In an adaptation from his upcoming shareholder letter, the Oracle of Omaha explains why equities almost always beat the alternatives over time.
FORTUNE — Investing is often described as the process of laying out money now in the expectation of receiving more money in the future. At Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) we take a more demanding approach, defining investing as the transfer to others of purchasing power now with the reasoned expectation of receiving more purchasing power — …
I am a huge fan of Warren Buffett's. It isn't so much that he's a brilliant investor who has delivered a tremendous amount of value to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, but rather than he's willing and able to put some of the most complex (and controversial) topics of discussion into a context that is digestible for nearly everyone. In his upcoming shareholder letter, Buffett challenges the conventional wisdom that has long stated that cash is among the safer aspects of one's investment portfolio and that stocks are among the riskiest. Quite the contrary says Buffett, you're guaranteed to lose money on your cash position (although it affords you flexibility and liquidity) and over the long run a diversified stock portfolio is much more likely to produce big returns.
The General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania (my alma mater) has produced a number of fascinating experiments lately focused on the uses of quadrotor helicopter robots. Four-propeller aircraft designs were popularized in the 1920s and 1930s to help solve some of the persistent issues with vertical flight (i.e., torque-control). 
There are those who would say that any one of the past several years could be called “The Year of Facebook” although I would argue that none will be larger than 2012. First of all, the social networking giant will be floating their monster IPO this year which will doubtlessly be met with a tremendous (and perhaps disproportionate) level of 
