Who says Aus isn't spooked ?
Link. Just recalling a chat with the Aussie housing agent last year who claimed that she had never heard of spooked areas in Sydney. Over in the Sydney CBD, there seems to be quite a few spooked places:
1)K-World (beside Hyde Park) - This is a belowground place for people to sing karaoke, which is in the lowest level of the building and is just beside the Hyde Park on Elizabeth Street. People claimed that they came across a ghost in room 11. The story is after they had finished singing the karaoke and were going to made payment at the counter. The counterperson said that there were 10 people inside the room and demands them to pay for 10 persons. However, there were only 9 of them, so they refused to pay for 10.Then, the counterperson said he/she saw that there were 10 persons in that room.
2)Sydney - Darling Harbor - Xerts Restaurant - Ghost of a little boy who died a few days after having his birthday party there is said to haunt the restaurant. Staff who work there have seen a little boy riding a tricycle around the restaurant and staff that work nightshifts can feel strange presence. The restaurant also holds rides and whoever wants to get off puts up their hand. But once the staff member saw someone put up their hand but no one was there. However the ghost is harmless and is hardly seen by clients.
3)Sydney - Capitol Theatre - About ten years ago, the Capitol Theatre in Sydney was re-furbished. One day a security guard decided that patrolling the site was not worth the money after seeing a ghost. Reports of seeing the apparition of a man.

Perhaps Aus should form their own SPI team like in SG to investigate these paranormal activities. It's about time too for ppl to look into spooked residential places in Aus too !!

Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code
Have just read the book. So far the international community has raised a hype over the soon-to-be-release of the film starring Tom Hanks. Not only has the catholic church has made a denouncement over the film, but so has the other protestant communities.
My personal impression of the content written in the author's books are that they tend to raise hysterium. So far there's been much controversy over Da Vinci Code. In his other book "Deception Point" which I also recently finished, the controversy of NASA led failed expeditions and their high govermental-led expenditures will be a contending debate issue for critics and supporters alike. I tend to feel that Dan Brown's novels may raise dissensional views if you probe deeper into reality non-fiction but as works of fiction they make a interesting novel read.

Dampers on Aus govt
Mood:  not sure
Here's a list of some things that could dampen the popularity of the Howard's govt recently:
1) Body Mix-up
2)Hikes in the price of Oil and possibly public transport
3)AWB investigations and an interview with the Jordanian middleman of the AWB deal in Dateline

SG Elections
Mood:  incredulous
With the SG elections heating up and so many fearful people already apologising to the ruling party and canditates switching parties and dissensions all about, it will be interesting to see what lays ahead of the future of the opposition parties in SG. Here's a good link to capture the spirit of the atmospehere.

Circular quay was displaying bear statues crafted by people from all around the world on the bears' bodies. However, looks like there were no displays of arts from the land of SG.
See the photos here.