Underwater City
While I sympathize with the folks who suffered unimagineable losses from Hurricane Katrina and wish I could do more than the regular cycle of donations I do right now, one question keep occuring to me -- why the hell is New Orleans below sea level in the first place? Whose freaking bright idea was that?
Lots of you probably have the same question, and here's your answer.
In short, New Orleans is in such an ideal area for commerce, they put up with all the problems of the area. As the city grew, they needed more land and drained areas to fill that need. It just evolved into the mess they have today.