In the following year, Bell became professor of Vocal Physiology and Elocution at the Boston University School of Oratory. During this period, he alternated between Boston and Brantford, spending summers in his Canadian home. At Boston University, Bell was "swept up" by the excitement engendered by the many scientists and inventors residing in the city. He continued his research in sound and endeavored to find a way to transmit musical notes and articulate speech, but although absorbed by his experiments, he found it difficult to devote enough time to experimentation. While days and evenings were occupied by his teaching and private classes, Bell began to stay awake late into the night, running experiment after experiment in rented facilities at his boarding house. Keeping up "night owl" hours, he worried that his work would be discovered and took great pains to lock up his notebooks and laboratory equipment. Bell had a specially made table where he could place his notes and equipment inside a locking cover.^[47] Worse still, his health deteriorated as he suffered severe headaches.^[41] Returning to Boston in fall 1873, Bell made a fateful decision to concentrate on his experiments in sound.

Bell speaking into prototype model of the telephone

Deciding to give up his lucrative private Boston practice, Bell only retained two students, six-year old "Georgie" Sanders, deaf from birth and 15-year old Mabel Hubbard. Each pupil would serve to play an important role in the next developments. George's father, Thomas Sanders, a wealthy businessman, offered Bell a place to stay at nearby Salem with Georgie's grandmother, complete with a room to "experiment". Although the offer was made by George's mother and followed the year-long arrangement in 1872 where her son and his nurse had moved to quarters next to Bell's boarding house, it was clear that Mr. Sanders was backing the proposal. The arrangement was for teacher and student to continue their work together with free room and board thrown in.^[48] Mabel was a bright, attractive girl who was ten years his junior but became the object of Bell's affection. Losing her hearing after a bout of scarlet fever at age five, she had learned to read lips but her father, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, Bell's benefactor and personal friend, wanted her to work directly with her teacher.^[49]

Telephone

football

Football is the name of several similar team sports, all of which involve (to varying degrees) kicking a ball with the foot in an attempt to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer". However the word football is applied to whichever form of football became most popular in each particular part of the world. Hence the English language word "football" is applied to "gridiron football" (a name associated with the North American sports, especially American football and Canadian football), Australian football, Gaelic football, rugby league, rugby union, and related games. These rule variations are known as "codes."

These games involve:
Two teams of usually between 11 and 18 players; some variations that have fewer players (five or more per team) are also popular
a clearly defined area in which to play the game;
scoring goals or points, by moving the ball to an opposing team's end of the field and either into a goal area, or over a line;
goals or points resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts
the goal or line being defended by the opposing team;
players being required to move the ball—depending on the code—by kicking, carrying or hand passing the ball; and
players using only their body to move the ball.

In most codes, there are rules restricting the movement of players offside, and players scoring a goal must put the ball either under or over a crossbar between the goalposts. Other features common to several football codes include: points being mostly scored by players carrying the ball across the goal line; and players receiving a free kick after they take a mark or make a fair catch.

Peoples from around the world have played games which involved kicking or carrying a ball, since ancient times. However, most of the modern codes of football have their origins in England.Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Present day codes and families 
2.1 Association football and descendants
2.2 Rugby school football and descendants
2.3 Irish and Australian varieties
2.4 Surviving mediæval ball games 
2.4.1 Inside the UK
2.4.2 Outside the UK
2.5 Surviving UK school games
2.6 Recent inventions and hybrid games 
2.6.1 Based on FA rules
2.6.2 Based on rugby
2.6.3 Hybrid games
2.7 Tabletop games and other recreations 
2.7.1 Based on Football (soccer)
2.7.2 Based on rugby
2.7.3 Based on American football
2.7.4 Based on Australian football
3 History 
3.1 Early history 
3.1.1 Ancient games
3.1.2 Medieval and early modern Europe
3.1.3 Calcio Fiorentino
3.1.4 Official disapproval and attempts to ban football
3.2 Establishment of modern codes 
3.2.1 English public schools
3.2.2 Firsts 
3.2.2.1 Clubs
3.2.2.2 Competitions
3.2.2.3 Modern balls
3.2.2.4 Modern ball passing tactics
3.2.3 Cambridge rules
3.2.4 Sheffield rules
3.2.5 Australian rules
3.2.6 Football Association
3.2.7 Rugby football 
3.2.7.1 Rugby league
3.2.8 North American football codes
3.2.9 Gaelic football
3.2.10 Split in Rugby football
3.2.11 Globalisation of association football
3.2.12 Reform of American football
3.2.13 Further divergence of the two rugby codes
4 Football today 
4.1 Use of the word "football" in English-speaking countries
4.2 Use of the word "football" in non-English-speaking countries
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links

Etymology
Main article: Football (word)

While it is widely believed that the word "football" (or "foot ball") originated in reference to the action of the foot kicking a ball, there is a rival explanation, which has it that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe, which were played on foot.[1] These games were usually played by peasants, as opposed to the horse-riding sports often played by aristocrats. While there is no conclusive evidence for this explanation, the word football has always implied a variety of games played on foot, not just those that involved kicking a ball. In some cases, the word football has even been applied to games which have specifically outlawed kicking the ball.
Present day codes and families
Association football and descendants
Main article: Variants of association football
 
An indoor soccer game at an open air venue in Mexico. The referee has just awarded the red team a free kick.
Association football, also known as football, soccer, footy and footie
Indoor/basketball court varieties of Football: 
Five-a-side football — played throughout the world under various rules including: 
Futsal — the FIFA-approved five-a-side indoor game
Minivoetbal — the five-a-side indoor game played in East and West Flanders where it is hugely popular
Papi fut the five-a-side game played in outdoor basketball courts (built with goals) in Central America.
Indoor soccer — the six-a-side indoor game, known in Latin America, where it is often played in open air venues, as fútbol rápido ("fast football")
Masters Football six-a-side played in Europe by mature professionals (35 years and older)
Paralympic football — modified Football for athletes with a disability.[2] Includes: 
Football 5-a-side — for visually impaired athletes
Football 7-a-side — for athletes with cerebral palsy
Amputee football — for athletes with amputations
Deaf football — for athletes with hearing impairments
Electric wheelchair soccer
Beach soccer — football played on sand, also known as beach football and sand soccer
Street football — encompasses a number of informal varieties of football
Rush goalie — is a variation of football in which the role of the goalkeeper is more flexible than normal
Headers and volleys — where the aim is to score goals against a goalkeeper using only headers and volleys
Crab football — players stand on their hands and feet and move around on their backs whilst playing football as normal
Swamp soccer — the game is played on a swamp or bog field
Rugby school football and descendants
Rugby football 
Rugby league — often referred to simply as "league", and usually known simply as "football" or "footy" in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland. 
Rugby league nines (or sevens)
Touch football (rugby league) — a non-contact version of rugby league. Often called simply "touch", in South Africa it is known as "six down"
Tag Rugby — a non-contact version of rugby league, in which a velcro tag is removed to indicate a tackle
Rugby union 
 
Rugby sevens; Fiji v Cook Islands at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne
Rugby sevens  
Rugby sevens; Fiji v Cook Islands at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne
Tag rugby — a form of rugby union using the velcro tag
Beach rugby — rugby played on sand
Touch rugby — generic name for forms of rugby football which do not feature tackles
Gridiron football 
American football — called "football" in the United States and Canada, and "gridiron" in Australia and New Zealand. Sometimes called "tackle football" to distinguish it from the touch versions
Indoor football, arena football — an indoor version of American football
Nine-man football, eight-man football, six-man football — versions of tackle football, played primarily by smaller high schools that lack enough players to field full 11-man teams
Touch football (American) — non-tackle American football 
Flag football — non-tackle American football, like touch football, in which a flag that is held by velcro on a belt tied around the waist is pulled by defenders to indicate a tackle
Street football (American) — American football played in backyards without equipment and with simplified rules
Canadian football — called simply "football" in Canada; "football" in Canada can mean either Canadian or American football depending on context 
Canadian flag football — non-tackle Canadian football
Nine-man football — similar to nine-man American football, but using Canadian rules; played by smaller schools in Saskatchewan that lack enough players to field full 12-man teams
See also: Comparison of American football and rugby league, Comparison of American football and rugby union, Comparison of Canadian and American football, and Comparison of rugby league and rugby union
Irish and Australian varieties
 
International rules football test match from the 2005 International Rules Series between Australia and Ireland at Telstra Dome, Melbourne, Australia.

These codes have in common the absence of an offside rule, the requirement to bounce or solo (toe-kick) the ball while running, handpassing by punching or tapping the ball rather than throwing it, and other traditions.
Australian rules football — officially known as "Australian football", and informally as "football", "footy" or "Aussie rules". In some areas (erroneously) referred to as "AFL", which is the name of the main organising body and competition 
Auskick — a version of Australian rules designed by the AFL for young children
Metro footy (or Metro rules footy) — a modified version invented by the USAFL, for use on gridiron fields in North American cities (which often lack grounds large enough for conventional Australian rules matches)
Kick-to-kick - informal versions of the game
9-a-side footy — a more open, running variety of Australian rules, requiring 18 players in total and a proportionally smaller playing area (includes contact and non-contact varieties)
Rec footy — "Recreational Football", a modified non-contact touch variation of Australian rules, created by the AFL, which replaces tackles with tags
Touch Aussie Rules — a non-contact variation of Australian Rules played only in the United Kingdom
Samoa rules — localised version adapted to Samoan conditions, such as the use of rugby football fields
Masters Australian football (a.k.a. Superules) — reduced contact version introduced for competitions limited to players over 30 years of age
Women's Australian rules football — played with a smaller ball and (sometimes) reduced contact version introduced for women's competition
Gaelic football — Played predominantly in Ireland. Sometimes referred to as "football" or "gaah" (from 'GAA', the acronym for Gaelic Athletic Association) 
Ladies Gaelic football
International rules football — a compromise code used for games between Gaelic and Australian Rules players
See also: Comparison of Australian rules football and Gaelic football
Surviving mediæval ball games
 
The ball is hit into the air at the 2006 Royal Shrovetide Football match. (Photographer: Gary Austin.)
Inside the UK
The Haxey Hood, played on Epiphany in Haxey, Lincolnshire
Shrove Tuesday games 
Scoring the Hales in Alnwick, Northumberland
Royal Shrovetide Football in Ashbourne, Derbyshire
The Shrovetide Ball Game in Atherstone, Warwickshire
The Shrove Tuesday Football Ceremony of the Purbeck Marblers in Corfe Castle, Dorset
Hurling the Silver Ball at St Columb Major in Cornwall
The Ball Game in Sedgefield, County Durham
In Scotland the Ba game ("Ball Game") is still popular around Christmas and Hogmanay at: 
Duns, Berwickshire
Scone, Perthshire
Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands
Outside the UK
Calcio Fiorentino — a modern revival of Renaissance football from 16th century Florence.
Surviving UK school games
 
Harrow football players after a game at Harrow School.

Games still played at UK public (independent) schools:
Eton field game
Eton wall game
Harrow football
Winchester College football
Recent inventions and hybrid games
Keepie uppie (keep up) 
is the art of juggling with a football using feet, knees, chest, shoulders, and head.
Footbag 
is a small bean bag or sand bag used as a ball in a number of keepie uppie variations, including hacky sack (which is a trade mark).
Freestyle football
a modern take on keepie uppie where freestylers are graded for their entertainment value and expression of skill.

football

Football is the name of several similar team sports, all of which involve (to varying degrees) kicking a ball with the foot in an attempt to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer". However the word football is applied to whichever form of football became most popular in each particular part of the world. Hence the English language word "football" is applied to "gridiron football" (a name associated with the North American sports, especially American football and Canadian football), Australian football, Gaelic football, rugby league, rugby union, and related games. These rule variations are known as "codes."

These games involve:
Two teams of usually between 11 and 18 players; some variations that have fewer players (five or more per team) are also popular
a clearly defined area in which to play the game;
scoring goals or points, by moving the ball to an opposing team's end of the field and either into a goal area, or over a line;
goals or points resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts
the goal or line being defended by the opposing team;
players being required to move the ball—depending on the code—by kicking, carrying or hand passing the ball; and
players using only their body to move the ball.

In most codes, there are rules restricting the movement of players offside, and players scoring a goal must put the ball either under or over a crossbar between the goalposts. Other features common to several football codes include: points being mostly scored by players carrying the ball across the goal line; and players receiving a free kick after they take a mark or make a fair catch.

Peoples from around the world have played games which involved kicking or carrying a ball, since ancient times. However, most of the modern codes of football have their origins in England.Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Present day codes and families 
2.1 Association football and descendants
2.2 Rugby school football and descendants
2.3 Irish and Australian varieties
2.4 Surviving mediæval ball games 
2.4.1 Inside the UK
2.4.2 Outside the UK
2.5 Surviving UK school games
2.6 Recent inventions and hybrid games 
2.6.1 Based on FA rules
2.6.2 Based on rugby
2.6.3 Hybrid games
2.7 Tabletop games and other recreations 
2.7.1 Based on Football (soccer)
2.7.2 Based on rugby
2.7.3 Based on American football
2.7.4 Based on Australian football
3 History 
3.1 Early history 
3.1.1 Ancient games
3.1.2 Medieval and early modern Europe
3.1.3 Calcio Fiorentino
3.1.4 Official disapproval and attempts to ban football
3.2 Establishment of modern codes 
3.2.1 English public schools
3.2.2 Firsts 
3.2.2.1 Clubs
3.2.2.2 Competitions
3.2.2.3 Modern balls
3.2.2.4 Modern ball passing tactics
3.2.3 Cambridge rules
3.2.4 Sheffield rules
3.2.5 Australian rules
3.2.6 Football Association
3.2.7 Rugby football 
3.2.7.1 Rugby league
3.2.8 North American football codes
3.2.9 Gaelic football
3.2.10 Split in Rugby football
3.2.11 Globalisation of association football
3.2.12 Reform of American football
3.2.13 Further divergence of the two rugby codes
4 Football today 
4.1 Use of the word "football" in English-speaking countries
4.2 Use of the word "football" in non-English-speaking countries
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links

Etymology
Main article: Football (word)

While it is widely believed that the word "football" (or "foot ball") originated in reference to the action of the foot kicking a ball, there is a rival explanation, which has it that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe, which were played on foot.[1] These games were usually played by peasants, as opposed to the horse-riding sports often played by aristocrats. While there is no conclusive evidence for this explanation, the word football has always implied a variety of games played on foot, not just those that involved kicking a ball. In some cases, the word football has even been applied to games which have specifically outlawed kicking the ball.
Present day codes and families
Association football and descendants
Main article: Variants of association football
 
An indoor soccer game at an open air venue in Mexico. The referee has just awarded the red team a free kick.
Association football, also known as football, soccer, footy and footie
Indoor/basketball court varieties of Football: 
Five-a-side football — played throughout the world under various rules including: 
Futsal — the FIFA-approved five-a-side indoor game
Minivoetbal — the five-a-side indoor game played in East and West Flanders where it is hugely popular
Papi fut the five-a-side game played in outdoor basketball courts (built with goals) in Central America.
Indoor soccer — the six-a-side indoor game, known in Latin America, where it is often played in open air venues, as fútbol rápido ("fast football")
Masters Football six-a-side played in Europe by mature professionals (35 years and older)
Paralympic football — modified Football for athletes with a disability.[2] Includes: 
Football 5-a-side — for visually impaired athletes
Football 7-a-side — for athletes with cerebral palsy
Amputee football — for athletes with amputations
Deaf football — for athletes with hearing impairments
Electric wheelchair soccer
Beach soccer — football played on sand, also known as beach football and sand soccer
Street football — encompasses a number of informal varieties of football
Rush goalie — is a variation of football in which the role of the goalkeeper is more flexible than normal
Headers and volleys — where the aim is to score goals against a goalkeeper using only headers and volleys
Crab football — players stand on their hands and feet and move around on their backs whilst playing football as normal
Swamp soccer — the game is played on a swamp or bog field
Rugby school football and descendants
Rugby football 
Rugby league — often referred to simply as "league", and usually known simply as "football" or "footy" in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland. 
Rugby league nines (or sevens)
Touch football (rugby league) — a non-contact version of rugby league. Often called simply "touch", in South Africa it is known as "six down"
Tag Rugby — a non-contact version of rugby league, in which a velcro tag is removed to indicate a tackle
Rugby union 
 
Rugby sevens; Fiji v Cook Islands at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne
Rugby sevens  
Rugby sevens; Fiji v Cook Islands at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne
Tag rugby — a form of rugby union using the velcro tag
Beach rugby — rugby played on sand
Touch rugby — generic name for forms of rugby football which do not feature tackles
Gridiron football 
American football — called "football" in the United States and Canada, and "gridiron" in Australia and New Zealand. Sometimes called "tackle football" to distinguish it from the touch versions
Indoor football, arena football — an indoor version of American football
Nine-man football, eight-man football, six-man football — versions of tackle football, played primarily by smaller high schools that lack enough players to field full 11-man teams
Touch football (American) — non-tackle American football 
Flag football — non-tackle American football, like touch football, in which a flag that is held by velcro on a belt tied around the waist is pulled by defenders to indicate a tackle
Street football (American) — American football played in backyards without equipment and with simplified rules
Canadian football — called simply "football" in Canada; "football" in Canada can mean either Canadian or American football depending on context 
Canadian flag football — non-tackle Canadian football
Nine-man football — similar to nine-man American football, but using Canadian rules; played by smaller schools in Saskatchewan that lack enough players to field full 12-man teams
See also: Comparison of American football and rugby league, Comparison of American football and rugby union, Comparison of Canadian and American football, and Comparison of rugby league and rugby union
Irish and Australian varieties
 
International rules football test match from the 2005 International Rules Series between Australia and Ireland at Telstra Dome, Melbourne, Australia.

These codes have in common the absence of an offside rule, the requirement to bounce or solo (toe-kick) the ball while running, handpassing by punching or tapping the ball rather than throwing it, and other traditions.
Australian rules football — officially known as "Australian football", and informally as "football", "footy" or "Aussie rules". In some areas (erroneously) referred to as "AFL", which is the name of the main organising body and competition 
Auskick — a version of Australian rules designed by the AFL for young children
Metro footy (or Metro rules footy) — a modified version invented by the USAFL, for use on gridiron fields in North American cities (which often lack grounds large enough for conventional Australian rules matches)
Kick-to-kick - informal versions of the game
9-a-side footy — a more open, running variety of Australian rules, requiring 18 players in total and a proportionally smaller playing area (includes contact and non-contact varieties)
Rec footy — "Recreational Football", a modified non-contact touch variation of Australian rules, created by the AFL, which replaces tackles with tags
Touch Aussie Rules — a non-contact variation of Australian Rules played only in the United Kingdom
Samoa rules — localised version adapted to Samoan conditions, such as the use of rugby football fields
Masters Australian football (a.k.a. Superules) — reduced contact version introduced for competitions limited to players over 30 years of age
Women's Australian rules football — played with a smaller ball and (sometimes) reduced contact version introduced for women's competition
Gaelic football — Played predominantly in Ireland. Sometimes referred to as "football" or "gaah" (from 'GAA', the acronym for Gaelic Athletic Association) 
Ladies Gaelic football
International rules football — a compromise code used for games between Gaelic and Australian Rules players
See also: Comparison of Australian rules football and Gaelic football
Surviving mediæval ball games
 
The ball is hit into the air at the 2006 Royal Shrovetide Football match. (Photographer: Gary Austin.)
Inside the UK
The Haxey Hood, played on Epiphany in Haxey, Lincolnshire
Shrove Tuesday games 
Scoring the Hales in Alnwick, Northumberland
Royal Shrovetide Football in Ashbourne, Derbyshire
The Shrovetide Ball Game in Atherstone, Warwickshire
The Shrove Tuesday Football Ceremony of the Purbeck Marblers in Corfe Castle, Dorset
Hurling the Silver Ball at St Columb Major in Cornwall
The Ball Game in Sedgefield, County Durham
In Scotland the Ba game ("Ball Game") is still popular around Christmas and Hogmanay at: 
Duns, Berwickshire
Scone, Perthshire
Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands
Outside the UK
Calcio Fiorentino — a modern revival of Renaissance football from 16th century Florence.
Surviving UK school games
 
Harrow football players after a game at Harrow School.

Games still played at UK public (independent) schools:
Eton field game
Eton wall game
Harrow football
Winchester College football
Recent inventions and hybrid games
Keepie uppie (keep up) 
is the art of juggling with a football using feet, knees, chest, shoulders, and head.
Footbag 
is a small bean bag or sand bag used as a ball in a number of keepie uppie variations, including hacky sack (which is a trade mark).
Freestyle football
a modern take on keepie uppie where freestylers are graded for their entertainment value and expression of skill.

Gautama Budha

Buddha is perhaps one of the few sages for whom we have mention of his rather impressive physical characteristics. A kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".

The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no means unattractive."(D,I:115).

"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant." (A,I:181)

A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an Arahant, was so obsessed by Buddha's physical presence that Buddha had to tell him to stop and reminded Vakkali to know Buddha through the Dhamma and not physical appearances.

Although the Buddha was not represented in human form until around the 1st century CE (see Buddhist art), the physical characteristics of fully-enlightened Buddhas are described by the Buddha in the Digha Nikaya's Lakkhaṇa Sutta (D,I:142).^[25] In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by Yasodhara to their son Rahula upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn, Narasīha Gāthā ("The Lion of Men").^[26]

Many Westerners associate the name "Buddha" with figurine depictions of a certain fat, bald, smiling person. This is inaccurate, as the person in these figurines is not Buddha at all, but Budai, a Chinese Buddhist monk who lived in the 10th century CE.

Teachings

Thomas Alfa Edison

Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel "The Iron Shovel" Edison, Jr. (1804–1896) (born in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, Canada) and Nancy Matthews Elliott (1810–1871). He considered himself to be of Dutch ancestry.^[1] In school, the young Edison's mind often wandered, and his teacher, the Reverend Engle, was overheard calling him "addled". This ended Edison's three months of official schooling. Edison recalled later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint." His mother homeschooled him.^[2] Much of his education came from reading R.G. Parker's School of Natural Philosophy and The Cooper Union. Edison developed hearing problems at an early age. The cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle ear infections. Around the middle of his career Edison attributed the hearing impairment to being struck on the ears by a train conductor when his chemical laboratory in a boxcar caught fire and he was thrown off the train in Smiths Creek, Michigan, along with his apparatus and chemicals. In his later years he modified the story to say the injury occurred when the conductor, in helping him onto a moving train, lifted him by the ears.^[3][4] Edison's family was forced to move to Port Huron, Michigan, when the railroad bypassed Milan in 1854,^[5] but his life there was bittersweet. He sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit, and he sold vegetables to supplement his income. This began Edison's long streak of entrepreneurial ventures as he discovered his talents as a businessman. These talents eventually led him to found 14 companies, including General Electric, which is still in existence and is one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world.^[6]

Telegrapher

Edison became a telegraph operator after he saved three-year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from being struck by a runaway train. Jimmie's father, station agent J.U. MacKenzie of Mount Clemens, Michigan, was so grateful that he trained Edison as a telegraph operator. Edison's first telegraphy job away from Port Huron was at Stratford Junction, Ontario, on the Grand Trunk Railway.^[7] In 1866, at the age of 19, Thomas Edison moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where, as an employee of Western Union, he worked the Associated Press bureau news wire. Edison requested the night shift, which allowed him plenty of time to spend at his two favorite pastimes—reading and experimenting. Eventually, the latter pre-occupation cost him his job. One night in 1867, he was working with a lead-acid battery when he spilled sulfuric acid onto the floor. It ran between the floorboards and onto his boss's desk below. The next morning Edison was fired.^[8]

One of his mentors during those early years was a fellow telegrapher and inventor named Franklin Leonard Pope, who allowed the impoverished youth to live and work in the basement of his Elizabeth, New Jersey home. Some of Edison's earliest inventions were related to telegraphy, including a stock ticker. His first patent was for the electric vote recorder, (U. S. Patent 90,646),^[9] which was granted on June 1, 1869.^[10]

Marriages and children

Mina Edison in

Multatuli

Dekker was born in Amsterdam. His father, a ship's captain, intended his son for trade, but this humdrum prospect disgusted him, and in 1838 he went out to Java and obtained a post as a civil servant. He moved from one posting to another, until, in 1851, he became assistant-resident at Ambon, in the Moluccas. In 1857 he was transferred to Lebak, in the Bantam residency of Java (now Banten province). By this time, however, all the secrets of Dutch administration were known to him, and he had begun to openly protest about the abuses of the colonial system. Consequently he was threatened with dismissal from his office for his openness of speech. Dekker resigned his appointment and returned to the Netherlands in a state of fierce indignation.

Statue of Multatuli on a square over the Singel canal in Amsterdam.

He was determined to expose in detail the scandals he had witnessed, and he began to do so in newspaper articles and pamphlets. Little notice, however, was taken of his protestations until, in 1860, he published his novel Max Havelaar under the pseudonym of Multatuli. Dekker's new pseudonym, which is derived from Latin, means, "I have suffered much", or, more literally "I have borne much" referring to himself, as well as, it is thought, to the victims of the injustices he saw. An attempt was made to ignore this irregular (for the 1860s) book, but in vain; it was read all over Europe. The exposure of the abuse of free labour in the Dutch Indies was thorough, although colonialist apologists accused Dekker's terrible picture of being overdrawn. Multatuli now began his literary career, and published Love Letters (1861), which, in spite of their mild title, were mordant, unsparing satires.

Although the literary merit of Multatuli's work was widely criticised, he received an unexpected and most valuable ally in Carel Vosmaer who published a book (The Sower 1874) praising him^[1]. He continued to write much, and to publish his miscellanies in uniform volumes called Ideas, of which seven appeared between 1862 and 1877 and also contain his novel Woutertje Pieterse.

Dekker left Holland, and went to live in Wiesbaden, where he made several attempts to write for the stage. One of his pieces, The School for Princes (published in 1875 in the fourth volume of Ideas), expresses his non-conformist views on politics, society and religion. He moved his residence to Nieder Ingelheim, on the Rhine, where he died in 1887.

In June 2002, the Dutch Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (Society for Dutch Literature) proclaimed Multatuli the most important Dutch writer of all time^[2].

Multatuli's brother, Jan Douwes Dekker, is a grandfather of Ernest Douwes Dekker (also known as Danudirja Setiabudi, an Indonesian National hero).

Phytoplankton

Phytoplankton obtain energy through the process of photosynthesis and must therefore live in the well-lit surface layer (termed the euphotic zone) of an ocean, sea, lake, or other body of water. Phytoplankton account for half of all photosynthetic activity on Earth.^[2] Thus phytoplankton are responsible for much of the oxygen present in the Earth's atmosphere – half of the total amount produced by all plant life.^[3] Their cumulative energy fixation in carbon compounds (primary production) is the basis for the vast majority of oceanic and also many freshwater food webs (chemosynthesis is a notable exception). As a side note, one of the more remarkable food chains in the ocean – remarkable because of the small number of links – is that of phytoplankton fed on by krill (a type of shrimp) fed on by baleen whales.

Phytoplankton are also crucially dependent on minerals. These are primarily macronutrients such as nitrate, phosphate or silicic acid, whose availability is governed by the balance between the so-called biological pump and upwelling of deep, nutrient-rich waters. However, across large regions of the World Ocean such as the Southern Ocean, phytoplankton are also limited by the lack of the micronutrient iron. This has led to some scientists advocating iron fertilization as a means to counteract the accumulation of human-produced carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere.^[4] Large-scale experiments have added iron (usually as salts such as iron sulphate) to the oceans to promote phytoplankton growth and draw atmospheric CO₂ into the ocean. However, controversy about manipulating the ecosystem and the efficiency of iron fertilization has slowed such experiments.^[5]

While almost all phytoplankton species are obligate photoautotrophs, there are some that are mixotrophic and other, non-pigmented species that are actually heterotrophic (the latter are often viewed as zooplankton). Of these, the best known are dinoflagellate genera such as Noctiluca and Dinophysis, that obtain organic carbon by ingesting other organisms or detrital material.

The term phytoplankton encompasses all photoautotrophic microorganisms in aquatic food webs. Phytoplankton serve as the base of the aquatic food web, providing an essential ecological function for all aquatic life. However, unlike terrestrial communities, where most autotrophs are plants, phytoplankton are a diverse group, incorporating protistan eukaryotes and both eubacterial and archaebacterial prokaryotes. There are about 5,000 species of marine phytoplankton.^[6] There is uncertainty in how such diversity has evolved in an environment where competition for only a few resources would suggest limited potential for niche differentiation.^[7]

In terms of numbers, the most important groups of phytoplankton include the diatoms, cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates, although many other groups of algae are represented. One group, the coccolithophorids, is responsible (in part) for the release of significant amounts of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) into the atmosphere. DMS is converted to sulfate and these sulfate molecules act as cloud condensation nuclei, increasing general cloud cover. In oligotrophic oceanic regions such as the Sargasso Sea or the South Pacific Gyre, phytoplankton is dominated by the small sized cells, called picoplankton,