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

Gunung Agung and Gunung Batur as seen from the Space Shuttle!!

Wow! Gunung Agung and Gunung Batur like you have never seen them before: in a color-coded 3D image produced from data obtained from NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour that was launched on 11 February, 2000!!

Gunung Agung and Gunung Batur as seen from the Space Shuttle!!
That’s one hell of a POV, I’m sure you’ll agree, and truly depicts the majesty and expanse of Bali’s major volcanic group. The huge cone on the left is Gunung Agung, and at 3,148 meters (10,308 feet) is the highest point on Bali. This volcano is of great significance to the Balinese and commands huge respect. This is probably understandable given its potential to cause widespread damage if the gods are not kept happy – the last time it exploded in 1917, thousands of people were killed and lava flows caused extensive damage. 

To the right of Gunung Agung is the huge caldera (volcanic crater) of the Batur volcano, left over from a “massive catastrophic eruption” about 30,000 years ago, which if it happened today, might just get people out of their beds in places as far away as Jakarta or Singapore. According to NASA, around 140 cubic kilometers (33.4 cubic miles) of material must have been ejected by this eruption - certainly food for thought for today’s global warming brigade. 

Since the 1800's Batur has erupted at least 22 times, and has been simmering with violent intent over the last year. 

NASA NOTES (EXTRACTS) 
Two visualization methods were combined to produce the image: shading and color coding of topographic height. The shade image was derived by computing topographic slope in the northwest-southeast direction, so that northwest slopes appear bright and southeast slopes appear dark. Color coding is directly related to topographic height, with green at the lower elevations, rising through yellow and tan, to white at the highest elevations. Elevation data used in this image were acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on Feb. 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect 3-D measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter (approximately 200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. Mediatype: image Creator: NASA/JPL/NIMA Date: 0000 Instrument: X-Band Radar, C-Band Radar Program: Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Object: Earth Insightuid: nasaNAS~4~4~14812~117474 

Source: https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04951 What: Crater What: Earth What: Shuttle Radar Topography Mission What: Space Shuttle Orbiter What: Endeavour What: SRTM What: Spaceborne Imaging Radar What: Enterprise Where: Indonesia Where: Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Where: Washington Identifier: PLAN-PIA04951 Addeddate: 2009-10-14 10:26:05 Publicdate: 2009-10-14 13:40:12

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