Diurnal and Nocturnal; Log-Blog #04; Thursday, September 13, 2007

(another journal, log, or blog about Word-Info site activities, daily and nightly)


Today, lists and links of other word families which have been recently accomplished are presented

Yesterday, I presented a list of "feather-type" words which I recently worked on; however, I thought it would be a good idea to list some of the other units with their related word families; if for no other reason, than to keep a record of those links accessible.

The first group is a family of "science articles" which makes it easier for users to find: Related articles about science: "Science Race"; STEM, Part 1; STEM, Part 2; Scientific Fields of Science Specialties.

Another word group is about vocabulary groups having to do with "rubbing, wiping", or "wearing away": Related "rub, rubbing; wear away; wipe" word families: frica-, frict-; terg-; tribo-; -tripsy; trit-.

The last group which I completed recently are vocabulary units related to "caves" or "caverns": Related "cave, cavern" word sources: cav-, cavern; speleo-; spelunc-, spelunk-; stalac-, stalag-; troglo-.

Another group, which I did several months ago, deal with English words that are related to "hair" which also include some special illustrations worthy of examination: Related hair-content units: coiffeur, folli-, hirsute, pilo-, and tricho-.

More information about H.G. Wells and his forecasts

On Monday, of this week, I introduced an article from the September-October, 2007, issue of The Futurist titled: "Anticipations: The Remarkable Forecasts of H.G. Wells" by Paul Crabtree, pages 40-46. Today, I will be adding some more of H.G. Wells "forecasts".


"In 1901, H.G. Wells looked to the century ahead and predicted suburbia, flying machines, American superpower status, and moving sidewalks, but he had a few misses, too."

Mr. Wells prediction about people living in the "city-suburb complex"

  • Mr. Wells wrote in his second chapter that the increasing speed and availability of travel, together with greater use of mail services and the telephone, would lead to a great expansion in the size of cities, along with a decrease in average density; in a word, "suburbs".
  • He also stated that city centers would increasingly serve as shopping and entertainment areas rather than provide for housing dense populations.
  • Mr. Wells, while reasonably correct about the twentieth-century city life and sprawl, he overestimated the size of the world's major urban centers.
  • He predicted in 1901, that the population of London would be about 20 million by the year 2000, while London and the urban areas surrounding London and the urban areas around it now have a population of a little more than eight million.
  • The New York urban area is now approximately 19 million; however, Mr. Wells anticipated the figure to be about 40 million.
  • What Mr. Wells considered an urban area to be was not stated clearly and, at any rate, being off by a few million numerical factors in a hundred years' time projection is still considered to be quite an accomplishment.

Another chapter of predictions will be included in a future journal; maybe, tomorrow.

United Nations Population Fund report "Peering into the Dawn of an Urban Millennium"

In 2008, the world will reach an invisible but momentous milestone: For the first time in history, more than half its human population of 3.3 billion people will be living in urban areas.

By 2030, this is expected to swell to almost five billion. Many of the new urbanites will be poor. Their future, the future of cities in developing countries, the future of humanity itself, all depend very much on decisions made now in preparation for this growth.

While the world’s urban population grew very rapidly (from 220 million to 2.8 billion) over the 20th century, the next few decades will see an unprecedented scale of urban growth in the developing world.

This will be particularly notable in Africa and Asia where the urban population will double between 2000 and 2030; that is, the accumulated urban growth of these two regions during the whole span of history will be duplicated in a single generation.

By 2030, the towns and cities of the developing world will make up 80 per cent of urban humanity.

Urbanization, the increase in the urban share of total population, is inevitable, but it can also be positive.

The current concentration of poverty, slum growth and social disruption in cities does paint a threatening picture. Yet, no country in the industrial age has ever achieved significant economic growth without urbanization.

Cities concentrate poverty, but they also represent the best hope of escaping it. Cities also embody the environmental damage done by modern civilization; yet, experts and policymakers increasingly recognize the potential value of cities to long-term sustainability.

If cities create environmental problems, they also contain the solutions. The potential benefits of urbanization far outweigh the disadvantages. The challenge is in learning how to exploit its possibilities.

—Excerpts from the "State of world population 2007,
Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth"
in United Nations Population Fund; www.unfpa.org.

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