One of the things that differentiates the leaders people gravitate to, connect with, and follow is their ability to communicate. That doesn't just mean speeches. Informal events can take as much skill as a speech in front of thousands. 

San Francisco based Decker Communications puts together a yearly list of the world's most and least effective communicators. Part of it is innate, but Kelly Decker, an Executive Vice President at the firm argues that these are skills that anyone can learn.

"We typically have a set of habits," Decker said, "and communications, we find, are more based around one's habits as opposed to an innate 'I can either do it or I can't' kind of thing."

Here's their list of the most effective communicators, examples of their best speeches, and some of the habits you can emulate. 

10. Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo

Marissa Mayer's ascension to the top job at Yahoo was one of the biggest stories of the year. She's handled it with grace and panache. She speaks from a position of authority as someone who came up as an engineer, but can connect with anybody. 

Speaking of both Mayer and Sheryl Sandberg, Decker Executive Vice President Kelly Decker said "they've got this massive credibility and experience behind them, and yet they've been able to twist it in a way that connects with other people, and that's what so many people in tech are not able to do, they're not able to make that transition and really connect with a variety of different audiences."

Source: Decker Communications

9. Jack Dorsey, Twitter founder and Square CEO

Jack Dorsey has had something of a banner year; the company raised $200 million in series D financing and entered a high profile partnership with Starbucks. He was also number three on the list of Business Insider's Sexiest CEOs Alive. 

Part of Twitter's success is attributable to its founder's communication ability. Decker cites his ability to simplify complexity, to use stories to connect to an audience, and a comfortable presence on stage as some of the things that set him apart. 

Source: Decker Communications

8. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, hosts of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report

Stewart and Colbert once again showed the power of humor in communication. They take an often complex and very divisive topic and made it hilarious, simpler, and very compelling. 

Particularly notable was their extended series of sketches on Super PACs and campaign finance, which genuinely educated their audience on an important issue, and made their opinion about recent changes in the law eminently clear. 

Source: Decker Communications

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Last week, we took a trip to Canada to try out the 2013 XJ, only the second car Jaguar has equipped with all-wheel drive.

With the increased capability, Jaguar hopes it can compete for drivers who live in regions where snow and ice make winter driving hazardous.

Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Cadillac, Lexus, Porsche, and BMW all offer cars with all-wheel drive. So Jaguar is playing catch-up.

To prove that its new ride is up to par, Jaguar brought us to snowy Canada for a day of driving at Mecaglisse, a motorsports complex north of Montreal.

With a variety of tracks to try and a team of professional drivers to guide us, we got to see just what the new XJ can do.

Disclosure: Jaguar Land Rover paid for our travel and lodging expenses to drive the Land Rover 2 and Jaguar XJ.

The drive started at the Hotel Quintessence in Mont Tremblant, where we had spent the night.

It has snowed the day before, and the smaller roads had not been plowed.

On the way, we did some low level off-roading. This sign reminded us that we were driving on snowy roads at our own risk.

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Some people think the world is going to end on Friday. 

According to believers, this apocalypse could manifest itself in a number of ways. If there is a disaster and you happen to make it out alive, there's a good chance supermarkets will soon be pillaged and you'll need access to a steady stream of food.

That means you'll need to pack your cupboard with shelf-stable ingredients that provide enough energy to help you rebuild society. 

Here's what to grab before the end of the world hits, or during all that looting that's sure to follow.

Honey

Shelf-life: Indefinite

Honey may crystallize over time, resulting in a heap of thick, sugary gunk at the bottom of containers, but in terms of safety, the golden liquid is practically immortal. 

Honey can last for centuries if stored in a sealed jar, according to the National Honey Board. 

Though it doesn't pack the same nutritional value (in terms of vitamins and minerals) as other foods, honey can add extra flavor to food, provide simple sugars, and can also be used to treat wounds and burns. 

Pemmican

Shelf-life: Indefinite

Invented by Native Americans, pemmican was traditionally made from the lean meat of large game like buffalo, elk, or deer. The meat was dried over an open fire, mixed with fat, and pressed into little cakes. Sometimes berries were tossed in for extra flavor.

Pemmican makes the perfect survival treat because they're easy to make (there are only three basic ingredients), it's a good source of energy and protein, and it does not have to be refrigerated, cooked or heated.

Today, US Wellness Meats in Missouri makes packaged beef pemmican snack sticks and bars, which they say last up to two years in the freezer.  

Here's a recipe for homemade pemmican — for when your post-apocalyptic-self butchers an elk — which can supposedly last forever.  

Meals, Ready to Eat

Shelf-life: 5+ years

Commonly known as MREs, these pre-packaged meals have been sustaining American troops on the battlefield since 1981. Each foil pouch, which can be easily carried, prepared, and eaten, contains about 1,200 calories.

It's not just standard meat and potato dishes either. There are a wide range of entrees to choose from, including beef brisket, lemon pepper tuna, and vegetable lasagna for plant-eating preppers. 

Depending on storing conditions, an MRE bag can stay fresh for up to five years. If you're less concerned about flavor, the pocket-size army grub can hold up for more than a decade.  

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The prevalence of 'fall out' shelters in pop culture, indeed in culture itself, has seen a recent spike.

Maybe it was the 2008 global economic crisis, or the deafening Apocalyptic talk of prominent pundits (ahem, Glenn Beck), or even the resurgence of the zombie as the way that life on earth will shuffle to its end.

Regardless of the reason, the bomb shelter business is booming, and the cult following even has its own show on National Geographic called Doomsday Preppers.

The photos here are a product of L.A.-based company Atlas Survival Shelters, which provides decked out living quarters in the event of an errant asteroid, nuclear holocaust, or walking dead.

First the schematics: bomb shelters can be directly attached to one's home, for easy access.

The shelter is a full 20 feet beneath the earth and comes equipped with a separate escape hatch.

Once you place an order, and pick the spot, the company does the rest.

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A year ago, few would have predicted that a pre-revenue company could have been acquired for $1 billion, or that start-ups in the middle of the country would have access to Internet 100 times faster than the rest of the country, or that Groupon, once the world's fastest-growing company with the highest valued tech IPO since that of Google, is now valued at essentially nothing more than its assets. 

In other words—and at the risk of stating the obvious—the future is difficult to predict.

For example, BessemerVenture Partners, the 101-year-old firm with 104 IPOs under its belt and a premier reputation in the valley, famously keeps an "anti-portfolio" available for the public to see—the companies Bessemer said "pass" on, that, years later, have become massive companies. (A few you may have heard of—HP, Apple, Ebay, FedEx, and Google top the list.)

Nonetheless, for venture capitalists, their business entails banking on a vision of the future. The best venture capitalists (that is to say, the ones that are actually making money these days) are constantly forecasting future trends and developing, redeveloping, and reshaping their theses around consumer behaviors, buying patterns, and how technology will affect our lives.  So Inc. asked several venture capitalists to talk about some trends they expect in 2013, what they're interested in investing in, and some general predictions of what might happen in the New Year. 

1. We will see a $10 billion marketing company — Ajay Agarwal, managing director, Bain Capital Ventures

One statistic in a recent Gartner report stuck out to Agarwal, who joined Bain in 2003 to focus on early stage mobile, internet, and software investments: By 2017, CMOs will be spending more on IT than CIOs. Driving this massive shift, Agarwal says, is the customer data that simply did not exist a decade ago.

"There's so much data that exists, but now marketers can now actually measure its efficacy," he says.

Bain has already funded a few companies that leverage big data for marketing purposes, including BloomReach, a cloud marketing platform, and TellApart, an innovative predictive customer analytics platform. 

2. We will see a 16-year-old get funding — Patrick Chung, partner, NEA

Patrick Chung is the co-head of venture firm NEA's seed-stage investing practice and the founding partner of NEA and Harvard's Experiment Fund, and he does not say this to be glib: He genuinely believes a 16-year-old will get significant funding for a company he or she is building.

After all, it's not that much of a stretch. In November 2012, the 17-year-old founder of Summly, Nick D'Aloisio, picked up $1 million in seed financing, in part from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing.

"For us, we had real-life and then we had a television or a computer," Chung says. "Technology is not a peripheral anymore—kids are growing up natively online and so it's natural for them to create something virtual, just as it was natural for you or I to build our own skateboards or tin-can walkie talkies. The brains are wired differently by technology."

Chung also believes that education has changed as well, and kids today are more focused on "learning to do,"  rather than "doing something to learn."

From a young age, you're pushed ever more into this mode of creation and business building in a way a generation ago you never would have been," he says.

3. We will see a successful start-up that reaches 10 million users without having taken a dime of venture or angel money — Patrick Chung

"If there's one thing that we've seen at NEA, it's that the costs of starting a company are asymptotically approaching zero," Chung says.

In other words, you (technically) need little more than an Internet connection and some coding skills to start a consumer Web company. Chung calls it the "Zuckerberg effect"—the idea that a young person starting with absolutely nothing is able to create something massive simply out of his or her dorm room.

"Because the tentacles of social networks are so deep into everyone's consciousness and brain and every day life, it's possible that once you've built the company to go out there and  build a brand and acquire customers for almost no money," he says. "We've seen amazing brands be built for essentially no marketing expense whatsoever. If you get a name and it catches you can have that name propagate over large swathes of the population."

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Investment strategists have been busy putting together their 2013 outlooks over the past few weeks, detailing their thoughts on how the year ahead will look from a market perspective.

A few, like Deutsche Bank's currency strategy team, have also gone outside the box to consider the types of events that could actually surprise markets next year.

The Deutsche Bank team sums up the point of the exercise succinctly:

When thinking about the year ahead, it is tempting to extrapolate the recent past whether looking at risks or one’s base case. Moreover, there is a tendency not to deviate too far from consensus, perhaps seeing safety in being part of the herd. From a statistical perspective, this is very similar to assuming markets follow a normal or Gaussian distribution. That is, markets are well behaved and extreme outcomes are rare. The financial crisis of 2008 taught us otherwise, yet it is very difficult to shrug off the bias to assume normality in markets.

With this in mind, they offer a list of big "outlier" events that would surprise us.

The Federal Reserve begins buying stocks as an unconventional monetary policy measure

"With the US housing sector apparently turning the corner, stronger equities may be the necessary tonic to further increase household wealth, and also to boost investment...While the Fed does have restrictions on what assets it can buy, it can invoke Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act that allows more extreme actions in 'unusual and exigent circumstances.'"

Source: Deutsche Bank

Greece discovers gas reserves worth more than all of the debt it owes

"Greece has sizeable undersea terrain in the Mediterranean, and several Mediterranean countries have already discovered and are exploiting undersea natural resources, most notably the Levantine gas field between Israel and Cyprus. A number of studies that have looked at similar gas finds in the Mediterranean as a basis of comparison put the potential size of gas fields to the South of Crete as high as $600bn."

Source: Deutsche Bank

Sweden, Turkey, and Brazil bring peace to the Middle East

"Carl Bildt of Sweden, Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey and Antonio Patriota of Brazil have talked about their interest in helping solve challenges facing the international community based on their common values of dialogue, multilateralism and democracy. In the past, Brazil and Turkey have attempted to resolve the nuclear issues in Iran, while Turkey and Sweden have worked together on issues in the Balkans...their attention could once again turn to the Middle East."

Source: Deutsche Bank

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Men aren’t tough to shop for, but that doesn’t mean you can buy us just anything.

We’re not picky, but we certainly don’t want the same things women want.

Women like thoughtful gifts from the heart, and men just want stuff that’s a mix of fun and useful.

Gym membership

What, we’re not fit enough already?

This not-so-subtle suggestion that we need to get in shape won’t convince us to get off the couch, but it will be grounds for retaliation with your gift next year.

Silly gadgets

Stores like Brookstone and Sharper Image are the go-to gadget stores for the hard-to-shop-for male.

But please, no more 3-in-1 pens or motorized grill brushes. We already have regular versions of these things that do the job without batteries and buttons.

Cologne

Men either already wear a specific cologne or choose not to wear any.

Your random scent selection won’t fit into either of those categories, but it will sit unused in our bathroom medicine cabinet forever.

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In a year full of "Gangnam Style" and "Call Me Maybe" parody videos, which ones did people talk the most about on YouTube?

YouTube came up with the top videos of the year by assessing the shares, searches, parodies, remixes, responses, and views per video.

These are the videos people shared the most in 2012.

10. Felix Baumgartner's supersonic freefall

Baumgartner's attempt to break the sound barrier on October 14 from a free fall of 128,000 feet was watched by eight million people live on YouTube.

Current Views: 30.6 million 

9. "Facebook parenting for the troubled teen."

Most kids would probably be mortified if their parents ever read through all their Facebook posts. This parent's reaction to his 15-year-old daughter's critical post quickly went viral. The video earned 11 million views in one day.

Current Views: 35.5 million

8. Lindsey Sterling's dubstep violin video

If you've never seen one of Sterling's violin videos, watch this one where she's rocking out in a crystallized winter wonderland. The video makes the list for its more than 500,000 likes.

Current Views: 38.5 million

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From dealing with crises at home and abroad to winning his historic re-election bid against Mitt Romney, 2012  was a busy year for President Barack Obama.  

We've collected the most iconic images from the roller-coaster ride that was Obama's fourth year in office, as captured by photographers who have been on the scene for the most poignant moments, as well as the more light-hearted ones.

Obama embraces Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords as he arrives on the House floor to deliver his State of the Union address.

President Barack Obama greets Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., as he arrives on the floor of the House Chamber to deliver the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 24, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Things get a little heated between Obama and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer during a greeting on the tarmac in Phoenix.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer points during an intense conversation with President Barack Obama after he arrived at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Ariz. Asked moments later what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: "He was a little disturbed about my book." Brewer had recently published a book, "Scorpions for Breakfast," something of a memoir of her years growing up and defends her signing of Arizona's controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes. Obama was objecting to Brewer's description of a meeting he and Brewer had at the White House, where she described Obama as lecturing her. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)

Obama joins blues legends to sing "Sweet Home Chicago" at the White House "Red, White, and Blues" concert.

President Obama joins in singing “Sweet Home Chicago” during the “In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues” concert in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 21, 2012. Participants include, from left: Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, Jeff Beck, Derek Trucks, B.B. King, and Gary Clark, Jr. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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Yammer CEO David Sacks has reportedly bought an unfinished mansion on San Francisco's "Billionaire's Row" for $34.5 million, according to Trulia, citing sources close to the deal.

If he actually paid that price, the home is officially the most expensive home ever sold in the city. It was listed for $38.5 million in March, but had come down significantly from its initial asking price of $65 million back in 2007.

The unfinished, 21,888-square-foot French limestone mansion was sold by Peter Sperling of the Apollo Group, which owns the University of Phoenix.

When Sperling bought the house back in 2004, it was in even worse shape than it is now. He did some work on it, and then stopped for unknown reasons.

Sacks, who sold his company to Microsoft for $1.2 billion last year, is also associated with an even more extravagant California mansion — he recently threw himself an over-the-top 40th birthday party at Los Angeles' Fleur de Lys estate, which is currently on the market for $125 million.

From the outside, 2845 Broadway looks like a gem!

There are intricate details in the architecture.

And a lovely balcony.

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After spending 20 years as a creature of Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hit her stride off of the campaign trail this year as the top diplomat of the Obama administration. In 2012 alone, Clinton has traveled to 42 countries, navigating the fast-changing geopolitical landscape with dexterity and a rockstar attitude. 

The former First Lady has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity this year, with her favorability rating hitting a historic high after her unforgettable Conga line in Cartagena and the emergence of the "Texts From Hillary"Tumblr. 

But the truth is Clinton has always been kind of rad. And we have the pictures to prove it. 

She knows how to party.

She can really dance.

She has a mean wink.

Clinton winked at a committee member when she testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May 2012.

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As athletes, they've got superhuman strength, endurance, and rock-hard abs.

These athletes may play different games, but they do have one thing in common: they're all single.

These 10 sports stars are the most eligible on the market. 

Yohan Blake

Jamaican sprinter

Age: 23

Fun Fact: Blake wants to aid the fight to end poverty and hunger and recorded a video on his official website to encourage others to do the same.

Carlos Bocanegra

U.S. Men's Soccer

Age: 33

Fun Fact: Bocanegra is trilingual in English, French, and Spanish.

Usain Bolt

Jamaican sprinter

Age: 26

Fun Fact: Bolt hopes to someday play soccer professionally with the Manchester United team.

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Sarah Park of Matador Network brings us some of the most dangerous, beautiful, and downright weird wonders of the natural world.

See the bizarre natural phenomena >

More From Matador Network:

14 Natural Wonders from South America

7 Beautifully Bizarre Beaches

18 Places to Feel Dwarfed by Nature

Bioluminescent Red Tide

When conditions are just right, ocean phytoplankton reproduce like bunnies, creating a thick, visible layer near the surface. These algae blooms (a.k.a "red tide") might look disgusting during the day, but in parts of California and other places where the bioluminescent variety of Noctiluca scintillans bloom, red tide nights look out of this world.

This particular variety of phytoplankton glows blue when agitated, transforming the dark ocean into a giant lava lamp. Watch the waves light up as they crash, run across the sand to see the ground glow under your feet, or dive in to be surrounded by the bizarre Timex-y glow. N. scintillans is also the culprit behind the Bioluminescent Bays in Puerto Rico.

Foxfire

During the late summer, a faint, eerie glow can be seen in forests around the world, where bioluminescent mushrooms grow on moist, rotting bark.

The greatest diversity of foxfire occurs in the tropics, where moist forests encourage fungal growth. The newest varieties of glow-in-the-dark mushrooms were introduced to the world just last year, after being collected from Ribeira Valley Tourist State Park near Sao Paulo, Brazil.

To up your chances of seeing this one, hunt in the forest during its wettest season and move as far as possible from any artificial light sources. And if you happen to see a patch of glowing shrooms, don't even think about it —they're not that kind of mushroom.

Fire Rainbow

Another summertime occurrence, fire rainbows appear when sunlight hits frozen ice crystals in high-altitude cirrus clouds. Because the fire rainbow actually involves no rain at all, scientists would rather we refer to this occurrence by its much less fun, but much more accurate title: the circumhorizonal arc.

Since the arc requires both the presence of cirrus clouds and for the sun to be extremely high in the sky, it's much more likely to be seen at latitudes closer to the equator. Conditions might be right for a fire rainbow in Los Angeles six months out of the year, but in a more northern city like London, that window drops to a mere two months.

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Although the Plaza Food Hall, the upscale food court in the basement of New York's ritzy Plaza Hotel, has been around for over two years, many New Yorkers still don't know about it.

Since it opened under Chef Todd English in spring 2010, the Plaza Food Hall has grown into a formidable foodie destination, attracting artisanal vendors such as La Maison du Chocolat, Tartinery, and Francois Payard. There are also more casual vendors like Luke's Lobster and Billy's Bakery.

The food hall has more than 20 kiosks and stalls serving a wide variety of food. Or, you can eat in Todd English's restaurant, which has specialty stations like a charcuterie section, raw bar, wood-fired pizza oven, and sit-down restaurant.

Tourists seem to know about this hidden gem, but many New Yorkers—especially those who work in Midtown—do not. And it's a shame because this is a great spot for lunch.

There are more than 20 kiosks and stalls in the Plaza Food Hall serving different types of cuisine.

Luke's Lobster, which is known as a casual food truck shilling scrumptious lobster rolls, has an outpost here.

NoLiTa's Tartinery also has a location here, serving its namesake open-faced French sandwiches.

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What's a celeb to do between red-carpet events? Why, write a book, of course!

According to Publishers Weekly, the jack-of-all-trades James Franco has just sold his debut poetry collection to Graywolf Press, and it's set to be released in 2014.

Franco is already a published prose author whose 2010 book of short stories, Palo Alto, is, according to The New York Times, filled with "nihilistic violence and gratuitous gore."

But Franco is hardly the first A-lister (or C-lister, for that matter) to take up his pen. Here, a look at six other celebrities who wrote fiction, with varying degrees of success.

1. The English Roses, by Madonna

What it's about: The Material Girl's 2003 debut, a children's picture book, concerns an outsider girl named Binah who inspires jealousy in four other girls because they believe she leads the perfect life.

But the "moral" of the story is that Binah, who was based on Madonna's daughter Lourdes, is neither rich nor spoiled, and is actually quite lonely.

What the critics said: The Guardian's Kate Kellaway criticizes the book for its mediocrity and superfluity, arguing that The English Roses is little more than "an accessory for those curious about Madonna."

Why, wonders Kellaway, would the pop diva want to impersonate a "fragile primary-school teacher in a flowery frock?" Madge should "stick to what she knows best."

2. Junior, or Oscar De La Mancha, The Wembling Warrior, and the People I Like the Least. Not a Novel. A written project from the normal, well adjusted and 'No I don't have issues with my father!' mind of … junior (meaning me), by Macaulay Culkin

What it's about: Less a novel than a post-modern series of vignettes that include detours into comics, poetry, quizzes, and an open letter to Britney Spears, 2006's Junior is very, very loosely held together by a series of anecdotes documenting the life of "Money Monkey Boy," a former child star.

What the critics said:Publisher's Weekly calls Junior a "self-indulgently infantile book" that "looks and reads more like a book-length zine."

Though Culkin insists that Junior the character is different than Culkin the author, they have quite a lot in common, and Junior's only real value is as a "calculated piece of celebrity implosion" that offers a "weirdly compelling" look into Culkin's mind.

3. L.A. Candy, by Lauren Conrad

What it's about: This novel, which follows "Jane Roberts" as she moves to Hollywood and eventually gets her own reality show — is a juicy, thinly-veiled account of Conrad's stint as one of the stars of the MTV reality show The Hills. 

Released in 2009, the book is the first of the quick-to-cash-in L.A. Candy series. Its sequel, Sweet Little Lies, and the series' final installment, Sugar and Spice, were both released in 2010.

What the critics said: Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum calls the novel a "dismal portent of the future of pop culture, disguised as escapist fiction," adding that Conrad's young fans "might like a book-shaped object as a keepsake."

L.C. may think she can do anything, says Schwarzbaum, but the one thing she can't do is write a "novel."

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While the recovery is picking up pace around the country, some cities are stuck in hard times, according to Brookings Metropolitan Program's latest report.

The MetroMonitor looks at employment, unemployment, production, and home prices. We identified the weakest economic recoveries from trough to the third quarter of 2012.

Notably this list includes many cities that didn't crash as hard during the recession but have continued to underperform.

Cities in the northeast United States took nine out of 11 of the spots on this list.

11. Scranton, Pennsylvania

• Unemployment rate down -0.1% since 2010Q1

• Employment up 2.6% since 2009Q4

• Gross metro product up 4.6% since 2009Q3

• Home prices up 1.3% since since 2011Q2

Data provided by the Brookings' MetroMonitor. Gross Metro Product, Unemployment rate, and Home prices are tracked from Trough to 2012Q3. Employment is tracked from Trough to 2012Q2.

10. New Haven, Connecticut

• Unemployment rate down -0.1% since 2010Q1

• Employment up 2.6% since 2009Q4

• Gross metro product up 4.6% since 2009Q3

• Home prices up 1.3% since since 2011Q2

Data provided by the Brookings' MetroMonitor. Gross Metro Product, Unemployment rate, and Home prices are tracked from Trough to 2012Q3. Employment is tracked from Trough to 2012Q2.

9. Providence, Rhode Island/New Bedford, Massachusetts

• Unemployment rate down -1.6% 2010Q1

• Employment up 0.4% since 2009Q4

• Gross metro product up 3.3% since 2009Q3

• Home prices up 0.4% since 2012Q2

Data provided by the Brookings' MetroMonitor. Gross Metro Product, Unemployment rate, and Home prices are tracked from Trough to 2012Q3. Employment is tracked from Trough to 2012Q2.

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Funded by booming oil and gas profits, the Russian military is in the midst of a huge equipment upgrade, all backed by Putin's promise to increase its spending by $770 billion from 2014 to 2020.

That's a big chunk of change it would like to put into its own coffers. The Russian Newspaper Pravda no doubt agrees and has announced Moscow makes the best military hardware in the world.

There's no doubt that the former communist country makes a lot of it, and supplies much of the world that doesn't buy from the U.S. with its gear.

Eighty-eight countries, in all, buy military hardware from Russia and they keep coming back. The following list is a small portion of what they want.

Russia's T-90 main battle tank tank is just as advanced as the America's M1 and costs half as much

Produced from 1995 onward, the T-90 is a modernization of the Soviet T-72. 

The overhaul is remarkable and the fact the T-90 costs anywhere from $2.8 to $4.3 million compared to the M1 Abrams $8.6 million is more remarkable still.

Manufacturer Kartsev-Venediktov has pumped the tank full of electronic warfare capabilities, and it's filled with laser warning receivers, an electronic jamming system and a three-tiered protection system consisting of turret armor, explosive reactive armor and a full countermeasures suite.

Despite the T-90's well advanced status it's only a stop-gap piece. Russia's T-99, coming by 2020, will serve as the new main battle tank, infantry fighting vehicle, and armored personnel carrier.

Production begins of the T-99 begins in 2014. 

The MSTA-S 2S19 can run on six different types of fuel

While this artillery platform is pretty interesting on its own — a 152mm self propelled howitzer that entered service in 1989 — perhaps its most compelling feature is its versatility. 

The 2MSTA-S 2S19 offers significant automation with loading and firing, allowing the crew to stay mobile while firing and it can run on six different types of fuel including diesel, gasoline, aviation fuel, and alcohol. Russia has 800 of them as of 2008.

The MSTA has been adapted into a number of different variants which include a wheeled variant, various enhanced versions, a "laser tank" and a prototype which includes dual howitzers. 

The Sukhoi Su-35 is Russia's most advanced operational fighter jet

The Su-35 is a twin-engined multi-role fighter. Since Russia has not been in a significant war since the aircraft's development, the supermaneuverable jet is currently used by the nation's Russian Knights air display team. The Russian Air Force has eleven of them, mostly an upgraded version.

The Air Forces of Libya, India, Malaysia and Algeria have considered purchasing the craft.

Exporter Rosoboronexport lost $4 billion after the Libyan revolution because of cancelled contracts, so the future of the jet outside of Russian borders remains unclear. 

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By some accounts, the world is going to end on Friday. It's unclear exactly what will go down, but it's not going to be pretty.

If you are one of the few to make it to Saturday, staying alive in a post-Apocalyptic world will be tough. To help you prepare, we've put together a list of 15 cars and trucks that will be your best bet for survival.

That means fuel-efficiency (as resources will be scarce), no electric cars (since the grid will go down), and no convertibles or motorcycles (they don't offer enough protection).

And since money will be a thing of the past, there's no worrying about what's in your price range.

But even if the Apocalypse is postponed, keep these rides in mind in future emergencies: They are some of the some of the most formidable forms of four-wheeled transportation on the planet.

Roll through trouble in the Conquest Knight

Armored car builder Conquest Vehicles makes the Knight XV, likely the best ride to keep you safe in a dangerous post-Apocalypse world.

The $629,000 vehicle has bulletproof glass, armored plating, run-flat tires, and reinforced door hinges.

And the interior is pretty luxurious, so you'll stay comfortable.

There's an armored Audi A8 somewhere in Spain

In July 2011, we reported the Spanish government in Castilla-La Mancha spent nearly one million euros on a fleet of 22 cars.

It might have been foolhardy spending, but the €377,749 they dropped on an armored Audi A8 might be to your advantage.

Not only is it safe, it has DVD players and plenty of extras to keep you entertained and comfortable.

And as of last year, it had only 33,000 miles on the odometer, so it is likely to last a good while after civilization collapses.

The Land Rover LR2 is capable of going off-road

It might not be as hardy as the Knight XV, but we got to drive the 2013 LR2 on a snow-covered off-road course in Canada, and it handled very well.

Like Conquest's car, Land Rover's ride has a leather-lined interior.Fighting to survive is more pleasant with heated seats.

The 2013 LR2 starts at $37,250.

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For almost 20 years, R.A. Dickey slaved away trying to perfect his pitch.

The baseball player went in and out of the major leagues, playing for the Texas Rangers, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins, the Seattle Mariners, the New York Mets, and now the Toronto Blue Jays.

But this year, everything finally fell into place for the 38-year-old pitcher. Dickey finally got so good at mastering the knuckleball that he basically became unhittable.

Today, Dickey is the only major league player who uses the knuckleball as his primary pitch and he's become so good at it that he won the National League Cy Young Award.

Dickey is now at the top of his game, but what he went through to get to there is the definition of an ultimate underdog story.

Dickey was sexually abused as a child.

Dickey recently opened up about his childhood abuse in a memoir called "Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball."

He wrote that he was abused on several occasions by different individuals when he was eight years old in Tennessee. The memories of those incidents have plagued him his entire life.

He sought refuge in sports, playing quarterback and pitching for his high school teams. He earned a scholarship to play baseball at the University of Tennessee.

He was drafted to the major leagues—only to have his signing bonus slashed after doctors discovered a flaw.

In 1996, Dickey graduated from Tennessee as an All-American and was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the first round. 

But when a physician from the Texas Rangers discovered that Dickey does not have an ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow—his pitching arm—the Rangers dropped his signing bonus from $810,000 to $75,000.

Dickey started for the Rangers for the first time in 2001.

He pitched just 266 innings for the Rangers between 2001 and 2006.

However, he pitched in the minor leagues every year from 1997 to 2010, with five stints in AAA Oklahoma City and AA Frisco in between.

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2012 was a breakout year for sports GIFs.

Video is still the dominant format for big, meaningful sports moments. But for all the micro-moments that make sports so fun to watch — spontaneous and awkward athlete reactions, split-second failures — GIFs are simply perfect.

We picked out the 21 best of these little moments. They include a whole lot of Chris Bosh, an epic Dempsey Face, and a beautiful Aussie hurdler (pictured) who built an entire cult following on the strength of a single GIF.

Lakers Bros are mesmerized by a Dwight Howard jam

Ryan Lochte summed up perfectly

Chris Bosh videobombs Lebron James (third-best Bosh GIF)

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