(Photo of the Midnight Sun Mosque in Inuvik by the US Embassy to Canada)

The town of Iqaluit in the Canadian Arctic has a growing Muslim community. Many members fast from sunup to sundown during the sacred month of Ramadan. That's a challenge because during the summer, daylight can last longer than 20 hours. The Guardian talked to Muslims there about the experience:

“I haven’t fainted once,” said 29-year-old Abdul Karim, one of the few in the city who has fastidiously timed his Ramadan fast to the Arctic sun since moving from Ottawa in 2011. This year that means eating at about 1.30am before the sun rises and breaking his fast at about 11pm when the sun sets.

Other Muslims in the Canadian Arctic set their fasting timetable by more southerly cities:

Most in Iqaluit adhere to the timetable followed by Muslims in Ottawa, some 1,300 miles south of the city – a nod to the advice of Muslim scholars who have said Muslims in the far north should observe Ramadan using the timetable of Mecca or the nearest Muslim city.

-via TYWKIWDBI

(Photo: San Juan Community Home Trust)

The community of Oak Bay, British Columbia is booming. Developers are tearing down old houses to make room for newer, more luxurious homes for deep-pocketed residents.

A few miles away lies San Juan Island, which is in the United States. People there need houses, too. So they're buying older homes from across the border, then floating them on barges over to the United States. Knowledge Network reports:

In the past 10 months, seven homes have been brought by barge to the island by a group focused on affordable housing. Their hope is to bring five more homes, once the necessary funds are raised.

“We’re very appreciative,” said Nancy DeVaux of the San Juan Community Home Trust. “We really like the fact that they have a lot of character and that we’re keeping the homes out of the landfill.”

-via Nag on the Lake

https://t.co/UOEHQbC0WN

— John Farrier (@JohnCFarrier) July 18, 2016

Yolanda Baker was working at the Omega National Products factory in Louisville, Kentucky in the 70s, when disco was king and disco balls were in high demand. About two dozen women would work together, assembling mirrored disco balls while listening to the Bee Gees.

Baker, 69 years old, now does most of the work by herself. She makes about 15 to 20 a month for those of us out there who are still grooving. You can see more photos of Baker at work on her disco balls at the Wall Street Journal.

-via Messy Nessy Chic

(Photo: Dominique Ansel)

Sure, it sounds like a random idea. But it's not. Chef Dominique Ansel, the inventor of the cronut and the chocolate chip milk shot, knows what he's doing. His research led him to the invention of Crème de la Corn. It's made with an ear of unshucked corn grilled with butter and soy sauce. On top is a swirl of Ansel's own Caramel Sweet Corn-flavored soft serve ice cream which is itself topped by caramel and a few kernels of corn.

What does it taste like? Kay of Rocket News 24 tried Ansel's latest confection. She says:

The caramel and corn in the ice cream were certainly a winning and sweet combination! And along with the corn jam, the ice cream was like a cold, frozen form of pure corn and sweetness — certainly a great treat for the hot summer.

But what’s brilliant about this Crème de la Corn is that it’s not over when you’ve finished eating the ice cream. You have the grilled corn cob on the bottom which is essentially an edible ice cream cone!

(Photo: Steve Jurvetson)

When Star Trek Beyond comes out on Friday, watch carefully and you'll see Jeff Bezos in the background. The founder of Amazon.com introduced us to the future of retail and is now participating in the future in a small role in the latest Star Trek movie. The Associated Press quotes director Justin Lin about the experience:

"He was awesome," said Lin. "It was like a president was visiting, you know? He had a big entourage! But it didn't matter because he was so into it. He had to wait around all day because it was one day we were shooting, like, three different scenes and, it was also credit to Jeff because ... he just nailed it every time."

Bezos has spoken in interviews of his passion for Star Trek and said his childhood dreams of space led him to found his private space travel company, named Blue Origin.

IMDb already lists Bezos in the film as a "Starfleet Official."

-via io9

(I Will Become the Pirate King t-shirt on sale at the NeatoShop)

I watch more anime than is medically advisable and, every few months, make viewing recommendations and ask for yours. Let's do it again!

Of all the new series I've tried this season, the most striking is Orange, a romance with a tragic ambiance. Naho, a high school student, recieves a mysterious letter. It contains instructions from herself, written 10 years into the future. A crisis is coming--one that will impact herself and her friends forever. She can change the future.

Or can she? It seems simple enough, but Naho finds that altering the present isn't easy. She has less control over the wellbeing of her friends than she thinks.

In Planetarian, it has been 30 years since the collapse of civilization in some mysterious apocalyptic event. Kuzuya, a scavenger, explores the remains of an abandoned shopping mall. He's looking for food and other essential supplies. But what he finds instead is Yumeni, an android girl who works at the planetarium.

She doesn't understand why no one comes to her facility anymore or that the projector doesn't work. But her naive and carefree manner charms Kuzuya, who decides to repair the projector so that they can again see the stars circling over a ravaged Earth.

It's not quite Mexican and it's not quite Canadian. It's Mexiadian food. The Vulgar Chef (content warning: foul language) expands this fusion food tradition with his poutine taco.

First, he chopped up French fries and added shredded cheese. After warming this mixture, he shaped it into a taco shell and placed it in a taco mold. After adding cheese curd and brown gravy, he was ready for an awesomely unhealthy meal.

(Photos: Southern Arizona Guide)

This is Bad Angel, an American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Pima, Arizona. 

Like many World War II aircraft, it has kill markings on the side. Do you notice anything unusual about them?

Yes, that's an American flag. Lt. Louis Curdes was credited with shooting down an American aircraft while flying Bad Angel. Jim Gressinger, who visited the Pima Air and Space Museum, tells the whole story at Southern Arizona Guide.

(Photo: Whittin Sabbatini/New York Times)

Peter Doig is a world-renowned artist in high demand by art collectors. His paintings have sold for as high as $25 million. Does his body of work include this desert scene? Doig, as quoted in the Seattle Times, says no:

“I said, ‘Nice painting,’ ” he recalled in an interview. “ ‘Not by me.’ ”

That's the problem. Robert Fletcher says that 40 years ago, while still a teenager, Doig was incarcerated for LSD possession at a juvenile prison in Canada. At the time, Fletcher worked as a guard there. He says that Doig painted the scene and sold it to him for $100.

As a Doig painting, it's potentially worth millions of dollars--but only if it's an authentic Doig painting. And Doig says that it's not his work. So Fletcher is suing Doig for $5 million and asking a US federal court to declare the painting authentic:

Art-law experts say they can’t recall anything like it, certainly not for a major artist like Doig.

“To have to disprove that you created a work seems somehow wrong and not fair,” said Amy Adler, a professor at New York University Law School.

Fletcher's case has great challenges. For one, there are no records indicating that Doig was ever imprisoned at the facility where Fletcher worked.

-via Nag on the Lake

(Image: Google Maps/Michigan Live)

It seemed like a good idea at the time. After all, floating down a stream in an inner tube can be fun. You just need to arrange for someone to pick you up at a certain point and deliver you back to your starting point where you parked your car.

But these three women in Muskegon County, Michigan didn't know that because they had never tubed before. When they arrived at a launch site on the Muskegon River, someone told them that there was no need to arrange for pickup downstream because the river ran in a circle. If they stayed in the water, they'd just float back to starting point.

Alas, hydrology did not cooperate. The Muskegon River does not flow in a circle. Firefighters rescued them 20 hours later after they spent a night floating 3 miles downstream. Michigan Live interviewed Fire Chief Bob Grabinski about the incident:

Muskegon Township firefighters launched their 16-foot jet propulsion river rescue boat from the Holton Duck Lake Road launch ramp and found the women about a quarter-mile downriver, he said. Dalton Township firefighters also responded with their boat in case it was needed.

Other than a few bug bites and scratches, the women were fine, Grabinski said. He estimated they had traveled roughly 3 miles.

"In their words, they're never going tubing again," he said. "My words are know the river or take someone with you who knows it and have a plan."

-via American Digest

(Video Link)

Celine Chasteen and a friend were paddleboarding in Jupiter, Florida last week. To her surprise, a charming and bold manatee popped up out of the water, placed his flippers on her board, and made eyes at her.

Chasteen was delighted. And although the manatee didn't get her number, his chances are excellent. The Dodo quotes her:

I thought he was really cute. He was really nice and stuff. I hope he drops by again.

-via Huffington Post

(Video Link)

This is Sumatra, a giant albino Burmese python. She works with Redding Reptile Parties, an event service in Redding, California that brings reptiles to parties. In this video, Sumatra enjoys a hot summer day in the pool with two young friends.

Don't worry about the girls! They're safe. Corey Williams, Sumatra's owner, describes how gentle she is:

She has been to over 500 birthday parties and many schools, she has been around kids since she was a baby, she has never killed anything she even likes our dogs and cat. funny story I have found the most humane way to kill a rabbit or chicken is to give them a strong hit to the back of the neck with a hard object this normally kills them instantly for I don't like to see any animal suffer. Anyway I came in later to see if Sumatra had eaten and the chicken was walking around her cage, she would not touch it unless it was dead so I killed it for sure this time and she ate it right away.

-via Gifsboom

(Photo: Imperial College London)

Do you remember Patrick, the proctology exam simulation dummy? He wowed the world with his almost lifelike representation of the human rectum. But in the intervening year, scientists and engineers have made even greater advances in the field of human rectal simulation.

Researchers at Imperial College London have developed a robotic rectum that feels almost exactly like the real thing. It provides responsive haptic feedback so that as the medical student searches for and examines the prostate, the flesh-like rectum responds appropriately.

Additionally, this robotic rectum is programmable. Not all rectums are alike and doctors have to get used to the feel of different rectums. This one can provide that same variety of experiences. Quartz reports:

Doctors learn what a cancerous prostate feels like through experience. The trouble is that people don’t easily volunteer for such a probing. In the UK, there’s just one registered “rectal teaching assistant,” as volunteers are known. […]

Rectums come in all shapes and sizes, so the device presented at the Eurohaptics conference this week can be programmed, allowing the anatomy to be altered each time. The current simulation is based on scans of the UK’s only rectal teaching assistant.

-via David Thompson

(Video Link)

Wendy Burch of KTLA News in Los Angeles went to the beach to report on recent shark sightings. She did a man-on-the-street interview with James, a jogger passing by. He had muscles, an Australian accent, and no shirt. Burch was all into that.

After James was done talking and Burch was done pretending to listen to him, he ran off. "The story of my life," she says. Then Burch drops the microphone and starts chasing after him. Sharks are hunting in the water and Burch is hunting on the land.

-via BuzzFeed

Oyster cards are used for public transportation in London. Just swipe your card at the turnstile and step on the train.

Did you lose your Oyster card? Lucie Davis, a design student at the University of the Arts London, won't. She took the RFID chip from an Oyster card and embedded it into one of her fake fingernails. Now to board the Underground, she just taps her fingernails on the scanner.