I agree, maps distort perspective. It always makes me smile when I hear Europeans claim that Americans don't travel or experience different cultures. We do, but we just do it here. 🙂
The US is indeed massive - especially its cities - but those of us who live in the country truly appreciate the wide open spaces. Love to all from across the pond today and especially to Eric. Thanks for sharing, Diane! ✌️❤️
Laurence Brown of "Lost In The Pond" asked the question: Why don't Americans have passports? Part of the reason is the continental U.S. has enough varied regions to visit, that a national tour might take a very long time. Combine that with not having to use a passport to visit any part of the country, and everyone speaks the same language is an incentive to "stay in the lower 48."
Also it wasn’t until 9/11 that you needed passports to go to Canada or Mexico. Still you can get a passport card which is good for land & sea travel but not international air travel. Many Americans travel to cities close to the US border so a card works. Also many older Americans remember when US Citizens were targeted in foreign countries, so international travel seems like too big of a hassle when there is such diversity of travel inside the US jurisdiction
There's also what I like to think of as "the six hour rule"-you're less likely to visit someplace that takes more than six hours to get to by car/train/bus/pony trap. Most people don't live within six hours of the border with either Canada or Mexico. Hell, I can't even get out of my own state in six hours in a car unless I break the speed limit.
While Canada and Russia are technically larger in overall square mileage, large portions of those countries are completely uninhabitable. 90% of Canadians live within 150 miles of the US border. The northern parts are pretty barren.
That's true. The largest province in Canada by land size is Nunavut, but all of it is frozen tundra, and nearly the entire population is located in one town of around 3,000 people. Also, the state of Alaska in the USA if superimposed on a map of the continental USA (or as we call it, the lower 48 states), the primary northern and southern borders of Alaska would stretch from the Canadian border to Texas while the primary eastern and western borders would stretch from the western edge of the Appalachian mountains (around West Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama) to the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains (central Colorado, central New Mexico). The southern panhandle would stretch into Florida while the Aleutian Islands would stretch into the Pacific Coast.
Here are a few interesting bits of info in case anyone cares: The distance from Los Angeles to New York City is the equivalent distance of London, England to Bagdad, Iraq While Russia and Canada have much more land mass than the USA, the USA has vastly more habitable land mass. A sizable portion of both Canada and Russia classified as Frozen Tundra only the northern part of Alaska is classified a Frozen Tundra. Of the over 800 U.S. military installations around the world most of them are Surveillance/command and control posts, supply and logistics operations, and joint military installations with host countries meaning the U.S. has a MUCH smaller sovereign footprint around the world than the video leads people to believe. The U.S. Navy is the second largest air force in the world. With approximately 3,700 aircraft and second only to the U.S. Air Force. A lot of Europeans don't understand why Americans don't go abroad for vacation. This is because the out of the 8 major types of world biomes the U.S. has 6 of them. So pretty much anything you can do abroad you can do here in the U.S without a passport and with far cheaper travel costs.
And, yes, US citizens are very inward facing and ignorant of the outside world, and those who do travel are often viewed as arrogant and ignorant by the natives of for example European countries.
I'm from Arkansas. It is the smallest state west of the Mississippi River. Arkansas is almost exactly double the land area of Ireland. Ireland has just under twice the population, though.
@@chicken2jail The video said 83% of Americans live in cities. But, our census defines a city at around 50,000 people. But, I don't think someone from Europe would visualizes a "city" as just 50,000.
And of course New York City has more people by itself than all of Ireland, while New York State also has a county with the lowest population density of any county east of Texas in the United States. I'm quite confident that Arkansas has more sparsely populated counties than it, though. All of the big western states have very sparsely populated areas (with the possible exception of California, but I don't know).
I drove from Ohio to Las Vegas and I swear I drove through a corn field that lasted 24 hours. So much corn... All in all it took 3 days. I took a plane for every other trip after that.
@@rich7447 I can't say I would agree that crossing kansas or nebraska are nice drives. To be blunt, they're some of the most boring stretches of road in existence.
@@ColonelSandersLite The plains can get a little tedious. If you cross Kansas at night you get the flashing horizon from all the synchronized nav lights on the wind turbines.
Years ago, in Monterey California, I met up with a German couple who had arrived that day in San Francisco. Monterey is about 100 miles from SFO, and I asked where they planned to travel on their trip. They told me their plan -- drive to Denver in one day! I let them know Denver was 2,000 kilometers from Monterey -- they quickly revised their plan. What threw them off was map of the USA and Denver was seen as about 2/3 of the way from the East to the West coast. How long can the trip for the remaining 1/3rd be? Most Europeans can get comfortable with the distances between places on the US East Coast, but thinks get way out of European proportions when you go from Kansas City westward.
The city I grew up in was a half an hour east of the largest british military training base in the world. When I worked as a cab driver I would at least a few times a year have a soldier ask me to take them to see niagra falls which was a 29 hour non stop drive.
@@chipparmley I should have said that when I told them how far it was that they usually said take us to vegas, and when I told them that was a 20 hour trip they'd just tell me to take them to the nearest bar 5 minutes away. LOL
I had some friends from Belgium send me their travel itinerary for their visit to the U.S. They were going to land in L.A., see the sights, then drive to San Francisco for lunch, hang out for a few hours, then drive to Seattle for dinner with me. Later in the trip, they would drive from Portland to Boston one day, then drive down to Miami the next. I think my answering email was not warmly received.
They should have planned for an early breakfast in LA, sit stopped in traffic for several hours, then hopefully by noon drive past magic mountain planning a late dinner in San Francisco. Then the next morning getting up early and hopefully making the drive to Seattle by late the following day, as long as they get lucky going through Portland.
"Just behind? I think that might be a bit of an overstatement." Don't forget that China is a notorious currency manipulator over the decades, so it's hard to pin down if they are even that high value. (Though they certainly are the 2nd largest.)
I was pleasantly surprised on our trip to Ireland. Breakfast in Shannon, Lunch in Waterford, Dinner in Dublin. Can’t do that in the us without a private plane.
You can't do that in the US because those cities are not in the US. But you could easily have breakfast in Boston, lunch in New York, and dinner in Philadelphia.
In Ireland a tourist could rent a place to stay in the middle of the country and be able to visit a different part of the country each day and still return back to sleep in the same bed each night and not have to lug around luggage everywhere they go.
The best illustration of just how big the US really is happens to be from World War I. Some German POWs were sent stateside, loaded on a train, and sent off to the POW camps. And the train just kept traveling. To the point they started coming up with conspiracy theories, claiming that they were moving the train forward in the day and then going backward at night when everyone was asleep, the track ran in circles, etc. It was definitely a spirit breaker once the train just kept going and the scenery kept changing.
@@ALJ9000 Same. Though I'm sure it happened during WWII as well, and on an even more comical scale. Since I know for a fact several German POWs were housed near where I went to University. In Arizona. Meaning the ride would have been much, much, MUCH longer from wherever they arrived on the East coast.
Case in point: If the random number I found online is correct, and the widest distance between any two points on Germany's borders is 650km, that amounts to just under 404 miles. The distance from where they would have been sent to and where they wound up at that camp is guaranteed to be much larger than that. I don't know where specifically they would have arrived, especially since we just put them on returning Liberty Ships that would have otherwise returned empty. If we were to arbitrarily pick, say, Virginia, the distance would be five times larger at over 2000 miles. Measure Germany from North to South and it decreases to about 4 times as far (give or take a few miles).
A lot of Canada and Russia are almost uninhabitable due to being in or close to the arctic. For example, 90% of Canada's population lives within 100 miles/160 kilometres of the border with the USA. China has been exaggerating their GDP for decades.
The Chinese have exaggerated their size too trying to include 200 miles out to sea and parts of Mongolia they dispute as part of their country. Now they are messing with India over territory, if those two countries go to war with no nukes, get out the popcorn......
@@rich7447 interesting, though less surprising once you recognize that the southernmost point in the UK is still further north than any of the contiguous USA (i.e. excluding Alaska).
A lot of my European friends are blown away at the sheer size of the USA. When my cousins in Norway hear that a million acres burned in California, they just assume the entire state is gone and I have to reassure them that while it is bad, it is less than 1% of the total land area of California.
Today Diane tries to come to terms with some interesting geographic and economic facts and in the process wrestles with some mind boggling numbers. And we all know how much she loves numbers.
@@DianeJennings my favorite part was when Diane talked about Ireland's population of 7 million... *laughs in New York City* also, Houston, where I live has 4 million people, so the info on the video is a little off...
4:08 Keep in mind that this population of 4m for Los Angeles is just the city and not what most people think of. When the term "LA" is used, it is for the entire county, made up of many closely-grouped cities and the population is over 10m. California also has more people than the entire country of Canada.
Since it’s Friday… Paddy stops by the pub on the way home from the doctor. "What's the matter?" Seamus asks as he walks in. Paddy replies: "I haven't been feeling meself recently." "Good!" says Seamus. "That was a nasty little habit you had!" 🤣 sorry if it was a bit on the dirty side, but stay awesome Diane!
These things are all relevant. The US is NOT the only Super Power. China has taken military might that Russia also has. Other details make the US 'Not So Great'. But we are top five.
@@donovanfoto3263 wrong, the US is the only country that can go anywhere in the world, China is limited on projecting military power as for Russia LMAO 🤣
@@donovanfoto3263 While Russian and China are great powers, neither would be able to really harm the U.S. from a military standpoint unless they used nuclear weapons. The only places that they have a strong chance of taking is Alaska and Hawaii. If they managed to take Alaska, they'd have to go through Canada to get here. Unless they were able to take out our surveillance equipment, we'd be able to see them coming with enough time to launch a counter attack. Plus, with the amount of U.S. military bases around the world, we'd be able to hit them at home a lot quicker. On the off chance that Russia or China could land an army on the American mainland, it would pretty much be a wet dream come true (pun intended) for every gun-happy American. Basically, any invading force would have to just completely bomb the whole place to the ground before moving in.
Diane, I have long told people that the most deceptive book printed in the US was the Road Atlas... because every state, with the exception of Texas and California gets 1 full page, and Texas and California get 2 Pages. When you show folks from Rhode Island the Scale of Miles and they find out that there entire state wouldn't fully cover a square inch on either of the California Pages... the often think that you are lying to them!
I had to educate my 30 year old cousin (living in Washington state) that she was not correct in believing that Alaska was an island just above Hawaii....that's where it is on some maps.
This is actually one of the reasons behind the American quirk of measuring distance with time. For example "that's about 5 hours away". Because the US is so big it often makes more sense to say it that way.
It makes more sense to me to say it that way anywhere. It immediately gives people a better sense of how much time they need to set aside to travel there. The time it takes to drive or travel by any means could be vastly different depending on if there are highways available, so I just use time to describe distance even if I'm traveling overseas.
The sheer size of the country is one of the reasons that the founding fathers of the country put emphasis that states should have ultimate say on their own laws that govern the people who live in that area of the country. It's easier for people who live in the same general area to have the same ideas and opinions on the basic laws that govern them. Moving to a different state in the US can sometimes feel like moving to a different country just by being around people who have totally different views about government. That's why I feel that keeping federal government from overreaching too much into state's government is so important for the US to continue to be a free and fair and successful country.
I respect your opinion but completely disagree for nearly the same reasons you describe. Because of the diversity of cultures across such a vast area some states have developed horrible, highly objectionable views, and if the rest of the country agrees, that should be a reasonable indicator that they should be compelled to change. Think of school integration in the south; the military had to escort children to stop Alabamans from being aholes. We can talk about the variety of terrible ideas coming out of both California and Texas currently. I’m not picking a party but saying the other states can be like that good friend who tells you when it’s you & not everyone else. If such a wide variety of folks are like “that’s messed up”, then maybe it is, & the federal government can impose that perspective.
The country wasn't this size when the founding fathers were creating it. The history blind leading the geography blind ... it isn't amusing. You should both go sit down and let people who know what they're talking about have the floor. Your ignorance just makes you look stupid - with or without a youtube channel.
@@chemquests Yet every time the federal government makes sweeping changes across the board it has disenfranchised large swathes of the populace in both political camps. Quite frankly it just doesn’t work. Lifestyle and needs of people in Montana are completely different than those of people in NY for example. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just a fact of life. You can cherry pick specific examples from previous history if you’d like, but the current political climate isn’t the same as it was in those time periods. “American identity” is much more fractured and tribal than it previously was in recent times. Allowing states to do as they please tends to work out better historically, even in recent history. People in NY wanna do x while people in Texas wanna do Y, why force your will upon the other? Kansas doesn’t want legal marijuana for example, nor does Idaho, why force one’s personal beliefs upon those populace groups when you live across the continent from them and won’t regularly interact with them on a day to day basis? People can move if they REALLY want to, or change the politics within their region or legislature by getting involved. Federalism doesn’t work in a place as big and diverse as America is. It also makes 90% of states really not have equal say as the big 4 of California, NY, Texas, and Florida.
@@smspirate the country was designed well under the context of possible manifest destiny. Many of the signatories had previously fought and claimed territory from the natives, and were well aware of the other colonists sentiments towards them and the inevitable future. You really can’t actually think that they all thought America would permanently be east of the mississippi. Especially when Jefferson himself made the Louisiana purchase a few decades after establishment of the USA. By hook or by crook the USA was going to go coast to coast, many quite literally believed god willed it.
@@chemquests I absolutely agree with you. No state contains some special circumstance that should make the laws different than in any other state. If a law does not accommodate differences in weather or population, that is a failing of the law itself. There is no reason why crossing state lines should legally matter in a single country. I think the true issue is that the majority of the country does not actually get a say. We don't do anything by popular vote; we carve up areas at random and base the votes around that. In many, many cases we have rule by the minority opinion.
I love going on long road trips here in my little camper minivan (my "micro motorhome"), and it's surprising how long some simple trips can take. Heck, you can pass a whole day just driving across Texas! But I'd love driving around Ireland; I know it's really beautiful there, and so much history...!
I was born in Europe, but have lived most of my life in the US. As a kid, I learned a fairly good sense of how big or small European countries were because I was given the size of each country with a comparison of a US state of similar size. "France is slightly smaller than Texas," or "Ireland is about the size of South Carolina," would be how the information was presented to me.
I've learned so much about Ireland and Irish perspectives from watching your channel. I originally started watching when I was planning a vacation/house-hunting tour of Ireland because I thought my preferred drinking habits might be more acceptable there. I've been watching ever since. Carry on!
Awesome.. thanks for sharing all those stats with me. Road tripping in America is my favorite way to appreciate its grandeur. Maybe when you get your license?
If you appreciate Diane's work on her two channels, then you can help to raise her GDP by dropping something in the coffee can _(see the Description Box)_ or by way of the new SuperThanks feature _(the heart with the dollar sign icon above)._ Your generosity could erase any Irish curse that might be hovering nearby where you can't see it, and possibly bring an Irish blessing your way. Hey, you never know.
America is 3,531,837 square miles, and Ireland is 26,599 square miles. Yea, the USA is quite a bit bigger then Ireland, but I am very happy we are allies. :D
I often find myself wanting to comment on your posts. Over the years, I've learned that the best lessons in life are learned through the mistakes we make. Go on girl, make as many as you can !
its funny, i have a friend who lives in the uk, and he was always confused about how i refer to distances in time and rarely know miles, and even more rarely have a concept of km, until i overlaid a map, and showed him how the distance from mine to my parents house was the same as london to aberdeen lol and i think it made a bit more sense to him the way i reckon distance after that. edit: dont worry, none of us can comprehend the size either, i just moved about 1300km north(just over 800miles), and its an entirely different world, and absolutely lovely.
Here's a statistic I picked up a few decades ago, while watching a documentary called, 'The Irish in America', which is about the history of migration from Irieland to the US - 1/3 of all Americans is related to someone in Ireland, & everyone in Ireland is related to someone in the US. Not necessarily close relations, but related all the same.
I was kind of surprised how small Ireland was. It was crazy to us that we could easily drive from Malahide to Galway in a day. We just set out in the morning, and boom, ended up in Galway by 4PM. And we stopped several times along the way! We, in America are just used to the size.
You really feel how many people live here in the Chicago area when you're grocery shopping and you're in a big hurry to get through the check out line. It's the same when you try to drive somewhere in rush hour which is four hours long in the evening.
In Abilene, Texas, our it is possible to drive from any point within the city to any other point, within 20 minutes. That's including during "rush hour" or black Friday.
This is Great!! I get to see the absolutely Beautiful Diane AND watch an Infographics clip at the same time!! Can my day Get any better? ..probably not. Lolol
Hi Diane. I just subscribed to your channel. Enjoyed your How Big the USA Is. My forefathers immigrated from Ireland in 1820. Some day I hope to visit Ireland.
I'm nearly 30 years old, and still I've only seen 30/50 of the states in my own country. It takes half a lifetime to see the US if you are really trying.
Just looked it up and the drive from my hometown of Butte, MT to my current home in Portland, OR is 666 miles(metal) or 1,072 Km. That's the equivalent of a round trip from Cork to Belfast and back, a 10 hour trip, and we honestly don't even think twice about it save for maybe planning out a gas stop or bathroom break since most of that space is just open unused stretches of nothing. Makes me wanna visit Europe just to compare the density of the regions if nothing else.
I remember learning about World War II and thinking how far it must have been from Berlin to Paris only to find out when I got older that the distance is only about as much as going from Cleveland, Ohio to Memphis, Tennessee. About a half a day's drive.
I thought it would be more of a tourist vid. Just vastly different landscapes. Or culture diversity. Good vid reaction. One thing I'd like to add. Health care isn't as expensive as it seems. Being healthy isn't expensive at all. Other than my DOT physical, I haven't been to a doctor in 25 years. We are are not all obese, or diabetes.
First I'd like to thank Editor Diane for making the _"That's what she said!"_ joke so that I don't have to. 😎 But more seriously, I was surprised at some of the stuff that surprised you here. Like the "sole superpower" thing - though I suppose that probably seems like a bigger deal to some of us older folks.
@@DianeJennings Sort of? I guess? It signifies the relative ability of the USA to make its pleasure and displeasure felt around the world, which is... considerable. The term dates back to the Cold War, when the US and USSR were the two "superpowers" - meaning every other nation had to be a little bit careful of them, including each other. Still, the phrase "the world's only superpower" has been in common usage in discussions of international affairs ever since the fall of the USSR 30 years ago. At least it has been in the US!
@@Philistine47 No other country can project military power across the globe. Russia and China can project power regionally. Any place, thing, or person in any country at war with the US is in constant and possibly imminent danger of destruction. This includes high intensity (i.e. nuclear weapons hot), mid intensity (something like the Korean War), and low intensity conflict (Afghanistan etc). Most people (luckily) have no idea of the hell on earth the US can unleash even with Nukes cold. (Napalm sticks to kids!)
There are three useful properties of a map. Direction, distance, and area. No 2D map projection can accurately portray more than one of these. The Mercator projection gives accurate directions, which is useful for navigation (which is why it's the most used). There are other projections that give good representations of distance or area. Or better yet, buy a globe.
N K F D -- Such a shame that not nearly enough of us pause to consider that fact! I'm offended when citizens criticize how 'bad' things are here.... I really think they should take the time to travel abroad and make some first-hand observations before they make any kind of statement(s) like that. --I've only toured Mexico for a week and visited Canada for a day... but I think I got a fairly good glimpse of things to realize how darned lucky I am to be an American! 😃
@@chivalryalive Seriously? You think you can actually get a sense of a country as massive and regionally diverse as Canada in just one day? That's hilarious even more than it is ignorant.
@@terryomalley1974 That is not what I was trying to imply at all. I was merely mentioning the fact that I have, at least, visited the nation of Canada. I feel that I have a slightly better understanding of Mexico after I toured for one week. Although, come to think of it.... That only showed me the tourist attractions. -Only once did I walk away from my tour group. However, my father has done a bit of business in Mexico. He laughs and is disappointed.... But not surprised at the amount of corruption he was witness to in the government there.
Happy Friday Diane! You look amazing as always! Greetings to both you and your dog Chewie from Sacramento, CA. Say hi to Ed. Diane as well! Have a wonderful and safe weekend my lovely friend!
I love your videos. I love your reactions to America and its history. I guess I have the same interest in ireland. To bad we couldn't show each other around our countrys.
It's impossible to represent a spherical surface on a flat map without some kind of distortion. There are different ways of making a sphere lie flat. The most common way, called the Mercator projection, preserves direction but not size. So, for example, northeast on a Mercator map corresponds to northeast on the globe, no matter where you are. Because of this, it's useful for navigation. But a Mercator map makes things near the north and south poles look disproportionately large compared to things at the equator. Other projections, including Gall-Peters, Sinu-Mollweide, Hobo-Dyer, and Goode’s Homolosine preserve relative area but not direction. Canada and Russia are larger in area than the U.S., but large parts of those countries are almost uninhabitable. Russia has Siberia, and most of Canada is frozen tundra (although climate change may thaw a lot of it soon). There's a reason that most Canadians live within 100 miles of the border with the U.S. A much higher proportion of the U.S. is hospitable to life. The harshest areas in the U.S. are in Alaska and the southwestern deserts, but they don't make up a big proportion of the country. One interesting thing about the U.S. compared to most countries is that we don't really have a national police force. Most police forces are at the city and county level (for counties we usually call them sheriffs or sheriffs' deputies). The FBI is the closest thing the U.S. has to national police, but they usually only handle violations of federal law. Even serious crimes like murder are usually handled at the local level. Thanks for another fun video!
The police forces being divided up that way is frustrating at times…. If you need their help because you were a victim of a crime, you can’t just talk to any police officer, it has to be the police of the city where the crime occurred otherwise they won’t do anything to help you. I live in an area with a big city and a lot of suburb cities all mashed together and you can cross over into another city so quickly. So even if a police station is close, it may not be the right one to go to.
My favorite trip ever was flying into Dublin one morning driving up to Tubercurry (near Sligo) during the day and down to Limerick that night. Felt like I got to see quite a bit of Ireland that day too :)
I can’t find the reference but I remember reading something that said there were more people of Irish descent living in NYC than in Dublin, more Jews than live in Tel Aviv, more Italians than in Rome, etc. I’m going from memory so I could be off. I live in a small state and to drive from Cincinnati to Cleveland is about 220 miles. If I drove that distance out of Dublin, I’d hit water. Another great video.
I was going to object, but I looked it up first to be sure. Yep, Ohio is 34th largest state. {sniff} At least we're the 7th most populous state. Fun fact: the southwest part of Ohio has a climate classified as "sub tropical," and after a couple of summers here it's quite believable. Side note: air conditioning is considered a necessity during the summer, not a luxury.
Yes, there are more Jews in New York City proper than in Tel Aviv proper. But there are more Jews in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area than the greater New York City metropolitan area. I wonder how many people claim partial Irish ancestry in the New York metropolitan area the other 364 days of the year. (Isn't everyone Irish on St Patrick's Day?)
There's no "correct" way to map the surface of a globe onto a plane. Any way you do it will be "wrong" in some way. The most common mercator projection has the benefit that longitude lines are parallel, but greatly distorts the size along the vertical axis: the entire top edge of the map is the north pole and the entire bottom edge is the south pole, so things near the top and bottom will be stretched out horizontally.
"In Ireland the population is about 7 million, it might be a little bit more because people got really bored in lockdown" When the Irish began to immigrate to America they really took that " be fruitful and multiply" thing seriously! So the population of America is in part the fault of bored Irish people ☘ 🇮🇪 😆 🤣 😂
I think there's a statistic out there that says that the US is the largest Irish nation, not just 1st gen immigrants but also 2nd and 3rd full Irish I think
@@joyinthemorning44 I am a similar American mutt with Scottish, English, some Scots-Irish and European Spanish. Our bigger gene pool helps us be bigger and stronger physically than a lot of the population globally. A Swiss Italian speaking woman said the mixing makes the children taller and stronger and over all better looking.......well I won't disagree with that statement. LOL!
First video I have watched from you. Your timing doll! Holy hell. So good. Your sense of humor along with that timing, holy Jehovah (I'm not Jewish or a Witness in from California.. so nothing), spot on!
Diane, I was going to say that maps are flat and the earth is a globe, so a flat map is distorted, but I see someone else beat me to it. :-) Have a great weekend!
In British usage "billion" was "a million million" for a long time. They _officially_ switched over to the American usage of "a thousand million" almost 50 years ago now, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that colloquial speech still preserves the older usage.
Happy Friday Diane! There is a great episode of the West Wing about how the map we all know is wrong; pretty sure I've seen the clip here on YT. Have a great weekend! Cheers, salut, sláinte!
2:28 Mother Russia has like seven different time zones. Most of Canada is uninhabitable. That’s why one province is called Nunavut ( *Non Of It* is inhabitable.)
I had a bakery break in Dublin Oct 2019, mentioned to two workers I went to and from Galway the prior day and they commented was how long my trip was. I paused, said it wasn't far, then related that my niece and I drove DC to San Francisco, 2700 miles, 5 days at 60-70 mph, a few years earlier. They were floored. Then again, their only apparent experience was within Ireland, which was understandable. Then again, when I was trying to plan my 2019 Ireland trip, maybe going between cities by train, I kept bumping up against the fact that the trip would be short. I remember some Venezuelans, living in Philadelphia, PA saying they drove to Chicago, thinking it would only take 2 hours. The trip never seemed to end because they had overlayed their mental map of Venezuela on the entire US. That trip would take 12 hours by car. As for maps and country size, maps are made for specific purposes. I used to do some electronic environmental maping at the USEPA. So the Mercador map people commonly see is not really intended to oversize countries (as you go to the poles, which is an artifact) so much as to help navigation. I heard that if North Dakota left the USA, it would be a major super power, owing to all the SAC missle and air bases. But you'd have to double check.
I always like to road trip. From here in Pensacola, FL I can be in LA in 21/2 hours but if I go east I'm still in FL forever. It is fun watching your reactions..keep up the good work and happy Friday
Hey Salruth, sorry no disrespect but she is SO uneducated she will think that your designation of "LA" means Los Angeles, as opposed to what you really mean.... Louisiana! Having spent more than a little time in Pensacola and Escambia County, since my father and his side of the family hail from there, yes it's about a 2 and a half hour drive to the Louisiana line, but her lack of knowledge, in spite of her videos and claims, she most likely will draw the LA reference to again mean Los Angeles, and we both know that the drive time to Los Angeles from Pensacola is more than 2 and a half hours, even if Interstate 10 is in full operation all the way across.
The vast majority of Canada and Russia though is uninhabitable. So while those two countries are bigger, it doesn't matter. It is like someone declaring themselves the owner of Antarctica. Also, the 900K migrant count are the for LEGAL migrants (many of which do not stay as they are work visas). There are far more illegals that aren't counted every year that do stay in America.
It not about whether or not it is inhabitable it is about the actual geographic size. Sorry. Ali thee is uninhabited and uninhabitable very debatable most of Canada is the later but maybe if you mean a Standard European, settler North American standard of life.
Some estimates suggest that there are up to 20 million unregistered migrants. Though the number can be difficult to pin point. Could be much higher. Could be lower. I know there were tons of illegal immigrants in the area I grew up. It was significant enough that a good quarter of my friends would outright refuse to talk to the police for any reason out of fear they or their family members may be discovered as illegal immigrants.
Yeah there probably is a lot more illegal immigrants in this country then anybody knows. But that’s basically due to the fact that our politicians haven’t made laws that are common sense. It is too complicated and way too expensive to become a legal citizen of this country. So they would rather bitch back-and-forth about it and blame the people that are just trying to make their lives better.
Healthcare expenses is one of the leading reasons why people file for bankruptcy in the USA. The travel ban is being lifted on travel from Europe if you are vaccinated. Just saying. Have a great weekend Diane. X 😊
Indeed. I had to have surgery just recently after getting hit by a car and busting my hip. Even with medical insurance, I still ended up with a bill of about 7,000. Not including Ambulance or Medication. I feel like if it is something completely outside of your control, you shouldn't be held responsible for the costs.
The number one reason is people ignoring their hospital bills. People get overwhelmed and start letting the hospital bills stack up. Then allowing the hospital bills go to collections. By then it's too late. People should always start making small payments on hospital bills. Keeping their hospital account active. For my fathers cancer treatment, we paid $25 per month. As long as the hospital continues to cash the checks, they generally will not send the account to collections.
@@Dularr I was walking and a driver hit me from behind when he ran up on the sidewalk and sped off. Was never identified. As for who should foot the bill? Maybe the government like in the rest of the developed world.
@@jacobhires990 I was wondering if they couldn't find the driver. The bastard should have paid for your medial bills. Did you have any luck getting the hospital to write off balance?
I worked at a government agency in the Denver area that had a lot of guest workers from Europe. When I told them that the nearest big city was 8 hours away (Salt Lake City) they looked at me like I was from outer space!
Great video Diane. You are looking as lovely as ever. I watched someone else watch the video so it came as no surprise to me. I hope you have a great weekend and as always Stay Safe. BOOP
Putting some of the distances in perspective: Belfast to Cork is about 260 miles, roughly a 4-hour drive according to Google Maps. If you drove that same distance every day along Interstate 90 (the longest interstate highway in the US), it would take you over a week and a half to make it all the way from Seattle to Boston. Or if you picked I-10, it would take you 9 1/2 days to get from Los Angeles to Jacksonville ... and more than 3 days just to make it across Texas. Going north/south instead of east/west, it would take six days at that pace to get from Laredo (at the Texas/Mexico border) to Duluth, Minnesota on I-35, and you'd barely be out of Texas by the end of the second day's drive.
In your blooper segment, I blieve you were trying to get to the phrase "I would entreat you to..." However, defaulting to "...I would humbly request..." works too and is probably better for those who would've had to look up what "entreat" means.
Diane, is Eric on YT? I just looked for it, not there
Yes czcams.com/channels/ZkUwzOWjdEGQa8uQs5aM2A.html
@@DianeJennings Did you mean "implore you", at the end clip?
@@appropriateinput How about "Beseech"?
@@DianeJennings thankee kindly!
@@LindaC616 It is ! How are you doing beautiful
I agree, maps distort perspective. It always makes me smile when I hear Europeans claim that Americans don't travel or experience different cultures. We do, but we just do it here. 🙂
Even languages are varied. Besides English and Spanish we have Cajun, Bostonian, Texan, Valley Girl and others. 😉
@@mkshffr4936 Don't forget Pittsburghese.
Oh yah, a bunch of weird accents here in the states, dontcha know!
@@mikek0135 And some regions such as Appalachia and the gulf coast have very different vocabularies.
@@CaptainFrost32 Well Warsh my mouth out with soap. How could I forget. :D
The US is indeed massive - especially its cities - but those of us who live in the country truly appreciate the wide open spaces. Love to all from across the pond today and especially to Eric. Thanks for sharing, Diane! ✌️❤️
Thanks Joy!
Shadow of TEXAS can cover London to Milan, Paris to Prauge
Montana has such wide open spaces, and so few people...
Yes. Don't get any ideas. I like my ninety mile away neighbors
@@chriscarroll6253 HAHAHA - me too, Chris! 😁
Laurence Brown of "Lost In The Pond" asked the question: Why don't Americans have passports? Part of the reason is the continental U.S. has enough varied regions to visit, that a national tour might take a very long time. Combine that with not having to use a passport to visit any part of the country, and everyone speaks the same language is an incentive to "stay in the lower 48."
Also it wasn’t until 9/11 that you needed passports to go to Canada or Mexico. Still you can get a passport card which is good for land & sea travel but not international air travel. Many Americans travel to cities close to the US border so a card works. Also many older Americans remember when US Citizens were targeted in foreign countries, so international travel seems like too big of a hassle when there is such diversity of travel inside the US jurisdiction
There's also what I like to think of as "the six hour rule"-you're less likely to visit someplace that takes more than six hours to get to by car/train/bus/pony trap. Most people don't live within six hours of the border with either Canada or Mexico. Hell, I can't even get out of my own state in six hours in a car unless I break the speed limit.
Plus Puerto Rico etc
@@almostfm You're obviously not American if you worry about breaking the speed limit.
I love watching Laurence. One of the best vloggers out there!
While Canada and Russia are technically larger in overall square mileage, large portions of those countries are completely uninhabitable. 90% of Canadians live within 150 miles of the US border. The northern parts are pretty barren.
Interesting
That's true. The largest province in Canada by land size is Nunavut, but all of it is frozen tundra, and nearly the entire population is located in one town of around 3,000 people. Also, the state of Alaska in the USA if superimposed on a map of the continental USA (or as we call it, the lower 48 states), the primary northern and southern borders of Alaska would stretch from the Canadian border to Texas while the primary eastern and western borders would stretch from the western edge of the Appalachian mountains (around West Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama) to the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains (central Colorado, central New Mexico). The southern panhandle would stretch into Florida while the Aleutian Islands would stretch into the Pacific Coast.
@@728huey Nunavut isn't a province. It's a territory.
@@LiqdPT And a relatively young one; only 22 years
@@tconlon251 correct. It was part of the NWT when I was in school
I was so biting my tongue with a "that's what she said" comment, so I was so glad that Editor Diane came through for us all!
Here are a few interesting bits of info in case anyone cares:
The distance from Los Angeles to New York City is the equivalent distance of London, England to Bagdad, Iraq
While Russia and Canada have much more land mass than the USA, the USA has vastly more habitable land mass. A sizable portion of both Canada and Russia classified as Frozen Tundra only the northern part of Alaska is classified a Frozen Tundra.
Of the over 800 U.S. military installations around the world most of them are Surveillance/command and control posts, supply and logistics operations, and joint military installations with host countries meaning the U.S. has a MUCH smaller sovereign footprint around the world than the video leads people to believe.
The U.S. Navy is the second largest air force in the world. With approximately 3,700 aircraft and second only to the U.S. Air Force.
A lot of Europeans don't understand why Americans don't go abroad for vacation. This is because the out of the 8 major types of world biomes the U.S. has 6 of them. So pretty much anything you can do abroad you can do here in the U.S without a passport and with far cheaper travel costs.
Yet, the same distance is equals the distance from Dakar to Adjop in Tsjad...
And, yes, US citizens are very inward facing and ignorant of the outside world, and those who do travel are often viewed as arrogant and ignorant by the natives of for example European countries.
God bless the USA 🇺🇸🤘
America is amazing. God bless America, and Texas
Russia laughs at how small America is.😁
"Cause people got really bored on lockdown" is the best line ever. And super true.
Not really In the US the birth rate went down
I'm from Arkansas. It is the smallest state west of the Mississippi River. Arkansas is almost exactly double the land area of Ireland. Ireland has just under twice the population, though.
Wow! That puts some perspective on it!
But our largest city, Little Rock, only has around 200,000 people.
@@chicken2jail The video said 83% of Americans live in cities. But, our census defines a city at around 50,000 people. But, I don't think someone from Europe would visualizes a "city" as just 50,000.
And of course New York City has more people by itself than all of Ireland, while New York State also has a county with the lowest population density of any county east of Texas in the United States. I'm quite confident that Arkansas has more sparsely populated counties than it, though. All of the big western states have very sparsely populated areas (with the possible exception of California, but I don't know).
@@kathyp1563 Technically I live in a city, but we are in a part where the minimum lot size if 2 acres and there is no municipal water or sewer.
I drove from Ohio to Las Vegas and I swear I drove through a corn field that lasted 24 hours. So much corn... All in all it took 3 days. I took a plane for every other trip after that.
There's a cattle ranch in Texas (King Ranch) that is actually larger than some states.
That's a nice drive once you get west of the Mississippi. The winds on the plains can be a little crazy though.
@@rich7447 I can't say I would agree that crossing kansas or nebraska are nice drives. To be blunt, they're some of the most boring stretches of road in existence.
@@ColonelSandersLite The plains can get a little tedious. If you cross Kansas at night you get the flashing horizon from all the synchronized nav lights on the wind turbines.
Years ago, in Monterey California, I met up with a German couple who had arrived that day in San Francisco. Monterey is about 100 miles from SFO, and I asked where they planned to travel on their trip. They told me their plan -- drive to Denver in one day! I let them know Denver was 2,000 kilometers from Monterey -- they quickly revised their plan. What threw them off was map of the USA and Denver was seen as about 2/3 of the way from the East to the West coast. How long can the trip for the remaining 1/3rd be?
Most Europeans can get comfortable with the distances between places on the US East Coast, but thinks get way out of European proportions when you go from Kansas City westward.
Russians being the exception to this distance rule.
The city I grew up in was a half an hour east of the largest british military training base in the world. When I worked as a cab driver I would at least a few times a year have a soldier ask me to take them to see niagra falls which was a 29 hour non stop drive.
@@claytonberg721 wow!
@@chipparmley I should have said that when I told them how far it was that they usually said take us to vegas, and when I told them that was a 20 hour trip they'd just tell me to take them to the nearest bar 5 minutes away. LOL
@@claytonberg721 😂
I had some friends from Belgium send me their travel itinerary for their visit to the U.S. They were going to land in L.A., see the sights, then drive to San Francisco for lunch, hang out for a few hours, then drive to Seattle for dinner with me. Later in the trip, they would drive from Portland to Boston one day, then drive down to Miami the next.
I think my answering email was not warmly received.
Completely reasonable itinerary if by “drive” you mean “fly my private jet.” Kinda pricey though.
Yeah...whoever did their planning should probably let someone else do it 😂
They should have planned for an early breakfast in LA, sit stopped in traffic for several hours, then hopefully by noon drive past magic mountain planning a late dinner in San Francisco. Then the next morning getting up early and hopefully making the drive to Seattle by late the following day, as long as they get lucky going through Portland.
Love Editor Diane. Always makes me smile with the cut ins.
That is what she said.
"Just behind? I think that might be a bit of an overstatement." Don't forget that China is a notorious currency manipulator over the decades, so it's hard to pin down if they are even that high value. (Though they certainly are the 2nd largest.)
I was pleasantly surprised on our trip to Ireland. Breakfast in Shannon, Lunch in Waterford, Dinner in Dublin. Can’t do that in the us without a private plane.
Oh easily!!
You can't do that in the US because those cities are not in the US. But you could easily have breakfast in Boston, lunch in New York, and dinner in Philadelphia.
@@michaelsommers2356 I was referring to having the meals on the east coast, west coast and south coast.
In Ireland a tourist could rent a place to stay in the middle of the country and be able to visit a different part of the country each day and still return back to sleep in the same bed each night and not have to lug around luggage everywhere they go.
@@michaelsommers2356 If you drive like me I can have breakfast in Virginia, lunch in South Carolina and dinner in South Georgia or Northern Florida.
The best illustration of just how big the US really is happens to be from World War I. Some German POWs were sent stateside, loaded on a train, and sent off to the POW camps.
And the train just kept traveling. To the point they started coming up with conspiracy theories, claiming that they were moving the train forward in the day and then going backward at night when everyone was asleep, the track ran in circles, etc.
It was definitely a spirit breaker once the train just kept going and the scenery kept changing.
Man, I wish I could’ve seen their reactions
@@ALJ9000 Same. Though I'm sure it happened during WWII as well, and on an even more comical scale.
Since I know for a fact several German POWs were housed near where I went to University. In Arizona.
Meaning the ride would have been much, much, MUCH longer from wherever they arrived on the East coast.
Case in point: If the random number I found online is correct, and the widest distance between any two points on Germany's borders is 650km, that amounts to just under 404 miles.
The distance from where they would have been sent to and where they wound up at that camp is guaranteed to be much larger than that. I don't know where specifically they would have arrived, especially since we just put them on returning Liberty Ships that would have otherwise returned empty.
If we were to arbitrarily pick, say, Virginia, the distance would be five times larger at over 2000 miles. Measure Germany from North to South and it decreases to about 4 times as far (give or take a few miles).
A lot of Canada and Russia are almost uninhabitable due to being in or close to the arctic. For example, 90% of Canada's population lives within 100 miles/160 kilometres of the border with the USA.
China has been exaggerating their GDP for decades.
And interestingly more US people live north of Canada’s southernmost point than there are Canadians.
The Chinese have exaggerated their size too trying to include 200 miles out to sea and parts of Mongolia they dispute as part of their country. Now they are messing with India over territory, if those two countries go to war with no nukes, get out the popcorn......
@@AdamNisbett Also, 70% of Canadians live south of the most southern point of the UK.
@@rich7447 interesting, though less surprising once you recognize that the southernmost point in the UK is still further north than any of the contiguous USA (i.e. excluding Alaska).
@@AdamNisbett Exactly, yet northern states get weather that is far more harsh than most of Europe.
A lot of my European friends are blown away at the sheer size of the USA. When my cousins in Norway hear that a million acres burned in California, they just assume the entire state is gone and I have to reassure them that while it is bad, it is less than 1% of the total land area of California.
Today Diane tries to come to terms with some interesting geographic and economic facts and in the process wrestles with some mind boggling numbers. And we all know how much she loves numbers.
*Diane did not love numbers* 😂
@@DianeJennings ED does not love numbers either. ;)
@@DianeJennings my favorite part was when Diane talked about Ireland's population of 7 million...
*laughs in New York City*
also, Houston, where I live has 4 million people, so the info on the video is a little off...
@@DianeJennings Don't worry. Lots of those numbers are wrong anyway...
4:08 Keep in mind that this population of 4m for Los Angeles is just the city and not what most people think of. When the term "LA" is used, it is for the entire county, made up of many closely-grouped cities and the population is over 10m. California also has more people than the entire country of Canada.
Since it’s Friday…
Paddy stops by the pub on the way home from the doctor.
"What's the matter?" Seamus asks as he walks in.
Paddy replies: "I haven't been feeling meself recently."
"Good!" says Seamus. "That was a nasty little habit you had!"
🤣 sorry if it was a bit on the dirty side, but stay awesome Diane!
A bit 🤭
These things are all relevant. The US is NOT the only Super Power. China has taken military might that Russia also has. Other details make the US 'Not So Great'. But we are top five.
@@donovanfoto3263 wrong, the US is the only country that can go anywhere in the world, China is limited on projecting military power as for Russia LMAO 🤣
@@donovanfoto3263 Russia and China are regional powers, or superpowers if you want, but neither is a global superpower.
@@donovanfoto3263 While Russian and China are great powers, neither would be able to really harm the U.S. from a military standpoint unless they used nuclear weapons. The only places that they have a strong chance of taking is Alaska and Hawaii. If they managed to take Alaska, they'd have to go through Canada to get here. Unless they were able to take out our surveillance equipment, we'd be able to see them coming with enough time to launch a counter attack. Plus, with the amount of U.S. military bases around the world, we'd be able to hit them at home a lot quicker. On the off chance that Russia or China could land an army on the American mainland, it would pretty much be a wet dream come true (pun intended) for every gun-happy American. Basically, any invading force would have to just completely bomb the whole place to the ground before moving in.
Diane, I have long told people that the most deceptive book printed in the US was the Road Atlas... because every state, with the exception of Texas and California gets 1 full page,
and Texas and California get 2 Pages.
When you show folks from Rhode Island the Scale of Miles and they find out that there entire state wouldn't fully cover a square inch on either of the California Pages...
the often think that you are lying to them!
Happy Friday! I always love your videos on America. Have safe and very happy weekend.
I had to educate my 30 year old cousin (living in Washington state) that she was not correct in believing that Alaska was an island just above Hawaii....that's where it is on some maps.
This is actually one of the reasons behind the American quirk of measuring distance with time. For example "that's about 5 hours away". Because the US is so big it often makes more sense to say it that way.
It makes more sense to me to say it that way anywhere. It immediately gives people a better sense of how much time they need to set aside to travel there. The time it takes to drive or travel by any means could be vastly different depending on if there are highways available, so I just use time to describe distance even if I'm traveling overseas.
The U.S. is big but small towns are the best!
Thanks for the video. Hope you have a safe and great weekend!! ❤️U☘️🇮🇪🇺🇸
Thanks you too
I like small towns with lots of space between them.
Don’t everyone wants to live in a small town ,too many people in your business
Maps are flat. The globe is 3D. To fit a 3D globe on a 2D map, distortion is necessary.
Yes
I want to watch this comment thread to see whether any of Diane’s viewers try to argue about this. Certain people online like to argue this topic. LOL
@@Tux.Penguin Ditto!!
What is this 3D globe you speak of? The earth is flat, right?
@@razzberrylogic "And that, my liege, is how we know the earth to be banana-shaped."
I actually learned this while doing a report on Ireland, just the state of Mississippi is a bit larger than all of Ireland.
Thank you for the new information Diane.
The sheer size of the country is one of the reasons that the founding fathers of the country put emphasis that states should have ultimate say on their own laws that govern the people who live in that area of the country. It's easier for people who live in the same general area to have the same ideas and opinions on the basic laws that govern them. Moving to a different state in the US can sometimes feel like moving to a different country just by being around people who have totally different views about government. That's why I feel that keeping federal government from overreaching too much into state's government is so important for the US to continue to be a free and fair and successful country.
I respect your opinion but completely disagree for nearly the same reasons you describe. Because of the diversity of cultures across such a vast area some states have developed horrible, highly objectionable views, and if the rest of the country agrees, that should be a reasonable indicator that they should be compelled to change. Think of school integration in the south; the military had to escort children to stop Alabamans from being aholes. We can talk about the variety of terrible ideas coming out of both California and Texas currently. I’m not picking a party but saying the other states can be like that good friend who tells you when it’s you & not everyone else. If such a wide variety of folks are like “that’s messed up”, then maybe it is, & the federal government can impose that perspective.
The country wasn't this size when the founding fathers were creating it. The history blind leading the geography blind ... it isn't amusing. You should both go sit down and let people who know what they're talking about have the floor. Your ignorance just makes you look stupid - with or without a youtube channel.
@@chemquests Yet every time the federal government makes sweeping changes across the board it has disenfranchised large swathes of the populace in both political camps. Quite frankly it just doesn’t work. Lifestyle and needs of people in Montana are completely different than those of people in NY for example. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just a fact of life. You can cherry pick specific examples from previous history if you’d like, but the current political climate isn’t the same as it was in those time periods. “American identity” is much more fractured and tribal than it previously was in recent times. Allowing states to do as they please tends to work out better historically, even in recent history. People in NY wanna do x while people in Texas wanna do Y, why force your will upon the other? Kansas doesn’t want legal marijuana for example, nor does Idaho, why force one’s personal beliefs upon those populace groups when you live across the continent from them and won’t regularly interact with them on a day to day basis? People can move if they REALLY want to, or change the politics within their region or legislature by getting involved. Federalism doesn’t work in a place as big and diverse as America is. It also makes 90% of states really not have equal say as the big 4 of California, NY, Texas, and Florida.
@@smspirate the country was designed well under the context of possible manifest destiny. Many of the signatories had previously fought and claimed territory from the natives, and were well aware of the other colonists sentiments towards them and the inevitable future. You really can’t actually think that they all thought America would permanently be east of the mississippi. Especially when Jefferson himself made the Louisiana purchase a few decades after establishment of the USA. By hook or by crook the USA was going to go coast to coast, many quite literally believed god willed it.
@@chemquests I absolutely agree with you. No state contains some special circumstance that should make the laws different than in any other state. If a law does not accommodate differences in weather or population, that is a failing of the law itself. There is no reason why crossing state lines should legally matter in a single country.
I think the true issue is that the majority of the country does not actually get a say. We don't do anything by popular vote; we carve up areas at random and base the votes around that. In many, many cases we have rule by the minority opinion.
I love going on long road trips here in my little camper minivan (my "micro motorhome"), and it's surprising how long some simple trips can take. Heck, you can pass a whole day just driving across Texas! But I'd love driving around Ireland; I know it's really beautiful there, and so much history...!
Hi, just checked out Eric's channel- how perfect! Really is all about the story. Thanks for letting us know!!
Thank you for the shout-out to Eric, i'm watching his videos now. That was very kind of you
I was born in Europe, but have lived most of my life in the US. As a kid, I learned a fairly good sense of how big or small European countries were because I was given the size of each country with a comparison of a US state of similar size. "France is slightly smaller than Texas," or "Ireland is about the size of South Carolina," would be how the information was presented to me.
love your channel!! keep it up!! much love from Texas!!
I've learned so much about Ireland and Irish perspectives from watching your channel. I originally started watching when I was planning a vacation/house-hunting tour of Ireland because I thought my preferred drinking habits might be more acceptable there. I've been watching ever since. Carry on!
Awesome.. thanks for sharing all those stats with me. Road tripping in America is my favorite way to appreciate its grandeur. Maybe when you get your license?
If I could bring Chewie…
Kimberly, I must say I love your choice of photo. My very favorite SpongeBob character! 🥰
@@joyc4467 hey, thanks so much. You don't often get the total package in evil .. inept and unicellular XD
@@DianeJennings understandable
@@glueball214 😂 Yes! The epitome of evil ineptitude! If they cast SpongeBob as the new James Bond, they have a built in Dr. Evil 😈
If you appreciate Diane's work on her two channels, then you can help to raise her GDP by dropping something in the coffee can _(see the Description Box)_ or by way of the new SuperThanks feature _(the heart with the dollar sign icon above)._ Your generosity could erase any Irish curse that might be hovering nearby where you can't see it, and possibly bring an Irish blessing your way. Hey, you never know.
Thanks Lawrence!!
Really enjoyed the video. Have a great weekend.
Editor Diane made me bust a gut laughing. Thank you for that.
First!!! Hi Diane, love your channel and content! Give chewie and editor Diane a hug and definitely sending you hugs and have a great weekend 💚🇮🇪✌🏼
Thank you so much Daniel!
America is 3,531,837 square miles, and Ireland is 26,599 square miles. Yea, the USA is quite a bit bigger then Ireland, but I am very happy we are allies. :D
Me too
That means the US is about 132 times the size of Ireland.
Ireland is 32,600 sq miles in area. Your figure is for the Republic of Ireland.
Thanks for the reaction video Diane. :)
I often find myself wanting to comment on your posts. Over the years, I've learned that the best lessons in life are learned through the mistakes we make. Go on girl, make as many as you can !
We’re learning and growing together!
We are!
@@DianeJennings THAT'S WHAT YOU SAID!!!
BUT THINK ABOUT IT LIKE THIS.... THAT'S MORE CONCUBINES OF EDITOR DIANE
its funny, i have a friend who lives in the uk, and he was always confused about how i refer to distances in time and rarely know miles, and even more rarely have a concept of km, until i overlaid a map, and showed him how the distance from mine to my parents house was the same as london to aberdeen lol and i think it made a bit more sense to him the way i reckon distance after that.
edit: dont worry, none of us can comprehend the size either, i just moved about 1300km north(just over 800miles), and its an entirely different world, and absolutely lovely.
Thank you…very informative…much abliged!
Here's a statistic I picked up a few decades ago, while watching a documentary called, 'The Irish in America', which is about the history of migration from Irieland to the US - 1/3 of all Americans is related to someone in Ireland, & everyone in Ireland is related to someone in the US. Not necessarily close relations, but related all the same.
I was kind of surprised how small Ireland was. It was crazy to us that we could easily drive from Malahide to Galway in a day. We just set out in the morning, and boom, ended up in Galway by 4PM. And we stopped several times along the way! We, in America are just used to the size.
You really feel how many people live here in the Chicago area when you're grocery shopping and you're in a big hurry to get through the check out line. It's the same when you try to drive somewhere in rush hour which is four hours long in the evening.
In Abilene, Texas, our it is possible to drive from any point within the city to any other point, within 20 minutes. That's including during "rush hour" or black Friday.
This is Great!!
I get to see the absolutely Beautiful Diane AND watch an Infographics clip at the same time!! Can my day Get any better? ..probably not. Lolol
Hi Diane. I just subscribed to your channel. Enjoyed your How Big the USA Is. My forefathers immigrated from Ireland in 1820. Some day I hope to visit Ireland.
I thought size didn't matter?
lol, great job Diane!
Loads of love from Ireland 🇮🇪❤️
Aww hello home!!
I'm nearly 30 years old, and still I've only seen 30/50 of the states in my own country. It takes half a lifetime to see the US if you are really trying.
Gotta say it again i love your channel.
Just looked it up and the drive from my hometown of Butte, MT to my current home in Portland, OR is 666 miles(metal) or 1,072 Km. That's the equivalent of a round trip from Cork to Belfast and back, a 10 hour trip, and we honestly don't even think twice about it save for maybe planning out a gas stop or bathroom break since most of that space is just open unused stretches of nothing. Makes me wanna visit Europe just to compare the density of the regions if nothing else.
A friend in Europe was very surprised I took a 3 hour road trip just to hand out with a friend, the come home that same night.
Jeremy how far is it from Portland ore to plains montana?
@@oldfogey4679 about 507 miles
I remember learning about World War II and thinking how far it must have been from Berlin to Paris only to find out when I got older that the distance is only about as much as going from Cleveland, Ohio to Memphis, Tennessee. About a half a day's drive.
Okay, your sense of humor is amazing, loved the clip that's what she said. Made me laugh out loud and that rarely happens watching a video.
your dorky side is so cute... so adorable :)
I thought it would be more of a tourist vid. Just vastly different landscapes. Or culture diversity. Good vid reaction. One thing I'd like to add. Health care isn't as expensive as it seems. Being healthy isn't expensive at all. Other than my DOT physical, I haven't been to a doctor in 25 years. We are are not all obese, or diabetes.
So true Not everyone is the US is unhealthy
First I'd like to thank Editor Diane for making the _"That's what she said!"_ joke so that I don't have to. 😎
But more seriously, I was surprised at some of the stuff that surprised you here. Like the "sole superpower" thing - though I suppose that probably seems like a bigger deal to some of us older folks.
It seems like an unquantifiable statement to me?
@@DianeJennings Sort of? I guess? It signifies the relative ability of the USA to make its pleasure and displeasure felt around the world, which is... considerable. The term dates back to the Cold War, when the US and USSR were the two "superpowers" - meaning every other nation had to be a little bit careful of them, including each other.
Still, the phrase "the world's only superpower" has been in common usage in discussions of international affairs ever since the fall of the USSR 30 years ago. At least it has been in the US!
@@Philistine47 No other country can project military power across the globe. Russia and China can project power regionally. Any place, thing, or person in any country at war with the US is in constant and possibly imminent danger of destruction. This includes high intensity (i.e. nuclear weapons hot), mid intensity (something like the Korean War), and low intensity conflict (Afghanistan etc). Most people (luckily) have no idea of the hell on earth the US can unleash even with Nukes cold. (Napalm sticks to kids!)
Yeah, we kinda got that big thing down pat over here in the US of A. Great craic! Another entertaining and informative video from my favorite CZcamsr!
I'm from Alaska. One time my family and I flew 7,223 Km to vacation in Miami, Florida.
There are three useful properties of a map. Direction, distance, and area. No 2D map projection can accurately portray more than one of these. The Mercator projection gives accurate directions, which is useful for navigation (which is why it's the most used).
There are other projections that give good representations of distance or area. Or better yet, buy a globe.
It is very big. We in North America are very blessed to have such a wonderful country :)
N K F D -- Such a shame that not nearly enough of us pause to consider that fact! I'm offended when citizens criticize how 'bad' things are here.... I really think they should take the time to travel abroad and make some first-hand observations before they make any kind of statement(s) like that. --I've only toured Mexico for a week and visited Canada for a day... but I think I got a fairly good glimpse of things to realize how darned lucky I am to be an American! 😃
@@chivalryalive Seriously? You think you can actually get a sense of a country as massive and regionally diverse as Canada in just one day? That's hilarious even more than it is ignorant.
@@terryomalley1974 That is not what I was trying to imply at all. I was merely mentioning the fact that I have, at least, visited the nation of Canada. I feel that I have a slightly better understanding of Mexico after I toured for one week. Although, come to think of it.... That only showed me the tourist attractions. -Only once did I walk away from my tour group. However, my father has done a bit of business in Mexico. He laughs and is disappointed.... But not surprised at the amount of corruption he was witness to in the government there.
We in the US are blessed to have a wonderful country. Canada is ok.
@@LJBSullivan Canada is way more than ok, it's the best country in the world. The US is not bad.
Happy Friday Diane! You look amazing as always! Greetings to both you and your dog Chewie from Sacramento, CA. Say hi to Ed. Diane as well! Have a wonderful and safe weekend my lovely friend!
I love your videos. I love your reactions to America and its history. I guess I have the same interest in ireland. To bad we couldn't show each other around our countrys.
It's impossible to represent a spherical surface on a flat map without some kind of distortion. There are different ways of making a sphere lie flat. The most common way, called the Mercator projection, preserves direction but not size. So, for example, northeast on a Mercator map corresponds to northeast on the globe, no matter where you are. Because of this, it's useful for navigation. But a Mercator map makes things near the north and south poles look disproportionately large compared to things at the equator. Other projections, including Gall-Peters, Sinu-Mollweide, Hobo-Dyer, and Goode’s Homolosine preserve relative area but not direction.
Canada and Russia are larger in area than the U.S., but large parts of those countries are almost uninhabitable. Russia has Siberia, and most of Canada is frozen tundra (although climate change may thaw a lot of it soon). There's a reason that most Canadians live within 100 miles of the border with the U.S. A much higher proportion of the U.S. is hospitable to life. The harshest areas in the U.S. are in Alaska and the southwestern deserts, but they don't make up a big proportion of the country.
One interesting thing about the U.S. compared to most countries is that we don't really have a national police force. Most police forces are at the city and county level (for counties we usually call them sheriffs or sheriffs' deputies). The FBI is the closest thing the U.S. has to national police, but they usually only handle violations of federal law. Even serious crimes like murder are usually handled at the local level.
Thanks for another fun video!
The police forces being divided up that way is frustrating at times…. If you need their help because you were a victim of a crime, you can’t just talk to any police officer, it has to be the police of the city where the crime occurred otherwise they won’t do anything to help you. I live in an area with a big city and a lot of suburb cities all mashed together and you can cross over into another city so quickly. So even if a police station is close, it may not be the right one to go to.
Is there a soft filter on the camera lens? Something seems different. It’s nice.
Also, I love Editor Diane’s super BLUE eyes
Naturally, she's a Fremen--that, or she's at least been in the service of the Emperor long enough for her eyes to change. :p
I noticed that too as I was shooting but I didn’t do anything different. 🤷🏼♀️ I’m definitely not a camera pro
@@DianeJennings interesting. Well, whatever it was, it worked out nicely.
@@Ycekhold The spice must flow.
Quite romantic isn't it? 😁
From my experience, each state feels like a different country:)
My favorite trip ever was flying into Dublin one morning driving up to Tubercurry (near Sligo) during the day and down to Limerick that night. Felt like I got to see quite a bit of Ireland that day too :)
I can’t find the reference but I remember reading something that said there were more people of Irish descent living in NYC than in Dublin, more Jews than live in Tel Aviv, more Italians than in Rome, etc. I’m going from memory so I could be off. I live in a small state and to drive from Cincinnati to Cleveland is about 220 miles. If I drove that distance out of Dublin, I’d hit water. Another great video.
I was going to object, but I looked it up first to be sure. Yep, Ohio is 34th largest state. {sniff} At least we're the 7th most populous state.
Fun fact: the southwest part of Ohio has a climate classified as "sub tropical," and after a couple of summers here it's quite believable. Side note: air conditioning is considered a necessity during the summer, not a luxury.
Yes, there are more Jews in New York City proper than in Tel Aviv proper. But there are more Jews in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area than the greater New York City metropolitan area.
I wonder how many people claim partial Irish ancestry in the New York metropolitan area the other 364 days of the year. (Isn't everyone Irish on St Patrick's Day?)
There's no "correct" way to map the surface of a globe onto a plane. Any way you do it will be "wrong" in some way. The most common mercator projection has the benefit that longitude lines are parallel, but greatly distorts the size along the vertical axis: the entire top edge of the map is the north pole and the entire bottom edge is the south pole, so things near the top and bottom will be stretched out horizontally.
I don't know why the algorithm put you in my life, but I'm delighted to have discovered your videos.
Love how you are! Your my favorite Irish Girl on the net
I could listen to Diane awkwardly stumble through a turn of phrase all day. Is that wrong?
"In Ireland the population is about 7 million, it might be a little bit more because people got really bored in lockdown"
When the Irish began to immigrate to America they really took that " be fruitful and multiply" thing seriously!
So the population of America is in part the fault of bored Irish people ☘ 🇮🇪
😆 🤣 😂
There are a lot of new babies in my circle since the lockdowns began. A former co-worker is having Irish twins.
Like myself, there are more Americans of German ethnicity than Irish. One thing about Germans is that we know how to get to work.😀
I think there's a statistic out there that says that the US is the largest Irish nation, not just 1st gen immigrants but also 2nd and 3rd full Irish I think
Ireland actually has slightly less than 5 million people with a declining birth rate trend over all.
@@joyinthemorning44 I am a similar American mutt with Scottish, English, some Scots-Irish and European Spanish. Our bigger gene pool helps us be bigger and stronger physically than a lot of the population globally. A Swiss Italian speaking woman said the mixing makes the children taller and stronger and over all better looking.......well I won't disagree with that statement. LOL!
0:32 Maps are not proportionally accurate? Who would have though, Alaska was the size of half the continental United States.
By area, Alaska is about 17.5% of the continental United States.
First video I have watched from you. Your timing doll! Holy hell. So good. Your sense of humor along with that timing, holy Jehovah (I'm not Jewish or a Witness in from California.. so nothing), spot on!
love your reactions
Diane, I was going to say that maps are flat and the earth is a globe, so a flat map is distorted, but I see someone else beat me to it. :-) Have a great weekend!
Yup how boggling
Praying for you Eric!
A billion is a thousand million, and a trillion is a million million. Our national debt is nearly 29 trillion.
In British usage "billion" was "a million million" for a long time. They _officially_ switched over to the American usage of "a thousand million" almost 50 years ago now, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that colloquial speech still preserves the older usage.
Holy moly!
@@Philistine47 interesting, that I didn't know.
@@DianeJennings yupe. We're in trouble as far as I'm concerned.
Happy Friday Diane! There is a great episode of the West Wing about how the map we all know is wrong; pretty sure I've seen the clip here on YT. Have a great weekend! Cheers, salut, sláinte!
Happy Friday Diane, hope you and Chewie are well
Thanks Mike!
2:28 Mother Russia has like seven different time zones. Most of Canada is uninhabitable. That’s why one province is called Nunavut ( *Non Of It* is inhabitable.)
Nunavut is a territory meaning our land Canada has 5 time zones. I think the US has five also including Alaska in the continental US.
I remember reading once that something like 90% of Canada's population lives within a three-hour drive of the Canada/US border.
@@almostfm That is true.
pretty much 80-90 percent though changing as immigration is increasing more northern regions
I had a bakery break in Dublin Oct 2019, mentioned to two workers I went to and from Galway the prior day and they commented was how long my trip was. I paused, said it wasn't far, then related that my niece and I drove DC to San Francisco, 2700 miles, 5 days at 60-70 mph, a few years earlier. They were floored. Then again, their only apparent experience was within Ireland, which was understandable. Then again, when I was trying to plan my 2019 Ireland trip, maybe going between cities by train, I kept bumping up against the fact that the trip would be short. I remember some Venezuelans, living in Philadelphia, PA saying they drove to Chicago, thinking it would only take 2 hours. The trip never seemed to end because they had overlayed their mental map of Venezuela on the entire US. That trip would take 12 hours by car.
As for maps and country size, maps are made for specific purposes. I used to do some electronic environmental maping at the USEPA. So the Mercador map people commonly see is not really intended to oversize countries (as you go to the poles, which is an artifact) so much as to help navigation.
I heard that if North Dakota left the USA, it would be a major super power, owing to all the SAC missle and air bases. But you'd have to double check.
I always like to road trip. From here in Pensacola, FL I can be in LA in 21/2 hours but if I go east I'm still in FL forever. It is fun watching your reactions..keep up the good work and happy Friday
Hey Salruth, sorry no disrespect but she is SO uneducated she will think that your designation of "LA" means Los Angeles, as opposed to what you really mean.... Louisiana! Having spent more than a little time in Pensacola and Escambia County, since my father and his side of the family hail from there, yes it's about a 2 and a half hour drive to the Louisiana line, but her lack of knowledge, in spite of her videos and claims, she most likely will draw the LA reference to again mean Los Angeles, and we both know that the drive time to Los Angeles from Pensacola is more than 2 and a half hours, even if Interstate 10 is in full operation all the way across.
The vast majority of Canada and Russia though is uninhabitable. So while those two countries are bigger, it doesn't matter. It is like someone declaring themselves the owner of Antarctica. Also, the 900K migrant count are the for LEGAL migrants (many of which do not stay as they are work visas). There are far more illegals that aren't counted every year that do stay in America.
It not about whether or not it is inhabitable it is about the actual geographic size. Sorry. Ali thee is uninhabited and uninhabitable very debatable most of Canada is the later but maybe if you mean a Standard European, settler North American standard of life.
Some estimates suggest that there are up to 20 million unregistered migrants. Though the number can be difficult to pin point. Could be much higher. Could be lower.
I know there were tons of illegal immigrants in the area I grew up. It was significant enough that a good quarter of my friends would outright refuse to talk to the police for any reason out of fear they or their family members may be discovered as illegal immigrants.
Yeah there probably is a lot more illegal immigrants in this country then anybody knows. But that’s basically due to the fact that our politicians haven’t made laws that are common sense. It is too complicated and way too expensive to become a legal citizen of this country. So they would rather bitch back-and-forth about it and blame the people that are just trying to make their lives better.
Healthcare expenses is one of the leading reasons why people file for bankruptcy in the USA.
The travel ban is being lifted on travel from Europe if you are vaccinated. Just saying.
Have a great weekend Diane. X 😊
Indeed. I had to have surgery just recently after getting hit by a car and busting my hip. Even with medical insurance, I still ended up with a bill of about 7,000. Not including Ambulance or Medication.
I feel like if it is something completely outside of your control, you shouldn't be held responsible for the costs.
@@jacobhires990 Then who should pay for you healthcare cost? Why didn't you sue the other driver?
The number one reason is people ignoring their hospital bills. People get overwhelmed and start letting the hospital bills stack up. Then allowing the hospital bills go to collections. By then it's too late. People should always start making small payments on hospital bills. Keeping their hospital account active. For my fathers cancer treatment, we paid $25 per month. As long as the hospital continues to cash the checks, they generally will not send the account to collections.
@@Dularr I was walking and a driver hit me from behind when he ran up on the sidewalk and sped off. Was never identified.
As for who should foot the bill? Maybe the government like in the rest of the developed world.
@@jacobhires990 I was wondering if they couldn't find the driver. The bastard should have paid for your medial bills. Did you have any luck getting the hospital to write off balance?
Very cool & awesome video.
I worked at a government agency in the Denver area that had a lot of guest workers from Europe. When I told them that the nearest big city was 8 hours away (Salt Lake City) they looked at me like I was from outer space!
The USA paid full price for medicine since WW2 so that the rest of the world doesn't need to. Yes it is expensive but it's also the best in the world.
It's the Eff Haitch Cee!!! Happy Friday Diane.
Happy Friday!
LMAO! Just cracked up when ediror Diane said. That is what she said! Too funny.
And a big Texas hug to you! I hope to make it back to Ireland someday!
Great video Diane. You are looking as lovely as ever. I watched someone else watch the video so it came as no surprise to me. I hope you have a great weekend and as always Stay Safe. BOOP
Boop you too!
Putting some of the distances in perspective: Belfast to Cork is about 260 miles, roughly a 4-hour drive according to Google Maps. If you drove that same distance every day along Interstate 90 (the longest interstate highway in the US), it would take you over a week and a half to make it all the way from Seattle to Boston. Or if you picked I-10, it would take you 9 1/2 days to get from Los Angeles to Jacksonville ... and more than 3 days just to make it across Texas. Going north/south instead of east/west, it would take six days at that pace to get from Laredo (at the Texas/Mexico border) to Duluth, Minnesota on I-35, and you'd barely be out of Texas by the end of the second day's drive.
In your blooper segment, I blieve you were trying to get to the phrase "I would entreat you to..."
However, defaulting to "...I would humbly request..." works too and is probably better for those who would've had to look up what "entreat" means.
@3:40 Best line from Diane. @8:13 best line from E.D.
Thank you. Thank you.