Category Archives: Technology

Flood proved worth of electronic media

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Duluth was treated to Mother Nature’s softer side during Grandma’s Marathon weekend — so much so that the News Tribune pointed it out in the headline of a follow-up story Monday.

People interacted with the Duluth News Tribune via Twitter throughout the week of flooding in Duluth. (Jimmy Bellamy / jbellamy@duluthnews.com)

What she brought out for an encore, though, few could have predicted.

The storms and subsequent flooding that ravaged Northeastern Minnesota and Northwestern Wisconsin painted a picture of chaos across its beautiful landscape: cars under water, roads crumbled, bridges decimated, homes’ basements resembling fish tanks.

The road to restoration will be long, no doubt, but these are the trials that bring out the best in humankind. Video camera in tow, while documenting the devastation in Moose Lake, the overwhelming spirit, optimism and positivity of its residents stood out more than the cold, murky water through which I waded.

Like any maelstrom event with wide public interest, the storm and flood brought out the best in the News Tribune newsroom. Fellow multimedia editor Andrew Krueger provided a Herculian effort that began with the creation of a severe-weather live blog on Tuesday that he kept watch over well into Wednesday morning. His all-hands-on-deck e-mail to newsroom staff shortly after 3 a.m. triggered what since has been nonstop coverage and updates at every turn.

People flocked to duluthnewstribune.com, our Facebook page, Twitter feed and our — most-recent addition — iPad app for the latest news, photos, videos and chatter about road closures, relief efforts and everything related to the massive storms and floods.

Our Twitter handle — @duluthnews — jumped from roughly 4,300 followers to more than 5,100 in a 24-hour period between Wednesday and Thursday, and our Facebook page increased by more than 1,000 “likes” to just under 5,000 in the same timeframe. Each has been an interactive platform that leads to even more information on our website.

The News Tribune iPad app, which can be downloaded free from the app store on an iPad, is another way for you to stay in touch with us any time.

When things have looked the worst, we’ve been there. And we’ll be with you throughout every step of this recovery.

Jimmy Bellamy is a News Tribune multimedia editor. He may be reached at jbellamy@duluthnews.com and on Twitter and Facebook. This post originally appeared on duluthnewstribune.com.

Facts in alleged beating are few, but that doesn’t stop cyber mobs

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Jimmy Bellamy is a Duluth News Tribune multimedia editor. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnewscom)

A little more than a week ago, a party was thrown at an abandoned gravel pit by a group of people that included students from Proctor High School.

Aside from that, little else is known as fact about the events that took place that Saturday night in Kelsey Township, where a 21-year-old Duluth man alleges he was beaten by as many as nine people because he told them he was gay when asked about his sexual orientation. One person was arrested — a 19-year-old man who isn’t a Proctor student. He since has been released from jail with pending charges.

The absence of facts didn’t stop people from using social media as a platform to fill in the blanks with what they think occurred.

“Proctor u (expletive) hicks. 13 kids beat the (expletive) outta 1 gay kid for being gay n (expletive) near killed him,” read one tweet posted within hours of the alleged incident.

Similar chatter dominated Duluth-area conversations on Facebook, where a screenshot of a post — complete with redacted names — alleging a 13-on-1 assault made its way from newsfeed to newsfeed.

“JUST WITNESSED THE MOST VIOLENT HATE CRIME BY PROCTOR HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS!!!” the anonymous post read.

And on the News Tribune’s own Facebook page, a reader posted “10 of them decided to jump 1 person.”

So, what happened?

Did nine, 10 or 13 people attack one person?

Was everyone involved a senior at Proctor?

Why were no Proctor High School seniors arrested?

“With this known hate crime, you can’t expect people NOT to speak out,” another DNT reader posted.

True, but was it a hate crime?

One fact that can’t be denied is that a gravel-pit shindig of underage alcohol consumption still is illegal, despite any pretense of parental control or law enforcement. And the pit party did nothing but hurt Proctor’s reputation.

“It comes as no surprise to learn it’s Proctor kids,” a Facebook post read.

As a student at Denfeld High School in the late 1990s, I’d hear people in neighboring communities tongue-in-cheek poke fun at Proctor. Remarks such as “Proctor High School has a parking lot reserved exclusively for snowmobiles” and “Upon entering high school, Proctor kids are handed boxes of hair bleach at the door” were commonplace. And when my Hunters played soccer against the Rails, it was almost a guarantee that our best players would be limping off the field by game’s end.

Two people were arrested Saturday, May 26, 2012, after a man reportedly was assaulted near Erickson Road in Kelsey Township. (Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com)

My friends from Proctor have spent years dealing with unfair potshots directed at their community. This latest chapter of living up to those stereotypes does nothing but set the town back in the eyes of those critics.

A problem of social media this case illustrates is the cyber-mob mentality that can make a story almost instantly spin out of control. Armed with all the information it needed, a group of instant protesters called for a rally in response to the alleged attack (they didn’t use the word “alleged”). Thankfully, by the time they gathered in Proctor on the rainy Memorial Day afternoon, cooler heads prevailed and the event was peaceful and civil.

Authorities promised daily that charges were forthcoming, but still haven’t announced any, now saying wait until next week. Even so, the actions will remain alleged until there is a conviction.

But whether or not anything ever is proven in this case, nothing justifies an attack on a person or group of people based on their human condition.

It doesn’t matter if you’re gay, or from Proctor.

Jimmy Bellamy is a multimedia editor for the News Tribune. He may be reached at jbellamy@duluthnews.com. This column originally appeared on duluthnewstribune.com.

Death isn’t funny, but Twitter and Kim Jong Il changed that

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s death wasn’t violent like the ones experienced earlier this year by fellow world-famous bad guys Osama bin Laden and Moammar Gadhafi.

The 69-year-old communist wasn’t overthrown by the people he oppressed and hurt. And he didn’t get gunned down by U.S. military forces. He reportedly died of heart failure while riding on a train.

Kim Jong Il in puppet form was the main villain in the 2004 film “Team America: World Police.” (Photo from rottentomatoes.com)

No mass celebrations.

No cell phone-camera footage on YouTube.

No faux death photos.

One common thread they did share? Plenty of one-liners and jokes on Twitter.
“Kim Jong Il’s son has some tiny shoes to fill,” actor Jeff B. Davis said, referring to the diminutive stature of Kim, whose son, Kim Jong Un, was named his successor.

“Kim Jong Il? More like Kim Jong Dead,” tweeted a flurry of people, each of whom I like to imagine thought they were the only person in the world funny enough to come up with the line.

My Twitter timeline blew up shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday with everything from that last piece of comedy gold to news reports with as much detail as one could get from a less-than-cooperative North Korean government.

One of my favorite tweets came from comedian Jimmy Kimmel.

“Rest in peace Kim Jong Il. You were a very sweet lady,” Kimmel said of Kim, who I’m almost certain looks like somebody’s grandma somewhere.

But nothing appeared as often as references to “Team America: World Police,” the 2004 movie made by Trey Parker and Matt Stone — the creators of “South Park” — that used marionette puppets for characters. The terms “Team America” and “World Police” quickly entered the website’s list of trending topics in the U.S. The main villain in the film was Kim Jong Il in puppet form, complete with oversized glasses, bulldog jowls and tan jumpsuit.

“We did it Twitter. We made every Kim Jong-Il joke there was to make,” musician Brendan Maclean tweeted. “I’m sure North Korea will appreciate it once they get the Internet.”

Like it or not, to my generation, that’s how Kim Jong Il is best known. One of world’s most hated men is seen by millions of people as a puppet with a voice that sounds like South Park character Eric Cartman’s.

Jimmy Bellamy is a Duluth News Tribune columnist and multimedia editor in Duluth, Minn. Contact him at (218) 723-5390 or jbellamy@duluthnews.com. This column originally appeared here.

Passion cools for iPhone after latest release

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The more things change, the more they stay the same — at least to some.
People got worked up this week leading up to Apple’s unveiling of the next iPhone.
And some still are — but for a different reason.
Excitement about the rumored release of the iPhone 5 quickly ballooned into disappointment this week after Apple announced that the successor to its iPhone 4 wasn’t a 5 at all, but a 4S.

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Apple’s iPhone 4S doesn’t differ much from its predecessor, the iPhone 4. (Koji Sasahara / Associated Press)

The wonder of its capabilities went unappreciated by techies from casual to hard-core, all because the company’s latest version is called by the same number and has the same look as its predecessor.
But you can’t blame them for expecting something different.
Technology has changed so rapidly in the past decade-plus that it’s hard for those of us in our 20s and 30s to appreciate incremental improvements to something that only used to make and receive calls.
“I was kind of underwhelmed, initially,” said Max Caven, a 21-year-old from Duluth and a self-professed Apple fanboy. “But as I thought about it, it really didn’t surprise me.”
The news didn’t curb customer interest, though, at the AT&T store on Central Entrance in Duluth, where an employee said a steady stream of calls continued to come in since Apple sent invitations last week about the iPhone media event at its California headquarters.
But tech geeks and basement dwellers throughout the Internet still declared a “fail” by Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose company’s new phone doesn’t have the capability to make breakfast or deliver babies.
“I think a lot of people were expecting a 5, and a lot of people were let down,” Caven said. “For all intents and purposes, this is a 5; it just doesn’t look like a 5.”
So, there’s no way to tell that you’re cooler than the dude with an iPhone 4. People will just have to take your word.
We’re waiting for the first phone to flip a pancake and cut an umbilical cord. But until then, we’ll have to settle for the cool stuff the iPhone 4S promises to do. Cook says the phone is faster, carries an improved camera, and even has a voice-activated service called Siri, which responds to a user’s questions and commands.
“This is the typical Apple scenario: People keep wanting it to do the impossible,” Tim Bajarin, a Creative Strategies analyst, said in an Associated Press story.
“I’m not impressed with the new #iPhone4S,” Joshua Gonzales (@SpanishJedi) said via Twitter. “Sure it’s faster & has a few more upgrades, but nothing to impress me.”
And you won’t be until the arrival of that long-awaited toaster-oven app.

Jimmy Bellamy is the multimedia editor at the Duluth News Tribune in Duluth, Minn. Contact him at (218) 723-5390 or jbellamy@duluthnews.com. This column originally appeared here.