Canada vs. U.S. – by the numbers

So I was hanging out in the BA executive lounge at Heathrow waiting for my flight back to Canada, drinking complimentary champagne and reading Bloomberg Markets magazine. In the magazine they had a cool little comparison of Canada and U.S. figures – I’ve copied them below for your interest.

Canada on the left, U.S. on the right

2008 GDP Growth Forecast
2.3% vs. 1.9%

Federal Budget
$13.8bn surplus vs. $163bn deficit

Housing prices
11% rise (Aug.) vs. 3.9% fall (Jul.)

Trade
Surplus since 1975 vs. Deficit vs 1975

Oil Reserves
179bn barrels vs. 22bn barrels

Life expectancy
80.2 years vs. 77.8 years

Beer alcohol content
5% vs. 4%

Animal fights

If you’re like me, you think alot about animal fights and you will also love this site which has the top 10 all time animal fights. I would have also liked to have seen Whale vs. Wolverine and Polar Bear vs. Tiger.

On rotation

I consider myself pretty anti-boyband, but I’ve been listening to the mid 90s British boy East 17 since a friend sent me some links…. apparently boybands were more acceptable in England…. so that makes it ok.

1. Deep by East 17 – Believe it or not these guys were actually taken seriously and considered pretty “street” in England, by North American standards it almost looks like a parody… still the song catchy
2. Stay another day by East 17 – Cheesy but catchy

Healthcare in Norway

This is some bonus footage that be found on the DVD of Michael Moore’s “documentary” on healthcare. Apparently he cut this bit on healthcare in Norway because it was just too amazing and didn’t think people would believe it. Moore does exaggerate way too much but I can attest to Norway being a pretty nice place, and yes I am biased as my girlfriend is Norwegian.