Will & Kate Plan Move to Kensington

From The Daily Beast here.

Could this be another hint that Will and Kate may be expanding their family? The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will make Kensington Palace their permanent London home, with Prince Harry joining them when they make the move in two years. They will take over the apartment where Princess Margaret once lived, a five-bedroom home with three reception rooms described by royal aides to be "the size of a terraced London house." Renovation on the apartment will begin in September 2012, and the couple is expected to move in sometime in 2013 after William finishes his duties as a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot in Anglesey, North Wales. The newlyweds currently split their time between their farmhouse in Anglesey and a one-bedroom apartment at St. James's Palace in London.

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Wikipedia article on Kensington Palace here.

History of the Euro

Dentist buys John Lennon's tooth

Also from the BBC here.

A Canadian dentist has bought one of John Lennon's teeth for £19,500 [$31,200] at an auction in Stockport.

Alberta-based Michael Zuk bid by phone to secure the molar given by the former Beatle to his house keeper Dot Jarlett, who worked for him in the 1960s.

The tooth was from a collection of rock memorabilia owned by Alan McGee, former boss of Oasis's label Creation Records.

Other items being sold included oil paintings from John Squire of the Stone Roses and gifts from politicians.

Mr Zuk, who has written a book on celebrities' teeth, said: "Once I heard it was up for sale I had to have it."

He plans to display the tooth in his surgery as well as take it on a tour of other dental surgeries and dental schools.

"Some people will think its [sic] gross, others will be fascinated by it," he added. . . .

"John Lennon came back from the dentist and gave it to his housekeeper and said to dispose of it 'or better still give it to your daughter as a souvenir'."

(Apparently dentists are not addressed as "Dr" in the UK.)

More at CNN here.

Signs of ageing halted in the lab

(Before receiving the drug)

From the BBC here.

The onset of wrinkles, muscle wasting and cataracts has been delayed and even eliminated in mice, say researchers in the US.

It was done by "flushing out" retired cells that had stopped dividing. They accumulate naturally with age.

The scientists believe their findings could eventually "really have an impact" in the care of the elderly.

Experts said the results were "fascinating", but should be taken with a bit of caution.

The study, published in Nature, focused on what are known as "senescent cells". They stop dividing into new cells and have an important role in preventing tumours from progressing.

These cells are cleared out by the immune system, but their numbers build up with time. The researchers estimated that around 10% of cells are senescent in very old people. . . .

Sunday afternoon

I'd forgotten about the time change last night. Clocks and watch have been re-set to computer time.

The VCR/DVD recorder has been extricated from the TV/cable box (and the TV still works!). I cleaned it up and bagged it, along with the cables, instructions and remote control. I'll take that over to E.'s place tomorrow.

Later personal - a bit annoyed

E. just called. He was home from work. Had a busy night. Was tired. (I'd eaten dinner there earlier tonight - a delicious spicy crab cake, etc.)

I think around the time of his move into the new place, I'd promised to give E. my four-year-old DVD Recorder / VCR Combo, which I never use. He'd asked me to bring it over on Monday, the night I got him online with AT&T. I had looked in back of the TV and seen all the colorful connections between the recorder and the cable box (and even snapped the picture below and emailed it to him so he could see what a mess it was), and told him that unhooking the recorder would have to wait for another day. (As it was, I barely had enough time to get him online that night, considering I started working on it after I'd gotten home from work and couldn't stay out late since I had to get up and go to work the next day.)

When he just called and I told him I was making of list of things to learn on the computer for Monday, he again brought up the DVD recorder. It kind of ticked me off. I thought, what's up with that - he has a deluxe cable package as it is (as I saw online at Comcast today). I told him he pays twice as much for cable as I do, that I'd teach him how to watch TV shows on his computer, and not to make the DVD recorder a priority (but said that tomorrow I'd look into disconnecting it, which I will). (Maybe he's accustomed to having use of a DVD recorder at the BF's.)

He must have sensed that I was annoyed. But seriously, with the cable package he has - and with the new computer he's started using to go online - he's certainly got enough stuff to keep himself entertained until I get around to disconnecting the recorder.

But I guess that will be my project for tomorrow. I'm not going to attempt to connect it for him at his place, however. He'll get the recorder and the owner's manual (along with the "Quick Setup Guide" for connecting to a cable box). Tonight he insisted that it was easy. (Maybe the one he was used to was newer and/or easier to connect.) He said you just plug this into this - and I reminded him there were yellow plugs, red plugs, white plugs, black plugs, etc.

P.S. The "Quick Setup Guide" (below) has Comcast's 800 number written on it, along with some instructions, so I must have had to call Comcast to get help at the time I connected the cable box to the recorder. (I also see a couple of X's - I guess the Quick Setup Guide was wrong (?).) Let's just see how "easy" this will be for E. (Maybe he has a better aptitude for this kind of stuff than I do.) (Which actually wouldn't surprise me - I don't pretend to be a whiz at this stuff myself.)

P.P.S. No longer feel annoyed.

Saturday night

Was all cleaned up and out of the house at around 1:00 p.m. Headed straight up to the insurance agency to sign the paperwork for the homeowners policy, then dashed down to E.'s, to help him out on the computer, as planned. He wasn't even home. I called him on the cell and he was in WalMart, buying bottled water. (He hadn't expected me to arrive at his place so soon, but I'd told him I'd be there ASAP after I left the insurance agency.) He said he'd be right home.

I sat on some stairs for a good 15 minutes or so, waiting, then called him back and said I was wasting my time. He appeared about five minutes later, empty-handed. I asked him about the water, and he said he'd abandoned his shopping cart in the line at WalMart and rushed back home. (He'd been afraid I'd leave - and I would have.) (The lines at WalMart can be horrible, which is one reason I avoid going there.) (And I can imagine that at that time on a Saturday, it was BAD.)

Anyway, we then set up his online banking and he was able to view his balance and transactions. We also set up his Bill Pay online at Comcast. (When he gets them in the mail, we'll need his bills to set up FPL and AT&T [Internet].)

Monday morning he's going to his bank to close the checking account and open a new one. I think he's afraid the old BF might have access to it and try to use it [i.e., steal], since the BF had been paying E.'s bills for him online.) (E. now knows how that works.)

Meanwhile, I've prepared a whole list of things to teach him on the computer on Monday (after his banking), including hands-on stuff (like paying his Comcast bill). I also found a free Photoshop-type program that we'll download and use (Gimp). I've downloaded it here tonight and learned how to use it (just the basics). (From my research, it's the best free Photoshop-type program out there.)

I'm also going to attempt to figure out how to take a snapshot (of E.) with the laptop's built-in camera. Then we can edit that in Gimp and upload it to his Facebook profile. (The BF confiscated all of E.'s photos from the time they were together - all of them, even ones without the BF in the shot.)

Meanwhile, the BF is back from Mexico but hasn't called E. Just as well (as E.'s mom told him). E. has no intention of calling him.