alex zawacki
@AChillGhost
Followers
7K
Following
69K
Media
4K
Statuses
50K
lecturer @ the university of Göttingen | medievalist - ghosts, the supernatural | multispectral imaging scientist
Germany
Joined May 2009
I wrote about the time a church in Devon was destroyed, and several people killed, by either ball lightning or the direct intervention of dark forces .
8
26
294
You’re British man. It’s like a four hour drive. Just go find out.
1K
12K
411K
Congratulations both for finishing amd for very possibly being the first person in recorded history whose dissertation will be read by someone who is not their mom or on their committee.
Thrilled to say I passed my viva with no corrections and am officially PhDone.
98
5K
148K
You all need to stop abbreviating “Secret Service” like that.
433
3K
111K
You cannot imagine the disappointment that came from imbibing absinthe propaganda like this for years and then finally trying and finding out it just gets you really drunk.
697
6K
103K
Not taking this sort of criticism from Brits sorry. I’ve heard how you pronounce literally any Spanish word.
just discovered how americans pronounce niche, need a moment.
494
5K
93K
You can just log onto this website and get ratiod by the Holy Roman Emperor
113
5K
81K
The shift from “have” to “of” is probably unstoppable but man I hate it.
Today is a miscarriage of justice. Donald Trump should NOT of been found guilty.
629
3K
71K
Real ID is the most American thing that's ever happened. A Patriot Act-era requirement that has been delayed to next year, every year, for 20 years, because Americans simply cannot be bothered to get one.
417
3K
61K
Man that is really not how I would expect the relative densities of those two liquids to play out.
finally finishing the day strong with a Gonster
92
3K
59K
Britain is a fascinating place. I had not previously understood that a state could suffer from clinical depression.
215
4K
61K
Single? Simply roam the country, aimless, landless, like some form of horny ronin.
Here's my advice to single American men who feel hopeless about ever finding a good woman to marry:. Take a month or two between jobs and drive across the USA. Stop at every gas station and truck stop, and eat every meal at diners during non-rush hours. Avoid cities; stop
249
3K
50K
It’s extremely funny that as soon as COVID was even halfway over we all implicitly agreed to never talk about it again. Seems to be the default human response to plagues. You can read all of English literature from the 14th century and have no idea the Black death happened.
198
2K
49K
Everyone flipped on this pretty hard once they all saw Canada giving the homeless strychnine and the Netherlands euthanizing anorexics.
I have never so dramatically changed my position on anything as much as I have on assisted dying, to the point that I now believe it is a sign of barbarism to legalise it; the extreme end point of the evil ideology of austerity.
184
3K
46K
Lots of Germans love (a weird, romanticized, incredibly racist idea of) Native Americans that they got from Karl May novels and they get really upset if you tell them it’s incredibly racist.
229
4K
42K
700 years ago this kind of question would’ve occupied the best theological minds for a generation and produced at least three schisms.
Jewish friend asked me a very funny legal question: “Can you break your Ramadan fast during the eclipse since technically it gets dark?” I had to hand it to him, I didn’t think of that 😂😎🌞🌆.
29
3K
42K
Mandela effect stuff is mostly unsustainable as a concept once you remember how many people memed themselves into believing “sweet summer child” existed before Game of Thrones. That said the Fruit of the Loom logo used to have a cornucopia and reality has been rewritten.
128
1K
37K
God German has the worst learning incentives of any language on earth. “But you can read Goethe in the original” brother I don’t even want to read Goethe in translation.
334
2K
34K
At what point do you as a scientist start asking “is this stuff ontologically evil”
251
3K
30K
I have a self-sustaining jar of germs that I’ve been cultivating for twelve years and I can’t bring it to Germany because customs forbids the unlicensed international transport of Slime
200
1K
28K
Genuinely impressed by how bad the new window in Westminster Abbey is
239
1K
28K
Everyone rags on the “somehow Palpatine returned” line in RoS but never mentions that the message he broadcast for the galaxy - the inciting incident for the entire film - is not actually in the film and was in fact an event in Fortnite.
80
2K
26K
Blade Runner 2049 is the ultimate male fantasy film (a man comes to briefly and falsely believe that he is deserving of love).
23
2K
23K
Every millennial I know has a story about smoking salvia and spending five thousand years in the nightmare dimension from Event Horizon.
something I miss about the late 2000s is salvia. It was a part of culture in a subtle way and smoking it sent you straight to fucking hell.
472
1K
21K
The first time I was ever in Germany I met a nun who spoke no English, and I spoke no German, so we sort of hobbled through a conversation in Latin, to the total surprise of both of us.
52
735
21K
The Green Knight has a fair number of shortcomings as a film but it’s really rare that a movie manages to approach the sheer alien strangeness of much medieval literature.
91
968
21K
I want to stress again how many Germans believe they hold a position of enlightened moral superiority not despite the fact that their grandfathers were Nazis but because their grandfathers were Nazis.
@aprebrue @giulio_mattioli dude, I AM from a perpetrator family and grew up with Nazi relatives. I KNOW their speech, don't you dilute yourself to think you can lecture me about not recognizing fascistic or Nazi propaganda when I hear it.
45
3K
19K
This is going to sound insane but there are 700 movies that you legally can’t screen on Good Friday in Germany. It is also illegal to dance tomorrow in 3/4s of the country, with penalties up to €1,500.
122
1K
19K
Good. The movies should be as weirdly hostile to the audience as the books are. 57 unbroken minutes of this should be a lecture on groundwater hydrology and its effects on desert ecosystems.
The official DUNE: PART TWO runtime is 2 hours 46 minutes according to Japanese film rating org.
96
1K
18K
Lmao.
63
184
18K
German healthcare isn’t so bad but you need to actively bully the doctors into giving you medicine. Just full on dumb American “I will cause a scene in this emergency room if you do not give me something non-homeopathic this instant”.
7
451
18K
Almost impossible to overstate how much Tolkien would hate this.
Grok's recreation of some of the most captivating moments of J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion:. It tookk 15 minutes and the results are surprising. A thread 🧵. 1. Laurelin and Telperion, the trees of Valinor
81
1K
18K
It’s not fair that once you learn a language you have to keep practicing it or your skills atrophy. It should stay permanently unlocked.
23
2K
15K
brandon has gone completely off the rails. he is ascending.
BREAKING: White House issues new policy that will require, by 2026, all federally-funded research results to be freely available to public without delay, ending longstanding ability of journals to paywall results for up to 1 year. Coverage coming on @ScienceInsider.
44
761
14K
While that is weird I’m not sure it’s weird enough to occlude the inherent weirdness of “nativity scene made of doors”.
saw this nativity scene made of doors and they gave mary a doggy door WHYYYY WHY WHY
12
483
13K
Only parts of Pennsylvania are suitable for human life as much of the region is saturated with dark ley lines, the miasmatic auras of dead gods beneath the hills, and other such psychic turbulence.
considering how densely populated and historically economically developed both the acela corridor and the great lakes region is, it's crazy that just no one lives here
143
1K
12K
we gotta stop this thing where we pretend mental illness just makes you weird and quirky and bad at sending emails and could never cause any actual bad behavior.
48
963
12K
The words of the prophets are written on the library walls
20
3K
10K
@theperfcat We are eliminating the formal viva, thesis defense now consists of arguing with 20,000 of the the worst people on twitter.
8
265
11K
Remember the six month period on here when leftist twitter had to pretend that him dressing like your unemployed uncle all the time was cool and good and possibly a revolutionary act.
A really basic but important rule in life: if your partner makes the effort to dress up for an event, you should too. This is so annoying to look at.
88
252
9K
9th century poem by a monk about his cat
People forget how truly new the very delicate pet thing is and how little greatest generation and older cared about pets. Once you get past the boomers, it is a different world with different values. They would be considered very cruel and cold to most people today.
63
1K
9K
nuclear bombs creating mysterious crystal pentagrams is a bit on the nose, don’t you think
59
1K
7K
American Christians believe that upon death their heart is weighed by George Washington. If it is heavier than the quill used to write the Constitution their soul is devoured by Benedict Arnold.
VIVEK RAMASWAMY: “When we face our founding fathers in the afterlife and they ask us what sacrifice did you make for your country we better have a damn good answer for them.”. 🔥🔥🔥.
55
824
8K
“We don’t understand why this burst into flame in the freezer” i do. It wanted to kill you. Next question.
11
157
7K
@EduardHabsburg I’m working on my courtly flattery, really hoping for some kind of sinecure at the embassy.
2
11
7K
computer why is buffalo diocese strapped for cash.
St. Anne’s Church, Buffalo, NY. Permanently closed. Sold to the Islamic community for $250,000 who are converting the historic church into a mosque.
7
377
7K
I think it’s great that Netanyahu is worried we’ll coup him. We should coup one of the client states every 18 months or so to keep them in line. Britain in particular has been a little uppity lately.
58
403
7K
@NathanTrout @josephcoward Most of you guys don’t even say kwassawn but ours is still better than your guacamole.
12
16
7K
There are whole academic books and articles wondering why Chaucer never really mentioned the plague despite living through multiple significant outbreaks and the answer is that it really sucked and no one wanted to think about it again.
7
104
6K
is he uh. allowed to say that
Pope Francis rants against ‘delinquent’ priests who withhold absolution.
74
430
6K
@MTHiatt It’s better this way. Centuries from now our descendants will ritually intone that Real ID is coming next year, the meaning behind the words long forgotten.
10
104
6K
@GuduleMartens @Glinner If people are getting euthanized for mental illness and anorexia, as they are, then it isn’t hard enough.
28
36
6K
lovely example of anti-homeless architecture pretending to be quirky contemporary art
47
659
5K
A german once explained the European idea of red solo cups to me as signaling that “you are no longer in reality. You have entered a mythical zone”.
one very cool thing is europeans coming here and realizing that everything they see on tv — yellow school buses, red solo cups, diners where waitresses serve you coffee from the pot — are real.
23
250
6K
ive had both of those. what the hell is this website. every day someone tweets "has anyone ever seen a man in a red car?! didnt think so" and gets 40k likes.
i just randomly thought about this but has anyone ever had a male english teacher or a female history teacher ?? like i’ve never seen one.
24
696
5K
Man post-Roman Wales was wild. You could become an immortal king forever inhabiting the shadowy borderland between myth and history by briefly controlling an area roughly the size of Bergen County, New Jersey.
23
518
5K
If I don’t take adderall I experience all past and future events simultaneously like Dr Manhattan.
tiktok ADHD videos are getting truly wild. “time blindness” has gone from “easily losing track of time; often late; trouble planning schedules” to “ADHD brains have no concept of temporal sequence, cannot form memories, and view the future as senseless chaos”.
11
395
5K
Lots of people replying to say “it’s because the modern stuff doesn’t have wormwood in it.” The modern stuff *does* have wormwood in it, at similar levels to the old stuff, and there’s no evidence that wormwood caused the hallucinations reported in the 19th century.
26
35
5K
JESUS: Love thy neighbor, and-.JOHN: BEHOLD, THE THOUSAND-HORNÉD BEAST.JESUS: John.JOHN: ALL SHALL ROT IN BOILING BLOOD.JESUS: Johnathan.
31
2K
4K
Here’s my advice to single American men who feel hopeless about ever finding a good woman to marry: . The riverine towns are unready for an attack by water. Come at night, come in storm. Let their first warning be the burning of their watchtowers. There is gold in their churches.
9
161
5K
Her: Sprechen sie deutsch? . Me: nein, es tut mir leid. Sprechen sie Englisch?. Her: ach, nein. Me: uh…Latine scis?. Her: …ja?. Me: Salve, soror!.
8
86
4K
Learning about the movies you’re not allowed to show in Germany on Good Friday
18
173
4K
Catholicism is really special, very few other churches have to deal with what are essentially rogue wizards.
Self-professed archbishop known for ‘healings and exorcisms’ denounced by Rome. ✍️ Crux Staff @Crux:.
14
444
4K
a thread of archeological finds from pre-Christian Britain that creep me out.
37
833
4K
@wheatfrom You guys had like fifteen years of Tory government and a very high salary in the UK is now comparable to a Dunkin Donuts manager in Ohio. You’re in deep trouble brother.
22
77
4K
@krillyboy Worse than that. When I was a waiter in wales I would regularly get people ordering jalapeños (jah-lah-PENN-oh).
28
14
4K
Similarly psychiatrists no longer use Jung because too many patients were reintegrating their psyches with the fullness of the collective unconscious leading to several of what the American Psychiatric Association called “Dune type situations”.
few know this but freud actually got ppl thru therapy process v quickly. weeks, months. thats why therapists dont use freud anymore. not bc hes unscientific (whole field is unscientific, replication crisis etc etc) but bc his stuff works too fast so you cant make as much money.
6
357
4K
Yeah it rules. One of the better m books I’ve read in a while
18
177
4K
@ladygreenkirtle “I’m looking for the man who killed my father” - at least a conversation starter . “I’m looking for a nubile IHOPess” - escorted out by the police.
8
94
4K
@DukeeB69785 @MatthewSitman Painting their faces red was a really nice touch. Really sold their commitment to authenticity.
12
18
3K
not kidding about this
they’re right. the cheesecake factory is a ritual space oversaturated with esoteric meaning. it’s Karnak designed by pre-9/11 American Boomers.
54
317
3K
Even at the time you could see this coming. There was a tweet in like April(?) of 2020 to the effect of "When this is over I am never going to think about it again. I will pretend not to know that you're talking about if you bring it up".
3
44
3K
@kybernet3s Absolutely, except for this one trivial thing that I am right about and which proves the existence of a Matrix type situation.
3
30
3K
The Berlin police have banned people from speaking languages other than English or German at public events, in a racist attempt to crack down on Arabic. I’ll be at the Bundestag tomorrow using what I can remember of my Leaving Cert Irish to protest this. Join if you can!.
6
215
3K
Can’t stop thinking about how the Erie Canal used to go through the middle of downtown Rochester on a bridge over a river. This is what they took from you
33
275
3K
I remember at the time people complaining that the scene with the howling giants made no sense, didn’t contribute to the plot, and was never mentioned again and it’s like yeah. Sometimes that kind of thing just happens.
14
54
3K
@Cyborglion1 It’s not an apex predator but yes if you have an outdoor cat you are a morally bad person
33
72
3K
@Ichbins8 Yeah man I think it’s good for the state to euthanize depressed and impoverished people.
17
17
3K
Pope Francis in English language media: we are all of us loved by God. Even the sinner may be good at heart .Pope Francis in Italian language media: [This post violated X’s rules against hate speech].
“C’è già troppa ‘frociaggine’”. Papa Francesco consiglia così, ai vescovi italiani, di non ammettere seminaristi gay
7
305
3K
Come on man you can’t be named that. You can’t be named “Pizzaballa”.
ROME: Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa @LPJerusalem takes possession of his titular church of Sant'Onofrio, home to Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. Pizzaballa spoke on the Kingdom of God & how being a cdl is a “responsibility” not just a “title.”.Church packed w Knights & clergy.
32
299
3K
Supremely nice lady. Brought me to a rosary session after mass and insisted on making me a sandwich when she found out I hadn’t had dinner yet.
2
13
3K