24 THINGS ABOUT TO BECOME EXTINCT IN AMERICA

[k4kyv]

This has been circulating on the internet.

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 Yodle 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 th e 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. Overfishing, 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.

17. Ash Trees: In the late 1990s, a pretty, irridescent 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, N.Y., 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 Pa rk . 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 li ke 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: BowlingBalls.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 th rough 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 pa yments -- 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 c olonies 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'l l 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.
And we call this progress?

[WA1GFZ]

then there is the political comment I would love to add.

[K3ZS]

Retirement, wealth and the value of the dollar.

[WB2YGF]

then there is the political comment I would love to add.

Your political commentary is about to become extinct?  I highly doubt it.  

[W1UJR]

One item has already become extinct - Common Sense. 

[WB2YGF]

Last major VHS supplier throws in the towel

"It's dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt," Distribution Video Audio co-owner Ryan Kugler told the L.A. Times. "I was the last one buying VHS and the last one selling it, and I'm done. Anything left in the warehouse we'll just give away or throw away."

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081222-last-major-vhs-supplier-throws-in-the-towel.html

[WB2YGF]

Interesting responses to this article by hams refuting the claim - one even made a graph showing a leveling off, but IMHO, not enough of a trend to declare it an extinction or even a downward trend.

http://p1k.arrl.org/~ehare/ham_population.bmp

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2008/07/17/top-25-things-vanishing-from-america-16-ham-radio/

[W1EUJ]

R/C Flying not on the list.

[W3SLK]

Dave said:

R/C Flying not on the list.

Quite the contrary. It seems that R/C has found itself in a Renaissance period. I guess with Chinka and technology, smaller parts are being fashioned much cheaper. There are a few R/C airfields around here and one at a state park. Also, the R/C cars are doing the same thing. There are groups that have racetracks and such just for them.

[W1EUJ]

My point exactly.

[W2PFY]

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.

We need to start collecting light bulbs. Our great grand children will be able to sell them on eBay to Lightbulbphools when it is discovered that they put out a nice warm feeling just like those high end vacuum tube amplifiers put out a nice warm sound. Sounds cozy doesn't it?  Maybe a 100 watt long life bulb with oxygen free tungsten will bring a dollar a watt 

[k4kyv]

Actually, I have started a collection of inefficient long-life bulbs that have begun showing up at discount stores within the last couple of years, often as cheap as 25¢ each.  They are made like old fashioned light bulbs, with heavy-duty circular shaped tungsten filaments held in place with multiple wire supports attached to a glass stem, and the metal screw base is made of real brass.

These are useful in drop cord shop lights where they may take a lot of abuse.  It is practically impossible to break the filament without breaking the glass envelope as well.  I have even dropped the light on a concrete floor and the bulb just kept on shining.  They are also useful when you want to use a light bulb as a small, portable heat source, and in hard-to-reach outdoor locations where changing a bulb is a PITA and CFL's don't work in cold temperatures.

Some of these bulbs come from east European countries, where I suspect these are the standard bulbs they use.  Others are rated for full power at 130V, so they run cooler (and less efficiently) at 120v, but last for ever. 

Years ago I used to pay inflated prices for this type of bulb from the Handicapped Workers of Amercia.  After making one purchase from the HWA, they would pester me almost weekly with junk phone calls trying to sell me more bulbs.  Finally, it occurred to me to thank them very graciously and tell them that the last batch of bulbs they sold me were so good that I hadn't had to replace any, so I didn't need any more.  They couldn't come up with any kind of sales pitch to counter that.   

[KB2WIG]

i was sitting in a barroom ( waiting for the bus). The guys behind me were telemarketers for the local light bulbs /disabled storefront. He was complaining r/e his fone kept cutting out. He was saying to the customers, "sorry, my weelchair is pulling the phone cord."  None of theise guys wer in chairs, nor did any of them look disabled as they pounded down some hookers with their frosties.

(Yes I do know that many disabled do not manifest outward signs of a disability)

fer watt its werth

klc

[K3ZS]

I have some 130 V floodlights on my house.    They were installed in 1973.    They are up high on the second floor and would be hard to change without an extension ladder.    If they ever burn out I hope I can replace them with the same thing.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

I'd add that manners and courtesy should be on the list. 
I rarely see any general "politeness" in various places.  Older folks do sometimes show their manners, but the younger ones are generally to busy wrapped up in their electronic worlds.

I also find reactions to generally being polite is the recipient being pleasantly surprised. ( and NO I DO NOT look that grumpy!)     

Words like Mr, Mrs (God Forbid!) Sir, Ma'am,  Please, Thank you, etc.  When was the last time you heard someone refer to a woman as Madam?

You could Add Real Customer Service to the list too....  Rare these days that you find folks who actually want to help a customer.  The Ubiquitous "Please Press 2 if you are calling about..."

[ka3zlr]

Cucumber Facials...?.....

[WB2YGF]

Rare these days that you find folks who actually want to help a customer. 

CSR's are typically undertrained, underpaid, and the customers calls and starts the exchange by wanting to rip them a new one.  Many are reviewed based on quantity of service, not quality and can actually be fired for spending too much time on one call trying to help.  I can't say I totally blame them.

[W2JBL]

    that list missed a couple of big ones:only speaking English (in America), and our own unique American Culture.

[WB2YGF]

    that list missed a couple of big ones:only speaking English (in America), and our own unique American Culture.

Just remember, other than Native Americans, we are all descendants of immigrants.  Our "unique culture" is the result of the blending of many cultures.  That said, I don't think it is unrealistic to expect that immigrants communicate in the national language.  IMHO, taxpayer money should not be expended to provide translation.

[Opcom]

does this mean my laserdisc player is onsolete?

[WB2YGF]

does this mean my laserdisc player is onsolete?

Heh, I can top that...I still have my Betamax.

[WD8BIL]

Just remember, other than Native Americans, we are all descendants of immigrants.

"Native Americans" immigrated from Asia! They ain't "native", they just got here before the rest of us.

[WU2D]

Now you can say you lived through the Depression too.

[k4kyv]

Just remember, other than Native Americans, we are all descendants of immigrants.

"Native Americans" immigrated from Asia! They ain't "native", they just got here before the rest of us.

From the known palaeontological evidence, the first known humans were Africans.  As people migrated northwards, skin complexion began to lighten up.

White Europeans are an anomaly amongst the world's humans.  The white skin trait developed within people who migrated to extreme northerly latitudes with limited sunlight.  Dark skin contains more melanin as a protection against the sun in tropical and subtropical regions. When humans migrated to less sun-intensive regions in the north, low vitamin D3 levels became a problem, and the translucent light complexion emerged to allow the skin to soak up more of the sun's rays.

The Inuit and Yupik are special cases: even though they live in an extremely sun-poor environment, they have retained their relatively dark skin. This may be explained by the fact that their traditional fish-based diet provides plenty of vitamin D