“My great-grandparents’ generation said, ‘Learn English, don’t speak Basque.’ But my mom’s generation worked to get Basque back,” says one musician in Boise, Idaho.
We explain why one corner of the state will forever be north-east Spain https://t.co/74AzsrKhQh
Superglue on asphalt forms one of the strongest improvised bonds a human can make, and the chemistry explains why German police now carry cooking oil, paintbrushes, and power drills.
Cyanoacrylate needs moisture to cure. Your palm supplies it perfectly. Trace water on skin triggers polymerization in seconds, and the glue chains bond directly to skin proteins. Asphalt does the other half of the work. The surface is porous, so liquid glue seeps into thousands of tiny cavities before hardening. Once cured, you have a chemical bond on the skin side and a mechanical anchor on the road side.
Pulling straight up doesn't break the glue. It breaks your skin.
So police developed a counter. Cyanoacrylate resists water but yields to oil. Officers pour cooking oil around the hand and work it under the edges with paintbrushes, letting it creep into the bond line until the grip fails. The process can take an hour per hand, and the residue needs about a day to fully wash off.
Then activists escalated. During the 2023 Berlin blockades, one protester used a formulation that olive and sunflower oil couldn't dissolve. Police worked on him for over an hour, gave up on solvents, and drilled out the tarmac around his hand with a power drill and crowbar. He left the road with a slab of asphalt still attached to his palm.
That escalation reveals the real design of the tactic. The glue buys time. Every minute of chemistry is a minute of blocked road and rolling cameras.
Hold on let me put on my bulwark hat and make a very serious scowling face to show that we are suddenly serious about this guy that we thought could be the 2028 fucking presidential nominee.
One of the most pronounced themes of JD Vance's new book is that he does not understand economics, and it leads him to really, really despise economists.
We can’t complain about female characters being “girl bosses” and then complain when a female character is flawed and often loses.
The show goes out its way to show Rhaenyra is out of her depth. She’s not a good queen and it’s obvious she’s not going to win in the end.
"The Bible contains the most profound Philosophy, the most perfect Morality, and the most refined Policy, that was ever conceived upon Earth."
—President John Adams