Geography

Whether it's understanding the cause of tsunamis or the reasoning behind why many roads and railroads are built in river valleys, geography is important for understanding our world and dealing with issues ranging from pollution to international trade. Geographers not only use maps to study the physical landscape but also study land formations and climate to predict the path of a tornado or use surveys and census reports to discover patterns of population growth.

Like the Tonys, the Emmys and the Oscars, the Grammy Awards are largely a U.S.-centric affair. Every year a certain number of Europeans, Latinos and others take home trophies. But the lion's share of statuettes in major artistic categories wind up in homes and production company offices in New York or California. Not so the Latin Grammy Awards, which will mark their 12th anniversary at Thursday night's Univision-televised ceremony at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

The Rodney King beating: Southern California or South Africa? ROBERT ROCCHIO Newport Beach

When I get into a taxi, I almost always ask the cabbie, "Where you from?" In Los Angeles that can be a dangerous gang challenge, but because in my experience cabbies are never from Los Angeles, it hasn't been a problem. What I hear back is Liberia, Armenia, Bangladesh, Belarus and so on. And then I say, depending on whatever home country they named, "Are you from Monrovia?" or Yerevan or Dhaka or Minsk? Invariably, the cab drivers are delighted, even proud, that a stranger, an American, knows their capital.

The Final Four road ends here, in Motor City, in a stadium named after one of the Big Three. Michigan State (30-6) "hosts" Connecticut (31-4) today at Ford Field and Villanova (30-7) takes on North Carolina (32-4). Distance traveled to get here: Connecticut: 746 miles. North Carolina: 701. Villanova: 572. Michigan State: 92. It's been a long trip. Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo lost his voice on the way. "It's lack of sleep," he said this week.

Maybe you're not traveling to the Cradle of Democracy this Independence Day . (And, by the way, no one agrees on where that is. Some say it's Philadelphia, others Massachusetts, others Jamestown, Va., and let us not forget Greece.) Wherever it is and wherever you are, it's a good idea to stop and remember the vast geography of our country, the genius of its founders and all the people and symbols that go with it. Here’s a quick quiz to help you contemplate all of the above. Why, you may ask, do you need to know any of this stuff?

Is the Huntington Beach Union High School curriculum committee that has recommended dropping geography as a required course ("Geography Course Backed by Teachers," Nov. 12) the same committee from the Dark Ages that mandated the reading of that poignant, contemporary novel "Great Expectations" for ninth-grade English? World geography is one of the few opportunities in a structured, outdated learning environment for our children to be exposed to what is happening in the world today.

Denis Cosgrove, 59, a cultural geographer who held the Alexander von Humboldt Chair of Geography at UCLA and encouraged the study of his discipline within the humanities, died March 21 of stomach cancer at his home in Los Angeles, UCLA announced on its website. Cosgrove studied the connection between art and its representation of geography. Landscape and how it is viewed through the lens of art history, architecture and design formed the basis of much of his writing. His 2001 book "Apollo's Eye: A Cartographic Genealogy of the Earth in the Western Imagination" collected images and maps from classical antiquity through the 21st century and reflected on the continuing need humans have to represent the world they live in. Born in Liverpool, England, on May 3, 1948, Cosgrove earned a bachelor's degree in geography at St. Catherine's College at Oxford in 1969.

Re "A Big Dose of Reality in Geography Knowledge," Nov. 21: Although the National Geographic Society should worry that more young Swedes than Americans can locate the U.S. on a world map, Americans' inability to apply geographic information to specific places is of far greater consequence. Identifying Iraq, Afghanistan and the Pacific Ocean on a map are to geography what the alphabet is to reading. They open the gate for boundless and lifelong learning. But those conversant in geography can also identify the global patterns of climate, landforms, economics, political systems, human culture and migration that order our complex world.

A scholarship fund of about $135,000 has been established at Cal State Northridge for community college transfer students majoring in geography. The Michael E. Tamburro Geography Scholarship Fund, in memory of the 1981 CSUN grad who died four years ago in a helicopter crash, was started last year with a $25,000 gift from his widow, Tamara Tamburro. The fund later received a $100,000 donation from his business partner, Alan Purwin, in addition to about $10,000 in contributions from friends.

Maybe you're not traveling to the Cradle of Democracy this Independence Day . (And, by the way, no one agrees on where that is. Some say it's Philadelphia, others Massachusetts, others Jamestown, Va., and let us not forget Greece.) Wherever it is and wherever you are, it's a good idea to stop and remember the vast geography of our country, the genius of its founders and all the people and symbols that go with it. Here’s a quick quiz to help you contemplate all of the above. Why, you may ask, do you need to know any of this stuff?

NEW MEMBERS Carl Cohn: Co-director of the Urban Leadership Program at Claremont Graduate University; previously superintendent in San Diego and Long Beach. Louis "Bill" Honig: President of the Consortium on Reading Excellence; state superintendent of public instruction from 1983 to 1993, resigned after being convicted of conflict-of-interest charges; served on the state Board of Education from 1975 to 1983. Michael Kirst: Professor emeritus at Stanford University, where he has taught since 1969; served on the state Board of Education from 1975 to 1982.

Earlier this year, after Comedy Central altered an episode of "South Park" that had prompted threats because of the way it depicted Islam's prophet Muhammad, Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris proposed an "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day. " The idea was, as she put it, to stand up for the 1st Amendment and "water down the pool of targets" for extremists. The proposal got Norris targeted for assassination by radical Yemeni American cleric Anwar Awlaki, who has been linked to the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight and also to several of the 9/11 hijackers.

Jonathan Franzen begins his fourth novel, "Freedom," with an extended set piece introducing Walter and Patty Berglund, urban homesteaders who, back in the 1980s, moved to the crumbling core of St. Paul, Minn., and became "the young pioneers of Ramsey Hill. " It's an interesting choice since, as Franzen makes clear from the book's first sentence, the Berglunds have abandoned the Twin Cities for Washington, D.C., and "mean nothing to St. Paul now. " Still, their memory, or their influence, lingers like an afterimage: the perfect couple that somehow wasn't, whose love was shattered by some ineradicable taint.

Edwin S. Munger, a longtime geography professor at Caltech whose specialty was Africa and race relations on the continent, has died. He was 88. Munger died June 15 of prostate cancer at his home in Pasadena, said his wife, Ann. A visiting lecturer at Caltech during the 1950s who became a professor there in 1961, Munger made more than 100 trips to Africa, his wife said. During his years there he worked with the Peace Corps and the U.S. State Department and was the first Fulbright Fellow in Africa.

I've always known that race and geography are intimately connected in L.A., a city practically built with segregation in mind. Though I deplore the effects of segregation, I always felt a nativist pride in the place I was born and raised, South Central. I felt the same about Inglewood, just across the border from South Central, where I moved as a teenager and where my husband and I bought a house six years ago. I imagine lots of people, whatever their color, have the same affection for their own stomping grounds.

Two Pacoima teachers were among 40 inner-city instructors from across the country who learned to recognize geography lessons in their own neighborhood during the 1995 National Geographic Society Urban Institute this summer. Kenneth Harrell and Kelly Welsh, both from Charles Maclay Middle School in Pacoima, attended the 16-day program in July that recommended students leave the classroom to explore local geography, ethnic diversity, culture, architecture and more.

You can be sure that any changes to the NCAA basketball seedings and schedules won't hurt the Eastern teams. The NCAA even changes geography to suit its biases. They send teams to Dayton, Kansas City, Chicago and Dallas and call it a "Midwest" region. If they insist on having the tournament in these cities, then the least they could do is call the location "Mideast" or 'Central" because it sure isn't "Midwest." Dave Kraus Fountain Valley

His world is bound by two square blocks — weed-choked pavement, teeming streets and a tiny studio apartment shared with his mother, stepfather and older brother. Still, 11-year-old Oscar Mejia knows the thick forests of China, the grassy plains of South Africa and the fragile coral reefs of Australia. Every Friday, Oscar and his class at Camino Nuevo Charter Academy leave their world — crowded apartments inside stuffy, narrow high-rises in Pico-Union, one of Los Angeles' most congested neighborhoods — to explore new territories.

With Friday's opening of the Winter Olympics, Canada is preparing for the biggest domestic security operation in its history -- a $900-million policing nightmare that takes in 3,860 square miles of downtown stadiums, remote woodland valleys and miles of urban waterways. The military contingent alone will require nearly twice the 2,500 soldiers Canada has in Afghanistan. Police and contract security agents must screen up to 1.6 million ticket holders and protect 5,500 athletes and officials -- while preparing for domestic protesters, who a year ago announced preparations for "Riot 2010."