this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025
739 points (98.7% liked)
196
3677 readers
1396 users here now
Community Rules
You must post before you leave
Be nice. Assume others have good intent (within reason).
Block or ignore posts, comments, and users that irritate you in some way rather than engaging. Report if they are actually breaking community rules.
Use content warnings and/or mark as NSFW when appropriate. Most posts with content warnings likely need to be marked NSFW.
Most 196 posts are memes, shitposts, cute images, or even just recent things that happened, etc. There is no real theme, but try to avoid posts that are very inflammatory, offensive, very low quality, or very "off topic".
Bigotry is not allowed, this includes (but is not limited to): Homophobia, Transphobia, Racism, Sexism, Abelism, Classism, or discrimination based on things like Ethnicity, Nationality, Language, or Religion.
Avoid shilling for corporations, posting advertisements, or promoting exploitation of workers.
Proselytization, support, or defense of authoritarianism is not welcome. This includes but is not limited to: imperialism, nationalism, genocide denial, ethnic or racial supremacy, fascism, Nazism, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, etc.
Avoid AI generated content.
Avoid misinformation.
Avoid incomprehensible posts.
No threats or personal attacks.
No spam.
Moderator Guidelines
Moderator Guidelines
- Don’t be mean to users. Be gentle or neutral.
- Most moderator actions which have a modlog message should include your username.
- When in doubt about whether or not a user is problematic, send them a DM.
- Don’t waste time debating/arguing with problematic users.
- Assume the best, but don’t tolerate sealioning/just asking questions/concern trolling.
- Ask another mod to take over cases you struggle with, if you get tired, or when things get personal.
- Ask the other mods for advice when things get complicated.
- Share everything you do in the mod matrix, both so several mods aren't unknowingly handling the same issues, but also so you can receive feedback on what you intend to do.
- Don't rush mod actions. If a case doesn't need to be handled right away, consider taking a short break before getting to it. This is to say, cool down and make room for feedback.
- Don’t perform too much moderation in the comments, except if you want a verdict to be public or to ask people to dial a convo down/stop. Single comment warnings are okay.
- Send users concise DMs about verdicts about them, such as bans etc, except in cases where it is clear we don’t want them at all, such as obvious transphobes. No need to notify someone they haven’t been banned of course.
- Explain to a user why their behavior is problematic and how it is distressing others rather than engage with whatever they are saying. Ask them to avoid this in the future and send them packing if they do not comply.
- First warn users, then temp ban them, then finally perma ban them when they break the rules or act inappropriately. Skip steps if necessary.
- Use neutral statements like “this statement can be considered transphobic” rather than “you are being transphobic”.
- No large decisions or actions without community input (polls or meta posts f.ex.).
- Large internal decisions (such as ousting a mod) might require a vote, needing more than 50% of the votes to pass. Also consider asking the community for feedback.
- Remember you are a voluntary moderator. You don’t get paid. Take a break when you need one. Perhaps ask another moderator to step in if necessary.
founded 5 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'm British the entire conversation is deeply offensive to my people. Microwaving??? Putting mugs on a stove??? I am appalled!
I don't even understand how that could work, surely a standard mug would break one way or another if you just stick it on the stove?
Porcelain has very good temperature shock resistance, stoneware quite good, earthenware bad. Your standard mug should be stoneware and take it just fine. There's even stoneware pots.
The issue is rather that you shouldn't use standard electric stoves with too small pots, on gas I guess that's half-sensible but you'd be left with a charred mug that's way too hot.
How about a fucking $15 electric kettle? I don't understand the need to complicate things so much.
OK so the mug acts like a small pot, but isn't the handle also crazy hot then?
Just thinking about it makes me want to go and lovingly stroke my kettle
On that note, as someone from a commonwealth nation, I was deeply appalled during the height of the pandemic when kettles couldn't be purchased here as they weren't considered 'essential items'.
That's a travesty, they're the backbone of the country
One reason that some Americans microwave water rather than use a kettle is that our electricity is half the power of UK electricity. It takes a lot longer for an electric kettle to boil here. That said, I do use a kettle when boiling water for tea.
What a bullshit excuse. I'm in Canada with exactly the same 110v power, and it takes very little time to kettle water. People say this all the time as some sort of justification, but it just isn't.
Wow, that was a little strong given the subject. I'm not sure what I did to deserve being cussed at when I was just talking about electric kettles. Especially since I said I do use a kettle myself.
When I went, if I ever saw one it was the equivalent of those cheap travel kettles. I think the average person there just doesn't use it enough to justify getting a good one.
We have a Zojirushi. 120V does limit it somewhat, but it's fine.
The water in our area of country is also hard as shit. We have undersink RO now, but before then, mineral buildup in the kettle was bad. Crusted like concrete if we didn't stay on top of it.
...softeners are essential in aquifer country; our zojirushi served us well for a decade but after our whole-house filter blew out a couple of years ago i'm starting to see iron deposits despite the softener...
US water softeners are usually only on the hot pipe. They tend to add sodium to the water, and it's not recommended to make it your primary drinking water source.
...nope, we installed ours on the full water supply: it's essential here or plumbing fixtures will fail...a properly designed softener won't add significant salt to your potable water since the brine flushes clear after each recharge cycle...
Our electricity is 120v here in the US, so kettles take forever
For extremely small values of 'forever'
US outlet is 120V@20A = 2.4kW UK outlet is 230V@13A = 3.0kW
It's a 15% difference based on possible power draw.
Anecdotally the stove will still take many times longer. Even compared to induction my kettle is faster.
My guess is that in the UK/EU it's not common to have powerful microwaves?
Most residential outlets in the US are going to be a 15A limit. You also have to reduce that by 20% for a continuous draw.
UK might be able to get away with the full usage because their plugs are designed to have a fuse built in. Not entirely sure on that, though.
That said, kettles are still a better option most of the time. Technology Connections has real world tests of this.
Yeah, makes sense. The statement that "half the voltage is half the power" is what started me from another reply. Then this was the next one.
Do microwaves have some magic efficiency trick that lets them produce heat faster from the same exact energy? Like, how do they manage to be more than 100% efficient?
Microwave magnetron efficiency is around 65%. Since a kettle turns electricity directly into heat, it's basically 100% efficient.
A caveat is that microwaves will heat water directly and won't lose as much to its surroundings. This is similar to why induction stoves are more efficient; they're less efficient on paper than direct electric heating or burning gas, but they heat the thing you want in a more direct way.
Even so, a microwave isn't great for this task. If you're short on space and don't want even a small travel kettle, I can see why you'd take this option. Otherwise, no.
They don't, kettles just aren't that much more efficient at 120v. Like a kettle will still be faster, just not by enough for people to care.
Microwaves are designed to heat water molecules. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven
They are, in fact, designed to resuscitate frozen hamsters.
...i don't think you should drink that; it looks bad for you...