Techno-paranoia has become the norm our post-Snowden world, and hit shows like Person of Interest play on our fears of being watched. But the high-tech conspiracy tale has its roots in the 1970s, which saw a great wave of movies about assassins, surveillance, secret governments, and corporate cabals. The result was a decade's worth of paranoid thrillers, many of them extremely entertaining. Here are the ten you must watch.

Between the Watergate scandal and a series of ugly revelations about the CIA, the FBI, and other federal agencies, the public was more receptive to stories where the country's leaders were the villains. And with the rise of the so-called New Hollywood, a younger, more countercultural group of filmmakers was ready to deliver them.

These aren't the best '70s conspiracy thrillers - a couple of them aren't all that good, though they're worth watching for other reasons. They're just the essential ones: necessary stops on any extended tour of the genre. In chronological order:

Travelers are reporting threatening messages coming from the loudspeakers of the Travel Security Administration. The TSA has been broadcasting warnings that people will be arrested for making jokes in the presence of the infamous federal checkpoint agents. Policestateusa.com has obtained exclusive audio of the threats.

Matt Miller said on the morning of September 20th, during his return trip from Colorado to Florida, he spent a few hours in Houston waiting for a connecting flight. Sitting at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, he repeatedly heard a TSA audio message on the intercom that disturbed him.

...You are also reminded that any inappropriate remarks or jokes concerning security may result in your arrest.

Miller documented the message with an audio recording via his cell phone and sent it to us.

The latest projections from the National Cancer Registry (NCRI) show that, with the exception of leukaemia in males, all cancer types are projected to increase.

The incidence of lung cancer is predicted to rise by 136% in females and 52% in males. Cancers of the colon and the rectum are projected to increase by 120% to 130%.

The most rapidly rising cancers in both sexes are expected to be those of the skin - melanoma and non-melanoma.

The report also predicts that cancers of the upper gastrointestinal tract - such as the oesophagus and the pancreas - will rise by over 100%. The report found future trends for breast and prostate cancer were difficult to predict.

Director of the NCRI, Dr Harry Comber, said changes in population were the main reason for the predicted increase.

"We are going through two transitions. Life expectancy is increasing so people are living longer. Also there is a big increase in the birth rate in the 1950s and 1960s and that now is percolating through to a higher number of people over 65 and 70 and that's the age group who largely develop cancer. That would be the main reason for the increases," he said.

As a luge competitor at the 2006 Winter Games, I saw the dehumanization and corporate domination behind the Olympic ideal.

As a former Olympic athlete, I can tell you from experience that the Olympic Games have much more in common with The Hunger Games than anyone would want to admit.

I connect with the inhumanity of The Hunger Games because I've been there, as a luge competitor at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. No, I didn't get sucked into the depths of an artificial lake, like the character played by Jennifer Lawrence. But I did get sucked into the rafters of an artificially manufactured tube of glare ice, only to come crashing down in the second run of my Olympic moment.

The grandeur of the opening ceremonies of The Hunger Games is designed to mask the cruelty of the competition itself. The Olympic opening ceremonies serve a similar purpose. Like the kids representing the districts of Panem, each nation's athletes are trotted around a massive arena like prize ponies, shrouded in the patriotic glory of their particular flag. The carefully orchestrated pageantry is misleading, telling us that the Olympics are a celebration of the human capacity to achieve, to overcome obstacles, and that the world's best athletes represent something bigger than themselves.

But make no mistake: for the global elite, the Olympics are an investment - and one with a rapidly growing price tag. At the London Games, the cost of the opening ceremonies alone was a whopping $42.3 million. This year, Russia will shell out more than $51 billion for the two-week event, making these Games more expensive than all previous Winter Olympics combined.

In The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence is the sacrificial lamb of District 12. As one of the prize ponies of the US team, I served a similar purpose for the Turin Games. Groomed from the tender age of 11, I spent my childhood pursuing Olympic glory, which epitomizes the American dream of merit-based success.

San Bernardino Police sent a dog to viciously attack an 88-year-old woman as she slept in bed in her own home, the woman claims in court.

Katharina Lambert sued San Bernardino, Police Chief Robert Handy and Officers J. Castro, S. Aranda and J. Echevarria, in Federal Court.

Lambert says the three officers entered her home at 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 23, 2013, allegedly in response to a silent burglar alarm. Without warrant or any pressing circumstances, Echevarria entered with a police dog, Lambert says.

Attorneys representing a pregnant, brain-dead Texas woman's family released a statement Wednesday saying the woman's 22-week-old fetus is "distinctly abnormal," two days before the case heads back to court.

The Associated Press reported that, according to attorneys Jessica Janicek and Heather King, Marlise Muñoz's fetus has suffered fluid buildup in its skull and deformed "lower extremities," as well as an undetermined heart condition.

"Quite sadly, this information is not surprising due to the fact that the fetus, after being deprived of oxygen for an indeterminate length of time, is gestating within a dead and deteriorating body, as a horrified family looks on in absolute anguish, distress and sadness," the statement read.

Janicek and King are representing Muñoz's husband, Erick Munoz, in his suit against John Peter Smith Hospital. The hospital has cited a state law, the Advance Directive Act, that it says prevents it from unhooking Marlize Muñoz from life support in spite of her condition. Her husband has argued that the hospital disconnect her and release her body for burial, in accordance with her wishes.

A woman who hopes to be Alaska's next U.S. senator recently uploaded video of herself speaking in tongues while fully clothed in a steam room.

"I'm at the Alaska Club West and I'm spending a little time in the steam room with Suzie," Republican candidate Kathleen Tonn said in the video, which was uploaded to YouTube on January 18. "Suzie doesn't know Jesus Christ as her savior, but ironically she has a pastor/priest who is her neighbor. So, she has allowed me to sing and deliver a message in the Holy Ghost and tongues."

"One point of clarification: Speaking in tongues or singing in tongues is very valuable because the message cannot be understood by Satan," she continued. "But the Holy Spirit can use that message to bring deliverance, to bring clarity, to give discernment and words of wisdom and knowledge, and tongues is interpreted by a person who has the gift of interpretation. So I'm going to go fast. "

She then prayed and spent the next few minutes singing in tongues. After she finished, the woman identified as "Suzie" agreed to say hello to the camera.

"That was beautiful," Suzie remarked.

A snakebite victim who was treated at a North Carolina hospital came away with more than just fang marks when he received an $89,227 bill for an 18-hour stay.

Eric Ferguson, 54, from Mooresville, N.C., was taking out the trash at his home last August when he was bitten on the foot by a snake. He drove himself to Lake Norman Regional Medical Center, where he was treated with anti-venom medicine.

According to his bill, the hospital charged $81,000 for a four-vial dose of the medication.

Shocked at the price tag, Ferguson told the Charlotte Observer he and his wife found the same vials online for retail prices as low as $750.

Ferguson, who is insured, said his care was "beyond phenomenal."

A man in South Carolina recently killed a police dog while running from police after committing a crime.

The Resident (aka Lori Harfenist) discusses.

The methane gas released by 90 flatulent cows caused an explosion in a farm shed in Germany, damaging the roof and injuring one of the animals, local police said.

In a statement, the force said high levels of the methane gas had built up within the structure in the central German town of Rasdorf on Monday thanks to animals belches and flatulence, before "a static electric charge caused the gas to explode with flashes of flames."

The subsequent blast damaged the roof of the cow shed, Reuters reported. Emergency services who attended the scene took gas readings to check for any potential further blasts.

One of the cows was injured and had to be treated for burns it sustained during the incident, a police spokesman added.

The animals can emit up to 500 litres of the greenhouse gas methane each every day through belching and flatulence. Cows also release large amounts of ammonia.