The builder of this new home explained to me that he KNEW the county building inspector and that the ducting was OK with him (the county inspector). The photos connect: the second photo is the same duct run that exits the left side of the first one. Such an egregious violation of a basic principal of physics-that ducting should decrease in size as more ducts are tapped from the same supply (to maintain pressure within the system)-was subservient to the law of commerce. The Rule here: What Home Depot has in stock is what gets used. Oh well, at least the air gets into the home and not the back yard.