BITS ‘N’ PIECES

Software engineers from big tech firms like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta are paying at least $75,000 to get 3 inches taller.

Kevin Debiparshad specializes in leg-lengthening procedures that can grow people’s height by 3 to 6 inches. He founded LimbplastX Institute in 2016, and the clinic’s business boomed during the pandemic. Many of his patients are tech workers.

Here’s how it works: the doctor breaks the patients’ femurs, or thigh bones, and inserts metal nails into them that can be adjusted. The nails are extended a tiny bit every day for three months with a magnetic remote control.

It can take months to slowly lengthen the bones and for the legs to heal. One software engineer had to spend the first three months after his surgery alone in his apartment to go from 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-9, and had to order food delivery during that time.

The procedure costs between $70,000 and $150,000, depending on whether the patient wants to grow 3, 4, 5 or 6 inches.

The common denominator of Debiparshad’s client base is that they’re wealthy, but they vary by profession. The surgeon has treated CEOs, actors, and finance employees and a bevy of high-earning tech workers — mostly men but some women. Currently, 20 software engineers are undergoing this procedure right now. His patients are mostly from Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft.

The surgeon doesn’t recommend the procedure for athletes since it could decrease their ability.

Stigmas around plastic surgery for men have begun to fall away in recent years. Cosmetic procedures performed on men went up 325 percent from 1997 to 2015, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

Within Silicon Valley, plastic surgery has increasingly become a way for male tech workers to reach their physical goals in recent years.

The Washington Post reported in January 2020 that men were turning to Botox, fillers, laser treatments, and techniques meant to stimulate collagen in an effort to get ahead in their careers.

Azure ramping up to 3D print homes with recycled plastic

Why “reduce, reuse, recycle” when you can just turn your plastic waste into homes? This may sound like a far-fetched idea, but that’s exactly what one 3D printing home construction startup in Los Angeles is working on. The startup, Azure, is using recycled plastic to 3D print prefab homes.

Earlier this year, Azure unveiled what it called the world’s first 3D printed “backyard studio” made with recycled plastic materials. Its plastic-printed studios and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are now available for preorder as the startup prepares to ramp up its production line in the Culver City neighbourhood of Los Angeles. The startup is now selling several models ranging from a backyard studio to a two-bedroom ADU.

Most 3D printing home builders currently use a form of concrete to create their homes, whether it be a proprietary mix or pure concrete, but Azure is saying goodbye to this drab grey look by taking a more sustainable approach giving a second life to plastic once destined for landfills or incineration.

Compiled by SG