50 Random Facts List #67

'Tubular Bells' (famously used in, 'The Exorcist') is an album released in 1973 consisting of two complexes, twenty-plus minute instrumental compositions, both of which were written, played and recorded by a 19-year-old Mike Oldfield.

27. In 2004, Sega released the extremely well received NFL 2K5 for $19.99, beating EA’s Madden 2005 to the market by 3 weeks and at less than half the price. The success of 2K5 prompted EA to buy the exclusive right to make NFL video games which insured Madden would be the only console-based NFL game.

28. Smell hallucinations are called phantosmia and can be caused by infections, neurological damage, or epilepsy.

29. George Lucas hated the Star Wars Holiday Special so much he said, "If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it."

30. Avocados must be picked to ripen, can stay on the plant for 7 months as "storage", and take 13 months to grow a mature avocado.

1/3 of John F. Kennedy's secret service staff were hungover on the day of his assassination.

32. Over 14,000 high-resolution photos from Apollo missions 7 to 17 have been uploaded to Flickr by a group of enthusiasts, scanned from the original astronauts' camera film magazines.

33. Mary Jane Rathbun (also known as Brownie Mary) was an elderly hospital volunteer who became known for baking and distributing cannabis brownies to San Francisco AIDS patients in the 1980's.

34. George Lucas was one of the camera operators at the Rolling Stones' Altamont concert where a fan was stabbed to death.

35. Out of the 101 oldest people who have lived/are still living, 95 of them are female.

People knocked on wood to request good luck from mystical creatures they believed lived in the trees or to distract spirits with evil intentions.

37. The typical brain comprises about 2% of the body’s total weight but uses 20% of its total energy and oxygen intake.

38. In 2004, David Bowie had a heart attack on stage, paused for a minute then continued the show.

39. Ham, the first chimpanzee in space, was only given the name "Ham" after successfully completing his mission. He was known as Number 65 before that, as NASA believed that it would be bad publicity if a "named" chimp burned up in the atmosphere or otherwise died as a result of mission failure.

40. 30+ minutes of running, 5 days a week, has been linked to 9 years of less aging on the cellular level.

When Rupert Murdoch (then-owner of 20th Century Fox) was shown a rough cut of "Titanic" to appease him over how much money James Cameron was spending on the film, Murdoch said, "I can see why you like the movie, but it's no Air Force One."

42. Foo Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl is such a huge fan of UK rock band Killing Joke that he did all of the drummings on their self-titled 2003 album free of charge.

43. There is a math competition (William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition) for undergrad students that is so hard that in 2014 the median score was 1/120.

44. In 1946, a local chicken farmer offered 100 chicks for each homer the Nashua Dodgers hit. Newcomer Roy Campanella hit 14 in his first season and sent all 1,400 to his father who used them to start a thriving poultry farm. He also went on to become one of the first black major league players.

45. There's strong evidence that chewing gum improves working memory, episodic memory and speed of perception. Why this is the case is not understood.

Anthony Daniels (the actor who plays C3PO) is the 11th highest grossing actor of all time because he's been in every Star Wars movie.

47. Bass Reeves, the first black U.S. Deputy Marshal west of the Mississippi is credited with capturing over 3,000 outlaws, including his own son. He is also rumored to be the inspiration for the Lone Ranger.

48. Despite making dozens of recordings of his voice on wax cylinders, no known recordings of Mark Twain's voice are known to have survived.

49. Vince Gilligan wrote an episode of The X-files featuring Bryan Cranston, which ultimately lead to Cranston being cast as Walter White in Gilligan's "Breaking Bad".

50. For over 50 years, you could play tic-tac-toe against live chickens in New York City, and they seldom, if ever, lost.