Things UK does better than USA and Vice Versa.

Maybe it is supposed to be condescending. If not I am as confused as you.

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Fear and Loathing in MoFo... The Gunslinger 45's Top 50 Favorite Films

In the 10 Ring: Gunslinger45's reviews

Sounds delicious! Best burger I have ever had have been made of bison.

Did it have cheese on it?

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Of course!

There tis... Cheese-In-Burger

These guys would hate you for that.

A real artery clogger! I love it!

I'd hazard a guess that the UK have better ideas when it comes to settlements though. We do have a few towns that are built in flood areas, but not many.

US tends to build in areas that are renowned for natural disasters, and tends also to build the stuff from cardboard and straw... then complain when stuff gets broken or blown away by a Tornado.

I'll definitely agree with this. We do have a Monty-Python-build-another-castle-on-the-swap mentality sometimes. And to be fair, this sort of persistence can be a strength as often as a weakness. It's the same kind of pioneering spirit that got us here in the first place. But it definitely has its downsides.

Regarding tornado areas in the American Midwest: Why do people move to these areas knowing of the dangers to life and property? Its like driving a car you know will blow up.

Because there are offsetting benefits, like a low cost of living, fertile land, and lots of peace and quiet in-between.

Every part of the states got some kind of crazy natural disaster they are known for. Kansas and the like have Tornado alley, California has earthquakes, and Florida and the gulf of Mexico have hurricanes.

All in knowing how to deal with it and taking proper precautions. As for why people live in tornado alley, many have lived there for generations and own land there with family farms.

On the other end of the spectrum though... when it comes to building cities, the US has us beat.

We have places like London, Birmingham, Manchester, Aberdeen and Glasgow... and they're all crap places to visit, let alone to actually live.

The part I live in--Pennsylvania--is actually pretty great about avoiding those sorts of things. We get the occasional blizzard and the really bad hurricanes can hit us (though by then they're usually just intense storms), but both are relatively rare and we get virtually no earthquakes or tornados.

I love avoiding all that, but yeah, let's not overstate the danger. It's not automatic death and destruction. Most people don't get hit hard by it, and that's especially true if they take simple precautions.

I haven't been across the pond yet, but anecdotally it seems like the one thing I'd be unable to get used to are the close quarters. There's just a ton of land out here, which means even the smaller or mid-sized houses have plenty of leg room, even in tiny ways like hallway width or the distance between houses, which makes a big difference.

Well to be fair the US has places like LA, Chicago, and the now bankrupt Detroit.

Gotta disagree there. They all pale in comparison to New York (one of two in the US I've been to) but we have some great cities: London is diverse and exciting with tons of stuff to do, Birmingham isn't the greatest place to live but it's on the up and has a lot of places worth visiting, and Edinburgh and Dublin are both fantastic cities, particularly the former which I really enjoy every time I go there.

That's another that the US beats the UK on actually.

House size.

Modern built houses in the UK are designed on computers with the Government approved living space requirements. Basically, a human being needs so much square footage to live... and these computers give that exact amount of space with absolutely no leeway.
My brother's last house was a new built thing, I could stand in his Master bedroom and touch both walls at the same time. No joke.

The building standards in the UK are better than the US I'd say. They're solidly made buildings... they're just unbelievably tiny.

One thing I think I'd really like about the UK is how relatively close everything is--the flipside of the cramped quarters thing I was talking about. It'd really be something to be able to hop on a train and end up in another country in just a couple of hours, or to be able to just get around a busy area relatively easily while walking. That's not an option here unless you live downtown, and that's usually more trouble than it's worth. I drive 10 miles each way to work, and that's considered a pretty short commute by most standards.

All in all I think I still prefer the more spread-out feel, because like most Americans I rather like being left alone most of the time, but the ease of access thing would certainly be a plus if I ever had to live there.

What little I know of Birmingham is that it is the birthplace for a lot of the original heavy metal bands. Black Sabbath in particular. Place like Birmingham had to have had some influence being a factory town and all.