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 wear masks when you go outside (even if you’re vaccinated), avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world can look like once the road to recovery begins. Once things improve, I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable as I have.
If you have fun following my blog, please subscribe and let me know! To subscribe, enter your name and e-mail on the right side of the page. Once subscribed, you’ll receive an e-mail with each new post. If you have any questions about my life in Shanghai, please ask. Instructions are on the “To Comment” page. Also, feel free to share this blog with anyone else who may be interested in my life and adventures in China!
Life in Shanghai
I hope that this latest update continues to find all of you, your family, and your friends safe and healthy. For those of you who are vaccinated, I hope that you are continuing to follow social distancing guidelines so that the majority who are not yet vaccinated are able to stay safe as well. Also, for those of you where the weather is now inching closer to spring, I hope that the warmer weather is allowing you to spend a little more time outside of your house doing socially distanced walks and runs.
To begin this post, I want to reflect on recent happenings in the US. First, I must comment on the utter stupidity of the governor of Texas choosing to repeal the mask mandate. As someone living in China, where masks were required months after the number of cases slowed to a halt and masks are still required on subways and buses (over one year after), the decision to repeal a mask mandate will likely only cause a secondary surge in cases as more states prematurely end these regulations. Maybe it’s because masks are such an everyday part of my life (I always have one when I leave my apartment), but I still have trouble understanding why so many people continue to whine about having to wear one. I think it’s utterly ridiculous that the US has no ability/desire to have a national mask policy.
Additionally, I also want to comment on the depressing level of partisanship and polarization in Washington. It’s ridiculous that despite the 10s of millions of Americans who are hurting, without jobs or working greatly reduced hours, and therefore in need of financial help that the Republicans refuse to budge on President Biden’s rescue plan. Moreover, the hypocrisy of rich senators (both democrats and republicans) who refuse to acknowledge that the federal minimum wage must be substantially raised is increasingly frustrating. Although some claim that it will hurt small business owners, I think that it’s more important that people who work full time be able to live above the poverty line.
In terms of covid-19 cases. I’m glad to see that the number of cases in the US is still slowing (though it appears to have plateaued). Hopefully people will be happy receiving any of the different vaccines and the recovery will speed up in the US and around the world. In China, the vaccine roll out is still slow. There was a report that they hope to have 40% of the population vaccinated by the summer (though it is worth noting that China has a population 4x greater than that of the USA). In terms of actual cases, the situation remains under control in China. In Shanghai, there are only 36 cases and the recovery rate is 97.62%. In Beijing, there are only 8 remaining cases and the recovery rate is 98.37%. For China as a whole there are just 449 cases and the recovery rate is 94.81%. Of note, over half of the cases are in Hong Kong. So, it is emphasizing that the numbers have continued to stay low because of mask mandates. So, regardless of what the policy is, please continue to wear masks and follow social distancing practices.
In terms of Astronomy, this was a very productive week, which was great! I spent most of my time hammering down how to get my mock galaxy catalog generated. It took a long time and was trickier than it seemed at first, but I was finally able get all the nuances figured out and generate a population of galaxies following a previously measured Conditional Luminosity Function (what I’m working to measure) and then determining the positions for these galaxies based on a scaled NFW profile (the density distribution of objects within a dark matter halo). Sadly, the end product is just a catalog of brightness and position, but it was great to be able to generate all this data on my own for the first time. Now that I have this skill set, I should be able to do this in the future as well! All that’s left is to scale it up for the entire cluster population. Additionally, I spent the rest of my time working on my DES Stellar Mass – Halo Mass relation project. I finally finished all of the remaining edits from the internal referee report. So, I’ll just be giving the paper a final read through at the beginning of the week and then resubmitting the manuscript. Fingers crossed that this goes quickly.
Here in Shanghai, we’ve been having somewhat of a rainy spring. It’s still relatively warm, in the mid 50s most days, but it has been raining a lot over the last few weeks. Despite the rain, I still went for 3 runs this week! I even managed to take some pictures of the flowers and landscape around the SJTU Minhang campus. Additionally, I saw some cool Chinese New Year decorations that were still up as well!
Overall, this was a much quieter week than the past few weeks. Which, while not as exciting as all the fun stuff I did last week, it was really beneficial because the quieter week really allowed me the opportunity to get all the work that I needed done on my DES paper and on my mock cluster catalog.
One other fun thing that I wanted to share with you is that on Sunday, at the Kehilat Shanghai Passover planning board meeting, at the local WeWork, I met the cat that apparently lives on the third floor! He was very cute and friendly! 🙂
Food in Shanghai
The social highlight of my week was on Thursday when I celebrated my friend (and fellow anti-racism leader) Clem’s birthday! We had a fantastic Italian dinner! I don’t think I’ve had real Italian food (that I haven’t made) since I’ve been in Shanghai! So, it was really nice to dig in to some delicious pesto pizza with broccolini, spinach and ricotta ravioli, eggplant and mozzarella salad, and fantastic bread!
So, for all of you wondering, yes there is really great and authentic Italian food in Shanghai!
Overall, this was a very productive and work filled week, which after the excitement of Purim and the Lantern Festival was much needed. 🙂 This upcoming week should be another productive work week as I finish my DES draft and generate the full mock catalog. However, I’ll definitely have some more sights and stories from Shanghai to share!
I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my week! If you have any questions about life in Shanghai, please let me know!
In peace,
Jesse
We love hearing from you and especially love your pics.
Italian food in Shanghai ??? It looked delicious. See you on the
14th for Phyllis W Shanghai presentation… I have some pic too.
Stay well.. best regards,
Georgia
We love hearing from you and especially love your pics.
Italian food in Shanghai ??? It looked delicious. See you on the
14th for Phyllis W Shanghai presentation… I have some pic too.
Stay well.. best regards,
Georgia
Hi Georgia! Glad to hear that you’re still enjoying the blog! I’m also excited for the discussion on the 14th! Glad to hear you’ll be joining! 🙂
Always a treat to wake up to your blog on a Sunday morning, Jesse. I am so pleased to hear of the progress you are making on the internal referee comments for the DES paper and the mock galaxy catalogue. It is great that you have a new skill set! I was delighted to see the new cat you met as well.
Shanghai is certainly a beautiful city. Spring is still a bit far off in Saratoga, so your pictures are lovely to see. I am enjoying teaching, though I am still mourning the absence of my student who died unexpectedly at the start of the term: each day I am aware of the empty seat/zoom square. I published an article on my digital Bronte cabinet, and my class is working on a new virtual gallery this semester, too. I am improving my sourdough baking and still delivering jam to sweeten the pandemic. Wish I could share some with you.
Miss you! Love, Mom
Hi Mom! Thanks! I’m happy that I’m making progress, too! I’m glad you enjoyed seeing the photos of Shanghai in the Spring.
While I’m glad to hear that teaching is going well, I’m sorry that it’s also causing sadness since you reminded of your late student.
That’s great about your article! I’m excited to try some sourdough bread the next time I’m able to come home.
Hope you have a safe and healthy week!
Hi Jesse
Cold here…. nice to think of you in springtime!!
Love the ox sculpture!!!
Look forward to seeing more year of the ox artwork … in your path!
Have a great week!
🌹😺🙏🌸
Hi Aunt Pam! Glad you’re enjoying the photos and the sculptures! I’ll definitely keep my eyes out for more Chinese New Year decorations and sculptures around the city! 🙂
Your comments on Texas’ politicians and politics are right on target.Hard to comprehend how these people can look at themselves in the mirror. Unbelievable. But we in NY are now witnessing another scandal unfold with Cuomo and his playing with the Covid deaths associated with nursing homes and then we now now have allegations about his sexual abuse of staff members. Arghhh.
On a very different note I was able to get my first “jab” on Thursday in Schenectady. Woot woot. Despite being qualified it took so much trouble to sign up and you had to enter the same information for every possible source again and again and again and for those who are unfamiliar with computers that nightmare must have been beyond horrific. My second shot is scheduled for April 1 (I hope that that is not an April fool – 🙂 ).
Your Italian meal looks and sounds delicious. Fascinated by the idea of a vegan ricotta. Was the pesto made from basil or another green (Kale pesto is delicious).
Stay safe and well
Thanks Bernard! You’re right about New York. I probably should have mentioned that situation. Both the nursing home numbers and now numerous sexual harassment reports are very concerning. Though it is hypocritical that certain republicans are calling out Cuomo, yet were perfectly fine with this behavior by Trump.
I’m glad to hear that you were able to get your first shot! I’m sorry that the system has been so frustrating. Hopefully that gets improved quickly.
The Italian food was fantastic. Sadly, just vegetarian, not vegan. I think this was a basil pesto. I have had vegan ricotta though, made with tofu, a little nutritional yeast, and some herbs. It’s really nice!
Hope you continue to stay safe and healthy.
Don’t recall if you said that you got your shots yet, but both my brother, who lives in Israel, and I felt dizzy (coincidentally?) a couple of days after getting the shot. We both felt as if we were suffering from vertigo. Not sure if that is a common experience but my brother tells me that he knows one of the doctors at a hospital in Tel Aviv who also experienced dizziness very shortly after getting his jab but he refused to go home and continued working as if nothing was amiss. Me? I was unable to focus my eyes on a book I was trying to read but the discomfort and the experience of nystagmus passed after a few hours.
Hi Bernard. I haven’t gotten any covid-19 vaccine yet. Hopefully soon. I’m sorry to hear about the unpleasant side effects that both you and your brother have been dealing with. I hope that those don’t linger and that this doesn’t happen after the second shot.
Hi Jesse,
I’m glad to hear you had a productive week and that your work on both the DES paper and your mock catalog for your luminosity function are coming along nicely. Fingers crossed that you’ll be able to submit the DES paper for publication soon! It’s really nice to see the pictures of spring and of cats! It’s still cold and snowy here, though it’s supposed to get into the mid to high 50s this week, so our runs should be better, too! I’m glad to hear that the number of cases in China remain low. I hope we don’t get a Passover/Easter surge here in the US. I forgot how slow the vaccine roll out in China has been. I know they promised a ton of vaccine to other countries and that will delay everyone getting vaccinated, but I’m glad Chinese policies have been better than Texas’s. I’m waiting for a surge there. I hope you have another safe and productive week!
Love,
Emmet
Hi Jesse,
I’m glad to hear you had a productive week and that you’re making good progress on the DES paper and building your mock catalogs. Hopefully you’ll be able to submit the DES paper for publication soon! I’m sorry that it’s been a rainy spring, but it’s nice to see all of the flowers! It’s still pretty cold and snowy here, though it’s supposed to get into the mid to upper 50s this week, so maybe spring is on the horizon! That is one very cute cat! I’m glad you had a fun birthday celebration for Clem! Are there areas of Shanghai where there are international restaurants, or are they just randomly placed? Also, was there anything that was obvious Chinese-Italian fusion? I’m sorry that China’s vaccine roll-out is slow. I think I saw that they might have over promised on vaccines to other countries. I’m glad that the numbers are super low though and that they’re still requiring masks. I’m waiting for crazy outbreaks in Texas, since lifting the mask ban is stupid. I’m really hoping that things don’t try to reopen too soon here and that we don’t get a Passover/Easter surge. I hope you have another productive week! Stay safe and healthy!
Love,
Emmet
Thanks Emmet! There’s still a few more steps between now and actual submission, but progress is good. I think that this next week should be less rainy, though not much warmer. Glad it’s warming up for you!
There are certain neighborhoods in Shanghai, but not for many European cultures. There’s a Korea town area that I know of.
China did promise a lot of vaccines to other countries, which is slowing their roll out. I hope that there aren’t crazy outbreaks, but I think you’ll probably be right.
I hope that you have another safe, productive, and healthy week!
Hey Jesse! The italian food looks delicious! Also, it’s awesome you made progress on your paper! I’d say a catalog of brightness and position is pretty important – that’s most of what observational astronomy sees I think 🙂
About the minimum wage, I feel like the problem is that it doesn’t solely impact primary wage-earners for a family: increased minimum wage also means added income for high school and college students of middle – upper income families. That’s not necessarily a bad thing (well, I guess it also impacts the ability of small businesses to operate at a sustainable profit) but it does seem to me a flaw if the intended purpose is improving quality of life for Americans of low income. I’m not sure what the solution is but wanted to share my two cents.
Anyway, I hope you have a nice week!
Thanks Ryan! I’m excited that the paper is moving along — it should go back to the DES internal review tomorrow. 🙂 Brightness and Position is about half of the mock, I just will need to figure out how to turn it in to a light cone.
That’s a really good point about who is being impacted by a higher minimum wage. I don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing, but I agree that if the goal is to raise the quality of life of low income then this doesn’t necessarily do that either.
Hope you’re continuing to stay safe and healthy!