I would suppose the center circle is not a space capable of being occupied by a piece, but rather just a map of pathways to the next "square." Interesting that the pathway for a bishop is a complete circle. And I think the choice of grey for the third color was more artistic than practical for the players involved. But interesting - and way better than the old "3-dimensional chess" fiasco.
I don't understand how the dog inside the fence "dragged" the blanket partway outside the fence. Looks more like the dog ouside the fence grabbed the blanket, and the inside dog sat on it to keep it from being stolen. Maybe I'm too old and cynical.
I'll start the boring part by suggesting that the body shape and behavior are consistent with a caterpillar of an underwing moth (probably catocala spp.)
Your last sentence is quite insightful. There is a vast difference between having a pleasure available whenever desired with a few clicks, versus having to wait until a certain time and if missed it was apparently gone forever.
Drawing a clock face is still a component of mini-mental-status exams in tests of cognitive impairment such as the Saint Louis University Mental Status Exam. I have wondered whether this component needs to be modified.
If you're going to do this properly, you should wrap just half your teeth and leave the other half untreated as a control for comparison. We'd like to see that followup photo.
That can't be the explanation, because this isn't a "magic" competition - it's an optical illusion competition, so sleight-of-hand etc is forbidden. Entrants in this competition rely only on the neurophysiology of vision to generate the illusions.
At the risk of expressing a "get off my lawn" sentiment, I find it distressing that someone would prey on the goodwill of strangers for his own self-aggrandizement.
I'll look for the fulltext printed version instead.
http://aging.slu.edu/index.php?page=saint-louis-university-mental-status-slums-exam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKpOKXAVjGo