Hey, hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Think Tech Hawaii studio for this episode of Security Matters. It's the post-ISC West episode. I hope, well, I know some of you got there. I saw about 8,000 of you tromping around. It was a little lighter than usual. But our guest today, Brad Solomon, is with our spotter RF, and he's the Global Director of Business Development. So maybe he can give us some perspective on how ISC was versus the rest of the shows. And first, let's get to know Brad a little bit. Brad, thanks so much for joining me today. I know everybody is still trying to catch their breath, at least in North America, you know, from the show. But for the folks who don't know today, tell everyone to kind of talk about compact radar and some of the things that it's brought to our industry that we didn't have. And I'm an old radar guy. Maybe, well, it doesn't matter. But Brad, why don't you give us, for those, for the folks who may not know you, kind of your background in the industry, and then we'll kind of start to get into technology and maybe a little bit about the show. Oh yeah, thanks. Thanks for the opportunity, Andrew. Yeah, just coming off the heels of the show, that was great. We can talk more about that. My background, a lot of you may know me, a lot of you probably don't, but I have been with spotter RF for 10 years now. Spotter being an 11-year-old company, I came in right at the beginning there. And it was my first real career job right out of college. I started interning for spotter RF. I did an undergraduate in integrated engineering and then a master's in mechanical engineering with a big emphasis in acoustics. And so oddly enough, that relates very well to radar and they pulled me in as an engineer on the design side. So I ended up finding this little startup company and decided to stay with that and stick with that. I just saw that they had something very, very unique. And it's ironic because I don't, I came from a small town in Southern Nevada where security wasn't an issue. Nobody locked their doors, cars, your keys are just left on the car seat and you just don't really think about those kind of things. But now we're in this world where everything is revolving around security. So I really like where I ended up. I evolved into more customer facing roles as time moved on at spotter RF and as we grew. Even six, seven years ago, all of our guys worked out of the Orem Utah main headquarter office. And so since then though, we have expanded and I think about 60% of our workforce is actually outside of the main headquarters at this point. We do have a global footprint and I've been able to just leverage all of the contacts within the industry and learn about security. For me, being an engineer, engineers like problem solving and this industry just drew me in and you can, I mean, there's a million problems. There's a million ways to solve a problem. And that's kind of where I get my joy out of everything is helping people solve problems, specifically just preventing harm in the industry. That's a little bit of my background. I love that. I love it. I think so many people fall into our industry.  This looks unique. But at the end of the day, you realize, wow, we're protected property. We're saving lives. So it gives us this sort of, I think there's an advantage to being in technology in our industry that some of the other industries really don't get to necessarily rest on their laurels. We always know we could do more, but every day at the end of the day, we know those solutions that we put out there are still working to do that job that we are passionate about protecting people. So I'm, for one, glad you found our industry, sir. The young engineering folks are getting swapped up by the Amazons and Microsofts and Googles of the world. So I'm so glad you're here. Thank you for joining us in our industry. Let's real quick just talk a little bit about ISC West. So talk about how the show was for you and maybe as, you know, looking at global biz debt, you know, kind of maybe compare, contrast that for our audience for what's going on in the rest of the world. Maybe even, I don't know how much has been done this year, but maybe what you folks are looking to accomplish later on this year, where the world is opening up and if it is, I'm stuck on a little island. So I don't see much of it. Yeah, no. Well, ISC West was a big question mark going into it, right? I think for a lot of people. And for us as well, you saw a bunch of the big name vendors pulling out and you didn't have a lot of commitment from attendees. So it was kind of a big question mark. But what we saw and I think most of the vendors that we were there with experienced the same thing, the people that did come lower traffic, but high quality, they came with a mission in mind. They came with something they were trying to solve and sought out those vendors that were there.  I think that definitely happened. We didn't have maybe the third day was slow, but that's typical for ISC West. I don't think we were complaining though. It was good to get out and just see people, right? Interface with some people that had been shut in for a while that I hadn't seen for two years, a year and a half, other than on a phone call or a Zoom call. So that was really great.  So that was great. And I think for us, at least for spotter, we haven't really seen many global shows that at least that we have participated in the past 18 months. Nothing of note. This has been the largest one since the pandemic that we've participated in and actually seen some turnout. And you're right. I think there is eight, 9,000 attendees, probably 25%, 30% of what they typically get. But you had to have the first introductory show in my mind that gets people back on their feet and a sense of, hey, we can do this again. And wow, I think we forgot a lot of the value of that in person, right? Being there, standing, talking to them and hearing the issues they're dealing with, hearing the successes they're having, hearing the new problems up and coming right there in person makes all the difference in the world. So I was extremely excited about the show. It was really good for us. I think the next big show that we're eyeing that everybody probably knows about is the GSX one coming up in here in September. I think that one will be bigger than ISC West, which I think has never happened before. But it's just the progression, right? Of, hey, we started with one show, now more people came, so hopefully more people show up at the next one. That's the way I see it. Yeah, let's talk a little bit just briefly on that quality of interaction because there was a lot of people were discussing this that, and I think you've probably read, we've all read that 80, 90% of our communication is nonverbal. And so when you've got those folks at that booth, what was your sense of engagement compared to trying to give them a Zoom call presentation on what SpotRF's all about? Well, some of our guys were a bit rusty, right? Hadn't been in person for a while. Yeah, no, it was good. A lot of people came really excited and got right to the point. They had been meaning to get to you guys. I wanted to get to you last year, of course, the show was canceled. So we had a number of new engagements. And then for us too, that show in particular, you know, we're based in the West in Utah, Vegas is a four or five hour drive for us. We have a lot of customers around the region in there. And we were happy to just engage with those existing customers, see what they're doing these days, and hear about some upcoming projects that they're working on. So engagement was great. You get those follow on customers, and you get those new customers. And meeting someone person is always worth the wait. Yeah, 100%. So I just have to ask about the budget real quick, since you have that director of, you know, global biz dev there, what was it like to get a budget?  Was it a metrics based kind of give us if you could peel that layer back for those of us, you don't have to have those discussions? No, that was very interesting, right? Because we always try to track, you know, how much what's the ROI of any event or any marketing expenditure, right? Are we going to get the exposure we need, meet the right people that we need? Obviously, we, for us, it was the same spend as it would have been in 2020, and less traffic. So in that sense, it was less of a return for us. But at the same time, I always look at it to, you know, what else could we have done in that week and spend that would have done something better for us? You know, could we have met that many people in a week's period of time in person and engage with them at that level? Have we done something else? And that's where I think for us, the decision was pretty easy. I think we were committed to go when they we wanted to get back to a show. We wanted to get back with those people. And we're not, you know, we don't have a million dollar booth, like, you know, the the honeywells, the bosses and the big guys. And so a little bit easier for us, still an expense, but definitely worth it from my perspective. Right on. Well, I'm glad it was a success. I, a lot of people just said that the quality of the meetings and themselves made it well worth it. And I've had a few, a few interactions with some of the big guys who just sent a team didn't have a booth. And they, they, a lot of people use Leo Desa's lounge, you know, to go up there and kind of hang out and have meetings and things like that. So that was a nice addition. I think there's a lot of ways to conduct business, but the hunger to get back together was there. And then, having been around this for a decade, you've, you've probably built a quite a few relationships with our industry players. Were there, were there anyone missing any folks or anything that you think that, you know, struck you like, wow, I'm surprised not to see this, these folks here or that group here or something like that. Oh yeah, I think there was one, you know, if you look at the major video management systems and camera providers, there was one or two at the event, you know, three or four missing. Now I know a lot of the sales guys that we work with within those companies came and they buddied up with us. And that was actually quite successful. So I'd be fine. I'd be fine if they continue not to come and we just get their sales guys within, you know, working with us on a lot of these discussions and conversations. I like, like you said, you learn to work with a lot of different companies and people over the years.  And so we have to work with camera manufacturers, video management system providers, access control, even just typical hardware providers on a switch network configuration, right? So we think there's key strategic relationships that we've built up over the years and we love working with those partners. We value our partnerships and we even plan, you know, it's one thing I think is unique about spotters. We don't plan forward with our blinders on here like this. We look it open and we see who's in this lane and who's in this lane. We've got, you know, boss cameras over here, access cameras over here and see what they're doing. And we plan forward in junction with them because we work with them on virtually every project, right? So we don't try to compete so much against them, but work with them. And at an OEM level, we even plan forward. And that was great to have that we had a lot of that reigniting at the event for those that were there that we could meet with. And that's really carrying us forward. I was really happy to see that. I love what you're talking about that the integration necessity of our technologies, right? Because none of them stand alone. I mean, there may be some standalone things out there that they do, but the value of all of our propositions is almost always built on some sort of an integration backbone. And the fact that you bring that up, that looking forward with our partners, I love that they're in your booth. I think that's the best thing of all. Like, yeah, bring your customers, just come on over and hang out. That's great. But that being that component and being willing to partner, I love that piece. I just think it's super valuable. And it talks, it talks to what I think excites us all when we get together, because we talk, hey, man, I got this customer, the problem, what do you think we can do about this? And then typically at your level, maybe you know of another application that's going on similar to that. So you can borrow and it gets us to quicker sorts of solutions, you know, when we're working together. And you know, it's an integrator's industry, in my opinion. So I love it that that's that was working out for you folks at the show. Well, we've got to get into the technology of Sparta RF and we're about halfway through. So I got to pay some bills. We'll take a one minute break and we will be right back with Brad Solomon. So hang tight. Hi, I'm Rusty Kamori, host of Beyond the Lines on ThinkTech Hawaii. I was the head coach for the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years. And we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. My show is based on my book, also titled Beyond the Lines. And it's about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence, and finding greatness. I feature a wide range of amazing guests who share valuable insights about how going beyond the lines leads to success in everything you do in life. I'm looking forward to you joining me every Monday at 11am. Aloha. Hey, Aloha and welcome back to Security Matters. We're talking with Brad Solomon here today, Global Security Director of Sparta RF. And if you haven't played with radar technology, there is a lot of power there that a lot of people aren't familiar with. But if you've got some space to cover, you need to get engaged with these types of solutions. And Sparta has been around a long time. Brad's been with them for a decade, coming out of engineering school. So Brad, take us through, like, let's talk about some capabilities first to get people an idea of what's possible with Sparta. What did radar bring to our industry? Things that we really just couldn't do a decade ago. Even it's not been that long ago. Let's put it that way. Well, no, that's a great question. And really, a decade ago, there was not a lot of options for radar commercially. There wasn't an option. We kind of forged that path and we brought the technology of radar and made it accessible to the market.  But those were big military, engineer-required type systems. Very expensive. 10 years ago, you did have some, FLIR made some radars that were standalone type systems, but all of them had that military government slant and bent to them. And it wasn't an option. So we dealt with, 10 years ago, your options were some kind of fence disturbance, fiber on the fence, video analytics. And really, that's it, physical barriers to intrusion. You didn't have radar. So what Sparta did, we brought a lot of things first to the market. We were the first IP-based radar. And so right as our owner was deciding how to launch this, IP had just sort of taken root and there was still a lot of analog, but in terms of radar, everything was analog serial, right? So nothing available. And so we went IP, which was weird and not, we were engaging with other radar companies and they didn't understand why we were doing that. But obviously that was the way to go. So first IP, and then we were doing all the processing at the edge. Now that was unheard of in terms of radar. And then we packaged it into this little, hopefully that will come through on the screen here, but this little textbook size box, right? So looks kind of like a Wi-Fi antenna. And you package radar technology in there. You do all the processing in the unit at the edge there, IPs, and you plug it into a PoE switch. And now you've got radar data. I can detect and track you a kilometer away if I need to. That's a little bit less of a comment of an application, but the idea that I can cover a wide space and I can basically plot you on a map, like you're holding a GPS tracker for me as you approach my site or walk through my site, there's a lot of information I can get from that and use just for situational awareness. And I can expand beyond the typical fence perimeter. As we know, there's been events for us, one of the milestone marking events that was tragic in the U.S. was the Metcalf substation incident. I think it was in 2013. But in that case, they shut down the entire substation without ever getting within 50 feet of the perimeter of the fence. And so it really kind of made people think differently about how they need to look at security. And that's great. I can put up my fence systems and we need that and that's wonderful. But we also need other protections, right? And so right, spotter comes into the game. And you're seeing the industry sort of validate that just one from the fact that I'm still here. And spotter has has gone more global. But you also are seeing other radars in the market space that weren't there as well and from big name vendors. The camera cup almost every major camera company now is offering some flavor of radar technology to bring to the table. Awesome. Yeah, and these these wide open space problems were typically expensive, right? If you even if you could get out to the fence, you know, five miles of fence perimeter protection was a super expensive, and it really didn't get you. It only got you once someone was at your fence, which was pretty grim in some cases, right? So the ability to look beyond that, we've always had the race, the response sort of problem, right? And being able to get out there and look at what's coming at your perimeter is super important. Are the I'm guessing that a lot of the early applications were DoD based and, you know, obviously, the airports places with big spaces make sense to me. But have we gone urban? Are we are we into, you know, stadiums? Are we into other places where we need some situational awareness that radar can provide us that we really just can't get because of the other environmental variables? Well, that I love that you asked that question, because a lot of people don't know a lot about radar still. And the ones that do, they may still think, Okay, when I have five kilometers, I'll talk to the radar guys. Well, that's not necessarily the case. And we've also changed that dramatically. In fact, most of the sites we do are I would call them short range radar systems. We're not doing the long range things. We're doing 100 meter radar systems. And they work, we have a product line that is tailored to be operational and provide tracking information in what we call cluttered environments.   But we've got a product family tailored to provide a very low noise floor, even in a high saturation environment, allowing you to detect and track people walking through cars, for example. So you could be in a parking lot. You mentioned airports and you'd actually think, Okay, yeah, big runways. That's not typically what they actually cover. With spotter RF, they'll put it in critical areas where people aren't supposed to be planting it, nothing's supposed to be there. Parking lots, economy lots, where there's a lot of activity going on, but they want to get a good feel for where ins and outs are, who's loitering around in there. And then in substations, man, that's one of our greatest verticals. I think we provide a huge amount of value there. And in most of them, believe it or not, they're not looking too much beyond the perimeter. It's really the radars are tracking all of that interstitial space, you know, that it could be a 500 meter by 500 meter substation. And if you want to go outside the perimeter, that's great, we'll do that all day long. And we're probably the best ones out there that can do that. But also, once they breach the fence, a lot of these big sites that are remote, they don't have a five minute response from police or anything. And so by the time the police are getting there, they've wandered around for 10 minutes inside the sub and you need to know where they are. You need to know how to engage maybe some lighting on a particular building or a top down speaker to address that individual to get them to stop what they're doing, or they're going to cause harm to the site shut it down or you know, whatever their intention is. And so we actually turn a lot of our smaller radars interior and we're just tracking people as they walk through the site that they're not supposed to be there. And we get you know, eyes on target for the customers in those situations. That's incredible resolution. So I wasn't aware that you're getting sort of that level of detail. My radar, when it was dusty in the Middle East in the sky, like all of a sudden we couldn't see anything. But it was from the 40s or whatever. I'll give the Navy a break on that one. We did our best. But when you're talking about site level resolution, so can you pull enough data to do and force like two man rules and things like that, say a vendor shows up at a site, a substation for example, and he's not supposed to be there alone. Make sure there's two people there and alert on that type of activity. It can, but it probably wouldn't be the primary means by which you should do that. It still if you and I are walking together, we have about a one meter resolution on the system. Okay, if we're right together, we're going to look like one blob. But that's where when I was mentioning our camera partners, we do very tricky things with them where we can put that camera on target. They can run an analytic. One of our big pushes this past year during the pandemic has just been to use camera technology and analytics in another layer of validation. So spotter picks up a target and we assess it to be a human based on a radar analytic. That's great and wonderful. However, is it is it a man or woman? Do they have a blue shirt or red shirt? Beard, no beard. Gun, no gun. Radar can't provide that level of information, right? So that's information that you need. And so when we cue the camera on the target, we can also run a secondary analytic that might classify also as human. And now you've got dual verification on those intrusions. And the camera's on target following it. It's not reliant on video tracking. It's radar based, which is going to be more reliable. So as he's walking through where they are walking through the site, the camera is actually following in the entire time they're there. And you can figure out exactly what they're doing and watch their behaviors. So we are moving down that path as well with our partners. Yeah. And I love that ability to give that feedback to the responders, whoever they are, so they don't walk up on, you know, gunfire or whatever it may be. I saw, I saw you got AI, also capabilities. I don't know if these were native or if you're integrating to other machine learning type of platforms. Give us a little take on where that's at and where you think it's headed. I mean, it's obviously one of the bigger industry buzzwords. And I'm more of, we're in machine learning. We're not really not in AI yet. I kind of questioned those words, but, you know, give us your take on what's possible. Oh, yeah. Well, I always say with enough time and money, anything's possible in this world, right? So that's totally true. I think that's why I went to engineering path. But we do have an, we call it spotter AI. It's machine learning. It actually uses a neural network and AI, like you said, it's kind of a loaded word. You basically see that on everybody's website these days, but you don't really know what that means or what it provides to you as a customer. What it does for us is we basically analyze all of the metadata coming off of a target, which from a radar, there's quite a bit there. I've got an estimation of size there's a noise level that's different from when I'm tracking a human versus a vehicle that might be more reflective as an example, speed, direction of travel and heading. And we base, you know, if I'm, if I'm watching a system with my naked eye, I can, I can watch the target without a camera and probably tell you what it looks like just based on my experience with the system. Well, an AI in this sense, effectively is being trained to understand what it's looking at. Right. And AI's, you know, I don't want anybody to think an AI in any area is a silver bullet because I think we get that a lot. Like, oh, it's got AI. Now my, now my problems are solved, right? We've heard that a lot with, not just with AI, but with other things. AI is fantastic. And for us, it is helping us classify targets more accurately, more effectively. And you give it, you know, that we could do a whole interview on AI. But for us, that's, that's ultimately providing value to our customers because it's controlling the alarm rate. And it's giving them alarms on what they need to see and not, not the excess. Don't need to see that vehicle. Don't need to see that small animal. And so I'm going to use the spotter AI and only classify targets of interest and alarm on those, right? Yeah, I love the accuracy was, has been a problem for our industry, obviously with all the analytics over the years, and then effectiveness, those two, those two words should get any end user engaged in listening to this conversation. Brett, I really appreciate your time today. We may have a minute or so left if you want to throw your, your, your final pitch out there, give some guidance to the industry about spotter RF and what, what we can look forward to in the future. Oh, sure. Well, if you are hearing about radar for the first time, I look us up. I think that you should be considering radar any, any case where you have an area of high value or no one's supposed to be in that vicinity, radar should be something you consider and it can be. It's, it's very affordable. In fact, in many times, it's, it might be the more cost effective solution, even for 100 foot by 100 foot space. We don't have to just be used in large wide areas. That's, that's a more obvious one. But I'd be happy to show and demonstrate anything we can do. Our capabilities are show and tellable. We, when traveling is going on, we'd show up at your door and just show you right there in the parking lot what we can do. We can do that now on zoom just as easily. And we're open to either, either way you prefer to see it these days. Awesome. Thank you so much, folks.  It's small. It's compact. A lot of intelligence there. A lot of ways to get engaged. Brad will make it easy for you. Give him a shout. Brad, I really appreciate your time today. Best of luck to you folks. The rest of this year. I hope to see you guys at some of the shows. Definitely see you at GSX, if not sooner. Take care of yourself. Aloha, everybody.


Great welcome to the last set news that get top stories in crypto and bring them out of bite-sized pieces So today just as the thumbnail and title suggest there's a big problem and It's a big problem for the crypto market in general Not just for Celsius about what happened an email that I received this morning But in general the crypto market, so we'll take a look at the story That is Celsius bow is a knee and the problem with the United States Also, we'll take a look at the US inflation numbers are out of CPI and surprise. It's a little higher So that's the bad news and then we're gonna get into some good news some fortnight metaverse the NBA and Nasdaq pumping money into crypto or as far as a survey has been said and then when we get done We'll do five questions in five minutes. I'm sure you have a lot of questions after this one So hold your questions until the end and before we do that just know that if you're here for the live stream Welcome, I appreciate it but I'm here for the recording. There'll be timestamps underneath So you can skip around to whatever you want to news takes about 15 and 20 minutes Q&A is about five minutes and then off we go So let's jump into it. Shall we let's take a look at the market and let me just tell you one thing I was having a great day this morning great day this morning. I was like, wow, there's a lot of positive news I was pretty happy because the last three days I've been having some a Negative sentiment as far as like the thumbnails and the titles But I always give you two sides of the same story I tell you about what's going on and I tell you about the negative and the positive so you can make the best decision for yourself I am not here to be all a bunch of hope in and everything's gonna be fantastic And there are gonna be no bumps along the way and it's gonna be super smooth and to the moon straight shot Doesn't work like that. And if you're looking for a channel like that, I am not your channel So let's jump into it. So first of all the market not too bad today. I must admit We're up a little bit and there's a couple of noteworthy performances that you might see and That is well bitcoins out a little bit. That's okay. A theorem's up a little bit Spine and squins all both so long is up a good amount four and a half percent Cardano to have a lunch. Ta-da-da-da 17% for Shiba Inu 17% That's pretty good polygon 5% What's going on? Well just real quick Robinhood decided to add in Shiba Shiba Inu Solana polygon and compound and they were added to Robinhood crypto And then just just as this is like an off-brand type of thing But I thought it was interesting they stated as a safety first company Robinhood We have a rigorous framework in place to help us evaluate assets for listing and we remain committed to providing a safe An educational crypto platform until we shut things down because we don't want you to trade That's just that one. Thanks and pay for order flow Robinhood's chief broker officer Steve quirk said the addition comes after the company said last week it activated its crypto wall for 2 million eligible customers Making digital asset transfers broadly possible in a long Firewall investment, which is great. I gotta tell you that's that's good news the more exposure that we get I'm happy. So congratulations for all you holders. I don't own any Shiba Inu But Solana and compound yes and just so you know that's the 11th listing for all these different ones For all their rigorous approach for Robinhood, they have listed bitcoin. All right bitcoin sv Okay, sure, whatever bitcoin cash, I guess Polygon Shiba Solana compound dogecoin litecoin ethereum ethereum classic so I will leave it up to you to decide Why they listed those and what the uh positives and negatives are but that's not the whole point uh, the whole point is to talk about some other things and also I just so you know We had covered this yesterday, but as far as like liquidations and leverage plays if you went long Better luck next time. I know it didn't work out for you this time But long's got liquidated at the tomb of almost Half a billion dollars yesterday and again like I've said if you if you were shorting you're doing a pretty good job Actually, so for all those people that are leveraging out out the wazoo I mean, that's that's all you and if you're making money on shorting. Well Uh I can't fault you for making money I just can't but it does lead to a little bit of volatility. So you know, that's what's going on in the market Let's bring in to the big story Which is this one, uh, we talk about Celsius bowing the knee and Ah I gotta tell you again I was feeling pretty good this morning until I I was uh Do my morning exercises doing all the great things and then all of a sudden I get this email from Celsius I'm like, oh, it's ought to be interesting And here's what they said So let me blow this up so you can see it Uh, Tuesday April 12th. That's the day, right pretty sure. Yeah Dear Celsius And it was a nice way to say it today where we're writing to give our community advanced notice of upcoming changes Which will go into effect on April 15th, 2022 Three days. All right Celsius has been working closely with regulators around the world and that's that's great. I mean, look I've always said on this on the show. We need regulation. We need regulation I think it's important at least to clarify What crypto is do we know? Is it a security? Is it a commodity? Is it a currency? Just the basics will be nice, you know, and that's why I talk about it now regulation There's the opposite end of regulation which is over regulation and I give my example as of Like we can all agree that uh, it's good to have some speedings some speed limits in like a school zone Nobody wants to have a speed limit posted of 75 miles per hour in a school zone Kids get knocked over the place, right? So like first, let's define what a school zone is. All right And then just say it's about 10 miles per hour and then everything else off we go So there's always going to be mistakes. I think this is one of those mistakes as far as over regulation But it is what it is This is what we got so More specifically we have been in ongoing discussions with united states regulators Regarding our earned product. There will be changes the way our own product will work for users based in the us Here's how these impact you All coins transferred to sell CS by users in the us prior to april 15th Will continue to earn rewards. So a couple of things to make mention of here First of all, if you're outside the united states, this does not affect you whatsoever Again, if you're outside the us, this does not affect you whatsoever It's only people in the us and the reason why I bring this to your attention Is because it doesn't just stop there If they're gonna the regulators are gonna work their way into with block 5 They're gonna shut them down with not shut them down but shut down their their their earn rewards program Then they're gonna move on to sell CS and they're gonna say you're gonna stop that How far away are we from all the other ones that are out there? I mean I think voyager is next I could be wrong But uh, that's the next logical step that I see and that's why I think there's a good play for dex's essentialize exchanges and defy Hard to work into that But i'm getting off topic. So states here Okay, all coins transferred to celcius by using us as predator Those existing coins will continue to earn rewards from april 15th and onward for as long as they remain in their own account So if you have an account in celcius And you have already put a different tokens and cryptos in there as long as they're there before april 15th You're gonna keep earning for as long as they stay there. Make sense. Great On april 15th Celcius will be launching a new custody solution for users in the u.s Your custody account Will serve as the centerpiece centerpiece of your home for crypto providing a secure way to navigate across celcius's products Including store access borrow spend earn and grow Uh, great. That's awesome, right? Uh, and then New transfers made by non-accredited investors. Let me say one more time New transfers made by non-accredited investors in the u.s will be held in their new custody accounts and will not earn rewards Non-accredited investors can continue to swap Borrow and transfer within their custody accounts based on local jurisdiction So first of all if you're in texas, you can't swap anyhow.  What's an accredited investor? I'm glad you asked that question because here's what it is accredited investor In the u.s the term accredited investor is used by the sec under regulation deed referred investors who are financially Sophisticated and have a reduced need for the protection provided by regulatory disclosure filing.  This is the requirement To be an accredited investor a person must have an annual income exceeding 200 000 or 300 000 for a joint income for the last Two years So if you in one year if make a million bucks in one year, they're like you're still a moron It's gotta be two years with the exception of running the same or a higher income in the current year. Great the income test Cannot be satisfied by showing one year of an individual's income And the next two years of joint income with a spouse A person is also considered an accredited investor if they have a net worth Exceeding one million dollars either individually or jointly with their spouse.  Don't get rich stay poor An intended an entity is considered an accredited investor if it is a private business development company organization with assets exceeding five million Again, when the five million you are in that golden zone However in 2020 the u.s. Congress modified the definition of an accredited investor to include registered brokers and investment advisors Maybe i'm being a little bit too harsh on this one But it sounds to me Like if you already have made some money Then you can make some more money But if you haven't made that much money and you see an opportunity You're not going to be able to invest into this There's other ways for you to do that but not here and not definitely not in the United States And that's just how it is. So that's what's going on But uh, let's jump back real quick and talk about the last points here Okay Loans all coins posted as collateral against the loan as open prior to april 15th will be returned to their earn accounts When their loan is repaid because I have a loan and that's nice, too Those coins will resume earning rewards for as long as they remain in their own accounts Verified accredited investors in the United States will be able to add new coins into their own accounts to earn rewards. So That's what's going on Before everybody gets up in arms I still think first of all you have to look at what selski has had to do here. Do you think selski's had a choice? as the regulators come down and it wasn't just the sec I believe these were different state entities That came down on them and said hey you got to stop doing this And they work with everybody as much best they could now here we are So that is the process that is going on kind of a bummer. However As time goes on I don't expect this to be the case. I expect them to Be very successful as time goes on just right now.  Absolutely not. However, if regulation comes out and says, you know what? We're going to define these as securities great. They're all securities So now all these are from exchanges all you got to do is just register them as securities We're trading and buying securities right now On robin hood and they're also doing cryptocurrencies Securities Stocks equity those type of things If they want to say that let's just do that and let's just move on So then all the different financial institutions can go. Okay. We have regulatory clarity We can actually get in we can't give regulatory clarity by the community and has to come from these guys Whoever regulatory entities and go from there. So that's what's going on And that's where we're at and I will just say this I am an accredited investor And there is some there's a process that I have to go through for Celsius to Show that I'm an accredited investor not hard. You just put in some bank statements. That's it However, is that really fair that I get to do these things and you don't get to do these things? So what I'll be doing is I will not be submitting that paperwork Just to do all these things because why should I get an advantage and you shouldn't Just because I've made a little bit of money. Does that make me smarter than you more savvy than you? No Sometimes I'm an idiot ask my wife So I just don't see how this is fair and I see this is a big problem in the United States and that last thing I will say this This is not going to be very popular But in Russia The one that yes, there's a big war going on Ukraine at least they got one thing right When they came through and said we want to get regulatory clarity and here's the rules for investing in the crypto You know what they make you do?  Sometimes no, but uh, that's just how we have it here and that's the the problems and so on so far So let me just think about that in the comment section. Jesus crime any Christmas that was 14 minutes. Let's move on to our next piece us inflation numbers So this is a bummer, but we knew this was coming uh us inflation numbers are this You're going to hear about this all day. So I'm not going to spend a much time on it us inflation jumped 8.5 percent highest since 81 Uh labor department said tuesday that it's consumer the cpi Things that we pay for jumped 8.5 percent in march from 12 months earlier ouchy the sharpest year uh over year increase since december 1981 prices have been driven up by Not just money printing but bottlenecks supply chains that is true robust consumer demand And disruption to global food and energy markets worsened by russia's war against ukraine I can see that I can also see Of course, you know, the money printing is kind of a big thing. We have been printing a ton of money so just so you know The data that they got this was from the u.s. Bureau of labor statistics We had actually covered this a couple of days ago when we were talking about recession and the potential possibilities that that could come on the pipe in the next uh 12 to 18 months, but uh, just so you know here's Here's the 12 month percentage change of cpi as far as like food energy electricity taken at all and into account And here we are That's pretty high it looks like but remember it's not seasonally adjusted means they Adjust it for the time frames as far as like uh the time of the year Because sometimes we need a little bit more food a little bit more electricity these times But this is not seasonally adjusted, but we can definitely see That as things move forward, we are really picking up the pace As far as what we are buying and how much it actually costs Did you know you can even take a look at look at this?  Wow beef was 533. It's crazy tomatoes Kind of hard to make out of the tomato coin. So Yeah, everything is going up and it is that is of course the situation that we are in and uh, That's the bad stuff. Let's move on to some good news. Shall we because I always like to If i'm going to tell you some bad news, let me balance it out with some positivity so we can go Oh, okay, the world's not on fire. So this is what's going on Uh fortnight first of all fortnight Or epic games I created fortnight raises 2 billion from sony and lego to fund a metaverse plan. So First of all, I don't know if this is a big big story and you'll see in a second. So this is what's happening Uh, there was 2 billion which the deal which is still subject to customary regulatory approvals Would bring epics equity valuation to 31 billion dollars Let me let that sink in epics epic That made fortnight. They have a valuation of 31.5 billion. You know Take a look at this for the crypto market As far as market cap like bitcoin 768 billion if there is 368 tether's 82 billion So Like we had the same like terra is almost there at 30 billion Cardano is 31 billion 34 billion for xrp And that one's going through a lawsuit an sec So all of these things like the top nine roughly and above They have roughly the same valuation as this pretty enormous global company. That is fortnight. I just thought I was interesting so Again, this is them creating a metaverse the question that I have is Is this a big thing for crypto because are they going to use their own crypto token? Is it going to be a metaverse where it's just like an oculus that they put on and people walk around and interact and they say That's a metaverse or what kind of metaverse are we talking about? Is it decentralized or is it more like a centralized metaverse that meta is doing over on facebook? So I can kind of see how it's like. Well, it's a metaverse Name only but is that a big thing for crypto and digital assets and for the tokens that you own right now I don't see it But I could be wrong. I'm on the comment section But at least at the very minimum we're talking about the metaverse and hopefully we go that route Sandbox the central and a different different products that are out there play to earn games and such So we'll see Uh, and then also to finish this up Just so you know nba's crypto chief registered second eith domain as league files for four nft trademarks So this to me this just shows a little bit more as far as mass adoption if the nba is getting to things uh, the league bought or is in possession of two ens ethereum name services This is going to be for web three domains nba.eth And the association nft.eth So we'll see what they do with that just because they own the rights And they have some trademark filings doesn't mean that tomorrow. They're going to do a bunch of stuff Look walmart did the same thing They filed a bunch of things for crypto and metaverse plays and nfts and that's a very that's a long play Just because you file something doesn't mean you are going to release something in like a week So don't get your your hopes up for i'm gonna be a billionaire tomorrow doesn't work like that but Lastly, this is the bullish news today Majority of financial advisors want to increase bitcoin exposure. This is a nasdaq survey. So Here's what's going on a survey of 500 financial advisors, which I am not one of those saw 72 percent desiring to invest more Into bitcoin and brothel crypto sector If a bitcoin spot etf was approved debatable, but maybe who knows Those surveyed are already invested into bitcoin or other cryptos or are highly considering allocation to the asset class Less than nine percent of advisors are confident in their ability to expertly advise clients within the asset class Let me say one more time Less than nine percent of advisors are confident That they can advise their clients within the crypto asset class because it's difficult. I'll be honest with you Even us who are here 24 7 365. It's even difficult to to pick those winners But this is known in educational gap between traditional finance and an emerging monetary system. I will just tell you this Where I see that's this problem. I see a massive opportunity for education for getting into these advisors into these offices educating them so they can educate their Investors I see an opportunity for some one some group or something to go in there and Provide that education. Who knows This was a great Quote from jack rapaport head of digital asset index He says over the last decade financial advisors have been focused on shifting assets into index funds As they incorporate digital assets into their investment strategies They're expressing strong interest in a similar vehicle that can offer broad asset class exposure for their clients So, you know, it'll be great. You know, they have the s&p 500 Uh, who was it was it raid dahlio? or paul tour jones Wasn't it It was somebody who talks about they said when their friends ask them about like what they should you know invest into They said just get into the s&p 500 because yes, you're gonna get a lot of amazon Yes, you're gonna get a lot of microsoft. Yes, you're gonna get a lot of tesla But those are the best performing businesses so like for me Like I wish there was like a like a crypto exchange is just says hey, here's a fund Or here's if you don't know anything about crypto here's our I don't know like s&p s&p of Of the top 10 cryptos and then as these start to jockey for position because you know I like sometimes avalanche will be in the top 10 and then it'll drop down And then poke it out will regain something that could like put the money into it as these start to fluctuate I think that'd be the easiest way just to get in the top 10 and just go from there Why not because that would be exactly the talking about here and you know to finish up Nasdaq survey found that 86 percent of advisors who pre-allocated a bitcoin or the crypto plan to increase Over the next 12 months. That's good news Next 12 months. They want to buy more while none of them intend to subtract from their portfolios And just a little note here this survey this survey only represents a small portion of financial advisors I mean 500 that's that's what a sample size is for It is still undeniable that professionals entering the space quickly discern value For their investors and latched on for the long haul and my let me just say this If these guys want to have their their clients look at them like geniuses get into crypto I Not a financial advisor, but I've done an okay over the last four or five years If I were to put the same amount of money that I put in a crypto Into the s&p 500. Yeah, I'd be up But I'm way more up in the crypto and digital assets That's just me. So that's what we got. So like I know it's a little longer 23 minutes But a lot of things going on that's it for today's news If you want to stick around for the five questions in five minutes, you're welcome to do so otherwise Like and subscribe all that great stuff. I do appreciate you stopping by and now let's jump into 5q in five minutes and we go from there Who has a lot of stuff Thanks, there was two things I three things I start I starred in the very beginning This was a great comment. I should have brought this up Bruno says Celsius will succeed in the long run. I believe that to be true so Sometimes you got to bite the bullet and just go okay You want to work with us or work with you? We'll take this down and it's going to really bite but as time goes on We want to be the first ones that you guys give us the green light That's a very optimistic way and of course people in the comments are like rob's naive There's no he's talking about there's going to shut everything down. It's going to be awful. Ta-da-da. Sure. Okay Do you want to tussle with the sec? I mean you go right ahead Mark Cuban did and he did win. That's true Uh When they convicted when they uh charge him with insider trading look it up on google It's pretty funny story and he did beat he beat them like a drum actually, but uh didn't work so well for block fight just saying And donovan says i'm so glad the ssc protect me too man me too And it says the u.s. Government could have made a lot of money from taxes But instead they are pushing people to defy not too bright. That is the comment of the day It's true And it's the same thing i've been talking about as far as like when people say they're going to ban bitcoin and ethereum No, they're not you know much money they're going to make as far as taxing this as soon as they get some clarity It's going to be a boatload and right now with all that money printing guess what they need They need that money back how do they get that money back through taxes? And what's the best way to do that? Tax your crypto gains If you don't like it move to porto rico all right Let's see what else we got Uh This is a good question number one marty mccrypto rob bunch ever covered the developments metro in ripple case Taking xrp and eth out of the pick and isolating sc. They're a huge confidence between the real issue I don't do it because there's other people to do it way better than I do and uh, I've got the There's actually a lawyer who covers this every every every Week does a great job. I can't do it as well as they do it. So I just defer to them for the experts. That's why I Defy here I come. Yeah, thanks man. I appreciate it Just don't there's a like why do I like you don't get that. So why don't I get that? What else did I miss I think I answered all your questions because there's no questions One of the us become tyrants. We've already we've always been tyrants. Come on Hopefully this Hopefully this video isn't taken down Sales will go below a dollar. Yeah, maybe not for sure I mean, it is negative news. So I can't tell you the future, but it's not looking good except anything No What's up dj? We need a you and your brother interview that morning won't come on here I love them.  Hey robin and comments the robin effect Robinhood seems to have a bigger effect than coinbase if you take a look at it And I think it's because they have so few cryptos. So if you want to Take a look at the next big one. Just watch robin. I mean, they only have 11 So it's a a very exclusive club. I would say so. Yeah, take a look at those as opposed to Coinbase it's question number three. Can I get a p.o. Box Puerto Rico? You might be able to but you still got to pass those tests and 183 days 183 days is a hard rule also, you have to buy property there And um, trust me if you move there, you'll love it. I did a video on it Just search digital asset news Uh, Puerto Rico and like two or three will will pop up watch the one with uh, anthony scaramushi and it's great um Place is great. The people are great. I will say this though. Everybody's like good looking and in shape So just to be aware if you're gonna move Like you want to be kind of like I'm trying to fit in as much as possible. Also, uh, learn spanish. That's what i'm doing right now so question Three, hey rob. Why credit investors rich people get to keep making interest on celsius? Because that's what the regulation states.  That's fine But don't invest Into these types of projects because You're not smart enough. That's what they're saying Again, I rush it hit it on the head. They go if you're smart enough to pass this test, we'll let you invest whatever you want to do Make sense to me Uh Now question before is next so a good alternative. I'm not sure what their earn program is, but it might be a viable option I'm going to be looking more at defy anchor protocol So Question is is a comment number four. I'm ticked off about celsius.  It'd be a very long long process and get it. They really had no choice And this is the industry that we live in right now And I think that's why Celsius went to celsius x some it's not a decentralized exchange, but you can wrap a lot of different things So I did a video with those guys. I need to release that But yeah, so if you're looking of who to blame I think celsius had their hands tied honestly Now they could have just went rogue and like forget it, but that would have been a good move and Let's see what else Don't defy unless you're damn good at math That would lead me out then Anchor protocol 19 and a half percent. I know and everybody loves it. It's not sustainable. It cannot be sniff.  Thanks for the Thanks for the chat. I appreciate it, but no I try not to get political on this channel because it just drives people away And then last one Hello Last one is just a statement. We need better protocol risk insurance. I have to agree. They're gonna be a pretty good one All right, guys, we're going at 31 minutes. That's wait.  I'm gonna be talking about the next project. I think it's gonna be pretty big And that is fame mma Have you heard of fame mma neither did I but What they are It's a mixed martial art Organization and they're based in poland and there's and they're branching out into different areas of the the eu into spain france and the uk and things like that What they're doing is they're going they're having their utility token In which you'll be able to do that utility token is their play to earn game You're going to be able to interact with the fighters and also the fighters that are there. They're all celebrities or High caliber athletes from around that area And that token Is going to be used to buy the pay-per-view Showings for mma again for the nfts for the play to earn gaming for affiliates They're also going to pay their Fighters in the token and it's going to be a pretty darn big thing and i'll explain exactly why it is So if you want to check that out, there's a second channel. It's called dan d gen It's where I talk about used to be called dan clips We renamed it because we don't do clips anymore and we just talk about the new upcoming Projects and this will be pretty big and i'm going to explain to you why So that's it for today. So look like today's video give it a thumbs up also consider subscribing All things we talk about are time sensitive. That's it for today. So thanks so much. I appreciate you guys And i'll see you on the next one. Adios


Reminder, the media once bashed Trump for transgressing the one China policy the U.S. now spits on. The U.S. has been increasingly treating Taiwan like a sovereign nation with whom diplomatic relations and alliances can be formed, in violation of its long-standing one China policy that has kept the peace for decades. And I just think it's worth noting that the Western media, who've lately been condoning these moves, became outraged at Donald Trump just a few years ago for doing the exact same thing to a far lesser degree. After his victory in the 2016 presidential election, but before taking office, Trump received a phone call from the Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in transgression of Washington's long-standing policy of declining to acknowledge the sovereignty of Taiwan's government. This position was enshrined back in the 70s during Washington's efforts to normalize relations with Beijing in order to pull it away from Moscow during the last Cold War, reversing its previous Guaidou-ku-like policy of insisting that China's true government was in Taiwan. The reaction from the mass media was adversarial and immediate. Donald Trump insults China with Taiwan phone call, said a headline from CNBC. Trump's phone call with Taiwan President risks China's wrath, warned the Guardian. This is why Trump's Taiwan call was truly bizarre, said Vanity Fair. Trump may have just thrown decades of U.S.-China relations into disarray, exclaimed Vox. Trump-Taiwan call breaks U.S. policy stance, said the BBC. We have what's called a one-China policy where we recognize there's only one Chinese government. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow told her audience after the news of Trump's phone call broke, and it took us a long while to get here. It sounds rational now, but it took us a long time. It took us decades to get there, and that's where we are. And Donald Trump apparently took that silverware drawer out of the kitchen cabinet today and turned it upside down over his head and just started shaking the silverware to see what happens. It took decades to develop the ground on which we talked to China, and Donald Trump tore it up today. And yet now we're seeing dramatically more aggressive erosion from Washington's one China policy than a president-elect answering a phone call, all without the mass media blinking an eye. Two successive House speakers have now had physical visits with Tsai Ing-wen, with Nancy Pelosi visiting Taiwan last August, and Kevin McCarthy meeting with Tsai in Washington a few weeks ago. President Biden has unequivocally stated that the U.S. would go to war against China to defend Taiwan from an attack by the PRC. And his Director of National Intelligence later confirmed that this is indeed the new position of the U.S. government. Escalations involving Taiwan are developing on a near daily basis now. In a new article titled Taiwan Now Has Real-Time Intelligence Sharing Link with Five Eyes, anti-war is Dave DeKamp discusses the revelation that Taiwan is being integrated into the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance of the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Taiwan becoming a de facto sixth eye in the alliance would surely be seen as a major provocation by the PRC, who sees Taiwan as a rebel province. And it should here be noted that Russia invaded Ukraine largely because it saw it as gradually being made into a de facto member of the NATO alliance. In another recent article titled House China Committee prepares proposals to rapidly arm Taiwan to camp reports on the latest efforts to ramp up the deluge of military weaponry being sent to the island. Again a move which echoes the lead up to the war in Ukraine. One of the silliest things the Empire asks us to believe is that the act of amassing large proxy arsenals on the borders of its enemies is something that should be regarded as a defensive action rather than the incendiary provocation of extreme aggression that itself evidently is. In another recent article titled China Says Taiwan Inviting Wolves with U.S. Defense Industry Forum, Reuters reports that Beijing is extremely concerned about a U.S. military industrial complex forum that will be hosted in Taipei next week. This is just in the last few days. Reports about these escalations are coming out all the time and yet the mass media have little or nothing to say about any of this. So what changed since late 2016? Well for one thing Trump is no longer in office and the Imperial narrative managers who hated him because they saw him as an untrustworthy steward of the Empire don't have the same commitment to sowing distrust of the current U.S. President. More importantly the agendas of the U.S. Empire changed. Ramping up aggressions against China were a back burner issue back then and the idea of a military confrontation between the world's two most powerful countries seemed an unthinkable impossibility. Now the U.S. is rapidly ramping up its military encirclement of China and pouring weapons into Taiwan. At a time that just so happens to coincide with China beginning to become the exact sort of rival superpower that the U.S. Empire has had a long standing policy of preventing. As the agendas of the Empire have changed so too have the positions of the Imperial media. We're now seeing more and more promotion of anti-China hysteria in the media and the continuing erosion of the one China policy is now being overlooked at best and overtly endorsed at worst. While China is being given more and more reasons to see U.S. involvement in Taiwan as an unacceptable threat. The mainstream press are for the most part refusing to apply an appropriate level of scrutiny to the consequences which could begin erupting from this at any time. Now we're getting reports that President Xi Jinping directly threatened Biden about Washington's meddling this past November saying he will not be the Chinese leader who goes down in history as having lost Taiwan and that there will be a war if his hand is forced. So the worst thing that could happen if we keep going along this trajectory is pretty much as bad as anything you could possibly imagine. The mass media's negligence on this front is horrifying.


Today I'm going to discuss his lost Ece Homo, a title that comes from the Latin phrase attributed to Pontius Pilate in the passion narrative in the Gospel of John. Quote, then came Jesus fourth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said to them, Behold the man, or Ece Homo. He created this painting as a gift for his patron, Pope Paul III, for Nese, during his first and only stay in Rome in 1545-6. According to Giorgio Vasari, Titian's Roman version of this subject was not well received. He wrote, quote, whether it was the works of Michelangelo, of Raphael, of Pallidoro, and of the others which made him slip, or some other reason, this work did not appear to the painters, although it was a good work, of that level of excellence of many of his others, particularly his portraits, end quote. This Ece Homo subsequently disappeared, leaving only textual traces of itself. Today we'll explore what it means for Titian's painting to be tagged as a failure and argue against Vasari that we might better understand the lost Roman Ece Homo as Titian's early experiment with an innovative technique for painting. So let's begin with Vasari himself, our major source for this vanished picture. Often called the first art historian, Vasari published his Lives of the Artist in 1550 with a massively expanded second edition in 1568, and all Renaissance art historians are, in some respect, Vasari's ungrateful children. While we rely on his work as an indispensable source of information, we're equally aware that far from being a neutral reporter, he had an agenda and didn't hesitate to shape his work. For example, one of his goals was to valorize the central Italian artistic tradition in which he had been trained, one that was centered on the practice of drawing and design, or disegno. Those of us who study the art of Renaissance Venice are keenly aware that Vasari felt little sympathy for the competing Venetian artistic tradition, which placed greater emphasis on the manipulation of paint itself in pursuit of effects of color and light, or colorito. Now Vasari and Titian knew each other pretty well. They had already met in Venice by the time of Titian's trip to Rome when the Pope asked Vasari to be Titian's tour guide, and they'd meet once more in Venice in 1566 while Vasari was preparing his second edition in which Titian's biography... And although he referred to Titian on that occasion as Suo Amicissimo, his very good friend, Vasari was bluntly honest regarding what he saw as the Venetian artist's egregious lack of disegno, as well as his excessive naturalism. In his discussion of Titian's time in Rome, Vasari addresses just three works Titian painted there, one each from the genres of portraiture, mythology, and religious painting. It gives unequivocal praise to the portrait of Paul III and his grandsons calling it, quote, even though Titian actually left it unfinished, as we can see from the detail of the Pope's ghostly hand. As he finds later in his text, Vasari delivered a stinging critique to Titian's depiction of the myth of Danae, claiming that when he and Michaelangelo went to see it in Titian's studio, they praised it much to him in his presence. Later, Michaelangelo commended it, saying both the colorito and the manor pleased him, but that it was a sin that in Venice one didn't learn to draw well from the beginning, end quote. This is a famous anecdote, one that appears to set up a direct confrontation between two of the artistic giants of the Renaissance, Michaelangelo on the side of disegno, Titian on the side of colorito. It may also very well be mostly Vasari's invention, but what I'm particularly interested in today, however, is what happens literally between these lines, that is, between Vasari's praise of the triple portrait and his blame for the Danae. That's why I'm interested in his comments on the lost Ece Homo. Now, we might call this passage damning with faint praise, and it's actually very subtly done. For example, Vasari hints at a generally low opinion of the painting held by other anonymous Roman artists. He also casually provides a possible explanation for its lower quality, namely that Titian as a Venetian found himself overwhelmed by the artistic culture with which he was confronted in Rome. And finally, he reiterates his praise of Titian's skill in portraiture, which is actually something of a backhanded compliment, since portraiture was considered less significant than the nobler genres of mythology and religion. Now, while the modern viewer can at least compare their own observations of Titian's triple portrait or the Danae against Vasari's opinions, his Ece Homo is nowhere to be found. Evidently, it had already vanished by the time the Farnese collection was first inventoried in 1644. As I said above, art historians must learn to take Vasari with a grain of salt, but the question is always how big. In this case, we can be fairly certain that the painting did exist, that there was some sort of a problem with it, and that Titian further was aware of this problem. In fact, it seems that he was thinking about making a replacement picture for the Pope after he returned to Venice in the summer of 1546. That fall, he reached out to Eleonora Gonzaga, the Dowager Duchess of Rubino, to see if he could borrow a Christ he had previously painted for her so that he could make a copy of it for Paul III. The term Christ is a generic label that could include, for example, a Christ blessing or a Christ carrying the cross, but a subsequent letter from Eleonora's daughter-in-law, Giulia Verano, clarifies that the painting Titian had asked to borrow was, quote, Quello Estesso, that same one that he had made for the Pope. Rather than imply ownership of the same painting, I think she was describing it as being of the same type of Christ, i.e., an Ece Homo. But Titian would only have felt the need to provide the Pope with a new version of the same subject if there was some kind of problem with the painting he had just left home. Further, this problem must have developed within a rapid time frame after the painting's execution and its departure, something that suggests there may have been an issue with its physical condition. Sorry, what other early sources can tell us about this lost painting? We can find a description of it in the work of the 17th century Venetian art critic Carl Louis Dolfi, who wrote, quote, The same Pope he represented our Lord, depicted from the knees up in the form of an Ece Homo, in whose face, though surrounded by painful emotions, shown the light of divine clemency, suffering with so much humility the torments inflicted on him by our miserable state that it brings tears to the eyes and sympathy to the heart, end quote. Admittedly, we have to treat Dolfi with the same caution as we do Vasari. Not only was he likely relying on hearsay, he wrote his book to respond to what he saw as Vasari's insult to Venetian painting. However, his description of Titian's lost painting is at least plausible, as it fits with another version of the same subject that Titian would paint just a year or so later, a painting he brought to Augsburg in Germany in 1548 and presented to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The second Ece Homo, now in the Prado in Madrid, represents Titian's only surviving example of a painting on slate. It's an intimate picture, small in scale and sorrowful in atmosphere. Christ, wearing the crown of thorns, turned slightly away from the viewer, his body bearing subtle but unmistakable signs of violence. Downcast eyes reddened, the lid drooping with exhaustion and pain. As with so many Titian's paintings, the viewer feels compelled to step forward and trace with their eyes the way his brushstrokes conjured the warmth of real flesh, but Christ's wounded flesh evokes compassion rather than sensual delight. Rain composition, combined with Christ's inward gaze, makes this a marvelously affective picture, one that carries no accusation of the viewer, but rather only an invitation to compassion and prayer. The Madrid Ece Homo fits very well with what we might expect from Titian in this period, a moment when he was beginning to further develop the open brushwork that became his signature, as he had done in the Naples Danae, but there's a key distinction in that that Danae is painted on canvas, whereas the Madrid Ece Homo is on the much less forgiving surface of stone. Why is that significant? By the 1540s, Titian not only preferred to paint on canvas rather than on panel, he also tended to choose a coarse weave of canvas that could interact with the paint surface. Applying only a minimal preparatory layer, let him take further advantage of canvas's slightly absorbent nature. Slight and contrast has very different properties, it's smoother, rigid and less absorbent. So even though the Madrid Ece Homo appears to fit very neatly into Titian's body of work, the brand new technique he was using was one that was also fairly alien to what we know about his working practice in this period of his career. So where are the flaws? Where are the missteps? Might our lost Roman Ece Homo offer a missing link? Scholars have always agreed that Titian had to have learned the technique of painting on slate in Rome, where it had been invented some 15 years earlier by his friend and fellow Venetian Sebastiano del Piombo, who had discovered a way to apply a coating of resin to a stone surface that made it suitable for painting. Gael Falimir, the new director of the Prado, has argued that the Madrid Ece Homo must have been painted in Rome alongside the lost version for Paul III. Making two simultaneous versions of a painting wasn't unheard of for Titian, but let me point out two issues with Falimir's suggestion. First, we've established that Titian seems to have been aware of a problem with the Roman Ece Homo in 1546. Why would he then try to borrow another version of the same subject from the Duchess of Urbino to copy if he had a perfectly good alternative on hand? Second, we know that paintings on slate were notoriously fragile in transit. Sebastiano, for example, demanded a personal escort for a slate painting he sent into Spain in 1540. We know that when Titian left Rome in 1546, he sent his baggage with a mule driver while he and his son Orazio traveled light by horseback, hardly a sensible form of transportation if there was a delicate slate painting bundled into the luggage. It seems more likely that Titian painted the Madrid Ece Homo after his return to Venice in 1546 and before his trip to Augsburg in 1548. On that latter journey, I should point out, Titian was accompanied by no fewer than seven assistants and servants, one of whom might have been tasked with safeguarding a slate painting. So far, I've established the Madrid Ece Homo seems unlikely to represent Titian's first effort with the slate technique and that it was likely painted after the artist's departure from Rome. That leads us to the possibility that our lost Roman Ece Homo may in fact have been Titian's first experiment with slate. In that case, Vazzari's lower opinion of it might reflect technical issues in the execution, such as a problem with the resin preparation, and such issues might also explain the painting's subsequent disappearance due to instability or decay. There were a number of reasons why Titian would have been interested in undertaking this kind of experiment in Rome itself. Aside from the risk of breakage in transit, slate paintings were actually extremely durable upon delivery. Vazzari himself noted that neither fire nor bugs could affect slate paintings, but only if prepared correctly, of course. Titian had already faced an issue of conservation the year before his trip to Rome. He'd been forced to sue the friars of a local monastery in Venice, who were refusing to pay him after one of his altarpieces had begun to deteriorate and develop mold. Eventually, he was forced to supply a new altarpiece at his own cost, so the prospect of a nigh indestructible form of painting might well have piqued his interest. Painting on stone was also linked to another prominent theoretical debate of the Renaissance, the Paragone, or competition between painting and sculpture. One of the barbs that sculptors flung at painters was that paintings were easily damaged while their own work lasted forever. Slate paintings could offer some competition in this regard. Titian himself was no stranger to the Paragone, having, for example, jousted with Michelangelo in a number of his paintings over the years. But before his trip to Rome in 1545, their engagement had always been at a distance. Perhaps he'd even heard about the insult Michelangelo had levied against oil painting in general, and his friend Sebastiano in particular, saying, according to Vazzari, quote, the painting in oils was an art for women and lazy people like Sebastiano, end quote. Choosing to execute his own slate painting in Rome would have offered Titian the chance to cross lances with Michelangelo once more, this time at close range, and to demonstrate the triumph of Venetian colorito, even on the unforgiving surface of stone. The appearance of the lost Ece Homo might have been similarly inspired by Titian's Roman experience. Scholars have identified a link between the affective quality of the later Madrid Ece Homo with Sebastiano del Piombo's cultivation of a new kind of intensity and directness in his own religious work, as we can see in his Christ carrying the cross in the Prado. Sebastiano's example, taken together with the visual evidence of the later Madrid painting and Redolfi's description of the Roman version's affective power, strongly suggests that Titian's lost Roman Ece Homo shared in this new type of emotional appeal to the viewer. Such a painting would have suited the religious climate in Rome, where Titian had arrived just months before the long delayed opening of the Council of Trent. It would take the Council nearly two decades to get around to discussing the status of religious images, but ultimately they would be declared necessary so that the faithful, quote, may be excited to love and adore God and to cultivate piety, end quote. Of course, if scholars like Marsha Hall and Alexander Nagel have reminded us, artists hadn't been sitting around waiting for instructions all that time, rather they'd taken the lead in experimenting with new ways of reaching the viewer. It's clear that Titian was doing this in the Madrid Ece Homo, and even though we can't see it, he likely did so in the Roman version as well that he gave to Paul III, the pope who, however grudgingly, opened the Reform Council at long last. Bazzari evidently wanted to give his readers the impression that Titian's Roman Ece Homo was a failure, albeit a minor one, brought on by Titian's inability to match up to the artists like Michelangelo that he encountered when he finally went to Rome in 1545. Failures certainly do happen, even for great artists, but I argue that Titian's problem was of a different sort, one of technique as the result of experimentation. With Titian's painting in absentia, Bazzari's texts may have the advantage, but this paper has tried to give the Roman Ece Homo back at least some of its voice.