Help save the Buckyballs!
No, not the molecule. Last I heard that needed no saving. I’m talking about the nerdy magnetic executive toy. The fedgov is trying to ban it because … erm, people might feed it to their children?
The company has repeatedly challenged Scott Wolfson, communications director of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, to debate Buckyballs CEO Craig Zucker live on TV. Mr. Wolfson having ignored the challenge, Zucker is now offering to defeat Wolfson in an arm-wrestling contest. (H/T S)
I bought 625 of them today. Awesome deal!
625? Good heavens. You’re certainly doing your bit. 🙂
If you don’t buy BuckeyBalls, the
terroristsgovernment wins.The Buckyball “Save our balls!” campaign is a great example of using market forces to fight overweening government. They are using the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect; the harder the feds crack down, the more publicity and sales for Buckyballs, and the more resources they have to challenge this attempt to stifle commerce between informed and consenting adults.
“Living Freedom” is living up to its name – leading by example in this case.
Since the Buckyballs are magnetic, if a child swallows some it should be easy to treat. Just put a magnet on a string, have the child swallow it, pull it back up with the buckyball bits stuck to the magnet. Stupid CPSC.
Uhhhh, Matt. I’m assuming you’re joking. But if not …
Aside from the perils of having your child swallow a magnet on a string, let alone pullling it back up, it’s a bit more complicated than that. If a child just swallowed a single magnet, it would probably be better just to let it come out the other end naturally (I’m not a medical professional — just a former child who once or twice ate indigestible objects).
The BuckyBall magnets are very strong, and the problem comes when a kid (or a pet) eats more than one and the magnets get into the intestines. They can then cause real (including fatal) havoc by blocking intestinal function.
Still … stupid CPSC. The real solution is for adults to keep dangerous thing away from kids young enough to swallow them.
-S — Yep. Using market forces AND mockery, even better.
You’re the one who brought this to my attention, so any credit goes to you. But the more I think about the idea that it’s now acceptable to ban — by fiat, yet — any product just because a handful of people have misused it, the more appalled I am. Aside from being anti-freedom, this is truly infantilizing.
The problem is if swallowed the magnets can pinch the intestines closed. Solution is don’t give them to kids or the feeble minded eg. politico’s. or regulators.
I bought a set and might buy more for Christmas presents. It’s affordable, and I like the responses of people with nervous habits saying it relieved their symptoms.
But really, I bought them to spite regulators….I bet someone squealed on someone in the CPSC for having Buckyballs and now they don’t want anyone else to have them….:P
I never heard of Buckyballs before today, but I have to say that my best stress-reliever is a smooth, cool, all-black, flat oval stone that I rub while drinking a cup of tea. Cheap too; I found it lying around a construction site.
Pat, that stone is probably carcinogenic. Don’t let the CPSC know you have it.
As I understand it, one magnet isn’t too much of a problem if swallowed. It’s when there’s 2 magnets, or a magnet and a piece of metal, that the trouble starts. The 2 pieces can end up in different parts before they attract each other, resulting in part of the digestive tract caught between them.
Okay, since Ya’ll insist I won’t feed the grandkids magnets on a string, or bubkyballs. However, if one of them swallows a fly….
The CPS banning always reminds me of the Burger-Meister-Meister-Burger in the classic Santa Clause is Coming to Town. He got hurt by a toy so no kids could have a toy.