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8 Glimpses Into How We Spend Our First 70 Minutes In The World

It's just the first hour and 10 minutes of a whole lifetime, but it's action-packed.

Brand-new babies have a lot to figure out, and there are some common themes in how we all begin to take on the world. Although timing varied widely, in a study of 28 brand-spankin'-new infants, most of them indulged in the following orienteering during their first 70 minutes.

Minute 0: Babies wail a robust, angry birth cry that helps wake up the lungs.


Minute 2: After all that wailing, babies spendless than a minute relaxing, holding perfectly still on their mothers’ chests. (The researchers speculate that this silent, still break might have evolved to keepbabies hidden from predators.)

Minute 2.5: As they start to wake up, newbornsopen their eyes for the first time. Babies gradually start moving their headsand mouths.

Minute 8: Babies become even more active,keeping their eyes open for five minutes or longer at a time. During thisactive phase, newborns seem to grow interested in eating, looking at theirmothers’ faces and breasts, making sweet little “hungry” noises and movingtheir hands toward their mouths.

Minute 18: That was exhausting. Time for anotherrest.

Minute 36: Recharged newborns really kick itinto high gear and begin scooting toward their mothers’ breasts, relyingheavily on a sense of smell to navigate.

Minute 62: Babies nurse, most likely gettingsmall amounts of colostrum, a pre-milk substance packed withprotein and immunity molecules. This early suckling stimulates the breasts tomake milk and also helps mom’s uterus contract back to its pre-pregnancy size.

Minute 70: Phew, mission accomplished. Babies fall asleep for awell-deserved break.

It's a small study, but it's just the kind of careful observation of newborns we need to develop more "baby-friendly" practices that encourage breastfeeding and support newborns as they, literally, start making their own way in the world.

A Korean mother and her son

A recently posted story on Reddit shows a mother confidently standing up for her family after being bullied by a teacher for her culture. Reddit user Flowergardens0 posted the story to the AITA forum, where people ask whether they are wrong in a specific situation.

Over 5,600 people commented on the story, and an overwhelming majority thought the mother was right. Here’s what went down:

“I (34F) have a (5M) son who attends preschool. A few hours after I picked him up from school today, I got a phone call from his teacher,” Flowergardens0 wrote. “She made absolutely no effort to sound kind when she, in an extremely rude and annoyed tone, told me to stop packing my son such ‘disgusting and inappropriate’ lunches."

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Photo by Egor Vikhrev on Unsplash

Let's talk about what makes people read articles.

The adage, "If it bleeds, it leads," refers to the media's tendency to headline stories involving death or violence, but it can also be used to point to people's negativity bias. Simply put, people tend to pay more attention to negative news stories than positive ones.

A new study seems to reinforce this idea. And much to our surprise, it's centered on headlines used in Upworthy stories.

Using a public archive of Upworthy headlines and traffic data from 2012 to 2015, two separate teams of researchers analyzed whether people's click tendencies changed with negative or positive words in headlines. In those olden days of Upworthy, a handful of headlines for a single story were tested on the website to see which one would receive the most clicks. The research teams analyzed those results and found that negative words in headlines led to more people clicking on a story (2.3% more), and positive words in headlines led to fewer clicks (1.0% fewer). They also found a preference for headlines that express sadness over those that express joy, fear or anger.

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Joy

Sorry, Labradors. After 31 years, America has a new favorite dog.

The American Kennel Club has crowned a new favorite.

via Pixabay

A sad-looking Labrador Retriever

The sweet-faced, loveable Labrador Retriever is no longer America’s favorite dog breed. The breed best known for having a heart of gold has been replaced by the smaller, more urban-friendly French Bulldog.

According to the American Kennel Club, for the past 31 years, the Labrador Retriever was America’s favorite dog, but it was eclipsed in 2022 by the Frenchie. The rankings are based on nearly 716,500 dogs newly registered in 2022, of which about 1 in 7 were Frenchies. Around 108,000 French Bulldogs were recorded in the U.S. in 2022, surpassing Labrador Retrievers by over 21,000.

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Samantha Moriá Reynolds's advice on sick children.

It's cold and flu seasons, folks. During this time of year, we're all on a mission to avoid the demon viruses that threaten to invade our bodies and wage Armageddon on our immune systems.

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Family

A doctor specializing in child development shares 5 of her most surprising parenting tips

"How To Discipline Your Child So They Actually Learn" is one of her more popular videos.

via drkristynsommer / TikTok

Parenting is the most important job that most people will ever have in life. Your decisions as a parent will be some of the most important determining factors in whether your child becomes a happy and productive adult or not. It's a huge responsibility.

Parenting is a difficult and important undertaking, but many parents simply repeat the same strategies used by their parents. How often do we hear people rationalize their decisions by saying, "That's what my parents did and I came out ok."

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Pop Culture

Woman was mocked online for calling an $80 purse a 'luxury item.' Her response went viral.

"I'm so grateful that my dad was able to get me one. He worked so hard for that money.”

@zohtaco/TikTok

Zoe Gabriel, showing off her new purse from Charles & Keith

Insults of any kind are painful, but jabs towards someone’s financial status are their own breed.

In January 2023, Singapore-based Zoe Gabriel was on the receiving end of this particular flavor of mockery when she posted a TikTok about a purse from local retail brand Charles & Keith—a gift bought for her by her father.

In her excitement, the 17-year-old called the bag, which costs around $80, a “luxury” item as she unwrapped it. Her excitement was sadly cut short by some of the negative comments she received.

One comment seemed to stand out above the rest and prompted Gabriel to post an emotional response video.

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