This claim has recently been thrust back into the limelight due to the appearance of philosophy PhD and science fiction writer Reza Jorjani on the Danny Jones Podcast. On it he stated: "Every planet has a certain amount of isotopes of different materials on it, and apparently the isotopic ratio of Xenon 129 is consistent across the entire solar system, except for on Mars." Jorjani further states that according to the paper "the isotopic signature was equivalent to ' Empire State building's worth of our thermonuclear warheads".

Adding further intrigue (and natural skepticism) to this story is the author's linking of his hypothesis to the 'face on Mars' and Mars' Cydonia region, with elevated levels of Xenon 129 found there suggesting that an ancient Martian civilization once thrived there and was subsequently wiped out by the explosions. The paper's abstract finishes with: "Taken together, the evidence suggests that Mars was the locale of a planetary nuclear massacre."

Is this fodder for tabloids or does the Harvard stamp give this claim some room to breath?

In what was supposed to be a continuation of the 'GHz is king' days of the early aughts, the Pentium 5 was in spirit a continuation of the 'faster-is-better' philosophy of the P4 architecture, efficiency be damned. Speeds in excess of 7 GHz(!), and a pipeline upwards of 50 stages were rumored to be targeted by Intel, but reality (and physics) reared their ugly heads as always.

Intel engineer Steve Fischer, who was involved with the project, added: "The thing had a pipeline depth of around 50 stages and an expected clock target at one point north of 7 GHz. I call the thing "the Death Star of processors" and half-jokingly reasoned that consumer acceptance of liquid-cooled chassis would not be a big deal." Intel kicked off Project Tejas in 2003, expected in 2004 and later pushed into 2005 after issues forced Intel to redesign the chip. Before the company could do that, the Tejas Project was shelved on May 7, 2004.

In the end efficiency and parallelization was to be the rule of future CPU development, but the fact that Intel had (at least briefly) had planned on taking the P4 paradigm just a wee bit further with a true Pentium 5 is a fascinating look into the past of a future that never was to be for the venerable Pentium line.