› added 4 years ago

102

TIL of Project Valkyrie: a theorized lightweight interstellar spacecraft that could attain 92% lightspeed. Components are tethered, with the crew 10 km away from the antimatter engine. A system would spray liquid droplets in front of the craft to shield against interstellar dust particles.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

4yjo TIL women in China get 98 days of government-funded maternity leave by default, an extra 15 days for difficult childbirths, and even a shortened maternity leave up to 42 days for miscarriages. Also, if women have a late childbirth (after the age of 23) they can get an extra month of leave or more.
XPGk TIL LSD is non-addictive, is not known to cause brain damage, has extremely low toxicity relative to dose, there have been no documented deaths from an overdose, it is physiologically well tolerated and there is no evidence for long-lasting physiological effects on the brain or other organs.
nGlB TIL that as part of their training, 18 month old circus elephants are chained together and made to stand still for 23 hours a day
Zp5Nv TIL a Transient Lunar Phenomenon is a short-lived change in light, color or appearance on the surface of the Moon. Reports of transient lunar phenomena range from bright flashes to permanent changes of the lunar landscape.
awn5b TIL that at one point, Pepsi was the 6th largest military power in the world.