When I boil water, a fair share of it is turning to vapor. Anything less is a measly simmer.

If you want to spend money on student research, why not invest in an actual NASA-sponsored project? Check out spaceweather.com (toward the bottom):

... it's almost easier to boil water than to melt it from 0C ice to 0C water.

Your statement would be true if you'd left out the word boil and simply said "raise it's temperature from 0C to 100C". The heat of vaporization of water is a whopping 2260 kJ/Kg - that's the heat required to turn 100C water into 100C steam.

Here's the problem I have with LED bulbs - Radio Frequency Interference. Many of the cheap bulbs imported do not meet FCC regulations for RF emissions and cause heaps of interference to broadcast AM radio and Amateur radio operations. A fellow ham did a little research, but we need a lot more data from the manufacturers regarding their Part 15 compliance and radiation levels before users of the radio spectrum can switch to LED bulbs.

I wouldn't trade them for anything.

I would trade your kids in a heartbeat for peace and quiet in restaurants. Oh, and to not have crumb-snatchers kicking the back of my airplane seat. :-)

Duty cycle is your friend. No one's fridge runs 100% of the time. If his fridge runs 25% of the time (which I think is high), your 100W would be about right.

There was once a time when the clothes you wore had to be hand made from start to finish, often involving multiple artisans to create.

It's funny you mention that. I watch the TV show "How It's Made", and it amazes me how often I hear myself appending "BY HAND!!!" to what the narrator says when I hear "The doodad is transferred from conveyor belt A to belt B" and it's a human standing there doing a robot's job. I'm constantly amazed at how much mindless manual labor is still out there.

And you think the Chinese government is incapable or unwilling to forge a certificate or two and act as a MITM as the data traverses their great firewall?

Still have nearly-perfect hearing, minus the really odd gap at 15kHz-16kHz ...

Not odd at all. Were you exposed to CRT TVs or old monitors for an extended amount of time? Their flybacks operated at one of several freqs: NTSC is 15,734 Hz, PAL is equal to 15,625 Hz, PAL M is equal to 15,750 Hz I wondered if TV/monitor technology was getting better over the years - the flyback scream got quieter and quieter as I got older. Turns out my ears were losing their sensitivity to it. I have a gigantic notch at those frequencies.

I had to do that in my head when I got a KPH only car in Grand Cayman - the signs are MPH. There were a _lot_ of tourists that didn't notice and were going verrrrry sloooooow. It was pretty easy once you learn a few touchpoints - 25 mph=40kph, 30=50, 40=65, and 45=75ish.

At least I didn't get a left hand drive car in a left side-of-the-road country on top of it. Driving from the ditch is not pretty.

No fireballs in space? Wrong! Spaceship occupants need atmosphere.

You don't need oxygen to have a fireball. Hypergolic propellants will happily go boom in a vacuum if they intermingle.

Ignition! is a great book about rocket fuel research. There are a couple of links around.

... hot water heater ...

I installed an on-demand Rinnai water heater - I love it. I'm out in the sticks, so mine runs on propane, but it's still a lot cheaper than electricity.

You are not authorized to orbit my nipples.

Yes, the best sort of review-able stuff. :-)

... why the Red Planet changed from a relatively warm and wet place ... to the cold, arid world it is today.

If it were Venus it would be easy to explain - menopause.