Sometimes economic and political tensions go beyond the boiling point and lead to full-scale riots.

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Almost halfway through his one-year deployment, McCary reached a boiling point.

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More dangerous still, she's capable of boiling a breakfast egg to the point of what Jean-Louis considers perfection.

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He is with ModerateVoters.org, based in Irvine, California, and he says the Militant Middle started growing and coalescing around a broad slogan of "Throw the bums out" long before the Tea Party even started brewing -- and now it's reached a boiling point.

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Battle would surely have been joined by others - and an already hostile atmosphere inside The Stadium of Light could have reached boiling point.

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The anti-cashists have escalated this sad drama to a point where it has become like boiling a frog.

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But eventually, each atom encounters a plate at a temperature lower than its boiling point, at which point it sticks to the plate, just as water freezes when poured on to dry-ice.

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