9 Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime
Whether these changes are good
or bad depends in part on how we
adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come.
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.
Email, 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
Cheque
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with cheque by 2018. It
costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process cheque's. Plastic
cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the cheque. 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.
3.
The Newspaper
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.
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 from iTunes. 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
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 "catalogue 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 disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite
for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music
Dies."
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 commercials 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. The "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 "stuff" 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. "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and
again.
All we will have left that can't be changed are
“Memories”
Jokes from: Christian Jokes.net
100 points to get into Heaven
A man dies and goes to heaven. St. Peter meets him at the pearly gates.
St. Peter
says, "Here's how it works. You need 100 points to make it into heaven. You tell
me all the good things you've done, and I give you a certain number of points for
each item, depending on how good it was. When you reach 100 points, you get in."
"Okay" the man says, "I attended church every Sunday"
"That's good, says St. Peter,
" that's worth two points"
"Two points?" he says. "Well, I gave 10% of all my earnings
to the church"
"Well, let's see," answers Peter, "that's worth another 2 points. Did
you do anything else?"
"Two points? Golly. How about this: I started a soup kitchen
in my city and worked in a shelter for homeless veterans."
"Fantastic, that's certainly
worth a point, " he says.
"hmmm...," the man says, "I was married to the same woman
for 50 years and never cheated on her, even in my heart."
"That's wonderful," says
St. Peter, "that's worth three points!"
"THREE POINTS!!" the man cries, "At this rate
the only way I get into heaven is by the grace of God!"
"Come on in!"
On Sunday morning, the preacher brings in 4 covered jars with one live worm in each.
In one he poured whiskey, in one he poured liquid chocolate, in the third one he
poured cigarette smoke and in the fourth one he threw in dirt. Result was nothing
unusual. Worms in first three jars died. He then looked at the congregation and said,
"I don't have to tell much. I believe you have learnt a clear lesson". Then he pointed
at a little girl and asked, "Sweetheart, can you tell what have you learnt?". Without
any hesitation she said, "If you drink, smoke and eat chocolate you'll never have
worms".
A Jesuit, a Dominican and a Franciscan were walking along an old road, debating the
greatness of their
orders. Suddenly, an apparition of the Holy Family appeared in
front of them, with Jesus in a manger and Mary and Joseph praying over him. The Franciscan
fell on his face, over come with awe at the of sight, God born in such poverty. The
Dominican fell to his knees, adoring the beautiful reflection of the Trinity and
the Holy Family. The Jesuit walked up to Joseph, put his arm around his shoulder,
and said, "So, where ya thinking of sending the kid for school?
A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to "honour thy father and thy mother," she asked "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?" Without missing a beat one little boy answered, "Thou shall not kill."
Jill: Have you read the Bible?
Jack: No, I'm waiting for the film to come round.
Johnny was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday School.
"Well, mum,
our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to
lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
"When he got to the Red Sea he had his engineers
build a pontoon
bridge and all the people walked across safely. Then he used his
walkie-talkie to radio headquarters for reinforcements. They sent bombers to blow
up the bridge and saved the Israelites."
"Now, Johnny, is that really what your teacher
taught you?" his
mother asked.
"Well, no, mom, but if I told it the way the teacher
did, you'd never believe it."
3 kids are sitting on the curb, the first one says "guess what? my dad is so talented he writes stuff down on paper calls it a poem and they send him £100 for it!" the second kid says "oh yeah? my dad is so talented he draws squiggly lines on a notebook calls it art and they give him £300 for it!" "that's nothin" the 3rd kid says, "my dad writes some words down calls it a sermon, and it takes five guys to collect all the money!"