Is that image real?

Here is a nice discussion from the Daily Dot talking about some of the quick things one can do to see if an image is fake. This is by no means a perfect discussion of this issue, but it does include some good advice for figuring out whether or not an image is fake. You can read the details at the link, but the advice basically boils down to three tips:

1. Do a Google image search. This is particularly useful because it allows you to see how far back a particular image goes. If someone claims that an image is from the Nepal earthquake a few weeks back, but the image appeared in the internet before that, you are probably dealing with a hoax. 
2. Use Topsy, which is a search tool for Twitter. It apparently does a better job of searching Twitter than Twitter's native search function. This is also useful for tracking down the origin of an image.
3. Snopes.com. This is the ultimate resource for checking on the veracity of just about anything. If Snopes tells you it is fake, you can be quite confident that it is.