I recently found that The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has an ongoing roundtable of a series of articles about nuclear energy. I come down in favor of nuclear + renewable energy as the most recent article suggests. But there are a lot of articles both pro and con that highlight the issues with nuclear energy as well.

As a magazine put out during the Cold War whose symbol is a menacing doomsday clock counting down “minutes to midnight (Armageddon)”, The Bulletin is naturally a bit skeptical about nuclear power. Since the end of the Cold War the magazine has broadened it’s focus to talk about climate change as well, which gives them a really unique perspective. Their Fukushima coverage is also particularly good, it is really fascinating learning from real experts in nuclear energy and energy policy as opposed to general news reporters. I follow a lot of science blogs but The Bulletin is definitely one of the best issue-focused sources.

The RSA, my latest favorite podcast, just released this really great discussion about the London Riots. Before listening I was only vaguely aware of what was really going on in London, most of what I know about urban England I learned from Netflix (This is England | Fish Tank | Shameless). But I heard a lot of similarities, implications, and general trends that apply in terms of the ramifications of government austerity, gentrification, and a growing income disparity. The situation parallels the US in interesting ways: 20% youth unemployment, a resurgent right-wing criticizing the poor and unemployed as a “feckless underclass”, and a left (Labor) either scared of or incapable of creating a counter-narrative. The core causes seemed virtually identical to the structural employment and economic disparity that exists in the US; and the recession and government cuts to social services seemed poised to only exacerbate the economic situation. But the solution also seemed to be the same, education. In the new global economy first world nations don’t really have any place for an uneducated workforce. To stave off social unrest and in the spirit of equality, educational reform has to be undertaken.

About Truncator.js

So here’s what it does:

• Truncates nested html content (not just flat text) to fit within a fixed height (or max-height) div
• Allows more / less links to expand and restore truncated text
• Runs automatically on all elements with the “truncate” class or Truncator.wrapClass
• Can be run manually with Truncator.truncate()
• Allows custom truncation characters (default is … / … )
• Wraps long words using ­
• Uses the jQuery Library

It can be run automatically on divs like this:

Or run manually in Javascript with this function call:

See it in action here

Download the source: svn | zip
jQuery Plugin Page

Why it Took 3 Years to Finish

I first created the clumsy ancestor of Truncator.js 4 years ago at my first job. It started off as a way to achieve cross browser word-wrap for a web-based instant messenger and ended up working similar to Hyphenator.js. It was based off a gem of found code written in Portugese and a lot of trial-and-error. The whole class was a terrible mess and a ton of work for functionality that CSS3 word-wrap would fix anyway, but it didn’t take long to realize that the code could be adapted to dynamically truncate text to fit within a div; a much more elegant solution than server-side truncation.

After leaving my job I re-wrote the class in my spare time and added improvements like a binary search algorithm; but it wasn’t until I revisited the project this past month that I managed to add the finishing touch of DOM navigation to allow truncation of HTML content. At this point I’ve tested the truncation on my blog and the included test.html and it works pretty well even with a large amount of text. There are probably still some quirks related to certain HTML elements. I can’t promise how responsive bug-fixes to the code will be, consider this alpha-stage code; but if it finds use out there I’ll try and keep it up to date let me know if you have any issues.

E-mail: contact@malcolmp.com

I know About.com isn’t exactly known for it’s quality content or insightful advice but this should not be the top search result on Google for interview thank you letter.

It was very enjoyable to speak with you about the assistant account executive position at the Smith Agency. The job, as you presented it, seems to be a very good match for my skills and interests. The creative approach to account management that you described confirmed my desire to work with you.

Ok, not a terrible start. But in general, business writing should be much more assertive. First, the job seems to be a very good match for my skills and interests? Do you not know if your skills and interests are a good match for the job? Drop the seems, it weakens the statement of your fit for the position. Second, using the passive voice in the last sentence is awkward. Again, even if you are horrendously under-qualified at least pretend to be Wall Street style assertive. In short write about yourself more like this.

In addition to my enthusiasm, I will bring to the position strong writing skills, assertiveness and the ability to encourage others to work cooperatively with the department. My artistic background will help me to work with artists on staff and provide me with an understanding of the visual aspects of our work.

It probably isn’t great to tout your writing skills in such an awkwardly structured first sentence. It is a bit of a pet-peeve of mine but if you are going to list your talents just list them clearly and simply (strengths: 1, 2, 3, and 4). The use of “I will bring to the position” also rubs me the wrong way. The sentence could alternatively be written “I bring” to be both more active and simpler. Also, didn’t you just interview for this position and cover this? I sure hope you weren’t that forgettable.

I understand your need for administrative support. My detail orientation and organizational skills will help to free you to deal with larger issues. I neglected to mention during my interview that I had worked for two summers as a temporary office worker. This experience helped me to develop my secretarial and clerical skills.

I appreciate the time you took to interview me. I am very interested in working for you and look forward to hearing from you about this position.

These two first sentences are both grammatically correct but abrupt; the break should really be removed to flow into the second explanatory sentence. I don’t expect everyone to use the awesomeness of semi-colons but a simple “and” would really smooth those paragraphs out. Detail orientation is another bad, mixed-up passive phrase.

Also, after talking with an actual person and not donotreply@companythatwonthireyou.com you hopefully had a personal connection and can be a bit warmer and personable than you were in the cover letter you emailed to those other 143 companies. At least this letter gave me a boost in confidence in the comparative quality of my own thank you letter writing as long as everyone else is using this as the benchmark.

In downtown Los Angeles, early sunlight often warms the west side of the tall white canyon called Flower Street. Beneath a lush awning of tree-leaves against the scaffolded coast of the University Club, a bus blinks its red lights. The shadow of one skyscraper upon another seems as ancient as any survivor of geologic or even celestial time. But bit by bit, the shadow shrinks and thins; the yellow-tan glow takes over, brightening all the while; and Flower Street becomes busy with people and cars.

… And she spun me along Mulholland Drive, winding down across Stone Canyon and around the moist green hills with the San Fernando Valley below; white houses, the more expensive the more precious, then came dark trees and more white building-squares and mountains until the San Fernando Valley opened up, with the long straight ribbon called Sepulveda shooting through the white-and-grey-green grid toward the mountains.

San Diego

In San Diego it is a cool summer day in December, palm trees whipping in the sea breeze, crisp shadows, blue sky. An American flag flies from atop an old hotel. Banana leaves wave above parking lots of littering cars. I see a billboard for Mel Gibson’s new movie “Apocalypto,” and an advertising blimp hovers over so many cars that the farthest ones are washed out by distance. The skyscrapers of San Diego’s core huddle compactly amidst the sprawl. The freeways are lush with ivy, ice plants and palm trees. This lively coast remains verdant between and among the concretions of humanity. But just outside the city we find this verdancy to be actually a human artifact; for the hills, though bushy, are semi-arid, the dirt tan or even white, showing through between grass-clumps like bald patches in a worn carpet.

- William T. Vollmann, Imperial

Book Review

In truth, Los Angeles and San Diego appear to be the antagonists of this book at times but these are just a few great illustrative passages that struck me. Imperial is the first of Vollmann’s books that I’ve read; at 1,132 pages that are alternately fascinating and dry it took a while. Imperial is an odd book that rambles and seems to reveal about as much about the author as it does the portion of California and Mexico Vollmann tries to study. I loved how richly descriptive his writing can be if you don’t mind wandering off on a tangent or two hundred with him. Everything about this book is stream of consciousness and it seems as if the author is constantly trying to understand what he is experiencing as the book goes on. The book jumps around chronicling the history of the region focusing on farming, land use, water, immigration, and industrialization all with meticulous if scattered detail. At times I had to struggle through this book or do some B-school style skimming but overall, it was an intriguing portrait of a region of my state that I know little about.

This is a great presentation explaining Keynesian economic theory and the practical use of it with regard to the use of debt. Basically it is 50%, “America you’re doing it wrong” and another 50%, “you to Europe”. He makes some particularly astute points about the role of economists in reducing the variation of economic cycles versus increasing GDP growth. Through a Lord of the Rings metaphor, he argues strongly that politicians should have less control over debt because they so often waste it on small amounts of growth.

In light of Congress’ recent stance that the Federal Reserve should have more legislative oversight I’m left questioning whether they should have even less fiscal authority. Maybe the Treasury should just tell Congress how much money it has to spend, setting surpluses and deficits, leaving Congress and the President to budget within their means or increase revenues.

Enlightened Enterprise – Matthew Taylorvideo | audio

This is a really interesting lecture and discussion about corporate social responsibility and the value of customer relationships. It challenges the notion that “The role of a business begins and ends with maximizing shareholder value.” I particularly liked the angle of how businesses need to lead customers along sustainable paths. An information imbalance and a business’ greater capability to take action create a responsibility to educate their consumers about the impact of their incentives and choices. But the speaker also addresses how these actions are far from altruistic, they are prudent. Businesses should foresee that customer access to information will eventually shed light on their sustainability failings and capitalize on the ability of a sustainable brand to strengthen their customer relationship.

The speech also touches on: the free market vs. influence & marketing, choice architecture, public involvement, the risk of un-sustainability, and shareholder accountability.

We First Capitalism – Simon Mainwaring audio

More podcasts and videos from the RSA

Before Twitter I didn’t truly understand that famous people are both as dumb, as catty, as perverted, and as technologically incompetent as the rest of America. Without Twitter now I would not know about the latest developments in the Middle East, or the latest gadgets, or the latest artery-clogging food truck. I wouldn’t know how my friends were wasting their time at work across town, or across the country RIGHT NOW. I wouldn’t know what JFK said 50 years ago and I would not know how much Miss USA misses In-N-Out today.

There was now way for me to learn about all the stuff my friends felt was too inane, geeky, serious, or ridiculous for Facebook. I could not laugh at the latest rantings of a fake dictator or laugh even harder when the real US State department started to follow him. There just was no way for me to jump on the same absurd internet meme as a former fake temporary president of the USA. So thanks founder who’s name I don’t remember even though for some reason he was in a TV ad, for enriching my life.

Now I still don’t see how anyone makes any money off of this thing without a reality show, but I find myself checking it more and more as time goes on. The best analogy that I can think of is that Twitter is like beer. The first time you take a sip you are disgusted. Why would anyone drink this? But all the cool kids are doing it so you pretend you’re hardcore like everyone else. Nine months later and you’re a high-functioning addict walking up to people you saw on TV and talking to them like it’s your high-school reunion.

Follow me: @malcolm_p

But then I realized that besides CNN and Discovery, I rarely even watch cable TV. Well that’s not true I watch a lot of cable TV, I just watch it over the internet. Between an antenna, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Instant Video I can watch or buy 95% of anything I want to see within a day of it airing, including HBO.

Of course who knows where Hulu will wind up now that they are on sale. Despite never responding to my job applications I think Hulu is great convenience and it is the reason I never learned how to use my broken DVR, thanks for that one too Time Warner Cable.

So what is my $60 supposed to be getting me anyway? Being a good MBA I made a spreadsheet (shut up Jessie) showing that I could use Amazon Instant Video for about $30 a month I could buy and not just rent most everything I wanted to see. For that $30 I may miss a show or two and have to sit through buffering and terrible commercials with cats in them, but right now that seems like a small price to pay.

Timeline of Events – The Guardian
Mid. East Unrest Photo Gallery – The Guardian
Middle East protests: Country by Country – BBC News
Libya Crisis – BBC News
Arab Uprising - BBC News
Topic: The Middle East – CNN
Yemen – Protests – New York Times
Syria – Protests – New York Times
Al Jazeera English – Middle East
Demanding change in the Middle East and North Africa – Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch – Middle East & N. Africa
The Arabist Blog
The Lebanon Spring Blog

Last week my Kindle mysteriously died at 30,000 feet leaving me to spend the rest of the flight watching the guy in the seat next to me blissfully playing Angry Birds on his iPad 2. I guess I karmically deserved that.

Well I guess there’s a downside of using an e-reader to store all of your books. Thankfully my Kindle was still within Amazon’s one year warranty. That’s pretty standard but it isn’t all that great of an insurance policy for what is supposed to be your entire library, especially if the screens themselves are defective. I wouldn’t expect them to replace the device if I had broken it but for an inexplicable error like this it seems warranted. Technology breaks, especially new technology, but I really would like it if Amazon could stand behind the product some more.

Thankfully my Kindle will be replaced for free, and I was able to save all of my books so the loss itself isn’t so great. The eye opener was that while the Kindle keeps all of your e-books from the Kindle store in “the cloud” (for me a grand total of two), the other 20 from websites like Project Gutenberg are only ever stored on the device. So if you take advantage of the mountain of free e-books out there, and you should, remember to back them up somewhere.

Now I am left staring at the behemoth that is Imperial sitting my coffee table. This 1,200+ page book alone must weigh at least 10x what a Kindle does. I feel like I am living in the stone age… or, you know 2007.

In related news, Donald Glover’s blog is pretty much exactly what you’d expect, a random collection of: geekiness, hipsterdom, and Hollywood newbie. Here’s hoping for a good show tonight at The Belly Up.

You can view energy use from 1980 to 2008 by country in total, per capita, and broken down by oil, coal, gas, and renewables. The full chart and data set can be found at: http://goo.gl/9uaAT

Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy
Google Documents: Google Motion Chart
Google Motion Chart gadget tutorial

When the recent Mega Millions Lottery jackpot of $355 million hit the news and I kept hearing how horrible of a gamble the lottery was. With odds of winning the jackpot at 1 in 175,711,536 the lottery is a bad bet to be sure. But odds like that are hard to conceptualize. On the other hand, with such a huge amount of money on the line who could resist the chance at winning big for only $1?

So, just for fun, I created a Lottery Excel Spreadsheet to calculate the expected return on a lottery ticket for a given jackpot amount. The key variables determining the return are:

• The Probabilities of Each Lotto Prize
• The Amount of the Jackpot
• The Number of Tickets Sold (predicted from historical data)
• The Number of Winning Tickets
• The Income Tax Rate

As it turns out for a Lotto jackpot like the most recent of $380 million the expected return on a $1 ticket is -23¢. Not great, but everyone knows that the house always wins anyway, so how does this compare to casino gambling bets?

Expected Returns on a $1 bet at the casino:

• Roulette – Red/Black: -5.26¢
• Craps – Pass-Line: -1.41¢
• Craps – Seven: -16.67¢
• Slot Machines: -3¢ to -14¢
• http://wizardofodds.com/

So the Lottery is a much worse bet than anything in Vegas. And it just gets worse as the size of the jackpot decreases to more common levels. A $100 million jackpot has a return of -63¢.

However, when it comes to big multi-million dollar win (the low-likelihood scenarios in either case), the Lotto actually offers better odds because other games have decreasing probabilities with each repeated play. Although, if you are ok with turning your $1 into a mere $20 million after tax or less ( a $54 million Lotto jackpot), then you are much better off doubling down on a $1 bet in craps (odds of 1 in 97,079,014). Although you’ll still have to win 26 times in a row.

But in my literary fervor I also bought two books that I now question which I will put to use less. These two books are The King James Bible and The Kama Sutra. I filed them in away under the In Case of Apocalypse category, soon to be joined by The Zombie Survival Guide. I don’t know the exact rules for the rapture but I’m hoping there is a make-up exam I can cram for. If not the second book will tide me through the end of days.

But my favorite free find is the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. I will be taking full advantage of this hilarious book on Twitter #1811Vulgarity.

This morning I woke up well rested and I was greeted by CNN with yet another Republican talking point: “we should extend the Bush tax cuts because lower taxes for small businesses over $250k will create jobs.” I previously cited the Moody’s report that shows that extending the Bush tax cuts aren’t an effective way to stimulate GDP growth. But the insight into why taxes don’t influence job growth all that well is Economics 101 simple. It really comes down to two factors:

1) The Supply of Labor

The first key insight comes from an abstraction of supply and demand. In this case supply represents the amount of labor utilized by industry while demand is the market demand for the goods produced by that labor. If you learned anything in Economics you should have learned that the golden rule of supply and demand is MR = MC (marginal revenue = marginal cost). In this case, what that means is that employers will continue to hire people up until the amount of revenue generated from one additional employee is equal to the cost (salary, benefits, etc) of that one employee.

2) The Income Tax

It is at this point that it appears that taxes would reduce the value of employees and thus the amount of people who are employed. But the second key insight is that the income tax is not a tax on revenue. Businesses are only taxed on income, that is the revenue in excess of the cost of employment. Sure, there are other factors such as risk and access to cash that make companies hesitant to hire more at higher tax rates, but on the macro level, the employment decision is not significantly changed by the level of taxes.

So What Should We Be Doing Instead?

The real problem has always been, not supply, but demand. There are no jobs because there isn’t enough consumer spending to justify a higher level of employment. There are better stimulus options than tax cuts such as unemployment benefits and food stamps which put more money into the hands of those most likely to spend that money, stimulating demand. A job tax credit would also create jobs by reducing the marginal cost of employment. But none of those options are the focus of the recent plan.

Additionally, as I was later pleased to hear Fareed Zakaria illustrate, the long term health of the US economy requires less individual debt and an investment in the creation of the jobs of the future. This kind of investment was in the original proposal for the first stimulus in the form of a push for green jobs and job retraining. But for some reason we keep chasing tax cuts as a solution to all our woes, which they aren’t.

Follow them all on Twitter

KalBiQ

kalbiQ

KalBiQ serves korean bbq tacos, burritos, and fries. I wrote a review of their food in one of my earlier posts. The kalbiQ truck is pretty regularly in the UCSD area. It can be found around Regents and Nobel and other UCSD locations on most evenings. $1 Taco Tuesdays here are a favorite of mine, right off my shuttle stop.

@kalbiq

Tabe

Tabe

Tabe is another truck modeled after the LA original Kogi. It similarly sells Korean BBQ tacos, burritos and fries. This truck roams all over San Diego and can often be found around UCSD, UTC, Sorrento valley, and Downtown. So following the Tabe Twitter feed is a must to catch it near you.

@TabeBBQ

FoodJunkie

Food Junkie

This North Park truck has a diverse menu of fish tacos, grilled cheese, and hot dogs. Pretty much exactly what you’d want after a night at one of the bars they park by. They don’t seem to roam around as much as they also run a catering business.

@FoodJunkieTruck

MIHO Gastrotruck

MIHO Gastrotruck

The MIHO truck serves some really fancy burgers and sandwiches (full menu here). This is another truck that frequents the Sorrento Valley and UTC area, but also shows up around Downtown.

@MIHOgastrotruck

Joes On The Nose

Joes On the Nose

This is a roving coffee truck that has a regular schedule and also offers a catering menu. My social media marketing colleagues will at least be interested in this truck’s avid use of Twitter.

@joesonthenose

Corner Cupcakes

Corner Cupcakes

Corner Cupcakes serves cupcakes from Sorrento Valley down to South Park. The also make stops around PB and Clairemont. Pay attention to their Twitter feed for deals.

@CornerCupcakes

Flippin' Pizza

Flippin’ Pizza

This North county pizza truck is often serving lunch around Sorrento Valley and Mira Mesa. Later at night it tends to be around Carlsbad and Encinitas. They also have several North county locations.

@FlippinPizzaCA

Chop Sooey Truck

Chop Sooey Truck

The Choptruck is a fairly new arrival this year that spends a lot of time around Downtown / Gaslamp and Mission Valley. Their catering menu is pretty diverse with lots of Asian food as well as burgers and tacos.

@Choptruck

Devilicious

Devilicious

This soon to open truck’s slogan “food so good, it’s bad.” rings true. Their menu is full of delicious sounding, if not healthy, options. One to watch for.

@Deviliciousdk1

And if you need more evidence than data from economists all you need to do is take a look at the real income growth (in 2009 dollars) in the US over the past 37 years. What GDP growth we have seen has gone disproportionately to the wealthy.

From 1972-2009, for non Hispanic Whites:

• The top 5% have seen their incomes rise at a rate 3.6 times that of the middle 20%
• This works out to an increase in income of $3,701 versus $208 per year
• Further, the lowest 20% only saw an annual increase in wages of $63.

Income Inequality 1972 – 2009

Source: US Census Bureau H-1, H-2, H-3

This trend towards increasing income inequality over time only gets more dramatic as you look at a smaller slice of the top. The fact is that for decades most of the populace has seen meager growth in real income while the wealthy reach Gilded Age heights. This uneven growth rate explains graphs like this, by the Heritage Foundation, which cite the growing income tax burden on the American family.

They also claim that tax increases will increase government revenue but better numbers don’t back up that claim. More accurate measures such as Government revenue as a percentage of GDP (even better per capita) are much better measures of how much revenue the government is generating from tax payers adjusted for economic and population growth.

Income as a Percentage of GDP

Spending as a Percentage of GDP

Source: Time Magazine, December 13th Issue

I really wish the President and Democrats would do what this country needs: fight the Bush tax cuts and give us a stimulus without all the garbage the first one had. Unfortunately, the reality of Republican opposition makes me thing we’re in for a long road to recovery, especially if the government refuses to invest in new job creation and focus on the deficit.

The Kardashian Kard

Just when you thought we’d seen the financial services industry at it’s shadiest… they found a way to partner with someone even worse, Hollywood.

The Kardashian Kard is a prepaid debit card with outrageous fees ($195.35 in the first year, nickels and dimes all over the place). It doesn’t help that the cards are targeted at financially naive young adults without checking accounts either. Even the Kardashians couldn’t read the fine print and are now backing out of the deal to escape all the bad PR it is causing.

But as an MBA student I must respect their ingenuity. I think I’m going to shoot the issuer, University National Bank, an email pitching the Lindsay Lohan card with a rewards program pushing pocket size mirrors and cash rewards. Lab To Market project anyone?

So, I created a simple Excel Add-In Regular Expressions.xla that adds several custom functions to implement the standard VBScript regular expressions.

Installation & Use

Step 1: After downloading Regular Expressions.xla you can enable it by navigating to Tools >> Add-Ins.

Step 2: In the dialog that appears click Browse and select Regular Expressions.xla in the directory you downloaded it to. After enabling the Add-In you can disable it at any time by reopening this dialog and un-checking the box.

Step 3: To Insert a function select a cell and click the button to bring up the dialog. All of the functions and pre-defined regular expression patterns will be listed under the Regular Expressions category.

Function Descriptions

• xREPLACE: Replace all portions of the search text matching the pattern with the replacement text.
• xMATCHES: Find and return the number of matches to a pattern in the search text.
• xMATCH: Find and return an instance of a match to the pattern in the search text. MatchIndex may be used in the case of multiple matches.
• xMATCHALL: Find and return a comma-separated list of all matches to the pattern in the search text.
• xGROUP: Find and return a group from within a matched pattern.
• xSTARTSWITH: Returns true or false if the search text starts with the pattern.
• xENDSWITH: Returns true or false if the search text ends with the pattern.

Parameter Descriptions

• pattern (text): the regular expression to use to match. Regular Expression Syntax
• searchText (text): the text to search for a match.
• replacementText (text): the string to replace the matched portion of the string with.
• ignoreCase (true/false): Set to false for a case-sensitive match. The default value is true.
• matchIndex (integer): When multiple matches are found, which one should be returned (1+)
• group (integer): Which subgroup (section within parenthesis) of the regular expression should be returned.

So far I have added basic regular expressions for matching phone numbers, 5 & 9 digit zip codes, emails, and urls. If you have any other useful, generic patterns you can send them to me at: contact@malcolmp.com and I may add them. I used a standard GNU license for this so you are free to re-distribute it and I’d appreciate you letting me know of any improvements so I can add them myself.

Download: Regular Expressions.xla