I run a small web site with a decent level of human traffic for what it is. I haven't run the figures recently, but last time I did, about 90% of the page accesses were from bots. Fortunately, most of the bots are dumb and measures like captchas block them from the pages that need protection, as a first layer of security.

So it isn't a question of letting some bots through, it's a question of letting a hoard of bots through that will dominate traffic to the site.

I'm sorry to hear about your cousin. Many years ago, my then-fiancee went to a cancer center and lives to this day after being treated there; at the time they had better survivability rates than anywhere else in the US for the cancer she had. And, underscoring the "nearest good hospital" issue was my dad who was treated at his regional hospital by people who should have their licenses revoked; he died because of their negligence.

When it comes down to it, for any serious medical issue, you want to be treated by people who (a) have lots and lots of experience, and (b) have a good track record. The former usually creates the latter.

1. Many cancers are life-threatening illnesses. Wouldn't you prefer a 62% chance of survival over a 60% chance?

2. A fair chunk of the US population does not have a "nearest good hospital".

So patients with poorer expected outcomes begin to be more likely to be treated after marketing payment, and yet there is no overall decline in mortality as would be expected? In other words, the treated population skews toward worse cases, and yet the success rate does not drop?

You mean ---- gasp ---- the drugs work?

"Not totally unlistenable" - Robert Christgau, The Village Voice.

Personally, I think it's the closest thing to sound that will make you drive cutlery into your ears to make it stop.

There was an acceleration of the degradation of lack of respect for our fellow citizens. Now that we're all back in public, most of us have forgotten what respect for others entails.

Just today, I was stuck behind some [insert vulgar word here] who thought the middle of the one-lane road was their personal parking spot to run into Starbucks who brushed it off when I expressed myself upon their return.

I read Dune back in the day, and, given its presence on my bookshelf, I also read Dune: Messiah, but I'm not convinced that I read it to completion. Perusing the summary of the series of books on Wikipedia, it seems that while the first one was well-written, despite relying on a little more fantasy than I'd prefer, as you go from one book to the next, the level of absurdity ratchets up well into the realm of self-parody.

Can we have a filter that blocks Amazon-related stories posted by msmash? They're all straight-up propaganda.

You're missing the point: if you're good enough at something, and enjoy doing it, you should be able to find a way to earn money doing just that thing.

I'm fortunate enough to work at a job that I love. Sure, there are phases when it isn't so great, and phases when I would give up my first-born to continue working on my projects, but on balance it's solidly in the plus column. Of the many things I could do in life to earn my keep, what I do now is very, very close to the top of what I'd like to be doing. That I get frelling paid to do it is amazing. And thus, there isn't a real limit to the number of hours I'm happily spending on my work.

What I don't get is that I'm not special. I don't have particularly unusual skills. While I have put in an unusual amount of time and school to develop them, there are lots like me. Most of them have also put in similar amounts of time and school, and they also love their jobs. The common thread among them is that they have taken to heart that old adage about investing in yourself.

So, to all of the people who are responding here with various versions of, "screw the man, my off hours are mine," I ask: why haven't you found something that motivates you? Is there nothing productive that you enjoy doing so much that you would do it for free? Have you not put in the time to figure out how to develop the skills necessary for that position, and work toward it? No? Then the best time to start is right now.

Tasks for Slashdot editor coming on-shift.

1. Go to desk, drop stuff, coat, etc.
2. Grab a cup of favorite hot liquid, chat with colleagues.
3. Review headlines from last 24 hours.
4. Start actual work.

In our school district, kids are out because they have been sick more, to a previously unprecedented level. It's as if now that the masks are off again, all of the non-COVID bugs are having a heyday, making up for lost time. When we've taken our kids to the doctor's office, they corroborate what the school district has been saying about absenteeism: kids have been sick a lot recently, and it (mostly) isn't COVID. For our kids, it isn't even any of the usual suspects.

The conventional wisdom is the merger with McDonnell-Douglas, wherein the engineering-first corporate culture of Boeing was replaced by the bean-counter culture of McDonnell-Douglas.

Huh? Uber and Lyft are nothing more than taxi services. If you think otherwise, I recommend looking at the details and operations of taxi services. The only difference is that with traditional taxi services, communications from the customer to the service is done by a phone call, communications between dispatch and driver is done by radio, and pricing is done (for honest drivers) by meter. For Uber and Lyft, they've eliminated the labor behind dispatch and replaced it with digital radio communications, trip cost calculations can be done up-front, and the driver no longer handles payments. Otherwise, they are taxi services: the customer hails the service, is provided transportation that in most cases is point-to-point (rather than shared), and is charged according to a pre-established formula.

In many parts of the world, traditional taxi services have responded to Uber and Lyft with their own app that provides a highly similar interface for people who are uncomfortable with flagging a cab on the street.

I'm sorry, meditation somehow when used at Amazon is evil, but at other companies is good? That doesn't make sense given that meditation moves the needle in the positive direction no matter the circumstance.

Let's make a thought experiment, shall we? You have a company that performs a service. The service is viewed by society as important. Workers who perform this service face substantial stress and a high rate of burnout, but --- and this is the part where one's imagination comes in --- are compensated very well monetarily. Despite the financial gains, their stress is a significant problem. Meditation appears to help them cope with that stress and reduces burnout. Win-win because meditation doesn't cost very much to your company.

OK, great. Now let's imagine another scenario. You have a different company that performs a different service. This service is also viewed by society as important. Workers here face substantial stress and a high rate of burnout, but are not compensated very well. Because your company is cost-concious, you seek low-cost ways of improving the well-being of your workers. Meditation appears to help them cope with the stress of their jobs and reduces burnout. Is this not still win-win?

Or, back to our actual example of Amazon, is absolutely everything they do fundamentally poisoned even though the same actions elsewhere are lauded?