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A Brooklyn elementary schoolteacher was removed from class and arrested on assault charges yesterday after a 10-year-old student with Down syndrome complained she doused him with air freshener when he passed gas. Jane Fasone, 58, a veteran teacher at Public School 72 in East New York, is accused of spraying the boy's buttocks and mouth and making him stand against a wall, sources said. "It's hard to believe she would do something like that," said Phyllis Esposito, 55, Fasone's neighbor in Marine Park. Esposito said Fasone, the married mother of two adult sons, has taught disabled children for years. "She's...

PARIS, Nov 11 (AFP) - Herrings appear to be sociable fish who like to communicate among themselves and use their natural flatulence to do so, a team of British and Canadian researchers has reported. A report in the British review Biology Letters describes how the researchers studied the sounds produced by two kinds of captive, wild-caught herring. "At night herring squeeze bubbles out of their swimbladders through an anal pore, producing sounds not unlike people blowing raspberries," the team of three recounts. The Pacific species (Clupea pallasii) were found to emit distinctive bursts of pulses, known as fast repetitive tick...

SWEDEN: Fart costs bank 100,000 dollars Hanne Dankertsen 28.08.03 11:16, ny 28.08.03 11:17 A fart was the start of a staff conflict that ended up costing the Swedish national bank NOK 760,000 (USD 100,000) in compensation. According to computer technician Göran Andervass, 44, a colleague visited his office and let out a big, stinky fart, Aftonbladet reports. Andervass thought the incident was provoking and shouted at his colleague. After the fart and the following shouting, Andervass and his colleague were called in to a meeting with their boss in the national bank. "The boss wanted to know why I had...

Farmers will be taxed on the flatulence of their livestock in an attempt to slow New Zealand's contribution to global warming. The levy could cost a typical family farmer up to $300 a year. Larger corporate farmers could pay up to $10,000. Sheep will be levied at nine cents each and cows at up to 72 cents under the Government's proposals. The money will be used for research on emission reductions needed to meet New Zealand's commitment to lower greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto protocol. The new Agriculture Emissions Research body will be funded by sheep, cattle, deer and...

It's the GasBGon flatulence filter, and it's helping provide relief for thousands of gas passers who have cleared rooms or blamed the dog for far too long. "People tell us, 'Thank you for giving my life back. Now I can go out in public again,'" Sharron Huza, the cushion's creator, said in an interview. "They'll bring it with them to the movie theatre, to work, in the car or on the airplane." Huza said more than 1,000 cushions have been sold in just over a year on the market. The company has been approached by people interested in taking GasBGon...

Ananova : Patient having op on backside breaks wind, causing fire A Danish man having surgery on his backside broke wind and set his genitals alight. A surgeon was removing a mole on his backside with an electric knife when the man broke wind, lighting a spark. His genitals had been washed with surgical spirits and caught fire. He's suing the hospital for pain and suffering and loss of income. He says he had to take extra time off work and can't have sex with his wife. The hospital says it was an unfortunate accident. "When I woke up, my...

ABC Online:: Thu, Mar 28 2002 10:38 PM AESTZapping beans to reduce flatulence and global warming Pioneering researchers in India have found a way to reduce flatulence caused by eating beans, the British weekly New Scientist reports. Jammala Machaiah and Mrinal Pednekar of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Trombay zapped mung beans, chickpeas and black-eyed beans with gamma rays. Levels of oligosaccharides, a carbohydrate that is the main culprit in intestinal gas, were cut by up to 80 per cent, although kidney beans were strangely left unaffected by the treatment. "In India, beans are a very popular and important...

<p>LONDON -- Indian scientists have come up with a cure for flatulence, by blasting guilty foodstuffs such as beans with gamma rays to knock out the offending chemicals that cause the problem, New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.</p> <p>Bacteria in the large intestine are responsible for the gases that cause flatulence, and when these bugs eat certain types of carbohydrate called oligosaccharides they produce a mixture of methane and smelly sulfurous gases, which cause the social embarrassment.</p>