People strongly involved in religion always let me this strange impression that they are hiding something, as unable to really disclose what they think.

Yes but not the synchronization. The computer clock does have a much higher resolution. Also a local atomic clock precision can be obtained with GPS.

I wonder why nowadays they use an incrementing limited integer number (SCN), subject to the described bugs, instead of a worldwide consistent and unlimited number like the TIME. The synchronization of the databases respective times can always occur with the NTP service (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Time_Protocol).

From the Telegraph link, we happily learn:

In an interview with the New Scientist magazine to mark his 70th birthday on Sunday, January 8, he was asked: "What do you think most about during the day?" to which he replied: "Women. They are a complete mystery."

For optical astronomy (that is in visible, near-infrared light) the long winter nights are good for observing objects continuously 24/24 as long as non-cloudy sky permits.
Of course the converse occurs in summer when darkness doesn't exist for months.
Polar auroras are also a nuisance.

When will we see the office PC combined with the coffee machine?

Linux based WebOS is going to be free, as HP announced yesterday, and Ubuntu has been installed on the Touchpad already. In the US Touchpads can be purchased for low price, like $99 on eBay. Outside the US some (for example me) got one for low price through Amazon.

In the linked article I didn't find that "only three" such antennae exist. The deep space network made of three big antennae is able to follow and control Voyager without interruption, but other isolated and big antennae exist and might be used to perturb the spacecrafts, probably with slight modifications.

Germany has a 100 m radiotelescope (Effelsberg), UK a 76m one (Jodrell Bank), Australia a 64 m one (Parkes), and China builds a 300m equivalent one, FAST, to be ready in 2013 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_hundred_meter_Aperture_Spherical_Telescope).

These stars are known to be strong in X.

Like for cars, deaths are just a part of the bill. To make a proper economic risk evaluation all the costs must be included. I am sure this has been done, but the only rational for not insuring nuclear power plants is that it would not be economically competitive.

Other costs that would make NE not competitive is the dismantling costs, and the waste management costs (100'000 yr is long...). Recently Germany started to redo the evaluation cost for dismantling the closed plants to find that a more accurate estimate is an order of magnitude higher. The same for the Superphenix breeder in France.