"Vampires, the devil's deceit and mental illness are among the hot topics for some 300 exorcists who flocked to Poland this week from as far away as Africa and India for a week-long congress.

Held at Poland's Roman Catholic Jasna Gora monastery, home to the venerated Black Madonna icon, this year's congress "examines the current fashion for vampirism in Europe and the world-over, schizophrenia and other mental disorders as well as the devil's deceit during exorcism," according to the monastery's radio station.

Also attending are "priests and lay people who work with exorcists or who are themselves practitioners in cases which do not involve possession but rather other forms of harassment by evil spirits," Polish exorcist, Father Andrzej Grefkowicz was quoted as saying.

Hailing from India, world-renowned exorcist Father Rufus Pereira as well as chief exorcist of the Archdiocese of Vienna Larry Hogan are among the participants, the radio reported. The unusual meeting is held once every two years.

The Jasna Gora monastery's venerated Black Madonna icon is believed by many Poles to work miracles.

Legend has it that it was painted by the apostle Saint Luke on a table top from the home of the Holy Family, according to the Jasna Gora website. Records suggest the icon arrived in Poland during the 14th century.

With around 90 percent of the population declaring themselves Roman Catholic, Poland remains one of Europe's most devout countries."

-- Finally, people who are working on the REAL problems of the world! Silly Church, haven't they heard of Blade?

READ HERE

"Researchers from Japan recently published a paper in PLoS One describing their successful growth and transplantation of new teeth created from the stem cells of mice.

In order to create these teeth, Takashi Tsuji from Tokyo University of Science and his team removed two different stem cells from the molar teeth of mice. They took these stem cells to grow in the laboratory. In order to control how the teeth grew, as far as shape and length, the stem cells were placed in a mold to grow.

Once the cells grew into full tooth units, the researchers then transplanted them into the jaws of one-month-old mice. These transplanted teeth fused with the jaw bones and tissues on an average of about 40 days. The researchers were also able to detect nerve fibers growing in the new teeth.

The mice that received the transplanted teeth were able to eat and chew normally without any complications.

Tsuji hopes that this new development will help further the research being done to allow for the growth of human organs from a patient’s own stem cells. Currently researchers do not have the ability to culture three-dimensional organs outside of the body. The hope is the growth of these teeth will be the beginning step that is needed.

Tsuji stresses that in order for reparative therapy to be successful, it is important to find the right seed cells. Because the stem cells used for these teeth were taken directly from the molars of the mice, they were able to grow into teeth, complete with enamel and dental bones.

Researchers believe that down the road it may be possible to do this with adult stem cells or cells found in human wisdom teeth and allow for actual teeth to be implanted replacing teeth lost to dental decay or injury..."

READ HERE

"A string of a dozen volcanoes, at least several of them active, has been found beneath the frigid seas near Antarctica, the first such discovery in that region.Some of the peaks tower nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) above the ocean floor — nearly tall enough to break the water's surface.

-- Can't say it's unexpected at all.

READ HERE

-- Whoo! The trailers are supposed to be attached to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when it comes out.

"Washington (CNN) -- Terrorists intent on striking commercial aircraft have shown renewed interest in surgically implanting explosives in humans to circumvent airport security, a U.S. security official tells CNN.

The idea of implanting bombs has been discussed in the past, but the United States has obtained fresh intelligence about the desire of terrorists to implant devices, according to the official.

Another U.S. official said Ibrahim Hasan al-Asiri, the top bomb maker for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), is suspected of being behind the latest efforts.

"He's AQAP's bomb guy," said the official. Asiri is also believed to be behind the thwarted 2009 Christmas day "underwear" bomb, the failed October 2010 cargo plane bomb and an attempt to kill a Saudi prince using a concealed bomb

Both officials said there is no specific or imminent threat. But the new intelligence prompted officials last week to brief international airlines and U.S. allies overseas, a Transportation Security Administration spokesman said.

"We are treating this information seriously, and as a precautionary matter, sharing it with our colleagues overseas and of course U.S. carriers who travel overseas," TSA Administrator John Pistole told CNN. "We see this as the latest iteration or the evolution of what terrorist groups are trying to do to circumvent our security layers and to perhaps defeat our societal norms," he said..."

READ HERE

-- "What's going on in the center of this spiral galaxy? Named the Sombrero Galaxy for its hat-like resemblance, M104 features a prominent dust lane and a bright halo of stars and globular clusters. Reasons for the Sombrero's hat-like appearance include an unusually large and extended central bulge of stars, and dark prominent dust lanes that appear in a disk that we see nearly edge-on. Billions of old stars cause the diffuse glow of the extended central bulge. Close inspection of the bulge in the above photograph shows many points of light that are actually globular clusters. M104's spectacular dust rings harbor many younger and brighter stars, and show intricate details astronomers don't yet fully understand. The very center of the Sombrero glows across the electromagnetic spectrum, and is thought to house a large black hole. Fifty million-year-old light from the Sombrero Galaxy can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation of Virgo. "

SEE HERE

"An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as "religious headgear".

Niko Alm first applied for the licence three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional reasons.

Mr Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion, pastafarianism.

The Austrian authorities required him to obtain a doctor's certificate that he was "psychologically fit" to drive.

The idea came into Mr Alm's noodle three years ago as a way of making a serious, if ironic, point.

A self-confessed atheist, Mr Alm says he belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a light-hearted faith whose members call themselves pastafarians.

The group's website states that "the only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the rejection of dogma".

In response to pressure for American schools to teach the Christian theory known as intelligent design, as an alternative to natural selection, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster wrote to the Kansas School Board asking for the pastafarian version of intelligent design to be taught to schoolchildren, as an alternative to the Christian theory..."

-- Yes!

READ HERE

SEE HERE

"A nuclear reactor in Japan was forced to shut down due to infiltration of enormous swarms of jellyfish near the power plant.

A similar incident was also reported recently in Israel when millions of jellyfish clogged down the sea-water cooling system of a power plant located there.

Such massive invasions of the species have scientists are trying to figure out the reason behind such unusual growing trends.

"The several [power plant] incidents that happened recently aren't enough to indicate a global pattern. They certainly could be coincidental," Monty Graham, a jellyfish biologist and senior marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab off the Gulf Coast of Alabama stating, told LiveScience.

Recent studies have found out that jellyfish blooming occurs mostly during the summer and spring months..."

-- Follow link for the rest of the photos.

SEE HERE

SEE HERE

"Fans of "Game of Thrones" can rejoice: George R.R. Martin is back with "A Dance with Dragons," and he's scary good.

It's been almost six years since the publication of "A Feast for Crows," the fourth volume in George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy saga, "A Song of Ice and Fire." It's been a whopping 11 years since the arrival of the third volume, "A Storm of Swords" -- the last truly satisfying installment in the series. But once again, with anticipation driven to new heights after the successful first season of HBO's adaptation, "Game of Thrones," the waiting is finally over. Volume five, "A Dance with Dragons," arrives in bookstores on July 12. It is a triumphant return to form: everything a Martin fan could want from a fantasy novel.

Which is both a promise ... and a threat.

I cracked open the pages of this 1,016-page monster with no small dose of trepidation. When high expectations are combined with years of deferred gratification, readers are thrust onto a vulnerable precipice. Like many early-adopting fans of "A Song of Ice and Fire," I had been disappointed by "A Feast for Crows," a reaction that was all the more painful after so many years spent in a state of increasingly feverish anticipation. I did not want to repeat that experience..."

-- Loved "Game of Thrones" I don't know if I should start reading the books, or wait for the show...!

READ HERE

"Researchers have discovered a way to capture and harness energy transmitted by such sources as radio and television transmitters, cell phone networks and satellite communications systems. By scavenging this ambient energy from the air around us, the technique could provide a new way to power networks of wireless sensors, microprocessors and communications chips.

“There is a large amount of electromagnetic energy all around us, but nobody has been able to tap into it,” said Manos Tentzeris, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering who is leading the research. “We are using an ultra-wideband antenna that lets us exploit a variety of signals in different frequency ranges, giving us greatly increased power-gathering capability.”

Tentzeris and his team are using inkjet printers to combine sensors, antennas and energy scavenging capabilities on paper or flexible polymers. The resulting self powered wireless sensors could be used for chemical, biological, heat and stress sensing for defense and industry; radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging for manufacturing and shipping, and monitoring tasks in many fields including communications and power usage.

A presentation on this energy scavenging technology was given July 6 at the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Symposium in Spokane, Wash. The discovery is based on research supported by multiple sponsors, including the National Science Foundation, the Federal Highway Administration and Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)..."

READ HERE

-- "Puyehue volcano in southern Chile has spread volcanic ash far and wide since it erupted in early June. On Monday, Argentina's president announced that economic relief would be provided to residents affected by the ash in the southwestern region of Patagonia. And as recent as July 1 ash in the atmosphere was disrupting flights at the Buenos Aires airport. These images show how the earth's landscape has been affected..."

SEE HERE