We might not be able to make our own panoramas on Mars, but we can look at Curiosity's

Over the course of almost six weeks towards the end of last year, Curiosity roved around the area of Mars called 'Rocknest', collecting over 900 photos. The majority of the images (850) came from Curiosity's telephoto camera Mast Camera instrument, as well as 21 from the Mastcam's wider-angle camera, and 25 black-and-white shots (most of which were of Curiosity itself) from the Navigation Camera. These have been stitched together to create a 1.3 billion pixel image, showing Mars' dusty landscape across its horizon to Mount Sharp.

The image is ready and waiting for public perusal on Nasa's website. You can even choose between raw and white balanced versions. There's also a slightly more manageable 159MB version available for download, too.

You can zoom in and out, exploring the finer details of Mars' landscape and the differences in the dustiness of the atmosphere. You might be there some time!

(Headsup to Engadget)

Flickr confirms: 'Pro' memberships can be retained

It seems as if creating a fuss can sometimes reap rewards. One of my, and just about every other 'Pro' user of Flickr's, concerns regarding the site overhaul and changes to its business model has been clarified. 'Pro' members do now have the chance to renew their membership at the existing price (about $25 for a year) and retain its benefits, with no plans to do away with it just yet. You won't have the luxury of allowing your membership to lapse, however, so if you're intent on keeping it, best sign up for recurring renewal. You can future-proof your subscription by heading to your Settings. It's right there under Personal Information. And all the details about retaining 'Pro' status are here in this FAQ.

(Headsup to Engadget)

News in brief: 150 million Instagrams

Yep, in just seven months 150 million photos have been uploaded to Instagram. (That’s about one every 15 seconds.) And all of those would have come from an iPhone because there’s no Instagram Android app and you can’t upload from your computer, either. Apparently, Instagram haven’t ruled out an Android app, but they are being super tight-lipped as to when one might appear. I can scarcely begin to imagine what will happen when Instagram hits the non-iOS collective. Is the world going to become one giant Instagram?

(Headsup to Engadget)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

News in brief: Gaia - the billion pixel camera

I might’ve had enough of megapixels when it comes to camera phones and compact cameras, but I can probably forgive a billion pixel camera when its purpose is to map a thousand million stars across the galaxy, in 3D. (No, I won’t quibble with 3D here, either.) The camera’s called Gaia and it was produced for the European Space Station by e2v Technologies, based in the UK.

The camera is effectively a mosaic of 106 CCD sensors that measure 6 × 4.7 cm and are a few microns deep. They should be able to detect light from stars that are about one million times fainter than the human eye can manage. Or be accurate enough to measure someone’s thumbnails if she or he is on the moon and the camera’s on earth.

Want to know more? The European Space Station website has it all.

(Headsup to Engadget)

What is this? - In our NewsFlash section, we share interesting tidbits of news. Think of it as our extended twitter feed: When we find something that get our little hearts racing, we'll share it with you right here! Loving it? Great, we've got lots more News Flash articles - and, of course, we're still on Twitter as well, for even shorter news tidbits.

When heads and cameras don't mix

In November, David wrote about Wafaa Bilal, the New York University lecturer who had a thumbnail-sized camera surgically installed into the back of his head. The idea was that it would snap one picture every minute for an entire year and the feed would be displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in Qatar. Except that Bilal’s body wasn’t too impressed by the foreign body stuck in his skull and rejected it.

Whatever the cocktail of steroids and anti-biotics that Bilal was taking, it couldn’t stop the implant from becoming unbearably painful. So out it came. Still, Bilal is planning on continuing with his experiment. He’s going to strap a camera to the back of his neck, instead.

I know that there’s this weird idea of suffering for art, but wouldn’t that have been the more sensible option in the first place?

(Headsup to Engadget.)