The movie dubbing thing reminds me of opening day of “Revenge of the Sith” when I was in Hermosillo, Mexico. It was a midnight release, so I went to get my tickets ahead of time. It was playing on three screens that night: two in English with subtitles, one in Spanish. The two English showings were all sold out! 
(Actually, the voice characterizations in the dubbed version wasn’t all the bad, down to the corny “No!!” at the end.)
I seem to remember that in both the UK and Sweden (the two countries I mow best) the population was told specifically during the swine flu issues that there was utterly no point to wearing a mask. One of the reasons given was that even if they did stop the germs when the mask was fresh, the mask only continues to do that for a very, very short period of time.
Admittedly it helps that I am in an apartment, but my place is very, very solid and very well insulated. Double glazing is the absolute bare minimum for windows (growing up in the UK I saw a fair amount of single glazing and still do when I go back). Temperatures can drop to -15C outside but I will still be walking around my apartment in shorts and T-shirt, the radiators will barely be warm (I can easily grip them with a hand with no pain) and often I’ll open the balcony door because it gets a bit warm inside.
But as someone else mentioned, you really notice it when you close a window. The soundproofing is quite amazing.
Oh and yes, there’s no messing with my front door. I have no idea what it is made of, but I have seen nothing like it in the UK. Nothing is getting through that without some heavy duty tools.
As of a few years ago, in New York City, taxicab rides from JFK or LGA to Manhattan are a flat $45 (plus tolls).
BTW, the USPS introduced “forever stamps” (stamps good for one ounce of first class postage no matter what increases come along) a few years ago. So we do adopt good ideas from other countries every now and then.
Except for the fact that if I run out of forever stamps, I have to buy new ones and since the postal rates always seem to go up, who knows in advance what they will cost me? 
Could that be a new construction vs. old construction thing? My old house feels more solid than my brother in law’s forty year old house even though his is probably more energy efficient.
I’ve never noticed any difference between new and old. My current house is 15 years old; my previous house was over 100 years old. Both feel the same.
You really can’t have a house that’s not well insulated in this climate without having problems. Roofs that transfer heat, for example, in a milder climate are not an issue beyond the fact that you’ll pay a bit extra for heat. Up here, with snow on the roof for 4+ months out of a year, a warm roof results in water leaks, mold, and rot. Similarly, it’s not a big deal if a window is drafty or a door doesn’t close right when it’s not all that cold out. A small leak when it’s below zero and snow is flying is a big deal.
I’m not saying every single house around here is wonderfully insulated, but the vast majority are, if for no other reason that $500 heat bills in the winter are no fun at all.
The slot accepts credit cards as well (or anything credit card size).
I’d like to suggest that many of the otherwise wasteful things the U.S. does relative to other countries may be the result of being too litigious of a society. If I set up the common hall area in the apartment building such that a tenant has to hit the glowing button part way down the hall to turn it on, I open myself up to lawsuits. What if you trip on something in the dark while walking down the short hallway? What if there is a rapist hiding in the dark that attacks you and couldn’t be identified because it was dark? What if? What if? You get my point.
As the apartment owner in the U.S. I am going to say, “Well, if I leave the hallway light on I have a slightly higher electric bill, but I probably protect myself from a whole boatload of potential multi-million dollar lawsuits from my idiot tenants.”
Am I whooshed or do you not know you can still buy Forever stamps? Yeah, they also sell denominated stamps if you want the Christmas things or whatever, but the ones with the liberty bells are still Forever. You can even order a buttload online and just pay a buck to have them sent to you.
Yes, I think he’s whooshing you. I think it was a joke on the name “forever stamps” given that the little booklet of them doesn’t contain an infinite supply.
That would indeed be a whoosh…
Oh, sorry. I do know a lot of people who think they’re not available anymore because they’re not advertised.
In the US the voting booth is private. There is much law and custom to support that, since it was not always so and public voting was used to manipulate elections. The confusing part is that voter registration is public. The government does not know who you are voting for, they just know which party you choose to register for, in those states that have party registration, and in the event a voter chooses a party. You don’t have to choose a party, but you then usually lose the opportunity to vote in primary elections. Some states with party registration also allow cross over voting in primaries. Yes, there are states where I can register as a R (public record), vote in all the D primaries (possibly also a public record), and vote for the first candidate on the ballot in every primary and general election. The number of votes for each candidate is public, but who voted for which candidate is private, and usually impossible to figure out after the votes are entered.
It’s already taken me longer to explain parts of the registration system than I spent voting this year. No wonder you’re confused!
I too find it odd that the primary elections (at least for the two major parties) are paid for by the state governments, rather than the parties. A friend of mine volunteers for one of the local party organizations, and I have a vague memory that the parties may have to give some money to the state if there is a primary (instead of a caucus, convention, or privately persuading all but one candidate to drop out of the race), but I could be wrong in my memory, and whatever money the parties put in is nowhere near the full cost of the primary election.
Then there are the arcane and complex rules for a candidate to get on the ballot - different in each state, and possibly different for some localities within a state. Election law in the US is a complex area. Again, no wonder you’re confused.