Here we go again with the "Parents are too stupid and irresponsible to raise their own children". BS. Accidents happen, and they are usually few and far between. Because they are rare, they are not grounds to penalize a company that has complied with all of the onerous regulations placed upon it, and the majority of responsible adult customers that have owned these items without incident.
This is why you teach a child from the very begining to freeze when given a certain command, mine was "Hold!". When the girls heard that they froze, and I was able to take away whatever it was they should not have without incident. Tell 'em it's like freeze tag, they think it's a game, and you have no problems.

I wonder if the CPSC will go after Legos next, or if they've tried to in the past.

Well, legos hurt when you step on them with bare feet, therefore they are defectively designed and their sale must be halted immediately!

I got my first Lego set when I was five, and I've still got some. They're still in the shed, I imagine; when my wife was running a home daycare business, it didn't make sense to have them out among very young children.

But, but, think of the children! Geez, this is BS. They quit making children's toys with small magnets, fine, I get that. But this is not designed for, or marketed to kids.

Hate those mother effing Legos. My daughters had the Lego Duplo blocks, but I didn't buy the small ones. I had stepped on too many at my sister's house and I swore they would never be allowed in mine. I took my grandson to Legoland this year and of course he wanted Legos. He got a sword and a shield instead.

Gotta love that last part!

"If you are old enough to appreciate the apparent attractiveness of a tongue piercing, so to[o] should you be able to recognize the risk of swallowing metallic objects."

Sigh...

There's a really popular little doll brand for girls that uses magnets. I'm spacing on the name, but my kids got some when they were little. I looked at them a bit, thought about how my kids like to put things in their mouths that aren't food, and got rid of them and didn't buy more. Why do people think that's so hard for parents to do?? I felt no need to keep other more responsible kids from enjoying them.

I have these and they are fun, but remarkably dangerous. The danger is not of swallowing a metal object, which often will pass but at worst gets stuck along the way, requiring medical intervention. The risk is of swallowing TWO magnets that wind up attracting to each othe with tissue in between (most dangerously, intestinal tissue). When this occurs, as the attracted magnets progress through the system, they tear apart the insides of the patient, causing damage that is often irreparable and fatal. For this reason there are existing standards for strength of magnets in children's toys. To understand this risk you need to understand: (1) magnets, (2) biology and (3) children's behavior. Government intervention is necessary here not to protect people from obvious stupidity, but because there is a genuine information failure. My daughter received a serious and terrifying lecture about these when I received them as a gift, but I expect most parents lack the technical knowledge to deliver this message effectively.

Anyone know where to buy 'em?

Stocking stuffer.

Crid, ThinkGeek.com has buckyballs, my girls have gotten at least 3 sets of them by now, if not more. And yes, they make great stocking stuffers, I bought a bunch of sets one year for Yule, and the kids I gave them to loved them!

Mo4, you're thinking of Polly Pocket dolls, my girls had a bazillion sets of those too! And they never ONCE put them in their mouths, I guess because I stressed that "these are NOT food. Don't put them in your mouth." But I don't think I bought them until they were 4 or 5 anyway, and so were mostly done with finding out what things were by trying to eat them.

@Flynne: "But I don't think I bought them until they were 4 or 5 anyway, and so were mostly done with finding out what things were by trying to eat them."

Pointless aside: My Mom tells a story about when my little brother was a toddler. Spying a spider on the living room windowsill, she thought, "Oh, I'd better vacuum it up before G____ gets it!" When she returned with the vacuum, the spider was gone. Where was it? She pried open G____'s mouth, and...

As is frequently the case with these ridiculous stories, the Onion has covered it:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/fun-toy-banned-because-of-three-stupid-dead-kids,290/

Hmmm, read the Onion or write a progress report? Read the Onion or write a progress report?

Oh, silly me! That question answers itself.

The problem, SN, is that this is NOT a toy, and it is NOT marketed as one, for the buckyball set.

THERE ARE a buncha cheap Chinese knockoffs that ARE marketed as toys... and the legit company is caught in the backwash.

But. When you have toddlers, do you not childproof your house? It's a dumb question. I have a sister that didn't, and the kid is in to everything. May sis tells all sorts of stories about how the kid did this or that, and my response is "how did the kid get into the cabinet? don't you have it locked?"
'why would I do that?'

so I stopped listening to the stories and pointedly told her it was her fault, and it will be worse when the kid poisons herself.

But. Do I have to padlock all my machine screws in the shop?
And what about fridge magnets?
How much pea gravel can a kid ingest before it becomes an issue.

Each one of these things is a varying level of ridiculous, but that is the path you are on.

Always assume the government will take things to their logical extreme, no matter how stupid or remote.

Goo

Blogpeeps: Raise your hand if you know who Buckminster Fuller is without a-Googlin'.

Thanks!

                              Signed,

                              Pretentious Snotball

Geodesic domes and Spaceship Earth and shit, right?

Signed,

Junior Know-It-All

Reallly? I thought he was a crochety ol' opinionated writer who died, when, late 1970s, early 80s? Wasn't he a painter, too? Or something? Spaceship Earth? At Epcot?? That was his??

Dymaxion, and geodomes, and didja know?

they named Buckminster Fullerene after the old coot...

Because he decided on a shape that fit with his interests.

And it turned out that 60 carbon atoms do that too under the right conditions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fullerene

Fascinatin' stuff... since I had both an Art prof and a Physics prof introduce Fuller's concepts to me in the 80's

The media tried to call Clinton the fullerene president, but it just didn't stick.

Government intervention is necessary here not to protect people from obvious stupidity, but because there is a genuine information failure. -- SN at August 7, 2012 6:18 AM

Why don't people listen to the government?

There are probably many reasons, but the ones that come to mind:

• The government is constantly wrong.
• The government makes so many pronouncements, good or bad, that signal-to-noise ratio is about 1 thing worth listening to about 100 pieces of BS.
• The exaggeration of risk is always over-hyped.
• The government is not your, or your neighbors, nanny.
• The government has developed a trust deficit with the public.

Those are just off the top of my head.

When you look at what the 18 enumerated powers in the Constitution -- please even tell me where the CPSC is listed.

> Geodesic domes and Spaceship Earth
> and shit, right?
>
> Signed,
>
> Junior Know-It-All

Close enough! Meet me out by the fire pit after Amy's August 2012 Beach Blog Blowout next Sunday and I, K/I/A par exsil-lance, will personally pin the Oak Leaf Cluster to your lapel... For you are truly one of us now.

> I thought he was a crochety ol' opinionated
> writer who died, when, late 1970s, early 80s?
> Wasn't he a painter, too? Or something?
> Spaceship Earth? At Epcot?? That was his??

Flynne can watch. She's as correct as you are, ORD, but we can't give her any ribbons or certificates... Because after all, she's a girl.

> I had both an Art prof and a Physics prof
> introduce Fuller's concepts to me in the 80's

While thoughtfully didactic, your link encourages cheaters... No medals for you. Also, you're a little too young. (If the shame of this embarrassment burdens in you too deeply, skip this year's picnic, and we'll see you in 2013: No harm / no foul, dude.)


It's a wonderful name for a toy, and conjures up the kind of playful mind he might have had. I read a book about him long ag

And Ouch Cot-Damn Jesus, it was forty freakin' YEARS ago. For some reason this passage always got stuck: More recent chemistry's scratchproof acrylic trifocals have taken a quarter-pound of glass off his nose.

I think it stuck with me because that was something young people really wanted to believe in the 1970's. Fuller had been through some horrible things.... Some in his personal life, and some (like the Great Depression) just for being born when he was. Despite being one of history's great futurists (and future-prodders), he couldn't have anticipated all the good things that he'd live to see. His mind expansive but humble mind and he knew well that he was standing on the shoulders of giants. It was fun to think it might happen to the rest of us someday, even if Star Trek's communicator and tricorder raised the stakes of our imaginations.

David Frum wrote a book about the 70's. Either in the book or in a sales pitch for it, he described riding in an American Motors car circa 1973: Everything was lame. The car was lousy and uncomfortable. The 8-track player mangled the music and the air conditioner didn't cool things down, even though both these things were pricey options. People were in ugly cloths that wore out and lost their color. Houses were ugly, furnishings were ugly. It wasn't just that the green shag carpet was rude to the eye, it also felt bad to your feet.

But a lot of things got better. Postrel has written about how these improvements can be so gradual that we don't know they're happening. Cars today are great. Changing your oil is essential, but if you do it (even at today's greatly expanded intervals), a car can last for many, many years. Buttons don't fall off clothes. I have shirts I don't like but can't replace because they won't wear out. A LOT of the things in our lives are like that.

(OK, government sucks with a sharp-toothed ferocity that Richard Nixon never dreamt of in his Dilantin-demented nightmares. But on the whole, life has improved for a WHOLE lot of people in recent decades.)

And these improvements are on top of everything we try to remember to be grateful for: Cheap air travel and box stores, etc. Wouldn't you rather have an Iphone that a Star Trek "communicator"?


I gotta buy some Buckies. I hope the toy comes with a pamphlet or just a page that says who he was. Also, if it just so happens that some neighborhood children never trouble my lawn again, well....

> The media tried to call Clinton the fullerene
> president, but it just didn't stick.

I got that! I got that!*

* Kinda.

I mean, of course government hates Buckyballs....

"American government is a deviant subculture."

This isn't bad at all. The CPSC forbade the sale of dirt bikes for minors because they might eat the brake levers and footpegs.

Oh, Crid, you had to bring up AMC, didn't you? And you were doing so well!

By the way, do you remember a remarkably dumb Bond movie called The Man With the Golden Gun? Seems the entire Bangkok police department was equipped with AMC Matador sedans, all of which were wrecked in a massive car chase.

The Man With the Golden Gun?

Yeah, baby! That one and Octopussy! Two of my faves!!

(Keep your ribbons and certificates, Cridmeister, all I want is you!)

but Uncle Crid, I'm almost 48, can't I sit at the big kids table yet?

"Seems the entire Bangkok police department was equipped with AMC Matador sedans, all of which were wrecked in a massive car chase." OldRPMDaddy

wait, wasn't that the best thing to do with them at the time?

and now I have the G.G. Bond theme in my head... "if you wanna get rid of some one... the man with the golden gun..." eh, not such a bad thing. Though I prefer the theme to Diamonds are Forever.

Hmm, maybe I'll have to watch something tonight.

> all I want is you!

Without you, I'm nothing.

> almost 48, can't I sit at the big kids
> table yet?

You're a flopping puppy, you're a callow turtledove... A mere wisp of a fellow. (53, and thanks for asking.)

> Though I prefer the theme to Diamonds
> are Forever.

Well, every man comes to that point in his life when he has to make some serious choices... Selections reflecting the quintessence of his courage, his honor, his responsibility to others, and the dignity of his family & community.

I went with YOLT and have never regretted it. Sure, it shoulda been Shirley Bassey singing rather than Nancy... We can assume Dad heard through the grapevine that something special was in the works and made a few phone calls. Note the respectably nasty fuzztone guitar of the main theme starting under the first verse: This was 1967, when Hendrix came back to the States. But John Barry really nailed it; He knew he had nothing to fear from the psychedlic children.

I can take you to the precise theater seat in which I first heard that melody... When you're 8 years old, you're defenseless to Hollywood's bullshit. ("James Bond is a secret agent! He gets to kiss pretty girls! He flies with a jetpack!") But a melody as strong as that one from Barry makes some of the movie bullshit forgivable. (And have you seen that thing lately? Next time time it's on, look for the stock shot of flowing volcano lava as the Villain's Secret Underground Lair is overpowered by Bond and his Ninjas... There's a lot of bullshit to forgive.)

Instrumental versions are often good or better. This is OK, Mancini's (I think) was stronger. In 1981, I was nearly reduced to tears over a breakfast plate of shabby pancakes and peppered scrambled's at a Howard Johnson's when a Muzak rendition caught me off guard.

It's indestructible: Even goofballs can't hurt it. (Note that these pigeon-toed, voice-cracking nancy-boys end their show with Bond's two-chord power vamp; A clever guy would say something about how Connery was Britain's last shamelessly masculine exemplar. And he was fictional. Hello, David Bowie!)


Barry gave YOLT a sister movie theme that's just as sturdy. (Crunch bass guitar! 1969!)

(And yes, you're right: DAF is a real contender.)

This was intense, too.

(The gawdawful scene it was written for)