Let me go through this a bit at a time. At the end, you'll be totally convinced that Nostradamus predicted the rise of the Lab6 age! Either that, or you'll be convinced already, simply because of our MIGHTY qualifications. One way or the other, you're probably the kind of idiot (person) that will believe anything we tell you.
Sitting at night in secret study,
Alone placed on the brass tripod:
A slight flame comes out of the emptiness,
Makes successful that which should not be believed in vain.
This one is easy to link. You'd think Nossy was there himself!
Sitting at night in secret study,
This is obviously in reference to anybody who actually did homework not wanted to actually admit to doing it. Hence, 'secret'.
Alone placed on the brass tripod:
Well this could be anything. All manner of things were placed on top of tripods (they may have been brass under all that skank), but the tripods weren't the reason they were placed there - it was the bunsen:
A slight flame comes out of the emptiness,
A bunsen tube is empty, until the gas starts coming out, and even then it appears empty, so somebody seeing it in a vision would have no way of knowing it was on, especially somebody seeing it in a vision in the 16th century. And, quite rightly, a flame comes out.
Makes successful that which should not be believed in vain.
And finally the part that makes all the predictions so great (from the point of view of being interpretable to mean anything). I have no idea what this means, but it could be that the flame makes something burn, and can even make something burn that you didn't think would burn - something that regularly happened.
The wand in the hand is placed in the middle of
the tripod's legs
With water he sprinkles both the hem of his garment and his
foot:
A fear and voice trembling in his robes:
Divine splendour. The god sits nearby.
The wand in the hand is placed in the middle of the tripod's legs
How blindingly obvious. The wand he speaks of is the lit splint that is placed above the bunsen ("in the middle of the tripod's legs") to light it!
With water he sprinkles both the hem of his garment and his foot:
Hmmm... well ethanol looks exactly like water to the untrained eye (and as far as knowledge of volatile petrochemicals is concerned, Nossy can be considered as untrained as most), and we certainly spent a good amount of time in ethanol fights, not to mention all the ethanol trails we left all over the floor ("his foot"), and we probably had some on our clothes (our "garment"). This could, of course be interpreted to mean His foot, the Him refering to Jimmé himself, as I believe some of the ethanol trails went under His desk, (near "his foot").
A fear and voice trembling in his robes:
Jimmé must at some point have been scared of all the fire, and the kind of clothes he wears are so decrepitly out of fashion that they may well be considered robes. Also, perhaps "voice" refers to the creation of the Sounds of Jimmé!
Divine splendour. The god sits nearby.
Divine means "holy", and we're a hesiodical theogony, aren't we? And Holy things shine... perhaps Nossy saw the Mag experiment. Quite which god this is meant to be is unclear. Perhaps it means that God is in all of us, but we COULD HAVE GUESSED THAT, EH? The God of Fire? The God of Hellfire? As in Prodigy? As in Elite ;-) Or perhaps the God of Classroom Acrobatics.
When the litters are overturned by the
whirlwind,
And faces are covered by their cloaks,
The republic will be troubled by new people,
At this time the whites and the reds will rule wrongly.
When the litters are overturned by the whirlwind,
Wind often picks up litter in little whirlwinds, and we all know of the connection between litter and Wilheim HIMSELF! And perhaps it means the bins will fall over, which I can easily imagine happening.
And faces are covered by their cloaks,
Obviously, this means it's wintertime, since you cover your face when there's a storm/it's hailing/it's snowing/it's the end of the world.
The republic will be troubled by new people,
Could mean the Republic of Ireland, although since there are approximately 207 different republics in the world, it'd be presumptuous to settle for that, eh? And besides, Nossy was only interested in predicting Lab6 stuff, so this must mean the Republic of the Languages Faculty. Gerry Nicholls, the self professed liberator of "all things French" has striking a similarity to Gerry Adams. So hey! Ireland was right! As for the new people, perhaps this means a new Year 9, which we were. In Year 9.
At this time the whites and the reds will rule wrongly.
Since everything was in black and white back then (at least, it was under that huge cloak), there was no way to distinguish between white & red and, say, brown and camel. And they certainly do rule wrongly.
In the universe there will be made a king,
Who will have little peace and a short life:
At this time the ship of the Papacy will be lost,
Governed to its greatest detriment.
Hmm... next?
They will be driven away for a long drawn out
fight,
By the countries they will be more heavily burdened:
Town and city will have greater struggle,
Carcas. Narbonne will have their hearts tried.
They will be driven away for a long drawn out fight,
I have no doubt that this referse to Sports Day. We're all forced to go and sit out in the baking sun watching a load of people run around the track. And the tug of war is a fight if nothing else.
By the countries they will be more heavily burdened:
I think he means "by the houses", as the references to "town and city" will confirm in the next sentence. And we know we compete in houses, now, don't we? And due to an eternal drought of house activities, they do nothing but burden us.
Town and city will have greater struggle,
Very good. He predicted the struggle between the LEA and the grant maintained status.
Carcas. Narbonne will have their hearts tried.
He wrote them in French, you know? The school was, after all, fighting the New Labour methods for the carcass of Tory educational policy. Perhaps Narbonne is refering to Carbon, a substance commonly found after burnage. More probable, is that "Narbonne" is an anagram of "Robe'? Nnna!", which could be prophetish for "Roberts? Nahh!"
The eye of Ravenna will be forsaken,
When his wings will fail at his feet:
The two of Bresse will have made a constition,
Turin, Vercelli which the Gallic people will trample
underfoot.
Erm... a little help here?
Arrived too late the execution has been
done,
The wind was against them letters intercepted on their way:
The conspirators were fourteen (XIIIJ) of a sect,
By Rousseau shall these enterprises be undertaken.
Arrived too late the execution has been done,
Once again, spot on. Jimmé returned from his illness in the Spring term of Year 10, just a few weeks too late: the damage had already been done - just a few weeks with Frake had converted us into the Lab6 Crew you see today.
The wind was against them, letters intercepted on their way:
It was always against us. How were we meant to get the grades ("letters") with such a huge force of incompetance pushing the other way?
The conspirators were fourteen (XIIIJ) of a sect,
And what age were we? Take a guess! Also, the tertiary dis location is Lab 14. Were we of a sect? Well, some of us were...
By Rousseau shall these enterprises be undertaken.
Whatever Rousseau means (anybody?), it's obvious that it's the person who saved us from getting straight U grades. Who was that? Richard Parsons, our saviour in Chemistry! The author of the revision books that saved most of us. Richard=Rousseau? If you pronounce the "ss" in Rousseau as a "sh", then say it in a French accent, it sounds like Richard. Our "enterprises" to fail were "undertaken" by our ability to revise effectively. Alternatively, perhaps it is in reference to Young Enterprise? THE EVIDENCE GROWS.
How often will you be captured alone;
Changing laws that are barbaric and vain:
Bad times approach you. No longer will you be enslaved,
The great Hadrie will revive your veins.
How often will you be captured alone;
How often are you caught out alone? There is safety in numbers, and doing a desk stand on your own is one way to get caught out.
Changing laws that are barbaric and vain:
We try continuously to change the rules (or even to get a copy of them). Why? Because they're barbaric and vain.
Bad times approach you. No longer will you be enslaved,
Another good one. We're about to leave compulsory education, so we are no longer enslaved. However, does this mean we will not enjoy it? Why should this kind of freedom be a good thing?
The great Hadrie will revive your veins.
Hadrie? Who's he? Or she? Or what? We'll be revived from the bad times by this person/thing. It's probably university, so Hedrie could be a reference to Hadrians Wall - we're going to Uni in Scotland!
From the Orient will come the African heart
To trouble Hadrie, and the heirs of Romulus,
Accompanied by the Libyan fleet,
(The) temples of Malta and nearby islands (shall be) deserted.
Bah. Nearby islands perhaps?
A snake is put into the vault of iron,
Where seven children of the King are held:
The old and ancestors will come forth from the depths of
hell,
But in contrary lamenting to see thus dead the fruit of their
line.
A snake is put into the vault of iron,
Vault of Iron? I always figured they had a huge strongbox somewhere (in order for missing keys to remain 'missing' indefinitely), perhaps miles underground.
Where seven children of the King are held:
The King, in this case, is Wilheim. His pupils are his "children". Perhaps the vault of iron is detention. The snake, in that case, could be anything that stirs up a detention, like a whiff of free air.
The old and ancestors will come forth from the depths of hell,
Aaargh! The dead will rise...
But in contrary lamenting to see thus dead the fruit of their line.
...and go back again because Dead Magazine isn't avaiLable up here. They came up from the dead, but their great grandchildren (etc.) are dead. Mind you, if they're old, they probably can't remember whether they had any children or not, so their opinion can, and will, be discounted.
More coming soon (there are 990 to go, if you don't count the missing ones. Which we do), according to time/botherment ratios. In the meantime, I suggest you buy a copy of the Watchtower and circle all the ¤'s.
Remember, no reference materials were used for this whatsoever (except the original French Quatrains), so errors are likely to be massive and numerous, yet highly entertaining.