[rcthompson]

Based on what you describe, it seems to me that a macroscopic example of "symmetry breaking" in the time domain would be the piston of any internal combustion engine. The linear back-and-forth motion of the piston is converted to rotational motion, but in theory the rotation could equally well be in either direction. So when the piston starts moving and picks one or the other direction for the rotation, symmetry is broken. (Obviously real ICE pistons have some way to ensure that the rotation always happens in the same direction.) Have I got that right?