IKB or Zima Blue

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein

I had never heard of Yves Klein when I read Zima Blue, by Alastair Reynolds for the first time. Since the latter story had a fairly lasting effect on me I'm now experiencing one of those weird postmodern moments where you encounter the effect before its cultural cause.

Existential angst aside, I would strongly recommend reading Zima Blue. It can be found in Gardner Dozois' Best of the Best New SF or in Reynold's Zima Blue and is one of the sweetest and most thought provoking short stories to take on the theme of the relationships between identity, art and artificial intelligence.

National Idiocy

"Treasures worth more then £65m, including a Poussin, a Van Dyck and a stupendous Turner painting that was the artist's final image of the Rome, will all leave the UK because no one had sufficient money to prevent their export, an annual report revealed yesterday"

The Guardian - under the headline "Going, going, gone: UK treasures sold overseas".

Seriously? Could Mr Mark Brown (Arts Correspondent) really look at those first two surnames and with a straight face think 'Aha! UK treasures!'. France and the Netherlands might beg to differ.