Nine Things That Could Disappear in Our Lifetime....

[dasher]

       Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come        [/color]        1. The Post Office. Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. E-mail, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.
       2. The Check[/b]. Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.
[/font]       3. The Newspaper[/b]. The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.[/font]                4. The Book. You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music fromiTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.                5. The Land Line Telephone. Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.
       6. Music[/b]. This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and di stu rbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."[/font]                7. Television. Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and comme rci als run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.               8. "Things" That You Own. Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good news. But, will you actually own any of this " stu ff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.                9. Privacy. If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. And "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.                All we will have that can't be changed are memories.

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[LennG]

 
 All my limited money, especially since it is in the stock market and not under my mattress where it would be safer.
 
 My hair
 
 My good looks
 
 Me being NICE to everyone
 
 Humor, people are jsut too serious these days, especially Weeze
 
 
 
 

[dasher]

Lenny, read what my favorite guru Bill Gross has to say about All my limited money, especially since it is in the stock market and not under my mattress where it would be safer.
Plus, a Davey Crockett coonskin cap for My hair.
No worries for My good looks and Me being NICE to everyone
Regarding Wheezer - he will get his sense of humor back shortly- right after the Albany BBQ and Florida legalizes medicinal .........
And yes, I listened to Bill and just got out of a bunch of treasuries in favor of Western Asset Emerging Markets Debt Fund Inc.
Hope he's right!
http://www.pimco.com/EN/insights/pages/kings-of-the-wild-frontier.aspx
 
 

[weeze]

invest in steak mines, people always gotta eat, right?

[dasher]

He's back! And not too serious!
Welcome back Weezer!

[weeze]

yup, back from the wilds of albany,
hey if i can fly 1200 miles to picnic with the folks how come lenn cant drive 2 blocks? was hes busy on the campaign trail for michelle bachmann? was he stuck in the middle of a shirley temple marathon? or was he home observing the sabbath with his mandatory rib dinner on saturday night?
inquireing minds, not DRAKES, want to know!

[LennG]

It's a chicken in every pot
I HATE shirlee Temple
How about Hillary for 12
 
Glad you made it home safely, how come you didn't stop by for a cheese blintz??
 
BTW  I'm heading to Dixie on friday, gonna follow the route of Stonewall Jackson in the shenendoah for a week, then on to Richmond to wave the stars and stripes, and then to Williamsburg and Virginney Beach for some surf and truf.
 Is anyone going to be around there??

[dasher]

Now you did it- Stonewall being a minion of Bobby Lee will cause Weeze to moan in glee. (pretty good Lee/glee)
Look up my daughter Len. She lives in Harrisonburg and they are total vegetarians. Could make you some bean curd soup, fried green peppers, tomato blintzes, and apples.
Enjoy! It's beautiful country. If you go on I-81 North there's a whole bunch of battlefields that Stoney fought on.

[weeze]

only a friggin' yankee would eat "truf"

[LennG]

 
 For that, I may well pee on Stonewall's grave. 

[weeze]

please wait until theres a old pick up truck with four guys and a cooler full of busch light watching. you will make some new friends.

[LennG]

 
 I'll tell them I know you, and after that we'll all be sitting round having a good old time.
 
After that, because their combined IQ will be under 100, I'll tell them if they all pee on Stonewall's grave, pretty flowers will grow. They'll be asking for more beer, so they can have more pee.

[dasher]

Len,
This is where you need to go. Right on your route. But, I am concerned. How will your hip withstand jumping the fence or does your weezer extend that far??
http://civilwaralbum.com/misc/lexington_va1.htm

[Derach]

Post office is def on its way out.  Been kept artificially alive for years. 


Don't think music is leaving though.  Changing, for sure, but if anything, artists have way more avenues upon which to get exposure today than ever before.  Live shows are still hugely popular and the plummeting cost of digital music will keep us grooving for a very long time.  Music schools and studios still have very high attendance. 

[weeze]

republicans? we can only hope!