This idea would violate Newtons third law about mutual forces acting in the opposite direction! The joke was funny, but clearly unphysical.

In fact there is an accelerator built specifically to produce antimatter: the Antiproton Decelerator which supplied the anti-protons to the ALPHA experiment. Also, its a bit funny that you seem to forget that the ALPHA project built their equipment specifically to produce and store anti-atoms.

Regardless of the percentage of slashdotters based in the US, I think it is pretty safe to say that the discussions are almost always framed in terms of a US perspective. Looking no further than your own post, you'll notice how you use the term "American" as a synonym to US citizen, ignoring 77% of the continent. In other threads, you'll see global issues discussed in light of "The Constitution" and statements are routinely classified as Democratic, Republican or Libertarian. Even if the US-based slashdotters are not in a majority, they have the hegemony.

I may be wrong, but I would expect other uncertainties to play a more dominant role in radiometric dating. The initial concentration of the measured isotope, for instance, or the possibility of contamination.

This is not accurate. In the paper, the authors state that they are not able to conclude, so they suggest that more precise measurements are needed. Moreover, it is not possible to prove that there is no change by experiment. One can only demonstrate the effect, or determine an upper limit for it.

The constancy of nuclear decay rates is a fundamental assumption for our understanding of stellar processes, big bang theory and the like. If someone can prove a deviation, it will break just about every cosmological model. If they had found a deviation, the implications could be comparable to what Copernicus did, so I believe this does mean something for the "normal human"...

I doubt that these number would be considered "evidence of a difference" in any field, since the uncertainty is too large to confirm any difference. The headline is misleading as you say, but that claim is not made in the paper.

When Microsoft suddenly saw the need for a nynorsk version of Office after ignoring it for 20 years or so, it was because OpenOffice had already been translated. For a very short while, OpenOffice was the only legal option for schools. Its a great example of the leverage FLOSS can provide when wrestling with a monopolist.

Its a universal constant of stupidity!

I sincerely detest your conclusion. It is also based on a fallacy, as there is no "absence of an external interfering force".

Your belief that Eastern Europe developed democracy without external influence shows your total ignorance about recent European history. Eastern Europe has received massive funding from the EU to build infrastructure and ensure economic development. Equally important is the political and economic integration across Europe, and the military strength of the USA that brings stability and a sense of security. The democratization of Eastern Europe is the result of determination and massive investments, and this is by the way the norm. Think about how the US treated Germany and Japan after WW2.

Those examples are in stark contrast to the how Iran has been influenced from the outside. Both the USA and USSR opted to support both sides of the Iran-Iraq war
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_aid_to_combatants_in_the_Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War
Meaning simply that a conflict in the middle east was in the interest of both super powers, playing divide and conquer. Or was that also because of some cultural phenomenom?

To state that culture is the ultimate force in political developments is simply naive. Not only naive, it is dangerous. People like you scare me.

Since when was massive blodshed a common path to democracy? You will have a hard time finding empirical support for that claim.

Good point about the batteries. If I was in charge of this research project, we would develop a fuel cell to generate electricity directly from ATP. Just route some blood through it. Now THAT would be awesome.

It appears that he controls it without watching... So my guess is that he is in fact imagining left hand movements. After all that is what his neural system is trained to do. In order to get it right later they just need to wire him up correctly.

No, you misunderstand. They ATTACHED it!

Amen. The Linux distros seem to be constantly growing new subsystems, while consistently adding complexity and abandoning the time tested unix principles. Configuration of the GNOME startup is the most outrageous example. It is so horribly opaque that the recommended way to switch window manager is

(From the man page of metacity on Ubuntu hardy) How is this better than a single line in .xinit or .xsession?