How about just using the existing ones?

... no majorana fermions ...

Maybe not.

Amateur radio folk have been doing this for years. There are only two countries that don't allow amateur radio for their citizens - Yemen and North Korea. There are no laws in the US that prohibit the exchange of ideas with those in other countries, apart from the standard profanity rules. There are, however, common sense guidelines to prevent the other operator form getting in trouble with their government (don't try to engage a person from Cuba in Castro bashing, for instance).

...we'd have to see a couple of squadrons of Gloucester Old Spots doing aerobatics at Farnborough ...

As an American, I've watched just enough UK television to know what that means - "When Pigs FLY!!!" I learned about Gloucester Old Spots from "The Two Fat Ladies" and Farnborough from some other show re: airplanes.

That's Boron, I'm pretty sure, not Barium.

They're already cutting steel on one that will handle 1000 more containers than the triple-E's.

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?