Greetings Webtaculators. This was an exceptionally bad week for Trump. It’s about time. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: No Wall
Why: Because after over a month of not paying federal workers for their work, Trump reopened the government until February 15. He still doesn’t get his State of the Union, he doesn’t get his wall, he doesn’t get his approval, and he is shown to be absolutely abysmal dealmaker. Some other things happened, too. Roger Stone was arrested. Venezuela almost kicked out US diplomats,

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (7 min. read)
What: Thin Mints Are Manna
Why: Because it’s Girl Scout cookie season.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (long read)
What: White Shoes Are Too White
Why: Because diversity in large law firms, especially at the partner level, still is noticeably lacking.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (long read)
What: California And Football – The Twilight Years 
Why: Because Jared Goff, quarterback of the Rams, grew up in my home county, and is leading the Rams to the Super Bowl as the glory of football has slowly been fading out of the area. Football is at an interesting crossroads for many reasons, and this is another good look into what it is that people actually want out of the sport.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Sundance
Why: Because everyone famous is in Park City Utah this week.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (long listens)
What: New Music
Why: Because a lot of new music came out this year already. In order of seriousness to less so: Gary Clark Jr., This Land (read and watch the Rolling Stone interview – context makes this song even more powerful); Maggie Rogers, Heard It In A Past Life;  Vampire Weekend, Harmony Hall; James Blake, Assume Form; Toro y Moi, Outer Peace; and last, least, but certainly a lot of fun if you’re in the mood for it, Weezer, Teal. Yes, they covered TLC’s No Scrubs. It’s something.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (long read)
What: The New Sci-Fi
Why: Because Science Fiction writing has historically been the domain of white men. This is changing.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. read)
What: Video Games Are Big
Why: Because retail sales for games was $43 billion dollars. The actual number is bigger, since this figure does not include digital sales, which at this point probably is an even larger percentage of sales than retail is, especially due to mobile and “loot” based gaming, like Fortnite.  If you want to throw more money at games, I recommend the Resident Evil 2 remake.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Mean Chef Cant Handle Hot Wings, Blames Millennials; Normal Straightforward Guy; Vampires Win
Why: Because Internet.

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

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

Greetings Webtaculators. I hope you had time to reflect on MLK’s life today. On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (long read)
What: Two Years
Why: Because Trump has been our president for that long. Buzzfeed released a report detailing that Trump ordered Cohen to lie for him. It is unclear whether parts or all of this story is true, since Muller’s team released a note saying that Buzzfeed’s characterization of the documents and testimony were inaccurate. Buzzfeed is sticking with its story.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: How Taxes Work
Why: Because it is insane that anyone is worried about what someone who makes over $10,000,000 a year’s marginal tax rate.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (long read)
What: The Case For Impeachment
Why: Because with Democrats in control of the House, there is a real potential for this to happen.

SCIENCE THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: To Live And Die On The Moon
Why: Because the first life born on the moon ended two days later, when a Chinese project to grow plants ended with the death of the plants. It is amazing how unremarkable this story is.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (7 min. read)
What: Whoop Dee Doo, The Patriots Are In The Super Bowl, AGAIN
Why: Because the playoff games were both exciting football, even though it is clear that no one has any idea what the rules are.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. watch)
What: John Wick 3
Why: Because a horse/ motorcycle chase with katanas is basically all action movies need.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (3  min. read)
What: Did You Hear The News
Why: Because Huey Lewis and the News are making a new album.

PHOTOGRAPHY THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: White Privilege
Why: Because America is troubled.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: The Prisoner
Why: Because as bad as we treat journalists in the US, at least we don’t torture them.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: EA Keeps Canceling Star Wars Games
Why: Because maybe there is such a thing as too much Star Wars. Side note- I finally got around to seeing Solo. It was fine.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Marie Fucking Kondo; Pizza Fucking Pie; Tom Fucking Brady
Why: Because Internet.

THING YOU SHOULD GET BRIAN OF THE WEEK
What: Tony Romo’s Crystal Ball That Can See Five Seconds Into The Future
Why: Because Brian deserves it.

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

Greetings Webtaculators. As the wheels continue to fall off the bus that is the Trump Presidency, the world continues. Also, having family who can help remove a tree and build a fence is a very good thing.

On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: It’s Collusion, Then
Why: Because the NY Times and the Washington Post released two new reports that heavily indicate that Trump worked with the Russians. When asked if he worked for Russia, Trump didn’t say no.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (5 min. read)
What: A Very Expensive Divorce
Why: Because when the wealthiest person in the world lives in a community property state, and does not have a prenup, and gets a divorce, that person most likely no longer is the richest person in the world.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Alex Jones Is Trash
Why: Because Infowars lost a lawsuit brought by Sandy Hook families who sued him for claiming their children’s’ massacre was a hoax.

TECH THING OF THE WEEK (7 min. read)
What: The Best From CES
Why: Because we’re all going to be staring at bigger screens soon. It doesn’t seem like tech companies realize that people don’t have space for 80+ inch TVs in their homes – 55 was already pushing it.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (longer read than it should be, because it’s more than 32 things)
What: And Then There Were 4
Why: Because football is still happening. Also, don’t call an article 32 things we learned if you have a whole bunch of sub-points that are distinct from the original point. That’s just bad writing. But then again, it’s an article about football.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Surprise! Glass Isn’t Good
Why: Because the biggest twist of his career is that M. Night Shyamalan managed to put out one decent movie (Split, this movie’s predecessor) in the last 10 years.

TELEVISION THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Welcome To Letterkenny
Why: Because this is the first time I have binge-watched a show in a very long time.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (quick look)
What: The Festivals Are Back
Why: Because here are Coachella’s and BottleRock’s lineups. I know I’m old because I recognize more of BottleRock’s lineup than Coachella’s.

FOOD THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. read)
What: The Dream Of Meatless Meat
Why: Because not killing things that feel for food seems like a good goal for humanity. Doubly so if it actually tastes good.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (short watch / read)
What: How To Deal With Books
Why: Because the convergence of less space with digital media creates a real problem when deciding what to do with books you’re done with. My tip is to keep the ones that make you look smarter than you are.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (3 min. read)
What: Bungie Jumps
Why: Because one of the the most esteemed developers for games just left one of the biggest publishers in the world to go on its own.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: Letterkenny; Spider-Man; Our New Anthem
Why: Because Internet.

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

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

Greetings Webtaculators! My new year started off with a bang.

How was yours? On to the news.

STORY OF THE WEEK (7 min. read)
What: Swearing In
Why: Because the Democratic House is here (oh hey, it’s not a bunch of white old men! [GOP vs. Democrat members, for comparison]), and so far it does not look like they’re here to play nice. Also, almost a million people still are not being paid for the work that they do for all of us because a motherfucker is having a tantrum.

ECONOMIC THING OF THE WEEK (long read)
What: Poor Me(lennial)
Why: Because this article does an extremely good job of explaining why my generation has an almost neurotic existence. Personally, I’m pretty sure that I burned out in middle school, but somehow still have not managed to stop myself from doing way too many things (like this weekly newsletter). In the large scheme of things, I am doing absolutely fantastic compared to a large number of my peers. For you older readers, this is not meant to read as your lives not being hard, or that we don’t understand that life isn’t always perfect. The main thing that really is harder is that our margin for error is essentially gone. That is and has always been terrifying.

LAW THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Into The Public Domain
Why: Because for the first time in 20 years, new works of art have become free to use. That is, things that entered into copywrite 95 years ago, like silent movies.

TECH THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. read)
What: The Best Of Technology
Why: Because here are a list of things that we have created to try to make our world a better place, but in the meantime have also made it a whole lot worse.

SPORTS THING OF THE WEEK (10 sec. watch)
What: Da Bears, Da Bears Da Bears Da Be…. Oh.
Why: Because the Bears lost to the Eagles.

MOVIE THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: The Golden Globes Sure Are Weird
Why: Because a bunch of only OK movies won. Also, Christian Bale basically called Mitch McConnel and Dick Chaney charisma-free assholes, to maintain more acceptance of publicly calling politicians names. So there’s that.

MUSIC THING OF THE WEEK (7 min. read)
What: R. Kelly Gets A Public Reckoning
Why: Because the singer has continuously been in the news about being a pedophilic rapist for a long time. Maybe this time the stories will stick.

PHOTOGRAPHY THING OF THE WEEK (2 min. look)
What: New Year’s Eve
Why: Because standing in massive crowds watching fireworks while you freeze sure sounds like fun.

LITERATURE THING OF THE WEEK (long read)
What: New Year, New List Of Books
Why: Because like last year, and the year before, you will not get around to reading most of these, even if you made it your resolution.

VIDEO GAME THING OF THE WEEK (4 min. read)
What: Dusk
Why: Because the real best game of last year was a game that felt like it was from 1996.

INTERNET THINGS OF THE WEEK (∞)
What: This Is Adorable; Casa Grande (More Like Casa Pequeña); Traveling Is Hard
Why: Because Internet.

THING YOU SHOULD GET BRIAN OF THE WEEK
What: The Coolest Thing From CES
Why: Because Brian deserves it.

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