› added 1 year ago

59

TIL that in Wuppertal, Germany in 1950, the circus elephant Tuffi broke through a window of a moving overhead railway and fell 12 metres down in a river, while on promotion tour for a circus. Luckily she survived with minor injuries.

Read more faz.net

via reddit.com

Ypk4B Metallic microlattice is the lightest metal structure ever created. It was developed by scientists at HRL Laboratories, jointly owned by Boeing and General Motors. While it's 99.99% air, its structure makes it strong and could be used in future planes and vehicles.
oR1ZA TIL in the pre-classical era, the ancient Greeks condoned piracy as a viable profession; it apparently was widespread and "regarded as an entirely honourable way of making a living". References are made to its perfectly normal occurrence in many texts including in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
1d9d TIL NASA has decided to use Metric Units for all operations on the lunar surface when it returns to the Moon. The Vision for Space Exploration calls for returning astronauts to the Moon by 2020 and eventually setting up a manned lunar outpost.
BA9W TIL that the average attention span for humans seems to have dropped from 12 seconds in the year 2000, to 8 seconds in 2016.
d4RE TIL that Canada has a Children’s Arts Tax Credit for parents that enroll their child in a music or fine arts program.