Hermanos steakhouse expands brand to Brandon

Teachers work with Microsoft and Minecraft to create Anishinaabe society

In a forest abundant with birch trees, knowledge keeper Chickadee Richard greets students with a teaching about tobacco, known as semaa in Anishinaabemowin.

“Semaa is a gift of reciprocity. We give semaa to receive knowledge and healing,” Richard says about a practice that is traditional for Anishinaabe people, via a medium that is anything but.

The birch trees, much like the teepees, campfire flames and murky brown rivers that surround her, are pixelated.

And the elder from Sandy Bay First Nation? A video game version of Richard.

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: Caution! Avoid shopping (except food and gas) and important decisions until after 6:30 p.m. today. After that, the moon moves from Cancer into Leo.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Don’t expect much co-operation from partners, spouses and close friends. This is why you might feel cut off from others or a bit lonely. There’s the sense a gulf exists between you and everyone else. But this is temporary. Courage!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Broadening prediction-market gambling a bad idea

Let’s make a prediction: sooner or later, when Canadian governments find a way to take their own cut of the action, prediction-contract gambling on everything from sports to entertainment to political decisions is going to come to Canada.

And that’s a horrible, dangerous, pernicious idea.

Unless you have particular access to information — either inside information or strategic information based on skills or education — you’re not likely to make money at it. In fact, structurally, you’re likely to lose. In prediction markets, you basically pay an amount, plus fees from the company involved, to bet on whether something will or will not happen within a certain time frame. The amount you pay for your contract depends on how other people are also betting.

As Wealthsimple describes it, “You buy whichever side you think is right. Prices move with demand, so if the market leans towards one outcome, the more that side costs. If a lot of people are backing the TSX to finish above 38,000, yes gets more expensive and no gets cheaper.”

Norway's Ruud wins Olympic gold year after father's death

The decorated alpine athlete was disqualified from her first two races in Beijing, but still has plenty of events to come.

Giant Tiger decision creates giant void for desperate population

A lot of Winnipeggers may shrug, but the end of Giant Tiger’s downtown store is a giant problem for many of the people living in the centre of the city.

It would have been difficult for anyone going into or passing by the Canadian discount chain’s Donald Street and Ellice Avenue location Thursday to miss the red notices posted on the store’s windows advising it will close on Nov. 7.

According to a 2024 Downtown Winnipeg BIZ report, about 18,000 people live in Winnipeg’s downtown.

More than 60,000 people work there, and some days — when there’s a big concert or the Jets play at Canada Life Centre, for example — the number of people spending time in the area increases significantly.

Board game company charts winning path

Dennis Northcott has launched a game without frontiers.

The Winnipeg entrepreneur is the co-designer of Galactic Cruise, a board game published last year by Kinson Key Games LLC, the business he co-founded. Since its release, Galactic Cruise has been translated into 11 languages and sold around 50,000 copies worldwide.

It’s also one of three finalists for this year’s Deutsche Spiele Preis, a prestigious community-voted board game award. Northcott will travel to Essen, Germany, later this month, where the winner will be announced at Spiel Essen, an annual board game trade fair.

“It’s been amazing,” Northcott said of the response to Galactic Cruise during an interview in his Island Lakes neighbourhood home earlier this week. “The sales have been great, but it’s also been amazing in terms of people giving their reviews.”