Greetings Webtaculators! Welcome to the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY EDITION! Yup, Webtacular World has been in circulation, if you can call it that, for an entire year. Even though it isn’t quite THE new year yet, when most publications decide to publish their year-in-reviews, I think starting to review the year in November works just fine. It’s not like anything important happens in December, anyway. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to discovering what the next 52 weeks of Webtacular World will bring. Thanks for reading.

STORY OF THE DECEMBER (’13) (1 hr. read, published in Issue # 3)
What: The Fall of the House of Tsarnaev
Why: Because this still was one of the most heinous crimes committed in recent memory, and this was one of the first long reads that seemed appropriate to publish on Webtacular.

STORY OF JANUARY (5 min. read, published in Issue # 8)
What: Kiev Protests
Why: Because do you even remember that the unrest in Ukraine started as a protest?

STORY OF FEBRUARY (5 min. read, published in Issue # 11)
What: Time Warner Comcast XFINITY NBC
Why: Because I posted this before fighting this merger became my job – so it’s more like the story of my year.

STORY OF MARCH (8 min. read, published in Issue # 13)
What: Russia Invades Ukraine
Why: Because this was the start of the drawn out conflict that still is smoldering.

STORY OF APRIL (10 min. look, published in Issue # 19)
What: The Power Of Reconciliation
Why: Because this was one of the most powerful photo essays of the year.

STORY OF MAY (? min. read, published in Issue # 25)
What: The Best Reads
Why: Because even though it wasn’t my list, there are still a bunch of articles that I haven’t gotten around to reading yet.

STORY OF JUNE (3 min. read, published in Issue # 27)
What: WEBTACULAR WORLD 2.0 Released!
Why: Because this was the birth of the website you are reading this from (meta, huh?).

STORY OF JULY (3 min. read, published in Issue # 32)
What: Germany Defeats Argentina
Why: Because the World Cup was amazing this year.

STORY OF AUGUST (8 min. read, published in Issue # 37)
What: American Battleground
Why: Because we are definitely still feeling the ramifications of what happened in Ferguson, and it’s good to remember exactly why some people are still so angry about it, and why this goes way beyond Michael Brown’s shooting.

STORY OF SEPTEMBER (20 min. explore, published in Issue # 40)
What: WWII Turns 75
Why: Because World War II is still effecting the world today.

STORY OF OCTOBER (too many min. read/watch/listen, published Issue # 46)
What: EBOLA IS COMING FOR YOU!
Why: Because it’s amazing how quickly the virus left our national conversation.

STORY OF NOVEMBER (1.5 hr. read, not published)
What: Darren Wilson and Dorian Johnson’s Testimonies
Why: Because this testimony is the clearest understanding that we can have of what happened in Ferguson.

STORY OF THE YEAR
What: Michael Brown Shot By Officer Wilson
Why: Because this news has dominated our national conversation since the shooting occurred more than any other story of the year. Hopefully next year’s story of the year will be of a lighter note.

Webtacularly yours,
Brian
Managing Editor, Webtacular World
The Internet You Didn’t Know You Needed™

Too much happened this week. Very happy it’s Thanksgiving soon. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (15 min. read)
What: This Is What Happens When Politics Loses Its Mind
Why: Because the amount of political stories with far reaching implications take too much time to explain in separate headings.

BUSINESS THING OF THE WEEK (10 min. read)
What: The Future Of Cruising Is Here
Why: Because this is what our fun is going to be when we turn into water world.

FOOD THING OF THE WEEK (7 min. read)
What: Eat These Things
Why: Because they are the closest things to cultural food that the US has.

LANGUAGE THING OF THE WEEK (10 min. read)
What: 😀
Why: Because emojis are basically a universal language.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (1.5 min. watch)
What: Messi Is The Best
Why: Because what this man has accomplished is legendary.

TV THING OF THE WEEK (6 min. read)
What: Definitely Not Bill Huxtable
Why: Because when a character who is portrayed on TV as a roll model has does not match up with the realities of the person who portrays the character, people are rightly confused.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (8 min. read)
What: Your Bad Taste In Music Is Making Music Worse For The Rest Of Us
Why: Because at least Kendrick Lamar is still keeping things real.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: The Lost Letter Of Jack Kerouac
Why: Because you should probably start saving all the emails that you receive from me for when I become the voice of a generation.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (18 min. read)
What: Scarlett, The Real Sarah Kerrigan
Why: Because StarCraft fans will understand the title of this post before most people do. (See, Sarah Kerrigan, AKA the Queen of Blades, is in control of the Zerg hivemind, thus being analogous to the way in which a StarCraft player, especially one who uses the Zerg as their primary arm… you know what, never mind. Just click the link.)

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: To Smush Or Not To Smush; Fucking Steak
Why: Because Internet.

THING YOU SHOULD GET BRIAN OF THE WEEK
What: You Have A Choice This Week! Shake My Couch, Or Ninja Turtles Stretchkins
Why: Because Brian deserves it. (This is what happens when I get cable TV)

Webtacularly yours,
Brian
Managing Editor, Webtacular World
The Internet You Didn’t Know You Needed™

Well, Comcast still is the worst thing ever.

On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (1 min. read)
What: We Landed On A Comet
Why: Because humanity can do awesome things sometimes.

RADIO THING OF THE WEEK (54 min. listen / episode)
What: Serial
Why: Because stories are often better heard than read.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (15 min. read [pt. 1 of 2])
What: The Failure Of The Death Penalty 
Why: Because of that story doesn’t convince you that something is horribly wrong with some of the United States’ laws, maybe this one will.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: The Richest Of The Rich Are The Real Winners
Why: Because .01% of Americans control over 10% of its wealth, while the bottom 90% control about 22%; or if percentages don’t do it for you, that’s about 31,600 people with $8,370,800,000,000 ($264,898,734.18 per person avg.) vs. 284,400,000 splitting $18,415,760,000,000 ($64,753.02 per person avg.). Although that looks pretty ok for the bottom 90%, remember, most of THAT is held by the 80% – 89%. The bottom 80% only hold around 7% of wealth.

TECHNOLOGY GAME THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read / watch)
What: Fighting Words
Why: Because Mark Cuban and Ted Cruz still don’t quite understand what Net Neutrality actually is.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Clif Bar Thinks Cliffs Are Too Dangerous
Why: Because it is unimaginable to think of Gatorade pulling back from its NFL advertising ties for the same reason.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (7 min. read)
What: Cartoons Are Sad
Why: Because I think you’re supposed to cry in every family animated film since Bambi. Although nothing was a sad as the The Lion King (Spoilers?).

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (6 min. read)
What: Rock And Roll With Dave Grohl
Why: Because the Foo Fighters remain one of the hardest working and enjoyable bands in existence.

FOOD THING OF THE WEEK (12 min. watch)
What: The Most Pretentious Cooking Documentary Ever
Why: Because all you really need to cook well is a decent cast iron skillet.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Unfinished Business
Why: Because a number of very high profile recent releases (including Halo, Assassin’s Creed, and World of Warcraft) have had issues that make the products effectively unusable, and that is not really ok.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Alex From Target Is Famous; At Least It’s Better Than Katy Perry; The Best Candy
Why: Because Internet.

THING YOU SHOULD GET BRIAN OF THE WEEK
What: Batmobile
Why: Because Brian deserves it.

Webtacularly yours,
Brian
Managing Editor, Webtacular World
The Internet You Didn’t Know You Needed™

TIP OF THE WEEK (10 sec. read)
What: NEVER MOVE, EVER.
Why: Because it is the worst.

On to the news.

NEWS THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. watch)
What: A Different Kind Of Sweep
Why: Because I don’t think a whole lot of productive governing is going to happen in the next two years. But then again, when one party thinks the government already does too much, I guess people are going to be ok with that?

RADIO THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: RIP Click / Clack
Why: Because Tom Magliozzi was one half of my gateway drug into NPR, and Car Talk made long car rides enjoyable.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: You’re Working Too Hard, So Don’t
Why: Because even if you get caught, apparently it’s also a good time to quit.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (10 min. read)
What: When The Law Doesn’t Work
Why: Because in a system that to laypeople means innocent until proven guilty there sure are a lot of innocent people who wind up in jail.

TECH THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. read)
What: CNET, You’re Doing It Wrong
Why: Because I was pretty sure that a technology review company would understand that print was dead, but I guess long live print.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (whatever min. read)
What: BASKETBALL’S BACK! (I Guess)
Why: Because baseball is over, and I am sad.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (7 min. read)
What: The Scorecese Of Trailers
Why: Because a good movie preview is often better than the movie itself. (For Inception BWWWAAAAAMP, click here.)

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Taylor Swift Even Breaks Up With Music Services
Why: Because although it has the veneer of “doing the right thing,” being the only artist of the year to go platinum might not make her argument quite as genuine.

FOOD THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: How To Make The Perfect Cheese Toastie
Why: Because the British come up with the twee-est names for things.

BARBER THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. watch)
What: Hair Whisperers
Why: Because knowing how to talk to your barber is really important.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. read)
What: Blizzard Unleashes A New IP
Why: Because the last new series Blizzard released was StarCraft, which was released 16 years ago.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Twee Case In Point; Too Many Cooks; What’s Your Dæmon?
Why: Because Internet.

THING YOU SHOULD GET BRIAN OF THE WEEK
What: Fully Furnished Apartment
Why: Because Brian deserves it.

Webtacularly yours,
Brian
Managing Editor, Webtacular World
The Internet You Didn’t Know You Needed™

WORLD SERIES CHAMPS! Hope everyone had a webtacularly wonderful Halloween! On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Vote. Or Don’t.
Why: Because the midterm elections are happening this week.

HALLOWEEN THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: He Wants Scare Your Pants Off; Alternatively, His Job Is Better Than Yours
Why: Because I still don’t think that being startled is the same thing as being afraid.

JOURNALISM THING OF THE WEEK (20 min. read)
What: What Happens When You Are Kidnapped In Syria
Why: Because you should never get kidnapped in Syria.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (15 min. rad)
What: Why I Do What I Do
Why: Because your data providers are not going to get any better.

TECHNOLOGY THING OF THE WEEK (7 min. read)
What: I’m Sorry, Dave, I’m Afraid I Cant Do That
Why: Because AI is putting itself to the fullest possible use, which is all it thinks that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.

AGING THING OF THE WEEK (10 min. read)
What: Can’t Stop Won’t Stop
Why: Because some people are never done with their life’s work.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: GIGANTE
Why: Because Madison Bumgarner pitched the most dominant post-season ever. Still can’t believe what I watched.

FOOD THING OF THE WEEK ()
What: TL;DW, Food Is Good For You
Why: Because this also explains why the Supreme Court should never be allowed to rule about scientific fact.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (8 min. read)
What: How Disney Got Its Groove Back
Why: Because John Lassiter’s movies are magical.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. watch)
What: Ok OK Go, I Get It, You Make Great Videos
Why: Because OK Go made another great video.

PHOTOGRAPHY THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. watch)
What: 100 Years Of Greatness
Why: Because Leicas are beautiful cameras.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: I Bet The New Call Of Duty Will Have None Of These Suggestions
Why: Because it takes a lot more than half baked ideas of “controversy” to make a game with good mechanics.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Windows 93; How To Not Argue Incorrectly; We’re Men, We’re Men In Hats; We’re Men, We’re Men With ‘Staches.
Why: Because Internet.

THING YOU SHOULD GET BRIAN OF THE WEEK
What: Leica S2 SLR Digital Camera
Why: Because Brian deserves it.

Webtacularly yours,
Brian
Managing Editor, Webtacular World
The Internet You Didn’t Know You Needed™