Weekend Reads
“Unless you tackle a problem that’s already solved, which is boring, or one whose solution is clear from the beginning, mostly you are stuck. But Zhang is willing to be stuck much longer.” In The New Yorker, Alec Wilkinson on a a part-time calculus teacher who recently solved a theorem that has stumped mathematicians for more than a century: The Pursuit of Beauty.
+ “Feminists were constantly asking, ‘How can we clone you?’ At parties, women would plop me down in front of their husbands with instructions to ‘tell him what you told me.'” Times changed for William Farrell. MoJo’s Mariah Blake takes you inside the Men’s Rights Movement — and the Army of Misogynists and Trolls It Spawned
+ “The video shows the boys laughing and joking between tries, horsing around, cuffing each other. Then Richard flicks the lighter a fourth time. This time, the skirt ignites. Lloyd calls to the driver to open the back door. Richard jumps off the bus. Lloyd looks back and then stops, transfixed, as Sasha’s skirt erupts into a sheet of flame.” From NYT Magazine’s Dashka Slater: The Fire on the 57 Bus in Oakland.
+ “Who lives and who dies depends on what sort of healthcare system is available. And who recovers, if recovery is possible, depends on the way emergency care and hospitals are financed.” Paul Farmer on the iniquities of healthcare funding.