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363281 tn?1643235611

Things about to go extince in America Part 1)

Things about to go extinct in America

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.
2 Responses
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541150 tn?1306033843
Interesting, Sassy.

I also think that Pitbulls will become extinct one day. Some people keep thinking dog fights are cool. Gross.....
Helpful - 0
365714 tn?1292199108
Very interesting. Sad about the crabs and the ash trees.  In WI, I've seen first hand the dwendling ash trees....  I can't say for sure if it is the beetle or not, but I know the trees used to be thick and dense.  It was almost like driving under a canopy in the residental areas.  But by the last year, they were poorly leafed out and sparce.  Some trees were marked for removal.

I watched soemthing interesting about the Fluorescent light bulbs in the news.You know the UV rays are bad for people who face lupus and related autoimmune conditions?  It can make the condition worse.
Helpful - 0

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