I have heard of beating your plowshares into swords and vice versa but a dental technician with a bucket of about 3,000 sets of false teeth that he has collected since just last December has another idea.

By his calculations, each set of dentures is "usually 12 percent gold, 20 percent palladium, and 50 percent silver."

Think…think…think…

Recyclers are turning old mobile phones and retired pachinko machines into hard-disc drives for Apple Inc., iPods and pollution control devices for Toyota Motor Corp…what about these dentures?

The metals salvaged from the pachinko machines by inmates in Japan's prisons are the same as those that can be found in the choppers.

Hmmm…

Perhaps next that robber, rapist or murderer can practice his dental skills…

The dental tech thinks there's money in them there teeth.

Imagine, an iPod made from granny and gramp's chompers. Now, THAT would be sentimental listening, eh?

"What's that granny? Turn off what racket?"