Attention, irrepressible optimists: we know you're out there, and we know that you're still undaunted by official Apple spokespeople telling the press not to expect a PowerBook G5 anytime soon and "certainly not before the end of the year." Somehow, through the magic mojo o' denial, you're still anticipating the arrival a portable G5 well in advance of all reasonable estimates. Heck, we bet there are at least two or three of you who are banking on it making its debut at Macworld Expo Boston next month, despite the lack of a scheduled Stevenote or, indeed, any Apple presence whatsoever. Worse yet, you're probably expecting it to debut at 2.5 GHz at the very least, especially give the great news that Apple is now using liquid cooling systems to allow for faster processors. Hooray!

Well, far be it from us to step all over your buzz, but, well, your buzz is annoying, so we're afraid that we're just going to have to disabuse you of this notion that a liquid-cooled Powerbook G5 is much closer to shipping than Apple would have any of us believe. While dual-2.5 GHz Power Macs aren't slated to ship until next month, somehow some photos of the cooling system apparently managed to claw their way out through the Silicon Curtain and deposit themselves on various web sites-- which have subsequently been dropping like flies due to bandwidth overages and the like. MacRumors first noted that Apple-X.net had the images, but also noted that excessive traffic had shut it down; it then pointed us to HardMac, who had mirrored "one of the more detailed photographs," but which we've only been able to reach intermittently today. If you can't get to that either, AppleInsider's got some of the photos as well.

Okay, so have you finally seen the photo of the G5 liquid cooling system? Yeah? So then you've noticed the big rubber hoses and copper tubing and giant pump mechanism and the fact that the entire assembly looks like it's roughly the size and shape of the engine from a Ford Pinto, right? Excellent. So then maybe you'll finally stop thinking that Apple is somehow going to wedge one of those into a PowerBook by next month, because it looks like Apple's going to have a hard enough time squeezing one into a Power Mac case without telling it to suck in its heat sinks while someone sits on the door to squeeze it shut. Well, okay, not really-- it's just the hoses that make it look that way. If you think about the scale, the whole pump assembly is actually just a little slip of a thing, but we're pretty darn sure it's still not cramming itself into a PowerBook unless Apple hits it with a Debigulator or drastically redefines the word "portable."

But don't lose all that precious optimism, folks; HardMac notes that "the liquid circulating inside the LCS is made of 80% water supplemented with corrosion inhibitors, antifreeze, and bacterial growth preventatives." Mmmmmmmmmm! So look on the bright side: when Apple does start shipping these suckers, whether in desktop or portable form, you'll never be far from a tasty and refreshing beverage. Thirsty?

[NOTE: We can't believe we feel we have to say this, but you really shouldn't drink that stuff because it'll probably blind and/or kill you. Worse yet, it'll kill your G5. Just say no to bacterial growth preventatives, kiddies.]