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The article presents abstracts of research related to geography. They include "Love, Haight and Beyond: A Geographical Exploration of the Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco," by Clark Akatiff, "People Geographies and Students' Worlds," by James P. Allen and "Variations in Viability: A Study of Economic Health in the Pacific Northwest," by Burton Anderson.

Between 1857 and 1860 William Gilpin promoted a new regional concept of the Cis-Rocky Mountain West. After reviewing the earlier ideas about the area this paper traces the stages in Gilpin's formulation of his Great Plains concept. The final statement of 1857 is analyzed and appraised from several points of view: as a geographical concept. as a factor influencing settlement, and as a basis for predicting economic developments. As a geographical concept it was much more valid than its precursors. As a factor influencing settlement it provided a powerful motivating image However, as a basis for prediction it was too generalized and grossly incomplete. Nevertheless, for twenty-one years it remained the most significant statement on the region. until eventually superseded in 1878 by the more mature concepts of John Wesley Powell.

Cities are epicenters for invention. Scaling analyses have verified the productivity of cities and demonstrate a superlinear relationship between cities' population size and invention performance. However, little is known about what kinds of inventions correlate with city size. Is the productivity of cities only limited to invention quantity? I shift the focus on the quality of idea creation by investigating how cities influence the art of knowledge combinations. Atypical combinations introduce novel and unexpected linkages between knowledge domains. They express creativity in inventions and are particularly important for technological breakthroughs. My study of 174 years of invention history in metropolitan areas in the US reveals a superlinear scaling of atypical combinations with population size. The observed scaling grows over time indicating a geographic shift toward cities since the early twentieth century. The productivity of large cities is thus not only restricted to quantity but also includes quality in invention processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]