Big Sky Blog

It’s been almost a year since the Bozeman explosion, and when it happened, the power of social media in spreading the news and gathering information was really felt in Montana. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr – all were instrumental in letting people in Montana and around the world what was happening. Here’s a report from KBZK in Bozeman about it:

A Facebook group has been gaining in numbers lately, based on the proposition that the 2022 Winter Olympics might be coming to Bozeman. While that might be good in terms of bringing a bunch of cash to Montana, I suspect that many (most?) Montanans would prefer not to have such a huge, invasive spotlight thrust in our collective faces.

Anyway. The whole thing appears to be little more than a rumor at this point, according to a reporter in Bozeman who has been working the phones to find out what’s going on.

UPDATE: here’s the story from Erin Yeykal at KBZK:

Jason Burlage of Bozeman, an MSU graduate, will screen his documentary film “Mi Chacra” (My Land) at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival on February 19th at 5:30pm at the Wilma Theatre in downtown Missoula.

The film tells the story of Feliciano, an indigenous Peruvian farmer who works as a porter on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in hopes of some day taking his son to live in the city.

Learn more by visiting the official website.

CNN’s David Mattingly pulled out his cold-weather gear and headed to Bozeman to look into how Bozeman is on thin ice over spending $50,000 in federal stimulus money to fix cracks and holes in its tennis courts.

(courtesy KBZK)

“Undie Run” in Bozeman, courtesy of KBZK, to get MSU fans pumped up before tomorrow’s big game. I suppose it could be worse, with sub-zero temps and snow…

Full story here.

How bad do you want a job with the City of Bozeman? Enough to give the City your login and password information to your Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace accounts? According to KBZK, that’s what the City asks for on the job application:

“Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.,” the City form states. There are then three lines where applicants can list the Web sites, their user names and log-in information and their passwords.

I can understand an employer wanting to make sure that staff members aren’t members of, say, racist or hate-sites, or having the company name sullied by (for example) a teacher who has posted naughty pictures on her MySpace page…but asking for the actual login and passwords? In addition to being just flat-out wrong, giving your login & password information to ANYONE is the #1 taboo for protecting your identity online.

According to an article today (Thursday, May 7) at JTA.org, “The state (sic) of Montana has its first mikveh.”

The article continues, “The newly built ritual bath (in Bozeman) is serving Jewish residents from Wyoming, Idaho, North and South Dakota, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, in addition to the 2,500-strong Jewish population of Montana, according to Chabad.org.”

The mikveh is located at the Bozeman Chabad House.

Mikveh, or mikvah, (MIK-vuh), Lit. gathering. A ritual bath used for spiritual purification. It is used primarily in conversion rituals and after the period of sexual separation during a woman’s menstrual cycles. The Christian practice of Baptism has its origins in the mikveh.

Huge explosion in downtown Bozeman; here’s pix from KBZK.

As you’ve no doubt noticed, I’ve made some changes to the template.

Let me know what ya’ll think!

Thanks.

The Bozeman Chronicle profiles Jaren Whitman, a Belgrade steer wrestler. He is currently in 3rd place standing with the Northern Rodeo Association for his event.

Jaren recently turned a time of 3 seconds for a run. Consider that the world record is 2.4 seconds that’s sayin’ a lot; a whole lot.