
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 13, 1991                   TAG: 9104160439
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BRIEFLY PUT . . ./ OPEN BRIDGE, STARRY SKIES

ROANOKE motorists nodded knowingly when the First Street Bridge was closed "for three months" to raise its level. Everybody knows construction jobs take about twice as long as scheduled. But lo, this week the bridge was opened - after only six weeks. Who says America's in decline?

> IN THE debate over which are more numerous - stars in the sky or grains of sand on a beach - the "latest estimates," courtesy of Columbia University astrophysicist Neil D. Tyson, are that the stars win by about 1,000 to one. Well, he would say that. We'll suspend judgment till we hear from the sandologists. They're still counting.

Tyson's figures are interesting anyway. Grains of sand on the average beach, he says, are estimated at 1 quintillion, or 1 followed by 18 zeros. Stars of all known galaxies in the visible universe supposedly number at least 1 sextillion, or 1 followed by 21 zeros. Then we have the national debt . . . .

by CNB