It's People Power, sort of

From Beverly Hills, the plastic, sorry, cosmetic surgery capital of the world, comes this story:

For a time, Beverly Hills doctor Craig Alan Bittner turned the fat he removed from patients into biodiesel that fueled his Ford SUV and his girlfriend's Lincoln Navigator.

Love handles can power a car? Frighteningly, yes. Fat--whether animal or vegetable--contains triglycerides that can be extracted and turned into diesel. Poultry companies such as Tyson are looking into powering their trucks on chicken schmaltz, and biofuel start-ups such as Nova Biosource are mixing beef tallow and pig lard with more palatable sources such as soybean oil. Mike Shook of Agri Process Innovations, a builder of biodiesel plants, says this year's batch of U.S. biodiesel was likely more than half animal-derived since the price of soybeans soared.
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Using fat to fuel cars might be environmentally friendly, but it's definitely illegal in California to use human medical waste to power vehicles, and Bittner is being investigated by the state's public health department.
Although it's unclear when Bittner started and stopped making fat fuel or how he made it, his activities came to light after recent lawsuits filed by patients that allege he allowed his assistant and his girlfriend to perform surgeries without a medical license.

Article here. Ponder that as you recover from that big Christmas dinner. Now, the fat corpulent potbellied, er, "abdominally muscular" can just think of themselves as a mobile biodiesel storage facility. :)

Wedding bells, boobs, and botox

From the you're-so-vain files, as reported by the New York Times:

AFTER the band was chosen and the napkins color-coordinated to match her shoes, Kacey Knauer, a bride-to-be, had another critical matter to address: her skin, and the skin of the nine women in her bridal party.
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(Karen Hohenstein, left, jokes with her attendants-to-be at a Botox party at the Tiffani Kim Institute Medical Wellness Spa in Chicago. Photo: New York Times)

For Karen Hohenstein, who held her party at the Tiffani Kim Institute Medical Wellness Spa in Chicago, convincing her friends was as smooth as a Botoxed forehead. “It wasn’t me saying, ‘Hey, we all could use a little something,’ ” she said. “It was, ‘I want to do this,’ and a couple of people said, ‘I do, too.’ ”

But for every accommodating pal, there’s another who feels going under the knife is beyond the duty of bridesmaid. Becky Lee, 39, a Manhattan photographer, declined when a friend asked her — and five other attendants — to have their breasts enhanced. “We’re all Asian and didn’t have a whole lot of cleavage, and she found a doctor in L.A. who was willing to do four for the price of two,” said Ms. Lee, who wore a push-up bra instead.
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Fraxel laser could also set you back $1,200 a session, which even without the economic downturn, amounts to quite a bit. These days, Robyn Bomar, an event planner in Destin, Fla., overhears brides doing cost-benefit analyses. “They will never choose Botox over a great dress, but they will say ‘Maybe I’ll have a buffet over a sit-down at the rehearsal dinner,’ ” she said. Or: “I’ll spend the money on Botox rather than lunch.’ ”

In June, Jennifer Peterson, 31, a production director in Los Angeles, and eight friends indulged in Botox, Restylane, massages, facials and microdermabrasion at Infinity MedSpa in Valencia, Calif. Her friends chipped in for her treatments, but she is considering giving them each a $100 certificate to the spa — a gift she is sure they will appreciate. “Everybody does Botox out here,” she said.
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Two weeks ago, Health Travel Guides, a medical tourism company, exhibited at the Dallas Bridal Show for the first time. “We received 30 requests for quotes among the bridal show attendees — mostly for plastic surgery such as liposuction and breast augmentation,” said Sandra Miller, the company’s chief marketing officer. “But also many for cosmetic dentistry and inquiries for providing quotes for bachelorette getaways that will feature beauty treatments.”

A bride’s request that you whiten your grayish teeth can strain a relationship. Samantha Goldberg, a wedding planner in Chester, N.J., recalled a bride who asked her attendants to get professionally spray-tanned for a Hawaiian-theme reception.

Alas, two women were claustrophobic and couldn’t bear standing in a tanning capsule. “They asked the bride if they could use regular tanning cream from a salon,” Ms. Goldberg said. The bride refused; she wanted everyone to be the same shade. The women ultimately declined to be bridesmaids. “Friendships of 20-plus years gone over a spray tan?” Ms. Goldberg said. “Sad!”

I've written about the obsession with physical beauty before, and the lengths some will go to achieve and maintain it. This is another example of this trend, one that I think will become even more pronounced as the middle-aged struggle, ultimately unsuccessfully, to regain their lost youth. Perhaps this is simply an outward manifestation of not wanting to grow up. As I wrote previously,

This is not to knock all cosmetic surgery -- far from it -- things like reconstructive surgery after accidents or to correct deformities are important medical treatments. And obviously we can all understand the human urge to improve one's appearance, to be seen as desirable to our mates (or potential mates), maybe even to enhance our career prospects, but at some point an obsession with physical appearance can't be good for long-term psychological health. When your self-esteem is so intimately tied to your physical appearance, what happens when the inevitable onslaught of time destroys that picture-perfect image? Indeed, we all get old, and our physical appearances ultimately age -- wrinkles form, abdomens expand, breasts sag, muscles lose definition -- an obsession with physical appearance and the idea of eternal youth seems like it would ultimately become self-destructive and harmful to one's mental well-being.

It seems to me that living a healthy lifestyle, which includes regular exercise, can often go a long way towards achieving at least some of the physical and psychological benefits that many who pursue elective cosmetic surgery seek. Of course, this is generally a more time-consuming and difficult path, and requires more discipline, than say, liposuction. So elective cosmetic surgery will probably continue to be a booming medical specialty.

Vertically Challenged? Get Height Implants

Too short? Lack of height getting in the way of your massive vanity? Then why not get ... height implants!

Jeff’s career as an architect at a prestigious East Coast firm was taking off. At 26, he was successful and athletic, and he had no trouble meeting women. There was, however, one problem. Though it was imperceptible to friends and colleagues, Jeff (his name has been changed) was tortured by a sense that he had been born with the wrong body. Jeff was five feet six inches tall, and he was obsessed with his height—or his lack of it. “To the outside world I was extremely confident, but my height was always an insecurity,” he says.
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Then, about a year ago, Jeff came across a posting on an online message board about a “miracle” surgery at the Betz Institute, in Lebach, Germany—an advanced procedure that promised to make him almost four inches taller (most lengthening procedures guarantee only about two inches) with far fewer health risks. Instead of attaching an external cage, it involved implanting stretching devices inside his legs. He’d still be effectively crippled for months, but he wouldn’t need a wheelchair, just crutches. After three months of deliberating, Jeff flew to Germany to meet with Dr. Augustin Betz.

At the institute, Jeff saw postoperative patients looking happy and healthy. Most had gained between three and four inches in height. And all had good things to say about Dr. Betz. One even called the procedure “no big deal.” So Jeff broke up with his girlfriend—he’d always felt she held his height against him anyway—sold his car, liquidated some investments, borrowed money from his parents (the only people who knew about the plan), and took a leave of absence from work. He told his friends he would be doing an internship abroad for the next several months.
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A person could argue that to pay upwards of $100,000 for a risky, excruciating surgery that adds just a few inches to your frame is insane. CLL [cosmetic limb-lengthening] is by far the most extreme (and expensive) procedure that a human being can submit to in the name of vanity. Most lipo and facial-surgery patients can go home within an hour. Recovery time for calf and pec implants is a couple of weeks. And at $8,000, penile implants seem like a bargain by comparison—plus, in terms of pure physical pain, there is no contest. Beyond the agony of having your bones cut in two and stretched, CLL carries risks like pinhole infections, nerve damage, and severe deformity.

The lengths (heights?) people go to in the name of pure vanity! This is not to knock all cosmetic surgery -- far from it -- things like reconstructive surgery after accidents or to correct deformities are important medical treatments. And obviously we can all understand the human urge to improve one's appearance, to be seen as desirable to our mates (or potential mates), maybe even to enhance our career prospects, but at some point an obsession with physical appearance can't be good for long-term psychological health. When your self-esteem is so intimately tied to your physical appearance, what happens when the inevitable onslaught of time destroys that picture-perfect image? Indeed, we all get old, and our physical appearances ultimately age -- wrinkles form, abdomens expand, breasts sag, muscles lose definition -- an obsession with physical appearance and the idea of eternal youth seems like it would ultimately become self-destructive and harmful to one's mental well-being.