TresSugar

Thirsty For Change? US Mayors Tap Tap Water, Ban the Bottle

LibertySugar — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:15:18 -0700

The US Conference of Mayors, meeting in Miami, banned bottled water this week. The cities will no longer use municipal funds to purchase water bottles.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who proposed the resolution along with 17 other big-city mayors, said:

"Cities are sending the wrong message about the quality of public water when we spend taxpayer dollars on water in disposable containers from a private corporation."

But Newsom isn't exactly the first person on the tap-water train. Sixty American mayors have already canceled their hydration contracts, and some places in Canada have also banned the bottle.

Rejecting plastic water bottles is more environmentally and financially sustainable. Millions of bottles a day do not get recycled, and the plastic takes at least 1,000 years to biodegrade.

The American Beverage Association feels betrayed. In a statement, the association reminded those ready to turn on the bottle that private companies come to the rescue during emergencies that compromise public water systems. The statement also notes that plastic bottles are 100 percent recyclable.

Should thirsty city workers be subjected to tap water? First plastic bags, now plastic water bottles, whatever will we do?! Well, here are some great alternatives to the plastic water bottle.

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Not Fake: Hungary Crowns Miss Plastic Surgery

TresSugar — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:00:00 -0700

Perky contestants vied for the crown of Miss Plastic Hungary this week. Only women who have gone under the knife were invited to participate in the artificial-beauty pageant held in Budapest. Botox wouldn't qualify you, but one contestant's surgically adjusted toes did get her included. Reka Urban, 22, won the (plastic?) crown, and she received an apartment in Budapest as her prize. Check out this video from the contest, and tell me what you make of such an unabashedly fake beauty pageant!

Très Bizarre: Plastic Surgeon Sculpts His Perfect Bride

TresSugar — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:15:00 -0800

This story is très bizarre and très depressing. When plastic surgeon Reza Vossough met his future bride Cany, he identified a few areas for improvement - specifically, her chest, thighs, eyes, lips, butt, stomach, and forehead. Lucky for Reza, once he and Cany got married he performed eight procedures that would turn his 33-year-old wife into his "perfect woman."

Speaking about his work, Reza said: "It's almost like being God - you have the ability to change nature." No promise that it will look natural, however. And don't feel too bad for Cany. She seems pretty happy, explaining that when you marry a plastic surgeon, "the scalpel is your friend."

I guess the old adage that you can never really change someone isn't true in this case.

At Last - The Miss Plastic Hungary Beauty Contest

TresSugar — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:00:00 -0700

"Ever had plastic surgery to become beautiful? Are you proud of your body? Would you like to put yourself to the test?"

If so, asks this website, perhaps you should enter the Miss Plastic Hungary beauty pageant where women age 18 – 30 (if you’re above 30 you’re in the “dame” category) can compete against other women who have gone under the knife.

In this Bizarro World contest, unlike in other beauty contests, having gone under the knife is not grounds for disqualification - it’s a contest requirement. Botox, by the way, doesn’t count. "The entry requirement," says Reka Bodis, press director of the pageant, "is a surgical procedure done under general or local anesthesia." It's quite “natural,” she continues, to stage such a contest now that so many beautiful women get plastic surgery and prices are more affordable. Hungary is a tourist destination for many in the UK, where plastic surgery prices can be prohibitively expensive.

The contest is open to non-Hungarian contestants as well as Hungarian beauties and debuts October 9.

Plastic Surgeons: The Economy Is Affecting Us

TresSugar — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:30:00 -0700

“Business has definitely been flat,” says Dr. Brian Kinney, a plastic surgeon from (surprise!) Los Angeles. And he's not talking about his breast augmentation patients.

At the annual meeting of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, plastic surgeons expressed relief that although the economy has contributed to the slowdown of the number of cosmetic procedures in the US last year (falling 12.3 percent to just over 10.2 million), more patients are opting for nonsurgical procedures. Botox, its new competitor Dysport, and soon-to-be-on-the-market muscle-numbing creams will all provide revenue as the demand for invasive surgery wanes ever so slightly. What else is going on in the world of plastic surgery? To find out, read more.

There is one segment of the population in which plastic surgery is on the rise: among nonwhite patients. Describing nonwhites as having long been "underserved," Dr. Julius Few, an African-American plastic surgeon from Chicago, says that when he was growing up, it seemed "unfair" that plastic surgery was available primarily to wealthy white people - but things are changing.

So basically, what we are to take from this news story is that no matter what, plastic surgeons can count on women to spend money enhancing their looks somehow, and now nonwhites, too, have the itch for invasive plastic surgery! Note the rhetoric Dr. Few uses - "underserved, unfair" - as if being able to get plastic surgery were equivalent to getting basic health care.

I wonder sometimes what Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, would think about the mainstreaming of plastic surgery. Not only do few women critique plastic surgery, but some have in fact embraced it as an almost necessary part of being a woman, like wearing a bra or having a period.

Wolf's discussion of plastic surgery in The Beauty Myth was was under an interesting rubric: violence. Why, she wondered, are so many women willing to spend money they might not have to go under the knife - and even risk death - to have a smaller nose, larger breasts, or conform to a beauty ideal?

What do you feel about the mainstreaming of plastic surgery?

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Plastic Surgery For "Designer Vaginas" Is on the Rise

TresSugar — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

It's hard to believe that although women have enough to worry about, some of them worry about having perfect-looking genitals. "Designer vagina" surgery such as labioplasty is still on the rise. A procedure like labioplasty, which starts at $5,000, involves trimming back what might be perceived as a protruding labia. Yikes.

Some critics say that many women go into these surgeries without fully understanding the risks. Will there be complications in childbirth? Will these surgeries affect sexual pleasure? These critics also question whether anyone in the medical community should even perform surgeries to "trim, sculpt and perfect" genitals. Perhaps, they reason, women should get psychological counseling instead of genital cosmetic surgery. (The desire to "perfect" your genitals could be a sign you have body dysmorphic disorder.)

If looking at a picture of a thin, perfect model makes some women seek "perfection" by dieting or exercising, where exactly are women getting their ideas of what a perfect vagina looks like? Porn? Help me out here.

For the Sake of the Planet, Save the Plastic Bags?!

CitizenSugar — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:45:43 -0700

The second I remember to quit grumbling when I get a paper bag with no handles instead of the evil that is the plastic bag, the whole eco-mantra of choosing paper could be dumped on its head. One man, Stephen Joseph, is out to save the plastic bag. He's head of the campaign called Save the Plastic Bag, and he means business.

Even though his battle ramped a little more uphill after LA became the most recent US city to can the bags on Tuesday, he's convinced he has facts on his side. On his website, the well-named SaveThePlasticBags, he lists the reasons to choose plastic over paper:

Roaches love paper bags - they attract them.
When paper bags decompose, they release methane.
Paper bags take up more space to transport (making more trucks on the road and more space taken in landfills if they end up there.

That's not all. To see why the global backturning on the bag may have been too hasty, read more.

Paper bags require 71 percent more energy to make and recycle.
Plastic bags consume 6 percent of the water needed to make paper bags.

And he's got much more on his website. His main complaint? The rush to ditch the plastic hasn't been fully examined. "My research into this issue has proved to me that something funny is going on. The anti-plastic-bag campaigners are not being challenged. . . . This is not an issue that belongs in the left bucket or the right bucket. It's about truth. And I'm determined to make it register."

Now that you know the facts, let me temper them with this: Joseph is also the attorney representing plastic bag companies. What's a shopper to think? Maybe the devil doesn't wear plastic after all?

Source

Helping the Environment Is in the Bag?

CitizenSugar — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:01:35 -0700

A report just released shows that the US set a record for recycling plastic bags in 2006. Up a whopping 24 percent, the record high validates a growing national recycling trend sweeping the states. Of the 812 million pounds of plastic recovered, tons will become usable goods like decking. It's thought that the growing trend of bag recycling bins at stores as well as outright banning is helping to dump the plastic problem.

Cities like San Francisco sparked a wave of disdain for the once ubiquitous sack, and today Nashville is not far behind. If not outright bans, some cities are considering taxing the totes. The Massachusetts Legislature is debating a measure that would enact a two-cent tax that could rise all the way to 15 cents per bag over the next seven years. They hope the new tax will shrink the 380 billion plastic bags Americans use every year - a lot of which end up as litter or in a landfill.

It's not just US cities banning the bags - China announced a nationwide outlawing at the beginning of the year, which is scheduled to kick in June 1, 2008. Early adopters have already caused the nation's biggest plastic bag factory to shutter.

Britain has added the bags to a list of possible items eligible for a "sin tax" and is contemplating an outright ban by 2009.

It might just be time to consider your answer to that perennial "paper or plastic" question carefully.

Do you take your own bags to the store? Are you behind the war on bags?

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You Asked: Should I Tell Him About My Plastic Surgery?

DearSugar — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:00:00 -0700

Dear Sugar,

This past Summer, I finally took the plunge and had a nose job. It wasn't anything too drastic - I just removed the bump I had always hated - and though most people cannot pinpoint what's so different about me, I feel like it has made a huge impact on my self-esteem. I have only told my closest friends and nobody else has asked.

So my question is really about my new boyfriend. He didn't know me before I had the rhinoplasty so is it something that I should tell him, or is it one of those things that doesn't really matter? I don't know why, but I have the urge to tell him as this was a big life-altering experience for me. But I don't want to give him the wrong impression - I'm not a vain person by any means. What do you think? - Wanting to Confess Carry

To see DearSugar's answer read more.

Dear Wanting to Confess Carry,

Whether you're for or against plastic surgery, it's a personal decision that you should not be ashamed of. Clearly it did wonders for your self-esteem, so while I understand that you don't want to shout this news from the rooftops. If you have an urge to tell your boyfriend, I say go for it - after all, he'll probably figure it out sooner than later as old photos don't lie!

Yes, plastic surgery often comes with negative stigmas, but if your boyfriend is going to judge you for doing something for yourself, he might just not be the guy for you. Good luck!

Source

Dear Poll: Would You Talk Openly About Having Plastic Surgery?

DearSugar — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:00:00 -0700

Patti Stanger of Millionaire Matchmaker fame did it; so did Melissa from this season's The Bachelor. So would you talk publicly about having plastic surgery, too?

While these women owned up to having breast reduction surgery, which some consider more of a medical need than a cosmetic choice, I'm still left wondering why they wanted to world to know such personal information. Perhaps I'm just more of a private person, but tell me ladies, would/do you talk openly about having plastic surgery?

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