Chalk one up for back issues of magazines not crumbling away

The law of unintended, but pleasantly surprising, consequences applies apparently in the way magazine paper is increasingly being made in Europe and North America, according to a post on Magstastic Blogsplosion, a website authored by Andrew Losowsky. 

The substitution of calcium carbonate (essentially, chalk) for the more expensive imported china clay in the coating of magazine paper means that, inadvertently, the coating tends to neutralize the acids that are created/part of the paper-manufacturing process. 

This may ensure that it may be a longer while before print magazines crumble in our hands. (I expect comments from the "print is dead" crowd that this is all moot since we'll all be reading on iPads and the like. But for the rest of us, this is good news.)