Month: November 2017

What’s On the Menu? Augmented Reality and 3-D Food Models

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At Vino Levantino wine bar in New York City, the desserts are delicious but not always so straightforward.

“We have a few desserts that are not usual … or people (are) not familiar with them,” owner Haim Amit said. “Like we have the kadaif, I mean, not everyone knows what’s kadaif.”

Rather than explain the traditional Middle Eastern dessert to customers, Amit shows them. 

Using the Kabaq augmented reality application on an iPad, he demonstrates how virtual, 3-D models of desserts can now be superimposed onto the tabletop in front of customers.

The 3-D models look incredibly realistic, not to mention mouthwatering.

How it works

“Humans are visual creatures,” Kabaq founder Alper Guler said. The tech startup is helping diners decide what to eat, and in the process, giving traditional menus a digital twist.

Guler and his team visit participating restaurants to capture 3-D images of their dishes. Using a portable, tabletop photo booth, they place dishes on a turntable inside.

“What we do is we turn the food every second and stop it, and capture from that angle,” Guler said. Cameras placed at varying heights capture all possible angles and the images are processed back at Kabaq offices to create 3-D models. Kabaq charges $99-$199 per month for their services.

Sales, fun increase

The technology is proving to be good for business. 

Amit said that overall sales have increased about 22 percent since the business began using Kabaq in June.

“We’re helping restaurant owners to raise their check averages by selling more desserts,” said Guler, who likened Kabaq to a modern-day dessert cart.

“There’s a lot of really strong applications for visualizing the food and showing the customer what they’re going to get,” said Mike Cadoux, Kabaq’s head of sales and partnerships. “If I was going to get the $17 pasta, but I see the $28 steak and it looks amazing, and I go for the $28 steak, that’s a huge value add to so many restaurants up and down the street.”

But it’s also the opportunity for a unique dining experience that Amit says has customers noticeably excited.

“They don’t expect it and they really like it. They’re surprised that we come with something digital, it’s almost like a toy,” Amit said.

On a recent night, two 20-something customers took an immediate liking to the app.

“It’s like you have the whole plate in front of you, it’s amazing,” one said.

Foodies love the technology

3-D scanning technology, in which objects are captured from all sides, is turning out to be a good fit for foodies.

Artist Romain Rouffet used 3-D scanning to create a 3-D recipe for banoffee pie that users can zoom in and out of and view from all angles. The resulting video is potentially a sign of innovations to come.

“Augmented reality and 3-D viewing and these kinds of medium … are just integral to that next generation of experience,” Cadoux said.
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Startup Hopes to Show 3-D Versions of Menu Items

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It’s not always easy to know what to order when dining out, especially with exotic or foreign cuisines. But a tech startup in New York is hoping to help, using augmented reality to bring restaurant menus to life. VOA’s Tina Trinh met with the founder of Kabaq
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Chinese Barber, Clients Swear by Eyelid Shave

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Chinese street barber Xiong Gaowu deftly scrapes a straight razor along the inside of his customer’s eyelid.

“You should be gentle, very, very gentle,” said Xiong, who performs traditional eyelid shaves at his roadside location in Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan.

Customers swear by the practice of “blade wash eyes,” as it is known in Mandarin, saying they trust Xiong’s skill with the blade.

“No, it’s not dangerous,” said 68-year-old Zhang Tian. “My eyes feel refreshed after shaving and I feel comfortable.”

Xiong, 62, said he learned the technique in the 1980s and serves up to eight customers a week, charging 80 yuan ($12) per shave.

“It was difficult at the beginning, but it became a piece of cake afterwards,” he said.

Risk of infection

The technique appears to unblock moisturizing sebaceous glands along the rim of the eyelid, said Qu Chao, an opthalmologist who works at a nearby hospital in Chengdu.

“Patients will feel their eyes are dry and uncomfortable when the glands are blocked,” she said. “When he is shaving, it is most likely that he is shaving the openings of these glands.”

She said there was a risk of infection if the equipment was not sterilized.

“If he can properly sterilize the tools that he uses, I can still see there is a space for this technique to survive,” Qusaid.

Onlookers unsure

While customers insisted their eyes felt better after a shave, onlookers cringed at the sight of Xiong wielding his razor.

“I am afraid to do it,” said He Yiting, 27, who winced as she watched.
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Head of Consumer Watchdog Names Successor, Trump Names Another

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The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau resigned Friday and named his own successor, leading to an open conflict with President Donald Trump, who announced a different person as acting head of the agency later in the day.

That means there are now effectively two acting directors of the CFPB, when there should only be one.

Typically an acting director position would be filled according to the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. But Richard Cordray, along with his resignation, elevated Leandra English, who was the agency’s chief of staff, into the deputy director position.

Under the Dodd-Frank Act that created the CFPB, English would become acting director. Cordray, an Obama appointee, specifically cited the law when he moved English, a longtime CFPB employee and ally of his, into that position.

​Trump appoints CFPB critic

Within a few hours, President Donald Trump announced his own acting director of the agency, Mick Mulvaney, who is currently director of the Office of Management and Budget. Mulvaney had widely been expected to be Trump’s temporary pick for the bureau until a permanent one could be found.

Mulvaney is a long-time critic of the CFPB, and has wanted the agency’s authority significantly curtailed. So the difference between English and Mulvaney running the agency would be significant.

Senate confirmation needed

The person nominated to be director of the CFPB requires confirmation by the Senate, and it could be many weeks or months before the person would be able to step into the role permanently. Cordray’s move was aimed at allowing his favored successor to keep running the agency for as long as possible before a Trump appointee is confirmed by the Senate.

Cordray had announced earlier this month that he would resign by the end of this month. There is wide speculation that Cordray, a Democrat, is resigning in order to run for governor in his home state of Ohio.

What CFPB does

The CFPB was created as part of the laws passed following the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession. The agency was given a broad mandate to be a watchdog for consumers when they deal with banks and credit card, student loan and mortgage companies, as well as debt collectors and payday lenders. Nearly every American who deals with banks or a credit card company or has a mortgage has been affected by new rules the agency put in place.

Cordray used that mandate aggressively as its first director, which often made him a target for the banking industry’s Washington lobbyists and congressional Republicans who believed Cordray was overreaching in his role, calling the CFPB a “rogue agency.”

As director, he also was able to extract billions of dollars in settlements from banks, debt collectors and other financial services companies for wrongdoing. When Wells Fargo was found to have opened millions of phony accounts for its customers, the CFPB fined the bank $100 million, the agency’s largest penalty to date.
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Fighting Pollution, Plastics in Indonesia

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Slowly but steadily, the consciousness about the need to protect and preserve the natural environment is rising all over the world. Grassroots initiatives get more coverage, and those involved in them say it feels good to be a part of a beneficial movement. VOA’s George Putic reports on two of the latest initiative in Indonesia.
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Trump Wants to End Welfare of Clinton Era

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Overhauling welfare was one of the defining goals of Bill Clinton’s presidency, starting with a campaign promise to “end welfare as we know it,” continuing with a bitter policy fight and producing change that remains hotly debated 20 years later.

Now, President Donald Trump wants to put his stamp on the welfare system, apparently in favor of a more restrictive policy. He says “people are taking advantage of the system.”

Trump, who has been signaling interest in the issue for some time, said this past week that he wants to tackle the issue after the tax overhaul he is seeking by the end of the year. He said changes were “desperately needed in our country” and that his administration would soon offer plans.

​Work on new policy begins

For now, the president has not offered details. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said more specifics were likely early next year. But the groundwork has begun at the White House and Trump has made his interest known to Republican lawmakers.

Paul Winfree, director of budget policy and deputy director of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council, told a recent gathering at the conservative Heritage Foundation that he and another staffer had been charged with “working on a major welfare reform proposal.” He said they have drafted an executive order on the topic that would outline administration principles and direct agencies to come up with recommendations.

“The president really wants to lead on this,” Winfree said. “He has delivered that message loud and clear to us. We’ve opened conversations with leadership in Congress to let them know that that is the direction we are heading.”

Trump said in October that welfare was “becoming a very, very big subject, and people are taking advantage of the system.”

​Clinton’s campaign promise

Clinton ran in 1992 on a promise to change the system but struggled to get consensus on a bill, with Democrats divided and Republicans pushing aggressive changes. Four years later, he signed a law that replaced a federal entitlement with grants to the states, placed a time limit on how long families could get aid and required recipients to go to work eventually.

It has drawn criticism from some liberal quarters ever since. During her presidential campaign last year, Democrat Hillary Clinton faced activists who argued that the law fought for by her husband punished poor people.

No evidence of fraud

Kathryn Edin, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who has been studying welfare since the 1990s, said the law’s legacy has been to limit the cash assistance available to the very poor and has never become a “springboard to work.” She questioned what kinds of changes could be made, arguing that welfare benefits are minimal in many states and there is little evidence of fraud in other anti-poverty programs.

Still, Edin said that welfare has “never been popular even from its inception. It doesn’t sit well with Americans in general.”

Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at Heritage, said he would like to see more work requirements for a range of anti-poverty programs and stronger marriage incentives, as well as strategies to improve results for social programs and to limit waste. He said while the administration could make some adjustments through executive order, legislation would be required for any major change.

“This is a good system,” he said. “We just need to make this system better.”

Administration officials have suggested they are eyeing anti-poverty programs. Trump’s initial 2018 budget proposal, outlined in March, sought to sharply reduce spending for Medicaid, food stamps and student loan subsidies, among other programs.

Budget director Mick Mulvaney said this year, “If you are on food stamps and you are able-bodied, we need you to go to work.”
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Even in Amazon Era, Black Friday Shows Stores Are Alive

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Retailers worked hard to attract shoppers to stores on Black Friday, offering in-person deals meant to counter the ease of shopping online.

A better economy helped, to be sure, but stores have also tried to improve the store experience and offer better service. They’ve also made a big push toward offering store pickup for online orders.

But online leader Amazon is still the first and only stop for many shoppers. So stores are getting creative with the deals.

Victor Moore said he arrived about two hours ahead of Best Buy’s 8 a.m. opening in Nashville and scored one of the about 14 “doorbuster” deals on a 55-inch Toshiba smart TV for $280, a $220 savings. Moore said he’s done some online shopping, but the allure of in-store-only deals drew him out from behind the computer.

“This is the first successful doorbuster that I’ve ever been a part of,” Moore said. “I’ve been in lines before, but never actually got the items that I was waiting for.”

Annette Peluffo usually avoids Black Friday and buys online. But a $250 gift card reward for buying an iPhone 8 plus at a Target store in Miami was hard to resist. She plans to use the money to buy toys for her nephews and nieces in the coming weeks. “I just came here for the iPhone. I am not going to any other store,” she said.

Not just one day

Still, Black Friday isn’t what it used to be. It has morphed from a single day when people got up early to score doorbusters into a whole month of deals. That has thinned out the crowds. And brick-and-mortar stores face plenty of challenges.

With the jobless rate at a 17-year-low of 4.1 percent and consumer confidence stronger than a year ago, analysts project healthy sales increases for November and December. The National Retail Federation trade group expects sales for that period to at least match last year’s rise of 3.6 percent and estimates online spending and other nonstore sales will rise 11 to 15 percent.

But analysts at management consultancy Bain & Company say Amazon is expected to take half of the holiday season’s sales growth.

Amazon said Friday that Thanksgiving continued to be one of its busiest shopping days, with orders through its app up over 50 percent from a year ago. Overall, online sales on Black Friday rose 18.4 percent to $640 million, from a year ago, as of Friday morning, said Adobe Analytics. Thanksgiving generated a total of $2.87 billion in online spending, up 18.3 percent from a year ago, the data firm said.

About 69 percent of Americans, or 164 million people, intend to shop at some point during the five-day period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, according to a survey released by the NRF. It expected Black Friday to remain the busiest day, with about 115 million people planning to shop then.

“The consumer still likes to go to the stores,” said Charles O’Shea, Moody’s lead retail analyst. “I’ve seen a lot of traffic. Yes, there’s going to be a lot of online shopping. But I think the brick-and-mortar stores have done a nice job so far in attracting shoppers.”

That’s true of Karre Wagner, 20, a University of Minnesota student from St. Paul who was shopping at Mall of America in Bloomington with her boyfriend. She bought a Blu-ray player at the mall’s Best Buy store. She says she started holiday shopping on Black Friday, but she likes to go to the mall to shop.

Hands-on experience

“I like to see what I’m buying. I like to touch it, feel it, know exactly what I’m getting, and part of it is the experience,” she said. “I mean, sitting online is fine, but there’s just something about starting the holiday season with Black Friday.”

The shift to online buying is a major factor as industry analysts watch how the nation’s malls fare this holiday shopping season. The Mall of America in Minnesota says that 2,500 people were in line at the 5 a.m. opening Friday, in line with a year ago. Shoppers started queuing up as early as 5:45 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Jill Renslow, Mall of America’s executive vice president of business development, said stores like Nordstrom, Macy’s and Best Buy were crowded. She said the items that caught shoppers’ attention included voice-activated devices like Amazon Echo, nostalgic toys, clothing and shoes.

Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said customer counts were higher and business was better in the North and Northeast, even with fewer promotions from a year ago.

But much depends on whether people are buying or just looking, and if they’re buying things that aren’t on sale as well.

Chuck Boyd said he and his son arrived at 4 a.m. to be among the first five or six in line at Best Buy in Nashville to get one each of about 14 “doorbuster” deals. He said he prefers online shopping, but his son wanted a TV for his apartment at school, so Boyd came along to get one, too.

“I’d much rather do online,” Boyd said. “But this was the deal you could only do in the store.”
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Mexico Creates Marine Reserve Around Islands Called ‘Galapagos of North America’

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Mexico’s government has created a marine park the size of Illinois in the Pacific, the largest ocean reserve in North America for the conservation of

giant rays, whales and turtles, including dozens of species

endemic to the area.

Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto designated on Friday

the Revillagigedo Archipelago, located some 390 km (242 miles)

southeast of the Baja California peninsula, as a national park.

The four volcanic islands that make up the Revillagigedo

Archipelago and the surrounding waters are home to hundreds of

species of animals and plants, including rays, humpback whales,

sea turtles, lizards and migratory birds.

The archipelago is sometimes known as the Galapagos of North

America, in reference to the volcanic Ecuadorean islands whose

abundance of endemic species inspired biologist Charles Darwin.

All fishing prohibited

The 148,000 square kilometers (57,143 square miles) area is

a breeding ground for commercially fished species such as tuna

and sierra. Now all fishing activities will be prohibited, as well as

the construction of hotel infrastructure on the islands.

The Environment Ministry and Navy “will carry out

surveillance, equipment and training activities that will

include remote monitoring in real time, environmental education

directed at fishermen and sanctions against offenders,” said

Pena Nieto.

The creation of the marine park is expected to help recover

fish populations hit hard by commercial fishing and was praised

by the World Wildlife Fund and British billionaire Richard

Branson.

 
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Top 5 Songs for Week Ending Nov. 25

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We’re feasting on the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending Nov. 25, 2017.

It’s Thanksgiving week, and right on schedule, the chart sends us a tasty new title.

Number 5: Imagine Dragons “Thunder”

Let’s begin in fifth place, where Imagine Dragons continues to hold with “Thunder.”

This Las Vegas band made out well at the American Music Awards on November 20, when they performed with Khalid. They did a great mash-up of “Thunder” and “Young Dumb and Broke.” Imagine Dragons also took home a third trophy, this time for Favorite Pop/Rock Group.

Number 4: Sam Smith “Too Good at Goodbyes”

It’s a banner week for Sam Smith on the charts — he racks up his third Top Five hit in the Hot 100, as “Too Good At Goodbyes” shoots from 10th to fourth place.

Sam is also this week’s album champ, as “The Thrill Of It All” sells 237,000 album-equivalent units here in the States. Sam’s debut album, “In The Lonely Hour,” only hit the runner-up slot in the U.S.

Number 3: Cardi B “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)”

Cardi B treads water in third place with her ex-champ “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves).”

Fans are clamoring for an album, but the New York rapper says she’s in no hurry. Posting November 19 on Twitter, she explained that she’s feeling pressured to produce a great album … and she’s taking her time to make good songs.

Number 2: Camila Cabello Featuring Young Thug ‘Havana”

Camila Cabello and Young Thug continue to occupy the runner-up slot with “Havana.”

MTV U.K. reports that Camila has ditched the title of her upcoming debut solo album. It will no longer be titled “The Hurting, The Healing, The Loving” — but Camila’s not yet ready to reveal the new name. She says her new, happier state of mind spurred her to make the change. The new set should drop early next year.

Number 1: Post Malone Featuring 21 Savage “Rockstar”

Post Malone and 21 Savage hold the Hot 100 title for a fifth solid week with “Rockstar.” 

In a recent podcast interview, Post revealed that his second album “Beerbongs & Bentleys” will arrive December 1. The guest list will reportedly include Nicki Minaj, John Mayer, Ty Dolla $ign and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee.

We hope you’ll be our guest next week when we’ll crown a new lineup.
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Amazon Workers in Germany, Italy Stage Black Friday Strike

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Workers at a half dozen Amazon distribution centers in Germany and one in Italy walked off the job Friday, in a protest timed to coincide with Black Friday to demand better wages from the American online giant.

In Germany, Ver.di union spokesman Thomas Voss said some 2,500 workers were on strike at Amazon facilities in Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Rheinberg, Werne, Graben and Koblenz. In a warehouse near Piacenza, in northern Italy, some workers walked off the job to demand “dignified salaries.”

The German union has been leading a push since 2013 for higher pay for some 12,000 workers in Germany, arguing Amazon employees receive lower wages than others in retail and mail-order jobs. Amazon says its distribution warehouses in Germany are logistics centers and employees earn relatively high wages for that industry.

The strikes in Germany are expected to end Saturday.

The Italian action, a one-day strike, was hailed by one of the nation’s umbrella union leaders, the UIL’s Carmelo Barbagallo, as having “enormous symbolic value because it’s clear that progress, innovation and modernity can’t come at the expense and the interests of workers.”

The chief of the CISL umbrella labor syndicate, Annamaria Furlan, called on Amazon to work with unions for “proper industrial relations, employment stability and dignified salaries.”

The Italian strike was called for permanent workers. The unions advised workers who are on short-term, work-on-demand contracts to stay on the job, so they wouldn’t risk losing future gigs.

Amazon says it has created 2,000 full-time jobs in Italy, where unemployment remains stubbornly high.
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Trump Complains That Players Are ‘Boss’ In NFL

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President Donald Trump is continuing to rail against football players who kneel during the National Anthem to protest racism and police brutality.

Trump asks his followers in a Black Friday tweet: “Can you believe that the disrespect for our Country, our Flag, our Anthem continues without penalty to the players.”

He’s accusing NFL commissioner Roger Goodell of having “lost control” of what he called a “hemorrhaging league” where “Players are the boss!”

Trump’s tweet was in response to one from his social media chief, Dan Scavino.

Scavino had shared a Breitbart News story about New York Giants player Olivier Vernon taking a knee during the anthem on Thanksgiving ahead of a game against the Redskins.

The website is run by Trump’s former chief strategist.
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Most Ocean Plastic Pollution Carried by 10 Rivers

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The equivalent of one garbage truck full of plastic waste is dumped into the world’s oceans every minute, equal to 8 million tons a year. New research suggests that 90 percent of that waste gets into the oceans through 10 major river systems.

“It seems that larger rivers preferentially transport plastic and these are rivers with a large population. You could reduce river plastic loads tremendously by focusing on these 10 rivers,” lead researcher Christian Schmidt of Germany’s Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, told VOA.

Two of the rivers are in Africa – the Nile and the Niger – while the remaining eight are in Asia – the Ganges, Indus, Yellow, Yangtze, Haihe, Pearl, Mekong and Amur.

Researchers analyzed studies that examined the plastic pollution load in rivers, and compared the figures to the quantity of waste that is not disposed of properly in each river catchment or watershed.

The results suggest reducing waste in those rivers would go a long way to tackling ocean plastic pollution.

“Actually, it’s very simple. You have to improve waste management, particularly in developing countries with rapid economic growth. So, this is a waste management problem there. But globally, ((it’s)) not exclusively developing countries. Littering is the other source of river plastics, countries like Germany,” says Schmidt.

The ecological consequences of oceanic plastic pollution are difficult to foresee, but scientists are clear that it is already deeply affecting marine life. So-called microplastics – found in cosmetics – are often mistaken for food. One recent study by the University of Ghent in Belgium calculated that humans eat up to 11,000 plastic fragments in their seafood each year.

“The microbeads, they might be more harmful for aquatic life, but the larger pieces, over time they are brittle and form a secondary source of microplastics,” according to Schmidt.

It is estimated that 5 percent of plastic is recycled effectively. Total global plastic production was 322 million tons in 2015, a figure that is expected to quadruple by 2050.

Schmidt and his colleagues hope their research offers a potential focus for cleanup programs.
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Scientists: Rivers in Africa, Asia Responsible for Most Ocean Plastic Waste

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The equivalent of one garbage truck full of waste plastic is dumped into the world’s oceans every minute – or 8 million metric tons a year. New research suggests that the vast majority of that waste is transported to the oceans by just a handful of major river systems – and tackling the pollution at source would go a long way to cleaning up our seas. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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California Experiences Hepatitis A Outbreak

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The U.S. state of California is experiencing the largest person-to-person outbreak of hepatitis A in the United States since a vaccine to prevent the liver disease became available in 1996. 

More than 600 cases have been reported in the state and 21 people have died. According to the California Department of Public Health, most of those infected are homeless or use drugs in places where sanitation has been a challenge.

“There should be more hand-washing and bathrooms,” said a man who has been homeless for more than four years. Identifying himself only as J-el, he lives on Skid Row, an area in downtown Los Angeles known for its homeless population.

 

WATCH: California Experiences Hepatitis A Outbreak

Far below UN standard

A recent study conducted by Skid Row advocates, organizations and residents found that the area fell short of U.N. refugee camp standards calling for one public toilet for every 20 people.

According to the report, during daytime hours, with a street population of more than 3,600 people, Skid Row is as many as 164 toilets short of the U.N. standard. At night, the Skid Row population drops to about 1,700 people who live on the streets. The city of Los Angeles said there are only six public toilets in the downtown area that are open 24 hours a day.

Critics said illicit activities can occur, which is a reason why some public bathrooms are not open at night.

“They (the city) don’t want to let you use the toilet so it’s a problem here, and it’s somewhat of a problem with us (homeless people) as people (be)cause we mess up the toilet some of us, mess up the toilet, and then … but at the same time, the people who don’t, they get penalized and can’t use it. They got to end up using it out here some place,” said J-el referring to the side of the street as a place where many people who are homeless use as bathrooms.

Unsanitary conditions can become a breeding ground for the hepatitis A virus, said Jeff Klausner, professor of medicine and public health at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“Right now the outbreaks in San Diego and Los Angeles of hepatitis A is being spread by poor sanitation, person-to-person spread, and contaminated, unclean feces or inability for people to wash their hands,” Klausner said.

Enter Lava Mae

One solution is a portable shower provided by the organization Lava Mae.

“We realize from the beginning that there are a lack of hygiene facilities for people living on the streets. It was the driving idea behind what we do and providing showers, providing a place where you can come and get clean and (get) 15 minutes of privacy,” said Paul Asplund, interim regional director of Lava Mae Los Angeles.

Lava Mae’s trailers, which include showers and toilets, are driven around areas with high homeless populations in Los Angeles and San Francisco five to six days a week.

“It always feels good to get a shower,” J-el said.

Others at risk

The homeless population however, is not the only group at risk. Gay men are also contracting hepatitis A, with major outbreaks this year in the United States, Europe, Chile and Australia.

Yet California statistics indicate the homeless population or drug users who have hepatitis A are the most likely to be hospitalized. With compromised immune systems, their condition is aggravated by the inability to wash regularly.

“Hygiene is a right. It’s something every human being deserves,” Asplund said.

On Skid Row, the city of Los Angeles will soon open a hygiene center with eight toilets and six showers. The restrooms will eventually be open 24 hours a day with social services and security.
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South African Court Doubles Pistorius Sentence

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Oscar Pistorius’ prison sentence was increased to 13 years and five months by South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday, a decision that more than doubled the Olympic runner’s jail term for the murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. 

In an announcement that took a matter of minutes, Supreme Court Justice Willie Seriti said the Supreme Court upheld an appeal by prosecutors against Pistorius’ original six-year sentence for shooting Steenkamp multiple times in his home in 2013. 

Prosecutors had called that six-year sentence “shockingly” lenient.

Pistorius should have been sentenced to the prescribed minimum of 15 years for murder in South Africa, Seriti said, as he delivered the verdict that was reached by a panel of five judges at the Supreme Court in the central city of Bloemfontein. 

The new sentence of 13 years and five months took into account time Pistorius has served in prison and at home under house arrest, Seriti said.

Pistorius, who turned 31 Wednesday, has served over a year of his initial six-year sentence. 

Pistorius killed Steenkamp in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine’s Day 2013 after shooting four times through a closed toilet cubicle door in his home. Claiming he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder, he was initially convicted of manslaughter. That conviction was overturned and replaced with a murder conviction by the Supreme Court in 2015. 

Friday’s decision likely brings an end to a near five-year legal saga surrounding the double-amputee athlete, a multiple Paralympic champion and record-breaker who was once one of the most celebrated sportsmen in the world. 

Pistorius’ lawyers have just one avenue open to them if they want to challenge the new sentence handed down by the Supreme Court, and that is to appeal to the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa. 

Pistorius failed with an appeal to the Constitutional Court last year to challenge his murder conviction.
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Black Friday Kicks Off Holiday Shopping  Season

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Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally has started the holiday shopping season in the United States. It refers to the day when retailers hope to turn a profit — go from “being in the red,” or being in debt, to being “in the black,” or making money.

Many stores opened in the early hours of Friday morning to lure shoppers with big bargains. Some stores even opened on Thanksgiving Day to get a head start on the season.

Black Friday is usually the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S. 

 

WATCH: US Retailers Look to Profitable Black Friday Weekend

The National Retail Federation estimates that 69 percent of Americans, or 164 million, people will take advantage of the deals retailers offer on a vast variety of goods in stores and online.

A recent study said Amazon is the top destination for people beginning their holiday shopping.

“I buy pretty much what I can on Amazon,” Lam Huynh told the Associated Press news agency.

Analysts say online giant Amazon is expected to capture half of the holiday season’s sales growth.
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Seeing Microscopic Creatures from Space

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The oceans and lakes are full of life, and most of it is not visible to the naked eye. In most bodies of water, every cubic centimeter contains many microorganisms — bacteria, zooplankton as well as single-cell plants called phytoplankton — all of them important links in the natural food chain. Scientists are now using satellites to observe and study these tiny creatures. VOA’s George Putic reports.
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Chinese Theme Park Seeks to Ride Boom in Demand for Virtual Entertainment

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Giant robots and futuristic cyberpunk castles rise out of lush mountain slopes on the outskirts of Guiyang, the capital of one of China’s poorest provinces.

Welcome to China’s first virtual reality theme park, which aims to ride a boom in demand for virtual entertainment that is set to propel tenfold growth in the country’s virtual reality market, to hit almost $8.5 billion by 2020.

The 330-acre (134-hectare) park in southwestern Guizhou province promises 35 virtual reality attractions, from shoot-’em-up games and virtual roller coasters to tours with interstellar aliens of the region’s most scenic spots.

“After our attraction opens, it will change the entire tourism structure of Guizhou province as well as China’s southwest,” Chief Executive Chen Jianli told Reuters.

“This is an innovative attraction, because it’s just different,” he said in an interview at the park, part of which is scheduled to open next February.

New growth engines

The $1.5 billion Oriental Science Fiction Valley park is part of China’s thrust to develop new drivers of growth centered on trends such as gaming, sports and cutting-edge technology, to cut reliance on traditional industries.

In the push to become a center of innovative tech, Guizhou is luring firms such as Apple Inc., which has sited its China data center there, while the world’s largest radio telescope is in nearby Pingtang county.

The park says it is the world’s first of its kind, although virtual reality-based attractions from the United States to Japan already draw interest from consumers and video gamers seeking a more immersive experience.

The Guiyang park will offer tourists bungee jumps from a huge Transformer-like robot, as well as a studio devoted to producing virtual reality movies. Most rides will use VR goggles and motion simulators to thrill users.

“You feel like you’re really there,” said Qu Zhongjie, the park’s manager of rides. “That’s our main feature.”

China’s virtual reality market is expected to grow tenfold to 55.6 billion yuan ($8.4 billion) by the end of the decade, state-backed think tank CCID has said.

Farmers in the nearby village of Zhangtianshui said they were concerned about pollution from big developments, but looked forward to the economic benefits a new theme park would bring.

Most were less sure about virtual battles or alien invasions, though.

“There are lots of good things that come out of these projects,” one farmer, Liu Guangjun, told Reuters. “As for the virtual reality, I don’t really understand it.”
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Pioneering Jazz Singer Hendricks Dies at 96

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Jon Hendricks, the pioneering jazz singer and lyricist who, with the trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, popularized the “vocalese” singing style in which words were added to instrumental songs, has died. He was 96.

His daughter, Aria Hendricks, confirmed his death to The New York Times. She said he died Wednesday at a New York City hospital.

Hendricks found fame in the 1950s and ’60s teaming with Dave Lambert and Annie Ross. Their interracial trio became one of the most celebrated jazz vocal groups ever, and among the latter-day stars they influenced were Joni Mitchell and Manhattan Transfer.

The trio’s first album, Sing a Song of Basie, won acclaim for its use of vocalese, in which the voices mimic the instrumental parts. Hendricks wrote the lyrics to existing Basie songs, and the three recorded their own voices in layers instead of using backup singers.

Others experimented with vocalese before Hendricks, but he is widely regarded as the father of the spirited singing style for popularizing it. In the 1980s, he collaborated with Manhattan Transfer on an album called Vocalese that won three Grammys, one for Hendricks himself.

He first teamed up with Lambert, a bebop singer he admired, in the mid-1950s; the duo had hits with Four Brothers and Cloudburst. The two became a trio with the addition of Ross in 1957. The English-born Ross was already known for her own vocalese lyrics to Wardell Gray’s music in the classic Twisted.

In a 1997 Associated Press interview, Hendricks recalled that Lambert said, “Let’s do something artistic so that the Earth will at least know we were here. Why don’t you lyricize 10 Count Basie things and we’ll see if we can record an album?”

After trying out by recording a large group of singers, Hendricks recalled, they decided to instead create the harmonies by multitracking as a trio with Ross.

Solo work

After the group broke up in 1962, he pursued a solo career in London, worked as a jazz critic in San Francisco and released several solo albums. Ross also had success in a solo career; Lambert died in 1966.

Hendricks won a Grammy in 1986 for best male jazz vocal performance of 1985 for his work with Bobby McFerrin on Another Night in Tunisia, a cut on Manhattan Transfer’s Vocalese. Hendricks wrote all the lyrics for the album, to music by Ray Charles, Quincy Jones and others. It was nominated for a near-record 12 Grammys and won three.

In 1997, he was one of three featured singers to perform Wynton Marsalis’ Blood on the Fields on a CD and on tour in the United States and Europe. That same year, the three-hour work, which tells the history of blacks in America, won the Pulitzer Prize for music.

But the fame of the trio that began recording nearly a half-century ago has not faded. Hendricks and Ross teamed up again in the late 1990s in a series of concerts. And The All-Music Guide to Jazz says Lambert, Hendricks and Ross “has yet to be topped as a jazz vocal group.”

Mitchell, who rarely sings songs other than her own, recorded Twisted on her 1974 album Court and Spark and Centerpiece on her 1975 album The Hissing of Summer Lawns. In a 1979 Down Beat magazine interview, she recalled hearing Lambert, Hendricks and Ross: The Hottest New Sound in Jazz as a teenager.

“In a way I’ve always considered that album to be my Beatles, because I learned every song off it. … I don’t think there’s another album that I know every song on, including my own!” she said.

Hendricks got his start in amateur shows and at age 14 sang in Toledo nightclubs for two years with another future jazz great from his hometown, pianist Art Tatum, who gave him music lessons after school.

“I learned what I know from him,” Hendricks told The Associated Press in a 2004 interview.

Yet, he was on his way to becoming a lawyer in 1950, singing in small clubs at night, when his wife asked if Hendricks could sing with bebop pioneer and saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker at a concert in town.

Parker was impressed, telling Hendricks, “You ain’t no lawyer. You’re a jazz singer. You got to come to New York.” Hendricks did, two years later.

Son of a preacher

Hendricks was born September 16, 1921, in Newark, Ohio, and grew up in Toledo, one of 15 children of a preacher who hoped Hendricks would follow him into the ministry.

“I always felt like a traitor,” Hendricks said.

 

As a boy, he took the “h” out of his first name after he went to the movies and saw an actor named Jon. He thought it would make him stand out.

Following years of performing worldwide and living in New York, Hendricks returned to his hometown in 2000 to teach jazz history and vocal jazz at the University of Toledo.

A performer even as a teacher, he was known for his unending enthusiasm. On the first day of class he sang students the story of jazz, backed up by bass, drums and piano. Students gave him ovations by the dozen.

He also directed his own vocalese group in Toledo composed of students and local singers. They performed in France and Italy and with the Toledo Symphony.

Hendricks won awards worldwide. The World War II veteran was given France’s highest honor, the French Legion of Honor, in 2004, at a performance in Normandy to commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-Day.

He called that day one of his greatest thrills.
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Latest Hollywood Films Highlight America’s Racial Tensions

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Racial inequality in post war America and civil rights activism are prevalent themes in Hollywood films this season. Using gritty cinematography and A-list actors, directors such as Kathryn Bigelow, George Clooney and Dan Gilroy shed light on the history of racial injustice in America and open up the conversation about racial tensions in the present. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
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