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.

9 Ways To Jumpstart Your Writing Goal
Keep writing. Keep doing it and doing it. Even in the moments when it's so hurtful to think about writing. ~Heather Armstrong

Fleming letters raise thousands
Letters between James Bond author Ian Fleming and his "Miss Moneypenny" have fetched £14,340 at auction - almost five times more than expected.

Fritz Leiber, master of Shakespearean sci-fi
The colourful alcohol-soaked career of Fritz Leiber began in theatre. His father, Fritz Leiber Sr, was a veteran actor (notable for having his portrait painted every time he took on a new role), and the sometime owner of the Shakespearean theatre company that gave Lieber Jr his first job.

The politics of sci-fi
While awards for speculative fiction may be more democratic than their literary cousins, they are no less a hotbed of political intrigue. With the genre awards season approaching, the shortlists for the Hugos, the Nebulas and the Damon Knight Grandmaster prize reveal some of the dynamics driving contemporary speculative fiction.

A Princess Seeking a Voice
Ursula K. Le Guin began her research for her new book, "Lavinia," by reading Virgil's epic poem "The Aeneid" in the original Latin. "Very, very slowly," she said in an interview. "Ten lines a day."

The fantastic appeal of fantasy
The more rational the world gets, the more we demand the irrational in our fiction, says Mark Chadbourn

Is the Short Fiction Market in Trouble?
Nobody questions the relevance of genre short fiction, but there is some debate about the health of the market itself. From your perspective, is the short fiction market in trouble? If not, why the debate? If so, what is the cause?

For your weekend viewing pleasure. Have a good one.

Writing Stuff

Fiction and Fact by Philadelphia author
The dragons in Philadelphia author Michael Swanwick's new novel, The Dragons of Babel, are neither benevolent nor mysterious, though one does well to fear them. Constructed of iron and powered by steam turbines, they are living weapon systems, tools of imperial conquest.

Self-Published Fantasy Novel 'The Soulstealer War' Receives Critical Acclaim
Released in January, The Soulstealer War: The First Mother's Fire, an epic fantasy and sci-fi novel of magic and metaphysics by new author W.L. Hoffman, continues to receive rave reviews from the critics.

Five Words You Can Cut
One of the best ways to make your writing stronger is to cut unnecessary words. Many people tend to over-write, often in a similar way to how they would speak. Words creep in that add no meaning and can make a piece of writing sound vague and woolly rather than confidence and precise.

Cool Stuff ('cool' being a relative term, of course)

Medicine's Cutting Edge: Re-Growing Organs
Imagine re-growing a severed fingertip, or creating an organ in the lab that can be transplanted into a patient without risk of rejection. It sounds like science fiction, but it's not. It's the burgeoning field of regenerative medicine...

Archaeologists unearth 35,000-year-old tools in Australia
A piece of flint the size of a small cell phone and hundreds of tiny sharp "knives" unearthed deep in a rock shelter in Australia date back at least 35,000 years, archaeologists said Monday.

'Breakthrough' at Stonehenge dig
Archaeologists carrying out an excavation at Stonehenge say they have broken through to a layer that may finally explain why the site was built.

Web/Blog Stuff

In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop
(free reg req'd) A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment.

I run across interesting things all the time. While I might blog about some of them, others are simply "link worthy". Here are a few for your weekend viewing pleasure...

Writing Stuff

Top Speculative Fiction Writers Pick Favorite Stories
What short fiction stories or novels do some of today's most recognizable science fiction and fantasy writers recommend? Their answers may surprise you. They include tales from the 1940s to some of the newest names in fiction.

Weird Tales: The 85 Weirdest Storytellers of the Past 85 Years! 
With accompanying blog entries over the next 85 days.

The End of the Line?
An unlikely row has erupted in France over suggestions that the semicolon's days are numbered; worse, the growing influence of English is apparently to blame.

Cool Stuff ('cool' being a relative term, of course)

Mysteries of computer from 65BC are solved
A 2,000-year-old mechanical computer salvaged from a Roman shipwreck has astounded scientists who have finally unravelled the secrets of how the sophisticated device works.

It's a heady brew on Saturn's geyser moon, finds Cassini
NASA's Cassini spacecraft tasted and sampled a surprising organic brew erupting in geyser-like fashion from Saturn's moon Enceladus during a close flyby on March 12.

Victorious Mongoose 1902a: Concealable ray pistol
This – the world’s first concealable ray pistol – is the perfect foil, should a pickpocket, pirate or pauper catch you on the unawares. Return them to their constituent molecules!

Oceans of Titan
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered evidence that points to the existence of an underground ocean of water and ammonia on Saturn's moon Titan.

Life on Mars
NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has found evidence of salt deposits. These deposits point to places where water once was abundant and where evidence might exist of possible Martian life from the Red Planet's past.

Web/Blog Stuff

Sitemeter
I'm exploring this as another option for tracking visits to my site. I also use my own web site's stats page via my ISP, GoDaddy, and Google Analytics.

ProBlogger.net: How to Come Up with Topics to Write About On Your Blog
The secret's out: I read sites that help one's success at blogging.

All I can say is... wow and cool. If only I had the money! Our media room is functional and nice by most people's standards, but these are extraordinary.

Star Trek, Star Wars, the Creature from the Black Lagoon... like I said, cool.

deputydog | 10 stunning ultra-geeky home cinemas