Only 3068 more years until the end of the world!

Ignore the Mayans. They're outdated.

Instead, let's all take a closer look at Baba Vanga and her miraculously specific predictions for the rest of humanity. Baba Vanga was Bulgarian clairvoyant and herbalist. She was lived from 1911 - 1996. Baba was blinded in a childhood accident, and it was then that she also claimed to have received her "gift" or seeing the future. She claims to have predicted the total history of the world from the mid-90's all the way to 5079, her predicted date for the end of the world.

It's worth taking a look at. If not for pure interest, then for the chuckle you get from some of her more... quirky predictions, such as "2291 – The sun cools. Attempts were being made to light it again." or of course "4599 – People achieve immortality."

Some of her predictions, such as the ones about feuding countries, or war, seem very realistic, and in fact logical as well. However, her predictions are laced with absolutely ridiculously impossible ones, like "2164 – Animals turn half-human." That simply can not happen. Evolution takes millions of years, not 150. The thing is, that despite these cooky predictions, they can almost be discounted because of the harsh reality of the other ones she made. Here are a few of the ones that seem eerily real to me for numerous reasons. Remember, she made these in the late 1900's, shortly before her death. At this time, technology was not nearly where it is today, so these predictions are made all the more astonishing.


2010 – World War III. War will begin in November 2010 and end in October 2014. Will begin as usual, then nuclear will be used initially, and then chemical weapons.
2011 – As a result of the fallout of nuclear fallout in the northern hemisphere will not be any animals or vegetation. Then Muslims will wage war against chemical surviving Europeans.
2014 – Most people will suffer skin cancer and other skin diseases (a consequence of chemical warfare).
2016 – Europe almost lonely (empty).
2018 – New China becomes a world power. Developing countries in turn operated from exploiters.
2023 – A little bit of change in the Earth’s orbit.
2025 – Europe still little settled.
2028 – Creating a new energy source (probably a controlled thermonuclear reaction). Hunger is gradually being overcome. Launched a manned spacecraft to Venus.
2033 – The polar ice are melting. Greater levels of the oceans.
2043 – The world economy is thriving. In Europe, Muslims rule.

These predictions, especially the first one about how World War III begins in November 2010, isn't as far-fetched as many think. Sure, it's now December, and we're all safe and sound. However, the foundation for war was partially laid in November. Remember the North Korean artillery bombardment on South Korea, not to mention the countless nuclear weapons at their disposal? The transition from normal weapons to nuclear to chemical is also a very natural progression of things, and one that I'm shocked was made in the 1900's and to such accuracy. The following predictions are also all very realistic. Skin cancer is of course a viable result of chemical/nuclear warfare. China is already on the path to become a world power. Thermonuclear technology (creating an artificial sun) has been in the works for the recent years, but science has been unable to provide a way to sustain a stable source of it. The polar ice levels melting is also becoming a growing problem. As for the Muslims, they are growing faster and faster every single day and I do believe they could overtake all other religions in a short time.

Her predictions after that point of 2043 seem more far-fetched to me. But, then again, if you told me 10 years ago that all the information in the world would be available online, or that technology to watch television in high quality 3-Dimensional projection would be available to the masses, I would have said you were crazy. Maybe her future predictions seem strange now, but in the future, they will be just a normal part of life.

Teacher attempts "Pencil Ban"

In North Brookfield elementary school, Massachusetts, a lonely teacher began a crusade to stop the rash of recent pencil and pen killings in her classroom by banning them altogether. Okay, everything except for the "killings" part is true. Wendy Scott, a seemingly paranoid schoolteacher, sent home a letter that read:

"Students will no longer be allowed to bring writing implements to school. Pencils will be provided for students in class and any students caught with pencils or pens after Nov. 15 will face disciplinary action for having materials to build weapons."

Seems like Wendy's been having suspicions of an impending revolt by her 6th grade Math class. Any day now, they'll strike back by flinging semi-sharpened 5gram pencils at her, or maybe *gasp* viciously attacking her with a ballpoint pen.

Let's be honest here, any student that's sick enough to want to attack or kill another student or teacher in their class, will bring a knife to school. They wouldn't use a little pencil to do it. Banning pencils won't do anyone any good. How else are they supposed to learn? They're in elementary school, so half of them don't have laptops anyways. This teacher needs to smarten up and stop being so paranoid.

Any more of these stupid pencil banning letters home, and her students really will plan a revolt!

Hyper Parents: Doing everything but the wiping for their kids.

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/Doc_Zone/1242299559/ID=1405930535

In a video done by CBC, they examined the effects that "Hyper Parenting" is having on our generation, or "Generation Y". They state that our parents are coddling us too much. They are doing too much for us. Seems rather contradictory, since the widespread belief was that the more your parents did for your well-being, the better off you would be. However, it's when parents end up going overboard on trying to help us in our lives, that they end up actually causing the most harm.

It's the gymnastic classes before the baby can even walk, let alone balance on thin boards. It's the $4000 party for the baby's first birthday, complete with a professionally designed and made cake, as well as over 40 guests at a rented out hall. It's the GPS-locators being placed in school bags. The Cell-spy and Internet-spy, to keep tabs on your child's activities at all times. This sounds like an overlord, not a parent.

One part of the video that really got my attention was when someone stated that parenting has become a "cross between competitive sports and product development." When raising a child becomes developing a product, that's where I draw the line. A child is someone to instill the good values that you learned and were taught throughout your life. If you treat your child like an product, constantly trying to improve it with everything you can think of, with no regards to what's actually best for the child, then you are an unfit parent. Too much stress will be on the child, and this stress is detrimental to natural development.

In my opinion, you should never solve your child's problems, or try to improve them through your own doing. Instead, simply help your child to discover how it is he can solve his own problem. In doing so, the child will learn problem solving skills, and in the process, he has improved himself! Hardly magic, as this has been the method of choice for our grandparents, and generations before them. In this day and age though, too many new parents think that if they solve their child's problems for them all the time, then their child will be happier and better for it. What they neglect to realize is that once their child matures and goes out on their own... noone will solve their problems for them.

It's gotten to the point where parents enroll their children in specialized early reading classes, in hopes that others will teach their students how to read earlier than their peers. While many see this as a positive thing, it has an underlying nastiness to it that isn't always apparent. From my own experience, I know that the best way to learn something is to experience it yourself. While these reading classes are drilling the words and pronunciations into young minds, these young minds might not be very receptive to wanting to learn the words. I am a very good reader, and always was, because I wanted to learn. How is this possible? I'm not even a book-lover, and in fact I picked up very few books when I was young. Instead, I learned to read by playing video games. Back when I was 3 or 4 years old, I played a game system where all the dialogue was written. I wanted to understand what I was playing and doing in the game, so whenever words came up, I called my mother into the room. She'd help me read and pronounce the words correctly, and when I asked what each word meant, she told me. By the end of the game I could read like a pro, because throughout the whole process, I really wanted to learn!

This all just goes to show, that while failure at a young age can be prevented through protective, hyper-parenting, self-motivation can eliminate circumstances where failure happens for the rest of their lives. Just let kids be kids, and help them when they ask for it. Other than that, I think we'll be just fine.