Greetings Webtaculators! The President made a decent joke, the future decided to show up finally, and the Warriors are playing some of the best team basketball ever. This week was not too bad. On  to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (1 hr. watch)
What: The State Of The Union Is Strong 
Why: Because Obama said so. Also, you can re-play Webtacular World’s First Annual SOTU Drinking Game.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (1.25 hr. watch)
What: Davos Comes To A Close
Why: Because this gathering of high profile leaders in business and economics determines what the focus of the global economy will be for the year.

WEATHER THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Watch Out New York
Why: Because WINTER IS COMING.

TECHNOLOGY THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: Meet The Future
Why: Because I still think it’s weird that not only does real time holographic technology exist, but that the march of technological innovation is so expected at this point that something like this can still manage to feel underwhelming.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: DeflateGate, Or The NFL Has Nothing To Talk About Until Next Sunday
Why: Because the Warriors’ Klay Thompson had the most impressive quarter of basketball ever.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. listen)
What: One Of The Biggest Movies Of The Year Is Divisive. Go Figure.
Why: Because Chris Kyle is either our country’s savior or everything that’s wrong with it.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. watch)
What: Decembristify Youtube
Why: Because the Decembrists have a new album, and it’s pretty good.

ART THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: How To Fix A Monet
Why: Because you shouldn’t punch paintings, even if you’re drunk.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. read)
What: Mythbusters Are Doomed
Why: Because BFG 9000 is probably too big to haul around.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: REMIX!!!! <Insert Air Horn Sound>; Star Destroyer For Free; Fix Your Shirt
Why: Because Internet.

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

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

Greetings Webtaculators! Welcome to the first annual State Of The Union Drinking Game! Rules are stated below.

What: Take a sip of your preferred beverage each time any of the following words are said –
Strong
Future
Jobs
Income
Immigrant
Health
Environment
Energy
Terrorism
Race
Class

Why: Because normally, I play this on my own, but drinking together over the Internet means I’m not drinking by myself (right?)! Also, this is your last reminder to watch the State Of The Union.

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

Enjoy the long weekend everybody! On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (6 min. read)
What: MLK Turns 86
Why: Because racial issues still plague the U.S. and the world at large, so there is still work to be done.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: The Flying Franc
Why: Because I’m pretty sure that people who believe in a strictly laissez faire market continue to have no idea how the world actually works. “Market corrections” are often not a good thing.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Mawwige For All?
Why: Because the Supreme Court is playing with hot fire here, and we’ll see which side of history the Roberts court ends up on.

SCIENCE THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Close But No Cigar
Why: Because hitting a boat with a rocket from space is apparently really hard to do. Also, space Internet.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: An Unprecedented Comeback Vs. An Unprecedented Dismantling 
Why: Because these are the teams you will be watching run into each other between all the awesome commercials in February.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Oscars Prediction Night
Why: Because although this happened last week, it still is new enough. OK??? Also, this is how you win one.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Dead One Last Time
Why: Because the greatest jam band of all time is reuniting with the leader of the second greatest for one last go round. If you’re in Chicago and you can grab tickets, you should definitely take the opportunity.

PHOTOGRAPHY THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. look)
What: Grand Budapest Hotel, Realized
Why: Because sometimes it takes something to decay to show the beauty of what once was.

DRAWING THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. look)
What:  Boba Fett Is Born
Why: Because your favorite bounty hunter from a galaxy far, far away had a lot of design notes that were recently released.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (8 min. watch)
What: The Problem With 2014
Why: Because let’s hope 2015 fixes these problems.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: I Totally Filmed This Myself; How To Play Drums, Or Not; Oh YEAH!!!
Why: Because Internet.

THING YOU SHOULD GET BRIAN OF THE WEEK
What: The Reverse Of This Trend. Seriously. WTF Humanity.
Why: Because Brian deserves it.

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

Well, so much for a peaceful start to the new year. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK
What: Je Suis Charlie
Why: Because on January 7th, the satirical, newspaper Charlie Hebdo was attacked by masked gunmen. The manhunt over the following two days lead to two hostage situations, which ended with the deaths of the perpetrators. Today, millions of individuals gathered together in cities across Paris, including numerous European and Middle Eastern leaders marching arm in arm. I worry about what this means for the future for the freedom of speech, the future of religious freedom, and for the future for peace.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: Where Do Kids Hang Out Now?
Why: Because Malls used to signify economic prosperity. Now, the empty monoliths mostly represent the world before the Internet.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (15 min. read)
What: RBG And Fatherhood
Why: Because a Supreme Court Justice might know something about how difficult the law, both the practicianing of and the word of the law itself, makes raising a family.

TECH THING OF THE WEEK (6 min. read)
What: The Best Of CES
Why: Because these are the technologies you will be using soon.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (7 min. read)
What: El Capitan Has Met Its Admirals
Why: Because their efforts, on balance, negate the fact that I spent the majority of the weekend sitting on a couch.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. read)
What: Wetter Hotter Americaner Summerer
Why: Because WHAS is returning with basically the entire original cast, and I need something to make me laugh again after this week.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. listen)
What: Country Music Is Exactly As Formulaic As You Thought
Why: Because I don’t even know if this still counts as song writing.

PHOTOGRAPHY THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. read)
What: Atlantic Photos
Why: Because the magazine finally is putting all of those photographs to good use.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. read)
What: Sherlock Abdul Jabbar
Why: Because Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (writer, actor, and apparently basketball player[?]) wrote a book about Sherlock Holmes’ brother, Mycroft.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (1 min. read)
What: Gaming For Good
Why: Because not all gaming is a waste of time. (Although, I’m sure plenty of time was wasted learning how to beat the first three dungeons of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with a blindfold on…)

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Back To The Future Is Real; Fire In Reverse; Those Yellow Pylons Sure Sucked At Stoping Cars From Crossing The Median
Why: Because Internet.

THING YOU SHOULD GET BRIAN OF THE WEEK
What: The Most Expensive Of CES
Why: Because Brian deserves it.

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

Welcome to the newest year of them all. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: Revolt In The Ranks
Why: Because the officers’ current actions seem to imply that they do not understand that their respect is earned. Political speech has its place; the memorial service of one of their own is not one of them.

POLITICAL THING OF THE WEEK (1 min. read)
What: At Least The Speaker Will Still Have A Silent “H”
Why: Because John Boehner is being challenged by Louis Gohmert for his position in the House.

TECHNOLOGY THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: CES 2015
Why: Because these are the technologies you will be able to afford in 3 years.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (8 min. read)
What: Boo-Ya, In Requiem
Why: Because Stuart Scott broke through sports media in a way that made the reporters as big as the athletes themselves.

TV SHOW THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: ABC Has Lost Its Mind
Why: Because musical fantasy TV shows only existed in my imagination, until tonight.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. listen)
What: Yeezy And Macca
Why: Because I guess Kanye just became bigger than the Beatles? Or at least got Paul to play backup on his song.

PHOTOGRAPHY THING OF THE WEEK (20 min. look)
What: The Year In The White House
Why: Because the President sure shook a lot of hands this year.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Just Call Him Mark Zuckerbooks
Why: Because Mark Zuckerberg just created what might become the biggest book club in history.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (15 min. read)
What: The Hype Train Is Already Here
Why: Because here are the games you should play next year, even though no one knows how good they are going to be.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Slooooooow Mooooootion; MacGyver Without Music; Firework
Why: Because Internet.

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

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