Below are simple links to other interesting stuff I've come across on the web in the last day or two; they may or may not concern literature or photography, or indeed the arts at all. You can click here to learn more about how I compile this list and what software I use, if you're interested.

Sam Raimi officially becomes a whore
Sad news this week for fans of maverick underground filmmaker and genre genius Sam Raimi; instead of picking up on the smart side of his career again, after the massive commercial success of his three "Spider-Man" movies, he has officially committed the next half-decade of his life to making a part 4 and 5, which we can pretty much guarantee in advance will both drive the franchise into the ground and permanently taint the director's ouevre. It's a disappointing thing to see from a guy who used to be a political advocate for intelligent, small-budget filmmaking.

MSNBC pulls divisive, radically liberal hosts from previous "election anchor" positions
Have you ever thought, "Jeez, MSNBC is getting just as radical and kneejerky as FOX News, simply from the opposite political standpoint?" Yeah, so has MSNBC, apparently; they have pulled muckrakers Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews from their former head-anchor positions for this election, a decision supposedly helped along by numerous complaints from more level-headed parent company NBC. Or as one NBC staffer anonymously put it during the conventions: "MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict, living from fix to fix and swearing they’ll go into rehab the next week."

New book alleges Russian government almost allowed a porn shoot on their space station
In the new book "Sex in Space," author Laura Woodmansee relays a pretty outrageous story; turns out that the Russian government, back when they set up their money-raising private-citizen space program in the late 1990s, actually agreed to let a porn crew go up to Mir and shoot history's very first zero-g adult film; the entire reason it was canceled, in fact, was merely because the company couldn't raise the $23 million required. Wow!

Wilmington, North Carolina becomes US's first all-digital television market
The national rollout isn't until next February, but yesterday the smallish city of Wilmington, North Carolina officially became the first US television market to switch entirely over to a digital format, I guess for publicity-stunt purposes. (They also claim to be the birthplace of powered flight, although I always thought that was Kitty Hawk.) It'll be interesting to watch and see how the town handles it all.

In case you were wondering, Jerry Springer is still a scary manipulative scumbag
As the show starts creeping towards its 20th season (J-sus C-rist), the producers of national embarrassment "The Jerry Springer Show" sit down with the Chicago Tribune, to talk about upcoming changes; basically, that they will now be trying to transform "Springer" into the same kind of non-threatening chick-friendly show that has recently fueled the success of "Tyra," "Ellen," "The View" and others. Unbelievable, man; simply unbelievable.

"Why is it so hard to fire a corrupt Chicago cop?"
Hmm, could it be because they're one of the most effective secret societies in history, a group of power-hungry, uneducated, immoral thugs whose main ethical creed is not "Do the right thing" but "Protect your fellow members at all cost, no matter what inhuman monstrosity they're guilty of?" ...Nah, that can't be it.