As a part of Cultural Understanding and Language Proficiency Program, U.S. Army ROTC cadets visit Ukraine and Rapid Trident 2012, which was held at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center in Yavoriv, Ukraine, July 18. Rapid Trident is a multinational exercise held at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center in Yavoriv, Ukraine. It is designed to promote regional stability and security, strengthen international military partnering and foster trust while improving interoperability between participating nations.(Photo by Lt. Col. Taras Gren, Ukrainian Army Public Affairs)

By George Baron; Richmond Publishing Co., Slough, 1999; 92 p.; Excellent short introduction into lichenology: anatomy, morphology, physiology, reproduction and dispersal, ecology, classification

The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) as well as CTAM, the industry marketing organization, today announced a multi-layered partnership designed to strengthen innovation and collaboration within the organizations’ collective content protection efforts.

 

Derek N. Benner, Executive Associate Director for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement which oversees the IPR Center, and Karyn Temple, Senior Executive Vice President and Global General Counsel for the MPA, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) during a virtual ceremony to commemorate the partnership.

The exhibition Understanding AI shows how neural networks are structured and offers visitors the opportunity to train neural networks themselveswith via interactive stations.

 

Credit: Ars Electronica / Robert Bauernhansl

Another name for linear hydraulic motor, hydraulic cylinder is a motor used to perform mechanical tasks in engineering and construction works. It is used to deliver unidirectional force using pressurized stroke of fluids and has many applications in manufacturing machinery .Please visit our website for more details www.deltasteeltech.com/serv/serv.php

Spartan Soldier:

 

"Understanding types of artwork is simple, they say if it hangs on a wall it's a painting,

and if it casts a shadow and you can walk around it then it's a sculpture; however understanding the definition of artwork and why it can provoke thought or emotion may be more complex.." ~Tomitheos

 

Copyright © 2011 Tomitheos Photography - All Rights Reserved

 

The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) as well as CTAM, the industry marketing organization, today announced a multi-layered partnership designed to strengthen innovation and collaboration within the organizations’ collective content protection efforts.

 

Derek N. Benner, Executive Associate Director for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement which oversees the IPR Center, and Karyn Temple, Senior Executive Vice President and Global General Counsel for the MPA, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) during a virtual ceremony to commemorate the partnership.

Worthing Aquatics, Manor Nursery, Angmering, West Sussex.

 

And a skin that had just been shed by the stripey male snake (Candycane). The lighter coloured snake is a Buttermilk (or Caramel).

 

From Wikipedia -

 

The Corn Snake (Pantherophis guttatus), or Red Rat Snake, is a North American species of Rat Snake that subdues its small prey by constriction. The name "Corn Snake" is a holdover from the days when southern farmers stored harvested ears of corn in a wood frame or log building called a crib. Rats and mice came to the corn crib to feed on the corn, and Corn Snakes came to feed on the rodents. The Oxford English Dictionary cites this usage as far back as 1676. Corn Snakes are found throughout the southeastern and central United States. Their docile nature, reluctance to bite, moderate adult size 3.9–5.9 feet (1.2–1.8 m), attractive pattern, and comparatively simple care make them popular pet snakes. In the wild, they usually live around 6–8 years, but in captivity can live to be up to 23 years old.

 

Wild Corn Snakes prefer habitats such as overgrown fields, forest openings, trees, palmetto flatwoods and abandoned or seldom-used buildings and farms, from sea level to as high as 6,000 feet. Typically, these snakes remain on the ground, but can ascend trees, cliffs and other elevated surfaces. They can be found in the southeastern United States ranging from New Jersey to the Florida keys and as far west as Texas.

 

In colder regions, snakes hibernate during winter. However, in the more temperate climate along the coast they shelter in rock crevices and logs during cold weather, and come out on warm days to soak up the heat of the sun, a process known as brumation. During cold weather, snakes are less active and therefore hunt less.

 

Corn Snakes have a diet primarily consisting of rodents, mostly mice and rats. Prey is killed by constriction. They are proficient climbers and may scale trees in search of birds and bats although they prefer to be on ground level. As litters of infant mice are difficult to find in nature, many neonate Corn Snakes are known to eat small lizards as their first meals, and anoles are the preferred choice. Some individuals retain these dietary tendencies well into adulthood.

Captive Corn Snakes are usually fed by their owners on a diet of commercially available rodents, predominantly mice, while younger and smaller specimens may eat live or dead rat or mouse pups of various sizes. Frozen "pinkies" (baby mice) that have been warmed in hot tap water for 10-15 minutes are ideal for baby corn snakes. As the snake grows, the size of the prey grows.

 

After many generations of selective breeding, domesticated Corn Snakes are found in a wide variety of different colors and patterns. These result from recombining the dominant and recessive genes that code for proteins involved in chromatophore development, maintenance, or function. New variations, or morphs, become available every year as breeders gain a better understanding of the genetics involved.

 

This is an albino Caramel Corn Snake.

 

Caramel Corn Snakes are another Rich Zuchowski engineered Corn Snake. The background is varying shades of yellow to yellow-brown. Dorsal saddle marks vary from caramel yellow to brown, and chocolate brown.

 

The other snake behind it, is a male albino Candycane. These are amelanistic Corn Snakes bred toward the ideal of red saddle marks on a white background. Some were produced using light creamsicle (emory/albino corn hybrids x corn) bred with Miami phase Corn Snakes. Most candy canes develop orange coloration around the neck region as they mature and many labeled as candycanes later develop significant amounts of yellow or orange in the ground color. The contrast they have as hatchlings often fades with maturity.

The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) as well as CTAM, the industry marketing organization, today announced a multi-layered partnership designed to strengthen innovation and collaboration within the organizations’ collective content protection efforts.

 

Derek N. Benner, Executive Associate Director for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement which oversees the IPR Center, and Karyn Temple, Senior Executive Vice President and Global General Counsel for the MPA, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) during a virtual ceremony to commemorate the partnership.

The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) as well as CTAM, the industry marketing organization, today announced a multi-layered partnership designed to strengthen innovation and collaboration within the organizations’ collective content protection efforts.

 

Derek N. Benner, Executive Associate Director for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement which oversees the IPR Center, and Karyn Temple, Senior Executive Vice President and Global General Counsel for the MPA, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) during a virtual ceremony to commemorate the partnership.

PI: Jack Wells, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

 

The electronic charge density of a lithium oxide (Li2O) nanoparticle consists of 1500 atoms obtained from Density Functional Theory simulation.

 

Credit: Kah Chun Lau, Aaron Knoll, and Larry A. Curtiss, Argonne National Laboratory.

 

This research used resources of the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility at Argonne National Laboratory.

   

Social transformation due to artificial intelligence is already in full swing. In order to get our bearings with it, we need a basic understanding of this technology. Understanding AI presents the most important technical aspects of artificial intelligence as well as concrete examples of how they are used. Here visitors can discover how machines and their sensors “perceive” the world in comparison to humans, what machine learning is, or how automatic facial recognition works, among other things. They can also learn about various social and ethical issues such as deep fakes (deceptively genuine-seeming pictures or videos made automatically using neural networks), the effects of using digital methods for profiling, and the hidden side of our everyday electronic devices such as smartphones.

 

Photo: Ars Electronica - Robert Bauernhansl

"Understanding Personal Data Security" covers four areas necessary for proper data security: Backups, strong passwords, centralized data (via NAS), and anti-malware software.

 

You can learn more about this $4.99 Kindle book at amzn.to/ZGfnBD.

 

Words to compliment the photos: middleclasstech.wordpress.com/

How to guide today's youth related to friendship, dating and entering into sexual relationship before getting married or understanding their partner?

 

To know more please click on:

 

English: www.dadabhagwan.org/books-media/videos/english/dating+and...

Leipziger Buchmesse 2016 / Leipzig Book Fair 2016

2016-03-19 (Saturday)

 

2016_048

2016#263

 

Moka (Nicole) 681398 as Princess Zelda [Hyrule Warriors] from The Legend of Zelda

Majinchris (___) 158623 as Ganondorf [Hyrule Warriors] from The Legend of Zelda

 

Thank you for any group invites which I'd be glad to accept. However, if I can't check the content of such groups ("This group is not available to you") I'd rather not add any of my photos. Thanks for your understanding.

Fish, any of approximately 34,000 species of vertebrate animals (phylum Chordata) found in the fresh and salt waters of the world. Living species range from the primitive jawless lampreys and hagfishes through the cartilaginous sharks, skates, and rays to the abundant and diverse bony fishes. Most fish species are cold-blooded; however, one species, the opah (Lampris guttatus), is warm-blooded.

 

The term fish is applied to a variety of vertebrates of several evolutionary lines. It describes a life-form rather than a taxonomic group. As members of the phylum Chordata, fish share certain features with other vertebrates. These features are gill slits at some point in the life cycle, a notochord, or skeletal supporting rod, a dorsal hollow nerve cord, and a tail. Living fishes represent some five classes, which are as distinct from one another as are the four classes of familiar air-breathing animals—amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. For example, the jawless fishes (Agnatha) have gills in pouches and lack limb girdles. Extant agnathans are the lampreys and the hagfishes. As the name implies, the skeletons of fishes of the class Chondrichthyes (from chondr, “cartilage,” and ichthyes, “fish”) are made entirely of cartilage. Modern fish of this class lack a swim bladder, and their scales and teeth are made up of the same placoid material. Sharks, skates, and rays are examples of cartilaginous fishes. The bony fishes are by far the largest class. Examples range from the tiny seahorse to the 450-kg (1,000-pound) blue marlin, from the flattened soles and flounders to the boxy puffers and ocean sunfishes. Unlike the scales of the cartilaginous fishes, those of bony fishes, when present, grow throughout life and are made up of thin overlapping plates of bone. Bony fishes also have an operculum that covers the gill slits.

 

The study of fishes, the science of ichthyology, is of broad importance. Fishes are of interest to humans for many reasons, the most important being their relationship with and dependence on the environment. A more obvious reason for interest in fishes is their role as a moderate but important part of the world’s food supply. This resource, once thought unlimited, is now realized to be finite and in delicate balance with the biological, chemical, and physical factors of the aquatic environment. Overfishing, pollution, and alteration of the environment are the chief enemies of proper fisheries management, both in fresh waters and in the ocean. (For a detailed discussion of the technology and economics of fisheries, see commercial fishing.) Another practical reason for studying fishes is their use in disease control. As predators on mosquito larvae, they help curb malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases.

 

Fishes are valuable laboratory animals in many aspects of medical and biological research. For example, the readiness of many fishes to acclimate to captivity has allowed biologists to study behaviour, physiology, and even ecology under relatively natural conditions. Fishes have been especially important in the study of animal behaviour, where research on fishes has provided a broad base for the understanding of the more flexible behaviour of the higher vertebrates. The zebra fish is used as a model in studies of gene expression.

 

There are aesthetic and recreational reasons for an interest in fishes. Millions of people keep live fishes in home aquariums for the simple pleasure of observing the beauty and behaviour of animals otherwise unfamiliar to them. Aquarium fishes provide a personal challenge to many aquarists, allowing them to test their ability to keep a small section of the natural environment in their homes. Sportfishing is another way of enjoying the natural environment, also indulged in by millions of people every year. Interest in aquarium fishes and sportfishing supports multimillion-dollar industries throughout the world.

 

Fishes have been in existence for more than 450 million years, during which time they have evolved repeatedly to fit into almost every conceivable type of aquatic habitat. In a sense, land vertebrates are simply highly modified fishes: when fishes colonized the land habitat, they became tetrapod (four-legged) land vertebrates. The popular conception of a fish as a slippery, streamlined aquatic animal that possesses fins and breathes by gills applies to many fishes, but far more fishes deviate from that conception than conform to it. For example, the body is elongate in many forms and greatly shortened in others; the body is flattened in some (principally in bottom-dwelling fishes) and laterally compressed in many others; the fins may be elaborately extended, forming intricate shapes, or they may be reduced or even lost; and the positions of the mouth, eyes, nostrils, and gill openings vary widely. Air breathers have appeared in several evolutionary lines.

 

Many fishes are cryptically coloured and shaped, closely matching their respective environments; others are among the most brilliantly coloured of all organisms, with a wide range of hues, often of striking intensity, on a single individual. The brilliance of pigments may be enhanced by the surface structure of the fish, so that it almost seems to glow. A number of unrelated fishes have actual light-producing organs. Many fishes are able to alter their coloration—some for the purpose of camouflage, others for the enhancement of behavioral signals.

 

Fishes range in adult length from less than 10 mm (0.4 inch) to more than 20 metres (60 feet) and in weight from about 1.5 grams (less than 0.06 ounce) to many thousands of kilograms. Some live in shallow thermal springs at temperatures slightly above 42 °C (100 °F), others in cold Arctic seas a few degrees below 0 °C (32 °F) or in cold deep waters more than 4,000 metres (13,100 feet) beneath the ocean surface. The structural and, especially, the physiological adaptations for life at such extremes are relatively poorly known and provide the scientifically curious with great incentive for study.

 

Almost all natural bodies of water bear fish life, the exceptions being very hot thermal ponds and extremely salt-alkaline lakes, such as the Dead Sea in Asia and the Great Salt Lake in North America. The present distribution of fishes is a result of the geological history and development of Earth as well as the ability of fishes to undergo evolutionary change and to adapt to the available habitats. Fishes may be seen to be distributed according to habitat and according to geographical area. Major habitat differences are marine and freshwater. For the most part, the fishes in a marine habitat differ from those in a freshwater habitat, even in adjacent areas, but some, such as the salmon, migrate from one to the other. The freshwater habitats may be seen to be of many kinds. Fishes found in mountain torrents, Arctic lakes, tropical lakes, temperate streams, and tropical rivers will all differ from each other, both in obvious gross structure and in physiological attributes. Even in closely adjacent habitats where, for example, a tropical mountain torrent enters a lowland stream, the fish fauna will differ. The marine habitats can be divided into deep ocean floors (benthic), mid-water oceanic (bathypelagic), surface oceanic (pelagic), rocky coast, sandy coast, muddy shores, bays, estuaries, and others. Also, for example, rocky coastal shores in tropical and temperate regions will have different fish faunas, even when such habitats occur along the same coastline.

 

Although much is known about the present geographical distribution of fishes, far less is known about how that distribution came about. Many parts of the fish fauna of the fresh waters of North America and Eurasia are related and undoubtedly have a common origin. The faunas of Africa and South America are related, extremely old, and probably an expression of the drifting apart of the two continents. The fauna of southern Asia is related to that of Central Asia, and some of it appears to have entered Africa. The extremely large shore-fish faunas of the Indian and tropical Pacific oceans comprise a related complex, but the tropical shore fauna of the Atlantic, although containing Indo-Pacific components, is relatively limited and probably younger. The Arctic and Antarctic marine faunas are quite different from each other. The shore fauna of the North Pacific is quite distinct, and that of the North Atlantic more limited and probably younger. Pelagic oceanic fishes, especially those in deep waters, are similar the world over, showing little geographical isolation in terms of family groups. The deep oceanic habitat is very much the same throughout the world, but species differences do exist, showing geographical areas determined by oceanic currents and water masses.

 

All aspects of the life of a fish are closely correlated with adaptation to the total environment, physical, chemical, and biological. In studies, all the interdependent aspects of fish, such as behaviour, locomotion, reproduction, and physical and physiological characteristics, must be taken into account.

 

Correlated with their adaptation to an extremely wide variety of habitats is the extremely wide variety of life cycles that fishes display. The great majority hatch from relatively small eggs a few days to several weeks or more after the eggs are scattered in the water. Newly hatched young are still partially undeveloped and are called larvae until body structures such as fins, skeleton, and some organs are fully formed. Larval life is often very short, usually less than a few weeks, but it can be very long, some lampreys continuing as larvae for at least five years. Young and larval fishes, before reaching sexual maturity, must grow considerably, and their small size and other factors often dictate that they live in a habitat different than that of the adults. For example, most tropical marine shore fishes have pelagic larvae. Larval food also is different, and larval fishes often live in shallow waters, where they may be less exposed to predators.

 

After a fish reaches adult size, the length of its life is subject to many factors, such as innate rates of aging, predation pressure, and the nature of the local climate. The longevity of a species in the protected environment of an aquarium may have nothing to do with how long members of that species live in the wild. Many small fishes live only one to three years at the most. In some species, however, individuals may live as long as 10 or 20 or even 100 years.

 

Fish behaviour is a complicated and varied subject. As in almost all animals with a central nervous system, the nature of a response of an individual fish to stimuli from its environment depends upon the inherited characteristics of its nervous system, on what it has learned from past experience, and on the nature of the stimuli. Compared with the variety of human responses, however, that of a fish is stereotyped, not subject to much modification by “thought” or learning, and investigators must guard against anthropomorphic interpretations of fish behaviour.

 

Fishes perceive the world around them by the usual senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste and by special lateral line water-current detectors. In the few fishes that generate electric fields, a process that might best be called electrolocation aids in perception. One or another of these senses often is emphasized at the expense of others, depending upon the fish’s other adaptations. In fishes with large eyes, the sense of smell may be reduced; others, with small eyes, hunt and feed primarily by smell (such as some eels).

 

Specialized behaviour is primarily concerned with the three most important activities in the fish’s life: feeding, reproduction, and escape from enemies. Schooling behaviour of sardines on the high seas, for instance, is largely a protective device to avoid enemies, but it is also associated with and modified by their breeding and feeding requirements. Predatory fishes are often solitary, lying in wait to dart suddenly after their prey, a kind of locomotion impossible for beaked parrot fishes, which feed on coral, swimming in small groups from one coral head to the next. In addition, some predatory fishes that inhabit pelagic environments, such as tunas, often school.

 

Sleep in fishes, all of which lack true eyelids, consists of a seemingly listless state in which the fish maintains its balance but moves slowly. If attacked or disturbed, most can dart away. A few kinds of fishes lie on the bottom to sleep. Most catfishes, some loaches, and some eels and electric fishes are strictly nocturnal, being active and hunting for food during the night and retiring during the day to holes, thick vegetation, or other protective parts of the environment.

 

Communication between members of a species or between members of two or more species often is extremely important, especially in breeding behaviour (see below Reproduction). The mode of communication may be visual, as between the small so-called cleaner fish and a large fish of a very different species. The larger fish often allows the cleaner to enter its mouth to remove gill parasites. The cleaner is recognized by its distinctive colour and actions and therefore is not eaten, even if the larger fish is normally a predator. Communication is often chemical, signals being sent by specific chemicals called pheromones.

 

Many fishes have a streamlined body and swim freely in open water. Fish locomotion is closely correlated with habitat and ecological niche (the general position of the animal to its environment).

 

Many fishes in both marine and fresh waters swim at the surface and have mouths adapted to feed best (and sometimes only) at the surface. Often such fishes are long and slender, able to dart at surface insects or at other surface fishes and in turn to dart away from predators; needlefishes, halfbeaks, and topminnows (such as killifish and mosquito fish) are good examples. Oceanic flying fishes escape their predators by gathering speed above the water surface, with the lower lobe of the tail providing thrust in the water. They then glide hundreds of yards on enlarged, winglike pectoral and pelvic fins. South American freshwater flying fishes escape their enemies by jumping and propelling their strongly keeled bodies out of the water.

 

So-called mid-water swimmers, the most common type of fish, are of many kinds and live in many habitats. The powerful fusiform tunas and the trouts, for example, are adapted for strong, fast swimming, the tunas to capture prey speedily in the open ocean and the trouts to cope with the swift currents of streams and rivers. The trout body form is well adapted to many habitats. Fishes that live in relatively quiet waters such as bays or lake shores or slow rivers usually are not strong, fast swimmers but are capable of short, quick bursts of speed to escape a predator. Many of these fishes have their sides flattened, examples being the sunfish and the freshwater angelfish of aquarists. Fish associated with the bottom or substrate usually are slow swimmers. Open-water plankton-feeding fishes almost always remain fusiform and are capable of rapid, strong movement (for example, sardines and herrings of the open ocean and also many small minnows of streams and lakes).

 

Bottom-living fishes are of many kinds and have undergone many types of modification of their body shape and swimming habits. Rays, which evolved from strong-swimming mid-water sharks, usually stay close to the bottom and move by undulating their large pectoral fins. Flounders live in a similar habitat and move over the bottom by undulating the entire body. Many bottom fishes dart from place to place, resting on the bottom between movements, a motion common in gobies. One goby relative, the mudskipper, has taken to living at the edge of pools along the shore of muddy mangrove swamps. It escapes its enemies by flipping rapidly over the mud, out of the water. Some catfishes, synbranchid eels, the so-called climbing perch, and a few other fishes venture out over damp ground to find more promising waters than those that they left. They move by wriggling their bodies, sometimes using strong pectoral fins; most have accessory air-breathing organs. Many bottom-dwelling fishes live in mud holes or rocky crevices. Marine eels and gobies commonly are found in such habitats and for the most part venture far beyond their cavelike homes. Some bottom dwellers, such as the clingfishes (Gobiesocidae), have developed powerful adhesive disks that enable them to remain in place on the substrate in areas such as rocky coasts, where the action of the waves is great.

 

The methods of reproduction in fishes are varied, but most fishes lay a large number of small eggs, fertilized and scattered outside of the body. The eggs of pelagic fishes usually remain suspended in the open water. Many shore and freshwater fishes lay eggs on the bottom or among plants. Some have adhesive eggs. The mortality of the young and especially of the eggs is very high, and often only a few individuals grow to maturity out of hundreds, thousands, and in some cases millions of eggs laid.

 

Males produce sperm, usually as a milky white substance called milt, in two (sometimes one) testes within the body cavity. In bony fishes a sperm duct leads from each testis to a urogenital opening behind the vent or anus. In sharks and rays and in cyclostomes the duct leads to a cloaca. Sometimes the pelvic fins are modified to help transmit the milt to the eggs at the female’s vent or on the substrate where the female has placed them. Sometimes accessory organs are used to fertilize females internally—for example, the claspers of many sharks and rays.

 

In the females the eggs are formed in two ovaries (sometimes only one) and pass through the ovaries to the urogenital opening and to the outside. In some fishes the eggs are fertilized internally but are shed before development takes place. Members of about a dozen families each of bony fishes (teleosts) and sharks bear live young. Many skates and rays also bear live young. In some bony fishes the eggs simply develop within the female, the young emerging when the eggs hatch (ovoviviparous). Others develop within the ovary and are nourished by ovarian tissues after hatching (viviparous). There are also other methods utilized by fishes to nourish young within the female. In all live-bearers the young are born at a relatively large size and are few in number. In one family of primarily marine fishes, the surfperches from the Pacific coast of North America, Japan, and Korea, the males of at least one species are born sexually mature, although they are not fully grown.

 

Some fishes are hermaphroditic—an individual producing both sperm and eggs, usually at different stages of its life. Self-fertilization, however, is probably rare.

 

Successful reproduction and, in many cases, defense of the eggs and the young are assured by rather stereotypical but often elaborate courtship and parental behaviour, either by the male or the female or both. Some fishes prepare nests by hollowing out depressions in the sand bottom (cichlids, for example), build nests with plant materials and sticky threads excreted by the kidneys (sticklebacks), or blow a cluster of mucus-covered bubbles at the water surface (gouramis). The eggs are laid in these structures. Some varieties of cichlids and catfishes incubate eggs in their mouths.

 

Some fishes, such as salmon, undergo long migrations from the ocean and up large rivers to spawn in the gravel beds where they themselves hatched (anadromous fishes). Some, such as the freshwater eels (family Anguillidae), live and grow to maturity in fresh water and migrate to the sea to spawn (catadromous fishes). Other fishes undertake shorter migrations from lakes into streams, within the ocean, or enter spawning habitats that they do not ordinarily occupy in other ways.

 

The basic structure and function of the fish body are similar to those of all other vertebrates. The usual four types of tissues are present: surface or epithelial, connective (bone, cartilage, and fibrous tissues, as well as their derivative, blood), nerve, and muscle tissues. In addition, the fish’s organs and organ systems parallel those of other vertebrates.

 

The typical fish body is streamlined and spindle-shaped, with an anterior head, a gill apparatus, and a heart, the latter lying in the midline just below the gill chamber. The body cavity, containing the vital organs, is situated behind the head in the lower anterior part of the body. The anus usually marks the posterior termination of the body cavity and most often occurs just in front of the base of the anal fin. The spinal cord and vertebral column continue from the posterior part of the head to the base of the tail fin, passing dorsal to the body cavity and through the caudal (tail) region behind the body cavity. Most of the body is of muscular tissue, a high proportion of which is necessitated by swimming. In the course of evolution this basic body plan has been modified repeatedly into the many varieties of fish shapes that exist today.

 

The skeleton forms an integral part of the fish’s locomotion system, as well as serving to protect vital parts. The internal skeleton consists of the skull bones (except for the roofing bones of the head, which are really part of the external skeleton), the vertebral column, and the fin supports (fin rays). The fin supports are derived from the external skeleton but will be treated here because of their close functional relationship to the internal skeleton. The internal skeleton of cyclostomes, sharks, and rays is of cartilage; that of many fossil groups and some primitive living fishes is mostly of cartilage but may include some bone. In place of the vertebral column, the earliest vertebrates had a fully developed notochord, a flexible stiff rod of viscous cells surrounded by a strong fibrous sheath. During the evolution of modern fishes the rod was replaced in part by cartilage and then by ossified cartilage. Sharks and rays retain a cartilaginous vertebral column; bony fishes have spool-shaped vertebrae that in the more primitive living forms only partially replace the notochord. The skull, including the gill arches and jaws of bony fishes, is fully, or at least partially, ossified. That of sharks and rays remains cartilaginous, at times partially replaced by calcium deposits but never by true bone.

 

The supportive elements of the fins (basal or radial bones or both) have changed greatly during fish evolution. Some of these changes are described in the section below (Evolution and paleontology). Most fishes possess a single dorsal fin on the midline of the back. Many have two and a few have three dorsal fins. The other fins are the single tail and anal fins and paired pelvic and pectoral fins. A small fin, the adipose fin, with hairlike fin rays, occurs in many of the relatively primitive teleosts (such as trout) on the back near the base of the caudal fin.

 

The skin of a fish must serve many functions. It aids in maintaining the osmotic balance, provides physical protection for the body, is the site of coloration, contains sensory receptors, and, in some fishes, functions in respiration. Mucous glands, which aid in maintaining the water balance and offer protection from bacteria, are extremely numerous in fish skin, especially in cyclostomes and teleosts. Since mucous glands are present in the modern lampreys, it is reasonable to assume that they were present in primitive fishes, such as the ancient Silurian and Devonian agnathans. Protection from abrasion and predation is another function of the fish skin, and dermal (skin) bone arose early in fish evolution in response to this need. It is thought that bone first evolved in skin and only later invaded the cartilaginous areas of the fish’s body, to provide additional support and protection. There is some argument as to which came first, cartilage or bone, and fossil evidence does not settle the question. In any event, dermal bone has played an important part in fish evolution and has different characteristics in different groups of fishes. Several groups are characterized at least in part by the kind of bony scales they possess.

 

Scales have played an important part in the evolution of fishes. Primitive fishes usually had thick bony plates or thick scales in several layers of bone, enamel, and related substances. Modern teleost fishes have scales of bone, which, while still protective, allow much more freedom of motion in the body. A few modern teleosts (some catfishes, sticklebacks, and others) have secondarily acquired bony plates in the skin. Modern and early sharks possessed placoid scales, a relatively primitive type of scale with a toothlike structure, consisting of an outside layer of enamel-like substance (vitrodentine), an inner layer of dentine, and a pulp cavity containing nerves and blood vessels. Primitive bony fishes had thick scales of either the ganoid or the cosmoid type. Cosmoid scales have a hard, enamel-like outer layer, an inner layer of cosmine (a form of dentine), and then a layer of vascular bone (isopedine). In ganoid scales the hard outer layer is different chemically and is called ganoin. Under this is a cosminelike layer and then a vascular bony layer. The thin, translucent bony scales of modern fishes, called cycloid and ctenoid (the latter distinguished by serrations at the edges), lack enameloid and dentine layers.

 

Skin has several other functions in fishes. It is well supplied with nerve endings and presumably receives tactile, thermal, and pain stimuli. Skin is also well supplied with blood vessels. Some fishes breathe in part through the skin, by the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the surrounding water and numerous small blood vessels near the skin surface.

 

Skin serves as protection through the control of coloration. Fishes exhibit an almost limitless range of colours. The colours often blend closely with the surroundings, effectively hiding the animal. Many fishes use bright colours for territorial advertisement or as recognition marks for other members of their own species, or sometimes for members of other species. Many fishes can change their colour to a greater or lesser degree, by movement of pigment within the pigment cells (chromatophores). Black pigment cells (melanophores), of almost universal occurrence in fishes, are often juxtaposed with other pigment cells. When placed beneath iridocytes or leucophores (bearing the silvery or white pigment guanine), melanophores produce structural colours of blue and green. These colours are often extremely intense, because they are formed by refraction of light through the needlelike crystals of guanine. The blue and green refracted colours are often relatively pure, lacking the red and yellow rays, which have been absorbed by the black pigment (melanin) of the melanophores. Yellow, orange, and red colours are produced by erythrophores, cells containing the appropriate carotenoid pigments. Other colours are produced by combinations of melanophores, erythrophores, and iridocytes.

 

The major portion of the body of most fishes consists of muscles. Most of the mass is trunk musculature, the fin muscles usually being relatively small. The caudal fin is usually the most powerful fin, being moved by the trunk musculature. The body musculature is usually arranged in rows of chevron-shaped segments on each side. Contractions of these segments, each attached to adjacent vertebrae and vertebral processes, bends the body on the vertebral joint, producing successive undulations of the body, passing from the head to the tail, and producing driving strokes of the tail. It is the latter that provides the strong forward movement for most fishes.

 

The digestive system, in a functional sense, starts at the mouth, with the teeth used to capture prey or collect plant foods. Mouth shape and tooth structure vary greatly in fishes, depending on the kind of food normally eaten. Most fishes are predacious, feeding on small invertebrates or other fishes and have simple conical teeth on the jaws, on at least some of the bones of the roof of the mouth, and on special gill arch structures just in front of the esophagus. The latter are throat teeth. Most predacious fishes swallow their prey whole, and the teeth are used for grasping and holding prey, for orienting prey to be swallowed (head first) and for working the prey toward the esophagus. There are a variety of tooth types in fishes. Some fishes, such as sharks and piranhas, have cutting teeth for biting chunks out of their victims. A shark’s tooth, although superficially like that of a piranha, appears in many respects to be a modified scale, while that of the piranha is like that of other bony fishes, consisting of dentine and enamel. Parrot fishes have beaklike mouths with short incisor-like teeth for breaking off coral and have heavy pavementlike throat teeth for crushing the coral. Some catfishes have small brushlike teeth, arranged in rows on the jaws, for scraping plant and animal growth from rocks. Many fishes (such as the Cyprinidae or minnows) have no jaw teeth at all but have very strong throat teeth.

 

Some fishes gather planktonic food by straining it from their gill cavities with numerous elongate stiff rods (gill rakers) anchored by one end to the gill bars. The food collected on these rods is passed to the throat, where it is swallowed. Most fishes have only short gill rakers that help keep food particles from escaping out the mouth cavity into the gill chamber.

 

Once reaching the throat, food enters a short, often greatly distensible esophagus, a simple tube with a muscular wall leading into a stomach. The stomach varies greatly in fishes, depending upon the diet. In most predacious fishes it is a simple straight or curved tube or pouch with a muscular wall and a glandular lining. Food is largely digested there and leaves the stomach in liquid form.

 

Between the stomach and the intestine, ducts enter the digestive tube from the liver and pancreas. The liver is a large, clearly defined organ. The pancreas may be embedded in it, diffused through it, or broken into small parts spread along some of the intestine. The junction between the stomach and the intestine is marked by a muscular valve. Pyloric ceca (blind sacs) occur in some fishes at this junction and have a digestive or absorptive function or both.

 

The intestine itself is quite variable in length, depending upon the fish’s diet. It is short in predacious forms, sometimes no longer than the body cavity, but long in herbivorous forms, being coiled and several times longer than the entire length of the fish in some species of South American catfishes. The intestine is primarily an organ for absorbing nutrients into the bloodstream. The larger its internal surface, the greater its absorptive efficiency, and a spiral valve is one method of increasing its absorption surface.

 

Sharks, rays, chimaeras, lungfishes, surviving chondrosteans, holosteans, and even a few of the more primitive teleosts have a spiral valve or at least traces of it in the intestine. Most modern teleosts have increased the area of the intestinal walls by having numerous folds and villi (fingerlike projections) somewhat like those in humans. Undigested substances are passed to the exterior through the anus in most teleost fishes. In lungfishes, sharks, and rays, it is first passed through the cloaca, a common cavity receiving the intestinal opening and the ducts from the urogenital system.

 

Oxygen and carbon dioxide dissolve in water, and most fishes exchange dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide in water by means of the gills. The gills lie behind and to the side of the mouth cavity and consist of fleshy filaments supported by the gill arches and filled with blood vessels, which give gills a bright red colour. Water taken in continuously through the mouth passes backward between the gill bars and over the gill filaments, where the exchange of gases takes place. The gills are protected by a gill cover in teleosts and many other fishes but by flaps of skin in sharks, rays, and some of the older fossil fish groups. The blood capillaries in the gill filaments are close to the gill surface to take up oxygen from the water and to give up excess carbon dioxide to the water.

 

Most modern fishes have a hydrostatic (ballast) organ, called the swim bladder, that lies in the body cavity just below the kidney and above the stomach and intestine. It originated as a diverticulum of the digestive canal. In advanced teleosts, especially the acanthopterygians, the bladder has lost its connection with the digestive tract, a condition called physoclistic. The connection has been retained (physostomous) by many relatively primitive teleosts. In several unrelated lines of fishes, the bladder has become specialized as a lung or, at least, as a highly vascularized accessory breathing organ. Some fishes with such accessory organs are obligate air breathers and will drown if denied access to the surface, even in well-oxygenated water. Fishes with a hydrostatic form of swim bladder can control their depth by regulating the amount of gas in the bladder. The gas, mostly oxygen, is secreted into the bladder by special glands, rendering the fish more buoyant; the gas is absorbed into the bloodstream by another special organ, reducing the overall buoyancy and allowing the fish to sink. Some deep-sea fishes may have oils, rather than gas, in the bladder. Other deep-sea and some bottom-living forms have much-reduced swim bladders or have lost the organ entirely.

 

The swim bladder of fishes follows the same developmental pattern as the lungs of land vertebrates. There is no doubt that the two structures have the same historical origin in primitive fishes. More or less intermediate forms still survive among the more primitive types of fishes, such as the lungfishes Lepidosiren and Protopterus.

 

The circulatory, or blood vascular, system consists of the heart, the arteries, the capillaries, and the veins. It is in the capillaries that the interchange of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, and other substances such as hormones and waste products takes place. The capillaries lead to the veins, which return the venous blood with its waste products to the heart, kidneys, and gills. There are two kinds of capillary beds: those in the gills and those in the rest of the body. The heart, a folded continuous muscular tube with three or four saclike enlargements, undergoes rhythmic contractions and receives venous blood in a sinus venosus. It passes the blood to an auricle and then into a thick muscular pump, the ventricle. From the ventricle the blood goes to a bulbous structure at the base of a ventral aorta just below the gills. The blood passes to the afferent (receiving) arteries of the gill arches and then to the gill capillaries. There waste gases are given off to the environment, and oxygen is absorbed. The oxygenated blood enters efferent (exuant) arteries of the gill arches and then flows into the dorsal aorta. From there blood is distributed to the tissues and organs of the body. One-way valves prevent backflow. The circulation of fishes thus differs from that of the reptiles, birds, and mammals in that oxygenated blood is not returned to the heart prior to distribution to the other parts of the body.

 

The primary excretory organ in fishes, as in other vertebrates, is the kidney. In fishes some excretion also takes place in the digestive tract, skin, and especially the gills (where ammonia is given off). Compared with land vertebrates, fishes have a special problem in maintaining their internal environment at a constant concentration of water and dissolved substances, such as salts. Proper balance of the internal environment (homeostasis) of a fish is in a great part maintained by the excretory system, especially the kidney.

 

The kidney, gills, and skin play an important role in maintaining a fish’s internal environment and checking the effects of osmosis. Marine fishes live in an environment in which the water around them has a greater concentration of salts than they can have inside their body and still maintain life. Freshwater fishes, on the other hand, live in water with a much lower concentration of salts than they require inside their bodies. Osmosis tends to promote the loss of water from the body of a marine fish and absorption of water by that of a freshwater fish. Mucus in the skin tends to slow the process but is not a sufficient barrier to prevent the movement of fluids through the permeable skin. When solutions on two sides of a permeable membrane have different concentrations of dissolved substances, water will pass through the membrane into the more concentrated solution, while the dissolved chemicals move into the area of lower concentration (diffusion).

 

The kidney of freshwater fishes is often larger in relation to body weight than that of marine fishes. In both groups the kidney excretes wastes from the body, but the kidney of freshwater fishes also excretes large amounts of water, counteracting the water absorbed through the skin. Freshwater fishes tend to lose salt to the environment and must replace it. They get some salt from their food, but the gills and skin inside the mouth actively absorb salt from water passed through the mouth. This absorption is performed by special cells capable of moving salts against the diffusion gradient. Freshwater fishes drink very little water and take in little water with their food.

 

Marine fishes must conserve water, and therefore their kidneys excrete little water. To maintain their water balance, marine fishes drink large quantities of seawater, retaining most of the water and excreting the salt. Most nitrogenous waste in marine fishes appears to be secreted by the gills as ammonia. Marine fishes can excrete salt by clusters of special cells (chloride cells) in the gills.

 

There are several teleosts—for example, the salmon—that travel between fresh water and seawater and must adjust to the reversal of osmotic gradients. They adjust their physiological processes by spending time (often surprisingly little time) in the intermediate brackish environment.

 

Marine hagfishes, sharks, and rays have osmotic concentrations in their blood about equal to that of seawater and so do not have to drink water nor perform much physiological work to maintain their osmotic balance. In sharks and rays the osmotic concentration is kept high by retention of urea in the blood. Freshwater sharks have a lowered concentration of urea in the blood.

 

Endocrine glands secrete their products into the bloodstream and body tissues and, along with the central nervous system, control and regulate many kinds of body functions. Cyclostomes have a well-developed endocrine system, and presumably it was well developed in the early Agnatha, ancestral to modern fishes. Although the endocrine system in fishes is similar to that of higher vertebrates, there are numerous differences in detail. The pituitary, the thyroid, the suprarenals, the adrenals, the pancreatic islets, the sex glands (ovaries and testes), the inner wall of the intestine, and the bodies of the ultimobranchial gland make up the endocrine system in fishes. There are some others whose function is not well understood. These organs regulate sexual activity and reproduction, growth, osmotic pressure, general metabolic activities such as the storage of fat and the utilization of foodstuffs, blood pressure, and certain aspects of skin colour. Many of these activities are also controlled in part by the central nervous system, which works with the endocrine system in maintaining the life of a fish. Some parts of the endocrine system are developmentally, and undoubtedly evolutionarily, derived from the nervous system.

 

As in all vertebrates, the nervous system of fishes is the primary mechanism coordinating body activities, as well as integrating these activities in the appropriate manner with stimuli from the environment. The central nervous system, consisting of the brain and spinal cord, is the primary integrating mechanism. The peripheral nervous system, consisting of nerves that connect the brain and spinal cord to various body organs, carries sensory information from special receptor organs such as the eyes, internal ears, nares (sense of smell), taste glands, and others to the integrating centres of the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system also carries information via different nerve cells from the integrating centres of the brain and spinal cord. This coded information is carried to the various organs and body systems, such as the skeletal muscular system, for appropriate action in response to the original external or internal stimulus. Another branch of the nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, helps to coordinate the activities of many glands and organs and is itself closely connected to the integrating centres of the brain.

 

The brain of the fish is divided into several anatomical and functional parts, all closely interconnected but each serving as the primary centre of integrating particular kinds of responses and activities. Several of these centres or parts are primarily associated with one type of sensory perception, such as sight, hearing, or smell (olfaction).

 

The sense of smell is important in almost all fishes. Certain eels with tiny eyes depend mostly on smell for location of food. The olfactory, or nasal, organ of fishes is located on the dorsal surface of the snout. The lining of the nasal organ has special sensory cells that perceive chemicals dissolved in the water, such as substances from food material, and send sensory information to the brain by way of the first cranial nerve. Odour also serves as an alarm system. Many fishes, especially various species of freshwater minnows, react with alarm to a chemical released from the skin of an injured member of their own species.

 

Many fishes have a well-developed sense of taste, and tiny pitlike taste buds or organs are located not only within their mouth cavities but also over their heads and parts of their body. Catfishes, which often have poor vision, have barbels (“whiskers”) that serve as supplementary taste organs, those around the mouth being actively used to search out food on the bottom. Some species of naturally blind cave fishes are especially well supplied with taste buds, which often cover most of their body surface.

 

Sight is extremely important in most fishes. The eye of a fish is basically like that of all other vertebrates, but the eyes of fishes are extremely varied in structure and adaptation. In general, fishes living in dark and dim water habitats have large eyes, unless they have specialized in some compensatory way so that another sense (such as smell) is dominant, in which case the eyes will often be reduced. Fishes living in brightly lighted shallow waters often will have relatively small but efficient eyes. Cyclostomes have somewhat less elaborate eyes than other fishes, with skin stretched over the eyeball perhaps making their vision somewhat less effective. Most fishes have a spherical lens and accommodate their vision to far or near subjects by moving the lens within the eyeball. A few sharks accommodate by changing the shape of the lens, as in land vertebrates. Those fishes that are heavily dependent upon the eyes have especially strong muscles for accommodation. Most fishes see well, despite the restrictions imposed by frequent turbidity of the water and by light refraction.

 

Fossil evidence suggests that colour vision evolved in fishes more than 300 million years ago, but not all living fishes have retained this ability. Experimental evidence indicates that many shallow-water fishes, if not all, have colour vision and see some colours especially well, but some bottom-dwelling shore fishes live in areas where the water is sufficiently deep to filter out most if not all colours, and these fishes apparently never see colours. When tested in shallow water, they apparently are unable to respond to colour differences.

 

Sound perception and balance are intimately associated senses in a fish. The organs of hearing are entirely internal, located within the skull, on each side of the brain and somewhat behind the eyes. Sound waves, especially those of low frequencies, travel readily through water and impinge directly upon the bones and fluids of the head and body, to be transmitted to the hearing organs. Fishes readily respond to sound; for example, a trout conditioned to escape by the approach of fishermen will take flight upon perceiving footsteps on a stream bank even if it cannot see a fisherman. Compared with humans, however, the range of sound frequencies heard by fishes is greatly restricted. Many fishes communicate with each other by producing sounds in their swim bladders, in their throats by rasping their teeth, and in other ways.

 

A fish or other vertebrate seldom has to rely on a single type of sensory information to determine the nature of the environment around it. A catfish uses taste and touch when examining a food object with its oral barbels. Like most other animals, fishes have many touch receptors over their body surface. Pain and temperature receptors also are present in fishes and presumably produce the same kind of information to a fish as to humans. Fishes react in a negative fashion to stimuli that would be painful to human beings, suggesting that they feel a sensation of pain.

 

An important sensory system in fishes that is absent in other vertebrates (except some amphibians) is the lateral line system. This consists of a series of heavily innervated small canals located in the skin and bone around the eyes, along the lower jaw, over the head, and down the mid-side of the body, where it is associated with the scales. Intermittently along these canals are located tiny sensory organs (pit organs) that apparently detect changes in pressure. The system allows a fish to sense changes in water currents and pressure, thereby helping the fish to orient itself to the various changes that occur in the physical environment.

  

Viollet-le-Duc was the first architect since the Middle Ages to reach a profound understanding of the principles of Gothic construction and he devoted his careful scrutiny to the structure of Notre-Dame. The tall, monolithic and incredibly thin colonettes which support the apse vaults he describes as "splender pins, as strongs as if they were of cast iron, thanks to the quality of the stone employed".

The building dates from the second quarter of the thirteenth century. A rather unusual anecdote related by the Dominican Etienne de Bourbon gives the date of 1240 for near completion. A certain usurer of Dijon, walking beneath the west façade, was killed by the fall of one of the gargoyles. The other usurers of the city clubbed together and obtained the removal of all these dangerous objects, of which the Dominican was an eye-witness. The present gargoyles were placed in the façade only in 1881. They are none of them gargoyles in the proper sense of the word, for they play no part in the water drainage system. They form the most striking and original feature of the church, for the west front takes the unusual form of a vast screen of masonry.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Boston Police Commissioner Edward David sign a Memorandum of Understanding to increase cooperation aimed at building foreign law enforcement capacity at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on May 13, 2013. The Boston Police Department has a long history of promoting partnerships in both the public and private sectors to reduce violence and strengthen public safety initiatives. Plans for this new partnership predate the marathon bombings in the Secretary's hometown. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

Immaculée Nyirahabimana is a farmer from Cyuve district. The area is one of Rwanda’s most productive agricultural regions. www.ciatnews.cgiar.org/?p=7981

 

Credit: ©2014CIAT/StefanieNeno

Please credit accordingly and leave a comment when you use a CIAT photo.

For more info: ciat-comunicaciones@cgiar.org

My son even sends gifts to the Goldie Twins!!

Immaculée Nyirahabimana is a farmer from Cyuve district. The area is one of Rwanda’s most productive agricultural regions. www.ciatnews.cgiar.org/?p=7981

 

Credit: ©2014CIAT/StephanieMalyon

Please credit accordingly and leave a comment when you use a CIAT photo.

For more info: ciat-comunicaciones@cgiar.org

Leipziger Buchmesse 2015 / Leipzig Book Fair 2015

2015-03-14 (Saturday)

2015_068

2015#189

Vermiljona (___) 254141 as Rasaan from Dragon Age

 

Thank you for any group invites which I'd be glad to accept. However, if I can't check the content of such groups ("This group is not available to you") I'd rather not add any of my photos. Thanks for your understanding.

sw.godfootsteps.org/uncovering-mystery-of-judgment.html

 

3. Kufichua Fumbo la hukumu

Na Enhui, Malasia

Jina langu ni Enhui; nina umri wa miaka 46. Ninaishi Malaysia, nami nimekuwa mwumini katika Bwana kwa miaka 27. Mnamo Oktoba 2015, nilihamia jiji lingine ili kuanza kazi. Wenzangu wageni walikuwa wamejiingiza katika mtandao wa Facebook, walioutumia kwa kuongea, kupata marafiki wapya, na kufanya matangazo. Walipoona kwamba sikuwa na akaunti ya mtandao wa Facebook walinianzishia yangu, na polepole nilijifunza jinsi ya kwenda mtandaoni na kuutumia. Nilipokuwa na wakati, ningetazama matangazo ya baadhi ya ndugu katika Bwana na ningezishiriki na kuzipenda. Mara nyingine ningefanya matangazo kadhaa kuhusu kumsifu Bwana au kushiriki neema ya Bwana pamoja na watu katika kikundi cha rafiki zangu. Kila siku ilikuwa kamilifu kwangu.

Siku moja mnamo Februari 2016 wakati nilipokuwa nikipitia maelezo mafupi ya mmoja wa rafiki zangu wa mtandao wa Facebook, niliona tangazo hili: “Tulijadili suala la hukumu leo katika kikundi chetu. Sote tulisema mambo tofauti lakini tuliakubaliana kuhusu hoja kuu. Mmoja wao alisema: ‘Ikiwa sielewi jambo, siwezi kuthubutu kufoka upuuzi—ni kitu ambacho Mungu atafanya katika siku zijazo na hatupaswi kujaribu kuwa na makisio yasiyowezekana.’ Mtu mwingine alisema: ‘Zaburi 75:2 inasema “Nitakapoupokea mkusanyiko nitahukumu kwa unyofu.” Mungu huzingatia kila kitu ambacho kila mtu hufanya, kwa hivyo Bwana Yesu atakaporejea kuwahukumu wanadamu wote Atafichua matendo yetu kwa watu wote, kama vile kucheza sinema. Kwa hivyo tunapaswa kuwa waaminifu daima katika tabia zetu na hatupaswi kamwe kutenda maovu ili Mungu asituhukumu na kisha Atutupe katika kuzimu.’ Mtu mwingine alisema: ‘Biblia inasema: “Na nikaona kiti kikubwa cha enzi, cheupe, na yeye akiketiye, ambaye kutoka kwa uso wake nchi na mbingu zilitoroka; na hapakupatikana mahali pao. Na nikawaona waliokufa, wakubwa na wadogo, wakiwa wamesimama mbele ya Mungu; na vitabu vilifunguliwa: na kitabu kingine pia kikafunguliwa, ambacho ni kitabu cha uhai: na waliokufa walihukumiwa kwa mambo yale yaliyokuwa yameandikwa katika vitabu hivyo, kulingana na vitendo vyao” (Ufunuo 20:11–12). Kutoka kwa maandiko tunaweza kuona kwamba Bwana Yesu atakaporudi katika siku za mwisho Atatayarisha dawati kubwa mbinguni, Aketi nyuma yake, na kufungua vitabu. Halafu, wanadamu wote wakiwa wamepiga magoti, Ataliita jina la kila mtu na kumhukumu kila mmoja wao kulingana na matendo yake. Watu wazuri watachukuliwa hadi katika ufalme wa mbinguni na Bwana, ilhali waovu watatupwa katika kuzimu.’”

Baada ya kusoma tangazo hili niliendelea kuketi kwenye kiti changu, na kuchora picha akilini ya Bwana Yesu akiwahukumu wanadamu: Bwana akiwa Ameketi kwenye kiti cha enzi, watu wote wakiwa wamepiga magoti mbele ya dawati Lake wakieleza waziwazi kuhusu dhambi zao zote ili Mungu atoe hukumu, na Bwana akipeleka kila mmoja wao mbinguni au kuzimuni kulingana na matendo yake. Nilifikiria jinsi ambavyo nilikuwa mfuasi mwaminifu wa Bwana kwa zaidi ya miaka 20 na nilivyojaribu kadri ya uwezo wangu kutia mafundisho Yake katika vitendo. Niliamini kwamba Bwana angeona uchaji wangu na kunichukua hadi katika ufalme wa mbinguni. Lakini nilipowaza kuhusu jambo hilo zaidi na zaidi, ghafla wazo lilinijia: Sasa kwa kuwa nilijua jinsi ya kutumia Mtandao kwa nini nisifanye utafiti kuhusu “hukumu” kisha nione kitakachojitokeza? Nilifungua kivinjari na kupiga chapa hilo neno; siwezi kukumbuka ni kiunga kipi nilichobofya lakini kwa mshangao wangu, sentensi hii iliibuka: “Kuadibu na Kuhukumu kwa Mungu Ndiko Mwanga wa Wokovu wa Mwanadamu.” Hii ilichochea ari yangu ghafla, na hivyo nikafungua tovuti hiyo ili nisome zaidi. Wakati ukurasa wa tovuti ilipokuwa ikifunguka nilisikia wimbo uliokuwa wa furahisha na wa kuchochea mawazo: “Kuadibu na Kuhukumu kwa Mungu Ndiko Mwanga wa Wokovu wa Mwanadamu.” Maneno ya wimbo yalihusisha: “… Katika maisha yake, kama mwanadamu anatamani kutakaswa na kufikia mabadiliko katika tabia yake, kama anatamani kuishi kwa kudhihirisha maisha yenye maana, na kutimiza wajibu wake kama kiumbe, basi lazima akubali adabu na hukumu ya Mungu, na lazima asiruhusu nidhamu ya Mungu na kipigo cha Mungu kiondoke kwake, ili aweze kujiweka huru kutokana na kutawalwa na ushawishi wa Shetani na kuishi katika mwanga wa Mungu. Ujue kwamba adabu ya Mungu na hukumu ni mwanga, na mwanga wa wokovu wa mwanadamu, na kwamba hakuna baraka bora zaidi, neema au ulinzi bora kwa ajili ya mwanadamu” (Mfuateni Mwanakondoo na Kuimba Nyimbo Mpya).

Nilitafakari maneno hayo baada ya wimbo kuisha; niliuona kuwa wa kusisimua. Nilianza kuwaza: “Je, kuadibu na hukumu ya Mungu ndiyo nuru ya wokovu wetu? Je, ni kinga na neema kuu ya wanadamu? Tunaweza kuelewa jambo hili kwa namna gani? Ikiwa watu wanataka kutakaswa na kuishi maisha yenye maana, hiyo inamaanisha kwamba wanapaswa kukubali kuadibu na hukumu ya Mungu?” Nilipokuwa nikiwaza kuhusu maneno ya wimbo huu, maswali mengi yalizunguka akilini mwangu. Niliwaza pia: “Ikiwa Mungu angemhukumu mwanadamu, mwanadamu asingelaaniwa? Na hukumu inakujaje kuwa nuru ya wokovu?” Nilikuwa na hamu na kusisimka kwa sababu sikuwa nimewahi kusikia jambo kama hili hapo awali. Ingawa hukumu iliyozungumziwa kwenye wimbo haikuwa jinsi nilivyoelewa hukumu kuwa, bado nilikuwa na hisia hii tatanishi kuwa hukumu ina umuhimu wenye kina sana, na inafaa kwa hatima na majaliwa ya kila mtu. Nilipochunguza asili ya wimbo huo niliona kwamba ulitoka kwenye Kanisa la Mwenyezi Mungu, kwa hivo nikaenda kwenye tovuti yao. Niliona kuwa riwaya ya ukurasa wa kwanza haikuwa yenye mawazo mapya na ya kupendeza tu, lakini maudhui pia yalikuwa yenye thamani na yenye tofauti nyingi. Kulikuwa na mambo ya kusikiliza, mambo ya kusoma, nyimbo, majadiliano na mambo mengine mengi. Niliwaza: “Mbona hakuna mtu aliyewahi kuniambia kuhusu tovuti hii? Ni nzuri sana, lakini inawezekana kuwa hakuna mtu aliyeishiriki kwa sababu bado hajaiona?” Nilibofya kiunga cha “Vitabu” na nilipokuwa nikiibingiriza orodha hiyo niliona kichwa hiki: Ushuhuda Wa Uzoefu Katika Kuingia Katika Maisha. Nilipokibofya, niliona kwamba zilikuwa shuhuda hasa kuhusu hukumu ya Mungu, kwa mfano: “Hukumu na Kuadibu kwa Mungu Kuliniokoa,” “Hukumu na Kuadibu kwa Mungu Kulikuwa Wokovu Mkubwa Kwangu,” “Niliona Upendo wa Mungu Katika Hukumu na Kuadibu Kwake,” “Hukumu na Kuadibu kwa Mungu Vilisisimua Moyo Wangu Wenye Dhambi,” “Hukumu ya Mungu na Kuadibu Kuliniweka Kwenye Njia Sahihi.” Ilikuwa inakaribia wakati wangu wa kwenda kazini, kwa hiyo nilikuwa tu na wakati wa kusoma kwa haraka baadhi ya shuhuda hizi. Zote zilikuwa zimeandikwa na waumini waliokuwa wakieleza jinsi tabia zao potovu zilivyotakaswa, na pia kuongea kuhusu upungufu, upotovu, maoni yao yasiyofaa katika imani, nk., na jinsi mambo haya yalivyobadilishwa kwa namna fulani kupitia maneno ya hukumu ya Mwenyezi Mungu. Hii ilinifanya nivutiwe zaidi kuhusu “Kuadibu na Kuhukumu kwa Mungu Ndiko Mwanga wa Wokovu wa Mwanadamu.” Inawezekana kuwa hukumu haikuwa kuhusu kulaaniwa? Kwamba haikuwa kuhusu kuamua hatima wa kila mtu? Nilianza kuwa na wasiwasi sana, nami nilijua ilikuwa ni lazima nifichue “Kuadibu na Kuhukumu kwa Mungu Ndiko Mwanga wa Wokovu wa Mwanadamu” ilikuwa inazungumzia nini. Nilifikia uamuzi kuwa Ushuhuda Wa Uzoefu Katika Kuingia Katika Maisha labda kilikuwa kitabu muhimu sana kwa ajili ya watu katika imani yao, na kwamba ninapaswa kukiangalia vizuri. Lakini wakati ulikuwa unayoyoma, kwa hivyo niliizima kompyuta yangu na kwenda kazini.

Usiku huo nilikuwa nikikugeuka-geuka kitandani, nisiweze kulala; picha za tovuti ya Kanisa la Mwenyezi Mungu ziliendelea kuibuka kichwani mwangu. Hasa sikuweza kuelewa sentensi “Kuadibu na Kuhukumu kwa Mungu Ndiko Mwanga wa Wokovu wa Mwanadamu,” nami nilitaka sana kujua maana ya “hukumu” hiyo.

Niliamka mapema asubuhi iliyofuata, nikafungua tovuti ya Kanisa la Mwenyezi Mungu na kuanza kutafuta neno “hukumu.” Niliona nakala yenye kichwa “Kristo Hufanya Kazi ya Hukumu kwa Ukweli,” niliifungua, na kusoma maneno haya: “‘Hukumu’ katika maneno yaliyonenwa awali—hukumu itaanza na nyumba ya Mungu—inarejelea hukumu ambayo Mungu anatoa leo kwa wale wanaokuja mbele ya kiti Chake cha enzi katika siku za mwisho. Pengine kuna wale wanaoamini katika mawazo ya kimiujiza kama yale, siku za mwisho zitakapowadia, Mungu ataandaa meza kubwa mbinguni, ambako kitambaa cheupe kitatandikwa, kisha, Mungu ataketi kwenye kiti kikuu cha enzi na wanadamu wote wakipiga magoti ardhini, Atafichua dhambi za kila mwanadamu na hivyo kubainisha iwapo atapaa juu mbinguni ama atatupwa chini kwenye ziwa la moto wa jehanamu. Haijalishi mawazo ya mwanadamu yalivyo, kiini cha kazi ya Mungu hakiwezi kubadilishwa. Mawazo ya mwanadamu ni miundo ya fikra za mwanadamu tu na yanatoka kwenye ubongo wa mwanadamu, na yametungwa na kuunganishwa kutokana na mambo aliyoyaona na kuyasikia. Kwa hivyo Nasema, kwa vyovyote vile hata picha zilizowazwa ziwe za hali ya juu kiasi gani, bado ni kama mchoro tu na haziwezi kubadilishwa na mpango wa kazi ya Mungu. Hata hivyo, mwanadamu amepotoshwa na Shetani, sasa atawezaje kuyaelewa mawazo ya Mungu? Mwanadamu huiona kazi ya hukumu ya Mungu kuwa ya ajabu mno. Mwanadamu anaamini kwamba kwa sababu ni Mungu Mwenyewe anayefanya kazi ya kuhukumu, basi lazima iwe ni ya kiwango cha juu zaidi na isiyoeleweka kwa wanadamu wenye mwili wa kufa, na lazima inasikika katika mbingu yote na kutetemesha dunia; vinginevyo itakuwaje kazi ya hukumu ya Mungu? Mwanadamu anaamini kuwa, kwa maana hii ni kazi ya hukumu, basi lazima Mungu ni wa kuvutia na mwenye uadhama Anapofanya kazi, na wale wanaohukumiwa lazima wawe wanalia kwa sauti wakitoa machozi wakiwa kwenye magoti wakiomba msamaha. Onyesho hili lazima ni la kustaajabisha sana na la kusisimua mno.… Kila mtu hudhani kazi ya hukumu ya Mungu kuwa ya ajabu isiyo ya kawaida. Je, unajua, hata hivyo, kwamba Mungu alianza kazi ya kuhukumu miongoni mwa wanadamu kitambo sana na wakati huu wote wewe bado uko katika hali ya kutotambua? Kwamba, wakati ambao unadhani kuwa kazi ya hukumu ya Mungu inaanza rasmi, tayari umewadia wakati ambapo Mungu kuzifanya upya mbingu na nchi? Wakati huo, pengine utakuwa tu umeelewa maana ya maisha, lakini kazi ya adhabu ya Mungu isiyo na huruma itakuleta kuzimu, ukiwa bado usingizini. Hapo tu ndipo kwa ghafla utafahamu kuwa kazi ya hukumu ya Mungu itakuwa imeshahitimika.” Nilishangazwa sana na maneno haya. Yalifichua kwa usahihi mawazo ya ndani kabisa na maoni ya binadamu kuhusu kazi ya hukumu ya Mungu ya siku za mwisho—pia yalikuwa halisi kabisa na yenye manufaa. Nilijiuliza, “Inawezekana kuwa dhana ya hukumu mbinguni ambayo nilikuwa nikishikilia ilikuwa wazo langu tu? Kifungu hiki kinaonyesha kuwa watu hufikiri kazi ya hukumu ya Mungu kuwa ya ajabu na ya miujiza. Inaonyesha pia kwamba kazi ya hukumu ilianza zamani sana na hivi karibuni itahitimishwa, na kinawahimiza watu kutopoteza wakati kutafuta dhihirisho la Mungu. Hiyo inaweza kuwa sauti ya Mungu?” Wazo hilo liliniacha nikiwa na wasiwasi na kwa kweli nilitaka ufafanuzi wa haraka kuhusu maana ya hukumu ya Mungu. Lakini kulikuwa na mambo mengi sana kwenye tovuti ya Kanisa la Mwenyezi Mungu na wakati huo sikujua nianzie wapi kutafuta, kwa hivyo niliamua kuwatafuta washiriki wa kanisa hilo wenyewe na kuona ikiwa wangeweza kunisaidia kuelewa mambo.

Nikitumia mazungumzo mitandaoni kwenye tovuti ya Kanisa la Mwenyezi Mungu, nilituma ujumbe nikiwaambia kuwa nilikuwa na hamu ya kujifunza zaidi kuhusu hukumu. Mtu alinijibu haraka sana, na kuwatambulisha dada wawili kutoka katika Kanisa la Mwenyezi Mungu ambao waliungana nami kwenye mtandao: Liu Hui na Li Mei. Kwa kipindi chote cha kushauriana, niligundua kuwa dada hawa wawili walikuwa na mtazamo ulio wazi na wa uaminifu, na walikuwa waziwazi kabisa; nilitaka kuzungumza nao kuhusu mambo yaliyo moyoni mwangu. Niliwaambia: “Ninapenda sana tovuti ya Kanisa la Mwenyezi Mungu. Kuna kila aina ya vitabu vya kiroho, nyimbo za sifa, video za muziki, sinema za injili, masimulizi ya neno la Mungu, na zaidi. Kwa kweli kuna maudhui mengi, lakini sielewi maana ya hukumu ya Mungu. Nilisoma tu ‘Kristo Hufanya Kazi ya Hukumu kwa Ukweli’ ambayo inaonekana kusema kuwa kazi ya hukumu ya Mungu imekwishaanza na kwamba wazo la hukumu mbinguni ni matokeo tu ya mawazo na fikra za binadamu. Hii ni tofauti kabisa na kuelewa kwangu kwa kawaida kuhusu hukumu. Mnaweza kushiriki nami mnavyofahamu kuhusu jambo hili?”

Dada Liu Hui alijibu: “Asifiwe Mungu! Hebu tutafute na kushiriki pamoja! Nilikuwa nikiwaza hivyo pia, nikiamini kwamba kazi ya Mungu ya hukumu ya siku za mwisho ingetekelezwa juu mbinguni. Lakini baada ya kusoma maneno ya Mwenyezi Mungu na kushiriki na ndugu nilikuja kugundua kuwa kwa kweli hii ilikuwa wazo langu mwenyewe, fikra yangu mwenyewe. Iwapo kazi ya Mungu ya hukumu itafanywa mbinguni au duniani imesemwa waziwazi katika baadhi ya unabii katika Biblia. Kwa mfano, Ufunuo 14:6-7 inasema: ‘Na nikamwona malaika mwingine akiruka katikati ya mbingu, akiwa na injili ya daima kuwahubiria hao wanaoishi katika ulimwengu, na kwa kila taifa, na ukoo, na lugha, na watu, Akisema kwa sauti kuu, Mwogopeni Mungu, na kumpa utukufu; kwa kuwa saa ya hukumu yake imekuja: na mumsujudie yule aliyeziumba mbingu, na ulimwengu, na bahari, na chemchemi za maji.’ Katika Zaburi 96:13 inasema: ‘Kwa kuwa anafika, kwa kuwa anafika kuihukumu dunia: ataihukumu dunia kwa haki, na watu kwa ukweli wake’ Katika Yohana 9:39 inasema: ‘Kwa hukumu nimekuja duniani humu, ili wale wasioona waweze kuona.’ Katika aya hizi za kibiblia inataja ‘akiwa na injili ya daima kuwahubiria hao wanaoishi katika ulimwengu,’ ‘kwa kuwa anafika, kwa kuwa anafika kuihukumu dunia’ na ‘Kwa hukumu nimekuja duniani humu.’ Kutoka kwa hili tunaweza kuona kwamba katika siku za mwisho, lazima Mungu mwenyewe Aje ulimwenguni, naye Atakuja duniani kufanya kazi ya hukumu, kuwahukumu watu wote na mataifa yote. Zaidi ya hayo, kutokana na kusoma Biblia tunajua kuwa kabla ya Mungu kuwaumba wanadamu Aliumba mbingu na ardhi na vitu vyote ili kutayarisha mazingira bora ya kuishi kwa ajili yetu. Kisha Mungu aliwaumba wanadamu na kupanga tuishi duniani, si mbinguni. Kwa hiyo tunawezaje kupanda juu mbinguni? Wanadamu waovu hawana chaguo ila kukubali hukumu ya Mungu hapa duniani. Pia, imeandikwa katika Kitabu cha Ufunuo kwamba Yohana aliona kiti kikubwa cha enzi cheupe angani kwenye kisiwa cha Patmo. Kwa kweli, hii ilikuwa tu moja kati ya maono ya Yohana, lakini watu wengine wametafsiri maono haya kumaanisha kuwa Mungu atakaporudi katika siku za mwisho Atawahukumu watu angani. Haya ni mawazo na fikra zetu wenyewe tu, nayo ni ufafanuzi usiofaa wa unabii huo—si ukweli wa kazi ya Mungu hata kidogo.”

Nilishangazwa na kile nilichosikia: nilikuwa nimesoma vifungu vyote vya Biblia ambavyo dada huyo alikuwa akishiriki nami, kwa hiyo ilikuwaje kwamba sikuwahi kugundua maana ya maneno hayo? Naam! Mungu alikuwa Amewaumba wanadamu ili waishi duniani, kwa hiyo ingewezekanaje sisi kwenda mbinguni? Kwa kweli imani yangu ilikuwa imejaa mashaka na ujinga!

Kisha Dada Li Mei alishiriki jambo hili nami: “Katika siku za mwisho Mungu hajakuwa mwili tu ili Afanye kazi ya hukumu hapa duniani, lakini kazi Yake ilianza zamani sana na hivi karibuni itakamilika. Kazi ya Mungu ya hukumu haifanywi mbinguni kama watu wanavyofikiri, na si kuwalaani watu moja kwa moja kama wanavyoamini. Kwa kweli, kabla ya kazi ya Mungu ya hukumu kukamilika, wale wote wanaokuja mbele ya kiti cha enzi cha Mungu ni wale ambao wanaweza kuhukumiwa, kujaribiwa na kutakaswa kwa maneno ya Mungu. Wote wote wanaokubali hukumu ya Mungu na kutakaswa watachukuliwa na Mungu na kuingia katika ufalme Wake. Lakini kwa wale ambao wanakataa kukubali hukumu ya maneno ya Mungu, kwa kuwa asili zao za dhambi hazitakuwa zimehukumiwa na kutakaswa na Mungu, wataendelea kuishi katika dhambi, wakiendelea kutenda dhambi kila wakati. Watasema uwongo, wadanganye, wamuasi Mungu na kumpinga Mungu. Wataangamizwa katika kuzimu kwa sababu ya dhambi zao—hili ni dhihirisho la kweli la tabia ya haki ya Mungu. Wale kati yetu ambao tumemfuata Bwana kwa miaka mingi na kupata uzoefu wa kina kuhusu hayo ingawa tumekombolewa kutokana na dhambi zetu kwa sababu ya imani yetu, shida ya asili yetu ya dhambi haijatatuliwa. Tunamfuata Bwana, lakini wakati uo huo sisi huenda kinyume na mafundisho ya Bwana na badala yake tunazipa uhuru tamaa zetu za mwili kutenda dhambi kama vile kusema uwongo, kudanganya, kujiingiza katika kula njama, na kupigania umaarufu na utajiri. Tunatamani ubatili mtupu na kufuatilia mienendo mibaya wa ulimwengu halisi. Na kadhalika. Hasa wakati tunakabiliwa na majaribu, ajali, na misiba, tunammwelewa Mungu vibaya, tunamlaumu na hata kumsaliti. Tunaweza kusema kuwa tunaishi katika hali ya kutenda dhambi na kisha kuungama dhambi zetu daima, lakini tusiikung’ute kamwe minyororo ya asili yetu ya dhambi. Katika Biblia inasema: ‘Fuata amani na watu wote, na utakatifu, bila huu hakuna mwanadamu atakayemwona Bwana’ (Waebrania 12:14). Watu ambao ni waovu kama sisi tulivyo wanawezaje kuingia katika ufalme wa Mungu? Mwenyezi Mungu alisema: ‘Mwenye dhambi kama wewe, aliyetoka tu kukombolewa, na hajabadilishwa bado, ama kukamilishwa na Mungu, unaweza kuufuata roho wa Mungu? Kwa wewe, wewe ambaye ni wa nafsi yako ya zamani, ni kweli kuwa uliokolewa na Yesu, na kwamba huhesabiwi kama mwenye dhambi kwa sababu ya wokovu wa Mungu, lakini hii haithibitishi kwamba wewe si mwenye dhambi, na si mchafu. Unawezaje kuwa mtakatifu kama haujabadilishwa? Ndani, umezingirwa na uchafu, ubinafsi na ukatili, na bado unatamani kushuka na Yesu—huwezi kuwa na bahati hiyo! Umepitwa na hatua moja katika imani yako kwa Mungu: umekombolewa tu, lakini haujabadilishwa. Ili uipendeze nafsi ya Mungu, lazima Mungu Mwenyewe afanye kazi ya kukubadilisha na kukutakasa; ikiwa umekombolewa tu, hautakuwa na uwezo wa kufikia utakatifu. Kwa njia hii hautahitimu kushiriki katika baraka nzuri za Mungu, kwani umepitwa na hatua kwa kazi ya Mungu ya kusimamia mwanadamu, ambayo ni hatua muhimu ya kubadilisha na kukamilisha. Na basi wewe, mwenye dhambi aliyetoka tu kukombolewa, huna uwezo wa kurithi urithi wa Mungu moja kwa moja’ (“Kuhusu Majina na Utambulisho” katika Neno Laonekana katika Mwili). Kwa hivyo, katika siku za mwisho, Mungu anatekeleza mpango Wake wa usimamizi, Akitekeleza hatua ya kazi ya kuhukumu, kuadibu, na kuwatakasa watu kulingana na kile wanadamu wapotovu wanahitaji. Kusudi ni kutuokoa kabisa kutoka kwa miliki ya Shetani, na kuondoa minyororo ya asili yetu ya dhambi ili tuweze kutakaswa na kuokolewa. Kutokana na jambo hili tunaweza kuona kwamba kazi ya Mungu ya hukumu ya siku za mwisho inahusu utakaso na wokovu. Si kuhusu kutulaani, kama watu wanavyodhani.”

Dada Liu Hui aliendelea kushiriki nami: “Hiyo ni kweli, Dada Enhui. Hebu tufikirie kuhusu jambo hilo, ikiwa kazi ya Mungu ya hukumu ilikuwa kutulaani na kutuadhibu, basi hakuna hata mmoja kati yetu, wote ambao wamepotoshwa kwa kina na Shetani, angewahi kuokolewa au kuweza kuingia katika ufalme wa Mungu. Kama ingekuwa hivyo, msingi wa kazi ya Mungu ya hukumu ungekuwa nini? Maneno ya Mwenyezi Mungu yanasema wazi kwa nini Mungu hufanya kazi ya hukumu katika siku za mwisho, na umuhimu wake ni nini. Hebu tusome vifungu viwili vya maneno ya Mwenyezi Mungu: ‘Maisha yote ya mwanadamu yamekuwa chini ya himaya ya Shetani, na hakuna mtu yeyote anayeweza kujitoa kutoka katika ushawishi wa Shetani yeye mwenyewe. Wote wanaishi katika dunia chafu, kwa upotovu na utupu, bila maana yoyote au thamani; wanaishi maisha ya kutojali kwa ajili ya mwili, tamaa, na kwa ajili ya Shetani. Hakuna maana yoyote kwa kuwepo kwao. Mwanadamu hana uwezo wa kupata ukweli utakaomweka huru kutoka kwa ushawishi wa Shetani. Ingawa mwanadamu anaamini katika Mungu na anasoma Biblia haelewi jinsi ya kujitoa kutoka kwa ushawishi wa Shetani. Kutoka kitambo, watu wachache sana wametambua siri hii, wachache sana wameiguza. … Mwanadamu asipotakaswa, basi yeye ni wa uchafu; asipolindwa na kutunzwa na Mungu, basi yeye bado ni mfungwa wa Shetani; asipohukumiwa na kuadibiwa, basi hatakuwa na njia ya kuepuka ukandamizaji na ushawishi mbaya wa Shetani. Tabia potovu unayoonyesha, na tabia ya uasi unayoishi kwa kudhihirisha inatosha kuonyesha kwamba bado unaishi katika himaya ya Shetani. Kama akili na mawazo yako hayajatakaswa, na tabia yako haijahukumiwa na kuadibiwa, basi nafsi yako yote bado inadhibitiwa na himaya ya Shetani, akili yako bado inadhibitiwa na Shetani, mawazo yako yanatawaliwa na Shetani, na nafsi yako yote inadhibitiwa na mikono ya Shetani’ (“Matukio Aliyopitia Petro: Ufahamu Wake wa Adabu na Hukumu” katika Neno Laonekana katika Mwili). ‘Kupitia kazi hii ya kuadibu na hukumu, mwanadamu atakuja kujua hali yake kamili ya uchafu na upotovu ndani Yake, na ataweza kubadilika kabisa na kuwa msafi. Ni hivi tu ndivyo mwanadamu ataweza kustahili kurudi katika kiti cha enzi cha Mungu. Kazi yote ifanywayo siku hii ya leo ni ili mwanadamu afanywe msafi na kubadilika; kupitia hukumu na kuadibiwa na neno, na pia kutakaswa, mwanadamu anaweza kuutupa nje upotovu wake na kufanywa safi. Badala ya kuichukua hatua hii ya kazi kuwa ile ya wokovu, itafaa zaidi kusema kuwa ni kazi ya utakaso’ (“Fumbo la Kupata Mwili (4)” katika Neno Laonekana katika Mwili). Kwa hivyo tunaweza kuona nini kutoka kwa maneno ya Mungu? Tukiyaangalia kutoka upande mmoja, tunaweza kuona kwamba maneno ya Mungu ni yenye manufaa sana nayo yanaonyesha kabisa hali yetu ya maisha halisi. Kutoka upande mwingine, tunaweza kuona kwamba lazima kwanza tupitie hukumu na utakaso wa Mungu ili tujiondolee uchafu na upotovu, na kuutoroka ushawishi wa giza wa Shetani. Ni wakati huo tu ndipo tutakapostahili kuchukuliwa na Mungu katika ufalme Wake. Bila kazi ya Mungu ya hukumu ya siku za mwisho hatungeweza kusafishwa vya kutosha ili tuwe watu wanaoupendeza moyo wa Mungu, na hakika hatungeweza kuingia katika ufalme wa Mungu. Hatungeweza kuacha kutenda dhambi na kumpinga Mungu kamwe, na mwishowe, tungeangamizwa na Mungu katika kuzimu. Kwa kweli, kutokana na shuhuda za kweli za ndugu wa Kanisa la Mwenyezi Mungu tunaweza kuona kwamba hukumu na kuadibu kwa Mungu ni taa ya wokovu kwa wanadamu. Kila mmoja wetu amepotoshwa na Shetani, lakini kwa sababu tunaweza kuja mbele za Mwenyezi Mungu na kupokea hukumu na kuadibu kwa maneno ya Mungu, tabia yetu ya maisha hubadilika pole pole. Tunabadilika kutoka uasi na kupinga hadi kukubalika na utii; tunabadilika kutoka kiburi, kujihesabia haki na kutokubali kishindwa na mtu yeyote, hadi kuwa tayari kuweka kando ubinafsi wetu wenyewe na kutii kilicho sawa, tukiutii ukweli. Zaidi ya hayo, yote ambayo yameonyeshwa katika hukumu na kuadibu kwa Mungu ni ukweli, na pia ni maonyesho ya tabia ya Mungu iliyo yenye haki na takatifu, kwa hiyo kadri tunavyozidi kupitia hukumu na kuadibu kwa Mungu, ndivyo tunavyozidi kumjua Mungu. Na kadri tunavyozidi kumjua Mungu, ndivyo tunavyozidi kuweza kuona wazi ukweli kuhusu watu, vitu, na matukio katika ulimwengu. Ipasavyo, maoni na maadili yetu yanabadilika kwa viwango tofauti. Tunapata uchaji zaidi na utii kwa Mungu. Hiki ndicho hukumu na kuadibu kwa Mwenyezi Mungu kinachofanikisha ndani yetu. Bila hukumu ya nuru ya ukweli katika maneno ya Mungu, sote tungeishi gizani, tukitenda dhambi na na kisha kuziungama, kuziungama na kisha kuzitenda tena kila siku, tusiikung’ute kamwe minyororo ya dhambi. Basi tungewezaje kuchukuliwa na Mungu na kuingia katika ufalme wake?”

Baada ya kushiriki na Dada Li na Liu nilihisi kana kwamba mwanga wenye kung’aa ulikuwa umewashwa moyoni mwangu. Walichosema kilikuwa kweli: Mchungaji, wazee, na ndugu katika kanisa langu wote hawakuweza kujinasua kutoka katika utumwa wa dhambi. Mimi mwenyewe pia nilitenda dhambi mara nyingi ingawa sikutarajia kufanya hivyo na sikuweza kuyatia maneno ya Bwana katika vitendo. Sote tunaishi katika hali ya kutenda dhambi na kisha kuungama—kwa kweli tunahitaji Mungu arudi na kufanya hatua ya kazi ya hukumu na kutakasa. Kama nisingeichunguza kazi ya Mwenyezi Mungu ya siku za mwisho nisingeweza kuelewa ukweli huu. Nilimshukuru Mungu sana kwa mwongozo Wake. Kwa kuyasoma maneno ya Mwenyezi Mungu na kusikiliza ushirika wa akina dada hao, pamoja na kusoma shuhuda zilizoandikwa za ndugu wa Kanisa la Mwenyezi Mungu wakielezea jinsi tabia zao potovu zilivyotakaswa kupitia hukumu ya maneno ya Mungu, nilikuwa nimepata ufahamu kidogo kuhusu kazi ya Mungu ya hukumu ya siku za mwisho. Mawazo yangu mwenyewe yalikuwa yameondolewa, na sasa nilijua kuwa hukumu na kuadibu kwa Mungu ni muhimu kwetu ili kuiepuka dhambi na kupata utakaso.

Kisha Liu Hui alisema: “Hebu tusome vifungu viwili zaidi vya maneno ya Mwenyezi Mungu. Mwenyezi Mungu alisema: ‘Mungu anapofanya kazi Yake ya hukumu, Haiweki wazi asili ya mwanadamu kwa maneno machache tu; Anafunua, kushughulikia na kupogoa kwa muda mrefu. Mbinu hizi za ufunuo, kushughulika, na kupogoa haziwezi kubadilishwa na maneno ya kawaida, ila kwa ukweli ambao mwanadamu hana hata kidogo. Mbinu kama hizi pekee ndizo huchukuliwa kama hukumu; ni kwa kupitia kwa hukumu ya aina hii pekee ndio mwanadamu anaweza kutiishwa na kushawishiwa kabisa kujisalimisha kwa Mungu, na zaidi ya hayo kupata ufahamu kamili wa Mungu. Kile ambacho kazi ya hukumu humletea mwanadamu ni ufahamu wa uso halisi wa Mungu na ukweli kuhusu uasi wake mwenyewe. Kazi ya hukumu humruhusu mwanadamu kupata ufahamu zaidi wa mapenzi ya Mungu, wa makusudi ya kazi ya Mungu, na wa mafumbo yasiyoweza kueleweka kwa mwanadamu. Pia inamruhusu mwanadamu kutambua na kujua asili yake potovu na asili ya upotovu wake, na pia kugundua ubaya wa mwanadamu. Matokeo haya yote huletwa na kazi ya hukumu, kwa maana asili ya kazi ya aina hii hasa ni kazi ya kuweka wazi ukweli, njia, na uhai wa Mungu kwa wale wote walio na imani ndani Mwake. Kazi hii ni kazi ya hukumu inayofanywa na Mungu’ (“Kristo Hufanya Kazi ya Hukumu kwa Ukweli” katika Neno Laonekana katika Mwili). ‘Wale ambao wanataka kupata uzima bila kutegemea ukweli wa neno la Kristo ni watu wafidhuli mno duniani, na wale ambao hawawezi kukubali njia ya maisha inayoletwa na Kristo wamepotea ndotoni. Na hivyo nasema kwamba watu ambao hawakubali Kristo wa siku za mwisho watadharauliwa milele na Mungu. Kristo ni lango la binadamu kwa ufalme katika siku za mwisho, ambayo hakuna anayeweza kupita bila Yeye. Hakuna anayeweza kukamilishwa na Mungu ila kwa njia ya Kristo. Unaamini katika Mungu, na hivyo ni lazima ukubali neno Lake na kutii njia Yake. Lazima usifikiri juu ya kupata baraka tu bila kupokea ukweli, au kukubali utoaji wa maisha. Kristo Anakuja katika siku za mwisho ili wale wote ambao kweli wanaamini katika Yeye waweze kupata maisha. Kazi Yake ni kwa ajili ya kuhitimisha enzi ya zamani na kuingia enzi mpya, na ni njia ambayo lazima ichukuliwe na wale wote ambao wataingia enzi mpya. Kama huna uwezo wa kumtambua Yeye, na badala yake kumhukumu, kulikufuru jina Lake au hata kumtesa Yeye, basi wewe umefungwa kuchomwa milele, na kamwe hutaingia katika ufalme wa Mungu’ (“Ni Kristo wa Siku za Mwisho Pekee Ndiye Anayeweza Kumpa Mwanadamu Njia ya Uzima wa Milele” katika Neno Laonekana katika Mwili). Kutoka kwa maneno ya Mwenyezi Mungu inaweza kuonekana kwamba katika siku za mwisho Mungu amekuwa mwili ili kuonyesha ukweli wote wa kuwatakasa na kuwaokoa binadamu, kulingana na mahitaji ya wanadamu. Yeye hufichua tabia ya Mungu yenye haki ya Mungu ambayo haitavumilia kosa kwa wanadamu. Kupitia maneno Yake, Mungu huonyesha asili na kiini cha watu, na hali halisi ya upotovu wao. Ni kupitia tu kuyakubali maneno ya hukumu ambayo Mwenyezi Mungu ameonyesha ndipo tunaweza kujua kiburi chetu, ujanja, ubinafsi, ubaya wetu wenyewe, n.k., ambavyo vyote ni sehemu ya asili yetu ya kishetani na tabia potovu. Ni kupitia tu kukubali hukumu na kuadibu kwa Mungu ndipo tunaweza kujua hali ya haki ya Mungu na kukuza mioyo ya kumcha Mungu na toba ya kweli. Kwa hivyo tunaweza kupata mabadiliko na utakaso wa tabia yetu potovu. Huu ndio umuhimu wa hukumu ya Mungu, na pia ni njia yetu ya pekee ya kupata wokovu. Dada Enhui, maadamu tunasoma maneno mengi ya Mwenyezi Mungu kwa bidii kadri tuwezavyo, basi umuhimu wa kazi ya Mungu ya hukumu ya siku za mwisho utakuwa wazi kwetu na hata zaidi, tutaona kuwa ni Kristo wa mwisho pekee ndiye Anayeweza kutoa njia ya uzima wa milele juu ya watu.”

Bwana asifiwe! Nilipata kiasi kikubwa kutoka kwa kuzungumza na akina dada hao. Ingawa bado sijapitia hukumu na kuadibu kwa Mungu, kupitia kushiriki nao na kusoma Ushuhuda Wa Uzoefu Katika Kuingia Katika Maisha, nimehisi kuwa hukumu na kuadibu kwa Mwenyezi Mungu kunaweza kubadilisha watu kwa kweli. Ninahisi pia kuwa ninamhitaji Mungu sana ili Aitekeleze hatua Yake ya kazi ya hukumu na kuadibu ili Anibadilishe na kunitakasa ili nistahili kuchukuliwa hadi katika ufalme wa mbinguni. Baadaye, baada ya siku kadhaa zaidi za ushirika, nilikuja kuelewa zaidi kuhusu umuhimu wa kazi ya Mungu ya hukumu na ukweli kuhusu majina ya Mungu. Pia nilijifunza ukweli ili nimtambue Kristo wa kweli kutoka kwa wale wa uwongo, na makanisa halisi kutoka kwa yale ya uwongo. Nilijifunza ukweli kuhusu kupata mwili kwa Mungu, tofauti kati ya kazi ya Mungu na kazi ya mwanadamu, jinsi Shetani huwapotosha wanadamu, jinsi Mungu anavyotuokoa, na zaidi. Nilifikia hitimisho thabiti kuwa Mwenyezi Mungu ni Bwana Yesu aliyerejea, nami niliikubali kazi ya Mwenyezi Mungu ya siku za mwisho kwa moyo wenye furaha. Mungu asifiwe! Tangu wakati huo nilikuwa na kiu isiyotulizika ya kusoma maneno ya Mungu. Kwa kuishi maisha ya kanisa, kushiriki ukweli pamoja na ndugu, na kukubali kunyunyizia na kula maneno ya Mungu ninahisi kuwa roho yangu inapata mlo mkubwa. Jambo hili limeniwezesha kushuhudia utimilifu kamili wa unabii huu katika Kitabu cha Ufunuo katika Biblia: “Tazama, nimesimama mlangoni, na kupiga hodi: mtu yeyote akisikia sauti yangu, na aufungue mlango, Mimi nitaingia kwake, na nitakula na yeye, na yeye na Mimi” (Ufunuo 3:20). Nimehisi pia likitimizwa ndani yangu kibinafsi. Maneno ya Mwenyezi Mungu yameufungua mlango wa moyo wangu na kuniwezesha kuisikia sauti ya Mungu, kujua kazi ya hukumu ya Mungu, na kurudi mbele Zake. Asifiwe Mungu!

 

Image Source: Kanisa la Mwenyezi Mungu

 

Terms of Use: sw.godfootsteps.org/about-us.html

   

This interpretive sign explains how the dune ecosystem at Hanlan's Point Beach on works to protect the island from the waves of Lake Ontario, while hosting several species of birds and other animals.

 

Hanlan's Point, July 5, 2007

Cyuve district is one of Rwanda’s most productive agricultural regions. Land consolidation is helping farmers increase efficiency and production. www.ciatnews.cgiar.org/?p=7981 Credit: Stephanie Malyon / CIAT

Leipziger Buchmesse 2015 / Leipzig Book Fair 2015

2015-03-14 (Saturday)

2015_081

2015#199

Bellflower (Mel.) 369152 as Effie Trinket from Hunger Games

 

Thank you for any group invites which I'd be glad to accept. However, if I can't check the content of such groups ("This group is not available to you") I'd rather not add any of my photos. Thanks for your understanding.

Guido Imbens is a scientist who builds bridges—between data and understanding, between correlation and causation, between abstract mathematical theory and real-world application. In a world flooded with information, he has spent his career developing methods to extract meaningful answers to some of the most pressing questions in economics and social science: What happens if we raise the minimum wage? Does a new medical treatment actually improve health outcomes? How do we measure the effect of education on future earnings?

 

Born in the Netherlands, Imbens trained as an econometrician but became, in many ways, a statistician at heart. He has a precise, almost engineering-like approach to problems, which has served him well in his work on causal inference—the study of how to determine cause-and-effect relationships from data. Alongside Joshua Angrist, his longtime collaborator, Imbens developed methods for using natural experiments—situations where external forces create conditions similar to a randomized trial—to uncover causal relationships. Their work, foundational to modern empirical research, earned them the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

 

When I photographed Imbens at his home near Stanford on February 20, 2025, I was struck by the world he had built around him. Books lined the shelves—more than just professional tomes on econometrics, but works of history, philosophy, and literature. The walls were filled with photographs, all his own, documenting the life of his family with the same dedication and care he applies to his research. Outside, among the quiet order of an academic’s world, was something unexpected: chickens. He raises them in his backyard, tending to them with the same quiet, methodical attention he gives to data and equations.

 

His wife, Susan Athey, a celebrated economist in her own right, was there as well. The two share not just a home but a lifetime of intellectual collaboration, an ongoing conversation about economics, technology, and policy. Though Imbens is deeply analytical, he is also warm and engaging, his penetrating eyes suggesting a mind always at work, always questioning. There is no arrogance in his brilliance—just a deep curiosity and a willingness to engage, to explain, to refine.

 

Though he is now well into an illustrious career, his work remains as relevant as ever. As machine learning and AI become dominant forces in research, Imbens is at the forefront of integrating these new tools with rigorous causal reasoning. His focus remains unchanged: ensuring that in our rush to analyze data, we do not lose sight of the deeper question—what causes what, and how can we be sure?

 

Even outside his formal research, Imbens has a scientist’s impulse to observe, to document. His photographs, like his econometric models, are about capturing relationships—not just moments in time, but the threads that connect them. His home, his research, his life’s work—all reflect the same principle: the search for clarity in a world of complexity.

 

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack speaks at a public-private partnership event announcing a project to restore and protect damaged watersheds on national lands at the Midewin Tallgrass Prairie in Illinois on Friday, Sep. 13, 2013. The goal of this partnership is to return more than a billion liters of water to the National Forest System that provides drinking water to more than 60 million Americans. USDA photo by Molly Hammond.

# Edna Vidal Ros

The exhibition "Understanding AI" shows how neural networks are structured and offers visitors the opportunity to train neural networks themselveswith via interactive stations.

 

Credit: Ars Electronica / Martin Hieslmair

Further to the 2011 Memorandum of Understanding witnessed by Premier Christy Clark, 2014 Forestry Asia Trade Mission delegates visited the Shanghai Industrial Investment Company's luxury subdivision in the Shanghai suburb of Qingpu. Over 80 single-family wood frame homes have been built in a park-like setting, as a result of the MOU. The fact that billionaire Bill Gates lives in a wood house is being used as a marketing tool to prospective buyers.

 

Learn more about the trade mission: www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/10/forestry-asia-trade-missio...

 

Learn more: www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/10/forestry-asia-trade-missio...

Date: February, 1955

Creator: John Macfie Fonds

Reference Code: C 330-14-0-0-132

Archives of Ontario, I0012772

 

Moses Koostachin à la pause du midi pendant le trajet de Weenusk jusqu'au lac Hawley

Date : Février 1955

Fonds John Macfie

C 330-14-0-0-132

Archives publiques de l'Ontario, I0012772

 

As Nishnaabeg scholar Leanne Simpson describes, “being out on the land strengthens our relationship to our extended families and deepens our spiritual understanding of life and our place in it. Consuming traditional foods revitalizes our cultures, our languages and our ceremonies and it reinforces our sovereignty within our families, communities and Nations.”

 

Simpson, Leanne (2003). “Toxic Contamination Undermining Indigenous Food Systems and Indigenous Sovereignty.” Pimatitiziwin: A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous Community Health 1(2).

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Comme le décrit Leanne Simpson, chercheuse-boursière nishnaabeg : « être à l'extérieur sur la terre renforce notre lien avec nos familles élargies et approfondit notre compréhension spirituelle de la vie et de la place que nous y occupons. Consommer des mets traditionnels ravive nos cultures, nos langues et nos cérémonies, et renforce notre souveraineté au sein de nos familles, de nos collectivités et de nos Nations. »

 

Simpson, Leanne (2003). « Toxic Contamination Undermining Indigenous Food Systems and Indigenous Sovereignty. »Pimatitiziwin: A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous Community Health 1(2).

   

The exhibition "Understanding AI" shows how neural networks are structured and offers visitors the opportunity to train neural networks themselveswith via interactive stations.

 

Credit: Ars Electronica / Martin Hieslmair

Paris (France)

 

Nikon D4

AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G ED

 

This photograph has been taken at the Palais de Tokyo, during the exhibition "Soleil Froid". I was (and still I am) curious about this man standing in front of this work of Julio Le Parc. But mostly, I liked how his red trousers were matching with the painting…

 

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The cover for the Slideshare slideshow available here: slidesha.re/1pR6ZGd. It's a derivation of the book by the same name.

 

The book teaches you everything you need to know about online and both-based music, digital downloads, and streaming from music discovery services like Pandora and Songza and on-demand services such as Spotify, Rdio, and Rhapsody.

 

You can check out this $4.99 Kindle book here: amzn.to/1yfr9Pr.

 

Words to compliment the photos: middleclasstech.wordpress.com/

Psychiatry: Schizophrenia (Understanding Disease Series)-When a person feels hallucination, delusions and his behaviour becomes disorganised, it shows he might be suffering from a mental disorder ‘Schizophrenia’. A schizophrenic person lose interest in things, which he used to like earlier. Schizophrenia is of five types. Two know about the types, causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment of Schizophrenia, link to an appropriate page. This is a snippet from the video.

 

www.focusappsstore.com/understanding-diseases/psychiatry/...

 

Watch this video on Vimeo. Video created by Focus Apps Store.

At Sylcon Foot Wear Shops in Kerala and Abroad, you will get an understanding of its quality and brands. Right from the sourcing quality raw material to the final finished product, Sylcon has developed a total quality control system to maintain high standards of quality. Be it the exclusive collection of Sylcon brands such as Discount Walking Shoes Kerala, Leather Walking Shoes Kerala, Casual Walking Shoes Kerala, Walking Shoes Sandals Kerala, Narrow Walking Shoes, Causal Shoes, Party Shoes Kerala, Wedding Party Shoes, Bridal Party Shoes, Ladies Party Shoes and Men’s Smart Shoes Kerala.

The exhibition "Understanding AI" shows how neural networks are structured and offers visitors the opportunity to train neural networks themselveswith via interactive stations.

 

Credit: vog.photo

Tragedy befell my flickr stream when Lightroom deleted hundreds of my photos. Help give it meaning again. Please take another look.

 

Love, Eric