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).
On March 7, a Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines jetliner carrying 239 passengers disappeared from the skies; more than a week later, its whereabouts remain unknown. Mashable's Brian Ries spoke with Todd Curtis, former aviation safety engineer at Boeing and creator of AirSafe.com, to explore the various possibilities of what could have happened — from the possible to the plausible to the far-fetched.
Brin-Jonathan Butler and Kurt Emhoff dive deep into the twisted saga of James Scott, a '70s jailhouse boxer who battled for redemption. The money quotes just roll off the tongue: "I'm gonna make history. I'm so pregnant with this idea I'm going through labor pains."
Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee runner who skyrocketed to global fame just months prior to the London Olympics, was on trial this week for the murder of his girlfriend. Reeva Steenkamp's death is definite, but what's not as certain is Pistorius' motives: Did he shoot Steenkamp in cold blood or simply mistake her for a back-door intruder? This is the question that has consumed many of South Africa's 51 million citizens for more than a year.

At left: Oscar Pistorius in a Pretoria court room during his murder trial. At right: Pistorius in better days, as a South African track star and national hero.
Image: Mashable composite. Images: Alon Skuy/Associated Press, Stu Forster/Getty Images Sport
For decades, dozens of men with intellectual disabilities lived as indentured servants in an old schoolhouse in the heartlands of Iowa and worked for a turkey plant. Dan Barry finally tells the story of the abuse they endured — an incredibly powerful and captivating, but horrifying, recount.
Researchers scanned a fossil hotbed in Chile. Now, they're using the 3D-printed replicas to solve the site's biggest mysteries — an entire continent away. This fascinating account shows the writing on the wall for paleontology, a profession that is literally ages old: How to take findings beyond academic journal paywalls and straight to the online community.

Vince Rossi, a 3D imaging specialist at the Smithsonian Institute, photographs a bed of marine fossils near the side of the Pan-American Highway in Chile.
Image: Smithsonian Institution
The name Adam Lanza still evokes a visceral reaction from many Americans who remember the aftermath of December 14, 2012, far too well. The name is now synonymous with the shooter who killed his own mother, himself and 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. For the first time, Lanza's father speaks out: "I know Adam would have killed me in a heartbeat, if he’d had the chance."
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.