Geneviève Brassard

Philosophy teacher. Lover of knowledge, beauty and peace.
Enseignante de philosophie. Amoureuse de la sagesse, de la beauté et de la paix.

[Wonder of Science @wonderofscience]

Despite weighing up to 2,600 kg (5,700 lb), hippos can run up to 30 km/h (19 mph) over short distances.

📽: Art Ryan

[James Martin, SJ @JamesMartinSJ]

Pope Leo XIV: "Among these ideologies, I consider particularly insidious the one that suggests that every person must earn or justify his or her own worth, to the point of attributing greater value to those who are more efficient or effective. From this perspective, persons end up being reduced to a means of achieving results, a resource to be used and exploited, and are no longer recognized as a proper end in themselves who should never be instrumentalized. The value of persons, however, does not depend on what they achieve or produce. There are rights that apply to everyone simply by virtue of being human, and no human power can legitimately deny or arbitrarily limit them." #MagnificaHumanitas

[ᴅᴏᴏᴍᴇɴɪᴄ @dinosaur_info]

spitting fire right out the gate

[Matthew Keys @MatthewKeysLive]

Just one day after ending "The Late Show" on CBS, Stephen Colbert returned to TV — to host a public access show with rocker Jack White in Monroe, Michigan.

Appearances by Jeff Daniels, Eminem and Steve Buscemi.

[tim anderson @timand2037]

Comparto este video que lanzaron ayer Silvio Rodríguez y Chico Buarque; los fondos que se recaben serán donados a la Sala de Pediatría del Instituto de Oncología de Cuba, así que si queréis verlo, darle like y compartirlo con otras personas, es un pequeño grano de arena para aliviar la difícil situación en que se encuentran.
El vídeo es precioso y presenta esa Habana tan digna como empobrecida.
https://t.co/AVk6LbJAI7

[Geneviève Brassard @GenBrassard]

@AlinejadMasih This is an honest question: are you fundamentally opposed to Islam as a religion? If not, shouldn't Muslims have temples to pray in and to gather?
Or are you opposed to Islam in Western nations?
Again, genuine questions.

[.stuff @vintagestuff4]

Soviet "photoshop".
An example of how a photo was altered again and again after each person fell out of favor with Stalin's regime.

[Geneviève Brassard @GenBrassard]

@dijoni Tallest people in the world!
Tall and beautiful indeed.

[Masoud Pezeshkian @drpezeshkian]

Asia's oldest living organism, the ancient Abarkuh cypress tree - at least 4500 years old - is rooted in land that was already known as Iran at the time.

[Geneviève Brassard @GenBrassard]

@CarAdrianH @uOttawa Happy birthday M. Harewood!
Adrian - you look just like your dad!

[Céline Galipeau @CGalipeauTJ]

Le documentaire « Dans Gaza » filme la guerre de l’intérieur via les reporters de l'AFP. Seuls témoins face à l'interdiction de la presse internationale, ces journalistes palestiniens risquent leur vie. Entretien avec la réalisatrice et une reporter. (1re parte)

[Geneviève Brassard @GenBrassard]

@SpiritOfSankofa @dijoni Though I respect the intention, i still think non-violence and love are more powerful means to real change.

[ALUTHEDON @Mbakaza4L]

Fact: He traveled there for his cooking show & when they tried to block this one episode, he said he would pull his entire show from the network & this was the first time the world ever saw behind the walls in Gaza 2013

[Ancient History Hub @AncientHistorry]

In 458 BC, Rome was on the brink of collapse.

An invading army had trapped the Roman consul and his legion in a mountain pass. Panic spread through the city. The Senate did the only thing they could think of:

They sent messengers to find a 60-year-old farmer plowing his field.

His name was Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. He had once been a senator, then lost his fortune paying his son's bail. Now he worked his own four-acre plot just to feed his family.

When the Senate's envoys arrived, they found him sweating behind a plow. They asked him to put on his toga so they could deliver an official message.

The message: Rome was making him dictator. Absolute power. Total command of the army. No checks. No oversight. No term limit.

He accepted.

Within 16 days, Cincinnatus had raised an army, marched out, surrounded the enemy, and forced their surrender. The republic was saved.

He had legal authority to rule for six months. He could have stayed. He could have expanded his power. He could have done what every other ruler in human history did when handed unlimited control.

Instead, he resigned on day 16.

He took off the toga, walked back to his farm, and finished plowing the field he'd left half-done.

Twenty years later, when Rome faced another crisis, they called him back. He was 80 years old. He took command, crushed the conspiracy, and resigned again, this time after just 21 days.

He died poor. On his farm.

2,200 years later, when George Washington was offered a kingship after winning the American Revolution, he refused and went home to Mount Vernon. The reason he was hailed as "the American Cincinnatus" is because Europeans literally could not believe a man who had won would willingly give up power.

King George III, on hearing Washington would resign rather than rule, said: "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."

The lesson isn't that Cincinnatus was humble.

The lesson is that for most of human history, the people most qualified to lead were the ones who didn't want to. And the moment a society starts rewarding those who chase power instead of those who flee from it is the moment the republic begins to die.

Cincinnati, Ohio is named after him.

Most people who live there have no idea why.

[Jason Kenney 🇨🇦🇺🇦🇮🇱 @jkenney]

Reducing your community’s weight in Parliament to own the Libs 🤔

Pro tip: the Prime Minister will never see your note. Canada has been conducting a census since 1867 regardless of the party in office. Every country on Earth does a census.

By boycotting the Census, you’re not striking a blow for freedom or privacy. You’re reducing the population weight of your area when Parliamentary seats are allocated.

Not smart.

[Christiane Amanpour @amanpour]

“I see a hollowing out of the Geneva Conventions,” warns @ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric. “Civilians are systematically reduced to numbers and statistics. We are losing sight of humanity, which has to be put at the center of all of this.

“We cannot accept the levels of destruction. We cannot accept the levels of suffering anymore. The numbers of casualties and displaced people and the rhetoric – the rhetoric around this is most problematic because it lowers the barriers. It lowers the moral frontiers to doing the worst.”

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

In Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam, God's finger stretches fully outward, while Adam's finger is bent at the last joint.

This illustrates well the message Michelangelo wanted to drive: God is always present, but it is up to humans to take the initiative to connect with Him.