And they are used in some of the best old-school reel-to-reel recorders. I don't know if they are making new components with tubes, but older tube pre-amps for Ampex and Scully tape recorders are prized by some audiophiles for their "warm" sound. They are also great for creating distortion...over-driving tube pre-amps creates some nice distortion effects which digital components would just clip.

But (and I'm speaking as someone who has been out of radio and audio for many years...I own a hardware store), from what I've seen and heard there are some pretty awesome digital programs that can duplicate nearly any pre-amp ever made. Based on what my daughter can do with her Mac (Protools, FInale, etc) I am pretty impressed at the sounds that can be processed even in a home environment with no need for tubes.

On the other hand, my tube pre-amps do keep the basement warm. :)

He lives in a county where the population gets over 42% of their income from government sources, including food stamps, medicare, welfare, and other social programs. Sure, he can point his finger at "big government" in Washington because that will get him elected. Pointing out to his fellow Lewis County residents how much they get from the government will probably piss them off.

Lewis County KY is a Republican/Conservative county. Massie is in a Tea Party versus Republican battle.

FTFA - "Massie has been targeting waste, fraud, and abuse, starting with questioning electric bills, phone bills, contracts, and fees for things that don’t apply anymore. Like the county being charged rental fees for property that had long been sold, paying for phone lines that had been disconnected for years, or buying stuff from a magistrate’s store."

Eliminating bills for services that no longer apply seems like a no-brainer. It sounds to me like the county government was corrupt, and based on the location (Lewis County KY) and demographics (98.2% white) he probably unseated a conservative when he was elected to county office.

Interesting to note that Lewis County KY gets 42.9% of it's income from the government (US national average is 17.6%). Seems like he should keep focusing on his home county before aiming higher.

Just my two cents as a small business owner that has dabbled in all the online media options...spending money on social media is a waste, especially if you're a company that extends their reach beyond a single community. For local business owners, Facebook can be a great tool to send updates on events such as new interesting products, employee recognition, etc. Many customers like keeping in touch with their local business, whether it's a hardware store (like mine), restaurant, or other business that may hold special events of interest to the community. All that is free, and spending beyond that seems to be a waste of cash.

Making sure you are listed accurately on Google will cover 95% of your needs currently. Update the Place page, and if you sell products make sure you're uploading a data feed of your inventory. Both are free and generate tons of traffic to your website plus lots of in-store visits (if you have brick and mortar locations). Adwords is a waste of money IMHO...we won the Google/Amex video contest for Small Business Saturday and it included $5000 in Google adwords funds. I've burned through about $4000 in a month and a half and have seen negligible incremental business even with click-through rates in the 2% and higher range (and ad position average of 1.6). Sure, it's nice to know people are visiting our site, but plain old Google search still generates 95% of the traffic versus 2% from adwords.

I think the grey area is in the unlocked wireless routers. These are often/usually provided pre-configured by the ISP, and the user might not ever change the settings. The ISP's are securing them (at least Verizon FIOS does in my area) but an average user that adds their own wireless access point may not know all the ins and outs of configuration. I applaud the judges ruling as it does require a bit more investigation before allowing lawsuits that are IMHO frivolous and intended to annoy and intimidate rather than actually protect artists.

Hockey fighters start out young, and when fighting most players tug the helmets off. The NY Times did an extensive article about a player who made a career out of fighting, and died of an overdose at the age of 28. Fighters get blows to the head nearly every game, akin to the way football players also get pummeled.

I agree...no matter where you work you have no right to sue your employer if you suffer injury due to your job. After all, you took the job, so if the conditions are unsafe and dangerous that's your responsibility. The employer has no requirement to alert you to unsafe conditions, that's the job of Google and Wikipedia. Get off your lazy butt and research it yourself as soon as you get home from the meat processing plant, asbestos factory, or wherever it is you are safely employed.

The long term effect of repeated blows to the head is IMHO the biggest issue facing contact sports, especially (American/Canadian) football and ice hockey. Based on the growing body of research it appears that the the sports are inherently unsafe as they are currently played. Football is the number 1 spectator sport in America, so you can bet the NFL does not want to change too much, and yet they are now being sued by former players who have suffered concussions during their career. How can the sport be changed to protect the players? Helmet technology will likely continue to improve, but enough to protect from brain damage with repeated hits? Does the NFL become the NTFL (National Touch Football League)? Do we still have linemen block to protect the quarterback, or do pass rushers count to four-Mississippi before rushing?

Hockey does not seem to be as plagued as football, and eliminating fighting would prevent a lot of injuries as the basic game does not lead to as much trauma to the head as football. Possibly the biggest question for all sports is what the future may hold if parents keep their children off the playing fields. That's something that will be gradual but I expect that the pool of available talent will start to dwindle as the smarter and more talented athletes choose safer career paths (baseball, investment banking?) and only the desperate take chances with their future sanity and health.

I was being a tiny bit snarky.

However per your suggestion, I decided to think about it further and figure it out. IMHO it still is a pretty poor design if they intend to let a blind person access the machine from the back seat of a vehicle.

- Back seats are usually set lower and further back in relationship to the window, making it difficult to reach outside the window compared to the front seats.
- The ATM machines can sometimes be moved up and down, but based on my experience it takes a bit of adjustment and a bit of twisting and leaning in the seat to operate the machine in any semblance of "comfort".
- A blind person may take much to process a transaction given that the machine, while technically "handicapped accessible", is really designed for use by customers with working eyes and ears. That means a busy drive-thru will be tied up longer due to the difficulty reaching the machine (back seat), the time to adjust, and the actual operation of the machine.

I'm sure the main reason these machines have Braille labels is because of mass production. The exterior machines are usually similar to or exactly the same as the interior machines, so it makes sense for them to just manufacture them all to the same specs. That way in a pinch they can interchange components.

But still, it's funny (in a Family Guy kind of funny) to imagine that the Braille actually reads "Get the hell out of the way!!! You're standing in a driveway!!!"

Very true. I was being kind of snarky so I appreciate you taking the high ground and explaining the likely reasons for Braille on drive-thru ATM's.

The drive-up ATM's at Citibank branches in the NY area have had Braille labels on all the buttons for years. Seemed kind of silly up until now, you certainly would not want a blind person standing in the driveway using the ATM, and I certainly hope a person requiring Braille labels on an ATM would not be behind the wheel of a car. Not knowing Braille myself, I always assumed the labels said "Get out of the way!!! You're standing in a driveway!!!".

But now I realize that Citibank was preparing for the eventual release of the autonomous car.

Especially if he enjoys playing the game. I've done OK playing blackjack several times, but I'm in the range of $500 max ever at risk, and lifetime I've broken even and had fun for several hours at a time.

The last few times I traveled to Vegas I put the blackjack money into show tickets instead...Penn & Teller are quite amusing live.

I missed that information.

His "never lose a million" still doesn't make sense with the example he provides. Any gambler would never lose a million if they banked a million and then stopped when their losses hit $500,000. Sure, they'd be out $100,000 more than he would, but they'd be out "only $500,000".

Or am I missing something else?

True.

However the example seems to be poorly thought out. Shouldn't he have said "If you got to $1,000,000 in losses you would stop and take your 20 percent discount. You'd owe them only $800,000". Why did he choose the arbitrary $500,000 to stop at for his example, especially since he was explaining how you'd never lose the $1,000,000.

Even someone who flunked math wouldn't lose the million if they stopped at $500,000 in losses (with or without the 20% discount).