salvage

In the Mediterranean waters near Giglio, treasure hunters are preparing to dive after the lost loot of the Costa Concordia. But the riches that went down with that cruise ship pale next to what one wreck hunter thinks he's found off the coast of Massachusetts: $3 billion in platinum.

If the three little pigs were building their houses today, the smart one would recycle the used twigs and straw from his brothers' huffed-and-puffed-apart abodes to reuse in a sustainable, reclaimed brick structure. It's the basic idea behind building "green" with salvaged materials -- and it's no...

Update May 2009: The good news is that the theft of copper, platinum and other metals has waned as the scrap value plummeted. The bad news, of course, is that if you're sitting on a pile of scrap, its value has tanked as well. Not all is dire, however; China is finally beginning to restock, so the...