Ethics at the Conbini

While I was in the States I bought a copy of the Book of Questions (see link below) which I remember fondly from my youth. It's basically a look at applied ethics, in various "What would you do if...?" kinds of situations. Some of them are very serious, some are funny and others are just gross-outs ("Would you eat a bowl of live crickets for $40,000?"... Well would you?). Anyway I thought it would be a good way to get some of the students talking in VOICE, so for my topic last weekend I searched through and found some of the most interesting/ funny questions and had the students discuss them in pairs. So far so good...

One of the questions was "If after having dinner at a nice restaurant, the bill came and one of the items you had ordered was not on it, would you tell the waitress, or just enjoy your luck?" The students had various answers, including the pragmatic "It depends on if I thought I was going to go there again or not."

The kicker is, that right after that lesson I went to the conbini to get lunch like I always do, and whadda y'know they forget to charge me for Chika's chicken nuggets. I debated it in my mind, but seeing as it was such a weird coincidence that we'd all been talking about almost that exact situation only a few minutes before I did the honest thing aand told the conbini dude. It was only ¥210, but still.

Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaky!

Goog Afternooner!

The Book of Questions

And today's "No Shit, Sherlock" award goes to...

... the Transportation Security Administration for this little edifying tidbit aimed at passengers travelling with children:

"NEVER leave babies in an infant carrier while it goes through the X-ray machine."

Got that?

I guess the award really should go to whatever genius tried this one in the first place, thereby necessitating this warning, but still.

For a full list of all the items now prohibited (including shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant and lip cream) in the wake of the failed London terrorist plot see here:

TSA: Permitted and Prohibited Items

And finally, another gem from the TSA website:

"We encourage everyone to pack gel-filled bras in their checked baggage."
For a full discussion see here:

Quantifier domain restriction and gel-filled bras at Language Log