The next time you hear a politician use the words "billion" casually, think about whether you want that politician spending your tax dollars.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into
perspective:

A billion seconds ago, it was 1959.

A billion minutes ago, Jesus was alive.

A billion hours ago, our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate Washington spends it.  

While this is interesting and somewhat humorous, it is also a bit outdated.  A billion seconds ago, it was actually 1973.  A billion minutes ago, Jesus had been dead for only 69 years.  Either the ad agency screwed this up, which is very possible (believe me I know, as I'm in advertising) or else the stats were compiled many years ago (of course there is still a mistake there, becasue if it was done when the billion seconds ago was actually 1959, Jesus would still have been dead a billion minutes ago).  Damn, I have way too much free time.

no i feel like an ass, i just copied this and sent it to a friend and my facts are incorrect