Quote from chanoman315 :

the plan was aproved now

Not quite. The Senate passed a bill, but the House (which had voted down a bill, previously) is still working on trying to formulate a new plan. It has been reported that there will be a vote on some proposal, in the House, today or tomorrow.

Quote from blackbird04217 :

Meh, the average American car would be less gas hoggish than you think, mainly because the gas guzzlers cost enough. My car claims to get around 38mpg I would guesstimate around 33mpg is what I actually get. I would also consider myself to have an average car. However even with that standing up, your statement is still true, according to the statement the Americans get roughly 11 more miles to the gallon... Hmm!

8 more dear, 11 more would be 44 MPG not 41.

Oh my gosh... I read the 22gallons and 41mpg as 44... idiocy I tell you! Nice catch by the way, you win a cookie. Head on over to www.yahoo.com or anywhere that has cookies to collect your reward - you have passed my test :P

Quote from blackbird04217 :

Oh my gosh... I read the 22gallons and 41mpg as 44... idiocy I tell you! Nice catch by the way, you win a cookie. Head on over to www.yahoo.com or anywhere that has cookies to collect your reward - you have passed my test :P

Sheesh, don't give away your cookies! Sell them at a bake sale, you are going to need the money to pay your living expenses!

Update: A bailout plan was eventually passed, and Bush has signed it into law. The House actually went with the Senate plan, which included a whole lot of extraneous stuff that was added to make it appealing to legislators who otherwise wouldn't have voted for it. The original plan was 3 pages; the plan that passed, was ~450 pages.

Quote from David33 :

Update: A bailout plan was eventually passed, and Bush has signed it into law. The House actually went with the Senate plan, which included a whole lot of extraneous stuff that was added to make it acceptable to legislators who otherwise wouldn't have voted for it. The original plan was 3 pages; the plan that passed, was ~450 pages.

As if anyone read that. Politicians here are bad for it, they voted in a new EU rule which says to get a bike licence you have to do a stop from no less than 50KMPH, which is over the speed limit in towns and cities in the UK (which is due to drop to 20MPH if the mentalists have their way), which now means the testers have to find test tracks.

Same with that plan, no one would have read every single page, so they'd have asked what it does and made their mind up on a brief overview.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

Politicians here are bad for it, they voted in a new EU rule which says to get a bike licence you have to do a stop from no less than 50KMPH, which is over the speed limit in towns and cities in the UK (which is due to drop to 20MPH if the mentalists have their way), which now means the testers have to find test tracks.

I'm surprised to learn that until now this was not the case in the UK. Where do those tests take place now, then? Solely on the public road? And what do those tests consist of, exactly?

Over here a test consists of two parts; one on a test track and one on the public road. On the test tracks you have to execute a number of manoeuvres with your bike (slalom, driving in eight's, taking a turn at a decent speed, evasive manoeuvre, driving a distance at walking speed or slower without putting your foot down, precision braking and emergency braking). If you pass those, you go on to the part on the public road, where the examinator decides if you are able to properly control your bike on the public road.

Totally off topic, I know.

Staying woefully off topic for a moment, for years there wasnt even a bike test in the UK unless you wanted a big one. Even now my licence covers me for a 125 without ever even having ridden a bike (except abroad), with it i'm allowed to cause carnage and bedlam on public roads as I learn to stop from 50mph. Years ago I think I was allowed to ride something much larger, although i'm sure a biker will correct me on the details.

Back on topic, may I take this opportunity to personally thank American tax payers for bailing out my countries economy.