Our Weekly List of Top 10 Twitter Posts — Week 1

We rung in the New Year with an explosion of tweets — many of them, we think, that merit another mention. And that, everyone, is why we give you this wrap-up: Because all that's funny and fascinating on Twitter deserves another chance to grab your fleeting attention. It's 2, and this here's the inaugural tweets-of-the-week post of the New Year. Our social media resolution this year? Chat with more of ya'll on Twitter because you're a great crowd! Hit us up @BWCnews to help us accomplish that. Cheers!

1. Lessons From Famous College Dropouts on CNN.com: A lot of folks know that Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed University back in the day to pursue his career, putting him in safe company with other storied innovator who called it quits on college. What does that tell you about the value of by-your-own-bootstraps entrepreneurship? This article says it's proof that we shouldn't overlook natural talent for a lack of official credentials. Of course there's value in higher education, but with prohibitively pricey tuition, maybe it's time to keep more of an open mind about peoples' ability and work ethic instead of dismissing them for missing that gilded certificate. What's your take?

Credit: FIRST

2. It's Time to Kickoff the 2012 FIRST Robotics Challenge! on USFIRST.org: We've been super stoked about this for a while. For several years now we've sponsored a few local high school teams to compete in this national robotics contest. It's a great way to get young people obsessed with science and technology. Plus, it's just fun to watch! FIRST founder Dean Kamen — who's also a renowned inventor and science/tech celebrity — penned a wonderful piece for the HuffPo on on the FIRST program and why he's so passionate about making this a mainstream spectacle. We'll blog more about our trip in the coming week, so stay posted!

3. Top 10 Craziest Things Caught at Airport Security on Jalopnik.com: Snakes on a plane?! No, we're not talking about that off-the-wall Samuel L. Jackson movie with the literal title that came out a few years ago, this is a real-life inventory of some of the more insane things people tried to pass through airport security. The other finds: Ninja knives, grenades, a cell phone stun gun and a fake $10 million gold ingot. So yeah, there's that for today's edition of "What Were They Thinking?"

4. Is Your Baby Ugly? on PamelaKan.blogspot.com: Gasp! Never! BWC President blogged this week about stepping back and looking at your company's website with a critical eye. You may think it's pretty enticing, but it could be that your home page lacks the gravity to pull in your customers. It's your baby and it may take an objective observer to give you a few pointers on how to spruce it up. That said, what do you think of the new banner design we rolled out this week on our own beautiful baby? [ Check it out here ]

Credit: ChinaSmack.com

5. 16 Modern China Engineering Feats and Industrial Achievements on ChinaSmack.com: We think of the U.S. as the land of "bigger is better," but from the looks of these photos, China's got a similar zeitgeist. Take a look at the pic of that 70-story-tall ferris wheel for a case in point. Incredible!

6. The Year in Manufacturing, Part II  on YorkSaw.com: We mentioned the first part of this series in a previous blog, so we'll follow up by plugging the sequel. It's basically a curated timeline of manufacturing and other industry news authored by a Pennsylvania-based saw and knife manufacturer. Mad props to York Saw and Knife for churning out quality original blog content! It's important in an age of RTs and copycats to actually generate content and add to the conversation. Social media done right!

7. What Manufacturers Expect in 2012 on the Bishop-Wisecarver Daily: The industry saw steady growth in 2011, a trend industry experts expect will continue in the New Year, according to this Thomas Net article. In fact, a lot of analysts say manufacturing growth should outpace the overall economic recovery in the U.S. and probably the world. Good to hear, and goes to show that industries that actually create goods actually drive the economy. Good stuff!

8. The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives on Forbes.com: Sometimes we learn what to do by taking the mistakes of others as a cautionary tale. This column takes that approach, spotlighting the failures of some high-profile execs to pinpoint how they slipped up and how you can avoid the same pitfalls. Some excellent points here!

9. Interview With an Animal Glue Salesman on lddavis.com: After we posted a quick Q&A with one of our sales reps earlier in the week, our Twitter buddy @lddavisadhesive alerted us to this fun one of their own. We got a good chuckle out of it (read it to see why) and thought we'd share because, as we mentioned earlier in this post, it's cool to see other manufacturers embrace social media and content generation. Keep it up!

10. 31 Ways to Get Smarter in the New Year on The Daily Beast: In the spirit of turning over a new leaf, here's a nice sum of suggestions for self-improvement in 2012. What are some of your resolutions?

From all of us here at Bishop-Wisecarver, here's wishing you a HAPPY 2012, everyone!

Credit: TravelProducts.com