Those blokes over in the UK may be seeing their last sprig of mistletoe this Christmas, as Scientific American reports that it's disappearing from its historic habitats. The parasitic plant is losing the apple orchards it has depended on for survival as industrialized apple farming takes over. Yep, Factory farming is now killing your yuletide game—it just got serious. more ›

Did you hear the sounds of silence are nearly behind us? According to audio ecologist Gordon Hempton, quiet spaces world-wide are being taken over by noise. Newsweek reports that the sonic scientist believes silence in our world "is rapidly disappearing, even in the most remote places." So how many are left? Fewer than a dozen in America, and zero in Europe! more ›

First off, there is an Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists. Last week this group had a trade group gathering in Nashville, and CityRoom reports that "while much of the talk at the seventh annual Pooper Scooper Convention, as usual, centered on business, it also featured the yearly tribute" to the death of the pooper scooper. That's right, the instrument in which the law is named after is nearly extinct. more ›

Remember phone booths? Not pay phones, but the actual booths you got into in order to access that phone. Well, according to Scouting NY there are only four left in all of Manhattan! Because who needs privacy anymore? Well, maybe Clark Kent. But when movies film here they often have to recreate their phone booth scenes with props. Sigh, just another little thing dropping off the landscape of the city. This site has a great archive of pay phones and booths around the five boroughs, and Forgotten NY takes a nostalgic look back on booths of the past. If you want to see a rare booth in person the remaining ones are at 101st, 100th, 90th and 66th streets. more ›