Posted on 03/18/2017 6:04:20 PM PDT by upchuck
Complete article here: http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/business/T057-S001-7-things-that-will-soon-disappear/index.html
Quick list:
1. Keys - Keys, at least in the sense of a piece of brass cut to a specific shape, are going away.
2. Blackouts - Frustrating power outages that leave people with fridges full of ruined food are on their way out as our electrical grid becomes increasingly intelligent – and resilient.
3. Fast-food workers - Burger-flippers have targets on their backs as fast-food executives are eager to replace them with machines, particularly as minimum wages in a variety of states are set to rise to $15.
4. The clutch pedal - Every year it seems that an additional car model loses the manual transmission option. Even the Ford F-150 pickup truck can’t be purchased with a stick anymore.
5. College textbooks - By the end of this decade, digital formats for tablets and e-readers will displace physical books for assigned reading on college campuses. K–12 schools won’t be far behind, though they’ll mostly stick with larger computers as their platform of choice.
6. Dial-up Internet - According to a study from the Pew Foundation, only 3% of U.S. households went online via a dial-up connection in 2013. Thirteen years before that, only 3% had broadband (Today, 70% have home broadband). Massive federal spending on broadband initiatives, passed during the last recession to encourage economic recovery, has helped considerably.
7. The plow - Modern farmers have little use for it. It provides a deep tillage that turns up too much soil, encouraging erosion because the plow leaves no plant material on the surface to stop wind and rain water from carrying the soil away. It also requires a huge amount of diesel fuel to plow, compared with other tillage methods, cutting into farmers' profits. The final straw: It releases more carbon dioxide into the air than other tillage methods.
8. Your neighborhood mail collection box - The amount of mail people are sending is plummeting, down 57% from 2004 to 2015 for stamped first-class pieces. So, around the country, the U.S. Postal Service has been cutting back on those iconic blue collection boxes. The number has fallen by more than half since the mid 1980s. Since it costs time and fuel for mail carriers to stop by each one, the USPS monitors usage and pulls out boxes that don't see enough traffic.
9. Your privacy - If you are online, you had better assume that you already have no privacy and act accordingly. Every mouse click and keystroke is tracked, logged and potentially analyzed and eventually used by Web site product managers, marketers, hackers and others. To use most services, users have to opt-in to lengthy terms and conditions that allow their data to be crunched by all sorts of actors.
10. The incandescent lightbulb - No, government energy cops are not coming for your bulbs. But the traditional incandescent lightbulb that traces its roots back to Thomas Edison is definitely on its way out. As of January 1, 2014, the manufacture and importation of 40- to 100-watt incandescent bulbs became illegal in the U.S., part of a much broader effort to get Americans to use less electricity.
Number two, blackouts, is also a problem. It is well known that our power infrastructure is ripe for hackers and terrorists.
Clickable linky: http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/business/T057-S001-7-things-that-will-soon-disappear/index.html
Number 7: more CO2 in the atmosphere! Help! We’re all gonna die!
>>Number two, blackouts, is also a problem. It is well known that our power infrastructure is ripe for hackers and terrorists.
Well known, but never happens.
I have enough incandescent light bulbs to last me until the end of World War VII.
#4. I may trade in my stick if ford’s new 10 speed is all they say it will be
What’s an incandescent?
#9 is the only one that is actually true.
Thanks for the humor, but a gentle correction if I may: We don’t need CO2 to live but plants do. We will die from starvation.
The opposite of a Feinstein.
NO, they are not more resilient when you add the complexity of variable renewable power.
If privacy is disappearing, you get a world where people can be segregated based on ideology ... Divergent or 1984 or Brave New World, depending on tolerances and methods of control.
Glad I still have my fax machine.
Cannot even get a reasonable glimpse without being inundated with ads which of course will never go away.
11. Bedwetting, thumb sucking, Leftist cupcakes after the EMP.
Nope.
#5 is also true.
What’s an incandescent?
*********************************
It’s a component of an electrical device used so you can see when you’re working on a typewriter.
Much speculation. The only one worth while is the privacy one, that I believe.
All the incandescent light bulbs I want are sold 9 miles away.
I see a market for 101 Watt bulbs.
Things That Will Soon Disappear Forever
My need to own any combs
Blackouts will disappear?
That is just stupid.
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