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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Sat, Mar 26, 2022 at 9:17 AM BillK via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><p class=MsoNormal>I'm doubtful about human cities on the desert planet Mars, but maybe<br>something can be done with it.......<o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>It’s cool, but I note that we still really don’t have cities in either Antarctica or the middle of the Sahara, even though there are good reasons to settle there if practical: the former for astronomy and the latter for blanketing the place with solar power. In both places, vast expanses of land can be obtained for nothing.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Regarding the Sahara, anyone with eyes can see that China is colonizing Africa. It is easy enough to foresee that solar panels in the Sahara could supply the entire continent with power, along with using the power to convert South African coal to fuel for internal combustion engines.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Before you dismiss the notion, consider all energy use of the USA and convert that to land area needed to generate it with solar: it requires a patch of ground larger than Arizona, assuming Arizona-ey skies and latitude. Then consider the latitude of northern Africa-ey skies. Then take a look at this figure or go to the site:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2445615/True-size-Africa-continent-big-China-India-US-Europe-together.html">https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2445615/True-size-Africa-continent-big-China-India-US-Europe-together.html</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><img border=0 width=461 height=424 style='width:4.802in;height:4.4166in' id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image003.jpg@01D84100.445E0F10"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Africa is… what’s the technical term… a big-assed continent.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Prediction: humanity will build tech-advanced cities in Africa, up in the Sahara where it won’t bother the people who already there, before we build anything on Mars.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></div></body></html>