Blog Posts by Claudine Zap

When packages left on doorsteps started to go missing, neighbors stepped in to set up a dragnet. The unexpected result: Video captured an 8-year-old kid swiping boxes in broad daylight.

Clermont, Florida, residents come up with a tricky way to catch the culprit. They left decoy packages and set up a security camera. And then they waited. Think of this as "CSI: Clermont" edition.

A clue that the perp was pintsize should have been the type of loot taken: According to local station CFNews13, the missing packages contained Barbie dolls, children's makeup, and children's cell phones.

Neighbor Jessica Araujo, who runs a business from her home, said she had $1,800 worth of packages that never arrived. She set up the video camera and instructed her daughter, Thalia, to stand watch through the door's peephole for the culprit.

But instead of a mischievous teenager or a passerby, the camera caught an 8-year-old girl, who had just gotten off her school bus. The footage

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Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton

Even with the official news that the royal couple is expecting, Prince William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, have already bucked some traditions: They waited almost a decade after meeting to marry and didn't announce a pregnancy within the first year of their union.

So how will this modern couple handle the traditions of the monarchy when it comes to their baby?

Royal expert Hugo Vickers says by email to Yahoo!, "Each generation of the Royal Family do things their way." Vickers suggests the couple will "veer to the informal and hands on approach," meaning "as few staff as possible."

Still, Vickers says he finds the pair "quite a traditional couple," pointing to their formal wedding as a prime example of how the two conduct themselves.

This is a family that changes slowly over time, but as royal historian Carolyn Harris notes, each generation of royal children may institute "change and modernization of royal traditions." She points to Queen Victoria

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Now that Kate Middleton is officially pregnant with the next generation of royal offspring, we naturally want to know, what will the little prince or princess look like?

Luckily, we don't have to wait the requisite nine or so months to find out.

PHOTOS: What will Kate Middleton's maternity style be?

The website Morph Thing has done all the legwork, mashing together the features of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to come up with some likenesses of the potential child.

Morph Thing creator Charanjeet Kondal has taken the features of the famous adult faces and reimagined them fused together as the faces of a boy and a girl.

Oddly, the little boy in this experiment is darker haired and appears to look more like his mum.

Related: Kate Middleton's rare maternity condition

The fair-haired girl carries more of the features of her famous dad and perhaps even her grandmother, the late Princess Diana. Kondal explained how he made the images in a press release.

"On each

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Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention, along with her look, received rave reviews on Tuesday night. Now fans who want to say yes to this dress can look for it in stores, for a pretty price.

The Tracy Reese-designed pink-and-gray silk jacquard frock will be rushed into production sooner than planned, a representative for the designer confirmed for Yahoo!, due to the swarm of positive responses to the stunning style.

Potential buyers of the first lady's dress can sign up for email alerts on the designer's website to be "the first to know when the dress is available for purchase." Tracy Reese announced on the "Today" show that the dress will sell for under $500, "affordable for some."

Related: Michelle Obama's DNC Nail Polish Sparks National Trend

Meanwhile, the first lady's "Everly" pumps from J.Crew in rhubarb are available on the website for $245, and nail salons have stocked up on Obama's choice of gel nail polish in a purplish-gray shade called

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Here's an eggs-cellent idea: A video from the Chinese site jifenzhong.com gives an easy how-to for separating a yolk from an egg. Mandarin knowledge not required: Just watch and learn.

All that's needed: Two bowls, an egg, and an empty plastic water bottle. Crack the raw egg into one bowl, then the egg whisperer takes the plastic bottle and squeezes it, which gently sucks in the yolk. The yolk can then be squeezed out, unharmed, on to the second bowl. Simple. And simply amazing.

This low-tech solution to egg separation has wowed on the Web -- the video, uploaded to YouTube last month, snared the attention of multiple news outlets and blogs this week and has been viewed over 5 million times.

Thousands of commenters on YouTube responded. Anon7906 wrote, "My life has been changed." Walf89 added, "With this method, make more leche flan desserts!" And a grateful cook posted," That's cool! I'm tempted to try it right now."

This is not the first time a food trick has

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A plane towing a banner, "Will you marry me," turned into a plea, "Will you help me?" after the pilot had to ditch into Rhode Island's Block Island Sound.

The pilot, Mark Simmons, owner of Simmons Aviation, based in Pawcatuck, Connecticut, was pulled out of the water by a passing boater, who notified the Coast Guard of the rescue after Simmons' plane experienced engine troubles.

The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed to Yahoo! that a Good Samaritan picked up the pilot and that Coast Guard involvement was minimal.

But the pilot's eight-year-old son had an instrumental role. The U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue Controller John Harland told the Westerly Sun that Simmons' son, Ethan, heard his "mayday call" and was able to help rescuers pinpoint his flight.

Simmons Aviation has a banner-towing division, Banner-Tow USA, which promotes its services for aerial advertising, including personal messages for red-letter banners and notes on its website, "Your message can read up

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Will gymnastics stunt my growth? Hmmmm.True or False: You should keep your eye on the ball. You may think you know the answer, but do you really? Read on for some of the biggest sports myths, and check yourself against the facts.

Related: Little-known baseball facts to impress the kids

Myth: You should keep your eye on the ball.
The Facts: Baseball is a simple game. You throw the ball, you hit the ball ... but should you watch the ball? An exhaustive look at baseball statistics leads the blog LiveScience to conclude that ball players who watch the ball will miss it. In fact, a ball pitched by a pro player can go upwards of 90 to 100 miles per hour, too fast for the eye to track it. The best players will take the first couple of pitches to anticipate where the ball will come across the plate. LiveScience also notes that catching a ball takes the same kind of geometry on the fly: "Good players do not run to a place where the ball will land and then wait for it, but rather catch the ball while running," Ken Fuld, visual

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Girl Scout Troop 1500 does all the usual things: Sells cookies, goes on camping trips, and earns merit badges. But once a month the troop, which is based in Austin, Texas, does something out of the ordinary: The girls take an hour-long trip to Hilltop Prison in Gatesville, so the troop members can visit their mothers behind bars.

The unusual program, Girl Scouts Beyond Bars, which exists in 30 states around the country, was the brainchild of a troop leader in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1992, who noticed a need for girls with mothers who had been jailed. The Girl Scouts reached out to the Department of Justice, which in 2003 began providing funding for that program, along with Girl Scouting in Detention Centers.

Christine Brongniart, the Girl Scouts program manager for the two efforts, agreed the program is "a far cry from cookies and crafts." She noted that all the programs from the Girl Scouts, since its origin 100 years ago, "come from a recognition of communal need."

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