As the elbow linking Louisiana and Oklahoma, Texas is a target for all kinds of crazy weather, from hurricanes around Houston and Galveston to hailstorms in Dallas to tornadoes on the western plains.

FORBES: The Most Expensive States To Insure Your Home 2006

Fanned by winds roaring towards the Pacific coast from the hot western plains of New South Wales, some of the worst bushfires Australia has seen have turned much of the state into an inferno, reaching the northern suburbs of Sydney itself.

ECONOMIST: Arson suspected

Neither side has overcome the logistical difficulties presented by the barren 400-kilometre stretch that separates populated patches along Libya's eastern and western coastal plains.

ECONOMIST: Libya v Libya

Ah, the Olympia oyster, the plains buffalo of western mollusks: a golden memory of primordial abundance.

FORBES: The American Oyster Paradise

Without irrigation, no crops would grow in the dry plains of south-western New South Wales, where the Murrumbidgee meets the Murray.

ECONOMIST: Australia's water war

Even those who journey through its Northeastern complex, into the Southern lands, across the central plains and to its Western slopes can only glimpse a measure of the bounty of America.

WSJ: And the Fair Land

In Colorado, drilling traditionally focused on the western side of the Rockies or on the Eastern Plains.

WSJ: As energy boom nears cities, a backlash grows