There's no such thing as a free lunch...Or is there?

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It's official. The next president of Indonesia is former army general Prabowo Subianto. Quite how the next five years will pan out is anyone's guess but hopefully the foreign pundits who always bring up his dodgy human rights record will be proven wrong. Nonetheless, on policy making, Prabowo's popularist move to literally offer the poor 'a free lunch' every day of the week does not augur well for the future. Such a policy - if it ever came to fruition - would cost a phenomenal amount of money and likely lead to huge inefficiencies (food waste) and poor incentives (make people lazy). Another concern is Prabowo's strong nationalist bent. Thus, in the possible event that he finds himself with his back against the proverbial wall in the face of stern economic challenges, there is a big chance that he will simply scapegoat foreigners. But he will have to be careful. Construction of the new capital city, Nusantara, for example, is highly dependent on foreign in
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Rahma Azhari: picture perfect

I was rather impressed by this shot of Rahma Azhari in last July’s edition of Maxim:

Rahma Azhari

But what makes this a great picture? Well, apart from the obviously stunning subject, technical factors also play a part.

Cos according to British born psychologist Christopher Tyler, in most great single-subject portraits, the center-line (vertical bisector of the canvas) passes through one eye of the subject. As it does in this picture of Rahma Azhari (through her left eye).

This is true of Leonardo's three portraits of women (Ginevra de'Benci, Cecilia Gallerani, and La Giaconde), most of Rembrandt's masterpieces, and even in some Picassos. Although generally not taught in photography classes, very good photographers intuitively discover the principle by themselves.

As you can see here.

Rahma Azhari


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