How Not To Explain Things

I really don't know what to make of this poor attempt at describing the speed of a computer chip.  The analogy may be accurate, but it sure doesn't do much to help the average guy grasp the concept.  In a nutshell, this IBM engineer describes a chip that can execute 5 billion instructions per second like this:

"Hold your index finger out in front of your face. In less time than it would take a beam of light to travel from your knuckle to your fingertip, the new IBM chip would complete one task and start looking for the next."

Oh.  Of course.  Wow - it's faster than...the bird?

Let's face it, if you don't understand that 5 billion is a really big number, then your grasp of a fundamental physical constant isn't going to shed much light on the subject (pun most certainly intended).