Things that could become Extinct (#25 thru #1)�?/STRONG>
25. Pit Toilets
By the 2000 Census, the number of Americans who lacked indoor
plumbing was down to 0.6%. Even though that's still an awful
lot of Americans using an outhouse or pit toilet -- 670,000
households or 1.3 million people -- it's a huge improvement
from 1950 when 27% of households (and over half of rural
households) didn't have complete indoor plumbing.
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 ReachLocal 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 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.
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. 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, 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 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
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 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.
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So sad