Bombay Bad Boy

The cane was to the hand, although the PE teacher seemed to prefer giving daps to the backside. The school lasted into the 90s and then closed, AFAIK the policy continued to the end. I am a member of an alumnus group on Facebook, and it definitely lasted until at least the late 80s.

I went to a private school in the 1980s that had the cane. This seemed to be the default punishment for anything from running in the corridor, to being caught smoking or fighting. Obviously this was meant as a deterrent, but failed to take into account playground politics: How often you got caned, was a badge of how 'hard' you were. What seemed utterly unjust to me was the policy of mass caning, i.e. if a teacher could smell smoke, and couldn't identify the culprit, the entire class got caned. No individual evidence needed. When you joined, your parents had signed a release allowing them

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/06/08/washington-state-allows-free-marijuana-covid-vaccine/7598398002/

Easier to get a mattress into than a Fiesta. Um, probably.

I've done the IAM bike test. It's hilarious how polite and observant people suddenly are, when you've a friendly copper on a fully marked BMW right behind you 😄

There used to be a National Manx Advanced Motorcycle training scheme, which did the same sort of stuff as the IAM. It got unceremoniously canned with no warning, mumbling something about funding. It can't have cost much to actually run. Couple of hours a week, subsidy topped up between a half dozen or so? What I found particularly irksome, is that those -already on the course- (myself included) didn't even get to complete it, as some of the others in the group had. There's talk about training (cough election year cough) but when it comes to actually putting this stuff in place? mo

or the Judaean Peoples Front?

This is an awfully huge pie for our chaps to just keep sticking fingers in their ears, going 'la la lalalala la', not wanting a slice of: https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/cannabis/legal-cannabis-sales-hit-record-high-254470.aspx

https://newsthump.com/2020/11/30/tins-of-quality-street-to-be-invisible-to-the-naked-eye-by-2025/

For the non-geeks among you, I can assure you there's more drama in half an hour of IT than in 6 years of EastEnders. And probably more shouting.

Funny how when it comes to bringing in more legislation -against- things, blink and you'll miss it http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=61050&headline=Ashford frustrated by delay in change to cannabis laws - but won't prioritise it&sectionIs=NEWS&searchyear=2021

AFAIK it already is. Car Tax* is a bit strange in that it's not just related to usage, but it's also punitive, the pricing system having the intention of discouraging big/heavy/polluting/[insert pariah of the week] vehicles. *Yes I know, 'Vehicle excise' yadda yadda.

I can only find 1 other region in the world that has a taxation system like this, namely the state of New South wales in Australia. https://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/roads/vehicle-registration/registration-fees-concessions-forms/registration-fees.html A family hatch (up to 1500kg) would cost AU$310 (about £170), the next highest bracket (up to 2.5 tons, includes big SUV's like a Discovery) costsAU$474 (about £260)

Most modern slushboxes have a torque converter that locks up above a certain speed, which further reduces drag, so its not just DCT's that benefit from this. A modern auto box also has more speeds, sometimes 7 or even 8, which means that at a steady speed, the various computers have more chance of finding a gear at a more efficient rpm.