<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto"><VAR id=yui-ie-cursor></VAR>To be sure, if something like this could work and justify the initial investment of digging such a canal and building a hydroelectric plant, this wouldn't be true perpetual motion. The Sun, after all, is inputing the extra energy to keep the system going.</SPAN></div>
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<div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">Regards,</SPAN></div>
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<div style="RIGHT: auto"><SPAN style="RIGHT: auto">Dan</SPAN><BR></div>
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<DIV style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 0; MARGIN: 5px 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; HEIGHT: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 0px; BORDER-TOP: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 0px" class=hr contentEditable=false readonly="true"></DIV><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Jeff Davis <jrd1415@gmail.com><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> Dan <dan_ust@yahoo.com>; ExI chat list <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Thursday, July 14, 2011 2:48 PM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> Re: [ExI] East African Rift Valley again<BR></FONT><BR>Bit of trivia here. Some years ago, I encountered the notion of a<BR>canal from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea. The idea was -- or so I<BR>remember it -- that the water flowing down hill would
generate<BR>hydroelectric power, and that the increased surface area of the Dead<BR>Sea. with the less dense sea water on top would increase the rate of<BR>evaporation such that the evaporative loss would match the rate of<BR>inflow. Almost a perpetual motion machine, kind of.<BR><BR>There are at least a couple of other spots on the planet where the<BR>ground elevation is below sea level. Somewhere in the Mojave and a<BR>spot in Libya. The fact that all these depressions are in desert<BR>areas also makes one wonder about the possible benefit of more water<BR>vapor in the desert air, and, of course the possibility of more rain.<BR><BR>Best, Jeff Davis<BR><BR> "Everything's hard till you know how to do it."<BR> Ray Charles</DIV></DIV></div></body></html>