This picture is by the Hungarian artist István Orosz. It's of a French ambassador to England in 1530, his name is Jean de Dinteville. You might recognise Jean from the Holbein painting 'The Ambassadors' that we described on the Spy Blog recently.
Here are a couple of great cutting or chopping boards with a 3D pattern that plays with the eyes. The boards were made by Steve Carey and you can see how he made them over at My Grandfathers Lathe.
 Can you see which way the Optical Spy Wind Turbine is turning?
The top seems to be turn the opposite way to the bottom! If you don't see this straight away keep looking at the bottom it will eventually come. The more persistent of you will actually be able to see the top going one way and the bottom going the other way both at the same time, that's not easy. Congratulations if you can do it, you truly are an Optical Spy! Let me know how you got on. Look at the deck of the bridge and it is straight and true. As soon as the Sun starts setting it looks like the deck starts distorting. When we stop the animation the deck appears to be bending upwards. Once the the Sun sets we are back to normal. (This is a Flash animation and may not work on all devices)
 Here is our latest upside down illusion. It's of Phil Plait. Phil is an astronomer, author, skeptic, blogger, and lecturer. He is currently working on a TV project and for a time was President of the James Randi Educational Foundation. Catch Phil over on facebook. You can click on Phil's face to reveal the illusion. Update:
Thanks to Phil for posting our illusion of him on his blog Bad Astronomy and for explaining the phenomena that is the Margaret Thatcher Illusion. He is not only a good sport he is a very clever man. 
A piece of the historic Covent Garden market appears to have broken free of its stone base, with its top half levitating in the air, in the latest installation by London designer Alex Chinneck. Take My Lightning but Don't Steal My Thunder by Alex Chinneck is a precise replica of a section of the 184-year-old market building in London's Covent Garden that has been made to look as if its upper portion has broken away from its stone base to float in mid air. Via deezen 
Some people see it straight away for others it takes ages. Perhaps this might help - click here
Before you can perform the teleportation you have to find the 'energise button' which is hidden behind one of the bricks in this London building. If you can find it click on it and the teleportation will begin. Thanks to Liu Bolin for the inspiration for this optical.
 Cloaking or obscuring is gradually becoming a reality. This has been achieved by the guys over at Rochester University by bending light via standard optical lenses. The video below shows how they did it. 
This car looks like its sinking into a room full of milk. In fact it's a clever art installation by Ivan Puig
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