What's a billion?

My dad sends me these great little nuggets once in a while and I was amazed at this one....

At the government’s current spending rate, a billion dollars was 8 hours and 20 minutes ago!

Remember that:
A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.


Another one:
According to 2005 data:

1. The top 1% of US population (3M people) took in 22.2% of ALL US income.

2. The bottom 50% of the population took in 12.8% of ALL US income.


Yikes!

PS I don't vet these things, so if it's wrong I didn't make it up and I didn't stop to count. But feel free to correct anything - I won't be offended.