Ed Saraydar, RIP

Ed was one of my amazingly cool senior colleagues back in my days as an assistant, and then associate, professor at Western Ontario.

Obituary from the London [Ontario!] Free Press.

Via Eclectecon, the blog of John Palmer, another of my excellent senior colleagues at UWO back in the day.

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Assorted links

1. Very cool 3-D sidewalk art.

2. Health care waiting lists around the world. Rationing by waiting is really inefficient.

3. The Atlantic on my graduate school colleague Matt Khan on moral hazard, government and natural disasters.

4. Say it ain't so Joe. What world does this guy live in?

5. Chicago's fattest (as one of my grad school buddies used to call them) at work. And then it gets even better.

#2 via John Cochrane's blog, and #4 via the Agitator

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More on the new University of California logo

The Daily Mail reports on student reaction to Cal's new logo.

Hat tip: Charlie Brown

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Movie: The Flat

The Flat is a documentary about what an Israeli filmmaker learns about his family from the things he finds in his grandmother's flat in Tel Aviv after her passing. Those things are awkward, but interesting, as are the reactions they provoke. The end result provokes thinking on many levels, about family, about how we present ourselves to others and about the relationship between the personal and the historical.

This is the best movie I have seen in a while.

NYT likes it too.

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Mind over mendacity

The Amazing Kreskin (who knew he was still around?) offers to help us avoid falling off the fiscal cliff.

Via instapundit

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Why development economics is extra fun ...

My favorite phrase from today's informal development seminar: "prominent voodoo leaders".

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Call Me, Maybe ...

What Harvard economists do when they take a break from running the world.

Bonus quiz: find the two performers who got their doctorates at Michigan.

Hat tip: Marit Rehavi

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