True, it doesn't have to boil but how else will you make that nice cup of tea (without which civilization as we know it would be impossible)?

Actually, milk is pasteurized by heating to 165F (and held for five minutes or so, I believe). Checking instructions for cooking our holiday turkey, we were told to see that the meat thermometer read 165 F to insure that all the Bad Guys were knocked off. I think I see a trend developing here...

Anyway, if we were out in the woods and couldn't bring the water to a rolling boil, I would get it as hot as possible, perhaps let it sit a bit, and drink up. Dehydration is deadly and giardia isn't.

i once had to boil water from a mountain stream on a hot day when I definitely didn't want tea. I boiled the water, put it in my water bottle, placed the water bottle in the nice babbling brook, and set the next batch to boiling. By the time batch #2 was ready (about 4 minutes), batch #1 was sufficiently cool. I hopped on my bike. Proceeding about a mile, I came upon a clean water source.....