Jan Schröer
Some non-mathematical interests
Go (Chinese board game)
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In a former life (age 15 - 25) I was a very keen Go player:
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Appearances in the final round (Top 8)
of the German Go Championship: 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996.
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German Youth (i.e. under 21) Go Champion in 1992.
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German Pair Go Champion (with Kirsten Hartmann) in 1994 and 1996.
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Representative of Germany (with Kirsten Hartmann) at the
Pair Go Amateur World Championship in 1994 in Tokyo and Sapporo.
We were knocked out by Japan in the first round.
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Representative of Germany at the Go Amateur World Championship
in 1997 in Tokyo. I disgraced flag and country by finishing 23rd.
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DeepMind's Go software AlphaGo
beat world class professional Go player Lee Sedol 4:1 in 2016 in a series of 5 games.
There is an impressive documentary film (called AlphaGo) on this
epic encounter.
I claimed at numerous occasions that a Go program will never beat a
professional Go player.
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The follow up software AlphaZero (2017) is far superior
to the old AlphaGo program. Probably no human can win a game of Go against
AlphaZero. AlphaZero can also play chess.
In 2017 it slaughtered the
then world leading chess program Stockfish in a series of 100 games with 28 wins, 72 draws
and 0 losses.
AlphaZero learned Go and chess by playing against itself. The only
initial input were the rules.
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A semifictional account of the famous Go battle
between Honinbo Shusai and Minoru Kitani in 1938:
Yasunari Kawabata "Meijin".
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I'm indebted to my mathematics teacher Friedrich Kleißendorf and
to Franz-Josef Dickhut (aka FJ) for
introducing me to Go.
Basketball
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I'm a fan of the
Bonn Basketball Team.
They break my heart almost every season, but I still love them.
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One of these
little Basketball players
is my son.
Here
and
here
he is again.
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For children living in Bonn, there are numerous possibilities for joining
a basketball team. Personally I recommend the
BG Bonn, which is one of the biggest basketball schools in Germany.
The best age for starting basketball is probably around 6 or 7.
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I play basketball myself. Not very good to put it mildly, but passionately.
Being rather tall, I usually play as a Center.
I found a lot of truth in the following
quote from the film Hangtime: "Es gibt keinen einfachen Weg zum Korb".
(Actually, even when there is an easy path to the basket, I might just
miss the lay-up.)
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A YouTube video on
Basketball Stereotypes
from Dude Perfect.
I'm somewhere between "The My Bad guy" and
"The Rage Monster".
I don't see myself as
"The Old guy" (yet).
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Basketball books:
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Thomas Pletzinger
"Gentlemen, wir leben am Abgrund: Eine Saison im deutschen Profi-Basketball"
(2013)
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Thomas Pletzinger
"The Great Nowitzki: Das außergewöhnliche Leben des großen
deutschen Sportlers" (2019)
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Johannes Herber "Almost Heaven" (2014)
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Christoph Ribba "Deutschland für eine Saison: Die wahre Geschichte des
Wilbert Olinde jr." (2017)
Basketball films:
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Hangtime - Kein leichtes Spiel (2009, Dir. Wolfgang Groos):
Basketball film about a young Phoenix Hagen player finding his way into
pro basketball and life in general.
This is not a great piece of art, but it contains some nice scenes.
Watch out for Matthias Grothe.
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Phoenix in der Asche (2011, Dir. Jense Pfeifer): A documentary
about a rather unusual season of Phoenix Hagen.
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The Iran Job (2013, Dir. Till Schauder):
A documentary
about the American basketball pro Kevin Sheppard playing a
season in Iran.
Should be also of interest to people who don't care about
basketball.
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Der perfekte Wurf (2014, Dir. Sebastian Dehnhardt): A documentary
about my all time favourite basketball player
DIRK NOWITZKI.
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Amateur (2018, Dir. Ryan Koo):
Basketball film featuring some of the not so great aspects of
exploitational Highschool and College Basketball.
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The Last Dance (2020, Dir. Jason Hehir):
10 Episode Miniseries on Michael Jordan winning 6 NBA Championships with the
Chicago Bulls.
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Last Chance U: Basketball (2021):
Netflix Miniseries. Documentary on basketball coach John Mosley and his team of
underdogs who are all fighting for a college basketball scholarship.
Mexico
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With all its glory and its sorrows, Mexico occupies an important place in my
heart.
I spent by now a total of more than 2 years (1 year straight as a postdoc
plus numerous visits) in Mexico.
Astronomy
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In 2019 I started doing a bit of astronomy with a Newton reflector telescope
(200/1000mm).
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My achievements are still very modest: Numerous objects on the
Moon, Jupiter and its
four Galilean moons, Saturn with its Ring(s) and its moon Titan,
Lagoon Nebula M8, Dumbbell Nebula M27, Orion Nebula M42, Ring Nebula M57,
Pleiades M45, Andromeda Galaxy M31 and its companion M32,
Bode's Galaxy M81, Cigar Galaxy M82, Leo-Triplet M65/M66,
Whirlpool Galaxy M51 and its companion NGC 5194, many galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, and
about 40 open star clusters and globular star clusters, most of them from
the Messier catalogue.
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A great place for setting up a telescope is the Sternenpark, which is part of the Nationalpark Eifel.
This is one of the darker regions in Germany. You can see the Milkyway from there.
#vonhier
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Bielefeld! (Video on www.zeit.de)
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But we're speaking Japanese! (Video on YouTube)
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Ein von Mehmet Daimagüler auf Twitter geteilter Dialog:
Im ICE-Bordrestaurant. Unbekannter Mann: "Woher kommst Du?"
Ich: "Aus Bonn."
Er: "Wo kommst Du ursprünglich her?" Ich: "Aus Siegen."
Er: "Nee, ich meine gebürtig."
Ich: "Aus Siegen."
Er leicht genervt: "Woher kommen Deine Vorfahren?"
Ich: "Aus Afrika. Deine auch."
Ostwestfalen
- Kulturelles Zentrum: Bielefeld
- Alte ostwestfälische Bauernregel:
"Wenn der Hahn kräht auf dem Mist, ändert sich's Wetter,
oder es bleibt wie's ist."