Using .find_by_sql for database/admin queries

I want to create an internal admin view to display the output of "show variables" from mysql. What's the best approach do this?

For example, I'm doing something like this:

  @variables = ActiveRecord::Base.find_by_sql "show variables;"

Then, I get stuff like this back (227 elements in @variables) in script/console:

>> @variables[0] => #<ActiveRecord::Base:0x3296eec @attributes={"Variable_name"=>"auto_increment_increment", "Value"=>"1"}>

However, I'm not sure how to get Variable_name and Value; do I access this as a Hash element? An attribute?

What happens if you do:

@variables[0][:Variable_name] @variables[0][:Value]

?