On the location of cities
In this broadcast, Simon Winchester talks about how "mature countries" have learnt from the mistakes of the past and locate their cities in sensible places, unlike (presumably) immature countries which build them in areas prone to flood and storm (New Orleans), earthquake zones (San Francisco) and places with no water (Las Vegas).
One of his examples of a terrible place to build a city is Pompeii. So it's somewhat surprising that the mature civilisation of that area has not learnt from that little oopsie, and has built the cities of Ercolano, Pompei and Naples at the foot of Vesuvius. He also says that London is safely situated. So I guess we'll just recycle the Thames Barrier into beer cans shall we then? And as for no water (and a few earthquakes too) how about Jerusalem and Jericho, cities that were old before Rome, and which have been rebuilt over and over again on the same sites!
This argument just doesn't hold water.