It's all daijoubs, yo.

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America

No, but like, rice cookers are /brilliant/. They don't exist to avoid messing up rice, they exist to make the daily preparation of rice much easier, in places like Japan where rice is the main part of nearly every meal (breakfast meals included). Having a rice cooker means that you can set the timer to start cooking the rice, say, an hour before you get home from work (if it's a large amount of rice), and when you get back, it'll be waiting for you. The 'warm' function on the cooker means that when the rice is done, it stops cooking but is kept warm, so neither burns nor goes cold. It means that when you soak and wash your rice, you can leave it in the same bowl-pan thing that inserts into the cooker, and not have to mess around with awkwardly shaped saucepans or microwave proof bowls. It means you save a hob space (or microwave space, but I know many people don't trust the quality of rice produced in a microwave - it's a raised on belief in quality and the sacredness of rice (I jest a bit but the idea is there) thing), when cooking at any time during the day, and it means that you can cook rice when you don't have access to a kitchen. It means that you can put a scoop of rice and the corresponding amount of water in, close the lid, press the button, and know that it will cook perfectly, without any need to select a temperature, or change temperature partway through, or account for a dodgy saucepan's uneven base thickness, or keep an eye on the time.

I rang the literary editors of a few ‘respected’ papers and asked them how much space they were giving to women writers in their ‘review’ sections. Perfectly predictable response. They all said the allocation was fair. One said it was equal, and one prominent editor went so far as to say women are dominating the reviews! … What happened when I asked who was doing the talking in mixed gender conversations? Well, it was the women of course. And then when you get to measure it you find that women get to talk about 10-20% of the time in conversations with men. A woman who talks about a third of the time is seen to be dominating the talk. And what happened when I asked teachers who got their attention in class? Well, it was all equal, wasn’t it? No preferences there. And you measure it and find that girls get about 10-20% of the teacher’s attention. Any more, and the boys think it unfair - and go into revolt. So what do you think I found with the reviews? I would have predicted about 10-20% of the space went to women’s books. Well, it is less than 6% of the column inches. And the reasonable editor who thinks that women are getting more than their share is one of the worst offenders. Poor boys! It really tells you something when they think only 94% of the review section is not enough, doesn’t it? When 6% for women is too much you get some idea how much men think they are entitled to - as a fair deal.