Top Five Twitter Posts: Election Season, Acoustic Levitation and Falling Meteors

Friday's here ... and with it comes our weekly retrospective of what's up on Twitter. Our CEO is busy tweeting up a storm from the PTDA Industry Summit in Dallas this week, and a host of other tweeps have broken news about new industry developments or have shared interesting discussions about educating a future manufacturing workforce. As usual, we found plenty to talk about. Here's a sample of what caught out interest this time around. Follow us for future bon mots and conversations at @BWCnews!

Credit: League of Women Voters

1. The Cost of Uncertainty on PamelaKan.Blogspot.com: Presidential elections rile emotions, capture imaginations and get the public whipped up into a frenzy of discourse. But how do they affect your business? BWC CEO Pamela Kan says she constantly hears from her sales team that people delay business decisions and put off buying over the uncertainty of who will be the next commander-in-chief. Is that true for your business? If so, how to you cope?

2. An Acoustic Levitation Chamber on YouTube.com:Evidently, in 1987 some NASA researcher designed an acoustic levitation chamber, basically a cube affixed to a few speakers that emanated sound waves at a resonance strong enough to actually lift light objects. "The research was used to show the effects of micro-gravity conditions that exist in the space shuttle environment in orbit," he writes. Fascinating — particularly when you consider this experiment dates back a quarter century! For a quick explanation of how acoustic levitation works, check out this article on HowStuffWorks.com, which does a find job explaining the science of sound and how it's actually a tangible, physical presence.

3. School Reform, But From Whose Perspective? via Education Week: Generally, we develop our worldviews based on our own experiences. So why are the majority of high-profile public school "reformers" products of private education? Here's an interesting take on the issue, which begs the question of how we revitalize science, tech, engineering and math  (STEM) education in our critically underserved public schools. Bishop-Wisecarver founder Bud Wisecarver and his daughter (now-BWC President Pamela Kan) are tireless advocates of promoting STEM education. It's that perspective that motivates us to get involved in programs like FIRST Robotics, engineering internships or local high school science fairs.

Credit: Phil Terzian via San Jose Mercury News

4. Meteor Shower Lights Up the Skies on San Jose Mercury News: A car-sized meteor hurtled across the nigh sky over the Bay Area earlier this week, lighting up and bursting in a sonic boom over some hills very, very close to the BWC headquarters. Talk about an epic light show! Apparently scientists at the also-nearby Chabot Space and Science Center say falling space rocks like these will become increasingly common. Maybe the Mayans were right about 2012 ...

5. 65 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed via Mashable.com: We're huge fans of technology consultant Scott Klososky, who suggested this article on Twitter earlier in the week (and who happens to be a speaker at the PTDA summit today). It's a super-useful summary of some key changes in the social media landscape in recent weeks, from LinkedIn updates that could boost business to tips on how to supercharge your Twitter searches and marketing efforts. Thanks for the heads up, Scott! We'll definitely check it out!