SOON TO BE EXTINCT IN AMERICA

[Teresa]

SOON TO BE EXTINCT IN AMERICA


 

Common Sense and some research indicate that there are: 
24 THINGS ABOUT TO BECOME EXTINCT IN AMERICA

         

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 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 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 Landlines
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 landlines, 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 1990s, 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 Lightbulb (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 had 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, on 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 1930s, 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 hasn't yet been published).  Ninety-one percent of the U.S. FARMS are small Family Farms.   

[pam]

Well....I use the yellow pages in the phone book

I use the newspaper to find a job or whatever else i need MOST of the time

I don't rent movies tho..I buy em

I have DSL on my phone landline which i have because I don't like standin on top of my truck in the rain or a blizzard to try to get a signal

I've never eaten crab so..........

I'm tryin to figure out what to do with all these vcr movies I have lol my vcr quit finally

We have those beetles and if I knew how I would get rid of them they eat my blackberries not to mention the ash trees around here AND they are annoying as hell......

The swimmin hole is just a symptom of what is SO totally wrong with people nowadays...absolutely NO personal responsibility...some goober jumps off a cliff or falls off a skateboard and it's not THEIR fault or just an accident it's whoevers fault they can get some money out of.

I don't have an answerin machine.....just don't want the expense of buyin one. I check the caller ID and if it's somebody I know I call em back!

Joe WON a digital camera/camcorder or we'd still be using film lol

There are still several bowlin alleys in this neck of the woods

Wish we had a milkman!

i still write letters to people I know cause I enjoy it

I am a huge advocate of wild horses...always have been so I won't even go there

I like cash not checks

I love the drive-In, there is one at Carthage

Genetically engineered plants are what is killin off the bees. Didn't anybody stop to think if you engineer pesticide into a plant it might kill the bugs eatin the pollen?! I mean seriously..............

I like watchin the news on TV

Digital  TV...they finally figured out a way to get cash out of people who wouldn't pay for cable lol

We ALL better do what we can to keep the FAMILY farms goin.......it's  DEFINATELY in our best interest.

[Lookatmeknow!!]

I have to say something about the family farms.  I hope we never leave ours!!  Jeff and I moved to the family farm house about 3 years ago.  We love it.  We couldn't be happier, but in the same since it's getting harder and harder finacially to keep it up and running the way it should.  With the prices of everything going up, it's hard.  But in the same since, the price of cattle isn't that good either, so when we sell we are not making a profit and surely not enough to add on to our farm.  We love what we do.  I love seeing the girls and Jeff's face after new calves are born.  I don't know what we would do with out the family farms in Elk county!

Another thing that is alarming on that list, is the bees.  What will naturally grow plants do with out bees?  This made me think of that movie "BEE MOVIE".  It's a cartoon, if you haven't seen it its cute.  But we would be a world without wild flowers and all the things that make nature so beautiful.

[indygal]

We still use a land line (with DSL) and rarely use a cell phone (and it's pay-as-you-go).

We have a VCR/DVD combo player and still watch VHS movies once in a while. What we don't have is cable, so we get 90 percent of the news online and the other 10 percent from the newspaper/word on the street.

I still write checks to pay bills each month, though I've opted for online billing on a number of accounts and soon will be paying some with electronic transfer from checking. I hate it, but that's the way it's headed.

It would be great to have a bowling alley in Elk County, but not a stand-alone. It would serve more people if it also offered arcade games, pool, etc.

Angie, we're losing way more than wildflowers with the CCD. Bees pollinate fruit and nut trees, as well as lots of ground fruits and veggies. Not to mention all the delicious honey. This is VERY serious. Pam, your theory makes good sense, but if the bees are dying, why aren't they findling lots of dead bees? It's more like they're disappearing into thin air.

I TOTALLY agree that as a country and word, we need to do what we can to preserve small family farms. Of course, I'm biased, but I still would support our farmers/ranchers even my work didn't involve them.

[Mom70x7]

I'm tryin to figure out what to do with all these vcr movies I have lol my vcr quit finally

I just saw advertised this week a machine that will convert VHS movies to your computer - then you can continue to watch them there or convert them to DVDs.

I don't remember where the ad was - but I saw it this week, so it's probably a Hammacher-type catalog.

[pam]

I'm tryin to figure out what to do with all these vcr movies I have lol my vcr quit finally

I just saw advertised this week a machine that will convert VHS movies to your computer - then you can continue to watch them there or convert them to DVDs.

I don't remember where the ad was - but I saw it this week, so it's probably a Hammacher-type catalog.

Thanks for the info! i have a whole collection of John Wayne movies i hated the thought of havin to buy again on dvd cheech and chong too lol I'll try to find one.

[Teresa]

I have one. Because of all the VHS family tapes I have, I bought one so I could convert my family tapes to DVD's.

Which reminds me that I started on them, but there is still a stack unfinished that I need to get to.

Then of course comes the making the DVD videos for family keepsakes..

sighhhhhhhhhhh.. there is always projects stacking up.. 

[pam]

Lol, so many projects so little time Where can you get one? Like radio shack or some store like that?

[Teresa]

Bought ours at Best Buy