Behind the beady eyes and nighttime “ribbit” lurks a fascinating creature. Frogs and toads hop a weird line in life. They take buffalo taxis and use dating websites. Throughout human history, froggy feet have also left memorable prints, having inspired everything from famous novels to some of the earliest pregnancy kits.

Centuries of studies could not plumb the depths of these amphibians’ limits. They still manage to surprise scientists with their ability to survive bizarre injuries and mutations.

10 Visible Hearts

The Hyalinobatrachium genus of frogs has transparent bellies. The unusual look soon earned the tiny amphibians the title of “glass frogs.” Found in Central and South America, the see-through skin of two species extends over the chest and show their hearts.

In 2017, a third glass frog was found to beat its heart openly at the world. Called H. yaku, it was a bit odd. A visible heart is already a weird thing to find in nature, but H. yaku also looked different than other glass frogs.

All other species take some thinking and perhaps a magnifying glass to tell them apart. H. yaku turned up in Ecuador’s trees sporting unique green spots and distinctive songs. They also had bright green to yellow-green skin. Interestingly, DNA tests showed that this frog was not closely related to the other two species with visible hearts.^[1]

9 Thousands Are Smuggled

Frog legs are considered a French delicacy. Several other European countries also consume the amphibian limbs. To meet the demand, the animals are imported from other places like Turkey.

The latter ships a massive number of frogs to Europe but also tightly regulates the trade. To ensure that the frogs are not exploited, only certain people may collect them. Hunters must be in possession of the right license and can only collect certain species at specific times of the year. This is simply too much red tape for poachers, who often gather the creatures en masse before selling them to overseas buyers.^[2]

In 2017, Turkish authorities caught five men attempting to do just that. When their minibus was stopped for a routine search, agents found about 7,500 common water frogs. The poachers confessed, and the kidnapped amphibians were released back into the wild.

8 The Match.com Frog

In Bolivia, one can visit the Museo de Historia Natural Alcide d’Orbigny. Inside this long-worded institute lives Romeo. This frog spends his days paddling around an enclosure and resting in the shadows. By species, he is a Sehuencas water frog, and by heart, very lonely.

After 10 years of croaking as romantically as he could, Romeo gave up in 2017. What his human caretakers already feared finally sank in—that he was the last-known frog of his kind. Even as Romeo’s calls fell silent, scientists continued their search for a mate.

In a creative move, they put Romeo’s profile on the online dating site Match.com. It raised enough funds to send researchers to the Bolivian cloud forest. In the past, it was full of Sehuencas water frogs. However, the usual suspects had decimated them—pollution, habitat destruction, and the deadly chytrid fungal infection.^[3]

The 2019 expedition found five Sehuencas. Only two were female, but one was the perfect age for Romeo. Should the couple find no romance, their two-legged Cupids will try in vitro fertilization.

7 They Have Kneecaps

Frogs have been dissected and studied for centuries. Yet, one fact managed to elude scientists until 2017. As it turns out, the little hoppers have kneecaps. Weird ones, too.

It all began with the discovery of sesamoids. These bony structures are embedded in tendons over joints, essentially making them kneecaps. They turned up in species thought to have none, which inspired an Argentinian team to try their luck with frogs.

Incredibly, they found something. A close look at 20 frog species revealed a primitive cap, not yet a sesamoid. It was more of a cartilage blob, soft and small. So tiny, in fact, that it was hard to see under a microscope. Rather than protect the joints from a blow, the squishy pads might exist to alleviate the constant stress that frog knees are under.^[4]

Although the primitive structures are not kneecaps in the modern sense, they suggest that the earliest caps did not evolve with the first tetrapods that crawled onto land. Instead, they came with amphibians.

6 Test Frogs Made Chytrid Global

To date, the chytrid fungus has caused 200 amphibian species to become endangered or extinct. How it spread across the world was unclear, but recently, a candidate hopped to the fore—the African clawed frog.

During the 1930s, doctors injected urine samples into females. If the pee came from a pregnant woman, a pregnancy hormone (human chorionic gonadotropin) made the frog ovulate. By the following morning, the tank would be full of eggs. Since the method was successful and repeatable, the frogs were in high demand and shipped around the world.

The pregnancy stick women use today became available in 1988. The frogs were no longer needed, and many were released into the wild. The global spread of the species made it a good candidate for the devastating fungus, but confirmation came in 2006 when clawed frogs in California were found to have chytrid. Most were healthy, a strong clue that the species is the original carrier of the disease.^[5]

5 Frog With No Lungs

Around 30 years ago, scientists encountered a frog so rare that only two specimens were known. Due to the rarity, dissection was not an option. Had it been done, however, something exceptional would have come to light. The creatures, Barbourula kalimantanensis, had no lungs.

In 2008, researchers went to Borneo to find some more. Unfortunately, the tiny amphibians loved remote jungle areas and, worse, rivers that were rapid and freezing. One diver developed hypothermia. But despite the hiccup, several frogs were found.

Nobody had any idea of the bizarre anatomy until they cut a few open. The stomach, spleen, and liver occupied the space normally reserved for lungs. There was also a mysterious piece of cartilage. Best of all, the species consumed oxygen through its skin.^[6]

Another bonus was how primitive they were. Researchers hope that the frogs can explain why lungs vanished from other ancient animals in the past and, each time, only in amphibians.

4 Buffalo Buffet

In northern Turkey, water buffalo roam the wetlands and pick up frogs as far as they go. Clever marsh frogs figured out that the hairy beasts attract flies. When buffalo come close, the amphibians clamber onto their backs and hunt down the insects. This also rids the buffalo of an irritating pest.^[7]

Before the researchers found this peculiar cooperation between the two species, nobody believed that amphibians could manage a partnership with a large mammal. Then researchers visited the Kizilirmak Delta near the Black Sea in 2012. Within a week, they recorded 10 individual buffalo carrying teams of frogs, with each group numbering up to 27.

Just to make sure that it was not a one-time freak show, researchers returned the following year. The same thing happened. Since both times occurred in the fall when frog numbers boom, this behavior could be a novel answer to the season’s intense competition for food.

3 Eyes Inside Frog’s Mouth

One day, two Canadian girls discovered a toad without eyes. However, a local journalist noticed that it seemed more aware of everything after its mouth opened. The reason sparked an enduring mystery. The animal had eyes, but they were attached to the roof of its mouth.

This was likely macromutation—a major change at birth and not something that evolved slowly over several generations. Although it takes small genetic changes to cause this phenomenon, the toad’s condition had never been seen before.^[8]

One cause of macromutation is a parasitic infection. In particular, the trematode worm causes amphibian hosts to sprout extra, deformed, or missing back legs. This was probably not the case. The eyeballs were healthy and functional, just in the wrong place. Despite the weirdness, it was worlds away from worm-induced limb abnormalities.

2 They Inspired Frankenstein

During the 18th century, an Italian doctor named Luigi Galvani electrocuted frog legs. When they moved, everybody got excited. Electricity was a newly discovered force—and poorly understood. As the experiments appeared to restore life, it spawned the practice of galvanism, the quest to reanimate the dead with electricity.

It was one of Mary Shelley’s inspirations for her 1818 gothic novel, Frankenstein. Another famous writer of the time, Lord Byron, was a close friend. Shelley once told him, “Perhaps a corpse would be reanimated; galvanism had given token of such things: perhaps the component parts of a creature might be manufactured, brought together, and endued with vital warmth.”^[9]

This was exactly what her main character, Dr. Frankenstein, did. Galvanism is now obsolete, but it helped to place a classic title on the shelves. All thanks to convulsing frog legs.

1 The Faceless Toad

In 2018, researchers walked around a Connecticut forest. They were on a mission to gather information about newts. Instead, they bumped into a freaky toad. More accurately, the amphibian kept bumping into their feet and everything around it.

The creature could not see. Its entire face was missing. At first, it seemed like magic was afoot. The adult American toad was healthy, and the terrible wound was covered with old scar tissue.

How did it survive?

Sadly, researchers believe that it perished shortly after it was found. The frog was probably hibernating when it suffered an attack that removed its nose, eyes, jaw, and tongue. For some reason, the predator never killed the sleeping toad.

Left in peace and without the need to eat, the remaining hibernation period allowed the amphibian to heal. However, it woke up blind and incapable of foraging. Even if it managed to avoid predators, the toad was doomed to starve.^[10]

Deep under the waves, the ocean is not just a dark place. The underwater landscapes hold ancient events, mysterious animal behavior, and vast gardens of glass and octopuses.

Each contributes new facts and riddles to this incredible aquatic world. However, the ocean also has a scary side—from wrecking the weather on land to blowing giant holes in the seafloor and countries.

10 The Loudest Fish

One can be forgiven for not associating fish with noise. More often than not, they are mute. One species, however, can be very vocal during reproduction. The Gulf corvina is a large, silver fish about the size of a snowboard.

During spring, when the tides and lunar phases are perfect, shoals migrate to the Colorado River Delta. The event is an unforgettable one and worth seeing. When corvinas gather, they pack together in a sheet that can span for miles.

In 2014, scientists followed the spawning shoal and used underwater equipment to record their sounds. The loudest noise captured during the study hit a deafening 150 decibels, which is a record among fish.

Additionally, the sound also rated among the loudest ever recorded underwater—and very capable of damaging the hearing of other creatures, including sea mammals. Researchers believe that male corvinas are responsible for the chorus. Similar to frogs and crickets, the boys produce a throaty croak to attract females.^[1]

9 Return Of The Blob

“The blob” is not as adorable as it sounds. This massive anomaly—a patch of hot water in the Northeast Pacific—affects the weather in extreme ways. The blob was blamed for the persistent California drought (2013–2015), Seattle’s hottest year (2015), and the freakish polar vortex intrusions of two winters (2013–2014 and 2014–2015).

In 2018, the return of the oceanic hot spot was caused by unusually warm weather in Alaska during the fall. Though the blob is famously crabby, it remains hard to predict the phenomenon’s moods.

When it made another appearance in 2016, the spot showed many signs of troubling times ahead but faded away before anything could go wrong. The latest manifestation leans toward weakening in the same way, but even the experts admit that nothing is certain when it comes to the blob.

Either way, Alaska has already suffered notable damage. The southeastern rain forest is in the grip of a persistent drought, and snowfall showed a record delay.^[2]

8 Rectangular Iceberg

In 2018, an unusual photo turned an iceberg into a social media star. A far cry from the usual mountain-shaped behemoths, this icy wonder was almost perfectly rectangular and flat.

As it turns out, this shape is not unknown to scientists. Called “tabular icebergs,” they form during calving (when pieces dislodge from a parent iceberg). The rectangles commonly occur after an ice shelf extends too far and then breaks off at the tip. This gives them a geometric shape.^[3]

A whopping 90 percent of the tabular iceberg remains hidden underwater. This unseen part is usually perfectly angular, too. In this case, the sheet came from the Larsen C ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Even though these floating tabletops are known to science, this one was unusual. For once, it was almost short enough to be a square. The size of the object remains unknown. But judging from the image, it could be as long as 1.6 kilometers (1 mi).

7 Largest Octopus Nursery

Most octopuses live solitary lives. This made the discovery of about 100 nesting together near Costa Rica a sensational find. However, this nursery paled in comparison to another found by accident in 2018.

Off the coast of California, marine biologists steered a remotely operated vehicle at a depth of 3.2 kilometers (2 mi). The goal was to study an underwater volcano called the Davidson Seamount.

As the vehicle turned a corner, it happened across the world’s biggest deep-sea octopus garden. The species was Muusoctopus robustus, and over 1,000 huddled together. Nearly 99 percent were females guarding eggs between the volcano’s cracks.^[4]

Their unprecedented conglomeration is not the only unanswered question about the Davidson group. Researchers do not know why the water appears to shimmer around the octopuses.

One theory suggests that heat is behind the glitter, which could explain why the creatures gathered at Davidson to successfully incubate their eggs. Since the volcano is extinct, the heat could be coming from an unknown source.

6 Canyon That Removes CO₂

The Porcupine Bank Canyon is an underwater trench marking the border of Ireland’s continental shelf. In 2018, an effort was made to map the sheer cliffs and contours. Near the canyon’s edge, the research drone discovered something amazing: The underwater trench removed carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere using two species and death.

Porcupine Bank came fringed with corals snacking on dead plankton. While dwelling near the surface, living plankton grow by packing their bodies with CO₂ from the atmosphere. When they die, they sink down into the ocean, taking the CO₂ with them.

In turn, the corals eat the plankton and use that carbon to build their own structures. When the coral perishes, it tumbles deeper into the canyon. Researchers found a massive amount of dead coral inside the canyon, all with CO₂ locked up inside them.^[5]

Sadly, this process cannot stop climate change. But at least, it showed that nature has ways to remove some of the greenhouse gas from the air.

5 Garden Of Glass

When the deepest volcano was found in 2015, it was not just a cone-shaped mountain lower than the rest. It was anything but plain—and very unexpected. A deep-sea submersible was investigating the Mariana Trough in the Pacific Ocean when it reached a depth of 4,500 meters (14,700 ft). There, it encountered an environment straight out of a Gothic novel.

An underwater volcano had released intertwined and blackened lava tendrils, which scientists likened to “a nightmarish garden of glass.” Inside a 4.5-kilometer-deep (3 mi) trench, cold water had rapidly cooled the lava into a glassy substance. The frozen twists and turns covered an area 7.3 kilometers (4.5 mi) long.

The visuals are heart-stopping, but something else turned the discovery into a scientific gem. The deepest volcanic eruption on Earth was also fresh. Only a few months old, the undamaged site can advance knowledge about volcanoes on land, how eruptions affect ocean chemistry, and when different species colonize a lava field.^[6]

4 White Shark Cafe

Once a year, a group of sharks confused biologists. Known as the northeastern Pacific great whites, they normally cruise California’s coast, a region rich with prey.

In December, the sharks journey into the Pacific and stop about halfway to Hawaii. Satellite studies suggested that the place, nicknamed “White Shark Cafe,” was a marine desert without prey. Despite this, the predators gathered in droves and stayed for winter and spring.

In 2018, scientists wanted to know how the sharks survived and why they found the location so attractive. They followed the whites and also tagged a few. When the research boat arrived at the cafe, they found the place teeming with fish, squid, phytoplankton, and jellyfish.^[7]

These critters took daily trips up and down from the depths. The tagged sharks showed that the predators did the same thing. During the day, they hunted up to 450 meters (1,500 ft) down. At night, they kept to shallow dives, about 200 meters (650 ft).

An unusual gender mystery turned up. During April, the males dramatically stepped up their activity to around 140 dives a day. Researchers do not understand why this behavior is displayed by only one gender.

3 Methane Craters

Recently, scientists visited craters lining the seafloor between the archipelago of Svalbard and Norway. First discovered in the 1990s, they were huge but few. Upon arrival, the team was shocked to find hundreds of previously unrecorded holes.

In a single area near one of Svalbard’s islands, the floor was pockmarked with more than 100. Astoundingly, they had been blown from solid bedrock. The sheer force created craters that measured up to 1,000 meters (3,280 ft) in diameter. The culprit was methane gas from the last ice age.

In the past, enormous ice layers kept the trapped methane in place. Once these melted, the gas exploded. The largest pockets blew 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, but some remain intact and could punch large holes south of Svalbard.^[8]

Satellite images showed that pingos, hills with ice cores, preceded most of the craters. Researchers suspect that the Norwegian pingos had frozen gas instead of normal ice and were possibly instrumental in an explosion. Incredibly, once scientists knew what to look for, they found 7,000 gas-filled pingos in thawing permafrost.

2 Lost Volcanic World

In 2018, scientists investigated something that would not raise many eyebrows—the link between the East Australian Current’s nutrient levels and how phytoplankton behaved. Part of this study included mapping the seafloor. A stunning discovery followed—a lost world dominated by dramatic volcanic peaks.

Some were sharp, while others resembled immense plateaus. Smaller cones made up the rest. Located near the east coast of Australia, the extinct volcanoes towered 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) high.

The depth of the valleys likely contributed to how this underwater wonderland avoided detection for so long. The highest parts of the mountains were still 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) below the surface.

Years of research are required to understand a large geographical area that is seen for the first time. However, researchers are positive about one exciting suspicion—this was the spot that helped Australia and Antarctica to separate 30 million years ago.^[9]

The birth of the volcano chain was pivotal to crumble the Earth’s crust in preparation for continental division. The landscape also hosts a breathtaking ecosystem, including a huge pod of at least 60 pilot whales.

1 Brewing Eruption Underneath Japan

Researchers are well aware that an ancient, underwater volcano lurks underneath Japan. The Kikai Caldera is prone to super-eruptions and, in the past, experienced three devastating episodes. The last time was 7,000 years ago. The eruption was one of history’s biggest and destroyed a vast area of the Japanese archipelago.

In 2018, several expeditions using a wide array of equipment all came to the same conclusion. Underneath the Kikai Caldera was a massive lava dome. The giant bubble held over 32 cubic kilometers (8 mi³) of magma.

Analysis showed that the dome contained lava chemically different from the last eruption. This meant that the giant structure was not a leftover of the event that razed the Japanese archipelago but a completely new formation.

For thousands of years, the magma continued building up inside this new reservoir—something scientists view as a preparation for the next super-eruption. Earlier research indicated that the probability of a caldera catastrophe in the next 100 years was about 1 percent.

The discovery of the active dome was not so comforting. Should Kikai erupt, 110 million people would be in danger.^[10]

An intractable divide has split society in two. People on both sides rail at their diametrically opposed counterparts, hurling insults and blaming them for every evil plaguing the world today. We’re referring, of course, to the rift between Baby Boomers, those born between the immediate aftermath of World War II and the mid-1960s, and Millennials, born between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s to early 2000s, depending on who’s setting the definition.

See Also: 10 Reasons Millennials Owe A Thanks To Boomers

Each side has the other’s number. Millennials are irresponsible, disloyal whiners doomed to poverty by their own indolence, and Boomers are meddlesome busybodies, oblivious to the realities of the modern world and how they’ve wrecked it to suit their own needs. If you’re a Boomer or Millennial, perhaps you believe one or more stereotypes about the other generation. Of course, stereotypes rarely hold up across the board, so before the adages and avocados start to fly, let’s take a look at some surveys and studies which contradict commonly held beliefs about Baby Boomers and Millennials.

10 Baby Boomers Aren’t Killing Social Security

Baby Boomers are called what they are for a reason. In the years following World War II, there was a surge (or “boom”) of babies being born, so Boomers are a very populous generation. As of 2019, roughly 10,000 of them are turning 65 every day. The timing isn’t exactly ideal; the US Social Security Administration is currently in a bit of a jam. The Social Security Board of Trustees has projected that the Social Security trust funds will be depleted by 2035 if nothing is done, meaning that people will not receive their full benefits.

Given the sheer number of Baby Boomers beginning to collect Social Security in recent years, many tend to believe that they’re sucking the system dry. A study by Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research (CCR) indicates that this is not the case. Baby Boomers, in fact, will receive less from Social Security than they paid into it during their careers. (The opposite is true for those who lived through the Great Depression.) The CCR study cites amendments made to the Social Security system in 1939, before Baby Boomers were even a thing, as ultimately responsible for the current problems.^[1]

9 Millennials Read Just As Much As Older Generations

A common image of Millennials is that of a generation glued to technology, a group of smartphones with hats. They’re always on YouTube or crawling each other’s Instagrams, and let’s not forget the chronic tweeting. Have these people even seen a book? According to a 2014 report by Pew Research, they have.

For starters, 88 percent of Millennials (defined by the report as people aged 16 to 29) reported having read a book in the past year, versus 79 percent of those 30 and older. Forty-three percent of Millennials reported reading books (including e-books) every day, which was about the same as older generations. While 98 percent of them used the Internet, and 77 percent owned smartphones, 62 percent agreed that “there is a lot of useful, important information that is not available on the internet.” Only 53 percent of 30+ adults agreed.

Libraries are certainly places where you can find information that isn’t on the Internet, and Millennials are hardly averse to them, with 50 percent having used a library in the past year, not all that different from the 47 percent of older adults who said the same. However, Millennials may generally view libraries as less important. Fifty-one percent said that the closing of a library would have a major impact on their community, versus 67 percent of those who were older.^[2]

8 Baby Boomers Have Embraced Technology, Too

Speaking of smartphones, they are not the sole province of Millennials. A 2019 survey by Provision Living of St. Louis, Missouri, assessed the smartphone habits of 1,000 Millennials and 1,000 Baby Boomers. The results indicated a number of similarities between the two generations.

As you might have expected, Millennials spend more time per day on their smartphones, but the gulf isn’t particularly wide, with Boomers only using their devices for 42 fewer minutes per day than Millennials (5 vs. 5.7 hours). The daily Facebook and Instagram times for each group differed by fewer than 10 minutes each and by only one for YouTube.

There were certainly differences as well. Millennials still spent considerably more time texting and surfing the Internet than Boomers. Possibly more surprising is the fact that Boomers also spent less time using the phone aspect of their smartphones than Millennials. Boomers were also much more prone to using the Messenger app than their younger counterparts.^[3]

7 Millennials Are More Religious Than You Might Think

Millennials are less likely to claim religious affiliation or go to church, and that’s a fact. A 2010 study by Pew Research found that Millennials (this time defined as people aged 18 to 29) attended religious services less often than older generations, and a solid quarter of those surveyed stated themselves to have no affiliation with any religion. They were also less likely to deem religion to be an important part of their lives. Nevertheless, a closer look at the data shows that Millennials may not be as irreligious as they seem.

Essentially, the differences in Millennials’ responses may be more a function of current age than of generation. Millennials pray less frequently than older adults, but their prayer rates closely resemble those of older generations when they were the Millennials’ age. Furthermore, their beliefs concerning life after death, miracles, and so forth show little difference from their elders. Of those Millennials who did claim a specific religion affiliation, 37 percent described that affiliation as “strong.” Thirty-seven percent of GenXers, that generation seemingly no one cares about if the media is any indication, said the same thing when they were younger. Thirty-one percent of Boomers gave that answer during young adulthood.^[4]

6 Boomers Aren’t Ready For Retirement

Say what you will about Baby Boomers, but at least they’re financially literate. How many uses of the phrase “OK Boomer” have followed unsolicited advice on what Millennials or members of Gen Z should be doing with their money? The question of whether or not it was easier for the Boomers to build nest eggs in their day aside, a recent survey indicates that they may not have done such a good job saving up in the first place.

In 2019, Clever, a home-buying website, surveyed 1,000 Baby Boomers, the average age of the respondents being 62. Their median income was $57,000 a year, and they had $136,779 in retirement savings, on average. The problem is that this falls well short of how much many financial experts would say they should have. An often-recommended benchmark is to have eight times your yearly income in retirement savings by the time you’re 60 years old. For a $57,000 yearly income, that’d be $456,000.

Compounding the issue is the finding that 40 percent of respondents are still paying off credit card debt, and 31 percent stated that they have no emergency fund. The above-mentioned woes of the US Social Security system may very well end up reducing its benefit to retired Boomers as well. On average, those surveyed hoped to retire by 68, though Clever concluded that such a goal may be overly optimistic for many of them.^[5]

5 Millennials Would Rather Keep The Jobs They Have

Why do Millennials change jobs so much? Boredom? Not enough trophies? Here’s another question: Who said they change jobs all the time? Multiple studies say they don’t.

In February 2017, the Resolution Foundation, a British think tank, reported that a mere four percent of Millennials in the UK changed jobs each year. Twice as many members of Generation X did so back in the ‘90s. In April that year, Pew Research released similar findings, namely that Millennials in the US were just as likely to stay with their current employers as GenXers were at the same age. In fact, college-educated Millennials tended to stay longer than degree-holding GenXers did.

In case the dead trophy horse needs any more beating, Millennial loyalty isn’t even being rewarded, at least not in the UK. According to the Resolution Foundation, switching jobs generally leads to a 15-percent rise in income. Raises for those who stick to their jobs, however, have become few and far between. Yet Millennials are sticking all the same. An analyst at the Resolution Foundation cited the fact that many Millennials entered adulthood during the financial crisis of the late 2000s as a possible factor in this. As for why US Millennials aren’t jumping ship at the drop of a hat, a Pew researcher posited that it may be due to a lack of good opportunities for job-hopping.^[6]

4 Boomers Are Accepting Weed

Support for the legalization of recreational marijuana has been steadily growing in the United States in recent years. As of 2019, it is legal in 11 states as well as in Washington DC, and medical cannabis use is permitted in 33 states. You might think that Baby Boomers, rapidly becoming perceived as the grumpy old codgers of American society, would be flat-out against this, but support is growing even among this cohort.

In a study of marijuana use in people over 60, researchers from the University of Colorado examined data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health. In 2017, 9.4 percent of respondents aged 60 to 64 reported using marijuana sometime in the past year. In 2007, only 1.9 percent of that same demographic had done so. For those aged 65 and older, 3.7 percent used marijuana in the past year, up from a mere 0.3 percent in 2007.

The researchers found that Boomers’ increased interest in cannabis was largely for medical reasons, based on their survey of 136 people aged 60+ at various senior centers, clinics, and marijuana dispensaries. Many respondents had chosen to buy marijuana from recreational dispensaries due to the difficulty of obtaining a medical marijuana card. Some had doctors who wouldn’t approve them for one, and they didn’t want to find a new health care provider or leave their health insurance network. Others were reluctant to broach the subject with their physicians for fear of stigma. Quite a few wished more doctors were educated in the medicinal use of cannabis.^[7]

3 Millennials Aren’t Automatically Tech Wizards

A phrase that sometimes gets bandied around is “digital native.” Essentially, a digital native is someone who grew up in the digital age, having always known a world in which the Internet and mobile devices are ubiquitous. As such, they are more proficient with modern technology than their elders and are also argued to be better at multitasking.

Millennials and Generation Z are commonly seen as digital natives. According to a 2017 paper published in the journal Teaching and Teacher Education, however, that phrase needs to die. Millennials, in fact, are no different from older generations in terms of their technological proficiency or multitasking ability. Other studies have backed this conclusion up as well.

Simply put, digital natives do not exist. Unfortunately, the idea has influenced both educational strategies in schools and how businesses structure their work environments. Dr. Paul Kirschner, co-author of the study, argues that assuming all students to be tech-savvy will only hurt the educational process.^[8]

2 Baby Boomers Tip More Often Than Millennials

The stereotypical Millennial knows the plight of wait staff in the US, scraping by as they do on the gratuity of customers, and generously tips accordingly. The stereotypical Boomer, if he tips at all, leaves a few cents and a note on the receipt about how the waitress needs to toughen up. As usual, the reality is much less clear-cut.

A 2019 survey of 2,569 adults by CreditCards.com found that Baby Boomers, in fact, are more likely to tip a wide variety of service workers. Eighty-nine percent of them tip waiting staff, as opposed to 66 percent of Millennials. People who deliver food get tipped by Boomers 72 percent of the time but only 56 percent of the time by Millennials. The disparity was 63 versus 40 percent for cab and rideshare app drivers, 73 versus 53 percent for hairstylists, and 33 versus 23 percent for hotel housekeeping staff, with Boomers on top in every category.

The only time Millennials won out over Boomers was in the size of the tips they leave. When Millennials do tip, they leave an average of 22 percent. Boomers leave 17 percent.^[9]

1 Millennials Are Projected To Become The Richest Generation In US History

Millennials may have hope for retirement after all. Believe it or not, a study by Coldwell Banker indicates that more than $68 trillion in wealth will be transferred to US Millennials by 2030. Where is this massive windfall coming from? Their Boomer parents. Well, add that to the recent list of things Millennials can thank Boomers for, then.

Baby Boomers, on average, are wealthier than other generations. They came up in a good economy, and the values of both their homes and stocks have grown quite a bit over the years. This isn’t to say that every Millennial with Baby Boomer parents is guaranteed to be rich one day. Individual situations vary, and end-of-life costs or changes in economic conditions could certainly still affect what Millennials are left with. Overall, though, the Boomers’ wealth being passed down to Millennials may very well leave the latter richer than any other generation.^[10]

When it comes to headlines, Florida men are a breed all their own. And we’re not just talking about the fact that they have more guns than any other state in America—though it’s true that they do. We’re talking about their weird, wild headlines. So we thought: What better way to celebrate the year 2022 than with a list of 10 crazy headlines that prove Florida men are a different breed. Are you ready to be shocked?

Ever since the dawn of time, there have been men who are just different. Whether it’s the way they dress, how they talk, or even their hairstyles, these Florida men know how to stand out in a crowd. You’ve heard it before, and you know it’s true. Florida men are a breed apart—they’re the kind of men who will do anything to get what they want, even if it means running through a drive-thru with their clothes off or putting a live alligator in their pants.

Here are just some of the occurrences that prove how these Florida men are just different:

10 Florida Man Busted After Tantrum About Bacon

Have you ever seen someone get arrested because he threw a tantrum over bacon? Yup, that’s probably not an uncommon scenario when you go to Florida. When the Cape Coral police received calls claiming that there was some “disturbance,” they quickly responded. Upon arriving at the Waffle House (where else would it be?), they saw a shirtless man yelling at the employees for the way his bacon was cooked.

Currently, the man is in jail and is charged with intoxication as well as resisting arrest. Though it’s a bit bizarre to be arrested because of bacon, it surely is also a lesson learned: do not let bacon get on your nerves!^[1]

9 The Crossbow Fiasco

It’s not all the time you hear about stolen crossbows—they’re hard to hide, and they might even potentially hurt you as you run away from authorities. However, that’s not entirely the case with Darren Durrant from Florida. Though he was able to walk out of the store undetected, they were able to trace back that he was the one who stole the crossbow.

The crazy part? He actually stored it inside his pants. Yup, you didn’t read that part wrong. A crossbow inside his pants—talk about a fiasco indeed. Even if he was in danger of injury with how he hid such an item, Durrant and his antics have definitely proven to us that you can actually hide a crossbow inside your pants! He left undetected (the crutch was a nice touch) but was spotted in a restaurant’s parking lot, where he even tried to run away from the police. The attempt was unsuccessful, though, as he was arrested and jailed. ^[2]

8 The Naked Man with a Barbell

Imagine waking up to your 62-year-old neighbor as he’s banging a barbell on the door… while naked. That is actually not unlikely if you find yourself living in Florida, so be prepared. Larry Gardner was confronted by a neighbor as he was hitting a sliding glass door to another person’s home. The neighbor confronted Gardner, who threatened to kill him.

Gardner eventually dropped the barbell but picked up a metal pipe near the home and continued threatening his neighbor. After finally being tackled by two good Samaritans, the police arrived, and Gardner was arrested for assault and armed burglary. Definitely not something you’d expect on a Monday evening.^[3]

7 Florida Man Watched Spider-Man 292 Times

If you claim to be Spiderman’s number one fan, you definitely have to think again after reading about Ramila Alanis and the world record that he broke. In honor of his late grandmother, who he also saw as his number-one supporter, he wanted to be the record holder after losing the title in 2021. With that, this man spent over $3,400 watching Spider-Man: No Way Home 292 times. Yup, 292 times.

Not only that, but because the requirements for the record state you have to watch this movie without doing anything else like using your phone, going to the restroom, or even sleeping, it is safe to say that Alanis may have already memorized the dialogue and the screenplay. That’s a lot, just to have that title.

Though it took him approximately 720 hours (that’s 30 days) to watch the movie 292 times while juggling his personal life and work commitments, he was actually very successful in achieving this groundbreaking and amazing world record! Would you do something like this, too?^[4]

6 Unfamiliar with the Stick Shift, Driver Crashes Supercar

Wouldn’t it be heartbreaking to purchase a supercar only for it to be crashed just a week later? That was actually what happened with Robert Guarini. What seemed to be a normal day for him definitely turned into something else when he crashed his 2006 Heritage Edition Ford GT. While not a new car, he had just gotten it at an auction, paying a whopping $704,000 for it.

When asked by the authorities why this happened, apparently, he was unfamiliar with how the stick shift worked. However, authorities found out later on that Guarini actually had a suspended license and didn’t even have the registration or insurance for the car that he bought. Not only was his car damaged and crashed, but he also got cited for driving with a suspended license and not having the car registered or insurance!^[5]

5 Florida Man Uploads Bomb-Making Videos

Florida isn’t just home to weird cases of theft and robbery, but it is also popular because of how interesting its people can be. When living in Florida, it surely should not come as a surprise to you when someone just decides to upload a bomb-making video out of the blue. Yes, it actually happened. Romeo Xavier Langhorne, a 32-year-old, was caught doing just that.

According to the prosecutors, he even pledged his allegiance to ISIS. That prompted him to upload a video on how to make bombs, hoping it would be helpful to the group with whatever they wanted to do. An FBI agent—undercover as an ISIS representative—was actually the one who caught him. Because of this, Langhorne was sentenced to 20 years in prison.^[6]

4 Naked Man in Florida Attempts to Rob a Man with a Machete

When in Florida, naked men that want to rob you are a common thing. So if you find yourself visiting the state or even have plans of living there, definitely take this bizarre occurrence into consideration because you might just find yourself in such a situation! What seemed a normal day for this surveyor turned into something else when a naked man ran after him with a machete as he demanded clothes and other stuff like his wallet and even his phone.

This naked man actually came out of nowhere, taking everyone by surprise with what he did. After throwing a machete at the worker who handed over what he was asking for, the naked man then jumped into a vehicle and drove to a nearby gas station. Though the surveyor was struck with a machete, he, fortunately, didn’t receive any serious injuries.

After yelling at people driving by and a comical push-up display, the Florida authorities were able to take the nude assailant into custody. With that, he was charged with attempted robbery with a deadly weapon. However, it was later discovered that this man also had mental health issues. Definitely an interesting case!^[7]

3 Florida Man Wakeboards Behind a Truck After Hurricane Ian

Yup, you read that correctly. Time and time again, it’s been proven that the men in Florida never disappoint with their many adventures. They seem to live keeping everyone entertained—like this guy right here!

Right after the disastrous Hurricane Ian hit the central west coast of Florida this past summer, many witnesses saw a man wakeboarding on the streets behind a truck. His surfing escapade garnered much attention on social media, with spectators cheering the man on. The comments were almost as comical, with one user citing, “Nothing is more American than this.” Another user topped the comments, though, with his observation about the sprinklers being on at the golf course in the background.

Would you ever do such a crazy thing? If we’re being honest, wakeboarding in the streets doesn’t sound like a very bad thing either, as long as you’re careful!^[8]

2 Naked Man Wearing a Cowboy Hat Attacks Woman Using a Machete

At this point, every time you hear about a machete and a naked man, you might instantly think about Florida and how incidents like this seem like a common thing to happen to the residents living there. Imagine riding a bicycle when suddenly a naked man pops out of nowhere and attacks you with a machete? It sounds unlikely, right? However, nothing here in Florida seems to be impossible because this actually happened!

Roberto Hercules, 45, attacked a woman while she was riding a bicycle around town. After being rejected and turned down after asking her for a crack pipe that she didn’t even have, Hercules hit and chased her with a machete. Even as the woman tried to run away from Hercules and jump off her bicycle, she was still struck with the weapon multiple times. Fortunately, she survived. Later, the police found the assailant sleeping, still naked, with a cowboy hat. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder, attempted armed robbery, and aggravated battery with a weapon.^[9]

1 Man in Florida Pays Rent to a Fake House Owner

Nothing beats the frustration of having to pay your rent monthly, especially if you’re the cost comes at a big price, right? However, what if you find out that you’ve been paying your rent to someone that’s not even your landlord? This is what happened to Isaac Aviles, a 19-year-old who got conned by what seemed to be a fake owner of the house!

It was only three months later when he found out that the man he had been paying $1200 a month to was a rental scammer! He never met the supposed landlord and only spoke to him on the phone. The 3-bedroom home in Orlando seemed like a good deal–too good, it seemed—as the true rent for the home is double what Aviles was paying. Because real estate scams are a common occurrence in Florida and elsewhere, you definitely have to watch out because you might be the next victim.^[10]

These days, toy makers are held to stringent safety standards. Thanks to the ASTM F963: Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety, U.S. toymakers must follow extensive rules and regulations.

But this wasn’t always the case. Before the government protected kids from things such as figurines covered with lead paint, older generations were handed some wild toys and told to go outside and play. This list presents ten toys that prove your grandparents were from a tougher age in history.

10 Belt Buckle Derringer Toy Gun

In 1959, Mattel gave the world a toy gun that didn’t need hands to work. The Belt Buckle Derringer Toy Gun could be fired in the usual way while holding it. Or, if you found yourself in a position where you needed to fire a gun while your hands were otherwise occupied, you were in luck. This gun could be attached to a belt buckle and fired when the wearer thrust their hips forward.

What could possibly go wrong with small boys running around with toy cap guns attached to their waist that fired plastic bullets when they waggled their hips? As you might imagine, the guns sometimes went off at unintended times, in unintended directions, although most likely, the intended times the guns fired must have resulted in enough mayhem alone.^[1]

9 Gilbert Glass Blowing Set

“I wish my young daughter had a kit to shape and form molten glass” is a thought I have never had. However, somebody must have had this thought at some point because a real glass-blowing set for children used to exist.

The A.C. Gilbert Company, which is now out of business, was known for its erector, trains, and chemistry sets—standard kid’s fare, to be sure. However, in the 1920s, A.C. Gilbert offered something special, a working glass-blowing set.

Known as the Experimental Glass Blowing Kit for Boys, the kit contained a blow torch for heating glass until it was malleable, tubes for blowing into and shaping the glass, and a book of “fun” experiments in which children were instructed to hold the heated glass in their hands. For the record, for glass to get hot enough to shape, it has to be heated to at least 1500°F (815°C).^[2]

8 Austin Magic Pistol

Toy guns were popular back in the day, but the Austin Magic Pistol was a special one that looked like it came straight from outer space. This toy gun from the 1940s had a futuristic look and launched ping pong balls. Sounds pretty harmless, right? Not so harmless when you discover the ping pong ball was fired using an explosive chemical reaction created by calcium carbide and water.

Simply mix water with the provided “magic crystals,” load the gun, and you are all set. However, the “magic crystals” turned out to be calcium carbide, a hazardous substance that turns into a highly flammable gas when water hits it. Each time the Austin Magic Pistol was fired, an explosion occurred in the back of the gun.

How our grandparents survived gun shooting ping pong balls launched by chemical explosions, we’ll never know.^[3]

7 Creepy Crawlers

They may have been dangerous, but this entry must have been a blast for kids to create. In 1964, Mattel introduced the Thingmaker. It was so wildly popular they released 15 different sets. The set the internet seems to have the most nostalgia for is the Creepy Crawlers.

The Thingmaker had an oven with an internal heating element that reached 400°F (204°C). The “things” were made by squirting a chemical Mattel called Plasti-Goop into the die-cast metal molds and heating them. However, by 1973, toy safety regulations had become a bit tougher, and the Thingmaker, which heated to high temperatures and used a chemical fluid that gave off fumes, disappeared from store shelves.

In an attempt to revive the beloved toy, Mattel recently tested a version using a 3D printer, but sadly, it never made it to market.^[4]

6 Sixfinger

This entry was marketed for kids who wanted a sixth finger that both wrote and fired a variety of objects, including bombs, missiles, and messages. Created by Topper Toys, it didn’t have the most attractive design, but kids could wear the toy for fun—’cause what’s not fun about another finger on your hand. And the TV commercial even asked how we got along with only five!

Designed in the 1960s by Deluxe Reading, a toy manufacturer based in Elizabeth, NJ. It produced toys under several brand names, including Topper Toys. On their own, the things the Sixfinger does are not super impressive—anyone can use a pen, right? Or play with a cap gun or other toy gun. But combine this with a weird-looking extra finger held between the thumb and forefinger, and it’s a winner, winner, chicken dinner!^[5]

5 Zero-M Sonic Blaster

Here we go with Mattel again. Mattel’s sonic blaster bazooka gun was what every secret agent-wannabe needed in their life. It was a 34-inch-long (86-centimer) blaster that shot hand-pumped compressed air at such high decibels it caused lifelong hearing damage.

You can still see the vintage ad on YouTube today. The commercial features a young Kurt Russell, walking wearily through a black and white world where he must fire his weapon at piles of leaves and wind chimes to survive.

If you’re thinking, what stopped children from shoving things like dirt and rocks into the blaster and launching them into the air? Well, nothing stopped children from doing that. That is exactly the sort of thing that children will do. This, aside from the hearing damage, is one more reason you can’t buy anything like the Zero-M Sonic Blaster for today’s sheltered children.^[6]

4 Clackers

Like many toys from the ’60s and ’70s, Clackers were simple. Two balls were attached to a string that a child could smack together to make a loud and pleasing (at least to the child) sound. Banging two balls together doesn’t sound so bad; however, the original clacker balls were made of glass.

What do you think might happen when a small child wildly and violently bangs glass balls together? As you might expect, the glass shattered, sending dangerous shards in all directions. The Food and Drug Administration banned the toys in 1971, leading Sarah Slobin from Quartz to pen a piece where she argues the outcry over the clackers may have been responsible for “sowing the seeds for the helicopter parenting style of today.”^[7]

3 Zulu Blow Gun

In the 1950s, the Zulu Blow Gun was a favorite among children, allowing them to blow into the gun and launch foam pellets at each other. The problem is when the child sucked in air deeply to be able to blow it out and launch the gun, they sometimes sucked in with the gun to their mouth, launching the pellet directly down their throat rather than into the air.

Blow darts toys are still available today, but modern children are protected from inhaling foam into their lungs by the use of one-way mouthpieces.^[8]

2 Baby Cages

It’s a tough individual indeed who spent their toddlerhood suspended out a 10-story high-rise window inside a metal wire cage. Baby cages were around mainly from the 1920s to the 1950s, and their purpose was to give parents living in small city apartments a chance to provide their children with some fresh air and sunshine.

The interest in baby cages, which were invented by Emma Read in 1922, most likely stemmed from the 1884 book The Care and Feeding of Children. In this book, a section labeled “Airing” recommended that children get fresh air regularly. Amazingly enough, there don’t seem to be any accidents or deaths from baby cages, but you won’t see any babies suspended from high-rise apartments today.^[9]

1 Empire Little Lady Stove

Although many items on this list are in the category of so-called traditional “boy’s toys,” don’t let that lead you to believe that the conventional “girl’s toys” were any less dangerous. The glass-blowing kit may have been deemed “for boys,” but the Empire Little Lady Stove had exposed burners and could reach exceedingly high temperatures of up to 600°F (315°C), proving the girls of this era were just as hardcore.

The Empire Little Lady Stove was a victim of the first federal safety standard for toys. In 1969, the toy was banned by the National Commission on Product Safety.^[10]