[GreenKeys] OT: Be sure to look at Number 16...

[Don Robert House]

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 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% th is 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 t o 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
               &nbs p;  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 D igital 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, 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 Park . As injuries  
occur
  and lawsuits follow, expect more swimming holes to post 'Keep out!'  
signs.

             14. Answerin g 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, t he 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 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
           &nb sp;    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 decrea  
sed 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
&nb sp;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 censu s hasn't yet been published).  
Ninety-one
  percent of the U.S.farms are small family farms.