Wednesday, February 14, 2018


Fairlife, stylized as fairlife, is a brand of milk distributed in the United States by The Coca-Cola Company.  The milk comes in four varieties: reduced fatchocolatefat-free, and whole milk.  In regard to Coca-Cola's strategy for Fairlife, the company's North America President Sandy Douglas stated, "Our vision for the nutrition beverage business and the milk product that I showed you which is made on a sustainable dairy with fully sustainable high-care processes with animals, has a proprietary milk filtering process that allows you to increase protein by 50 percent, take sugar down by 30 percent, and have no lactose, and a milk that's premiumised and taste better and we'll charge twice as much for it as the milk we're used to buying in a jug."  The cost of Fairlife is indeed, roughly twice as high as conventional milk; Fairlife's national average price in the US is $4.29 per 52 oz., compared to the national average pricing of conventional milk at $2 per 64 oz.  Following its widespread launch in February 2015, Khushbu Shah of Eater.com wrote that overall reviews of the milk was mixed, although that the chocolate variety, in particular, was generally well received.  Dietitians and nutritionists were generally critical of the milk; Alissa Rumsey, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics expressed, "When you really look at the numbers, it can sound appealing, but in general most Americans are already getting enough protein," adding, "If you need more, eat an egg or a handful of almonds.  And people who need more calcium should up their intake of dark leafy greens, not the so-called Frankenmilk."  Registered dietitian Keri Gans claimed, "milk is already a great package of nutrients; I’m not quite sure why it needs to be changed," and commented on the removal of sugar in Fairlife milk with, "I never looked at the sugar in milk as a problem."  Meredith Engel of New York Daily News speculated that, "it’s clear why Coke is trying to get into the milk business:  More and more Americans are turning away from sugary soft drinks, and soda sales fell to a 19-year-low in 2013."   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlife

You may be aware that over the last 25 years, there has been a major effort to convert paper production from acidic products that deteriorate quickly to more stable paper.  The movement largely came from the library community’s concerns about rapidly deteriorating paper in their collections.  The result is that there are now no western producers making acidic papers anymore (other than newsprint), which is great news for libraries, archives and consumers.  Not all of these papers, however, can be guaranteed to truly last long-term (by that we mean over 300 years).  Manufacturers can, and do, change the chemical composition of papers quite regularly, and as consumers and staff in a library/archive, it is good to know what is available and how to use it best.  For long-term quality, look for papers that are marked “permanent” or “archival,” with the infinity symbol set inside a circle.  Permanent papers can be made with wood pulp (where the harmful acidic lignin is found), but the lignin is generally removed and no acidic additives are included during manufacture.  Permanent papers are expected to last several hundred years under normal library or archival storage conditions.  To be labeled “permanent” with the infinity symbol, the paper must meet either ISO 9706 or ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 standards.  Archival papers are made to an even higher standard and will last up to 1000 years.  These papers are produced with cellulose fibres from plants other than wood and do not contain lignin (usually cotton or linen).  Also, the standard for archival papers (ISO 11108) includes requirements for paper strength, which the standards for permanent papers do not include.  As a final note, it is important to remember that the storage environment for paper also has a huge impact on its longevity.  For every five-degree reduction in temperature, it is estimated that the lifespan of paper doubles.  See graphics at https://thediscoverblog.com/2015/01/27/all-papers-are-not-created-equal/

According to the 1988 edition of the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins:  Normal Schools derive their name from the French phrase ecole normaleThese teacher-training institutions, the first of which was established in France by the Brothers of the Christian Schools in 1685, were intended to set a pattern, establish a “norm” after which all other schools would be modeled.  The first normal school in America was established in Vermont in 1823.  The name fell out of favor toward the end of the 1920s, when the influence of Columbia University’s Teachers College became paramount in the field of public education.  Most such institutions changed their names to “teachers colleges” during the 1930s.  Now that the “progressive education” teachings of the Columbia group have been discredited, the Progressive Education Association itself has disbanded and most colleges have dropped “teachers” from their names.  

Normal is a town in McLean County, Illinois, United States.  As of the 2010 census, the town's population was 52,497.  Normal is the smaller of two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normalmetropolitan area, and Illinois' seventh most populous community outside the Chicago metropolitan area.  The main campus of Illinois' oldest public university, Illinois State University, a fully accredited four-year institution, is in Normal, as is Heartland Community College, a fully accredited two-year institution.  There is also a satellite campus of Lincoln College, which offers associate degrees as well as four-year programs.  The town was laid out with the name North Bloomington on June 7, 1854 by Joseph Parkinson.  From its founding, it was generally recognized that Jesse W. Fell was the force behind the creation of the town.  The town was renamed Normal in February 1865 and officially incorporated on February 25, 1867.  The name was taken from Illinois State Normal University, a normal school (teacher-training institution) located there.  The school has since been renamed Illinois State University after becoming a general four-year university.  Normal is adjacent to Bloomington, Illinois, and when mentioned together they are known as the "Twin Cities", "Bloomington-Normal", "BN", or "BloNo".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal,_Illinois

Remembering the Freedom Train by Ted Widmer   In 1946, William Coblenz, a junior official at the Department of Justice, had an idea for an uplifting display of American values.  During his lunch break, Coblenz liked to walk across the street to the National Archives, to inspect the exhibit of recently captured Nazi artifacts.  Coblenz felt that Americans lacked a coherent understanding of their own, history; soon, he was pressing forward with the idea of a mobile display of America’s greatest documents.  Officials from the National Archives were intrigued, and the heads of Paramount Pictures, U.S. Steel, Du Pont, General Electric, and Standard Oil lined up in support.  A bipartisan American Heritage Foundation convened to direct these energies, raise funding, and sell the concept of a moving museum to the public.  The documents would be carried across America by a special railroad, guarded by Marines:  the Freedom Train.  By the fall of 1947, Americans were awash in Freedom Train-themed comic books, school kits, and other materials heralding the approach of the exhibit.  The American Heritage Foundation unveiled a new slogan, “Freedom is Everybody’s Job,” and Irving Berlin wrote a catchy song, which débuted in a carefully coördinated media blitz, just before departure.  All the radio networks covered the train when it left Philadelphia, on September 17, 1947—the hundred and sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution.  Read more and see pictures at https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/remembering-the-freedom-train

The NBA's Secret Wine Society, the inside-the-bottle story of the intense love affair between NBA stars and the gilded grape. by Baxter Holmes   The river of black shuttle buses negotiates sharp switchbacks, bouncing upward along miles of uneven pavement that fades into dirt, from two lanes to one, climbing beneath oak forest that blocks out the morning light. Cellphone service dwindles to nothing.  Finally, a metal gate appears, a large "M" at its center, and soon the Cleveland Cavaliers pour out of the buses.  About 60 members of the franchise gather near tables covered in white cloth, sitting atop cedar bark spread across a small clearing.  They clink flutes of 2006 Dom Pérignon in toast.  Nearby, all around the property, lies charred earth.  Burned hillsides, stippled with the black skeletons of trees, loom ominous.  This is Napa Valley's Mayacamas winery.  Not many of the Cavs have been here, but LeBron James has, and he recognizes that the area where he's standing now, the small clearing, once belonged to a building that is no more.  The fire, when it came, had raced in from the west, feeding on dry underbrush, roaring over the hills.  Winds swept it along the edges of and into Mayacamas' vineyards, the intense heat threatening dormant vines harvested not long before.  Workers evacuated as flames neared the winery, not knowing what--if anything--would survive.  When staffers returned weeks later, they saw how the flames had crept to the edge of the three main buildings, licked up their sides, leaving deep black scars near the foundation.  Millions in damage was caused, though the true toll will be tallied when it becomes clear which vines can still bud in the spring.  But somehow the fire had devoured only one of the buildings, a 5,000-square-foot, two-story Italian villa-style structure used for hospitality and dining.  "It's a miracle," says Mayacamas assistant winemaker Braiden Albrecht.  Mayacamas hadn't hosted any groups since that October blaze.  No groups, that is, until today, a clear, brisk late-December Thursday--two days before James' 33rd birthday--when the Cavaliers arrive for a midseason two-day Napa getaway.  After the champagne toast, players gather beside fermentation tanks before moving next door to a spacious living room, where glasses of 2015 chardonnay and 2013 cabernet dot a heavy wooden table.  They playfully sneak more glasses of wine.  James tries to tempt rookie forward Cedi Osman, who, along with some of the other rookies, isn't into wine just yet.  "Drink me . . . " James says, holding the glass near Osman, but Osman declines.  "Their loss," James would say later. "More for me."  Read much, much more at http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/22358028/the-nba-obsession-wine?sf182012887=1  Thank you, Muse reader!

http://librariansmuse.blgspot.com  Issue 1842  February 14, 2018  On this date in 1922, Italian composer Riccardo Zandonai 's new opera, “Giulietta e Romeo,” based on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, premiered in Rome.  Today, Zandonai’s music is seldom heard outside of Italy, but the classic story of Romeo and Juliet has attracted a remarkable number of different musical settings.  The most famous opeera based on Romeo and Juliet" is by the French composer Charles Gounod, first staged in 1867.  First runner-up, some distance away, is probably Bellini’s “I Capuleti e i Montecchi” of 1830.  It’s intriguing to speculate what might have been if Tchaikovsky had ever followed through on his idea to write his own “Romeo and Juliet” opera.  He made a few sketches, but instead of an opera he turned to the idea of a “fantasy-overture,” tinkering with it over a period of a dozen years.  The finished product is still one of his most beloved concert pieces, and is often quoted in movies and TV commercials as an instantly recognizable musical cue for love and romance.  Composers Datebook  Word of the Day  philematology  noun   The scientific study of kissing  Wiktionary

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