From the 1961 edition of the Centuries of Nostradamus, as prepared by Edgar Leoni (and reprinted in 1982), we find two quatrains which seem to contain warnings for this very day and age, in a series of dire prophecies --

Century II, Number 43:

During the appearance of the bearded star,
The three great princes will be made enemies:
Struck from the sky, peace earth quaking,
Po, Tiber overflowing, serpent placed upon the shore.

Unlike many of his most famous quatrains, this one contains no words taken from Provencal, Hebrew, or the Greek, and no obvious anagrams. Writing from the experience of a man who lived in the mid-1500s, Michel de Nostredame would tend to identify as princes those people who are, actually, princes. But in this context it probably means three great young leaders. There have certainly been a substantial number of earthquakes in recent days, but none which could cause the Po or the Tiber (given as Tymbre), to surge over their banks. The following quatrain is one of the the most famous and also one of the most difficult to interpret:

Century II, Number 46:

After great trouble for humanity, a greater one is prepared
The Great Mover renews the ages:

Rain, blood, milk, famine, steel and plague,
In the heavens fire seen, a long spark running.

Again, there are no anagrams in this prophecy, no words obviously taken from the ancient Greek or Latin, no mysterious ladies.

But, in the news for the last year, have been the torrential rains which drowned the crops in southern Africa (Mozambique), and flooding in those parts of Europe that Nostradamus would have known: problems with blood being contaminated, new questions about milk containing antibiotics and hormones, the renewed threat of famine in Ethiopia, actual famine in Sudan, and finally - "steel and plague." Or, more expansively, weapons of war and plague, which defines the fighting in Sierra Leone, or the Congo, and coming soon to a farm in Zimbabwe (unless the white farmers there all just decide to commit suicide).

Prior to the Second World War, this prophecy and others like it were used both by pro-Hitler and anti-fascist propaganda agents.

The Hollywood aristocracy of the 1940s was exceptionally proficient in re-interpreting the Centuries, preparing "short subjects" or ten to twelve minute films, which ran in all of the major theaters as part of their regular presentations. For the price of twenty-five or fifty cents, the movie patron could see a cartoon, a short subject and a feature-length movie.

Turner Classic Movie channel, which is available on cable TV in many towns and cities, often runs these vintage old war-time short subjects. The emotional power of these films cannot be disputed, and there were dozens of prominent magazine articles and books written about Nostradamus in the late 1930's and early 1940s. Then, after the war, the government and its minions in Hollywood just put those films into hibernation and the physician was all but forgotten: until the coming of the Gulf War.

In fact, Numbers 43 through 47 in Century II all seem to cover the same general subject, as number 47 refers to "Stones raining, hidden under the fleece," and the whole section relates actions in some great new war. Scientists have established that there are and have been "rains of frogs," but even a tornado doesn't cause a rain of stones. No one has ever successfully interpreted that particular quatrain (#46), and it is not definite that the one following is a pair to it or a match. But they all do seem to be related. One wonders how much worse of a calamity could befall this human race, after the events of World War I (or, part one of The War For Greater Serbia), which include the Russian Revolution, the death of the Romanovs, and the influenza epidemic of 1919. Perhaps we are about to find out.