We begin our web finds this month with a treat for the mind. Apple Computer is offering first class lectures and courses on its iTunes U, free of charge. Included are colleges like Stanford and Oxford, with additional information from sites like the New York Public Library and NPR. The educational offerings are available on iPad, iPhone, and iPod. A quick glance at the Fine Arts classes showed Analysing European Romanticism, Black British Jazz, and Myth in the Greek and Roman Worlds. I just finished a series of talks on Curatorial decisions when exhibiting Benin Bronzes. Extraordinary!

The Wall Street Journal reports on the number of museums and galleries that are recording and watching what visitors see and do. They are also apparently sending "stealth observers" through the exhibits to report on the reactions of people attending. On the same program, the Journal discusses 21 Museums that want to acquire the three space shuttles that are about to retire.

Big is clearly the Museum word of the day. Picture 5000 bamboo poles and 50 miles of nylon rope being strung above the Metropolitan Museum's roof and you will have an idea of the Starn Brothers' On the Roof project. The structure continues to grow while workers complete it throughout the exhibition. The Starn Studio site gives additional photos.

Charlotte Salomon was an artist who was killed at Auschwitz during World War II. Now the Jewish Historical Museum is mounting an exhibit of her early gouaches, noting their lyricality and curious mixture of words and images.

The New York Times reports on the Italian architect Gaetano Pesce, whose designs are part of the Museum of Modern Art's collection. Pesce has now turned to designing shoes for the Brazilian company Melissa.

The Huffington Post is offering a slide show of rare color photographs taken during the Great Depression and archived by the Farm Services Administration. The works were originally shown on the Denver Post's Photo Blog called Plog.

Ed Ruscha's comment, "Sometimes the ugliest things have the most potential", is quoted in an article in Square Cylinder .com examining the recent history of landscape photography in America. The authors comment on the anti-aesthetic that began in a show at the George Eastman House in 1975.

Volume II of Susan Ressler's tribute to ordinary Americans in extraordinary moments is now available online. Ressler's photographic examinations of Americans celebrating and memorializing stand squarely in the school of Robert Frank and show us a side of ourselves that we don't often see.

In case you have ever wondered where old tires go to die, you might think of the sculptures designed using them. A group called Hyd-Masti, calling itself the largest Google Group in India, reports on some interesting eco-uses for these discarded wheels.

Morphologic Studios .com has produced vimeos using sound and light to illustrate the strange creatures that live in coral reefs. For lovers of the interaction between art and science, these are fascinating.

In a similar vein, Wired Science describes ten deep-sea creatures recently discovered deep in the Atlantic Ocean, and most of them never seen before. Be sure to surf through all of them: Nature's artistry surpasses much of what we see in galleries.