Greetings Webtaculators! Can we all agree on something? If you retweet a Mussolini quote because you think it’s a good quote, you don’t get to be President – ESPECIALLY if people already think that you sound a little Fascist. That’s immediate disqualification for running a democracy. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Reform In Iran
Why: Because Iran’s reformist party swept elections held as a result of signing a nuclear accord. Maybe political negotiation does work after all.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Free Speech, Phones, And Terrorism
Why: Because Apple is fighting the government for the ability to not have to provide “back door” access to its products.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. watch)
What: Best. Game. Ever.
Why: Because this Warrior’s win was everything a sports game is supposed to be.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. watch)
What: Leo Wins
Why: Because Leonardo DiCaprio finally won his first Oscar. He gave a pretty decent speech, too.

MUSIC / LEGAL THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Kesha And The Failure Of The Music Industry
Why: Because these type of rulings show just how awful the recording industry can be.

PHOTOGRAPHY THING OF THE WEEK (long look)
What: Smithsonian’s Best Of 2015
Why: Because even though this week was all about moving pictures, regular old pictures are still pretty awesome.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: How To Be A Bestseller
Why: Because it turns out you barely need to do anything.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. watch)
What: Pikachu Is Old
Why: Because the Pokemon franchise, one of the most popular franchises ever, turns 20 this year.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Leo, Take Your Award; No Seriously, Take It; Strut Of A Winner
Why: Because Internet.

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

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

Greetings Webtaculators! I’m a little under the weather today, so I apologize if this issue is lacking its usual snark. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (6 min. watch)
What: Bye Jeb 
Why: Because I doubt anyone predicted this outcome a year ago.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (10 min. read)
What: Creating Buzz
Why: Because BuzzFeed is now one of the foremost media outlets in the US.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Supremely Low Confidence
Why: Because I can only imagine people disliking the Court even more as the fight for Scalia’s replacement continues.

SCIENCE THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: So You Want To Be An Astronaut
Why: Because so do 18,000 other people.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. look)
What: Baseball Is Back, Baby!
Why: Because it’s about to be spring training, and it’s an even year.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (10 min. read)
What:Deadpool Wins
Why: Because somehow a B-side comic book character who was already ruined (and killed) in a previous Marvel movie is breaking all sorts of records since its release.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: The Irrelevancy Of The Grammys
Why: Because Kendrick was the best part of it, and Taylor won for an album that didn’t even come out last year.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (15 min. read)
What: RIP Harper Lee
Why: Because her writing remains one of the cornerstones of American literature.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (15 min. read)
What: Influencers
Why: Because I was going to run with the history of FPSs, but the top 50 most influential games is slightly more important.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Sidekick; R-R-R-R-REMIX!; Astronauts Never Eat Space Ice Cream
Why: Because Internet.

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

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

Greetings Webtaculators! Hope everyone had a very happy Valentine’s Day!I was lucky enough to spend the day with people I love, and I hope you were able to spend the day with those you love too. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (10 min. read)
What: The Death Of A Justice
Why: Because Justice Antonin Scalia was one of the most outspoken and derisive members of the Supreme Court. I had a chance to see Justice Scalia speak in person as a prospective law student at American University. He was incredibly knowledgeable, well spoken, and entirely dismissive (and frankly disrespectful) of students who asked questions regarding some of his more controversial rulings. Basically, he lived up to his reputation.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (10 min. read)
What: Potential Energy
Why: Because when storage scales to a large enough size, the entire way in which we produce energy will change.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. listen)
What: What Happens Now?
Why: The Senate has the power to approve whoever the President appoints for the open seat on the Supreme Court. However, due to this opening occurring during a very contentious election year, some members of the Senate have already sworn that they would not affirm anyone until the next president is in office – almost a year from now

SCIENCE THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: Einstein Was Right
Why: Because scientists have finally proven the existence of gravitational waves. This is a big deal.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (8 min. read)
What: Run On, Run Off
Why: Because some athletes give it all.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (35 min. listen)
What: Madness
Why: Because George Miller somehow made an Oscar contender out of a dead 37 year old franchise about cars blowing each other up.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Ye
Why: Because Kanye might save Tidal. SoundCloud might not be so lucky.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: Playing Games
Why: Because if a pro athlete thinks video games are cool, than they must be.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Trump; Surrender; Beyonce Is Black
Why: Because Internet.

THING YOU SHOULD GET BRIAN OF THE WEEK
What: Tahoe Season Pass (Lift passes are stupidly expensive now)
Why: Because Brian deserves it.

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

The Big Game supered itself into 50 years with lots of fanfare and a mediocre performance by everyone who should have played better. I’m writing this before I saw who the MVP was, but for the life of me, I cannot even come close to figuring out who earned it. Maybe Ted Ginn Jr., since for once he wasn’t the reason why his team lost this time… In real sports, I’m personally excited to start my 4th season as a coach of my old high school lacrosse team starting tomorrow. As far as I know, kids aren’t being accused of taking GHG to win playoffs. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK
What: A Difference In Debate (GOP; DEM)
Why: Because the difference in candor between the two versions of Presidential debates (as far as I can tell [NOTE: I am not a trained reporter – I have just been following politics since I was too young to understand why an office BJ was such a big deal, and my bachelor’s degree says I’m a political scientist, so that’s good enough for me]) has been portraying very different versions of what people assume America is. One has a front runner calling for free health care, and the other is calling for  mass deportations. One thinks it can give unlimited Federal aid to college students, and the other thinks that taxes are too high. I guess I don’t get how people who are vying to run a single country are so diametrically opposed to the things that the US should be able to accomplish based on its size, wealth, and belief in our own greatness, but I guess that just makes me a bad political scientist. Oh well.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (6 min. watch)
What: Commercialism
Why: Because one of the best things about the Great Pot is the stupid amount of money companies are willing to spend on showing us what to buy. What’s strange about this year is that most of these have already been leaked or been playing before YouTube videos for the last week or two. Yahoo also definitely got the rating on that monkey puppy baby one completely wrong though. That was awful. Burn that thing with fire.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: The Past Of Telco
Why: Because this also neatly coincides with the year that I get out of the telco world.

SCIENCE THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. read)
What: The Future Of Energy
Why: Because this also neatly coincides with the year I get back into the energy world.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: STUPOR BULL!
Why: Because the actual name of the game is stupidly trademarked or something. <See Above>

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (30 sec. watch)
What: Bourne’s Back
Why: Because this was the least expected movies I ever expected to see again.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. watch)
What: Gaga Slayed
Why: Because this is legitimately one of the best renditions of the National Anthem I have ever heard.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (10 min. read)
What: Writing For Movies
Why: Because Stephen King probably knows more about how author’s Hollywood deals than anyone else.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Line Puzzles Squared
Why: Because The Witness is one of those games that transcend the medium, but couldn’t exist in another (according to me). However, if you don’t like solving puzzles, it probably is one of the most boring games ever (according to Meagan).

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: SNL’s Actual Pun Beat Me To It; Politics Are Insulting; Real Talk
Why: Because Internet.

THING YOU SHOULD GET BRIAN OF THE WEEK
What: Super Bowl 51 Tickets
Why: Because Brian deserves it.

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