The nature fakers controversy was an early 20th-century American literary debate highlighting the conflict between science and sentiment in popular nature writing.  Following a period of growing interest in the natural world beginning in the late 19th century, a new literary movement, in which the natural world was depicted in a compassionate rather than realistic light, began to take shape.  Works such as Ernest Thompson Seton's Wild Animals I Have Known (1898) and William J. Long's School of the Woods (1902) popularized this new genre and emphasized sympathetic and individualistic animal characters.  In March 1903, naturalist and writer John Burroughs published an article entitled "Real and Sham Natural History" in the Atlantic Monthly.  Lambasting writers such as Seton, Long, and Charles G. D. Roberts for their seemingly fantastical representations of wildlife, he also denounced the booming genre of realistic animal fiction as "yellow journalism of the woods".  Burroughs' targets responded in defense of their work in various publications, as did their supporters, and the resulting controversy raged in the public press for nearly six years.  The debate involved important American literary, environmental and political figures of the day.  Dubbed the "War of the Naturalists" by The New York Times, it showcased seemingly irreconcilable contemporary views of the natural world; while some nature writers of the day argued as to the veracity of their examples of anthropomorphic wild animals, others questioned an animal's ability to adapt, learn, teach, and reason.  The constant publicity given to the debate contributed to a growing distrust of the truthfulness of popular nature writing of the day, and often pitted scientist against writer.  The controversy effectively ended when President Theodore Roosevelt publicly sided with Burroughs, publishing his article "Nature Fakers" in the September 1907 issue of Everybody's Magazine.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_fakers_controversy

Kurt Perschke is an artist who works in sculpture, video, collage and public space. His most acclaimed work, RedBall Project, is a traveling public art project that has taken place in Abu Dhabi, Taipei, Perth, England, Barcelona, St. Louis, Korea, Portland, Sydney, Arizona, Chicago and Toronto, and received a National Award from Americans for the Arts Public Art Network. http://redballproject.com/artist#   See images in the cities it has been displayed at:  http://redballproject.com/redball-cities

One of the nation's largest independent book stores, The Book Loft of German Village, is located at 631 South Third Street in Columbus, Ohio, just a few blocks south of the state capitol building. The pre-Civil War era buildings that once were general stores, a saloon and a nickelodeon cinema, now are home to 32 rooms of Bargain Books.  http://www.bookloft.com/

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and San Francisco International Airport both now offer free yoga rooms in terminals.  Several airports, including Indianapolis, Cleveland, St. Louis and DFW, have laid out half-mile walking paths through terminals in conjunction with the American Heart Association, hoping to turn "mall walkers" into "terminal walkers."  And many are pushing vendors to offer options that are lower in fat and calories—even writing healthy-food requirements into new leases.  San Francisco has a medical clinic for treating traveler and employee colds and offering vaccinations for overseas trips.  The clinic had 13,446 patient visits in the last fiscal year, up 11%.  About 20% of the patients were ill travelers, an airport spokesman said.  Dallas has been on a comfort kick after several episodes of customers being stranded in terminals for days by airline disruptions, from major storms to airline shutdowns.  After stocking up on cots and blankets, the airport looked at other changes to improve long visits. It installed leg rests on 2,000 seats.  The airport also created lounging areas with comfortable seating away from noisy gates.  It's planning to open sleep pods for short-term rentals by the end of the year.  Scott McCartney     http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303612804577530901183639984.html

Blobitecture

Lars Spuybroek is credited by many with bringing Blob Architecture to the notice of not only the world of architecture, but the world as a whole.  Spuybroek’s breakthrough design for his NOX architecture firm was the Water Pavilion, constructed in the mid-1990s for the Delta Expo on the Dutch island of Neeltje Jans.  Though often lumped in with other buildings of the Deconstructivist style, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain’s Basque Country straddles a number of architectural genres including Blobism.  Indeed, it’s difficult if not impossible to find a single straight line or flat plane of any size on the structure.  The bulk of the main building is sheathed in polished titanium panels meant to evoke the scales of a fish; fishing being the traditional occupation of generations of Bilbao’s natives.  See many pictures of blobby buildings including that of the Philology Library of the Freie Universität Berlin at:  http://weburbanist.com/2010/08/08/blobitecture-11-cool-ways-architecture-gets-a-round/

LANSING, Mich.—Just how big is 14-point type?  That's one of the hottest political disputes in Michigan as the state Supreme Court ponders whether a ballot question about fixing the state's troubled cities and schools should go before voters.  At issue is whether a summary of the question, used on a petition to gather signatures to get the question on the ballot, was written in a type size specified by state law:  14-point boldface.  The typeface used on the petition was 14-point Calibri produced by Microsoft Corp.'s Word software, but a dispute has arisen over whether the font renders the type at the full 14-point size.  At stake, depending on which side's lawyers were talking July 25 in Michigan Supreme Court, is either a narrow matter of whether statutes about ballot questions should be enforced as written, or a broader philosophical question of whether typographical quirks can be used to block citizens from deciding major issues at the polls.  For more than an hour, justices dug into the history of typography and the intricacies of type sizes.  While the arguments at times sounded like a typography seminar, the underlying dispute isn't academic.  It involves a power struggle between the Republican-dominated state government and business leaders on one side, and public-employee unions and city officials on the other.  The ballot question is a union-backed initiative seeking to repeal Michigan's Public Act 4, commonly known as the emergency-manager law.  The statute, passed in 2011 by a newly installed Republican-led legislature and signed by new GOP Gov. Rick Snyder, gives the governor the power to effectively take over the management of cities and school districts deemed to be on the edge of bankruptcy.  Lucas de Groot, a type designer in Berlin who created Calibri, said by email that "the typical height of capital letters is around 70% of the type size, so all typefaces are 'smaller' than 14 pt when set at 14 pt.  However, Calibri has a high readability per square inch compared to many other typefaces, and from a typographers point of view 14 point is huge for reading text.  It is big enough for people with bad vision or for elderly without reading glasses."  Joseph B. White    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444840104577549202116809114.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

According to Real Life Adventures July 27 comic strip, the three branches of government are elephants, donkeys and clowns.

National Public Radio, the University of New Orleans, and a group of business and community leaders will announce July 27 the creation of a nonprofit newsroom to compete against the city's for-profit newspaper, the Times-Picayune.  The planned operation, funded annually by $1 million to $2 million in memberships, donations and sponsorships, will have a staff of 10 to 20 producing news for the Web, mobile devices and radio.  The announcement comes two months after the Times-Picayune's owners, New York-based Advance Publications Inc., said it would cut staff and reduce print publication to three days a week this fall, making New Orleans the largest U.S. city without a daily print newspaper.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443343704577551262563081728.html

For fans of the Berkshires, you may be interested in RI Recommends.  Subscribe to the newsletter at Rural Intelligence.com   Here's part of July 25 issue:

Great Barrington Through Aug. 13

Berkshire Fringe  This three-week festival of avant-garde theater welcomes two overseas troupes and, for the first time, presents a work by its own founders:  Dark:  An End of the World Play with Music and an Exercise Bike.  The festival includes open rehearsals, theater workshops for the public and free pre-show concerts. 

Hudson, Wednesdays through Aug. 15, 6 p.m.

Hudson Water Music  Treat the family to a free concert each Wednesday evening on the Henry Hudson Riverfront Park.  Tomorrow night’s lineup:  New Orleans’ The Wasted Lives and Pocatella. 
Hudson, Thursday, July 26
Eat for Books  It's better than a library bake sale.  Eat and drink in any participating restaurant in Hudson and a portion of what you spend there will be donated to the Hudson Area Library.  There’s a restaurant for every taste and time of day, say the organizers.