| Kippreport.com

On this tragic anniversary of the uprising in Syria, Al Jazeera spoke to residents of different parts of Syria to learn more about how the eventful year impacted their lives and what the future possibly holds- to compile this informative and interactive infographic.

A swan song? Greg Smith writes an interesting and revealtory op-ed outlining why he is leaving one of the world’s largest investment firms-which is reason enough to be concerned by a rather appalling account of working ethos at the Golman Sachs.

“What are three quick ways to become a leader (at Goldman Sachs?)

a) Execute on the firm’s “axes,” which is Goldman-speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other products that we are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential profit.

b) “Hunt Elephants.” In English: get your clients — some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom aren’t — to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like selling my clients a product that is wrong for them.

c) Find yourself sitting in a seat where your job is to trade any illiquid, opaque product with a three-letter acronym.

Months after his death, Steve Jobs’ autobiography is still on the best seller’s list. And yet Robert Kuttner Co-founder and co-editor, ‘The American Prospect’ has an interesting critique of the man and his company. In his short opinion piece in The Huffington Post, he says: “the cool, must-have iPads, iPhones, and iPods to which we are increasingly addicted are manufactured with brutal sweatshop labor in Shenzhen, China, where 230,000 employees are making an average of less than $2 an hour work in a single factory complex. Foxconn’s dormitories now have nets outside to prevent suicides…Apple earns about $600,000 per year per employee. It can well afford to share a little more of that with its workers.” It is a worth giving this article a read, especially in considering the impending launch of the iPad 3. Maybe, it might change your opinion about purchasing one.

Did you hear about the new visa system for those travellers from Arab Spring countries? Apparently, Syrian, Libyan and Egyptian citizens will have to apply for a new transit visa if they are travelling through UK airports as a result of “national and border security.” We should note the new visa is only applicable for transit passengers.

The Guardian has released information of Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad’s musical leanings since they got access to his email.:

“Just before Christmas Assad underlined his leftfield tastes when he ordered Don’t Talk Just Kiss by Right Said Fred, a band that shot to fame with the hit I’m Too Sexy. Days earlier he highlighted his interest in UK pop music, this time with a slightly more credible choice, purchasing Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order. In the same month he ordered We Can’t Go Wrong by The Cover Girls, a New-York-based “urban girl group” of the 1980s and early 1990s. [...] As the conflict in Syria intensified Assad continued to add to his eclectic playlist, ordering Hurt by Leona Lewis, Look at Me Now by Chris Brown featuring Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes and – on New Year’s Eve – A Tribute to Cliff Richard by 21st Century Christmas.

In January he bought a number of songs by the popular US dance group LMFAO including their hit Sexy and I Know It.”

Teaming up with a few scientists, art historians are claiming that they may have uncovered evidence of da Vinci’s lost fresco, concealed by another painting in Florence’s city hall, Palazzo Vecchio

As IKEA announces plans to enter into the “home-building” business-Kipp enjoys this slide show of the more sucessful brand extensions we’ve seen over time.

Since Britannica has announced that it will cease to publish its print editions there has been much hoo-ha about the role of Wikipedia and the internet in the demise of the much loved home institution. Yet Kipp much liked this insightful commentary over the role Encarta CDs in the demise of the Britannica series.