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History lessons in school may have seemed boring to some, but it is useful to know how far we’ve come and where we came from. It may seem boring because the events took place a very long time ago or they just don’t seem relevant to us personally. But the history that is taught at school isn’t the only truth and doesn’t encompass all the things that happened in the past.

There are so many events and people that we don’t get to hear about and maybe they didn’t have a big impact on the world, but those stories are so interesting to listen to or read about. Today you will find out some history facts that you may not have heard of before, and they come with a twist, as Redditor Doyouareisstupid asked, “What is the weirdest/most disturbing fact about our world’s history that you know?” It’s a perfect read for the spooky season we are now in because people have knowledge about some unbelievable things that occurred years ago. So enjoy and upvote the answers that surprised you the most.

More info: Reddit

#1

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Most people have 16 great great parents, Cleopatra had 2. She's lucky to have developed working lungs, let alone be competent enough to accomplish anything. That was a family tree was a wreath

VeseliM , Lars Larsson Report

#2

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group 40% of all homeless people in America still goes to work every day

Flutfar , (Mick Baker)rooster Report

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Scagsy
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And if that isn't a reflection on a broken society, I don't know what is.

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#3

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group That literally ever race of people that have ever existed on this planet have been slaves to another at some point in history and most of them have overlapping time frames with other races.

And this is never talked about.

KnightofDis , muammerokumus Report

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Ozacoter
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Exactly. In medieval spain the moors in Al Andalus actually prefered blond germanic slaves. So much that the word slave in spanish (and likely in english) "esclavo" comes from "eslavo" (as in an slavic person)

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#4

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Australia went to war with Emus. The Emus won.

LuinAelin , Ed Dunens Report

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Xottel
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There were no human casualties. The "army" just retreated eventually.

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#5

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Adolph hitler was an animal rights advocate who banned the live boiling of lobsters.

TommyHawking , Chloe Media Report

#6

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Sharks have been around longer than trees.

truthsayer2021 , Andrew Kuchling Report

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#7

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group There are books in the Harvard University library which are bound in human flesh

Flaky_Sandwich9353 , Gord Webster Report

#8

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group The US Government has a literal gigantic dossier of classified operations hidden from the public, no brainer. What's shocking are things they've actually declassified.

Among these documents is the detailing of one of the largest human experiments in history, when the US dropped a bacteria-infused fog on the city of San Francisco to test how well "germ-based" biological warfare could prove by masking it with natural fog, which occurred back in the 1950s.

It was widely successful. A specific case is that of Edward Nevin, who passed away from Serratia marcescens, a bacteria that makes bread turn red. It had spread to his heart from a UTI and he passed away
In 1977, the government released a thoroughly detailed report at the testament of Nevin's grandson. Nevin's grandson tried to sue the government for wrongful death, but the court held that the government was immune to a lawsuit for negligence and that they were justified in conducting tests without subjects' knowledge. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Army stated that infections must have occurred inside the hospital and the US Attorney argued that they had to conduct tests in a populated area to see how a biological agent would affect that area.

Imagine what they're hiding.

Shirozaru , Ben Schumin Report

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Leo Domitrix
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Gee, you mean nations commit horrible atrocities even on their own citizens? Gasp, shock, faint ----- and, yes, that was sarcasm.

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#9

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Some ancient cultures knew that they could control population growth by denying fertile females both fats and carbohydrates. This process guaranteed that embryos would not mature in the womb due to the lack of food energy derived from carrying mothers. The embryos would self-abort. A certain ratio of body fat is required for successful pregnancies.

NagromTrebloc , Gideon Report

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Vicky Z
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Controlling women's wombs for thousands of years and still nothing has changed

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#10

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group There are more people in slavery today than at any other time in history.

aljoharaalfayez , Nicolas Sanguinetti Report

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Barbara L Bristow
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

here's a list: As of 2018, the countries with the most slaves were: India (18.4 million), China (3.86 million), Pakistan (3.19 million), North Korea (2.64 million), Nigeria (1.39 million), Indonesia (1.22 million), Democratic Republic of the Congo (1 million), Russia (794,000) and the Philippines (784,000).

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#11

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group That we've been on the brink of a global nuclear exchange several times. And that in one case (Cuban blockade), it was only because a single man (Vasily Arkhipov), disagreed with standing orders, that a nuclear exchange was likely averted.

Madjack66 , IAEA Imagebank Report

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Vicky Z
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The fact that some critical decisions that will affect the whole humanity are on the hands of a few people, is scary

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#12

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Due to Fresh drinking water being so scarce on the Galápagos Islands, some bird species, such as the Galapagos Hawk, have adapted by drinking the blood of other animals.

Johndoe448 , Paul Krawczuk Report

#13

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Cleopatra lived closer to the moon landing than to the building of the pyramids.

Dragonwithamonocle , Ivan Radic Report

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#14

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group From the fall of the Roman empire up until the mid 19th century, not a single city in Europe had a sewer system to dispose of human feces.

City planners didn't build sewers until it was proven in 1855 that the cause for all the cholera epidemics was drinking water contaminated by human feces.

PhilippTheSmartass , Steve Snodgrass Report

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Robert T
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

TIL how to spell Bazalgette. Always sounded like it should be Basiljet to me. First modern sewer system was in London, before that the River Thames was the sewer!

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#15

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group The Mayans partied hard. They would take alcohol and hallucinogenic enemas.

In Social Studies they had us watch a special on them and I vividly remember an artists rendering of a Mayan doing a handstand while getting an enema.

The original keg-stand.

Riff_Moranis , amber.kennedy Report

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Ozacoter
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They also had a violent empire that had slavery and conquered, raped and pillaged their neighbours. Which is completely normal for the time. But everybody talks about the europeans as if we were the only ones to commit atrocities

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#16

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Russia still has not recovered its population prior to WWII

YNot1989 , Pedro Szekely Report

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Tim Pillinger
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ireland hasn't recovered from the potatoes famine. There were 8 million in Ireland in 1841, now there are about 6.

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#17

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Up until the early 1980s doctors did not think newborn babies could feel pain. They didn't use anesthetic only used muscle relaxers on newborns.

mukelynnvinton , Kelly Roselle Report

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Ozacoter
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I will never stip being shocked at the idiocy of doctors. Anybody with half a neuron knows that they feel pain. Since they show it. There was no reason to think otherwise except laziness

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#18

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Rainbow Valley of Mount Everest is named for the rainbow colors of clothing of passed away people there

Ryukotaicho , Sean MacEntee Report

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Thistle
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

oh yeah i've heard of this, there were a lot of people that died there...

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#19

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Spartans bathed their newborn babies in red wine instead of warm water

FireyorLeafy , Daniella Segura Report

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Otter
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And the babies slept very quietly after their baths! But seriously, water was often contaminated in the ancient world, and alcohol killed bacteria so it might actually have been a good idea. Did you know that Roman army was able to conquer much of the known world because they carried huge vats of low-quality wine and mixed it with whatever drinking water they found? It killed enough pathenogenic microbia that the armies didn't get sick en masse in dubious areas.

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#20

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group The United States injected unknowing Puerto Rican’s with cancer cells to see how the illness worked

captnslog97 , Lorie Shaull Report

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Mary Rose Kent
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In the Tuskegee Study, the U.S. government injected African Americans with syphilis so that they could find how it spreads and works its way through the body. And they just left them infected rather than giving them penicillin afterwards.

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#22

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group The founding fathers of the USA didn't know dinosaurs existed.

yuwannano , David Kryzaniak Report

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Mary Rose Kent
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And it took even longer from that point to now to work out that we still have dinosaurs in the form of birds and reptiles.

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#23

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group The ability to tell time (circadian rythm) is an evolutionary reaponse.

Cells that learned to replicate at night and rest during the day ultimately survived.

I'm bastardizing it but I find that amazing.

ok-MTLmunchies , vastfield Report

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Eli Rockwell
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One way that chronobiologists and sleep researchers have used to identify and study circadian rhythms is to spend extended periods isolated from natural light, temperature fluctuations, or other stimuli that could signal the time of day. Today, some laboratories have special facilities to achieve this isolation, but early researchers used caves. Nathaniel Kleitman conducted the first cave experiment in 1938 when he and a graduate student spent 32 days isolated from the outside world in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. The researchers imposed a 28-hour cycle on themselves consisting of ten hours of work, nine of leisure, and another nine hours of sleep. Bedtime shifted four hours later each day during the Mammoth Cave study. Despite the alternative schedule and the absence of external cues, Kleitman found that body temperature continued to fluctuate in an approximately 24-hour cycle, suggesting the existence of an endogenous clock.

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#24

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group If you lined up this history of earth on a 12 hour clock, modern humans making an impact on the planet would be about 1/10 of a second ago.

Doc580 , Neil Turner Report

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#25

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Adolf Hitler was saved from drowning at age nine in a fountain by a priest

DrySky8514 , Mauro Girotto Report

#26

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Not so much disturbing as it is funny (at least to me).

The Kettle War. Long story short, Spain (The Holy Roman Empire) and the Netherlands (The Seven Republics of the Netherlands) were beefing. One boat from Spain engaged in a fight with a Dutch naval ship. One shot was fired. The only victim of that cannonball was a pot of soup that was cooking. The Spanish ship then surrendered.

ImANuckleChut , Jonas Bengtsson Report

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Ozacoter
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not correct. Spain was never part of the Holy Roman Empire. But we shared leaders.

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#27

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group Ireland exported potato’s during the great potato famine.

CategoryTurbulent114 , Bryan Alexander Report

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Otter
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Someone won a Nobel Prize by doing large-scale research on large historical and current famines, and found the same pattern in every one: There was always enough food to feed everyone, but in a famine, large numbers of people just had no access to the food. They were either deprived of food, or weren't given enough resources to afford food.

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#28

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group That in UK, some time in the 12th century, two children of unusual GREEN skin colour appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk, England.

The girl later communicated she and her brother had come from Saint Martin's Land, a subterranean world inhabited by green people. This actually happened!

Mulks23 , Ines Hegedus-Garcia Report

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NeonDisco
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's a folklore story passed down generations, like the Bible but believable.

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Rebekah Tracy
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

*WARNING* there’s is not a single ounce of hate in this comment!!! But I do realize that some Christians could be very offended that you think that a folklore story is true but something they’ve based their lives on is false. It’s totally okay for you not to believe in the Bible. That’s fine, you do you. However it’s not something that’s beneficial to anyone when you bash other peoples religion.

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olx
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

this explanation is not true. they were the children of foreign cloth dyers, didn't speak English, and mostly preferred vegetables out of the food they were offered, which, for whatever reason, confused the townspeople. the boy died of malnutrition and they eventually worked out what happened when the girl learned English then worked as, I believe, a maid.

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Firefoxy3121
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It was eventually found that they were a dyers children, I think, and were coated in vegetable based green dye

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Agnes Jekyll
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They were green because their father was a wool merchant. The green came from dye. Their parents died, and the children eventually made it to a town. They didn't speak English. The little boy died from starvation, and the little girl survived. I wonder if this was the inspiration for Hansel and Gretel?

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Penelope 2
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually. And I don't quite remember all the details. But for some reason parents would leave their children in the woods. Said children would be eaten by cannibals. Which. I don't know much about the history of cannibalism in Germany. That's just what I've read regarding that story I may be incorrect.

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H Edwards
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wonder if this or a similar story inspired the character of Rosa in Isabel Allende's novel The House of the Spirits?

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sunflower bunny
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

that's so cool! in primary school, we had a drama prompt that to green children had come to our town!

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MikeWheelerFan
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don’t believe this. It’s possible to have blue skin due to genetics, but not green (I think). There’s actually an infamous family called the Fugate family that had this condition.

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Kim Lorton
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You can also get blue skin from ingesting silver home remedies. Or silver in medications, or use silver based products on a regular basis.

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Rider
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_children_of_Woolpit

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Hugh Cookson
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I lived near Woolpit many years ago - this is probably correct.......

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An Co
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You mean multiple people wrote down a stupid story and believed it. Happened all the time and people still do. Ever hear of the National Inquirer? Or Facebook?

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Thomas MacLean
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sure it did ... can I sell you some oceanside real estate in Florida??

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Mazer
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Greenish staining of human skin may result from a gamut of causes, such as chlorosis, exogenous copper, resolving ecchymosis, drugs, green textile dyes, green tattoos, apocrine and eccrine chromhidrosis, hyper biliverdinemia, chloromas, use of green dyes during tube feeding in patient with multiorgan failure, Pseudomonas infections, and Wells’ syndrome in its second stage. Physicians may rarely encounter patients with green skin, hair, nails, or mucosae.

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buttonpusher
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Reminds me of that Papa Smurf guy who's skin turned blue from that silver stuff he was drinking. He had argyria or something.

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~oatmeal.rat~
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

to all the people who are being rude to people who believe in the bible- stop? It is their choice to believe what they want to and not be shamed because of it.

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Betty Vanderhooven-SchmaaSchmaa
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Except when they believe that ppl who don't believe couldn't possibly live without breaking commandments. Or sit around thinking everything is God's will. Being ignorant wont get you out of a speeding ticket.

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Tee Witt
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

True, but there is a simple explanation for it, something to do with food I think. It is easily found on the net.

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AzKhaleesi
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

All you bashers are sad. Really speaks volumes to where this world is headed. You guys take things WAY to literal. No one actually thinks that a wall was brought down by a trumpet, unless you are literally believing in the miracle. Open up your minds. Back then, they didn't know how to tell stories other than what they KNEW for the time. So maybe there was some kind of weapon that was invented, but it made a "trumpet" noise. Therefore, much like the game of telephone, eventually as passed down it was a trumpet. (even though it wasn't) The one loaf feeding many, wasn't actually one loaf, it was a "pay it forward" thing. One person shared, the rest shared too. The great flood has been proven by science. I can keep going but you get the idea. They told the events as they could describe in the times. And how it was passed down. It's that simple.

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Kaseylulu
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So what parts do you take literally and what parts are open for interpretation?

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Effin Fred
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There is nothing to claim that this even remotely occurred. This is fiction, much like the bible, jesus, ghosts, and moral politicians.

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#29

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group The baltic states conquest was buried in history (not many people know it) because ww2 and the holocaust happened at about the same time.

TayoDaAsian , www.twin-loc.fr Report

#30

30 Of The Weirdest And The Most Disturbing Facts From Known History, Shared By People In This Online Group The Germans smuggling Lenin into Tsarist Russia, to bring it down.

willubemyfriendo , 7C0 Report

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Bacony Cakes
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

imagine like being putting your luggage through the scanner at the airport and inside they find trotsky

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