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Though the sensation has probably been around since our ancestors developed emotions, it wasn't until the middle of the 19th century that we started describing the uncanny as something that gives us "the creeps." Charles Dickens, who enriched the English language with plenty of new words and expressions, is credited with the first use of the phrase in his 1849 novel 'David Copperfield,' to mean an unpleasant, tingly chill up the spine.

A few days ago, Reddit user Mimiqttt set out to find out what the definition means to different people, and posted a question on the platform, asking, "What are some creepy facts you know?" From natural phenomena to the biological workings of our bodies, here are some of the most popular answers they've received.

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#1

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing Hearing is the last sense you lose before dying.

d**konajunebug:

My dad is a retired EMT/Paramedic/fire-fighter. Years ago he told be about a guy in cardiac arrest that they brought back to life. The guy ended up coming by the station a few weeks later to thank my dad personally because he had heard - while dead - someone say it was time to call it but my dad said to keep trying.

That story has terrified me. To know you’re dead, but not quite dead, and hear other people call it before you’re fully gone. Geesus, no thank yo.

HorrorPusherr , Kindel Media Report

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Realm Ship
Realm Ship
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One of the most horrific things I have ever experienced as a paramedic was the phenomenon of “CPR induced consciousness.” It’s where in some individuals who are in full cardiac arrest will regain consciousness during active CPR and beg you to stop due to the agonizing pain of the chest compressions in progress. The first time I ever had that happen to my patient it almost completely broke me. Unfortunately, they could not be resuscitated in the end despite us using every ACLS tool available. I’m considering a DNR for myself due to witnessing it.

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#2

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing One of the most common places to find a dead body is on the toilet. Cause when they're alive and not feeling well, the first thing they do is go to the toilet thinking it could be a bowel issue.

pumpkinthighs , Grant Hughes Report

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Emma S
Emma S
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A lot of people get the sudden urge to empty their bowels right before a heart attack.

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#3

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing When you have a kidney transplant, they don’t remove your original organs, and the Transplant does not go in the place of your old organ.

Source: have had three kidney transplants in my lifetime. I have a total of five kidneys in my body.

Blackthorne519 , RF._.studio Report

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#4

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing Due to human artificial selection, dogs are evolving eyebrows.

Light_of_Niwen , Helena Lopes Report

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Laugh Fan
Laugh Fan
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My dog definitely has eyebrows!! Taken just after a bath so she's wrapped up in a towel. Just-had-a...86a6f9.jpg Just-had-a-shower-Feb-2021-6560de586a6f9.jpg

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#5

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing Your eyes have their own immune system that works separately from your body’s immune system. If your body’s immune system found out it would attack your eyes. I read this here and at my last eye appointment I asked if it was true. The eye doctor said “Yeah, it’s kinda weird” and I was like “Kinda?”

McSmackthe1st , cottonbro studio Report

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#6

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing Ducks become cannibals due to boredom, of all f*****g reasons.

PenCreepy2451 , Kristi Evans Report

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#7

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing If you get skinned alive, you'll die from hypothermia, not blood loss.

gamedev_9998:

If you were burned alive, you'll die from suffocation, not from the fire itself.

wish-com_gaster , Klara Kulikova Report

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#8

Your immune system can just decide that the rest of your body is offensive and goes on the attack. I have this with psoriasis which started as flaky skin and now has become psoriatic arthritis where my fingers, hands and feet are unreliable because my body decided that my body is a foreign object.

F**k you my body!

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Steve W.
Steve W.
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also, Guillain-Barre Syndrome or Parsonage-Turner Syndrome where your nerve sheathes are attacked. I lost use of a lung, much tactile feeling in my upper body, and much muscle usage. Most people it will return, some, like mine, is permanent. Just woke up one morning with my skin burning and difficulty breathing. Fun times, eh?

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#9

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing I believe around 5-10% of the ocean has been explored. We have the technology to study space but it’s not advanced enough to see what’s down there (due to water pressure and darkness and stuff)

OffBeatBerry_707 , Maël BALLAND Report

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#10

Some species of Vultures can projectile vomit if they feel threatened.

Missing-Digits:

It is called defensive vomiting and I was an unwitting victim of it once. It is HORRENDOUS!!!

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#11

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing There are about 40 supervolcanoes in the world that have yet to erupt. One supervolcano is in Yellowstone National Park and has a magma chamber that is large enough to fit the entire city of Tokyo inside it.

There's no indication we're due for a super eruption in our life time, but the thought it could happen still creeps me out.

BansheeBallad , Jordan Corrales Report

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Lizz
Lizz
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The one in Napels, Italy is waking up.... They're thinking about evacuating part of the city.

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#12

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing For every 9 people on death row 1 is found to be innocent. Sometimes after death and sometimes after the innocent was on death row for 30 years.

Loud_Advertising_947 , RDNE Stock project Report

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Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My!
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My!
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There are many innocent people in prison. Mind you, I wasn't one of them. I deserved what I got. Several of the women I hung around, though, had not committed the crime of which they were accused. The feds use scare tactics to get people to plead out. Several of the women were told to sign the plea, or the feds would go after their kids. The government can ALWAYS afford a better lawyer.

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#13

Just after their WWII surrender, the Japanese government created a system of brothels in case American soldiers thought of taking out frustrations on Japanese women. After the rate of STI's shot up among American GI's the Army made the Japanese government shut them down, the number of *reported* r*pes went up by 800%. Take note that Japan is a very traditional society with plenty of stigma about reporting rape so the actual numbers were probably even more horrific.

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LakotaWolf (she/her)
LakotaWolf (she/her)
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And let’s not forget the huge numbers of Korean and Chinese women that the Japanese kidnapped and forced into séx work in their brothels during the WWII era! And the number of rápes perpetrated by Japanese soldiers during their invasion of China! The Japanese aren’t innocent victims here, but their WOMEN were.

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#14

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing The only double-hanging of women to be carried out in modern times was the execution of the Finchley baby farmers. Amelia Sach and Annie Walters would "adopt" unwanted babies for a fee. Then, supposedly, find homes for them. They did not find homes for the babies.

The_Patriot , Marco Fortes Report

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Agfox
Agfox
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This happened in London. They charged between £25 and £30 for each baby they supposedly adopted & subsequently poisoned. The exact number they murdered is unknown but it was at least 12. Sach & Walters were hanged in 1903

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#15

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing Cotard’s syndrome is a condition where you just think you’re dead or don’t exist. People who have it sometimes stop eating because they think they’re dead.

PurdueJohn:

Similarly there are high anxiety conditions of depersonalization and derealization, where someone doesn't believe the world around or them exists or are real at all, or that they don't exist themselves. My daughter had this when she was young. Quite unsettling.

BlueCanary434 , Pixabay Report

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Amanda Rose
Amanda Rose
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Capgras delusions are interesting to learn about as well. It's where you believe that a loved one has been replaced with an identical double.

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#16

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing Youngest "woman" (I use that term loosely) to give birth was 5 years old.

Sassysewer , Michael Morse Report

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KitKat
KitKat
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A wee child having to endure rape, pregnancy and childbirth

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#17

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing Today there are more slaves in the world that at any other time in history.

Separate_Mango_666 , Zulmaury Saavedra Report

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#18

When salmon begin their famous spawning run, they shut down unnecessary systems so they can channel all of their energy into swimming upstream to mate. That includes the immune system, so spawning salmon are highly susceptible to disease and infection. They basically start to rot before they die. You can see many discolored salmon during their run, and there are even some missing pieces of their bodies.

I read about this last year. We are recent transplants to the PNW, so this is all new to me. My daughter and I went to a nearby creek this week to see if the salmon were still doing their thing. Sure enough, we saw one swimming upstream with a big, gaping hole in its back, complete with visible flesh and stringy white things protruding from it. It was awful, but we couldn't look away, either.

She asked me not to cook salmon for dinner this week. It's one of my favorite meals, but...yeah, I'm good for now.

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Li’l E.
Li’l E.
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Zombie fish! After they spawn they have no urge to do anything else. They just kinda swim around for a couple days/weeks until they die. Then there’s mounds of huge, decaying fish everywhere for a couple weeks until they decompose. It’s pretty gruesome.

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#19

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing When a star dies it explodes and releases a gamma burst and it destroys all in its path, if one goes off near Earth it’ll lead to extinction and there's no warning because it happens immediately.

wetlettuce42 , Pixabay Report

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Susie Elle
Susie Elle
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, there will be a warning, and that's the fact that a star is close to dying, which NASA and other space programs can quite accurately predict

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#20

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing mummy brown--or Egyptian Brown--is an old pigment that the pre-Raphaelites used for paintings. it's a rich color that was made from myrrh, pitch, and the decayed flesh of humans (yup, mummies). artists, for a very long time, did not know the contents of said pigment and we're turned off by it by 1915 because they found it gross and despicable.

still, a plenty of famous works feature a paint that is essentially dried-up human tissue.

Garbouliak , Daian Gan Report

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Amanda Rose
Amanda Rose
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There are also many books in the world that are bound with human skin.

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#21

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing Hundreds of people die every year… from being strangled by their bedsheets.

GlitzBlitz:

I had a heavy blanket that was pretty much coming apart at the seams. The lining was detaching from the blanket itself.

I woke up one morning and found my son’s head/neck completely entangled in the detached lining. I shook him in a panic and he woke up confused but fine.

It looked like if someone had actually taken the thing and tried to strangle him with it. I threw that thing straight in the garbage.

bender0x7d1 , Anna Nekrashevich Report

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UndertaleLover (She/Her)
UndertaleLover (She/Her)
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11 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

*throws bedsheets in the trash* Thanks but I don't want to be strangled

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#22

Statistically the person who is most likely to kill you at any given time is living with you right now.

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#23

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing Drinking too much water can kill you. some people who have survived drowning later die because of water intoxication. solution is simple, give them salt or electrolyte fluids to balance their sodium ph in the body.

The34Zero , Maurício Mascaro Report

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Agfox
Agfox
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11 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That reminds of this, from Wikipedia: "A US jury has awarded $US16.5 million (NZ$22.8J million) to the family of a 28-year-old woman who died after participating in a radio station's water-drinking contest. [I've redacted her name], a mother of three, died of acute water intoxication in January 2007 after the challenge to see which contestant could drink the most water without going to the bathroom." The winner's prize was a new Wii

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#24

Sewer treatment plants have lifesaver rings around the treatment tanks, in case someone falls in.

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#25

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing Carmine, a red food dye commonly used in food and makeup, is made of COCHINEAL INSECTS.

LemonMeringue26 , Leonardo Luz Report

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Amanda Rose
Amanda Rose
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also used in clothing dye as well. My dad spent a summer when he lived in Tucson gathering them in coffee cans to mail back to Virginia for my great grandmother to use in dyeing her hand spun wool.

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#26

In a strange and semi creepy coincidence, Robert Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, was saved from falling off a train platform and being run over by Edwin Boothe, brother of John Wilkes Boothe.

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Michael Largey
Michael Largey
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

All tolled, Robert Lincoln was at or near three presidential assassinations. After William McKinley's murder, Lincoln vowed never to come near a president again. And he didn't.

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#27

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing When you eat figs you are quite likely to be also eating the mummified carcass of a wasp.

stilloldbull2 , Pixabay Report

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#28

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing At any given time, there are 40-50 active serial killers in the United States.

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Ponyo (they/them)
Ponyo (they/them)
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

depends on who you ask. some experts have estimates as high as 200

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#29

Sometimes if their diet is lacking protein deer will actually search out birds nests on forest floors, stamp the chicks, and then eat them.

There's a type of be called a vulture Bee that feeds on decomposing flesh, they have wild looking hives, and they will in fact make honey from the dead flesh. Honey that is referred to as "meat honey". The honey is in fact edible according to researchers.

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BTDubs
BTDubs
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is true, horses will do same. There's no such thing as a "true herbivore".

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#30

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing You have millions of mites, known as demodex, living on your face.

Gr8hound , MART PRODUCTION Report

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#31

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing The floating specs you see probably aren’t dust but dead skin cells.

sleepy_potatoSalad , Furkan Dokuzlar Report

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#32

Box Jellyfish are not only the most venomous jellies to humans, but they also possess at least 24 functional eyes (of various degree) on its body despite having no centralized brain. Four of its eyes always peer up out of the water regardless of the animal's body position; some eyes can make out images, others are more primitive.

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#33

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing During the merger of two black holes,a black holes can occasionally get ejected from the system and get shot out into open space and become a wandering black hole, the creepy part for me is that because a large part of the way in which we see black holes is through their interactions with their surroundings we wouldn’t really be able to see it coming towards us

rflok34 , Alex Andrews Report

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der sebbl
der sebbl
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

To be fair, I wouldn't want to know, it's not like we could do anything

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#34

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing Really just the fact that we can die or have our lives unimaginably ruined at any moment from a basically endless number of ways and that eventually within a handful of decades (or maybe seconds or any time in between) or so it IS going to happen.

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LakotaWolf (she/her)
LakotaWolf (she/her)
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My life was destroyed on Thanksgiving Day, year 2000. My dad was putting up Xmas lights after we ate our meal. He fell off of the ladder, crushed his skull, and sustained a catastrophic brain injury. His body lived, but I lost my beloved father that day. Not only did it destroy his life (he was only 58) but it destroyed mine as well, as my mother decided selfishly to ignore my father’s well-known wishes not to be kept alive in a near-vegetative state. We took care of my dad at home. I loved him, but I lost my 20s and 30s to caring for him. I never moved out, never married, never got a normal job. He died in 2021. I held his hand as he died. My mother refused to even be present. I have never forgiven her for any of this. And I miss my dad terribly. My mother’s a toxic narcissist; my dad was a wonderful dad. Hug your loved ones, everyone. Regret is a bítch, I should know.

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#35

35 Creepy Facts About The World That You Might Be Better Off Not Knowing Last year in the US alone over half a million people were reported missing. About 1% are found.

buntybop , Daniel Lobo Report

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Felonius Gru
Felonius Gru
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11 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No, about 1% stay missing. The majority are found within the first 24 hours.

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