# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 13, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674 "2020-04-13T03:19:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 390
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2023, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7791 "2023-10-17T22:43:29Z")
The Capitol lawn was mowed by a steam-powered lawnmower way back in 1903. The inventor of the Super Soaker was Lonnie Johnson. Who was also a NASA engineer who, as a systems engineer, worked on the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Mars Observer project. He was also part of the Cassini mission to Saturn, helping design the robot probe that traveled more than 900 million miles to our ringed neighbor. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2023, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7792 "2023-10-17T23:58:22Z")
Here the quote from Jeff Bridges: > We shot in 70mm and in black and white. The sets were all made of black duvetyne, a matt, light-blocking fabric, with white adhesive tape to make the lines. Our costumes were black and white, too. Being on set was the oddest feeling – your eyes would adjust to the black and white, then you’d go outside and the colour of the every day would zoom into your eyes. It was amazing. After we shot, the footage went to Korea where women hand-painted every frame. It was very primitive and very advanced all at the same time. > **[‘The helmet made my hair fall out’: Jeff Bridges on making cult sci-fi film Tron](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/oct/16/jeff-bridges-cult-sci-fi-tron-gibberish?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other)** > > ‘I was doing a western when I was given the script. I read it while sitting on a horse thinking: “What is this gibberish?”’ ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7793 "2023-10-18T00:39:44Z")
Here is one of the special effects supervisor saying much of the same thing. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Tm4i6D3XXBQ/maxresdefault.jpg "TRON - CGI making of (1982)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm4i6D3XXBQ) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7794 "2023-10-18T00:48:30Z")
[Jeff Bridges is wrong about where the colorization was done, though.](https://www.chinatimes.com/amp/newspapers/20101209000286-260202) Google translation from Chinese: > More than 500 people were involved in the post-production work of the film. The main part was outsourced to Hongguang Animation Company in Taipei County, which was called Cuckoo’s Nest Studio and later renamed Wang Films Production. Hongguang has about 200 artists responsible for the post-production of the film. inking and hand-painted coloring work; in the credits at the end of the film, these Taiwanese artists were listed with the English pinyin of their Chinese surnames on this list that Taiwan is proud of, which was unprecedented in the European and American film industry at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7795 "2023-10-18T01:13:30Z")
All the gold ever mined in the world could make a cube 22 m or 70 ft on each side. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7796 "2023-10-18T11:09:33Z")
I’ve seen this fact in various places for ages, and I still don’t get it. All the gold ever mined can fit in my house? I get it that mining, etc. result in very small amounts found. But it sounds crazy that if you just add up all the gold held by governments and monarchies, let alone private citizens, that it would only be that volume. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7797 "2023-10-18T12:13:54Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I learned that Banksy isn’t one person, but an entire art collective plus a bunch of lawyers who police what gets counted as Banksy and what doesn’t. Mr. Gunningham clearly has a bunch of assistants (e.g. his Disneyland parody couldn’t be built by one person), but I don’t see anything in that article that suggests he isn’t the head honcho. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7798 "2023-10-18T12:13:56Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > I’ve seen this fact in various places for ages, and I still don’t get it. All the gold ever mined can fit in my house? I get it that mining, etc. result in very small amounts found. But it sounds crazy that if you just add up all the gold held by governments and monarchies, let alone private citizens, that it would only be that volume. Gold is extremely dense - about 19 times as dense as water (iron is only about 8X as dense as water), so a cube 22m on a side weighs a lot: 446021612 pounds, or 7121382400 ounces. At the current price of $1900 per ounce, that’s about 13.5 trillion dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7799 "2023-10-18T12:48:27Z")
Gold is also very malleable; a little bit goes a long way. Gold platings tend to be _very_ thin. The gold is so thin that the cost of the gold in the plating process is often negligible compared to the other costs in the process. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7800 "2023-10-18T13:57:17Z")
And most ornamental gold and gold jewelry aren’t much more than 50% or 60% gold. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7801 "2023-10-18T14:30:32Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#): > > All the gold ever mined can fit in my house? Do you live in a castle? The volume of the average American house is about [25,000ft3](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2020.00037/full#:~:text=The%20average%20size%20of%20a,m3%20of%20building%20volume.). Where would you keep 343,000ft3 of gold? ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7802 "2023-10-18T16:37:26Z")
Mal-a-Lardo? DJT apartment? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7803 "2023-10-18T16:48:35Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Mr. Gunningham clearly has a bunch of assistants (e.g. his Disneyland parody couldn’t be built by one person), but I don’t see anything in that article that suggests he isn’t the head honcho. The thing that annoyed me the most about that article is that it implied creating art stencils is easy. I’m not even an artist and I know better. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7804 "2023-10-18T16:51:14Z")
TIL that there are about 4,000 species of bees that are native to the United States. And none of those 4,000 is the honeybee. It was brought over by European settlers in the 17th century. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7805 "2023-10-18T17:34:23Z")
The other fact I read about “all the gold that has been ever mined” is that it would all fit into two Olympic-sized swimming pools. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7806 "2023-10-18T18:25:54Z")
According to Wiki, “Only 8 surviving species of honey bee are recognized.” Wow. I thought it would be higher than that. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7807 "2023-10-18T18:39:10Z")
I…actually thought there was just one. ---
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7808 "2023-10-18T20:06:22Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > The other fact I read about “all the gold that has been ever mined” is that it would all fit into two Olympic-sized swimming pools. I heard it would fit under the bottom stage of the Eiffel Tower. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7809 "2023-10-18T21:46:24Z")
Jeff is reporting what he was told. He got the part about Korea wrong. As @Skywatcher has revealed it actually was work done in Taiwan. As far as the non-CGI special effects the guys in the video should know what they are talking about but the CGI story is more complicated. Jeff has the right idea, most of the ‘in-computer’ live action was shot in black and white and then hand colored rotoscope style, including the addition of effects like glowing auras. But the black and white was also done to make it easy to separate the filmed backgrounds and blend them with using old fashioned film matting techniques with backgrounds produced by computer or hand created. This would be done with green-screen video now, but the resolution of the technology at the time wasn’t good enough. The entire movie consisted of a live action real world portion filmed in color, the ‘in-computer’ portion shot in black and white and then colored, and something around 26 minutes of CGI. Most of that CGI around 20 minutes of was created by MAGI, along with a few other computer animation studios doing small bits. Those others had limited production capacity. The sequence showing Kevin Flynn going ‘in-computer’ has mostly been created previously and parts of it has shown up elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2023, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/7810 "2023-10-19T19:30:11Z")
Apparently, the Chesapeake & Ohio canal was never really completed. It goes from Georgetown in DC to Cumberland MD. But it was supposed to keep on going from Cumberland to Pittsburg PA. There was no reason to keep extending it since the railroad had been invented 8 years before they even got it to Cumberland. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=389) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674.md?page=391)