While You Were Watching the Debates or Otherwise Living Your Life

Oct. 5, 2012

Here are some news stories you might have missed from this week. First off, what keeps manufacturers up at night this week. A good news/bad news story based on a survey from ThomasNet.com, all in one infographic.

Here are some news stories you might have missed from this week. First off, what keeps manufacturers up at night this week. A good news/bad news story based on a survey from ThomasNet.com, all in one infographic.

Then, October 5 is not just one month from Guy Fawkes Day. It's an important day in its own right. For one thing, today is National Manufacturing Day. It's a little late to do much planning this year. Your faithful blogger has been distracted by other tasks, so this announcement is a bit late today. But mark your calendar for next year. Getting American manufacturing off its back is going to be a long haul and a multi-faceted challenge. Now you have a whole year to prep for how you want to celebrate-and act-next year.

Oh, and mark your calendar for October 16, and gather your girls around. This year, it's the date for celebrating Ada Lovelace Day. So who is Ada Lovelace and why does she get her own day?  She's a woman you want to introduce your girls to, if for no other reason than to prove that you can be a "ladyship," daughter of a famous poet, have to wear really stupid hats and still end up part of the group that worked with Charles Babbage to develop the earliest computer. This year, among other things, she gets an evening  (and a better picture),as well as a day.

And speaking of manufacturing, there could be some exciting sea changes in the air. These advances are nascent yet, but in time, what you see here could be the new face of factories everywhere.

Sir James Dyson, inventor and the world's richest vacuum cleaner salesman, also is doing his best to rejuvenate manufacturing. Here's his latest venture-a student incubator (for growing businesses, not students, although
I'm sure everyone involved learns a great deal.

That's it for this week. Hope yours has been a good one.