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A camouflage shortage in the Marine Corps will lead to service members wearing less regulated uniforms in the near future. In an Instagram video, Commandant Gen. Eric Smith addressed service members’ concerns over an inability to find and purchase woodland-patterned "cammies" in an ongoing manufacturing shortage. He announced that as the problem continues, local members will be allowed to wear alternate uniforms contrary to Marine standards. "That problem is going to stay with us until the fall of 2024 when the manufacturer can fill the backlog that has been created after COVID. Until that time, local commanders, battalions and squadrons...

Why can’t a Florida Man find a Pay n’ Spray when he needs one? Reinier Lazaro Perez and Dayanly Cutino Gonzalez were spotted behind the Days Inn in Palm Coast Florida. They were spray painting a Peterbilt semi-tractor in the back corner of the parking lot. The hotel is located just off I95, we’ll get back to that. Someone (who obviously can’t mind they own business) thought that someone spray painting a semi truck in the parking lot of a hotel was suspicious. So they called the cops. When Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived the two dropped the cans...

The company uses a technological system capable of transposing images, called adversarial patches, onto a knitted fabric that can be used to dupe people detectors in real time. Wearing one of the items with the adversarial image woven in can protect the biometric data of a person's face. It means that it will either be undetectable, or associated with an incorrect category, such as animals. Examples used include dogs, zebras and giraffes. the fabric has been tested with YOLO, the most common and fastest real-time object detection system.

The newly created United States Space Force has new uniforms to match. The unit's official Twitter account posted a picture of the new "U.S. Space Force" nameplate and "United States Space Command" patch and said the uniforms had "touched down in the Pentagon." The US Space Force has been in the works of President Donald Trump's administration since March 2018, and it was officially created alongside the US Space Command when the president signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act on December 20. **SNIP** "Space Force" trended on Twitter after the Department of Defense debuted the new uniforms, with many...

The coating flouts the typical trend of hotter objects radiating more lightHotter objects typically glow brighter than cooler ones, making them stand out in infrared images. But a newly designed coating bucks the rule that hotter equals brighter. For certain wavelengths of infrared light, the material’s brightness doesn’t change as it warms, researchers report December 17 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Made of samarium nickel oxide, the thin coating “hides temperature information of surfaces from infrared cameras,” and could therefore be used as a privacy shield, says applied physicist Mikhail Kats of the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

A young European cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) trying to escape predation by expressing dermal papillae in 3-D and a mottled pattern, both of which disrupt the body contour and allow the cuttlefish to fool predators by avoiding recognition. As reported by Gonzalez-Bellido et al., these muscular structures contain a mix of muscle types that allow the animal to express and flatten the papillae quickly, and to maintain papillae expression for extensive periods without the need for neural input. The circuit that controls them appears homologous to the squid skin iridescence circuit. Credit: P Gonzalez-Bellido. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ An international team of scientists has...

For many creatives, blending into the background is something to be avoided. But one photographer has found a novel way of using camouflaged knitwear to make his artwork stand out. These astonishing pictures show various people merging into their backgrounds using perfectly matching clothing.

Two snipers have shot 11 police officers - killing at least four - and may have planted a bomb in downtown Dallas. The two gunmen opened fire from 'elevated positions', picking off officers 'ambush style' as they manned a protest over the deaths of two black men, police chief David Brown said. A gruesome video shows a heroic policeman taking on one of gunmen, but being gunned down by the shooter before being shot again execution-style, from point-blank range. Both suspects have been caught and taken into custody, with one detained following a shootout with police. As they were detained,...

A new type of camouflage developed for the Bundeswehr (German army) has been designed to fool even enemies using night vision equipment. The Bundeswehr Scientific Institute (Wiweb) has been working on the new design for several years, and now believes it finally has a replacement for the traditional Flecktarn pattern, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) reported on Tuesday. With a larger percentage of the surface devoted to sand colours, the new pattern -- which is designed to be used in all kinds of different environments -- is more useful in desert areas like Afghanistan, where more than 800 German troops are...

The Army has selected a new camouflage pattern to begin fielding next year, an unidentified senior Army spokesperson announced in a statement late Thursday. “The Army has confirmed through testing that the pattern would offer exceptional concealment, which directly enhances force protection and survivability for Soldiers,” according to the statement from the Army. The pattern will be used in all combatant commands, including Afghanistan, the Army said. Uniforms and equipment with the existing pattern won’t be discarded, but replaced only as they wear out. The pattern was developed by the Army under the name Scorpion W2 to replace the much-maligned...

I know that I'm opening a can of worms, but I need some advice. I'm in the market for some new camo. I have plenty, but it's all in storage. I've been thinking about replacing it with some military surplus camo, either marpat or flecktarn. Has anyone tried this, and if so, what were the results? I mean, it should still work, right? It's primarily to break up your outline, so my assumption is that it would still function just as well.

In 2004, the Army decided to scrap the two traditional camouflage uniforms that had long been used by the military—one meant for woodland environments, another for the desert—and claimed to have come up with a universal pattern that could be worn anywhere and blend in with any environment. The $5 billion dollar experiment with the universal pattern is over as the Army is phasing out the uniform after less than a decade of use. But many soldiers and observers are wondering why it took this long and cost this much to replace an item that performed poorly from the start...

In 2004, the Army decided to scrap the two traditional camouflage uniforms that had long been used by the military—one meant for woodland environments, another for the desert—and claimed to have come up with a universal pattern that could be worn anywhere and blend in with any environment. The $5 billion dollar experiment with the universal pattern is over as the Army is phasing out the uniform after less than a decade of use. But many soldiers and observers are wondering why it took this long and cost this much to replace an item that performed poorly from the start...

Where's Sweet Pea? After 30 years - the Arizona Ash tree in the front yard had to come down. No more hours spent IN the tree. Might as well be where the tree WAS.

Camouflaged clothing that mimics squid skin is being developed to hide soldiers from night vision equipment.Most camouflage materials used to disguise soldiers and vehicles during the day show up easily when viewed through night vision goggles and infrared cameras. This is because leaves and other foliage reflect infrared light in a different way to other fabrics and materials. However, scientists at the University of California Irvine have created a new “stealth” coating that can change the way it reflects infrared light on command. The films, which are around 100,000 times thinner than a human hair, can be switched on and...

Sharks are the predators of the sea and there is nothing they like more than to snack on a tasty morsel like a seal. However, they can mistake a diver in wetsuit for a seal, and as a consequence the attack humans. Now an Australian company has invented wetsuits that confuse a shark’s vision by making the wearer seem invisible. One of the designs repels the shark by making the wearer unpalatable, and the other replicates the natural patterns of the ocean. …

From ’The Great War: A History’, volume III, 1916 (litho)

“Soldier in black and white uniform to conceal him while climbing trees. He stands in front of a house camouflaged to represent a fence and trees. Company F, 24th Engineers. American University, D.C. Army Engineer Corps..”

Cuttlefishes' camouflage skills have many admirersInspired by the camouflage abilities of marine organisms, such as the cuttlefish, US researchers have created striped ellipsoid particles using controlled self-assembly of diblock copolymers. By swelling and rotating the particles their colour can be changed, which could lead to a variety of optical applications including computer displays and better camouflage.Cuttlefish blend into their environment because their skin has cells containing striped structures. These structures have a layer of pigmented sacs called chromatophores and a layer of reflecting plates called iridophores. By contracting and relaxing muscles attached to chromatophores they can control the amount of...

Zombie-scented perfumes make you smell less attractive to the undead Usually a person dabs on a bit of perfume in hopes of attracting someone else's attention, but could a zombie-scented perfume repel the affections of the flesh-craving dead? Demeter Fragrance Library, purveyors of all sorts of offbeat scents, have come up with a pair of undead-themed perfumes that could come in handy during the zombie apocalypse. No, the perfume doesn't smell like decaying flesh. Instead, Zombie for Him combines dried leaves, mushrooms, mildew, moss and earth, while Zombie for Her is a more feminine version, adding "a touch of Dregs...