The anonymous (and mysteriously omnipresent) Museum Nerd has teamed up with Artlog to share a weekly dispatch of observations from the field. Follow the Nerd on Twitter or just about any social media platform.

Art Babel keeps growing and growing. Taller and taller. I’ve long been a fan of ArtBabble.org for their great aggregated art video content. I congratulate them on picking up the Tang Museum (Skidmore College’s museum in Saratoga Springs, NY) and Museo del Prado (Madrid’s home of Las Meninas). As their range of contributing museums grows internationally, their aspirations parallel (not really) those of the builders of the Biblical Tower of Babel. Contrary to popular belief, the word “babble” is not traceable to the biblical Babel, whose destruction supposedly resulted in the creation of the planet’s many languages.

More of this week’s highlights and museology:

• Ed Ruscha calls the “font” he uses in his paintings Boy Scout Utility Modern! Go read Mar Dixon’s blog post on Ed’s talk at Wolves Art Gallery.

• Sexting in 1828, preserved at the Metropolitan Museum. Caveat: kinda NSFW.

• Laura Raicovich will leave Dia Art Foundation to become Director of Global Initiatives at Creative Time.

• Nice aerial shots of the new Parrish Art Museum being built. The Parrish Museum continues construction on its new 12,300 square foot building in Water Mill, set to open next summer. (via Director Terrie Sultan)

• The “Orientalist” painting galleries at the Met, dominated by Gérôme, have a new name…

• This may be my favorite period room at the Met. Gorgeous. From 1707 in Damascus, Syria.

• Extraordinarily detailed ivory pyxis (a perfume box in this case) in the Met’s Islamic Art galleries, on loan from the Hispanic Society.

• The Hispanic Society is really is one of the best museums in NYC. So glad to see them in the twittersphere.

• The Best Connected Artwork at the Walters (via Dana Allen-Greil)

• Congrats to the Brooklyn Museum for winning an Institute of Museum and Library Services National Medal for Museum and Library Service.

• I’m obsessed with Man Bartlett’s Occupy Wall Street-inspired $ project, which publicly records all his expenditures and income at @OccupyMan.

• From the Museum Nerd Archive: 1934 Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin featuring normal and miniature tea kettles.

• From the Museum Nerd Archive: 1976 MoMA publication featuring Roy Lichtenstein’s panicked Jet Pilot.

• All the Museums I know of on Tumblr – tweet at me if I’m missing any and I’ll add them.