News In Brief

it's mine. no, it's ours

DNA tests have been conducted on numerous individuals. Now, one is being carried out on a dog, which is at the center of an ownership dispute between a woman in Cape Town, South Africa, and the crew of a Taiwanese cargo ship in port there. The woman says the dog disappeared a month ago from her mother's house. The crew insists it came from a local breeder 11 months ago. The DNA tests will determine whether the dog, which is calmly sitting out the storm in a kennel, came from the breeder.

hope he likes computers

Well, it probably had to happen sooner or later: A couple has named their newborn after a Web site. No, the name isn't quite as bad as having "dotcom" somewhere in it. In fact, it's a fairly poetic-sounding word - Iuma, which is the acronym for the Internet Underground Music Archive. As participants in the company's online marketing gimmick, Jessica and Travis Thornhill from Kansas bestowed the name on their son, born last week. The perk for them? They get $5,000.

Cerulean or periwinkle? Crayon color war heats up

For years, children scribbled on paper (or walls) with the familiar blues, reds, and yellows from Crayola's box of crayons. Now, kids may use purple mountain's majesty, pink flamingo, and laser lemon shades to fill in their coloring books. Crayola's Web site, www.crayola.com, is sponsoring a "Color Census 2000" to pick a new batch of 120 crayons from more than 400 shades. The contest doesn't end until Dec. 15, but crayon aficionados have given ordinary blue an early lead. The top 10 colors, with their vote totals from survey respondents, as of Aug. 15:

1. Blue 1,813

2. Cerulean 1,475

3. Purple heart 1,286

4. Midnight blue 1,078

5. Caribbean green 1,066

6. Aquamarine 871

7. Periwinkle 845

8. Denim 774

9. Tropical rain forest 742

10. Red 706

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