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Joy

Mom found the perfect trick to soothe her crying baby: ‘Get Low’ by Lil Jon

Things will get interesting when he can sing along.

parenting; motherhood; new mom; lil jon

Mom plays Lil Jon to get baby to stop crying.

If you've had a baby or babysat someone else's, then you know sometimes they cry, and there doesn't seem to be much you can do to soothe them. You try all of the things—change their diaper, give them a bottle, do the bounce and sway that just about every parent has perfected. Yet, the wailing continues and you begin to question your life choices.

But thankfully, babies are pretty easily amused...most of the time. Ripping up paper or accidentally stubbing your toe can throw a baby into a fit of laughter. Other times, you have to call in the reserves—Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz featuring the Ying Yang Twins. Nope, I didn't bump my head. Melissa Buckley discovered her 2-month-old son's magic remedy to inconsolable tears is Lil Jon, specifically, "Get Low."

You may be wondering how her infant son has such impeccable taste in 2000s dance music, and the answer is surprisingly simple.


"I listened to it a lot in the latter half of my pregnancy because I was trying to get him low, and then I listened to it on repeat a good few times a day for probably three, four weeks on end," Buckley told Today.com.

Dancing is one way to help move babies down into position in preparation for birth. In fact, there have been several viral videos of expectant mothers dancing to club music in their kitchens and even in the hospital hoping to speed along the labor process. Buckley was in good company with her idea.

Recently, Buckley and her husband Zack let the world in on their secret to getting baby Jackson to stop crying when the mom uploaded a video to social media. In the video, Buckley is holding a crying Jackson when she says, "Alexa, play 'Get Low.'" Alexa obliges like a good little eavesdropping robot, and as soon as the music starts to play, the crying stops.

Jackson looks around while his mom bounces and dances. Suddenly the infant is perfectly content in his mother's arms, but it turns out that this is part of their routine. The new parents told Today.com that they play Lil Jon at least once or twice a day to help calm the baby down when he's fussy.

This revelation came about through a moment of desperation according to Buckley, who told Today.com that she was having difficulty getting her son to stop crying one day, so she put on "Get Low." While listening to the familiar song, Jackson stopped crying and fell asleep.
Screenshot of Lil Jon's comment that reads "Wowwwww" with a laughing face

Lil Jon responded to the video with "Wowwwww."

Melissa Buckley|Instagram Screenshot

Babies are certainly interesting. They remember much more than we parents give them credit for, and baby Jackson is here to remind everyone that even newborns can be nostalgic about songs. Granted, when he starts being able to understand the words to the iconic club song, heading to preschool may be interesting.

But the Buckleys will cross that bridge when they get to it. For now, they'll keep using the song to put their baby to sleep and one day he'll learn all about how Lil Jon was impressed by his required napping music.

Our home, from space.

Sixty-one years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to make it into space and probably the first to experience what scientists now call the "overview effect." This change occurs when people see the world from far above and notice that it’s a place where “borders are invisible, where racial, religious and economic strife are nowhere to be seen.”

The overview effect makes man’s squabbles with one another seem incredibly petty and presents the planet as it truly is, one interconnected organism.

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Health

Here’s how we can use the power of awe to make our lives more fulfilling

Being amazed by things outside ourselves is tremendous for our mental health.

A young man looking into the sky

The exhilaration of a rock concert. The feeling of deep serenity you experience during a religious ceremony. That sense of connectedness you get while walking through a dense forest. The lightness that flows through your body while dancing and the dissolution of the ego you experience on psychedelics. These are all experiences that give us the feeling of awe.

Most of us love having at least a few of these experiences and believe they help us grow. But now, a team of psychologists has explained why cultivating a sense of awe can benefit our minds and bodies and how we can create these experiences ourselves.

Maria Monroy and Dacher Keltner posit that a sense of awe can help solve the crises of individualism, excessive self-focus, loneliness and a culture of cynicism, and can even improve our physical health. They explain it in a research article titled “Awe as a Pathway to Mental and Physical Health.”

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How bizarre, how bizarre.

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However, when one Airbnb host recently discovered a guest had—for some strange reason—stolen one of her paintings, then replaced it with a completely different painting, she decided to make the best out of a very uncool situation by sharing the story on TikTok.

As a result, viewers got to witness an continuously unraveling, truly bizarre modern-day art heist.

Okay, let’s get into it.

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Pop Culture

Woman flawlessly breaks down how luxury bags—and other designer brands—keep people 'poor'

"They're targeting the people who want to look rich—middle and lower class folks who don't have a lot of money or savings. That is the bread and butter of designer brands."

Cara Nicole/Youtube

Not worth it.

It feels safe to say that we are all hoping to be more mindful about how we spend our money these days, whether it’s to be kinder to the environment, align better with our values, improve our finances or simply exercise free will against the siren call of consumerism.

That’s why this video essay created by Cara Nicole (who gives all kinds of financials and sustainability education on her Youtube channel) feels so timely.

In just under twenty minutes, Nicole astutely breaks down how luxury brands like Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Rolex create the fake illusion of wealth through “manufactured exclusivity” and getting free marketing from celebrities and influencers—who often don’t even pay for the products themselves. Meanwhile, most real rich people wouldn’t be caught dead in the flashy brands, and in reality consider them "overrated." But still, the illusion persists. Because advertising.

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Inexpensive and tranquil…what's not to like?

Saving money and living comfortably don’t always go hand in hand, but people do find ways to accomplish it. Sometimes all it takes is thinking a little outside the box—getting a job that allows you to travel the world or swapping out a traditional mortgage for more creative, less costly home ideas.

Take this couple in North Carolina, for example, who gave up living on land to move into a floating cabin and apparently saved $27,500 annually by doing so.

According to Good News Network, Sarah Spiro, 27, and her boyfriend, Brandon Jones, 40, break down the math: Their one-bedroom floating home, which they bought in March 2021, originally cost less than $30,000. The pair then spent two months and $23,000 renovating, for a total initial investment of less than $50,000. And now, they pay $2,500 a year to live on the lake. Yes, you read that right. $2,500 a year. They used to pay that much per month on their combined individual rents.

Obviously, it was a “no brainer,” said Spiro.

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Kath recently became enthralled—and tickled—by a person who somehow manage to write the word “monke” (as in the word describing a group of monkeys, apparently) on every single one of their answers.

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