Matthew J. Ence ⚡️

Running bitcoin

@webdevMason Reminds me of this jacksonville.com/story/news/201…

Listened to a podcast about a woman who went missing and this one little detail really struck me Her boss called the police to check on the investigation and ultimately ended up helping organize a search party, they played the call and he genuinely sounded concerned I miss that

@camillagluh 3GrandKeys

EXCITING NEWS, I have a secret link to view the Mormon horror short film "The Angel" thru next Sunday. Comment "3GrandKeys" AND follow me so I can DM you the link. (Twitter won't let me message you unless you follow me I think)

Looks like NYC has fallen

@candidamoss @GeorgeMasonU @BenjaminEPark Of course. Thank you for taking the time to respond, and thank you for your own fascinating work.

@mjence @GeorgeMasonU @BenjaminEPark Thank you for the civil conversation. The responses I have received from LDS members have all been generous and civil, which is rare and admirable at this moment.

My latest column for National Geographic is on Joseph Smith. It features the amazing new biography by @georgemasonu.bsky.social prof. John Turner and quotes from @benjaminepark.bsky.social's American Zion. nationalgeographic.com/history/articl…

@candidamoss @GeorgeMasonU @BenjaminEPark Of course, I get that if you accept the witness of the 8 you have to explain the physicality of the plates, and it sounds like Turner is going with it was all an elaborate ruse. I believe the accounts of Smith and all the witnesses. They are not easily dismissed.

@mjence @GeorgeMasonU @BenjaminEPark I want to say that this is a historian's assessment but also that Turner himself said that the Book of Mormon is no different from other religious books like the New Testament, which also show signs of the time. And also that there is no reason to discount visions as truth.

@candidamoss @GeorgeMasonU @BenjaminEPark But I respect Turner and thought his book on Brigham Young was largely fair to the man and his faith, so I’m willing to see what he has to say about this also.

@candidamoss @GeorgeMasonU @BenjaminEPark I should have addressed you as Dr. Moss. Apologies for the oversight.

@candidamoss @GeorgeMasonU @BenjaminEPark Ms. Moss, I found your column to be a fair summary of early church history. One ?: is there a reason you stated that "no one other than Smith ever saw the plates...[except] in visions," when 8 Witnesses averred they handled the plates when physically shown them by Smith?

Will the U.S. be able to acquire 1M Bitcoin or will the price runaway before they have a chance.

RT @Ch_JesusChrist: We are saddened to announce that President M. Russell Ballard, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of…

@RearAdBsBlog @TrungTPhan Not sure what was on when we were in there, but this is what was on when we came out.

@TrungTPhan What was on outside of sphere during concert?

The U2 x Las Vegas Sphere show took two years to create and will make ~$270m. In Fall 2021, the band was approached to open the $2.3B mega-structure (with a capacity of 18k). Willie Williams — U2’s creative director since the early 1980s — initially thought it was a “terrible idea”. Why? U2’s iconic tours have been breakthrough custom sets from Zoo TV in the early 1990s (pioneering giant screens on stage) to the 360 Tour of late 2000s (360-degree stage for stadium shows). They weren’t keen to build an act around the Sphere’s requirements, especially one with the most ambitious audio-visual specs ever:  ▫️160k+ speakers ▫️366ft tall x 516ft wide (9 floors) ▫️Largest LED screen ever (160k sq ft) However, the idea of a residency — instead of a moving tour — appealed to U2 because of COVID travel uncertainty. One major obstacle was that dome-shaped buildings are typically awful for audio, per Variety. The Sphere solved the issue with its 167k speakers including one in each seat. Effectively, every person is “getting studio-quality sound” according to James Dolan (owner of NY Knicks, NY Rangers, MSG and the man behind the Sphere).  Meanwhile, the visuals were a collaboration with the world’s top creatives (Es Devlin, Marco Brambilla, John Gerrard and long-time producer Brian Eno). The amount of data created to fill the LED screen is mind-boggling, per Wallpaper: ▫️ there are 268,435,456 pixels… ▫️ …which is equal to 72 HD TVs ▫️ … which is equal to 12k screen resolution  ▫️ …which means “every minute of content produced for Sphere is the equivalent of one hour of streaming television” “With all the big stuff I’ve done for U2 and anyone else, we don’t start with the equipment, we start with the idea, and then figure out what we need to realize that idea,” Williams tells Variety. “And sometimes it involves big video, sometimes it doesn’t. Whereas here, the only given we had going in was the building — and a building that didn’t exist, and in fact isn’t finished now. So it was odd starting a show with hardware and with a space rather than the other way around.” Here’s some napkin math for “U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere”: ▫️25 dates x 18,000 per show x $600 per ticket (range is $400 to $1400) = $270 million The entire U2 team — Williams, Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Bram van den Berg (who is subbing in for the injured Larry Mullen Jr) — clearly made a risky bet. But the viral clips and buzz from opening night show it has paid off big time.

@ChansonEtoiles @Ch_JesusChrist Yes, the open house is public and free, though reservations are recommended. churchofjesuschrist.org/featured/st-ge…

Did you know that the St. George Utah Temple was the first temple built in the West? The newly renovated pioneer-era temple is now ready for public tours. Look inside and learn about the recent upgrades to this house of the Lord. newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/renova…

I’m on @pulsr_ai 🖼️ 0x576BB8F908AEF4A2e3CF20f3ff9086C61DBCDAEF pulsr.ai

@mrhyrum You must be in my neck of the woods today. Beautiful day for a hike!

Aspiration Trail, Utah

4 of 5 stars to Heat 2 by Michael Mann goodreads.com/review/show/54…

3 of 5 stars to The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson goodreads.com/review/show?id…

@ShellenbergerMD @gladstein @HRF I believe Bitcoin represents a milestone in development of civilization that, because of its reliance on security through "proof of work," is closely tied to the idea that increased energy density = increased human well-being, that I learned about reading Apocalypse Never.

@ShellenbergerMD I subbed specifically to read the entire article. My only criticism is the conflation of FTX, crypto in general, and Bitcoin--which is a neutral tool that has huge untapped potential for positive impact on human freedom. Check out the work of @gladstein and @HRF in this area.

People say not all cryptocurrencies are pyramid schemes, and they might be right. But not all pyramid schemes are fraudulent. And as long as cryptocurrency facilitates crime, it's far worse than the worst pyramid scheme. michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-cryptocu…