Emballage løsning for et garn-produkt fra Ogilvy Frankfurt. (via the dieline)

Liu Bolin is een Chinees artiest die zichzelf letterlijk weet weg te schilderen (nee, geen Photoshop deze keer).  Bij de laatste foto moet je al effe héél goed opletten…

Al termine di questa settimana i due brand statunitensi Supreme e Vans daranno alla luce la nuova collaborazione basata sul modello 106: formato da un totale di 4 modelli in colorazioni differenti. Due di questi modelli sono realizzati con fantasia mimetica, mentre gli altri due sono prodotti in pelle scamosciata, molto più classici e raffinati.
Tutti e 4 i modelli sono accumunati dalla suoletta interna in pelle, marcata Vans.
Le sneakers sono attese dal pubblico dal 27 Novembre, quando saranno disponibili negli stores.

Blendin in Ur doin it rite

ma camo iz not so gud

Picture by: jensmiles Caption by: ri-pie via Loldog Builder

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Chinezen werken hard. Chinezen schreeuwen niet. Chinezen veroorzaken geen overlast. Chinezen vallen niet op. Dit soort (voor)oordelen hoor je vaker als het gaat om integratie in de Nederlandse samenleving. Er zit wel een kern van waarheid in. Er is echter een Chinees die het ‘niet opvallen’ wel heel erg letterlijk neemt. Zijn naam is Liu Bolin, hij is 36 jaar en komt van origine uit Bejing.

Niet opvallen is een kunst
Deze Chinese artiest heeft er een kunst van gemaakt om niet op te vallen. Het ene moment zie je hem, het andere moment is hij verdwenen. Liu is met recht een onzichtbare man te noemen. Met de kwast en de spuitbus gaat deze ‘camouflagechinees’ aan de slag om op zijn lichaam (of dat van een ander ‘slachtoffer’) een perfecte camouflage toe te passen. Op die manier gaat de persoon helemaal op in de achtergrond.

Waar is-ie nou? (c) Liu Bolin.

Niet mee tellen in China
Liu – die om politieke en artistieke redenen – voornamelijk actief is buiten China – wil hiermee uitdrukking geven aan zijn gevoel niet helemaal mee te tellen in zijn geboorteland. Ook wil hij zich met zijn kunst inzetten voor de rechten van de kunstenaars. Als zijn kunstzinnige activiteiten toch niet worden gewaardeerd door zijn mede-Chinezen kan hij er maar beter voor zorgen dat hij en zijn werk niet opvallen. Nou, dat is hem zeker gelukt!

Goed kijken en dan zie je de artiest. (c) Liu Bolin.

Liu is een echte camouflagekunstenaar. (c) Liu Bolin.

Blanco doek
Zijn werkwijze is als volgt: hij stelt zichzelf op voor een bepaalde achtergrond. Hij beschouwt zichzelf als een blanco doek dat alleen nog moet worden beschilderd. Een assistent helpt hem dan om zijn lichaam zo te beschilderen dat het helemaal kan opgaan in de achtergrond. Liu doet er soms meer dan tien uur over om dit helemaal voor elkaar te krijgen. Voorbijgangers hebben geen idee van de aanwezigheid van Liu. Gelukkig voor die voorbijgangers roept de kunstenaar geen ‘boe!’ Anders zouden hartaanvallen aan de orde van de dag zijn!

Als kunstenaar ga je ook op in telefoongesprekken. (c) Liu Bolin.

Wie is echt? De agent of de onzichtbare man? (c) Liu Bolin.

The Strike-Hold! blog brings you news of  the ANA (Afghan National Army) and their new digital camo. Apparently, they don’t want to be camouflaged effectively for arid regions: more important to them is to look unlike any of the multinational forces in the region.

Some readers may recognise the pattern as Hyperstealth’s Spec4ce Forest. Click to read more of Lawrence’s post at Strike-Hold! or the blurb from Guy Cramer at Hypersteal

I recently stumbled upon two artists who each use similar themes of blending into their environments.

Liu Bolin paints himself to fade into the backgrounds of his photographs.

The images are a protest against the Chinese government, who shut down his studio and persecutes artists.  While the artist does not seem to have a formal presence online, many more images can be found here.

Frédéric Lebain, a French photographer, uses photos within photos to create surreal images of urban landscapes.

More images here.

]]> http://surfandsheds.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/camouflage-cornhole-boards/ Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:16:40 +0000 Surf and Sheds http://surfandsheds.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/camouflage-cornhole-boards/

Surf and Sheds is the first place to find your favorite Camouflage Cornhole Boards! Custom Order with your favorite camo pattern. Order Now for tailgating, cabin for family gatherings, or the Hunting Lodge or just plain ol’ backyard fun!!  Use this Coupon Code to get 10% off your Camouflage Cornhole Set Today!!  Enter Coupon Code at Checkout “CamoCornhole09”  for any of of Cornhole Boards.  Get your holiday shopping started now.

 

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You can purchase these Boards from Surf and Sheds website Click Here—> Camouflage Cornhole Boards

What is Cornhole you ask?
Cornhole is one of the fastest growing games sweeping across America. Originating in Cincinnati, Ohio, this game is currently one of the most popular tailgating games around. It’s like horse shoes with corn filled canvas bags and target boxes. It is fantastic family fun and is a very addictive game you will not want to stop playing once you start.
Cornhole boxes have a surface area of 2-feet by 4-feet, and they gradually slope upward so the rear is several inches taller than the front. A 6 inch opening is situated close to the back. The goal is to toss 6-inch square cornbags, filled with authentic corn kernels, toward the hole at a lengthy distance.
Teams of two compete with four beanbags per person and two total boards. First team to 21 points wins. A hole-in-one counts as three points, and every other beanbag that lands on the board counts as one point. Players can cancel opponents point values by earning the same amount of points in a single turn.
Once you play, you can’t stop!
Surf and Sheds is proud to say we manufacture all of our cornhole products in the USA. We work very hard to ensure that the quality and craftsmanship of our cornhole boards and cornhole bags meets the expectations of our customers. Please try some of our cornhole products today. Purchase our custom cornhole boards for outstanding products and quick delivery for your cornhole products!!

Surf and Sheds Camouflage Cornhole Boards

The Frame
* Complies with ACA standards
* Regulation (24″ X 48″)size boards
* 6″ routed and sanded hole
* Premium plywood surface
* Collapsible legs for compact storage – - Nailed and glued for durability
•Provides superior strength while keeping weight down
•All joints are screwed together for added durability
The Surface
•Made of 1/2″ sanded plywood •Durable surface with a great natural wood finish •Attached to frame from under side to ensure smooth game surface
The Legs
•Made of 3/4″ plywood for superior strength •Bolted to frame using 2-1/2″ carriage bolts •Will not collapse during gameplay •Fold away for easy transport and storage

Surf and Sheds is proud to say we manufacture all of our cornhole products in the USA. We work very hard to ensure that the quality and craftsmanship of our cornhole boards and cornhole bags meets the expectations of our customers. Please try some of our cornhole products today. Purchase our custom cornhole boards for outstanding products and quick delivery for your cornhole products!!

How are my cornhole products shipped?
We deliver all our cornhole games using Federal Express Ground service. Bags only orders are shipped by USPS. They are usually shipped out within 3-5 days unless specified custom order is being processed, then it will be shipped with 7-10 business days.

manchmal hilft eben das netteste camouflage-shirt nichts, wenn man besser etwas anderes verbergen sollte.

der ist wohl gerade sehr mit seinen träumen beschäftigt?

wovon der wohl gerade träumen mag?

Love is a shield,
to hide behind,
love is a field
to grow inside,
and when I sometimes close my eyes
my mind starts spinning around.
Love is a baby
in a mother’s arms,
love is your breath
which takes me warm,
and when I sometimes close my eyes,
my mind starts spinning around.

Full text > here.

foto:gaspi your guide,flickr.com

While the online store for Bathing Ape has been up for a couple months now, you probably haven’t heard too much about it.  The new releases aren’t marked by an email or RSS feed, so you have to hope you’re online at the right time for exclusive drops.  That being said, I’m not sure when these scarves released, but I’m a huge fan already.

I would probably wear a lot more BAPE if it weren’t for the price.  I can’t justify $73 on a graphic t-shirt, much less the $200+ for sweaters and $500+ for outerwear.  Even as it stands, you’re better off having basic outwear and save bright colors/patterns for your accessories.

That’s why a camouflage scarf would be perfect.  Wear it with a tweed blazer and go for the Kanye look or throw on your heaviest parka and bundle up.  Yes, it’s camouflage, but it’s not military surplus looking.  And the best part is that it costs just as much as a t-shirt from Bape: $73.

Info: 10 inches wide by 63.25 inches long, available on BAPE.com

And while you’re on the camouflage kick, upgrade your home as well:

Toolkit

Dust pan/brush

Plunger

Camouflage home products available from Seltzer Studios

While I hear stories of blizzards and frigid weather in other parts of the country, here in southern Arizona it’s still quite warm.  Unseasonably warm actually.  I had to wear a jacket for a few days a couple of weeks ago, but then it got hot (as in almost 100 degrees!) again.  Luckily for me, this means that there are still a lot of bugs out.  A few days ago, my coworker and I tried to catch some painted lady butterflies when we got back to the office after our field work.  The bird of paradise plants and the other things planted with them are still in bloom, so there are still tons of painted ladies and sulphur butterflies flitting around.  Yesterday, I was on my way out to run errands when I saw this on the wall of my carport:

Mantid

As I always do when I find mantids outside, I ran back into the house and grabbed my camera, snapping some quick pictures of it before I did my errands.  It was still in the carport when I returned, so I scooped him up and brought him in the house to take some better photos indoors where the light was better.  The image above is one of those.

I love mantids.  I think they are amazing and beautiful animals.  Unfortunately, I don’t see them all that often.  It’s hard to find them most of the time.  They are masters of camouflage, or blending in with their environment, so I just don’t notice them.  Mantids are known to mimic all kinds of plants and flowers (to see some amazing mantid flower mimics, see this great blog post from Asia), tree bark, sticks, and other insects, so they are very hard to see if you’re not actively looking for them.  But that’s the point!  If you want to avoid being eaten, one great way to do it is to blend in with the background so effectively the predator doesn’t even notice you’re there.  If you’re an ambush predator (more about this in a moment), it also helps if the things you want to eat can’t see you very well.  I put the mantid pictured above into the bush in front of my house when I was finished photographing it.  It wasn’t the kind of plant this mantid would normally be found in, but it was still a little hard to see:

Mantid camouflage - can you find it?

This particular mantid was bright green against the deep rust color of my carport when I found it, so it really stood out.  It didn’t take much skill to find this one before I put it in the bush!  I have an idea of why this might be, but I’ll get to that later.

Mantids have some very interesting behaviors.  Their amazing abilities to mimic the plants they live on don’t end at their coloration and body shape.  They are also well-known for mimicking leaves and plants blowing in the breeze.  They use their hind and middle pairs of legs to sway back and forth gently every now and again.  If they are living on plants and want to blend in, it’s to their benefit to mimic the plant as much as possible.  This includes moving the way the plant does – the swaying behavior helps them look more like the plant than their coloration and body shape alone.  Whether they use this behavior specifically to avoid detection is debatable, but it helps them blend into their environment regardless of its primary purpose.  The mantid I found yesterday started swaying when I went to grab it in what may have been a rather desperate attempt to avoid detection and capture, so I got to see this behavior in action.  If you’d like to see it too, check out this YouTube video (which I did not take):

Isn’t that fun?  Just picture this mantid swaying on a stick being gently blown in the wind.  I love watching these little mantid “dances!”

Many mantids are ambush predators, which means that they sit and wait for food to come near before darting out to capture their prey.  Because they blend in with their environment so well, many prey animals won’t notice a mantid sitting on a plant or on a flower and walk right by it.  The mantid then uses it’s forelegs to reach out and grab the prey with amazing speed.  Like the giant water bugs I study and have written about in earlier posts, mantids have what are called raptorial forelegs.   These are legs that are specifically designed for capturing prey.  They’re big and bulky and full of muscles, so they’re both very fast and very strong.  They can often fold back on themselves to allow them to grasp things.  People have long thought that mantids have the appearance of praying when they hold their legs ready to grab prey, hence the common name praying mantis.  Mantids also frequently have spikes or other structures that help them keep hold of things they grab.  Check out the raptorial forelegs on the mantid from yesterday:

Mantid raptorial foreleg

This one has bulky forearms and some pretty formidable spikes!  Those spikes help them subdue prey so they can eat them.  And mantids can eat some pretty impressive things including other insects, small snakes, lizards, frogs, small rodents, and even the occasional bird!  If they can grab it and keep a hold of it, they’ll likely try to eat it.  I think this is part of why I like mantids so much – they remind me of my water bugs in their ability to capture, subdue, and consume their prey, and they just look so darned cool doing it !

So back to why I think this bug was in a strange and very conspicuous spot.  If you have a weak stomach, this is where you should stop reading.  I went out to the bush where I had released the mantid this morning to see if it was still there and was sad to see that it had died overnight.  Because I’m an entomologist, my first thought was, “Wow!  It’s sad the mantid died, but it would make a great addition to my collection!”  So, I brought it inside and started pinning it.  Much to my horror, as soon as my pin hit the abdomen, I disturbed the mass of maggots that were growing inside the mantid and feasting on its living flesh.  They burst out of the mantid and spewed onto my counter.  Now I’m not a very squeamish person, but maggots spewing out of anything is enough to make me queasy.  I ended up preserving the maggots in alcohol (why collect one type of insect when you can add two to your collection?) and will figure out what they are later, though I know they are a type of parasitic fly.  An adult fly likely deposited its eggs inside the mantid a month or two ago and the maggots slowly consumed the living mantid as they developed.  Parasites are known to alter the behavior of many insects they infest so that they are better able to infest other organisms.  It’s quite possible that the maggots altered the behavior of this mantid when it was near death so that it made itself conspicuous enough to come into contact with another animal that the maggots could use as food.  Alternatively, it could simply have become delirious as its body was hollowed out and mistakenly crawled up a surface it would normally avoid.  Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter that it was in a conspicuous place – it was dying anyway.  And I’m happy I got to see it before it did.  A mantid will always brighten up my day.

_______________

Text and images copyright © 2009 DragonflyWoman.wordpress.com

Mousey had a bath last night. It’s AJ’s turn tonight.

picture: Jane_S. lol caption: dunno

We r adding favorite buttons 2 sum classic lolz, so u can favorite dem!

Check awt sum other classic lolz dat nao have favorite buttons!

Do you guys remember back in the day when I thought denim shoes were trashy?

We were so young then.

That was before I knew about Matiko’s Ripper heels:

Matiko's camouflage heels are good for deer-hunting in style.

Here’s a hint: If a shoe is called the “Ripper,” it’s probably destined for doing the dirty in the cab of a pick-up truck. Consider yourselves forewarned. (Not forearmed, though—like I would give you people weapons.)

Wo ist der Mann?

Findet ihr den Mann auf dem Bild?

I find one 0f  the most frustrating parts of the Anglican Church generally to be its rather tight relationship with the state and the military in particular. I understand why this has developed – I mean, Henry the VIII didn’t declare himself Supreme Head of the Church of England for nothing. However, it’s quite clearly contrary to my interpretation of Christ’s teachings.

I don’t think Christ endorses violence in any form, which makes it difficult for me to accept warfare generally. Furthermore, Christ’s teachings are at best ambivalent towards the state – “render unto Caesar” and such. Indeed, Christ’s teachings are actually a pretty good basis for anarchism. So any sort of Church relationship with state, particularly the established church relationship in England itself, is quite troubling, despite the historical realities.

This relationship is almost the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. I mean, I already have enough trouble dealing with an institutionalized church, even though I concede its necessity for regular communal worship and can see some benefits for providing services from the Christian community, particularly with regard to social justice.

However, just a couple hours ago in church, this was all a bit too much. I had to watch redcoats carrying weapons march up and down the centre aisle of church. I also saw a large number of military uniforms, which I can accept, since everyone’s welcome, though it does make me uncomfortable. This is particularly true of people wearing camouflage in church, since I associate camouflage very strongly with combat (though it doesn’t seem like the military does anymore). And, as my brother, himself a military man, has noted, camouflage just isn’t professional. The Canadian national anthem was also sung.

This all turned out to be part of recognizing a traditional relationship between a garrison at Montreal and the cathedral that goes back to the 1800s. So I can understand the weight of tradition in this case. However, this all binds up the church in an endorsement of carrying weapons, organized violence and divisive nationalism, among other things, which doesn’t seem all that Christian to me. And, as someone who grew up with a strong belief in separation of church and state, I found this connection very unsettling.

I can accept these sorts of attitudes from wider society. I even expect it. But I can’t accept it in my place of worship, since I can’t reconcile this with the teachings of Christ.

This, when coupled with a series of other minor frustrations, such as having to hear a bunch of people use a noisy automated hand sanitizer when walking up to communion while the choir was singing beautiful music and having to deal with a poorly implemented token amount of French in the service, turned me into a bit of an Eeyore for the morning.

But despite the crotchetiness of my reactions, I still hold fast to the belief that this isn’t the way for the church to conduct itself.

A crab spider is one very cool arachnid. I’ve observed many over the years as they hide themselves in plain sight among a variety of blooms, patiently awaiting the arrival of unwary prey. They have the amazing ability to change their body colour to match that of the flower. The change takes place over a couple of days of sitting there. In this case, the spider is starting to take on the thistle’s purplish hue…two streaks on the abdomen and one across the head. To complete the illusion it then extends its crab-like forelegs upward in imitation of the petals…and then…waits…