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Category: money
Theocronomics
One notable thing about the Bible, from the Old Testament, is that sins are transferrable. Just as debt is transferrable in an economy. So the Bible establishes a…Sin Economy.
“…in the death of Christ the “guilt” of sin is transferred to Christ from believers. Though we are all “guilty” as sinners before God; we can rest and trust that Christ took upon himself the guilt of those who trust in him.” – source
In the Old Testament, Abraham is to sacrifice his son Isaac, but then God opens the first Sin Bank, and accepts a goat in his stead. Exodus and Leviticus are practically financial tables listing the sin value of goats, sheep, and pigeons. Then there’s the annual scapegoat, in which the sins of the tribe are transferred to the goat, which God accepts as payment; the goat “redeems” them, or their sins, or something; the goat is an abstract, transferrable currency.
With the advent of goats as redeemable currency, sin/debt is transferrable. The sin economy expands like crazy, as animals redeem human sin debts. You can have way more sin when you don’t have to pay for your own. Sure, there is some cost to keeping/herding goats, but it’s mostly “externalities” – it’s goats and Nature bearing those costs, more than humans. Humans mostly service the institution.
Goats, sheep, and turtledoves are Old testament commodity money, but the New Testament creates fiat currency in Jesus. The Bank of Jesus relies entirely on faith, and the sin economy expands yet again.
Introducing Hundred Dollar Drawings!
Notice: This has been popular! New orders temporarily suspended while I work on backlog. I’ll offer Hundred Dollar Drawings again soon.
$100: Tell Nina what to draw* and she’ll draw it. It could be as vague as a word (“quadruped,” “equinox”) or more specific (“a cat driving a car,” “a sun and moon shaking hands”) or even more specific (“a tabby cat driving a convertible sportscar over a cardboard box,” “a sun and moon shaking hands over planet Earth, sky behind them half night and half day”). Nina will email you a photo of the finished drawing, and post it on her blog and social media.
*Specify drawing in Paypal checkout
+ $25: We’ll ship you the original art. Sizes will vary but it will be on 8.5 x 11″ or smaller paper.
+ $100: I will also make a “Making-of” video of the drawing, such as the above.
+ $100: Drawing cleaned-up and reproduction-ready for ANY USE YOU WANT!
FAQ
Q: What if I don’t like my drawing?
A: Too bad, sorry.
Q: Can you submit a sketch and let me comment for revisions?
A: No. If you want revisions, commission another $100 drawing, and a third, fourth, etc. You can get 10 $100 drawings for less than my usual professional rate.
Q: Can I use the drawing as a commercial logo for my business?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I use the drawing for advertising or other commercial purposes?
A: Yes, anything you want.
Q: Isn’t that crazy cheap for commercial art?
A: Yes. But some of these drawings are also non-commercial. It’s all less stress for me, and I don’t care what happens to the image after I draw it. (Actually I do care – the more it’s used, the better.)
Q: What about copyright?
A: Like most of my work this is Free Culture. There’s effectively no copyright to license or buy. You can do whatever you want with the art you commission, but it’s non-exclusive. I will be posting it on my blog and social media.
Q: What if I want exclusive rights?
A: Then you’ll have to pay more than $100 – same as most professional commercial art of this caliber. Shoot me an email to discuss.
Q: What if Nina finds my drawing instructions abhorrent?
A: I will refund your money and not do the drawing. Or I’ll keep the money and willfully misinterpret your request. That might be more interesting.
Q: Can you do a caricature if I send you a photo?
A: Not very well, but I’ll try. I am not a caricaturist so likenesses not guaranteed to be recognizable or remotely able to fulfill hopes and dreams.
Bee Goddess shirts
The Bee Goddess from The Golden Calf (Return of the Goddess) is available on Teespring shirts until September 17. All proceeds support me and the Seder-Masochism project! (You can also make a tax-deductible donation and get your name in the credits.)
More Single Line Art
I am a better line processor than any algorithm we currently have access to. Behold what I turned into a SINGLE LINE by hand:
Many people think we’re using Mathematica to do the drawings of our Quilt Money. We’re not! I am drawing all this stuff by hand. Theo uses Mathematica to route my drawings that contain T-intersections, but I’m learning to make my drawings single lines without T-intersections by hand, because they route much better that way. Everything below was drawn by me, by hand:
Only a few bits (the seals and part of the border) need to be routed in Mathematica. Everything else I drew as single paths. Which is quite a brain-hurter, lemme tell ya. Here’s a screen capture of me working on this same project last week:
I could do this much more efficiently now, using what I’ve learned since then. Which is good, because the better I get at this, the more I can help someone else create algorithms to automate this kind of work.
And yes, at some point we hope to offer an affordable $100 Quilt. But first I have to get the design right, and then our potential partner has to be able actually produce it without losing money. We’re working on it.
Our quilted money is one of the few things I don’t share source (in this case, vector) files for, because currency isn’t exactly like other culture, as I explain here.
Money Laundering
Theo machine-washed and dried our Thousand Dollar Quilt.
As is always the way with money, there was a little less of it than before.
The 98-inch-long quilt shrank about 5 inches (approximately 5%). Shown above against our other $1,000 quilt test, pre-laundered, for comparison. Theo prefers the soft crinkly-ness the laundering imparts. I like them either way.