We’ve seen John Green’s rant against pennies and C. G. P. Grey’s reasoned explanation of their relative worthlessness. Now there’s this from Doghouse Diaries, which makes the same general point but comes from a slightly different angle…

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Sushi Yasuda, a Japanese restaurant in NYC, no longer permits tipping, opting instead to include the cost of service in their prices and then offer their employees a living wage and benefits.

There is a note on each bill explaining the policy…

If people can’t break the habit and leave a tip anyway, the owner says it will be returned to them.

(via Gawker)

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Magician Stuart Edge surprises people in need with money via a magic trick…

He tells the story in the video description and addresses the question some of you skeptics might be asking…

I filmed this video around in Provo and Orem, Ut. We basically just drove around all day looking for people who were panhandling on the side of the road, we’d chat for a bit, if we felt like we should continue with the trick, we would, and then we’d leave them with the $100…

I was nervous because every time I did the trick, it would cost me $100. I did the trick 10 times!…

The people we had in the video were all very grateful for what we gave them. We made sure to talk to them a little beforehand and make sure they really needed it and would be able to use it for good things.

(via Hypervocal)

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After a man tried to steal from their shop, two men were able to find a creative way to hold him in place while they called the cops…

(via Reddit)

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In the town of Brimfield, outside of Cleveland, the police chief is remarkably forthright about his force’s use of a quota system and profiling, even going so far as to talk about it openly to the news and on his department’s Facebook page, where he writes,

[A]ll of you have heard me say numerous times…I do not care about tickets. I have changed my mind.

Effective next week, my officers will have a quota for tickets….at least one per shift. We are going to be profiling, too. We will target a specific group, with the express purpose of writing as many tickets as possible. I am strongly encouraging my officers to write as many as they can, every shift, every day…it is called operation Safe Summer.

And who is the target? Little kids.

The goal is to get kids to wear their bike helmets, which is good, of course. But is ticketing as many as possible the best strategy?

In this case, yes:

If a child 12 or under is observed wearing his or her helmet while biking the child will be stopped and issued a ticket…for a free ice cream cone from Franks Drive-in, located on SR43.

Oh, OK, then. No need for the torches and pitchforks after all.

(via Gawker)

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