Scientist are creating a new generation of "soft" machines that can change their shape and size, move in ever more agile ways and even split themselves into smaller robots.

CNN: Robotics discovers its soft side

Warren Buffet, the unbelievably homespun billionaire and long-time Coca-Cola director and shareholder, has been a staunch critic of options accounting and called the soft drink maker's accounting change a "classy move, " adding that he would feel "far more comfortable" if other companies followed its lead.

FORBES: Coke Opts For More Honest Accounts

We must accept that the conventional, kid-gloves approach to socially responsible investing -- divesting shares in "bad" companies that nevertheless continue to exist -- is too weak an instrument to force change and its well-meaning practitioners too soft to enter the fray when emotionally and politically charged battles need to be fought.

CNN: Freedom Group, a gunmaker ripe for an ethical takeover

The hard power over local services and the soft power to do deals, bang heads together and formulate a vision for the future could drive real change and economic growth outside London, he said.

BBC: The mayoral future for England's great cities