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 Land lines
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 land lines, 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 land lines. 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, land line usage has dropped
55%.
It's logical that as cell phones rise, many of them replacing traditional
land lines, 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
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 due to micro, electrical and
sonar
waves 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 1930's, 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.

Both interesting and saddening, isn't it?