So how will this affect the criminal justice system?

My question is, how will this affect promotions into position of management? Sure as hell corporate management has more than it's fair share of psychopaths/sociopaths.

I am curious as to what evidence these alien probes would leave if they don't land and stay on a planet. If they just fly around, collect data and phone it home we would never see them.

Even landing, unless they landed on Earth, our Moon or Mars, how would we see it? I'm not even certain our own probes can spot our own rovers on Mars. Lets say they did put a probe down on earth (like our mars rover) say recently, like 100,000,000 years ago; it could easily be hidden under a kilometer of dirt and rocks and never be found. Time, like space, is vast.

No one said natural selection was kind.

You could come home to find your unsecured router placed in the back seat of your locked car, which you lost the keys to :(

I am fairly certain I read someplace that the big-science-brains determined that earth's radio & TV signals get lost in background "space static" pretty close to our solar system (1-2 light years?)

To answer the original question, "Should we reply, and if so, what should we say?" First off, let's assume the aliens are really close, say 50 light years away. It would probably take 100-200 years to dialog with anything more than math. By then we would have learned so much more (about the aliens, and things in general) as to make our dialog obvious.

Having said that, we should mention the tax breaks we can offer them for relocating a space hub to Mars.

The French revolt!

Slashdot is gay.

Try another way (today) to move 3 tons of steel, etc, 12 miles down the road for less than $2.50. Plus you have the option of towing an additional 6+ tons for maybe an additional $1 every 12 miles.

This is not to say we can't imagine more efficient ways. The trouble is not inefficiency, but the use of limited resources (fossil fuel) and the stuff coming out of the tailpipe.

It gives the caller the illusion (maybe it's my message) that the message is Very Important to me and will be returned (right, delete) ASAP!

I just took a quick look at the Lenovo / Thinkpad site; I just looked at the SL (300/400/500) line and all are available with the No Camera option. I imagine this goes for other Thinkpad series also.

1) As far as our technology permits
A) No.

I'm 51 and adopted so I have no family medical history to get hung up on. Having made a minor study of the generation just before me I think much of growing old is common sense. Everything in moderation. Keep active, mentally and physically. Get regular medical checkups. Keep out of harsh sun / use sunblock. Don't smoke. Also, the healthiest 80+'s I know have maintained almost exactly the same body weight (+/-10%) their adult life and maintained a social sports life (tennis, etc) 3-7 days a week. My Uncle hits 90 this year and all he does is walk, it's almost compulsive; after 40 minutes of sitting, he'll just stand and walk out the front door. Pointed in the right direction I think he might make it from Egypt to Jerusalem.

Bah! You kids today with your fancy video monitors. My ASR-33 Teletype is still going strong and it has the added bonus of providing emergency toilet paper.

Place a petri dish with organic 'soup' on the floor and voila! You'll have your own civilization before the Taxi reaches it's destination.