6 Feature Stories You Can't Miss This Week: Sex Tapes, Sweatshops, And Surgeons

This week for BuzzFeed News, Mary Ann Georgantopoulos uncovers the history of the Hulk Hogan sex tape saga. Read that and these other great stories from around the web.

1. "The Biggest Mistake of My Life" — BuzzFeed News

Dennis Huynh / BuzzFeed News / Hogan: AP / Denton: Getty Images

In 2012, Gawker published a video of wrestling legend Hulk Hogan having sex with the wife of his friend, radio DJ Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. As Hogan's subsequent lawsuit against Gawker makes its way through court, Mary Ann Georgantopoulos dissects thousands of legal documents to get to the bottom of just what happened before the video was ever posted. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

2. The Really Big One — The New Yorker

Illustration by Christoph Niemann; Map by Ziggymaj / Getty

Kathryn Schulz's disturbing appraisal of the probability of an imminent — and devastating — earthquake in the Pacific Northwest does not mince words. "The Cascadia situation, a calamity in its own right, is also a parable for this age of ecological reckoning, and the questions it raises are ones that we all now face." Read it at The New Yorker.

3. Making the Cut — ProPublica

Illustration by Miguel Montaner for ProPublica

Marshall Allen and Olga Pierce undertook the massive project of analyzing the complication rates of nearly 17,000 surgeons across the country. The resulting story, which includes a tool that allows you to search surgeons in your area and see how they stack up, is as astounding as they are alarming. Read it at ProPublica.

4. The Myth of the Ethical Shopper — Highline

Illustration by Abigail Goh for Highline

Michael Hobbes debunks the long-held belief that consumer choices alone can alleviate the problem of poor conditions for factory workers in developing countries. "Our clothes are being made in ways that advocacy campaigns can’t affect and in places they can’t reach. So how are we going to stop sweatshops now?" Read it at Highline.

5. This Doctor Knows Exactly How You Feel — Pacific Standard

Photograph by Mark Ostow for Pacific Standard

Erika Hayasaki profiles Joel Salinas, a young physician with a rare condition that allows him to feel what others are feeling — literally. "If he sees someone slapped across the cheek, Salinas feels a hint of the slap against his own cheek. A pinch on a stranger’s right arm might become a tickle on his own." Read it at Pacific Standard.

6. The Rhino’s Last Stand — Guernica

Albrecht Dürer, The Rhinoceros, 1511. Woodcut. 9 1/4 × 11 3/4 inches. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

In the past several decades, rhino species have been brought to the brink of extinction due to global demand for their lucrative horns. Carly Nairn discovers how a dedicated group of conservationists is trying to save some of the last remaining giants in the animal kingdom: by domesticating them. Read it at Guernica.

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