Horse Domestication

Sasanian Bronze Figurine, Transcaucasia, 225-650 AD

       Wild horses were domesticated in the Ponto-Caspian steppe region (today Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Romania) in the 3rd millennium B.C. Despite the pivotal role horses have played in the history of human societies, the process of their domestication is not well understood.

       In a new study published in the scientific journal Science, an analysis by German researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, the German Archaeological Institute, the Humboldt University Berlin, the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, in cooperation with American and Spanish scientists, has unraveled the mystery about the domestication of the horse.

       Based on ancient DNA spanning the time between the Late Pleistocene and the Middle Ages, targeting nuclear genes responsible for coat colorations allows to shed light on the timing and place of horse domestication. Furthermore the study demonstrates how rapid the number of colorations increased as one result of the domestication. As well, it shows very clearly that the huge variability of coloration in domestic horses which can be observed today is a result of selective breeding by ancient farmers.

       Our modern human societies were founded on the Neolithic revolution, which was the transformation of wild plants and animals into domestic ones available for human nutrition. Within all domestic animals, no other species has had such a significant impact on the warfare, transportation and communication capabilities of human societies as the horse.

       For many millennia, horses were linked to human history changing societies on a continent-wide scale, be it with Alexander the Great’s or Genghis Khan’s armies invading most of Asia and Eastern Europe or Francis Pizarro destroying the Inca Empire with about 30 mounted warriors. The horse was a costly and prestigious animal in all times, featured in gifts from one sovereign to another as a nobleman’s mark.

2,600 years old mysterious language discovered

       Computer's artificial intelligence managed to uncover an ancient script secrets. The Indus script, used between 2,600 and 1,900 B.C. in what is now eastern Pakistan and northwest India, belonged to a civilization as sophisticated as its Mesopotamian and Egyptian contemporaries. But few linguistic remains passed the test of time. More than 1,500 unique inscriptions from fragments of pottery, tablets and seals were found by archaeologists. The longest inscription is just 27 signs long. Computer analysis of symbols used 4,000 years ago by a lost Indus Valley civilization suggests they represent a spoken language. At first linguists thought the symbols were just nice pictures.

       "The underlying grammatical structure seems similar to what’s found in many languages," said University of Washington computer scientist Rajesh Rao.

       In 1877, British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham hinted that the Indus script preceded modern-day Brahmic scripts, used from Central to Southeast Asia. Other researchers disagreed.

Rao, who is a machine learning specialist, read about the Indus script in high school. He decided to analyse the script while in Inda and try to solve it.

       "One of the main questions in machine learning is how to generalize rules from a limited amount of data," said Rao. "Even though we can’t read it, we can look at the patterns and get the underlying grammatical structure."

       Rao’s team used pattern-analyzing software running what’s known as a Markov model, a computational tool used to map system dynamics.

       The input sequeces for the compuer analysis belong to four spoken languages: ancient Sumerian, Sanskrit, Old Tamil and modern English. The theam also used for input data samples of four non-spoken communication systems: human DNA, Fortran, bacterial protein sequences and an artificial language.

       The program calculated the level of order present in each language. Non-spoken languages were either highly ordered, with symbols and structures following each other in unvarying ways, or utterly chaotic. Spoken languages fell in the middle.

       The output that computer delivered consisted in grammatical rules based on patterns of symbol arrangement. These proved to be moderately ordered, just like spoken languages. Unfortunately the program couldn't decipher the meaning of the script.

       "It’s a useful paper," said University of Helsinki archaeologist Asko Parpola, an authority on Indus scripts, "but it doesn’t really further our understanding of the script."

       The analysis already performed is a step ahead in understanding the Indus script grammar and finally its meaning.

       "It’s only recently that archaeologists have started to apply computational approaches in a rigid manner," said Rao.

Amazing Archaeopterix fossils

       The fossil of a dinosaurus bird was discovered about 150 yers ago and considered as a proof of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

       The unique fossil, the Thermopolis specimen of Archaeopteryx lithographica, was brought by truck from the Wyoming Dinosaur Center to the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource in California, where it was scanned by one of the world's most powerful X-ray machines.

       Reaserchers try to unravel new details of the soft tissue that once surrounded the well-preserved bones. They study specific traces left in the slab of limestone as the bird decomposed.

       The X-rays, generated by SSRL's high-speed electrons as they race around a 260-foot-diameter ring, cause the elements to glow, revealing the ghost of soft tissue or feathers.

       "If you want to find a single fossil which is a missing link in the evolution of dinosaurs into birds, this is it," said University of Manchester paleontologist Phil Manning, a member of the research team. "It's a bird with sharp teeth, claws and a long bony tail. If you were to freeze-frame evolution, you would end up with Archaeopteryx."

       "What you normally can't see are the chemical elements from the original organism that might still be present in the fossil," said SSRL scientist Uwe Bergmann. "Using X-ray fluorescence imaging, we can bring these elements to light, getting a better look at the fossil and learning more about the original animal."

       "These X-rays work a thousand time better than what you could do with a commercial X-ray machine. Only a synchrotron can do this," Bergmann said. SSRL is part of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, which is operated by Stanford University for the Department of Energy.

       Researchers may also discover new information about how the fossilization process occurs. That could help them to understand the way evolution happens.

       The Archaeopteryx fossil has a very interesting story. It was brought to London soon after Darwin published his stunning On the Origin of Species in 1859. The fossils played a major roll in the controversy Darwin had stirred up by launching his evolution theory. "As soon as it arrived in London, all of Darwin's supporters realized that this was an intermediate animal, an evolutionary freak that they needed to study. It was half way between dinosaur and bird. This is the single most important fossil in paleontology for that simple reason." " It was used to beat the living daylights out of the nonsense which had been put forward as to the reason for why animals were present on this planet. Here, Darwin's theory of descendant with modification was hammered home with this one example of transitionary form, of an animal between dinosaur and bird."

Giant prehistoric sand worm existance proof discovered

       Giant sand worms lived 260million years ago and fossils were found in Torbay, Devon, England.

       They grew up to 9m (3ft) long and 15cm (6in) wide lived underground before dinosaurs ruled over the Earth. Experts at the English Riviera Geopark organisation found large burrow holes that are said to have been made by the creatures as they travelled beneath the surface.

       Geologist Dr Kevin Page, a lecturer at Plymouth University, said the discovery of the underground holes is a first in scientific findings and represents "life - but not as we know it". "It really is quite extraordinary. Nothing like this has ever been found before.        The underground area is peppered with these burrows." "There is no supporting evidence to suggest they were made by creatures we know about, so what were are looking at is an entirely new life form." "It is very, very strange. They were made at the end of the Paleozoic period before dinosaurs came along when the earth teemed with creatures which are now extinct."

       "We have found the holes but as yet we haven't found the animals which made them." "They would have looked like the worms from the film Dune. It is science fiction meeting science fact."

       "We know about giant millipedes at the time but this is something quite different. They are unknown to science and a completely new species. It is life, but not as we know it."

       The large holes were found across an area of sediment at the bottom of what was a desert corr - a valley or dry river bed that only contains water during times of heavy rain.

       It is presumed that sand worms lived underground and only come to the surface to drink and feed.

Emanuel Swedenborg

       Emanuel Swedenborg (February 8, 1688–March 29, 1772) was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, theologian and inventor. In 1710 made a tour through the Netherlands, France, and Germany. In London he spend the next four years and he studied physics, mechanics, and philosophy, and read and wrote poetry. Swedenborg wrote to his benefactor and brother-in-law Eric Benzelius that he believed he might be destined to be a great scientist. In one of his letters he includes, somewhat boastfully, a list of inventions he claims to have made, including a submarine and a flying machine.

       In 1715 Swedenborg returned to Sweden, where he was to devote himself to natural science and engineering projects for the next two decades. A first step was his noted meeting with King Charles XII of Sweden in the city of Lund, in 1716. The Swedish inventor Christopher Polhem, who became a close friend of Swedenborg's, was also present. Swedenborg's purpose was to persuade the king to fund an observatory in northern Sweden. However, the warlike king did not consider this project important enough, but did appoint Swedenborg assessor-extraordinary on the Swedish board of mines (Bergskollegium) in Stockholm.

       From 1716 to 1718 Swedenborg published a scientific periodical entitled Daedalus Hyperboreus ("The Northern Daedalus"), a record of mechanical and mathematical inventions and discoveries. One notable description was that of a flying machine, the same he had been sketching a few years earlier (see in the foto bellow his Flying Machine).

       In 1724 he was offered the chair of mathematics at Uppsala University but he declined, saying that he had mainly dealt with geometry, chemistry and metallurgy during his career. He also noted that he did not have the gift of eloquent speech because of a speech impediment.

       Swedenborg's desire to understand the order and purpose of creation first led him to investigate the structure of matter and the process of creation itself. In the Principia he outlined his philosophical method, which incorporated experience, geometry (the means whereby the inner order of the world can be known), and the power of reason; and he presented his cosmology, which included the first presentation of the Nebular hypothesis.

       The 1735 he also published the small manuscript de Infinito ("On the Infinite"), where he attempted to explain how the finite is related to the infinite, and how the soul is connected to the body. This was the first manuscript where he touched upon these matters. He knew that it might clash with established theologies, since he presents the view that the soul is based on material substances.

       At the age of fifty-six he started to experience dreams and visions. Swedenborg claimed he had a vision in which God appointed him to write a heavenly doctrine to reform Christianity. He also claimed that from then on he could visit heaven and hell, and talk with angels, demons, and spirits. In the last 28 years of his life, he published 18 theological works, the best known was Heaven and Hell (1758).

       The Dreams

       By 1744 he had traveled to the Netherlands. Around this time he began having strange dreams. Swedenborg carried a travel journal with him on most of his travels, and did so on this journey. The diary was long unknown and it was discovered in the Royal Library in the 1850s and published in 1859 as Drömboken, or Journal of Dreams.

       He had many different dreams and visions, some very disturbing. The experiences continued during his voyage to London. Analyses of the diary have concluded that what Swedenborg was recording in his Journal of Dreams was a battle between the love of his self, and the love of God.

       Visions and spiritual insights

       In the last entry of the journal from October 26-27 1744, Swedenborg appears to be sure which was the right path for him to follow. So he dropped his current project, and wrote a new book about the worship of God. He soon began working on "De cultu et amore Dei" ("The Worship and Love of God") but never completed it. One explanation why the work was never finished is given in the following story: "In April 1745, Swedenborg was dining in a private room at a tavern in London. By the end of the meal, a darkness fell upon his eyes, and the room shifted character. Suddenly he saw a person sitting at a corner of the room, telling Swedenborg: "Do not eat too much!". Swedenborg, scared, hurried home. Later that night, the same man appeared in his dreams. The man told Swedenborg that He was the Lord, that He had appointed Swedenborg to reveal the spiritual meaning of the Bible, and that He would guide Swedenborg in what to write. The same night, the spiritual world was opened to Swedenborg."

       In June 1747, Swedenborg resigned his post as assessor of the board of mines. He took up afresh his study of Hebrew and began to work (1746-1747) on the spiritual interpretation of the Bible with the goal of interpreting the spiritual meaning of every verse.

His life from 1747 until his death in 1772 was spent in Stockholm, Holland, and London. During these twenty five years he wrote another fourteen works of a spiritual nature of which most were published during his lifetime.

       In July, 1770, at the age of 82, he traveled to Amsterdam to complete the publication of his last work. The book "Vera Christiana Religio" ("The True Christian Religion"), was published in Amsterdam in 1771 and was the most concrete of his works.

In the summer of 1771, he traveled to London. Shortly before Christmas he suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed. He died on March 29, 1772.

       Swedenborg's philosophy fascinated many people such as Immanuel Kant, William Blake, Goethe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Balzac, Jorge Luis Borges, August Strindberg, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Carl Jung.

       Some claimed Swedenborg was mentally ill. But the analysis of his life establish clearly his sanity and the system of thought in his theological papers is very coherent.

       Psychic ability

       There are three well known incidents of psychic ability reported about Swedenborg. The first was from July 29, 1759, when during a dinner in Gothenburg, he excitedly told the party at six o' clock that there was a fire in Stockholm (405 km away), that it consumed his neighbour's home and was threatening his own. Two hours later, he exclaimed with relief that the fire stopped three doors from his home. Two days later, reports confirmed every statement to the precise hour that Swedenborg first expressed the information.

       The second was in 1758 when Swedenborg visited Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden, who asked him to tell her something about her deceased brother Augustus William. The next day, Swedenborg whispered something in her ear that turned the Queen pale and she explained that this was something only she and her brother could know about.

       The third was a woman who had lost an important document, and came to Swedenborg asking if a recently deceased person could tell him where it was, which he was said to have done the following night.

Time travelling in China?

        Archaeologists excavating a Ming dynasty tomb have being astonished by the discovery of a watch ring with 'Swiss' engraved on the back and they claime that the site had not been disturbed since its creation four centuries ago. The clock displayed 10:06 AM.

        Watches, before 20th century, were mostly pocket watches, which often had covers and were carried in a pocket and attached to a watch chain. Watches evolved in the 1600s from spring powered clocks, which first appeared in the 1400s.

        The Ming Dynasty, or Empire of the Great Ming, ruled China from 1368 to 1644.

        "When we tried to remove the soil wrapped around the coffin, a piece of rock suddenly dropped off and hit the ground with a metallic sound," said Jiang Yanyu, a former curator of the Guangxi Autonomous Region Museum.

        "We picked up the object, and found it was a ring. After removing the covering soil and examining it further, we were shocked to see it was a watch."

        All works at the archaeological site are currently suspended and experts are expected to arrive from Beijing to help uncover the mystery.

Earthquake prediction based on animal behaviour

        Since 1970 Liaoning Province was considered by researchers as a high earthquake-prone area. In mid-January, 1975 population from the town of Heicheng (in the Liaoning Province) received from the authorities the warning of a earthquake and when the earthquake struck (February 4, 1975) with a magnitude of 7.3, the people of Haicheng already had left the city. The warning saved many lives and avoided a disaster of major proportions. Four other disastrous earthquakes were predicted by Chinese scientists during the 1975/76 period.

        Observations and research on unusual animal behavior can be used, combined with other methods, as a way of predicting considerable earthquakes. Bellow are presented examples of observed unusual animal behavior before major earthquakes occurred.

        Unusual Animal Behavior

        In 1920, an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.5 occurred in Haiyuan County, Ninghxia Province, China. Eyewitnesses stated that prior to this earthquake, wolves were seen running around in packs, dogs were barking unusually, and sparrows were flying around wildly.

        Prior to the 6.8 magnitude earthquake in 1966 in Hsingtai County, Hopei Province, in Northern China, all the dogs at a village near the epicenter had deserted their kennels and thus survived the disaster.

        Prior to the earthquake of July 18, 1969, (magnitude 7.4) in the Pohai Sea, unusual behavior was observed in seagulls, sharks, and five different species of fish.

        A warning was issued at the Tientsin People's Park Zoo, two hours before the earthquake struck, based on observations of unusual behavior of giant pandas, deer, yaks, loaches, tigers and other animals.

        A very unusual animal behavior was that of snakes that came out of hibernation and froze on the surface of the earth. Also a group of rats appeared. These events were succeeded by a swarm of earthquakes at the end of December 1974. During the following month, in January 1975, thousands of reports of unusual animal behavior were received. Local people saw hibernating snakes coming out from their holes and into the snow. In the first three days in February the activity intensified even more and unusual behavior of the larger animals such as cows, horses, dogs and pigs was reported. On February 4, 1975, an earthquake of magnitude 7.3 struck the Haicheng County, Liaoning Province.

        A stock breeder in northern China, feeding his animals before dawn on July 28, 1976, in the area of the Kaokechuang People's Commune, approximately 40 kilometers away from the city of Tangshan, said that his horses and mules instead of eating were jumping and kicking until they finally broke loose and ran outside. Seconds later, a white flash illuminated the sky and tremendous rumbling noises were heard as a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the Tangshan area.

        Unusual animal behavior included goats refusing to go into shelters; cats and dogs picking up their offspring and carrying them outdoors; pigs squealing strangely; chickens dashing out of the coops in the middle of the night; fish dashing about aimlessly; and birds leaving their nests. Zoo animals refused to go back into their shelters at night; snakes, lizards and small mammals left their underground nests; insects were seen in huge swarms near the seashores; cattle sought higher ground; domestic animals became agitated; wild birds left their usual habitats.

        The largest number of cases of unusual animal behavior precede the earthquake in the 24 hours before it strikes, but unusual behavior in rats, fish, and snakes were observed as early as three days prior to the earthquake and continuing to several hours, or even a few minutes before.

        A team of Chinese scientists including biologists, geophysicists, chemists, meteorologists, and biophysicists conducted a survey in the Tangshan area and in 400 communes in 48 counties around it after the 1976 earthquake. They visited a number of places that were hit by other destructive earthquakes and, through interviews and discussions with local people, collected information on over 2,000 cases of unusual animal behavior occurring prior to an earthquake. The majority of the reports involved domestic animals. Based on this survey a preliminary report was prepared by the Chinese identifying 58 kinds of domestic and wild animals that had demonstrated unusual behavior.

        The principal focus of research work in China has been on the behavior of pigeons. Biological studies on pigeons determined that a hundred tiny units exist between the tibia and fibula on a pigeon's leg. These nerve units are connected to the nerve center, and are very sensitive to vibrations. Scientists determined that prior to an earthquake of magnitude 4.0, which occurred in the area of the study, fifty pigeons that had severed connections between the tibia, fibula, and the nerve centers, remained calm before the earthquake, while those with normal connections became startled and flew away.

        Because of the success in monitoring unusual animal behavior for the prediction of certain earthquakes, the Chinese, who have pioneered this work, have looked into ways to construct instruments that would duplicate the sensory organs of animals which were able to monitor, and sense, stimuli preceding an earthquake. Electromagnetic changes in the earth prior to an earthquake may be sensed by such animals as sharks and catfish which have low or high frequency receptors and sense such changes actively or passively. Also such electromagnetic field changes could be affecting migrating birds and the navigational ability of fish.

Time Travel to the Future

        Time travel to the future is possible within the laws of physics. Travelling to the past seem less likely to be achieved according to physicists. But J Richard Gott III, a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, explores the physics of time travel and suggests that time travel to the past might be possible. 
        He also promoted his theory for how the Universe began - through a time loop that allowed it to create itself - and revealed how the Copernican Principle could be used to predict the likelihood of events as diverse as the fall of the Berlin Wall to the extinction of the human race.

        In his theory of past time travel Richard Gott sais that can visit the past but you cannot change it.
        If you want to see the past rather than visit it this is already possible. Because of the finite speed of light, when we look at a star 10 light years away we are seeing what it looks like 10 years ago because it takes the light and the image that long to travel back to us. Even looking in the mirror is seeing the past also due to the speed of light. If you are 5 feet in front of your mirror the image you receive is of yourself 10 nanoseconds ago.
        To visit the past means traveling faster than the speed of light and according to Einstein's theory of special relativity that is not possible.
        Gott sustains his own theory of "cosmic strings" and according to him the law of physics can be overstepped using Einstein's theory of curved space-time.

        Time travel to the future, let's say to the Earth 1,000 years from now could be possible if a person gets in a spaceship, travels to a star a bit less than 500 light years away and returns traveling both ways at 99.995% of the speed of light. When arriving to Earth that person would be 1,000 years older but he would have only aged 10 years. This is possible because time passes more slowly when traveling at such speeds. But there are huge technical barriers to overcome in achieving this scientific possibility. The Russian cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev who was in orbit a total of 748 days during three space flights, is about 1/50th of a second younger than he would be if he hadn't gone on those trips so he is really a time traveler. When he arrived home, he found the earth 1/50th of a second to the future of where he expected to find it.

        Predicting the Future

        Gott has discovered a way of predicting how long something you are observing is likely to last. The idea is based on the Copernican Principle - the idea that your location in time and place is not special. Gott discovered this idea in 1969 whilst looking at the Berlin Wall, which he correctly predicted (with 50% confidence) would have a future longevity of between 2-2/3 years and 24 years. If you observe something at a non-special or random time there is a 50% chance that it is in the middle two quarters of its period of existence. At one extreme the future will be three times as long as the past at the other extreme the future is one third as long as the past. There is a 50% chance you lie between these extremes so the future is between one third and 3 times as long as the past. Gott has refined this theory to ensure that the prediction is 95% reliable, the scientific standard, and has used it to predict everything from the future longevity of the human race (5,100 years ­ to 7.8 million years) to the future longevity of the New York Times (3.8 years ­ to 5,811 years).

Black Holes In Our Galaxy

        Astronomers suspect that hundreds of medium-sized black holes are roaming loose in the Milky Way galaxy. These blach holes are the orphaned central black holes of the many smaller galaxies that the Milky Way has swallowed over its billions of years of existence. If one of them is discovered, it could provide important clues about the evolution of our galaxy.

        Astronomers are convinced that each of the hundreds of billions of galaxies in the cosmos formed a massive or supermassive black hole at its center. Researchers also sustain the idea that when big galaxies collide - a relatively common event - their central black holes eventually merge. Some observational evidence supports this idea. Another similar theory is that galaxies often grow by absorbing smaller, satellite galaxies, such as the Large Magellanic Cloud, which orbits the Milky Way. This theory isn't yet supported by tangible evidence.

        Two researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts - theoretical astrophysicists Ryan O'Leary and Abraham Loeb - have proposed a way to detect evidence that a large galaxy - in this case, the Milky Way - has collided with a satellite galaxy. Using computer simulations they assumed that sometimes the central black hole of a dwarf galaxy might remain independent after a galactic collision.         The gravitational interaction between a supermassive black hole and a smaller galactic cousin can sometimes kick the smaller black hole out of the smaller galaxy's center - much as a black hole's intense gravity can sometimes produce huge jets of matter.
        The ejected black hole would not move fast enough to escape the galaxy's gravity entirely, but it would move faster than the background stars - something that makes it detectable, because it would also be dragging along a small cluster of surrounding stars.

        The ability of two interacting black holes to kick one out into space "is turning out to be an important process in a wide variety of astronomical settings," says the astronomer Christopher Mihos of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. "It gives the observers something to look for and the theorists something to keep scratching their heads over."

Baba Vanga

        Vanga (Bulgarian: Ванга) (31 January 1911 – 11 August 1996), born Vangelia Pandeva Dimitrova (Вангелия Пандева Димитрова), after marriage Vangelia Gushterova (Вангелия Гущерова) was a blind Bulgarian mystic, clairvoyant and herbalist who spent most of her life in the Rupite area in the Kozhuh mountains, Bulgaria. Many followers were convinced that she possessed paranormal abilities. She was buried in a churchyard of the Saint Petca Bulgarian Church in the Rupite region.
        Vanga lost her sight when she was 12. She was swept away by a mighty tornado (this claim has not been verified with meteorological records or other accounts from that time). She was found alive, covered with dirt and stones, with sand in her eyes.         She became blind because there were no many for all necessary operations.
        When she was 16 she helped her father find a sheep stolen from the flock providing a description of a yard where the animal was being hidden by the thieves, but only after she turned 30 her powers of foreseeing took shape.
        Vanga claimed that her extraordinary abilities helped her see creatures that were invisible for other people, but she couldn't clearly explain what were those creatures. She said that they gave her information about people and the distance and time didn't matter. According to Vanga, the life of everyone standing in front of her, was like a film to her, from birth till death. But she claimed not beeing able to change "what was written".
        It is said that she foretold the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Chernobyl disaster, Boris Yeltsin’s electoral victory, the date of Stalin’s death, the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk, Topalov’s victory in the world chess tournament and many other events that now we can say really happened.
        Sice childhood Vanga was believed to be a healer, but only through herbal medicines. According to her, people could heal themselves only by using herbs from the country they live in.
        She knew the precise date of her own death, and before that she had said that a 10-year-old blind girl living in France was to inherit her gift.
        It was well known that Vanga was close to the government of Todor Zhivkov. On several occasions she appeared on public TV with him and other high officials of the Communist Party. It has been alleged that Vanga used data gathered by the secret services to win the trust of her visitors, but there are no proofs regarding this suspicion.
        Skeptics say her prophecies were too ambiguous and that sooner or later, important events like the one she claimed to see in advance, will take place.
        Vanga had been rude to people whom she considered sinful. Their deeds were exposed before she sent them away.
        Followers think that Vanga intentionally might have hidden information, especially bad news, from the people. She said that she is not allowed to reveal certain facts to anybody.

        The Predictions
        “Horror, horror! The American brethren will fall after being attacked by the steel birds. The wolves will be howling in a bush, and innocent blood will be gushing.” (1989)
        The World Trade Center Towers in New York collapsed following terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 . The WTC Towers were called “Twins” or “Brothers.” The terrorists drove passenger planes –“the steel birds”- into the towers. “The bush” obviously relates to the name of the U.S. president at that time.

        “Numerous catastrophes and disasters will shake the world. The mentality of the people will change. They will be divided by their faith…” (date unknown)
        Bad times have arrived. Something is happening to the mentality of the people. 2005 tsunami took thousands of lives. Numerous terrorist attacks and ethnic riots also happened.

        “The trains will start flying in 2018. They will be powered by the Sun. Earth will take a rest since they will stop extracting oil.” (1960)
        Scientists plan to extract helium-3 from the lunar soil. The plans regarding helium production on the Moon were made public in 2006. Helium-3 is both a product of the solar activity and a fuel for nuclear reactors. Nuclear reactors will produce electricity to power “flying trains.”

        Vanga predicted the beginning of WWII, the perestroika in the USSR, the death of Princess Diana and even the sinking of the Kursk submarine.

        Other predictions made by Vanga:

2008 - Assassination attempts on four heads of states. Conflict in Indonesia. That becomes one of the causes for the start of WWIII.
2010 - The start of WWIII. The war will begin in November of 2010 and will end in October of 2014. Will start as a normal war, then will include usage of nuclear and chemical weapons.
2011 - Due to the radioactive showers in Northern Hemisphere - no animals or plants will be left. Muslims will begin chemical war against Europeans who are still alive.
2014 - Most of the people in this world will have skin cancer and skin related diseases. (as a result of chemical wars).
2016 - Europe is almost empty.
2018 - China becomes the new world power.
2023 - Earth’s orbit will change slightly
2025 - Europe is still barely populated
2028 - Development of a new energy source. (Probably controller thermonuclear reaction) Hunger slowly stops being a problem. Piloted spaceship to Venus deploys.
2033 - Polar ice caps melt. World ocean levels rise.
2043 - World economy is prosperous. Muslims are running Europe.
2046 - Any organs can be mass produced. Exchange of body organs becomes the favorite method of treatment.
2066 - During it’s attack on Rome (which is under control of the Muslims) U.S.A. uses a new method of weapons - has to do with climate change. Sharp freezing.
2076 - No class society (communism)
2084 - The rebirth of the nature.
2088 - New disease. - People are getting old in few seconds.
2097 - This disease is cured.
2100 - Man made Sun is lighting up the dark side of the planet Earth.
2111 - People become robots.
2123 - Wars between small countries. Big countries don’t get evolved.
2125 - In Hungry the signals from Space are received. (People will be reminded of Vanga again)
2130 - Colonies under water (advices from aliens)
2154 - Animals become half-humans.
2167 - New religion
2170 - Big drought.
2183 - Collony on Mars becomes nuclear nation and is asking for independence from the Earth. (same way as U.S. did from England)
2187 - Successfully two volcano eruptions are stopped.
2195 - Sea colonies are fully supplied with energy and food.
2196 - Full mixture between Asians and Europeans.
2201 - Thermonuclear reactions on the Sun slow down. Temperatures Drop.
2221 - In the search of Alien life, human beings engage with something very freighting.
2256 - Spaceship brings a freighting new disease into Earth.
2262 - Orbits of planets start to change progressively. Mars is under a threat of being hit by a comet.
2271 - Physic properties are calculated over, since they changed.
2273 - Mix of yellow, white, and black race. New race.
2279 - Energy out of nothing (probably from vacuum or black holes)
2288 - Travel through time. New contacts with the aliens.
2291 - Sun cools. Attempts to fire it up again are taken.
2296 - Bright flashes on the Sun. Force of gravity changes. Old space stations and satellites begin to fall
2299 - In France, there is a partisan uprising against Islam.
2302 - New important new laws and mysteries about the universe are uncovered.
2304 - The mystery of the Moon is uncovered.
2341 - Something frightening is closing in with Earth from the space.
2354 - Accident on one of the man made suns, will result in drought.
2371 - Mighty hunger.
2378 - New and fast growing race.
2480 - Two man made suns will collide. Earth is in the dark.
3005 - War on Mars. Trajectory of planets changes.
3010 - Comet will ram into the Moon. Around Earth there is a belt of rocks and dust.
3797 - By this time, everything living on Earth dies. But humans are able to put in the essentials for the beginning of a new life in a new star system.

        Vanga gave this advice:
        “Never take on the fools. They are not so dangerous as they seem, do not try to change them. Morons can do you more harm. They can do something that will cause quite a stir among all the people.”

Nicolaas van Rensburg

        Nicolaas van Rensburg (1862-1926)was born on the farm Rietkuil near Ottosdal, South Africa, on 30 August 1862. There he grew up with his brothers and sisters. As a small child he listened the stories from the Bible that his mother read to him.
        His knowledge of the Bible became very good. As a shepherd he even took the Bible with him to the veld to read about old Biblical figures and prophets. He showed prophetical powers from a young age. The most surprising fact about Nicolaas van Rensburg was that although he knew much about world events, he had never read a single newspaper in his life.
        His visions came to him in symbolic form and reminds one of Nostradamus, as well as the visions of John in Revelations in the Bible.
        The older he got, the more lonely he was. Many of his later visions were written down by his daughter, Mrs. Anna Badenhorst of Rietkuil. Nicolaas Pieter Johannes van Rensburg died at the age of 64, on 11 March 1926.
        He had over 700 visions about the future of South Africa and about other imporant events in the world. Nicolaas van Rensburg became a legend during his lifetime and was one of the most remarkable and controversial characters that ever lived in South Africa. Well-known generals of the Boer War, like De La Rey and Kemp, believed that he was a prophet, and statesmen like Generals Hertzog, Louis Botha and J.C. Smuts, had on more than one occasion witnessed - even in Parliament in 1916 - that Nicolaas van Rensburg's prophecies had come true during their lifetimes.
        After the 1914 Rebellion, he was sentenced to two years in prison by Judge Lang, who told him: "You eat too much meat at night. That is why you dream and see visions. But I tell you to keep your dreams and visions to yourself, or I will imprison you for the remainder of the War!"
        That night in his cell the old prophet said to a friend: "I feel sorry for him - I 'see' him being buried." Three days later Judge Lang suddenly passed away and was buried.
        Van Rensburg predicted the outcome of the Anglo-Boer War on 16 September 1899. He saw the outcame of the war one night in a vision: at first he saw swirling clouds which became more dense by the minute. He thought a storm was brewing, but then the clouds cleared, revealing a landscape before him. The next day he told his comrades that he had seen burning houses and women and children fleeing in terror. He saw many thousands of children dying in agony; everything going up in flames and he experienced all the heartbreak and pain, all the suffering he saw.
        After this, the strange visions increased, often he warned the Boer commandos against enemy forces and other visions that literally came true. His fellow Boers were convinced that he could see into the future and started to speak of "Siener van Rensburg", or "seer" and "the prophet". People believed in him as a prophet given to the Boer nation by God. He was never captured and survived the war.
        Already in 1911 he felt the next World War approaching.
        He predicted the rebellion of 1914 and the flu epidemic of 1918. He had visions of red dust clouds arising with the diggings of diamonds, the victory of the National Party 1924, the depression of 1930 - 32, the symbolic Ox wagon trek, and dozens of visions of events that would happen in the future without him being able to explain it. Van Rensburg also "foresaw enormous moral decay coming, first in Namibia, then in South Africa, and that the present struggle and divison among Afrikaners would go hand-in-hand with this decay".

        Prophecies from 1899 until his death in 1926:
- The outcome of the Boer War.
- The Great 'Flu epidemic of 1918.
- England's loss of all her colonies.
- Independence for Ireland.
- The atomic disaster at Chernobyl on April 26 1986.
- Lady Di's death The divorce and tragic death of "a beautiful English Lady in a car accident who would be mourned by the whole world."
- England will be struck by seven terrible plagues when World War 3 is at hand.
- Civil war in Bosnia.
- Dr. HF Verwoerd, former Prime Minister, will die at the hand of a close friend.
- The release of Nelson Mandela by ex-President FW de Klerk.
- The Necklace Murders by blacks against blacks
- South Africa will be governed by a black government.
- Japan will be destroyed by earthquakes.
- Ethnical violence in Russia and Europe
- Racial violence will explode worldwide at the turn of the century and start World War III, in which Germany and America will fight side by side.
- Laser weapons: some of his predictions in 1920 are about the Third and Final War at the beginning of the 21st century when the armies of the world will use what he called "terrible electrical rays that sow death and destruction from above and below, and soak the earth in blood".