On a more serious note here.

In the UK, Channel 4 TV, had an entire evening devoted to shows about Nostradamus and the end of the world. One of them was a programme called The A to Z of the end of the world and it was pretty heavy depressing stuff, with visual's of fires, volcanoes, tornadoes and nuclear bombs.

I am pretty sure that the vast majority of people watching, who had a level-headed approach to life would have not been too bothered by it or would have turned it off. I do worry about the effect that 5 hours of this might have on someone who may not be feeling too optimistic at this time. It may be the 'straw that breaks the camel's back'.

One of the more mature people I visited this morning, did watch the programme and fell asleep during it. His dog nudged him and woke him up. It was dark as he had not turned the lights on earlier. The only light he could see was the flickering of flames and with the noise of the destruction in his ears, he told me that for a brief moment of panic, he really did think it was the end of the world.

All rational people KNOW that all this prediction stuff was and is nonsense. This does not stop newspapers and the media from running stories, repeating all the crackpot ideas as if there were actually some sense in them. There is some danger in this, I feel.

The truth is that you can place any meaning you choose on the original, depending on what translation you use. As the majority of us cannot unfortunately understand 16th century French, we have to rely on others to honestly do that for us.