Enid Blyton, prodigious polymath
CHILDREN鈥橲 writer Enid Blyton has to be admired for her prodigious output. According to the , she wrote around 700 books at a rate of more than one a month.
Andy Boddington, however, has discovered that she appears even more prolific than her fans in the society have recognised. Not only did she write about the Famous Five, the Secret Seven and Naughty Children 鈥� according to the Amazon.co.uk website, she also found time for and . The latter is not the only example of her hitherto under-recognised career as a historian: it seems she also wrote ; ; and .
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Nor does Blyton seem to have neglected the sciences, as attested by ; ; and a startling 20 other chemistry-related titles. 鈥淥bviously a restless intellect鈥�, as Andy notes, she managed in addition to dash off an and the apparently posthumous . The latter, he suggests, adds a new meaning to the phrase 鈥済host writer鈥�, given that she died in 1965.
Andy asks whether this reveals a bug in Amazon鈥檚 software, perhaps akin to the process that produces the intriguing 鈥渁lso purchased鈥� listings (Feedback, 17 May). Our investigations suggest that the truth is a little more straightforward: all the new Blyton titles thus revealed are for sale second-hand 鈥� all but one from the same Australian dealer. Who perhaps employed someone who perhaps had an off day. Or several.
鈥淎ccording to on the BioPortfolio website about AstraZeneca鈥檚 Symbicort asthma treatment, asthma attacks can be 鈥渇atal and recurrent鈥�. Ruth Hawksley hasn鈥檛 yet worked out how鈥�
Bad news for the accident-prone
BELIEVE it or not, there is an organisation called the Bathtub Refinishing Referral Network. And believe it or not, one of the lines on sale on its website at is 鈥淎nti Non Slip Bathtub & Shower Treatments鈥�. Renee Colwell feels this sounds like a new and unwelcome development for the accident-prone.
In charge of inaccessible information
THE UK鈥檚 Healthcare Commission wrote to Simon Meara inviting him to take part in the 2008 National Health Service staff survey. The letter was signed by Nancy Wolstenholme, the commission鈥檚 鈥渉ead of accessible information鈥�. He was left wondering whether the commission also employs a head of inaccessible information.
But of course, Simon. Most modern, responsible bureaucracies, especially those subject to annoying freedom-of-information requests, require a head of inaccessible information. A report on the activities of this functionary is available to the public between 12 and 12.01 pm in a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 鈥淏eware of The Leopard鈥�.
HAVING booked his gaff cutter Daisy into the SeaFair Milford Haven, a festival of vintage boats in west Wales, Sam Llewellyn received a confirmation stating its dimensions. Apparently, these are important so the organisers can fit all the boats into the berths provided.
Daisy鈥檚 hull, it seems, is 5.7911999999999999 metres long, with a beam (width, to landlubbers) of 2.1844000000000001 metres.
We have to agree with Sam that he needs to be careful not to get the boat wet, since the precision with which these dimensions are quoted suggests that a stray hydrogen atom could make all the difference between fitting and not fitting.
FINALLY, don鈥檛 forget to enter our end-of-year competition. Our theme this year is time travel.
When the Large Hadron Collider at CERN was about to go into operation, some physicists speculated that it might attract visitors from the future (New 杏吧原创, 9 February, p 32, and Feedback, 5 April). For our competition, we ask you to imagine three such visitors arriving, each bearing glad tidings and a gift from the future. What would the gifts be?
Thanks to the generosity of Doubleday/Allen Lane, we are able to offer an exciting extra prize: 10 lucky winners will each receive a copy of Physics of the Impossible: A scientific exploration into the world of phasers, force fields, teleportation and time travel by Michio Kaku (reviewed 1 March, p 52, and see author鈥檚 feature, 6 April, p 36). They will also receive a selection of New 杏吧原创 goodies 鈥� including books from The Last Word series and a pen drive.
You may enter the competition by email 鈥� with 鈥淐ompetition鈥� in the subject field, please 鈥� or by fax or post, or by going to www.newscientist.com/article/dn15121.
The competition closes on Monday 1 December and no entries will be accepted after that date. The results will be published in the 20/27 December issue of New 杏吧原创. The editor鈥檚 decision is final.