Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 persists in the US and around the world, and you are (hopefully) continuing to remain vigilant, avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world looks like once recovery begins. As things improve, I hope that you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family and other outdoor activities. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable as I have.

If you have fun following my blog, 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 my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, feel free to share this blog with anyone else who may be interested in my life and adventures in China!

Life in Shanghai

I hope that you, your families, and your friends are continuing to stay safe and healthy. I’ve said this before, but I hope you take the opportunity to get vaccinated (or have your appointments scheduled). While life may seem like it’s returning to normal, the best way for this to actually happen is by being vaccinated and then continuing to follow social distancing protocols. Additionally, as we enter summer (in Shanghai it’s already very hot), I hope that you are all enjoying time outside as well (maybe for some socially distanced gatherings)! Also, for those of you who are experiencing the 17 year cicadas, I hope that they aren’t driving you crazy yet.

I want to touch on the continued level of polarization within the US government and lack of accountability by the Republican party (and their constituents). It is incredibly dangerous that Senate Republicans chose not to support a bipartisan commission to investigate the attempted coup on January 6th. The coddling to the former Trump fascist regime (and their supporters) is dangerous because it allows almost Republicans (all who voted not to impeach) and the clearly crazed Trump base to not be held accountable for their treason. That there were multiple investigations into Benghazi and yet here we can’t get a single investigation into treason is despicable and shows how backwards the current Republican party is. Moreover, I want to call out the weak response by congressional Republicans toward Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s insane comparison that Nancy Pelosi’s insistence on mask wearing in the House (because not enough members are vaccinated) is comparable to the situation for Jews in Nazi Germany. This is undoubtedly anti-semitic. Given that this congresswoman has a long history of anti-semitism (and wild conspiracy theories about Jews), it is time that Republican leadership actually do something to eliminate this behavior and the person saying it instead of their continued slap on the wrist. However, given the lack of a moral backbone and their cowardice toward the Trump contingent of the party, I’m not optimistic for much change.

Now, to briefly update you all on the covid-19 situation in China. Covid-19 continues to remain under control. There have been a few minor outbreaks (< 10 cases) in mainland China and the government continues to respond strongly and swiftly by instituting quarantines for people coming and going from those regions (in some cases locking areas down). Moreover, especially in Shanghai, there’s a big emphasis on getting more people vaccinated. Currently, there are 67 active cases in Shanghai (all imported) and the recovery rate is at 96.46%. In Beijing, there are only 4 cases and the recovery rate is at 98.77%. For China as a whole there are 6,951 active cases (~ 6,500 in Taiwan) with a recovery rate of 89.26%. However, the situation in the mainland is very stable.

For the most part, this was a very normal week. This is basically what I expected when I first moved to Shanghai. Most of my time would be devoted to Astronomy with a few fun things intertwined (no world events to worry about). So, it’s nice that things are starting to return to this level of normal.

This was a very Astronomy focused week for me. While I didn’t have too many late night meetings for a change, I spent much of my time throughout the week (and weekend) working on my many different research projects. Thanks to a lot of help from my Ph.D. advisor, Chris Miller, I was able to address all of the Final reviewer’s comments on my DES paper, which was a big relief since I was very stressed out about over having to deal with more statistics related comments. There were a few additional supporting figures that I made that I need to discuss with my co-authors, but other than that, I hope to be able to wrap up this paper soon. I also made some tangible progress on my Luminosity Function mock. I was able to generate the 3D mock correctly (and measure the input Luminosity Fuction), so step one is done. I’m currently working on turning the x, y, z positions of the galaxies into RA and Dec and redshifts (sky coordinates that we use in astronomy) so I can do an accurate projected measurement to best simulate observational results. Hopefully, I’ll be able to figure this out with help from one of my colleagues this week. I also am working with some other Astronomers at SJTU to compare my different halo mass proxies to weak lensing (the most accurate halo mass technique) measurements to better quantify which method is best. I’m very excited to see those results come together in a few weeks (and it’s nice to work with other members of the department on one of my projects 🙂 ). Lastly, this week, I started to re-analyze some of my projections for the fibering fraction for cluster member galaxies (redMaPPer) in DESI (the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument) using the actual planned observations (instead of the predicted forecasts).

As you can see, I’m working on a bunch of different projects and really tried to get a lot done this week. This doesn’t even include the ICL project that I wasn’t able to do much work on this week, but will get back to this upcoming week and hopefully some new DESI cluster related projects as well! While some weeks it may seem like I’m doing a lot of fun things with friends in Shanghai, I’m always working hard (often on the weekends as well) to make as much Astronomy progress as possible, so sometimes my weeks are really just all about Astronomy (but this is normal and expected). As a researcher, I find it important to recognize that all this hard work doesn’t always lead to tangible updates (even this week while a lot of work was done, not everything led to new results); however, getting those great results wouldn’t be possible without putting in all the time and energy needed.

Also, I know that not all of this will make sense to those non-Astronomers. So, if any of you have any questions about the terminology/jargon that I use or what I’m working on, please ask and I’ll do my best to make it as clear as possible. 🙂

In a somewhat disappointing Astronomy update, there was a supermoon and lunar eclipse that should have been visible in Shanghai on Wednesday. However, it sadly rained and was overcast the entire day, so the moon wasn’t visible. Hopefully there will be another opportunity during my time in Shanghai!

While my week was very work intensive, I still made time to go to 3 F45 HIIT classes as well as go for 1 run over the weekend. It’s definitely reaching the point where long runs are unpleasant here, so I’m glad I’ll have a gym to go to over the summer! Moreover, since it’s warming up, there aren’t quite as many flowers to take pictures of, but there were still some (as well as a cute cat and a cool display window with DC comics figures, though the store is not comics related at all).

Jewish Life in Shanghai

On Friday, my friend Ha hosted another lovely family Shabbat for members of the Kehilat Shanghai community. As usual, it was lovely to gather with many of the community members I’ve become friends with to relax and enjoy Friday night. Moreover, it was adorable as always to watch the kids devour the challah as well as the the monster cookies (chocolate chips, pretzels, and peanuts) that I made (using the Lunchroom’s recipe — from my favorite vegan restaurant in Ann Arbor). 🙂

Overall, this was a very research focused weeks, which will likely be the case as I’m working on so many projects. However, I’ll still try to have some more fun activities and photos to share with you as well!

For those of you in the US, I wanted to wish you all a Happy Memorial Day. I’ll be honest and let you know that I completely forgot that Memorial Day was this week (I thought it was last weekend). Unlike for the 4th of July, none of the ex-pats I know are planning any activities for it. However, if you are, I hope that you all have a fun time enjoying the outdoors.

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about what I’ve been working on and that you all have a safe and healthy week.

In peace,

Jesse

Trivia

MAYors

1). The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character is an 1886 novel by this English Author, written as part of his Wessex novels.

— Thomas Hardy

2). In Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, she is the adopted daughter of the Mayor of Monreuil-sur-Mer?

— Cosette

3). In both the Batman Earth One Graphic novels and the television show Gotham this Batman villain is the mayor of Gotham City.

— The Penguin (Oswald Cobblepot)

4). This early popular democratic candidate for president, nicknamed Mayor Pete, was the former mayor of what city

— South Bend, Indiana

5). This former Mayor of Paris, and Prime Minister of France, would later become President of France from 1995-2007.

— Jacques Chirac

6). The First Female mayor in the United States was Susanna Madora Salter, who served as Mayor of Argonia, Kansas in 1887. However, the first major metropolitan city to have a female mayor occurred in 1926, when Bertha Knight Landes was elected as Mayor of this Pacific Northwest city.

— Seattle

7). This rising Democratic political star surprised Democratic pollsters and constituents when she announced that she would not be running for another term as Mayor of Atlanta.

— Keisha Lance Bottoms

8). This current mayor of Washington D.C. was the first female mayor ever re-elected as mayor of D.C.

— Muriel Bowser

9). In Family Guy, this real life tv actor played himself as the Mayor of Quahog, RI

— Adam West

10). This, now disgraced, former mayor of New York City, turned Trump stooge, was initially elected Mayor of NYC in what year?

— 1993 (term began in 1994)

MAYsons (Birthdays in May)

1). Three actors who have (or will) portrayed Batman on the Big Screen were born in May. One in Batman & Robin, One in the Lego Batman Movie, and one in 2022’s The Batman. Name them.

— George Clooney, Will Arnett, Robert Pattinson

2). Motown legend, Stevie Wonder was born on May 13th. One of his most famous song’s is a rendition of Happy Birthday, which honors this civil rights icon?

— Martin Luther King Jr.

3). Super Bowl III featured 3 different quarterbacks born in May. Most famously, Joe Namath guaranteed a win for the New York Jets over the Baltimore Colts. While the Baltimore Colts had been quarterbacked by Johnny Unitas for much of that decade, Unitas suffered an injury and missed 9 games throughout the season (and did not start the Super Bowl). Instead, this quarterback, who also played for the 1972 Miami Dolphins started the game.

— Earl Morrall

4). This woman, who became the youngest and first American woman to enter low-earth orbit, in 1983 was born on May 26th.

— Sally Ride

5). This award winning author of more than 200 books best known for coming of age stories set in the wilderness, including Hatchet and Winterdance was born on May 17th.

— Gary Paulsen

6). Prior to his success as a writer with The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, who was born on May 15th had a failed career writing for this other popular medium.

— Newspapers

7). Though no longer the longest reigning British monarch, this other British queen, born on May 24th, now has the second longest reign beginning when she was just 18 years old.

— Queen Victoria

8). Legendary singer-song writer and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan was also born on May 24th. However, his real name is what?

— Robert Allen Zimmerman

9). This Australian actress born on May 14th has had starring roles in films including the Talented Mr. Ripley, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I’m not there, and Thor Ragnarok

— Cate Blanchette

10). Adele, born on May 5th sang the titular theme song in what James Bond movie?

— Skyfall

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 persists in the US and around the world, and you are (hopefully) continuing to remain vigilant, avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world looks like once recovery begins. As things improve, I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family and other outdoor activities. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable as I have.

If you have fun following my blog, 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 my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, feel free to share this blog with anyone else who may be interested in my life and adventures in China!

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest entry continues to find all of you safe and healthy. Hopefully, you and your families are continuing to get vaccinated (or have been) and you have been continuing to take precautions as things start to return to normal. For those of you who are vaccinated, I hope that you’re enjoying small gatherings with loved ones and time outside!

I don’t usually talk about sports (though I am a huge sports fan). However, I wanted to share a sports story with you that brought a huge smile to my face. I am a longtime Utah Jazz fan. Throughout the course of this NBA season, the Utah Jazz new ownership group (led by Ryan and Ashley Smith — the cofounder of Qualtrics) pledged a 4 year scholarship to a student from an under-represented minority to attend a university in Utah. For those of you who haven’t been following, the Jazz had the best record in the NBA and won 52 games (55 including pre-season). That means the Jazz will be sponsoring the college education for at least 55 students. This week, the Jazz shared a truly heartwarming video of the Jazz players letting the first 30 students know they had received the scholarship. As a lifelong Jazz fan, I couldn’t be more proud to see my team support the educational dreams of so many students. As someone who’s spent a lot of time this past year learning about and discussing the systemic inequalities that exist within the US I am extremely proud to support the Jazz! While these scholarships won’t solve all the problems, it’s important for those with means to give back and help others achieve their dreams and successes. I look forward to cheering Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell, and the rest of the Jazz on throughout the playoffs as they hopefully continue to rack up the wins and the scholarships!

In terms of covid-19, the situation appears to continue to be stable in Shanghai. In total, there are 63 active cases in Shanghai (all imported) with a recovery rate of 96.61%. In Beijing, there are only 3 cases with a recovery rate of 98.86%. For China as a whole, there are 3098 cases (~2700 in Taiwan) and the recovery rate is 92.53%. These are the numbers provided by the Chinese government (why Taiwan is included).

Before I talk about my own Astronomy, I wanted to comment on the remarkable achievement of the Chinese Zhurong rover landing on Mars last Saturday! Zhurong is the first rover that China has ever sent to Mars (it joins the US’s Perseverance on Mars) and is the first probe China has ever landed on another planet! To just give you some basic info, it was launched in Hainan (Southern China) last July and was carried on the Tianwen-1 rocket. Zhurong will be carrying out a 90 day exploration mission of Mars. It is operated remotely. There was a lot of excitement about the landing. I saw stories and messages posted on WeChat from many of my colleagues (despite the fact that none of us study Mars) as well as some of my Chinese friends (non-Astronomers). I’m excited to hear what we will learn from Zhurong (and Perseverance) about Mars! For those of you who are curious, Tianwen means Questions to Heaven and Zhurong is an ancient god of fire from Chinese mythology.

In terms of my own research, this was sadly a more frustrating week. I got more comments from the Final reviewer for my DES paper, so it will probably be a few weeks before I’m able to submit the paper for publication, which is very frustrating since additional comments at this stage were not expected (or typical). However, with help from my co-authors I think we’ll determine the best path forward. In terms of my other projects, I’m currently generating a new version of my mock after solving one of the bugs in my original generation, which is good. Hopefully, that will yield some interesting results soon. Additionally, I have some very interesting plots for our analysis on halo mass proxies, which I think should result in a really interesting paper! Lastly, I was able to work out the bugs in my ICL code, so now my results are making a bit more sense. 🙂

As you can likely tell, this was a very research heavy week. As I’ve mentioned in the past, Shanghai is very close to summer. It wasn’t quite as hot this week, but it was still quite humid. As a result, I only went for two runs this week. However, to supplement my running, I started going to F45 (a gym that specializes in 45 minutes HIIT training exercise classes that many of my friends go to). This way, I’m still exercising when the weather isn’t great!

Even though the weather was a bit of a mixed bag, I still had some cool photos I wanted to share with all of you!

Though this was a very heavily work focused week, I still made some time for some fun activities! On Tuesday, my friend David and I hosted another Kehilat Shanghai Trivia night! All the categories were MAY themed. We did MAYhem, MAYors, MAYsons (May birthday’s), MAYday, and There MAY be a Connection! 🙂 I wrote the MAYors and MAYsons questions, you’ll see below! It was another really great trivia night and everyone was challenged by our questions!

On Saturday, I attended another AAPI month event. This event was a screening of two of the episodes of the Cinemax/HBO Max show Warrior (about San Francisco’s China town in the late 19th century — originally conceived by Bruce Lee). Followed by a discussion about the model minority myth (focused mostly on examples of people like Grace Lee Boggs, who defied this myth). For those of you who are unfamiliar, the model minority myth is a concept that emphasizes that minorities can succeed in the US by using very particular examples. Essentially, this idea championed East Asians (as well as Jews) as examples of minorities that are well educated, polite, and law abiding and were able to both assimilate and succeed in America. However, it is often used as a mechanism to antagonize and criticize other minorities and offer a false narrative of racial equality (that anyone can succeed). This is a topic that I’ve had a lot of conversations about and definitely something that I plan to discuss further.

The highlight of my week was on Friday night, when my friend Ha hosted a murder mystery themed birthday party! It was set in the 1920’s Chicago. While not nearly as easy for me to dress up in as the 1960s themed party I attended a few months ago (nothing’s as easy as tie-dye for me). I did my best to channel the look from Perry Mason (the HBO Max show).

Here are some photos of me with other friends at the party (many from the Kehilat Shanghai community)! Overall, it was a lot of fun both celebrating Ha and playing the murder mystery game. Emmet and I did one our freshman year at Brown, but I think it was a bit more fun this time (though I still didn’t figure out who the murderer was until we were told at the end). As you can see, many of the attendees went all out and really had fantastic costumes! It was fun for a night to escape to the Roaring 1920s! 🙂

Overall, this was a really nice week. This upcoming week will definitely be research focused as I work to address the remaining comments on my DES paper while also working on my Luminosity Function analysis. I know I’ll have some fun activities to share with you as well!

I hope that you enjoyed reading my thoughts about the Jazz scholarships (definitely watch the video) and the Zhurong rover, as well as seeing the photos from the 1920’s themed birthday party! I hope that you all have a safe and healthy week.

In peace,

Jesse

Trivia

MAYors

1). The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character is an 1886 novel by this English Author, written as part of his Wessex novels.

2). In Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, she is the adopted daughter of the Mayor of Monreuil-sur-Mer?

3). In both the Batman Earth One Graphic novels and the television show Gotham this Batman villain is the mayor of Gotham City.

4). This early popular democratic candidate for president, nicknamed Mayor Pete, was the former mayor of what city

5). This former Mayor of Paris, and Prime Minister of France, would later become President of France from 1995-2007.

6). The First Female mayor in the United States was Susanna Madora Salter, who served as Mayor of Argonia, Kansas in 1887. However, the first major metropolitan city to have a female mayor occurred in 1926, when Bertha Knight Landes was elected as Mayor of this Pacific Northwest city.

7). This rising Democratic political star surprised Democratic pollsters and constituents when she announced that she would not be running for another term as Mayor of Atlanta.

8). This current mayor of Washington D.C. was the first female mayor ever re-elected as mayor of D.C.

9). In Family Guy, this real life tv actor played himself as the Mayor of Quahog, RI

10). This, now disgraced, former mayor of New York City, turned Trump stooge, was initially elected Mayor of NYC in what year?

MAYsons (Birthdays in May)

1). Three actors who have (or will) portrayed Batman on the Big Screen were born in May. One in Batman & Robin, One in the Lego Batman Movie, and one in 2022’s The Batman. Name them.

2). Motown legend, Stevie Wonder was born on May 13th. One of his most famous song’s is a rendition of Happy Birthday, which honors this civil rights icon?

3). Super Bowl III featured 3 different quarterbacks born in May. Most famously, Joe Namath guaranteed a win for the New York Jets over the Baltimore Colts. While the Baltimore Colts had been quarterbacked by Johnny Unitas for much of that decade, Unitas suffered an injury and missed 9 games throughout the season (and did not start the Super Bowl). Instead, this quarterback, who also played for the 1972 Miami Dolphins started the game.

4). This woman, who became the youngest and first American woman to enter low-earth orbit, in 1983 was born on May 26th.

5). This award winning author of more than 200 books best known for coming of age stories set in the wilderness, including Hatchet and Winterdance was born on May 17th.

6). Prior to his success as a writer with The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, who was born on May 15th had a failed career writing for this other popular medium.

7). Though no longer the longest reigning British monarch, this other British queen, born on May 24th, now has the second longest reign beginning when she was just 18 years old.

8). Legendary singer-song writer and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan was also born on May 24th. However, his real name is what?

9). This Australian actress born on May 14th has had starring roles in films including the Talented Mr. Ripley, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I’m not there, and Thor Ragnarok

10). Adele, born on May 5th sang the titular theme song in what James Bond movie?

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 persists in the US and around the world, and you are (hopefully) continuing to remain vigilant, avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world looks like once recovery begins. As things improve, I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family and other outdoor activities. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable as I have.

If you have fun following my blog, 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 my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, feel free to share this blog with anyone else who may be interested in my life and adventures in China!

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest update continues to find all of you, your families, and your friends remaining safe and healthy. As the covid-19 vaccines continue to be made available to younger people, I hope that you and the rest of the members of your family are taking advantage of this and getting vaccinated. Moreover, I hope that as spring is happening in the US (almost summer here in Shanghai) you’re spending more time outside as well!

Given how so many of you began following my blog when China went in to lock down last year and then followed my own experiences with China opening up, it’s hard for me not to comment on the lifting of the mask mandate in the US for those who are vaccinated. I have mixed thoughts about this. Currently, masks are only required on public transportation (buses, subways, planes, taxis) and inside enclosed public spaces (i.e., malls) for everyone. However, many people still wear masks all the time. Importantly, nobody criticizes or condemns people for wearing masks. However, Shanghai reached this point because there have been almost no non-imported cases for the better part of a year. So, this is quite different than the current situation in the US. My concerns stem from the fact that there’s no way to ensure that people who aren’t wearing masks have been vaccinated and aren’t instead the people who have been listening to the former president and downplaying the seriousness of covid-19. While outside, I feel comfortable not wearing a mask, I still wear masks inside (at bookstores, malls, grocery stores, …). This is based solely on my own level of comfort (I’m vaccinated), so I strongly encourage that all of you do what you are comfortable with (if vaccinated). However, it’s important to recognize how much wearing masks has reduced the transmission other diseases like the flu and colds. In China (and other parts of Asia), people wear masks whenever they are under the weather as a way to prevent spreading germs. I would love to see this concept remain in the US. As someone who’s spent a lot of time on college campuses, it’s incredibly frustrating how most everyone gets kind of sick during the winter, so this would be a great way to reduce this. However, I sadly remain skeptical of this outcome due to the politicization of masks in the US, since many of the same conservatives who have downplayed the virus are unlikely to not recognize the positive impact they’ve had beyond just slowing the spread of covid-19.

Additionally, I want to comment on the recent situation where players and coaches on the New York Yankees and San Diego Padres who have been vaccinated have gotten covid-19. It’s important to remember that vaccines are not 100% effective. Many people who get flu shots get sick every year. The vaccine reduces the likelihood of getting sick, while also reducing the side effects. It is not a miracle cure or super power protecting you from all risk. So, please remain vigilant, especially in situations where not everyone is vaccinated.

I also want to briefly comment on the situation in Israel. I won’t be discussing the details because I honestly have not spent enough time reading about and discussing the situation to comfortably provide many thoughts. However, I believe that it’s important to recognize that violence is decidedly not the answer and has accomplished little over the past few decades to change the situation between Israel and Palestine. While I pray that this current situation will end, I also recognize that for something to truly change, a new non-violent approach built on understanding and mutual respect of the people and their religious beliefs is needed.

To update you all about the covid-19 situation in China. Covid-19 remains entirely under control. However, a few cases have popped up, which has resulted in more stringent quarantines for people entering the country. In total, there are currently, 54 active cases in Shanghai and the recovery rate is 96.99%. In Beijing, there are just 2 active cases and the recovery rate is at 98.95%. For China as a whole, there are 727 active cases, with a recovery rate of 94.63%. So, clearly these more stringent regulations have been working.

In terms of Astronomy, this was a productive week. My collaboration wide review (and telecon) for my DES paper on the evolution of the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass relation ended last week. I have a few minor comments that I’m discussing with my co-authors, but we should be ready to submit the paper to the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ) very soon! I’ll share it with you all once I post it on the arXiV. In addition to that, I’ve continued to spend a lot of time on my Luminosity Function mock. Unfortunately, there are still a few kinks that I’m working to figure out in order to get more precise measurements from the simulations. So, hopefully I’ll be able to figure them out soon. Additionally, I’ve continued to make progress on my work on the evolution of the Intra-Cluster light, the region surrounding the brightest central galaxy, as well as on our halo mass proxy analysis. So, hopefully I’ll have some other papers coming together soon as well.

As I hinted at in the opening, spring is ending here in Shanghai and we’re already moving in to summer. While it’s not brutally hot all the time yet (it did reach 93 feels like 106 on Saturday), it is very humid, which means I’m sweating every time I leave my apartment (thankfully the air conditioning is much better in my current apartment than in my old apartment 🙂 ). So, due to the weather, I only got to go for 1 very unpleasant run this week. Running season might be ending for me soon, since the heat and humidity make it quite uncomfortable.

Additionally, the heat is causing a lot of the flowers to wilt. However, there are still some beautiful ones that I can share with you!

Additionally, I saw some cool murals and a cute cat that I thought I’d share with you as well!

Despite the heat, I still made time for some fun and thought provoking events. On Wednesday, I attended the second AAPI month discussion, this time led by my friend Heather, a History Professor at NYU Shanghai. Heather’s talk began by providing a historical background to the Asian American immigrant experience, focusing mostly on the experience of Chinese Americans in the 19th to early 20th centuries. While I was aware of the Chinese-Exclusion Act, I was unaware of so many of the additional ways that laws were enacted to explicitly restrict and prevent Chinese (and Asian) immigration into the US. After the historical background, Heather and many of the attendees shared personal experiences of the ways Asian Americans are often both hyper visible and hyper invisible in the US and other parts of the world today. It was a very powerful discussion and I greatly appreciated having the opportunity to learn and listen to everyone share their experiences.

On Sunday, I went back to the foreign language bookstore. I hadn’t been in a few months and needed some new books to read (I only have 2 left). I picked up the fifth and sixth books in the Millennium saga (Girl with the Dragon tattoo series) as well as the first two Witcher books. So, I’ll have some good fiction to read this summer! Additionally, I got some more cool gatchopods (little anime figures) as well! The bookstore has a ton of manga in Japanese (so sadly nothing I can read), but I loved seeing so many of my favorite characters. Plus, I couldn’t not take a picture of Maus!

The primary fun highlight of my week was on Saturday, when Moishe House hosted a tie-dye party! I’m sure some of you remember that Emmet and I gave out tie-dye t-shirts for our b’nei mitzvah, so it’s probably unsurprising that I’m a big fan of tie-dye. I hadn’t done it since my senior year at Brown, but it was so much fun hanging out with friends and attempting to make some cool shirts! While it was sadly way to hot to do it outside, it was still a blast! I tie-dyed 2 shirts and 2 bandanas!

As you can see, I had a blast and everyone made some really great shirts with colorful designs! I was really happy with how my shirts and bandanas came out!! I can’t wait to wear them this summer!

Overall, this was a really nice and a quieter week. This upcoming week will definitely be research focused as I try to fix my mock and finish up my first DES project! I’m sure I’ll have some more fun things and photos to share with all of you as well!

I hope that you enjoyed seeing my photos of flowers and tie-dye! I hope that you all have a safe, happy, and healthy week.

In peace,

Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 persists in the US and around the world, and you are (hopefully) continuing to remain vigilant, avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world can look like once recovery begins. Once things improve, I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family and outdoor activities. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable as I have.

If you have fun following my blog, 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 my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, feel free to share this blog with anyone else who may be interested in my life and adventures in China!

Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest update continues to find all of you staying safe, happy, and healthy. For those of you in academia, I hope that the end of the semester has gone/is going well and that you’re looking forward to a less stressful summer. For the rest of you, I hope that the weather has been nice enough that you’ve been able to take advantage of it and spend time outside running, walking, hiking, or gardening!

Before I discuss the covid-19 situation in Shanghai and China, I wanted to let you all know that I received my second shot of the Chinese Sinopharm Beijing (Beijing Biological) vaccine on Wednesday! This is the vaccine that was recently approved by the World Health Organization (the first covid-19 vaccine manufactured in China to be approved). All-in-all, the process was almost identical to my first time. I waited in line for ~ 30 minutes, then registered and paid for my vaccine (it cost ~ $15). After getting my shot I waited 30 minutes. Thankfully, fatigue was the only side effect that I felt. After getting my shot, I also got the official covid-19 vaccine documentation (there’s also digital documentation as well). So, overall, my experience was very positive! Since I rarely go to hospitals, I thought I’d share some more photos of the cute stickers set up to amuse children! Also, so far over 300 million doses of the covid-19 vaccine have been administered in China.

In terms of the actual number of cases in China, the number remains under control. In Shanghai, there are just 58 imported cases and the recovery rate is 96.76%. In Beijing, there are only 2 cases and the recovery rate is 98.95%. For China as a whole, there are just 499 active cases and the recovery rate is 94.83%. So, because China has remained vigilant about preventing the spread of covid-19, the cases have remained low even as places have opened up. However, because the numbers are so low, a lot of effort has been made to emphasize the importance of getting vaccinated, since not everyone is as concerned about it anymore (so, please get vaccinated if you haven’t already, regardless of where you live).

In terms of Astronomy this was a fairly productive week. Because of the combination of the labor day holiday (May Day) at the beginning of the week, and getting my second covid-19 shot on Wednesday, I didn’t get quite as much research done. However, my DES Stellar Mass – Halo Mass research has it’s collaboration wide review ending on Tuesday, so hopefully (assuming I don’t receive many more comments) that will allow me to submit this analysis for publication soon! Additionally, I’ve continued to work on my Luminosity Function analysis (using the mock simulations). I’m starting to have results, but unfortunately there’s still deviations between my measurements and the underlying truth (that we built in to the simulation), so I’ll have some things to work on this week for that project. Lastly, I was finally able to start working on my intra-cluster light analysis again so hopefully, I’ll start having some interesting results on that end again, soon!

Though not related to my work, on Monday, I walked by a pre-school/day care center where they had a really neat space set up (that I could see through the windows)! If I was little, I’m sure I’d have had a lot of fun!

Sadly, the weather in Shanghai has started to heat up. This weekend, every day was over 90 degrees! Even though I know that it gets very hot (and humid) in Shanghai in the summer, I wasn’t quite mentally prepared for the heat. We’re also about to enter plum rain season, where it will rain/thunderstorm for about a month, so sadly, I don’t think I’ll be doing much running this month. 🙁 Though I may not be thrilled with the heat, some are enjoying it!

Despite the oppressive heat, I still saw a ton of beautiful flowers this week!

Since it was very hot this weekend, I spent a lot of time in my apartment (where thankfully the air conditioning works much better than in my old apartment). However, I did make some time for some fun and meaningful activities. Since May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, some of my friends are organizing a series of activities and discussions to celebrate. As an ally, it’s important to attend these kind of events (as well as those supporting the black community and other minority communities), not only to support my friends, but also to help me grow and improve as a human being. The world will only get better if we all try to support and help each other.

The first of these events was a kickoff party and discussion with a member of US consulate here in Shanghai on Saturday night. The speaker shared her story of growing up in Taiwan and then her experience moving to the US as a child, her time abroad in Germany, and then her experience in the foreign service. It was very interesting hearing about her experiences working and living in different countries around the world (Germany, Egypt, China, Japan) and interacting with different political figures in many different administrations. However, for me the most important takeaways were the the similarities in terms of the values emphasized by her parents (and that she emphasizes for her children) to the values that my parents instilled in me and my brother and in stark contrast, thedifferences of sometimes feeling invisible and having to fight to be heard. I look forward to attending more of these discussions in May so that I can became both more aware of the situations that many of my friends and colleagues face and also help to better myself and be a more supportive ally.

Food in Shanghai

On Monday, to celebrate the May Day holiday, some of my friends (about 8 of us) and I went to a fantastic lunch at one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants in Shanghai, Godly!

We enjoyed so much delicious food! Bamboo shoots, kao-fu (spongy seitan), mixed vegetables, seasonal greens, tofu, mock duck (tofu skins), mixed vegetables with noodles, eggplant, dumplings, and rice noodles! I love that I can get so much delicious vegan/vegetarian food in Shanghai!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

The highlight of my week was on Friday, when Kehilat Shanghai hosted our first community Shabbat celebration at the historic Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum. This is significant because the museum is built and centered on the Ohel Moishe Synagogue, one of two remaining synagogues in Shanghai. This was the first time that any such Shabbat celebration had occurred at the Ohel Moishe Synagogue in about 70 years! In past entries, I’ve shown many photos of the newly renovated Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum (it’s truly fantastic and I recommend visiting if you’re able to come to Shanghai).

While Kehilat Shanghai has been able to have Rosh Hashanah services and the Community B’nei Mitzvah at the synagogue in the past, this was the first time we’ve been able to gather for Shabbat here. I had the pleasure and honor of co-leading with Hannah Maia! As some of you know, I co-lead the reform minyan with Emmet our senior year at Brown, so leading Shabbat services is something I am both very comfortable with and really enjoy! We had a wonderful turnout of about 50 community members, which made this occasion all that more special. Below, you can see some photos that highlight the evening.

It was wonderful to join with so many members of the Kehilat Shanghai community to celebrate our Jewish heritage in one of the few places in Shanghai that holds both religious and historical meaning to the Jewish community! Following the service, we had a nice community dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant. So, it was both a fun and meaningful night spent with many of my friends from the Kehilat community!

Before I conclude, I do want to wish my Dad a Happy Birthday! I hope that you had a lovely birthday and even though I was only able to celebrate with you on FaceTime, I hope that you know how much I love and miss you. Thanks for being such a supportive and loving father.

Additionally, since today is Mother’s day (Happy Mother’s day to all the amazing Mom’s reading this), I wanted to wish my Mom a Happy Mother’s Day! Thank you so much for being such a loving and supportive Mom. I know that you’ll always have my back. I love and miss you!

Overall, this was a really nice and surprisingly eventful week. From getting vaccinated to the community Shabbat to the AAPI Month kickoff event, a lot happened and it was really wonderful to get to see so many of my friends in one week! This upcoming week should be more research focused, highlighted by my DES Collaboration wide review. However, I know I’ll have some fun things to share with you all as well.

I hope that you enjoyed seeing my photos from the Community Shabbat! I hope that you all have a safe, happy, and healthy week.

In peace,

Jesse

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 persists in the US and around the world, and you are (hopefully) continuing to remain vigilant, avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world can look like once recovery begins. Once things improve, I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family and outdoor activities. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable as I have.

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Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest entry finds all of you continuing to stay safe and healthy and hopefully vaccinated (or in the process of getting vaccinated). I hope that all of you are taking advantage of spring and starting to spend some more time outside going for runs, walks, or hikes, as well.

I want to start this entry by thanking all of you for so many wonderful birthday wishes. It was really nice receiving comments, e-mails, and Facebook messages from so many of you wishing me Happy Birthday :).

In terms of covid-19, the situation in Shanghai and China as a whole remains entirely under control. However, given that the US recently ended the mask mandate, I want to discuss what the “normal situation” is here in Shanghai. On a daily basis, some people still where masks all the time. However, masks are only required when you’re inside (in crowded areas), or public transportation (and taxis). So, I wear my mask every day when I take the bus to work. Whenever I go out, I always carry my mask with me just in case. Nowadays, when I go running, I don’t where a mask. So, depending on what you’re comfortable with, keep wearing masks. I think it’s important for those in the US to recognize that wearing a mask is not and has never been a hardship. It’s quite commonplace in China (and other parts of Asia) for people to wear masks when they have a cold, fever, or the flu. In terms of covid-19 cases, Shanghai currently has 67 imported cases, and a recovery rate of 96.28%. Beijing has just 5 cases and a recovery rate of 98.67%. For China as a whole, there are 532 cases and a recovery rate of 94.79%. So, despite the fact that we no longer are required to wear masks all the time in Shanghai, the situation is quite different than the current situation in the US.

In terms of Astronomy, this was another productive week. First, my DES paper on the evolution of the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass Relation officially entered the 2 week period of collaboration wide review! So, hopefully it will move to publication soon after that! In terms of my actual research, I spent much of the week working on my mock Luminosity Function. However, much to my frustration, I caught a bug in my analysis when I was making science plots. However, that bug had actually forced me to generate almost 100x more random galaxies than I actually needed. So, what took me about 3 weeks to run took me about 2 days to redo! That code that I was parallelizing that took 25 minutes now can be done in ~ 10 seconds! 🙂

The weather in Shanghai for the most part has still been nice (mid to upper 70s). However, Friday was our first very hot day, reaching 88. I’m not mentally prepared for the Shanghai heat and humidity, so thankfully the temperature cooled off this weekend. This week I went for 3 runs! Here are some photos from my walks and runs around Shanghai. I really liked the butterfly statue garden built in the nearby Xujiahui park!

There was also this really interesting Bull sculptures, that reminded me of the horses that are set up around Saratoga!

In addition to the runs, on Thursday, I attended the most recent Unravel storytelling event. This month’s theme was Down to Earth in honor of Earth Day! Though not all the stories were related to the Earth, it was a really interesting and captivating series of stories. Topics included overcoming depression, an experience skydiving, and learning to love to eat bugs. Overall, I really enjoyed it and look forward to the next one!

The highlight of my week was on Sunday. On Sunday morning, my brother Emmet messaged me to tell me that there was a full scale Gundam built and set-up in front of a mall in Shanghai! For those of you who are unfamiliar, Gundam is a long running anime franchise that Emmet and I have been watching since 2000 (with Gundam Wing). So, I knew I had to go see this! So, on Sunday afternoon, I trekked out to the LaLaporte mall in Pudong (other side of the river). This is a Japanese mall (though having been there, other than some Japanese stores, I’m not sure what made it a Japanese mall).

As you can see, the statue of the Freedom Gundam (from Gundam Seed) was really amazing! It was gigantic and looked so awesome!

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As a huge Gundam fan, seeing a Gundam in person was truly a breathtaking! This is only the third time one has been built to scale (the first two were in Japan). So, I was really lucky to get to go see it!

As you can see, the mall itself was really cool, too. There were plenty of Gundam ads set up all over as well and you can see people building Gundam models inside!

I’m really thankful that Emmet saw the article about this, because it was definitely something I wouldn’t have wanted to miss!

Food in Shanghai

Friday was International Jianbing day. For those of you who are unfamiliar, a jianbing is a Chinese style crepe that is then filled with egg, vegetables, sauces, and sometimes meat. This is a really common breakfast or morning food in Shanghai. As a vegan, I’ve never actually had a jianbing. However, again, thanks to Emmet, I found out that Just Egg, a vegan egg substitute company that is building an audience in China was providing their Just Egg product to local jianbing shops and then offering free jianbing. So, on Friday for lunch I got a free jianbing filled with a scallions, chives, onions, just egg, spicy sauce, and a cracker (made from the dough batter). It was really good, so I’ll definitely have to get them again and encourage them to keep stocking just egg!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

On Friday, my friend Ha hosted another lovely family Shabbat! This month’s Shabbat was a really nice mix of young professionals as well as some families. It was really lovely to gather everyone together to celebrate Shabbat and it was adorable to watch the kids do the blessings and then devour the challah. 🙂 I’ve been going to the Family Shabbats for almost a year now, and it’s been a great way for me to get to know and become friends with so many of the community members!

As you can see, we enjoyed homemade Challah, pizza (including both vegan pizza and jianbing pizza), and a delicious strawberry cake that I made (which was a big hit with everyone, including the kids)!

Overall, this was a really nice, calm, and relaxing week. I was even able to bounce back quickly from a research mistake and redo my analysis :). It’s currently the International Labor Day holiday here in China, so SJTU is closed through Wednesday. So, I’ll be doing some work at home for the first half of this week. This upcoming week, we have a community Shabbat on Friday as well as some other fun things that I’ll share with you all!

I hope that you enjoyed seeing my photos of a full sized Gundam and of family Shabbat! I hope that you all have a safe, happy, and healthy week.

In peace,

Jesse

Trivia

Here are the answers to my trivia questions!

This Day in History

1). In 2008, this racer became the first woman to win an IndyCar Series Race?
— Danica Patrick

2). In 1986, Michael Jordan set an NBA record scoring 63 points in a playoff game against what team?
— Boston Celtics

3). In 1980, Fidel Castro opened this port, allowing ~ 125,000 Cubans to leave the country over the next 5-6 months
–Mariel Port

4). In 1940, this type of microscope, that significantly improved upon the resolving power of light based microscopes was first demonstrated
— Electron Microscope

5). In 1920, this Declaration officially made Palestine a British mandate
–Balfour Declaration

6). On this day in 1916 and 1912, these two famous and still used Baseball stadiums were opened
–Fenway Park and Wrigley Field

7). In 1862, the first of these tests, which later would extend the life of processed goods was done by this famed scientist
-Louis Pasteur

8). In 1611, this Shakespeare Tragedy featuring characters including Banquo, Hecate, Donalbain premiered
–MacBeth

9). In 295 and 1910, this Astronomical Object was recorded as being seen in the night sky?
–Halley’s Comet

10). In 1937, this actor known best for his role as Sulu on Star Trek was born
— George Takei

Where in the World

1). Where did Dr. James Naismith invent basketball?
–Springfield, MA

2). In what city was Arch Duke Franz-Ferdinand assassinated, leading to WWI?
–Sarajevo

3). What was the first city outside of the UK where the Beatles performed?
–Hamburg
Bonus: Name the two former members who played in this show, but would soon after leave the Beatles
–Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe

4). What was the first city outside of Greece to host the Olympics?
–Paris

5). The emperors of China had seasonal homes, the northern capital was Beijing, name this southern capital?
–Nanjing

6). In January of 1790, which city was the capital of the United States?
–New York City

7). What is the name of the Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned from 1964 – 1982
–Robben Island

8). The first manned flight by Orville and Wilbur Wright occurred near what North Carolina town?
–Kitty Hawk

9). The battle of this location in 1600 led way to the formation of the Tokugawa Shogunate?
–Sekigahara

10). Many of the world’s best and largest Telescopes are built in Chile in the Atacama Desert Region. This nearest city is 100 km to the Northeast and ~ 500km north of Santiago?
–La Serena

Units of Measurement

1). Which of these astronomical related distance measurements is the largest: parsec, Astronomical Unit, lightyear
–Parsec

2). Named after a French mathematician and physicist, this is the unit of electrical current?
–Ampere

3). Named for English Physicist, mathematician, and brewer, James Prescott Joule, the joule is the SI derived unit of what?
–Energy

4). Name the three units that are commonly used to measure temperature
–Fahrenheit, Celsius (centigrade), Kelvin

5). In chemistry, this is the unit used to describe luminous intensity
–Candela

6). In astronomy, for measures of the mass of stars and galaxies, we use the unit solar masses. For planets, we use either earth masses or Jupiter masses. Which of these answers best describes how much more massive the sun is than the earth?
— 1 Msun = 300 Mearth
— 1 Msun = 30 million Mearth
— 1 Msun = 300 hundred thousand Mearth
— I Msun = 3 billion Earth

7). The Watt is a unit that is used to measure radiant power, in Astronomy, this is referred to as what inherent property
–Luminosity

8). When this unit of measurement was originally introduced it was defined as the weight of a cubic centimeter of water
–Gram

9). The modern formulations of Newton’s two Most famous equations begin with this quantity, that is measured in Newton’s
–Force

10). Named for a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, writer and Catholic Theologian, this is the SI unit of Pressure
–Pascal