Weekly Filet #8: My Libya Anger Management. And more.

This week’s top recommendation

Let me begin on a personal note. I’ve tried to find a nice piece to make sense of what happened in Libya this week. As I was searching, I got increasingly angry at the cynicism I encountered. You read about rising oil and petrol prices, tumbling stock markets and – heck! – about an idiot of a Swiss politician (can’t really put it more mildly than that) who calls for the army to protect the southern borders of Switzerland against refugees crossing them. I mean: seriously? In Libya, people are taking to the streets to fight for freedom, knowing they might be killed protesting (and many of them have). That got me thinking. And brought me to this week’s no-link recommendation:

• Set a timer to 5 minutes and answer the following questions for yourself: What do I care about? And what am I willing to give?

You might also like

• Verräterisches Handy (ZEIT Online)

A great interactive infographic. Profiling a man’s life over six months, using only the data his mobile provider has collected about him.

• How We Know (New York Review of Books)

Intriguing article about how Congolese drum language can help us cope with floods of information and create islands of meaning.

• Concrete Factory Converted to Castle Home (Dornob)

The title says it all, really. What a fantastic place! As of today, I’m saving money to buy it.

• Patrick Süskind: Der Kontrabass (Diogenes Verlag)

A hilarious monologue of a (slightly frustrated) contrabass player. The book won’t take you more than two hours to read, but be prepared to not being able to put it down.