Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life in Shanghai! As covid-19 plagues the US, and you all are (hopefully) wearing masks when you go outside (I still am!) and maintaining social distancing practices, I hope that this blog highlights that there is a recovery from covid-19 (which is sadly far away in the US). Moreover, when things improve, I hope you’ll look forward to small interactions with friends and family. I’m sure you’ll find, as I have, that these interactions will be highlights for you. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal, though new outbreaks may still occur. However, we are all in this together and if we wear masks and cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.
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Life in Shanghai
I hope that this latest entry continues to find all of you, your families, and your friends staying safe and healthy. I’m sure many of you are currently dealing with a hot summer (though it’s hard to find a place warmer than Shanghai :)). So, I hope that the heat has helped you continue to maintain social distancing practices. As I’ve stated continually in this blog, wearing masks, contact tracing, and following social distancing guidelines are vital to halting the spread of covid-19. So, since you can only do two of those yourselves, I hope that all of you are doing the best you can to make the situation better.
I know I’ve focused a lot in my previous posts about my fears about the covid-19 situation outside of China. I’m not going to add to that here, but I am curious if any of you have a different perspective. Being so far away, it’s hard for me to know or understand how things are elsewhere. While for the US as a nation, covid-19 is clearly not under control, what’s the concern level where you live? While I hope that people are taking it seriously, I’m curious whether you see most people wearing masks or whether that’s sadly not the case.
In terms of the situation in Shanghai and China, things have remained stabilized. Interestingly, I think partially due to the oppressive heat (Shanghai reached a high of 102 feels like 117 on Thursday), I’m seeing fewer people wearing masks. They’re still required when you go on the Metro or take a taxi. However, now when I walk outside, I think only 50% of the people wear masks. While I always wear a mask (I’m still cautious), many of my friends only wear them on the Subway. In terms of the numbers. The number of cases has increased in Shanghai. However, all of the cases are of Chinese nationals returning to China. Moreover, you are tested upon reentry into China, so these people have not actually entered Shanghai proper, which I find reassuring. However, even though I mentioned an increase, we’re still talking about a very small number of cases. In total, there are now 73 cases in Shanghai (3 in Beijing). The recovery rate is currently at 90.3% in Shanghai. However, I believe that number will rise again in the coming days. For China as a whole, the recovery rate is 93.1%.
On the Astronomy side of things, this was another productive week, particularly in my research on the Luminosity Function. After spending the first couple days running a new analysis only to find a bug in my code, I was able to quickly recover and find extremely promising results for measuring the background. We are close to reaching convergence on our best estimate for a completely uniform background across all halo masses. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to reach a final solution for a uniform background in a few days, which will allow me to start phase 2 of this project! For that, we’re planning to redo this same analysis on the data set we’re interested in, the SDSS-redMaPPer data, which is a data set of massive clusters at low-redshift (nearby). Other than that project, most of my other time was spent revising the latest draft of a paper I’ve written comparing my work on the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass relation with the magnitude gap to other parameterizations of that same relation. Additionally, we’ve continued to have our meetings on the tencent meeting platform, which works really well for our purposes. In more exciting news, Ying, my research supervisor has discussed plans to hold in person meetings again! There’s now 4-5 group members in Shanghai, so we’ll likely meet (possibly off campus) for a group meeting this week or next week!
Before I tell you about all the fun activities I did this week, I thought I’d share some photos of cute cats that I saw in Shanghai! There are a lot of pet stores and I like to look at the cats in the windows.
I also saw a lot of really cool advertisements/sculptures/paintings as well this week!
This was another fun and social week!
On Tuesday, Kehilat Shanghai and Moishe House joined together for our monthly Trivia Night! For this one, the organizers all wrote one category of questions (I did sports!). While I thought my questions were all fair, the attendees had some trouble with them. I’ve provided them below (answers provided afterwards), so let me know how you do!
- Hall of Fame Pitcher Sandy Koufax made national news when he chose not to pitch in the Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it was this Jewish Holiday?
- Recently, this 5 time gold medalist became a viral sensation with a video of the athlete balancing a glass of chocolate milk on their head while swimming laps?
- Prior to Michael Phelps record setting performance in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, this Jewish athlete held the record for most medals in a single Olympic game?
- Jesse Owens rose to prominence for defying Hitler and winning Gold in the 1936 Olympic Games. However, Jesse was not the only black American to medal in that race. The brother of this famous baseball player won Silver.
- This tennis legend became the first and only athlete to win the Golden Slam, all four grand slam events and the Olympics in 1 calendar year.
- This Soccer player and Winner of the Golden Ball in the 2019 World Cup also became nationally recognized for her social justice activism and anti-Trump rhetoric.
- In this upcoming years NBA draft, Israeli prospect Deni Avdija is expect to be drafted high in the first round. However, he would not be the first Israeli man to be drafted into the NBA. That honor belongs to this player.
- List these currently active professional athletes in order from Youngest to Oldest: Roger Federer, Lebron James, Tom Brady, Serena Williams, Lindsey Vonn
The Answers are:
1). Yom Kippr 2). Katie Ledecky 3). Mark Spitz 4). Jackie and Mack Robinson 5). Steffi Graf 6). Megan Rapinoe 7). Omri Casspi 8). Lebron James (35), Lindsey Vonn (35), Serena Williams (38), Roger Federer (39), Tom Brady (43)
In addition to trivia, on Wednesday night, my friends and I gathered for another Improv Jam Session! This is a wonderful way to relax and serves as a great change of pace during the middle of the week! We played a bunch of different games, including one where two people had to do synchronized talking (which was really hard) and another where one person has to determine who the other three guests are at a party, based on what they say and what their actions are! I’m really enjoying this as a creative outlet!
On Friday night, a few of us went to a Improv Show! The performers were all Shanghai residents, but clearly more experienced than me. They did different improv games (many of the ones that we’ve played ourselves). After their show ended, they let members of the audience come and participate, which was a lot of fun! My favorite was a game where a group of 4-5 people are telling a story 1 person at a time. However, the order is chosen at random by another person and if you continue talking after the person then you have to act out your death. Overall, the entire evening was filled with lots of laughs and great fun!
As many of you know, I’ve been a huge fan of The Beatles for as long as I can remember. The venue for the improv show was a bar/restaurant called Abbey Road! So, I couldn’t resist taking photos of the decorations at the restaurant.
The highlight of my week was on Saturday when I got together with my friends Heather and Hannah Maia (as well as a new friend Daniel) to make Fig Jam! As many of you know, my Mom is a prolific jam maker and makes tons of delicious flavors (basically any kind of fruit you can get in Saratoga). Her jam is probably the food that I miss most. However, my Mom doesn’t make fig. So, I was excited to try making it!
We made two types: fig with ginger and orange and then fig with apple and orange. We added different spices such as cinnamon, star anise, and fresh vanilla as well! We lucked out and the figs Heather ordered were super ripe and soft, so perfect jam making!
Above you can see me cutting and mashing the figs as well as both pots of jam that we had going! Overall, we ended up with some really delicious jam! The fig/ginger jam was spicy, in a good way (in the silver metal pot) and the fig/apple/orange jam was sweet (in the red pot)! So, it’s a really nice combination of two distinct flavors. Though maybe it’s because we split the jam among four people, but it always feels like we never get enough jam once we’re done. I guess we’ll just have to keep making more jam! I think marmalade (using citruses such as pomelo, orange, lemon) is up next!
Food in Shanghai
I didn’t try any new fruits or food this week. However, I did cook for myself. This week I made mushroom tacos (for the Improv group) and then made black bean and corn enchiladas and vegan mozzarella cheese for myself!
Even though I didn’t go out for any meals this week, I did have a pretty amazing meal on Saturday. Following our epic jam making, Hannah Maia and Daniel made vegetable risotto for dinner, while Heather and I made fried green tomatos! So, we had a delicious meal afterward!
Overall, it was a wonderful evening filled with good friends, interesting conversations, and delicious food!
Overall, this was another eventful week, highlighted by making more delicious jam! I’m really glad that I’ve found friends to make jam with, since it reminds me of being home in Saratoga during the summer and helping my Mom pick fruit (wish I could do that here) and make jam! This week will be more research focused. However, I’m sure I’ll have more fun stories and pictures to share.
I hope that you enjoyed hearing about the different highlights of my week! I hope this update reminds you the covid-19 situation can improve (though the process of recovery can’t be rushed) and that when it does, it’s the small interactions that are most special. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about Shanghai, my jam making, or covid-19, please let me know.
In peace,
Jesse
Hi Jesse,
That’s great to here that your research is going well! Hopefully stage 2 goes smoothly! Do you know when you’ll send the paper to the DES group? Hopefully that will be soon. In terms of masks, most people have them on in some fashion. Unfortunately, a lot of people wear them around their necks and pull them up if needed, which isn’t great. Massachusetts still has strict laws and BU is going to be enforcing wearing masks on campus in some fashion. I’m glad to hear that you had such a social week. Both improv events sound great! I really like the look of Abbey Road! We’ll have to visit there when I come. I also love seeing the cat pictures! Your jam making sounds great! I like that you’re exploring adding some spices! I hope you enjoy the jam! Have a great week and stay safe and healthy!
Love,
Emmet
Hi Emmet! Thanks! I hope that we’re able to get stage 2 up and running soon as well. The DES paper is probably still a ways away unfortunately. I’m sorry to hear that not everyone is wearing masks, but I am glad that you still are. Abbey Road was pretty cool! I’m planning to try some of the fig jam with my PB&J this week, so I’ll let you know how it is! I hope you also have a safe and healthy week!
Hi Jesse,
How about ginger fig next time??
Sounds like you had a great week all around!
Glad your research is going well!!
Today we are Having a combo celebration lunch here..,, Mugyenzi’s Birthday and Emmet’s PhD!
I made a cinnamon ice cream pie with chocolate frosting…
I need to melt cinnamon candies, cool the liquid in the freezer.,, and then blend it into vanilla icecream.,,, and add crushed cinnamon candies and some chocolate chips to the mix!
I know that you have fond Parkside ice cream memories… and so just to let you know, you too can make cinnamon icecream … if you get the urge!!!
Love seeing all your pictures!
Have a great week!!
Take good care!
Xo
Hi Aunt Pam! Thanks! We did make fig and ginger! It came out really nice! The cinnamon ice cream pie you made sounds nice! Unfortunately, I’ve never seen the red cinnamon candies that you and my Mom really like here. The only kind of cinnamon sold here is cinnamon sticks and powdered cinnamon. Hope you also have a great week!
Hi, Jesse. Thank you for another wonderful post. I miss you very much, and reading about how full and happy your life is on so many levels makes me very happy. First, it is great that you are making progress in your research. And I am thrilled that you are becoming a jam maker and that this hobby reminds you of the fun times we had in Saratoga summers picking fruit as a family. It is nice that you miss my jam–and I miss having you here to enjoy it with me. Last Sunday, we picked peaches at Fix Orchards, and I have made peach jam and peach mango jam so far. I Today I plan to make peach rhubarb jam using the rhubarb in our backyard. You are right that I have never made fig jam, but given your success, I hope to do so if I can ever get enough quality fresh figs at a reasonable price. It is wonderful that you are using fruits that are readily available in China to make jam–lychees and figs. I am excited to hear more about your upcoming marmalade venture. I will continue to make peach things including peach bread, which I made vegan, and peach barbecue sauce! Our kitchen is still not done–no sink for another few weeks–but I am making jam despite the inconveniences!
The cat pictures are adorable. And I liked seeing all the Beatles posters, too. In terms of the virus, we live in a relatively safe area, but we are continuing to take precautions, and I am relieved that I am teaching remotely this fall. It is a mixed bag on mask wearing here–some people are being very safe and sensible, and others are not. I am a bit concerned about the influx of students returning to College, but fingers crossed things will not flare up. It is wonderful news that you will see Ying in person after so many months apart.
Can you believe we start classes so soon? Much to do in the meantime, but sending you lots of love. Your jam making Mom
Hi Mom! Thanks! I miss you, Dad, and Emmet a lot as well. Your peach, peach mango, and peach rhubarb jam all sound very yummy! I’m glad to hear that the kitchen remodeling hasn’t prevented you from jam making and baking this summer!
I’m glad that you are still taking precautions, even if Saratoga is safer. I completely understand your concerns about Skidmore reopening. I hope that that won’t cause any problems, but I’m glad you and Dad are teaching remotely. It does seem like the summer has flown by. Hope you have a safe and healthy week!
Your fig jam sounds delicious. Are you making the jam with lots of sugar or are you able to make use of the sugars in the figs together with added pectins to make this jam? And is it easy for you to get mason -type jars in which to store the jam?
On a separate note, I am reading a very well-written book by Bill Bryson – A short History of Nearly Everything – in which he explains for non scientists how such things as the weight of the earth , how the age of the earth were determined, how and when dinosaurs became extinct; why we think the universe is not only expanding but its expansion is accelerating; why it makes no sense to think about the big bang as having occurred in any place inside the universe and why quantum theory makes so little intuitive sense to anyone. I have no idea how scientists view Bryson but with no formulae or equations he offers accounts of discoveries, discoverers and debates that are both very readable and simple to understand despite the incredible complexities of the phenomena that he covers.
That said, for the first time I grasped the anxiety that some folk have about the possibility that a n asteroid might strike the earth in the near future. The kind of energy involved when even a house sized piece of rock might enter our atmosphere at the kind of speed it will have and the temperatures it will create in the air that it will press against … that and the fact that we will likely not even be aware that the rock is heading for a direct hit until moments before it does (so few astronomers are observing these asteroids and so few of the millions of these objects have been identified and tracked)… But the likelihood of a hit and a direct hit in the near future is so tiny… unless it’s not… in which case there is nothing to worry about because there is nothing we can do to avert the problem.
To end on a happier note – relatively speaking, we were so looking forward to a tiny crop of apples from our one apple tree (we had about 12 apples) but squirrels got to all but one which to prevent them from munching on that one I picked (weeks and weeks before it was ripe and fully grown).. How to inhibit squirrels is something I need to look into (perhaps some kind of gong or bell like device attached to branches?? ) BUT we were able to enjoy two (count them, two) plums from our plum tree. (I wasn’t expecting any plums this year as I radically pruned the tree (plums.. prunes .. no pun intended ) to enable us to harvest plums without the need to climb up ladders. Hopefully next year we might have a bumper crop – assuming that no asteroid strikes.
Stay safe and stay well.
Bernard
Hi Bernard! The fig jam (like all the others) did have a lot of sugar. Figs are naturally very high in pectin, so we didn’t have to use any for this jam. The Mason jars are surprisingly easy to get (and cheap ~ 50c per jar). They can be ordered on Taobao (the Chinese super-Amazon) and arrive in 2 days.
I’m not very familiar with Bill Bryson’s books, but the one you’re reading sounds very interesting. I think it’s a very important skill to be able to explain a lot of these discoveries/phenomena without using equations (and it makes it more accessible). As an Astronomer, I can understand the anxiety that a near earth Asteroid would create. You’re right that we would likely only detect it with weeks in advance, but I selfishly also don’t think all our observing resources should be devoted to observing asteroids.
I’m sorry to hear that the squirrels ate all of your apples this year. That sounds like a very frustrating problem to have. However, I’m glad you got to enjoy some plums! I also hope you have a banner crop next year! I hope that you and Lisa continue to stay safe and healthy.
Hi Jesse,
I find it interesting that you are being so creative and using your imagination. When I was studying and teaching statistics, I had to work at being creative, rather than it just coming naturally. I think it is wise to use both sides of your brain!
I thought your trivia questions were good, although there were a few I didn’t know. Did you know the answers already, or did you have to do research to come up with them?
As usual, I enjoyed your pictures of the cats and sculptures. It struck me that the cats must get very hot when it is humid there, especially if they are on the street.
Thank you, it’s always interesting to read your blog. Take care.
Monna
Hi Monna! Thanks! I’ve also found that being creative has been helpful in my research. I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the trivia questions. I’m a bit of a sports junky and read every sports book I could get my hands on growing up, so I did actually know all the answers to my own questions. I’m glad that you enjoyed the pictures! I agree with you about the cats. Oftentimes, I see them in or under bushes in parks, where it’s a little cooler. I hope you continue to stay safe and healthy!