Month: August 2020

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life in Shanghai! As covid-19 continues to plague the US, and you all are (hopefully) wearing masks when you go outside (I still am!) and maintaining social distancing practices, I hope that my blog highlights that there will be a recovery from covid-19 (which is sadly far away in the US). Once things improve, I hope you’ll look forward to small interactions with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find that these interactions will be highlights for you as well. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal, though new outbreaks may still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog interesting or enjoyable, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest entry continues to find all of you, your families, and your friends remaining safe and healthy! Moreover, even though there are a ton of troubling things that are happening in the US that I’m sure are preoccupying your thoughts, whether it’s the senseless shooting of Jacob Blake, forest fires in California, or the Hurricane in the Gulf Coast, I hope all of you are still remembering to be vigilant with regards to covid-19, especially as schools begin to reopen in person. With that in mind, I know that this past week was the start of the academic year for many of my readers (at least all of those who work at Skidmore College with my parents :)). Regardless of whether you’re teaching online or in person, I hope that the start of what I imagine will be a tiring and different semester was good. Hopefully, your students are excited to be back in class. Also, if you are teaching in person, I hope that you are reminding all of your students to maintain social distancing practices. As the examples of many large universities (most recently looking at you Alabama) have shown, college campuses appear to be a super spreader for covid-19.

Before discussing my life in Shanghai, I want to share a few political thoughts. First, as evidenced by the senseless shooting of Jacob Blake, it’s abundantly clear that the entire United States policing system needs to be reformed. Regardless of whether you think Jacob Blake did anything wrong (I don’t believe he did), it is not the job of police officers to serve as judge, jury, and executioner. Moreover, the fact that we live in a country where 17 year old Kyle Rittenhouse (and his mother who drove him to Kenosha, WI also needs to be blamed) can cross state lines to murder peaceful protesters only further highlights the systemic and deep-seeded problems within our country. The fact that a 17 year old white boy can murder 2 innocent people and shoot a third and still be alive while innocent black men and women are being murdered is all the evidence that anyone should need to understand that the whole system (especially the police unions) need to be reformed and that all police officers need to be held accountable for their actions just like every one else. On another thinking point, why does it take college plus 3 years of law school and passing the bar exam to legally practice the law, yet it only takes as little as 6 months of training to enforce it. Maybe we need to require law enforcement officers to be better trained in the same ways we require lawyers and judges.

At times like this, it’s imperative to remember to vote and hold the people who make our laws accountable. Seeing the highlights of the DNC and RNC in the last two, make it abundantly clear that we have one party that believes in diversity and inclusion. That same party believes that we can be better that we have to listen to scientists and work to better the country for everyone. In contrast, the other party is now ruled by a racist, sexist, and homophobic tyrant. It buries itself in lies, racism, and fear. I believe that the US needs fundamental change that the current administration is unwilling to admit or enact. The current administration is complicit in the continued deaths of black and brown people in the US, the further restrictions of their right to vote, and the deaths of over 180,000 people in the US as a result of covid-19. I implore all of you to vote and to encourage your friends and students (who are eligible) to vote as well. So, if you plan to vote by mail, please request your ballots as soon as possible.

To change gears here. As the school year begins here as well, it’s remarkable to see just how strikingly different the situations are in the US compared to China. As far as I know, all schools are meeting in person (thought masks are required). The only restriction is that students aren’t allowed to travel outside of Shanghai. Other than the small outbreaks in Xinjiang and Beijing (months ago), covid-19 has been held completely in check by the Chinese government. Currently the vast majority (nearly all) of cases are imported cases of Chinese nationals (and a few foreigners) returning to China for work. In Shanghai, there are 61 cases. The recovery rate is up to 92.4%. There are now no cases in Beijing! For China as a whole, the recovery rate is at 94%. So, as I’ve emphasized, if you require strict lockdowns and 14 day quarantines, the covid-19 can be controlled.

This was another fairly productive Astronomy week. I spent most of my time working on two different projects than what I’ve previously been working on. I’m waiting on feedback on my Stellar Mass-Halo Mass Relation and Luminosity Function Analyses, so I spent most of the week working on my DESI research on the spectroscopic completeness of Brightest Central Galaxies and likely cluster members. I’ve been able to determine which targets would need to be observed to yield a complete sample! I also got started on another new project I’m working on with my friend and colleague Yuanyuan Zhang. We’re starting to look at DES-ACT clusters for an analysis of the light profiles of the central galaxies. ACT is the Atcama Cosmology Telescope (a 6 meter telescope in Chile), this is a high redshift survey, which covers out to redshift of 1 (overlapping with the redshift range that Emmet studies!). So, when I get some interesting results, I’ll discuss those more in depth. 🙂 Additionally, this week, I had the opportunity to lead the Zu Group meeting for the first time! It was a fun experience (hopefully Ying will let me do it again). It also forced me to pay better attention to some of the students presentations (which can be hard when we’re meeting online). However, it was interesting to hear what everyone had been working on this past week.

Before talking about my week, I want to note, that it is slightly starting to cool. It’s still super hot and humid, but instead of it being almost 100 degrees, it’s now peaking in the low 90s. Sadly, it’s still way to humid for me to run in the mornings, but I’m optimistic that in a few weeks, it’ll be cool enough (at least for some early morning runs)!

While most of my week was spent working, I did take some time for a few fun activities! On Wednesday, my friends and I got together to play Improv games! We tried a few new ones we had seen at the improv show that we went to a few weeks ago. My favorite is a story telling game where one person points at the participants and then they tell the story until the host points to another person! So you have to be quick on your feet to react while also telling a cohesive narrative. I really enjoy the story telling aspect of Improv! The acting/over-acting emotions is a little trickier for me though. However, I’m really happy that we’re doing it! It’s a great break in the middle of the week!

On Saturday, I went with my friends Heather and Shimi to a Pop-Up Afrika market (a market supporting black owned businesses and artists in Shanghai). Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate so it was smaller than expected, but it was cool to go check out. There were musicians performing at the market, too. The steel drum was really cool to listen to!

The market used what looked like a music/art studio space, which I thought was really cool! I thought my Dad would especially like seeing the guitars!

On Sunday, Moishe House hosted a games afternoon! In addition to playing with Lucky :), we played Splendor (which was fun once I figured out how it worked), and cards against humanity! It was a lot of fun hanging out with my friends and playing games on a hot afternoon!

After games, we went up to the roof of the apartment building the Moishe House is in and watched the sunset. The building is 40 stories tall and has an excellent view of downtown Shanghai!

In addition to my fun stuff, I also took some cool photos around Shanghai, which I wanted to share!

This week, I also did a lot of cooking! I made orange cauliflower, which was a hit at Improv! I also made a tofu satay with peanut sauce and broccoli for me! Lastly, I made a vegan cashew queso for the games afternoon, which was super popular with my friends and everyone wanted the recipe!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

This Friday, Kehilat Shanghai had their monthly Family Shabbat! I’m friends with the women who organize it, so I was thrilled to be invited again! There was a fantastic crowd of almost 30 people this week! There were many families where certain family members had just recently arrived back in Shanghai (with their children). So, it was really nice to see all the different children running around and playing with one another. It brought back fond memories of attending Henry and Max’s birthday parties while I was living in Ann Arbor. :). Below you can see some photos from the evening including photos of the candle lighting, kiddush (blessing over the wine and grape juice), and hamotzi (blessing over the bread/Challah)! I’m really glad that I was invited. It was another opportunity to get to know more members of the wonderful Shanghai Jewish community!

For Family Shabbat, pizza is always served. However, this week, the organizer got special vegan pizza (with vegan cheese) for me! You can see it in the first picture! While I never expected to have good pizza in Shanghai, I definitely didn’t expect great vegan pizza!

This was another very nice week, highlighted by the games afternoon and Family Shabbat. The first half of this week will be research focused. However, on Friday, I’m leaving Shanghai for the first time!! I’ll be travelling to Moganshan (a nearby mountain, ~ 200 km away from Shanghai) with some of my friends, including Heather, Shimi, and Hannah Maia for a weekend of hiking and relaxing in nature! I look forward to sharing some amazing photos with you all! Though I will note that there’s a chance that my next post arrives on Monday, since it’s unclear right know what time I’ll return home and whether I’ll be too exhausted to write my next entry.

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week! I hope this update reminds you that the covid-19 situation can improve (though the process of recovery can’t be rushed) and that when it does, small gatherings and hangouts make it special! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about Shanghai or covid-19, please let me know.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life in Shanghai! As covid-19 continues to plague the US, and you all are (hopefully) wearing masks when you go outside (I still am!) and maintaining social distancing practices, I hope that this blog highlights that there will be a recovery from covid-19 (which is sadly far away in the US). Once things improve, I hope you’ll look forward to small interactions with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find that these interactions will be highlights for you as well. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal, though new outbreaks may still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog interesting or enjoyable, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that all of you are continuing to stay safe and healthy and remembering to continue to take covid-19 seriously by wearing masks and socially distancing. Additionally, if any of you are in the bay area of California, I hope that you and your families are staying safe and were able to be evacuated from areas of potential fires. As the summer nears its end, I hope that all of you, particularly those of you who are either professors, teachers, or those of you who have children that are students, have figured out what your plan is with regard schools and dealing with covid-19 this fall. As the recent examples of the closures of the University of North Carolina, Michigan State, and Notre Dame have highlighted, it’s necessary to make sure that you have back up plans prepared because you’ll likely need them. So, regardless of what you’ve decided to do, I hope that you have all taken the time to take as many precautions as possible, whether it’s continued social distancing or working from home.

In terms of covid-19, the situation in China has remained entirely under control. There have been more new cases this past week, but all of those have been Chinese nationals returning to China. In total, Shanghai has 82 cases (all imported), which yields a recovery rate of 90%. For China as a whole, the number of total reported cases (not those currently sick) is still only at 90,000, with a recovery rate of 93.6%. In contrast to Shanghai, Beijing has just 2 active cases. You might be wondering why Beijing’s number is again so much lower (and hasn’t increased at all). My understanding is that many of the international flights are now being directed to Shanghai and other airports instead of Beijing. This was done as a response to the recent outbreak a few months ago in Beijing.

I want to highlight that the response to covid-19 by the Chinese government, as well as similar responses in New Zealand and elsewhere epitomizes why former Vice-President Biden is absolutely correct in his assessment that if the scientists fighting the virus deem a total shut down of the country necessary that he would enforce it. China had the first massive outbreak of covid-19 and then essentially shut the entire country down for about 2 months and halted the spread within China. Moreover, when the outbreak of a few hundred cases occurred in Beijing, the city was again shut down, all visitors (and recent visitors) were required to do a 14 day quarantine, which has successfully halted the spread of the virus. The example of the success is combating covid-19 in China as compared to the chaos in the US is a clear example of what the US should have implement. In my opinion it’s the only real way forward and while I know the economic implications could be dire, it’s the only reasonable course of action going forward. That is one of the many reasons why it’s vital to have a President who respects and listens to scientists.

Additionally, on another political note, thanks to the help from my friends involved with Democrats Abroad, I requested my absentee ballot for the upcoming election. That ballot will be e-mailed to me. I then print it out and mail it back (either via DHL or the US consulate). So, if you’re planning on voting absentee, I highly recommend requesting your ballot early and voting ahead of time. If you can drop off your ballot at a drop box, instead of through the mail, that would benefit our overworked and underfunded USPS system.

On the Astronomy side of things, this was another fairly productive week. I spent most of my time (and available computing resources) working on my Luminosity Function analysis. I didn’t quite solve all of my problems, but I did realize that when generating my random positions needed for my background measurement, I wasn’t actually being random enough :), so hopefully my latest efforts (which are still running), will yield success! Additionally, I had a productive meeting with my colleagues in DESI about how to best propose for observations of the missing Brightest Central Galaxies (the big, massive, and bright galaxies at the center of clusters) as well as how to best use the DESI data to study clusters! So, this week, I’ll be running some updated analyses on the DESI simulated/mock data (it’s simulated because the observations haven’t been taken yet).

The research highlight of my week was on Thursday, when I met with my research supervisor, Ying, in person for the first time since January! As I’ve mentioned, Ying and I have met frequently via Zoom and communicate via slack and WeChat, but this was the first time that we decided to meet face-to-face. It was really nice and led to a super-productive discussion about the different research projects that I’ve been working on! Part of the reason that we haven’t met up before is because Ying and I live in different parts of the city (and neither of us live near SJTU). Moreover, he hasn’t been pressuring me to return to the office (more of the opposite). I also just learned that SJTU will be having students return to campus in the fall. It’s a phased arrival. So, this semester will be taught in person. So, in September, I’ll start making the trek out to Minhang a few days a week. One benefit of covid-19 is that I now know that I can work productively from home!

I met with Ying at a coffee shop in a Pudong (the other side of the Huangpu river, which runs through Shanghai). The malls in Shanghai are fascinating! They’re usually filled with lots of good restaurants and interesting sculptures/designs. While I don’t shop at the malls (many of the stores are super fancy and expensive), they are fun to walk around in!

Since I was only a 5 minute walk from NYU Shanghai, I met up with my friend Hannah Maia, who works there, to get a tour of the campus! I’ve heard a lot about NYU Shanghai from Heather and Hannah Maia, so it was really fun to get to see the campus!

For those of you unfamiliar, NYU Shanghai is a vertical campus. One office building houses the entire school (though a larger new campus, with multiple buildings is being built). Given everything that I’ve heard, I was kind of expecting something that felt on the interior more like a high school. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how much the interior felt like many of the colleges I’ve been at before. The modern office space/interior reminded me of West Hall at the University of Michigan! There were science labs reminiscent of both Barus and Holley at Brown and West Hall at Michigan. There were also a lot of really nice lounge/study areas for the students. Even though none of the students were there yet, I could get a feel for how the different parts of the building represented different parts of the University.

I was also impressed by the different covid-19 security protocols that NYU Shanghai has in place. There are temperature scanners at the entrances and a plethora of hand sanitizers at every door. My personal favorite was the markers on the floor of the elevator telling people where it is safe to stand!

Even though NYU Shanghai doesn’t have any Astronomers (they do have a few Physicists), hopefully I’ll be able to come back and give a guest colloquium at some point this academic year (now that the campus will be open with students)!

While I haven’t spent much time in Pudong, I did find the surrounding area to be really beautiful! So, assuming I keep meeting with Ying in person for the next few weeks, maybe I’ll do some more exploring!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

This weekend was filled with a lot of fun Jewish related activities! On Friday night, my friends at Moishe House hosted a Pizza Shabbat! I made my Mom’s delicious oatmeal raisin cookies for desert (which were a big hit)! For those of you wondering, you can get good pizza in Shanghai (though it’s mostly made by ex-pats)!

It was a lot of fun getting to catch up and hang out with some of Moishe House community friends! Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of talk about politics and the situation in the US (both the virus and the political situation), but I also got to talk about the TV show Doom Patrol with my friends, so it wasn’t always a heavy conversation. This was a very fun way to relax and spend the evening!

Additionally, I got to spend some time playing with Lucky!

On Saturday evening, the Kehilat Shanghai President, Josh, hosted a lovely Havdalah in his home! For those of you who don’t know, Havdalah, means separation. It’s a set of prayers that mark the ending of Shabbat. While we haven’t done tons of Kehilat events this summer, it was really wonderful to gather different members of community (especially some of those who live in Pudong, like Josh) and join together for the Havdalah prayers and a lovely dinner! I was also very impressed that Josh’s daughter made the braided Havdalah candle herself!

This was a nice opportunity for me to chat with and get to know some of the long-time members of the Community better! Unsurprisingly when you gather a bunch of ex-pats, there were a lot of discussions about making sure everyone was registered to vote, the recent Democratic National Convention, and fears about the situation in the US. Overall, even though the conversations weren’t always light, it made for a very fun and enjoyable Saturday evening! I look forward to attending and organizing more Kehilat Shanghai events this fall!

This was another very nice week, highlighted by spending time with the Jewish Community of Shanghai! I expect that this upcoming week will again be more research focused as I continue to plow ahead on my many different research projects! Though, I’m sure there will be some fun photos to share with you all!

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week! I hope this update reminds you that the covid-19 situation can improve (though the process of recovery can’t be rushed) and that when it does, it’s the small gatherings that make it special! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about Shanghai or covid-19, please let me know.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life in Shanghai! As covid-19 plagues the US, and you all are (hopefully) wearing masks when you go outside (I still am!) and maintaining social distancing practices, I hope that this blog highlights that there is a recovery from covid-19 (which is sadly far away in the US). Moreover, when things improve, I hope you’ll look forward to small interactions with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find, as I have, that these interactions will be highlights for you. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal, though new outbreaks may still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog interesting or enjoyable, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest entry continues to find all of you, your families, and your friends staying safe and healthy. I’m sure many of you are currently dealing with a hot summer (though it’s hard to find a place warmer than Shanghai :)). So, I hope that the heat has helped you continue to maintain social distancing practices. As I’ve stated continually in this blog, wearing masks, contact tracing, and following social distancing guidelines are vital to halting the spread of covid-19. So, since you can only do two of those yourselves, I hope that all of you are doing the best you can to make the situation better.

I know I’ve focused a lot in my previous posts about my fears about the covid-19 situation outside of China. I’m not going to add to that here, but I am curious if any of you have a different perspective. Being so far away, it’s hard for me to know or understand how things are elsewhere. While for the US as a nation, covid-19 is clearly not under control, what’s the concern level where you live? While I hope that people are taking it seriously, I’m curious whether you see most people wearing masks or whether that’s sadly not the case.

In terms of the situation in Shanghai and China, things have remained stabilized. Interestingly, I think partially due to the oppressive heat (Shanghai reached a high of 102 feels like 117 on Thursday), I’m seeing fewer people wearing masks. They’re still required when you go on the Metro or take a taxi. However, now when I walk outside, I think only 50% of the people wear masks. While I always wear a mask (I’m still cautious), many of my friends only wear them on the Subway. In terms of the numbers. The number of cases has increased in Shanghai. However, all of the cases are of Chinese nationals returning to China. Moreover, you are tested upon reentry into China, so these people have not actually entered Shanghai proper, which I find reassuring. However, even though I mentioned an increase, we’re still talking about a very small number of cases. In total, there are now 73 cases in Shanghai (3 in Beijing). The recovery rate is currently at 90.3% in Shanghai. However, I believe that number will rise again in the coming days. For China as a whole, the recovery rate is 93.1%.

On the Astronomy side of things, this was another productive week, particularly in my research on the Luminosity Function. After spending the first couple days running a new analysis only to find a bug in my code, I was able to quickly recover and find extremely promising results for measuring the background. We are close to reaching convergence on our best estimate for a completely uniform background across all halo masses. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to reach a final solution for a uniform background in a few days, which will allow me to start phase 2 of this project! For that, we’re planning to redo this same analysis on the data set we’re interested in, the SDSS-redMaPPer data, which is a data set of massive clusters at low-redshift (nearby). Other than that project, most of my other time was spent revising the latest draft of a paper I’ve written comparing my work on the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass relation with the magnitude gap to other parameterizations of that same relation. Additionally, we’ve continued to have our meetings on the tencent meeting platform, which works really well for our purposes. In more exciting news, Ying, my research supervisor has discussed plans to hold in person meetings again! There’s now 4-5 group members in Shanghai, so we’ll likely meet (possibly off campus) for a group meeting this week or next week!

Before I tell you about all the fun activities I did this week, I thought I’d share some photos of cute cats that I saw in Shanghai! There are a lot of pet stores and I like to look at the cats in the windows.

I also saw a lot of really cool advertisements/sculptures/paintings as well this week!

This was another fun and social week!

On Tuesday, Kehilat Shanghai and Moishe House joined together for our monthly Trivia Night! For this one, the organizers all wrote one category of questions (I did sports!). While I thought my questions were all fair, the attendees had some trouble with them. I’ve provided them below (answers provided afterwards), so let me know how you do!

1. Hall of Fame Pitcher Sandy Koufax made national news when he chose not to pitch in the Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it was this Jewish Holiday?
2. Recently, this 5 time gold medalist became a viral sensation with a video of the athlete balancing a glass of chocolate milk on their head while swimming laps?
3. Prior to Michael Phelps record setting performance in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, this Jewish athlete held the record for most medals in a single Olympic game?
4. Jesse Owens rose to prominence for defying Hitler and winning Gold in the 1936 Olympic Games.  However, Jesse was not the only black American to medal in that race.  The brother of this famous baseball player won Silver. 
5. This tennis legend became the first and only athlete to win the Golden Slam, all four grand slam events and the Olympics in 1 calendar year.
6. This Soccer player and Winner of the Golden Ball in the 2019 World Cup also became nationally recognized for her social justice activism and anti-Trump rhetoric. 
7. In this upcoming years NBA draft, Israeli prospect Deni Avdija is expect to be drafted high in the first round.  However, he would not be the first Israeli man to be drafted into the NBA.  That honor belongs to this player.
8. List these currently active professional athletes in order from Youngest to Oldest: Roger Federer, Lebron James, Tom Brady, Serena Williams, Lindsey Vonn
   

The Answers are:
1). Yom Kippr 2). Katie Ledecky 3). Mark Spitz 4). Jackie and Mack Robinson 5). Steffi Graf 6). Megan Rapinoe 7). Omri Casspi 8). Lebron James (35), Lindsey Vonn (35), Serena Williams (38), Roger Federer (39), Tom Brady (43)

In addition to trivia, on Wednesday night, my friends and I gathered for another Improv Jam Session! This is a wonderful way to relax and serves as a great change of pace during the middle of the week! We played a bunch of different games, including one where two people had to do synchronized talking (which was really hard) and another where one person has to determine who the other three guests are at a party, based on what they say and what their actions are! I’m really enjoying this as a creative outlet!

On Friday night, a few of us went to a Improv Show! The performers were all Shanghai residents, but clearly more experienced than me. They did different improv games (many of the ones that we’ve played ourselves). After their show ended, they let members of the audience come and participate, which was a lot of fun! My favorite was a game where a group of 4-5 people are telling a story 1 person at a time. However, the order is chosen at random by another person and if you continue talking after the person then you have to act out your death. Overall, the entire evening was filled with lots of laughs and great fun!

As many of you know, I’ve been a huge fan of The Beatles for as long as I can remember. The venue for the improv show was a bar/restaurant called Abbey Road! So, I couldn’t resist taking photos of the decorations at the restaurant.

The highlight of my week was on Saturday when I got together with my friends Heather and Hannah Maia (as well as a new friend Daniel) to make Fig Jam! As many of you know, my Mom is a prolific jam maker and makes tons of delicious flavors (basically any kind of fruit you can get in Saratoga). Her jam is probably the food that I miss most. However, my Mom doesn’t make fig. So, I was excited to try making it!

We made two types: fig with ginger and orange and then fig with apple and orange. We added different spices such as cinnamon, star anise, and fresh vanilla as well! We lucked out and the figs Heather ordered were super ripe and soft, so perfect jam making!

Above you can see me cutting and mashing the figs as well as both pots of jam that we had going! Overall, we ended up with some really delicious jam! The fig/ginger jam was spicy, in a good way (in the silver metal pot) and the fig/apple/orange jam was sweet (in the red pot)! So, it’s a really nice combination of two distinct flavors. Though maybe it’s because we split the jam among four people, but it always feels like we never get enough jam once we’re done. I guess we’ll just have to keep making more jam! I think marmalade (using citruses such as pomelo, orange, lemon) is up next!

Food in Shanghai

I didn’t try any new fruits or food this week. However, I did cook for myself. This week I made mushroom tacos (for the Improv group) and then made black bean and corn enchiladas and vegan mozzarella cheese for myself!

Even though I didn’t go out for any meals this week, I did have a pretty amazing meal on Saturday. Following our epic jam making, Hannah Maia and Daniel made vegetable risotto for dinner, while Heather and I made fried green tomatos! So, we had a delicious meal afterward!

Overall, it was a wonderful evening filled with good friends, interesting conversations, and delicious food!

Overall, this was another eventful week, highlighted by making more delicious jam! I’m really glad that I’ve found friends to make jam with, since it reminds me of being home in Saratoga during the summer and helping my Mom pick fruit (wish I could do that here) and make jam! This week will be more research focused. However, I’m sure I’ll have more fun stories and pictures to share.

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about the different highlights of my week! I hope this update reminds you the covid-19 situation can improve (though the process of recovery can’t be rushed) and that when it does, it’s the small interactions that are most special. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about Shanghai, my jam making, or covid-19, please let me know.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life in Shanghai! As covid-19 continues to ravage the US, and you all are (hopefully) wearing masks when you go outside (I still am!) and maintaining social distancing practices, I hope that my blog illustrates that once the world begins to recover from this outbreak (which is not now in the US), things will improve. You should all look forward to small interactions with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find, as I have, that these are the interactions you will cherish. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal, though new outbreaks may still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog interesting or enjoyable, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

As the summer continues to roll on, I hope you are all continuing to stay safe and healthy. While I’m sure many of you are frustrated with the lack of improvement of the situation in the US, I hope that all of you are still following social distancing guidelines and wearing masks. Since I know many of you work in Academia, I’m sure you’re also starting to get anxious about the thought of schools and colleges/Universities reopening in the fall (hopefully most will be digital), which I’m sure has made the summer more stressful than it already is. Regardless of whether your job is back in person or you’re still working from home, I hope that all of you have been able to find some pockets of joy during this week!

Before talking about my life or covid-19, I need to address the continued tensions between the US and China, which took another turn for the worse this week when our current President used an executive order to attempt to ban Tik-Tok and WeChat in the US. While I have never used Tik Tok, banning WeChat would be horrible. WeChat is the primary application that I use to communicate (via text message) with my parents and brother. For those of you unfamiliar, WeChat is an all-in one messaging app that I use to pay bills, give money to friends, and can even make calls (as well as a lot of other stuff). Moreover, banning these two apps, which in my opinion are only the actions of a weak president trying to prove he’s tough on China, will only further heighten the tensions between the two countries. WeChat is the primary method of communication here. People do not use e-mail! So, banning WeChat will likely result in a decrease in US/China business, which would likely be much more problematic on the US end. Hopefully, these orders will not be enacted.

In terms of covid-19, I know I’ve stated this many times before, but I continue to be increasingly worried about the situation in the US. Based on the latest numbers I can find, there are almost 5 million reported cases in the US. Only Brazil and India have over 1 million reported cases. While it’s somewhat reassuring that new cases are low NY (where my parents live) and MA (where my brother lives), given the notion that schools are and will continue to reopen, I remain skeptical that even the states with the best of intentions can keep the virus under control. As I’ve stated before, the best way to combat covid-19 would be to shut everything down in every state for a month and then slowly open up only essential businesses. However, I find that solution to be unlikely to be implemented given the current administrations continued inaction and general lack of empathy for the plight of the non-billionaires. Moreover, given the obscene number of cases in the US, it’s clear that even if a vaccine is discovered for covid-19, it will take a very long time for the virus to cease being a problem in the US.

In China, the covid-19 situation has remained under control. There are still outbreaks in Xinjiang (though that is now reported as being contained) and in Hong Kong. In Shanghai, there are 31 cases, all Chinese citizens who are returning to China. Beijing has just 6 cases now, so that outbreak was essentially squashed in less than a month. The recovery rate in China remains very high. In Shanghai, it’s 95.1% and in China as a whole it’s at 92.4%.

On the Astronomy side of things, this was a productive week. I spent most of my time re-analyzing how we calculate the background measurement for the Luminosity Function analysis that I’m working on (an in depth explanation of what a Luminosity Function is will be at the end of this post) in order to best measure a uniform background measurement. I also may be making a little bit of progress on my DES SMHM results, but I have a few more tests to run to be sure. So, fingers crossed that will allow me to move forward. In the digital news, we’ll be switching most of our meetings from Zoom to Tencent video. Unfortunately, Zoom is no longer providing unlimited meeting accounts to Chinese universities. Thankfully, even I could figure out how to setup Tencent video (all the words were in Chinese, so I call that a win!). So, we’ll be using that going forward.

The highlight of my week was that very early Tuesday morning (at 1am China time), my brother Emmet successfully defended his Ph.D.! So, join me in congratulating him! Congratulations Dr. Emmet!!

Welcome to the Ph.D. club! Emmet gave a very interesting and thorough presentation on his research focusing on high-redshift galaxy clusters (I study low-redshift galaxy clusters). For those of you interested, Emmet will be joining me in China this fall (or as soon as he can get a visa to come over)! Emmet has a post-doctoral fellowship at Tsinghua University in Beijing. So, I’m very much looking forward to having my brother and best friend much closer here in China! I’m excited to collaborate and go on some fun adventures together!

While it was lovely celebrating with my brother and family virtually, it really highlighted to me just how long it’s been since I’ve been home and how much covid-19 has continued to impact my life even though It’s no longer a dominating presence here in China. I left the US in October and always planned on coming home for Emmet’s defense (if not sooner). Sadly, covid-19 obviously prevented that from happening. Moreover, the lack of recovery in the US, has made me realize that it’s unlikely that I’ll be allowed to travel to the US (and then return to China) until the Spring of next year at the earliest (or at least until a vaccine becomes available). While I’m grateful for the digital technologies that allow me to remain connected with my family and friends back home, I miss having the opportunity to see them in person.

Along with Emmet’s Ph.D. defense, I had a few other fun activities this week. On Tuesday, I got together with some of my friends for our now weekly/bi-weekly improv group! I’m getting much more comfortable with acting/reacting without thinking, so it’s definitely getting more fun for me!

As you can see, we also had a potluck dinner! I made the lemon/blueberry cake on the right! My favorite activity was one where two of us had to act out a scene (selected randomly by one of my friends) in 1 minute, then 30 seconds, then 15 seconds, then 7 seconds, then 3 seconds, then 1 second. It was great fun!

In contrast to Tuesday’s shenanigans, on Wednesday, The Moishe House hosted their second Black Lives Matter discussion. This discussion was focused on confronting your biases. I’ve attached the powerpoint that Clem, my friend who’s leading the series, put together for us.

Most of our discussions were about how people react to being confronted with their own biases and racism. A lot of it was spent identifying the different ways people tend to avoid discussing their own biases and racism, what that means and how to respond. We also spoke a lot about the semantics of being racist vs. being biased. One key takeaway was that even if we were to start saying people were biased instead of rascist, that word would become the new trigger word. We also had a long discussion about how to react/respond to people who are being racist, whether it’s supporting the all lives matter movement or supporting the blue lives matter movement. Both movements which clearly and intentionally misunderstand that the purpose of BLM is to fight the systemic oppression of black people in the US and abroad. It was a very powerful and thought provoking discussion that I’m happy to be helping to organize.

To transition back to the more fun activities, on Saturday, I had my friends Heather and Shimi over for dinner! My current apartment doesn’t have a very large living/dining room, so this was actually the first time I’ve had friends over for dinner (though I have cooked a lot for my friends 🙂 ). I even had to rearrange my furniture to make sure there was enough room! 🙂 I made Walnut “meat” tacos, with corn and black beans as well as fresh pico de gallo and a salad. For desert I made Chia seed pudding with granola and roasted peaches! Unfortunately for you, I forgot to photograph the meal. However, more importantly, it was a wonderful evening filled with great food and even better company! I also introduced Heather and Shimi to Anomia! I look forward to playing that again sometime soon.

In addition to these fun activities, I saw a few interesting highlights, as well as a very cute cat this week! For those of you who are curious, it’s still oppressively hot here, mostly in the mid 90s every day, so I’m staying inside and working from home as much as possible. Basically after going outside, I have to immediately shower when I return home.

Food in Shanghai

I didn’t have any exotic meals this week, but I did try some new fruits! I finally (purely by luck) ended up getting a purple/pink dragon fruit (or pitaya)! I have no clue how to tell the white and purple dragon fruits apart (though they taste very similar). Additionally, I bought a green mango for the first time, which was fantastic!

Astronomy Lesson

In last week’s post, my friend Bernard asked if I could explain my Luminosity Function analysis, so ‘ll attempt to make this accessible to those of you who aren’t familiar with Astronomy.

A Luminosity Function, in it’s simplest form, is a measurement of the number of galaxies with a given measure of brightness (Luminosity) that are within a fixed radius from the center of a galaxy cluster. So, you can think of it as a histogram that is plotted as number of galaxies in bins of brightness. Since faint galaxies are increasingly more common than bright galaxies (galaxies grow hierarchically by merging with smaller galaxies), this is a decreasing function as you move to the bright end.

To measure this, we start by measuring the Luminosity (or intrinsic brightness) of a set of galaxies within the projected or 2 dimensional radius of the cluster. However, since we are looking at all galaxies within a cylinder on the sky, we need to account for the background (i.e., the galaxies that are in our cylinder, but not associated with the cluster). So, we also have to measure the number of galaxies within a much larger radius, generally far enough away that we aren’t looking at the cluster itself (we measure the number within a disk with radii of 2.5 and 3 times the radius of the cluster). Once the background is measured, we need to scale the number of galaxies to account for the difference in area searched. After that, we subtract the background from the number within the radius of the cluster!

So, in simplest terms, measuring a Luminosity Function is relatively straightforward. Unfortunately, there are a lot of nuances that make this measurement more complicated, such as different ways of measuring a uniform background and whether the field your looking at is completely observed. It’s those nuances that I’m currently working on.

A Luminosity Function can then be used to understand how galaxies grow and evolve. Particularly, my interest is using it to understand the evolutionary history or the most massive galaxies (by looking at how the Luminosity Function evolves with time). My research will be focusing on the bright/massive end of the Luminosity Function and whether this is dependent on the magnitude gap, a tracer of cluster age, which is the difference in brightness between the central galaxy and nth brightest galaxy, a parameter that much of my research focuses on. Additionally, you can use a Luminosity Function when you are generating simulated galaxies and aiming to recreate a simulated version of the real universe.

I hope that this Astronomy lesson made sense! Feel free ask any clarification questions!

Overall, this was another eventful week, highlighted by Emmet’s defense! Though Emmet’s defense made the first half a little more exhausting than normal. 🙂 This upcoming week should be a little more work focused, with a few fun events as well!

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about what I’ve been up to this week! I hope this update reminds you that things will improve (though the process of recovery can’t be rushed) and that when they do, it’s the small group interactions that are most special. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about Shanghai, our BLM discussion, the current US/China tensions, or covid-19, please let me know.

In peace,
Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 continues to plague the US, and you all are (hopefully) wearing masks (like me) and maintaining social distancing practices, I hope that my blog illustrates that once the world recovers from this outbreak (which is not now in the US), things will improve. You should all look forward to small interactions with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find, as I have, that these are the interactions you will cherish. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal. The recovery timeline for Shanghai is not applicable to the US and new outbreaks may still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

If you find my blog interesting or enjoyable, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about how I’ve dealt with covid-19 or my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, please share this blog with anyone who needs reassurance that eventually life will return to a semblance of normalcy.

Life in Shanghai

As the summer continues to heat up (at least here in Shanghai), I hope that this latest post continues to find all of you remaining smart and vigilant while following your social distancing guidelines and wearing masks when you go outside. As I’ve said before, I know wearing a mask isn’t always comfortable, especially when it’s brutally hot, but it’s the best way to help prevent the spread of the virus. While I’m sure all of you are doing this, please kindly remind your friends and neighbors to do so as well. It’s only by doing our best for the good of the whole that we will be able to recover from the virus.

While I don’t want to spend too much time voicing my frustrations about the situation in the US, I do want to say that over the past few weeks, it’s become increasingly clear how different the reality is for me in China than it is for you in the US. In China, when Beijing had an outbreak of a few hundred cases in a few days, the city went into lockdown and all visitors were required to do 14 days of quarantine. In the US, the cases continue to skyrocket with no such restrictions in many of the key hotbeds. It’s troubling and disheartening that we have an administration that refuses to acknowledge their faults and failures and the fact that over 150,000 Americans are the result of their inaction. Hopefully the US will finally stop making decisions based solely on the economy and will instead allow science to dictate our response (maybe once we have an election).

In terms of covid-19, here in China, the virus remains under control. There are concerning outbreaks in both Hong Kong and Xinjiang (this is hundreds to thousands of cases). However, those cases appear to be localized. In Shanghai, there are just 17 cases, while in Beijing there are now only 7! All the cases in Shanghai are imported cases. As a result, the recovery rate remains remarkably high, at 96.8% in Shanghai and 92.1% for China overall. So, as I’ve already emphasized in previous posts, clearly this virus can be controlled if strict practices are implemented.

On the Astronomy side of things, this was a very productive week! I made a lot of progress on my Luminosity Function analysis. We’re now working on modifying some of the parameters in order to determine any small-order differences. This is the first original project I’ve worked on as a post-doc, so it feels great to be making headway! Additionally, I’ve been involved in telecon discussions (with Ying as well as many US collaborators) about using secondary DESI fibers (that currently have no targets) to apply for DESI observations to create a spectroscopically complete sample of BCGs for DESI, which should yield some great science projects in the future. Unfortunately, I’m still having some struggles with my analysis of the uncertainties associated with the DES SMHM relation. So, hopefully I’ll be able to make some progress on that project soon. In addition to my work, all my meetings are still on Zoom, where we have our group meeting as well as our AstroCoffee meetings.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s super hot here! Every day the high has been over 90 and with humidity, the feels like temperature is well over 100! So, I’ve been spending a lot of time indoors. Even when I walk to the subway (~5-10 minute walk), I’m usually dripping with sweat by the time I get back inside where there’s air conditioning. However, when I spoke with my research supervisor, Ying, he commented that it’s pretty mild this summer, so the next few summers could be brutal! 🙁

Despite the heat, I still made time for some fun things this weekend. On Friday, I got bubble tea with Heather! For those of you who are unfamiliar, bubble tea is a tea/smoothie with tapioca balls (that look like bubbles) at the bottom. I got a mango smoothie with pomelo and tapioca balls! It was a very refreshing way to beat the heat!

There were also a lot of cool signs and displays in the nearby shopping complex that we met at. Unlike in the US, in Shanghai, there are tons of malls that are almost exclusively restaurants. And unlike the restaurants in US malls, these are generally good!

I love seeing panda advertisements!

As some of you are aware, the NBA returned to action this past week. While I don’t believe that the US has done enough to earn the return of sports, it is a welcome break from the monotony of my mornings. With the return of the NBA, I thought I’d share the advertisements I saw for Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell’s new shoes at the Adidas store near Jing’an Temple!

Food in Shanghai

On Saturday, I got a dim sum brunch with my friends Hannah Maia and Clem! We met up to discuss the planning for our next Black Lives Matter discussion event (which is Wednesday). So, I’ll update you all on that next week! For those of you, like me, who have never had a full dim sum meal before, dim sum (at least to my understanding), is different baozi (bao buns) and dumplings as well as noodles. We went to a vegetarian dim sum restaurant and enjoyed a feast!

We ordered vegetable and tofu stuffed baozi, Shao mei stuffed with rice and mushrooms, honey sponge cake, gluten with mushrooms and bamboo, tofu knots, lotus roots stuffed with glutinous rice, and dry noodles with fermented tofu. My personal favorites were the tofu knots (which is basically knotted tofu skins–So Good!!!) and the baozi!

I’ll definitely have another dim sum brunch (though hopefully less brown colored next time!). 🙂

In addition to all the yummy dim sum, I also did a lot of cooking for myself. This week, I made black bean burgers, roasted broccoli, and Mediterranean Quinoa salad!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

On Friday, the Moishe House hosted a Shabbat dinner! This was a very relaxing and fun way to spend my Friday night with friends! We had a delicious meal prepared by Hannah Maia along with my Quinoa salad! I’m really glad to be such an active member within the Moishe House Community here in Shanghai!

The highlight of Shabbat this week was getting to play with Lucky! Lucky is the dog that the Moishe House residents are fostering for two of the community members who are stuck in Israel. She’s super friendly (as you can see from the pictures below)!! It’s always fun to get to hang out with my friends who have pets for me to play with!

Overall, this was another fun week even though it was a little bit quieter than the last few! This upcoming week will be a little busier, another improv game night on Tuesday and the BLM discussion on Wednesday. So, this will should be another fun and social week!

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about and seeing some of the things that I did this week! I hope this update reminds you that life really isn’t that different here in China (though the food is :)) and that things will improve (though the process to improve life can’t be rushed). If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation, please let me know. If you want to talk about how to stay positive and productive, reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.

In peace,
Jesse