They went with songs to the battle, they were young. Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted, They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them. Lest we forget.                                             - Laurence Binyon Early on the morning of the 25th of April, 1915 Allied forces landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire (modern day Turkey) in a campaign to seize Constantinople (Istanbul) and open a supply route to Russia. The allied forces consisted of British, French, Australian and New Zealand troops. The latter two countries...

I've been teaching myself the Java programming language on and off for about a year now. Here's a screen shot of my latest accomplishment. It's essentially a dumbed down version of paintbrush. At least I've finally made it to graphics.

 Jean and I went down to Canberra back in February with our friend Lynn. Here's the belated write up: Jean and Aaron in Sydney: Road Trip: Canberra

When we’ve talked to friends and colleagues about our Easter excursions the following four questions tend to come up: How was it? Was it worth it? Would you go again? Would you recommend it? The very short answers are: Good Yes Maybe It depends I’ve elaborated below if you’re interested. Otherwise, check out the pictures and the slideshow at the bottom. What I Liked Wide-open spaces: Jean and I have been in large cities for over a year now. Even on holidays and hiking trips thus far we weren’t far from population centers. The closet town to Mungo National Park is around 150 kilometers away. There’s something about a horizon that’s so long and unobstructed that you can see the curvature of the earth. Or a night sky that’s so dark and expansive that it seems like the stars have multiplied ten fold. Or a soundscape whose only players are birds and the wind.   The Park Staff : The tour was great as was an evening presentation on the history of the area and the park. We got J...

Lakefront property no longer 40,000 years ago our campsite would have been at the edge of a sprawling lake, the far shore some twenty kilometers in the distance. The animal life would have been a diverse group including hairy nosed wombats, red and grey kangaroos, bilbys and Tasmanian tigers. The last of the megafauna (essentially large versions of the above mentioned animals) would have already died out several thousand years before, because as the song goes, the times they are a changing. The extinction of the giant varieties of wombat and kangaroo probably came about from a combination several factors including climate change and some new neighbors of the two-legged variety. The lake levels fluctuated some over the next 20,000 years until entering a drying phase and disappearing completely. The lake bed today. The lunette is just visible on the horizon Today the dry lake bed is covered in low growing salt bushes. The wombats have moved on to greener pastures and the Tasmani...

“It’s a great little city car,” the woman at the car rental agency told us cheerily. “Where are you planning to go?” “Mungo national park…” I said. Her brow furrowed as she considered that for a moment, “Hmm, I can’t say I’ve ever heard of it.” Well, she’s not alone. That’s pretty much the response we received from most people we told about our Easter holiday plans. However, the night before I had talked with the field biologist we volunteer with and he was really excited about it. “Mungo has great fossils,” he exclaimed. “It’s sort of out west,” I told the agent. “Well, I hope you have a good time,” she said, the chirp in her voice returning. She gave us the key and a sheaf of fine print and we were out the door and over to the parking garage down the street to pick up our ride. On the fourth level of the basement we found our car for the week, a late model blue Toyota Yaris. It had been almost two years since either of us had driven anything with more than two wheels. Tha...

Note: If you missed year 1, here's the link