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Warren Buffett, the billionaire "Oracle of Omaha" continues to be involved in some of the biggest investment plays in the world.

Buffett is undoubtedly the most successful investor in history. His investment philosophy is no secret, and he has repeatedly shared bits and pieces of it through a lifetime of quips and memorable quotes.

His brilliance is timeless, and we find ourselves referring back to them over and over again.

We compiled a few of Buffett's best quotes from his TV appearances, newspaper op-eds, magazine interviews, and of course his annual letters.

Buying a stock is about more than just the price.

"It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price."

Source: Letter to shareholders, 1989

You don't have to be a genius to invest well.

"You don't need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ."

Source: Warren Buffett Speaks, via msnbc.msn

But, master the basics.

"To invest successfully, you need not understand beta, efficient markets, modern portfolio theory, option pricing or emerging markets. You may, in fact, be better off knowing nothing of these. That, of course, is not the prevailing view at most business schools, whose finance curriculum tends to be dominated by such subjects. In our view, though, investment students need only two well-taught courses - How to Value a Business, and How to Think About Market Prices."

Source: Chairman's Letter, 1996

Shorting stocks is always risky for investors.

But it can be a sure way to avoid burning cash when a company's shares crash, making it worth the bet.

Several Chinese online retailers have a significant amount of short interest on this list.

And Bill Ackman says he is doing "God's work" by crusading against Herbalife, as more investors bet the company's shares will continue to tumble.

To find the stocks, we screened for companies with market caps over $2 billion and ranked the stock from least shorted to most shorted.

Stratasys

Ticker: SSYS

Short interest: 22.33%

YTD return: -24.69%

Sector: Technology

Comment: Early February, the 3-D printers maker cut 2014 guidance and forecast that its 2015 results will miss analysts' estimates.

Source: FinViz

Shutterstock

Ticker: SSTK

Short interest: 22.84%

YTD return: -17.87%

Sector: Services

Comment: Shutterstock recently passed the 500 million mark for royalty free images it has licensed.

Source: FinViz

ADT

Ticker: ADT

Short interest: 22.92%

YTD return: +8.66%

Sector: Services

Comment: The Company reported total revenue of $887 million, an increase of 5.7% year-over-year, in Q1 2015.

Source: FinViz

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After the late Steve Jobs, no one has had more influence on Apple than Jonathan Ive, the company's senior vice president of design.

Ive has worked at Apple for 22 years. In that time he has received countless awards and accolades for his ingenuity and commitment to Apple's minimalist design aesthetic.

He has also become quite famous. The London native is frequently spotted at clubs and lives in California, near Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.

Ive's success at Apple has made him a household name and catapulted him into conversations about popular culture.

He has also amassed a fortune.

Jonathan Ive was born on Feb. 27, 1967, in Chingford, a London suburb. His father was a silversmith. Ive recalls letting his imagination go wild in his father's workshop.

Ive studied industrial design at Newcastle Polytechnic, now called Northumbria University.

Some of Ive's collegiate drawings have been exhibited at the London Design Museum.

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is no longer just about the handset launches.

Each year, thousands of ad executives flock to the trade show to learn about what’s new in mobile, to catch up with clients, and to potentially do some deals.

And, after hours, they tend to let their hair down.

MWC is taking place at this huge venue, the Fira Gran Via, in Barcelona from March 2-5. It has 240,000 square meters of floor space. That's a lot of walking. Thirsty work.

Obviously a huge venue like that can't be situated in the middle of town. The Fira is fairly far out from the most popular parts of the city, so once the day's conference and meetings are over, most ad execs head into the center of Barcelona. After they've had dinner, there are usually two main hangouts they flock to: Hotel Omm and Opium.

The first stop is usually Hotel Omm, a 5-star hotel in the center of Barcelona’s Paseo de Gracia, one of the city's major avenues and shopping districts. It has a distinctive wave-like exterior.

Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One might get more attention, but Nintendo's little console that could, the Wii U, might end up winning this generation's console wars.

Sure, the Wii U doesn't have a typical control setup like those of the Xbox One or PS4, its innards are not as powerful, and it doesn't accommodate as many third-party games. But the basic Wii U is $100 cheaper than its Xbox and PlayStation counterparts, and it has a growing library of must-play titles that are fun to play solo or with a group of friends.

It’s backward compatible with Wii games

The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are versatile systems, but neither console can play previous-generation titles. Nintendo, on the other hand, offers a full catalogue of Wii U and Wii games, as well as access to even more classic titles available over its online platform, called the Virtual Console.

If you missed out on the Wii the first time around, you'll be able to play all the best titles from the Wii's six-year life, including the "Super Mario Galaxy" series, two new "Legend of Zelda" games, the stunningly beautiful "Okami," the best-selling horror game "Resident Evil 4," and the "Metroid Prime" trilogy. These games are absolutely worth your time.

The GamePad

The Wii U's primary controller, the GamePad, is not your traditional controller. It comes with an embedded touchscreen that lets you to play select titles when you can't play them on the TV. (Not all games require the GamePad's second-screen functionality, but some portions of games can be played only on the GamePad screen, and not the TV.)

The GamePad features a 6.2-inch screen, which can be controlled with one's fingers or a stylus, but it also comes with a front-facing camera for video chat and motion-control support. Can you take selfies on your Xbox controller? I didn't think so.

The Homebrew Channel

You might not know it, but the Wii U might be the most hackable game console out there right now. If you have an internet connection and a free SD card, you can activate classic game emulators, cheat engines, DVD players, and even Wii-specific Linux distributions. And if you have stored any old games on a USB stick, The Homebrew Channel can help you play those games, too.

These homebrew options are easy to access: With the simple LetterBomb hack that takes only about 10 minutes to complete (HackMii has the full set of instructions), you will be able to activate The Homebrew Channel and an application called Homebrew Browser, which acts as an alternative marketplace to download popular apps, games, and emulators.

Lifetime’s competition series "Child Genius" highlights 2o of America’s most extraordinary children as they test their skills in a grueling 8-week long national intelligence competition.

In cooperation with IQ society American Mensa, these gifted children, who have scored within the 98th percentile or higher on a standardized intelligence exam, are quizzed in math, spelling, world geography, memory, current events, astronomy, inventions, logic, and culture.

The winner of the competition earns the title of "Child Genius" and receives a college fund of $100,000.  Let's meet a few of them:

Izzy, 8, Midlothian, VA

IQ 146 (Over 140 is considered genius or near-genius)

Izzy joined the IQ society Mensa when she was just 3 years old. 

She is trilingual in English, French, and Chinese, and has a yellow belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

In order to cover more challenging topics at a much more rapid pace, Izzy was removed from public school and is now tutored by her father.

According to her parents, Izzy doesn't have very many friends that are children.

"Isabel wants to have friends that are her own age but it's really hard with her unique situation," her dad said.

Izzy offers up an explanation, "my child friends can talk about some things but not other things and my adult friends can talk about everything."

Ryan, 11, Charlotte, NC 

IQ 156

A self-described perfectionist, academics come naturally to Ryan, especially math.

"I finished Algebra in sixth grade and normal people usually finish that in ninth grade," Ryan said.

Throughout the competition it becomes apparent that his parents want him to win the title of "child genius" more than he does. 

"If you really perform and beat your opponents your life could change forever," his dad said to him.

Appearing hardly satisfied with his achievements his mom added, "If you reach one level, you always can improve yourself to reach another level."

Ryan's parents temporarily relocated the family across the country in order to help Ryan focus on the competition.

Vanya, 12, Olathe, KS  

IQ 144

One of the oldest contestants, Vanya is no stranger to academic competitions, she is a veteran speller at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

"My first year I competed I was the youngest speller and I tied for 49th. The second year I competed I got a perfect score on the written test and I placed 10th. Last year, I tied for 5th place," Vanya said.

Vanya's main strategy is to use her mastery of etymology to conquer all the topics covered in the competition.

Graham, 10, Verdigris, OK

IQ top .01% (Approximately IQ 146)

When Graham was 5 years old he tested into the top .01 percentile on an intelligence exam. 

He excels at science and geography and has memorized the US atlas. 

"He can tell you every road or highway to take to get from point A to point B in the US," his mom said.

For fun, Graham was invited by a local television meteorologist to test his knowledge of hurricanes by simply viewing satellite imagery.

"Oh that's hurricane Camille," Graham says instantly.

"Do you know what year that was?"

"1969 and it had sustaining wind speeds of 190 mph and a minimum pressure of 900 millibars," Graham responded.

Tanishq, 10, Sacramento, CA

IQ top .01% (Approximately IQ 146)

Tanishq joined the elite IQ society Mensa when he was only 4 years old and began taking college courses three years later. "My goal is to get a Phd by the time I get my driver's license," Tanishq said. According to his parents, when he was about four months old he could read and answer questions about books.

According to his Twitter account, he hopes to one day become the President of the United States or a famous scientist.

Thus far, he has given several TEDx talks about his discoveries on exoplanets, supernovas, and climate change. 

Yeji, 11, Rolling Hills Estates, CA 

IQ top .01% (Approximately IQ 146)

The most well-rounded of the contestants, Yeji has a wide range of interests and typically finds school to be unchallenging.  She tested in the 99.9th percentile of the KADC Korean Intelligence Test but refers to herself as the "black horse candidate" in the competition.

She moved to the US at the age of three and within a year she spoke English so well that no one even knew it was her second language. Her dream job is to be a veterinarian. 

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Dubai spares no expense when making its cityscape the most jaw-dropping in the world.

In the 2000s, the emirate dropped nearly $600 billion into constructing the world's tallest tower, biggest man-made island, and most luxurious hotel, among other architectural feats.

These aerial photos of Dubai capture the city's elegance and ambition.

Dubai is a city of superlatives. Located in the United Arab Emirates, the ritzy metropolis is home to some of the tallest, biggest, and most luxurious structures in the world.

These dazzling photos of Dubai, taken from the sky, show off the city's architectural feats.

The Burj Al Arab, the fourth-tallest hotel in the world, dominates the Dubai skyline.

Sony and the World Photography Organization have announced the shortlist for the 2015 Sony World Photography Awards in the Professional, Open, and Youth categories.

The 2015 competition saw more than 173,000 entries this year, making it the most successful year in the awards' eight-year history.

Those in the professional categories are competing for a $25,000 prize and the title of Photographer of the Year.

The winners of this year's awards will be revealed in April at the Sony World Photography Awards Gala.

OPEN: A shoal of black-tip reef sharks patrol the coast of the Seychelles, an island off the coast of Africa.

A man performs a "bomb" dive into the ocean. Photographer Antony Crossfield made the image to show how one could create "fiction" in digital photography.

These pelicans live at Port Vincent in South Australia. They have become accustomed to waiting for fish offal for food.

What makes someone smart?

Scientists have been investigating that question for decades, and the research suggests that everything from your mother's breast milk to the size of your waistline can influence your intelligence. 

Additional reporting by Chelsea Harvey.

You don't smoke.

A 2010 Israeli study compared the IQ and smoking status of 20,000 young men. 

As the Daily Mail reported, the results were stark: 

• The average 18- to 21-year smoker had an IQ of 94, and the non-smoker had an IQ of 101.

• Those who smoked more than a pack a day had an average IQ of 90.

• In sibling sets, nonsmoking brothers were smarter than smokers. 

You took music lessons.

Research suggests that music helps kids' minds develop in a few ways: 

• A 2011 study found that the verbal intelligence of 4- to 6-year-olds rose after only a month of music lessons. 

• A 2004 study found that 6-year-olds who took nine months of piano lessons had an IQ boost compared with kids who took drama lessons or no classes at all.

But the researchers may be getting it backward: A 2013 study suggested high-achieving kids were the ones most likely to take music lessons. 

You're the oldest child.

Oldest siblings are usually smarter, but it's not because of genetics.

The New York Times reports, "The new findings, from a landmark study published [in June 2007], showed that eldest children had a slight but significant edge in IQ — an average of three points over the closest sibling. And it found that the difference was not because of biological factors but the psychological interplay of parents and children."

For this and other reasons, firstborns tend to be more successful than their siblings.

You've probably heard of Instagram stars, YouTube stars, and Vine stars.

It also turns out there's a small but growing number of people who are gaining fame on Snapchat, too.

We've compiled some of the best Snapchat accounts you should be following.

From hilarious personalities to talented artists, these 13 Snapchat users are all making a name for themselves on a relatively untapped platform.

Shaun McBride

Username: Shonduras

Shaun McBride, a 27-year-old snowboard sales rep from Utah, is the first person to become a Snapchat viral star. Businesses like Taco Bell pay McBride up to $30,000 for branded content in his style of intricate artwork made on Snapchat. Before McBride's six high school-aged sisters pressured him to get Snapchat, he didn't have much of a social media presence. Now, he's a Snapchat celebrity. 

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Username: LACMA_museum

If you're going to follow the Snapchat account of one non-human, you might want to make it LACMA. LACMA is the largest art museum in the western US and contains artwork from all time periods. But LACMA really shines on Snapchat, where the museum uses its Snapchat Stories to take a picture of a famous work of art and add a hilarious caption, basically turning each classic piece of art into a meme.

Christine Mi

Username: Miologie

Christine Mi's blend of quirky captioned photos of things she spots in real life as well as her amazingly intricate drawings make her a Snapchat star. Mi studies economics and doesn't have a background in art or art history. She says her intricate, incredible Snaps take between 20 and 40 minutes each to craft, depending on how complex each is. Oh, and she says she'll probably snap you back if you send her something, so you can interact with the artist herself.

There's a chunk of land off the coast of Sao Paolo, Brazil that has the highest concentration of venomous snakes in the world.

It's called Ilha da Queimada Grande, better known as "Snake Island," and it's home to 2,000 golden lancehead vipers (Bothrops insularis).

These snakes are among the most venomous in the world. Even if you get a dose of anti venom right after you're bitten, you're probably still going to die.

Local fisherman in Sao Paolo tell tales of people who have ventured onto the island in search of food and other resources, and never returned. Some believe that pirates brought the deadly snakes there to protect a trove of golden galleons.

Whether there's truth to local legend or not, the Brazilian navy closed the island to the public in the 1920s. Now the only time anyone can legally set foot on the island is an annual trek by trained navy personnel to tune up the automated lighthouse on the island, and for research experiments conducted by a handful of specially trained scientists who are studying how the snakes' venom could be used in biopharmaceuticals. VICE’s editor-in-chief Rocco Castoro and senior producer Jackson Fager tagged along with the Brazilian navy's latest trip to the island.

You can watch the full VICE documentary, or tour the island through our slideshow.

Snake Island is home to 2,000 deadly golden lancehead vipers. The island is the only place this particular species exists.

SOURCE: VICE

The island is marked by the red pin here. It's about 100 miles off the coast of Brazil.

SOURCE: VICE

Since this is the only place in the world that the species exists, it's critically endangered. The species came into existence when the island split off from the mainland and the snakes on the island evolved differently than their mainland relatives.

SOURCE: VICE

Even the most well-read people have a tendency to read the same books as everyone else.

"Classics" are classic for a reason, of course, and are certainly worth reading, but there's a wealth of knowledge to be gained from the titles that rarely appear on school reading lists.

Ryan Holiday, the author of "The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph," is a voracious reader. He's recommended over 1,000 books since launching his reading list newsletter in 2009.

Holiday shared his presentation on 24 great books spanning ancient philosophy, literary nonfiction, and forgotten literature that offer unique and valuable perspectives on life.

.

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Whiskey is taking off in America. So it's no surprise that New York City's annual Whisky Live expo, hosted by Whisky Magazine, was a huge hit this year.

"New York is actually the biggest and most significant whiskey city in the world," event organizer Dave Sweet told Business Insider.

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The fair, which took place at Pier 60 on Wednesday, featured 80 different brands, distillers, and local bars, which poured more than 300 whiskey expressions. About 1,200 people turned up and the crowd was a mix: suits and ties vs. plaid shirts and hipster beards; amateurs looking to learn about the spirit and whiskey aficionados hoping to taste the next level.

A big theme this year was local craft and flavored whiskies – whether maple-flavored varieties from Vermont or honey-infused blends from the Catskills.

"Craft whiskey is enjoying a huge upswing in popularity," said Sweet. "There used to be a very limited number of whiskeys that people were aware of, whether it be bourbon or scotch or Irish. Now you have this huge range, and a lot of different flavor profiles."

He said more and more industry experts are starting to take craft whiskeys seriously, especially now that many have been around for a few years and have had a chance to mature.

Of course, the established names were at Whisky Live too, as well as a ton of master distillers and legendary brand ambassadors.

The fair was held at Chelsea Pier and kicked off with dinner and live jazz music.

Some of the booths had really fun displays, like Monkey 47's.

Brooklyn distillers 'Breuckelen Distilling' got creative with their display.

Since LinkedIn launched in 2003, its cofounder and chairman Reid Hoffman has watched the professional networking site grow to 300 million users around the world.

It's safe to call him an expert in the career-advancing power of networking.

In his latest book "The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age,"cowritten with entrepreneurs Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh, Hoffman explains the benefits of having employees who are active networkers both internally and externally.

Hoffman and Casnocha created a new presentation detailing their thoughts on "network intelligence," which they've allowed us to share here. 

A lot has changed since Satya Nadella took over at Microsoft a little more than a year ago.

Windows no longer rules the roost. The energy has shifted away from big expensive software to "cloud" services. It's investing in cutting-edge products like HoloLens. Morale is better than it's been in years, according to long-time employees.

But Nadella can't do it alone. Who's helping him out?

We talked to some people close to the company to find out who the most important execs are under Nadella right now. Here's what we heard.

Scott Guthrie, Executive VP of Cloud and Enterprise

Guthrie oversees big bread-and-butter products that companies use in their data centers, like Windows Server and SQL Server, which was Microsoft's fastest-growing business through the 2000s.

But he's also in charge of Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud answer to Amazon Web Services, where Microsoft hopes a lot of its future growth will come from. In addition, he runs the group responsible for creating Microsoft tools for developers.

Guthrie has a particularly tough job because he's overseeing a lot of the businesses Nadella was running before he took over as CEO. Under his watch, Microsoft's development platforms and Azure cloud have started to support a bunch of non-Microsoft technologies — previously unheard of during the "Windows first, Windows forever" reigns of Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates.

Qi Lu, Executive VP of Applications and Services

Qi Lu joined Microsoft in 2008 from Yahoo and rose to lead its consumer online services, Bing and MSN. Those products lost a lot of money over the years and always seemed like a bit of an expensive hobby, and as a result Lu never seemed that important from the outside.

That couldn't be further from the truth today. Lu now leads Office 365, the most successful part of Microsoft's cloud business as well as the good old Office suite, which for years has been Microsoft's second-biggest product after Windows. He also continues to oversee Bing, which may not have toppled Google from the top rung in search, but is doing interesting research into artificial intelligence and coming up with things like the Cortana virtual assistant.

Plus, one source told us Lu regularly consults with another very important person at Microsoft...

Bill Gates, Founder and Technology Advisor

Gates returned to an active advisory role at Microsoft when Nadella took over, and while he's not involved in daily product and business decisions like he was as CEO or Chief Software Architect, we've heard this isn't just a figurehead position either. 

In particular, Gates is an active participant in a debate at the company about the role of Windows. In the old days, the Windows team almost always got what it wanted, and if another division wanted to create competing technology, Windows often made it back down. Nowadays, there's a camp within Microsoft arguing that Windows should be forced to earn its place like every other product group at Microsoft. 

If we had to guess, we'd say Gates is on the "Windows-first" side, but perhaps he's playing devil's advocate. Either way, he's spending more time at Microsoft than he has in years.

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We're just two months away from the NFL Draft.

With the college football season and the NFL combine in the rearview mirror, the prospects who we'll be talking about on draft day are starting to come into view.

Using the current big boards of nine NFL draft experts, we came up with an expert consensus list of the 32 best players in the 2015 Draft.

The experts: ESPN's Todd McShay, NFL.com's Daniel Jeremiah, NFL.com's Bucky Brooks, Bleacher Report's Matt Miller, SB Nation's Dan Kadar, Fox Spots' Joel Klatt, CBS Sports' Rob Rang, SI's Chris Burke, and SI's Doug Farrar.

1. Leonard Williams, USC defensive lineman (previously: 2nd)

Average rank: 1.2

Top-32's: 9 out of 9

Highest rank: 1st

Lowest rank: 2nd

One thing to know: He's one of the most athletic prospects in the draft. He ran a 4.97 40-yard dash, which is a crazy fast time for someone his size.

2. Jameis Winston, Florida State quarterback (previously: 4th)

Average rank: 2.8

Top-32's: 9 out of 9

Highest rank: 1st

Lowest rank: 6th

One thing to know: His stock has soared in recent weeks. He's now the consensus No. 1 pick in the Draft.

3. Marcus Mariota, Oregon quarterback (previously: 1st)

Average rank: 3.9

Top-32's: 9 out of 9

Highest rank: 2nd

Lowest rank: 7th

One thing to know: Scouts started picking apart his game after the season ended, and concluded that he hasn't made enough pro-level throws to be a sure thing.