[jrs99]

i like the africa comparisons here:

http://www.texasmonthly.com/daily-post/how-big-texas-compare...

the last line might help people understand why people compare these things:

"If you’re the right kind of nerd, you can probably do this forever and not get bored"

[arethuza]

I do these kind of comparisons all the time myself (particularly distances) - I just tend to react that assertions that Europe is "small" which I think are based on the distribution of "interesting" bits within Europe and the US. In Europe a lot of the "interesting" bits cluster together in the middle with a lot of empty bits towards the edges - the US has the opposite layout with major attractions often being on the coasts and the middle getting relatively little attention.

[NB Note the sweeping generalisations - I know fine well that there is a lot of cool stuff in the "middle" of the USA as well as lots of fascinating stuff round the periphery of Europe - I'm from Scotland!]