Bachelor living being what it is, a burned CD or DVD is often the most accessible cover for a hot mug of tea so it doesn’t cool down too quickly while steeping. Will doing this mess up the burned dye layer over time?
I don’t know about the dye layer, but I’m pretty sure that covering a hot substance with a CD will cause the CD to warp to the point where it might become unreadable. I wouldn’t.
According to this site, the phase change in the dye occurs around 250 C, which you aren’t coming close to, but I still wouldn’t. Possibly I’m being paranoid, though.
Centigrade is out to get you?
Yeah, warping is the potential problem here. Not only might it make the disc unreadable, but it could also damage the drive you try to play it in, as well. Don’t you get AOL discs in the mail like everyone else with a computer? That’s what those are for, y’know.
Or you could buy chinese style tea mug, it has a cute little ceramic lid that comes with it=)
I used to have a cup warming plate that was a perfect fit for my chinese year of the ox covered mug, but it finally died and I have never replaced it.
Kept my tea hot and steaming=)
I use a badly burned CD as a base for my hot coffee. I never thought of using it on top of the cup to keep the heat in. I will try that to know if the CD warps or not. Well, as soon as I have another badly burned CD.
You can dip a CD in boiling water and it will not hurt the CD. In fact, it can help to smoothe out some of the scratches.
So, I doubt that heat will be problem in using the CD as a cover, but the contact with other objects can create more scratches and wear.
Something like that. 
I just have a large collection of backups (music and photographs) on CD and DVD, and I prefer not to do something that could be potentially harmful. Why take the risk?
Do they still send out AOL discs? I haven’t gotten one in years.
I wondered the same thing. I think it’s almost all DL or pre-installed on new systems stuff at this point. As broadband propagates I’m not even sure of AOL’s reason for existence as a “super ISP gateway” going into the future. What exactly is their business model?
Honestly, I have no idea. I know you can still get them at places like Target or Wal*Mart, but I haven’t gotten one in the mail for at least a couple years now. I mentioned it as something of a joke, you see.
Lately, AOL has been pushing its broadband service. I don’t think they’re going anywhere any time soon.