As of this week, the Netherlands is a legally net-neutral country. Here's what a real, federally mandated free internet looks like.

Yesterday the Dutch government passed a law mandating net neutrality, ensuring that internet service providers and telcos can't favor one type of internet traffic over any other. In the US, the FCC has already approved a set of piecemeal rules to encourage net neutrality, but nothing this absolute. (And judging by Comcast and Verizon's apparent plans, it doesn't really have any teeth.)

Incredibly for a piece of Internet legislation, the law is written in plain, easy-to-understand language; it's clear enough, I think, to serve as a template for the rest of the world. Here's a sample of what good internet legislation looks like, a handy primer in what net neutrality is all about, and a template for the rest of the world. (Translation by Bof.nl):

Providers of public electronic communication networks which deliver internet access services and providers of internet access services do not hinder or slow down applications and services on the internet

...

Providers of internet access services do not make the price of the rates for internet access services dependent on the services and applications which are offered or used via these services.

...

In order to prevent the degradation of service and the hindering or slowing down of traffic over public electronic communication networks, minimum requirements regarding the quality of service of public electronic communication services may be imposed on undertaking providing public communica­tions networks.

There are caveats, of course, but they're mostly defensible. And now we wait and see: will net neutrality destroy the Dutch internet or save it?

*Hey, wow, haptics.

*Despite the fact that this is Disney Research, no cartoon gloves are required.

*Also note the interesting design-fiction use-cases at the end of the video, such as squeezing a doorknob to lock a door. Mix that up with some of that Oblong Industries “Minority Report” gesture recognition, and we’re looking at a strange immersive future environment.

via @genebecker

Published on May 2, 2012 by DisneyResearchHub

“Touché proposes a novel Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing technique that can not only detect a touch event, but also recognize complex configurations of the human hands and body. Such contextual information significantly enhances touch interaction in a broad range of applications, from conventional touchscreens to unique contexts and materials. For example, in our explorations we add touch and gesture sensitivity to the human body and liquids. We demonstrate the rich capabilities of Touché with five example setups from different application domains and conduct experimental studies that show gesture classification accuracies of 99% are achievable with our technology.”

*More:

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/05/touche-brings-touch-controls-t.html

Imagine a solar system that fits into the palm of your hand. About 10 months ago, video game designer Christopher Albeluhn did, and now he's taken that vision to the public in a bid to boldly go where no edutainment application has gone before.

Albeluhn's software, "The Solar System: Explore Your Backyard," began as a portfolio-expanding project for the unemployed British Columbia-based video game designer. As he explains on its Indiegogo page, Albeluhn's original concept was to "create planet Earth in a video game engine," but as he added levels of scope and depth, the simulation began to take on astronomical proportions.

"Every night I began making it bigger, better, and more of what I wanted to see in a space program," Albeluhn wrote on the project's page.

Soon, the program included eight planets, their moons, the sun, and the 88 standard constellations. Perhaps most impressively, Albeluhn included "correct rotations, orbits, locations and speeds" for the solar system's planets and the sun, based on scientific data.

Built using the Unreal Engine, a platform traditionally used for first-person shooters and role-playing games, "Explore Your Backyard" is currently being developed for the PC. Albeluhn told Venture Beat that he's currently focused on releasing his simulation on that platform, but that a port for Android and hand-held iOS devices like iPad and iPhone would be possible if his project meets its fundraising goal of $8,000.

As an interactive, hands-on way for students to learn about the solar system, Albeluhn's program has the makings of a great teaching tool. According to the application's official website, "Explore Your Backyard" is "designed from the ground up with the distinct intent to make exploring and learning about the solar system fun, entertaining, informative and very natural."

While the program's many features might pose a bit of a learning curve, its depth and customizability set it apart from other solar system sims.

"Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe" application, for example, has been criticized by users for lack of depth. The NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab-produced "Eyes on the Solar System" Web app tracks the movement of asteroids and historic human-made satellites through the solar system, which Albeluhn intends to include on a later version of "Explore Your Backyard."

According to Venture Beat, Albeluhn also wants to include dwarf planets, a viewing library and more detailed models in future releases.

The Huffington Post e-mailed Albeluhn for comment, but received no reply as of press time.

Kern Precision Scales has dispatched a garden gnome around the world to be weighed, in order to test the hypothesis that things weigh less at the equator than they do at the poles, due to the "little bit potato shaped" imperfections in the Earth's sphericalness. They've reported that their gnome is 0.6% lighter at the equator. This is a pretty awesome stunt.

The Gnome Experiment by Kern (via /.)

The National Rifle Association's effort to pass Florida-style "Stand Your Ground" laws in other states has continued unabated in the wake of the February 26, Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was confronted, shot, and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman.

Since Martin's tragic death, media outlets have noted the role of the state's laws in providing Zimmerman with a legal self-defense claim that may prevent him from ever being successfully prosecuted. According to Mother Jones, Florida courts have found that under that statute, a "defendant's only burden is to offer facts from which his resort to force could have been reasonable" while "the State has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not act in self-defense." 

16 states have reportedly passed similar legislation since Florida's 2005 adoption of the statute, often with the strong support of the NRA. This is no coincidence; the NRA has been affiliated for years with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which has pushed model legislation expanding when it is legally permissible to use deadly force through its network of conservative state legislators. 

The controversial circumstances of Martin's death have not slowed the NRA's effort to push for the passage of such laws: The organization's lobbying arm spent the weeks following his death promoting similar statutes in Iowa, Alaska, and Minnesota.

• On March 16, the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) criticized the Judiciary Committee chairman of Iowa's state Senate for failing to hold hearings on "NRA-initiated HF 2215, the Stand Your Ground/Castle Doctrine Enhancement." According to NRA-ILA, the bill would "remove a person's 'duty to retreat' from an attacker, allowing law-abiding citizens to stand their ground and protect themselves or their family anywhere they are lawfully present." The group urged supporters to contact state Senators and tell them to support the bill. NRA-ILA previously told supporters to contact Democratic members of the Iowa House after they "left the Capitol building in an attempt to block consideration of these pro-gun bills" on February 29.
• On March 14, NRA-ILA urged Alaskan supporters to contact their state Senators and tell them to support House Bill 80, which it termed "important self-defense legislation that would provide that a law-abiding person, who is justified in using deadly force in self-defense, has 'no duty-to-retreat' from an attack if the person is in any place that that person has a legal right to be." NRA-ILA also promoted the bill on March 5, March 8, and February 29.
• On March 5, NRA-ILA executive director Chris W. Cox criticized Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton for vetoing House File 1467, which Cox said "would have removed the duty to retreat for crime victims currently mandated under Minnesota state law and precluded victims from facing prosecution for lawfully defending their lives." NRA-ILA also urged supporters to contact Dayton and urge him not to veto the bill on March 1 and February 29.

The NRA has referred to Florida's statute as "good law, casting a common-sense light onto the debate over the right of self-defense." The organization is unlikely to be satisfied until that "common-sense light" has been spread across the country, regardless of what tragedies occur in the meantime.

The revelation that neutrinos may be able to move faster than the speed of light rocked the scientific community — until it was discovered that may not have been the case after all. This year's Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate takes on this very question itself. The debate will be hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium (and upcoming On The Verge guest), and will feature top minds from UCLA, CERN, Boston University, and several others. It's happening right now, so hurry over to the American Museum of Natural History's site to see the debate unfold.

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