Queensland????

For ages I have wanted to move to Queensland to be near my family. (For those of you in USA, think Florida and you will have some feeling of what QLD is like.) My parents are getting on in age (Dad is 80). My sister Sue and gentle husband Errol and their wonderful kids Daniel, Lois, and Sophie, my brother Peter and his sweet, nutty wife Lyn and their kids Jason and Renee all live on the Sunshine Coast.

My youngest brother Rod and his family live in far north QLD -- about twice as far away as the rest of my family is.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, my old girlfriend, Julie, just phoned up to ask if I am interested in renting a house she owns near the Sunshine coast -- about a half hour's drive from my folks' place.

I am soooo tempted.

I would finally be near most of my family, but I have no money for the move, which would cost probably ~$1500.
I would be near my family, but would be far away from a lot of friends I've made down here in Melbourne.
I would be near my family, but QLD can be suffocatingly hot.
And did I mention that I would be near my family? :)

I have to give Julie an answer by Monday. [gulp]

"Let the market fix it"

That is what Australian politicians are fond of parroting. It is the new religion. The market will fix all. Commercialise everything. Let us all bow to the great god Money.

The market really can do some wonderful things, but some other things it handles terribly. What is happening to the CSIRO is a worrying example of the latter:

No CSIRO place for top biologist

Date: July 27 2003

By Larry Schwartz

An Australian scientist considered to be a world expert on antibiotic resistance is believed to be looking for a job overseas after being forced out by the CSIRO.

The forced redundancy of Dr Ruth Hall smacked of "real harshness and injustice", according to the Industrial Relations Commission. A colleague said it was as if Australian sporting officials had declared Ian Thorpe redundant.

Dr Hall, 57, who is considered by many microbiologists to be one of the world's foremost researchers into bacterial drug resistance, was told she had to leave the CSIRO on July 4 but is bound by a legal agreement to give no details and to make no comment. Her work enabled the CSIRO to raise the alarm in 1998 about evidence that animal microbes could pass antibiotic resistance to bacteria that cause disease in humans. In the same year, Dr Hall served as scientific expert on a Federal Government advisory committee that found that almost 57 per cent of antibiotics imported in the previous five years had been used in stock feed.

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