#1 A Snow Leopard In Its Natural Habitat At Spiti Valley, India Appears Flawlessly Camouflaged, Effortlessly Blending Into The Surrounding Environment
There are different types of camouflage in nature, and some animals use more than one.
A popular tactic is background matching. It could be something as simple as a fox’s white fur matching the color of the Arctic tundra, or as complex as a leaf insect mimicking the movements of an actual leaf.
Another tactic is disruptive coloration, when animals disguise their identification and location with color patterns. For example, the owl butterfly has what looks like owl eyes on its wings to make predators think they are staring at an owl's face instead of the backside of an innocent butterfly.
There are two ways to "create" camouflage: with pigments and with physical structures.
Some animals, like octopuses, have biochromes, microscopic pigments that absorb and reflect light to change their actual color.
Others, like polar bears, have physical structures in their hairs that work like prisms and scatter light of all colors, which we see as white.
Even though we see these pictures (and the ones we featured in our first publication on 'Find the Sniper') more or less the same, I'm willing to bet that if you send them to your friends, the time it will take everyone to decipher them will vary.
Dr. Joseph Cardillo told Bored Panda that multiple factors contribute to poor attention to detail, with the biggest one being low energy levels.
(However, keep in mind that if you end up on the opposite end of the spectrum and are jumpy or wired, it can also negatively affect your focus.)
#10 Attempted To Take A Photo Of Golden Eagle, But Couldn’t See It In The Camera. Spotted It Later. Can You See It?
According to Cardillo, author of The 12 Rules of Attention, each of the following triggers can impact us in milliseconds:
- Your previous experiences (this is the way you've always reacted). They don't work so well if things are not pretty much the same or if something new and/or different occurs.
- Automatic reactions. These spring out of old habits: you flip somebody off in traffic because they cut into your lane, or you roll your eyes when you don’t like what someone says, or you talk down to certain people and talk to others with respect, or say you agree with something when you really don’t.
- Fear (if you’re afraid of snakes you might jump when you see a tree root).
So we have to train ourselves out of these factors' influence if we want to perform a given task (in this case, 'spotting the sniper') well.
"Attention is the number one predictor of success," Cardillo explained to us. "It is connected to our daily performance in ways we suspect and [even in] some we may not."
To improve our attention to detail, first and foremost, Cardillo suggests balancing our energy.
"Balanced energy is defined as that sweet-spot between calm and alert," he said. "So if you were any 'calmer' you'd be too mellow. If you were any more energized, you'd be jumpy."
There's a variety of ways to get there, such as putting on some tunes. "You can use music to help you achieve this mind state," Cardillo said.
To get started, he suggests making two playlists for yourself, a calming one and an activating one. For the first, choose something that is under 100 beats per minute (BPM). As a suggestion, Cardillo mentioned John Lennon's Imagine, which has a BPM of 78, but you can find even slower songs.
Then for your activating playlist, pick some tracks with BPMs over 100. For instance, The Cats Rock This Town clocks in at 207 BPM.
"So if your energy is low, play your activating playlist for 5-7 minutes. Hit repeat if you need it," Cardillo said. "If your energy is too high and you are anxious, play your calming playlist for 10-12 minutes. It takes longer to calm down."
But remember, the more you like the songs, the better they work!
