Liberty [updated]

[Update: Image is NOT Isabella Eugénie Boyer; see below.]

The face of the Statue of Liberty. Isabella Boyer’s life is like an exciting novel. She was born in Paris, the daughter of an African pastry chef and an English mother. Isabella had a special beauty and, at age 20, she married Isaac Singer, the sewing machine maker, who was 50 years old. After Singer’s death, Isabella became the richest woman in the country. It is not surprising that she was chosen as the model for the Statue of Liberty, as she embodied the American dream. Widowed, Isabella traveled the world and married the Dutch violinist Victor Robstett, becoming a countess. He became a prominent figure in America and Europe, and met the French sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi at a world event. Bartholdi, impressed by her beauty and history, used her face as a model for the Statue of Liberty. Isabella married a third time and died in Paris in 1904 at age 62, but her face lives on in the iconic statue in New York, symbolizing freedom and American pride.

[Found here, h/t Eaglesoars]


UPDATE: The top image appears to be the work of Bas Uterwijk and is an A.I. generated image of Aphrodite, not Isabella Eugénie Boyer (who may or may not have been the model for the Statue of Liberty).

Isabella Eugénie Boyer (1841-1904)
More about the viral photo here, here and here.
[h/t Gabriel]

Stuff I Do When I’m Bored

Miscellaneous strays from my desktop, most previously posted elsewhere.

Acolouthic Hot Links

Blue Star, The Shadows (1961) Pre-Beatles instrumental group The Shadows had 69 UK chart singles from the 1950s to the 2000s, 35 as The Shadows and 34 as Cliff Richard and The Shadows.

Lolo Face.

Cirrus Surfer.

Soho George.

UFO crash site.

Bark bark bark.

Poling bamboo.

Listen to a moth.

Donkey nannies.

Wendy’s watching.

Self Defense in MA.

Eh. Eh. Ah, ah, ah.

Norty Blues Episode 81.

Escape from Springfield.

Streetscapes in watercolor.

The CPI continues to climb.

Cool maps you’ve never seen.

Nice magazine. Want to sell it?

The Chelsea Hotel doors auction.

Typhoon Yagi & a cashless society.

The worst movie death scene ever.

Steampunk river town [via Memo Of The Air].

Tomorrow’s kitchen of yesterday [via Bunkerville].

[Top image: Semyon and Anna Zhimulevsky with their domestic gravity carp. Vadim Solovyov 2024.]


From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.

Stuff I Do When I’m Bored

Stuff I Do When I’m Bored

Miscellaneous strays from my desktop, most previously posted elsewhere.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 859 – Freewheeling, Digital Twister & A Guitar Mandala

[Found here, here and I spun the image found here.]

Springfield’s Finest

In late 2023, graphic designer “Princess_Prompt” threw The Simpsons characters into an AI image generator to see  how well it responded to text prompts:

“I wanted to imagine what a live action series of The Simpsons could look like in the flesh in an ’80s style, the era of their birth. As a fan of The Simpsons and Matt Groening’s work since childhood, I found them to be the ideal subject for experimentation.”

[Story here, images found here, more characters and a brief interview here, and Princess_Prompt’s explanations on Reddit here.]


Update: Someone made a trailer!

Hellberry USA

Opie & Sheriff Andy Taylor from Hell
Opie Taylor & friend inspecting a crank from hell
Aunt Bea Taylor & Barney Fife laughing at something from hell

There are some things that AI should just leave alone. Top is Opie & Andy Taylor from hell; middle isis Opie & friend inspecting a crank from hell; bottom is Aunt Bea & Barney Fife laughing at something from hell.

[AI generator: https://deepai.org/machine-learning-model/text2img.%5D

Le Défilé des Tardigrades

Top image found here; others are leftovers from playing with Deep Dream Generator using the prompt Tardigrades of the future on stage or something.

Sir Dagwood of Hamburg

[Found here.]