Dejected In Black

[Humanity First @Atomsmade]

I'm a convinced atheist and here is my drop:

The world looks exactly as it should if no gods/god exist.

Cold, indifferent, and brutally random.

Stars explode and wipe out entire planets for no reason. Kids get cancer while rapists live to 90. One tiny rock in a sea of deadly vacuum somehow sprouts life that mostly suffers and dies.

Atoms are 99.9% empty space, wasteful bullshit.

Prayers change nothing. Miracles only happen in stories or blurry videos.

If an all-powerful, all-loving God was running things, we’d see order, justice, and mercy. Instead we see chaos, suffering, and silence.

Exactly what blind physics and dumb luck would produce.
No divine architect. No cosmic parent watching over us.

Just a messy universe doing its thing, and us temporary bags of meat trying to make sense of it before we blink out forever.

That's reality. Deal with it.

[not angelus @FUFFGEL]

DORKGEL

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

The research behind this is wild. Your face as a kid shaped how teachers treated you, how many friends you made, how much practice you got being social, and even how much money you earn right now. It starts before you can crawl.

Babies just hours old already prefer attractive faces. Researchers at the University of Exeter showed newborns (average age: 2 days) pairs of faces and tracked which ones they stared at longer. The babies consistently picked the faces adults rated as good-looking. The sorting starts on day one.

Teachers do it too. In a 1973 study, they were given identical student profiles with different photos attached. The teachers rated the good-looking kids as having more academic potential, paid them more attention in class, and gave more detailed help when they struggled. Same kid on paper, different face, completely different treatment.

This creates a loop that psychologists have studied for decades. When people expect you to be friendly and capable, they act warmer toward you, and because they're warm, you actually become more social in return. Researchers at the University of Minnesota proved this in 1977 with a phone experiment. Men were shown a fake photo before a call (not the actual woman on the line). The ones who thought she was attractive were friendlier. And the women on the other end, who knew nothing about any photo, became more outgoing in response. The expectation changed real behavior in real time.

Now picture this running on repeat for an entire childhood. The good-looking kid gets picked for group projects, invited to birthday parties, gets smiles from strangers at the grocery store. Each of those is a rep. Social skills work like a muscle, and you get better by doing them over and over. The kid who got fewer invitations and fewer smiles fell behind for a simple reason: less practice.

The University of Texas pulled together 919 studies on attractiveness and found the same four things every time: people across cultures agree on who is good-looking, those kids get judged more favorably, they get treated better by the adults around them, and they end up with stronger social skills. Once the loop starts, it feeds itself.

It carries into your paycheck. Economists at UT Austin found that workers rated below average in looks earn 5 to 10% less per hour than average-looking coworkers, even when education and experience are the same. Over a 40-year career, that penalty alone runs into six figures. A 2026 study in Personality and Individual Differences tracked kids rated for their looks at ages 7 and 11, then checked back at age 50. The ones rated attractive in childhood still had better social skills four decades later.

So yeah, this tweet is more right than wrong. But the real driver is practice. Being less attractive as a kid meant fewer people reaching out to you, fewer good interactions, fewer chances to build the muscle. You didn't lack a social gene. You got fewer at-bats.

[cameron @cambeserious]

she’s so stunning

[‎ً @softiealiaa]

i’ll always remember watching this scene for the first time… literal goosebumps

[˶ @jcbthinker]

jamie, your emmy is coming.

[Dejected In Black @dejectedinblack]

@jcbthinker Genuinely incredible acting in the finale from Jamie, exceptional

[Owl | ✨ @OwlQueen9]

Mike realizing what he said to Will got through to him. Oh Byler you are so endgame

#StrangerThings5

[Curiosity @CuriosityonX]

This is Mars!

140 million miles away from us!

[The Sopranos Guy™ @uncle_june]

On this day, 25 years ago, The Sopranos episode "Knight In White Satin Armor" premiered.

[Muslim @Muslim]

BREAKING: Saudi Arabia announces Eid al-Fitr will be Sunday, March 30 2025. 🌙

The Crescent for the month of Shawwal 1446 was SEEN in Saudi Arabia today subsequently tomorrow is the beginning of the month of Shawwal 1446

#Eid #EidMubarak #Eid2025

[Dejected In Black @dejectedinblack]

@lordbrazes Where did Rowling say this exactly?

[Pop Base @PopBase]

‘Vampire Diaries’ author L.J. Smith has died at the age of 66.

[Dejected In Black @dejectedinblack]

@WTofficial About 18 years now since i was at university 😁

[Robert Burke @robertburke84]

A few people asked, so here’s the Garron Noone video so people can make up their own mind.

If the views expressed below are to be considered extreme and far-right, then what on earth are we now pretending is the political centre in Ireland? It’s absurd.

[Alan Finn @AlanFinn16]

Let's make this go viral. Please retweet. Bring back Garron Noone.
#GarronNoone

[The Figen @TheFigen_]

Egyptian singer performs a song in the language of ancient Egypt.

Egyptian singing dates back to around 4500 BCE, with music playing a central role in rituals, religious, royal and everyday.

[Natalie F Danelishen @Chesschick01]

Henry Cavill as bond.
Full stop.

[Dejected In Black @dejectedinblack]

@CarlWilson39 @RadioTimes Yeh but they could have recast the character instead of killing him