It's 12/12/12: That's bad ? and good

A seemingly benign number that defines everything from a dozen eggs and the hours of day and night to the days of Christmas and the astrological signs, 12 may be in the spotlight today, 12/12/12.

This date structure, in which the same two-digit number gets repeated three times, won't happen again until 2111.

But does the triple dose of 12 hold any meaning? That depends on whom you ask, but in Hong Kong and Singapore, couples are crowding the aisles for a chance to tie the knot on a day they say symbolizes love, according to news outlets. Las Vegas is also abuzz with nuptials, according to CNN, which also reported an Indian numerologist saying it's a great day to start a new business venture. Making the rounds online, a boy who turned 12 at 12:12 p.m. in Bronxville, N.Y., suggests we're all a bit "number crazy."

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Doom isn't far behind the celebrations. While most believers in the Mayan apocalypse think the end of the world will come on Dec. 21, 2012, apparently some have interpreted the end of the Maya Long Count calendar differently, pinpointing Dec. 12, 2012, as a day of reckoning. (There is no evidence to suggest the Mayans predicted the end of their calendar to mean the end of the world.)

Turning doomsday on its head, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific is calling 12/12/12 "Anti-Doomsday."

"While many pundits and prognosticators lament the supposed end of the world on Dec. 21, 2012 (thanks to misinterpreting Mayan predictions), here at the ASP we encourage everyone to go in the opposite ? and accurate ? direction. Thus, we are declaring Dec. 12, 2012 as Anti-Doomsday Day in celebration of rational thinking and reasoned discourse," according to an ASP statement. [End of the World? Top Doomsday Fears]

And if one were to tie any significance to today, and numerology in general, the ASP reminds us of plenty of auspicious associations with the number 12: the months in a year on contemporary calendars; 12 traditional zodiac signs; 12 Olympic gods and goddesses in Greek mythology; and 12 bottles of wine in a case. In Christian belief, Jesus had 12 apostles.

Then there's Mars, which is 12 light-minutes from the sun, and Jupiter, which takes 12 years to orbit the sun, according to the ASP.

The most recent triple-digit setup occurred on Nov. 11, 2011 (11/11/11), another day some associated with Mayan doom. That day most likely became linked with Dec. 21, 2012, when believers noticed that the U.S. Naval Observatory had set the exact time of the 2012 winter solstice ? when Earth's tilt is angled at its farthest from the sun ? for 11:11 Universal Time on Dec. 21, John Hoopes, a scholar of Maya history at the University of Kansas, told LiveScience last year. (The observatory now lists the official time for the winter solstice at 11:12 Universal Time.)

While the meaning behind numbers, called numerology, has yet to be grounded in science, humanity seems hard-wired to find such numerical associations.

"Cognitive scientists have demonstrated that our brains are hard-wired to look for meaningful patterns in the sensory data it collects from the world," said Alan Lenzi, professor of religious studies at University of the Pacific. "Numbers that are already significant to us, such as calendar dates, that also coincidentally fall into an obvious pattern become doubly significant," Lenzi told LiveScience in 2011, speaking about 1/11/11.

Lenzi added, "Given the propensity for people to look for significance in particular days and times (e.g. the "end of the world"), patterns are easily imbued with imaginative meaning," Lenzi said.

And patterns tend to stick in our heads ? you're more likely to remember a birthday that's on 11/11, 12/12, or 10/10, than one on 12/5, for instance. The same would be the case for various times of the day. "People are more likely to remember 11:11 than they are, say, 4:29 or 6:53 or 3:17 or something like that," Hoopes said.

This article was updated to change the year of the next triple-digit date. Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook? and Google+.

? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50175929/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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?Rookie? on the mend after surgery | KFOR.com ? Oklahoma City ...

STILLWATER, Okla.?? A German Shepard who was thrown off an overpass along I-40 is recovering from extensive surgery.

Last week, a state trooper found the dog suffering from multiple injuries and rushed him to the Deer Creek Animal Hospital.

Veterinarians soon learned that ?Rookie? was suffering from a shattered leg, which required surgery.

The dog was transferred to the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences at Oklahoma State University to undergo further treatment.

Doctors tell us ?Rookie?s? surgery went well but they also discovered that his knee cap was also fractured.

They say that while the injury required a few more pins, he is still expected to be released from the clinic on Monday.

So far, no arrests have been made in the case.

The Humane Society of the United States is offering up to a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of the person responsible for the crime.

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Click here for more information on ?Rookie.?

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Source: http://kfor.com/2012/12/12/rookie-on-the-mend-after-surgery/

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Facebook privacy overhaul grants better controls for permissions, apps, photos and more

Voting for changes may never be the same on Facebook, but it sure seems as if the company is taking your privacy more seriously than perhaps it has in the past. In a move that signals bold changes on behalf of the user, Facebook has published two posts today outlining a litany of both user and developer tweaks that enable greater control over content. Today's updates include Privacy Shortcuts, an easier-to-use Activity Log, and a new Request and Removal tool for managing multiple photos you're tagged in; it's also adding "new in-product education that makes key concepts around controlling your sharing clearer, such as in-context reminders about how stuff you hide from timeline may still appear in news feed, search, and other places."

Over on the dev side, it's introducing a series of updates to the Login dialog to improve the clarity and control of the app permissions process. Notably, much of this is already present in iOS 6, but now it's rolling the tweaks out "more broadly." There's plenty to dive into -- those source links over there just need a little attention.

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A Positive Attitude Makes All the Difference | Self Improvement Tips

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Amgen buying deCODE Genetics for $415 million

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) ? Biotech pioneer Amgen Inc., in a bid for a big edge in using people's genetic information to find better ways to attack diseases, is buying human genetics research and analytics leader deCODE Genetics for $415 million.

Amgen, the world's largest biotech company by revenue, and deCODE, based in Reykjavik, Iceland, announced the all-cash deal Monday.

DeCODE, founded in 1996, has discovered genetic risk factors for dozens of diseases, ranging from cardiovascular disease to cancer.

Probably its key asset ? and the reason for the deal ? is deCODE's huge database of the genetic and medical information of Iceland's population. That data can help researchers find links between genetic variations and characteristics that increase a person's risk of getting a particular disease and also affect patients' response to a drug.

"DeCODE Genetics has built a world-class capability in the study of the genetics of human disease. This capability will enhance our efforts to identify and validate human disease targets," Amgen CEO Robert Bradway said in a statement.

"This fits perfectly with our objective to pursue rapid development of relevant molecules that reach the right disease targets while avoiding investments in programs based on less well-validated targets," Bradway added.

That's important because the vast majority of experimental drugs, after years of expensive testing, eventually turn out not to work well or to have dangerous side effects. Drugmakers worldwide are trying to find ways to make their drug-development process more efficient to avoid spending tens of millions of dollars testing drugs that end up failing.

UBS Securities analyst Matthew Roden wrote in a note to investors that Amgen management stressed to him that being able to more efficiently identify and confirm targets for future development would help the company spot promising candidates, as well as likely failures, earlier.

"It is not surprising that Amgen is building out this R&D capability," given that some of its key experimental drugs were identified based on human genetics work, Roden wrote.

He has a "Buy" rating for Amgen and a 12-month share price target of $96, higher than its shares have ever been and significantly above its $89.95 peak over the last year. Roden noted Amgen will use off-shore cash for the deal and will not issue debt to cover it.

The board of Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., has approved the deal, which does not need regulatory approval. The transaction is expected to close before year's end.

"We believe Amgen's focus and ability to incorporate our genetic research into their research and development efforts will translate our discoveries into meaningful therapies for patients," Dr. K?ri Stef?nsson, deCODE's founder and CEO, said in a statement.

Amgen, a biotechnology pioneer since 1980, focuses on developing powerful biologic medicines ? drugs produced by living cells rather than by mixing chemicals in vats ? for cancer, kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, bone disease and other serious illnesses. Among its products are the anemia drugs Aranesp and Epogen, Enbrel for immune disorders and Prolia for osteoporosis.

Amgen reported sales of $15.6 billion last year and net income of $3.7 billion.

Shares of Amgen rose 73 cents to $89.05 in afternoon trading after rising as high as $89.28 per share earlier. That was just shy of its 52-week high of $89.95 set in mid-October.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/amgen-buying-decode-genetics-415-million-182844055--finance.html

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Russia denies holding talks on future of Syria's Assad

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Sunday it was not holding any talks on the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, dismissing speculation that it is preparing for its ally's potential exit from power.

The United States and its NATO allies have pressed for Assad's departure as part of efforts to end the bloodshed in Syria, but Russia and China have blocked action against the Syrian leader at the U.N. Security Council.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks on Syria with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi on Thursday, but Lavrov dismissed suggestions that this meant Moscow had changed its stance.

"We are not holding any talks on the fate of Assad," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Lavrov as saying during a meeting on Sunday.

"All attempts to present the situation differently are rather shady, even for the diplomacy of those countries that are known for striving to distort facts in their own favor."

He said the priority was to end the fighting in Syria, not to discuss the fate of one man.

"Our position on Syria is well-known," he said. Reiterating the line that Russian officials have used repeatedly, he said: "Moscow does not stick to Assad or to some other figure on the Syrian political scene."

He repeated Russia's opposition to a repeat of what happened in Libya, where "our NATO colleagues grossly distorted the mandate granted to them by a U.N. Security Council resolution ... and launched a fight against the existing power."

He said countries that criticized Russia and China for vetoing U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria were "dishonest".

U.S. and Russian talks with Brahimi were resuming in Geneva on Sunday but gave no details other than to repeat that Russia had set no pre-conditions for the talks.

(Reporting by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-denies-holding-talks-future-syrias-assad-114625328.html

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'They are killers': Syria will use chemical weapons, general says

A former top general in Syria's chemical weapons program says he doesn't doubt for a moment that President Bashar al-Assad will deploy his chemical weapons arsenal as he tries to hold onto power and crush the uprising that started almost two years ago.

"The regime started to fall and deteriorate. It's coming to its end," said retired Major General Adnan Sillou in an interview in a hotel near Antakya, on Turkey's southern border with Syria. "It's highly possible that he'll start using [chemical weapons] to kill his own people because this regime is a killer."

Sillou told ABC News that until September 2008, he was chief of staff on the defensive side of the chemical weapons program. He said he was in charge of training soldiers against attacks and contact with the weapons, as well as procuring safety equipment to guard against them.

He listed mustard gas along with the sarin, VX and tabun nerve agents as the main elements in Syria's chemical arsenal, whose existence Syria doesn't even acknowledge. Foreign intelligence officials and analysts have focused on the first three as the main threats, and last week U.S. officials said there was evidence sarin had not only been moved, but its binary components, usually stored separately, had been combined and placed into bombs for use.

Sillou accuses Assad's forces of already spraying pesticides and dropping white phosphorous, claims also made by opposition activists.

"They're idiots, crazy. Simply they are killers," he said.

Sillou believes the regime could step it up to more serious chemical weapons if Aleppo, Syria's most populous city where fighting has raged for months, falls to the rebels.

In July, Sillou left Syria for Turkey almost four years after he said he retired from the military. Sillou told ABC News that in his last post, which he held for six years, he was second in command behind a man named Said Ali Khalil, a member of Assad's ruling Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

After defecting, Sillou said he was debriefed by an Arabic-speaking agent from the Central Intelligence Agency in Turkey's capital, Ankara. The meeting lasted three hours and was the last contact he said he had with them or any other intelligence agency.

Fighting is raging around the capital, Damascus, notably on the airport road where rebels are trying to take the airport to hamper outside support and deal a highly symbolic blow to the regime. The uptick in violence near the seat of Assad's power has raised American fears that he could resort to using his chemical weapons.

Syria's Chemical Weapons Worry West

President Obama and other world leaders have said their use would cross a "red line" and invite an as-yet undefined action, possibly military. But analysts have expressed skepticism that Assad is at the point where he needs to use chemical weapons and knows what the repercussions could be.

"As long as he's trying to hold onto the country, I don't think he'll use them," said Joshua Landis, a Syria analyst and professor at the University of Oklahoma. "As long as he's in Damascus, strategically they're not helpful to him. It's a death warrant as soon as he uses them."

"I don't think he's crazy, I think the generals around him are calculating," Landis continued. But "this danger from the rebels is one that could be extreme. Once [the regime gets] their backs against the wall, the chances of using them goes way up."

The United States and its allies have repeatedly expressed concern that Syria's stockpile, believed to be one of the biggest in the world, could be stolen and fall into extremist hands if the facilities are overrun. Or, before that happens, they could be transferred to Hezbollah by a crumbling Syrian regime.

"Syria has 600 chemical warheads apart from the liquid chemical substance which is being stored," said Sillou. "The bombs are easily transported from one place to another. To Hezbollah, which could be used against Israel, to [Shiite cleric] Moqatada al-Sadr in Iraq. The regime can give it to any friendly groups."

"They are not safe at all," Sillou said of the facilities. Asked about the dozens of chemical weapons sites the U.S. believes to be spread across the country, he said the primary facilities are called 417 and 418, near Damascus and the third-largest city Homs, respectively.

Sillou argued the arsenal was developed as a counterbalance to neighboring Israel's nuclear arsenal, an open secret not acknowledged by Israel. But he said they would only be used against external forces if Syria was attacked.

The comment was similar with one by Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi in July who said chemical weapons would never be used against the Syrian people, just "external aggression." Makdissi is believed to have been sidelined shortly after that tacit acknowledgment of the chemical weapons' existence, and last week reportedly defected and left Syria.

Just two people have the power to order a chemical weapons attack aside from Assad, Sillou said: the head of Air Force intelligence Jamil Hassan and head of state security Ali Mamlouk.

However, "I don't think it will be used without [Assad's] consent," he added.

Sillou is now hoping to mount a brigade called "Mountain Heroes," comprising some 2,000 men who would help secure the chemical weapons facilities. He says he has 15 chemical weapons officers ready to work with him and is calling for weapons and funding from the U.S.

"I have trained officers," he said. "I want [the U.S.] to support me with money, with advanced weapons to occupy these facilities and protect these stockpiles."

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/assad-chemical-weapons-says-former-general-now-defector-185035304--abc-news-topstories.html

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