True story. I drove past a takeaway the other day; the sign outside said "1 portion chicken and 1 portion fries 99p" then,  just below, "2 portions chicken and 1 portion fries £1.99". Disregarding the obvious problem for the proprietor, it raised a philosophical problem. Imagine there are two people going to the shop. The first doesn't see the sign, and wants two of the 99p deal, hence he receives 2 portions of chicken and 2 portions of fries, and is happy. The second person DOES see the sign, orders two of the 99p deal, gets 2 portions of chicken and 2 portions of fries, and is even happier, because he thinks he's got a portion of fries for free, in fact for -£0.01 - he thinks if he keeps on ordering he just keeps getting free fries. So the first is getting what he asked for, the second, by dint of seeing the sign, thinks he's getting free fries, and if he keeps buying, he can get limitless free fries, maybe putting the shop out of business. How can the two scenarios co-exist? My head hurts.

hi

Birds born from eggs.Eggs from what?

thanks

mostafa

To stop battery chickens from feeling any pain or claustrophobia in their short lives would it be possible for scientists to genetically modify them to have no pain receptors, touch receptors, be blind and not be able to see. I know this sounds even worse in ethical terms but would it stop the sufferance of the chickens as they would not know what would be going on and would only know how to eat and lay numerous amounts of eggs.

One of my young chickens has just produced an unusually coloured egg (to the right of the photo). The egg on the left is more typical of the breed.

I know egg shell colour is variable, even in eggs laid by the same hen on different days, but how did one egg undergo such a sudden and distinct colour change?

Colin Booth, Durham, UK