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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-briefs22.5jul22,1,5262609.story Cancer Patient Gets a New Tongue From Times Wire Reports Doctors have successfully transplanted a human tongue, Vienna's General Hospital announced.

VIENNA, Austria - Doctors in Vienna have carried out the first successful tongue transplant on a human being, the hospital where the surgery took place said Monday. An unidentified 42-year-old man suffering from a malignant tumor affecting his tongue and jaw underwent a 14-hour operation at Vienna's General Hospital on Saturday in which doctors removed the tumor and attached the new tongue, hospital spokeswoman Karin Fehringer said. The patient is in good condition, Fehringer said. No further details were immediately available, but the hospital said a medical team would provide more information Tuesday.

Lawmakers have been known to split hairs. Splitting tongues, they're not so crazy about. So David Miller, the state representative from Calumet City and a practicing dentist, is serious when he talks about recent legislation he's introduced. Miller, a Democrat, is sponsoring a bill that would all but ban what has become the latest craze in "body modification"--slicing the tongue in half to create a reptilian appearance. It's a practice akin to body piercings and tattoos. But detractors like Miller say it carries risks of infection and even death if not performed by licensed medical people and surgeons. That's why...

 Communion Posture - Denying Communion The egregious practice of denying Holy Communion to Catholics for the manner in which they receive it (kneeling, genuflecting, tongue etc.) continues in some places despite letters such as the following from the Holy See, prohibiting such denials and threatening canonical sanctions against priests who do so.  The following was published in the November/December 2002 issue of Notitiae, the journal of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The bishop to whom it was addressed was not identified. Prot. n. 1322/02/L  Rome, 1 July 2002  Your Excellency, This Congregation for...

Posted on Mon, Jul. 22, 2002 Key to an ancient tongue Penn archaeologists have puzzled over the cuneiform writings for decades. At last, a Sumerian dictionary may be ready by 2004. By Faye Flam Inquirer Staff Writer Steve Tinney and Tonia Sharlach hold cuneiform tablets from the collection at Penn’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The two Sumerologists are working on the 30-year dictionary project. The people known as Sumerians are credited with starting the first civilization and building the first settlements worthy of being called cities. They also invented writing, and then they wrote and wrote and wrote, filling...