This Week in GOOD

As of today, James Natchwey’s TED prize photography project, on Extreme Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (or XDRTB), can be seen in New York. Very powerful. Much more grave than, say, the state of things on Wall Street.

Of course, while life on Wall Street has probably felt like five o’clock somewhere since Monday at dawn, we must admit that the whole economic meltdown thing is a bit too convoluted for us to comprehend. Fortunately, there are concise, lucid explanations of that (as well as for the polls and various campaign claims) here. We promise there will be more more valuable information and fewer links than in our pre- and post-debate-coverage coverage.

We really can’t convey how grateful we are to have all these new contributors on our site. With articles on the Dylan Industry, the fallacy of “realistic” fiction, nonce words, ugly environmental art, climate change legislation, space elevators, and writing like a girl, we starting to feel all grown up.

If you haven’t already, do take a look at our newest videos on satellites (oh, wondrous orbitals!) and the gimnasio ecológico.

We should also let you know that the Ashoka’s fellowship application process is open until the end of the month.

Finally, to end on an infinitely lighter note than the one we started on, we’d like to send our heartfelt congratulations the greatest performer in the history of competitive surfing: Kelly Slater. Earlier today at the frothing point break of Mundaka in Spain, Slater won his ninth world championship. He was the youngest man to win a world title when he did it at age 20 in 1992; now, at 36, he’s also the also the oldest. His is a level of excellence that puts him in the company of people with names like Woods and Jordan, and he’ll probably win the title again next year. Way to go, Slats.