Elisabetta Canalis topless on a balcony.

Full gallery and more Canalis nudity

We give a tip of the hat to humanity’s most important inventor, the unsung hero, Francoise Balcon, whose balconies gave birth to celebrity nudity in the era before films. While Balcon labored over his designs, a close friend, Louis Daguerre. was busy perfecting photography. The two men worked in perfect lock-step to give us the paparazzi photography we know today. Many say that the invention of the camera would have been almost useless without the parallel developments in balcony technology.

And we can’t fail to credit Jakob “The Lost Dutchman” Yacht for his own contribution, creating sailing craft relatively useless for either transportation or commerce, but extremely useful for displaying topless supermodels moored close enough to be photographed by slobs standing on public beaches.