Kami are the spirits, phenomena or "holy powers" that are venerated in the religion of Shinto. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, as well as beings and the qualities that these beings express. Many kami are considered the ancient ancestors of entire clans. Traditionally, great or sensational leaders like the Emperor became kami. In Shinto, kami are not separate from nature, but are of nature, possessing positive and negative, good and evil characteristics, they are manifestations of musubi, the interconnecting energy of the universe, are considered exemplary of what humanity should strive towards. Kami are believed to be "hidden" from this world, inhabit a complementary existence that mirrors our own: shinkai. To be in harmony with the awe-inspiring aspects of nature is to be conscious of kannagara no michi. Though the word kami is translated multiple ways into English, no English word expresses its full meaning; the ambiguity of the meaning of kami is necessary, as it conveys the ambiguous nature of kami themselves.

Kami is the Japanese word for a god, divinity, or spirit. It has been used to describe mind, supreme being, one of the Shinto deities, an effigy, a principle, anything, worshipped. Although deity is the common interpretation of kami, some Shinto scholars argue that such a translation can cause a misunderstanding of the term; the wide variety of usage of the word kami can be compared to the Sanskrit Deva and the Hebrew Elohim, which refer to God, angels, or spirits. Some etymological suggestions are: Kami may, at its root mean spirit, or an aspect of spirituality, it is written with Sino-Japanese reading shin or jin. In Chinese, the character means deity. In the Ainu language, the word kamuy refers to an animistic concept similar to Japanese kami; the matter of the words' origins is still a subject of debate. In his Kojiki-den, Motoori Norinaga gave a definition of kami: "...any being whatsoever which possesses some eminent quality out of the ordinary, is awe-inspiring, is called kami."Because Japanese does not distinguish grammatical number in nouns, it is sometimes unclear whether kami refers to a single or multiple entities.

When a singular concept is needed, -kami is used as a suffix. The reduplicated term used to refer to multiple kami is kamigami. Gender is not implied in the word kami, as such, it can be used to refer to either male or female. While Shinto has no founder, no overarching doctrine, no religious texts, the Kojiki, written in 712 CE, the Nihon Shoki, written in 720 CE, contain the earliest record of Japanese creation myths; the Kojiki includes descriptions of various kami. In the ancient traditions there were five defining characteristics of kami: Kami are of two minds, they can nurture and love when respected, or they can cause destruction and disharmony when disregarded. Kami must be appeased in order to avoid their wrath. Traditionally, kami possess one gentle and the other assertive. Kami are not visible to the human realm. Instead, they inhabit sacred places, natural phenomena, or people during rituals that ask for their blessing, they are mobile, visiting their places of worship, of which there can be several, but never staying forever.

There are many different varieties of kami. There are 300 different classifications of kami listed in the Kojiki, they all have different functions, such as the kami of wind, kami of entryways, kami of roads. Lastly, all kami have a different duty to the people around them. Just as the people have an obligation to keep the kami happy, the kami have to perform the specific function of the object, place, or idea they inhabit. Kami are an ever-changing concept; the kami's earliest roles were as earth-based spirits, assisting the early hunter-gatherer groups in their daily lives. They were worshipped as gods of the sea; as the cultivation of rice became important and predominant in Japan, the kami's identity shifted to more sustaining roles that were directly involved in the growth of crops. This relationship between early Japanese people and the kami was manifested in rituals and ceremonies meant to entreat the kami to grow and protect the harvest; these rituals became a symbol of power and strength for the early Emperors.

There is a strong tradition of myth-histories in the Shinto faith. In this myth, when Amaterasu sent her grandson to earth to rule, she gave him five rice grains, grown in the fields of heaven; this rice made it possible for him to transform the "wilderness". Social and political strife have played a key role in the development of new sorts of kami the goryō-shin. Goryō are the vengeful spirits of the dead whose lives were cut short, but they were calmed by the devotion of Shinto followers and are now believed to

Brachychiton sp. Ormeau is a rare and endangered rainforest tree of the genus Brachychiton found in Queensland, Australia. A species of Brachychiton, a tree reaching up to 25 metres in height, The leaves are dropped during dry seasons, a time when the species favours for reproduction, return as pale to coppery coloured new growth; the flowering period is during September, the profuse display of green to white bell-shaped flowers appearing at the terminus of the branches. During the stages of growth the trunk begins to form an exaggerated bottle-shape, the leaves alter from a lobed shape, divided from five to nine times, to a glossy and elliptical leaf 12 to 20 centimetres long; the tree is capable of attaining somewhere over 120 years. Sexual maturity is reached after around twenty years; the Ormeau bottle trees are restricted in range, extending over of 6.5 km2 and have a low population in an area of occupancy, less than one square kilometre. The largest stand is regarded as the most viable population, recorded as 131 plants in located a conservation area.

Two reproducing groups were found in a location that contain less than ten trees, other individuals occur as non-seeding outliers within the total population of 161 trees. The main group occurs within an'environmental park', the Wongawallan Conservation Area in the rural suburb of Wongawallan, where it is afforded some protection from threatening factors; the small groups outside this area are located on a lease for proposed quarries. The national government named this tree as one of thirty plants to be the given the highest priority for protection from extinction, that its status be improved by the year 2020; the major threats identified are habitat loss, fire and weed infestation and the remaining genetic diversity of their low numbers

Matt Alan Veach is a retired American mixed martial arts fighter who most competed in the Welterweight division. A professional competitor since 2006, he has competed for the UFC, BAMMA, the MFC, Cage Warriors. Born and raised in Illinois, Veach competed for 12 years, he was a high school state placer, Junior College All-American, a D-1 NCAA qualifier for Eastern Illinois University. Veach made his UFC debut at UFC Fight Night: Lauzon vs. Stephens, facing off against UFC veteran, Matt Grice. After getting knocked down in a brief exchange early in the first round, Veach recovered and dropped Grice, following up with punches on the ground as the referee halted the bout at 4:34 of the first round, giving Matt the win via TKO. At The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights Finale in a fight against Frank Edgar as a replacement for an injured Kurt Pellegrino, Veach made his second appearance in the UFC; the first round was close. However, early in the second round, Edgar caught Veach with an over hand right that stunned him, leaving him open for Edgar to take him to the ground, achieve the back mounted position and sink in a rear naked choke for the win at 2:22 of round two.

This marked the first loss of Veach's professional mixed martial arts career. Veach faced Paul Kelly at UFC 112; the loss was his second straight getting him released from his UFC contract. After being released from the UFC, Veach continued to train with Matt Hughes and Robbie Lawler at The HIT Squad, he won 4 straight fights in different promotions following his UFC release. In February 2011, Veach signed with the Canadian promotion, MFC, his debut came at the main card of MFC 28 against Drew Fickett. Veach took the fight with only five days notice, stepping in for the MFC lightweight champion, Antonio McKee, he lost the fight via submission in the first round. Veach faced off against'Judo' Jim Wallhead in the main event of BAMMA 12 in Newcastle, England on March 9th, 2013, he lost the fight via submission in the first round. Professional MMA record for Matt Veach from Sherdog Matt Veach at UFC