National Debt Clock Overflowed, Extended By a Digit 696
hackingbear writes "The National Debt Counter, erected in 1989 when the US debt was 'merely' a tiny $2.7 trillion, has been moving so much that it recently ran out of digits to display the ballooning figure: $10,150,603,734,720, or roughly $10.2 trillion, as of Saturday afternoon. To accommodate the extra '1,' the clock was hacked: the '1' from "$10.2" has been moved left to the LCD square once occupied solely by the digital dollar sign. A non-digital, improvised dollar sign has been pasted next to the '1.' It will be replaced in 2009 with a new clock able to track debt up to a quadrillion dollars, which is a '1' followed by 15 zeros. That should be good enough for a few more months at least, I believe." Adds reader MarkusQ, "I know Dick Cheney has assured us that 'Deficits don't matter' but I can't help wondering if we should be fixing the problem rather than the sign."
Cheney is right.... (Score:5, Funny)
Signed Binary FTW (Score:5, Funny)
The largest bit became a one? It overflowed?
So now it's negative?
We're rich! So that's how we were going to pay for the bail-out, SS, medicare, medicaid...
Solutions (Score:4, Funny)
I think I understand now...eventually we're going to get to the point where no computer will be able to track how high the debt gets...and it will simply rollover and the US economy is back, baby!
Analog it (Score:4, Funny)
Why don't they just make it an analog clock? The hands could simply spin around faster and faster as the situation worsens, which would be much more amusing. The numbers are fairly meaningless anyway.
Re:Analog it (Score:5, Funny)
Why don't they just make it an analog clock? The hands could simply spin around faster and faster as the situation worsens, which would be much more amusing. The numbers are fairly meaningless anyway.
George W. Bush is that you?
he supports the terrorists (Score:5, Funny)
Adds reader MarkusQ, "I know Dick Cheney has assured us that 'Deficits don't matter' [CC] but I can't help wondering if we should be fixing the problem rather than the sign."
Why does this guy hate America so much?
Perfect Time (Score:5, Funny)
Now is the perfect time to convert to the decimal system!
National debt goes from $10.2 trillion to only $10.2 billion (10^6) without paying a single cent of it!
Re:he supports the terrorists (Score:5, Funny)
Who, Cheney? It does seem odd, he's certainly profited by the country's action.
Oh, wait.
Re:non-digital dollar sign (Score:5, Funny)
OMG the dollar sign is static... it's the end of the world!!!!
You're right. After the upcoming total economic collapse, we'll need the clock to be able to display the debt in terms of Chinese yuan or Euros. The current design does not allow for that.
What nonsense! (Score:4, Funny)
10,150,603,734,720.00 (decimal) = 93,B5F,213,EC0.00 (hex)
Whoever came up with the idea of buying a new LCD clock should be fired for wastefulness.
Re:Analog it (Score:5, Funny)
Great idea for a DIY fan!
According to how much the debt increased lately [treasurydirect.gov] if you wrote values from $0 to $10,000 around the frame of your fan, you'd need to make the fan run at about 1,300 - 1,500 rpm to represent the rate at which the debt is increasing.
Be careful though, on some days it can hit an average of 6,900 rpm (like on the 30th of October). That would suck if the public debt made your fan fly apart!
Re:What nonsense! (Score:4, Funny)
Just convert to hex
Better yet, convert to base 36, so we can use the entire alphabet. Every once in a while, the value displayed would spell out something interesting like HOLYSHITWEAREFUCKED.
Re:Cheney is right.... (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, but when the debters include China, where does that rule lead you?
Wondering if a Rottweiler can beat 100 angry weaner dogs?
Re:Clock can run in reverse. (Score:2, Funny)
That should be "it's". :)
Re:i give it two years (Score:5, Funny)
Sort of a Moore's Law for debt, eh?
Every 2 terms of republican presidency, the national debt increases by a factor of 10. :D
Incidentally, anyone know what 1989's $2.7 Trillion is in today's dollars?
Re:Analog it (Score:5, Funny)
George W. Bush is that you?
Must be. In the right part of his brain nothing is left and in the left part of his brain nothing is right!!!
Re:i give it two years (Score:5, Funny)
And when that (inevitably) threatens to overflow, do it in scientific notation. The Neocons and their supports won't understand it, and hopefully leave economic policy to people who don't think you can fix the economy by praying in public for lower gasoline prices.
Re:Exccept.... (Score:3, Funny)
push the on button, wait for the tutorial lady to tell you why there are 6 pedals when there are only 4 directions.
red button activates auto-fire sequence. Be sure to have some shovels ready.
Re:No need to replace it... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Signed Binary FTW (Score:5, Funny)
Bring back trans-fats!
Will you like to have fries with that? Lots of fries? Supersize? Add fried chicken?
And sir, smoking is encouraged in the chain smoking section
Thank you for being a Patriot! You have been nominated for the Black Lung and Fatty Heart awards.
We don't need no purple hearts here...
Re:What nonsense! (Score:5, Funny)
HOLYSHITWEAREFUCKED = $182,396,328,105,409,846,882,664,606,244.00
You certainly would be.
Re:Except.... (Score:5, Funny)
Better dead than red!
Not the SS... (Score:3, Funny)
You pay for the SS with "goods harvested" from the concentration camps.
Come on! Its Nazism 101.
Re:It's not that simple (Score:3, Funny)
Basically think: you want new shoes. So I send you my permit to raise your own pig, slaughter it yourself, tan its skin, and make your own gloves. Only now you have to pay me for the gloves.
You're right. If I wanted shoes and someone forced me to make gloves, instead, I'd be totally pissed.
Well... (Score:4, Funny)
It's important to have goals.
Re:Exccept.... (Score:3, Funny)
"Hi, it looks like you are trying to eliminate a target. Would you like me to:
a) Arm the weapons systems
b) Initialize the targeting system
c) Deploy ECM in case hostiles are nearby"
How do they spend like that? (Score:3, Funny)
That's odd. When I try spending more than what I have, my city improvements start disappearing.
Are these guys using cheats?