Our Weekly List of Top 10 Twitter Posts — Week 4

It's the end of a month of new beginnings! First, we welcomed 2012 after a nice weeklong break from the office. Then came the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Water Dragon, one that according to the Chinese zodiac, will bring prosperity (and a tendency to overspend). Sounds like a good time! Here's our every-Friday Top 10 tweeps post, which sums up the best banter of the week. If you follow us @BWCnews, you'll probably recognize some of these tweets!

Credit:  RSC Publishing

1. Smart Underpants Share How You're Feeling on Product Design & Development News: It's nanotechnology-meets-sartorial function. Yes, there's an underwear out there that can assess your blood pressure, heart rate and other biological indicators. It uses sensors in the waistband to take measurements and relay that information back to remote doctors. Think it's a gimmick? It could actually help physicians keep an eye on soldiers or astronauts out in the field. Not as off-the-wall as it first sounded, right?

2. Manufacturers Need to Focus on Focus via Bishop-Wisecarver Daily: How can manufacturers outpace their competitors? Pay attention — close attention — to the information at your fingertips. Don't just try to get a bunch of new customers, recruit ones that need exactly what you have to offer. That requires detailed market research and a study of which customers would bring in the highest profit stream, according to this Industry Week article. Very helpful, very insightful, definitely a good read to start the year out right!

Credit: The Bay Citizen

3. Swarms of Robotic Insects Could Aid Disaster Responses on The Bay Citizen: It sounds terrifying, but these robotic cockroaches could one day save lives. The U.S. Department of Energy said this month that they'll team up with private companies to make mechanical insects that could one day be used in emergency relief situations. Let's hope they don't fall into the wrong hands ...

4. State of the Media 2012 via Vocus: We signed up for a free online webinar about the state of newspapers, magazine and online media this year. We gleaned some interesting tidbits, including how many reporters actually prefer PR folks reach out to them via social media or how the iPad actually boosted magazine subscriptions, flying in the face of what print media pros predicted. Cool to see how print and online can actually complement instead of compete against each other.

5. Linear Guides for Patient Handling Systems on our YouTube channel: We put together an application video this week that shows how our UtiliTrak linear slide helps paramedics effortlessly lift patients into an ambulance. We love seeing our products put to good use!

6. How Many Manufacturing Jobs Can the U.S. Realistically Maintain? on PBS News Hour: As the country's president talks about reviving the economy with manufacturing jobs, it's fair to ask whether that's a reasonable expectation in the face of outsourcing and cheap foreign labor. PBS News Hour dives into the issue on this podcast, which you can listen to here.

7. An Animatronic Baby on YouTube: Did you know they use robotic babies on TV shows and movies? Here's what those robotic props look like before they're fleshed out. Kind of creepy, huh?!

Credit: Associated Press

8. What Does Every Dragon Mother Want? A Dragon Baby on the Wall Street Journal: We keep talking about how this Lunar New Year's the Year of the Dragon, right? Well some parents are taking this to heart, trying to get pregnant before March so they could have a child born in the Year of the Water Dragon, a zodiac sign known for prosperity. Too much? What's your view of the trend?

9. The Business of Building Sustainable Cities on EnvironmentalExpert.com: Post-WWII America migrated en masse to the newly cropped-up suburbs. Today, the trend has flipped in the other direction as more people realize that to live close to work is more sustainable, environmentally and economically. This column here addresses that shift and how by 2050 about 70 percent of the world's population may live in cities.

10. Magnetic Soap Could Life Oil Spill Woes on CnetNews: U.K. scientists announced that they've developed a new soap that uses magnetism to lift debris. Some are saying this could be a viable way to clean up oil spills. That's a pretty powerful breakthrough if that's the case!