Hello there !

Welcome to another edition of the Sunday Surprise from a Melbourne that is getting better weather almost every day. Hope you're staying safe where ever you are!

Last week, I launched my very first Kickstarter and I'm happy to report that we're over 40% of the way to the funding goal! More on that plus other PxR updates below!

Also, this is a new newsletter and if you've enjoyed it or found any of it useful, please let your friends know so they can subscribe to it! And also, thank YOU for reading along too!

Anyway, on to this weeks surprises...

Watch

Neuralink

https://youtu.be/DVvmgjBL74w?t=34

Holy moly! Elon Musk doesn't f%^k around! Last year he unveiled Neuralink as a possible brain-computer interface. Since that time, he's launched rockets, built the Cybertruck, improved solar and battery efficiency and all the while improved on the technology on Neuralink.

That brings it to this week where he gave an update on where things are at. As he describes it (a decently long demo), they're essentially at a "fitbit for your brain with very tiny wires). Did I mention he's also building a surgical robot that will implant this device into your brain? While the video is long, the first 20 mins or so actually goes over most of it with the rest being a Q&A.

If you want to see a glimpse of whats coming in healthcare, this is a very good taste of the state of the art. I've linked some sections if you want to skip to the fun bits:

• Current medical research tech vs NeuraLink
• The surgical robot & embedding the wires
• Neuralink in live pigs
• "Reading" brain waves to predict movement
• Sending impulses into the brain

Listen

Groove Armada - At the River

https://open.spotify.com/track/0KIPa0YuQ5QFmlAqRyXNd9?si=E1A_l3cnQMa6X6FLxkZL1g

This one is from a very old Groove Armada album when they had a much more downtempo vibe. It's less polished than their later dance floor hits and unlikely the more "pop friendly" stuff they released, takes it's sweet time progressing through the song.

These aren't criticisms but rather why I love this track so much! It's chilled, slow and a great track to listen to on a sunny Sunday. Enjoy!

Gadget & photo tip

Neewer Phone ND filter

https://amzn.to/3lpQpS9

Neutral Density (ND) filters are some of the most under rated photography tools in my opinion. Essentially they are pieces of hazy glass that reduces the light coming into the camera. Since I use my phone primarily for taking my instagram photos, I decided to get these light reducing gadgets for my Samsung Note20 too.

That sounds like a bad thing, but it really isn't in many circumstances. By reducing the light coming in, you can increase the shutter speed meaning you can take longer exposure photos than without using an ND filter. This is how you get waterfalls, oceans etc to look silky rather than rough. It's also very useful in increasing the shutter speed at night to get long car trails. If you get the super dark ones, you an also use them in cities where they blur out the crowds making them look deserted.

There's far better than the Neewer ND filter out there. Any filter is a rabbit hole of increasing costs and quality, but this isn't a bad start to see if it's something you could benefit from. If you want a slightly higher quality version, check out the ones from Sandmarc. One other thing to consider is that with long shutter speeds, you'll most likely need a tripod too to hold the phone still.

Here's a sample shot of what a ND filter can do (Although in this particular shot, I do like the non-silky version personally - I just couldn't find another example that had a before and after since all of them had the silky look and not the other):

And here's some examples from other sites:

• Why you need an ND filter for waterfalls

PxR update

PxR Kickstarter campaign is nearly half way

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/photosbyraffy/sixty-degrees-south-antarctic-image-jigsaw-puzzle?ref=6nwuqk

Ok - this is a bit exciting. After ONE WEEK, we're nearly at the half way mark of the Kickstarter! Thank you so much for contributing if you already have. If you haven't consider pledging early if you're interested. It helps with the Kickstarter algorithm.

The next 30 days will be much MUCH harder than the initial growth since most of the people in my immediate circle who are interested in the puzzle will already have pledged. So PLEASE consider sharing this project to your friends too.

In any case, while I hope we can successfully fund this and give back to the healthcare heroes, I'm chuffed that it's gotten even this far! Here's a few shots of he sample puzzle being assembled. Allegedly it took Jen... I mean Dave the Vegan, 3 hrs to get to this point below (Thanks Jen! Not sure why you insist on being called Dave though.)

Quote I'm pondering

“If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don't bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the entrenched Establishments of the two major parties, who please rest assured are not dumb, and who are keenly aware that it is in their interests to keep you disgusted and bored and cynical and to give you every possible reason to stay at home doing one-hitters and watching MTV on primary day. By all means stay home if you want, but don't bullshit yourself that you're not voting. In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some diehard's vote.”

―David Foster Wallace

I wish I had more American readers on this newsletter because this is WAY more relevant to them right now prior to the election. However, this is also true in most things that people don't want to get involved in like politics: not actively doing anything does NOT make you a passive in the process.

I'm not someone who likes things like politics or bureaucracy, but the truth that the quote speaks to is slowly becoming more and more apparent...

Truly random

This is a new section I wanted to try out, which is a mix between random updates and truly unrelated things that I found interesting. Would love feedback if you liked this.

• One medic posted up a relatively scathing critcism of our infection control protocols. While looking up his credentials, found out that he's quite an adventurer having flown a Cesna around the world!
• If you want to see the effort it takes to be an "overnight success", here's a currently viral and hilarious video of Uncle Roger and his criticism of someone cooking Egg friend rice. The comedian from the UK by the name of Nigel Ng. If you look at his Social Blade profile, you can see how little followers he had and views til his big break (scroll to the bottom for the graph on social blade)
• The stock market is on a roll and more people than ever are trading stocks while there is a deadly pandemic. Historical research tends to shows that index funds tend to outperform active traders generally. But what will happen if everyone switches to index funds? Mr Money Mustache has a decent answer...

Thanks again for joining me on yet another week of randomness!

Hope you're staying safe!

- Raffy

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Sunday Surprise uses affiliate/referral links in the newsletter. While this does not influence the product recommendations or verdict, if there are any that are likely to lead to Photos by Raffy receiving any sort of compensation from, they will be marked in orange. Non affiliate links will appear as blue.