Posted on 09/19/2012 11:09:41 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It really happened: Six generations of inbreeding spanning the years 1800 to 1960 caused an isolated population of humans living in the hills of Kentucky to become blue-skinned.
The startlingly blue people, all descendants of a French immigrant named Martin Fugate and still living near his original settlement on the banks of Troublesome Creek when hematologists studied them in the 1960s, turned out to have a rare blood condition called methemoglobinemia. A recessive gene was pairing with itself to change the molecular composition of their blood, making it brown as opposed to red, which tinted their skin blue.
The hematologists' attempt to trace the history of the mutant gene revealed a gnarly Fugate family tree, contorted by many an intermarriage between first cousins, aunts and nephews, and the like over the generations. Dennis Stacy, whose great-great-grandfather on both his mother's and father's sides was the same person — Henley Fugate — offered a simple explanation for the rampant interbreeding: In the old days in eastern Kentucky, Stacy said, "There was no roads."
It sounds sordid at worst and lazy at best, but in fact, the Fugates' tale is a miniature version of the story of human coupling since time immemorial. Local populations interbreed, causing a sharing of genes, a resulting in-group physical resemblance and, eventually, identification as a distinct race or ethnic group. According to Stephen Stearns, a Yale professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, before the invention of the bicycle, the average distance between the birthplaces of spouses in England was 1 mile (1.6 kilometers). During the latter half of the 19th century, bikes upped the distance men went courting to 30 miles (48 km), on average. Scholars have identified similar patterns in other European countries.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Re: “Blue skinned family in Kentucky”
So “Avatar” is based on a true story?
I knew it!
there must be 57 breasts in that photo..
True story: Obama was watching the news last week and heard that three Brazilian people had perished in a plane crash. Stunned, he turned to Michelle and gasped, “Oh my God, how many is a brazilian?”
Don’t bet on it. Just more worshiping at the altar of multiculturalism.
A Brazilian WHAT???
Because, Brazilian is a really big number.
And the soccer will be out of this world...
All are at attention.
That was my first thought, I love dark haired brunettes. Brazilian women can be smokin’ hott. Fortunately my Italian wife won’t see this, but like I said, dark brunettes do it for me.
Men are such disgusting beasts.
I just knew this thread would go this way.
I am SO ashamed.
What incredible hubris to believe that some “experts” can predict the future.
A “bottleneck” event could cause 40% of humans to look like Inuits, 40% Namib Bushmen, and 20% everything else.
Wow, now I regret referring teenage boys that I teach to Freerepublic...
#27 must be killing you.
I want one. [/Tony Stark]
If they are red blooded, healthy American teenage boys they have seen more revealing pics than these by now trust me....
In the future, “black” will still be socialist red, no matter how many descendants of African-Americans are no longer liberal at that time.
This expert most likely did his research watching the DVD of the latest version of HG Wells' "The Time Machine".
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