› added 3 years ago

66

TIL in 1965 when Gatorade was invented at the University of Florida, the football coach wouldn't let researchers experiment on the varsity team and only allowed testing on freshman (who couldn't play varsity by NCAA rule). And those players described it as tasting like urine or toilet bowl cleaner.

Read more gainesville.com

via reddit.com

X0wXE TIL about Cash for Clunkers, which was a program designed to stimulate sales of new, fuel-efficient cars in the wake of the Great Recession, but was criticized for disrupting the used car market, and for scrapping exotic cars
R7ZY1 TIL the USSR tried to blackmail a gay US journalist with photos of him having sex with a Soviet spy, but he refused to cooperate and reported the incident to the CIA. When the Soviets sent the photos to prominent journalists, they all refused to out him.
JlLk TIL the two biggest private prison organizations in the US have clauses in their contracts that require the prisons to stay at least 90% full at all times.
VBQBk TIL more than 140 home runs have been "splash hits" since San Francisco's Oracle Park opened in 2000, 35 of those by Barry Bonds alone. At PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Josh Bell homered into the Allegheny twice in one month.
JYLZB TIL that the Looney Tunes were originally WB's answer to Disney's "Silly Symphony" and was much more musically-focused. Over time it became more focused on the characters and less about the music but kept the name.