Which way is your needle pointing?

This is one of those fancy curated posts in which I visit some of my news sources and personally hand-pick a selection of the finest stories for your reading pleasure. More accurately, I’ve gathered below some otherwise random articles that struck me as vaguely relevant or moderately interesting.

At least that was the goal. But as I perused my sources, and in particular, coverage of the 2012 Economic Census Report by Steve Minter at Industry Week, a larger observation began to take shape through the haze of under-performing quarters, gloomy projections and even the rare glimmer of hope:

Perhaps it’s just me – or maybe it's my relative “newness” to the industry? – but it’s hard to find a consensus about where the U.S. machine tool industry is heading. Is the historic awfulness of the last couple of years the new normal? Have we hit bottom? Are there reasons for optimism?

Indeed, I was completely serious when I asked earlier on myinsanely popular Twitter feed for your thoughts about the future of the U.S. machine tool industry:

Which way is your needle pointing? And what will the next two years bring? http://t.co/7KAutKfhmI
— COREDEMAR (@coredemar) April 3, 2014

In many ways, I think our (collective) perception has been warped by relentlessly bad news to the extent that we no longer trust good news… even if we witness it with our own eyes.

This is not to suggest that machine tools have come roaring back – if anything, the report underscores just how historically awful 2012 was; 2013 isn't discussed (mercifully) – but I do think the phenomenon has at least contributed to the length and depth of the downturn depression.

So I ask again: what are your predictions for the U.S. machine tool industry over the next two years? As you consider your response, here’s some interesting – and some not-very-interesting-at-all – stuff from a few of my sources. Consider visiting all of them, if you don’t already.

Industry Today adds an international component to the future outlook covering the growing importance of China as an export market for U.S.goods, concluding that more is coming as the Chinese middle class grows.

Back at home and completely unrelated to ball bearings or U.S. manufacturing is the story of Leeland Yee, the anti-gun crusading state senator from California who was just arrested for (drumroll) gun running. Popular Mechanics takes a look at “The Weapons in the Leland Yee scandal.”

Popular Science covers one of the under-reported aspects of the recent chill in U.S. – Russo relations: NASA is severing ties with Russia. Somehow, I don’t think this will hurt as much as it would have a few years ago.

Industrial Equipment Noise (Industrial Equipment News’s blog) provides a helpful primer on the new virtual reality platform OculusRift, complete with an obscure reference to one of my favorite old school movies (Brainstorm).

And Tom Simonite at MIT Technology Review introduces Cortana, Microsoft’s personal assistant, which not surprisingly combines features from Siri and Google Assistant.

Meanwhile…

Gizmodo has video of a skydiver almost getting hit by ameteorite. I’ll say that again: a skydiver almost getting hit by a meteorite!

Discovery covers the madcap world of power tool drag racing, with not quite unpredictable results.

How Stuff Works features a listicle of 10 reasons whybridges collapse… and they’re exactly what you thought they’d be. I’m particularly fond of Number 1 as my go to reason for why ANYTHING collapses.

That’s all for now. And enough with the comments, already! If you people don’t calm down, I’m going to have to hire an assistant!