There is little doubt that continued research around issues of flatus is poised to bear unusually productive fruit in the newly-sprung year. From the Bilbao School’s creeping renaissance in statistical modeling to the sharp blasts of iconoclastic reappraisal of sheer number crunching from Russian sources, the internationalization of interest in the field is no longer at all subtle. Moreover, this broadening of input, far from being a deadly influence, has accompanied a distinct bloating in subscriber numbers of previously obscure mailing lists like Smelt Quarterly, Analytical Perspectives on Aromas, and the more mainstream yet well-credentialed WAFT. The variety and quality of ripe, fresh voices in the discipline may include some that are perceived as barking or droning, certainly. This review of completed (and momentarily held back) releases in the literature of “farting” attempts to show, regardless, that a cacophony of production is precisely the motivation needed to bring fresh air to a scholarly community often prone to excessive restraint.

Well, it’s really a pleasure to be hosting this posting.  I translated the first couple pages of a pamphlet which I think could be a transcription of an orally-delivered sermon.  Such sermons are often recorded on audio cassettes.  I guess this one was so darn good, it had to be issued in the form of a printed pamphlet.  I think what I’ve got here is long enough that you start to sense a vague moralistic sermonizing tone.  I hold people in particular regard if they resort to accusing other people that they don’t agree with, of having some type of moral “disease,” which can only be cured by the shining “remedy”:  a platform of religious attitudes / baggage, to be swallowed & accepted wholesale…er er that is if one wishes to exonerate oneself from *evilness*…or at least from some sort of grievous misguidedness…  [The world needs more such discourses.]

Praise belongs to God, the lord of the worlds and the goal of the godfearing.  And prayers and peace upon His slave and messenger and the trustee of His revelation and of the bounty of His creation:  our prophet and leader and master Muhammad bin Abdullah bin Abdul-Muttalib.  And also upon his family and his associates, and upon whoever follows his way and is guided by his right guidance to the Day of Judgment.  Now then: The lords of Islamic thought, and the adherents of Islamic zeal, and the adherents of plentiful speculation – all are concerned with the condition of the Muslims and with what their affairs are leading to. These affairs preoccupy them much, and they engage in much pondering about the causes for the weakness of the Muslims, their underdevelopment in the face of their enemy, and their disunity and their differences.  They also consider the causes behind the exertions of the enemy against the Muslims, to the point of having taken over some of the Muslim lands. Then, having established these causes – these being clear – they are also concerned about establishing the treatment for these causes of underdevelopment and weakness – and it too is well known.  But it is necessary for the causes to be spread and explained.  For, if the disease is described, then the remedy will be a great means for healing and well-being. Once the sick individual has established his disease and its remedy, then it is suitable to move without delay to accepting the remedy and then imposing it on the disease. This is the nature of the reasonable man who loves life and loves rescue from illnesses.  It is important to him to know the disease and the remedy. But some people have mastered the disease and taken possession of it until they are satisfied with it and find it pleasant and until their clear perception has perished.  They are not concerned about who describes the remedy to them, because the disease has become character and nature to them.  They like it and are content with its continuance.  They have a deviation in their temperament and a weakness in their discernment.  The victory of whim over them and over their reason and their heart and their behaviors – such is the case with most people as regards religious diseases and their treatment.