麻豆传媒

HAVE YOU ever watched children demonstrating their boundless energy, perhaps while feeling exhausted yourself? And perhaps fantasised about tapping it? One mother of Feedback鈥檚 acquaintance is wont to muse 鈥済ive me a hamster wheel big enough鈥︹��

Members of a South African project called Play-Pump have gone beyond musing. Their prototype system, at Motshegofadiwa Primary School near Pretoria, uses a playground roundabout to pump clean drinking water up from a well (). This is a great idea because women and children in South Africa鈥檚 countryside can spend hours every day fetching water from distant rivers and springs. Hand-pumping water from boreholes is laborious, while diesel and electric pumps are scarce and expensive to install and keep running.

All the parks and playgrounds in the world could copy Play-Pump鈥檚 lead, perhaps topping up the local grid or lighting a few streets. Of course, we鈥檒l need a bit of restraint in tapping into this free resource. Remember the treadmill in Victorian prisons鈥�

IN Sydney, Australia, if you put up a 鈥渘o junk mail鈥� sign outside your house, it is legally enforceable. 麻豆传媒 reader Simon Pretty, who is not an Australian citizen, was there in the run-up to this month鈥檚 election. So he took an extra precaution to stem the flood of bumph. He added 鈥溾��including anything election-related 鈥� we cannot vote!鈥� at the foot of his sign. It worked. Mostly. He received just one leaflet 鈥� from the local Green Party. 鈥淚nfuriated, I called the candidate,鈥� he reports, 鈥渢o find out why the supposedly environmentally aware gentleman, of all candidates, had perpetrated this wasteful act.鈥�

鈥淥h, we ask our people to target those with the 鈥楴o junk mail鈥� signs,鈥� he was told. 鈥淭hey are the ones most likely to vote for us.鈥�

OUR report of the non-avian chicken (9 October) was quick to do the rounds among palaeontologists, who regularly deal with animal classification. One noted that government regulations can breed some strange categorisations of animals. Thirty or so years back, US officials decided the American alligator deserved legal protection 鈥� but it didn鈥檛 fit into any of the classifications specified by existing legislation, such as migratory bird or game fish. Officials pondered the matter and decided they would have to fit alligators into one of the existing categories. Because alligators were trapped mainly for their skins, they officially became 鈥渇ur-bearing animals鈥�.

WHEN you set out on a journey it is nice to know how long it鈥檚 likely to take. So all credit to the UK鈥檚 Highways Agency for providing the real-time information service at . At the beginning of October it was helpfully telling us that roadworks on the part of the M25 motorway around London that passes Heathrow airport were due to be completed in 456 days, 5 hrs and 57 minutes. We鈥檇 be there with a stopwatch to check, if the deadline wasn鈥檛 midnight on New Year鈥檚 Eve.

THE UK Open University runs a short course called 鈥淪tudying Mammals鈥�. Sue Anderson, who was thinking of applying, began to wonder what her fellow students might be like when she read this statement in the OU鈥檚 online prospectus: 鈥淭he course introduces new scientific ideas as you need them 鈥� it does not assume that you鈥檝e studied biology beforehand or that you have any first-hand practical knowledge of mammals.鈥�

THIS is from 鈥淒elivering Integration鈥�, the Somerset County Council Local Transport Plan 4th Annual Progress Report, July 2004. Under 鈥淭argets Deleted鈥� we find: 鈥淥utput 16. Eliminate principal roads with less than zero residual life (currently 43 kilometres).鈥�

Neil Howlett, who came across this, is not entirely sure what it means, but as he understands it the county council has deleted the elimination of roads with negative residual life, which seems to be a triple negative. Does that reinstate the non-existent roads or not?

HUMAN evolution may not be as we鈥檝e assumed, reader David Wright concluded during a recent visit to Harewood House in northern England. 鈥淧arrots are some of the only birds to use their feet to hold food the same way humans would,鈥� a sign on a display declared. 鈥淪hould I stop using my hands?鈥� Wright asks.

FINALLY, don鈥檛 forget to send in your brilliant gift suggestions to help your fellow readers in this year鈥檚 round of festive generosity. We鈥檒l sift through your ideas and add the best to www.nomoresocks.newscientist.com. Just cast your mind back to your favourite presents on birthdays and Christmases past, then visit the website and fill in the form. Every week, we鈥檒l send a bottle of champagne to the sender of our chosen 鈥済ift of the week鈥�.

Andrew Baxter checked out the chemicals he intended to use in an experiment. The hazardous substance fact sheet on acetic acid told him it was 鈥渁 colourless liquid with a strong vinegar-like odour鈥�.