It's because it's their own fiber and network, so they don't have to pay the last mile etc.
That's not why they charge less for better service than in the US. The reason they charge less is that there is competition for broadband in Cologne... it is the competition that will drive prices down towards cost of production.
Here in the US, it wouldn't matter if the cost to serve broadband was *zero* for the ISPs. There are so many local and regional monopolies that any lessening in cost to provide the service simply results in additional profits for the ISPs, not reduced prices for the consumer.
An ISP in our area is advertising their Internet connection speed by claiming it is "Fasterizer". They hope that term will confuse the clueless into thinking that their.V92 or tier 1 DSL service is as fast as my 10Mb/s cable connection.
No, no, you misspelled it. The word they use is "FasterReiser".
The meaning of the term is related to the increase in speed at which you will want to commit certain actions upon the persons in leadership positions at that ISP.
This is what happens when you don't roll out widely deployed internet service until the technology is more mature.
Here in the US, we have internet infrastructure that is 20+ years old, that is "good enough" for most people. There is little incentive to roll out better broadband (though this is changing, as the use of bandwidth has changed).
Yes, your speeds are good. This is largely because T-online (and Deutsche Telecom, their majority owners) were feeling the pressure from other ISPs in 2002-2004. Combined with a period of high economic growth, T-online was able to roll out true broadband profitably because of the huge numbers of people just signing up for broadband internet of any kind. Here in the US, we haven't had the luxury of competition among broadband ISPs until very recently, as Verizon has rolled out FiOS in areas served by the cable monopolies. We also haven't had a significant amount of customers migrating to broadband all at once -- people don't like to change their utility providers, so adoption is slow.
Because of competition from Verizon and other fiber optic providers, I expect bandwidth in the US to improve in the next decade, now that we have some competition. But who knows -- two players in a local market will only lead to very small incremental improvements.
At any rate, you Magyars have a nice situation over there right now. We'll see what things look like in 20 years... will it then be Hungary's turn to be behind the upgrade curve, instead of the US's?
Even with power reserved for the states, the model would have broken by now anyway.
The scale of our states is just too large for effective government of the type envisioned by the framers.
The same things that Jefferson foresaw happening under a Federalist government would happen under state government as well, since there is no way that a small number of people in power can be held accountable when the electorate numbers in the millions.
I'm sorry, mass media and population growth have fundamentally broken our democratic republic. That is a truth we cannot avoid. At the same time, technological advances have made it necessary for a strong federal government to oversee a lot of things. No longer does it take information two weeks to travel from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. It takes seconds. People and goods can make the same journey in hours. This alone has made a stronger federal presence necessary, since interstate trade is conducted constantly -- interstate trade volume is larger than intrastate trade volume.
In addition, the federal government is a better guarantor of my liberty than state governments. If anything, backing away from federalism is a way to ensure that you are giving up, not ensuring, liberty.
But that's OK. You seem to misunderstand the premise of Franklin's famous quote, anyway. Personal liberty is independent of whether our system is federalist or anti-federalist. I'm not sure you meant to mix those two issues... but if you did, then you're not thinking clearly.
But I also am a little confused as to how you can assume that the bill in question would make you trade liberty for security. Or have you broadly inflated the concept of "essential liberty" to include everything under the sun? In your book, does 'essential liberty' mean the freedom to do exactly as you please whenever you please? Because if it does, then you're dreaming. Anarchy is a piss-poor system.
I'm paranoid about my bills. More than a couple times a year, there's a billing error that needs to be corrected... I know if I had autobillpay I'd probably not examine my bills thoroughly.
So far this year I've noticed (and gotten corrected) overcharges on my Amex, another one of my credit cards, my Verizon bill, my Comcast bill (service now canceled due to shenanigans on their part), my HOA, and my gas bill.
Last year was much the same. I won't use autopay when corporate billing is so screwed up.
But I've noticed that a lot of mods use 'insightful' instead of 'funny', explained as trying to game the moderation system to award karma to posts they find humorous.
Sure, it wasn't that funny. But I'm glad the original insightful mod was canceled by overrated -- I just wish the second one was too.
All I have to say is 10th amendment. Vague power over infrastructure belongs to the States, not DC. DC should only be concerned with its own networks and those of the military. We have got to get back to the Constitution.
Critical infrastructure is a national security concern. It definitely belongs under the purview of the federal government, especially since communications infrastructure is vital to interstate trade.
At any rate, the Constitution is dead. We have lost the ability to amend the Constitution, so the only choice we can make is to ignore it when it doesn't suit us. I would prefer the Constitution to be a living document, and that we could thereby continue to use it... but the fact of the matter is that the Constitution as a whole hasn't been relevant for decades. The world is simply far too different from what it was 70 years ago, let alone 220 years ago, for the unchanging Constitution to be considered anything more than a guideline to running this nation.
So... I'll agree with you, that we need to get back to the Constitution... provided that we can change the Constitution, and that the closeminded traditionalists without understanding of relevant issues keep their mouths shut when those issues are being discussed.
Hopefully there are no blood banks or anyone with the last name of "Banks" that might want a.SE domain
The ban on the characters "B A N K S" in that order is obviously a thinly-veiled attack on Wolfram Alpha, particularly on Stephen Wolfram.
As well all know, Stephen Wolfram is the man behind Wolfram Alpha, and also the man behind the "New Kind of Science" -- NKS.
Also, as we all know, the ancient Egyptian word for soul is "Ba".
Therefore, we can conclude that the controllers of the.SE domain have a vendetta against Stephen Wolfram, the soul behind NKS... the Ba-NKS.
So who cares about the edge cases of blood banks or food banks or river banks or the purveyors of fine piggy banks. The real concern here is that there is a government conspiracy against a potential rival of Google... how deeply does Google have its claws sunk into European governments? When can be expect them to ban "Bing" from the url of any site that is not owned by either a registered wholesaler of a certain kind of cherry or a seller of outdated Christmas music?
Yes, we both work. Yes, daycare is involved. But if you think daycare is raising our kids, you're sorely mistaken.
First, there's no complaining involved.
Second, we don't own expensive items. We solidly live within our means, save over 15% of our net income (not including 401k) -- college tuitions aren't going down, and donate over 5% (plus a lot of time spent volunteering). We aren't materialistic in any sense of the word... we place a high value on making sure there are no problems if one or both of us gets laid off.
But the core of your post is that you believe I'm judging other people. I'm not passing judgment... I'm just curious as to how a couple with two kids can devote so much time to a hobby.
Because none of the parents I spend time with can afford to...
My kids are too young to (significantly) help with the chores.
(...and what chores? Doing laundry? at least the separation/folding of washed/dried clothes can be done while watching TV.)
Laundry. Cleaning. Preparing food for the next day. Household maintenance. Yard maintenance. Household repairs. Doing the bills. Maintaining the household budget. Cleaning the cars. Maintaining the cars. Research (investment, purchasing, schools, medical issues, all the million other things that require research). Planning events (birthday parties, barbecues, etc). Thank you cards. Mending clothes. Shopping online for gifts, clothes, etc. Grocery shopping as needed. Volunteer chores (regular chores for an elderly neighbor; doing laundry & cooking sometimes for the neighbor who just had twins).
Sure, I'll get a half hour or so before bedtime to read or watch TV or play a game... but I thought that WoW takes significant chunks of time (like 4+ hours) often?
Look, there are a TON of legitimate complaints about this bill.
Abuse of government powers in violation of free speech for political gain, etc, shouldn't be included. Those issues have already been addressed... the federal government already has the ability to step in and limit free speech in private channels if there is clear and present danger. The potential for abuse is already there, and has been there all along. This bill in no way affects that.
Your ridiculous leading questions detract from the real issues, which are outlined in TFA (for people that oppose a bill like this).
IMO, instead of "ZOMGWTF Totalitarian State Abusing Government Powers for Political Gain!", the real issue here is that critical infrastructure is in the hands of private for-profit corporations. These companies have the ability to hamstring the US economically through unilateral action (or even by accident). Critical infrastructure should be nationalized, in my opinion, or at the very least very closely supervised to ensure it is secure.
But I imagine that my views are contrary to the majority of slashdotters, and I expect to be modded into oblivion. No one wants the goobermint in their internets, even when oversight is necessary to maintain the integrity of our economy (such as it is), especially in the face of a directed and concerted attack on that infrastructure.
All things in moderation (we limit ourselves to 4 WoW nights a week)
FWIW... I'm not sure that fits the definition of in moderation.
I mean, sure, some people watch TV seven nights a week, and compared to that, 4 nights only is limited... but for me, as a married guy with a kid, a hobby done in moderation means once a week, tops.
YMMV, of course -- I have no idea what your life is like, etc. But for me, just the thought of spending more than one night a week playing games makes my skin crawl with the thought of all the chores that wouldn't be getting done.
Um, we HAVE been seeing this cooling trend for a few years now, which is why misanthropic environmental hate groups have been trying to scrub the phrase "Global Warming" from the public lexicon and replace it with "Global Climate Change."
False.
The reason it is properly called global climate change is that while globally, the net effect is warming, some local climates may see cooling. This is due to changing weather patterns and other factors.
For example, almost models show that northwestern Europe will undergo cooling due to a weakening of the Gulf Stream flow that brings warm equatorial water (and air) to that region. This is despite the fact that these models show global mean temperature rising.
Are you intentionally misrepresenting the reason for the change from global warming to global climate change, or are you just ignorant? Hopefully it's the latter, because that can be easily corrected.
I mean, I not a conspiracy theorist by any means, but have you looked at how many ex-Goldman Sachs employees are employed in the highest levels of the US and several state governments?
And I'm not just talking about Treasury Department appointments... also in the SEC, in elected office, etc. There's a joke I've heard that the SEC doesn't sneeze if they haven't asked GS for permission first.
At any rate, the funniest thing I've heard about the whole deal is that GS told the authorities that with this software, the guy who stole it could manipulate markets and gain an unfair advantage in trade, and disrupt global markets. And yet somehow those potentials are not possible with GS being the only part holding the software?
For GS, he was making approx 400k. That's not outlandish for the kind of optimized programming on optimized hardware required for automatic trade execution, which is highly time-sensitive.
But it's not just the programming skills that demand that much pay. There's lots of specialized knowledge, and some ability that likely you or I are not capable of[1].
1.2 MM for a different company? Likely the extra $800k was for the inside knowledge of what GS was doing.
[1] I don't know what your abilities are. But given my own geek-normal tendencies to overestimate my own abilities, I think it's quite possible that others do the same:)
Mine doesn't confuse visually, though... it's more of an olfactory experience.
Ah, I see you have yet to learn the rest of the somewhat dangerous Furious Bomb of Distraction Technique.
First you must gather your Chi within yourself. Then you must expel your Chi forcefully in a directed blast. This is the Basic Furious Bomb of Distraction.
Only the True Master can realize the full potential of the Advanced Furious Bomb of Distraction. After gathering your Chi, you must light a match and hold it in front of the Badger Den. Then, and only then, can you expel your Chi in a blue-flamed spectacle of diversion, thus giving a visual impact to your olfactory experience.
Hmm... 5 minutes to build and stockpile resources, then a 5-minute wave of zombie attackers.
I know I've played a flash game with the same kind of gameplay... oh yes, I remember -- it was Super Energy Apocalypse.
FWIW, I found the timed delay waves annoying. I prefer TD games with either constant waves, like Gemcraft or Desktop TD, or with on-demand waves like Protector.
BTW, are you playing Gemcraft 1 or 0? I stopped playing at lvl 185 in 0, but now I've restarted and am restricting myself to traps only. It's pretty damn hard, it's taken me a few weeks to reach lvl 40.
I'm not 100% behind this explanation. The conclusion is that evil is comprised of selfishness, which is not necessarily the case. While advocating selfishness as a good act is, to me, incorrect (OT: see Ayn Rand for rationalization of selfishness as good and necessary for society; this is why I can't stand Randroids)... "evil" requires more than just selfishness.
To be truly evil is to to take pleasure (or reward) in causing the suffering of others.
I know it's partially semantics, but in my opinion, acting purely selfishly is is not on par with taking pleasure in the negative impacts of your actions on others. Truly abhorrent outcomes can come from selfishness, but truly evil requires a little more.
Nice. Could we nail their feet to a board and use a funnel, a la foie gras, to force-feed them the Concentrate of Evil?
The only trouble with allowing the evil seed to grow is that it's not quite as viscerally appealing (or disturbing, depending on your point of view) as attaching the heads using a big needle and sinew harvested from their loved ones.
In very high or low latitudes, shortened sleep requirements could absolutely be beneficial (as could seasonal sleep requirement variations, which are documented -- see SAD & related research).
Seasonal food gathering requirements could definitely give a genetic advantage to those requiring less sleep in the far north or extreme south..
I'd be curious to see if this gene is found more commonly among people who come from populations from near-arctic or -antarctic latitudes.
Slashdot Mirror
That's not why they charge less for better service than in the US. The reason they charge less is that there is competition for broadband in Cologne... it is the competition that will drive prices down towards cost of production.
Here in the US, it wouldn't matter if the cost to serve broadband was *zero* for the ISPs. There are so many local and regional monopolies that any lessening in cost to provide the service simply results in additional profits for the ISPs, not reduced prices for the consumer.
No, no, you misspelled it. The word they use is "FasterReiser".
The meaning of the term is related to the increase in speed at which you will want to commit certain actions upon the persons in leadership positions at that ISP.
This is what happens when you don't roll out widely deployed internet service until the technology is more mature.
Here in the US, we have internet infrastructure that is 20+ years old, that is "good enough" for most people. There is little incentive to roll out better broadband (though this is changing, as the use of bandwidth has changed).
Yes, your speeds are good. This is largely because T-online (and Deutsche Telecom, their majority owners) were feeling the pressure from other ISPs in 2002-2004. Combined with a period of high economic growth, T-online was able to roll out true broadband profitably because of the huge numbers of people just signing up for broadband internet of any kind. Here in the US, we haven't had the luxury of competition among broadband ISPs until very recently, as Verizon has rolled out FiOS in areas served by the cable monopolies. We also haven't had a significant amount of customers migrating to broadband all at once -- people don't like to change their utility providers, so adoption is slow.
Because of competition from Verizon and other fiber optic providers, I expect bandwidth in the US to improve in the next decade, now that we have some competition. But who knows -- two players in a local market will only lead to very small incremental improvements.
At any rate, you Magyars have a nice situation over there right now. We'll see what things look like in 20 years... will it then be Hungary's turn to be behind the upgrade curve, instead of the US's?
Didn't you get the memo?
f_slashdot(frontpagelink) => serverfire
has been replaced by
f_slashdot(frontpagelink) => OMG PONIES!!!
I think the memo was distributed in early-to-mid 2006.
That wasn't fowl, the poster is just slightly mallardjusted.
We all know the actual means of monetizing of this... your vibrator will tweet when it turns on.
Actually, I should rephrase that. The vibrator will tweet. It's never *your* vibrator, of course.
Even with power reserved for the states, the model would have broken by now anyway.
The scale of our states is just too large for effective government of the type envisioned by the framers.
The same things that Jefferson foresaw happening under a Federalist government would happen under state government as well, since there is no way that a small number of people in power can be held accountable when the electorate numbers in the millions.
I'm sorry, mass media and population growth have fundamentally broken our democratic republic. That is a truth we cannot avoid. At the same time, technological advances have made it necessary for a strong federal government to oversee a lot of things. No longer does it take information two weeks to travel from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. It takes seconds. People and goods can make the same journey in hours. This alone has made a stronger federal presence necessary, since interstate trade is conducted constantly -- interstate trade volume is larger than intrastate trade volume.
In addition, the federal government is a better guarantor of my liberty than state governments. If anything, backing away from federalism is a way to ensure that you are giving up, not ensuring, liberty.
But that's OK. You seem to misunderstand the premise of Franklin's famous quote, anyway. Personal liberty is independent of whether our system is federalist or anti-federalist. I'm not sure you meant to mix those two issues... but if you did, then you're not thinking clearly.
But I also am a little confused as to how you can assume that the bill in question would make you trade liberty for security. Or have you broadly inflated the concept of "essential liberty" to include everything under the sun? In your book, does 'essential liberty' mean the freedom to do exactly as you please whenever you please? Because if it does, then you're dreaming. Anarchy is a piss-poor system.
I'm paranoid about my bills. More than a couple times a year, there's a billing error that needs to be corrected... I know if I had autobillpay I'd probably not examine my bills thoroughly.
So far this year I've noticed (and gotten corrected) overcharges on my Amex, another one of my credit cards, my Verizon bill, my Comcast bill (service now canceled due to shenanigans on their part), my HOA, and my gas bill.
Last year was much the same. I won't use autopay when corporate billing is so screwed up.
Meh. It was a poor attempt at humor, to be sure.
But I've noticed that a lot of mods use 'insightful' instead of 'funny', explained as trying to game the moderation system to award karma to posts they find humorous.
Sure, it wasn't that funny. But I'm glad the original insightful mod was canceled by overrated -- I just wish the second one was too.
Critical infrastructure is a national security concern. It definitely belongs under the purview of the federal government, especially since communications infrastructure is vital to interstate trade.
At any rate, the Constitution is dead. We have lost the ability to amend the Constitution, so the only choice we can make is to ignore it when it doesn't suit us. I would prefer the Constitution to be a living document, and that we could thereby continue to use it... but the fact of the matter is that the Constitution as a whole hasn't been relevant for decades. The world is simply far too different from what it was 70 years ago, let alone 220 years ago, for the unchanging Constitution to be considered anything more than a guideline to running this nation.
So... I'll agree with you, that we need to get back to the Constitution... provided that we can change the Constitution, and that the closeminded traditionalists without understanding of relevant issues keep their mouths shut when those issues are being discussed.
The ban on the characters "B A N K S" in that order is obviously a thinly-veiled attack on Wolfram Alpha, particularly on Stephen Wolfram.
.SE domain have a vendetta against Stephen Wolfram, the soul behind NKS... the Ba-NKS.
As well all know, Stephen Wolfram is the man behind Wolfram Alpha, and also the man behind the "New Kind of Science" -- NKS.
Also, as we all know, the ancient Egyptian word for soul is "Ba".
Therefore, we can conclude that the controllers of the
So who cares about the edge cases of blood banks or food banks or river banks or the purveyors of fine piggy banks. The real concern here is that there is a government conspiracy against a potential rival of Google... how deeply does Google have its claws sunk into European governments? When can be expect them to ban "Bing" from the url of any site that is not owned by either a registered wholesaler of a certain kind of cherry or a seller of outdated Christmas music?
You guessed wrong.
Yes, we both work. Yes, daycare is involved. But if you think daycare is raising our kids, you're sorely mistaken.
First, there's no complaining involved.
Second, we don't own expensive items. We solidly live within our means, save over 15% of our net income (not including 401k) -- college tuitions aren't going down, and donate over 5% (plus a lot of time spent volunteering). We aren't materialistic in any sense of the word... we place a high value on making sure there are no problems if one or both of us gets laid off.
But the core of your post is that you believe I'm judging other people. I'm not passing judgment... I'm just curious as to how a couple with two kids can devote so much time to a hobby.
Because none of the parents I spend time with can afford to...
Laundry. Cleaning. Preparing food for the next day. Household maintenance. Yard maintenance. Household repairs. Doing the bills. Maintaining the household budget. Cleaning the cars. Maintaining the cars. Research (investment, purchasing, schools, medical issues, all the million other things that require research). Planning events (birthday parties, barbecues, etc). Thank you cards. Mending clothes. Shopping online for gifts, clothes, etc. Grocery shopping as needed. Volunteer chores (regular chores for an elderly neighbor; doing laundry & cooking sometimes for the neighbor who just had twins).
Sure, I'll get a half hour or so before bedtime to read or watch TV or play a game... but I thought that WoW takes significant chunks of time (like 4+ hours) often?
Look, there are a TON of legitimate complaints about this bill.
Abuse of government powers in violation of free speech for political gain, etc, shouldn't be included. Those issues have already been addressed... the federal government already has the ability to step in and limit free speech in private channels if there is clear and present danger. The potential for abuse is already there, and has been there all along. This bill in no way affects that.
Your ridiculous leading questions detract from the real issues, which are outlined in TFA (for people that oppose a bill like this).
IMO, instead of "ZOMGWTF Totalitarian State Abusing Government Powers for Political Gain!", the real issue here is that critical infrastructure is in the hands of private for-profit corporations. These companies have the ability to hamstring the US economically through unilateral action (or even by accident). Critical infrastructure should be nationalized, in my opinion, or at the very least very closely supervised to ensure it is secure.
But I imagine that my views are contrary to the majority of slashdotters, and I expect to be modded into oblivion. No one wants the goobermint in their internets, even when oversight is necessary to maintain the integrity of our economy (such as it is), especially in the face of a directed and concerted attack on that infrastructure.
FWIW... I'm not sure that fits the definition of in moderation.
I mean, sure, some people watch TV seven nights a week, and compared to that, 4 nights only is limited... but for me, as a married guy with a kid, a hobby done in moderation means once a week, tops.
YMMV, of course -- I have no idea what your life is like, etc. But for me, just the thought of spending more than one night a week playing games makes my skin crawl with the thought of all the chores that wouldn't be getting done.
False.
The reason it is properly called global climate change is that while globally, the net effect is warming, some local climates may see cooling. This is due to changing weather patterns and other factors.
For example, almost models show that northwestern Europe will undergo cooling due to a weakening of the Gulf Stream flow that brings warm equatorial water (and air) to that region. This is despite the fact that these models show global mean temperature rising.
Are you intentionally misrepresenting the reason for the change from global warming to global climate change, or are you just ignorant? Hopefully it's the latter, because that can be easily corrected.
Why would you be shocked?
I mean, I not a conspiracy theorist by any means, but have you looked at how many ex-Goldman Sachs employees are employed in the highest levels of the US and several state governments?
And I'm not just talking about Treasury Department appointments... also in the SEC, in elected office, etc. There's a joke I've heard that the SEC doesn't sneeze if they haven't asked GS for permission first.
At any rate, the funniest thing I've heard about the whole deal is that GS told the authorities that with this software, the guy who stole it could manipulate markets and gain an unfair advantage in trade, and disrupt global markets. And yet somehow those potentials are not possible with GS being the only part holding the software?
For GS, he was making approx 400k. That's not outlandish for the kind of optimized programming on optimized hardware required for automatic trade execution, which is highly time-sensitive.
:)
But it's not just the programming skills that demand that much pay. There's lots of specialized knowledge, and some ability that likely you or I are not capable of[1].
1.2 MM for a different company? Likely the extra $800k was for the inside knowledge of what GS was doing.
[1] I don't know what your abilities are. But given my own geek-normal tendencies to overestimate my own abilities, I think it's quite possible that others do the same
Ah, I see you have yet to learn the rest of the somewhat dangerous Furious Bomb of Distraction Technique.
First you must gather your Chi within yourself.
Then you must expel your Chi forcefully in a directed blast.
This is the Basic Furious Bomb of Distraction.
Only the True Master can realize the full potential of the Advanced Furious Bomb of Distraction.
After gathering your Chi, you must light a match and hold it in front of the Badger Den.
Then, and only then, can you expel your Chi in a blue-flamed spectacle of diversion, thus giving a visual impact to your olfactory experience.
Fixed:
Now it makes more sense, and is quite believable, no?
Hmm... 5 minutes to build and stockpile resources, then a 5-minute wave of zombie attackers.
I know I've played a flash game with the same kind of gameplay... oh yes, I remember -- it was Super Energy Apocalypse.
FWIW, I found the timed delay waves annoying. I prefer TD games with either constant waves, like Gemcraft or Desktop TD, or with on-demand waves like Protector.
BTW, are you playing Gemcraft 1 or 0? I stopped playing at lvl 185 in 0, but now I've restarted and am restricting myself to traps only. It's pretty damn hard, it's taken me a few weeks to reach lvl 40.
Maybe I'm missing something... but why would the barhoppers and clubgoers lather homemade napalm on flat surfaces in restrooms?
Bathroom pyrotechnics are great and all, but I'm not sure I'd like to see some in a crowded club.
I'm not 100% behind this explanation. The conclusion is that evil is comprised of selfishness, which is not necessarily the case. While advocating selfishness as a good act is, to me, incorrect (OT: see Ayn Rand for rationalization of selfishness as good and necessary for society; this is why I can't stand Randroids)... "evil" requires more than just selfishness.
To be truly evil is to to take pleasure (or reward) in causing the suffering of others.
I know it's partially semantics, but in my opinion, acting purely selfishly is is not on par with taking pleasure in the negative impacts of your actions on others. Truly abhorrent outcomes can come from selfishness, but truly evil requires a little more.
Nice. Could we nail their feet to a board and use a funnel, a la foie gras, to force-feed them the Concentrate of Evil?
The only trouble with allowing the evil seed to grow is that it's not quite as viscerally appealing (or disturbing, depending on your point of view) as attaching the heads using a big needle and sinew harvested from their loved ones.
In very high or low latitudes, shortened sleep requirements could absolutely be beneficial (as could seasonal sleep requirement variations, which are documented -- see SAD & related research).
Seasonal food gathering requirements could definitely give a genetic advantage to those requiring less sleep in the far north or extreme south..
I'd be curious to see if this gene is found more commonly among people who come from populations from near-arctic or -antarctic latitudes.