Sideswipe

Lucy Lawless as Xena, Warrior Princess

The changing of the name of dwarf planet Xena to Eris still maintains a link with New Zealand's Lucy Lawless who played the title character in the New Zealand-made TV series Xena Warrior Princess. Dr Michael E. Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy who discovered the distant ball of ice and rock that he nicknamed Xena, chose the name Eris after the goddess of discord and strife in Greek mythology. It is absolutely the perfect name, he said, because she causes strife by causing arguments among men by making them think their opinions are right and everyone else's are wrong. When Dr Brown later discovered a moon around Xena he nicknamed it Gabrielle after Xena's sidekick on the series. The moon is now officially named Dysnomia, after Eris' daughter, a demon spirit of lawlessness. That name is also in part a nod to Xena fans because Xena was played by Lawless.

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I've just had the most amazing dream, says S O'Donnell from a cyber cafe nowhere near his rural New Zealand home. He writes: "After years of scrimping and saving and finally finding that perfect place in rural New Zealand, we moved in and immediately got congratulatory phone calls on our active phone line from all our family and friends. And then we hooked into the web and sent off some digital pictures of our new home to family and friends overseas. We managed to do all our banking online (just like when we lived in the city), answer some emails, surf the latest horse trader sites and easily renewed our business contacts by providing our new address information. Oh wait, it was just a dream. The reality is more like a nightmare; despite having put in the booking to the provider to hook us up with a phone and net access three weeks prior to moving in, it seems the requirement somehow slipped between their cracks. So, even though the cable is just across the road, no phone, no internet, and no fancy wireless access throughout the house. But, they'd be happy to forward all our incoming calls to a mobile for free (we'll have to pay for all outgoing calls ourselves), oh, and it will likely take around a month or so to get the job done but never mind, we'll still get to pay $600 for the installation."

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Kerry Inskeep says somebody goofed when they installed give way signs at both ends of the one-lane bridge on Gills Rd in Albany. He writes: "The Road Code clearly states that at these one-lane bridges, vehicles travelling in one direction will have to give way to vehicles going in the other direction and all one lane bridges are clearly signposted, showing who has to give way. Well the Gills Rd bridge has the circular red border give way sign on both approaches to the bridge instead of having a blue, rectangular you-have-right-of-way sign on one of the approaches. Motorists following the letter of the law could have fun waiting at each end of the bridge while they try to work out who is supposed to give way - so could their insurance companies if there was a coming-together on the bridge."