Must Reads: 1 Year After Boston, No Escape From Heartbleed and More

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Image: Flickr, Intel Free Press

By Megan Hess2014-04-14 01:04:54 UTC

During the week, we consume words in snackable, tweetable bites. But on the weekends, we have the time to take a dive into the murkier, lengthier depths of the Internet and expand our attention spans beyond 140 characters. We can brew a cup of coffee and lie back with our iPads, laptops, smartphones and Kindles.

Since you're bound to miss a few things during the daily grind, we present to you, in our weekly installation of Mashable Must Reads, a curated list of can't-miss stories from around the web to read and reflect on. (You can find last week's must reads here).

She Survived the Boston Bombing, But Can She Bear the 17th Surgery? | Mashable

"God, if this is my time then take me. But please let me know my baby is ok." Rebekah Gregory lay broken and bleeding at the finish line of the Boston Marathon one year ago. She couldn't find her 5-year-old son anywhere, and she wanted to see him one last time before she died. Thankfully, Rebekah survived and moved back home to Katy, Texas, with her family. But she's tired. Tired of the continued pain. Tired of her wheelchair. Tired of the memories. She's thinking of amputating her leg, after 16 surgeries to correct it.

Image: Allan Zepeda Photography/TheKnot.com

Samsung's War at Home | Bloomberg Businessweek

Samsung is facing scrutiny for more than 58 cases of leukemia that were discovered across the company's chip-making plants in South Korea, and Samsung refuses to compensate their families. This captivating, in-depth read on the young workers dying of cancer and the families who fought back begs the question: Where are the other headlines about this mistreatment? So far, it hasn't received the same attention as the claims against Apple for worker mistreatment in China.

Why Heartbleed Is the Ultimate Web Nightmare | Mashable

Overnight, Heartbleed became the word on everyone's tongues — not just techies. And it's understandable why: The bug has the potential to be one of the biggest, most widespread vulnerabilities in the history of the modern web. It's easy to want to think the reaction is overblown, but sadly, it's not; Heartbleed is bad. Really bad. Here, Mashable's Christina Warren explains why it's such a big deal — and why you need to change your passwords (if you haven't already). Right now.

Image: Mashable Composite, iStockphoto

Who Are You Calling a Bully? | Cosmopolitan

A 12-year-old Florida girl leaps off a tower to her death. Two of her classmates are arrested, accused of a modern rite of middle school: sending cruel, harassing texts. Now, with the charges dropped, one of the accused talks about the case that turned into a national sensation, and a tragedy for three girls who once called one another friends.

The Woman Behind Apple's First Icons | Priceonomics

"Generally, it's rewarding just to know that your work is out there being used." Susan Kare, the woman who designed the iconic original Mac user interface icons in the early '80s, received a business card that read "Macintosh artist" — but she'd never worked on computer graphics before. “I remember I didn't really know anything about digital typography, but I got as many books on it as I could,” she recalled. Bonus: her old notebook sketches.

Neil Young's Long Fight to Restore the Quality of Music | Mashable

The quality of recorded music on CDs is rather poor compared to tape and vinyl, and Neil Young isn't happy about it. For a few years, he's been fighting to save the industry — and here's why everyone (especially the purists) should thank him.

Neil Young talks about Pono, his new music player, during a presentation at SXSW in March.

Image: Dustin Finkelstein/Getty Images Entertainment

The Bag Man | SB Nation

Steven Godfrey paints a fascinating, though somewhat depressing, picture of the side of sports that certainly isn't broadcast on TV: How college football buys players under the table, narrated by a man who delivers the money. "Providing cash and benefits to players is not a scandal or a scheme, merely a function. And when you start listening to the stories, you understand the function can never be stopped." If you really have some time on your hands, dare to check out the comments, too.

Don't have time to read them all now? In our Readlist below, export this week's must reads to your tablet to save for a time you have no distractions. Simply click the "read later" button alongside each story or or click "export" to send the entire list of articles to your preferred device.

Topics: apple, Apps and Software, boston bombings, bullying, college football, Dev & Design, heartbleed, Mashable Must Reads, Music, samsung, Sports, Work & Play