WE’RE SOMETHING

Friday Flash 55 & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

PROF ISAAC GALISTEIN

Earth is an insignificant planet. Nothing special in the cosmos. Also,
mankind is nothing in universal terms. These simple facts should excite
us, ‘cos when you are nothing, it should be reason to be something.
This has fuelled advancement – bettering ourselves. Alternatively
being nothing can make you realize you’ll never be anything. This is
self-defeating and separates the men from the boys. When I look at
all the tech on the drawing board that could send us to the stars, and
the fact that we aren’t there, I ask: are we men or boys?

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

CRIME NEWS: Some prison governors
in UK think prison terms under a yr should
be scrapped. They don’t work. Well make them work!

BRIT NEWS: Labour to raise £16bn to help pay off deficit by asset
stripping. Parties are bidding for office. When’s the granny going?

SCI NEWS: Pill use over 40 yrs has put women off masculine men,
say scientists. That doesn’t explain why masculine men are rare.

TECH NEWS: Brit govt digital task force wants all online
by 2012. Can a situation ever come when this
is achieved? Will coercion be used?

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

One Single Impression
Sunday Scribblings – 3 Word Thursday

TO CONQUER TIME

We had to do it, it was our way,
If something’s to be done, we can’t go astray,
Knowledge demands that everything chimes,
And we’d learnt, at last, how to conquer time,
Create, for all, an eternal now,
Taking the ultimate temporal bow,
With all that had been at once, so plain,
Now we live knowing the universe is pain

FLASH 55 – CLOUD FLOATER
(Quilly’s word meanings below)

Sci Fi: They couldn’t get over the beauty of it as they watched. He
was nubivagant, graceful, tenellous, as if with wings. He seemed
surrounded by light and they knew he would be utible. Soon his flight
ended. And as he arrived on the slab in the flying saucer, the alien
smiled and picked up the probe.

tenellous – tender
nubivagant – moving thru clouds
utible – useful

SPAM

Spam is here, then it’s there,
Spam should make us all beware,
Of evolution in the raw,
Spreading like nature’s tooth and claw,
Filling environments like a weed,
Runaway capitalism’s holy creed

© Anthony North, October 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

KNOWLEDGE

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

PROF ISAAC GALISTEIN

I worry about knowledge today – mainly because much of it isn’t
knowledge at all. Rather, we have become information junkies,
erroneously thinking that holding such information is knowledge. Yet
true knowledge is what you do with the information. Knowledge is the
outcome of thought. Knowledge is taking this information and
producing awareness and wisdom. Knowledge, today, is simply
data-processing, as if we’ve become an appendage of the computer
rather than the other way round. The machines seem to be winning.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science to
religion, politics to crime

WORLD NEWS: A busy time for
world leaders. UN meet and then G20.
Dictats fly – Iran, you naughty country; bankers,
we’ve some hard words for you (he,he, titter the bankers).
Rumours of Obama snubbing UK. But, hey, he eventually cuddled my
own idiot Prime Minister. Yes, folks, Soap Operas are alive and well.

HEALTH NEWS: A researcher has suggested the high rate of
Dementia in the UK could be because of the Second
World War. In effect, stress in youth can
trigger the reaction in later life. An
interesting idea – and one
that further research
should be carried
out on.

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

Poetry Train
Heads or Tails – ReadWritePoem
Three Word Wednesday

PHOTO PROOF

I await the photo of absolute proof,
A subject that always remains aloof,
Image of the future of all,
By going right back to that energy ball,
Before it became all that is,
Brought to life by nuclear fizz …
Oh, what knowledge it would invoke,
Was it God or a cosmic joke?

MELT DOWN TIME

Sci Fi: They knew the time tunnel had reached melt down when the
periods began to merge. Was that a real Viking up on stage doing
hard rock? Was that a real pole dancer pinching Caesar from
Cleopatra? And when the Soap writer became Elizabethan, they
knew they’d never look upon Shakespeare in the same way again.

FUTURE ME?

Finding hope, so hard to do,
Things change, I must imbue,
A better course than my image so bland,
We’re building a future – but hell or grand?
I see my reflection before my eyes,
It’s so very easy to criticize,
Is it future me, no better than the past,
Or the me that’s gone, angst amassed?

AMBITION
(Updated 30 Sep 09)

I look to the future, what do I see?
So easily it could be ugly;
Ambitious species we certainly are,
Through arts and tech we could go far,
Conquering the Cosmos for one and all,
Incredible ideas continually enthrall,
And propel us onwards all the time,
But if we’re not together, it’s not worth a dime

© Anthony North, September 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

INFO-BOOKS

Booking Through Thursday
More prompts below

PROF ISAAC GALISTEIN

In trying to decide which is the most informative book I’ve read
recently I’ve drawn a complete blank. The reality is I delve into many
informative books every day. My bookshelves are brimming with
encyclopedias – not only two full sets, but encyclopedias on so many
different subjects. I guess I’m an information junkie.

If there’s something I don’t
know I want to know it.

And I have to say, a good reference library often remains a better
source of information than the internet. I’ve often wondered if my
thirst for information is an obsession. I suppose it is – maybe even a
way in which to grasp self-esteem. Though I counter this by pointing
out it is not a simple data-processing mentality. I collect information
in order to try to think things out – come up with ideas. But if this
mentality is an obsession, we’ve got to remember that most advances
come through this process. I guess that means the world is crazy.

Eye On the World
The ‘Y’ Files

GREEN NEWS: Scientists warn
that climate change may affect the
geology of the Earth, with melting ice and
increased rainfall causing earthquakes, eruptions,
erosion and tsunamis. I’m not quite sure it will be as bad
as that – we must always beware of doom mongers – but these
ideas must not be simply shelved, as I’m sure many would like.

BRIT NEWS: As positive signs of recovery begin to emerge, Labour
and the Tories square up for the battle of the spending
cuts. This is going to dominate politics for years -
which should make us think. Once recovery
comes, folks, it’s payback time! And
it isn’t going to be rosy.

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

One Single Impression
Sunday Scribblings – 3 Word Thursday

THIRST

Quench your thirst, it’s there for all,
Energy, power, let it enthrall,
Drive us on to conquer the world,
Oil and gas, let technology unfurl;
Never mind when it is gone,
We then begin the nuclear ones,
And when we advance we’ll capture a star,
Suck out its heat – we’ll go far

PLANET SIMPLE
(Quilly’s word meanings below)

Sci Fi: They were ready to panask, and cookie had prepared the
creature, ready to put it on the spit. They’d been on the planet for
nearly a month now and reached the phase where they were to try
living on what was available – after all, if it was to be colonized, this
is how it would be. Of course, it took some getting used to. There
was ice even in the heat of summer – not water-based, I must add –
and they had to be careful of stiricide. The one disappointment was
the lack of sentient life – after all, initial surveys from space had been
hopeful, with signs of construction, but it was obvious they’d have to
be ruricolous. It had been argued that maybe the primary species was
so advanced that mere humans would not understand their degree of
sentience. And as the creature was speared by the spit, it could only
agree.

ponask – cook game on a spit
stiricide – falling of icicles from a roof
ruricolous – living in the country

TATTOO

Tribal frenzy, know friend and kin,
Etch identity under the skin,
Time goes forward, sail the seas,
Pirates bring artwork, for many to please,
Sometimes stating the worst in cost,
Numbers, gas chambers, Holocaust,
Identity then forged through fashion and fad,
Artworked people feel so glad,
Finally the aliens come our way,
See tattooed tech planet – stay away

© Anthony North, September 2009

My good friends at The Self Love Project have given me this
award. I’d like to thank them for this. Much appreciated.

THE BIBLE

Booking Through Thursday
More prompts below

PROF ISAAC GALISTEIN

In deciding the biggest book I’ve read recently, I’d have to say The
Bible – both in size and popularity. Of course, I’ve been reading the
Bible for decades, and still often pick it up. Now, I’m not a practicing
Christian and I don’t have ‘faith’.

So why would I want to
read the Bible?

One reason is it seems to offer a system contrary to modern living.
This alone is enough to argue it SHOULD be read, ‘cos modern living
clearly holds problems that could be answered by contrary systems.
But in addition to this, I’m amazed by the ‘truth’ of the Bible. Now,
I’m not using truth in a literal sense, but the more I read, the more it
relates to human actions and ideosyncracies. And one final reason
concerns the mysteries of the Bible. Without faith I cannot accept
miracles, etc, as literal. But as a theorist of the unexplained, I’m well
aware that ideas can be put forward to validate what is there
written. Infact, I’ve never known a more complete book for
stimulating thought.

Eye On the World
The ‘Y’ Files

BRIT NEWS: Police are spending
thousands on consultants to teach
policemen how to Tweet. But why? So
they can keep an eye on demonstrators. This
is a disgrace on two counts – it isn’t rocket science
to learn; and when did ‘demonstrator’ automatically equate
with ‘criminal’?

HEALTH NEWS: Scientists claim genetic links to manic depression.
I’ve never been convinced that such illnesses are ‘nature’ as
opposed to ‘nurture’. I’m convinced there’s a third factor
– ‘culture’. Could a growing illness in a species be
‘copied’ in the genes as it is replicated among
a population? If so, behaviour eventually
becomes illness.

READ WITH MUMMY

The Magazine Post with a gentle hint of horror

One Single Impression
Sunday Scribblings – 3 Word Thursday

MIDNIGHT ROMANCE

Midnight tryst, secret bliss,
Lips meet, longed for kiss,
Taking us to another world,
Passions raised, in love with my girl;
So short these snatched delights,
In the shadows, dead of night;
To love …
Oh, if only I could have saved …
Her spirit dissolves – returns to grave

THE LOOP
(Quilly’s words meanings below)

Sci Fi: If we remember the pain can we avoid it? I ask because I’m
stuck in a time loop. I never realized at first – well, I say ‘first’, but
for all I know I could have been here for eternity. I passed the
oporopolist and old soldier with phalerae and thought nothing of it,
but when a glimpse of recognition came I wondered just what was
going on. Had I seen them before? And from the sadness on their
faces I thought I must have. Looking down and seeing my stibogram
only added to my feeling. After all, how could I leave footprints before
I’d walked there? The familiarity with the old soldier and fruit seller
increased the more I passed; and that’s when I began to notice my
future footprints were becoming more laboured, as if there was
something to dread ahead of me. And soon, of course, I began to
remember the pain I was about to suffer. But can I break a time loop?
I think I can. I don’t think I’ll be passing by here many more times
before I shoot myself dead.

Oporopolist – fruit seller
Stibogram – record of footprint
Phalerae – medallions

PSYKEY

Desolation!!! Just can’t see;
Problem – what IS the key?
Got to search, have to find,
Open the latch to inner mind,
Living nightmare, horrfic bane,
Weighed down by Marley’s chains;
Got to exorcise the fey,
Let the ghosties float away

© Anthony North, September 2009

THRILLER

Booking Through Thursday
More prompts below

PAPPA RAZZI

I love reading ‘lighter’ novels. A book should not always be an
intellectual process. They are also wonderful for just unwinding
and escaping. And my usual choice here is a good old adventure
thriller – romance for men.

Or is that boys?

The adventure thriller satisfies many a man’s urge to be the hero and
can return him to a more childlike state where the world is simply a
matter of good and evil and the good guy always gets the girl. My
favourite in the genre is Jack Higgins but I’ll read anything in this line.
So, my pistol is under my arm, the plane is over the target
(Parachute? Phah!!!) so goodbye – I’m off to save the woooorld …..

Eye On the World
The ‘Y’ Files

BRIT NEWS: Retired top civil
servants criticise Cabinet govt record
of New Labour. They shouldn’t have to. If it
was wrong – Cabinet responsibility was certainly
replaced by a Presidential style – they should have fought
to retain the Brit way. That’s what they were there for.

BRIT NEWS: A top cop warns Police must address public
concerns of mass CCTV coverage. This comes as
we find out they solve only 1 in a thousand
crimes. Just as I thought. It always was
about control. Get rid of them!!!

GREEN SCENE

Save the Planet – or you’ll be sorry!!

One Single Impression
Sunday Scribblings

BLUE

Feeling blue, can’t break the mood,
Blues in the background, sounds intrude,
Scream blue murder, no difference at all,
Even blue movies don’t enthrall;
Need a blueprint for my life,
I’m not a Bluebeard with many a wife,
Why do I beat myself black and blue?
Lay under blue skies – they’ll imbue

CODE BLUE

Fiction: The alert went off when the Angel of Death fluttered across a
Blue Moon. Its vapid presence terrified us. No! It would not happen
again! Visors fastened, assault rifles ready, we sprinted to the solar
battlecars, knowing what had to be done. As soon as we entered the
Zone we saw the effects of the Black Death. It almost choked the air.
Of course the Corporates tried their usual skirmishing tactics but we
penetrated deep, and there, before us, we found it – and a full
defensive system to stop us. The battle raged for hours, the
Corporates rushing us in their fanatical need to pollute. Some said we
had been caught in an unconscious hatred of ourselves. It seemed
the only way to explain it – why we lived with the Black Death all
those decades. But we turned back from the brink – began to fight,
driving them to their own little corner of the globe. But now they’ve
started again – this has got to be the end … Well, the battle was
won, the white foam covered the power station and I held a lump of
Black Death in my hand, sickened by how it so nearly destroyed us in
its liquid, solid and gaseous forms. But now we’d learnt and we left
it in the ground – and the haze left the moon to shine.

POET TREE

Rising up from the ground,
Branching out, nature’s sound,
Life thrives wherever they stand,
Vibrancy – oh, so grand,
Diversity’s mainstay is the tree,
Nature’s eternal poetry

© Anthony North, August 2009

THE FUTURE

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Have you had a go?

GURU TONY

The future hasn’t happened yet. We know that. We know it because
we live in the present. But of course, in reading it, this sentence has
now become the past. As for the next sentence, it’s in your future,
but I already know what it says, so has a little of the future entered
your present? I raise this point for an important reason. We think of
the future as divorced from the present, but the reality is, its seed is
sown now. If we realized this, the future could well be a better place.

Eye On the World
The ‘Y’ Files

BRIT NEWS: It seems
prisoners in police cells will
soon be given a questionnaire to
rate the ’services’ provided. They’ll be calling
them guests next. Sometimes I just wonder about my
country’s sanity.

UFO NEWS: The Ministry of Defence’s latest batch of released
UFO cases show how obsessed many are with UFOs. Yet,
if this is true, why are the media and science so
quiet on the issue? Surely, if there is a
mystery (no, I don’t think it’s ET)
they should be studying it.

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

Carry On Tuesday
Heads or Tails – ReadWritePoem

STEAM POWER

We went back to steam power when it was all done,
Lighting our habitat as bright as the sun,
Plenty of fuel, we sucked it right in,
Some said it’s costly – wages of sin,
But here in our space station, we just carry on,
Catching Earth’s air before it’s burnt up and gone

ANN LEE – AN ADAPTATION

Sci Fi: She lies in the road, injured, pained. Beautiful. I’m an EAP 700
series complete with advanced learning program. Sitting, I realize I
must learn from this girl – how she approaches death; how I perceive
she feels – how I feel. I study literature so this experience is new to
me … Her death takes many units, and as she dies I realize she is
more than words. Am I more than circuits? A line from Poe comes to
consciousness: ‘we loved with a love that was more than love.’ This
makes me feel … unusual. Can I? Can I … love? … More data required.
Search. Find. Inflict wound. Fatal. Slow. Sit. Watch … Death … … …
Insufficient data … … …

TOMORROW NEWS

Editor sits astride the world,
Watching over news unfurl,
War is wanted, he sends the troops,
He’s created celebrities wanting snoops;
He’s honed the media to what we are,
For news today we don’t go far,
We live within his media clutch,
Where troops and snoops don’t cost much

© Anthony North, August 2009

RATIONALISM

Including Sunday Scribblings and One Single Impression
Have you had a go yet?

PROF ISAAC GALISTEIN

I’ve got some unorthodox ideas and I’m always being told by some that
I ought to be more rational. Well, I think I am rational, applying reason
and logic in everything I think. So why don’t all those ‘rational’ people
get it? Well, I’ve never yet come across a branch of rationalism that
hasn’t got an agenda behind it. And it’s these agendas that tend to
get in the way of a wider knowledge. Hence, the rational thing would
be to accept your particular rationalism as part of the search for
knowledge, and not its entirety.

Eye On the World
The ‘Y’ Files

GREEN NEWS: Scientist at Imperial
College London are researching the leaf in
order to try to work out how to produce power by
photosynthesis. Such projects could be the key to our future
energy needs.

BRIT NEWS: Jobless approaches 2.5 million, a quarter of firms in
trouble over pensions. Why do I get the feeling this
Recession is going to change so much? Those
who think we can return to business as
usual are conning themselves.

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

COPSE SONG

Cut us down? Not a chance,
Don’t you realise we enhance,
Where you live, how you breath,
You wouldn’t cope without our leaves,
So go away with your saws,
We’ll send our wasp cops to lay the laws,
You need a copse wherever you go,
Or corpses you’ll be – to help us grow

THE ENEMY

Sci Fi: They had been attacking Earth for decades when it was
realised where they had come from. ‘They are born from our own
minds,’ the scientist confirmed. Which left the question: why? It was
the philosopher who provided the answer: ‘Once we had come to
peace with ourselves as a species, a new exterior demon simply had
to come – for without a threat, we do not evolve.’ So they thought
the enemy out of existence, no longer afraid, and were living in caves
within the century.

SCI FI DINNER

Oh, the five Star Trek captains simply had to come,
Without them it would be no fun,
Han Solo and Skywalker, they arrived too,
Tired and hungry, ready for stew,
I was in charge of this fantasy,
The perfect host, pouring the tea,
So after the meal they were still being fed,
And I’m not letting them out ’til my stories are read

© Anthony North, August 2009

GREEN BITS

Three pieces for One Single Impression
Have you had a go?

GREEN SCENE

Save the Planet – or you’ll be sorry!!

LOOK NO HANDS

I’ve got no hands, can’t do much,
Just hang around, as such,
Having fun with what I do,
Often having a joke on you,
If I’d had hands you’d know your place,
Dolphin tech wouldn’t be a disgrace

GHOST SHIPS

Fiction: They didn’t normally sail this far from the island. They knew
the risks – after all, they were survivors. The ocean could be volatile
from time to time, but they had respect for the waters – their
mythologies made sure of that – and, of course, fear of the ghost
ships. They began fishing – not taking too much – only what was
needed. Balance was so important, since the … Well – you know.
Since the technology went mad and the waters rose. They were
about to call it a day when they saw it on the horizon. It grew,
quickly, to a tremendous size, and they knew immediately it was a
ghost ship. Indeed, it was hoped its power would be exhausted by
now. It was as it sailed by they noticed the name, USS Nimitz; a
potent reminder of their destructive past.

OCEAN SPEAKS

I’m the ocean, hear me speak,
I’m polluted – way past my peak,
Slimy residue of your life,
Is causing me so much strife,
But you really are silly fools,
Forgetting nature’s golden rule,
That what you put in … well, enough said;
Take shelter!!!
It’s raining down upon your head

© Anthony North, August 2009

STRANGER

Find current affairs & prompts below.

PAPPA RAZZI

The Stranger
(Take One)

The Stranger is an important archetype. He inhabits our deep psyche,
and is a part of the heroism within ourselves. He is our dream of going
out into the world, doing good, and then simply moving on. He is
usually subsumed by our Ego, who needs a reward, but he is alive in
culture. From James Bond to Doctor Who, he is our ultimate fantasy
hero. And he is so successful because he is what men dream of being.

My Columnists
The ‘Y’ Files

Inde-Pol

BRIT NEWS: City watchdog says we
will have to work until we’re 70 to get
decent pension. Sorry, decent pension is a
dream we can’t afford. When will we realise this?

HEALTH NEWS: Swine flu no longer containable. In UK 100,000
cases a day by Aug most gloomy prediction. But still mild in
most cases.

WORLD NEWS: Bloggers and Govts working as one? It
seems pressure from the two spheres are making
China relent on internet censorship. Shocked
all round.

One Single Impression
Sunday Scribblings

HUMAN

Sci Fi: ‘So you have your report?’ asked the Director of Galactic
Misdemeanour. ‘I have,’ replied the Investigator. ‘The species is
Human, planet Earth. Typical evolutionary path. Reached globally
calamitous tech levels rather quickly, spurred on by a series of
ideologies and inter-species hatreds. The destructive path always
seems to provide the better tech. Descended into trivia-based
mass capitalism as expected, and accelerated climate change,
with the double problems of tech-based medications accelerating
viral evolution, and chemical use reducing sperm count.’ The
director sat back: ‘Classic self-hate syndrome.’ He sighed. When
will these lower species learn, he wondered, looking again
at the fossil.

STRANGER
(Take Two)

The stranger comes, who is he?
He’s going to change your destiny,
Stranger – how things now occur,
Nothing the same, all a blur,
Stranger, stranger all you do,
For good or bad, it’s life anew

© Anthony North, July 2009

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THEY’VE GOTCHA

Find current affairs & prompt below.

Anyone who has survived a cult can testify to the
power a guru holds over them. Families have temporarily
lost a member, and cult de-programmers are aware of
the difficulties of banishing cultish thoughts from the
person being recovered.

How does the guru do it? What power does he exert over the person? Is it really ‘brain-washing’? Perhaps one way is for the guru to show the future disciple he has authority. Stanley Milgram showed how easy this is in the 1960s.
In Milgram’s infamous experiment an actor was rigged to a fake electric chair. Students were told to turn up the power as part of an experiment, the actor squealing in kind. Some would have delivered enough power to kill him.
It is accepted that these otherwise non-violent students did as they were told because they accepted the authority of the experimenter. Their moral objections were therefore overcome and they became obedient.
Another obvious power a guru exerts is an over-powering charisma – an ability to ‘seduce’ the person into compliance. We can actually see such a process in action quite often. It is achieved by stage hypnotists in their act.
Some people can become natural hypnotists. They are usually those who are so sure of themselves that a similar authority to Milgram is achieved; especially when the person to be hooked is searching for something to believe in.
In one way, we can say that a person’s individuality is transferred to a higher authority in such instances. The social processes involved were described by the sociologist Elias Canetti, who studied crowds and the power people and symbols can have over them.
Calling such focal points ‘crowd crystals’, Canetti studied all forms of crowd, including riots, where individuality seems to be submerged below a ‘group’ entity. With such powers over the person, it is hardly surprising we use the term ‘brain-washing.’

First posted: Dec 08

Inde-Pol

BRIT NEWS: Survey: two thirds of
teenagers don’t believe in God and think
reality TV is important. Whatever main media
says, kids will believe.

BRIT NEWS: 13.5 million working days lost due to stress. When
will govt/Big Biz wake up to the fact the system in inhuman.
We’re not cogs.

BRIT NEWS: Govt survey says 3 out of 4 Brits
think police have let them down. Time to
forget social engineering and get
back to policing.

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

One Single Impression

BLUE RAIN
(Take 1)

The music played, electronic haze,
The festival buzzed, crowd amazed,
The rain, it came, it was blue,
Pixies danced, all so true,
Demons arrived and swallowed the crowd,
None of them were now so proud,
Narcotics police arrived in vain,
They’d all taken that damned Blue Rain

BLUE RAIN
(Take 2 – a rewrite)

Sci Fi: It was the first Earth-like planet they had found. At least,
how Earth had once been. Nature proliferated here. It was a jewel,
and the crew were ecstatic. They had really found paradise. Yet, as
one crewman found out, paradise held dangers. The branch just fell
from nowhere. He was rushed to sickbay, leaving a pool of blood on
the ground. Later, clouds gathered, and when the rain came it was
fierce. But when it turned blue, they began to fear the rain. And as it
became acidic and burnt their skin, they raced back to the ship. It
took just an hour to realise the rain was only over them – and it was
burning through their hull. They took off after that, never to return,
and on the planet the ants removed all trace of the blood.

BLUE RAIN
(Take 3)

The rain comes down, an ozone hue,
Death ray, bombardment, all is blue,
Wiping them out, they stand no chance,
Nowhere to go, can’t enhance

He smiles as he fires again,
His rays causing them much, much pain,
No mercy here, he’s the big player,
Radiotherapist, cancer slayer

© Anthony North, June 2009

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