Don't be silly. The lost of both Mars probes effectively returned your Mars program to its incubator. At its present state your space equipment is as reliable as Microsoft Windows. Don't know how cognizant you are in this area but this is simply not so. Europe's contribution , other than the USSR, to space exploration is more along the lines of "me too". We lost one probe on entry because of what is called "human resource problems" which really meant that one bunch of people were doing calculations in metric and the other was not. There was nothing wrong with the hardware. We have a vehicle orbiting Mars, landing on Mars, and soon landing and returning from Mars. Of course since Europe has NEVER did any of this they have a 100% success ratio - 0/0. Live and learn I guess. It is much easier just to enjoy the fruits of your work... This may soon end. I read several articles in recent months where the powers that be are looking at the current situation and finding it rather disagreeable. As to the gas prices - can you read TAXES. Thats where most of your cost is - not in the actual price of the product. It is laughable to most Americans to see the cost that you pay for gas. Three words. VW, BMW, AUDI. At one time I could see VW. The others are jokes (BMW makes a decent motorcycle however ). The only thing they have is snob appeal. Not performance, not value for the buck, not in reliability, not in safety, and to be real honest not even in styling anymore. Just with what can you compete against The Beatles or Abba? Or if we return to present, what is it that you have on the level of Robbie Williams or U2? Eminem and hordes of other rappers and plastic fantastic Augilleras and artificial Spears? In that whole paragraph the only thing worth mentioning was "The Beatles". And more for their compsitions than their performances. But hey - thats a matter of taste. Almost any jazz afficianado would look at that and laugh. ABBA for goodness sake. Try Joe Pass, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Christian, Herb Ellis, Byrd, Stan Getz... the list goes on and on. Don't hold up those glitter and flash "entertainers" as ART. About the only thing of enduring nature to be produced over the water in the lasy hald century in real music is the Gypsy Jazz boys - Django-et al... Richard Monarchies, aristocracies, and religions....there was never a country where the majority of the people were in their secret hearts loyal to any of these institutions. Mark Twain - The