Book Review: ‘Algospeak’ shows just how much social media is changing us

How much has social media changed the way we talk and behave?

That’s the question linguist and content creator Adam Aleksic sets out to answer in his debut book “Algospeak.”

If you already know what words like “yeet,” “rizz,” “brainrot” or “blackpilled” mean, some of this information might not come as a surprise to you. Still, Aleksic’s analysis reaffirms how this language came about and why it continues to proliferate. For those unfamiliar, it acts as an accessible entry point into social media slang and its evolution.

“Algospeak” touches on a wide array of topics, including in-groups and out-groups, censorship, language appropriation, extremism online, microtrends, clickbait and generational divides. The chapters build on each other with a textbook-level attention to vocabulary.

‘Love Island’ revives conversation about racial bias and misogynoir in dating

It used to be that dating was as simple as deciding between dinner, a trip to the movies or an arcade. Now, understanding the dating scene has become intermingled with smartphones, matchmaking apps and one’s ability to navigate thorny social issues like racial preference in a mate.

“Love Island,” a widely popular international reality television franchise, is emblematic of the complexities of modern dating. It has also sparked heated discussions among fans about the desirability of Black women and darker-complexioned people both on and off air.

The show, which aired the finale of the seventh season of its U.S. version Sunday and is airing the 12th season of its U.K. version, casts conventionally attractive “islanders” who are generally in their early to late 20s for a six- to eight-week stay in a luxury villa. Men and women compete for long-lasting relationships and a cash prize.

But as the show’s daters face challenges meant to test their bonds, as well as elimination by villa mates or by fans’ vote, notions of who is and isn’t desirable frequently come up for viewers and contestants alike. In the end, many fans are left with the perception that racial bias, colorism and misogyny are especially inescapable for Black women on reality dating shows.

Au Musée Saint-Joseph, là où le patrimoine s’explore grandeur nature

Au Musée Saint-Joseph, on s’immerge dans le monde des années 1880 à 1930 de la municipalité rurale de Montcalm à partir de villages immersifs et d’artefacts préservés.

Situé à une heure de route au sud de Winnipeg, le Musée Saint-Joseph offre une véritable plongée dans le quotidien des pionniers qui ont façonné la région. Avec ses bâtiments d’époque, ses artefacts soigneusement conservés et son ambiance immersive, ce site patrimonial est bien plus qu’un musée: c’est une expérience vivante et enrichissante, idéale pour les curieux d’histoire comme pour les familles en quête de découverte.

Mais le musée ne se contente pas de montrer le passé — il le fait revivre. Grâce à un calendrier d’activités scolaires, des visites guidées et surtout son festival du patrimoine Montcalm en juin, le site devient un lieu animé où le patrimoine francophone et rural du Manitoba prend tout son sens.

D’ailleurs, Camille Fisette-Mulaire, directrice du Musée Saint-Joseph, affirme que le musée ne cesse d’attirer les touristes grâce à ses villages immersifs et son festival annuel.

Un voyage au cœur de l’héritage métis

Installé dans un ancien couvent centenaire, le musée de Saint-Pierre-Jolys invite les visiteurs à plonger dans l’histoire du village et de ses communautés fondatrices. À partir du 5 juin, une toute nouvelle exposition permanente — L’établissement de la Rivière-aux-Rats — met à l’honneur l’héritage métis de la région, des premiers échanges de fourrures jusqu’à l’arrivée du chemin de fer en 1878. Documents rares, cartes anciennes et récits de résistances font revivre une époque charnière du Manitoba. Une halte incontournable pour qui souhaite découvrir le passé vivant de la province.

Roland Gagné, l’actuel président, revient sur le développement du musée. “Ce sont les grands-parents de Sol Desharnais — le commissaire des expositions permanentes – qui ont racheté l’ancien couvent. De là, c’est devenu un musée, puis la cabane à sucre est née.” Sur place, une salle de classe traditionnelle a été reconstituée, témoignant ainsi de l’ancienne activité du musée. En 1985, le musée acquiert par donation la Maison Goulet, située sur le sentier Crow Wing, puis l’année 1998 voit la création de la fameuse cabane à sucre connue pour le célèbre festival du Temps des sucres.

À l’intérieur, l’établissement renferme deux expositions permanentes, une sur l’ancienne église démolie dans la controverse en 1980 et l’autre sur l’artiste de renom originaire de Saint-Pierre-Jolys, Réal Bérard.

Une toute nouvelle exposition

Explore Indigenous discovery centre opens its doors at The Forks Market

People seeking tourism opportunities in Manitoba have a new resource.

Indigenous Tourism Manitoba and The Forks North Portage Partnership celebrated the grand opening on Friday of Explore Indigenous, a new space that aims to build awareness and understanding of Indigenous-led tourism experiences in the keystone province.

Located at The Forks Market, the downtown Winnipeg discovery centre offers self-guided learning tools and interpretative displays that introduce visitors to Indigenous Tourism Manitoba’s network of operators — who they are, where they’re located and what types of experiences they offer.

A curated product showcase features artisans who have been accredited through the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada’s Original Original program, which highlights businesses and experiences that are at least 51 per cent Indigenous-owned.

First school year of cellphone ban well-received: minister

Sweeping restrictions on cellphone use in schools are here to stay, despite frustrations related to inconsistent enforcement and student workarounds during the 2024-25 rollout.

Manitoba banned phones in elementary classrooms last summer and introduced new rules to silence devices and keep them out of sight during Grade 9 to 12 lessons.

“How practical is that going to be in the real world? AI exists. Cellphones exist. Banning them is only going to make us sneakier,” said Diana Bonakdar, who just finished Grade 11 in Winnipeg.

Diana and Nadia Lovallo, the new co-presidents of the student council at St. Mary’s Academy, question the effectiveness of the policy and its long-term impact.

De l’église au musée: le cœur battant de Richer vous attend

Cet été, faites une escale inoubliable à Richer, au cœur du Manitoba, et laissez-vous surprendre par le charme et la richesse du Musée Dawson Trail Museum. Installé dans une ancienne église magnifiquement restaurée, ce musée communautaire unique raconte l’histoire vibrante de la région, tout en devenant un véritable lieu de rassemblement pour les générations d’hier et d’aujourd’hui. Entre expositions fascinantes, activités familiales, marchés d’été et projets culturels, il y a mille et une raisons de venir le découvrir.

Une église sauvée par la passion d’un village

Impliquée dans la genèse du Musée Dawson Trail Museum depuis 2005, Yvonne Godard, aujourd’hui présidente du musée, raconte: “En 1995, les dames du village voulaient sauver l’église, donc elles ont formé un groupe, les Amis de la prière. Mais ça prenait beaucoup d’argent pour entretenir la bâtisse, la cour, le cimetière.

”Donc en 2005, un nouveau comité a été créé, et j’ai été élue présidente. Ça a encore pris presque dix ans pour amasser les fonds pour faire toutes les rénovations, mais finalement on a ouvert notre musée dans l’ancienne église en 2014.”

Keeping fur babies fed in a fire zone

FLIN FLON — Harley Eagle became an expert at breaking into houses during the month-long evacuation of this northern community as a wildfire raged nearby.

However, he had the homeowners’ permission.

While 5,100 Flin Floners waited out the fire in southern Manitoba, Eagle and his wife, city councillor Judy Eagle, offered to stay behind and feed animals that didn’t make the trip with their owners.

“It was groundhog day every day. You get up at 5:30 a.m., go to the community hall, make the coffee and then that’s when you start caring for all the animals,” he said Wednesday afternoon, as residents slowly made their way back to their homes and pets.

Downtown pilot project will add furniture, art, picnic tables to Graham Avenue

Over the next three weeks, the city aims to breathe new life into a four-block stretch of Graham Avenue, with a bright new look, ping pong tables, street furniture and art.

As the Free Press reported last week, a pilot project will see Graham reserved for cyclists and pedestrians between Carlton and Garry streets, once a new primary transit network removes buses from the area on June 29.

On Monday, the city laid out its vision for the pilot, which is expected to continue at least until the end of summer.

“The buses will move off of Graham Avenue and in just three weeks … after that, we will completely transform this stretch of Graham,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham.

Mass tourism a modern ill

When I went to Paris in 2012, I skipped the Louvre. Sacré bleu!

Quand la rivière Winnipeg devient musée

Le long de la rivière Winnipeg, à Saint-Georges, un musée pas comme les autres raconte l’histoire d’un peuple lié à l’eau. Grâce aux objets, aux témoignages et à une vue imprenable sur la rivière, les visiteurs plongent dans une mémoire régionale bien vivante, accessible en français autant qu’en anglais.

À Saint-Georges, le Musée du Patrimoine de la rivière Winnipeg est un incontournable pour comprendre l’histoire et l’identité de la région. Ouvert toute l’année depuis 2019, il est le fruit de la résilience de la communauté après un incendie en 2014 qui avait détruit l’ancien Musée des pionniers.

”Face au feu, la communauté n’a jamais baissé les bras,” affirme la directrice, Diane Dubé. Dès 2015, on travaillait déjà à recréer un musée.”

La reconstruction a permis de concrétiser une vision déjà en marche depuis 2012, celle de “sortir de Saint-Georges pour faire un musée vraiment régional.”

More than 7,000 elms felled in Winnipeg last year due to disease

A city report reveals elm trees were chopped down more than expected last year due to Dutch elm disease.

Should you let pets sleep next to you? (Does it even matter what the experts say?)

It turns out, our furry best friend might be our sleep enemy.

Lots of pet owners let their animals sleep on the bed with them, which usually disrupts sleep. But many would say it’s worth it.

And researchers don't necessarily disagree.

Melissa Milanak, a professor at Medical University of South Carolina specializing in sleep health, said most people at her clinic say their pets disturb them often at night.

Right To Play International asks people to play and share their stories on Wednesday

As two of Canada's most experienced Olympians, Miranda Ayim and Erica Wiebe have made careers out of playing sports at the highest levels of competition.

But some of their most formative memories are of playing as children with almost no stakes.

"We basically would have a neighbourhood-wide game of tag where we were just jumping fences from yard to yard," said Ayim, who was on Canada's women's basketball team at four Olympics.

"I don't know if our parents really appreciated that, but we felt so adventurous going from yard to yard and running but still feeling safe to do so in that neighbourhood, and enjoying that time and that feeling of freedom."

‘She’s all of us’: mural illustrates ties between Winnipeg and grateful Ukrainian newcomers

Blue and yellow ribbons wrapping around the city’s skyline show the deep connection between Ukraine and Manitoba in a new mural.

Take Pride Winnipeg, a downtown non-profit that seeks to clean up and inspire civic pride, unveiled its newest mural, titled “Pray for Ukraine” in the Exchange District on Monday.

It pictures a Ukrainian woman in traditional clothing stoically gazing into the distance as butterflies and a dove — which symbolize hope, peace and rebirth — flutter around the Esplanade Riel and Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

The installation at Exchange District BIZ at 492 Main St. was painted by Jennifer Mosienko, who’s worked on more than 40 murals across the city.

Un demi-siècle de fête et de fierté à Saint-Joseph

AUJOURD’HUI et demain, le Festival du patrimoine Montcalm célèbrera ses 50 ans avec une programmation familiale, festive et gratuite. Depuis 1975, cet évènement porté par le Musée Saint-Joseph incarne l’esprit communautaire et la richesse de la culture franco-manitobaine.

Né en 1975, le Festival du patrimoine Montcalm est devenu, au fil des décennies, un rendez-vous incontournable au sud de la province. Fidèle à sa mission de rassemblement et de transmission, il met à l’honneur l’histoire, la culture et le savoir-faire local dans une ambiance chaleureuse et intergénérationnelle.

Pour marquer son 50e anniversaire, l’édition 2025 proposera un programme haut en couleur: un déjeuner aux crêpes, un défilé, un zoo pour enfants, des spectacles de musique locale, une brasserie en plein air, ainsi qu’une foule d’activités gratuites pour toute la famille. Le tout se déroulera sur le site du Musée Saint-Joseph, qui ouvrira ses portes aux visiteurs sans frais d’entrée pendant toute la durée du festival.

“Toute la musique, les jeux pour enfants, c’est gratuit. Seule la nourriture est à la charge des visiteurs. C’est une journée idéale à vivre en famille,” explique Camille Fisette-Mulaire, directrice générale du Musée Saint-Joseph.

‘I hope that we don’t lose the town’: Snow Lake residents get mandatory evacuation order

Another wildfire-threatened town in northern Manitoba began a mandatory evacuation Friday, while a 140-kilometre-long blaze threatened multiple communities in two provinces and put evacuees on tenterhooks.

Snow Lake, home to about 1,100 people, ordered residents to get out before noon Saturday and head to an evacuation reception centre in Winnipeg if they need a place to stay.

“I put the sprinkler on my home, and locked the door and left,” resident Caroline Denby told the Free Press during her roughly seven-hour drive to Winnipeg. “I hope that we don’t lose the town. Everybody getting out is the main thing. I really trust our (fire) crew, and believe they’re really wonderful at what they do.”

Town officials started planning for a potential evacuation as early as about two weeks ago. A voluntary evacuation began Tuesday. Denby was ready to go when it became mandatory.

‘Pray for rain’: wildfire races toward Flin Flon

Premier Wab Kinew urged Manitobans to remain calm Friday, a pivotal day in the war on wildfires in which shifting winds sent flames bearing down on Flin Flon, more people had to be evacuated from more communities and desperately needed resources were promised by the United States.

“Keep calm and carry on,” Kinew told an afternoon news conference at the legislature.

He said the threat to Flin Flon, about 830 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, had become so severe that the mayor, council and the few others who remained after a citywide evacuation order issued Wednesday afternoon had no choice but to leave Friday.

“We had our health-care workers leave this morning… the only folks remaining on the ground are the firefighters and folks in the office of the fire commissioner and RCMP who are there to battle the blaze,” Kinew said.

To the margins of our rivers, our marginalized

It’s not surprising that in the not-quite-public spaces on the margins of Winnipeg's rivers live the marginalized, the people not quite suited, for whatever reason, to a life away from its shores.

CDC removes language that says healthy kids and pregnant women should get COVID shots

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's top public health agency posted new recommendations that say healthy children and pregnant women may get COVID-19 vaccinations, removing stronger language that those groups should get the shots.

The change comes days after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 vaccines will no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women.

But the updated guidance on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website sends a more nuanced message, saying shots “may” be given to those groups.

“The announcement from earlier this week sounded like CDC was going to fully withdraw any statement that could be construed as a recommendation for these vaccines in these populations,” said Jason Schwartz, a Yale University health policy researcher. “It's not as bad as it could have been."

Heiltsuk Nation ratification feast brings written constitution into force

The Heiltsuk Nation has ratified its written constitution through a celebratory feast in Bella Bella, B.C.

Marilyn Slett, the nation's elected chief, called it a "monumental day" that comes after two decades of development and consultation.

"It's hard to put into words how big it is. It's definitely a day of celebration and reflection on everything that brought us to the day," Slett said of Friday's feast.

The Heiltsuk Nation approved the adoption of a written constitution for the First Nation on British Columbia's central coast in February. That followed six months of engagement with more than 2,000 Heiltsuk members in Bella Bella, Nanaimo and Vancouver.

Quebec language office pressed transit agency for months before Habs playoff run

MONTREAL - Quebec's language watchdog contacted the Montreal transit agency at least six times in the wake of a complaint about using the word "go" on city buses to cheer on a local soccer team.

The watchdog — the Office québécois de la langue française — asked for multiple updates on the agency’s efforts to remove the word, and kept the complaint open for nine months until “go” had been scrubbed from more than 1,000 city buses in Montreal, according to emails obtained by The Canadian Press.

The correspondence contrasts with the office’s public comments responding to an April report in the Montreal Gazette that revealed how the transit agency had replaced the expression “Go! Canadiens Go!” on its buses with “Allez! Canadiens Allez!” to appease the watchdog.

The news report, coinciding with the Montreal Canadiens' first home game of the Stanley Cup playoffs, prompted a public outcry and elicited a declaration from French-language Minister Jean-François Roberge in support of the expression “Go Habs Go!”

Big Ocean breaks new ground as K-pop’s first deaf group

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Big Ocean, a three-member K-pop group composed entirely of artists with hearing disabilities, is redefining the limits of music and performance — one beat at a time.

When Big Ocean takes the stage, they seamlessly incorporate sign language into their performances. But their polished shows are built on extensive preparation using high-tech tools born from necessity — vibrating smartwatches that pulse with musical beats and LED visual metronomes that flash timing cues during practice sessions. This technological approach represents significant progress in South Korea’s entertainment industry, where career opportunities for people with disabilities have historically been limited.

The trio, PJ, Jiseok and Chanyeon, made their debut in April 2024 and recently wrapped a solo European tour marking their first anniversary. The band performed in four countries, including France and the U.K., while promoting their second mini-album, “Underwater,” which dropped on April 20.

PJ rose to prominence as a YouTuber who educated viewers about hearing disabilities. Chanyeon previously worked as an audiologist. Jiseok was a professional ski racer.

Musées au rural: les gardiens du patrimoine

Les régions du Manitoba regorgent de petites villes et villages. Chaque point sur la carte est le fruit d’un héritage souvent conservé par de petits musées dont l’existence est essentielle. Pour préserver le patrimoine, mais aussi la santé des communautés dont ils racontent l’histoire.

L’on ne recense pas loin de 200 musées à travers le Manitoba dont plus d’une quarantaine se trouvent à Winnipeg. Mais l’on en trouve un peu partout dans les régions. À vrai dire, l’on en trouve presque autant qu’il y a de petites villes et villages. D’ailleurs, à l’image du Manitoba et des communautés qui y vivent, les musées reflètent une grande diversité. Certains parlent d’histoire, d’art ou de science. À Saint-Léon, on nous parle de la nature et d’innovation, à Austin, on raconte l’industrie agricole.

Même à l’intérieur de ces grands thèmes, ces musées disséminés çà et là invitent à découvrir les histoires qui sont propres à la région qui les abrite. On retrace l’héritage colonial européen, d’autres préfèrent rappeler celui des peuples autochtones.

Ces musées-là, généralement beaucoup plus modestes que ceux des grands centres urbains, jouent un rôle tout aussi important. C’est en tout cas ce qu’affirme Yves Bergeron, professeur de muséologie et de patrimoine à l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).