Bill,

Happy to help here. Altho' lots of the Brit media seems sold on the US definition of a billion, properly in the UK,85,000,000,000 is eighty-five thousand million.

So that way, we don't get to a billion until a million million. A bit before that, we have e.g. 345,000,000,000 (three hundred and forty-five thousand million), etc.etc. Thus there's no race to get the kudos, sexiness, show-offness of "A    BIIIIIIILLIONNNNNN" unnecesssarily soon.

That way, a billion THEN has REAL bigness.

Ans 85 billion posts would be a real achievement. Calling a thousand million (1,000,000,000) a billion smacks of insecurity and excessive hurry.

   
    Ivor