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1]FUMES OF DOOM?
On February 19, 1994, Gloria Ramirez was admitted to the Riverside General Hospital in California, complaining of nausea and respiratory problems. A nurse in the emergency room, attempting to take a blood sample, noted an ammonia smell and later collapsed. Dr. Julie Gorchynski also took very ill. Others present reported less severe symptoms. After Ramirez died, her remains were kept sealed in an airtight steel container. Two autopsies were inconclusive. But Dr. Gorchynski remains an invalid. The authorities eventually explained away the mystery as being stress-induced mass hysteria, which did not explain the knee and lung symptoms suffered by Dr. Gorchynski. The Ramirez family decried the mass hysteria explanation as a coverup. The case remains the most highly publicized mystery of 1994. Sources: The Plain Dealer 2/22/94, 2/24/94; Los Angeles Times 2/23/94; Chicago Tribune 2/23/94, etc.


2] THE "FLESH-EATING" BACTERIA

Steve Hillman, 37, was a victim of the notorious "flesh-eating" Strep A infection. After surgical removal of part of his buttocks on May 8, 1994, he spoke about his ordeal to the media from his hospital bed in Pompano Beach, Florida. A 51-year-old woman died in Denver, Colorado, on July 3, 1994 after the bacteria "ate" into much of her body. About 10,000 to 15,000 Americans get bad Strep A infections each year, and 1,000 to 3,000 of them die. Sources: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6/8/94 and 7/29/94; and Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, 7/5/94


3] DOG-FACED FISH

Scientists at the Department of Fish and Game were puzzling over the fish caught by Lyle Dyslin in Clear Lake, California. The tail was horizontal, unlike any other fish known (although similar to marine mammals such as whales and dolphins). The pectoral fins resembled feet. The face looked so much like a dog's (specifically Dyslin's pet dachshund) that he couldn't bear to kill it. He took a very clear picture of it, carved his initials in its forehead, and let it go. Clear Lake is considered northern California's oldest lake. Source: Examiner and Chronicle, 10/3/93


4] COMPUTER VIRUSES
ARE ALIVE

Stephen Hawking, the British astrophysicist and mathematician, claimed that "computer viruses should count as life." On August 2, 1994, at the Macworld Expo in Boston, Massachusetts, he said that they are a parasitic system that feeds off the metabolism of the host computerŅand that they can reproduce themselves. "We've created life in our image," he said, referring to their destructive nature. Source: USA Today, 8/3/94


5] KILLER BLOB SHOWER

Sunny Barclift, a resident of Grays Harbor County near Oakville, Washington, found tiny blobs on the grounds of her home on August 7, 1994. These fragments came down during two August rainfalls. Their appearance may have led to the death of a kitten, as well as to the illnesses of Barclift herself, her mother Dottie Hearn, and a friend. Dr. David Little, who treated Hearn, arranged to have a lab test the blobs, which determined that some human white cells were present. Dick Meyer, a spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration, said that it was not plane toilet waste. Interested townspeople found out that the U.S. Air Force was cluster bombing the Pacific Ocean 10 to 20 miles off Washington's coast, and they opined that jellyfish bits might have been blasted sky high and later come down in the rains. Sources: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 8/18/94 and 8/20/94


6] MATING MONSTERS

Ed Bousfield, a biologist at the Royal B.C. Museum, reported that two pilots in a Cessna float plane may have disturbed a pair of sea monsters engaged in an intimate act. The two creatures, which had the traditional loops, had probably come into Saanich Inlet to breed. When the plane landed on the water they swam off at speeds up to 65 km./hr. Source: Sun [Vancouver, B. C., Canada], 10/30/93


7] HONG KONG MERMAID

In October 1993, a fisherman who called himself Mr. To radioed Hong Kong that he was arriving with a strange creature that had long hair and a pointed beaklike face, but no arms or legs. A crowd of 2,000 gathered around Aberdeen harbor to see it, but neither Mr. To nor the "mermaid" showed up. Some thought the thing might be a large marine mammal, perhaps a dugong, which emits a siren-like noise that may have inspired the legends of mermaids. Source: Daily Post, 10/14/93


8] GREEN RAIN ON
SAN FRANCISCO

Twenty or more people told health inspectors and fire officials how they observed sheets of bright green liquid that rained down around 2:30 p.m. February 17, 1994 upon part of San Francisco's Mission Street. Preliminary examination of the substance indicated it was not dangerous. All examined samples were very diluted, hampering analysis. Source: Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, 2/20/94


9] NEW VIDEO FOOTAGE OF
CHINESE LAKE MONSTER

The body of water atop the Changbai mountain in the Jilin province of Yanji in China is called Dragon Lake because some have spotted China's equivalent of the Loch Ness monster there. Sightings have been so plentiful that in late 1993 the Research Association for Queer Animals was organized. In 1962, Zhou Fengying of the Jilin Meteorological Bureau saw two of them; and in 1980 he saw seven or eight of the creatures. On August 20 and September 2, 1994, the creature again showed up. It was videotaped on at least one of those occasions. Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 9/17/94


10] HARD TO BELIEVE AWARD:
Campaign Spirit

Tommy Maccione's run for mayor of Santa Fe, New Mexico, faced one major handicap: he was dead. To overcome this legal barrier, he appeared to Gail Bochenek. She agreed to channel him and let him make the decisions if he/she were elected. Her name appeared on the ballot. Source: Tribune [Albuquerque, NM], 1/21/94



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