Real Interesting

[lilhave]

25 THINGS ABOUT TO BECOME EXTINCT IN AMERICA

25. U.S. Post Office
They are pricing themselves out of existence. With e-mail, and online services
they are a relic of the past. (refer to #9) Packages are also sent faster and
cheaper with UPS.

24. Yellow Pages
This year will be pivotal for the global Yellow Pages industry. Much like
newspapers, print Yellow Pages will continue to bleed dollars to their various
digital counterparts, from Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs), to local search engines
and combination search/listing services like Reach Local and Yodel Factors like
20 an acceleration of the print 'fade rate' and the looming recession will
contribute to the onslaught. One research firm predicts the falloff in usage of
newspapers and print Yellow Pages could even reach 10% this year -- much higher
than the 2%-3% fade rate seen in past years.

23. Classified Ads
The Internet has made so many things obsolete that newspaper classified ads
might sound like just another trivial item on a long list. But this is one of
those harbingers of the future that could signal the end of civilization as we
know it.. The argument is that if newspaper classifieds are replaced by free
online listings at sites like www.Craigslist.org <http://www.craigslist.org/>
and Google Base, then newspapers are not far behind them.

22. Movie Rental Stores
While Netflix is looking up at the moment, Blockbuster keeps closing store
locations by the hundreds. It still has about 6,000 left across the world, but
those keep dwindling and the stock is down considerably in 2008, especially
since the company gave up a quest of Circuit City .. Movie Gallery, which owned
the Hollywood Video brand, closed up shop earlier this year. Countless small
video chains and mom-and-pop stores have given up the ghost already.

21. Dial-up Internet Access
Dial-up connections have fallen from 40% in 2001 to 10% in 2008. The combination
of an infrastructure to accommodate affordable high speed Internet connections
and the disappearing home phone have all but pounded the final nail in the
coffin of dial-up Internet access.

20. Phone Land Lines
According to a survey from the National Center for Health Statistics, at the end
of 2007, nearly one in six homes was cell-only and, of those homes that had land
lines, one in eight only received calls on their cells.


19 Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs
Maryland's icon, the blue crab, has been fading away in Chesapeake Bay. Last
year Maryland saw the lowest harvest (22 million pounds) since 1945. Just four
decades ago the bay produced 96 million pounds. The population is down 70% since
1990, when they first did a formal count. There are only about 120 million crabs
in the bay and they think they need 200 million for a sustainable population.
Over-fishing, pollution, invasive species and global warming get the blame.

18. VCRs
For the better part of three decades, the VCR was a best-seller and staple in
every American household until being completely decimated by the DVD, and now
the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). In fact, the only remnants of the VHS age at
your local Wal-Mart or Radio Shack are blank VHS tapes these days. Pre-recorded
VHS tapes are largely gone and VHS decks are practically nowhere to be found.
They served us so well.

17 Ash Trees
In the late 1990's, a pretty, iridescent green species of beetle, now known as
the emerald ash borer, hitched a ride to North America with ash wood products
imported from eastern Asia. In less than a decade, its larvae have killed
millions of trees in the Midwest, and continue to spread. They've killed more
than 30 million ash trees in southeastern Michigan alone, with tens of millions
more lost in Ohio and Indiana. More than 7.5 billion ash trees are currently at
risk.

16. Ham Radio
Amateur radio operators enjoy personal (and often worldwide) wireless
communications with each other and are able to support their communities with
emergency and disaster communications if necessary, while increasing their
personal knowledge of electronics and radio theory. However, proliferation of
the Internet and its popularity among youth has caused the decline of amateur
radio. In the past five years alone, the number of people holding active ham
radio licenses has dropped by 50,000, even though Morse Code is no longer a
requirement.

15. The Swimming Hole
Thanks to our litigious society, swimming holes are becoming a thing of the
past. '20/20' reports that swimming hole owners, like Robert Every in High
Falls, NY, are shutting them down out of worry that if someone gets hurt they'll
sue. And that's exactly what happened in Seattle The city of Bellingham was sued
by Katie Hofstetter who was paralyzed in a fall at a popular swimming hole in
Whatcom Falls Park. As injuries occur and lawsuits follow, expect more swimming
holes to post 'Keep out!' signs.

14. Answering Machines
The increasing disappearance of answering machines is directly tied to No 20 our
list -- the decline of landlines. According to USA Today, the number of homes
that only use cell phones jumped 159% between 2004 and 2007.. It has been
particularly bad in New York ; since 2000, landline usage has dropped 55%. It's
logical that as cell phones rise, many of them replacing traditional landlines,
that there will be fewer answering machines.

13. Cameras That Use Film
It doesn't require a statistician to prove the rapid disappearance of the film
camera in America. Just look to companies like Nikon, the professional's choice
for quality camera equipment. In 2006, it announced that it would stop making
film cameras, pointing to the shrinking market -- only 3% of its sales in 2005,
compared to 75% of sales from digital cameras and equipment.

12. Incandescent Bulbs
Before a few years ago, the standard 60-watt (or, yikes, 100-watt) bulb was the
mainstay of every U.S. home. With the green movement and all-things-sustainable-energy
crowd, the Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb (CFL) is largely replacing the older,
Edison-era incandescent bulb. The EPA reports that 2007 sales for Energy Star
CFLs nearly doubled from 2006, and these sales accounted for approximately 20
percent of the U.S. light bulb market. And according to USA Today, a new energy
bill plans to phase out incandescent bulbs in the next four to 12 years.

11. Stand-Alone Bowling Alleys
Bowling Balls - US claims there are still 60 million Americans who bowl at least
once a year, but many are not bowling in stand-alone bowling alleys. Today most
new bowling alleys are part of facilities for all types or recreation including
laser tag, go-karts, bumper cars, video game arcades, climbing walls and glow
miniature golf. Bowling lanes also have been added to many non-traditional
venues such as adult communities, hotels and resorts, and gambling casinos.

10. The Milkman
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 1950, over half of the milk
delivered was to the home in quart bottles, by 1963, it was about a third and by
2001, it represented only 0.4% percent. Nowadays most milk is sold through
supermarkets in gallon jugs. The steady decline in home-delivered milk is
blamed, of course, on the rise of the supermarket, better home refrigeration and
longer-lasting milk. Although some milkmen still make the rounds in pockets of
the U.S., they are certainly a dying breed.

9. Hand-Written Letters
In 2006, the Radicati Group estimated that, worldwide, 183 billion e-mails were
sent each day. Two million each second. By November of 2007, an estimated 3.3
billion Earthlings owned cell phones, and 80% of the world's population had
access to cell phone coverage. In 2004, half-a-trillion text messages were sent,
and the number has no doubt increased exponentially since then. So where amongst
this gorge of gabble is there room for the elegant, polite hand-written letter?

8. Wild Horses
It is estimated that 100 years ago, as many as two million horses were roaming
free within the United States. In 2001, National Geographic News estimated that
the wild horse population has decreased to about 50,000 head. Currently, the
National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory board states that there are 32,000 free
roaming horses in ten western states, with half of them residing in Nevada. The
Bureau of Land Management is seeking to reduce the total number of free range
horses to 27,000, possibly by selective euthanasia.

7. Personal Checks
According to an American Bankers Assoc. report, a net 23% of consumers plan to
decrease their use of checks over the next two years, while a net 14% plan to
increase their use of PIN debit. Bill payment remains the last stronghold of
paper-based payments -- for the time being. Checks continue to be the most
commonly used bill payment method, with 71% of consumers paying at least one
recurring bill per month by writing a check. However, a bill-by-bill basis,
checks account for only 49% of consumers' recurring bill payments (down from 72%
in 2001 and 60% in 2003).

6. Drive-in Theaters
During the peak in 1958, there were more than 4,000 drive-in theaters in this
country, but in 2007 only 405 drive-ins were still operating. Exactly zero new
drive-ins have been built since 2005. Only one reopened in 2005 and five
reopened in 2006, so there isn't much of a movement toward reviving the closed
ones.

5. Mumps & Measles
Despite what's been in the news lately, the measles and mumps actually, truly
are disappearing from the United States. In 1964, 212,000 cases of mumps were
reported in the U.S. By 1983, this figure had dropped to 3,000, thanks to a
vigorous vaccination program. Prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine,
approximately half a million cases of measles were reported in the U.S.
annually, resulting in 450 deaths. In 2005, only 66 cases were recorded.

4. Honey Bees
Perhaps nothing on our list of disappearing America is so dire; plummeting so
enormously; and so necessary to the survival of our food supply as the honey
bee. Very scary. 'Colony Collapse Disorder,' or CCD, has spread throughout the
U.S. and Europe over the past few years, wiping out 50% to 90% of the colonies
of many beekeepers -- and along with it, their livelihood.

3. News Magazines and TV News
While the TV evening newscasts haven't gone anywhere over the last several
decades, their audiences have. In 1984, in a story about the diminishing returns
of the evening news, the New York Times reported that all three network
evening-news programs combined had only 40.9 million viewers. Fast forward to
2008, and what they have today is half that.

2. Analog TV
According to the Consumer Electronics Association, 85% of homes in the U.S. get
their television programming through cable or satellite providers. For the
remaining 15% -- or 13 million individuals -- who are using rabbit ears or a
large outdoor antenna to get their local stations, change is in the air. If you
are one of these people you'll need to get a new TV or a converter box in order
to get the new stations which will only be broadcast in digital.

1. The Family Farm
Since the 1930's, the number of family farms has been declining rapidly.
According to the USDA, 5.3 million farms dotted the nation in 1950, but this
number had declined to 2.1 million by the 2003 farm census (data from the 2007
census is just now being published). Ninety-one percent of the U.S. FARMS are
small Family Farms.

Both interesting and saddening, isn't it ?