Shadi Ghadirian is an Iranian photographer who deals with the dualities of life in today's Iran - East and West, male and female, tradition and change, war and peace. In addition to this series, called Qajar, click on "back to main page" at the bottom to view other series that she has done. I find "Like Everyday" and "White Square" compelling.

If you haven't seen David Merrill's video on TED you're missing a treat. Merrill turns science into magic as he deals intriguingly with space and attractions in a new ecosystem. He calls his creatures "Siftables".

With tongue in cheek and a measure of impishness, a group calling themselves Street Urchins has created inexpensive take-offs of the work of Damien Hirst. Under the collective title of "For the Love of Disruptive Strategies and Utopian Visions in Contemporary Art and Culture" they are selling inexpensive collaged spoofs - you can even add some of your own.

"Curious Expeditions" produced our Site of the Month about beautiful libraries. In addition, they have mounted an exhibition called "Illusions of Flight" featuring the photographs of Francis Lee Jaques. Jaques created the Federal Duck stamp for the U.S. Post Office as well as dioramas for the Bell Museum of Natural History in Minneapolis.

A new museum for children is showing "Babar's Museum of Art" in a delightful exhibition at the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, New York. Based on the famous Babar books, the exhibition uses characters from the books to re-create famous works of art.

Using real insects, live or dead, with found objects, Jo Whaley has produced "The Theater of Insects". In an essay describing her process, Whaley explains that she sees the images as stage sets, reflecting her early interest in the theater.

The Frick Museum is showing Masterpieces of European Painting from the Norton Simon Museum. Included is a nice bit of programming that allows you to see details of the original by just passing your mouse over any part of the image.

Using Google Earth technology, the Prado Museum in Madrid allows online travelers to roam about the old world masterpieces in their collection. Creating what they call a gigapixel gallery, the Museum explains its process by guiding viewers to Google Earth, accessing the 3D option, traveling to Madrid and clicking on the Prado. Even tiny details like brush strokes can be seen. The same technique is being used to explore underwater sites on Google Earth, where you click on the Explore the Ocean layer.

In one additional bow to the extraordinary education offered by the Internet, I hope you will visit Academic Earth, soon and often. Here you will find lectures by esteemed professors at top universities on a variety of topics, from law to physics to philosophy to mathematics. The site is a very special gift to us all from universities like Princeton, M.I.T, Harvard, Yale, etc.

c.Corinne Whitaker 2009