Inside the Mad Scientist's Lab

There has been a lot of speculation over why Apple purchased PA Semiconductor, a small chip design firm that previously designed the PowerPC chips. As I recall, it was discussed at some length in the Buzz Out Loud episode "Fablessly 'Splenive Pigeons," and it was probably the funniest episode ever. But I digress. AppleInsider suggests that PA Semi is working on a processor destined for the next-generation iPhone.

National Geographic recently ran a story on what may be the first image obtained of a planet around another sun-like star. Which is pretty awesome. But they probably should have not started the article (at least in the RSS feed) with the phrase "A hot, young body ..." because few statement would have made my brain jump so quickly off track.

It seems Apple is finding it hard to crack the cell phone market in Japan, thanks to the widespread availability in that country of cheaper, similarly featured alternatives. Duh, Apple. Thanks to the international date line and a permissive attitude towards advanced technology, people in Japan are already living in the future.

Yeah, Japan gets the cool parts of the future, the US gives us the scary parts. Apparently a team at Stanford developed a set of robot helicopters that have such advanced AI that they actually learned to fly themselves by watching a remote-controlled helicopter. Which would be wonderful, if it were not so very reminiscent of the origin of Skynet as seen in Terminator 3. Gaa!

In news that in no way involves the destruction of humanity at the cold, metal hands of our misguided creations, Egypt has big plans in the works to make Cleopatra's palace complex into a museum. Which is a pretty big deal seeing as how it was built on islands on the Mediterranean coast at the mouth of the Nile which have since sunk due to a series of earthquakes. Oh, and the architect's concept looks fantastic, too.