[rescue] Your best rescue? [was: Clutter?!?]

[vraptor at employees.org]

On Mon, 5 Aug 2002, Greg A. Woods wrote:

>Meanwhile North American forest harvesters are getting better at
>planting trees, and there even getting better at selective cutting.  Now
>if we could spend some money on exporting (not selling, but in promoting
>and supporting) those ideas and the necessary technology then we might
>get somewhere.

Many urban poor people in India supplement their income by collecting
recyclables--glass and plastic mostly (little aluminum use there even
by the middle and upper classes, and paper is too heavy).  A lot of
third world countries have heavy "reuse"--which is a kind of recycling,
whereby poor people use things that richer people throw away.  This
happens in the US, too (on this very list we do it) but usually only
"fringe" people acknowledge and talk about it.  In the Burning Man
community (www.burningman.com), folks refer to useful stuff obtained
for free as "unobtainium".

What's the best thing you ever rescued from the trash?

My best "rescue" was the Powerbook 5300 a buddy was going to abandon
in his desk when he quit b/c of the broken hinge problem.  I got our
IT support guys to get it warranty repaired (took two weeks to
convince them that it was supported).  Then I traded it in about 1.5
yr. ago at the last 5300 trade-in event for my current Pismo G3/400.

One thing I thought was a good rescue was an HP UPS, but I can't find
any docs on it and I'm pretty sure it needs new batteries, so it's
just junk for the moment--anyone know anything about these things?  I
can get a model number if it would help.

=Nadine=