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Overheard on CNN.com: Care to comment? South by Southwest triggers tech talk
Editor's note: This post is part of the Overheard on CNN.com series, a regular feature that examines interesting comments and thought-provoking conversations posted by the community.
South by Southwest (aka South By) is beginning again in Austin, Texas, and our readers are talking about several stories related to the annual tech, music and film festival. Are you going? Show us SXSW through your eyes.
Instagram hits 27 million users, says Android app coming 'soon'
The social photography app Instagram's days as an Apple-only thing are numbered, as the Android version is coming soon. The photo at the top of this post is an Instagram image. The story naturally reprised an ongoing tech feud.
kirkewilliam: "The reason why I don't use Android (besides having to reboot the phone several times a day because Android OS doesn't know how to handle memory issues) is that it takes a year for apps to come out for it. My iPhone works 'out of the box' when I buy. Android users have to root their phones to make it workable. Yes, I went from the SkyRocket to the 4S."
ReasonPolice: "My Android has never failed me. Two of my mother's iPhones quit working after less than two months of use and a friend I know with one recently had to switch because his iphone kept removing programs and files and shutting down. It just depends who you ask."
If you're reading this, it's probably safe to assume that you have at least some interest in commenting online in some way. We heard a lot of candid opinions and ideas to improve the commenting world from readers of the following story about a presentation by Gawker Media founder Nick Denton. FULL POST
Syria dominates U.N. Security Council meeting
The U.N. Security Council focused Monday on the crisis in Syria, with the United States and Britain pushing for quick action on a resolution and Russia warning against a "take-it-or-leave-it" approach.
All sides called for an immediate end to the violence.
"There is a growing understanding of the need not to talk to each other on the basis of take-it-or-leave-it, but bring the positions together and be guided not by the desire of revenge, of punishment, who is to blame and so on and so forth, but by the basic interests of the Syrian people," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters after the Security Council met. "And this requires an immediate end of violence as the number one priority."
Lavrov invoked the specter of Libya, whose government was overthrown last year after U.N. Security Council resolutions authorizing NATO enforcement of a no-fly zone to protect innocent civilians led to widespread bombing of Libyan military forces.
FULL STORY
Overheard on CNN.com: Safety belts on school buses? After wreck, readers debate
Editor's note: This post is part of the Overheard on CNN.com series, a regular feature that examines interesting comments and thought-provoking conversations posted by the community.
A school bus wreck killed a young child and the driver Monday in Indianapolis, officials said. Readers commenting on the story debated whether additional safety measures are required.
School bus wreck kills child and driver in Indianapolis
We saw differing views on the need for safety belts on buses. One commenter who said she is a bus driver was in support of them.
SitSandraSit: "As a driver, I see kids jumping around on school buses all the time as it is moving. At times I wish I could do something about it, but there isn't much I can do. It's can be difficult to control just one child, let alone 20. I think there should be cameras and restrictions like seat belts. Maybe a computer on the bus to indicate all kids are strapped in."
However, this reader wasn't so sure.
Planethell12: "Even when I was riding a school bus back in the late '80s and early '90s, our bus had seat belts, and we were forced to wear them when the bus driver would walk up and down the aisle before we departed to make sure of this. However the moment he sat down was the moment we took ours off. One adult for 50 or so kids (especially when the adult is supposed to be driving and not watching the kids) does not cut it."
One reader said children's small size presents special challenges. FULL POST
Violence surges in Gaza, Israel
Seven people were killed Monday in Gaza, and more than three dozen rockets fell into Israel, the latest events in days of fighting that marked the worst escalation of violence in the coastal territory in months, officials said.
Israel said its airstrikes have targeted militant rocket launching sites across the Palestinian territory in response to more than 200 rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel since Friday. More than 36 rockets were fired into Israel on Monday, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
In Gaza, at least 23 people have been killed in strikes since Friday, while at least 75 people have been wounded.
"When I was sleeping, all of a sudden I found the entire house falling on top of us," Gaza resident Samer Sukar said from a hospital bed. "What can I say? There was no rocket fire from near our house."
Sukar said he was injured in a blast Monday while he was at home with his wife and six children.
Meanwhile, in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, residents took cover.
"It's a very difficult time for us," said Eti Ifrah, 23. "It's impossible to live like this - every time we want a shower or anything we're worried a bomb will fall."
Nearly 1 million people in Israel have sought the safety of shelters during the violence, authorities said. The fighting is the worst outbreak of violence in Gaza this year and comes as Israel and the world's attention has been largely focused on Iran and Syria.
FULL STORY
Picking the teams to win NCAA tournament can be ... well, madness
Geez, how am I supposed to get my bracket done with my bosses asking me to do all this work? Ridiculous.
March Madness, that magical season of underdogs and lost productivity, is again upon us, and folks across the nation will scramble from Web page to Web page for the next three days, hoping to get an edge in this year’s NCAA college basketball tournament.
Before you waste ludicrous amounts of your and your employers’ time, consider this: Butler and VCU composed half of last year’s Final Four. I feel pretty confident in the assumption that almost no one reading this picked that pair.
Call the Bulldogs and Rams sleepers or flukes if you like, but it was Butler’s second-straight Final Four, and VCU has made it back to the Big Dance this year, albeit as a 12 seed.
If last year taught us anything, it’s that the term Cinderella, given to no-name teams who enjoy unexpected success in the tournament, is overplayed. Way overplayed.
This year’s matches promise to be just as unpredictable. If you were paying attention over the weekend, you saw that Michigan State was the only No. 1 seed to win its conference tournament.
Gotta Watch: Hungry, hungry feeding frenzy
Unless you've grown up watching "The Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin religiously, or are a big fan of TV wildlife shows, chances are you haven't been up close and personal when it's feeding time out in the wild.
In today's Gotta Watch, we want to show you what happens when schools of sea creatures all get hungry at the same time.
When sharks get hungry
A large school of sharks off the coast of Perth, Australia go on a feeding frenzy.
2010: Gator feeding frenzy on tape
One March morning in 2010, Ray Cason decided to take his boat out to go fishing. What he didn’t expect to see was a gator feeding frenzy.
2007: When fish attack
Now for some fish that are on frenzy, but not of the feeding variety.
School bus wreck kills child and driver in Indianapolis
A school bus wreck killed a young child on the bus and the bus driver Monday in Indianapolis, officials said.
Ten other children were injured, including two critically, according to the Indianapolis Fire Department. The girl killed in the wreck was estimated to be 5 or 6 years old.
The wreck happened just before 8 a.m. on Emerson Avenue in southeastern Indianapolis, the fire department said.
FULL STORY
Joe Paterno was fired after scandal for 'failure of leadership,' Penn State trustees say
Joe Paterno was fired as head coach of the Penn State football team because the university's board of trustees thought he failed to take his knowledge of a scandal at the school to the appropriate authorities, the board said in a report posted online Monday.
The trustees said they based their decision to fire Paterno heavily on testimony he gave to a grand jury about allegations that former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a minor.
During testimony, Paterno said that he was told by a graduate assistant that Sandusky was in the showers "fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy."
"While Coach Paterno did his legal duty by reporting that information the next day, Sunday, March 3, to his immediate superior, the then Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley, the Board reasonably inferred that he did not call police," said the report explaining Paterno's firing. "We determined that his decision to do his minimum legal duty and not to do more to follow up constituted a failure of leadership by Coach Paterno."
The head coach died in January at the age of 85.
Paterno's family released a statement saying they felt the report was an attempt to deflect criticism from the university.
"The Paterno family is surprised and saddened that the Board of Trustees believes it is necessary and appropriate to explain – for the fourth or fifth time – why they fired Joe Paterno so suddenly and unjustifiably on Nov 9, 2011," they said. "The latest statement is yet another attempt by the Board to deflect criticism of their leadership by trying to focus the blame on Joe Paterno.
"This is not fair to Joe's legacy; it is not consistent with the facts; and it does not serve the best interests of the University. The Board's latest statement reaffirms that they did not conduct a thorough investigation of their own and engaged in a rush to judgment."
In their report, the trustees said they spent hours during the course of a week discussing how they should react to the scandal and who needed to be held responsible. The board fired Penn State President Graham Spanier along with Paterno.
"We determined on Nov. 9 that Dr. Spanier should be removed because he failed to meet his leadership responsibilities to the Board and took insufficient action" after learning about the incident, the board said in its report. "This failure of leadership included insufficiently informing the Board about his knowledge of the 2002 incident. He also made or was involved in press announcements between Nov. 5-9 that were without authorization of the Board or contrary to its instructions."
Navy's legendary carrier USS Enterprise on final voyage
The legendary aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, America's oldest active-duty warship, was steaming in the Atlantic on Monday on the last deployment of its 50-year career.
The carrier and its crew of 3,100 left Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia on Sunday in the ship's 22nd deployment. The ship's air wing and other naval staff aboard add another 1,500 personnel.
It will be deployed in the Navy's Sixth Fleet and Fifth Fleet areas of operations, which cover Europe, Africa and the Middle East, including current hot spots Iran and Syria.
"Enterprise is as ready and capable as she has ever been throughout her 50 years," the ship's commanding officer, Capt. William C. Hamilton, said in a statement. "The ship and crew's performance during work-ups demonstrates that the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has never been more relevant."
Nicknamed the "Big E," the Enterprise, CVN-65, is the eighth U.S. Navy vessel and second aircraft carrier to carry that name.
The first carrier Enterprise was built in 1937 and was one of only three carriers built before World War II to survive the conflict. That Enterprise was decommissioned in 1947 as the most decorated warship in U.S. naval history.
The current Enterprise, at 1,123 feet the longest ship in the U.S. Navy, saw its first action 11 months after its commissioning, when it was to dispatched to enforce a blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. It participated in strikes on North Vietnam in the 1960s and '70s. In 2001, Enterprise was one of the first ships to respond to the September 11 terrorist attacks, as its warplanes dropped 800,000 pounds of bombs on Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, the Navy said.
U.S. extradites Colombian accused of taking Americans hostage
U.S. authorities have extradited a suspect from Colombia whom they accuse of being involved in taking three American citizens hostage, the Justice Department said.
Alexander Beltran Herrera, 35, was scheduled to be arraigned at 11:15 a.m. ET Monday in Washington on charges in connection with the 2003 hostage taking of Americans Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell.
Beltran Herrera is an accused member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, the Justice Department said.
Gonsalves, Howes and Stansell were among 15 hostages freed in a 2008 rescue mission.
FULL STORY45 women, children killed in Homs massacre, Syrian opposition says
At least 45 women and children have been stabbed and burned to death in the Syrian city of Homs, opposition activists said.
The massacre took place late Sunday after peace talks between a U.N. special envoy and the Syrian regime failed to yield a cease-fire, activists said.
The slaughter was in the Karm al Zaytoun neighborhood, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, an opposition network. The Adawiya neighborhood of Homs was also involved, according to the London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights.
Children were stabbed to death in front of their mothers, and women and minor girls were sexually assaulted before being shot, according to the human rights network.
FULL STORYGaza-Israel violence enters 4th day
Gaza City (CNN) - Five people were killed Monday in Gaza, the latest deaths in days of airstrikes that marked the worst escalation of violence in the coastal territory in months, Palestinian officials said.
Israel has said its airstrikes have targeted militant rocket launching sites across the Palestinian territory in response to more than 100 rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel since Friday.
At least 23 people have been killed in strikes since Friday, while at least 75 people have been wounded.
Three civilians and two militants were killed in what Palestinian medical officials said were Israeli airstrikes Monday.
FULL STORYMonday's live events
The race to the Republican presidential nomination goes to Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday. CNN.com Live is your home for up-to-the-minute coverage from the campaign trail.
Today's programming highlights...
8:20 am ET - Foxworthy joins Romney - If your idea of a Monday morning is getting on the campaign trail, you might be running for president.  We're not sure if Jeff Foxworthy will put that "joke" in his act, but the "Blue Collar" comedian will be joining GOP candidate Mitt Romney at a rally in Mobile, Alabama.
Peyton Manning visits Broncos, Cardinals
Is free agent quarterback Peyton Manning less than 48 hours away from picking where he'll play in 2012?
Football writers in at least two cities are speculating that may be the case.
A report in The Denver Post says the Broncos, whom Manning visited Friday and Saturday, will begin contract talks with the four-time NFL most valuable player's agent, Tom Condon, on Monday.
"Manning was impressed with the Broncos," Mike Klis writes in Monday's Denver Post. "He liked front-office boss and star quarterback colleague John Elway. He liked coach John Fox. He talked 20 to 30 minutes with owner Pat Bowlen, who reiterated his position that division titles don't cut it with him. He wants Super Bowls."
Klis says Manning, who parted ways with the Indianapolis Colts last week, wants to make his decision by Tuesday or Wednesday.
Manning's second stop over the weekend was in Phoenix, where the Arizona Cardinals made their pitch for him.
U.S. soldier accused of Afghan killings served several tours, U.S. official says
The American soldier suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians on Sunday is in his mid-30s and served several tours of duty in Iraq, but he is on his first deployment to Afghanistan, a U.S. military official said Monday. The official asked not to be named discussing an ongoing investigation.
The soldier, an Army staff sergeant, acted alone and turned himself in after opening fire on civilians, according to officials from NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF. He is in U.S. custody as investigators try to establish what motivated him.
The killings took place in the district of Panjwai, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of Kandahar, southern Afghanistan's major city, according to Karzai's office. The dead included four men, three women and nine children, it said, while five people were wounded.
FULL STORY
Activists file lawsuit to try to stop restart of Japanese nuclear plant
Scores of Japanese citizens filed a lawsuit Monday in an effort to block the restarting of a nuclear power facility as tensions remain over atomic energy in the country a year after the Fukushima Daichi disaster.
The suit, filed at Osaka District Court by a group of 259 citizens, seeks an injunction to stop the company Kansai Electric from bringing its nuclear power plants Oi Unit 3 and 4 back online, according to Green Action, an organization that campaigns against nuclear energy in Japan.
The Kansai Electric facility in question is in the central prefecture of Fukui.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was knocked offline after the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck the east coast of Japan on March 11, 2011. That resulted in a meltdown of three reactors, with radiation leaking into the air and contaminated water spilling into the sea.
While no deaths were attributed to the nuclear crisis - the worst since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster - more than 100,000 people remain displaced from the towns where its fallout settled.
FULL STORYTaliban promises revenge for U.S. soldier's shooting spree
The Afghan Taliban said Monday that its fighters would exact revenge for 16 people left dead after an American soldier went on a house-to-house shooting spree in two villages a day earlier.
Describing U.S. forces as "sick minded American savages," the Taliban said in a statement on its website that it would mete out punishment for the "barbaric actions." The Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist movement, has battled the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan for a decade.
U.S. officials have expressed shock and sadness over the attack, while Afghan leaders have angrily condemned it. President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan called it an "unforgivable" crime, noting that nine of the dead were children.
The killings have fueled fears of intensified ire directed at international forces in the country following deadly riots over the burning of Qurans by U.S. troops late last month.
The soldier, an army staff sergeant, acted alone and turned himself in after opening fire on civilians, according to officials from NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF. He is now in U.S. custody as investigators try to establish what motivated him.
FULL STORYIsraeli airstrikes hit Gaza a fourth day
Israel launched fresh airstrikes early Monday in Gaza, targeting militant rocket launching sites across the Palestinian territory, a military statement said.
At least two militants were killed and more than 40 people injured in the latest strikes, Palestinian medical sources said.
A spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces confirmed the overnight strikes, saying they were "an indirect response to the firing into the Israel community in the south." The strikes targeted a weapons storage facility and five rocket launching sites in the Gaza Strip, the spokeswoman said.
At least 20 people have been killed in strikes since Friday, while at least 75 people have been wounded.
FULL STORYInvisible Children to address questions in new film Monday
Invisible Children, the nonprofit group that produced a hugely popular half-hour documentary about the notorious African warlord Joseph Kony, says it will release a new film Monday to respond to criticism and questions over its approach.
The group's "KONY 2012" video had been viewed more than 72 million times on YouTube by late Sunday night. Invisible Children, based in San Diego, says it wants to make Kony a household name and drum up global support to end the murders, rapes, abuses and abductions committed by the Lord's Resistance Army in central Africa.
But with the popularity of the video and kudos to the filmmakers for raising awareness of an African tragedy came a flurry of questions about Invisible Children's intentions, its transparency and whether the social media frenzy was too little, too late.
"There's nothing to hide - Invisible Children has been transparent since 2004, when we started," Ben Keesey, the group's chief executive, said in an interview on "CNN Newsroom" Sunday night. "That's our intention and we want to show that this campaign is part of a model and strategy that's comprehensive."
He said the group planned to release a 10-minute video Monday "that clicks through some of the questions."
FULL STORYGOP candidates vie for votes in Deep South
The focus of the Republican presidential campaign shifts this week to the conservative Deep South where primaries are scheduled Tuesday in Alabama and Mississippi.
Hawaii and American Samoa will also hold caucuses that day.
Coming off another victory in conservative territory over the weekend, Rick Santorum on Sunday rejected arguments that frontrunner Mitt Romney's lead in the delegate count for the Republican presidential nomination was virtually insurmountable.
"This isn't a mathematical formula - this race has a tremendous amount of dynamics," Santorum told the NBC program "Meet the Press" after winning the Kansas caucuses on Saturday to bolster his second-place standing behind Romney.
FULL STORY
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