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LET'S THINK ABOUT IT

LATER

IDEAS + MUSINGS + EVERYTHING

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Mar 2020

Contents 1

Dog Food review

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This Man This Monster - Jack ”The King” Kirby’s Legendary Masterpiece

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Things You Might Not Know About Issuu’s Animals

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4

The SROCC report is the most boring dystopian writing you’ll ever read

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Alpha Hydroxy Acid

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Dog Food review Elvis Presley

PEDIGREE® Dry Dog Food Adult Roasted Chicken, Rice & Vegetable Flavor Pedigree Dry Dog Food is, as the name suggests, a dry meal. And hence I suggest soaking the food in water for 5 minutes before consumption. The taste leaves something to be desired, but actually comes through more, than I would expect from a dried food, though I am not sure, that I would identify the chicken, had it not said so on the packaging.

Faaborg Leverpostej A very peculiar meal, not usually found where I buy my meals. At the high price point of 75,80 kr./Kg. I naturally expected a feast, but the strange minced consistency along with the dull gray color makes this meal particularly off-putting. Whoever thought this horrid meal was a good idea, clearly haven’t tasted proper dog food.

Blue River Dog Food If you want some smooth and healthy food then get Blue River which have a variety of vegetables like carrot, potato, zucchini, spinach, corn and broccoli. What’s better is that Blue River snack really don’t has any sodium and no cholesterol. You can also get Blue River snack for your kids but, you need to be careful on the ingredients like added food coloring, color cream and vegetable oil and remove the fillers like table sugar.

- Guest review by TalkToTransformer

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This Man This Monster - Jack ”The King” Kirby’s Legendary Masterpiece

Anders Hellerup

ublished in June 1966 as part of the original Fantastic Four comic series by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, This Man This Monster has gone down in history as one of the highlights of the early Marvel age of comics. The iconic cover has often been praised as one of Jack Kirby’s best, and the stories focus on characters and emotions instead of action sets it apart from most comics of the time. In this article I will try to delve into the story, discuss it’s themes and meaning and highlight some of the means it uses to get it’s message across.

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Cover art by Jack Kirby, 1966, Copyright Marvel Comics The story opens with Ben Grimm, famously known as The Thing, walking through rainy streets, lost in depression because of relationship issues. He blames himself and his monstrous appearance for his misfortune. A welcoming voice invites him out of the rain, gives him shelter and warmth. But, as is slowly revealed to us in the text and thought bubbles, the stranger has sinister motives and poisons The Thing with a sleeping potion.

The stranger is then revealed to be an evil scientist with a hatred for The Fantastic Four and Reed Richards in particular. He uses science to transform his own body into The Thing - while The Thing reverts to his original human body.

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The imposter successfully fools Sue and Reed Richards into believing he is the real Thing, by talking and acting like the ”simple”. He succeeds, even making Reed turn away the real Ben Grimm who angrily leaves. But now, at the verge of triumph the stranger pauses. He has taken his act too far, and now he is part of one of Reed Richards dangerous experiments: The exploration of the unknown depth of sub-space!

Impressed by the dangers Reed undertakes for all humanity, the bravery he shows and the trust he puts in his friends, the stranger starts to consider his motives for hating the Fantastic Four. He questions himself and what he has achieved that would give him the right to challenge men like Reed Richards.

In subspace, disaster strikes and Reed Richards calls on the Thing to save him. The imposter realises that now is the time to decide, and in the end he chooses to trade his own life for Reed’s. As he hurls Reed out of subspace, back to safety, he faces his own death with the knowledge that he has at least done one good thing in his life.

The story ends with Reed Richards affirming the strangers sacrifice: ”He paid the price - in full. And he paid it like a man!”.

Means Kirby Machines The story uses classic Kirby tropes such as his iconic alien looking machinery and ”Kirby krackle” - the odd black particles signaling things beyond human understanding, but it uses them sparingly and as contrast to more everyday scenes: The rainy streets and the warmth of the strangers room as he invites The Thing inside in the beginning is contrasted with the science and machinery the Stranger uses to perform the transformation.

Later the strangers machine is dwarfed in both strangeness and size by Reed Richards inventions, and those again look almost ”normal” compared to the alien landscapes of sub-space. Those alien scenes are made to feel even more strange and alien, by showing a short interlude with Sue’s little brother’s life at college, right before them.

Cover art by Jack Kirby, 1966, Copyright Marvel Comics The stranger performs a few relatively ”normal” feats of strength when trying to convince Reed and Sue he that he really is their monstrous friend: Bending an iron bar and slurring his speech to sound like 5

the Thing normally does. In contrast to Reed risking his life while exploring a psychedelic otherworld on behalf of all humanity, this illustrates the difference between what the Stranger originally thinks the Fantastic Four is doing vs. what they really are.

Full Page Images Two times during the story full page images are used to drive across the point that we are looking at something extraordinary: The machine Reed has build to enter subspace (completely dwarfing the transformation machine the stranger used earlier in the story), and the first time we see the otherworldly sub-space.

Cliffhangers is another trope that is employed to draw us in as audience. Seemingly every page ends with a dramatic event or a startling revelation: Ben’s new friend poisons him, Reed Richards puts his life in an imposters hands, the imposter casts himself into subspace after Reed, etc.

Basically, in this story, all events with any impact happens in the last panel of a page. Often the page will build up towards the impact in the last image, employing a steady rhythm to the buildup of suspense and drama.

In the opening scene a more subtle reveal is used by making the images appear that The Thing is invited out of the rain, into a warm cozy room with books, couches and smoking pipes, and it is only while reading the text that it is revealed that he is actually being trapped and poisoned. In a way, we are trapped exactly the same way Ben Grimm.

Themes

Art by Jack Kirby, copyright Marvel Comics The major theme in the story is transformation. Superficially, of course, as the catalyst initiating the story, as the Stranger transforms himself to impersonate The Thing, and psychologically as the Stranger is transformed from villain to hero by witnessing Reed Richards bravery at the climax of the story.

Ben Grimm, the real Thing, is initially depressed because of the transformation that defines his powers and appearance: He looks like a monster and he refuses to believe anyone can love him in his transformed state.

As the stranger is transformed into The Thing he starts out �acting� his part, but as the events he witness transform him, he takes on deeper character attributes of The Thing: He doubts himself and his lifestyle, and maybe because of this he also takes on the Things fearlessness and willing to self-sacrifice.

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At the same time Ben Grimm is transformed the other way - back to human - and despite himself declaring ”I am Ben Grimm and nothing can change that” it does change him. He walks out on the Fantastic Four and grows confident enough to try and win back his girl.

At the stories climax the Stranger manages to transform himself - in some ways realising what defines his transformed role more that Ben Grimm himself does: ”I never did a worthwhile thing in my life!! But now - I’ve finally got the change. I can really be Ben Grimm! I can save Reed Richards!”.

The real Ben Grimm is not able to transform himself in a similar way. As he reverts to a monster he also reverts to his depressed state. He does not see the value in himself that his friends and loved ones do. He does not realise that by paying with his heroism he transcends the superficial transformation and becomes a man, not a monster.

Art by Jack Kirby, 1966, Copyright Marvel Comics

Conclusion Of all the comics in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original run on the Fantastic Four in the sixties, this comic is my favourite. It includes some of Jack Kirby’s best artwork, and I think it represents the highlight of Stan Lees writing from this period. I find the characters of Reed and The Thing to be the strongest of the Fantastic Four, and in my opinion, this is the story they shine the brightest in.

A true classic!

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Things You Might Not Know About Issuu’s Animals

Dalai Llama

ore than just a cutesy nickname for our teams, Issuu’s animal mascots embody the company’s pursuit of an informal and cozy environment. In this article we explore some cool facts you might not know about some of our current animals.

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Sparrows are nearly everywhere Sparrows are likely to be the most widely distributed wild bird. Though native to Eurasia, the age of discoveries and colonization brought these adorable rascals to almost every part of world.

“What about chickens, aren’t they even more widely distributed?”, you may ask. This may be true for domestic chickens, but not for their wild ancestors. (Life pro tip: a successful strategy to “win” at evolution and become ubiquitous is to make yourself tasty to the planet’s dominant intelligent species.)

Panthers are not a species There is no single species called panther. Instead, the word panther is commonly used for many different species of large-sized felines, particularly in cases where they exhibit melanism (the so-called black panthers). There is however a genus called Panthera, whose member species are lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards, and snow leopards. To make matters even more complicated, the word panther is often also used to describe large cats like the Puma concolor (a.k.a. puma, cougar, or mountain lion), which are not part of the Panthera genus.

Note that in general, the common English word for an animal (e.g. elephant, giraffe, etc) refers not to a single species but to a whole genus or an even higher taxonomical level.

Jaguar (Panthera onca) exhibiting melanism.

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The House sparrow (Passer domesticus) and its present distribution.

The native range of the house sparrow is shown in dark green, while the introduced range is shown in light green.

Rattlesnakes are equipped with heat-sensing receptors Rattlesnakes are able to detect the thermal radiation emitted by warmblooded animals, a feature that is actually common to many species of snake.

They are not, however, equipped with freaking lasers. You’re thinking of sharks.

The platypus is weird The sidewinder (Crotalus What exactly is a mammal? Some of us may remember the school textbook cerastes), also known as the definition of a warm-blooded animal covered in fur who births live young and produces milk. The platypus lays eggs. Is it therefore not a mammal? horned rattleskane.

Well, the answer is that the platypus is indeed a mammal, and the school textbook definition of mammal is just another of those white lies we tell little children.

A more accurate definition of mammal is any animal that is a descendant of the last common ancestor of living monotremes (the clade that includes platypodes and their cousins the echidnas) and the so-called therian mammals (the clade that includes placental mammals and the marsupials).

This definition reflects a modern preference for cladistics when it comes to classifying species.

As it happens, almost all the animals that obey the cladistic definition of mammal are covered in fur, birth live young, and produce milk. The white lie we tell children is therefore not that far from the truth. And do you really want to explain cladistics to a child?

The weirdness of the platypus does not end with the egglaying. It is also the only mammal which is known to be venomous. According to recent research, the platypus developed this ability to punish those who insisted it could not be a mammal because of the egg thing.

Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus).

Finally, and very apropos to the overall weirdness of this animal, there is no consensus on what the English plural of platypus should be. The word itself is of Greek origin, and applying that language’s rules one gets platypodes, the term we adopted in this article.

Unicorns are not real Well, duh.

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The SROCC report is the most boring dystopian writing you’ll ever read

Felipe Lacerda

very once in a while, the United Nations’ panel on climate change convenes to produce a report on how it is affecting the world we live in and what can be done about it. It’s a humongous effort, involving representatives of more than 120 countries, who attempt to establish a consensus from a review of tens of thousands of research papers. The outcome is a largely inscrutable (if uncontroversial) document, full of similarly inscrutable acronyms.

The last one of those was the SROCC, which was published last September and focuses on the impact of climate change on our seas and frozen regions. (It stands for Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, so it should really be named the SROCCC.) The findings are mostly very negative, generating gloomy news stories and helplessness in the public. Sea levels will rise, putting the lives of nearly 1 billion people at risk; extreme sea level events that currently happen once a century will happen once every year; coral reefs will disappear (even if we do our best to control emissions); and permafrost will melt, releasing billions of tons of CO2 and methane into the atmosphere.

I wanted to know more, so I decided to spend a Sunday morning looking over the actual report. I didn’t want to read a 700-page document, but the panel helpfully produces two far shorter versions: a Summary for Policymakers and a Technical Summary. I started with the former, since at first I wanted to get an easy-to-understand overview without getting too bogged down in details.

But there’s no overview. The Summary for Policymakers is simply a list of paragraphs with some facts and numbers, derived from the full report. And these paragraphs are incredibly dry. Here’s a representative example:

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Arctic June snow cover extent on land declined by 13.4 5.4% per decade from 1967 to 2018, a total loss of approximately 2.5 million km2 , predominantly due to surface air temperature increase (high confidence). In nearly all high mountain areas, the depth, extent and duration of snow cover have declined over recent decades, especially at lower elevation (high confidence). {2.2.2, 3.4.1, Figure SPM.1} Loss in snow cover seems bad, but there’s no explanation of how this change relates to climate as a whole. Some parts of the text do talk about consequences, but, since there’s very little connection established between the different paragraphs, it’s very hard not to glaze over and miss out on what’s important to know.

Why is a document directed at those with the power to enact policy so dull?

It has to be the way the document is written: a draft summary is written by a group of around 50 scientists, and then representatives from all countries involved discuss and review every single sentence. The focus seems to be less in informing and more in representing the broadest consensus possible. It’s the worst case of writing by committee.

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I suppose that makes sense if the primary goal is to sign treaties where everyone needs to be on board, but it also leads to a report that is overly conservative, which ultimately leads to ineffective treaties. (Virtually no Paris Agreement signatory is currently on track to meet the treaty’s targets, and those targets are considered excessively modest by many scientists.) And a policymaker who is interested in understanding how climate change is affecting our seas and frozen regions would be much better off reading the technical summary, which, although also written by a committee, does not go through the sentence-by-sentence review process and is actually a lot more cohesive and readable.

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Alpha Hydroxy Acid Nibras Stiebar-Bang

AHA stands for Alpha Hydroxy Acid and are a group of natural and synthetic ingredients that, when properly formulated, can exfoliate the uppermost layer of the skin. Doing so reveals fresh, refined skin that appears much smoother, is more hydrated and over time becomes visibly firmer. AHAs are chemical exfoliants.

Different sorts of AHA! • Glycolic Acid Most popular amongst AHAs. It is also most researched.

• Lactic Acid Also very researched and used. It is milder than Glycolic acid.

• Malic Acid • Tartaric Acid • Citric Acid • Mandelic Acid

When to use AHA? AHAs are exfoliantes and your skin needs to get used to them, so ease into using them. Start with 1-2 a week in your PM routine for 3 weeks then try to add one more day a week. Some people use them more then that but I find 3 times a week to be enough for my skin.

Other tips!

Don’t mix AHAs with different kinds of retinoids, it can be very harsh on your skin! Try to use alternate days. Some people find it harsh on their skin to use AHAs with BHAs. Please try it for yourself and see how your skin reacts.

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