How much is a billion...

Famous Republican Senator Everett Dirksen once remarked that, "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money." I was reading a book on the current financial crisis earlier today and the author pointed out how much a billion really is. He described it in this way:

-"One billion is a one followed by nine zeros, or 1,000 million."

-"One billion seconds ago, Leonid Brezhnev became leader of the Soviet Union, which was then at the height of its power."

-"One billion minutes ago, the Gospel of John was written."

-"One billion hours ago, language started evolving."

-"One billion dollars is what the stock market was losing every seventeen minutes in 2008 and what the federal government was spending on half an hour's worth of fighting that crisis."