Visitors to declare illegal porn to customs officers

Visitors have been ordered to reveal illegal pornography to customs officers in a move which has been criticised as totally confusing and an invasion of privacy.

Justice Minister Brendan O’Connor said that illegal material must be declared on arrival, watering down recent rules that asked for all pornography to be revealed.

But he said anyone who is not sure whether they have illegal pornography should reveal it just in case. The revamped rule is outlined on arrival cards which are filled in by travellers coming to Australia — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Government sponsors encryption on the cheap

The Federal Government has tipped $1.2 million into locally-developed quantum cryptography technology, which will be available to buy in a year.

The second-generation technology, called the Quantum Link Encryptor (QLE), promises to dramatically lower the cost of unbreakable quantum cryptography systems by using off-the-shelf telecommunications equipment, which is possible thanks to the use of a finely-tuned laser that transmits data — via redwolf.newsvine.com

US leads the way to communities of the future

In the midst of a job meltdown and faltering economy, one might think the lives of low-income African-Americans and Latinos would be bad everywhere in the US. But during a recent trip to the US, we saw hope springing from an unlikely source — a transit hub.

This idea is gaining traction in Australia (despite protests from established residents), conjuring, as it does, images of a beautiful enclosed tram/train stop surrounded by coffee shops, boutique stores and sidewalk cafes with up-market, low-rise apartments in the background. But we found that new and startling things regarding transit, development and density are going on in the US — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Crazy House: Offbeat Organic Tree-Shaped Home in Vietnam

Crazy House: Offbeat Organic Tree-Shaped Home in Vietnam )

It would be out of place anywhere, but in Vietnam the Crazy House seems even stranger somehow … set, as it is, against the backdrop of a relatively ordinary neighbourhood in a relatively typical town. Set on top of a giant tree stump, it almost looks as if this whole structure had been carved from a massive naturally-growing trunk — via Dornob

Intervention Order Served Via Facebook By Victoria Police

The long arm of the law just got longer, with Victoria Police revealing they have used Facebook to serve an intervention order on a man who threatened, bullied and harassed a former partner on the social networking site.

Victoria Police said the offender used Facebook to intimidate a woman in August this year, two days after a previous intervention order expired, which led to a Victorian court issuing another ban on him contacting the woman — via The Age