Hi Everyone! Welcome back to Astronomer in Shanghai! I hope that all of you continue to stay safe and healthy. For those of you who are in academia, I hope that the start of the 2nd semester is going well, too. Additionally, for those of you who celebrated the Lunar New Year, I hope that you had a wonderful celebration with friends and family! In this latest entry, I’ll share with you updates from my celebrations of the Lunar New Year and Lantern Festival as well as many of the other fun things I did in the past month.

As I’m sure you’re all aware, with the Olympics wrapping up in Beijing, the world’s eyes have been watching China closely for the last few weeks. Thankfully, the covid-19 situation in China has remained under control (likely due to the swift and strict actions and policies implemented by the government). While there have been a few minor outbreaks, they have been contained. The same can’t be said for Hong Kong, where cases are currently exploding. On a more positive note, foreigners in Shanghai were finally able to get their booster shot! So, about 3 weeks ago, I got my third shot of the SinoVac covid-19 vaccine. I actually ran into some of my friends from Kehilat when I was getting my shot, so lots of us were anxious to get boosted. For those of you who are eligible, I hope that you have also been vaccinated and gotten your booster shots.

Even though Beijing is not that close to Shanghai (if it was, I’d visit Emmet a lot more), you could still tell that the Winter Olympics were happening because in addition to all the Lunar New Year’s decorations, there were plenty of signs with Bing Dwen Dwen, the panda mascot, around Shanghai! While it’s disappointing to not get to go to the Olympics, it has been fun watching the CCTV coverage of the games!

Astronomy in Shanghai

As I noted in my last post, the semester ended in the middle of January, so this was a little bit lighter work month as I took some time off to rest and recharge my batteries for the semester and summer ahead. In terms of research news, my DES paper on the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass relation was officially accepted for publication in ApJ!!! I’ve been working on this project with my Ph.D. supervisor, Chris, and my collaborator Yuanyuan, for about 2.5 years and am thrilled to finally have it accepted and to have wrapped it up! I finished the copy edits about 1.5 weeks ago, so it should be published soon. Once it’s published, I’ll post the link here to share with you! 🙂

Additionally, I’ve made some real substantial progress on Project Population, my Luminosity Function analysis. I’ve transitioned back to the observational data (Yay!) and have the projected correction (what I was working on in the mock) applied to the observations. Hopefully, we’ll transition to the SDSS-redMaPPer data in the coming weeks.

For Project Proxy, the halo mass proxy analysis, I’ve implemented a Bayesian model (a statistical model that is the backbone of almost all my research) to measure the halo mass and concentration associated with each sample. There’s a few more parameters to incorporate, but this project is back moving forward, which is great.

For Project Outskirts, the Intra-Cluster Light analysis, I have ~2/3 of the draft of the paper written (most of the science is done). We have some really interesting results relating to both the color of the ICL and the slope/scatter associated with the stellar mass halo mass relation. There’s not many studies that have done this with the ICL, Yuanyuan and I are excited by a lot of what we’re finding. The goal is to have the draft of this paper submitted to DES sometime this spring.

Lastly, I’m just getting started on my DESI projects. While I don’t have much to share on that end, I’m hoping to invest more time in those in the coming weeks, so hopefully I’ll have more to share with you soon.

Life in Shanghai

As you can tell from above, even during a “vacation” month, I still spent a lot of time doing work. However, I also did a lot of fun things this month. 🙂

The Lunar New Year was at the beginning of February, while I unfortunately did not make any dumplings this year, hopefully next year, my friend Ha hosted a wonderful Hot Pot party followed by games! For those of you unfamiliar with hot pot, you cook tofu and vegetables (and usually meat) in a soup broth and then eat what you’ve cooked with a dipping sauce. Special thanks to Ha for providing me with my own personal vegan hot pot, mushroom soup base, and tons of delicious tofu and veggies for me to eat! You can also see the strawberry cake that I made for the party (I thought the red strawberries gave a nice touch for the Lunar New Year, since red is commonly used color)! :))

While I still don’t really know what I’m doing when I’m putting my hot pot together (only potatoes, corn, or lotus need to be cooked long), it was still a fun and tasty way to start celebrating the Lunar New Year.

My favorite part of the Lunar New Year is seeing all the decorations that are hung up around the city. With this being the Year of the Tiger, there were plenty of cool tiger decorations as well as the always lovely standard red lanterns!

In addition to my hot pot party, my friend Clem hosted a lovely vegan new year’s party! As you can see, it was quite the feast! We had vegan chili, vegan black bean burgers and guacamole, pasta salad, lentil dal, and sweet potato curry! I also made some delicious vegan cookies (apple pie cookies, chocolate peppermint cookies, and the Lunchroom’s Monster Cookies!) It was such a fantastic meal and great to celebrate with delicious food and friends again!

Perhaps the most special highlight of this month was making strawberry jam. For those of you confused, it’s actually strawberry season in China! While I’ve made jam a lot in the past, this time, I was joined by my Mom on FaceTime!! As many (if not all) of you know, my Mom is a prolific jam maker. She makes the most delicious jam in so many unique and interesting flavors. While it wasn’t the same as making it together, it was so nice to have her talk me through the different steps, check the consistency of my jam, and make sure that I kept the timing right.

As a result, the jam came out fantastically! I think it’s by far the best jam I’ve ever made in Shanghai! Much thanks goes to my Mom for really emphasizing the timing with regards to boiling the fruit and pectin. She’s got it down to a science! Plus, it was really special to spend some time with my Mom doing something we both enjoy! Hopefully we’ll get to make jam together in person soon, but if not, we’ll definitely do it on FaceTime again!

Moreover, though I wasn’t able to get enough to even consider making jam, I was able to get white strawberries again this year! I know my Mom got some this year as well, so if you see them, you should definitely try them!

One of the other things that my Mom has really missed since I’ve been in Shanghai is sending me packages for different holidays. Well in January, my Mom figured out how to order things on Baopals (the Taobao website that takes paypal). So, for the first time in over 2 years (not counting what Emmet brought me), I got a gift from my Mom! This was a combination Lunar New Year’s and Valentine’s day gift!

As you can see, the Hershey’s kisses were packaged quite differently here! That said, it was so nice getting a gift from my Mom! I’m so glad that my parents figured out how to do this!

Despite all the amazing food and food related activities, I’ve still made plenty of time for exercise this month. I’s still pretty warm in Shanghai (40s-50s most days), so, I’ve been running 2-3 times per week and going to F45 HIIT classes on the other days. 🙂

Two weeks afer the Lunar New Year is the Lantern Festival! As part of that, I visited the Yu Guardens (Yuyuan) to see the lanterns and light display that they set up! I went last year, and it was even more amazing this year than I remembered!

I love the way the Yu Gardens look lit up! They remind me of the opening scene in Spirited Away. There’s just something magical about all the lights and colors. Plus, I loved seeing all the different lanterns! While I love the traditional red ball lanterns, I really enjoyed the look of the yellow and blue lanterns. Also, I don’t know if I noticed it last year, but it was cool seeing people dressed up in traditional attire carrying more traditional paper lanterns!

One of my favorite parts was the massive Year of the Tiger display! I loved that the little tigers on the side were dressed as Taikonauts! You can see them in the front of display as well as the Chinese Space Station (which will have a telescope and an observational survey that Ying is involved in, and hopefully I’ll get to do some stuff with, too) and an example of the rocket used to send the Taikonauts to space. I’m not 100% sure why the Taikonaut theme was included, but it might be because this year is the first time Taikonauts have celebrated the Lunar New Year in Space! Regardless, it’s really cool to see how popular space and Astronomy is here in China!

Additionally, some of you may recall that I bought a lantern last year, well I did it again and have it hanging in my bedroom! I also got one to give to Emmet the next time I see him!

One of the other highlights of this past month, was two visits by Solo! He stayed with me for ~ 3 weeks, so lots of time to take cute photos! Many of you asked, and Solo is a mix of a British short hair and an American long hair cat, making him very adorable!

As you can see, it’s a lot of fun having Solo around. From visiting me when I’m brushing my teeth, to jumping on my bed in the middle of the night, to jumping on top of my refrigerator, to attacking my feet in the shower (when they stick out from under the shower curtain), it’s always entertaining to have him visit me!

In addition to Solo, I also saw some other cute animals, including my favorite dog, Pina (at Ilan’s birthday party) and a cute neighborhood cat!

In addition to cute animals, I saw a lot of other cool things out and about in Shanghai, including some cool anime and comics figures and a Demon Slayer advertisement in front of a watch store!

What I’m Reading and Watching

Unsurprisingly I’ve been watching a lot of live sports this month. Over the last two weeks, that’s been a lot of the Olympics, particularly the snowboarding and skiing. I’ve really enjoyed the Olympics. There have been a lot of great performances and events and the opening ceremony was lovely! In addition to the Olympics, I think I spent the most time watching the Australian Open (tennis) this month. As many of you know, I’m a huge fan of Rafael Nadal. One of my favorite parts about living in Shanghai is getting to watch the Australian Open when it’s happening (though the rest of the grand slams are at much more frustrating times). I was thrilled to see Rafa come back from his foot injury to conquer the field and win his 21st grand slam!!! It was an amazing final between Rafa and Daniil Medvedev! Rafa showed the true heart of a warrior and a champion, never giving up even when he was down the two sets to love! I’m already looking forward to watching Rafa during the clay court swing. In my opinion, this win, giving him two career grand slams, and the most majors of all time solidifies Rafa as the GOAT!

I also watched the Super Bowl. Over the years, I’ve followed football less and less (the violence, head injuries, and racially problematic issues have driven me away from the sport, as has the times it’s on in China). That said, it’s still weird eating breakfast during the Super Bowl. In terms of other things that I’m watching, Jeopardy is perhaps the show I’ve missed watching the most (syndicated Jeopardy is not available for streaming), so I’ve really been enjoying watching the Prime Time Jeopardy College Championships!

In terms of reading, aside from the many fantastic comics, manga, and graphic novels that I read, I finished two excellent books the month. The first was American Gods by Neil Gaiman and the 2nd was The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin. More of you are probably familiar with Gaiman’s epic, since it has been adapted as a TV show. If you haven’t read it, or the great comic adaptation, I highly recommend it. It’s a wonderful blend of myth and fantasy that also discusses at it’s core what America is. Even though it’s quite long, it’s definitely worth the read! The Three Body Problem is perhaps the best example of modern Chinese Science Fiction (I read the translated version). I don’t want to spoil much, but it paints a really fascinating history of China during the cultural revolution and its aftermath and also imagines a grounded and interesting modern future! I definitely recommend it and am I’m looking forward to reading the next two books in the series!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

As usual, this month was also filled with many Kehilat Shanghai activities. While I unfortunately don’t have any pictures, we had a lovely family Shabbat gathering right before the Lunar New Year. Additionally, we had an Olympics themed Community Shabbat, where I got to lead the Shabbat service and my friend Alex gave a D’var commenting on the themes/goals of the Olympics. Afterwards, we even watched the Olympics! Additionally, we had another fantastic trivia night, it was our Connections Pentathlon, which everyone enjoyed! I got to write 3 connections rounds, which are given below! Even at the busy times of the year (in terms of Chinese holidays), it’s really nice to have the consistency and friendship of the Kehilat Community!

I hope that all of you enjoyed seeing the beautiful lanterns and tiger displays from the Yu Gardens as well as the many adorable photos of Solo! I hope that all of you have a great and productive month and continue to stay safe and healthy!

In peace,

Jesse

Trivia

Round 1

1). žThis legendary creature is the combination of a lion, and an eagle. 

2). This cartoon cat from the silent film era was one of the first cartoon characters to gain mass appeal. 

3). žThis long-running NBC (1984-1992) sitcom told of the cases presided over by the unorthodox Judge Harold “Harry” T. Stone. 

4). žThe Prime Minister of the UK whose inaction lead to WWII

5). Harper Lee’s best selling novel follows this family 

ž6). On January 1st of 1868, this Japanese city was opened to foreign trade by the Bakufu government.

7). žThis 1989 novel focuses on four Chinese-American immigrant families who start a mahjong club.  

8). These were first issued by the US government in 1917 to help fund the US’s participation in WWI.  

9). This 2017 movie tells the story of a 17 year old growing up in Sacramento California

10). What is the Connection

Answers: 1). Griffin 2). Felix the Cat 3). Night Court 4). Neville Chamberlain 5). The Finch Family 6). Osaka 7). The Joy Luck Club 8). War or Liberty Bonds 9). War or Liberty Bonds 10). Famous Athletes

Round 2

1). žName this 2006 Oscar winning movie starring Matt Dillon.  

2). This 4th album by The Doors features the songs “Tell all the People,” “Touch Me,” and the titular track 

3). žThis series of books by Stephen King tells the story of a gunslinger and his quest

4). žLamont Cranston is the secret identity of this original “all knowing” pulp hero? 

5). žThis novel by Agatha Christie features a traveling Hercule Poirot? 

6). This ceremony serves as the start of the academic year for most colleges and Universities

7). žThis novel by Jane Austin follows the life of Elizabeth Bennett 

8). This disorder occurs when the majority of worker bees disappear and leave behind a queen 

9). žThe Japanese Diet is an example of this type of government

10). What is the Connection

Answers: 1). Crash 2). The Soft Parade 3). The Dark Tower 4). The Shadow 5). Murder on the Orient Express 6). Convocation 7). Pride and Prejudice 8). Colony Collapse Disorder 9). Parliament 10). Groupings of Animals

Round 3

1). žThis chemist is the only person to ever be awarded two undivided Nobel Prizes?

2). Though this type of light is invisible to the human eye, humans still use it in Astronomy and medical practices.  However, some insects, like bumblebees can also see it.

3). žThis actress starred in the TV show Medium and won an academy award for the movie Boyhood

4). žThis inspiration to the Beatles who wrote songs including Roll Over Beethoven and Johnny B. Goode.

5). žOnce a TV show reaches syndication, it can be sold to other networks allowing for this type of broadcast to occur

6). She was known as the “Queen of Soul” 

7). žThis 2014 Luc Besson science fiction film about a woman who gains psychokinetic abilities 

8). The first American woman in space

9). žMax Yasgur’s dairy fam hosted this festival 

10). What is the Connection?

Answers 1). Linus Pauling 2). Ultraviolet 3). Patricia Arquette 4). Chuck Berry 5). Rerun 6). Aretha Franklin 7). Lucy 8). Sally Ride 9). Woodstock 10). Peanut’s Characters

Hi Everyone! Welcome to the first Astronomer in Shanghai entry of 2022! I hope that all of you had an enjoyable, safe, and healthy end to 2021. As we embark on a new year, I hope that 2022 is filled with health, safety, happiness, and some fun memories for all of you. That said, with the Omicron variant surging around the world (even here in China), I hope that this entry finds all of you staying safe and healthy. If you haven’t already, please get your latest covid-19 booster shot as well.

It’s been a long time since I discussed the covid-19 situation in China in depth. Mostly, this was because other than minor outbreaks (~10s of cases), nothing has really happened. Unfortunately, for the last month, that has no longer been the case. Despite the incredibly restrictive border policies (as Emmet described in great detail in his early blog posts), the Omicron variant has entered China. Recently, Xi’an, home to the Terra Cotta warriors, suffered a massive outbreak, with hundreds of cases, resulting in the city being shut down and it’s residents being quarantined. Thankfully those strict efforts have resulted with Xi’an beginning to recover. Just recently, Tianjin, a city near Beijing also had an outbreak of the Omicron variant. Moreover, with the combination of the Lunar New Year holiday (where much of the population travels) coming up and the Olympics, China is very much on edge and trying to clamp down and prevent the spread of covid-19. Shanghai even just had its first reported case of the Omicron variant. So, I too will need to continue wearing a mask when I go outside, being vigilant, and washing my hands. With that said, even though the reaction is severe, it does give me comfort that the government has continued it’s efforts to halt the spread of covid-19 so quickly.

Astronomy in Shanghai

This past month has been very productive for me. Right after I shared my last blog post, I was able to re-submit my DES paper on the evolution of the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass Relation to the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ) for publication. I’m still waiting to hear from the referee, but am hopeful that this paper will be accepted for publication soon. Additionally, I finally had a breakthrough on Project Population, my work studying the Luminosity Function. As you may recall, I’ve been working on building an accurate mock catalog that we can use to test some of our analysis. Well, at long last, I finally figured out and removed all the bugs in the mock! While most of this was simple mistakes, it’s great to have a mock that I can now use going forward. Moreover, I’m excited to turn this project away from the mock and return to our observational data as Ying and I start to study the galaxy population within the SDSS redMaPPer clusters (a sample I’m very well acquainted with)! We are also mapping out future avenues of inquiry for later studies as well. Additionally, I’ve continued to work on Project Outskirts, my intra-cluster light (ICL) project and have some interesting results relating to how the color of the ICL changes over time and radius. For those of you confused about what I mean by color, color is a way of estimating the stellar population of a galaxy and delineating old and young stars. Young stars are blue and old ones are red. Blue stars are hot (like a blue flame on your stove) and red are cooler.

Though not directly related to my research, I’m sure that many of you saw that the new James Webb Space Telescope launched successfully! I was very excited to watch the launch and even more pleased that everything with JWST has gone smoothly so far. For a long time (much of my graduate career) it seemed as though JWST would never launch. Although I don’t have any immediate plans to use the data from JWST (mostly because much of my research relies on large surveys), I am particularly excited for the discoveries that JWST will tell us about the earliest galaxies in the Universe. If you’re interested in learning more about JWST, check out this great interview with Prof. Caitlin Casey of UT Austin on the Marketplace: Make me Smart podcast.

Life in Shanghai

This past month was predominately spent doing research, so I’m glad I was finally able to make some more tangible progress on certain projects. For most of the month, my main sources of relaxation were either going running or going to F45 to workout. So, I have been able to keep exercising while getting work done. Despite all the work, I still had some fun things that I wanted to share with you!

Perhaps the most fun thing that I did was this past weekend, when I visited the Temple of Light on the North Bund! The Temple of Light is a digital art exhibit where art was projected onto the surfaces of the room (the walls, floors, and ceiling), allowing for a fully immersive experience. While my photos don’t really provide the full sense of the exhibit, it was a really incredible to watch. There were two shows shown during my tour. The first felt somewhat like a combination of all of my favorite computer screen savors from my childhood as you can see!

The second half of the exhibit was entitled Ukiyo-e visions! As a fan of the Japanese Ukiyo-e artwork, it was really cool to see some of my favorite (and most recognizable examples of Ukiyo-e) images projected in a virtual environment!

It was a really amazing experience! In the Ukiyo-e exhibit, I loved the way they overlayed screens to create depth within the environment! Plus, the music they played during the show really added tons of ambiance to the experience!

Since I was on the North Bund, I had to take a few photos of the surrounding area, including the always iconic Shanghai skyline (featuring the Shanghai tower)! I also loved seeing the red panda painted on the tree! It was so adorable!

In addition to a fun afternoon spent on the Bund, I did a lot of other fun activities with the Kehilat Shanghai community this month. Some of the highlights included a lovely Community Shabbat on Christmas Eve, hosted by my friends John and Alex, and a fun Trivia night (my questions at the end). Sadly, I forgot to take photos at those, but it was fun seeing many of my friends this past month.

I also wanted to share with you some cute photos of many of the cats that I’ve seen around Shanghai, including an adorable photo of Maguey, my friends Kate and Ilan’s cat, who is so well behaved that Kate can carry him around!

Additionally, there were a lot of really cool things that I saw and wanted to share! I love that there are so many interesting things to see whenever I go for walks around Shanghai!

Lastly, I wanted to share some cool anime statues I saw at a toy store this past month!

Lunar New Year Celebrations

As some of you may now, the Lunar New Year is coming up (celebrated January 31st)! Since the semester ended before that, we had our department Lunar New Year/end of semester party! Although most of it was in Mandarin (I could recognize words, but not really follow much), it was still a lot of fun! Some of the students sang and did dances, but most importantly, it was a time for the department to come together and play games! I even got to play a game where we had to draw a picture and have one of the other people guess what it was. Thanks to some help from some of the students (I couldn’t read the word I was supposed to draw), I was able to have a lot of fun, too! I even got an SJTU notebook for participating. There were also some interesting games like jumping to get balls out of a box on your back and doing planks while reading Astronomy papers as well as some classics like darts and a ring toss!

I’ve also started to see some of the traditional red lanterns (including at the gates of SJTU, which are open for access for the first time in months!) around the city! However, since it is the Year of the Tiger, my favorite decorations have been thetiger statues, my favorite of which I saw at a nearby mall!

Additionally, like previous years, I got boxes of Lunar New Year’s gifts from SJTU (almost all food). Thankfully most of the food are things I can enjoy (cookies, dried fruit/nuts, candy, and dried mushrooms). I also got some traditional gifts like a Peking Duck and a leg of meat. As a vegan, this was rather unappetizing to open (thankfully they were wrapped in bags). However, I was able to give those to some of my friends so that they can enjoy it (and I can get it out of my apartment). I also got new decorations to put on my door for the Lunar New Year. I’ll share photos of those once I have them set up!

Food in Shanghai

This past month, most of my culinary adventures involved trying new fun vegan recipes, mostly soups. However, this past weekend, one of my friends celebrated her birthday by having a Dim Sum Brunch! Thanks to help from my friend Hannah Maia and the waitstaff, I was able to figure out what I could enjoy!

I enjoyed a crispy turnover filled with radish, a Chinese green (unsure what the vegetable’s name was), a Z-rou (a Chinese vegan meat product) in a vegetable broth, delicious crystal dumplings, and a buddhist’s delight noodle soup! The dumplings were definitely my favorite!

I hope that you all enjoyed seeing the highlights of my past month, especially the Temple of Light and my Lunar New Year celebrations! For any of you who are celebrating, I hope that you have a lovely Lunar New Year Celebration. This upcoming month, I’ll have some more Lunar New Year celebrations to share with you as well as any updates about what it’s like to have China host the Olympics — If anything changes in Shanghai. I’m sure Emmet will have more to say about that. I’ll also be able to take a little bit of a break (since the semester is over) so I will try to spend more time with my friends! I hope that the start of 2022 is happy, safe, and healthy for all of you!

In peace,

Jesse

Trivia

2021 Year in Review

1). On this day in January, President Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.

2). On March 6th, these two religious leaders met in Najaf, Iraq. The first time two people in these positions have ever met.

3). On April 11th, this man won the 2021 Masters, making him the first Japanese (national) man to win a golf major

4). On April 19th, this American rock lyricist, known for songs including Bat out of Hell and Total Eclipse of the Heart passed away.

5). On May 14th, the Chinese National Space Administration landed this rover on the Utopia Planitia on Mars.

6). On June 13th, Benjamin Netanyahu is finally voted out of office in Israel and replaced by this man?

7). On July 23rd, the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo began when this athlete lit the Olympic Flame.

8). On October 6th, the World Health Organization endorsed the first vaccine against this mosquito born virus.

9). On November 11th, this 7th and last state President of South Africa and Nobel laureate passed away. He was president of South Africa when the country dismantled apartheid.

10). On December 25th, this newest space telescope that was launched by NASA! Bonus Point — Who was this telescope named after (i.e., what was this person’s job)

1). January 20th 2). Pope Francis and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani 3). Hideki Matsuyama 4). Jim Steinman 5). Zhurong 6). Naftali Bennett 7). Naomi Osaka 8). Malaria 9). F.W. de Klerk 10). JWST — James Webb was the 2nd administrator of NASA from 1961-1968.

Hi Everyone, welcome back to Astronomer in Shanghai. I hope you are all enjoying the beginning of winter, maybe even some snow (I miss snow–unlike Beijing, Shanghai is still quite warm (mid 50s) and it never snows). If you work in Academia, I hope that your fall semester has gone well, too. I hope that all of you had a lovely Thanksgiving, whether you were able to celebrate together with family and friends or virtually. For those of you who celebrate, I hope that you had a happy Channukkah filled with latkes and sufganiyot (doughnuts)! As you read this, I hope that all of you, your family, and your friends continue to stay safe and healthy (and boosted).

This was a very eventful month for me with multiple Thanksgiving celebrations and even more Channukkah parties, as well as a few other fun things to share!

Astronomy in Shanghai

Unlike in the US, the fall semester is still going strong in China (it ends in mid January before the Chinese Lunar New Year). So, I’ve been hard at work on a variety of my different Astronomy projects. Most of my focus has been spent on what I will refer to as Project Population, my Luminosity Function project. I’ve been tinkering a lot with the different parameters and measurements in my mock and am getting close to ironing out all the nuances. I’m also in the process of building another Bayesian MCMC (markov chain monte carlo) statistical model to study the weak lensing profiles I measured as part of Project Proxy, my analysis on different galaxy cluster halo mass (the amount of dark matter in a cluster) proxies. Additionally, I’ve been working on both adjusting some of my measurements relating to Project Outskirts, my project studying the faint intra-cluster light and it’s evolution as well as beginning to do some writing! Thanks to advice from my friend/collaborator Yuanyuan, I’ve been spending 30 minutes writing for that analysis every day and am in the process of putting together a paper (even though we’re still finalizing the analysis). I’m also planning to resubmit my paper on the DES stellar mass – halo mass relation and it’s evolution (Project Magnitude Gap III) as soon as possible. Lastly, I’ve just started getting my DESI (the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument) research on massive galaxies going! So, I’m doing my best to balance a lot of really interesting research projects! So, hopefully it’ll be a very productive end of 2021 and start to 2022.

Additionally, this past month, I was featured on DESI’s website as part of the meet a DESI member feature! Check it out to learn a bit more about what I’m doing as part of DESI!

Life in Shanghai

Although most of my time was spent working on my various Astronomy projects, I also spent time doing other fun things. Over the past 14 months, I’ve been doing Duolingo to learn Mandarin. Last Spring, there was a class offered for foreign scientists at SJTU’s TDLI institute. Unfortunately, the TDLI institute moved off campus, so I’m no longer able to participate in those classes (the new location is far from by campus and my apartment). However, one of Emmet’s friends in Beijing is leading an 8 week virtual Chinese survival course, which has been a great help so far in providing me some of the key phrases that I need for simple day-to-day interactions. Emmet and I also participated in a virtual course lead by the Vegans of Beijing about how to ask if food is Vegan (which is much more complicated than it is in the US, so I will likely be mostly sticking to vegan/vegetarian/Buddhist restaurants). Though I’m nowhere near close to fluent, I can now more easily do simple things like introduce myself and buy food at restaurants, without simply pointing!

While I didn’t have Solo staying with me this month, I did go over to visit him (and feed him for a few days)! He’s so adorable, that I couldn’t resist sharing a few photos with all of you!

One of the main highlights of this past month, was Thanksgiving! This is my third Thanksgiving in Shanghai. Thanksgiving is a tough holiday to spend abroad, without family, so I’m so grateful for my friends who invited me to share the holiday with them!

On the actual Thanksgiving, I was invited to join the Potter-Lewis family (one of the families in the Kehilat Shanghai community that I’m close with, both the parents and the sons) and my friend Josh (the former KS president) at the lovely and elegant restaurant M on the Bund! Though not everything I ate was traditional Thanksgiving food, it was so much fun to join them for a festive meal!

I enjoyed a green soup, a lychee drink, sweet potato gnocchi (I had 2 servings), and a lovely trio of three lemon deserts! Though the vegan/vegetarian food options weren’t Thanksgiving themed, the sentiment and feeling throughout the meal certainly was! It was such a wonderful evening and it was so nice to celebrate on Thanksgiving, unlike in past years.

Additionally, I couldn’t help but take some amazing photos of the Bund at night. Shanghai’s skyline is so majestic!

On Saturday, my friend Kim invited me to a lovely Friendsgiving! There was so much delicious food! I made seitan to share, which people really enjoyed!

You can see some of the delicious offerings! Including a wonderful mushroom soup, many vegetarian dishes and a fantastic desert spread!

Even though I had two lovely in-person Thanksgiving celebrations, the most meaningful celebration was on Friday morning, when I got to celebrate virtually with my parents and Emmet! I haven’t been home for Thanksgiving since 2018 (I moved to Shanghai in October of 2019). Even though we couldn’t virtually run the Turkey Trot together, it was really nice to all talk together around the dinner table (though Emmet and I were eating breakfast). Since I haven’t been able to return home in over two years, family holidays like Thanksgiving and Passover are particularly difficult, so I’m grateful that I was able to virtually join my parents and brother and share my gratitude for all their love and support.

Overall, I really enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving three times this year; all very different, yet wonderful experiences!

In addition to my Thanksgiving photos, there were a lot of other cool things I wanted to share with you. First, I wanted to give you a sense of Shanghai in the fall/winter, so here are a bunch of photos of either the Former French Concession, where I live, and one of the SJTU campus, where I work!

One of my favorite aspects of the Former French Concession is that it doesn’t feel like it’s in a mega-city. It’s so much smaller and manageable. In terms of winter in Shanghai, as you can see some of the trees to change colors. However, it’s still quite warm, so it doesn’t really feel like winter to me. Most days are in the mid to upper 50s. When I go running, I rarely have to wear a jacket (or even my full length tights), which is nice! I’m usually running 2 times a week and going to F45 on the other days, so still exercising a lot!

Additionally, here are some photos of cool decorations, signs, statues, or other things around Shanghai! I love that whenever I go for a walk, there is so much cool stuff to see!

And of course, I had to take a photo of the Benjamin Bunny sweater at Uniqlo! Also, for those of you who are curious, there are Christmas decorations up all around Shanghai. Most are located at malls or in front of big foreign brand stores. However, Christmas is entirely a commercial holiday in China (it’s not a day off, though some international schools give the day off).

Food in Shanghai

At the beginning of December I went to one of my favorite vegan/vegetarian restaurants, Godly, with my friend Anton (he’s Solo’s human)!

We enjoyed kaofu (spongy seitan) with mushrooms, potato shreds, ma po tofu, sword beans (my favorite), stewed tofu hot pot, and a sweet and our soup! Overall it was another delicious and spicy meal at Godly!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

This past month was filled with so many wonderful and fun events within the Kehilat Shanghai community! While much of the month was fixated around Channukkah, one other thing that I wanted to share was that this week, I led a very interesting discussing as part of the adult education program on whether Joseph should be viewed as a role model. We focused on the forgiveness he gives his brothers (a lesson we can all learn from and applaud) as well as his actions as the Vizier of Egypt (where, to survive the famine, he creates a system of indentured servitude, which I don’t think is very good). Overall it was a really interesting and captivating discussing. I look forward to leading other discussions in the future. 🙂

Unsurprisingly, the highlight of this month was all the Channukkah parties! I went to three!! We are so fortunate here in Shanghai that we are able to safely gather with friends and as a community. Even though I know that many of you were not able to do so, I hope that you still had a fun holiday and enjoyed some delicious latkes!

To me, Channukkah would not be complete without lighting my menorah every night. Though not always in the same place, I love sharing photos of my menorah from each night!

On both the 1st and 8th night of Channukkah, I was invited by members of the Kehilat Shanghai community to their homes to celebrate Channukkah! Many of the people that I joined with are members of the Family Shabbat community, the Kehilat families with young children who gather once a month for a relaxed Shabbat dinner of Pizza, and sometimes desert made by me!). Even though I don’t have a family here in Shanghai, these people, especially my friend Ha, have welcomed me with open arms into their community to join them. Although the screaming children can sometimes be a little much (though often it reminds me of fond memories of my time in Michigan spent with my cousin Margaret and her family), I’m so grateful to be part of such a caring and warm community! There is so much warmth and kindness that emanates from that group and I’m grateful to be included.

While these Channukkah celebrations were both lovely and intimate, the most fun Channukkah celebration was our 5th annual Shabbatakkah, Shabbat of Channukkah celebration! Ha and I co-organized this party again at Tacolicious! We had over 100 community members, including many of my friends, join us for a fantastic celebration with so many delicious latkes and sufganiyot!

As you can see, the party was so much fun! It was so beautiful to see a full row of menorahs all lit up! It was so great getting to relax and celebrate with so many of my friends and fellow community members! Next year, I’ll have to remember to take more photos with my friends, too! And of course, the latkes and sufganiyot that Chef Thiis made were absolutely fantastic! I can’t wait to celebrate together again next year!

I hope that you all enjoyed hearing about my Thanksgiving and Channukkah celebrations! For all of you on the other side of the street celebrating Christmas next week, I hope that you have a lovely and safe holiday with your family and friends. As we all enter 2022, I want to wish you all a Happy and healthy New Year! I hope that 2022 is a year filled with great joy and successes for everyone as well as much improved health and safety around the world.

In peace,

Jesse

Hi Everyone, welcome back to another entry of Astronomer in Shanghai. I hope that you are all enjoying lovely fall weather (fall weather is a little different in Shanghai) and that you are looking forward to having a safe and healthy Thanksgiving. As you read this, I hope that all of you, your family, and your friends continue to stay safe and healthy. If you have children, I hope that you’ve been able to get them vaccinated and if you’re eligible, I hope that you’ve been able to get your covid-19 booster shot, as well.

From observing as part of DESI to the Kehilat Shanghai retreat, his has been a very busy and eventful month, so there’s a lot of fun and interesting things to share with you!

Astronomy in Shanghai

I’m still working on 5 different projects (all moving at varying speeds). My DES paper on the evolution of the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass relation should be resubmitted to the Astrophysical Journal referee soon, so hopefully that process with be successful. I’m also making headway on some of my other projects, most notably, my work on different halo mass proxies and the Luminosity Function analysis. So, I hope to have some interesting updates on those in future entries as well.

The main Astronomy highlight of this past month was that I got to do remote observing for DESI (the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument)! Unlike Emmet, this was my first time doing remote observing. For those non-Astronomers, remote observing means that I was looking at the telescope controls, monitoring the data, checking weather conditions throughout the night. All things that can be done remotely without actually being on site (which is why SJTU has made a big emphasis on post-doc and graduate student participation). I was acting in the role of data quality scientist (another Astronomer onsite was in charge of operating the telescope, which is located at Kitt Peak, in Arizona). For 4 days at the end of October/beginning of November, I was on duty. The benefit of being in China is that instead of it being in the middle of the night, my shift ran from 9am – 3pm (with a planning meeting at 7am). So, it was definitely less tiring than my observing runs back in the US. 🙂 Overall, it was a really cool experience! Below you can see some of the different computer screens that I was looking at, including the night sky viewer (it was dark time, when the moon wasn’t out, so you can see the Milky Way) and read noise display. I was also on communication with the other Astronomer on Zoom the entire time.

And yes, that is my cat-friend Solo, who joined me for observing (more on that later)! 🙂 Prior to this opportunity, I didn’t have much experience taking spectroscopic data, so it was really neat looking at the data and provided me with a much better sense of the DESI observing process. I’m already signed up to do it again in March! 🙂

In addition to observing, this past weekend, there was a partial lunar eclipse. Thankfully, it was clear in Shanghai and we had a spectacular view of the moon!

I hope some of you were also able to see it around the world as well!

Life in Shanghai

Although my Astronomy research has unsurprisingly been occupying almost all of my time (that’s what happens when you’re working on 5 projects with collaborators in both China and the US), I still make time for myself. I’ve continued going to F45 ~4 times per week and then running ~2 times per week. It’s now getting cool enough (mid 60’s most days), that I can run very comfortably in Shanghai so I’m working that back into my routine as well. I’ve also made time for some fun activities, as well.

Last weekend, my friend Hannah Maia and I made Cranberry relish. Although not jam, this is one of her family traditions that she makes every year. It’s a mix of cranberries, applies, brown sugar, raisins, and walnuts, which makes for a very tasty and sweet cranberry spread!

Since I was doing remote observing during Halloween, I didn’t go to any Halloween parties that weekend. For those of you who are curious, Halloween does happen in Shanghai, entirely because of the large expat communities. There are some decorations up at restaurants and one of my favorite import stores was even selling cute pumpkins, that I had to get! The two Halloween events that I went to were our Halloween themed trivia night, with rounds including Name that Superhero and Superhero Origin stories and Moishe House’s Halloween cookie decorating. You can see my two cookies below!

This past weekend, I also attended another anti-racism discussion led by my friend Clem. It was a really interesting discussion, as always. This time the participants were much more diverse (globally), so I really appreciated hearing everyone’s perspective about racism and the systematic inequalities that exist in countries other than the US. With the continued turmoil in the US surrounding the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial and the trial of the three men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery, I think that it continues to be paramount that all of us try to be better human beings and make our world a more just and equitable society.

Though not related to anti-racism, the venue featured some really awesome art by black artists living in China!

One of the other highlights of this month was that I had a return visit from Solo! During the days surrounding my remote observing run, my friend Anton had a work trip, so I got to have Solo stay with me again! Having already spent so much time at my apartment, Solo adjusted incredibly quickly and returned to all of his favorite spots (though I don’t think he was a fan of the monitor I brought to my apartment for remote observing) since it was blocking his view out my window.

He’s such an adorable cat! Plus, he made it a lot more fun to sit in front of my computer for 4 straight days!

Additionally, I saw a lot of other cute cats and my favorite dog, Pina!

However, even with Halloween, the most truly bizarre thing that I have ever seen in Shanghai (and very possibly in my life) was on one Friday night a few weeks ago when I saw a woman walking her llama!!! I at first did a double take assuming that it was a big dog, like Pina. However, I was stunned to see that it was a llama. I didn’t realize that anyone had a llama as a pet and I was not the only person stopping to take photos of it.

In addition to all the cute (and interesting) animals, I also saw a lot of other really cool things that I wanted to share with you. To first follow Emmet’s example from his blog, I’ll start by showing you a bunch of the cool anime and comics things that I saw. Some of these are out in the wild and the rest are from the XII toy store that I visited this weekend.

And now some photos of other cool things in Shanghai!

As well as some gorgeous photos of Shanghai. A lot of the ones at night are on the SJTU campus. I love the way the clouds and the moon look!

Food in Shanghai

I’ve mentioned this before, but my absolute favorite street food is a Jianbing. Jianbing are similar to crepes filled with a thin layer of egg then sauce and veggies. However, Just Egg, a vegan egg substitute has been partnering with local Jianbing sellers, which was when I first tried them (since I don’t eat eggs). I’ve been a big fan of Jianbing ever since! Below, you can see the process of how they’re made. First the dough is spread, then a thin layer of egg is added. After that, veggies and a cracker are added. I had potato shreds, scallions, and tofu skins. After that it’s folded and cut in half! Plus I was even able to ask for the price in Chinese! Even though my mandarin still isn’t very good, I always try to use it when I can (and resort to google translate when I fail).

Jianbing makes for a delicious lunch and special thanks to my Mom for encouraging me to get one to celebrate her birthday in October (Happy Birthday Mom)!

Additionally, during the past month, I got lunch at a new vegan restaurant with one of my friends! We got seasonal vegetables, ma po tofu, vegetable tempura, and a make your own wrapper with pickled veggies and fried mushrooms!

Overall, this was a really delicious meal! I’ll definitely be back for a return visit!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

The main highlight of this month was the Kehilat Shanghai retreat! At the beginning of November (it’s still warm enough in Shanghai in November to do outdoor activities 🙂 ), a group of ~ 25 members of the Kehilat Shanghai community spent the weekend at the Shanghai Yacht Club, which is located at a lake on the outskirts of Shanghai. We did all kinds of community and team building activities from Jewish rituals, to discussions, to fun outdoor activities! This was the first real trip that I’ve had (for those of your concerned, I have taken breaks from work, just ones that I stayed at home) since my trip to Harbin! Overall, it was a lot of fun and my friend Ha did a fantastic job organizing such a fun trip. Below you can see photos from some of the highlights.

On the first night of the retreat, Friday, we began by doing the Shabbat blessings and then I lead some songs (special thanks to my Dad for sharing some of his favorites with me). After that we grilled up a bunch of delicious food (lots of veggies and tofu for me to enjoy)!

The benefit of being at the Shanghai Yacht club was that it allowed us to do a lot of fun outdoor activities on the water. Though we weren’t able to go swimming (a little to cold for that). We did get to go canoeing, which was a blast! You can see the different bridges and beautiful trees that we were canoeing around. It’s been a long time since I’ve done any kind of rowing, so it was a little difficult to steer and control the boat at first, but after a while I was able to get the hang of it!

The other really awesome activity that we did was dragon boat racing!! For those of you who are unfamiliar, dragon boats are somewhat similar to crew boats. However, you sit side by side with another person. A full boat seats ~ 20 rowers (each responsible for a single side). In addition to the coxswain, who actually steers the boat, there’s a drummer at the head of the boat who sets the pacing. If you recall, I was unable to watch the dragon boat racing during this past years dragon boat festival, so I was super excited for this! As you can see the dragon boats themselves are really cool to look at! However, I will admit that dragon boat racing is really hard. You use a lot of pull from your legs, which I didn’t expect and my right arm was pretty tired afterwards. However, even though it was hard work, and my team lost, it was great fun and definitely something I’d love to do again!

In addition to the two fun water activities (done on Saturday and Sunday, respectively), we also did other enjoyable activities. During the day on Saturday, the adults had a fascinating discussion on Jewish history (particularly with relation to different geographic parts of Israel) as well as a discussion on how we can engage with Judaism as a community in our world today. Later that evening, I led a lovely Havdalah and then we ended the night with a bonfire and more campfire songs!

Below are a variety of photos from the Shanghai Yacht Club grounds, which are absolutely gorgeous, especially in the sunlight. It was really nice waking up each morning and walking by the water, seeing the waves, and feeling the cool breeze. Though parts of the marina (not a lot of photos of that) reminded me of Saratoga Lake, seeing the pagodas and other architectural marvels brought me right back to China.

Overall, it was wonderful to escape from work and downtown Shanghai for a few days and spend the weekend in nature. Getting out of the city every few months is definitely something I need to try to do more of. It was such a wonderful experience getting to spend more time with different members of the Kehilat Shanghai Community. I’m so glad that I was able to participate and look forward to our next retreat!

On top of all the fun at the retreat, we also had all our other regular Kehilat Shanghai events (which I sadly forgot to take pictures at). However, I’ve continued to enjoy leading the monthly Community Shabbat services. Plus, in an effort to be more green, we’ve decided to no longer get utensils (when we order food) and instead got sets of reusable silverware that we can use at Community and Family Shabbats! Glad that we’re trying to Green!

I hope that you all enjoyed hearing about my observing run, seeing more of Solo, and seeing the highlights from the Kehilat Shanghai retreat and my many other photos. This upcoming month we have both Thanksgiving and Channukkah celebrations. So, I wish all of you a healthy, happy, and safe Thanksgiving. Even amidst some of the chaos of 2021, I hope that you, like me, have a lot to be thankful for. Additionally, for those of you who celebrate Channukkah, I hope that you enjoy the festival and are able to indulge in some delicious latkes! I know I’ll have a lot of fun stuff (and hopefully some Astronomy news) to share with you next time and I hope you all continue to stay safe, happy, and healthy!

In peace,

Jesse

Trivia

Superhero/villain Origins

ž1). In the original origin of this character, done by William Marston, this hero was brought to life when her mother sculpted her out of clay.
2). In this manga/anime, young hero Izuku Midoriya, gains his quirk, his superpower, when his idol All Might gifts him his own powers.
3). This villain/anti-hero’s tragic origins include being imprisoned in a concentration camp for being a Jew.  Later using his powers to free himself.
4). žOne of Aquaman’s greatest enemies is this villain, who swore revenge upon a young Arthur for killing his father, while his father was robbing an ocean vessel. 
5). This group of heroes gained their powers while being exposed to cosmic radiation in a space mission that ended disastrously. 
6). žThe alter ego of this version of the Flash gained his powers when he was struck by a bolt of lightning and doused with chemicals when he was visiting the lab of Barry Allen. 
7). žThis anti-hero and veteran’s violent war on crime was sparked by the tragic murder of his wife and children.
8). One of the versions of this villain is Basil Karlo, a B-list actor, who began abusing an industrial makeup, that ultimately transformed him, after being disfigured in a car accident. 
9). žThese two mutant brothers who lost their parents during a plane crash, were saved by the activation of their mutant powers.  Later on, these brothers would both become leaders of the X-Menž.
10). žIn the Watchmen Universe, scientist Dr. Jonathan Osterman, become this all-powerful cosmic deity, following a nuclear accident. 

Answers: 1). Wonder Woman 2). My Hero Academia 3). Magneto 4). Black Manta 5). The Fantastic Four 6). Wally West 7). The Punisher 8). Clay Face 9). Cyclops and Havok 10). Doctor Manhattan

Hi Everyone! Welcome back to Astronomer in Shanghai! I hope that all of you are enjoying the start of fall and a return to cooler temperatures and crisper weather (it’s finally fall in Shanghai, too!). Unlike September, which was a whirlwind month, with the High Holy Days and Emmet’s arrival in China, this past month has been much quieter and calmer, more work focused for me. Since my last entry, Emmet started his own blog. I know many of you have taken a look at it and subscribed and gotten to start seeing what Beijing looks like, but if you haven’t I encourage you all to check it out!

Additionally, I hope that you all are continuing to remain safe and healthy. While I know that many of you are vaccinated (if you aren’t and are able to, please consider doing so), from talking to my parents, I can understand how stressful this time is in the US. Like in the US, in China, there is ongoing debate about whether people need to get a booster vaccine shot (some provinces have started to do so for the at risk and elderly). However, because of the Chinese government’s strict quarantine policies for incoming travelers and responding to outbreaks, the situation here remains under control. While these policies can only really happen in China, they do allow me to be at ease going about my life here in Shanghai.

During the past month, China celebrated the national holiday, something akin to the Fourth of July, which celebrates the founding of the People’s Republic of China. This holiday is celebrated every year on October 1st and then for the first 7 days of the month. Other than some decorations and a lot of flower displays marking the holiday, there weren’t any events to celebrate that I was aware of. I did get a box of goodies (cookies, nuts, dried fruit, candy) from SJTU! Additionally, the University was closed for the holiday and many people traditionally travel (though do to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, SJTU discouraged us from traveling, so I chose not to).

Since I spent the holiday working from home, this month allowed me the opportunity to get caught up on a variety of different projects. Though I won’t go into much detail (since that would take up a lot of space), I will say that I’m making great progress on my research on the Luminosity Function as well as on the evolution of the Intra-Cluster Light. I’ve even started writing up a paper about the ICL! So, hopefully I’ll have some new results and papers to share with you in the coming months!

Currently, Astronomy and space are very popular in China! As I noted in previous blog posts, the Taikonauts, the Chinese astronauts, have been getting tons of media attention for their exploits. Recently a crew of three Taikonauts (including a female Taikonaut) were sent to the Chinese Space Station for a 6 month shift. There was a lot of news because this is the first female Taikonaut to be sent to the Chinese space station and also because this 6 month mission will mean that the Taikonauts will celebrate Chinese new year in space! Almost every few days, one of my friends will share a news article on WeChat or I’ll see a news article on some of the English language news feeds that I follow. When talking to my Dad, it seems like a lot of the excitement that existed in the US around the Apollo missions is what we are currently experiencing in China. As an Astronomer, I love seeing the public’s fascination with space! Moreover, Shanghai even recently opened a new Planetarium (very excited to go once tickets become more easily available — it’s in high demand right now).

Outside of my research, the primary highlight of this past month, especially the October holiday, was that my friend Anton’s cat, Solo, got to stay with me for a few weeks. Anton was traveling during the national holiday and asked if Solo could stay with me. I haven’t had a cat live with me since I was staying with my parents for a few months before moving to Shanghai, so it was a fun experience for me, and one that I really enjoyed! Thankfully, Anton and I have similar apartments, so Solo was able to adapt to his new/temporary home easily! Here you can see a massive gallery of Solo exploring my apartment, coming to say Hi when I was using the bathroom, finding new places (mostly sunny ones) to nap during the day, and new corners to squeeze himself into as well!

As you can see, it was a lot of fun having Solo stay with me! Solo was a very good roommate! 🙂 While I wasn’t used to a cat bounding across my bed in the middle of the night or bolting around my apartment then jumping on top of the fridge, it was certainly a fun experience and made the holiday, which I spent working from home, more enjoyable!

One fun thing that I did this past month was more jam making with my friend Hannah Maia! This time, we made persimmon jam and fig jam! We made fig jam last year, so I was excited to make that again. However, I was hesitant to make persimmon jam. The only time I had ever eaten a persimmon was when I did birthright in Israel. On the first night in Israel, there was a bowl of fruit on the dinner table, so I tried a persimmon. However, nobody told me that I wasn’t supposed to eat the outside of the persimmon. Thus, my lasting memory of persimmons is what I can only describe as eating a sweater surrounding a peach. Thankfully, to my surprise, the persimmon jam was much more delicious! As you can see, the colors of both jams are lovely!

Additionally, these are two flavors that my Mom has never made, which given her mastery of so many flavors of jam is rare!

As I previously mentioned, it’s finally cool here in Shanghai (mid 60s). So that means I’m finally able to run again!! I’m currently running 2-3 times per week and going to F45 4-5 times per week (weather dependent for running). So, I’m still able to make time for lots of exercise and take advantage of the great running weather!

Like always, there were also a lot of really cool things that I saw around the city that I wanted to share with you!

As well as some cute cats and dogs! Including my friend’s Kate and Ilan’s dog Pina and cat Maguey and Hannah Maia and Sydney’s cats Friday and Lilo!

And if you’re wondering, Maguey did join Kate, Ilan, Pina, and I outside (on a leash) for ice cream!

Lastly, I know that in the US, electric cars are just starting to become popular/more common place. However, here in China, especially in Shanghai, they are incredibly popular. All motor scooters are also electric, too! The government does subsidize electric cars, but even in small neighborhood compounds (that are not modern) like where I live, we now have electric car charging stations!

I hope this is the case in the US by the time I return!

Food in Shanghai

During the October Holiday, I got lunch with my friend Ha at Duli, one of my favorite vegan restaurants in Shanghai, which does a Chinese/Western fusion! We enjoyed a roasted cauliflower curry, a farro salad, pad thai, and I had an iced bubble tea!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

After an month of leading the High Holiday services in Shanghai, it was nice to have a quieter month of Judaic activities. One of the Kehilat community members hosted a lovely Family Shabbat in the Sukkah to celebrate Sukkot! Sukkot is always tricky to celebrate here, since few people have yards/porches that allow for a Sukkah, so it was really nice to get the opportunity to celebrate in a real Sukkah!

Additionally, we also continued our monthly community Shabbat dinner and services in October. I got the chance to lead the service, which was fun! As we’ve continued to do these with regularity, it’s been really nice to see more people come and return each time! As someone who finds Shabbat a relaxing end to the week, I’m really glad that we restarted these. 🙂

Also, today, I got to lead a discussion on Judaism and Astronomy for the first Kehilat Shanghai Adult Education discussion of the year! I focused mostly on the creation story in Genesis and how it compares to our current understanding of modern Cosmology and the creation of the Universe. From my perspective, Astronomy/Cosmology provides a quantitative viewpoint of trying to understand how the Universe forms, not why we are here, while Genesis takes an antrocentric viewpoint in it’s mythological explanation of how the earth was created. The goal of Science is mostly to address how the Universe was formed and how life started while religion is attempting to understand the why. We had a really great discussion and I really enjoyed getting to discuss this topic, something I’m often asked about, with the other attendees!

Additionally, we also had another fantastic trivia night! This time, trivia was “High Holiday” themed, so I wrote questions on categories including Rosh and Fasting! I hope you enjoy them below.

I hope that you all enjoyed hearing about and seeing the highlights of last month (namely Solo). 🙂 This upcoming month should be a nice balance of work and fun with a Kehilat Community retreat as well as my first opportunity to do remote observing for DESI! So, there will definitely be a lot to share with you all! I hope you all continue to stay safe and healthy!

In peace,

Jesse

Trivia

Rosh

1). This Batman villain’s name translates from Arabic to “The Demon’s Head.”

2). In the legend of Sleepy Hollow, this protagonist is haunted by the Headless Horseman?

3). Rokurokubi and Nukekubi are both types of these creates from Japanese folklore one of which is characterized by a neck that stretches and the other has a head that detaches freely.

4). The Phrase “Heavy is the Head that wears the Crown” appears in what Shakespeare drama?

5). To within 5, how many bones are there within the human head?

6). The head of this British monarch appeared on the world’s first adhesive postage stamp, the penny black.

7). Rosh Hashanah is the New Year celebration what is Rosh Chodesh

8). How many NFL teams have human heads in their logos

9). Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, and Philip Selway made up this band?

10). In this sport, Head races are time trial races over a set distance. Famous examples include Head of the River Race (on the Thames) and Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston.

Fasting

1). On Yom Kippur we traditionally fast for how many hours?

2). Jews also traditionally fast on this holiday, which commemorates the destruction of the temple.

3). This celebration marks the end of the month of Ramadan and an end to this period of fasting in Islam.

4). Baha’u’llah is a 19 day period each year during which adult members of this faith fast from sunrise to sunset.

5). Members of this branch of Christianity traditionally fast multiple times of the year, including the Great Lent, every Wednesday and Friday, the Nativity Fast, the Apostles Fast, and the Dormition Fast.

6). Fasting is often practiced in Buddhism during periods of intensive meditation. Though not the same as some of the other fasts, during these time periods, followers avoid eating animal products and processed foods as well as the five pungent foods. Name them:

7). Throughout his life Gandhi undertook many fasts or hunger strikes as part of his non-violent philosophy. His longest fast was 21 days, which he did 3 times. Once to support Hindu/Muslim unity, Once in objection to being detained without charges by the British, and a third time in an attempt to improve the conditions of this lowest caste in India.

8). In Daoist philosophy, The Bigu, practice of avoiding this type of food was known as a technique for becoming transcendent/immortal?

9). The Irish Hunger Strike (this is the second one during this time period) of what year was the culmination of 5 years of protest during the troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. This strike was highlighted by Bobby sands who was a member of British parliament

10). As part of this ancient religion of India (that preaches non-violence) as part of a fast, a person must make a vow, a formal statement of intent, prior to the fast.

Answers for Rosh: 1). Ra’s al Ghul 2). Ichabod Crane 3). Yokai 4). Henry IV 5). 28 6). Queen Victoria 7). Start of the month 8). 4 9). Radiohead 10). Crew/Rowing

Answers for Fasting: 1). 25 2). Tisha b’av 3). Eid al-Fitr 4). Bahai 5). Eastern Orthodox 6). Onions, Garlic, Scallions, Chives, Leeks 7). The untouchables/Harijans 8). Grain 9). 1981 10). Jainism

Hi Everyone! Welcome back to Astronomer in Shanghai! I hope that all of you had an enjoyable, safe, and healthy end of the summer. For those of you that it impacts, I hope that you have had an easy adjustment to the start of the new school year and that whatever restrictions due to covid-19 that are in place are allowing you to feel safe and stay healthy. Additionally, for all of you who celebrated Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I want to start by wishing you all L’Shana Tova and hope that you had an easy and meaningful fast! I’ve been very busy since my last post, from introducing Emmet to Shanghai, presenting my research at a virtual conference, to co-leading Kehilat Shanghai’s High Holiday services. So, I’ve got a ton of highlights to share with you!

Adventures with Emmet!

As I mentioned in my last update, Emmet got out of his 2 week hotel quarantine on August 17th, which was then followed by a 1 week period of community health monitoring. He then spent ~ 2 weeks in Shanghai with me before moving to Beijing to start his post-doc at Tsinghua University. I had so much fun hosting Emmet in my apartment and getting to show him parts of Shanghai! Since this was Emmet’s first (of many) visits to Shanghai, I wanted to make sure that he saw some of the most recognizable spots as well as some of my favorite spots in Shanghai!

There’s so much to see in Shanghai, so Emmet and I spent an entire day walking around different parts of the city. From people’s square to the Bund, and then to the Yu Gardens. It was great fun showing Emmet some of the most iconic parts of Shanghai. Of course we had to get a picture in front of the iconic Shanghai skyline on the Bund, which is highlighted by the always impressive Shanghai Tower! Maybe next time we’ll go see the Bund lit up at night! 🙂

We next went to the gorgeous Yu Gardens (Yuyuan). Yuyuan is an amazing Garden complex located right in the heart of Old Shanghai. It’s surrounded by a shopping center (that’s built to look traditional), but you wouldn’t know it once you’re inside. Yuyuan is one of my favorite places in Shanghai, because it doesn’t feel like your in a giant and modern city! I love coming to the gardens every few months, so it was a must share with Emmet!

The part of the garden that Emmet and I enjoyed the most was this really cool bonsai garden that was covered with mist (which was very enjoyable on a hot day–it was almost 100 degrees). The mist made it feel as though instead of being in Shanghai we were in the mountains!

Additionally, since Emmet and I are both huge fans of comic books and manga, we had to go to the Foreign Language Bookstore as well as some of the anime/toy stores around Shanghai! Uniqlo also even had a new Demon Slayer shirt that we bought!

There are so many amazing models and statues! One of my favorite things about living in China is how popular many of the manga/anime that I grew up loving are. You see the influences in advertisements and see the characters all over the place (from t-shirts to stores to kids backpacks). Even though Emmet and I only bought a few little statues, it’s always cool seeing some from our favorite animes including Dragon Ball, Gundam, One Piece, Demon Slayer, as well as Batman and our other favorite DC Comics heroes!

In addition to the more famous sites, Emmet and I also spent a lot of time walking around the different parts of Shanghai near where I live (Xuhui, the Former French Concession) and where I used to live (Xintiandi — Fuxing Park and People’s square).

And how could we not take a photo with the statue of Karl Marx (and Friedrich Engles) in Fuxing park!

One of the other highlights of having Emmet here in Shanghai was introducing Emmet to many of my friends! I’ve been telling my friends for over a year that Emmet would be moving to Beijing and that eventually they would get to meet him. So, I was delighted to finally introduce him to many of them (though I’ll have to have another party the next time he visits, since there were many others who didn’t get to meet him). Along with a few dinners with friends, I also hosted a welcome party for Emmet. For that, Emmet taught me how to make vegan Fomu ice cream (we made oreo and chocolate) for my welcome party for him!

Sadly, Emmet did have to leave Shanghai to go start filling out paper work and to begin his postdoc in Beijing. Emmet took the high speed train to Beijing (what I’ll take to visit him), so I went to the train station for the first time to see him off.

Even though Emmet’s not living in Shanghai with me, it’s so nice having him in the same time zone so that we can talk/text throughout the day! 🙂 I look forward to visiting him in Beijing soon, once he’s settled.

Astronomy Update

Even with the High Holidays and Emmet’s arrival in Shanghai, I still had to squeeze time into my day for my research. While I’m not going to be providing a detailed update on the projects that I’m working on this time (I’ll do more updates when I have exciting things to share), I did want to let you know that I had the opportunity to present my research (my DES Stellar Mass – Halo Mass Relation project and my research on Halo Mass proxies at SJTU) at a virtual conference on measuring the Halo Mass of Galaxy Clusters based in Spain ~ 2 weeks ago! Even though I had to present after Erev Rosh Hashanah (at ~ 11pm), I was thrilled with how my talk went! The conference was all done on Zoom and live streamed on Youtube, so Emmet and my parents got to watch it! And since it’s still on Youtube, I wanted to share the video so that all of you have the opportunity to learn about the research that I’ve been doing!

My talk starts right around the 2:05 mark (in case the link doesn’t start there)! Hope you find it interesting! And definitely let me know if you have any questions!

Additionally, though not related to my research, there’s a lot of interest in space and Astronomy in Shanghai and China! Shanghai built a new planetarium, that I hope to visit with friends once the initial rush to get tickets calms down. Moreover, the first three Taikonauts sent to orbit for the construction of the Chinese Space Station safely returned to earth after their 90 day mission! The name Taikonauts comes from Taikong (space in Mandarin) combined with the naut (like astronaut). Following their return the Taikonauts are required to do a 14 day quarantine, just like all other new arrivals to China. 🙂

Kehilat Shanghai High Holy Days

This year I had the pleasure and honor of co-leading the Kehilat Shanghai High Holy day services with my friend and fellow KS board member Alex! This was the second time that I’ve lead Kehilat Shanghai’s High Holy Day services. However, last year, I did it solo. The process of co-leading with Alex was so much easier and less stressful for me and unlike last year I was able to take the time to both enjoy the services and reflect on the past year, my actions, and how I’d like to improve in the coming year.

We are so fortunate that we were able to gather in person as a Jewish community safely in Shanghai! Doing so allowed us to have lovely in person services that everyone within the community could enjoy and participate in! I hope that next year we are all able to gather and celebrate safely together!

Here, you can see some photos that were taken at our Rosh Hashanah services! Alex and I alternated either leading the service or giving the sermon for each of the services. As you can see, I also had the honor of chanting from the torah at both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur! Thanks to the wonderful recordings from Rabbi Linda and Rabbi Jonathan (my Rabbis at Temple Sinai in Saratoga Springs), I was able to successfully learn both portions in ~ 1 week each! So, I’m sure I’ll be able to chant again next year. 🙂

10 days after Rosh Hashanah, we gathered again for a lovely and meaningful Yom Kippur. We were fortunate to have community member who is and professional singer chant a powerful and beautiful rendition of Kol Nidre, which brought tears to my eyes as it reminded me of hearing Gil Harwood’s Kol Nidre when I was growing up within the Temple Sinai community.

One of my favorite aspects of getting to lead services this year was that it provided me the opportunity to give two sermons to the Kehilat Shanghai community. I spoke at Erev Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur day. As preparation for giving the sermons, I spent time reading the different Torah and Haftarah portions associated with each Holy Day. Following that close reading, I outlined what I wanted to talk about and determined how to best convey my message. Special thanks to my Dad for looking at drafts of the outlines and providing insightful advice and feedback! And thanks to both my parents and Emmet for feedback on the final sermon as well.

Since I delivered those sermons to the Kehilat Shanghai community, I also wanted to share them with you all. However, I didn’t actually write them down. Whenever I give Astronomy talks it’s entirely done using notes (no script), so I found it nearly impossible to write out what I wanted to say. So, instead I used an outline. However, since I didn’t think the outline would fully convey my message, I’m sharing with you an audio recording of the sermons that I gave!

For Rosh Hashanah, I was inspired by the story of the Akedah, the binding of Isaac, as well as the Haftarah story of the birth of Samuel and the idea of faith that exists in both stories. Additionally, I focused on Abraham’s use of Hineini and what that means in a modern context for our community. For Yom Kippur, I was inspired by the Prophet Isaiah’s description of “Is this the fast that I have chosen” and spent time talking about what it means to fast and what actions we can ask atonement for.

As a fun sidenote, after giving both of these sermons, Emmet, commented that I had given two sermons that were unknowingly inspired by the manga/anime My Hero Academia, one of our favorites! 🙂 For Rosh Hashanah, I had captured the spirit of All Might, who’s catch phrase is “I am Here,” which is a loose translation of Hineini. For Yom Kippur, I had captured the spirit of Endeavor and his quest to atone for his past actions. So, even though I hadn’t thought of this while I was preparing the sermons, this connection was to fun not to share! 🙂

While I know not all of you celebrated Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I hope that many of you take the time to listen to my sermons (~ 12-13 minutes each). If you do and have any thoughts on them, please let me know! I hope you find them as meaningful and interesting as the members of the Kehilat Shanghai community did.

Overall, it was a very positive experience leading the High Holy Services! Thanks to Alex for making it a much easier and enjoyable experience than last year. It was so nice hearing from so many community members how much they enjoyed the services, how much fun it looked like Alex and I were having, and how meaningful the sermons that we both delivered were. While I hope that in the future the covid-19 situation around the world recovers to the point that we can again invite guest Rabbis to Shanghai, it was very meaningful for me to have the opportunity to help my Kehilat Shanghai community celebrate and begin 5782.

Life in Shanghai

As I noted in the beginning, this was a very busy month. However, that didn’t stop me from exercising and doing some other fun activities. It’s finally getting cool enough that I can comfortably go running, which makes me very happy! However, I’ll still be going to the F45 HIIT classes as well. In addition to what I already described, there were also a few other smaller events that I wanted to mention. As usual, we had our Trivia Night at Tacolicious! I was really happy that Emmet was able to come and participate in this one! I even wrote a twins category in honor of it! (The questions are posted at the end).

Additionally, in the middle of the 10 days of awe, Kehilat Shanghai had another community Shabbat, this time led by Alex. It’s been really nice having these monthly Shabbat gatherings (with services) over the last few months and I look forward to continuing having these in the coming months!

In addition to fun events with friends within the Jewish community, I also got to spend a lot of time with cats (and 1 dog, Pina!)! Part of that was because I was cat sitting for my friend Anton and taking care of his cat Solo (the white/gray cat below)! I also got to meet Kate and Ilan’s new cat Magey (who is so adorable to watch playing with Pina)! Plus, there are always plenty of friendly and photogenic cats in my neighborhood and around Shanghai! Magey, Pina, and Solo are very friendly and cute, so I look forward to playing with them more soon!

Additionally, I saw some other cool street art, art, and signs that I wanted to share!

Food in Shanghai

During Emmet’s visit, I took him to all of my favorite vegan/vegetarian restaurants in Shanghai! So, in addition to cooking together, we had tons of great meals!

First, we had an amazing dinner with my friends John, Alex, Ha, and Nadav at Vegetarian Lifestyle, the first vegetarian restaurant I ever visited in Shanghai and one of my favorites! We enjoyed tamaki hand rolls, spicy mushrooms, fried lotus root, cauliflower, lotus root balls, vegetarian chik’n (seitan), dumplings, eggplant, dragon fruit juice, spicy sword beans, noodles, braised tofu, mushroom bao, fruit, and red bean buns!

The food was so good that it’s hard to pick a favorite. However, the highlight was probably the braised tofu, which melts in your mouth !

After visiting the Bund and Yu Gardens, Emmet and I went to Hui Yuan vegetarian, another personal favorite (though closer to my old apartment). We enjoyed kaofu (spongy seitan), sweet and sour seitan, sword beans, tofu skins, apricot mushrooms (mushrooms with an apricot sauce), and a braised mushroom with seitan dish!

This was another fantastic meal filled with so many different and unique flavors and textures!

Lastly, Emmet and I went to Duli, a vegetarian/vegan Asian fusion restaurant! We enjoyed a wonton soup, ma po tofu hummus, Szechuan tofu stir fry, and cauliflower and corn dumplings!

This was another amazing meal and so different from the others we had enjoyed together!

As you can see there’s so much different and unique dishes that I’m able to enjoy in Shanghai! I’m so grateful that there are so many vegan/vegetarian restaurants that allow me to explore different parts of Chinese cuisine! I’m also so glad that I got to share some of my favorite foods with Emmet and look forward to trying some new vegetarian/vegan restaurants when I go visit Emmet in Beijing!

As you can likely tell, this past month was very eventful and very fun! It was so wonderful to be reunited with Emmet and get to spend so much time together. I was also very grateful that I was able to have a meaningful High Holy Day experience. This upcoming month will definitely be a lot calmer/quieter and more research focused. However, there are two Chinese Holidays, the Mid-Autumn Festival (happening now) and the Chinese National Holiday (celebrating the founding of the People’s Republic of China) at the beginning of October, so I’m sure there will be plenty of interesting things and fun things to share with you all next month. In the meantime, I hope that all of you continue to stay safe and healthy.

In peace,

Jesse

Trivia

Twins
1). In The Prestige, Alfred Borden is actually the stage name of secret twin brothers played by this actor?

2). The twin brother of this famed rock and roll legend, Jesse, died at birth.

3). This protagonist of the Millennium series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series) is a twin (though her sister only plays a role in the 3 most recent books).
Bonus: Name the sister.

4). These twins “co-founded” Facebook along with Mark Zuckerberg?

5). Who are the first pair of twins to appear in the Bible?

6). In this novel by Alexander Dumas, this French monarch is secretly replaced by his hidden twin brother.

7). In this film, Tom Hardy plays Reggie and Ronny Kray, violent gangsters in the London underworld.

8). Name this pair of twins that make up the Constellation Gemini.

9). Twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin are the electro-pop duo behind this hit song from the Lego Movie?

10). Name these two twins who legend says founded Rome.

Famous Philosophers
1). Though it’s unclear if this philosopher existed, he is known as the founder of Daoism.

2). This philosopher and author of the Republic, whose birth name was Aristocles, is considered the founder of Western political philosophy.

3). Name this Philosopher and tutor to Alexander the Great.

4). This philosopher and monk is credited with bringing Buddhism to China

5). “The End Justifies the Means” is often attributed to this author of the Prince, though he never actually used that phrasing

6). This philosopher was the founder of contemporary Kabbalah.

7). “I think therefore I am” was the end result of this Philosopher’s search for a statement that could not be doubted.

8). This Danish Philosopher is considered to be the first existentialist philosopher and wrote texts criticizing religion, Christianity, morality, ethics and many other subjects.

9). This philosopher is considered by many to be the greatest philosopher of the 20th century and his early work included Tractatus, which focused on the logical relationship between propositions and the world.

10). This American philosopher and writer is best known for his work analyzing the Hero’s Journey in The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Answers

Twins: 1). Christian Bale 2). Elvis Presley 3). Lisbeth Salander — Bonus) Camilla 4). Winklevoss Twins 5). Esau and Jacob 6). The Man in the Iron Mask 7). Legend 8). Castor and Pollux 9). Everything is Awesome 10). Romulus and Remus

Philosophers: 1). Lao Tzu 2). Plato 3). Aristotle 4). Bodhidharma 5). Nicola Machiavelli 6). Isaac Luria 7). Rene Descartes 8). Soren Kierkegaard 9). Ludwig Wittgenstein 10). Joseph Campbell

Hi Everyone! Welcome back to Astronomer in Shanghai! I hope that you are all enjoying the end of the summer while staying safe and healthy! This was a fun month with a lot of interesting events and experiences ranging from birthday parties and Shabbat gatherings to the typhoon that hit Shanghai! And of course, I’ll be sharing with you the highlight of my summer, Emmet’s arrival in Shanghai!!!

Due to some new covid-19 restrictions (cases are still incredibly low, but everyone is being cautious, especially at SJTU), I didn’t do any traveling. However, that didn’t stop me from having fun (in between my Astronomy research) here in Shanghai! As I mentioned last month, it’s incredibly hot and humid during the summer. Most days it’s in the mid 90s with high humidity and unfortunately over the last few weeks we’ve had a lot of rain/thunderstorms. I’m still going to F45 5-6 times a week, but hopefully once it cools down a little I’ll be able to add some running back into my routine. Hopefully in the next two months we’ll get some nice fall weather, making running and more outdoor excursions fun!

At the end of July, Shanghai was hit by Typhoon In-Fa. For those of you unfamiliar, a typhoon is the same as a hurricane, different terminology is just used for where it makes landfall. This was my first typhoon, so it was an interesting experience to say the least. For the most part, I hunkered down in my apartment, where surprisingly, I could hear very little of the storm (I hope that means that my apartment building is well built). However, I could see the trees shaking in the wind as well as the heavy rainfall. I ventured out a few times (when the storms were mild) and took some photos to show the damage.

As you can see both in my neighborhood and on campus, a lot of trees either fell down or lost branches. Thankfully, the city workers did a great job getting Shanghai cleaned up and looking beautiful again!

While living through a typhoon is an experience, it’s not something really enjoyable. In contrast, there were a lot of other fun activities that I would do again! 🙂 For example, Hannah Maia and I made gooseberry jam! Gooseberries are very popular in China. My Mom made gooseberry jam years ago, so I followed her recipe. Although I don’t think I’d ever eaten a gooseberry before (they taste kind of like a sweet tomato), the jam came out quite nicely! I look forward to making jam with other Chinese fruits, too!

One other fun highlight of the month was my friend Bruce’s 60th birthday party (Bruce is on the Kehilat Shanghai board with me). It was 60s themed, so I busted out my tye-dye and let my hair down! The party was at a hotel on the Bund (the area along the Huangpu river with many skyscrapers, including the Shanghai tower) so it was a gorgeous skyline to boot! As you can see below, I wasn’t the only one with a great 60s themed costume :).

I always love seeing the Shanghai skyline! It’s almost always lit up at night and always makes for a spectacular view!!

In addition to fun birthday parties, we also had both a family and a community Shabbat with the Kehilat Shanghai community! I got to lead the Shabbat services for the community Shabbat, which I really enjoyed! With few people traveling over the summer, these Shabbats have really provided a nice opportunity to become closer with more of the Kehilat community! It took us, as a board, a while, but we’ve now got a schedule down for Shabbat events, so I really look forward to Shabbats every month!

Along with fun events, there were also some melancholy events. As is the case for any ex-pat community, sometimes people leave and move back home. This past month, the former president of Kehilat Shanghai, and his family moved back to Washington D.C. While it’s sad to see friends and community members leave, it’s nice knowing that because of my experiences in Shanghai I’ll have friends all around the world :). Josh and his family had a lovely send off party at Tacolicious, which was a fun opportunity for me and other members of the Kehilat community to see them all before they moved back!

In addition to a farewell party at Tacolicious, we of course continue to have our Kehilat Shanghai Trivia nights! Since my last post, we had two Trivia nights, I wrote two categories in each. The Apollo 11 Moon landing and Hotter than July and “Suicide Squad: Martyrs and Martyrdom” and “Bye Bye Pervert: Politicians forced to resign.” I’ll share my categories at the end. Hope you enjoy them! In addition, I joined some of my other trivia friends for another Trivia night (that I didn’t host), which was lots of fun, too!

Throughout this month, I also enjoyed a lot of vegan pizza! Since I’m still amazed I can get vegan pizza in Shanghai, here it is (super vegan, vegan Hawaiin, and vegan spicy sausage)!

Along with all the fun events, I saw a ton of cool things I wanted to share with all of you, too!

For those of you wondering, those are constellations on the ceiling of a metro station!

In addition, there were also some cute (and friendly) cats as well as some great photos of my neighborhood and campus post typhoon that I wanted to share!

Shanghai is a beautiful city. I love walking around in the morning in the Former French Concession and seeing the beautiful tree lined streets. Even though I don’t get to leave that often, I’m glad that within such a large city, I’m able to find nice pockets of green space!

The biggest highlight and most exciting part of this month was Emmet’s arrival in China! As many of you know, my twin brother Emmet, accepted a postdoctoral Fellowship at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He was supposed to start last year, but as a result of covid-19 restrictions, wasn’t able to get his visa and come to China until recently. Well at long last, Emmet is in China! He’s currently staying with me in Shanghai until he’s able to go to Beijing (they require a longer quarantine period). So, for the next 2ish weeks, Emmet and I will be able to go on some adventures in Shanghai!

Even though Emmet arrived in Shanghai on August 4th, I wasn’t able to see him until the 18th because of a 2 week hotel quarantine. Despite that, I went and waved at the hotel!

If you zoom in close enough, you can see Emmet in the middle window!

On August 18th, I picked Emmet up from quarantine and we were reunited at long last! I haven’t seen Emmet or any of my family since the beginning of October in 2019, which is far too long!

Now Emmet is staying in my apartment (doing his community health monitoring, 2 more covid-19 tests and daily temperature checks for a few more days). So, we haven’t gotten to do tons of exploring yet. However, I did get to help Emmet get some of his essentials, including a new iphone and a Chinese sim card. To do that, we went to the always luxurious and futuristic IAPM mall not far from my apartment.

Of course, we had to take a picture with the panda! 🙂

Additionally, when Emmet and I passed the Tim Horton’s (yes, there are multiple Tim Horton’s in Shanghai) we knew we had to go in and buy some Tim bits and take a picture. My Mom is from Buffalo, and whenever we would visit our grandparents while we were growing up, they took us to Tim Horton’s. So, seeing one here brought back fond memories from our childhood and time spent with our grandparents in Buffalo!

We also got to celebrate our first Shabbat and havdalah together. We celebrated Shabbat together at home with a Challah from Bread Etc. For Havdalah went to a Kehilat Havdalah Happy Hour hosted by my friends John and Alex! It was great to start to introduce Emmet to the Kehilat community!

This past weekend, we also watched The Suicide Squad together, continuing our effort to see all DC comics movies together (if you enjoy either DC Comics movies or are looking for a fun and entertaining way to spend 2 hours, I highly recommend)!

One thing I’ve really appreciated with having Emmet here is seeing his excitement for all of these new experiences. Emmet’s reactions reminds me how different living in Shanghai is from any other place that I’ve lived before. So much of what first excited and surprised me has now become normal. Whether it’s seeing Emmet’s reaction to how futuristic the IAPM mall looks or watching him figure out what different foods are, it emphasizes that I must continue to treasure all the wonderful experiences I’m having in Shanghai!

In terms of firsts, Emmet got to enjoy his first jian bang! These are Shanghai style street crepes filled with just egg (a vegan egg substitute), scallions, lettuce, tofu skins, a cracker, and a spicy sauce! They’re fantastic!

He got his first opportunity to see a Chinese Buddhist temple, when we walked by the magnificent Jing’an Temple on our way home from havdalah!

We’ll definitely go again so that Emmet can see the beautiful interior.

Additionally, we had our first vegan feast at Godly, one of the oldest and best vegan/vegetarian restaurants in Shanghai!

We enjoyed a lunch of kaofu (Chinese style seitan), vegetarian pork and tofu knots, crispy vegetarian duck, mushrooms and greens, dumplings in peanut sauce, and spicy/crispy sword beans! It was a fantastic meal and I’m so glad Emmet finally got to experience the amazing food that I’ve been enjoying for the past two years!

Over the next few weeks, I’m really excited to introduce Emmet to many of my friends and show him some of my favorite places in Shanghai! After not seeing each other for two years, it’s really wonderful to get to spend so much time together!

Thank you all so much for reading another entry of Astronomer in Shanghai! I hope you enjoyed seeing so much of what I’ve been up to! If you’re interested in what Emmet’s up to, he’ll be setting up a blog in the next few weeks and discussing his experiences as well! For those of you who are starting a new academic year, I hope that that begins safely. Additionally, for any of you celebrating Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Jewish High Holy Days, I hope that you find the holidays enjoyable, meaningful, and are able to reflect on the past year. I’ll be co-leading the services for Kehilat Shanghai, so will let you all know about them next time!

In peace,

Jesse

Trivia

Apollo 11 Moon landing

1). What was the landing site of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module?

2). What were the code names given to the Lunar Module and the Command Module?

3). The Apollo 11 insignia features this animal carrying an olive branch on the moon.
Bonus point — Who designed the logo?

4). Who was the highest ranking US government official who came to the vicinity of the launch site to watch Apollo 11 take off?

5). Who designed the Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo 11 launch?

6). This member of the original Mercury 7 Astronauts was responsible for picking the Apollo 11 crew.

7). How many days was the Apollo 11 space flight (i.e., how many days were their between take off and splash down)?

8). After Armstrong and Aldrin planted the US Flag on the Lunar Surface, President Richard Nixon spoke to them from what location within the White House?

9). Which of these items was not left on the moon following the Apollo 11 moon landing?

A). A memorial bag containing a gold replica of an olive branch
B). A disk containing a listing of the leadership of the US Congress
C). Memorial medals for Cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov and Yuri Gagarin
D). An Apollo 11 mission patch

10). Following splashdown, the Apollo 11 astronauts had to spend how many days of quarantine in the Mobile Quanratine Facility.

Hotter than July!

1). July, July! Is a song on the album Castaways and Cutouts by this Portland Oregon based Alternative/folk rock band?

2). On July 19, 1799, French soldiers discovered this black stone that was later used to help translate hieroglyphics

3). On July 3, 1976, a raid on this airport in Uganda by an Israeli commando unit to rescue 103 hostages of a hijacked Air France plane took place.

4). On July 10, 1943, this male tennis player and first African American man to win a major championship was born.
Bonus point — Name which majors he won?

5). On July 14th of what year did the Bastille Fall?

6). July is named after who?

7). On July 17, 1918, this last Russian Czar and his family were murdered by the Bolsheviks.

8). On July 19th of 1834, this French artist, best known for his paintings and sculptures of dancers was born.

9). On July 22nd, 1934, this original “Public Enemy No. 1” was shot and killed in Chicago.

10). On July 25, 1909, the world’s first international overseas flight occurred when Louis Bleriot flew between these two countries in a small monoplane.

The Suicide Squad: Martyrs and Martyrdom

1). During the Hundred Years War, Jeanne D’Arc or Joan of Arc was sent to this French city (under siege) and led them to victory only 9 days after the seige.

2). This radical abolitionist who led raids on Harper’s Ferry and was responsible for bleeding Kansas became a martyr for those seeking to end slavery in the USA.

3). In this Faith, perhaps best known for the beautiful gardens on it’s holy site near Haifa martyrdom is defined as devoting oneself to the service of humanity rather than a literal sacrifice.

4). This party in China used the “Dare to Die” campaign to promote the concept of martyrdom among its members.

5). Though part of the Apocrypha, martyrdom with regard to Jews is referenced throughout 1 and 2 Maccabees, which recounts the Jewish struggle under these overlords?

6). Some scholars argue that at the end of his life, the Biblical character Samson was martyred to defeat the Philistines, pagan worshipers of this god?

7). In Christianity, this Saint is known as the proto-martyr.

8). In Shanghai, there are two notable monuments to martyrs, name them?

9). It was during the reign of this Roman Emperor that the concept of a Christian Martyr became one who was killed for maintaining their beliefs.

10). In early Christianity and Islam, the word for martyr is the same as this other word, which defines someone who gives testimony to the truth

Bye Bye Pervert: Politicians who Resigned from Office

1). Andrew Cuomo is the latest politician to resign fromoffice due to sexual harassment scandals. However, he is not the only former Governor of New York to do so as a result of sexual scandals in the last 20 years. Name the other?

2). This former Prime Minister of the UK chose to resign due to the inability to pass a Brexit Bill.

3). Former SNL cast member, Al Franken, was forced to resign as Senator from what state as a result of accusations of sexual misconduct?

4). This former Director of the CIA was forced to resign when the FBI uncovered an extramarital affair.

5). In 1977, this Israeli Prime Minister was forced to resign due to allegations of financial improprieties.

6). Richard Nixon is the only US President to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal. Watergate was first reported by these two reporters from the Washington Post.

7). Andrew Cuomo’s recent resignation came after this Attorney General of New York (and potential gubernatorial candidate) led an investigation which found a continued culture of sexual harassment.

8). This former representative from NY was forced to resign after admitting to sending sexually-explicit photos of himself to women via twitter. However, this behavior continued, resulting in his arrest for sexting a 15 year old.

9). Republican Tim Murphy ironically resigned after what details of his extramarital affair became public?

10). This former President of South Africa was forced to resign due to charges relating to corruption, fraud, racketeering, and money laundering.

Answers:

Apollo 11: 1). Sea of Tranquility 2). Eagle/Columbia 3). Bald Eagle; Bonus– Michael Collins 4). Vice President Spiro Agnew 5). Werner von Braun 6). Deke Slayton 7). 8 days (3 hours, 18 minutes, 35 seconds) 8). The Oval Office, 9). D, 10). 21 days

Hotter than July: 1). The Decemberists 2). The Rosetta Stone 3). Entebbe, 4) Arthur Ashe; Bonus – US Open/Wimbledon 5). 1789 6). Julius Caeser 7). Czar Nicholas II 8) Edgar Degas 9). John Dillinger 10). France and England

Suicide Squad: 1). Orleans 2). John Brown, 3). Ba’hai 4). Kuomintang 5). Seleucids 6). Ba’al 7). Saint Stephen 8). Monument to the People’s Heroes (at the confluence of Suzhuo Creek and the Huangpu River) and Longhua Martyrs Memorial 9). Nero 10). Witness

Bye Bye Pervert: 1). Elliot Spitzer 2). Theresa May 3). Minnesota 4). David Petraeus 5). Yitzhak Rabin 6). Woodward and Bernstein 7). Letitia James 8). Anthony Weiner 9). Encouraged his mistress to have an abortion despite being pro-life 10). Jacob Zuma

Hi Everyone! Astronomer in Shanghai is back! Thank you all once again for reading and taking interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai! I hope that all of you are having a safe, healthy, fun, and fully vaccinated summer! As I mentioned in my last post, I’m going to be writing my blog once per month going forward. Since I won’t be writing every week, I’m going to be shifting the focus of the blog to be more about some of the fun, unique, and interesting experiences that I’ve had in Shanghai and less on the minutia of day-to-day life. That said, if there’s ever any topic that you’ld ever like me to talk about or that you’re curious about, please let me know!

So, here’s the first entry of Astronomer in Shanghai 2.0!

While I won’t be spending as much time talking about Astronomy, I will still be sharing any major updates (like papers, conference presentations, grants) with you. So, I wanted to start this new entry off by letting you know that at long last, my Dark Energy Survey Paper on the evolution of the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass Relation was finally submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ)!!! I’ve been working on this project for over 2 years, so it was a big relief for me to finally submit the project! I’m really proud of this paper (thanks to Chris and Yuanyuan for all their support and help in the process) and think that it tells a really interesting narrative about how the massive central galaxies that reside at the center of galaxy clusters grow over the last 6 billion years (all the growth is in the faint intra-cluster light surrounding the galaxy). If you’re interested in taking a look at the paper, here’s a link to my paper on arXiv (an open source platform used in Astronomy), where you can download the paper as a pdf.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.02197

Now on to the more fun stuff!

For those long time readers, you may remember that it is extremely hot in Shanghai over the summer! Most days the temperatures reach the mid to upper 90s (feels like as high as 119) with the nights only cooling off to the mid 80s. And it’s always humid, regardless of the time of day. Basically it’s so hot that every time I come back to my apartment I need to shower. So, this makes doing fun activities outside a little challenging. Even running is a little to tough when it’s this hot. That said, in the past month, in between my research responsibilities (so basically after the paper was submitted on July 1), I’ve made time for some fun activities with a bunch of different friends that I’d like to share with you all!

Some of the main highlights over the last few weeks have been activities within the Kehilat Shanghai community. Due to the travel restrictions (for leaving/entering China), many of the community members are sticking around Shanghai for most of the summer, so we’ve been doing more activities! In the past month, we had a wonderful Family Shabbat and Community Shabbat (hosted by my friends John and Alex)!

Both events were lovely! It’s always so much fun celebrating Shabbat within the Shanghai communities, whether it’s chatting with other members at family Shabbat over pizza (vegan pizza 🙂 ) or going through the Kabbalat Shabbat service and fun discussions at dinner at community Shabbat. This month, Alex led a wonderful Kabbalat Shabbat service and it was really nice to be a member of the audience, instead of the service leader, for a change!

Additionally, my friend David and I have ramped up our trivia nights and are doing them twice a month (just for the summer)! We’ve been getting a really great turnout and are having a blast testing our contestants with a bunch of different categories. Since my last post, I’ve written questions for a connections round, the Summer Olympics, and Gods and Monsters! See how you do down at the end. 🙂

Over the past 2 months, it’s so oppressively hot and humid that I can’t comfortably run outside anymore, so I’ve been going to the F45 HIIT classes a lot (~ 5-6 times per week). I’m really enjoying them and can feel myself getting noticeably stronger! As part of pride month, the gym organized a Pride 5K. Even though it was really uncomfortable running (because of the heat/humidity), it felt great to get out and stretch my legs in that way again (can’t wait until it’s cooler in the fall and I can run more) and to support a good cause!

In the past month, I’ve also been cooking up a storm. From brownies and cookies, to scallion pancakes and so many tofu dishes, I’ve been trying to use a bunch of different and unique Chinese ingredients as well (so many different kinds of tofu — I’ll have to take some photos of all the different kinds they sell here!!). However, sometimes, I do crave things I miss from home. So, last week, my friend Heather and I got together to make Tempeh Reubens! We made the recipe from the Lunchroom, my favorite vegan restaurant in Ann Arbor! They were fantastic!

Additionally, for my 30th birthday, my Mom really wanted to treat me and some of my friends to dinner! Even though I turned 30 almost 3 months ago, I wanted to wait until I submitted my DES paper to celebrate again (I was getting really stressed out about it). So, this past weekend, thanks to some organizational help from my friends Heather and Shimi, I had a lovely celebratory dinner at If Vegan!

It was so much fun gathering with Heather, Shimi, Kate, Ilan, John, and Alex!! We had a fantastic meal! We enjoyed potatoes, clay pot tofu, lotus root with bamboo, ginger crusted mushrooms, lions head mushrooms, more seasonal mushrooms, sweet and sour seitan, dumplings, lotus seeds and aspargus, and tempeh! Afterwards we got gelato for dessert! The food was fantastic!! It was so interesting trying all the different dishes and seeing all the different types of mushrooms that are used! Thank you so much to my friends here for joining me and most importantly to my Mom for treating me to another lovely celebration!!! Even though I’m so far away (too far to mail cupcakes), it’s wonderful to know that you’re still able to do things to help me celebrate. Thank you so much Mom! I love and miss you!!

The last fun highlight I wanted to share was that I finally had time to make jam again!! In April, Hannah Maia and I had bought frozen strawberries with the intention to make strawberry jam one last time. Well, it finally happened. Along with our friend Monte, we made both strawberry jam and strawberry jelly (with the leftover juice from the frozen berries)!

The jam and jelly both turned out great! I look forward to making more (peach/peach mango?) and sharing some with my friends soon!

Additionally, the beginning of July was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party in China. There were huge celebrations and parades in Beijing. President Xi Jinping did visit Shanghai, where the party was founded (not far from my old apartment in Xintiandi). Unfortunately, there were no parades that I was aware of in Shanghai. However, there were a lot of new decorations and gardens added to the city and to the SJTU campus.

In addition to all my fun activities, I’ve still seen a lot of really cool sculptures, art, clothes, and advertisements that I wanted to share with you!

There were also a lot of cute animals (mostly cats!) and beautiful flowers that I saw!

Thank you so much for reading this latest entry about my life and adventures in Shanghai! I have a lot more fun activities planned for the next month, so, I know I’ll have a lot of interesting things to share with you all next time! Hope you all have a safe, happy, and healthy month!

In peace,

Jesse

Trivia

The Summer Olympics

1). The last country to win a Gold Medal in Men’s Basketball that was not the United States was in 2004 when this country led by a young core of Manu Ginobili, Luis Scola, and Andres Nocioni won.

2). Michael Phelps has won 28 Olympic Medals 10 more than any other athlete. The 2nd place athlete is Larisa Latinya a gymnast who competed for this country between 1956-1964

3). The first man to repeat as Champion of the 100m dash was this man?

4). This tennis player is the only athlete to complete the calendar Golden Slam, winning all 4 majors and the Olympics in 1 year.

5). This Japanese gymnast won the All-Around Gold medals in both 2012 and 2016 after winning the Silver in 2008.

6). Baseball and Softball will return to the Olympics in Tokyo. What was the last time Baseball and Softball were contested at the Olympics.

7). In the modern Decathlon (for both men and women), how many of the events are races (this would include hurdles)?
Bonus: name the races:

8). These 4 popular action sports will make their Olympic debut in Tokyo.

9). The southernmost Summer Olympics were contested in what city?

10). This Athlete, known as the Flying Fin, holds the record for most medals by a track athlete at the Summer Olympics.

Gods and Monsters

1). These are Japanese Death Gods

2). These mysterious beings are referenced in Genesis and described as being large and strong.

3). These monsters from Romanian folklore are thought to have inspired the vampire’s in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. They are described as troubled spirits that can rise from the grave and have the ability to transform into animals, become invisible, or gain vitality from the blood of their victims

4). In Norse Mythology, this is the name of the world serpent that will signal the beginning of Ragnarok when it releases its tail.

5). In West African mythology/folklore, this is the name of the spider who is the god of all knowledge of stories

6). This Philistine God, also associated with the Canaanite god Baal, has a name that translates to Lord of the Flies

7). This mythical Phoenix in both Japanese and Chinese mythology is a symbol of fire, the sun, and justice. It is said to appear very rarely and symbol the beginning of a new era, such as the birth of a virtuous ruler

8). This Native American/First Nations monster is described as a malevolent spirit, sometimes with human like characteristics. It has an insatiable hunger and a desire to cannibalize humans.

9). In Greek mythology, Kronus is the father of Zeus, but who is Zeus’s grandfather?

10). In Maori tradition, this demigod is a culture hero and trickster who possessed superhuman strength and could shapeshifter into animals. He’s also credited with catching a giant fish that would create the North Island of New Zealand.

Connections Round (there is a link between the answers to the first 9 questions, the answer to the 10th question is that link)

1). Professional athletes playing in either New York or Winnipeg

2). The Baltimore Ravens are the only professional sports franchise with this type of animal as its mascot

3). A shofar is made from the horn of what animal

4). What year was Live Aid

5). The first name of the dear first First Lady of the United States

6). Madame Tousaud’s is an example of one of these?

7). The name of these common stellar explosions translates to what in English.

8). The Great Wall of China is one well known examples of one of this type of pathway

9). The Title character of an obscure Thomas Hardy novel

10). What is the Connection

Answers

The Summer Olympics: 1). Argentina 2). The Soviet Union 3). Carl Lewis 4). Steffi Graf 5). Kohei Uchimura 6). 2008 (Beijing) 7). 4 (100m, 400m, 110 m hurdles, 1500m) 8). Skateboarding, Surfing, Rock Climbing, BMX 9). Melbourne, Australia, 10). Paavo Nurmi

Gods and Monsters: 1). Shinigami 2). Nephilim 3). Strigoi 4). Jormungandr 5). Anansi 6). Beelzebub 7) Ho-o 8). Wendigo 9). Uranus 10). Maui

Connections Round: 1). Jet 2). Blackbird 3). Ram 4). 1985 5). Martha 6). House of Wax 7). New 8). A Long and Winding Road 9). Hey Jude 10). Paul McCartney songs

Hi everyone, 

 I hope that you’re all doing well and continuing to stay safe and healthy.  As many of you know, I’ve been in Shanghai now for two academic years, writing weekly blogs.  Thank you so much for following me. However, as my research becomes more time consuming (with some projects wrapping up and others ramping up), I’ve decided going forward, I will be changing the frequency and the format of Astronomer in Shanghai. 

Don’t worry.  Astronomer in Shanghai is not going away.  You’ll still get to see China through my eyes, whether that’s through highlights of museums, delicious foods, fun activities with my friends or within the Jewish community, or photos from my travels and adventures.  I’ll still post plenty of fun pictures, too!  The main difference will be that I’ll write the blog once per month, instead of once a week, to highlight more of the unique and memorable experiences that I’ve had in Shanghai.  I’m currently in the process of figuring out the new format and schedule, but I’ll send an e-mail soon with more details.  

Thank you all so much for following my experiences.  I hope that you’ll continue following along with me on my adventures and journey in China going forward! 

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 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 this latest update continues to find all of you safe, healthy, and fully vaccinated. Even if you’re vaccinated, I hope that you are continuing to maintain social distancing practices and are generally staying safe. Moreover, as summer begins, I hope that all of you are able to do some fun things with your loved ones outside.

I’m sure some of you have seen the reports about the covid-19 situation in Guangzhou and the surrounding areas in Southern China. The cases continue to rise in this part of Southern China (near Hong Kong). In response to this outbreak (I believe of the delta variant), much of this area (stretching to Shenzhen) has been put into lockdown and requires people coming and going to quarantine for 14 days. There are currently 194 reported cases in Guangdong province, so China is taking prevention incredibly seriously. Thankfully the outbreak has been relatively localized and hasn’t impacted my life in Shanghai. In terms of cases, there are currently just 71 cases in Shanghai (all imported from people returning to China) and the recovery rate is at 96.38%. In Beijing, there are only 13 cases and the recovery rate is at 97.94%. For China as a whole there are 11,892 cases (~ 11,300 in Taiwan) and the recovery rate is at 85.23%.

In terms of Astronomy this was a productive week! I finally finished all the revisions that the Final Reviewer asked for for my DES paper on the evolution of the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass Relation, so hopefully I’ll hear back some positive news soon (and get to submit the paper for publication). On top of that, I spent a lot of my time doing research for DESI, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. There’s a virtual collaboration meeting this week and I’ll be presenting my research on the spectroscopic completeness of Brightest Central Galaxies (what fraction will have a spectrum used to measure distance and chemical composition). Lastly, I finally figured out some of the bugs in my Luminosity Function mock catalog! I’m just running some final tests, but I think I’ve solved the discrepancy between the input function and my measurements! So, this week, I hope to finalize that the mock is working!

Last week, I began a series of deep dives into my research. This week, I’ll be talking about the Luminosity Function, since it’s the main project that I’m working on at SJTU. First, a Luminosity Function is simply a mathematical function that describes the number of galaxies at a given brightness/luminosity/absolute magnitude (all three essentially mean the same thing) within a cluster environment. To measure this, you simply count the number of galaxies within a radial region centered on the cluster center (often the BCG). However, because there are foreground and background galaxies, you also need to estimate how much contamination there is in your measurement. To measure a background Luminosity function, you can do the same thing either centered on a random point or measured at larger radial distances from the center of the cluster. Once you have both the inner region measured and the background, you subtract the two and are left with a signal that is the Luminosity Function.

Now that you understand what a Luminosity Function is from a measurement sense, what do you do with it. The Luminosity Function is important because it can tell us how galaxies populate dark matter halos. While the stellar mass – halo mass relation can tell us about the amount of either of these components, the Luminosity Function actually tells us more about the overall cluster population and allows us to determine how many faint galaxies there should be in the cluster environment. Moreover, we can compare Luminosity Functions at different halo masses to determine how halo mass impacts cluster population. If we study the Luminosity Function at higher redshifts, we can search for evolution and growth in different parts of the cluster population. We will also aim to determine whether the magnitude gap can be used to identify differences in the galaxy populations.

For the last few months, I’ve been working on a mock catalog for this analysis. Mock catalogs are simply catalogs of galaxies generated based on an input Luminosity Function (measured by someone else) and positions within a 3D dark matter only (no galaxies) simulation. This is an important tool, because it allows us to determine whether certain signals that we see in the Luminosity Function measurement are predicted by certain luminosity functions or result as a function of our observational measurements. Moreover, using mocks allows us to test the fundamental physics that is input into the Universe. We’ve been working on a mock in order to understand the impact of different background measurements.

I hope that this explanation clarifies what I’ve been working on here in Shanghai. Let me know if you have any questions!

Outside of Astronomy, we’re now in Plum Rain Season, a few weeks long period where it essentially rains every day. Much to my chagrin, even when it doesn’t rain, it’s incredibly humid, so running has not really been something I can comfortably do. As I noted the last few weeks, I’ve continue to go to the F45 HIIT classes for my exercise, which I’m really enjoying!

Even though I didn’t spend a ton of time outside, I still saw some lovely flowers and cool sculptures I wanted to share with you!

I also saw a lot of very cute cats!

As I said in the title for this week’s post, it’s the Dragon Boat Festival this weekend. So, Monday (today) was a holiday. As I noted last week, I unfortunately missed the Dragon Boat races (the main celebratory part of the holiday). Sadly, the traditional treat for Dragon Boat Festival, Zongzi, sticky rice balls with a filling are often filled with meat, so I didn’t get to enjoy those either. However, SJTU does give us gifts for the Dragon Boat Festival. Instead of just giving us snacks (most of which I can’t eat), this year they let us pick presents including household and cooking items. So, I decided to get a cleaning robot!

So far, it’s been pretty useful at getting the hair and dust in hard to reach places, which is great! I’m still figuring out what I’ll name it, but suggestions are welcome!

The main fun activity for me for this weekend was that on Sunday night, my friend Hannah Maia had a birthday orchestra concert and party! The concert was in the Shanghai Concert Hall, which is near People’s Square. When I lived in Xintiandi, I would run by it often and was always curious what it looked like inside. It’s a lovely concert hall, very much in the style of fancy concert halls I’ve seen in the US (even down to the seats not giving me enough leg room). More importantly, the music in the concert was great! While I’m not familiar enough with classical music to have been able to identify the pieces listening to the music (though I was later told that one of them was from Swan Lake), listening to orchestral music was a really nice way to spend an evening. I don’t think I’ve been to an orchestra concert since I was in college, so it was nice to get to go to one.

Food in Shanghai

On Tuesday, Tacolicious hosted a guest chef who was cooking vegan Filipino food! I don’t think I’d ever had Filipino food before, but when I saw that it was all vegan I knew I had to go. While unfortunately, I arrived too late to try the Jackfruit tacos, I got a Lumpia Burrito with smoked tofu, rice noodles, peanut brittle, and roasted vegetables and Sisig fries, fries topped with plant-based meat, picked onions, vegan cheese, and salsa! The side ginataang, coconut stewed taro leaves and mung beans.

The food was fantastic! I’m always excited to try different vegan food and this certainly did not disappoint. I really loved all the different textures in the burrito! I hope that I can try more exciting vegan fare over the summer!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

On Friday night, for Shabbat, Kehilat Shanghai hosted the first of our now monthly community Shabbats. We aren’t able to do them at the Ohel Moishe Synagogue/Jewish Refuge Museum, so we’ll be doing them either in different community spaces or restaurants. For this month, I led the service, which I really enjoyed. Even though we had a small turnout (due to the Dragon Boat festival holiday), it was really lovely to gather together for Shabbat, light the candles, and go through a Shabbat service! It was also really nice to see and hear how much everyone appreciated me leading the service!

Afterwards, we enjoyed a lovely dinner with conversations ranging on topics from sports, to the visa process of getting into China, to teaching in China.

Overall, this was another research focused week. This upcoming week will be pretty busy with the DESI collaboration meeting occupying a lot of my time in addition to other research that I’m working on. However, I know I’ll have some fun things to share with you (including some Dragon Boat themed trivia!).

I hope that you enjoyed hearing about what I’ve been working on, seeing pictures of Shanghai, and hearing about our Community Shabbat! I hope that you all have a safe and healthy week.

In peace,

Jesse