14 | Sunday Brunch ☕

Happy Sunday! Welcome back to our fourteenth Sunday Brunch newsletter - a concise curation of interesting information.

Without further delay, grab your coffee, mimosa, water, juice, bloody mary, chocolate milk, protein shake, or whatever else the Brunchers are drinking these days and enjoy this week's issue.

Cheers Everyone.

Olympic Reflections & Thoughts on Top Performers - one week has passed since the closing ceremony of the 2020 Olympic games. It is hard to comprehend the magnitude of the games. Specifically, the dedication and perseverance of the athletes in order to compete at an Olympic level is almost unbelievable. Their commitment to excellence is incredible to watch.

Witnessing excellence is captivating.

I wouldn't categorize shot put as a fun weekend activity, but I'll watch the Olympians throw that perfectly proportioned ball of stone for hours.

Never have I had the sudden urge to play badminton, but the precision and dexterity of the Olympians is mesmerizing - I couldn't look away.

Swimming bores me to tears, but watching the Olympians furiously fight for position down the final straightaway elevated my heart rate to a steady 180bpm.

The activity almost becomes irrelevant.

Watching the best of the best do what they do demands full attention.

So, in honor of the spectacular performances throughout the Olympics, I compiled a few videos showcasing top performers in non-Olympic activities.  Similar to shot put, badminton, and swimming, I am not pursuing any of these activities myself, but I have no problem watching these experts perform for hours.

Enjoy.

Music - FKJ,

A French multi-instrumentalist, singer, and musician. He is known for his solo live performances, where he does live loopings and showcases his multi-instrumentalist skills.

This is a live performance at La Fee Electricite in Paris that showcases three songs

Chess - Magnus Carlsen,

A Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the current World Chess Champion, World Rapid Chess Champion, and World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen first reached the top of the FIDE world rankings in 2010, and trails only Garry Kasparov in time spent as the highest-rated player in the world.

This is Magnus, 7 years ago, playing against his manager (notice he only has 30 total seconds on his clock in this Blitz game, which lasts slightly over one minute)

Sleight of Hand - Daniel Roy,

a magician and sleight-of-hand artist with a background in neuroscience.

Cool sequence of tricks with a simple deck of cards. Insists the video is all shot in one take. Enjoy.

Drawing - @Artology on YouTube,

A 26-hour timelapse drawing of Captain Jack Sparrow with colored pencils.

No commentary is needed - enjoy.

Tunnel Skydiving - Kyra Poh,

A Singaporean skydiving champion. Kyra entered the sport accidentally when her mother, an advertising executive, needed a child to take part in a campaign for a local indoor skydive facility. At 9 years old, Kyra experienced her first session in the tunnel and never looked back. She has won multiple championships during her young career and the sky is the limit moving forward.

If you're unfamiliar, air is blowing at high velocity from vents in the floor. This causes the divers to float up, down, and side-to-side depending on body position

Rubik's Cube - Feliks Zemdegs,

An Australian Rubik's Cube speedsolver. He is the only speedcuber to ever win the World Cube Association World Championship twice, winning in 2013 and 2015. He is often considered the greatest speedsolver of all time.

Here, he solves a 5x5 cube. I would include the 3x3, normal size, cube world record video, but it would only last 5 seconds.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please consider sharing it with a friend, colleague, or the next person you see when you lift your head from your screen.

if you hated it...  maybe consider sharing it with your mortal enemy.

That's it for this week, everyone.

Thank you, as always, for your time. If you made it this far in the article, I appreciate you tremendously and am thrilled to have you in our community.

My inbox is always open - I'd love to hear from you 📩hey@whit.blog

Enjoy your Sunday & have a week!