The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #101392   Message #2044270
Posted By: Joe_F
05-May-07 - 08:49 PM
Thread Name: BS: Things that may be extinct in 10 years
Subject: RE: BS: Things that may be extinct in 10 years
If by a cork you mean a stopper made of cork, then corks have all but disappeared already. Real cork, I have read, harbors a mold that used to ruin a couple of percent of all the wine that was bottled. That is a pretty heavy tax to pay for tradition. All the wine I have bought recently is stoppered with some kind of plastic. I would be delighted if it moved on to screw caps, but so far that is a sign of quality not even up to my very modest taste.

Paper bank checks are disappearing pretty fast. I gather they are already very rare in Europe.

A couple of kluges that ought to disappear but are not likely to do so in 10 yr are the reciprocating engine and the lead-acid battery.

I wonder about the Internet. So far it has been defended successfully against malice & stupidity, but there is no guarantee that some fatal flaw won't turn up.