So... living in Germany as a non-German speaking resident... is interesting. It's the little things in our daily routine that you don't think much about until you change that routine. 

Take television for example.  When I lived in the Netherlands I never deviated much from the typical TV watching regime that most of us follow... you know.. watch a little around dinner time.. maybe the news in the morning.  It was easy there... a significant portion of the TV is broadcast in English, plus I eventually was able to speak a passable level of Dutch.. enough to understand anyway.

Now, living in Germany... it's a whole other story.  German TV is all dubbed... all the import shows are dubbed into German.  I've never been happy with dubbed TV... I just won't watch it.  I never watched it in the Netherlands either.  So, as a result I went without TV for about 2 years.  No big deal... I mean.. there's the internet right

Lately I've been watching Internet TV... using a proxy, I have a few choices like the BBC iPlayer, 4OD, and Zattoo as well as Hulu.  It's interesting to see the radical difference in commercials between the TV from the UK versus the USA.  On the US broadcasts... it seems to almost always have commercials about medication, especially non-essential medication... like stuff to make your eyelashes grow longer.

Now this is where it gets a bit... odd.  The commercials on the US channels I've been watching last about a minute... sometimes more.  They introduce something... say the eyelash growing stuff, or a medication to combat depression.  That introduction lasts about 5 seconds.  Then for the next 40 seconds or so they list out the sometimes terrifying side effects... the list goes on and on and on... and it makes me wonder... does anyone actually buy their product afterwards?  I mean, listing dozens of rather scary side effects is important - you should know what you're taking and it's effects, but.. nothing they've profiled in these commercials is actually necessary for someone's health and well being... make your eyelashes grow longer at the risk of going blind, changing your eye color, permanent discoloration of your eye lids and so on?

Maybe I've been away from North America for too long