OffSetLab

In the wake of the announcement of Breakthrough Starshot where the humanity plans to scale the distance between our star system and the Alpha Centauri, we're also publishing the new Solar Projector. The majority of it is only a cosmetic makeover, but a new satellite source has been added. It is the DSCOVR, which is currently publishing data in the experimental phase.

Vesna played around with ES6 here, but the general concept is still the same: learn the fundamentals first and move on from there. I updated the back-end and created some bugs with it. They should be fixed now, but since there likely aren't many visitors coming to this site, things occasionally being broken should not be a big deal. As far as hobby projects go, this one might eventually be ready for other eyes as well, but we'll think about putting it out there more once we feel satisfied with it.

For the reference, this is the old version:

and this is the new version:

We still have some plans with it, but these should be implemented in the coming months with yet another new version.

While the nations are bickering over Panama papers, the climate change news are worrying with every day passing. The matters of politics are going to become second hand when we're facing the ecological catastrophe and possible extinction. Vesna and I want to visit the Great Barrier Reef in the coming years, but it could be a sight not to see due to coral bleaching event encompassing most of the reef now.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest biomass conglomerate on the planet and it was selected one of the seven natural wonders by BBC. It can also be seen from space. The rising temperatures and the ocean acidification brought about by human activities are causing the coral to expel the symbiotic Zooxanthellae that, among other side effects, give it the distinct vibrant color. When the temperatures get lower, the protozoa return. If not, the coral is in danger of dying. The bleaching has been occurring more frequently in the past several years and I hope that by the time we get to visit the reef, the El Niño period will have passed and we might still see some color in the reef.

Considering the temperature shock and the change in the ocean chemistry where the acidity and temperature will rise, it is estimated that the coral will die off this century. The melting ice layer causes the redistribution of the mass on the planet and it affects the rotation wobble. After the loss of the Aral Sea and Lake Poopó and now the wobble incident, the extinction of the coral is not difficult to imagine happening in the future. Furthermore, the recent study from the Science magazine shows that the estimated increase in temperature might actually be bigger than expected. This is a serious blow to the biodiversity of the planet.

With Japan reporting it's whale killing and that we're still seeing the whale population going extinct with the Southern Right Whale dying off in spite of "being saved" I am really skeptical about the future.

James Hansen in the interview for the Yale Environment 360 last week mentioned a series of alarming facts like losing coastal areas, affecting of the oceanic current, extinction of species... The list goes on and on.

We went to Greece just recently and that explains the absence of articles on the web here and the general slowdown of the things I have yet to do. My phone is dying and I'm coping with its demise by photographing the drawings in various ways. I'm still waiting for the ARA initiative to kick off. In the mean time, using CyanogenMod is making things faster sometimes if nothing.

Ingredients:

• 400 g tomatoes
• 1 red chili
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 medium eggplants
• 2 leeks
• 500 g button mushrooms
• olive oil
• basil, oregano, white pepper, salt, sugar
• medium hard to hard cheeses
• lasagna leaves

Preparation:

Blend the tomatoes, chili and garlic. You'll need them later. Peel and cut the eggplants into 1 cm slices and rub some salt into them. Let them rest for half an hour or so, so they lose the bitterness, and then drain them. You can rinse them with boiling water if you're afraid they might still be bitter. Cut them additionally into 1 cm cubes. Prepare the mushrooms by cutting them into 1 cm pieces and prepare the leeks by cutting them into small rings.

First heat some olive oil and put the leeks in. Sauté them until soggy and then add mushrooms and eggplants. Sprinkle some salt to speed up frying. After it's nicely fried, add the blended tomatoes with garlic and chili and mix everything well. Keep it on medium heat. It will eventually shrink in volume a bit. You can add more salt (but keep in mind that the cheeses could be salty as well), and add sugar to counter the sourness of the tomatoes. When it's to your liking, add other spices (basil, oregano, white pepper). Mix well and remove from heat.

In a deep pan prepare the lasagna by oiling the pan and adding the first layer of lasagna leaves. Add the mixture, cover with grated cheese and repeat the steps until you fill the container or run out of ingredients. I leave the last layer uncovered and I don't use béchamel in this recipe. After it is layered, put it in the oven for 20 minutes on 200 degrees. Serve warm with some rocket salad if you want.

Notes:

You can probably use tomato sauce here and chili garlic sauce if you don't have a blender. It would also be OK to add béchamel if you want, but we didn't want to overload the meal with extra calories or blanket the other tastes. Basil and oregano are here to enhance the tomato. Otherwise, the idea is to have a good filler for lasagna.

The year 2015 has so far been the warmest year since we started measuring the temperatures. The rising average of temperatures due to the climate change is coupled with the El Niño dry period so the droughts we experience in this period are even further exacerbated.

What's El Niño exactly? It's a dry and warm period of the temperature cycle in the Pacific Ocean that mostly affects the coastal countries in the tropical area.

The influence of El Niño, and the corresponding wet period coming after it, La Niña, is not geographically localized because the winds and the changes in the ocean affect global weather patterns.

As the temperatures rise due to the climate change, the land is dried up of any moisture. Over time this even leads to extreme alterations in the planet's geographical features.

Remember the disappearance of the Aral Sea? The same thing is happening again now with the Lake Poopó drying up.

Because of the cycle of water, the evaporated water comes down in form of rain in other locations, sometimes causing massive floods. This flooding happened in 2014 in Southeast Europe, and this winter in the Great Britain and Ireland. In many instances the aged infrastructure is not prepared for this influx of water and the soil itself is hydrologically unable to absorb the excess in a short amount of time. People lose their homes and lives.

Aside from the Great Britain and Ireland, people were affected by flooding in 2015 in South America and North America in the eastern Missouri area as well. China got hit a couple of months ago, too.

We're already witnessing again the death, homelessness, hunger and poverty due to this, and the sustained damage across the globe will affect the structure of financial aid (as financial resources are spread thin) and the global resource distribution (destruction of agricultural areas, for example).

These catastrophes unmistakably bring to light the inefficiencies and fundamental flaws of the mitigation measures already in place, as well as the state systems' negligence and inertia when it comes to preparing for the inevitable next round.

However, no amount of shouting into the void (or the favorite comment section) how the system is broken can help, but rolling up our sleeves and working on our own habits is something we can do - reducing our carbon footprint and doing our part to lessen the effect the humanity has on the environment.

The summit on climate changes came and went. The adopted agreement is that the temperatures are not supposed to rise above 2 °C with the 1.5 °C as the best effort in the second half of the century. A victory against the growing trends of biodiversity loss and destroying the ecosystem. The nation leaders hold hands and smile for the cameras. Considering the trends today, the goal is impossible to achieve yet we must try. Of course, the agreement is not legally binding if the countries choose not to ratify it or not act upon that ratification. But let's eliminate the noise here.

Is the text truly good? Sadly, no. We're left with the pretense of victory and hope for the future where there is none. The text everyone agrees on left no roadmap, concrete goals and date to which it must be implemented. To make matters worse, the island nations like the Seychelles claim that their economy will be destroyed regardless. Nobody talks about repairing the damage that has already been done. In fact, the liabilities were not a part of the text. “The idea of even discussing loss and damage now or in the future was off limits. The Americans told us it would kill the COP,” said Leisha Beardmore, the chief negotiator for the Seychelles. “They have always been telling us: ‘Don’t even say that’.”

I am afraid that we will just see more greenwashing and little to no results. The adoption doesn't ask for any responsibility to be acknowledged for the future failures at all. It was just a great pat on the back between nation leaders. After the circle jerk they had on the summit, we're supposed to believe that this time will be different. Just remember that the Kyoto ultimately failed because the emissions of the greenhouse gases were not lowered in the world. They were increased. We are hitting the 1 °C average temperature increase since the pre-industrial age right about now. The deal is setting itself up for a failure and a pledge is just a pledge, a fool's comfort.

James Hansen says that as long as we burn fossil fuels because they are a cheap commodity, this situation is not going anywhere. To reinforce this, the price of a barrel of oil has hit the lowest in seven years and is about 36$ per barrel. It hasn't been long since the end of the summit that India said that the adoption doesn't change the fact that they will double their coal usage till 2020. The summit was a big vacation for the politicians and nothing has been reached so don't fool yourselves. The change should still come from within ourselves first because no dice if we as people don't act on it.