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Surgeons say the recession has cut demand in America for cosmetic procedures that are not covered
by health insurance
Americans appear to be finally falling out of love with cosmetic surgery after a new report
revealed that the number of operations dropped by 18% last year.
The new reluctance to have a facelift, a tummy tuck or a breast enlargement marks a dramatic turn
away from procedures that a few years ago seemed almost commonplace.
Figures collated by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery show that 1.9m operations
took place last year, down from 2.1m in 2005. One big factor cited by many plastic surgeons is
the recession. The biggest downturn since the Great Depression has hit many high-end consumer
industries; plastic surgery certainly qualifies as a luxury commodity for many Americans. Purely
cosmetic operations, such as nose-shaping or breast enlargements, often cost thousands of dollars
and are not usually covered by health insurance.
"I believe one can credit the downturn of the economy for the decline in surgical procedures that
obviously are more costly than non-surgical procedures," said Dr Elliot Jacobs, a leading New
York plastic surgeon whose private surgery is on Park Avenue.
But some say there could be something in the zeitgeist, too. Over the past decade, plastic
surgery saw a massive boom. Something previously seen as the province of Hollywood royalty and
the very rich trickled down to the merely wealthy and then the middle class. It became the
subject of numerous TV shows, such as Nip/Tuck, which followed the antics of a pair of
Miami plastic surgeons and famously opened its first episode in 2003 with the controversial line:
"Tell me what you don't like about yourself."
It was not just soap opera that fell under the surgeons' spell: reality TV shows got in on the
act, too. Programmes such as Extreme Makeover and The Swan gave ordinary people
a chance of free operations to improve their appearance. The shows were not without controversy,
especially The Swan, whose premise was to transform a contestant into a more beautiful
person physically. However, both shows have been cancelled, and this year Nip/Tuck also
broadcast its last episode.
Nor are celebrities immune from criticism about the plastic surgery they have undergone. Many
stars receive frequent sniping in gossip columns for having operations deemed too obvious.
Recently reality-TV star Heidi Montag was on the end of an avalanche of criticism
– even from her husband – after she revealed she had had 10
plastic surgery procedures in one year.
Dr Michael Hall, a plastic surgeon in Miami Beach, said that an age of excess in the industry had
come to an end, mirroring wider society. "When it comes to plastic surgery, people are now using
more common sense. They don't want radical procedures," he said.
But while full-on surgical operations might be falling, the number of non-surgical cosmetic
procedures is steady or rising. Many plastic surgeons say there has merely been a shift in taste
and treatment. Non-surgical operations, such as Botox, lip injections or lasering, are cheaper
and becoming more effective. "Women are looking for non-invasive procedures," said Hall.
There are other changes, too, reflecting both cultural and economic trends. Dr Richard Baxter, a
plastic surgeon in Washington state, noticed a marked decrease in the size of breast implants as
the economy started to go downhill. Before the recession, fewer than a third of Baxter's clients
chose a B cup implant; now about half pick a B. "People have turned to more natural-looking
things," he said.
The question concerning the industry now is what the longer-term trend will be. Some predict a
permanent shift, while others say there are already signs of a renewed up-tick. One thing most
doctors agree on, though, is that there is still no shortage of demand for changing one's body,
just a change in preferred methods. "Has the plastic surgery bubble burst? I doubt it. As long as
a woman or a man has a mirror available, there will be a continued interest in plastic surgery,"
said Jacobs. Hall put it another way, pointing out that some human emotions and desires are both
recession-proof and fashion-proof: "There is no lack of vanity. There is just a little more
hesitation."
According to an announcement from Gwent Police, a baby boy has died after being found abandoned
behind a convenience store in Gwent, Wales. The boy, who has not yet been identified, was found behind a Spar
convenience store in the town of Cwmcarn at 1815 GMT on Tuesday. The baby was found to be wrapped
in a towel which was in a plastic shopping bag. Bystanders who were walking past
the scene mistakenly believed that the bag had been unintentionally left there by a person who
had visited the gym
that is located next to the store.
In the world of
technology, drama is a valuable commodity. Disruptive change may happen in the minutiae of
software code or the gradual execution of a business plan, but we see its effects in the dramatic
narratives of companies rising and falling, or getting locked in combat with each other. Which is
why the rivalry between Google and Apple is
such a compelling story.
It’s so tempting to get drawn into the ego battles
between Steve Jobs and the Google triumvirate while placing bets on who
will win that it’s easy to forget a deeper truth about this rivalry: Google and Apple
need each other.
They both have a deep desire to stake out claims on the mobile web, but the mobile web is in a
nascent stage. In order to develop, it needs to have both rigid structure and a sometimes
reckless creativity. Structure is necessary to provide a strong foundation and a set of standards
everyone can understand. And creativity is essential to bringing the innovative potential of the
mobile web into full bloom.
This dichotomy was present when the Internet began to develop in the early 90s. Many people who
came online then did so through America Online’s walled gardens, a safe little enclave
where consumers and content providers alike could create the rules of a new medium. Then the web
itself took off and sites like Yahoo and GeoCities offered a much more creative environment to
explore what else could be done.
Google’s approach is nearly the opposite, much more open and free-wheeling. Its Android OS,
based on the Linux kernel, has so many versions available the company is struggling
to consolidate them. The Android Market is such an unregulated affair that it’s
hard for anyone to count
the number of apps on sale.
Google’s culture has built into it a tolerance for the failures that come with creative
experiments. Its 70-20-10 rule
seems rooted on that spirit of tolerance — how many companies require employees to spend
time on something that may never fly? — and Google has floated so many failed ideas
it’s hard to keep track of them all. Apple, by contrast, starts with an instinctive idea of
how consumers will experience its products and fits everything, even the ecosystem of apps that
extends beyond its corporate walls, into making it work.
It’s in the tension between these two companies and their respective cultures that the
mobile web is being forged. But as America Online found out, the walls eventually come down as
consumers grow more comfortable with the new medium and desert the walled garden. That would
suggest the balance will tip in favor of Google.
But I would be surprised if Apple isn’t anticipating this evolution. Right now, iPhone
owners are experiencing the mobile web through the 150,000 or so apps it offers through the App
Store. But Apple has also backed HTML5, which allows a smartphone browser to have rich app-like
features without requiring any new software to be downloaded. Just as people stopped downloading
AOL’s software and switched to browsers, we may well abandon most of
the apps on our phones today.
Both companies will continue to play a major role on the mobile web, but I doubt either will ever
gain the upper hand. This dramatic tension between Apple and Google may be around for a long
time. So executives at both might as well get used to it.
"Here come the inevitable Freudian references: the Solo Traveler
lid is a substitute for a mother's breast – what we might call nature's original travel
lid. The flat covers with the tear-back openings offer no such metaphoric representation. Instead,
spout = nipple. Paper cup = warm skin. Coffee, tea or soy = mother's milk. Ergo the lid is a
nurturing apparatus. It provides comfort and joy as well as nourishment." [via]
Designer (and design critic) Steven Heller isn't the only one to appreciate the modest coffee cup
lid. Take architects Louise Harpman and Scott Specht, for example:
Our collection of
independently-patented drink-through plastic cup lids is the largest in the United States. We
are ever-vigilant, and make new additions to our collection in the most obvious of places—in
convenience stores, gas stations, diners, and delis. Ours is a collection of the ordinary, not the
esoteric. It has no monetary value, but rather operates as some modest form of intellectual
capital. We have collected most of the lids ourselves, but have also, over the years, benefited
from the bemused indulgences of both friends and acquaintances who send us their contributions. We
have multiples of almost every lid, preparing ourselves for queries from fellow collectors, with
whom we might fashion a trade to secure the elusive 1935 Stubblefield lid, the earliest patented
drink-through lid, or the 1953 Delbert E. Phinney lid/cup combination.
Ahead of the release of Shank, which was met by protests from locals during filming, a look at
some other location shoots that went bad
Question: if you peaked out your window, and noticed a ragtag gang of knife-wielding teens
storming past, what would you do? Call the police, of course. That's exactly what residents of
the Heygate Estate in Elephant & Castle did, only to find their estate was actually the film
set of dystopian thriller Shank, where
knife-wielding gangs roam free, starring Kaya Scodelario (Effy from Skins), Kidulthood's Adam
Deacon, and oddly, Tim Westwood. "I can see," offered the director Mo Ali, "how residents might
get the wrong impression".
Long gone, of course, are the days of parking your entire film in the MGM lot and making do with
a plastic tree and the contents of the fire bucket to make Elvis look like he's in Hawaii. But
with the credit crunch, more places than ever are eager to take the film companies' dollar. David
Boice – who runs BeforeTheTrailer.com, a fansite that tracks location shoots
– points out that previously unlikely locations are now tripping over
themselves to give generous tax breaks and entice film crews, with Michigan leading the way. The
result? "In the past year the city of Detroit has filled in for Washington [for Red Dawn]. Rather
than filming 'on location', they just film where there's the best incentives."
Last April, the LA Times reported that LA-based location shoots had fallen to their lowest level
since records began. Put another way: everywhere is anywhere now. But with more locations, come
more problems. The films that have been protested about because of the nature of the film are too
numerous to mention – from Brick Lane due to perceived prejudice against the
Bangladeshi community to Basic Instinct, which, well, take your pick –
anti-woman and anti-gay were the main ones.
But, like Shank, what about the effect on the locals? And what, more importantly, about the house
prices? You can forgive the residents of London's Kentish Town (Zone 2, tube, nice pubs), for
instance, for being concerned when filming commenced on Nick Love's hooligan film The Firm, as
they prepared for a brawl scene involving 140 actors, stuntmen, extras, and with dire warnings of
"noise and swearing". That wouldn't do. That wouldn't do at all. With Timmy listening! The locals
protested, and filming was soon moved to Hackney. "Residents of Hackney were happy for the
fighting to take place on their streets," reported a London freesheet, who declined to mention if
the residents actually noticed the difference.
Still, brawling in the UK is one thing. When location shoots go global, it can be far worse. Of
course, we all know the foreign shoots that went south – Terry Gilliam's
aborted crack at Don Quixote, Coppola going cuckoo during Apocalypse Now – but
at least those two can say one thing: they didn't bar people from the Almighty. Last September,
Julia Roberts was on location near Dehli filming the Brad Pitt-produced Eat, Pray, Love, in which
she plays a woman who finds God via food and Hindu spirituality. All well and good. The only
problem was, no one else could find God, as their temple was shut. Villagers hoping to celebrate
the beginning of Navratri – a nine-day Hindu festival of worship and dance
– found their temple sealed by Roberts's security team, which featured the
small matter of 350 guards, bulletproof cars, and a chopper. It was a security detail that
essentially said: We have your God now. He's shooting a movie. And he's not available for
comment. One villager threatened a break in: "I am going to barge in for the evening aarti
[ritual]. Let's see who stops me. What is it that they are shooting that we cannot even enter our
own temple?"
Of course, upsetting the faithful is one thing. But won't someone, please, think of the dangerous
criminals. Not, it seems, Mel Gibson. For his latest, How I Spent My Summer Vacation, in which
he'll star as a career-criminal sent to a harsh Mexican prison, 300 real-life inmates were made
to relocate from their prison in the Gulf coast city of Veracruz this January to make way for the
film crew, causing not just demonstrations by relatives, angry at having to travel further to
visit their incarcerated ones, but a full-scale prison riot. "Mel Gibson, it's your fault they
want to take away our relatives," read a banner of one of protesters, who clearly wasn't big on
irony.
Yet if you can't find it in your heart to feel for the muggers and murders crushed under
Hollywood's unfeeling foot, at least spare a thought for the prostitutes. When Ed Harris-starring
drama The Third Miracle was filming in Ontario, Canada, in 1998, they unwittingly became the
third consecutive production to shoot in the red light districts of Sherborne and Carleton,
causing out-of-pocket street workers to protest about lack of earnings.
Yet sometimes, it's not even that their home has been disrupted, trampled on and destroyed. It's
that they're not getting enough credit for it. When filming A Quantum Of Solace in the small town
of Baquedano, Bolivia, local mayor Carlos Lopez took matters into his own hands by jumping in his
car, nearly hitting two police officers as he sped through the barricades, storming the set, and
coming to a skidding halt between Daniel Craig and the cameras. The reason? Bolivia was being
used to represent local rivals Chile, and that wouldn't do at all. He was swiftly taken into
police custody. But as for Bond himself? Not just shaken or stirred it seems, but, according to
Lopez, a full-scale pants disaster. "He fled in terror!" he said after being released. "When he
saw me, James Bond ran off!" 007, really ...
Still, protests from the locals are what you expect. While filming Australia –
the Baz Luhrmann multimillion pound movie/tourist board infomercial – the
protests came from closer to home. Extras were appalled when actors climbed upon a first world
war memorial in the tiny town of Bowden during a cattle stampede scene, and lobbied to ensure the
actors stood their ground and took the marauding 2,000lb beasts like men. Rumours that another
memorial was needed for the fallen thesps are, as yet, unconfirmed.
There's even been the odd occasion where it wasn't the filming itself that caused the disruption,
but what those filming asked the locals to do. When a crew was about to film aerial scenes for
The Dark Knight in Hong Kong, they sent letters to building residents requesting they keep their
lights on to present the city in its full illuminated glory. For six days. From 7am to 11pm.
Unsurprisingly, they declined. "Producers are able to create the same effects through
post-production," argued Gabrielle Ho at Green Sense, "but instead they are asking us to turn on
so many lights, wasting so much energy."
Though there is one thing to be said about all these disruptions: they ended once the filming
did. The crew of The Beach not only got permission to film in what was part of a protected
national park in Thailand – Maya Bay on Phi Phi Le island –
in 1998, but also to make it even "more" of a paradise, uprooting trees, removing natural
vegetation that held the sand formations together, levelling sand dunes, and adding 100
non-native coconut palms. Fox promised to put everything back the way it was, but there was
erosion, and in 2006 Thailand's Supreme Court upheld an appeal court ruling that the environment
had been harmed. Still, Leo had had a look, and it seemed OK to him. "From what I see with my own
eyes, everything is OK," the self-described environmentalist said in a statement. "I have seen
nothing that has been destroyed or damaged in any way – I cannot tell you the
reasons why people have been saying the opposite. It is beyond me." It's beyond us too, Leo.
Those inconsiderate, unfeeling bastards.
David Herron alerts us to the news that it's
finally occurred to the brain trust at Universal Music that, perhaps, CD prices were too high.
They've introduced a "new pricing structure," which effectively means they've lowered
the suggested retail prices on many CDs to between $6 and $10. Amusingly, the article quotes an
anonymous person at a competitor who doesn't like this at all: "Why does Universal feel the
need to get below $10?" Uh, perhaps because the market is shrinking because people find it too
expensive otherwise. Either way, this move seems like way too little, way too late. Doing this in
the late 90s might have been a start, but this isn't going to get people who have stopped buying
CDs back into a plastic disc fix.
Ever wonder what it would be like to step inside a giant
wire mesh cage, put on a virtual reality headset, walk around like a hamster and shoot crazy
alien opponents? No? Luckily our friends at Engadget did, and went hands, eyes and feet-on with the Virtusphere at
GDC.
Keep in mind that this product isn’t new, but if you haven’t seen it in action before
the video below is well worth the watch.
With a $50,000 price tag, this toy makes spending $170 on some plastic Rock Band instruments seem
like a veritable bargain. This is just between us, but we secretly plan on buying a bunch and
renting them out like inflatable moonbounce houses.
Would you want one of these things in your living room? Would it fit in your living
room? Let us know in the comments.
Welcome to a quick edutainment and entertainment mix of iPhone Gems. As we close out this week, we
wanted to offer quick peeks at a few releases from longtime toymaker Fisher Price, which has
released three new applications based on its popular toys, and a 1950’s moviemaking-themed
game from Namco. The title that most impressed us in the bunch was Fisher Price: See
‘n Say, an impressive and inexpensive evolution of the classic plastic...
Wish you had access to tools like milling machines, 3d scanners, and laser cutters, but don't
have the budget or space to keep them at your home? Well, if you are a resident of Manchester,
you might be in luck. The Manchester FABLAB, an
open workshop with all of the aforementioned tools and more, will be opening up next week. They
aim to provide a free place for people to build noncommercial projects:
The Manchester fablab is a creative workspace in Manchester where you can pretty well make
whatever you can think of. When we say anything we do mean pretty much anything. There's about 35
fablabs (fabrication laboratories) around the world so far and people have made all sorts of things
from T-shirts to robots. The fablab is open for use by individuals, community groups, schools and
companies.
The Manchester fab lab will be equipped with many different machines including laser cutters,
milling machines, 3D scanners, embroidery and sewing machines which are mostly controlled by
simple computer programmes, so you don't have to be an machining or computer expert to use them.
We are going to be open for use at the beginning of 2010. As always there are a hundred things to
think of and a few more we haven't thought of.
Fablabs Basics:
The fablab is free to use for non-commercial use. (A small charge applies if you are a
commercial company)
We aim to provide free basic materials like wood, plastics and electronic components for
non-commercial use (Not gold or diamonds!)
We have lots of different machines to use and don't worry we'll help you learn how to use
them
For eons
we've wondered what it would be like to walk around in a bona fide Virtusphere,
and at GDC last week we finally got our chance. The large plastic cage can turn and roll in any
direction, and once replete with a wireless head-mounted display and fake gun, we were ready to
take on some polygonal alien baddies. Getting into the cage is surprisingly easy, but unfortunately
once we had a screen strapped to our head our well-honed sense of balance was right out the window,
and we found ourselves staggering around a bit as we got used to the motion of the cage. The real
military versions have a motion sensing gun controller, but we had to do all our aiming with our
head, which didn't help. After a minute or so we got used to the "momentum" involved in moving the
cage, which felt pretty great, but we'd say our favorite part about the experience was just being
able to turn in place to confront baddies -- there's something about a few well placed steps that
really blows away a left or right tug on our 360 controller's analog stick. At the end of the day
the sheer size, cost, and ultra-dated graphics has us hardly pining for one of these in our living
rooms, but with a bit more work on the gaming end (and a working gun pointer) we could see this as
the arcade experience to beat. Check out a video of our harrowing experience (from outside
and inside) after the break.
Personally, these laser-cut plastic end tables by Israel's Studio Groovy (Fair warning: I couldn't actually find them on
their Flash-y website) are not to my taste, but I really like the fact that that they put some
old vinyl records in their laser cutter and managed to make something fairly cool out of them.
Bonus: The table on the left uses the cut-out from the table on the right as decoration, so
there's very little waste. [via Recyclart]
The Digital Bits has received the new packaging for Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series
Box Set and initial reaction is positive. The packaging consists of a metallic-looking outer
slipcase holding four cardboard and plastic Digipak-style cases (one for each season) plus the
existing BD case packaging for The Plan....
ZeroChroma has unveiled its new Projeto case for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. The Projeto is a
hard plastic case offering a unique multi-angle kickstand on the back that allows users to choose
between one of 18 positions to ensure a proper horizontal viewing angle, and a retractable
sound-scoop passive amplifier for improved sound that also helps block the microphone from
background noise and wind, and helps direct the user’s voice back at...
Plastic Jungle, a Mountain View, Calif.-based company
that runs a gift card exchange says it has raised $7.4 million in a round led by Redpoint
Ventures with participation from previous investors, Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital and Bay
Partners. The company raised $6 million in 2009.
Plastic Jungle is one of the many companies who are trying to solve the problems around the gift
card economy, as I highlighted in my post
about CardPool, a San Francisco-based very early stage start-up. According to some
estimates, nearly $5 billion worth of cards go unclaimed every year. It
allows consumers to get cash for unwanted gift cards for up to 92% of the unused balance and buy
gift cards at up to a 30% discount.
In the 2009-2010 holiday season, Plastic Jungle saw 450% year over year revenue growth from
2009-to-2010. The company gets 118,000 monthly visitors to its website and is growing at about 60
percent per month.
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Année :1989Auteur(s) :T. Linder / S. Fahey / D.
Salamon / PlasticLabel :ARS Records /
CNRRéférence :ARS 1726 RDurée :2 m 59 s
Ever wonder what it would be like to step inside a giant
wire mesh cage, put on a virtual reality headset, walk around like a hamster and shoot crazy
alien opponents? No? Luckily our friends 
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