British Touring Car Championship Rob Austin has signed up as HiQ’s official series blogger, and in this first write-up for the season he shares on what’s gone down since the end of the 2013 season. When the BTCC action gets under way for this year, Austin will blog on the Monday after each race. The blog can be read on the hiqonline.co.uk website.
It’s been less than a year since Nitto Tire reported gaining its three millionth Facebook fan, and now the company says it has five million fans on board. Nitto attributes this social media growth to its engagement strategies, including its Nitto Ambassador Program, live multi-player mobile games and a proprietary automotive interest blog, DrivingLine.com. Utilising such tools, Nitto says it has generated a loyal community with fan engagement that goes beyond the traditional likes, shares and comments that exist in the social network platform.
Bridgestone key accounts manager Peter Dickson will run the New York marathon this weekend, hoping to raise more than £500 for the Action Medical Research charity. The run will have been three years in the making for Dickson, having originally applied in 2010.
The phrase “looks like you’ve got a flat – let me fix it for you” sounds like a clumsy pick-up line, and for a 25-year old Japanese man it may also turn out to be an expensive one. Our friend the Internet reports the tale of Yoshihito Harada, whose desire to meet women prompted a spate of tyre slashings in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture.
Tyres fitted to cars parked in the street in the town of Lincoln, California (to the north east of Sacramento) were sleeping a little easier this weekend, after a large sword that was used to slash city vehicles’ rubber was recovered by the police Friday (21 February). It was reported that a 19 year-old woman named Ashley Belisle was arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism through swordplay and was taken to Placer County Jail in Auburn, though was released later.
Posters on the Sacramento Bee’s crime blog, however, were ready to leap to conclusions. Blogger Soylent_Green_is_now heaped the blame on cultural influences, suggesting “one too many anime conventions” as the inspiration for the wave of destruction; meanwhile Briencook took a more reasoned approach, stating, “What a bizarre (and costly) crime spree. She must be dealing with some mental problems. If not, Big-O is hiring.” However, the frustration of finding your tyres ripped by a rapier was possibly best surmised by lovemycity916, who simply declared, “fu**in ninjas.”
A piece of legislation stemming from a pay dispute involving Goodyear was passed by the US Senate on January 22. It now only needs approval from the House of Representatives before it reaches Barack Obama’s desk for signing.
The Senate passed the bill after a 61-36 vote, and an article posted on the White House blog on Sunday indicates the president supports it. The bill could well become the first that President Obama signs into law. If so, it will overturn a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that said former Goodyear supervisor Lilly Ledbetter could not sue for wage discrimination after being paid less than male employees performing the same job as she had not filed her suit within 180 days after the company first acted in discriminatory manner. The legislation will instead allow aggrieved workers to sue after the most recent discriminatory payment received, not the first one.
