submitted by HCE727:

someone put that light over the wrong sink. I would have suggested a recessed light or two, if installation was possible.

Somebody wanted a bathroom look in the kitchen, but the kitchen is a bit screwy, look at the receptacle behind the sink...

It looks like someone remodeled the kitchen cabinets and countertop; but didn't bother to revise the electrical to match.

That light fitting looks like an over-sized key rack thats been hung upside-down.
One other thing, who in thier right mind would have a microwave oven directly above a stove-top?,it would fill the thing up with steam from boiling vegetables.

Dear Mike
As someone who "might" spend a little more time in the kitchen I can tell you that numerous kitchens have the microwave above the range top. In fact it's so common that the microwaves are often fitted with underhood lighting and an extractor fan. In any case when you boil something in the microwave it generates quite a lot of steam anyway, so I guess they are pretty well insulated against it. I happen to love them, definately something invented by someone who would use them.
Love Ann

I understand the microwave oven was invented quite by chance at Raytheon. Some tech was fiddling with microwaves and noticed that a candy bar in his shirt pocket melted quite suddenly. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

There have been incidences of failure of microwave ovens mounted above ranges due to entry of steam. Usually the insulation in the transformer fails, or excessive leakage builds up on the timer PCB. It would all depend on where the vents are on the particular microwave oven, but in any case the steam generated within the oven is allowed for and usually exits via the most direct route from the top of the cooking cavity.
The microwave oven was one of those things invented by accident. The story I know is along the lines of Retired Helper's description; someone was standing in front of a radar transmitting antenna on a ship during WW2 and noticed the chocolate in his shirt melted. Raytheon was involved with microwave technology from the start although I understand the first prototype ovens in the 1940's worked on a lower frequency (presumably they hadn't realised the resonant frequeny of water then).
Those lights remind me of the bells used to call the servants in some old well to do houses.
Anyway, it's weird looking kitchen.

Not to ruin a good sea story. but the microwave oven was deliberately invented, as an oven, by Amana. Their research led to a number of basic patents involving microwaves .... when the radar and military contractors got tired of paying royalties, United Technologies bought Amana.

I just have mis-givings about having a metal framed appliance that can generate in excess of 3kV being wet from steam, after all, whose to say that the grounding on the microwave hasn't broken down after years of use.
And the fact that some people have a habit of cutting the ground pins off of plugs to make them fit (I realise this isn't the norm in most cases).