eMusings brings you treats on the web for your October pleasure.

One of the most interesting slide shows from the TED series is this talk by Frans Lanting on the beginnings of life as seen through the lens. Lanting photographed for many years for National Geographic Magazine, Time and Audubon.

Ernest Pignon-Ernest is a Parisian sculptor, photographer, draughtsman and painter. Although the descriptions are in French, the work is so evocative that it speaks for itself.

"Pink Laser Beam" calls itself a magazine about nothing, but don't let that subtitle confuse you. Using foil, onionskin, clever graphic design, fold-over pages and playful imagination, it gives us a view of what publishing can be like in creative hands.

For those of you interested in art conservation, a new book called "Exploring David" presents a detailed account of a ten-year program designed to restore Michelangelo's statue. In preparation, the Galleria dell'Accademia produced a detailed scientific study of the statue using radiography, thermographic imaging, and chemical and structural analyses. This represents the first time in 130 years that the David has been cleaned. Stanford University created a special Michelangelo project for the 3D imaging involved.

Miru Kim not only visits locations that most people, and many photographers, fear, but she has managed to photograph herself nude in each of them. From as far away as South Korea, she has posed herself in sites like a morgue, a nursing home, and a sewer.

The Galleria dell'Accademia, sponsors of the Michelangelo project mentioned above, has produced an exhibit centered on the idea of form and the human body. In a brief video, they compare "David" to the works of Robert Mapplethorpe, calling them both "Perfection in Form".

Sixty years ago during a bombing raid, thirty huge sculptures originally from Tell Halaf in Syria were shattered into thousands of fragments at their location in Berlin. Further devastated by water and fire, the pieces have now been painstakingly reconstructed and additional excavations are taking place at Tell Halaf.

Over 2100 years ago, a nobleman's wife named Lady Dai was buried near the capital of Hunan Province in China. Buried with her were some 1400 articles which have been unearthed in superb condition and can be seen at the Santa Barbara, California, Museum of Art through Dec. 13, 2009, in an exhibit called "Noble Tombs at Mawangdui"

When music, art and cosmology combine, the result is a gentle video about Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking called "A Glorious Dawn".

c.Corinne Whitaker 2009