Storm-Shelter Sales Spike After Oklahoma Tornado

After seeing the extensive destruction and loss of life from the Moore, Okla., tornado on Monday, Tornado Alley residents are going into prevention mode, vowing to avoid becoming victims when the next twister strikes. Companies that manufacture safe rooms and storm shelters are reporting a spike in business from buyers trying to avoid the devastation that they've seen in Moore and in Joplin, Mo., where a catastrophic tornado struck two years ago.

"People are saying, 'Sign me up -- I don't care what it costs," said Debbie Schaefer, office manager at her son's store, Ground Zero Shelters in Perry, Okla., which has been open since 1999. "We went from being able to keep us up with emails Sunday to now we have 3,000, and we can't even answer them as fast as they come in."

Last year, Ground Zero sold 5,500 shelters in 21 states, primarily Oklahoma. The company's most popular model is an underground shelter that is considered safest for those who can manage steps. Following the Joplin disaster in May of 2011, Ground Zero hired additional workers to keep up with demand, expanding to about 80 employees from about 50. Afterward, Schaefer said there were "a lot more companies coming out of the woodwork."

One such company to join the fray is Joplin-based Atlas Safe Rooms, which opened its doors in April 2012. After the tornado, Jim Moss and several other employees at a local steel manufacturing company saw an opportunity and left to launch Atlas.

"There were some companies that had been doing it for a while, but they were more or less mom-and-pop shops, and they found themselves backlogged by hundreds of units," said Moss, chief executive at Atlas. Since the steel manufacturing company had capacity to make more additional product, Moss thought a new safe-room company could use the extra capacity to push out product faster than its smaller competitors. "Our thought was, if you want a storm shelter, you want it now," Moss said.

Atlas currently manufactures only above-ground safe rooms, which enable people to secure themselves quickly when a storm arises. During its first year, Atlas sold 142 units, but since Monday's tornado, demand has skyrocketed, with 40 to 50 new orders coming this week.

Twister Safe, which opened near Joplin in 2004, also sells safe rooms in the area and has also seen an uptick in interest. "I think our website has been hit about 19,000 times since Monday," said Jennifer McKeough, an independent distributor and consultant. "Last week we probably had about 2,000 for the whole week." Prior to the Joplin tornado, Twister Safe was the only manufacturer of above-ground shelters for 100 miles. Since then, several companies, like Atlas, have entered the market.

The advantages of the above-ground models include not having to brave the elements to get inside and avoiding groundwater problems that can occur in some parts of the country. Safe rooms and storm shelters are especially important in Tornado Alley because many homes lack basements, NPR reported. Fewer than one percent of newly-constructed homes in Moore and surrounding towns extend underground, largely due to the high water table and the red clay that most of the area's homes stand on, which absorbs moisture easily.

In the heat, the clay tends to dry out, causing a cycle of contraction and expansion that adds pressure to concrete-reinforced basement walls, causing leaks. But NPR noted that even after improvements in building technology mostly solved this problem, people avoid basements largely because of a "psychological hangover for people that are used to seeing houses from the '40s and '50s, when the technology wasn't quite as good for waterproofing."

Buying storm shelters are another thing that Oklahomans typically avoid, but Ground Zero Shelters' Shaefer said many are now taking the plunge. "People think, 'Oh well, we don't have to worry about it. We're not going to get hit,'" she said. "But now, they say we should have done it, and they're doing it."

Research Reveals Why Lions Became Man-Eaters

                                                          We’re easy prey. In the 1890s, two Kenyan lions became infamous for their unusual man-eating ways, killing dozens before being shot and eventually inspiring 1996 film The Ghost and the Darkness. While many theorized that they turned to eating humans because their preferred prey was too scarce, a new study of the lions’ teeth suggests they may have changed their diet due to dental disease and injury: People are slower and softer. Researchers say this underscores the importance of preserving specimens until mystery-solving testing can sink its teeth in.

                                  

Bose Accused of Spying on Customers Through Headphones

                                                            

Can they hear you now? A new class-action lawsuit filed against Bose claims the audio giant has been using its app and wireless headphones to collect and sell information about customer listening habits, breaking several federal and state laws. The lawsuit, potentially worth $5 million, is seeking an injunction against data collection, asserting that one’s listening habits are private. Already this year manufacturers of TVs and sex toys have had to pay millions in lawsuits over unlawful collection of customer data, a trend privacy activists hope to continue.

Venezuela Deadly Anti-Government Marches Strike

                                                               

                                            

                                           

                             The “mother of marches” could birth a revolution. Massive anti-government demonstrations throughout Caracas and other cities turned bloody Wednesday, leaving at least two students and one national guard sergeant dead. It was the largest protest yet against leftist president Nicolas Maduro, who has been blamed by opponents for plunging Venezuela’s oil-rich economy into the devastating crisis currently gripping the nation. While Maduro says the demonstrations are a cover for a coup to end socialism, his detractors are calling for new elections, accusing him of sliding                                                     

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Tillerson Accuses Iran of Destabilizing Middle East

                                   

 

 

 He’s talking tough. While the U.S. considers its position on sanctions against Tehran, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters that Iran’s “ongoing alarming provocations” are destabilizing the region, supporting terrorism and undermining American interests in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. He also declared Obama’s landmark nuclear agreement with Iran a failure, despite his own State Department announcement, just hours before, that Tehran has been complying with the terms. Tillerson stopped just short of suggesting that the White House had any plans to walk away from the nuclear deal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

                                                     

Cooking with Aluminum Foil? You’ll Want to Read This

A lot has changed since aluminum arrived on the scene back in 1910, after the first aluminum foil rolling plant, Dr. Lauber, Neher & Cie, opened in Emmishofen, Switzerland. The first use of foil in the United States came about in 1913, when it was used to wrap Life Savers, candy bars, and gum. Eventually, aluminum foil made its way into American kitchens as a way to bake fish or roast vegetables on the barbecue, to line baking pans, and to trap steam when cooking.
And we’re using tons of it—so much that experts are getting concerned. Because according to research, some of the foil used in cooking, baking, and grilling leaches into your food, which can pose health problems over time.
According to the World Health Organization, human bodies are capable of properly releasing small amounts of aluminum efficiently, so it’s considered safe to ingest 40mg per kilogram of body weight of aluminum per day. Unfortunately, most people are ingesting far more than this.
Scientists have been looking at the potential threat that overexposure to aluminum may have on human health for years, and have found some disturbing results. For example, researchers have found high concentrations of aluminum in the brain tissue of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Studies have also found that high aluminum intake may be linked to a reduction in the growth rate of human cells, and may be potentially harmful for patients with bone diseases or renal impairment.
A 2012 study published in the International Journal of Electrochemical Science investigated the amount of aluminum that leaches into food cooked with foil. The amount varied based on factors such as temperature and acidity (fish and tomatoes are highly acidic), but the findings showed conclusively that aluminum foil does leach into food cooked in foil. “Aluminum foil used in cooking provides an easy channel for the metal to enter the human body,” the study authors wrote. “The increase in cooking temperature causes more leaching. The leaching is also highly dependent on the pH value of the food solution, salt, and spices added to the food solutions.”
Ghada Bassioni, Associate Professor and Head of the Chemistry Division at Ain Shams University, conducted research with a group of colleagues that explored the use of aluminum for cooking and preparing food particularly at high temperatures. “The acidity of the food would enhance further leaching of aluminum into the meal,” she said, adding: “How aluminum will actually harm your body depends on many factors like your overall well-being and consequently how much your body can handle accumulation of it in relation to the allowable dosages set by the World Health Organization.”
So should you stop cooking with aluminum foil? It seems the general consensus is that we should, at the very least, cut way back.
For grilling veggies, you can get a stainless steel grilling basket, or even reusable skewers. Use a glass pan when roasting veggies in the oven; use a stainless steel cookie sheet under baking potatoes as opposed to aluminum foil to catch the mess; and even try replacing foil with banana leaves when wrapping foods for baking!

Report: Cristiano Ronaldo Paid $375K To Woman Who Claimed He Raped Her

 

German news magazine Der Spiegel released a report yesterday saying that Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo reached a $375,000 settlement in 2010 with a woman who alleged he raped her in a Las Vegas hotel. Gestifute, the sports agency that represents Ronaldo, later released a statement calling the report “journalistic fiction.”The Der Spiegel article—based on lawyer and police documents provided by the document hacker group Football Leaks—details the night Ronaldo met the woman, who is given the pseudonym Susan K. The report goes on to describe when she and a friend went back to the hotel where she claims Ronaldo raped her, when she reported the incident to Las Vegas police, and on through the protracted legal negotiations before the two parties agreed on a settlement.The report says this began on June 12, 2009, the day after Manchester United agreed to transfer Ronaldo That night, Ronaldo and Susan K. met at a party. She gave him her phone number, and later he invited her and a friend up to his suite in the Palms Place Hotel. Der Spiegel’s report cites an emotional, nearly six-page long letter that Susan K. wrote to Ronaldo as part of the settlement agreement that describes her account of what happened in Ronaldo’s room. As translated by Google Translate:

When K. arrived with a girlfriend, Ronaldo and his friends had supposedly gotten into the Jacuzzi. He offered her a bathing suit. As she was changing, he followed her. They kissed. For Ronaldo, as K. writes, it was not enough. She, however, wanted to return to the others. He grabbed her and laid her on the bed. She tried to protect herself with both hands. “I repeatedly screamed ‘No, no, no, no,’ and begged you to stop. I’ve never been so afraid in my life,” writes K. in the letter.
When it was over, Ronaldo is said to have turned to her. He is 99 percent not a bad guy, he reportedly said, that one percent he can not explain. This is how K. writes in her letter.

Along with Susan K.’s letter to Ronaldo, part of the dossier Der Spiegel received included a “Settlement Memorialization” document that laid out the terms of the settlement. Neither Susan K. or Ronaldo are mentioned by name. Instead, the document refers to two anonymous parties: “Ms. P.” and “Mr. D.” That document was signed by Susan K., several lawyers, and Carlos Osório de Castro, Ronaldo’s longtime attorney.
The Settlement Memorialization Der Spiegel received reportedly includes 11 clauses which outline the terms both parties agreed to be held to by choosing to settle. In exchange for Mr. D. paying Ms. P. $375,000, Ms. P. agreed to permanently drop all allegations against Mr. D., never again speak to anyone about what happened in the bedroom, delete any and all written or electronic records of the incident at the heart of the settlement, and divulge to Mr. D. every individual to whom Ms. P. had told her story.
If Ms. P. was ever contacted by a third party about what happened, Ms. P. was to say she had “nothing to say,” per the report’s summary of the non-disclosure agreement clauses of the settlement. Ms. P. was not to discuss the incident in any kind of group therapy session, nor was she to ever reveal Mr. D.’s name should she discuss the incident with a therapist. If Ms. P. was ever found in violation of this agreement, she would have to return the full settlement amount to Mr. D.
The day after the alleged rape, Susan K. called the police, who took a report, according to Der Spiegel.

In the CAD report, the reason for the call is listed in the category “Type”: 426. The code for a reported sexual offense.
The policeman, who is talking to K., notes that the caller is distraught, crying, and refusing to give the name of the alleged perpetrator. It was a “public figure,” an “athlete”. The official notes that K. has not bathed.

According to Der Spiegel, the police report goes on to explain what happened next. The Las Vegas police sent a car over to Susan K.’s house, where they picked her up and took her to University Medical Center. There, doctors administered a rape kit.
As Der Spiegel has it, that was the end of Susan K.’s narrative with police. Sometime later, K. hired a lawyer to represent her. Der Spiegel’s documents reveal that in July Susan K.’s lawyer contacted an attorney who had at one point represented Ronaldo in England. The lawyer in England then forwarded that information Ronaldo’s Portugal-based lawyer, Osório de Castro.
From there, the report says Ronaldo’s team started building its case. Ronaldo buffed up his legal representation, which included hiring a Californian firm with a history of working with celebrities. At one point, Ronaldo’s attorneys drafted a list of 274 questions about the night of the alleged rape. The questions were to be posed to Ronaldo, and he was to answer them verbally, not in writing, according to Der Spiegel. Here’s a sample of some of the questions:

Question 60: “How were the circumstances of the first encounter with Ms. C?”
Question 80: “Did Ms. C earlier in the evening use drugs?”
Question 141: “What was the first physical contact between you and Ms. C after you left the jacuzzi area?”
Question 152: “Was there a sexual penetration?”
Question 158: “Was there any brutality in your sexual behavior?”
Question 163: “Did Ms. C yell or scream?”
Question 165: “Does Ms. C have words like ‘stop’ or ‘no’ or ‘not’ or the like?”
This is followed by a bold printed note from the lawyers. “Ms. C’s attorney told us that her client said she’d apologize to her after sex.”
Question 190: “Have you apologized to her or told her that you were sorry after you had sex?”
Question 270: “In what physical and mental condition did Ms. C leave the hotel room?”

Der Spiegel reported that settlement talks began in the fall of 2009, but were slow going. It wasn’t until January 12, 2010, that the two parties got together with a mediator to try to finalize an agreement. Ronaldo did not attend the settlement talks. The parties agreed to the broad strokes of a settlement on that day, and after time spent hammering out the specific language both parties could agree on, the document was made official.
As for the aforementioned letter Susan K. wrote to Ronaldo, that too was part of the settlement agreement. According to Der Spiegel, Susan K.’s letter was to be read to Ronaldo by Osório de Castro, his lawyer. Here are some of the excerpts from the letter:

“You jumped from behind,” writes Susan K., “with a white rosary around your neck!” There are two questions that end with exclamations:
“What would God think about it!!!
What would God think about you!!!”
[...]
“I wish I could tell the world who you really are.”
[...]
“I do not care about your money, I want justice, but there is no justice in this matter. [...] I am no longer the person I used to be.”
[...]
Her letter to Ronaldo ends with a PS. She regrets to have agreed to the agreement, she writes in greased letters: “Today I would take back my decision!! It has been a year since you raped me.”

Der Spiegel did not publicly release the documents on which their reporting was based. The only screenshot has what might be a case number redacted out. Deadspin contacted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in an effort to find the police report mentioned in Der Spiegel’s report. Officer Larry Hadfield, a spokesman for the LVMPD, said the department could not locate a Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro listed as a suspect in a sexual assault investigation. The Der Spiegel report notes that, per the police report, Susan K. never gave the police the name of the alleged perpetrator.
Der Spiegel said it reached out to Susan K. and the woman who accompanied her to Ronaldo’s suite on the night of the alleged rape. When reached over the phone, Susan K. replied “No comment, no comment” in what the report describes as a trembling voice before hanging up. A reporter later approached Susan K. outside her Las Vegas home, and she ran away “almost in a panic.” The friend also declined to comment for the report.
Ronaldo’s lawyers denied the report’s accuracy to Der Spiegel when the paper reached out for comment. Sports agency Gestifute released the following statement after the report was published:

The German newspaper Der Spiegel today publishes an extensive report on an allegation of rape alleged to have been made to Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009, ie about 8 years ago.
It is a piece of journalistic fiction.
The alleged victim refuses to be identified and corroborates the story. And the whole plot is based on unsigned documents and where the parties are identified by codes, in emails between lawyers who do not concern Cristiano Ronaldo and whose authenticity he does not know, and in a supposed letter that would have been sent by the putative victim, but Which he never received.
The report by Der Spiegel is false and Cristiano Ronaldo will act against this media by all means at his fingertips. The imputation of a violation is disgusting and outrageous accusation that can not be made clear.

 

 

 

The Undertaker Walks Away From WrestleMania, Probably Wrestling

                The Undertaker Walks Away From WrestleMania, Probably Wrest

                                  

The Undertaker lost a pretty rough main-event match to Roman Reigns last night at WrestleMania 33. His career will probably now Rest. In. Peace.
After the victor made his way to the back, the Dead Man neatly folded his gear and left it in the center of the ring. He then slowly walked over to his real-life wife, gave her a kiss, and solemnly meandered up the extra-long entrance ramp. No one specifically announced it, but by all accounts — and symbolism — Sunday was Mark Calaway’s WWE swan song.
The pro wrestling promotion even welcomed back former commentator Jim Ross to call the final match of the night, making it an extra-special affair. Ross’s wife Jan died just about 10 days earlier, so the “Good ol’ J.R.” appearance spoke volumes about the finality of the fight.Retirement rumors have loomed large over the 6’10” and 300-pound superstar, as he had been spotted on crutches multiple times recently. The man behind The Undertaker’s robe is 52-years-old, and his big body has taken more than his fair share of bumps over a marvelous career. Calaway didn’t move well last night at all, which was not lost on the WWE Universe, especially on merciless gripe-fest Twitter.The Undertaker walked away with a phenomenal 23-2 record at WrestleMania. The only other man to defeat the (dead, in character) living legend at the Super Bowl of professional wrestling was Brock Lesnar, who became WWE Universal Champion last night by pinning Goldberg.

 

Suge Knight Claims He Knows Who Killed Tupac—and Says He Was the Real Target

 

  
 Michael Bezjian/Getty Suge Knight, "A Dog Day Afternoon" Benefiting A Wish For Animals on March 30, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.
More than 20 years ago, beloved West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur was shot down in Las Vegas, marking the death of a great and the end of an era. While he was tragically taken from us too soon, the 25-year-old Shakur has had an active post-mortem, headlining at Coachella in holographic form and sparking some of the greatest conspiracy theories in pop culture history.
The question of who killed Tupac—a trusty conversation topic across college dorm rooms and Twitter feeds—has gone unanswered for over two decades, but not for lack of trying. One well-worn theory is that the FBI shot Tupac, and were also responsible for Biggie Smalls’ murder six months later. Less cynical fans would like to think that Biggie and Tupac, while enemies by the end of their short lives, have been reunited in fake death and are enjoying a permanent vacation in a secluded town in New Zealand. If the idea of two of America’s greatest rappers denouncing their fame and fortune to become unemployed Kiwis sounds far-fetched to you, you’re not alone. Former LAPD cop Greg Kading believes that Sean Combs hired a million dollar hitman to take out Pac, and that Death Row Records’ Suge Knight, who was in the car with the rapper the night he was murdered, retaliated by ordering the attack on The Notorious B.I.G.
Then again, some backseat detectives believe that Knight was actually responsible for Tupac’s murder himself, with rumors swirling that the rapper was planning to leave Death Row Records and start his own label. Controversial former N.W.A manager Jerry Heller, now deceased, confirmed in a 2015 interview that Suge Knight “unquestionably put the hit out” on Shakur, adding, “I think Suge got what he deserved.”
While Knight emerged physically and legally unscathed from the two ‘90s shootings, he’s currently facing life in prison after a 2015 Compton hit-and-run. According to a statement from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, “Following an altercation on Thursday outside a Compton restaurant, Knight allegedly was driving his truck when he ran over two men standing in the parking lot.” While Knight’s lawyer has said that the incident was unintentional, Knight's other colorful crimes include repeated parole violations, aggravated assault, and second-degree robbery, not to mention numerous traffic violations.
©Everett/REX Shutterstock/Rex Images Poetic Justice - 1993 POETIC JUSTICE, Tupac Shakur Tupac and Biggie aren’t even the only rappers that Knight has been accused of ordering a hit on. In the summer of 2016, Eminem’s former bodyguard claimed that Suge Knight tried to have his boss killed at the 2001 Source Awards, adding, “That was our first encounter with Suge Knight and his henchman.” Then there’s the strange, spooky conspiracy theory that Knight killed N.W.A. founder Eazy-E by infecting him with lethal injections. The accepted narrative is that Eazy-E fell victim to AIDS-related complications just a month after his diagnosis. Fans looking to explain away the rapper’s rapid and unexpected decline felt validated by a Jimmy Kimmel Live! interview, during which Suge Knight chattered on about how easy it is to poison someone with contaminated blood. “If you shoot somebody you go to jail forever,” he mused. “So they got this new thing out…they get blood from somebody with AIDs and then they shoot you with it. So that’s a slow death, an Eazy-E thing, ya know what I’m saying?”
So when Suge Knight came forward on this week to announce that he had cracked Tupac Shakur’s case, his claims were met with a healthy degree of skepticism. In addition to being all sorts of untrustworthy—not to mention murderous—it could be in Knight’s interest to shift attention over to a new suspect. It’s also important to note that Suge Knight keeps switching up his story. In 2014, he told TMZ that Tupac was actually alive, saying, “Why you think nobody been arrested if they said they the one that killed Tupac? Because Tupac not dead. If he was dead, they’d be arresting those dudes for murder. You know he’s somewhere smoking a Cuban cigar on an island.”
But when the man who was in the car with Pac says he knows who did it, you’ve got to listen. According to a signed affidavit written by Knight’s attorney Thaddeus Culpepper, “Knight has known for many years that Reggie Wright Jr. [the former Death Row Records security chief] and his ex-wife Sharitha were behind the murder of Tupac and attempted murder of Knight.” The theory goes that Sharitha was attempting a Death Row Records coup, and knew what she stood to inherit if Knight was forcibly taken out of the picture. Sharitha allegedly enlisted the help of Wright Jr., and the rest is highly-disputed history.
According to The Daily Mail, Knight’s admission was inspired by a new documentary, Tupac Assassination: Battle for Compton. The documentary also claims that Suge Knight was the true target of the Las Vegas shooting. Co-director Richard Bond explains that while “we were working on the movie, we gave the salient points of the book (Tupac: 187 The Red Knight) to Thaddeus Culpepper, who read them to Suge Knight.” Now, Knight is more or less confirming that those “salient points” are true.
A spokesperson for the film told Music News that, “Not only did Knight confirm the events as portrayed in Compton, which portray Knight was the intended target and Shakur as collateral damage, as true, but also goes on to allege that these 1996 events may have been the first in a history of attempts on Knight's life, culminating in the recent attempted killing of Knight at the 1OAK Club in Los Angeles, where Knight was shot six times.” This is a double-duty confession for Knight—if he claims that he was the actual target back in 1996, it could bolster his argument that he was the victim of a second murderous plot (the 1 Oak shooting) in 2014.
In 2016 court papers, Knight alleged that Dr. Dre hired gunmen to shoot him at the 1 Oak nightclub in West Hollywood during Chris Brown’s pre-VMAs party. Knight was shot six times during the incident—when asked for a response by TMZ