On a building facade near Union Square in Manhattan is a large
electronic number display consisting of a long string of digits which
is constantly changing as if it is counting.  I believe the building
is on 14th street, near Broadway.  What is the significance of the
numbers?

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Request for Question Clarification by denco-ga on 30 Jan 2005 15:06 PST

Howdy ekgart-ga,

Would the numbers displayed on the left side of the following image be
the ones in question?  Thanks!

http://www.yaddo.org/yaddo/jpegs/Metronome_1/Gin&Jon-Metronomevi.jpg

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

I believe the sign you are refering to is a sign that is counting up
the national debt. It was off for a while but has recently been turned
back on and it is located at sixth ave. and 42nd street.

a link is found at: http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/business/3643411.htm

This was found by searching for national debt billboard in the google search engine.

This is actually a clock that reads both forwards and backwards

the first half of the clock tells you what time it is (how much of the
day has passed since midnight). The second half is how much time is
left in the day (read from right to left).

so if the clock says 0915220384414
This means that the time is 9:15 and 22 seconds
There is 14 hours, 44 minutes and 38 seconds left in the day

At midnight, the display will read 000000000000000

i thought both of those things for a long time until my astute
ex-girlfriend, pointed out that the thing does not actually count
down, nor up, if you read it left to right.

the answer that makes sense to me after stareing at it for a while:

digital Hour Glass.

the speed is obviously the fastest in the middle, and the numbers go
up and down at equal rates on the other sides.

watch it for a while, its neat.