Happy Easter! Hope you’re ready to read nothing but sadness, because this week has been terrible. Good job March. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (20 min. read)
What: Ankara, Brussels, Lahore
Why: Because terrorists are playing a relatively simple game; keep people who disagree with them in fear, while providing more messaging for their followers. Calling people who kill park-goers, travelers, and children cowards doesn’t do justice to the word.  My friend Mo put it better than I could:

“37 in Ankara, at least 31 in Brussels, and now over 50 in Lahore. Hundreds more wounded and fighting to survive. While each was perpetrated by a different group (PKK/TAK, ISIS, and who knows? respectively), they all targeted innocent civilians in public spaces, transit or infrastructure. This trend of terrorizing civic spaces holds true in less recent attacks (schools in Pakistan, stadiums, theaters and cafes in Paris, schools in Connecticut and Virginia, movie theaters in Colorado, and more)… [I]t’s truly sad that the wars we’ve fought to protect our freedoms have spawned attacks on those very freedoms we took for granted just a decade or two ago. We’re now more worried about getting on a plane, sending our kids to school, and going to the park. If the frequency of these attacks continues, we risk moving towards a society that’s far more restricted – perhaps not in the sense of actual state-imposed restrictions – but self-imposed restrictions to protect ourselves. That would be a real dystopia.

POLITICAL THING OF THE WEEK (30 min. read)
What: Trump In His Own Words
Why: Because even though it takes about 30-45 minutes to read this transcript of the Washington Post’s Editorial Board direct interview with Donald Trump, you should read every word. This unintelligible, self conflicting, ramble of nonsense are the direct words of one of the frontrunners of the President of the United States in response to questions such as: “…do you believe there are disparities in law enforcement?”, “[w]hat presidential powers and executive actions would you take to open up the libel laws?”, and “what [do] you see as the future of NATO?” All of these are reasonable questions to ask someone who’s primary job will be to direct a country’s direction on each of these topics. What is not reasonable is that Trump was unable to answer any of these in a way that actually responded to the call of the question. He is specifically unqualified to be President. Take this as Webtacular World’s official anti-endorsement.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: The High Value Of A Sex Tape
Why: Because there are no winners in this lawsuit, or in the inevitable appeal. 

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: North Carolina Goes Backwards
Why: Because North Carolina thought that Charlotte’s laws protecting its LGBT citizens from discrimination were so abhorrent that it required the first special session in 35 years to block. Oh, they also struck down its mandatory increase in minimum wage. Just because.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: Total Football Moves On
Why: Because John Cruyff, one of the few players to ever actually invent a move, passed away this week.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. look)
What: Badman And Stuporman Fail
Why: Because Zach Snyder managed to ruin what should have been an excellent movie. Instead, he turned Superman into Jesus and Batman into a mass murderer.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: You On Point Phife?
Why: Because Phife Dawg, part of the groundbreaking rap group A Tribe Called Quest, passed away due to complications from diabetes. ATCQ is one of the few music groups where I can remember the exact point in time where I first fell in love with their sound. It also helped that they didn’t take themselves too seriously.

PHOTOGRAPHY THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. look)
What: Peep Show
Why: Because of course Donald won. Too many peeps.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: The Problem With Different Release Dates
Why: Because Dark Souls is one of my favorite gaming series, and it’s confusing as to why there are different global release dates for media at this point.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Funny Jokes, Or Something; Archer Reviews Bond; Too Many Peeps
Why: Because Internet.

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

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

I just got back from a weekend at Disneyland. I had a good time, but you can’t really tell that by my pictures. Like this one.

More Like Matternope.

On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: Cuba Libre
Why: Because a sitting President went to Cuba for the first time in 88 years.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: The Tech Diversity Problem
Why: Because Joelle, the founder of Paradigm, is a friend of mine from college, and she is doing good work. I mean, just look at Silicon Valley for why this is a problem.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What:  The Nominee Is
Why: Because in all other instances, Merrick B. Garland would be a slam dunk nomination for a seat in the Supreme Court. But of course, not this time.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. look)
What: More Madness
Why: Because just look at this thing. It’s complete nonsense.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: John Bestman
Why: Because John Goodman is a very, very good actor, even if he never is the main character.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (40 min. read)
What: The Future Of Music
Why: Because the NY Times Magazine (out of all places) has a very good take on where music is and where it is going.

PHOTOGRAPHY THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Iconic Photographers
Why: Because apparently women can also take awesome pictures. Who knew?!?!

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (~33 hr. listen)
What: Moby Dick For Your Ears
Why: Because you can listen to all 135 chapters read by some famous and not so famous people.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: The Emulation Problem
Why: Because the ability to make a operating system act like another console (i.e. make your PC be able to run Nintendo games) is one of the few ways that software can be preserved. Too bad companies don’t like it.

DRINK THING OF THE WEEK (15 min. watch)
What: The History Of Cocktail Glasses
Why: Because there’s a reason why martini glasses are so unwieldy.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Boaty McBoatface; Popestagram; Manivan
Why: Because Internet.

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

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

Greetings Webtaculators! Hooray! It’s Daylight Saving Time again! We finally get our afternoons back! Given, waking up for work tomorrow will be awful (basically it means I’ll be up at what my body will think is 4:30 AM), but I’ll take a little tiredness for my precious sun time. That is if it ever stops raining. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What:Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $1,000,000
Why: Because Go was previously considered to be an unwinnable game for AI – until now.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (10 min. read)
What: Slackers
Why: Because communication in the workplace is changing.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: The Forgotten Amendments
Why: Because there have been over 11,000 proposals to amend the Constitution.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. look)
What: Madness
Why: Because this is college basketball at its best.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: The Potential For Franchises
Why: Because 10 Cloverfield Lane only slightly relates to the movie Cloverfield released 8 years ago.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: The Fifth Beatle
Why: Because George Martin was one of the most influential producers in rock. RIP.

PHOTOGRAPHY THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. look)
What: Solar Eclipse Of The Camera
Why: Because solar eclipses look awesome.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. watch)
What: Dune In 4 Minutes
Why: Because the Dune series is one of the most sprawling SciFi series in existence, and this does a decent job of deconstructing its convoluted and slightly ridiculous story.

GAME THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What:  More Good Games
Why: Because the British Academy of Film and Television Arts actually treats games like art – and its awards show it.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Meet Brian; Sick Lettuce; Bird Loves Cups; The Issue With Bay Leaves
Why: Because Internet.

THING YOU SHOULD GET BRIAN OF THE WEEK
What: World’s Largest Cruise Ship
Why: Because Brian deserves it.

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

Greetings Webtaculators! Happy March! It finally is feeling like a “normal” year, presidential debate penis size assurances notwithstanding. It’s actually cold, raining, and overcast, at least in California. But don’t worry, the weather is still breaking temperature records, just like its supposed to. No global warming here. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (21 min. watch)
What: Drumpf
Why: Because it isn’t often that a candidate receives an anti-endorsement. In somewhat tangentially related news, Nancy Reagan passed away at the age of 94. RIP.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: The Wealthiest Get More Wealthy
Why: Because it somehow is getting harder and harder to be counted as one of the wealthiest people in the world. When even the super rich can’t be the richest, you know there’s something wrong.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: The Women Of The Supreme Court
Why: Because who is a Supreme Court Justice actually matters.

SCIENCE THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. read)
What: A Space Hero For Our Time
Why: Because Commander Kelly (what an awesome title to have) returned back to Earth after a year in space. He also grew two inches, which is nice.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: A Greatest Ever Retires
Why: Because Peyton Manning, all other flaws aside, was a really good football player.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Disney Animation Is Back
Why: Because Zootopia is being heralded as an actual Disney classic along the same quality level as the Aladins and Little Mermaids of my youth. Nothing will come close to the Lion King, though.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. listen)
What: Goodness Still Exists
Why: Because NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest winner this year created a hauntingly beautiful song that makes you feel like humanity still has something going for it. Oh; there’s also a new Kendrick release, if you like that sort of thing (it’s amazing).

PHOTOGRAPHY THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. look)
What: Sony Pictures
Why: Because Sony’s World Photography Awards has some mighty fine images coming out of it.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. read)
What: …And The Gunslinger Followed
Why: Because Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, one of my favorite book series ever, is finally getting a movie to go with it.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: The Pitfalls Of Cartridges
Why: Because the promise of an old-school system might just be too good to be true. This really is one of the stranger instances of Kickstarter-projects-gone-wrong I have ever seen (and I might be someone who knows just a little about that… [sorry]).

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Marble Music; Who You Gonna Call; Most Clutch Hole-In-One Ever
Why: Because Internet.

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

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