| Kippreport.com

A new startup may have a promising future as a supplement to the disorganized Occupy movement.  In the newsrooms, May Day promises to be a hot story, especially if Occupy Wall Street mounts its anticipated militant protests/strike and the police push back aggressively as they always tend to do. TV’s “action news” mantra remains: “when it leads, it bleeds”. It was police violence that initially turned a minimised story into a dominant one. Protests that had been ignored – and later ridiculed – were suddenly newsworthy when authorities validated them by cracking down. The press thrives on conflict.

On Monday, Facebook will begin the ritualistic process of wooing Wall Strret investors ahead of its forthcoming IPO, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Facebook’s “road show” comes ahead of a May 18 target IPO date, the paper said. Circle your calendars for May 18 — it’s the most anticipated IPO in years, and the buzz about $100 billion-dollar valuations will reach deafening levels before founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally steps up to the podium at the NASDAQ.

Despite breaking records, Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” is not the most expensive artwork ever sold

WHEN Edvard Munch painted “The Scream” he did not have enough money to buy canvas, so the painting that sold on May 2nd at Sotheby’s for $120m is on cardboard. It is a remarkable image with a history to match: during the second world war when Norway was occupied by the Nazis, it was hidden in a hay loft.

Silicon Valley is abuzz with ­excitement about low-cost startups. Building a company on open-source software and cloud computing is being hailed as a brilliant fusion of the Valley’s three great virtues—cheaper, faster and better. Take extra whacks at costs via social media marketing, crowdsourced design and offshore engineering, and the perceived gains get even bigger. ­Estimates are that today’s most ­ambitious startups can take shape for $100,000 or less, a mere one-tenth of the cost a decade ago.