When you get onto the ball, people think three or four times before deciding whether to try and tackle you. Your opponents respect you, and your markers give you a couple of metres of space.

We have a battery of tests planned at regular intervals including DNA methylation analysis, gene expression profile changes, telomere length (both TAT and QTRAP measured) and various other metrics that will highlight positive changes to aging biomarkers.

The fact is, we need markers in life, whether we subscribe to a religion or not. And the major holidays, such as Christmas, serve to remind us of the turning world.

My Barbies were usually naked. Once, I took their heads off, cut their hair, drew on their short, spiky hair with some markers, then stuck the heads on Christmas lights. Every year, we'd string our tree with those Barbie heads. It looked demonic. My parents were so cool - they saw it as a form of self-expression.

It is very necessary to have markers of beauty left in a world seemingly bent on making the most evil ugliness.

The book was turned to the page with Anne Frank's name, but what got me about it was the fact that right beneath her name there were four Aron Franks. FOUR. Four Aron Franks without museums, without historical markers, without anyone to mourn them. I silently resolved to remember and pray for the four Aron Franks as long as I was around.

It is very necessary to have markers of beauty left in a world seemingly bent on making the most evil ugliness.