What dreams may come in the days without toy safety regulations., Atomic Energy Labs and Cap Guns Options

[Crusher Bob]

And why bother giving you kids some whimpy air gun to kill ye local devil rats with when a slightly used AK-97 is available for basically the same price?

[hyzmarca]

And why bother giving you kids some whimpy air gun to kill ye local devil rats with when a slightly used AK-97 is available for basically the same price?

To teach marksmanship by encouraging them to make called shots to increase damage.

[hobgoblin]

or one can hunt birds with 88's (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[The Neutronium A...]

Which has the advantage that when you collect your target it will be plucked, tenderised and cooked.

[Draco18s]

Which has the advantage that when you collect your target it will be plucked, tenderised and cooked.

Nono, that's what Dragonbreath rounds are for.

[hyzmarca]

#2 Major corporations may very well be forced to obey the law, but they also have a hand in making the law.

Case in point: the Daisy Outdoor Products corporation which manufactures virtually all domestically produced BB guns was instrumental in passing legislation requiring an orange or red barrel on all toy guns or replicas imported into the country. That means that when I purchased my fully automatic electric airsoft rifle from China (Japan doesn't sell them directly to the States) it came with a removable orange barrel tip installed and a free matte black barrel tip included. Why does Daisy give a damn about airsoft rifles so much that they spent time and money getting a law passed that required airsoft rifles to have orange barrels? Because it helps them retain their commanding position in the domestic BB gun market.

Something very funny and incredibly tragic, that I've just learned doing research on this. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, an 1100 page law that no one who passed it actually read, requires that all children's product manufacturers and importers in the USA test all of their products for lead using government-certified independent laboratories. It's a knee-jerk reaction to the Chinese lead toy scare a while back. And it's as stupid as it is devastating.
You see, the problem is that testing a toy for lead at an independent government-certified laboratory costs about $1500. That's a lot of money. Huge manufactures who churn at toys the tens of thousands at a time aren't going to suffer that much, because they only have to test one sample per batch. Smaller manufacturers, on the other hand, are going to be hurt. And the worst off are those manufacturers of customized and handmade toys. Since each of their items is unique, each has to be tested separately. Any hand-carved wooden toy being sold for less than $1500 is certain to be in violation of the law, which when into effect Feburary 10th, as are any small production run items that aren't absurdly expensive.

Another really funny part is thrift stores and second hand stores. You see, thirft stores don't have to test used items that they sell, but failing to do so opens them up to criminal liability if one of the items that they sell fails to comply with regulations. This essentially outlaws reselling of used children's products, simply because no second-hand store is going to take such a huge risk. And it damages public libraries and used book stores, as well, by making them liable for any children's books that they stock that haven't been tested for lead.

http://overlawyered.com/2009/01/cpsia-furo...comment-page-1/
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/runni...mer_produc.html
http://heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com/...ecord-more.html
http://www.blogher.com/cpsia-impact-small-...e-tagging/cpsia

This law is the type that the megas would support. It puts all of their small competitors out of business, while their extra costs can be passed along to the consumers. How much more money will huge clothing manufacturers make now that poor parents can't buy used clothing for their children and are forced to spend full retail price? A great deal. The manufacturers don't make any money on sales of used items, after all, so this is pure win for them on that front. And less poor but more hippy-ish parents who like to buy pure natural handmade stuff for their kids are also now forced to go mass produced route, further increasing the market share of the major manufacturers.

Those sleazy greedy capitalists are smart. They get a law passed that destroys the vast majority of their competition, and they get the government to propagandize to make anyone who opposes the law seem like a sleazy greedy capitalist. It's ingenious. At this point, I'm of the opinion that the importation of lead-containing toys from China was not an accident or an oversight, but an intentional sacrifice on the part of the toy manufacturers to create enough public outrage to set this law into motion. It makes sense for a shadowrun, a megacorp sabotaging it's own products in order to get safety regulations that don't impact it significantly but which destroy it's non-mega competition.

[ludomastro]

I think the lawyers are just a symptom of a larger 'disease'. Instead of being responsible, raising your kids, and teaching them common sense (which was VERY common once, keep in mind the definition of common sense (in my 1953 Websters) is: The minimum amount of intelligence necessary to survive an average day), it's much easier to blame the people who made the product and forgot to remind you not to let your kid put the plastic bag over his face. Like... uh... DUH!

But hey, I grew up on a farm. If you lived or worked on a farm and had no common sense, you didn't survive long enough grow up, even in the 1980s.

Hear, hear! I also grew up on a farm, disappeared for hours on end, fired weapons, built firework scale bombs (and burned my hands) and basically behaved like a kid. I only hope that I can give my kids as much of that as possible but with the ever helpful government string over my shoulder, we'll see.

[Tiger Eyes]

I grew up on a horse ranch. But I now have children of my own. And let me tell you, 4 year old boys try to kill themselves every single day. Oh, sure, they're cute and cuddly to start. Then they learn to crawl. And get fine motor skills to put small things in their mouths to choke on... like little tiny rocks in the lawn. Did you know that the entire outdoors is a giant choking hazard??? When is the government going to do something about all those rocks, and pinecones, and... things dogs leave behind??? Then they start to walk. Five minutes after they learn to walk, they start to run, and about 3 seconds later (or 1 combat turn), that is followed by running into the street. This is why they created leashes for toddlers. (Toddlers? That's a misnomer. They start at drunken-stumbling and move straight to 'runs faster than a grown adult') And then they do things like try to ride their bikes under a cross-tied horse. (I can only assume they don't ride their bikes under non-tied horses 'cause the horse moves faster than a bike-with-training wheels.) I'm not sure when common-sense develops, but I can tell you, it isn't by the age of 4.

Small children are dangers to themselves. I am continually amazed the human race survived past the first generation. And yes, my parents let me do things I'll never let my kids do... like let a 10 year old girl spend a day by herself in downtown Portland, wearing nothing but a swimsuit (so I could play in the fountains) and with a brown bag lunch. I'm pretty sure they told me not to talk to the bums sleeping in the parks... In fact, looking back on it, I'm pretty surprised I survived childhood. And I was a sensible child (if a sensible child gets on their horse, rides bareback out into BLM land, wearing no shoes and with no food/water, gets lost, and figures that horses can find their way home... at least once a week. On the bright side, my horse did learn to find his way home once it got dark.)...

[Draco18s]

Oh, small children yes. It's the 10+ year olds that should know better.

[ravensmuse]

hyz: There was a news report in my local area about that law. At least in Massachusetts they're allowing smaller businesses some flex time to figure out ways around the law. From what I understand, the law has enough loopholes that they should be able to get around it, but they're still petitioning the Mass state government hardcore to get changes and allowances for them. I thought it was just a Mass law though (which wouldn't surprise me).

You wanna hear funny? I live close to the New Hampshire border and almost everyone up here goes into NH to shop because they don't have state tax there. Our local governor is pissed about this, and he's trying to make NH businesses charge us Mass people more because we're not buying in the state and thus circumventing our sales tax. How are they going to know we're from Mass? How are they going to differentiate us from the NH folk? Who's going to be benefiting from this, really? It's greed plain and simple.

Tiger Eyes: sounds like you had one hell of a childhood.

We had one kid in my neighborhood that we used to call Danger Mouse, because he was a damn daredevil. He had a big wheel and he was always trying some new stunt with it. His favorite was riding them down steep hills - though I'll own up to having stolen one of those Playskool scooters and riding them down the very same hills when I was younger - and riding them under mailboxes. That kid got more injuries in a week than I think I ever did.

Then again, I was the kid who used to try to pull down trees in the woods with rope. And the very same kid who tried to go headfirst down a hill on a sled and ended up going right into a boulder..

[BIG BAD BEESTE]

Don't forget that kids are virtually indestructable due to the fact that they have no concept of their mortality. As soon as you acquire that you start to play it cautious, which then makes you realise the dangers and thus invoke them into happening. The thing is, you can't supervise your kids 24 hours a day non-stop. Blink and you'll miss the next new danger they're courting - them being quiet is the main warning sign. However, you can't shut them off from all possible dangers - if you try then they'll have no experiences of danger to draw upon to prevent worse things from happening when they're older.

Totally agree about legislation being over the top these days. Damn, but did I enjoy making bows and suchlike as a kid (didn't have access to guns here in the UK). Learnt a hell of a lot about the outdoors and farms and their dangers living in a village and because my parents took us out regularly on country excursions etc. Taught us the Green Cross and Country Codes as well as ensuring we could swim at an early age. Heh, almost gave my gran a heart-attack when I fell off a pier into the channel at 8.

[Gawdzilla]

Explain how Stephen Hawking is useful? Quantum physics has effectively proven science and the quest for knowledge to be futile. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I hope you're joking! Take a class in physical chemistry, and then tell me that quantum physics says that knowledge is futile.
Quantum mechanics is the branch of physics governing chemistry, nuclear physics, radioactive decay, and countless other phenomena that make everything from TVs to flash memory work.

[nylanfs]

Idiocracy with Luke Wilson, absolutely brilliant movie. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Rad]

I hope you're joking! Take a class in physical chemistry, and then tell me that quantum physics says that knowledge is futile.
Quantum mechanics is the branch of physics governing chemistry, nuclear physics, radioactive decay, and countless other phenomena that make everything from TVs to flash memory work.

I've studied physics for most of my life, quite intently. I own more physics textbooks than is strictly sane. I didn't claim that physics says knowledge is futile, I said it shows the quest for knowledge to be futile, because it is impossible to actually know anything--you can only guess or assume.

If you follow the theories and principles of quantum physics to their conclusion, it essentially states that reality does not exist. It's too much of a pain in the ass to go into, but there's a shortcut: The scientific method itself also infers that physics is pointless bullshit.

The core principle of scientific study is the collection empirical evidence, but observing this evidence requires senses that cannot be tested or verified adequately. Ultimately, all scientific "evidence" is reliant on faith in one's perceptions, which is a scientifically unsound basis.

Science destroys itself. It's a faith-based religion whose god is logic, that is built upon a logical fallacy.

Feel free to use denial to spare yourself the sanity loss, most physicists do. Personally, I find the abyss comforting. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[hobgoblin]

well i find the idea that something is testable, and repeatable, preferable to some book, or old man, claiming that "this is how it works, and thats that, mkay"...

[Rad]

Oh, I agree. Rather than having to trust your senses and the book/old man/book and the old man who wrote it, you only have to trust your senses. Then again, how many of us have personally performed all the experiments our current understanding of physics is based on?

We're still trusting old men and their books, until we repeat the experiment ourselves and understand the results--then we're just trusting our un-testable perceptions. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[hobgoblin]

sounds like its time to light that pipe, no? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/silly.gif)

[Rad]

Nah, sleep deprivation is my mind-fragger of choice. That and good booze. Makes it easier to cope with a world that technically doesn't exist. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[AllTheNothing]

i dont have a problem with them surviving, the problem is breeding and getting into positions of power...

Giorgio Camminatore Cespuglio?
Oh come on, after all you've elected him just twice; just try to figure how deep in the dreck we Italians are:
We've elected Silvio (and screwed ourselves over doing so) for the tird time, viva la Banana Repubblic!!!!

[AllTheNothing]

I've studied physics for most of my life, quite intently. I own more physics textbooks than is strictly sane. I didn't claim that physics says knowledge is futile, I said it shows the quest for knowledge to be futile, because it is impossible to actually know anything--you can only guess or assume.

If you follow the theories and principles of quantum physics to their conclusion, it essentially states that reality does not exist. It's too much of a pain in the ass to go into, but there's a shortcut: The scientific method itself also infers that physics is pointless bullshit.

The core principle of scientific study is the collection empirical evidence, but observing this evidence requires senses that cannot be tested or verified adequately. Ultimately, all scientific "evidence" is reliant on faith in one's perceptions, which is a scientifically unsound basis.

Science destroys itself. It's a faith-based religion whose god is logic, that is built upon a logical fallacy.

Feel free to use denial to spare yourself the sanity loss, most physicists do. Personally, I find the abyss comforting. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

You know, I had the dubious pleasure of knowing a man who hadn't even managed finished the elementary school and was proud of it, he said that he already knew all that was necessary to know and that the time spent reading was just wasted (I wonder if when he got employed he just signed the contract without reading, hell I wonder if he even knows how to write his name); he was so sure of his own "knowledge" that he refused to aknowledge anything that didn't conform his vision of the world, even if proved in his presence.
After having met a such living monument to ignorance it's heartwarming to know that there are people like you around. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Rad]

Warming people's hearts? That's a new one for me. Usually I seem to inspire an entirely different type of reaction...

...usually one involving pitchforks and nooses. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[hobgoblin]

Giorgio Camminatore Cespuglio?
Oh come on, after all you've elected him just twice; just try to figure how deep in the dreck we Italians are:
We've elected Silvio (and screwed ourselves over doing so) for the tird time, viva la Banana Repubblic!!!!

sorry, wrong contry. try norway (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[AllTheNothing]

sorry, wrong contry. try norway (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Can I wait summer to try?
It looks like it's fragging cold in Norway right now.

P.S. I would take Norway's goverment over Berlusca in a heartbeat anyway.

[Draco18s]

Can I wait summer to try?
It looks like it's fragging cold in Norway right now.

It's always fragging cold in Norway. That's why all the Norwegian immigrants cluster around Minnesota.

[AllTheNothing]

It's always fragging cold in Norway. That's why all the Norwegian immigrants cluster around Minnesota.

Why? Wouldn't Hawaii be more attractive?