Tag Archives: stories

• The Lost Party
  Talks a bit about the Republican nomination in advance of the Michigan primary (which Romney eventually won). Since I haven’t been paying attention, this was a good primer on the other candidates (Gingrich, Santorium) and the problems the Republican party has been having this go-around.
• I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave
  Every time you order something online, your product is being picked and shipped from some warehouse; but what is it like to be one of those pickers?

  The gal conducting our training reminds us again that we cannot miss any days our first week. There are NO exceptions to this policy. She says to take Brian, for example, who’s here with us in training today. Brian already went through this training, but then during his first week his lady had a baby, so he missed a day and he had to be fired. Having to start the application process over could cost a brand-new dad like Brian a couple of weeks’ worth of work and pay. Okay? Everybody turn around and look at Brian. Welcome back, Brian. Don’t end up like Brian.

• Those Fabulous Confabs
  The story of the TED conference and the general popularity of “Big Idea” conferences.
• On The Market
  While the title is a bit ambiguous, this article is unintuitively about working at the Sotheby’s auction house in New York. Another great article looking in on a lifestyle and career that I’m not familiar with.

  These girls seemed immune to New York’s damning seasons, which always threaten to expose one’s tax bracket, especially if it is low. The summer sun didn’t melt their makeup, and the winter wind didn’t mar their manes. They were driven in cars and cabs that were kept at a constant 68 degrees. At night and on weekends, they attended galas, museum openings, and brunches in East Hampton. But during business hours, they went on client visits, consulted on prices, and tirelessly secured property. They were friendly on the phone, enthusiastic about the art, and harder working than people who look and talk like that usually need to be.

• The Man Who Broke Atlantic City
  When you hear a gambling story with a title like this, you immediately think a con or the MIT card counting team. Not this one though, this is a story of a guy who strategically won over $10 million using his smarts and declining economic conditions for the casinos.

  But two years ago, Johnson says, the casinos started getting desperate. With their table-game revenues tanking and the number of whales diminishing, casino marketers began to compete more aggressively for the big spenders. After all, one high roller who has a bad night can determine whether a casino’s table games finish a month in the red or in the black. Inside the casinos, this heightened the natural tension between the marketers, who are always pushing to sweeten the discounts, and the gaming managers, who want to maximize the house’s statistical edge. But month after month of declining revenues strengthened the marketers’ position. By late 2010, the discounts at some of the strapped Atlantic City casinos began creeping upward, as high as 20 percent.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: gambling, instapaper, stories