Was Nostradamus a Real Prophet?
Michel de Nostredame or Nostradamus was a sixteenth century purported seer and apothecary (the medieval term for medical practitioner), who wrote down a thousand prophecies, many of which, according to those that believe him, have now come true. His favorite “seering” method was scrying, which involved gazing into a mirror or a bowl of water and waiting for a vision to appear.
One of the most famous is supposed to have referred to the death of Henry II, who died from a jousting accident. The Quatrain, which is how Nostradamus’ prophecies were organized, refers to a single battle, where two wounds become one, piercing the eyes through a “golden cage”. While it is true that Henry II was pieced through the eye through a golden jousting helmet, and died of two separate wounds, the part of the quatrain that refers to the older lion being slain by the younger one seems not to be applicable, as both Henry II and his opponent were around the same age. Another famous prophecy that Nostradamus made refers to a fire in London by name in the year ’66. In 1666, there was a huge one-and-a-half mile by half a mile fire that destroyed the city. Nostradamus is also said to have predicted the French Revolution and Napoleon, Hitler’s rise to power, World Wars I & II, the death of Princess Diana, the Apollo moon landing, and the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Whether or not you believe in his predictions, Nostradamus left an impressive legacy, after all his writings are still being printed almost half a millennium after being published for the first time. The mystery in Nostradamus writings is whether or not his predictions have anything to do with the paranormal or as many skeptics believe, just a statistical exercise. Considering 500 years of history and a 1000 vague, timeless and open to interpretation writings, it is natural that a few of those predictions will coincide perfectly with a major event every now and then.
Nerve impulse to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. Ever wonder how you can react so fast to things around you or why that stubbed toe hurts right away? It's due to the super speedy movement of nerve impulses from your brain to the rest of your body and vice versa, bringing reactions at the speed of a high powered luxury sports car.
The brain operates on the same amount of power as 10-watt light bulb. The cartoon image of a light bulb over your head when a great thought occurs isn't too far off the mark. Your brain generates as much energy as a small light bulb even when you are sleeping.
A kitchen faucet would need to be turned on all the way for at least 45 years to equal the amount of blood pumped by the heart in an average lifetime
Women are more likely to gain weight than men during the first few years of marriage.
Germs only cause disease, right? But a common bacterium, E. Coli, found in the intestine helps us digest green vegetables and beans (also making gases – pew!). These same bacteria also make vitamin K, which causes blood to clot. If we didn’t have these germs we would bleed to death whenever we got a small cut!
When you wake up in the morning you are at taller than when you go to sleep, because you have let your spine straighten back out after all the bending, sitting, and moving you have done!
The farthest you can see with the naked eye is 2.4 million light years away! (140,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles.) That’s the distance to the giant Andromeda Galaxy. You can see it easily as a dim, large gray “cloud” almost directly overhead in a clear night sky.
