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Conventional wisdom has it that the solid state era in electronics began in 1948 with the invention of the transistor, or if you wish to split hairs, with the 1930s invention by the Russian [Oleg Losev] of an early form of tunnel diode. But there’s an earlier amplifier technology that used a solid state circuit which is largely forgotten, and [AWA Communication Technologies Museum] has featured it in a new video. We’re talking of course about the carbon microphone amplifier, a piece of telephone technology which made its way into consumer electronics.
The carbon microphone is a container of loosely packed carbon granules acted upon by a diaphragm. Vibrations from sound compress and decompress the granules, changing the electrical resistance of the carbon. It was the standard microphone used in telephone handsets for most of the twentieth century. Being a resistor it can be placed in a potential divider circuit that produces some significant voltage swings, so when the vibrations come from a high-impedance earpiece it can make an amplifier. It’s not a very good amplifier, it has lousy bandwidth, distortion, and noise characteristics, but it was just about good enough to be paired with a 1920s crystal set. In the video below the break we see a variety of the devices, and even hear them in action sounding very tinny indeed. At the time it must have seemed miraculous to be at the forefront of the new technology though, and we can’t help admiring some of the construction intricacies.
Carbon microphone amplifiers may be rare today, but for all that we’ve touched on them before.

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We had an absolute treat of a game to kick off Week 14 in the NFL with two of the top teams from not just the NFC North, but the entire NFL square off on Thursday night. It lived up to the hype.
Coming into the game, the Detroit Lions sat atop the NFC at 11-1, but that was only good for a one-game lead in the conference and their division. The Green Bay Packers, meanwhile, sat third in the NFC North despite a really good 9-3 record.
The game was back and forth all night, with huge defensive stops and turnovers but also lots of scoring. The Lions ultimately converted a late fourth down to run out the clock and kick a field goal to win the game in the closing seconds.
Another battle on Sunday featuring two potential NFC playoff teams will have a big impact on the North standings as the 10-2 Minnesota Vikings play the 6-6 Atlanta Falcons, who currently lead the NFC South.
The Philadelphia Eagles at 10-2 are hosting the Carolina Panthers while the NFC West-leading Seattle Seahawks are at their division rival, the Arizona Cardinals, who would take the lead with a win.
The 8-5 Washington Commanders own the seventh spot right now, but they are on a bye in Week 14. A cluster of teams is a ways back at 6-6.
Here are the standings as of right now:
NFC standings during Week 14
1. Detroit Lions (12-1)2. Philadelphia Eagles (10-2)3. Seattle Seahawks (7-5)4. Atlanta Falcons (6-6, 2-0 vs TB)5. Minnesota Vikings (10-2)6. Green Bay Packers (9-4)7. Washington Commanders (8-5) 8. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-6, 0-2 vs ATL, 6-3 NFC)9. Arizona Cardinals (6-6, win over LAR, 3-5 NFC)10. Los Angeles Rams (6-6, loss to ARI)11. San Francisco 49ers (5-7, win over DAL)12. Dallas Cowboys (5-7, loss to SF)13. New Orleans Saints (4-8, 2-3 NFC South, 3-5 NFC)14. Chicago Bears (4-8, 2-5 NFC)*15. Carolina Panthers (3-9)16. New York Giants (2-10)* eliminated
AFC standings following Week 13
1. x-Kansas City Chiefs (11-1)2. xy-Buffalo Bills (10-2)3. Pittsburgh Steelers (9-3)4. Houston Texans (8-5)5. Los Angeles Chargers (8-4)6. Baltimore Ravens (8-5, win over DEN)7. Denver Broncos (8-5, loss to BAL)8. Indianapolis Colts (6-7)9. Miami Dolphins (5-7)10. Cincinnati Bengals (4-8)11. Cleveland Browns (3-9, 3-4 AFC, SOV 19 wins)12. New York Jets (3-9, 3-5 AFC, win over TEN)*13. Tennessee Titans (3-9, 3-4 AFC, SOV 16 wins, loss to NYJ)14. New England Patriots (3-10)* eliminated15. Jacksonville Jaguars (2-10)* eliminated16. Las Vegas Raiders (2-10)* eliminated
Note: In the three-way tie between Cleveland, New York, and Tennessee, the Jets are eliminated first because of a worse AFC record, then the Titans are eliminated because of their worse strength of victory. But the tiebreaker starts over after that, which is why the Jets’ win over Tennessee factors into the standings.
Teams with an asterisk have been eliminated from their divisional races.Teams with an “x” have clinched a playoff spotTeams with a “y” have clinched their division
Key playoff picture takeaways in Week 14
Which NFL teams have clinched playoff spots?
When they moved to 11 wins in Week 13, the Kansas City Chiefs became the first NFL team in the NFL to clinch a playoff spot. The Buffalo Bills clinched the AFC East last Sunday night, ensuring a home playoff game. The Lions secured their playoff spot with the Thursday night win.
– Kansas City Chiefs- Buffalo Bills- Detroit Lions
Which NFL teams have been eliminated from the playoffs?
In Week 13, the Giants became the first team this season to be officially eliminated from the playoff race. On Black Friday, the Raiders joined them with their tenth loss of the season and they are also eliminated. On Sunday, the Patriots were also eliminated them with a loss and wins by the Chargers and Texans. With the Denver Broncos win on Monday night, they eliminated the Jacksonville Jaguars from the playoffs.
– New York Giants- New England Patriots- Jacksonville Jaguars – Las Vegas Raiders
NFL Division Standings
AFC East standings

Buffalo Bills, 10-2 clinched

Miami Dolphins, 5-7
New York Jets, 3-9
New England Patriots, 3-10

AFC North standings

Pittsburgh Steelers, 9-3
Baltimore Ravens, 8-5
Cincinnati Bengals, 4-8
Cleveland Browns, 3-9

AFC South standings

Houston Texans, 8-5
Indianapolis Colts, 6-7
Tennessee Titans, 3-9
Jacksonville Jaguars, 2-10

AFC West standings

Kansas City Chiefs, 11-1
Los Angeles Chargers, 8-4
Denver Broncos, 8-5
Las Vegas Raiders*, 2-10

NFC East standings

Philadelphia Eagles, 10-2
Washington Commanders, 8-5
Dallas Cowboys, 5-7
New York Giants*, 2-10

NFC North standings

Detroit Lions, 12-1
Minnesota Vikings, 10-2
Green Bay Packers, 9-4
Chicago Bears, 4-8

NFC South standings

Atlanta Falcons, 6-6
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 6-6
New Orleans Saints, 4-8
Carolina Panthers, 3-9

NFC West standings

Seattle Seahawks, 7-5
Arizona Cardinals, 6-6
Los Angeles Rams, 6-6
San Francisco 49ers, 5-7 […]

It’s fair to say that climate change is perhaps the greatest challenge facing our planet, and while much attention is directed towards solutions to the problems it presents, perhaps there’s less attention given to the the other side of the equation in the hydrocarbon industry. For example we all think we know something about hydraulic fracking wells, but how much do we really know?
[John Thurmond] is a geologist who has recently completed a long career in the oil industry, and he gave an informative talk on the matter at the summer’s EMF Camp in the UK. It makes for an interesting watch, as he leads the viewer through the process in detail, before discussing what should and shouldn’t cause worry.
We learn that fracking has two parts: first the hydraulic fracking itself, and then the re-injection of the toxic fracking well water released from underground along with the oil or gas. It seems the water released from the rocks a 10,000 ft depth contains all manner of toxic and even radioactive compounds, and the usual means of disposal is to inject it back into the ground at a much lower depth. He makes the point that while the hazards associated with the fracking are low, those of the re-injection are high.
The talk finishes up with perhaps the most interesting point, by looking at the nature of opposition to fracking, or indeed any other controversial development. Such things are inevitably surrounded by a swirling mess of half-truths, and his point is that identifying those easily deflected as not true is key to understanding the whole thing. It’s presented from an expert and factual perspective that’s so often lacking in this arena, and thus we think it’s worth a watch.

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The Raiders prioritized throwing more deep balls against the Chiefs on Friday.
The decision was welcomed by quarterback Aidan O’Connell, who was making his first start after missing the previous four games with a fractured right thumb.
Hence, the smile O’Connell flashed when Kansas City opted against sending a cornerback in motion to trail wide receiver Tre Tucker on the first play of the fourth quarter, which set up a favorable matchup between the speedy Tucker and safety Justin Reid.
And why Tucker was thinking big before the ball was even snapped.
“For sure, this has to be a touchdown,” Tucker said he thought as he went in motion.
Sure enough, O’Connell and Tucker burned the Chiefs with a 58-yard scoring strike. As easy as it looked, it makes you wonder why the Raiders don’t take more shots down the field.
The reality is O’Connell’s long completion to Tucker was a rare case of everything coming together at the exact right time. The Raiders can only hope that happens more often in their final five games.
But no one needs to explain to O’Connell and Tucker how fleeting that can be.
“I mean, if you could count all the times in practice that Tre is running as fast as he can and doesn’t get the ball,” O’Connell said.
Right look, right time
In this case, the opposite occurred. Everything went according to plan, from the play call to the defensive look to execution.
“It feels pretty good when that happens,” Tucker said.
Based on film study, the Raiders knew the Chiefs would not track Tucker with a cornerback if he went in motion across the line of scrimmage. Just to be sure, they ran two similar plays earlier in the game. Each time, their assumptions were correct.
The last remaining question was whom the Chiefs would assign to cover Tucker on the other side of the field. In this case, cornerback Trent McDuffie was lined up in press coverage on wide receiver Jakobi Meyers. Behind McDuffie was Reid.
Tucker’s head start, gained by running in motion from the right side of the line of scrimmage to the left, gave him a huge advantage at the snap of the ball. He peeked to his right as he turned upfield to check on McDuffie, who stayed in man coverage against Meyers. That meant Reid, lined up 6 yards off the ball, was defending Tucker.
“If the corner had run with me, I kind of think it would have been the same thing because it’s a foot race,” Tucker said. “But the fact that it was a safety … I just knew.”
Tucker was at full speed 5 yards into the route while Reid was frantically backpedaling, trying to gain leverage. At the 10-yard mark, Tucker was preparing to blow past Reid, who furiously tried to make a turn to cut Tucker off. Tucker had a step on Reid in an instant.
It was pretty much all on O’Connell at that point. He planted his back foot and launched the ball downfield. It fell into the hands of Tucker at the Chiefs’ 20-yard line, as Reid fell off at the 25.
“What a beautiful ball by Aidan,” said Tucker, who sprinted to the goal line and dived into the end zone for the touchdown, giving the Raiders a 17-16 lead after the extra point.
Plan coming together
Defenses, Tucker said, are so wary of giving up the long ball that they often assign a safety to pick him up if he beats a cornerback off the ball. That creates a danger zone quarterbacks don’t want to mess with.
“You just can’t throw that ball,” Tucker said.
Reid was the first and last line of defense on this particular play.
“The fact that we did get the right look and everything was on schedule, it shows a glimpse of what it can look like and what it can be,” Tucker said.
No one was happier than O’Connell.
“That probably makes me the happiest out of anything because he’s running a lot of sprints during practice and not getting rewarded,” he said. “And for him to be on that stage to get rewarded was pretty awesome.”
Tucker believes it’s a sign of things to come for a team that preaches taking big swings with the long ball.
“There’s a lot of things we do good in practice that everyone doesn’t get to see,” Tucker said. “And that was one of the things that we’ve done a lot. So for the whole world to see it, it was great. That’s something that you guys can look forward to seeing more.”
Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.

Up next
Who: Raiders at Buccaneers
When: 10 a.m. Sunday
Where: Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Fla.
TV: CBS
Radio: KRLV-AM (920), KOMP-FM (92.3)
Line: Buccaneers -6½; total 46 […]

YouTube Video Here: Temporary King Kamehameha III Elementary School Installation is Complete – YouTubeLAHAINA, Maui– Every school day, on a hillside overlooking the West Maui coastline, King Kamehameha III Elementary welcomes hundreds of children to its campus.It’s a temporary replacement for their former waterfront school, which served Lahaina’s children for more than a century until wildfires destroyed the school and much of the historic town. Remarkably, the temporary school was built in a matter of months.The major federal disaster declaration on Aug. 10, 2023, enabled the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to develop a temporary school.USACE hired local workers and sub-contracted with Pono Aina Management, a native Hawaiian organization, and soon the new school began to take shape. Construction of the $78.8 million project, which can accommodate up to 600 students, began in November 2023 and was completed in 95 days. The results garnered national praise. The Construction Management Association of America recently named the temporary school the 2024 Project of the Year, an award celebrating the skill, collaboration and impact of its construction management.“Some of you may think that 95 days is a long time, but I have news for you. In the construction industry it’s merely a blip,” said Col. Eric Swenson, who was the USACE recovery field officer at the time of the school’s dedication ceremony on March 25. “We got this work done quickly because the hands behind the tools were invested in the community and committed to delivering for their families, their neighbors, their neighborhood and their community. For most, this was personal and something for which failure was simply not an option.”The school first opened to students April 1, 2024.  After summer vacation, it opened Aug. 7 for the first day of the 2024-2025 school year.The temporary school spreads across a 10.2-acre campus and is composed of336 modular units assembled into 38 buildings, including 30 air-conditioned classrooms, restrooms, a dining room, community space, administrative offices and learning resources areas. The Hawaiʻi Department of Education furnished and installed telecommunication equipment before opening the school for the fourth school quarter of the year.FEMA Regional Administrator Robert J. Fenton said that FEMA worked closely with USACE to fund the temporary replacement of the King Kamehameha III Elementary School.“They did a tremendous job of accomplishing that in 95 days and being able to reopen the school on the first of April,” Fenton said. “This is one of several projects demonstrating our commitment to the community.”In a tribute to the school’s history, distinctive features of the old school were saved and installed at the new site — its gate, for instance, and also a bust of Kamehameha III, the Hawaiian king for whom the school is named. The bust of Kamehameha III had special meaning for the community. Families had raised funds to purchase it for the school’s centennial celebration in 2013. The students have two new playgrounds created with equipment donated by Berliner, a German company, and Playworld, a Pennsylvania-based company. Additional playground funding was donated by Maui United Way and the Public Schools Hawaiʻi Foundation. Others have donated school uniforms or supplies. “This is a whole community effort to do what’s best to create a successful student,” said Principal Ian Haskins. “We are doing everything we can to create successful students.”The school is expected to continue operating for three to five years until a new permanent school is built. As of Dec. 3, 2024, it had 362 students enrolled.For now, the temporary school has become more than a center for education. It serves as a symbol of resilience – and what can be achieved when community and government work together. […]

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Ever wondered if you could build a robot controlled by chemical reactions? [Marb] explores this wild concept in his video, merging chemistry and robotics in a way that feels straight out of sci-fi. From glowing luminol reactions to creating artificial logic gates, [Marb]—a self-proclaimed tinkerer—takes us step-by-step through crafting the building blocks for what might be the simplest form of a chemical brain.
In this video, the possibilities of an artificial chemical brain take centre stage. It starts with chemical reactions, including a fascinating luminol-based clock reaction that acts as a timer. Then, a bionic robot hand makes its debut, complete with a customised interface bridging the chemical and robotic worlds. The highlight? Watching that robotic hand respond to chemical reactions!
The project relies on a “lab-on-a-chip” approach, where microfluidics streamline the processes. Luminol isn’t just for forensic TV shows anymore—it’s the star of this experiment, with resources like this detailed explanation breaking down the chemistry. For further reading, New Scientist has you covered.
We’ve had interesting articles on mapping the human brain before, one on how exactly brains might work, or even the design of a tiny robot brain. Food for thought, or in other words: stirring the gray matter.

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The 2024 USA 3×3 Women’s AmeriCup Team has been officially announced, and there’s a particularly intriguing selection on the four-player roster: Abbey Hsu, a Columbia University standout.
Next week, Hsu will join Azurá Stevens, Maddie Siegrist, and Brittney Sykes in Puerto Rico for a 3×3 competition, where they’ll compete against other countries in the Americas. Hsu stands out from the list of selected players in that she’s the only one not currently playing in the WNBA.

Stevens, Siegrist, and Sykes are all WNBA starters who average near — or around — double figures. Stevens averaged 9.6 points and 7 rebounds per game on the Los Angeles Sparks this season, Siegrist averaged 9.4 points on 50.5% shooting on the Dallas Wings, and Sykes put up 12.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists on the Mystics. Sykes and Stevens will also play in Unrivaled this winter, which tips off on January 17th in Miami.
Hsu, meanwhile, was drafted with the No. 34 pick by the Connecticut Sun after a standout career with Columbia University. She didn’t report to Sun training camp this past Spring nor play in the WNBA this past season — but she is presumed to attend Sun training camp in the coming years. Whether or not she will ultimately have a career in the WNBA remains to be seen.
Still, Hsu beat out a slew of WNBA rotation players who were vying for a spot don’t the team. Nine other players participated in the developmental camp in Phoenix in November but were ultimately not selected: Shakira Austin (Washington Mystics), Grace Berger, Rae Burrell (Los Angeles Sparks), Emily Engstler (Mystics), Natasha Howard (Dallas Wings), Taylor Mikesel, Alissa Pili (Minnesota Lynx), Jaylyn Sherrod (New York Liberty), and Sug Sutton (Mystics).

Hsu, a 5’ 11 guard had a standout career at Columbia, averaging 20.4 points and 7.3 rebounds in her senior season. She became the first woman to ever get drafted out of the university after being named Ivy League Player of the Year in 2024.
The FIBA 3×3 AmeriCup is a tournament held annually since 2021. The U.S. women won in 2021 and 2023, and came in third in 2022. This year, the tournament will take place from December 12 to 15 in San Juan, and feature the U.S., Canada, Chile, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Cayman Islands, and Cuba. Each 3×3 game will be played to 21 points, on a half-court with a 10-minute game clock. The tournament will stream live on YouTube.com/FIBA3x3. […]