It's one of those things that maybe only engineers and mathematicians can love, but today is Pi Day. It's 3.14. Get it? (Or in the United States, a somewhat much less obvious 3/14).

Anyway, that's all the excuse Ford needed to create a promotion tied to the new Ford Fusion and, as spring beckons, to get some of its engineers out of corporate R&D offices in its headquarters town of Dearborn, Mich. Similarly, Subaru of America is trying to get many more American workers out of their offices and other workplaces as part of its Work Play Love Tour.

First, to Ford: Because Pi Day recognizes "the role math plays in everyday life," as a Ford press release puts it, the company decided to use it as an opportunity to promote the fact that an all-new Fusion — yes, just like all Ford vehicles — is "a mathematical machine processing thousands upon thousands of equations every millisecond," said Gil Portalatin, a Ford product engineer.Continue reading...

Hyatt workers today returned to work, following a week-long strike that saw local religious leaders join the picket line in a show of solidarity.

Thousands of Hyatt workers in Chicago (with two hotels), Los Angeles, San Francisco and Honolulu walked off the job in a strike that ended at midnight last night, part of an "ongoing demonstration against the hotel chain, which hasn’t renegotiated contracts since Aug. 31, 2009 and has racked up 15 OSHA citations," as the Huffington Post reports.

Contract renewal talks on a new deal for housekeepers, bell staff, and restaurant and banquet workers have apparently did not go well after union workers hit the picket lines last week, “after a series of one-day work stoppages,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times.Continue reading...