Summer here is a brief but wonderful season! Manitobans are known to take advantage of our province’s short but sweet period of heat, sunshine, and so much green! That feeling of elation that comes with heading outside to walk the dog while wearing shorts and sandals is familiar to all of us! Except your pooch, he can’t change his furry coat to something more summer friendly. So let’s discuss how to keep your pets safe and cool this summer in Manitoba!
Category Archives: featured
Life Skills and healing through animals.
Manitoba entrepreneur helping kids and youth dealing with mental illness.
People with animals at home know the feeling of unconditional love pets can provide. Now that same unconditional love is being used to help adolescents with emotional and mental difficulties to get well. Continue reading Life Skills and healing through animals.
SmartBIZ Pub(lication) Our monthly column discussing the world of Beer!
Beer!
Now that we’ve got your attention, SmartBIZ is very excited to announce we will be writing a monthly beer column talking about local trends, pairings, flavours, tips, and suggestions as well as many other topics.
Being that this is a very special issue of SmartBIZ, as we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, we thought this would be a good time to celebrate some fascinating Canadian beer facts along with some strange-but-true facts to discuss with your friends while enjoying a tasty beverage bringing in Canada’s 150.
Stubbies! The “stubby” bottle was iconic in Canada until it was taken out of circulation in the 1980s when Canadian brewers switched over to American-style longnecks. As it turns out, market research showed that women didn’t like the stubby, preferring the lengthy elegance of the longneck.
Beer Pre-Dates Confederation – Canadian beer is actually older than Canada. In fact, beer production in the Great White North pre-dates Confederation by a good 200 years.
Tavern Talk – In the early days of Canadian settlement, beer was an integral part of the community. That’s because the local tavern not only served beer, it was also a meeting place where the community would gather; a place for judges to hear complaints, politicians to seek votes and preachers to preach.
Beer economy – According to the Conference Board of Canada, one out of every 100 jobs in Canada is supported by the sale of beer, with every dollar we spend on beer generating $1.12 for the nation’s economy. This “beer economy,” in fact, supports 163,200 jobs throughout Canada.
Strange-but-true
- At the Wife Carrying World Championships, first prize is the wife’s weight in beer. YES, there is such a thing as a Wife Carrying World Championship, and YES, first prize is the wife’s weight in beer. Still don’t believe us? You can see these “athletes” competing in events all over YouTube.
- The moon has a crater named Beer.
- In the 1980s, a beer-drinking goat was elected mayor of Lajitas, TX. True story!
- Coined in the early 1900s, the word “alcoholiday” means leisure time spent drinking.
- Although you won’t find it in regular dictionaries, apparently there’s an actual phobia in which sufferers experience fear of seeing an empty beer class. This disorder is called Cenosillicaphobia.
- Researchers at the University of Western Ontario found that micronutrients called polyphenols in one 12-ounce (0.35-liter) bottle of beer create protective levels of plasma antioxidants that can prevent heart disease.
- Beer strengthens bones. It is rich in silicon that increases calcium deposits and minerals for bone tissue.
Preserving indigenous languages one app at a time
Ogoki Learning Inc. is the world leader when it comes to language apps
Canada’s Aboriginal languages are many and diverse, and their importance to indigenous people immense. During the past 100 years or more, nearly ten, once flourishing languages have become extinct; at least a dozen more are on the brink of extinction. When these languages vanish, they take with them unique ways of looking at the world.
Ogoki Learning Inc. is trying to preserve indigenous languages one app at a time.
It all started when Darrick Baxter, President of Ogoki Learning, created an Ojibwe language app for smartphones and tablets. Soon after the release, he noticed the app was doing what he hoped it would, teaching kids the Ojibwe language while keeping them engaged through mobile devices.
From that moment Baxter, who grew up in Winnipeg’s North End, knew he had to share the app with everyone, so he released the app for free.
Continue reading Preserving indigenous languages one app at a time
Pedal in the Peg
Pedal in the Peg was launched in 2015 as a pilot bike rental program with participating downtown hotels to support and promote cycling in the downtown.
Funded by the City of Winnipeg’s Active Transportation and supported by the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ’s
Transportation Committee, the program was modeled after successful bike rental programs established in cities across North America.
The program proved to be successful and this year will be offered from downtown businesses to guests,
customers, clients and/or employees, as well as to the general public.
The Downtown Winnipeg BIZ provides participating businesses with:
- 1-4 Bicycles with baskets
- Bike locks
- Bike lights,
- Helmets
- Bike racks (if needed)
- Monthly Bike maintenance
This year, hotels such as The Alt Hotel, Delta Winnipeg and Holiday Inn & Suites will be participating in the program with more businesses yet to be confirmed. Be sure to look out for the Pedal in the Peg launch and visit participating businesses to rent your bike this summer!
For more information about the Pedal in the Peg program, visit www.downtownwinnipegbiz.com.
