>>>I assume this one should be "billiard"... which would probably translate to "pool" here.
>>
>>Yea, even though billiard balls have no numbers on them
>
>And they play pool without checking whether the water in it is cold or not...
>
>And waterpolo is the most expensive sport, because so many horses drown.
>
>Kidding aside - my wife has a hunch that the "billion" came to mean 1e9 in the States when they had the first guy who had that much cash, and some reporter (or the guy him/herself) wanted a catchy word. Neither would be a candidate for good knowledge of world standards or literacy.

In Europe we use to say that everything is bigger in USA. This is a good example, not even Bill Gates would be a billionaire in Europe. :-)