h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Or is it illegal to play in front of a camera? You decide.

Oh, that is not a petty hate of mine. That one is quite serious. I fully understand the concern with pedos taking pictures for their prurient interests, but taking pictures of children playing in parks should not be forbidden. One of my favorite pictures I took on my trip to England in 1985 was of school kids playing. (Specifically, this one http://goo.gl/photos/T4ro76RkvrzUw3xcA )

If you don't get a sense of joy from seeing such a scene, there's something wrong with you. To ban such photography would be a travesty. I think you can deal with truly "improper photography" without blanket banning men with cameras in public parks.


We have a very reactionary culture these days, a paranoid reaction to things that typically aren't as widespread or threatening as portrayed in the public press. I see these "improper photography" bans as a misguided reaction to a rather limited problem. Yes, there are predators out there. But there are methods to deal with them other than banning every man with a camera from any public place with children.

Sadly, she probably believes that absolutely.

And that the EU banned straight bananas.

PP.

Okay, so you got a clock on the oven. That at least makes sense, you need to know how long you're cooking something.

You also put a clock on the microwave. Perfectly logical, you need the number pad there anyway so what does it hurt to put the clock there?

But they always put the microwave Right. Above. The Oven. So you now have two identical clocks barely a foot away from each other!!! As if society's constant obsession with what time it is wasn't enough....

"What does it hurt to put the clock there?"

The clock on a microwave oven uses more power than the oven does heating food. While it may only use 1% of the energy as the oven's magnetron does while in use, the clock is ALWAYS on. It's an energy vampire. So many of our modern devices are never really turned off. It's understandable with things like satellite/cable receivers/DVRs that are programmable to record shows while you're away. And we're increasingly using remote controls for devices and they need to be on stand-by to receive the remote signal. (My ceiling fans now use remote controls. I get it. This way you don't need to run wires in or outside the walls, but still. But someone please explain why my car radio needs a remote?) But I'm going to look wide and far to find a microwave that doesn't have a clock next time I buy one.

I bought the cheapest microwave from a well-known UK catalogue shop, it cost about £35 and it has no clock. It has no bells & whistles, either, but it heats things up which is all I need. Also, it lives in the outhouse to save on counter space in the kitchen.

I have a much fancier built in microwave, but the dog goes bananas if I use it, or touch it, or say the word "microwave". It's quite bizarre.

Deb

I had to remind myself that y'all use the word "outhouse" differently than we do.

If you don't need the clocks that are built into cookers and microwaves, turn the appliances off when not in use. It saves electricity, cuts down bills and saves the planet.

I guess it won't make a huge difference to each house individually except over a long period of time, but collectively it will save a lot of energy.

Can't be done. At least in American households, the plugs are virtually inaccessible. And as long as it's plugged-in power is being sent to the clock, even if there's nothing displayed on it.

The best workaround when plugs are not easily accessible, (I don't know why American plugs are any different than plugs elsewhere) is to connect appliances to a "power strip" you can locate conveniently. The power strip will have a switch to power off all appliances plugged into it.

Well, sure, but then I'd have to run a bunch of extension cords all over the place. Not happening.

(I was only specifying because I didn't know for sure because I haven't lived in other countries.)

In the UK cookers don't have their own plug to fit into a socket. Instead they're wired into a seperate switch which can be turned on or off. Also, whilst many appliances are plugged in under work surfaces, those plug sockets are sometimes connected to switches above the work surfaces. Therefore it is practical to switch items on and off when they're not in use.

(There, see?)

On clocks, I keep two wall clocks, one in thevliving room, set to daylight savings time, one in the bedroom set to standard time.

I'd rather do a little mental arithmatic than fiddle with changing the clocks.

Usually go by cell phone time anyway.

The clock in the car, 2017 Chevy Cruze, is accurate, first occassion in my experience a car clock has been.

The only clock on the microwave is the timer.

Are the timer's numbers a constant row of turquoise zeros? Mine is after a power outage. I don't know why I bother to reset it each time, a sense of duty I suppose.


Your Chevy's clock is probably getting its time from radio signals or possibly GPS. That's a great improvement as I believe there was a conspiracy of car radio manufacturers to never use the same method of resetting the clock between subsequent models. Some of them may have even required using that interminable "remote".

The timer display has never required a reset.

Admittedly, the oven was the least expensive with a rotating table I could find at Walmart, a Hamilton-Beach.

Just so long as it will boil a cup of water for tea or coffee, bake a potato, warm up a dinner plate or frozen dinner, I really don't need much more from the device.

It does have somewhat more bells and whistles which I rarely use.

I guess that's another PH - appliances with multiple features that I don't want. That's OK if I can easily access the features I do want.
Have the manufacturers really asked a representative sample of consumers what they want, or do they just guess?

Had to buy a new built in oven recently. wasn't much choice & the new one is the same manufacturer as before. But has lost many features I liked on the old one & few of the new features are ones I find useful.

My mother's gas stove/oven is the most unintuitive device. It has an LED display. It has those flush pressure buttons, rather like a microwave, but very limited, no number pad for example. It has a timed preheat, but no cooking timer (and no clock ). You click the "bake" button, then us up/down chevrons to set the temperature. Then press Start. Then grab your egg timer, sold separately and turn the knob for your cooking time. I haven't used the timed preheat lately, but I believe you CAN set the time for that, maybe up to 20 minutes. It has some other features but I have no idea what. Why does it have a preheat timer, with buzzer, but no timer for the cooking time?

at Baron Grim Oh the idea of keeping the microwave in the privy

Deb

Another must have item that has more features than are strictly needed are cars. If manufacturers began to strip these down to the essentials it would be interesting to see how many would sell. In an ideal world there'd be no timers on microwaves....but don't even think about changing all the bells and whistles in my SUV...?

Some stripped down cars would sell I'm sure since there are already 'smart' cars, but can you imagine going to work each day in a city car that had a top speed of around 30mph?