Greetings Webtaculators. Another week, another White House story (or 5). This time, on “how could things possibly get any more dumb:” a porn star gets a 60 Minutes interview to describe how the current President threatened her to cover up an affair; the President fired his national security advisor and replaced him with potentially the most dangerous man possible for that position; the President lost one of his main attorneys in his quest to stop the DOJ from doing its job, even though he apparently got plenty of help from the House Intelligence Committee in their “investigation“; and the President is going to try to ban transgender soldiers from serving, again.  I’m only assuming it can get worse, although I won’t be happy to find out exactly how! On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (7 min. read)
What: The Kids Are Alright
Why: Because this weekend’s student led protest against gun violence drew hundreds of thousands (if not more) from around the world. It was truly inspiring to see, and I can’t wait to see what else these kids do. This is assuming of course that Bolton and Co. don’t destroy the world before they get a chance to lead.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Rise Interest Rates, RISE!
Why: Because this is the perfect time to try to buy a house. /s

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (6 min. read)
What: Let Freedom Speak
Why: Because “Free Speech” is only as free as John Roberts wants it to be.

TECH THING OF THE WEEK (long reads)
What: Technology and the Very Bad, No Good Week
Why: An automated car killed a pedestrian, people finally are realizing that Facebook makes money from selling their information, and Guccifer goofed.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: A Sticky Wicket
Why: Because this is the biggest scandal to rock the world’s version of baseball.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Day Of The Dogs
Why: Because Wes Anderson made another good Wes Anderson movie.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (6 min. read)
What: Sea Shanties And Synths
Why: Because The Decemberists released a new album that is both familiar yet new.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (10 min. read)
What: Fiction By Women
Why: Because I still don’t read enough women authors. I’m trying.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (long reads)
What: Games And Guns
Why: Because guns are a huge part of how a player interacts with digital worlds, and even if games do not cause gun violence, it is still a good time to rethink why they are such a large part of digital media.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: A Wes Anderson Movie; How To Turn Down; What To Eat
Why: Because Internet.

THING YOU SHOULD GET BRIAN OF THE WEEK
What: A Lollipop Of My Face
Why: Because Brian deserves it.

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

Greetings Webtaculators! Well, it looks like our President is in open war with the FBI. The last time this happened, things worked out real well for the President. Across the Atlantic, the Cold War is heating up because Russia keeps killing people in Great Britain.  Perhaps most importantly, a group of future voters found its voice. I guess they don’t call it March Madness for nothing. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Вернём Россия былое величие!
Why: Because Putin won the Russian “election.” 6 more years!

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: To Health
Why: Because Theranos’ CEO and President were charged with fraud regarding their unicorn blood works start up.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (long reads)
What: Tillerson fired / McCabe fired
Why: Because Trump and his cohorts (the ones that still are around) do not seem to be able to do anything besides fire people.

SCIENCE THING OF THE WEEK ( 5 min. read)
What: A Brilliant Mind
Why: Because Stephan Hawking, one of the most preeminent astrophysicists of our time, passed away.

TECH THING OF THE WEEK (10 min. read)
What: Your Information For Sale
Why:  Because this man had a direct influence on how we ended up with Brexit and Trump.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Fun Madness
Why: Because the NCAA basketball playoffs have been a lot of fun so far.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: The Only “Good” Video Game Movie Franchise
Why: Because it seems like Laura Croft is the only video game studios understand how to make into a movie.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (long listen)
What: SXSW 2018
Why: Because South By Southwest is a showpiece for a bunch of great new music. Too bad music cant escape chaos.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (7 min. read)
What: Time To Get Reading!
Why: Because the world doesn’t seem to want to wait too much longer for us all to no longer be part of it.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: The Rise Of Fortnite
Why: Because when Rosanne Barr tweets about her record in a video game and the dances make it into sports celebrations, you know it’s reached some sort of wider audience.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: A Good Memory; The Rise Of Anime; Isle Of Dogs
Why: Because Internet.

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

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

Greetings Webtaculators! Daylight Savings really threw me for a loop this time around, so this is going to be a short one. You all remembered to change your clocks forward, right? On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Whatever
Why: Because nothing Trump says is true, so why start believing him now? Also, remember, he’s suing a porn star right now. And he employs people who are proud racists. And he continuously lowers the bar for what the term “Presidential” means. But sure, he’ll solve the problem of North Korea.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (10 min. read)
What: Rethinking City Living
Why: Because sometimes your wife’s and close friends’ startup gets a full spread in the NY Times. Congrats Starcity!

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: Shkrelinfreude
Why: Because the “Pharma Bro” gets to go to jail for seven years.

TOY THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: Still Will Hurt To Step On
Why: Because Lego is working on a more planet friendly version of its bricks.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. read [∞ to fill out 100% wrong])
What: Bracket Time
Why: Because college basketball playoffs.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. listen)
What: New Sade
Why: Because sometimes great music is attached to underperforming movies.

LITERATURE  / MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: A Wrinkle
Why: Because A Wrinkle In Time came out in theaters, and was not warmly received by critics. After having just re-read the book, I get it – the characters are one dimensional, no one has much agency, and the pacing is all over the place. However, I think that it probably is due to the fact that it is not written for adults – the emotion, descriptions (or lack thereof), whimsy, and discovery are great for children.

What: Video Games ≠ Violence
Why: Because, for the last time, video games are not the reason why people shoot people.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Overlooked Obituaries; Apple Still Makes Good Commercials; Sorry To Bother You
Why: Because Internet.

THING YOU SHOULD GET BRIAN OF THE WEEK
What: My Hour Of Sleep Back
Why: Because Brian deserves it.

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

Greetings Webtaculators! The Oscars didn’t screw up too much this time! Good job for them! The same definitely can’t be said about the U.S. Executive branch, which somehow managed to have a week that was most likely worse than most of the other disastrous ones before it. I don’t know how the bar keeps on getting lower, but it does. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: Losing All Hope
Why: Because Trump lost his communications director (I still find it impossible that someone actually held this job), is probably going to have to kick his son-in-law out, and is still openly feuding with most of his remaining staff. Trump also basically said that he doesn’t care about gun rights, specifically relating to due process. What a great leader!

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: The Phantom Menace
Why: Because trade wars are bad, and Trump apparently is Emperor Palpatine. George Lucas was trying to warn us all along.

EDUCATION THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Striking For The Future
Why: Because West Virginia teachers have been on strike for over a week. Maybe having taxes to pay for a decent public sector wages is a good thing?

SCIENCE THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. read)
What: No More Drivers
Why: Because CA just allowed driverless cars to actually be driverless. This will be fun.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (15 min. read)
What: What Is A Baseball Anyway?
Why: Because baseball is coming back soon, and you might as well know why people are knocking more out of the park,

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. look)
What: The Oscars
Why: Because this year went fine! Del Toro and Peele won! Here are a bunch of times the Oscars were wrong.

ENTERTAINER THING OF THE WEEK (long read)
What: The Donald
Why: Because Donald Glover’s Atlanta is back for another season, and he continues to prove to be one of the the most interesting multifaceted artists of this era.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Captain
Why: Because one of America’s best writers is now in charge of one of America’s best super heroes.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: Learning From Failure
Why: Because Into The Breach makes you think about what you would sacrifice to save the world.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Hating The Oscars; Muppets Minus Muppets; Polkaton
Why: Because Internet.

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

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