Our 9 Favorite Feature Stories This Week: Phineas Gage, John Green, And Supertyphoons

This week for BuzzReads, Laurel Fantauzzo reports from the most disaster-ready corner of the storm-ravaged Philippines. Read that and these other stories from around BuzzFeed and the web.

1. How to Survive a Super Typhoon — BuzzFeed

Odd Andersen / AFP / Getty Images

In Batanes, the northernmost islands of the Philippines, a small indigenous population routinely survives the most violent storms in the world. But in an era of unprecedented weather disturbances, can centuries-old methods of adaptation survive modernization and economic struggle? Read it at BuzzFeed.

2. Masala Dosa to Die For — New York Times Magazine

Mahesh Shantaram for The New York Times

Rollo Romig brings the strange story of the man behind one of the world's largest chain vegetarian restaurants. "His business model is so seemingly foolproof that the company has acquired an air of invincibility, even as its founder became sullied with scandal. As Saravana Bhavan went global, Rajagopal was charged with murder, found guilty and sentenced to life in prison." Read it at the New York Times Magazine.

3. Women Say They Were Sexually Abused While Seeking Treatment At Recovery Home — BuzzFeed

Photograph by Sam Hodgson for BuzzFeed

A prominent evangelical Rock Church was hit with a lawsuit Thursday, alleging its addiction-recovery ministry leader has harassed and battered women at the treatment homes he operates. Jessica Testa reports from San Diego. Read it at BuzzFeed.

4. Still Paying for the Civil War — Wall Street Journal

Michael M. Phillips/The Wall Street Journal (Ms. Triplett), Jerry Orton (certificate)

Michael M. Phillips discusses 84-year-old Irene Triplett, who still receives a Veterans Affairs check each month for her late father's service in the Civil War. "A declaration of war sets in motion expenditures that can span centuries, whether the veterans themselves were heroes, cowards or something in between." Read it at the Wall Street Journal.

5. Phineas Gage, Neuroscience’s Most Famous Patient — Slate

Via slate.com

Sam Kean on Phineas Gage: "His is the most famous name in neuroscience. How ironic, then, that we know so little else about the man — and that much of what we think we know, especially about his life unraveling after his accident, is probably bunk." Read it at Slate.

6. How A Nerd-Hero Writer Became The Breakout Star Of This Summer’s Most Unlikely Blockbuster — BuzzFeed

Photograph by Macey J. Foronda for BuzzFeed

A romantic drama about young cancer patients doesn’t seem like it would spur the same fanaticism as The Hunger Games. But, Doree Shafrir writes, The Fault in Our Stars — in particular, John Green, who wrote the YA best-seller — is proof that teenage feelings are special effects too. Read it at BuzzFeed.

7. Zac Efron Bros Down To Grow Up — BuzzFeed

buzzfeed.com

Our teen idols are “all heart, no libido," argues Anne Helen Petersen — so what happens when they grow up? An essay on Ricky Nelson, Rock Hudson, Zac Efron, and the impossible contradictions of masculinity. Read it at BuzzFeed.

8. The Rise Of Sadvertising — Fast Company

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It wasn't that long ago that advertising was built around being funny. Now, many advertisers want to make people cry. Rae Ann Fera explains what changed. Read it at Fast Company.

9. The Day I Started Lying to Ruth — New York

Photo: Courtesy of Peter Bach

A beautifully written and unbelievably sad essay by Peter Bach, a cancer physician who lost his own wife to cancer. Read it at New York.