German Photographer Marcus Reugels takes pictures of water droplets refracting an image of a planet behind them, making them each appear to contain a lil world (prior: MC Escher droplet ). Aaaaaaah, we’re all gonna drown! Just kidding, but this does remind me of that cat in Men In Black that carries a whole galaxy around on its collar. Marcus sells prints of his work on his website and also takes requests in case you’ve got something special in mind. “I’m gonna get one of my penis!” Ha, I said special. BURN! Your girlfriend agrees though is the thing. Hit the jump for several more earths, a moon, Jupiter, Spider Man and Batman and a picture of his setup.

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Eye Candy: The World In A Drop Of Water (Plus Bonus Spider Man & Batman!)

Well folks, it’s 2012. And what better way to celebrate the end of 2011 than with this year-long pinhole camera exposure of Toronto’s skyline by Michael Chrisman? “I could think of a lot of things.” LIKE? “I dunno, getting drunk and kissing a stranger on New Year’s Eve?” Ha, you did that didn’t you? “I did.” And now you regret it, don’t you? “I do.” And how come? “She stole my wallet.” LOL, and you thought she liked you . YOU ARE A CHUMP. Year-long exposure of Toronto skyline produces ‘dreamy’ image [thestar] Thanks to Lauren, who tried taking a year-long pinhole camera photo but her camera was torn to pieces by ducks because it still smelled like Quaker Oats.

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2011 As A Single, Year-Long Pinhole Camera Exposure

Researchers at Dartmouth College have developed a metric to apply to altered images to address how much Photoshopping a picture has undergone, in an effort to provide more truth in advertising and prevent unhealthy body image issues. Hey, I’m 5′4″, 240-lbs and cool with that. Farid and Eric Kee, a Ph.D student in computer science at Dartmouth, published their research this week in the journal National Academy of Sciences. The tool would work on a rating scale of one to five. Farid and Kee created a base metric by analyzing and statistically measuring results from various before-and-after photos. They then correlated these findings with a study group that was asked to rank the amount of photo alteration on a scale of one (very similar) to five (very different). This numbered metric could then be algorithmically applied to photos of, say, celebrities and models to reveal just how much photo-manipulation took place. You want to know how much photo-manipulation takes place? I’ll tell you — TONS. It’s true, the last unaltered celebrity photo was actually taken in the 90’s. THE 1890’s. It was sepia-toned. Tool Reveals Which Celebs, Models Have Been Photoshopped [mashable] Thanks to Pat, who looks stunning even without photo manipulation. I’M SAYING YOU’RE HANDSOME, BRO.

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The Shadows Are All Wrong: ‘Photoshopped’ Algorithm

This is a picture of Flickr user clickflashwhirr (links to all her portraits), who’s taken a picture of herself in the exact same position for over 500 days. Then, artist/possible stalker Tiemen Rapati took those photos and combined them into a single one by “[counting] the individual RGB values for each pixel and for each portrait, and [dividing] those values by the number of portraits.” So, in summary, clickflashwhirr is vain as f*** and Teimen is more than a little on the creepy side. This Woman’s Fake Face Is Made from 500 Faces [gizmodo] Thanks to Eyecrusties, who — are you trying to tell me I need to wash my face?!

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Woman’s Portrait Made From Taking The Average Of 500 Separate Pictures Of Her

Google is going to start offering businesses the opportunity to have the interiors of their stores photographed and available on Google Street View . That way a user can…see the inside of a store? WHAT THE — A COMIC BOOK STORE WITH COMICS INSIDE?! *brain explodes shooting cobwebs like Spiderman* Business owners are told they must warn their customers and employees about the photoshoot before it begins. Google has promised it will blur out or refuse to publish any images that include bystanders. The photoshoots will produce 360-degree images using fish-eye and wide-angle lenses as well as stills. Business owners are also invited to upload their own pictures. *tries Street Viewing every strip club I can think of* Damn, nary an areola. Oooh ooooh — *Street Views Cinnabon* Mmmm, now that’s what I’m talking about. *lathering chest with icing and crushed pecans* Example Comic Book Store and Guitar Shop and Google Street View now takes you inside buildings [msnbc] Thanks to Lynn, who agrees they should expand the service to include restaurants’ kitchens. Yeah! …Are those hot wings on the floor?

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Google Street View: Now With Store Interiors

Facebook , the social networking giant best known for consistently making its site shittier and more confusing to use, is now home to 140-billion photos , 4% of all photos ever taken . AND WITH ANOTHER 70-BILLION TO BE ADDED THIS YEAR ALONE. I…find that kind of depressing. Like seeing a dead bird on the way to work. Facebook easily dwarfs all other picture-hosting sites, and contains more than 10,000-times the photos in the Library of Congress. Granted most Facebook photos are garbage that nobody wants to see and shouldn’t be remembered anyway, but that’s not my point. My point is this: Myspace . I just uploaded like 400 peener pics to my old profile. COME ON TOM, WE GOT THIS! How many photos have ever been taken? [1000memories] (with a ton more info on the history and number of photographs taken to date, etc.) via Facebook’s Huge Trove Of Photos In Context [businessinsider] Thanks to Stephanie, who agrees in five years there won’t even be a Facebook anymore. Buttbook, absolutely. OMG — Booty booty booty booty rockin’ everywhere! And Geekologie on Facebook (just sayin — I’ve got pictures!)

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Facebook Hosts 4% Of All Photos Ever Taken

Note: The high-res versions of the landing sites are HERE (Apollo 12), HERE (Apollo 14) and HERE (Apollo 17). You know how your grandma is still convinced the moon landing never happened and it was all faked by Hollywood ? She’s a smart lady, I can see where you get it from. This is a series of high-res photos from NASA showing the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites and the imprints left by humanity there. Granted they were all faked in the Photoshop building at Area 54, but they’re still fun to look at. So yeah, if you don’t like them you should probably consider take a long walk off a short pier into the sea. “Of Tranquility?!” Dude — you should f***ing blog. Hit the jump for a couple videos because videos are worth a thousand pictures or something. At least a hundred.

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You Can Even See The Tire Tracks!: NASA’s High-Res Pictures The Apollo Landing Sites

This is the Wacom ‘Inkling’ ($200, mid next month), a special receiver and pressure sensitive ink pen that records your actual drawings for digital import and computer manipulation AS EITHER BITMAP OR VECTOR GRAPHIX!!!11 Some people might say it’s magic, and those people would be 150% correct. While there are other ink-to-digital pens out there, the difference here is Wacom’s pressure technology. Recording 1024 levels of pressure, the Inkling will capture ever nuance in your drawings. This is how it works: Take the stylus and receiver out of the neat portable box. Clip the receiver on top of any paper notebook and start drawing. Don’t worry about space: the receiver can store thousands of pages, according to Wacom. When you are done after a day, connect the receiver to the computer via USB and browse all your drawings, exporting the ones you like to Photoshop or Illustrator or any typical graphic format, from TIFF to JPG. Not gonna lie, I could see myself drawing a whole lot of penises with one of these. Like easily OVER NINE THOUSAND. Quintuple digits. Enough to fill a swimming pool. Hit the jump for an official video demonstration.

Originally posted here:
Wacom ‘Inkling’ Records Everything You Draw, Digitally Imports As Vector/Bitmap Graphics

Note: Full res version HERE and original image prior to the Lunar Orbiter Image Reprocessing Project HERE . This is the photo taken 45-years ago today when Lunar Orbiter 1, tasked with locating a suitable landing zone for the future Apollo missions, turned around and took a picture of earth from the moon . Damn, we’ve come a long way in the last 45 years, haven’t we? No, and we just recently committed to never going back again. And you know what? That’s fine with me. Just don’t get all pissy when you look through your tele-laserscope or whatever and realize the American flag’s been replaced with a Geekologietopia one. HA — like there was ever an American one up there in the first place. Back me up, Grandma. “I wet my pants.” Dammit nana, I told you to stop smoking all my weed! That shit is waaaaaay too strong for a 200-year old. Which reminds me… are you a witch? 45 Years Ago, NASA Took the First Image of Earth from the Moon [geekosystem] Thanks to D. Krauss, who’s been to the moon and claims it’s a lot rockier and a lot less cheesy than you’d think. WELL I AM DISAPPOINT.

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45 Years Ago Today: Earth From The Moon

Note: Example photograph you can manipulate yourself after the jump. Single-click to change focus, double-click to zoom. Unlike a regular camera, the Lytro Light Field Camera allegedly gathers ALL the light information coming through the lens , allowing a user to manipulate the focus /color of a shot on a computer long after the picture was taken, effectively making it possible to take amazing looking photographs with absolutely zero skill or coordination . *Sits back and waits for the inevitable ‘I AM TEH L337 PHOTOGRAPHER!!!!11′ Facebook albums to start popping up* The secret behind the Lytro camera is a new type of sensor that gathers much more information about the light coming into the camera than the sensors found on all other types of digital cameras. Rather than record a finite amount of information about the light in a photograph, as is the case with other camera sensors, the Lytro sensor records the entire “light field,” which is made up of “all the light rays in a scene,” according to the Lytro website. This includes the color, intensity and direction of the rays of light. Other cameras simply record all the light as a single amount of light. With this vast amount of data, the focus of a photo can be fully adjusted to match a photographer’s desires, using a computer, in the same way one might use Photoshop to adjusts hue, brightness or contrast on a regular photograph. This means never having to worry about whether auto-focus centered on the right part of a picture, and it makes capturing fast-motion much easier. Admittedly, cool technology — but it still breaks my heart a little to know everybody and their grandma (ESPECIALLY grandma) will be able to do things that once took some actual knowledge and skill. Like — what’s that other modern example I’m think of? Oh right, MUSIC. *autotunes fart, makes millions* If you have Flash installed, hit the jump for a picture you can manipulate yourself.

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Camera Takes Pictures That Allow For Focus Adjustment AFTER The Photograph Is Taken