QUIRKY WORLD ... A daily look at some of the world's stranger stories

Sexual potency of flatulence exposed

ENGLAND: To most, smelling another person’s flatulence is an unpleasant experience. But the world’s first case study of a man who is sexually aroused by other people passing wind has now been published.

A British psychologist has recorded the case of so-called “eproctophilia” in a 22-year-old man from Illinois, America. The man, who has been given the pseudonym Brad, states that he is “not sexually attracted to flatulence per se, [but] the person releasing the flatulence”.

Brad, who has a degree in fine arts, describes his first experience of eproctophilia, when he heard that a girl he had a crush on in school had passed wind during a lesson.

“This blew my mind,” he said. “Prior to that, I’d never really considered it. I knew by simple biology that girls farted, but hearing that the girl I had been fawning over was capable of such a thing sparked a strange interest in me.”

He enjoys both the “sound and the smell” of flatulence.

Mark Griffiths, lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, wrote about the case in Archives of Sexual Behaviour.

USA: An Ohio bank says a bad GPS navigator is the reason it repossessed the wrong house — and threw out all the possessions inside.

Homeowner Katie Barnett says her McArthur home was wrongly repossessed while she was away with her family last month. When they returned to the house, the locks had been changed and many of their belongings were missing.

Barnett wants the First National Bank of Wellston to give her $18,000 (€13,500) for the lost items. She says the bank wants receipts for everything that’s missing.

First National CEO Anthony Thorne says the bank wants to compensate the family “fairly and equitably” but the items Barnett is claiming don’t match up with what the bank’s employees removed.

AUSTRIA: A tower bell above the red-tiled rooftops of Wolfpassing village marks the hour with an unspectacular “bong”. But this bell is unique: It is embossed with a swastika and praise to Adolf Hitler.

The Wolfpassing bell pays homage to Hitler for his 1938 annexation of Austria, a move supported back then by the vast majority of the nation’s citizens. It describes Hitler as “the unifier and Fuhrer of all Germans” and says he freed the “Ostmark” — Nazi jargon for Austria — “from the yoke of suppression by foreign elements and brought it home to the Great-German Reich”.

The government’s recent sale of Wolfpassing castle has suddenly made the bell an issue beyond the sleepy village of 1,500 people about 95km west of Vienna. Officials are scrambling for explanations of why the bell apparently evaded notice for so long.

ENGLAND: A giant Monopoly cat has toured London’s landmarks as it prepares to replace the iron token in the classic game.

Eric Nyman, senior vice president and global brand leader for Hasbro Gaming, said: “We know that cat lovers around the world will be happy to welcome the new cat token into the Monopoly game. While we’re a bit sad to see the iron go, the cat token is a fantastic choice by the fans and we have no doubt it will become just as iconic as the original tokens.”

CANADA: Officials in British Columbia’s Central Kootenay region have said about 1,500 people are under an evacuation order after a truck carrying 9,250 gallons of jet fuel crashed into a river.

The truck was en route to supply helicopters battling wildfires in the Perry Ridge area when the accident took place Friday night. Bill Macpherson, public information officer with the Regional District of Central Kootenay, said the evacuation order was not mandatory.