Greetings Webtaculators. Sorry for the delay. Let’s examine just how terrible last week actually was. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (16 second watch)
What: Bang Bang You’re Dead (GRAPHIC)
Why: Because you are a student at an American high school, and a bunch of cowards still don’t acknowledge that guns are a problem. In the video above taken on Valentine’s Day / Ash Wednesday by a clearly terrified student at Stoneman Douglass High School, it takes 16 seconds for a man armed with a military style rifle to fire over 20 shots. As a result of those shots plus many, many others, over 30 students and faculty were injured or killed. Our cowardly President couldn’t even bring himself to mention the word “gun” once during his address to the nation regarding the shooting. This is the same coward who signed a bill making it easier for mentally ill people to purchase firearms. American gun owners are obviously too fragile to even think about giving up their idiotic interpretation of the Second Amendment so American politicians will continue to think and pray. At least the students who survived this travesty are speaking up for themselves. I guess since America is the best at everything, it’s absolutely fine that 91% of firearm deaths between the ages of 0-14 occur in this country.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Selling Our Souls For $2.8 Billion Dollars A Year (Don’t Worry, It Gets Worse)
Why: Because that is the estimated annual cost of gun violence in the U.S. for the cost of hospital related charges. Add in the estimated cost of lost wages, and that jumps close to $50 billion annually. Still not a large enough number to make you care? How about $229 billion, which includes legal fees, incarceration, rehab, and long term care.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (long read)
What: Oh, So There Was Russian Meddling In The Election
Why: Because at best our President is a man with a very bad memory.  Also, “stupid Watergate” Gets More Even Gate-ier.

SCIENCE THING OF THE WEEK (long read)
What: Transforming Facebook
Why: Because the largest platform in human history is still struggling to understand what it actually means to serve billions of customers.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Yaylimpics
Why: Because the Olympics still is a great generator for feel good stories and human achievements through sports. Like this. And this.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Make Good Movies And People Will See Them
Why: Because Black Panther took in $235 million in its opening weekend.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: MGMT Of Expectations
Why: Because the band MGMT fits within the timeframe of when I stopped caring about new music.

ART THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: Presidential
Why: Because the Obamas’ choice of portraits show just how thoughtful and groundbreaking their time in the White House was. To see just how different, here’s a look at the previous ones.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (6 min. read)
What: The History Of The Black Panther
Why: Because the superhero Black Panther has evolved much like the turbulent changes of America’s racial and cultural evolution.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: How Not To Do A Remake
Why: Because with the current trend of updating old classics, many of which work very well, sometimes the new versions completely miss the mark of what made the originals so good.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Sing It For The All Stars; Ragdoll; Thoughts And Prayers
Why: Because Internet.

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

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