Man finds an ‘adorable’ frog in his romaine lettuce

December 28, 2021

Many folks would be somewhat alarmed to find a tiny frog frolicking in their lettuce, but upcoming recording artist Simon Curtis has decided to quite literally embrace the unexpected discovery, reports NBC-TV’s Today show.

Curtis recently told his Twitter followers that he’d spotted an adorable little frog in the bottom of a container of romaine lettuce that had been sitting in his fridge for a few days. It was too cold at the time (27 degrees F) to release him outside, so Curtis turned to his social media following for advice on what to do next.

“Back in the fridge until it warms up outside tomorrow? He’s hopping and clearly well and I bought this lettuce like four days ago …. He’s so adorable I really don’t want him to die,” he wrote.

The 35-year-old singer and songwriter opted to put a few pieces of lettuce back into the container, gave the frog a Mason jar lid full of water, and sprayed the whole container down with water. He also gave him a name: Tony.

Tony seems to be a gentle, happy little frog and he even lets Curtis hold him.

There’s one little problem, though — the frog is a bit of an escape artist and he’s been giving his new roommate a run for his money over the past few days.

Curtis bought Tony some food at a pet store to keep his belly full and confirmed with a biologist that he is a Green Treefrog.

Tony has had plenty of adventures in his new home in just a few days—including taking refuge among the shampoo bottles in Curtis’ shower.

“He was so dehydrated and shriveled I was worried he’d died, but he’s now immersed in distilled water, cleaning himself, and coming back to life!!” Curtis wrote.

After that escapade, Curtis decided to purchase Tony a “proper terrarium” at PetSmart and he asked his followers if he should keep him as a pet or release him into the wild (the majority have voted to keep him so far).

Only time will tell if Tony becomes a permanent resident in Curtis’ home, but the recording artist has learned one important lesson from this whole saga: Always check the lettuce box before you buy it.

As it turns out, though, finding a tiny creature in your prepared greens isn’t as rare as you might think. In 2019, researcher conducted a review of a 15-year period to see just how many “wild vertebrates” had been found in prepackaged produce during that time.

According to Hughes and his team, news outlets reported on 40 unique incidents of people finding frogs, birds, or rodents in bagged/boxed greens between 2003 and 2018.

Amphibians and reptiles (tree frogs, toads, lizards and snakes) accounted for 30 of the 40 incidents and most of the critters were dead, with a few being alive. The rest were other types of animals (birds, rodents, and bats).

The tiny little frog that Curtis found in his lettuce is one of the lucky ones who made it out alive, and his new owner is thrilled that his followers are getting a kick out of Tony’s antics.

“The number of people being touched by Tony the tree frog’s story is really so moving to witness, and also a good reminder of just how much we all deserve kindness, no matter who, or what, we are,”

Research contact: @TODAYshow

August 19, 2024

“Redshirting”—or choosing to delay school entry for a year—seems to be an increasingly popular trend among parents who are trying to give their children a competitive advantage, reports Yahoo Lifestyle.

The growing popularity of redshirting may have been started by Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling book, Outliers, which was published in 2008. In this book, Gladwell claims that a child being relatively older than their peers provides an advantage.

Gladwell points to data showing that nearly all players for the Canadian Hockey League have birthdays in the first four months of the year. Because the cutoff for most sports in Canada is January 1, children born in the first four months of the year are older than the other children on the team—thus, making them more likely to be identified as talented and ultimately more likely to play professional hockey. Gladwell argues that this principle extends to children who are older than their classmates having an academic advantage as well.

Sincethis book was published, it seems that children are waiting longer and longer to start kindergarten every year. At the same time, kindergarten seems to be becoming increasingly academic and rigorous.

For parents of children born near the cutoff date, the pressure to delay kindergarten feels intense. So does research actually find that redshirting will provide an academic and/or social advantage for children? The answer may be more complicated than you think.

The research on redshirting

Research on redshirting suggests that it is associated with a small academic advantage (that is, higher academic test scores) and test scores that seem to increase at a greater rate in the first and second grades (suggesting that redshirted children are showing enhanced learning in these grades).

However, this effect may begin to fade as early as the end of first grade. This research is also correlational—meaning we do not know whether it is redshirting that causes these advantages or if redshirting is simply associated with advantages. The latter would not be surprising since parents that choose to redshirt their children are often very different from the parents who do not—most notably, they are often higher income families.

Some research studies eliminate the problem of parent choice by looking at the impact of children’s age within the same grade (such as comparing students with summer birthdays to students in the same grade with fall birthdays). Research finds that students who are relatively older than other children in their grade score higher on math and science tests and, although these differences decrease over the years, they are still present to some extent in eighth grade.

Other research finds that children who are relatively older show less hyperactivity and inattention and greater educational attainment (translation: getting farther in school). However, the impact on educational attainment is greatly reduced when schools do not engage in early tracking (translation: sending children to different schools based on academic abilities in elementary school).

Research also shows that children who are older relative to their classmates are more likely to be in gifted education and less likely to be in special education. These positive impacts seem to extend to high school and beyond.

Children who are older relative to their classmates are also less likely to drop out of high school, less likely to commit a felony, and less likely to experience a teenage pregnancy. Children who are older than their classmates also are more likely to attend a four-year college than younger students.

Yet, it is very important to note that this line of research only involves associations (meaning, we do not know whether being older relative to your peers actually causes any of these positive or negative outcomes). Further research is needed in order to conclude that redshirting actually causes any of these positive outcomes.

Are there any situations in which parents may want to avoid redshirting?

So, research suggests that being older than your peers is consistently associated with at least a small advantage—but are there any situations in which parents might want to avoid redshirting?

Research suggests that when your child has an identified disability, a suspected disability—or even if you are just concerned that they may need some extra help in school—you may want to avoid redshirting. In this case, delaying school entry may be associated with worse academic performance, because it would also involve delaying free essential services through the public school system (such as speech therapy and learning support).

This short delay may have a big impact as research finds that services before age five are more effective in improving a child’s long-term outcome than services after age five.

Research has compared the impact of redshirting on children with disabilities (such as autism, developmental delays, learning disabilities, or health impairments) versus children without disabilities. Researchers found that children with disabilities who were redshirted scored significantly lower in math in third grade when compared to children with disabilities who were not redshirted, while children without disabilities who were redshirted showed improved math and reading scores in third grade. Research also finds a negative impact of redshirting for children with more severe ADHD and no impact for children with learning disabilities.

Is redshirting more important for boys than girls?

In any discussion of redshirting, it is commonly assumed that boys in particular benefit from redshirting. In line with this assumption, research reveals that boys are indeed more likely to be redshirted than girls. So is there any research to back up this trend?

Research does find that girls are more likely to be ready for kindergarten than boys and that this difference is mostly driven by differences in social-emotional development.

Research also suggests that boys seem to show greater gains from redshirting and that boys may not cope as well as girls with having higher-achieving classmates.

Research contact: @yahoolifestyle0