Violating Federal Law:
It is, I am informed on the warning label, a violation of federal law to use my new bottle of Fantastik™ brand heavy-duty kitchen cleaner "in a manner inconsistent with these directions." Really?! So if I don't shake well before use, or I use on porous materials, I'm violating federal law? I've started noticing this little tagline on lots and lots of labels for lots and lots of products (I'm something of a compulsive label-reader) -- does anyone know what federal law they're talking about?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inhalant
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/about/index.htm
Actually, what you'll get is Nitrogen Tricloride, which is too unstable to be used as a WMD; it will precipitate out of the liquid as a yellowish gel, and is so unstable that even loud sound waves or a gentle touch can set it off, even when wet. The chemist who discovered it lost three fingers in the process. You are much better off mixing ammonia with tincture of iodine, which will produce a much safer contact explosive, Nitrogen TriIodide, a reddish brown precipitate that is perfectly safe when wet, but when it dries completely it can be set off by a touch, or even loud soundwaves. Not really a WMD, but great for schoolboy pranks (paint it while wet onto those old black Toilet seats you can still find in some older schools - first one to sit on it after it dries will get a most unpleasant surprise!)
Pool cleaner mixed with anything strongly organic will produce fire and chlorine gas...brake fluid works extremely well.
I mean, unless you are in the Central District of California.
For more on this, see Prof. Volokh's article in the Stanford Law Review on Crime-Facilitating Speech.
Actually, you can remove it. The seller can't.
The point of the law is to require disclosure of the materials, so consumers know whether they're getting a mattress or pillow stuffed with new material, or one with recycled material that could contain vermin.
The relevant statute is 15 USC 70c.
I'm curious why this question is formulated in the singular rather than the plural. Is there any doubt that several could be found to apply if need be?
I also wondered what "inconsistent with this labeling" really means.
That might get more attention.
"I always thought the Volokh Conspiracy was a good name. I didn't realize the commenters were *serious*. Muriatic acid (werx toilet bowl cleaner) plus tin foil in a closed container = werx bomb. Growing up on a farm is fun."
I'm sure it's a violation of federal law to ask this, but: Do you mean real TIN (Sn) foil or common aluminum foil? Also, what's the mechanism here - gas pressure buildup?
When I was a kid growing up in Boston - a couple of blocks from what is now Senator Kerry's town house - we used to drop bits of aluminum into a lye and water solution; this was mixed in a glass quart ginger ale bottle (it gets hot!) and along with the heat, releases lots of hydrogen gas which we would collect in a balloon held over the bottle neck. The balloon, when full, would be released with a fuse attached to drift over Beacon Hill and explode a few hundred feet up. I don't suppose anyone ever noticed, but it made us feel gloriously naughty.
Now, if we had thought to tie on some streamers of aluminum foil instead, we might have had fighter planes coming to investigate, this being the hot part of the Cold War....
Just remember, we're all grownups now, and we're not supposed to do this sort of thing....it was fun, though....
We tried it once with powdered aluminum and quickly decided that probably wasn't a good idea after the flask more or less exploded and spewed HCl over our lab station and the stations on either side.
Oh high school...
It was also possible to get military air bases really excited about UFO's with hot air balloons dangling aluminum foil strips. And very, very easy.
Get a pair of foot long balsa strips and glue them together in a X with a nail through the center. Stick a light weight, but not small, candle on the nail. Glue some foot long aluminum foil strips to the balsa X. Glue the ends of the balsa X to the four corners of ye olde plastic laundry bag.
Voila! A small and, at night, invisible hot air balloon which produces a relatively large radar reflection, at least at close range.
Go to a military air base and find a spot as close as possible to the one of the runways which also lets you escape by vehicle real fast. Wait until midnight. Fluff the laundry bag open, ignite candle and wait for the balloon to take off. Then get out of there.
The close-in invisible balloon (emphasis on aluminum foil strips dangling from it) wafting to and fro in the breeze a mile or so from the base's traffic control radar will seem, on the radar, to be a larger UFO much farther away darting around at incredible accelerations and speeds.
I can hear them black helicopters now.
I recommend a coffee can, looks like a propane torch with a very large aperture.
Substitute Pepsi for the brake fluid and you get a very nice volcano. Best done outside.
>seem, on the radar, to be a larger
>UFO much farther away...
I'm guessing this won't work the way you're expecting it to given that RADAR stands for Radio Detection And RANGING
Also, it takes 10 garbage bags of helium to lift a (safely tethered) obnoxious little dog off the ground.
That depends on the unit. Computers have made the things much, much better than they were 35-40 years ago.
1. Evevything that is not mandatory is prohibited.
2. It is prohibited to lie to a governmment investigator.
3. It is prohibited not to answer questions of a government investigator.
4. It is prohibited to seek redress against a government investigator who violates your rights.
5. All government employees and contractors are investigators.
6. It is forbidden to privately prosecute a public right.
7. It is forbidden for a private person to take a complaint to a grand jury and receive an indictment authorizing him to conduct a private criminal prosecution.
8. It is forbidden to inform members of a trial jury that the charge is unconstitutional.
9. It is forbidden to demand that official acts be presumed unlawful until proved lawful.
10. It is forbidden to seek or get remedies from government officials.
11. It is forbidden to win in court without being represented by an expensive member of a profession whose members are under threat of removal from that profession if they challenge corrupt or abusive practices of government that threaten powerful interests.
12. It is forbidden to present proof that government witnesses are lying, or that the judge is lying about what the law is.
Every one of the above can be found in many actual cases.
Now I remember how it worked - spoofing the radar operators into wrong assumptions. They'd get a large enough radar reflection up close, apparently on or just beyond the runway, to indicate it should be something visually observeable, but couldn't see anything visually because the puppy was so tiny. So they'd assume equipment error and that it was a really big object farther away, and one behaving exactly like a classic UFO.
F-4 Phantoms scrambling at night on full afterburner produced a really awesome tail flame.
It probably couldn't work these days due to computers improving the radar readings, and really good night vision equipment.
Oven cleaner works great for that as long as you don't leave the plastic parts in there for too long.
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