought in from the senses as an intermediate step between perception and response.

This also gives us a good theory on evolution of intelligence. We begin with chemical reactions, to the formation of basic life which "responds" with no internal effects to stimuli. Think of it as direct cause and effect. You get event and response with nothing in between. From that evolved an unconscious processing which does no more than allow a specific PART of an organism to respond, such as a bird's wing, based on stimuli recieved anywhere on the organism. Event - transfer of stimuli - response.

From there we get slightly more complex. Expand the "transfer of stimuli" into an unconscious calculation. Sensing and reacting in an indirect manner without thought. Think of lizards catching flies. The fly moves, the tongue lashes out and catches it before conscious thought of any kind could come into play. It is not obvious that because there is motion the tongue should go catch it. There is required a minimal processing that identifies the source of the motion, and triggers the response as appropriate. Event - transfer - unconscious consideration - transfer - response.

We can think of the first two stages mentioned certainly, and quite possibly this third as "sleep" stages. This could go a long way towards understanding why sleep's important. It is in fact the natural state for maintaining life.

Next we expand further able to react not just to stimuli, but assumed or learned stimuli or expected future stimuli. If the event is not so urgent that it requires the speed of unconscious decision, it can be consciously considered resulting in a possibly far better response. This would be like suddenly finding yourself being chased by a lion. The first instinct would be to just run. When higher thought kicks in you might realize the lion is much faster than you are and you'd better find another way out, like climbing that tall tree instead, or grabbing that rock to throw as you're running.

This level of thought requires conscious awareness and one to be "awake". Thus the state of being "awake" is in fact the evolved stated of consciousness allowing for better functioning through abstract thought which would not have existed earlier. This also provides an evolutionary framework to describe how consciousness could in fact evolve.