A nisse (Danish: and Norwegian: , tomte (Swedish:, tomtenisse, or tonttu (Finnish: is a mythological creature from Nordic folklore today typically associated with the winter solstice and the Christmas season. It is generally described as being no taller than 90 cm (3 ft), having a long white beard, and wearing a conical or knit cap in red or some other bright colour. They often have an appearance somewhat similar to that of a garden gnome (which are also called trädgårdstomte in Swedish, havenisse in Danish, hagenisse in Norwegian and puutarhatonttu in Finnish).
The nisse is one of the most familiar creatures of Scandinavian folklore, and he has appeared in many works of Scandinavian literature. With the romanticisation and collection of folklore during the 19th century, the nisse would gain popularity. In the English editions of the fairy tales of H. C. Andersen the word nisse has been inaccurately translated as goblin (a more accurate translation is brownie or hob).
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Monday denied an appeal from the owner of Maximum Security, the horse that made history by being disqualified from Saturday’s Kentucky Derby for a rules infraction.
Maximum Security, who led the Derby from wire to wire and crossed the finish line 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Country House, was disqualified for interference while turning for home. Officials decided that Maximum Security impacted the progress of War of Will, which in turn interfered with Long Range Toddy and Bodexpress. Country House was declared the winner. The stewards who made the ruling did not take questions, electing to read a prepared statement with the explanation.
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Lexington, Kentucky, attorney D. Barry Stilz on Monday filed the appeal with the commission on behalf of owner Gary West.
San Francisco took a step on Monday toward banning the use of facial recognition technology by city agencies, including law enforcement.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ rules committee voted unanimously to pass an ordinance that would ban any city department from using facial recognition technology or any information obtained from it. It would also require city departments to get approval from the Board of Supervisors before purchasing other surveillance technology ― including license plate readers, body cameras and biometrics technology, among other items.
If passed, San Francisco would be the first city in the nation to ban facial recognition. The full Board of Supervisors will take a final vote on the ordinance next week. And nearby Oakland will vote on a similar rule later this month.
In a long alleyway in Red Hook, Brooklyn, not far from the East River, Tracy Morgan sat on a director’s chair, his feet dangling high off the ground. He was surrounded by a languid swarm of crew members, who brought him water, fussed over the orange jumpsuit that was his costume for the day, and kept him shaded from the sun. Morgan has a plush love seat for a nose and a protrusive mouth that tugs the rest of his face forward, but his eyes are the key to his knack for physical comedy—he controls their focus with gonzo precision. Sometimes he looks upward and grins, mimicking the innocent gaze of a child; at other times, he tucks in his chin and offers a stare that lands about a yard beyond the ostensible object of his attention. Now he looked restless.
It was a September scorcher, cloudless at noon, and Morgan was working himself into a muddled but intense emotional state—jokey, sentimental, triumphant, pissed—in order to film a climactic scene from the second-season finale of his TBS sitcom, “The Last O.G.” (Season 2 premièred in April.) Morgan plays Tray Barker, a man who has returned to his old neighborhood in Brooklyn after fifteen years in prison on a drug charge. Just before his arrest, Tray unknowingly impregnated his girlfriend, Shay, played by Tiffany Haddish, best known for the torrent of ribaldry that she brought to the movie “Girls Trip.” With Tray out of her life, Shay became a successful designer and married a white man, with whom she is raising Tray’s twins. In the first season, Tray, desperate to earn a place in his children’s lives, takes a job at a Starbucks-like coffee shop, one of many signs of local gentrification. In the second season, he tries to launch a business venture that draws on his experience and also suits the neighborhood’s changing demographics: a prison-themed food truck.
One 18-year-old student was killed and eight others were injured after two shooters opened fire on a science and technology school in the Denver area on Tuesday.
The gunmen entered two classrooms in different locations “deep” inside STEM School Highlands Ranch and began shooting at students, Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said at a press conference.
Deputies responded to the scene two minutes after receiving reports of shots fired within the school shortly before 2 p.m.
The Isle of Skye, connected to Scotland’s northwest coast by bridge, is known for its rugged landscapes, picturesque fishing villages and medieval castles.The largest island in the Inner Hebrides archipelago, it has an indented coastline of peninsulas and narrow lochs, radiating out from a mountainous interior. The town of Portree, a base for exploring the island, features harbourside pubs and boutiques.
The continuing audiophile fascination with LPs is a mystery, LPs are ancient tech, records can be noisy, they’re fragile, expensive and they take up a lot of space. The best turntables, high quality phono cartridges, and preamps can cost a fortune. Even so, a lot of audiophiles still favor LPs, I know I do.
Playing audio files is gigantically more convenient than playing an LP, digital converter technology is getting better every year, and high-resolution files are clearer than the best LPs. Digital is eminently portable; LP playback is strictly a stay-at-home affair. So why are audiophiles still clinging to LPs? Ask them why, and they all say the sound comes first — and I agree. Music sounds better played on a good turntable than it does from files or CDs.
Rocky Balboa sits in a Philly bar as Apollo Creed, in a three-piece suit, holds forth on a grainy black-and-white TV screen. The bartender complains about the “jig clown” on the screen, and asks where the “real fighters” have gone. Rocky scolds the bartender not for his racism, but for questioning the champ, and walks off.
Had the Rocky franchise never existed, that scene, which took place in the original 1976 film, might have simply been a poignant acknowledgment of a persistent wound in the ego of certain white sports fans: the absence of a white American heavyweight boxing champion. Instead that wound became the fuel for the Rocky series, which sees a black boxer humbled by a white challenger in every single movie.
Since the 2016 presidential campaign, journalists at The New York Times and elsewhere have been trying to piece together Donald J. Trump’s complex and concealed finances. Now The Times has obtained 10 years of previously unrevealed figures from the president’s federal income tax returns. The tax numbers, for the years 1985 through 1994, paint a far bleaker picture of Mr. Trump’s deal-making abilities and financial condition than the one he has long put forth.
Mr. Trump became an unprecedented president — a businessman and reality television star with no government experience — and he broke with decades-old presidential tradition by refusing to release his income tax returns. Questions about what secrets they may hold — about his recent business dealings and the sources of his financing — only intensified with the Russia inquiry and the Trump administration is now locked in a battle with House Democrats demanding the last six years of the president’s returns. On Monday, the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said he would not give a House committee access to the returns.
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Newly obtained details from the president’s tax returns reveal a decade in the red, with $1.17 billion in business losses.CreditCreditMark Makela for The New York Times
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Christmas gnomes
Winner
Facial recognition technology
Tracy Morgan
Shooting At Denver-Area School
An image of the Isle Of Skye
