And buckyballs tried making them taste bad, but it wasn't enough to satisfy everyone.

Jesus, is there something still not banned in the USA? Except from guns, I mean.

Just for clarity: what exactly "banned" means here? Is it illegal to produce them? To sell them on the territory of USA? To buy them? Is it ok for me as a USA citizen order them, say, from China? Would I be arrested if I was seen playing with a set of buckyballs in the Central Park?

The article mentions the problem that the product was labeled ‘Ages 13+’ which contradicts some guidelines that obligate to label such products as ‘Ages 14+’. Does that mean that Buckyballs can be simply relabeled with appropriate caption and continue to be selled?

What it actually means to "ban" something at all?

You know it's funny, living now in China sometimes it feels a lot more free than the US. You can drink, smoke and piss anywhere, and you can go and buy basically whatever you want (except drugs), drive any way you want - as long as you're not really bothering other people no one really cares. It helps that the cops are more bored teenagers and less ex military assholes waiting to blow some holes in some meatbag. It's s bit of a free for all and sometimes it feels like a bit of fresh air

Like sure you can't talk about a few things or criticize the gov't, but I have better things to do anyways

I feel like people don't appreciate this enough. It's kinda refreshing not having to follow so many rules and laws, a more laid back society is better for your mind.

Though the US isn't that bad - most of the time, what you said also applies...

Same in southern Europe, except that criticizing the government is a national pastime here.

Exactly how I feel about living in China also.

While neither is ideal, from a purely practical point of view I'd much rather live in a society where you can freely criticize the government but some products (that are about as far off the needs hierarchy as you can get in this case) are not allowed to be sold for "nanny state" danger reasons.

Again, neither is my ideal, but greater freedom of speech wins for me every time (by a landslide).

"Like sure you can't talk about a few things or criticize the gov't"

That doesn't often work out so well.

A bunch of people noticed children getting serious internal injuries, requiring surgery, and asked the manfs to stop selling them as a toy for children, and to put bigger warnings on.

For a while the manufacturer ignored those requests, until people decided they'd had enough and moved to ban them. By that time light touch regulation had clearly failed, so people weren't keen on giving the manufacturer much of a second chance.

I'm pretty sure they are banned from being sold as toys. One can still buy neodymium magnetic beads from US resellers or import them if inclined to do so.