Adhesives

The earliest adhesives appear to be plant resins (also known as “tree sap”), crushed and allowed to cure as the moisture evaporates out. Such glues are surprisingly good, since they’re basically doing what they evolved to do: congeal and hold things together. According to the internets there are glues dating back to 70,000BCE, which consist of powdered stone (ochre) mixed with resin.

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An Easy Piece

This was a really quick build. I completed the top part and the sides, then let it age against a wall for nearly a year, while I more or less decided that the problem it was intended to help with was endemic and it was no use to finish and install.

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An Oldie

Back in the mid 90s I had an unusual experience, in which I was caught in the blast-corona of Operation Sundevil – the Secret Service’s attempt to gain relevance in cybersecurity [wik]. My role was small but it made me realize that the government, at that time, was ignorant enough that they could easily be stampeded into doing stupid things, a form of “terrorism by stupid cop” which I later re-framed as “a denial of clue attack.”

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Mouse

I used to follow Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books, until I tired of them. They’re puffalicious, but they remind me too much of S.M. Brust’s condensed sci-fi con conversations, and they just started to sound self-similar.

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