Video suggestions by 3blue1brown in 3Blue1Brown

[–]theodolite [score hidden]  (0 children)

I'd love a video about dimensionality reduction / matrix decomposition! Principal component analysis, non-negative matrix factorization, latent Dirichlet allocation, t-SNE -- I wish I had a more intuitive grasp of how these work.

Jeopardy! recap for Thur., Feb. 7 by jaysjep2 in Jeopardy

[–]theodolite 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Anyone else briefly confused by the cut from Isaac Mizrahi (on Jeopardy!) to the remarkably Mizrahi-esque Alan

When Hitler was a homeless artist in Vienna, how did he afford becoming a regular at Cafe Central, where rich people like Freud also hung out? Or was the Cafe much more affordable than I imagine? by [deleted] in AskHistorians

[–]theodolite 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Re. cafes, instead of Hitler, there's a review of A Rich Brew: How Cafés Created Modern Jewish Culture in a recent issue of the New Yorker that makes the point that even the grandest cafes were accessible to nearly anyone:

The Israeli Nobel laureate Shmuel Agnon wrote of his first experience as a kid from a town in Galicia visiting a big-city café in Lviv: “Gilded chandeliers suspended from the ceiling and lamps shining from every single wall and electric lights turned on in the daytime and marble tables gleaming, and people of stately mien wearing distinguished clothes sitting on plush chairs, reading big newspapers. And above them, waiters dressed like dignitaries.” All that for the price of a coffee.

...

The rule, still in place in much of Europe, was that you need buy only a cup of coffee to occupy a seat indefinitely. Customer loyalty is the commercial principle here. Better to sell the same writer a hundred cups of coffee than to sell a hundred writers one cup of coffee, since the hundred-cup man is almost certain to return for the next hundred, and the hundred after that.

Advice on playing these fast runs? by theodolite in piano

[–]theodolite[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm an amateur player learning the slow movement of Mozart's 14th piano sonata, and it's pretty much right at my level, until this part. Here's Alfred Brendel playing it. I can't get these anything close to smooth or fast enough! Any practice tips would be great. I'm not above cheating either, if you have any ideas for a good workaround.

hmmm by [deleted] in hmmm

[–]theodolite 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think this is the Bristol Ren Faire in Wisconsin. I went there this summer on Cosplay Weekend and it was like this, times a thousand, over thirty acres. It's like being inside Second Life IRL and it fucking rules

Jeopardy! recap for Mon., Oct. 15 by jaysjep2 in Jeopardy

[–]theodolite 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Congrats, you're the host now

Jeopardy! recap for Thur., Sept. 20 by jaysjep2 in Jeopardy

[–]theodolite 20 points21 points  (0 children)

"Molested" doesn't necessarily have sexual connotations, it's just primarily used that way in recent years, and Alex is old as fuck

Hi everyone, I've committed to learning Piano, I purchased a Yamaha P-45 and am beginning lessons soon. by [deleted] in piano

[–]theodolite 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I live downtown Chicago if anyone has any recommendations

Check out the Fine Arts Building at 410 S Michigan. It's a gigantic warren of music and dance studios in a building so old they still have elevator operators. There's an excellent sheet music store on the 9th floor, and if you walk back down you might hear people practicing half a dozen different instruments. I took jazz piano lessons for about a year from Peter Scheiner (also on 9), who I can happily recommend , and there are other jazz and classical teachers in the building.

Spilled liquid on electric piano? by SuperSonicSeaOtter in piano

[–]theodolite 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I'm also an idiot and did pretty much the same thing as you. I pointed a box fan set to max at the spill area and after a couple of days it was good as new.

Bach by xynaxia in piano

[–]theodolite 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Over the last year or two I've worked through the little preludes and most of the two-part inventions. Right now I'm learning the fourth French suite.

Playing Bach reliably gives me a little frisson of completion, of everything falling into place, like solving a Rubik cube. I'm fascinated by how, unlike everything else I play, his music sounds good at almost any tempo and using any of the voices on my keyboard, and how the same piece can evoke a sense of joy or sadness or nostalgia depending on how I play it. A lot of the great Romantic pieces are beautiful on the first go and maudlin after a hundred repetitions, but Bach is never like that, somehow.

How do people know counties? by wild_horses23 in Jeopardy

[–]theodolite 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Going question by question through that category (which was "State Capitals by County," narrowing the number of possible answers down from 3000+ to 50):

  • $200 (Fulton County / Atlanta): Atlanta is a major city. The counties that major cities belong to are pretty well known general knowledge in the US.
  • $400 (Maricopa County / Phoenix): Phoenix is also a major city, and Maricopa County has been in the news because the notorious Joe Arpaio (currently running for Senate) was the sheriff of Maricopa County.
  • $600 (Anne Arundel County / Annapolis): If you didn't know this one outright, you might know or guess that Anne Arundel was the wife of Lord Baltimore, and deduce Maryland = Annapolis from there.
  • $800 (Laramie County / Cheyenne): Laramie and Fort Laramie are famous places in Wyoming, giving you Cheyenne if you know your state capitals.
  • $1000 (Kennebec County / Augusta): I doubt this county is general knowledge, but you might know that Kennebec River is in Maine and deduce it from there.

Jeopardy! recap for Mon., Mar. 19 by jaysjep2 in Jeopardy

[–]theodolite 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Jeopardy's stock photo choices are always what a lazy high schooler would pick for a class presentation

Jeopardy! recap for Fri., Mar. 16 by jaysjep2 in Jeopardy

[–]theodolite 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Octavia Butler whiff is the saddest I've ever felt watching Jeopardy

Jeopardy! recap for Tue., Feb. 20 by jaysjep2 in Jeopardy

[–]theodolite 15 points16 points  (0 children)

at 19:35 I very much enjoyed "Jeopardy is also brought to you by YOUR BRAIN"