I was getting ready for a vacation last Friday, so I never did work on my weekend links for last weekend. In any case, here's a short list for this weekend.

See if any of these give your "idea machine" a jolt.

15th-century shipwreck laden with treasure found
The ship was laden with tons of copper ingots, elephant tusks, gold coins -- and cannons to fend off pirates lurking off Africa some five centuries ago. It had nothing to protect it from the fierce weather off a particularly bleak stretch of inhospitable coast. It sank, only to be found last month by men seeking other treasure.

H.P. Reports Big Advance in Memory Chip Design
Hewlett-Packard scientists reported Wednesday in the science journal Nature that they have designed a simple circuit element that they believe will make it possible to build tiny powerful computers that could imitate biological functions.

Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says
Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests. The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday.