Quantum computing is a rapidly developing field, with everyone trying to build the perfect hardware, find new applications for current algorithms, or even develop new algorithms. Because of that, the near-future demand for quantum programmers and researchers will increase shortly.

Many governmental and industrial institutions have set aside substantial funds to develop quantum technologies. The Quantum Daily (TQD) estimated the current market for quantum computing to be around $235 million. This number is predicted to grow substantially to $6.25 billion by 2025.

This incredible amount of funds leads to an increase in the number of academia, government, and industry positions. Almost all technology companies are changing their business model to adapt to when quantum technology makes an impact.

TQD also adds that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that in 2020 so far, there are around 1.4 million more quantum software development jobs than applicants who can fill them.

In 2019, MIT published an article called Q&A: The talent shortage in quantum computing that addressed the different challenges the field faces right now. Afterward, it developed MIT xPRO, a group addressing the reality that students arent the only people interested in learning about the different aspects of quantum information.

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4 Reasons Why Now Is the Best Time to Start With Quantum Computing - Medium

Kiran Raj, Principal Disruptive Tech Analyst at GlobalData, comments: Qubits can allow to create algorithms for the completion of a task with reduced computational complexity that cannot be achieved with traditional bits. Given such advantages, quantum computers can solve some of the intractable problems in cybersecurity, drug research, financial modelling, traffic optimization and batteries to name a few.

An analysis of GlobalDatas Disruptor Intelligence Center reveals various companies in the race to monetize quantum computing as an everyday tool for business.

IBM's latest quantum computer, accessible via cloud, boasts a 65-qubit Hummingbird chip. It is an advanced version of System Q, its first commercial quantum computer launched in 2019 that has 20 qubits. IBM plans to launch a 1,000-qubit system by the end of 2023.

Alphabet has built a 54-qubit processor Sycamore and demonstrated its quantum supremacy by performing a task of generating a random number in 200 seconds, which it claims would take the most advanced supercomputer 10,000 years to finish the task. The company also unveiled its newest 72-qubit quantum computer Bristlecone.

Alibabas cloud service subsidiary Aliyun and the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly launched an 11-qubit quantum computing service, which is available to the public on its quantum computing cloud platform. Alibaba is the second enterprise to offer the service to public after IBM.

Not just big technology companies, well-funded startups have also targeted the quantum computing space to develop hardware, algorithms and security applications. Some of them are Rigetti, Xanadu, 1Qbit, IonQ, ISARA, Q-CTRL and QxBranch.

Amazon, unlike the tech companies competing to launch quantum computers, is making quantum products of other companies available to users via Braket. It currently supports quantum computing services from D-Wave, IonQ and Rigetti.

Mr Raj concludes: Albeit a far cry from the large-scale mainstream use, quantum computers are gearing up to be a transformative reality. They are highly expensive to build and it is hard to maintain the delicate state of superposition and entanglement of qubits. Despite such challenges, quantum computers will continue to progress into the future where companies may rent them to solve everyday problems the way they currently rent cloud services. It may not come as a surprise that quantum computing one day replaces artificial intelligence as the mainstream technology to help industries tackle problems they never would have attempted to solve before.

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Race for quantum supremacy gathers momentum with several companies joining bandwagon, says GlobalData - Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source

Download copy from here Alan Watts :: What Is The Self ?

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekwg-rQS6mU&feature=youtu.be

In some quarters - our condo, for example, on Orange Street attacks of mental numbness and weariness have been verified.

There is much, to be sure, that my wife Suzanne and I are grateful for, including that, though as seniors we qualify as high-risk Covid-19 candidates, we are at this moment still breathing. This, I know, is much more in the way of upbeat news than can be said in the abodes of so many other households near and far.

We do our best to keep spirits up, relishing the life around us. For it is only in the New Haven version of Connecticut where one can spot a pedestrian walking while reading a book, and occasionally looking over the printed page to check for any sidewalk peril: an unruly puppy straining on its leash, a sleep deprived new mom pushing her pram or simply a seriously uneven sidewalk. It is here at the outside tables of East Rock Coffee where a patrons stop for a cappuccino can be enhanced by chewy tidbits from nearby conversations about Carl Jung or the history of U.S. and China trade relations. We also know, though, that for all of the differences, there is one matter that has been universal in America: We have been infected by a pandemic of artlessness.

Physiologically speaking, no doctor would diagnose a disease caused by the closing of theaters, art galleries, concert halls, and the like. But there certainly is one. George Bernard Shaw was speaking in a conditional tense when he said, Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable. The question is no longer one of the conditional. We are there. Unbearability is the daily norm. We hate the news, but we are addicted to it, slurping up every morsel. This results in a cycle of heartlessness and even fear, with no art to restore us.

Our tickets, or our intent to purchase them, for Long Wharf, Yale Rep, the Shubert are now just fantasy. Nor do we need to shell out the token entry fee to high school musicals in which, though several members of the cast stumble around the stage, one or two teen prodigies steal the spotlight and remind us of the human miracle of natural talent. Yes, its the standing ovation at curtain call that I miss, when so many tears of joy the most wonderful tears run down my cheeks. Where is there a moment like that compare in the routine of life?

A couple of summers ago, at The Place, the outdoor rustic restaurant in Guilford, I saw at the next table a face I had never forgotten one that brought me tears of joy as a young man. It was the tiny Hollywood and stage performer Jane Powell, whose oversized blue eyes I saw decades ago even from the cheap seats in summer stock, as she played the female lead in Frank Loessers musical, The Most Happy Fella.

Youre not going to interrupt her dinner? Sue asked, guessing the worst, but she hadnt finished the sentence before Id jumped up from the tree stump that served as a chair and gone over to properly gush. Miss Powell, though by then in her advanced 80s, looked youthful, and those eyes were still luminous.

She seemed thrilled to be recognized. I told her that I remembered her performance in the Loesser musical, and she started talking about what a delight it was, and for a moment she and I were in that other world, far away from lobsters and grilled corn, somewhere, if not over the rainbow, at least in the vineyards of an Italian immigrant in the Napa Valley, trying to master English, singing, Happy to make you acquaintance, thank you so much Im a feel fine.

On reflection, our recent and seemingly giant abyss as lovers of art, theater and music is nothing, or course, compared to the suffering of those young and middle age people, who havent yet had the success of Miss Powell, and have few if any prospects for stage work, or even to make do on waitstaffs. There is a ton of muffled talent out there. And, as they suffer, so do we, because we dont have a chance to introduce ourselves to new and powerful art.

In lieu of doing anything else, Sue and I have sent donations to the institutions we love. But even these fall short of helping the neediest. In many cases, large operations are still delivering huge paychecks to the executives who run them, even while actors and musicians have lost wages and, in many cases, health care coverage. The gig economy, on which many industries including the arts depend, has become almost gigless.

Its true, and a good sign, that Thursday, Gov. Ned Lamont put into play Phase 3 of reopening which loosens crowd restrictions on performing arts venues, And some museums, including the prominent Yale Art Gallery and Yale Center for British Art, have once again opened their doors, but only for limited hours and limited crowds.

The one art form that has thrived in this pandemic is that of the written word. More people are reading than ever before, and this supports both authors and book stores (including, so sorry to add) the behemoth company run by Jeff Bezos.

During the summer I read or listened to more books than in any season previously, and as a result was often enriched and delighted. Works by Erik Larson, Henry Miller (finally), Stephen Fry, Lee Child, Amity Shlaes, and others. But even reading books, as important as they are, is a process we do alone.

We cant stuff ourselves into RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison, as we did so often in years past, to hear readings by the likes of many of the countrys finest authors. We cant even gather to hear a reading by Yales new Nobel Laureate, the poet Louise Gluck. (Though you can watch her above.)

Much of the conversation with friends has been about the comfort of home and access to compelling television series, the kind of writing and acting that threatens the movie theater release, now moot. But these excellent shows give us little chance for communion because we watch them from our respective couches.

I want to finish here with a Hollywood ending. Something uplifting. The best I can do at this point, though, is to point out that when this all ends, we will never again take another night of artful presentation for granted. We will recognize and treasure the way art nourishes us, and gives us the strength and inspiration to carry on.

Lary Blooms biography, Sol LeWitt: A Life of Ideas, is a finalist in nonfiction for the 2020 Connecticut Book Awards. The winners will be announced Oct. 15.

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Life Without Art In A Pandemic - New Haven Independent

There is no better way to savour a beautifully imagined and executed photographic essay of the Skelligs than to do so while gazing at the real thing.

That is not too difficult in south-west Kerry.

These three rocky, craggy islands situated about 12 kilometres off the southwest coast, have been the stuff of wonder, legend and lore for thousands of years.

They consist of Skellig Michael (Sceilig Mhicil), Small Skellig (An Sceilig Bheag) and Lemon Rock, the latter described by photographer and Skellig enthusiast Peter Cox as the runt of the litter'.

Runt or not, Lemon Rock provides a dramatic counterpoint to Small Skellig which has its own unique natural wonder, home to almost 30,000 pairs of gannets, the second largest colony of such sea birds in the world.

The most majestic island of the three is undoubtedly the once inhabited Skellig Michael where, from the sixth to the 12th or 13th century, Christian monks lived lives of splendid isolation in honour of the third century St. Anthony of Egypt who spent his time in the arid deserts of his homeland.

Skellig Michael, is harsher, windier and wetter but no less a desert, the edge of the known world of Europe centuries ago.

The early monastery, which is perched on one of the islands two summits, has been recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site not only for its well-preserved structures but for its historical significance as a cauldron of Christianity amid a religious ice-age throughout much of Europe.

The monastic site on the island, reached by 500 steep steps not for the faint-hearted, includes stone beehive-shaped huts where the monks lived and prayed.

They cling precariously to cliff edges alongside oratories, a cemetery, stone crosses, holy wells and the Church of St Michael. Enduring several Viking raids, the monks eventually left the island and it became a place of pilgrimage for centuries afterwards.

In the 19th century, two lighthouses were built on Skellig Michael, establishing its importance in Ireland's maritime history.

Boat trips to the island also began as word spread of this unique and enchanting place. Following a visit in 1910, George Bernard Shaw described it as an incredible, impossible, mad place and part of our dream world.

It was that dream world that, in recent years, has attracted Hollywood, taking a starring role as Luke Skywalker's island sanctuary on the planet Ahch-To in both Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.

Director JJ Abrams was struck by the wonder of Skellig Michael, describing it, in quasi-religious terms, as a sort of miracle'.

That miracle can be captured from the air and also on land from the Dingle Peninsula, to Valentia Island, to Ballinskelligs at the edge of the Iveragh Peninsula. The best view, though, I believe, is from the Skellig Ring, overlooking St Finians Bay, locally known as The Glen.

Residents of Valentia, which affords a distant view of the islands, may beg to differ. They celebrate the remoteness of their home, also an island, telling visitors that, on a rare calm day, you can hear the traffic in New York. They are only half-joking.

Excerpt from:
The Skelligs: the Islands of wonder, legend and lore - Irish Examiner

School uniforms are designed so everyone is dressed the same in class - so heads turned recently when students at one Dublin secondary school arrived into class in the historic garb of past pupils from the 1890s to the 1960s.

The old uniforms from the archives of Wesley College in Ballinteer were resurrected to add a bit of fun to the schools 175th anniversary celebrations.

And, to add further drama, the students took on the persona of some of these past pupils.

The characters included Florence Forsyth one of the first girls to enrol at the Methodist day and boarding school in 1912 (it became co-educational in 1911).

A talented singer, Forsyth set up the Pembroke School of Singing and worked in 2RN, the forerunner of Radio ireann.

Another character re-enacted was that of, Eileen McKew, a diligent academic student who went on to become the first female Registrar of Sir Patrick Duns Hospital in 1939.

No one was quite brave enough to take on the role of the schools most famous past pupil, playwright, George Bernard Shaw but one student dressed in the wool swimming costume of prize-winning swimmer, Reginald Arthur Dench,who met his wife-to-be Eleanora Olive Jones at Wesley College and they later became the parents of actress, Dame Judi Dench.

The students seemed to enjoy stepping back in time. Daisy Forte who dressed in 1920s white tennis dress and blazer says that she realised how lucky students are now.

In the 1920s, girls couldnt take the same subjects as boys and had to study elocution, painting/drawing and domestic science instead. They couldnt eat in the same dining room either, she said.

Ruby Meira, who wore a gingham dress, blazer and a beret which was the summer uniform of the 1960s says she loved wearing the beret.

I wanted to be a student from the 1960s because this was the first generation of teenagers and a time when boys and girls became friends rather than being fascinated or scared of each other.

The school was then on the corner of St Stephens Green and Harcourt St and the berets which only the junior students had to wear - were thrown in the nearby Grand Canal as a rite of passage into the senior cycle.

The current school, designed by architects, Scott, Tallon, Walker, was built on a 50 acre farm in Ballinteer in the 1960s.

Raheem Olatunde wore a suit with short pantaloon trousers, a waistcoat and woven tie and took on the persona of Harry Brown, a final year boarder from 1895.

The boys had to get up at 6.30am and do one hours study before school started at 9am. Id be sleeping in class if I did that. Also there were no girls in Wesley at that time and I find that strange as a lot of my friends in school are girls, says Olatunde.

Other historic uniforms included a homemade pleated pinafore from the 1950s, a white smock and chefs hat for the girls domestic science class in 1925.

The boys uniform from the 1940s was a double-breasted blazer with baggy grey flannel trousers, a narrow school tie and braces which Bosola Ojewale says he enjoyed wearing.

Wesley College principal, Christopher Woods is only sorry one of the students didnt choose to take on the persona of former student, Sir Robert Hart who was responsible for financial reforms in 19th century China.

He was the only western named by Empress Dowager Cixi among the 50 most important people in China at that time, says Woods.

Maybe a student will enact this crucial character in Sino-Irish relations for the 200th anniversary celebrations.

And, regarding the debate on whether girls should be allowed to wear trousers as part of their uniform the Wesley girls seem nonplussed.

We can wear trousers if we want but they arent that comfortable so most girls prefer to wear skirts, said Forte.

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Students resurrect old uniforms to mark schools 175th anniversary - The Irish Times

The team at Northern Light Theatre is thrilled about two things. Not only is the small company reopening its doors at the Westbury Theatre, but this year, it also celebrates its landmark 45th anniversary season with a four-show lineup exclusively featuring five dynamic mature actresses.

Originally launched as a lunch-box theatre in 1975 by the far-sighted Scott Swan and Allan Lysell, the theatre gradually introduced masterful productions from George Bernard Shaw to Brecht. It even producedthe first taste of Shakespeare in the Park, mounted on Connors Hill in 1980.

By the mid-'90s, artistic directors D.D. Kugler and Sandhano Schultze rebranded Northern Light Theatre with more alternative scripts reflecting a darker, funnier and more complex world.

As the current artistic director for the past 18 years, Trevor Schmidt has continued to push boundaries with more provocative, edgy works.

He admittedly has a soft spot for women past the ingnue years. He composed this seasons quartet of plays keeping in mind the timeolder actresses have invested in their craft, and how difficult it can be to secure a role if one is of a certain age actresses trapped in a culture that values youth and beauty over wisdom and experience.

My original concept was to do a season of shows with women of a certain age. I wanted to ask, What is a womans place and value when her looks go, when sexually she no longer holds value? And if so, what value are women if they are not viable as sexual objects? Today, theres a big push to support emerging artists, but often the mature artists are overlooked, said Schmidt.

For the seasons first production, he brings back Kristin Johnston (Baroness Biankas Bloodsongs) in the world premiere of We Had a Girl Before You running Nov. 5 to 21 at Westbury Theatre. In this production, Schmidt takes on a triple workload as playwright, director and costume designer.

This is Johnstons third starring role under Schmidts wing. Their artistic partnership has blossomed to the point he wrote We Had a Girl using Johnston as his muse.

Kristin is such a joy to work with. Shes super multi-talented. Shes a gifted comedienne and shes a hard worker. And I like working with her. Shes pleasant, grateful for the work and collaborative.

In writing We Had a Girl Before You, the playwright was influenced by Gothic romances and thrillers set in the Regency era.

There was a revival in the 1950s and '60s pulp fiction Jane Eyre, Lady Eleanor Smith. Theres usually a romantic governess, a dark mysterious brooding man, ghosts and the supernatural underlying the florid, pulpy themes, Schmidt said.

In his play, the heroine is no longer young or beautiful. But she still holds on to the trope of a spinster searching for romantic adventure. She is hiredas a companion at a mansion, but discovers there were many other girls in the post before her that were dismissed.

She has to wonder if shes next in line. And the audience starts to wonder if shes a reliable narrator or if shes lost her mind. This play is true to the Gothic nature, buttheres also a fine line between parody and truth, comedy and terror.

Next in the lineup is the North American premiere of The Look running Jan. 14 to Jan. 31, 2021, at Studio Theatre inside Fringe Theatre.

Written by Australian playwright Alexa Wyatt, The Look plays upon the illusion of physical beauty. Marilyn is an ex-photographic super model who was once celebrated as the original Estelle girl.

Age has demoted her to giving lectures to sales girls on the Estelle cosmetic range. During one of her training sessions, she forgets her notes and slips back through time.

She talks about the theory behind cosmetics. What women owe, what men expect. And she has a bit of a meltdown. She gets distracted and forgetful to where shes going. She sees things in her history viewed from a distance and sees she was complicit in her oppression, said Schmidt.

Tackling the role is Linda Grass, a statuesque blonde who corners the market on elegance and eloquence.

Linda creates her signature looks but is so funny in this role.

The seasons third production is the Tennessee Williams' classic Something Unspoken running April 14 to May 1 also at Studio Theatre. The only show in the NLT lineup with two actresses, the one-actwas written in 1958 and debuted as part of a double-bill of Williams' plays.

The action takes place in Meridian, Louisiana, where two women live in a codependant relationship yet cannot deal with an incident that happened years ago.

Miss Cornelia Scott is a wealthy Southern spinster whose greatest desire is to be regent of the local chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy. An election is underway and shes waiting to hear the results.

Her secretary and live-in companion, Grace, has been with her for 15 years. Despite their long relationship, a mysteriousundercurrent of tension exists between the two women.

Davina Stewart takes on Miss Cornelia Scott while Patricia Darbasie is Grace.

It interests me in that its about a different relationship and what happens if you dont speak the truth for years. What are you gaining by not speaking? Schmidt asks.

In theatre you figure out the motivations, but this play has a very enigmatic script. Theres a lot of talk about nothing and a lot of dancing and waiting for someone to make the first move.

The final play of the season is Victoria playwright Janet Muncils The Ugly Duchess. The dramaticwork is based on Margaret Maultasch, a 14th century monarch of Tyrol reputed to be the ugliest woman in history.

She was famed for her unfortunate features. But she had an enviable piece of land and was sought after by many men. She learns at a young age looks matter to society. But she holds on to the idea that if she is good, someone will love her.

She realizes her husband doesnt love her and must deal with constant court machinations. Eventually her panic-stricken subjects even vilify and blame her for the plague.

She had to fight to be seen as a ruler in her own home.

Munsil originally created the role casting her husband actor Paul Terry as Margaret. Schmidt has instead recast the beautiful Lora Brovold as the medieval monarch.

For this transformative piece, Schmidt stated it was less about horrifying the audience than seeing Margarets trueinner beauty.

Her physical transformation follows her internal transformation.

The Ugly Duchess takes place from May 6 to May 22 at Studio Theatre.

There is limited seating capacity to allow for social distancing. PPE will be in place and audiences will be expected to wear a mask upon entering the building. Tickets are available at 780-471-1586 or online at northernlighttheatre.com.

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Northern Light Theatre has something special to celebrate - St. Albert TODAY

Some things never change and that a shame.

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."

-- George Bernard Shaw

One month to go beforeElection Day/Week and I have to watch TV on "mute".

It's a house rule instituted by the woman my son called Mother Superior, who grew tired of me yelling, "That's not true!" at campaign commercials.

"Of course, it's not true," my wife will remind me calmly. "They're politicians."

I know that.

You know that.

They even know that.

But they don't stop, do they?

Some people talk about about "four more years." I dont know if I can take four more weeks.

I just want to go to bed and sleep until somebody wakes me up for Thanksgiving dinner, or maybe to open Christmas gifts.

I could quit watching TV and avoid part of the aggravation, but there are still several ways to get to me.

My wife and I were happy last month when he finally severed our telephone land-line, and all those political calls stopped. Yet nothing is fool-proof for a sufficiently talented fool. Theyre knocking on the door.

Then theres the mail.

Some have said the post office will have trouble handling mail-in ballots. I doubt it, because they sure dont have trouble delivering election propaganda.

What particularly irritates me are politiciansthat I liked at some point.

TheonesI thought would speak for me and the things I valued.But they (or their minions) are "approving the message" that shows they don't mind shucking their shorts and jumping into the mud, ready to bring it and sling it.

What can we do?

Well, I've tried to turn it into an exercise, a carefulanalysis of what is being said and what is being meant -- rarely the same thing.

Heres my list. Compiling it was therapeutic.

"(My opponent) has waged a negative campaign."

(Translation: "I have much to be negative about.")

"(My opponent) wants to let criminals out of jail."

(Translation: "Not really, but if I say it often enough, my consultants say some of you will believe me.")

"(My opponent) is trying to buy this election."

("I would prefer to steal it.")

"I am proud to be an American."

(Translation: "There are no Canadians voting in my district.")

"Childrenare our future."

("They'll have to pay for all this stuff I'm promising you.")

"(My opponent) is ignoring the issues."

("... a strategy he stole from me.")

"(My opponent) will hurt senior citizens."

("A shame because I live with my parents.")

("My opponent) will raise taxes!"

(Translation: "Making him like everybody else.")

"(My opponent) thinks leadership involves kissing babies.")

(Translation: "I will kiss the rumps that matter.")

"Paid for by friends of ..."

(Translation: "The rumps with the wallets.")

Original post:
Kirby: What they say, what they mean and what can you do? - The Augusta Chronicle

Oct 3rd 2020

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, a playwright and activist, thought that the best way to bring about social equality was to keep the entire community intermarriageable. He was primarily concerned with relationships across the class divide but, when he visited South Africa in 1935, he caused a stir by suggesting the same idea for race. The Daily Telegraph, for one, was taken aback. Marriages of white and black: Startling plan by Mr Shaw, its headline read.

What was once startling is now commonplace. The number of Britons who say they have a mixed-ethnic background almost doubled between the census of 2001 and 2011, to about 1.2m, or slightly more than 2% of the overall population. That figure is probably an undercount, since not all children of mixed marriages will have ticked one of the mixed categories, and the number is likely to have grown since the census. An analysis by Alita Nandi of Essex University and Lucinda Platt of the London School of Economics suggests that the true figure could be three times as high. If that is right, mixed-race people constitute a larger proportion of the population than any ethnic group.

And that share is still growing. Fewer than 1% of Britons aged 50 or over in 2011 had a mixed-ethnic background, according to an analysis of official statistics by Rob Ford of Manchester University. Among the youngest cohortunder fives6% had one. The proportion of cohabiting couples that are interracial shot up from 2.6% in 2001 to 4.5% by 2011. Both patterns suggest that the next census, due next year, is almost certain to report an even larger number of mixed-race Britons.

This demographic shift coincides with the resurgence of race as a central political theme. In Britain, as in America and continental Europe, this year will be remembered not only for covid-19 but also for a reassessment of the state of race relations. As statues were felled and historic anthems reappraised, the idea of white privilege leapt from the campus to the streets. Yet much of the focus on symbolic and systemic racism overlooks the growing significance of mixed-race Britons, who often defy labels. The attitudes of this group will be crucial in determining the future direction of identity politics.

This is truer of Britain than of other rich countries. London appears to have a far more ethnically mixed population than Paris, Berlin or Rome, though since France, Germany and Italy do not collect data on race, it is impossible to be sure. Certainly, mixed-race people make up a greater share of all non-whites in Britain (16%) than in America (11%). And the pattern of marriage is different, too. Most Americans of mixed parentage settle down with a partner from a minority group, but 50% of Britons with black African and white parentsand 75% whose parents were white and black Caribbeanmarry a white partner.

A poll for The Economist by Ipsos MORI suggests that mixed-race Britons are, in general, less wary of Britains institutions and history than black Britons (see chart). They are marginally less likely to support Black Lives Matter (BLM), less likely to agree with the proposition that Britain is a racist country and much less likely to think most British cops are intentionally racist. Though a plurality of all ethnic groups surveyed thought the British Empire should be a source of neither shame nor pride, considerably more mixed-race than black Britons were proud of it. Sunder Katwala of British Future, a think-tank, believes that BLM will pursue different policies in Britain than in America in part because of the disparity in the rates of inter-ethnic relationships. This policing of the boundaries requires a high level of social distance between the groups, he says.

That is much rarer in Britain than it once was. Consider Marvin Rees, the mixed-race mayor of Bristol. He is proud of his Jamaican ancestry and, growing up in the 1980s, he often faced racial abuse. Yet he would return home each evening to his white mother, who left school at 14 to work as a hairdresser. There is such a thing as white privilege but my white family did not grow up with privilege, he says. He remembers a school friend asking him during one of the citys race riots, when they were both about 13, in a war between black and white whose side are you going to be on?...The idea of going to war with white people didnt sit well with me. At the same time, I recognised the physical threat to my safety was coming from white people.

Mr Rees, whose wife is white, credits his background for his nuanced approach to racial issues. His city made headlines around the world in June when protesters toppled a statue of a city father who was a notorious slave trader. But Mr Rees was wary of such direct action, arguing that symbols were far less important than measures to tackle entrenched inequality. I will talk about race and racism in all its fullness, he says. But Im not going to go home and give mum a hard time for being white or ask her to feel guilty.

Maya, a 30-year-old university teacher in London, also says her ancestrymixed white and south Asianmakes her aware that identity is in part changing and contextual. That she can count ancestors on either side of Britains colonial history emphasises the complexity of racial politics and makes her ambivalent about rigid identity positions. Another Londoner reckons his mixed-race parentage gives him a sense of perspective on how arbitrary identity politics is.

It is not inevitable that, as ethnicities mix, identities get watered down. Mr Rees points out that, as people feel their connection to a particular identity weakening, they may well seek to reassert it. People crave simplicity and certainty. If that were to happen, the growth in intermarriage could eventually make racial politics more, not less, divided.

But our polling suggests the opposite is happening. Trevor Phillips, a former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, argues that rather than being forced to choose one ethnic identity or another Britains mixed-race citizens are increasingly claiming both sides of their heritage. His children have Indian, French and Caribbean ancestry, with cousins from each branch of the family. Wherever they are at Christmas, he says, they know what to do. And, as Mr Katwala has written, that is only a threat to those whose views of race depend on telling everybody else how to think about who they are.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Not black and white"

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Britains mixed-race population blurs the lines of identity politics - The Economist

Listen to the opening of Felix Mendelssohns Octet, as played by Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky and friends on the irresistible recording they made in 1961 at the old Elvis-haunted RCA studios near Hollywood and Vine. Mendelssohn was 16 when he produced this truest embodiment of unbridled, anything-is-possible youth. Unlike a document film, painting, photograph, printed or even spoken word it is neither youth preserved nor mimicked but, in each performance, youth reborn.

Goethe encountered both Mozart and Mendelssohn as boys and had this to say to the latters teacher: What your pupil already accomplishes, bears the same relation to the Mozart of that time that the cultivated talk of a grown-up person bears to the prattle of a child.

The Octet has got to be the most impressive work of art ever produced by anyone so young. Its not just its verve but its voice that is so remarkable. The depth of feeling, the humanity, the craftsmanship, the sheer giving of pleasure are all pure Mendelssohn, already there. This is the immediately recognizable, immediately lovable Mendelssohn of the Overture to A Midsummer Nights Dream, the Violin Concerto and the Scottish and Italian Symphonies.

Above all, the Octet remains a manifest proclamation of youth and, hence, hope. If a 16-year-old could do this nearly 200 years ago, what might our youth now augur?

Indeed, Mendelssohns unsullied exultation led to one of the great and influential careers in music. The Octet was written in 1825, and the composer went on, until his death only 22 years later, to become perhaps the leading musician of the second quarter of the 19th century. In addition to being a famed composer, he was said to be an amazing pianist, violinist and violist who also invented modern conducting and turned Leipzigs Gewandhaus into a legendary German orchestra.

He was handsome. He was a talented painter and gymnast. He was a loving son, brother, husband and father. He was doted upon by royalty and generously used his influence and power to support other composers. He was a humanist who idealistically made ecumenicalism the spiritual and societal center of his life.

Yet he became hated. Shortly after his death, Mendelssohn was attacked for being a Jew by an insanely jealous Richard Wagner and discredited by progressives for being a conservative. He was canceled by the Nazis and dismissed by Modernists who thought him sentimental and superficial.

George Bernard Shaw complained of Mendelssohns despicable oratorio mongering. In his otherwise probing The Romantic Generation, Charles Rosen sniffily titled his chapter on the composer Mendelssohn and the Invention of Religious Kitsch. A withering Ludwig Wittgenstein reduced Mendelssohn to a man who is jolly when the people he is with are jolly anyway.

Although concerted scholarly efforts over the last half century have aimed to provide context to Mendelssohns career and restore his reputation, Mendelssohn might today seem the poster boy for our own cancel culture. Grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and son of a wealthy Berlin banker, the composer was the epitome of white privilege, growing up in an idyllic Berlin mansion, where he was given every opportunity.

Imagine the premiere of the Octet at one of the Mendelssohns regular Sunday salons that attracted the leading poets, philosophers and powerful politicians of the day. Felix may have been ruddy from a morning horseback ride or swimming, activities at which he also excelled. The food, drink and conversation were, no doubt, excellent.

Then came a performance, in which Felix likely played the soaring first violin part, that had to have made the whole scene seem too good to be true. The very idea of a string octet was original. There had been double string quartets, and the year before Schubert wrote a luminous octet for strings and winds, but Mendelssohns was a new lush string ensemble sound.

The piece, itself, has many precedents. The jump-for-joy Finale takes its inspiration from Mozarts Jupiter Symphony. The slow movement was written by a young composer besotted by the late quartets Beethoven was writing. But the buoyant, bounce-off-the-wall melodies are teenager adrenaline distilled. There is no stopping him, and sometimes it shows. He goes on too long in the exposition of the first movement. He tests the limits of his listeners with his ever-increasing exuberance.

Even so, every other turn of phrase is a winning new marvel. The third movement is the predecessor to the fantastical kind of music, representing the spirit world, that would show up next year in A Midsummer Nights Dream Overture, which then became the most astonishing piece by a 17-year-old in the literature.

The Octets accomplishment didnt come out of nowhere. The way was paved with symphonies, concertos and operas along with solo and chamber music galore hundreds of scores, a few of which are juvenilia worthy of occasional revival. He went on to write a wealth of additional music, though of various quality. Not all the complaints about Mendelssohns penchant for predictable melodies, four-square phrasing and formalist repetitiveness lack validity. He can be too cheery. He can seem, at his most somber, to be holding something back. None of that, of course, matters in the slightest when, at his best, Mendelssohn raises your spirits by sweeping you away on the wing of song. At his best, moreover, Mendelssohn was the voice not just of good taste and restraint but of essential reason.

Mendelssohn and his Octet were, in fact, just a little too good to be true, and that is what makes him matter the most to us now. He lived in a revolutionary Germany that he supported but only without losing sight of the highest ideals and accomplishments of the past.

He got this from his grandfather, Moses, the Enlightenment philosopher who became known as the Jewish Socrates. Moses believed strongly in the necessity for Jews to assimilate into modern German culture but to resist conversion, insisting that Jews not lose their identity. Felixs father, however, had his son convert at age 7, and the composer came to enthusiastically celebrate Christianity as Judaisms vital evolutionary next stage.

Mendelssohn sought to seize what he realized might be the last moment in European history, wrote the conductor and scholar Leon Botstein, who has been the forefront of the modern Mendelssohn revival, to further the project of assimilation, enlightenment and the universal love of god. Still, Mendelssohn never stopped seeing himself as a Jew. Disastrously, Germany didnt either: Hitler toppled the Mendelssohn monument in Leipzig.

Even the even-tempered, athletic Mendelssohn is part myth. Neither his health nor temperament were as ruddy as all that. He was extremely close to his sister Fanny, also a gifted composer forced by gender and class to be unjustly overshadowed by her brother, and when she died of a stroke, he went into an emotional and physical tailspin. His health was always poor, it turned out, and he died six months later.

Listen carefully to the Octet and all that exuberance and suffusion of warmth can be heard as not just innocent overflowing spirit but containing more than the composer or his world could sustain. He needed a container for it all, which became his classicism. His brilliant attempt to find the incredibly fine balance offered history a hope for sanity. Maybe, if we let it, it still can. Meanwhile, Mendelssohnian privilege offers its own lasting lesson. For the composer, a life of ease led to resentment. But it also demonstrated that when we provide talent, wherever we find it, the opportunity, it can flourish beyond our wildest expectations.

Starting points

The Heifetz-Piatigorsky recording of Mendelssohns Octet has no competition for the arresting quality of exuberance. It leaps off the turntable, CD player or YouTube, wherever you find it. Fully embodying Mendelssohns spirit, it was one of the great recordings, and it has been remastered in ultra-hi-res and also released as part of a CD set of the complete Heifetz-Piatigorsky Concerts from Sony Classical.

A more modern alternative is the more analytical but wonderfully illuminating and superbly recorded reading by the Henschel Quartet. While youre at, check out the New Music String Quartets gripping and newly remasteredperformance of Mendelssohns String Quartet No. 2, which takes its inspiration from the movement in Beethovens Op. 132 featured earlier in this series. The 1954 recording is an example of one of the few modernist ensembles who took Mendelssohn serious at that time.

With live concerts largely on hold, critic Mark Swed is suggesting a different recorded music by a different composer every Wednesday. You can find the series archive at latimes.com/howtolisten, and you can support Marks work with a digital subscription.

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In the Mendelssohn Octet, the pure sound of youth - Los Angeles Times