I think you can make it even faster by electric kettle to give a little assist. Maybe replace 1/2 or 1/3 with boiled water. That starts you off with half boiled water so it comes up to boil faster.
I would have thought that for physically based shaders, most polygons are the same shader with different material parameters, wouldn't that allow SIMD techniques to continue to work?
I would say the south eastern part of china has been relatively recognizable borders for a long time.
Modern china is the result of Qing expansion around the 1650s. Take a look at the historical map by year - it's really amazing how quickly things changed at the turn of the century. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWqVzZnwnOk