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Several people in my area have noted that their pets are acting weird. The behavior usually amounts to staring out windows and doors whining and shivering and hiding under tables and other furniture etc. . Or if they are outside they badly want inside even though they never do much any other time. They also keep tails tucked and sort of slink around like they are in distress. This is not one or two people but my count has over 20 different households within a ten mile radius that have pets acting in the same way for about 3 days...

Last August, Amazon flew about 80 writers on its Thomas & Mercer mystery and thriller imprint—including me—to Seattle for a conference. They put us up at the Westin downtown, a nice hotel by any standard, and spent the weekend feeding us well and serving us top-shelf booze at an increasingly fabulous series of parties. There were tourist outings, the usual conference mix of panels and workshops, and a non-stressful visit to the Amazon Death Star. Also, they gave us a free Kindle Paperwhite, a nice touch. With a few exceptions, none of the writers at the conference were particularly famous;...

A flaw in the 'Find My iPhone' function of Apple's iCloud service may have helped a hacker to steal nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence and '100 other celebrities', it today emerged. The hacker claims he or she broke into stars' iCloud accounts, including those of the Hunger Games actress, Kate Upton and Rihanna, before publishing them on 4chan, the image-sharing forum. A list of the alleged victims of the hack - 101 in total - has also been posted online; most of whom have not seen any photographs leaked by the hacker. A spokesman for Oscar winner Lawrence confirmed to...

Were Copper Thieves to Blame For Detroit’s Massive Highway Floods? On Monday, as storms rolled across Southeastern Michigan, highways throughout the Detroit area became so flooded that over 1,000 cars were abandoned as their owners fled for higher ground. At least two people died, and it could be several more days before all the highways reopen. The possible cause of this unprecedented disaster? Copper thieves, says CBS Detroit.

Airport staff tonight told of their fears of an Ebola outbreak after a passenger from Sierra Leone collapsed and died as she got off a plane at Gatwick. Workers said they were terrified the virus could spread globally through the busy international hub from the West African country which is in the grip of the deadly epidemic. The woman, said to be 72, became ill on the gangway after she left a Gambia Bird jet with 128 passengers on board. She died in hospital.

Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue. Lovely plumage. The Monty Python reunion in London began on July 1, and after a 10-day break, picks up again tonight at the O2 Arena for the final five nights that will see Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin on the same stage together, doing silly things one more time.

I got an older Compaq Presario Laptop and I've been toying with the idea of putting Ubuntu on it. I was wondering if I would need to totally wipe the HD to get Ubuntu to run properly or can I install it while leaving Windows 7 on and it will still run OK. I am going to get a new laptop eventually but am in no hurry so it would be nice to still keep windows But I can manage for now without it being I use my Entertainment System Computer most of the time. Thanks in advance for any...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A massive magnitude 8.0 earthquake on Tuesday off the coast of Chile, near the mining port of Iquique, sparked a tsunami warning for all of Latin America's Pacific coast, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. "An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicenter within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours," it said.

Full Title: iPhone users are disappointed with the iOS 7.1 software update that's draining their batteries, erasing their contacts, and flipping their keyboards With every new I-phone software update comes the potential for problems and the iOS 7.1 released on Monday is no exception. Customer's say it's killing their phone batteries among other pesky glitches. The iOS7.1 is the first major update to Apple's newest operating systems for iPhones and iPads and the apple community is lamenting poor battery charges, disappearing contacts, bad Bluetooth connections, keyboards oriented the wrong way, and the list goes on, reports the Huffington Post.

When Paul Audley took the job as president of FilmL.A. in late 2008, he was astounded to discover that physical production on the $70 million pic “Battle: Los Angeles” wasn’t being done in Los Angeles. “It stunned me that the movie was shooting in Louisiana, and that the state of California was letting this happen,” he recalls. In the subsequent five years, the situation has only worsened, despite the film production incentive program California enacted in 2009, which provides for $100 million a year in tax credits for what’s usually 20% of production costs. That’s significantly smaller than programs offered...

(Reuters) - A Japanese American man thought to be the reclusive multi-millionaire father of Bitcoin emerged from a modest Southern California home and denied involvement with the digital currency before leading reporters on a freeway car chase to the local headquarters of the Associated Press. Satoshi Nakamoto, a name known to legions of bitcoin traders, practitioners and boosters around the world, appeared to lose his anonymity on Thursday after Newsweek published a story that said he lived in Temple City, California, just east of Los Angeles.

The American CEO of an exchange for the troubled bitcoin digital currency has been found dead after a suspected suicide at her home in Singapore. Wisconsin native, Autumn Radtke, 28, was discovered inside her apartment on February 28 and officials in the South East Asian city state are now waiting for toxicology test results to determine the exact cause of death. Douglas Adams, the non-executive chairman of First Meta confirmed that his colleague had passed away in a statement which said the company was 'shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and CEO Autumn Radtke.' The death...

OK this is really strange. there is a growing number of videos showing up on youtube of people getting snow and putting a lighter or open flame to it and the snow turning black and far too little water is formed out of the snow. Here is the first video I saw Snow test Here are some others: What is this snow?!?! Georgia Fake Snow WTF Snow? IS THIS SNOW? There are lots more on Facebook and vines and such... OK many people are convinced it is chemtrail related I never believed in such things. But what concerns me is...

One New York man went to the hospital for a rash and died in the waiting room during an 8-hour-wait for care. 30-year-old John Verrier went to St.Barnabas Hospital's ER for a rash on Sunday nigh at 10 p.m. At 6:40 in the morning, a security guard discovered a dead 30-year-old John Verrier slumped over in his chair. A worker from St.Barnabas Hospital says that he was cold, blue, and stiff and says that he may have been dead for several hours.

The Supreme Court will decide whether or not it should be a crime for someone to purchase a gun for another person if both are legally allowed to possess a firearm.

HARTFORD (CBS Connecticut) — Tom Brady won’t be one of the millions of people watching the Super Bowl. Speaking to WEEI a day after the New England Patriots lost to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship game, Brady admitted he will not be sitting in front of a television to see the Broncos play the Seattle Seahawks on Feb. 2.

Forget the shutdown: Job creation surged in October despite dimmed expectations from the impasse in Washington. There were a net 204,000 new jobs created for the month, though the unemployment rate rose to 7.3 percent The numbers easily topped economist expectations of 120,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs for the month, though it matched estimates for a slightly increase in the headline jobless rate.

Lou Reed, the frontman of the rock band the Velvet Underground, has died at age 71, according to a report from Rolling Stone magazine. The Velvet Underground became one of the most influential bands in rock music by fusing art and music through its collaboration with Andy Warhol in the 1960s, Reuters reports. The magazine did not say how Reed died and his representatives could not immediately be reached.

SPARKS, Nev. – Police are responding to reports of a shooting at Sparks Middle School in northern Nevada. A Sparks police dispatcher says the call came in at 7:16 a.m. Monday. Sparks police spokesman Rocky Triplett told the Reno Gazette-Journal that a suspect is in custody.

Washington DC's Capitol Police have ordered a review into a BBC report that an armed police team was ordered not to respond to Monday's mass shooting. A tactical response team from the force was told by a supervisor to leave the scene instead of aiding municipal officers, police sources told the BBC. The Capitol Police sources suggest they could have saved lives had they been allowed to go in. Aaron Alexis, 34, killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard. In a statement on Wednesday, the US Capitol Police Board said the force's Chief Kim Dine had asked it to...