The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy School for Girls is suffering its second sex scandal in under two years.

According to the New York Daily News, reports have come out of the Afrikaans on Sunday newspaper that seven students have been suspended from Oprah’s school for sexually harassing other students.  One 15-year-old girl was accused of sexually preying on another student, and then forcing other students to lie to investigators about it.  A letter to her parents said in part:

You have been found guilty of physical contact of a sexual nature with another pupil on campus, harassment, bullying other girls on campus and of being dishonest by not telling investigators the whole truth.

Other girls were found guilty of fondling other students and trying to force girls to join them in sexual relations.

Back in October of 2007 a member of staff was discovered to have been abusing girls at the school, including sexual abuse. Oprah Winfrey was devastated by the news as she had been sexually abused as a child. She was said to have provided every girl in the school with a cell phone with her private phone number programmed into the speed dial so they could call her directly in case of any future abuses.

… did the phones somehow stop working?

Back in Scattercast Episode 26 – This Episode Not Recommended By Oprah, my friend “M”, and I discussed that the school was a mistake on Oprah’s part, and while we could commend her intentions, she should have done the project closer to home where she could keep an eye on it.  This isn’t to say that Africa is undeserving of a school such as this, but when you are taking on the responsibilities of caring for children in an environment that carries your name, you have to be more as hands on as possible.  Placing a school that bears your name half a planet away, you have to expect problems, and she sure is getting them.

In the span of 18 months this school has been rocked by scandals twice.  Once was a disgrace, twice is just inexcusable.  There is obviously something broken in the way she has set up her school, and until such time as she can correct it, the school should be shut down and a transparent study into how to improve the safety of her students should be conducted.  Is this what we’ll get?  Probably not.  Just like last time, we’ll probably get a sobbing Oprah coming on her show, telling us how this breaks her heart, and how she will be taking such-and-such steps to assure this never happens again, and instead of cell phones, this time the students will be given a giant spotlight with an “O” on it they can shine into the sky to summon Super Oprah to save them from whatever evils are happening at the school.

Personally I think it is time to call it a day with this school, and perhaps try it again in the USA with the kids who need help here at home.  She can more closely monitor how things are going, and once they have the bugs worked out here, then they could look into expanding into other parts of the world.  For now, this school which was once hailed by people such as Nelson Mandela as a singing example of people helping Africa, has becoming nothing more than an embaressment and a prime example of how people don’t always think through what they put their name on.

I think the Japanese have an awfully good idea when it comes to social etiquette while you’re sick.

If you’ve ever been to Japan, or even watched something on TV that shows every day life there, you are sure to have seen at least a few people wearing surgical style masks.  They wear them for multiple reasons, but the main one being it means they are sick with something and they are trying not to give it to the people around them.  As someone who gets sick fairly easily, I have always loved this idea, but somehow I don’t ever see it getting taken up here in the United States unfortunately.

I am currently suffering from a case of bronchitis, and after the doctor’s office this morning i had a couple of unavoidable errands I had to run.  I gave serious thought to wearing a mask because apparently the type I have is viral, but seeing as one of my stops I needed to make was a bank (although every teller there knows my name), I didn’t think walking into a bank with a mask on might be the smartest of ideas.

So, barring a sudden shift in American thought process where we all start wearing masks, there are some common courtesies I see people break all the time that would be so easy to remember if they just thought about it.

Things To Do To Prevent Getting The Lastest Bug/Not Spreading It Around

Turn your head and cover your mouth when you cough

As someone who worked in a retail store for years, I couldn’t believe the number of times people coughed in my face.  Is it really that difficult to turn your head, or at least cover your mouth?

One hand for coughing,  one hand for everything else

As I’m right handed, I always make sure to cough into my left hand as I use my right hand to open doors, handle items in stores and so on.  Sure I’m still infected, but at least I’m attempting to reduce exposure.

Cover your hands when you push a cart

This is easiest in the winter, but since that is when most people get sick, it works.  If I’m wearing gloves, I leave them on as I shop so I’m not handling the cart with my bare hands.  If I’m grabbing packaged foods in the grocery store I don’t worry too much about the gloves, but if I’m picking something like fruit, I take off the gloves and reach for the highest items in the bin as 1) I’m tall enough to reach them and 2) that means they haven’t fallen down the bin yet reducing the risk of exposure to infected hands.  A lot of stores or also now offering sanitizing wipes to wipe down the cart before you use it, since they’re free, do it.

Wash your hands, Wash your hands, Wash your hands

Do you have any clue how much you could reduce the spread of colds and flu if you just washed your hands more often?  I wash my hands numerous times through out a day, and I carry hand sanitizer in my car so I can wash my hands off quickly after leaving a store.  Hand sanitizer does have a draw back in that it can kill off good bacteria also, so do use it sparingly.

Don’t scratch your eyes or rub your nose

The quickest way for any virus to enter your body is through your tear ducts or nasal passages.  Unless you’ve washed your hands (see above), then keep your hands well away from your face.

Sleep

Sleep is one of the best ways to prevent yourself from getting sick, and Americans especially need ot learn this rule.  I am definitely one that lacks in sleep, so I’m certainly not guilt free in my health.

Things To Do If You Catch Something

Chicken Soup

Sure it seems like something your mother just said to you as a child, but it’s true.  Good old chicken soup will always soothe the soul and help your immune system.

Spicy Foods

I stumbled across this trick when I was in Japan in 2001 and came down with bronchitis just as I arrived.  (Yes, I get bronchitis very easily)  I stepped across the street to a MOS Burger as it was an easy walk, and I was unaware my burger came with a mayonnaise laced with chili powder.  I ate the burger, I could tell there was some sort of chili powder in it, I walked out of the establishment, and within seconds… evacuated one of the largest coughs I’ve ever had from bronchitis.  (I’m trying to be tactful)  The next day the same sequence of events happened, and I was sold on having mildly spicy food any time I was sick after that.  And it works!

Follow The Other Rules

If you have to go out, think of the people around you.  Somehow I doubt any of them want to be sick, just like you didn’t want to be.

Why You Should Follow Any Of This

I realize this list makes me sound a bit of a hypochondriac, but I’m really not. These steps are all simple and become like second nature to you once you start doing them.  Sure the mask would still be one of the simplest solutions, but since I don’t see that happening any time soon, you can at least take some small steps to help those around you, as well as yourself.

What are your tips for staying healthy?

Could we all just drop this “Earth Hour” junk now?

Last night, for one hour, people around the world turned off their lights as show of support against global climate change.  The trend started in 2007 when Sydney, Australia went dark for one hour, and by 2008 it expanded across the world as more people joing in the movement.  This year it returned with places such as the Las Vegas strip going completely dark, much to the awe of people that work and live there. Cities all over the planet went dark from 8:30 to 9:30 local time in honor of making a statement against climate change.

-golf clap-

Do you all feel better about yourselves now? Boy, that whole one hour out of the 8,760 a year… whew… I am blown away by the sacrifice.  I mean, seriously, choosing an hour of the one night of the week most people are out of their houses anyway… out having dinner… at a movie… maybe a sporting event or a concert, I mean you couldn’t have picked an hour that inconvenienced people less could ya?  How about instead of once a year you try this once a month, or even once a week?  But, no, one hour out of every year, on a night that inconveniences the smallest number of people possible while still being during a “prime time” hour, that’s your brilliant plan for spreading the word.

What are you doing to educate people through out the rest of the year?  What are you doing to make sure the people turn off unnecessary appliances?  Turning off the lights when they are out of the room?  People, by nature, have short attention spans, and doing something like this once a year isn’t going to be having the impact you think it will.  Sure there were all sorts of articles after last year’s Earth Hour where we saved X amount of energy, and stopped Y amount of carbon gases from being produced, but that’s one hour out of one night.  Whoopee.

You want to make a real impact?  Ponder the hard economic times people are facing right now.  Now, show them how much money that hour cost them with normal lighting, TVs, computers and so on turned on.  Now, show them how much that hour cost them with all of those appliances on.  You want impact?  There’s your impact.  Multiply that times the number of nights in a year, even if they do it once a month, once a week or every night, show them the cold hard facts of how this impacts their wallet.

Then, go to cities that have lights turned on tourist sites for hours on end, show them how much they could cut from their budget if they turned off the lights earlier in the night for different time increments.  Do the same for businesses and tell them how much money they can save  if they turn off more lights in their office buildings at night.  You have to make things tangible for people to get it and understand it, and nothing is more tangible then showing them in black and white how much money they can save.  Talking to them about how many tonnes of gases you prevented from being released means nothing to 99% of the people you say it to, but tell them they saved $X, they’ll get it.

I am all for people turning off lights to reduce their carbon footprint, and even if it is just to save money, but to promote it only once a year seems like a whole lot of back patting about nothing.

And, by the way, their promotion for this event leaves a lot to be desired.  As someone who is online from the time he gets up until the time he goes to bed, how is it I heard nothing about this year’s event until yesterday morning?  You know, the morning of the event?  Good promotion there folks.  I appreciate the sentiment, but it feels awfully hollow to me for some reason.

Mark your calendars boys and girls for November 10th, 2009!

I’ve blogged a few times about my love of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and I have to say my love for this game hasn’t diminished one bit in the 13+ months I’ve had it.  The only time it has left my Xbox 360 was to give Gears of War 2 a spin, and… well… I’ve sold that off and I’m back to good old CoD 4.  I did give Call of Duty: World at War (notice they dropped the numbering) a spin via its demo, and while it was cool to hear Keifer Sutherland barking orders at you, using World War II weapons just didn’t do it for me.

So, back in the world of CoD 4, I had heard rumors the next version of the game would be back to the modern age, but it was just the usual rumors that floated around.  Then this week the gaming community finally got the confirmation we wanted.

I have to admit this is about the oddest promo video I’ve ever seen as it reveals, well, pretty much nothing,but at least we know Modern Warfare 2 will be out on November 10th, 2009.  And, yes, they have completely dropped the Call of Duty name from the title, apparently they think “Modern Warfare” became enough of a brand on is own.

Hopefully I’m not getting my hopes up to high for this game.  The last time I fell in love with a game like this was SOCOM II: U.S. Navy Seals on the Playstation 2, and when SOCOM III came about it, well, to be blunt, it sucked.  They over complicated things by adding vehicles, making the maps too big, making things so the snipers were way over favored, etc.  I couldn’t stand the game.  I am hoping beyond all hope the same fate doesn’t befall Modern Warfare 2.

My fingers are crossed, and I will be waiting patiently on November 10th… okay, maybe not “patiently” for Modern Warfare 2 to rock my socks off… oh please rock my socks off!

Are you following me camera guy? Here I go right into the jail cell…

Vince Shlomi, better known as The Shamwow Guy, has been arrested for beating a hooker. The best part of the story is that he is claiming he beat her in self-defense.

According to The Smoking Gun, Mr. Shlomi, 44, paid Sasha Harris, 26, around $1000 for “straight sex”. After returning to his $750 a night room at the Setai hotel, they engaged in kissing, which is when Mr. Shlomi claims Ms. Harris bit his tongue and would not let go.  When she would not release him, he punched her several times, causing facial fractures and lacerations all over her face.

After his tongue was freed, Mr. Shlomi ran, while bleeding, to the lobby to summon security.  They in turn called for the police who took both parties into custody on charges of aggravated assault.  $930 was found in Ms. Harris’ purse, which, of course, closely resembles the amount Mr. Shlomi says he paid for “straight sex”.

The arrests were made back in February, but the prosecutor has decided not to make any formal charges against either party.  Ms. Harries did say in a brief phone interview with The Smoking Gun that she was considering suing Mr. Shlomi.  You can see the full police report over at The Smoking Gun.

My main question is why Mr. Shlomi didn’t just use a Shamwow to mop up the blood before he ran to the lobby?  Are you following me camera guy?

I wonder if this whole thing started because Ms. Harris didn’t love Mr. Shlomi’s nuts… you know… from the Slap Chop commercial… where he says you’ll love his nuts and he then chops up some nuts?  I swear that’s what I meant…

A 14-year-old New Jersey girl is facing up to 17 years in prison for posting nude photos of herself to MySpace.

According to a report from the Associated Press, a 14-year old girl posted 30 “explicit nude” photos of herself to her MySpace account for her boyfriend to see.  It is unclear how the Clifton, NJ police were alerted to the situation, but they were, and the girl has now been arrested on charges of possession of child pornography and distribution of child pornography.  If convicted, she faces up to 17 years in prison and having to register as a sex offender.

However, not everyone is in favor of such crimes being punished.  Maureen Kanka, mother of Megan Kanka for whom “Megan’s Law” is named, has taken the authorities to task for charging the girl.  “This shouldn’t fall under Megan’s Law in any way, shape or form,” said Mrs. Kanka.  She went on to say, “she should have an intervention and counseling, because the only person she exploited was herself.”

This has become an alarming trend where teens feel there is nothing wrong with sending sexual images of themselves to one another.  I wrote about a while back about a 15-year-old girl in a similar situation for “sexting” photos of herself to classmates.  She was also failing possible jail time and registering as a sex offender, but I think Mrs. Kanka has it right, these kids need counseling, not having their lives destroyed.  They are not exploiting any one else, and they aren’t harming anyone else, so really what is the point of making their lives a living hell for what is essentially a youtful indiscretion?

Wouldn’t society be better served by educating these kids about what they were doing is wrong?  What if this is a sign of a possibly deeper problem than just stupidity?  Will doing 17 years in prison really serve this girl any good?  All because she took some sexual photos of herself.  It makes no sense, and the authorities involved aren’t doing themselves any good either, it just makes me resent them.

Yes, children should be protected from sex offenders at all costs, but when the sex offender is yourself?  Well, there has to be some exceptions drawn somewhere to every rule, and I think this is one of those times.

Scattercast is 36 and, for some odd reason, 36 is my favorite number.

- The tree pollen in my area is “very high”, and boy am I feeling it.

- Course, the crazy weather that says we will have a winter storm this weekend isn’t helping things either.

- For some unknown reason, I had a heck of a time coming up with posts this week, and I think it showed.

- Pretty soon I will stop carrying teacher sex scandal stories on this site, but I’m not giving up talking about them.

- The rest of the episode is fairly random as I’m not feeling the best.

That’s it for this week… there may be a surprise during the week next week!

Here’s

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for those who wish to download it, subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

Autumn Faulkner, a 7th grade teacher from Elkins Middle School in Randolph County, WV, has been arrested  for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a former student.

The 15-year-old boy in question had Ms. Faulkner as his social studies teacher when he was in the 7th grade, but no mention has been made as to when exactly the relationship between the two began.  It is unclear why the police had probable cause to get a warrant to search the 26-year-old Faulkner’s home, but it is said they collected evidence both from her home and seized her 2004 Pontiac Vibe in the search.

Ms. Faulkner has been charged with one count of sexual abuse by a guardian and is being held on $50,000 bond in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail.  If convicted she could face from 10 to 20 years in prison.

UPDATE 12/27/10: Charges against Autumn Faulkner have been dismissed.

This women now joins the roll call of teacher sex scandals for 2009!

• Christine McCallum of Boston, MA
• Lisa Lavoie of Holyoke, MA
• Christy Lynn Martin, St. Petersburg, FL
• Linda Nef and Valynne Bowers, Bountiful, UT
• Sarah L. Tolzien, Richton Park, IL
• Lindsay Massaro, Frankford, Sussex County, NJ
• Lauren Breslin, Vineland, NJ
• Kristina Anna Baeta, Union City, CA
• Reanna Jewell, Apache Junction, AZ
• Jennifer Lea Burton, Orangefield, TX
• Tamara Hofmann, Chandler, AZ
• Jennifer Marie Collier, Jacksonville, FL
• Gina Marie Watring, Durham, NC
• Alison M. Peck, Greenfield, MO
• Maria Guman Hernandez, Hialeah, FL
• Helen Goddard, London, England
• Amy Elsworth & Brian Drake, Waterford, MI
• Alini Brito & Cindy Mauro, Brooklyn, NY (no students involved)
• Amanda Watkins, Muscle Shoals, AL

Sarah L. Tolzien, an English teacher and cross country coach at Rich South High School in Richton Park, IL, has been charged with felony sexual assault for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old student.

Ms. Tolzien, 24, has been accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old male student that she was coaching.  The assaults in question appear to have happened back on November 14th and 17th of 2008 when she drove the student home from practice.  The parents contacted the police on December 1st, 2008, and evidence indicates that the relationship had been carrying on since October of 2008.

While the news only came to light, Ms. Tolzien has been on administrative leave from the school since December, when the investigation started.  Charges were filed against her on Tuesday.  She had a bail set of $10,000, and she is due to appear in court on April 15th at the Cook County courthouse in Markham.

Although the actual crimes took place in 2008, I am adding here to the ever increasing list of teacher sex scandals for 2009 as she wasn’t booked by the police until this week.  This brings us to the fifth story/sixth teacher so far this year.

UPDATE 01/20/10: The student has now filed a lawsuit against both Sarah Tolzien and the school district.

UPDATE 05/01/10: Sarah L. Tolzien Sentenced

This women now joins the roll call of teacher sex scandals for 2009!

• Christine McCallum of Boston, MA
• Lisa Lavoie of Holyoke, MA
• Christy Lynn Martin, St. Petersburg, FL
• Linda Nef and Valynne Bowers, Bountiful, UT
• Autumn Faulkner, Randolph County, WV
• Lindsay Massaro, Frankford, Sussex County, NJ
• Lauren Breslin, Vineland, NJ
• Kristina Anna Baeta, Union City, CA
• Reanna Jewell, Apache Junction, AZ
• Jennifer Lea Burton, Orangefield, TX
• Tamara Hofmann, Chandler, AZ
• Jennifer Marie Collier, Jacksonville, FL
• Gina Marie Watring, Durham, NC
• Alison M. Peck, Greenfield, MO
• Maria Guman Hernandez, Hialeah, FL
• Helen Goddard, London, England
• Amy Elsworth & Brian Drake, Waterford, MI
• Alini Brito & Cindy Mauro, Brooklyn, NY (no students involved)
• Amanda Watkins, Muscle Shoals, AL

A United States Air Force F-22a Raptor crashed in California on Wednesday morning.

At approximately 10 AM Wednesday morning, an F-22a Raptor crashed around 35 miles northeast of the Edwards Air Force Base in California. (link takes you to an interactive map)  The fighter was conducting a test mission at the time, and the cause of the crash, as well as the fate of the pilot, is unknown at this time.

The plane officially entered service in 2005, and costs $137.5 million each, hence why we’ve only built 135 of them thus far. Due to the advanced nature of the fighter, and its perceived superiority over everything else in the sky, the government does not allow them to be sold to any of the countries we normally sell weapons to.

This is the second of these fighters to crash, the first being in December 2004, and luckily the pilot in that case ejected to safety.  Hopefully the pilot in the latest crash is okay, but only time will tell.  Search and rescue teams are currently working in the area.

If the fighter looks vaguely familiar to you, by the way, it’s because it’s the basis for Starscream in the Transformers movies.

UPDATED: Unfortunately, the pilot, David Cooley, 49, was killed in the crash.

For those who have been dying to know, Deadliest Catch season 5 premieres Tuesday, April 14, at 9 p.m. E/P.

If this seems an odd thing for me to scream from the rooftops, let me explain.  Back in December I wrote a post called Deadliest Catch Ramps Up For Season 5.  Even since that post went up, I have been swamped with search engine traffic of people looking to find out when the new season would be starting.  Well, just tonight, the official blog of the series announced the date: Tuesday, April 14, at 9 p.m. E/P.

They also announced what crab boats were in this season, something I had speculated on in that same post, and there were a couple surprises.

The Returning Deadliest Catch Boats

Cornelia Marie – After the health scares for Capt. Phil Harris in season 4, it was uncertain if this ship would return this year, but, sure enough, here they are.  Shall we predict the number of engine problems now?

Northwestern – Was there ever any real doubt that Sig Hansen and Edgar Hansen would be back this year?  I predict at some point in the season, Matt, the surly deckhand, will be… well… surly.

The Wizard – The ship is still captained by Keith Colburn, so I predict 1) fights with his brother and 2) a useless greenhorn.

Time Bandit – Kind of like the Hansen brothers, it’s hard to imagine this show without Andy Hillstrand and Johnathon Hillstrand, co-captains of the Time Bandit.

New Ships Joining Deadliest Catch Season 5

Lisa Maria – I wrote about the Lisa Maria here.  She’s a small boat at only 55 pots, should be interesting.

Trailblazer – Remember in season 3 when the Time Bandit raced to save a deckhand that fell off a boat?  That boat was the 133-foot house aft boat, Trailblazer, captained by Wayne Baker.

Ships Not Returning For Deadliest Catch Season 5

Early Dawn – There is next to no information on this boat, or Capt. Rick Fehst, but they are gone from the show.

North American – Season 4 was the first, and apparently last,  season for this ship, and its captain, Sten Skaar.

Deadliest Catch season 5 premieres Tuesday, April 14, at 9 p.m. E/P

I wait all year for this show, so I am excited that we are just weeks away.  I love knowing whivh ships to expect, and I’m not sure why we lost the two boats we did, but at least we kept what have kind of become the core group of 4.  Although I could do without The Wizard at times.  Make sure to tune in and catch Deadliest Catch Season 5!

UPDATE 02/10/10: Capt. Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie has passed away

Mt. Redoubt, near Anchorage, AK, is erupting.

Beginning around 10:38 PM local time on Sunday night, Mt. Redoubt, which has been under watch for quite some time, finally blew its top.  The mountain, which stands 10,200 feet tall, threw ash as high as 60,000 feet, causing some sir traffic to be rerouted or turned back.

If history tells us anything about this volcano, when it last blew in 1989, it continued to spew ash for four months.  Scientists have no clue how long it will continue to emit ash this time, but it could be for a similar amount of time again.  Ash is a known abrasive that can eat away at exposed mechanical parts, cause asthma attacks or any other host of health problems.  Luckily the winds are blowing it away from Anchorage, but other smaller towns are expecting to get a good coating of the stuff.

What concerns me, and prompts me to write this, was the news last week of undersea volcano off the coast of Tonga erupting.  While these volcanos are seperated by great distances, they are both part of the Pacific Ring of Fire: a series of volcanic trenches, arcs and belts that encircles the Pacific rim.  When one area of the Ring starts to have major activity, it is usually a good indicator that other parts of it will react with its own eruptions and earthquakes.

In short, don’t be surprised if there is news of other things happening in this region sometime soon.