• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 ReachLocal 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% this year — much higher than the 2%-3% fade rate seen in past years.
• Answering Machines: The increasing disappearance of answering machines is directly tied to 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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?
• 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.
• 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.

courtesy of Consumerist

We get plenty of Telemarketers calling to the station, and the occasional survey. I took this survey call about education in Calgary:

Survey Says

What appears to be the tracklisting for Guitar Hero IV: World Tour has leaked online. The game is expected out this winter. Here’s the list:

‘Dope Nose’ - Weezer
‘The Middle’ - Jimmy Eat World
‘Today’ - Smashing Pumpkins
‘Roland’ - Interpol
‘Santeria’ - Sublime
‘Mr Brightside’ - The Killers
‘Take It On The Run’ - REO Speedwagon
‘Hold The Line’ - Toto
‘Rebel Yell’ - Billy Idol
‘Heartbreaker’ - Pat Benatar
‘All Around Me’ - Flyleaf
‘Misery Business’ - Paramore
‘Stinkfist’ - Tool
‘Lateralus’ - Tool
‘Schism’ - Tool
‘Every Breath You Take’ - The Police
‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’ - The Offspring
‘The Good Left Undone’ - Rise Agaisnt
‘Bleed It Out’ - Linkin Park
‘Face Down’ - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
‘The Kill’ - 30 Seconds to Mars
‘Thank You For The Venom’ - My Chemical Romance
‘Dammit’ - Blink 182
‘When You Heat Stops Beating’ - +44
‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ - The Rolling Stones
‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ - Blue Öyster Cult
‘Light My Fire’ - The Doors
‘Give It Away’ - Red Hot Chili Peppers
‘Renegades Of Funk’ - Rage Against The Machines
‘No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn’ - The Beastie Boys
‘Are You Gonna Go My Way?’ - Lenny Kravitz
‘I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing’ - Aerosmith
‘Man In The Box’ - Alice In Chains
‘Kickstart My Heart’ - Mötley Crüe
‘Spin The Black Circle’ - Pearl Jam
‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ - Nirvana
‘Car Chase City’ - Tenacious D
‘Everlong’ - Foo Fighters
‘Animal’ - Def Leppard
‘Runaway’ - Bon Jovi
‘Paradise City’ - Guns N’ Roses
‘Song For The Dead’ - Queens of the Stone Age
‘Vasoline’ - Stone Temple Pilots
‘Assassin’ - Muse
‘The Boys Are Back in Town’ - Thin Lizzy
‘Life in the Fast Lane’ - The Eagles
‘Sweet Home Alabama’ - Lynyrd Skynyrd
‘Here to Stay’ - KoRn
‘Dragula’ - Rob Zombie
‘Bat Country’ - Avenged Sevenfold
‘10,000 Fists’ - Disturbed
‘Duality’ - Slipknot
‘Toxicity’ - System of a Down
‘Demise of Sanity’ - Black Label Society
‘Don’t Talk to Strangers’ - Dio
‘Heaven and Hell’ - Black Sabbath
‘Crazy Train’ - Ozzy Osbourne
‘The Spirit Of Radio’ - Rush
‘Comfortably Numb’ - Pink Floyd
‘Pull Me Under’ - Dream Theater
‘Beat It’ - Micheal Jackson Feat. Eddie Van Halen
‘Hot For Teacher’ - Van Halen
‘Stranglehold’ - Ted Nugent
‘Warriors Of Time’ - Black Tide
‘Leather Rebel’ - Judas Priest
‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ - Iron Maiden
‘Angel Of Death’ - Slayer
‘Tornado Of Souls’ - Megadeth
‘Master Of Puppets’ - Metallica
‘Johnny B Goode’ - Chuck Berry
‘The Wind Cries Mary’ - Jimi Hendrix
‘Purple Haze (Live)’ - Jimi Hendrix
‘45′ - Shinedown
‘96 Quite Bitter Beings’ - CKY
‘Bombshell’ - Powerman 5000
‘Clavado en un Bar’ - Maná
‘Enjoy the Silence’ - Lacuna Coil
‘Feuer Frei’ - Rammstein
‘Fury Of The Storm’ - Dragonforce
‘Never Too Late’ - The Answer
‘Nottingham Lace’ - Buckethead
‘One Armed Scissor’ - At The Drive-In
‘Satch Boogie’ - Joe Satriani
‘Schrei’ - Tokio Hotel
‘Soul Doubt’ - NOFX

For a mere $100,000, you could own awhopping 40-foot long and 12 foot high (at the hips) museum-grade T-Rex replica. They’ll pose him for you, too. Each skeleton is constructed according to your creative needs, allowing you to fashion a more dynamic exhibit. Whether you want your skeleton walking, stalking, attacking, running, jumping or looking your visitors right in the eye. Go to Black Hills Institute for more details.

This is pretty awesome:

• Snake Massage: A spa in Israel has put a unique spin on the standard massage. While some masseuses use soothing music or scented candles to supplement massages, owner Ida Barak prefers to use snakes; she believes that they have a calming effect and can alleviate joint pain. Imagine — lying facedown on a bed, strong hands rubbing oil on your back as a few snakes slither up and down your body. What could be more relaxing? Try anything.
• Geisha Facial: At the Shizuka Day Spa in New York, they use (according to the Web site) “traditional and natural Japanese ingredients” to make skin vibrant and soft. Traditional and natural sounds so purifying… until you realize that the treatment includes nightingale excrement. The treatment, uguisu no fun, incorporates powdered (and sanitized) nightingale feces into a facial mixture that revitalizes skin.
• Aberdeen Organic Bull Sperm Treatment: If you don’t have an aversion to sperm in your tresses, go to Hari’s Salon in London and get their infamous treatment. The protein in this ingredient moisturizes, brightens, and repairs your hair like nothing else. It’s combined with Katera root, another protein powerhouse that does amazing things for hair.
• Fish Reflexology: Customer at Singapore’s Sentosa spa can sit in a bath while tiny Turkish spa fish (also called doctor fish) swim around and eat the dead skin off your feet. After the fish nibble, you’re left with softer, healthier feet.
• Bathe in Your Favorite Beverage: At the Hakone Kowakien Yunessun spa in Japan, you can soak in a big pool of red wine. If alcohol’s not your thing, how about green tea, coffee, or sake? Each liquid offers therapeutic benefits for the skin — for example, green tea contains immune-boosting antioxidants, and red wine has skin-restorative properties.
• Chocolate Fondue Wrap: Going to a spa is an indulgent act already, so why not step it up a notch and indulge your sweet tooth, too? The spa in the Hotel Hershey (possibly the most delicious-sounding hotel ever) offers a plethora of cocoa-infused treatments designed to both soothe you and make you really hungry.
• Corona Beer Face Lift: If you love Coronas, but hate the subsequent bloat, head to the Esperanza Resort Spa in Mexico and experience the healing power of beer for a change. The beer treatment is supposed to clear your pores, tighten your skin, and give your face a fresh “glow” — quite different from the glow you get after drinking a couple of Coronas.
• The “Other” Face Lift: It’s not enough that we have to worry about how toned our legs or arms are. According to Phit, a spa in New York dedicated to pelvic health, women should also be mindful of our their genital area muscle tone. The clinic offers pelvic services for mothers who’ve recently given birth, women with bladder control issues, and those who are dedicated to fitness on all levels. The Web site claims that the “Other” Face Lift, which is geared toward older women worried about wrinkling or sagging in that area, can “restore labial and vulvar contour to a plump firmness” with a process involving lasers.
• The Fanny Facial: The Smooth Synergy Day Spa in New York offers the Fanny Facial, a process involving exfoliation, microcurrent therapy, and a spray tan for your booty. The microcurrent therapy helps reduce the appearance of cellulite and tones your backside, and the spray tan enhances the tone.

Courtesy of Consumerist.com

Cheryl Wallach from the Calgary Humane Society often surprises us when she stops by every Thursday with a pet available for adoption. This week, a pretty cool frog named Elvis. He’s a pac-man frog (South American Ornate Horned Frog). He and female frog were found during a drug bust. You can check him, his woman and tons of other animals out at the CHS website.

I’m not the most organized person in the world, and I’m not alone. As a result there are all sorts of bank accounts in Canada that were forgotten…many with unclaimed balances. About 225 of the accounts contain more than $50,000, but most are under $10,000. All told, there’s over $320,000,000 in unclaimed money under about 938,000 names. It’s kinda fun to enter your name and names of friends and family in the search engine to see if there’s some money just sitting around. Here’s the search form:

Free Money? 

The unveiling of the lineup was made at the 2008 E3 Media and Business Summit, where new and updated features of the second edition of the game were also revealed. A total of 84 songs will be included with the game itself, with 20 more to be made available for free downloading in the fall. Among the other artists contributing tracks to Rock Band 2 are Pearl Jam, Metallica, the Allman Brothers, Devo, Paramore, Modest Mouse, Nirvana, the Who, Jimmy Eat World, Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and many more.

• Rock Band 2 will make its debut on Xbox 360 this September, and will be available for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Wii systems later this year.
• The official Rock Band 2 track listing is:
  1. AC/DC - “Let There Be Rock”
  2. AFI - “Girl’s Gone Grey”
  3. Alanis Morissette - “You Oughta Know”
  4. Alice in Chains - “Man In The Box”
  5. Allman Brothers - “Ramblin’ Man”
  6. Avenged Sevenfold - “Almost Easy”
  7. Bad Company - “Shooting Star”
  8. Beastie Boys - “So Whatcha Want”
  9. Beck - “E-Pro”
  10. Bikini Kill - “Rebel Girl”
  11. Billy Idol - “White Wedding Pt I”
  12. Blondie - One Way Or Another”
  13. Bob Dylan - “Tangled Up In Blue”
  14. Bon Jovi - “Livin’ on A Prayer”
  15. Cheap Trick - “Hello There”
  16. Devo - “Uncontrollable Urge”
  17. Dinosaur Jr. - “Feel the Pain”
  18. Disturbed - “Down With The Sickness”
  19. The Donnas - “New Kid In School”
  20. Dream Theater - “Panic Attack”
  21. Duran Duran - “Hungry Like the Wolf”
  22. Elvis Costello - “Pump It Up”
  23. Fleetwood Mac - “Go Your Own Way”
  24. Foo Fighters - “Everlong”
  25. The Go-Go’s - “We Got the Beat”
  26. The Grateful Dead - “Alabama Getaway”
  27. The Guess Who - “American Woman”
  28. Guns N’ Roses - “Shackler’s Revenge”
  29. Interpol - “PDA ”
  30. Jane’s Addiction - “Mountain Song”
  31. Jethro Tull - “Aqualung”
  32. Jimmy Eat World - “The Middle”
  33. Joan Jett - “Bad Reputation”
  34. Journey - “Anyway You Want It”
  35. Judas Priest - “Painkiller”
  36. Kansas - “Carry On Wayward Son”
  37. L7 - “Pretend We’re Dead”
  38. Lacuna Coil - “Our Truth”
  39. Linkin Park - “One Step Closer”
  40. Lit - “My Own Worst Enemy”
  41. Lush - “De-Luxe”
  42. Mastodon - “Colony of Birchmen”
  43. Megadeth - “Peace Sells”
  44. Metallica - “Battery”
  45. Mighty Mighty Bosstones - “Where’d You Go”
  46. Modest Mouse - “Float On”
  47. Motorhead - “Ace of Spades”
  48. The Muffs - “Kids in America”
  49. Nirvana - “Drain You”
  50. Norman Greenbaum - “Spirit in the Sky”
  51. The Offspring - “Come Out & Play (Keep ‘Em Separated)”
  52. Panic at the Disco - “Nine In The Afternoon”
  53. Paramore - “That’s What You Get”
  54. Pearl Jam - “Alive”
  55. Presidents of the USA - “Lump”
  56. Rage Against the Machine - “Testify”
  57. Ratt - “Round & Round”
  58. Red Hot Chili Peppers - “Give it Away”
  59. The Replacements - “Alex Chilton”
  60. Rise Against - “Give it All”
  61. Rush - “The Trees”
  62. Silversun Pickups - “Lazy Eye”
  63. Smashing Pumpkins - “Today”
  64. Social Distortion - “I Was Wrong”
  65. Sonic Youth - “Teenage Riot”
  66. Soundgarden - “Spoonman”
  67. Squeeze - “Cool For Cats”
  68. Steely Dan - “Bodhitsattva”
  69. Steve Miller Band - “Rock’n Me”
  70. Survivor - “Eye of the Tiger”
  71. System of a Down - “Chop Suey”
  72. Talking Heads - “Psycho Killer”
  73. Tenacious D - “Master Exploder”
  74. Testament - “Souls Of Black”
  75. The Who - “Pinball Wizard”

I had a story about a guy who got spanked in Arkansas, and somehow it evolved into me getting spanked on the butt by Candice (from The Show) as I stood on top of the mixing board with my shorts around my ankles. There were eyewitnesses, but no photo evidence. Listen here:

Josh gets a spanking audio