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.

20 percent of "Contract With America" 1994 Republicans have been busted on ethics scandals
Remember the wave of anti-Clinton furor that led to almost 75 Republicans being elected to Congress in the 1994 midterm elections, centered around Newt Gingrich and his cartoonishly conservative "Contract With America?" Yeah, turns out that in the ensuing decade and a half, one out of every five of these Republicans have been busted on various ethics violations, most of them sexual in nature, the latest being Mark Souder. "Compassionate conservatism" indeed!

For first time since apartheid, black middle-classers outnumber whites in South Africa
Yet another fascinating article from the always great GlobalPost.com.

'90s darlings Versus recording first new album in a decade
Godd-mn! I have a great story from college about Versus...but I won't tell it.

Muslim wins American beauty pageant -- um, congratulations?
Religion columnist and author Lesley Hazleton, who I was already a big fan of, has started a smart new blog called "The Accidental Theologist;" here, a good example of why I like her work so much, a look at the complex issues raised by a Muslim woman winning for the first time the Miss USA beauty pageant, a small step forward in West/East relations but through a vehicle that many think should be shut down permanently just on general principle. It's true what Hazleton says here, though -- that for many older, conservative Midwestern women, this will be literally the first time they've ever seen the media treat a Muslim as a "regular" human being, a small victory for humanism that shouldn't be completely discounted.

The new NATO: Less focus on nukes, more on pirates and hackers
It's no secret that NATO, the military supergroup formed during the height of the Cold War, has been suffering an identity crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union in the '90s; and it turns out that the group has recently been putting together its first new mission statement since then, one finally reflecting a post-Cold-War world. Basically, it calls for the group to spend less time worrying about nukes and traditional wars, and to spend much more of its budget battling such boundary-crossing issues as piracy, computer hacking and terrorism. Will the member countries go for it? We'll see!

15 Bloom County cartoons still relevant to today's political landscape
Brilliant.

Jason Fried: "'Facebook killer' Diaspora hasn't actually produced anything, is doomed to failure"
There's been a growing amount of talk within geek circles about Diaspora, a new "open Facebook alternative" that promises to be the new home for privacy-loving social networkers; but as Jason Fried, co-founder of 37signals, rightly points out, the group is actually falling into the classic dot-com trap, of raising too much money before actually having anything to sell (they're still not open, even in test form, despite now raising almost a quarter-million dollars from private Kickstarter donations), an almost textbook recipe for failure in the tech world, when you look at the companies that have actually succeeded versus ones that have simply gotten a lot of press. Fried is a big believer in this, that companies should grow organically based on actual products and services they sell, not on empty promises and overly excited investors; see my 2008 podcast interview with him for a lot more.

More and more peace-loving young American Jews turning their back on increasingly conservative Israel
An interesting article from the New York Review of Books, on the increasing trend among young, liberal American Jews to be openly critical of Israel's continual descent into conservative aggression and violence. I'm not a Jew myself, so am going to stay out of the fight, but I have to say that it's fascinating to follow along with; and it says a lot, I think, about Judaism's post-Holocaust viability, that its members can now openly argue with each other about its future, versus the "united front" that most Jews felt they needed to portray to the public in the decades following World War Two.

On its fifth anniversary, daily views at YouTube now surpass all television networks combined
Sheesh. Two billion views a day. SHEESH. That means, what, a hundred million people a day are watching piano-playing cats?

India's most dangerous internal enemy -- commies?
Yes, that's right -- turns out that India's single largest internal threat (almost 150,000 strong, according to some estimates) are Maoist rebels with a strong support among the country's vast rural population, which is making it nearly impossible to track them down and stamp out their rebellion. And you thought communism was dead!

'Little Orphan Annie' to end its 86-year newspaper run next month
To which I reply, "'Little Orphan Annie' is still running in newspapers?" Yes, turns out that it is, although in less than twenty nationwide, making its revenue less than the costs of the artist hired to actually draw it. I suppose I should be mourning the loss of this institution a little more; but given how greedy these so-called 'legacy' strips were in the '80s and '90s, stubbornly refusing to give way so that newer, fresher strips could take their place, it's hard for me to have much sympathy.